Princess Paradox

I'm starting to wonder if my strong Cockney accent isn't doing me any favours. Thanks to a lot of amateur drama experience I can talk in a believable RP (received pronunciation, posh basically) accent and wonder if I should adopt it full time.

I know what they are for me, because I'm experiencing them at the moment, but what are they for you?

What do you find yourself thinking or feeling when you suddenly think "Oh no, I think I'm falling for this person"?

I clocked a blood pressure of 155/102 with a resting heart rate of 95 this morning. I know it's due to stress because I'm a fitness instructor and live a really healthy lifestyle and usually have a blood pressure of around 125/70 and resting heart rate around 65.

It actually feels like it hurts a bit and makes me feel a bit sick. How messed up is that?

I keep hearing people preaching that if you have sex you will get an STD or get pregnant even if you use condoms etc.

Where has this come from? It sounds like something from the 1950s.

I, for one, have been having sex since I was 17 and am now 29 and can say without a lie that I have never been pregnant and never had an STD. Surely it's just a case of taking proper precautions, isn't it?

I went to the doctor because I felt tired, weak and slightly sick pretty much all the time.

He did a blood test and it has come back as perfectly normal and he's written, 'no further action required' on the note with the results.

How rubbish is that?

I'm slim but I seem to be permanently on a diet and need to exercise about 4 or 5 times a week.

I think it's because modern lifestyles are so stressful and people don't feel they have time to do exercise and want the quickest, easiest meal options.

What do you guys think?

I would. I'd have a big room full of pretty young men in various states of undress. Obviously, I'd have to be someone far more important than I am, but let's just imagine that we are important people and could, theoretically, have a harem. Would you want one?

I've tried so many jobs over the years and hated them all. They were all pretty lame and required no higher education qualifications whatsoever. I have a degree and a masters degree and am now considering doing a PGCE (teaching qualification) and becoming a teacher.

I hated school and the only thing that made it bearable was a few cool teachers. I'd quite like to be one of those cool teachers but I'm not sure I could hack all the red tape.

What do other people think, just generally, about teaching?

Personally, I started to dread them when I hit 25.

I'm going to be 29 at the weekend and is so not good.

Imagine that, having some nice person to guide you and help you achieve your goals.

Some rich people actually have these.

Would you like a mentor? What would you get yours to help you with?

Be really honest now, search your feelings, even if you are in a happy relationship with a boyfriend/girlfriend you really like do you still find yourself entertaining the thought of being with someone else?

Even if you know you would never do it because you love the person your with, do you think about it? Will you admit to it on here?

Like what job you should do.

I've made so many bad decisions as far as jobs are concerned and thinking about it, I've always been left completely alone to make them and wish I had had someone to ask.

My parents have always been fairly clueless about these things and careers advisers at school are only any use if you want to be a doctor or a lawyer.

Has anyone else felt like this?

My life has been one career mistake after another and I want to know how we are meant to get these decisions right?

The careers advisers at school were a waste of space (and as if you're going to take them seriously when you're 15) and the ones at university said things like "After graduating with an MA in English Literature you could go on to be a trainee tax analyst"

I'm going to change mine for the stage because I can't get decent parts in Shakespeare plays with my cockney accent and after much thought I don't think it's a bad thing to get rid of the cockney, I wont miss it, but some people think this is bad for some reason.

I'm 28, I'm not a kid and I don't have any delusions about an acting career, it's just a hobby but I like it and I've never liked my accent.

What do you guys think?

By the way, I'm not asking if I should do it or not, I'm already doing it, but I just wondered what people thought since I keep getting such mixed reactions from people.

Surely with the proposed hike in tuition fees it will just mean that the universities will be crammed full of rich mediocrities and the clever poor kids who deserve to be there will be excluded.

As if the situation wasn't bad enough already - I went to university as a dedicated (if not wonderfully clever) poor person and was surrounded by middle class muppets who didn't even bother reading the books.

What do you guys think?

I know the health websites all say that mental health problems lead to physical health problems and generally make people feel bad, but I wanted to see what people's actual experiences were.

You start off being a bit bored, then you get really bored and then you get so bored that you don't want to do anything even though doing that thing might stop you being bored?

Has anyone experienced this strange phenomenon (especially at work)?

How on Earth can you make yourself grateful if you just aren't?

People keep telling me to be grateful for my miserable, appallingly paid, monkey job and it's driving me nuts.

I'm not grateful, sorry, I can't help that, but I'm just not.

I appreciate that there are a lot of unemployed people out there, but that just doesn't make me feel grateful for being miserable everyday and wanted to be ill rather than go to work.

Do we over educate people in the western world? Are we just creating a load of depressed people who are far too clever to do the sort of box ticking, procedure following, intelligence insulting jobs that are on offer these days?