Evie's Journal

   The Lighthouse Keeper The lighthouse stands sentinel against churning seas; he watches from within its walls, as pleated waves fold against the rocks below and the wind carries the whistles of a siren's song As he climbs the corkscrew stairs, his joints echo the wood's creak, and then he reaches the beacon - it's glow sweeping across the darkness - illuminating the ships making their way to shore. Although they cannot see him, he imagines he's friends with these sailors Because his light provides them solace through the night.

Infection, malnutrition and eventual death. This is the reality that our wildlife faces and little is being done to stop it. A growing amount of single use plastic is being abandoned by billions of people, poisoning our planet and the fragile ecosystems within it.   Since its invention 110 years ago, it has become an integral, interwoven part of our everyday life. This magical substance offers industry an effective, cheap, sterile material and it hasn’t been used sparingly. Your water bottles, your food packaging, your polyester clothing, your plastic bags, your reading glasses and so many more items you use daily: they will all continue to plague our planet long after you have disposed of them, never fully decomposing. Although these products allow us to lead a life of convenience, our planet devastatingly is forced to pay the price.  Theresa May recently proposed a strategy to eradicate all avoidable plastic waste. Seems great right? Except for the part where th...

  The Mole   Down in this hole — this place I call home — I am cold, tired, and alone. I feel the clotted earth congeal between my webbed toes clawing at the walls towards the sweet scent of Worm. Encased in darkness, I smell its body writhe, taunting me with the fruit of its flesh. My nails dig deeper, deeper, as my hunger grows. That ambrosial odour so close, so close yet the strength in my short arms is dwindling. Each desperate shovel through the soil is weakening.   I take my last swipe of the dirt and the mud walls narrow. I curl into myself: aching and heavy, cold, tired, and alone.

  An exotic pet craze has Minecraft to blame. Minecraft is at the root of the rise in the purchase of the endangered axolotl which families can’t properly care for. The RSPCA have voiced their rising concerns with the increased popularity of the unusual amphibian due to Minecraft. The creative video game, popular amongst teenagers and children, has recently added the rare Mexican salamander in the playable world. Many children and teenagers have decided that just owning the creature virtually isn't enough and interest in the purchase of axolotls has been on a rapid increase since Minecraft’s update. However, despite these little pink creatures’ cute smiles, their trendiness amongst kids and teens comes with great risks.   With Christmas soon to be around the corner and children desperately pleading for this trendy new pet, animal welfare officials are anticipating careless purchases of the animal with fears that they may end up with a surplus of axolotls in rescue centres...

  Pomegranate The stained glass beads fall into the china bowl as droplets of red rain water. A tap to the skin, more spill congealing like frogspawn in a pond of pink juice. Little eyes gander their crimson tears swell seeing their mother's fruit husk. Scooped up by cold metal the pearls between my teeth a burst of sweet blood pools in my mouth. Until they are no more.

  The smell of the underground is distinctive: the potent whiff of earthy engine fumes, car exhaust, the damp stench of gutters, putrid sewage and the occasional whiff of body odour. The atmosphere condensed, stifling. I can’t remember the surface but sometimes things come back to me through sights, smells and sounds. Sometimes the faces of the inmates remind me of people I can’t remember. Maybe one day they’ll release me but for now, I pry my mind for memories, what it was like, who I am, how I got here. I write them down in a spiderweb that I hide in the gap of a train seat.  Seemingly, only useless things push themselves to the forefront of my mind. When I first saw the rail carriage an automated voice rang in my head “please mind the gap between the train and the platform.”  Yet if I let my mind wander things become clearer, pieces of information feed into one another, making this clouded picture less hazy. I can still feel the presence of the past in the station wall...

