SANE- A Mental Health Charity

In my opinion, getting involved in charities is a wonderful way to help improve the lives of others. One of my personal goals is to become more involved in charities, especially those related to mental health. I hope that this post is in some way useful, and even if you do not suffer from any of the issues mentioned, I think it's still important to be informed about charities such as this one. 

As I've stated before in my Lets Talk About Mental Health post, mental health is a topic I feel very passionate about. In that post I mentioned many organisations that help specific issues so please check that out if you think you will be affected by it. I spent a great amount of time researching different organisations before coming across SANE. I really support what they stand for so please continue reading to find out more (another well known organisation is Mind, however I will only focus on SANE in this post).

*Disclaimer* I am in no way affiliated to this organisation; all opinions are my own and information was gathered from their website. 

SANE was established in 1986 to improve the quality of life for people suffering from or affected by mental illness. SANE has three main objectives:

1. To raise awareness and combat stigma about mental illness, educating and campaigning to improve mental health services.
2. To provide care and emotional support for people with mental health problems, their families and carers, as well as information for other organisations and the public.
3. To initiate research into the causes and treatments of serious mental illness such as schizophrenia and depression and the psychological and social impact of mental illness.

Sane also offers emotional support in the forms of:

• Helpline- 0300 304 7000 that is available from 6pm-11pm every evening
• Textcare- This allows you to arrange support in the form of text messages that are right for you
• Support Forum- Open 24 hours a day and allows you to give and receive support by sharing experiences
• Blogs: Share your experiences, thoughts and opinions and invite others to share their thoughts

Another feature of SANE that I really like is the Black Dog Campaign. This campaign aims to reduce stigma around mental health issues and help those suffering to seek help. Also, the Black Dog Tribe is a social network campaign dedicated to mental health. You can follow it on Facebook and Twitter. It's aims are to:

• Reduce stigma, prejudice and exclusion
• Encourage more people to seek help
• Educate members of the public - #StopStigma
• Take mental health into schools, colleges and the workplace
• Change perceptions of mental illness
• Demonstrate the importance of research 
• Involve young people in mental health
• Change attitudes of future generations

If you like the idea of helping this charity, there are a number of ways in which you can get involved including (sorry for the number of bullet points in this post):

• Donating- £25 can provide someone with the first 30 minutes of personal and emotional support. £50 provides four people with a call from a mental health professional, providing them with consistent care during a time of despair. 
• Fundraising- Help raise money for this organisation and cause. Download the SANE fundraising pack to get started! 
• Sane Community- A free way to show support for mental health.  
• Volunteer- If you are enthusiastic and wish to contribute to this cause you can check out the range of volunteering roles. 
• #StopStigma- By donating £5 to this charity you can receive a #StopStigma wristband
• Campaign With SANE- Share your story on a media platform by becoming a media volunteer
• Your Stories- Share your experiences with mental health and show others that they're not alone
• Blog- Share your blogs about sane and mental health and check out other's too

Thank you for reading this post, the song of the day is Demons By Imagine Dragons. If you suffer from any of the issues mentioned (I truly hope you don't) I hope SANE is able to help you in some way. And again, if you feel like you have no one to talk to, I'm always here to listen and feel free to message me :) xxx

Germany 2015 Vlog: Part 4

So here it is, my very last Germany vlog. It feels weird that I've finally uploaded them all because I had so much footage that I didn't think I'd be able to get through it all. But I'm also kinda sad I have no more to upload because that means there is no more reminiscing of this wonderful holiday to do.

Here is the video itself

I hope you enjoy

Let's talk through the video

As I said in my last vlog, my dad had to leave early due to work. The vlog starts with us in the car, after dropping him off at the airport, having a jam session to the radio. If you can make it past our terrible singing in the vlog then I truly applaud you.

Since Germany was experiencing a massive heat wave (it was almost 40 degrees) we spent most of our time in the swimming pool trying to get a tan. The YELLOW slide was so much fun and I can't even count the amount of times we went on it. As I said in the vlog, there was a little boy who was about 5 years old who kept jumping in front of me wanting to join in with some kind of game. He kept smiling and shouting excitedly and telling me not to do something, but for the life of me I have no idea what he was saying.

Well if this isn't attractive I don't know what is

Whilst we were there we also experienced beautiful sunsets. My mum also had a go at vlogging as she was narrating the sunsets.

Then we went into town and watched the new Mission Impossible film. I hadn't seen any of the others, because I didn't really think it was my sort of thing, but I must say that I was pleasantly surprised. And then as we went to find the bakeries (we went to about 3 in five minutes) I vlogged in public. Yes, me vlogging in public. I just whipped my camera out in the middle of the street without even thinking about it and I didn't feel awkward at all. I got a few strange looks and comments but for some reason I really didn't mind at all. 

