WATCHING, FREEDOM AND LOVE (with a tiny bit of hate)

Jumping Through June

It’s the end of June which means we are half way through 2017 – shook! Worldwide news wise, it’s

been manic, hopefully the second half will be more peaceful. So this month we got a new Drag Superstar but not a new prime minister. But can you believe the election was this month? It feels like years ago! So this month I began my summer holiday meeting up with friends and getting jobs and werkin to get those coins. If you’re not on summer yet, keeping going – not long at all left! Or if you’re old like this month’s No1GuestBlogger and aren’t in education so don’t have a long summer break then… I believe in you!! Focus on the positives and try not to worry too much about the negatives. But talking of this month’s No1GuestBlogger, I am so excited, I have wanted this person for a very long time and he’s so fabulous, it’s Dan! So now if you’re as tired as me, crawl into bed, preferably with some food, and enjoy June’s post! Oh and the picture above of Lady Gaga is probably the best thing to come out of this year so far.

Whatcha Watching?

I’m one of those people that wants to watch every TV series there is, I have an ever growing list of shows I want to see. But at the moment I am currently watch two series which I just have to talk about. Ackley Bridge and Glow.

Ackley Bridge is currently on Channel 4 every Wednesday night at 8pm. It is about two schools of different ethnic backgrounds coming together to make one school. Plus a lot of drama. The fourth (out of six) episode was on last night and it was very emotional but so brilliant, the acting and storylines are just amazing. I don’t want to say the storylines because it will ruin it but it’s just soooo good.

GLOW!!! Finally Glow came out last Friday on Netflix’s, all 10 episodes are available now! GLOW stands for Gorgeous Ladies Of Wrestling and you guessed it, it’s about ladies wrestling, I’m half way through the series and completely in love with it. My mother, no not Kirsty Evans but Kate Nash is in it! Kate is superb, so talented. She plays Rhonda Richardson who is such a funny and fabulous character. If that wasn't enough, the story-line is fantastic, and as an aspiring actor myself with the lead character, Ruth played by Alison Brie, also being an aspiring actor it is a very relatable, empowering and hilarious show. You have to check this show out, no questions.

June’s No1GuestBlogger - Dan

Hiiiiiiiiiiii I’m Dan and I am this month’s No1GuestBlogger. Yaaaaaaaaas!! Ever since Harry began including this segment in his blog I have been dying to be a guest, what he writes about is always super relevant and massively inspirational. I’d always choose to get my news updates through the No1 social media channels over any of the mainstream media.

No1 Food: Cheese, I don’t care what kind, just give me cheese.

Favourite Quote: ‘We accept the love we think we deserve.’ – Stephen Chbosky

What annoys you the most: Rudeness. It’s not ok!

What would your 15 minutes of fame be for: For impersonating Kim Woodburn, she’s the Queen of clean and comes out with the best one liners! I can only dream of having that much cleaning knowledge.

No1 Song of All Time: Jolene – Dolly Parton

No1 Song at the moment/this month/right now: Grigio Girl – Lady Gaga

Social Media Usernames: Twitter: boyinthemiddle, Instagram: theboyinthemiddle, Snapchat: Danthomas60

No1 moment of this month;

I met Lorraine Bowen in Brighton a few weeks back and she had a one-woman show all about the history and her love of Polyester; for those who don’t know her she was on Britain's Got Talent a few years ago; where she got through to the semi-finals, she has a YouTube channel titled Where are we going with Lorraine Bowen, where she plays her Casio organ and sings about pretty much anything that her viewers request her too. So my friends and I went along to her show and if you were wearing Polyester you were given the opportunity to go up on stage and be part of a runway celebration and a winner would be selected.

My friend didn’t want to go up alone, so in the spirit of the event I was leant one of Lorraines very own Polyester caftans and joined my friend on stage with 10 other super fans who were all wearing polyester. We were asked to one by one walk the runway and so in my very best and well practiced RuPaul inspired runway walk, I headed down the stage and bought RuPaul to the main stage of Brighton; Category is Polyester realness. Needless to say, I slayed the competition and came away victorious with a copy of Lorraine Bowens latest CD and we had a small meet and greet afterwards where we got a little pic with the legend. After the event, I went on Instagram to thank her for such an amazing night and after a little conversation, we have arranged to go for cocktails sometime! Lorraine Bowen…. Shante you stay!