  The Lighthouse: A dazzling film noir for the modern age.   The concept of A24’s recent production seems bleak: two lighthouse keepers stranded in a turret with nothing to entertain themselves but each other, drinking a revolting concoction of turpentine and honey and the atmospheric tumult which surrounds them. Yet director Robert Egger’s stylistic flair and Pattison’s and Dafoe’s stellar performances make this the most captivating film noir of this century. Set in the late 19th century on a remote island off the shores of  New England, Robert Pattinson, who plays the character ‘Winslow’ is employed on a temporary basis to help complete various arduous tasks at the lighthouse such as hauling heavy containers around, abseiling the walls of the lighthouse to paint it and emptying chamber pots. Understandably, Winslow begins to find the workload increasingly strenuous and with only the abrasive and demanding Thomas Wake, played by Willem Dafoe, for company, we watch W...

  The morning after the lockdown announcement, I got a phone call from my boss:       “Hi, I'm guessing you’ve heard the news. Truth is, I’m not sure what’s going to happen with your position. I know you can’t work at home, but we can’t risk you coming in during a pandemic. We’ll keep you updated. Take it easy.”        My partner Isaac still worked his long shifts at work which were deemed essential so I was left alone most days.    At first, I didn’t mind being alone too much. I spent my extra time catching up on tv shows and reading books I wasn’t able to finish before lockdown but very quickly the novelty of it all faded. My mind started to dissect everything I did: the tv just became moving pixels on a screen, books just became words on a page. The house began to morph into a realm of hostility: the cold floor boards, the black mould adorning the bathroom walls, the rusty taps that made an awful shriek when you turned them on. I was ...

The murder of George Floyd has sent shockwaves across the US and the globe. The thought that a police officer- in a position of such trust and authority- could abuse their position and harm a civilian is deeply alarming. However, while the UK are outraged and abhorred by the countless victims of police brutality in America, we cannot ignore the problems in our own country. As residents in a secluded rural town, we are often unaware of the racism that occurs daily. I know that I, myself, am in a position of privilege. I never have to worry about the colour of my skin and how that will disproportionately affect me amongst others, yet this is sadly the reality for many. No empathy I feel can ever amount to the fear and upset black people must feel right now. When many people ask “why are they protesting here when George Floyd was killed in America?” We need to recognise our failures regarding systematic racism in Britain. The UK historically is at the epicentre of racial exploitation an...

The empty shelves almost resemble A hollowed carcass They swarm like antibodies around a wound The time spent searching Searching for something to quench their thirst Something their dirty talons can grab Greed within fear Fear within greed Suddenly they're empty again Time is thick, putrid, stagnant The weight of the present on uncertain shoulders Waiting eagerly to be filled again Is this how it begins? Is this how it ends?

It’s a miserable Monday morning in September. As your PE teacher stands in front of you and your peers wearing a thick, fleece lined jacket, she tells your class to brave up and brace the cold. Shivering in your short sleeve t shirt and Lycra leggings, you anxiously await her instructions. She picks out two students, well known amongst the class to be athletically talented and popular amongst the rest of the year and tells them that they can choose from rest of your class on who gets to be on their team. They pick, one by one. Staring at your feet as your face flushes with embarrassment, your classmate says your name. You lift your head only to see you are the last one standing. As you walk towards your fellow students, you are met with eye rolls and belligerent glares. You are picked last. It’s a common tale every unwilling participant of PE knows well. The memories of sheer humiliation and embarrassment experienced by the anxious teenage mind during PE was soul crushing. Despit...

Recent study suggests if you don’t know what Kylie Jenner has had for breakfast there’s a 99.9% chance you will forget how to breathe. Your phones, your tablets, your iPads, your mp3 players, your smart watches, your fancy fridges from John Lewis: they all are united by one holy binding force, they all have Wi-Fi.   A spiritual messenger that guides you with heavenly power through every half second of the day.   Her knowledge is as infinite and as boundless as the universe. Don’t know whether goldfish can survive in milk or not? Is Africa a country? Need to urgently know whether your Aunt Meredith who you haven’t seen for 7 years got a refund on her hairdryer she got from amazon last week?   The internet has you covered. As our solar system orbits around the sun, we orbit around our love of telling the interwoven virtual sphere about   the precise length of toilet paper we prefer to use down to the nearest millimetre   and if we scrunch that said toi...