‘To Say I’m Spontaneous Is An Understatement’ – Laura Whitmore on Living for the Moment

To say I'm spontaneous is an understatement. My impulsive nature as a child made my poor mother's life a bit of a nightmare.

A few years ago I was in New Zealand. On the day I was flying home, my mam called my mobile…

'Where are you Laura, at the airport?'

''Oh, I, eh… almost. I just decided to do a bungee jump off the harbour bridge while I'm waiting for this plane back; it's a bit delayed. '

Cue my mother's heart stop. 

What I didn't tell her was that in the two hours I had free between the bungee and boarding times... I had also gotten a tattoo, impulsively.  

This probably would have been too much for a long-suffering mother to take. She knows now. But it was a year after it happened that I finally broke that bombshell. 

The 'secret' tattoo - How Laura passed the time while waiting for a flight!

My point is life is short. And sometimes you have to just go with the flow and sometimes you have to just take life by its metaphorical balls and enjoy it! 

I've ended up in countries that I didn't start the day in because of this attitude. There isn't a lot of routine to my job so that fact that it's spontaneous is a perk for me.

This week, I found myself in Paris for two days at a music festival called 'Rock en Seine'. Now you might think that the last think I'd want to do on my day off is go to a festival, but that's definitely not the case! 

Sigur Rós and Placebo headlined - two very different, but equally brilliant, live performers.

Icelandic musicians Sigur Rós embody contemporary classical music whereas Placebo reminds me of the days when I was a moody teenager and no one understood me. (We all went through that phase, right?)  

I also witnessed an amazing DJ quartet called C2C that had me and my friends dancing into the wee hours of the morning. Which, considering I had two hours sleep the night before, was a huge feat. 

The French audience is VERY different to the Irish. They stand still and actually watch the stage, unlike my group of Irish mates that head bang and jump around like our pants are on fire.

French people watched the gig, Laura & friends headbang - we like her style!

On Sunday I returned, disheveled, to London and met a few friends for drinks in Camden, but somehow ended up in Reading watching Foo Fighters headline the rock festival. Again, spontaneity at its best!

Laura enjoying Foo Fighters at Reading with One Direction cutie Niall Horan

Of course, when the day comes that I have a family and responsibilities I won't be able to be so selfish, but for now, if you can, I highly recommend it. Maybe it won't involve quite so much travel or live music but even if it's adding a splash of caramel to your morning latte, just go on  - be spontaneous!

 

L x