Something I HAVE to talk about;

I often get accused of being high on drugs or crazy drunk when in fact all that I am is high on life itself and the only thing I was drunk on was positivity. There have been a number of times in my life where staying sober has given me a much better experience; that’s not to say that I don’t enjoy the delights of drinking, but sometimes I think we need to focus on what we have within ourselves rather than manipulating that with chemicals. I’ve never been the most confident person and even less so when I find myself miles from my comfort zone, but one thing I have learnt is that if you go into something with a positive outlook then you’re already conquering those inner demons that are there to try and hold you back.

All too often in life I experience those people who put too much effort into being cynical, or those who manage to find the negative when actually there’s always a positive to be found, it just takes a change in attitude or a different perspective on life. My own decision to be a more positive person has come through the self awareness of realising that all too often I take the smaller things in life for granted; like watching the sunset over Brighton beach, walking to work on a rainy morning or my beautiful friends, when I catch myself thinking of or experiencing those moments; I will always have the widest of smiles set across my face and its in those moments that I can’t contain the positive effect that they have on my life.

Thanks for reading, back over to Harry!

No1 Unpopular Opinion of the Month

Freedom of speech. On paper – a beautiful thing. But what does freedom of speech actually mean? To be honest I dunno. But to me it sounds like it means anyone and everyone can say whatever they want, whenever they want. Which isn’t always a good thing. I googled ‘freedom of speech’ and this is what it said “noun: the power or right to express one's opinions without censorship, restraint, or legal penalty.”

I think it’s important to remember there is a difference between free speech and hate speech. Saying you don’t think women should be equal to men, or that same sex marriage isn’t right, these things aren’t up for debate. Everyone deserves equal rights and no one, no matter how powerful, should have the right to say discriminative things, that’s not what free speech is about, it’s about freedom. Have an opinion on your fav flavour of crisps but not my rights, thanks babe.

But don’t get me wrong general I’m here for freedom of speech, it’s what I’m constantly fighting for. I don’t wanna be the bitch that says “you can say what you want expect some things” but I’m a bitch so I’m gonna say, you can say what you want expect things that negatively harm others in a discriminative way. For me, freedom of speech should be used to stand up against discrimination not promote it.

No1GuestBlogger Dan's verdict on my opinion;

I'm hearing everything Harry is saying, you can't contradict yourself in saying everyone has the right to freedom of speech and then censor what the narrative of their message is. But we must also respect the lives of the people around us. Some of which have fought for years and paid the ultimate price to get the freedom in which we live in today. So to speak out against the desire for equality amongst sexism, racism or homophobia is actively attacking freedom itself. We should be using our voices to connect communities instead of dividing cultures. I think Meryl Streep summed it up beautifully in her Golden Globes acceptance speech. "Disrespect invites disrespect. Violence incites violence." We are all to be held responsible for not only what we say but what we also endorse, now is the time to shut down the haters and speak up for positivity. Stand up and be heard, one voice can have a ripple effect. Use it.

What did you guys have to say?

Each month I do a twitter poll to see what you guys think, I hashtag with #NO1UO. This month I went back to having a majority not agreeing with me - yay! NO1UO is official back. I hope after reading mine and Dan's (far better-ly worded than mine) opinions on this you may reconsider. But hey, freedom of speech so you all have your own opinion ;)

No1 Lesson of the Month

There is more love than hate in the world. After recent events it can be hard to believe that. But there is, just about. Times when the world wants to divide us with hate we have to slap it with love. We have to learn from our own mistakes and mistakes from others and make sure it never happens again. We have to stand together and show what humanity is. We have to remain positive, because love trumps hate.

SEE YA

Thank you for reading this months post! I'm sure I'll see you before but if not I'll be back at the end of July, for that months round up post, obvs I have another fab No1GuestBlogger lined up for you!! But thank you Dan for this month. I hope you all had a brill June and that July is even better. Show love and give love, cuz we all need love xo

Oh and remember be number one, not no one ;p

NO1SOTP

Marina and the Diamonds & Clean Bandit - Disconnect

DJ Khaled, Rhianna & Bryson Tiller - Wild Thoughts

Ariana Grande - One Last Time

Listen to the songs on the NO1SOTP 2017 Playlist