And to finish off the vlog in Germany we went to a light festival by the lake. It truly is beautiful and the camera can't even capture the beauty. They have little tea lights on the lake and then they have a massive firework display. I filmed the whole thing but it was about 15 minutes long so I decided to cut it down to the highlights of the display. We also spent 6 Euros on glowsticks each but it was worth it!

So there were all of my Germany vlogs. I hope you've enjoyed watching them because I had a fantastic time making them. The song of the day is Run Away With Me by Carly Rae Jepsen. Let's face it, its a really catchy song. Thank you so much for reading/ watching. I'll be back with one of my normal-non-vloggy videos next time xxx

Germany 2015 Vlog: Part 3

Yes that's right, I'm back with yet another Germany vlog. I seriously hope you're not getting sick of them yet, because there's still more to come!

Here's the actual video:

I hope you enjoy

Let's talk through the video:

The vlog starts off with my awful makeup disaster. Like a huge makeup disaster. I promise my lipstick didn't look that bright off camera, but in the video it's a serious colour clash with my outfit. Anyway back to what we were actually doing...

The first place we went was to a fish restaurant with my family because its a place we all enjoy going to. Despite neither me or my sister liking fish, we always find a vegetarian option and it is in a beautiful setting in a little valley.

The next place we visited was the Brenz park. This isn't an average, dog-walking, boring park, oh no! A few years ago they refurbished it and made it look dead posh with bright flowers blooming everywhere you look. The park is also filled with exciting playgrounds for children and activities everywhere. There's a bit where to cross the river you have to go though a little netted bridge and its so cool!

On a hill there is a little castle looking down on the town we were staying at. It's so cool to go there because its really old and I always think it looks like a little village on the inside. They were even practicing live opera when we went. I tried to see if I could find where they were performing it because the voice was booming all through the castle, but I couldn't seem to find the source anywhere. 

Me and my sister are natural posers as you can tell

We spent the rest of the vlog eating (well there's a surprise) and walking around the town called Heidenheim and doing some shopping. It's such a sweet town and we love going to their local ice cream parlor to eat some spaghetti ice. I've mentioned before that it tastes better than it sounds.

This was also my dad's last day in holiday. He could only stay in Germany for a week and a half due to work. But I still think he had a lovely time abroad. 

Thank you for reading/watching. The song of the day is Black Magic by Little Mix because its been permanently stuck in my head this summer. I hope you had a lovely time on holiday xxx

Germany 2015 Vlog: Part 2

Hello! Since I'm uploading my Germany vlogs every two days its time for the second edition. So without further ado, here's the video:

I hope you enjoy 

Let's talk through the video

As you can probably tell, the vlog starts of with us sitting in a restaurant about to order food. I couldn't choose between two meals at the restaurant (both sounded delicious) so I asked my mum if she would order one of them "for the table", meaning for me of course. I thought I was getting away with being greedy until my mum ordered the meal and stated very loudly "AND CAN I ORDER A SECOND MEAL FOR MY DAUGHTER OVER THERE WHO IS TOO EMBARRASSED TO ASK FOR TWO MEALS". It was obviously very embarrassing but I guess its karma for being greedy.

We spent the next few days walking around very old, but very beautiful towns. We stood by an old church, which towered over the town. Amazingly, there is a stage set up on the stairs outside of it where concerts are performed. Move over Madison Square Garden, it looks like this is the coolest venue for a concert ever!

From the church you could see a massive roof which is where an important building was (to this day I still have no idea what the building was though. I'm rubbish at paying attention when people explain things to me). Me and my mum decided to go looking for this building, and it turns out that it was a lot further away than we thought. And when we finally got to the building and vlogged it..... it turned out to be the wrong building all along. #awkward

The next 3 days we visited Munich and stopped their with my Uncle. Munich is a lovely place, full of excitement and of course full of expensive shops. Very expensive shops. Everywhere I looked I saw brands like Gucci, Prada and Chanel. 

Whilst we were there there we walked past a church which had figures that come out and dance and play music. For some reason, my family thought the figures came out at 4 O'clock so we waited until then aaaaaannnd nothing happened. We clearly got the wrong time but I still managed to get some wonderful footage of absolutely nothing!

The figures that did nothing whilst we were there

I should mention that througout this vlog, Germany seemed to be experiencing some rather windy weather. Don't get me wrong, it was still tremendously hot, it just meant my hair was flying all over the place and it made a weird noise in my camera. 

