Lucy's Looking-glass

Photo by  Ivy Barn  on  Unsplash Sat comfortably in the quiet dining room of my small village house, professor of medical physics, Angela Newing describes how wonderful her career journey has been and the privileges she has had along the way. She speaks in a tone that instantly hints the hard work and dedication she has put into her career along the years, mostly looking down at the table and taking herself back to the very beginning. Now living in Stroud, Gloucestershire, she tells me about working in a time when women were perhaps not encouraged to enter the world of science. Born in London during the war, Newing had an enjoyable childhood with her older brother who claims with laughter and pride that she did "everything better than him." They were inseparable. This was the start of Newing's drive and determination to lead a successful career in medical physics. "I think my first memory in Woburn, and I was fairly tiny, was when we arrived at the back d...

Secondary school is usually labelled as the “best years of your life” and a time where you learn about yourself and what you are capable of for the future. This was certainly not the experience I had, and I certainly would not give what I experienced in the early stages of school a positive label. The bottom line is that I went through years of hating myself due to persistent bullying in secondary school. Of course, none of this was going to help me to become who I truly wanted to be in the future, but it did make me stronger. Every day I would be faced with name calling. I would walk through a busy playing field on my way to my next lesson and within seconds, I would hear loud voices, sneering and laughing coming from behind buildings and before I knew it, I would be surrounded by people. I felt so helpless and I never really knew which way to turn. I would not be spoken to or sat next to in class because I was 'too ugly' and 'nobody liked me'. I felt res...

2019 began with a bright and exciting future for bands such as My Chemical Romance and McFly, as well as hopes for One Direction and JLS; but was all this buzz and excitement really going to turn out to be the beautifully nostalgic times our lives that we hoped for in 2020? On ticket release days, people across the globe were desperate to grab another chance to see their favourite bands in person, either for the very first time or since their childhood times. Ticketmaster has had many complaints over the years of it crashing and fans being let down big time. This includes the site being down before anyone can access it, forms timing out too soon and the whole site crashing when even a single button is pressed. Although finding tickets for reunion tours is a key recipe for missing out, it is also evident now that they may not happen due to the current coronavirus situation. I checked in with McFly fan @JustTonicha on Twitter who is currently unsure of the impact this pand...