I know I say this at the end of every year, but this year has absolutely been the best year of my life. I don't know how 2015 can top 2014, honestly. This has been the year that: - I finished school - I did my A levels and actually got good grades (how?!?!) - I went to Zante with my best friends - I went to my first festival - I actually have a boyfriend now (?!?!) - (I fell in love) - I started university - I managed to make actual friends at uni - I'm so so happy It's been a year of milestones and as lame as it sounds, 2014 is a year I'm never ever going to forget. I'm so thankful for everything amazing that's happened in these past twelve months. Of course, it's not all been joyful and plain sailing: this is also the year that my beautiful grandad died - the first time I've lost anyone close to me - and there have been unbelievable amounts of stress and tears at some points (looking at you, A levels). But it's okay, wonderful in fact, because I have a fabulous set of family, and friends and even a boyfriend to act as amazing pillars of support. The fates, or God, or just a great series of incredibly fortunate events, have been so so good to me. I feel so lucky and so blessed to have the opportunities I do, but mostly to have the people in my life who I love so much. I hope you, wherever you are, whatever you're doing, have not only a wonderful night welcoming 2015, but also a wonderful year, and a wonderful life.
Wew, someone (me) got lazy and didn't post for over three weeks. I've been back from uni for ten days now and Christmas has been and gone. Of the 10 nights I've been back in de old London town, only 5 have been spent in my own bed because we went to my Grandma's house for the most miserable Christmas of my life. My cousins and aunt and uncle came over from America for the week and Grandma Green thinks the sun shines out of their arses so I didn't really have a great time witnessing their preferential treatment. On the bright side, the food was great and now I've got a fab stash of twelve books to work my way through, as well as lots of moneyz and cute lil bits and bobs. The day after I got home from uni, my um, boyfriend (it's been like half a year and I'm still not used to saying that), Tom, picked me up at the ungodly hour of 8.30am for a cheeky McDonald's drive thru experience. We then drove over to Box Hill and climbed up some hella steep hills before having a nice little walk across the top of it. Walking back down was terrifying. Afterwards, I went into town with my dad and we just pootled round the shops. It was nice to be back in the town I've grown up in after being away from it for three months. On Monday, Tom and I popped up to Camden because we hadn't been there together since July. We ate the Christmas special burger at Honest - absolutely amazing, by the way! - and picked up a few bits and pieces in the markets. I also got a sweet jumper from H&M, which I'll probably do a post on later because I love it so much, and tried the toffee latte in McDonald's - absolutely disgusting, by the way! Then we went to Southbank, the place of our first proper date (lol) and sat by the river reminiscing about the carefree days of year thirteen, and probably looking very pathetic doing so. In the evening, we drove over to a Christmas-jumper-themed party to see lots of our friends who we'd been apart from since September. Needless to say, I don't remember much of that night (see second photo for evidence), but a breakfast at McDonald's on Tuesday consisting of a Big Mac meal pepped me up nicely.
The rest of Tuesday was just spent at Tom's house chillllllin and admiring his various Christmas trees which are absolutely stunning. My mum took my brother and me out to the Harvester for dinner in the evening and we went for a little digestive walk along a road where 80% of the houses have the most insane Christmas lights. They even have collection boxes on their driveways to help fund their electricity bills because it's such a huge "tourist" attraction in our area. When we got home, I packed insanely fast because we were leaving for my grandma's place the next day. I'm honestly the worst over-packer in the entire world. I seem to have forgotten how to blog because now my fingers are tired from typing and all the thoughts in my head have turned to mush. There's no way I'm going to be able to continue this summary of my Christmassy time, so let's break it down into parts, this being part one. I'll be back for part two when I can be bothered, and when I can actually get everything down coherently!
Happy December! This is by far my favourite month of the year. Everyone gets so excited for Christmas and there are lights and tinsel and presents everywhere and, above all, everyone seems so much happier. I think that's what I love the most. I don't feel like I've properly got into the Christmas spirit yet though because I've got two assignments to finish (to start too, come to think of it...) before I can go home. I finish uni on the 19th which is a week later than everyone else, so it's kind of a bummer that I'm missing all the reunion parties at home because I'm 200 miles away. I'm currently all alone in my student house. The two girls who live upstairs with me have gone home for the weekend, and my two bezzies from downstairs are visiting their families too. There's also a French exchange student who lives downstairs but she's always round at her French-friends-from-home's houses, so I never see her. To make the most of this time, I've been singing SO loudly and walking round in my underwear. It also means that I don't have to wear headphones when I do my marathon skype calls, and I don't need to ask anyone if they're using the oven, or if they need the bathroom right now, and I don't find that my oven tray is coated in grease because my housemate from hell never fucking washes up for herself, or when she uses our things. Fucking hell. Being alone is good because I'm not one of those people who can take being with other people 24/7. Can you tell that eleven weeks of this is a little bit much for me? I kind of need to get home now and sleep on a good mattress, and eat proper mum-cooked food, whilst sitting on an actual sofa. God, I miss sofas. On the bright side, I have two advent calendars (fat shit, I know), a wonderful best friend, and a fabulous boyf. I also do actually like my uni friends (contrary to what it may have sounded like two minutes ago!!!) and I'm so lucky to have found them. I went out with a group of them on Wednesday this week for dinner and we somehow wound up in the VIP lounge in the club with free champagne?! I didn't even know it was going to happen so it was a great night. (Spot me in the dress I always wear...)