The storm we were experiencing one evening

One day we decided to visit the Zugspitze, the highest point in Germany. We chose the perfect day as the weather was lovely and there were not many clouds to cover the view. Since it's so high up, we also got to see some snow. My favourite! There was lots to do up there including sledging. As you can tell by the video, I'm rubbish at steering. How does steering even work? My mum also attempted to climb to the highest point, but was advised not to go further because she's not an experienced hiker. 

The hill we had to pull the sledges up afterwards

My mum completely pretending to go sledging for the picture so that 

she wouldn't have to pull the sledge up afterwards. What a poser!

The highest point in Germany

To finish off our time in Munich we went to the English Gardens. Essentially, this is a giant park where you can take beautiful walks. There was a tall Chinese tower which we ate lunch by. As I said in the vlog, the tower looked different to how I imagined it. I don't know why, but I was expecting it to look like a pillar instead of a tower for some reason. 

The Chinese tower... not pillar 

I hope you've been enjoying my vlogs so far. The song of the day is Drag Me Down by One Direction because it came out while I was on holiday. They released it with out warning which was very rude. How can they make me get that excited without any warning! Thanks for reading/ watching this post xxx

Germany 2015 Vlog: Part 1

As you guys probably know by now, this Summer holiday I went to Germany. I go every year to visit family and I continue to love it each time.

But this year was different; I actually vlogged. Yes that's right, someone as awkward as myself stood in public, holding a camera, talking to herself, without worring what others were thinking. It was so much fun and I captured quite a lot of footage so here is the video:

I hope you enjoy watching!

Let's talk through the video

As you can tell, at the start I was pretty nervous about vlogging because I had no idea how to do it, I thought I would look silly doing it, and thought that the footage I would get would look terrible. However, it actually turned out alright in the end :)

The next clip is from when we arrived at my Granddad's (Opa) house in Germany. One of his hobbies is art and painting. For as long as I can remember, every year that we arrived he would always have a few new paintings hanging in his living room. He is developing a new style at the moment and I always love seeing his new paintings.

Then, we headed off the the open air swimming pool, which we love, to cool down as the temperature was in the mid 30s. We had a bit of a debate in the car about whether the slide is yellow (which is what I said) or orange. Then when we got to the pool my family realised what colour it really was (spoiler alert: it was yellow).

The next day we decided to grab some ice cream. My mum was proudly showing off her white jeans which she could finally wear again after 10 years thanks to hear diet. I ate a spaghetti ice which is basically, vanilla ice cream put through a filter so it looks like spaghetti, strawberry sauce to act like the tomato sauce, and white chocolate sprinkles on top to act like grated cheese. My mum has been going to the same ice cream parlor for 30 years and now the man that works there expects us every year!

We decided to go to a theme park because we arrived in Germany before German schools had their Summer holidays. That means it would be absolutely empty. We managed to go on all the rides we wanted as often as we wanted. It was a boiling hot day and we were able to go on the water rides about 6 times in a row. 

Photobomb!

There was a ride at Tripsdrill, the theme park, where you would either sit on a carriage or a horse go a round a little track. My mum, sister and me decided to go on this ride for the lols. However when we got there, we had to go on a carriage and not a horse like my mum really wanted so she threw a bit of a strop haha. But we went on it again and got the horses the next time. 

I thought I'd just mention a game that my family did on the rides. Every time we were on a small ride, or it was just a tame bit of a big ride, we'd scream really loud as if it was really scary. We got a few strange looks to say the least.

Thank you so much for reading/watching. I'll be uploading the rest of my vlogs in two day intervals. The song of the day is the cover of Drunk In Love by Ed Sheeran because it is a heavenly cover. Where did you go on holiday this Summer? xxx

The Small YouTuber Tag

If you've been reading my blog for a while you will know that I make YouTube videos. And let me tell you they are so much fun to make.

This was one of the first videos I wanted to make and a year and a half later I've finally got round to doing it. I'm still a small-time YouTuber so I feel like I can still get away with it. 

Here's the video itself, I hope you enjoy:

Here are the questions if you want to give this tag a go for yourself:

1. What inspired you to start making videos?
2. How long have you been on YouTube, and have you had other channels?
3. Where do you see yourself (and your YouTube channel) in 5 years?
4. What message are you trying to get across with your videos?
5. Do people from school find your channel?
6. What does your username mean?
7. Favourite small YouTuber?

Thanks so much for watching! My Germany vlogs will be the next videos I upload. I captured my holiday the best I could so look out for them! The song of the day is Style by Taylor Swift. Thanks so much for watching xxx