The calm before the storm. Tomorrow sees the opening of shops and beer gardens amongst a raft of other retail outlets, so today will be spent perusing the internet whilst waiting for a callout. For those that don’t know, I volunteer as a First Responder with the Yorkshire Ambulance service, but I’ll tell you all about that in another blog.

By the way, I hope you all followed my tips yesterday, well, the Grand National ones at least. A nice each way payout on Farclas was handy after a brave, but frustrating run from Cloth Cap.

Huge congratulations also to Rachael Blackmore and Minella Times on a brilliant victory. She has had an amazing season and will, no doubt, be an inspiration to many young, aspiring jockeys.

This morning I was reflecting on a recent blog post by an old friend. To clarify, she’s not old, we just go way back. She’s an author, blogger and co-founder of Cadmus, a writing community for professionals and enthusiasts to develop and promote their work.

In the post, Eva was making a point about how there seems to be an ever-growing obsession with making your body, or face, fit in with some pre-determined and totally arbitrary ideal. Now, this is nothing new. Since the days of tall top hats and waxed curly moustaches, people have been eager to fit in with the perceived standard of the day. I’m sure that even the Romans were striving for whiter togas and shinier laurel wreaths. It’s simply human nature.

That said, the prevalence of social media sites and ‘influencers’ really seems to put undue pressure on the current generation to be Insta-ready at any given moment and to evaluate their own beauty by how many likes they get. It’s kinda sad.

We’re not all meant to look like each other. It’s unnatural and quite creepy! Stand out, be different and create your own style. Just because you’ve not got bum implants, inflated lips or sculpted abs, you’re no less valid or valuable. Be you… real people love that. The most lovely people I know are the one who stand out from the crowd, have confidence and do their own thing.

Baz Luhrmann said it perfectly in “Sunscreen”… do not read beauty magazines, they will only make you feel ugly!