Aaaaand, even though I usually only go out once a week, I'd also ventured out on Monday night to a UV themed night at the best Christmas decorated club I've ever seen. I think it might have been the best night out I've had whilst I've been at uni. It was a lot of fun, and a trip to the chicken shop on the way home never goes amiss.
Finally, as tragic as it may sound, my boyfriend (still so weird saying that, it's taking some getting used to!) and I have made a bit of a habit of opening our advent calendars together on skype at midnight. It is a bit hard because he's 150 miles away but I think we're doing goooood, beatin da distance. Things like this make it a lot easier:
This was supposed to be a happy post but it's turned into more of a life update one. Hope you're all well and livin the dreaaaam. Song of the day:
One of my housemates is obsessed with Eastenders and so, naturally, has a lot of love for Phil Mitchell. From day one of uni, Phil has been a big part of our house with little pictures of him stuck all over the place. It seemed only fitting that he was also involved in our Christmas plans this year, which is why he's had the honour of being placed on top of our Christmas tree.
We popped down to B&M today to pick up a 6 foot tree for just £10. Amazing. All hail B&M!!! Four bits of tinsel for £3 is also a godsend and is pretty much all we needed to jazz it up, student style.
Also, to get properly into the Christmas spirit, my other housemate Emily and I made a countdown chart for the wall. Two and a half hours of intense colouring-in later and it looks glorious:
Today I signed the contract for my new house, lease beginning next August. I cannot even begin to tell you how excited I am!!!! All going to plan, we're going to be living there until we graduate... until 2017!!!! That's so crazy. By "we", I mean me, four of my closest uni friends, and one guy who I'm sure I'll actually get to know properly over the two years we're living in the same house. I've only met him twice as of right now, lol.
We all went to view the house on Monday and decided it was absolutely perfect for the six of us. Six bedrooms, three bathrooms, a kitchen, living room, and a garden. Could it get any better? There was a bit of a battle over who would get the single room, given that the other five bedrooms all have double beds. Living it large, yo. I'm going to be in room number 5. (Smelly boys downstairs, upstairs is girl city.)
I feel like a proper adult, signing leases and all. Ahhhh!!! Man, it's going to be so great.
1. I'm loving uni a whole lot more now. Like, wholeheartedly, you could say. 2. I've got a good group of friends who I love a lot. 3. We're signing the contract for our house next year tomorrow. 4. My mum is coming up again to visit in eight days. 5. I'm going home for Christmas in exactly one month today. 6. I get to see my fab boyf in 32 days. 7. I'm appreciating my best friend from home more every single day. 8. I'm staying on top of my workload, praise da lawd! 9. A mini Christmas tree is sat on my windowsill. 10. We got new curtains fitted yesterday!!!!! All in all, I'm pretty darn happy. I've been discovering drunk selfies on my webcam photos which I seem to take when I get home in the early hours of the morning. I actually have no recollection of taking these, but I do remember making toast as a post-clubbing snack.
(PS: those are my old manky curtains which are now gone!!!!) Song of the day:
Like a lot of people, when I'm out and about and I hear or see something I want to look up properly later, I make a note of it on my phone. But I always seem to forget that it's there, or can never be bothered to Google it (epitome of laziness) so I've got far too many things in a little list on there. Last night, I got the idea to turn it all into a series of blog posts because I think a lot of it is kind of interesting and I'd like to document it here. I think I'll do it all ten at a time because you can never really go wrong with a list of ten, can you? 1) John William Inchbold. I was in a gallery a couple of years ago and saw his work which I absolutely loved the style of. I think he always uses beautiful colours and I really like that his pieces look almost photograph like.
2) Shashank Joshi. This guy writes really well about politics and I always find his articles interesting. He has taught at different universities, has degrees from both Harvard and Cambridge and he's a researcher for RUSI. What a cool guy. I love his blog too.
3)Harvey and Rabbit. I loved this advert when it first came out and I still do now.
4) Hatfield College, Durham. When I was looking at university prospectuses in year 11 (keen bean), I stumbled across Durham's and was particularly interested in Hatfield College. Even though I ended up not going to the uni, let alone joining the college, I've always loved their motto:
Vel Primus Vel Cum Primis
It translates to "either the first or with the first" but within the college, they've colloquialised it as "be the best you can be". I think that's something to live by.
5) My brother: "Your face looks like something you'd find up Satan's arse" - 18th August 2011, Lindau Strandtbad. We were on holiday in Germany and my brother was twelve years old. This was the first time he'd said anything remotely sassy or rude to me, and I just cried with laughter. Not sure how appropriate this is for this otherwise pleasant post but it's been sitting in my phone notes for over three years now.
7) Mamihlapinatapai. I remember watching Life in a Day and being fascinated by this girl's video clip in it. I've never forgotten this word because I love what it means.
8) Eurovision 2012. I LOVE Eurovision. I watch it religiously every single year, and every time, I write down which songs were my favourites. Is that sad? No? Good. These countries had the ones I loved the most:
9) Graffiti in Amsterdam. When I went to Amsterdam last year I saw loads of street art; words, pictures, colours, everything. One that particularly grabbed me, though, was just huge black letters across some wooden boards blocking off a building site. It said:
I feel like a mutant emerging from the Hudson River.
I thought maybe it was a song lyric, or something from a book, or would have some kind of relevance. I Googled it and nothing came up. I guess it only means something to the person who did it but I'd be so interested to know what they were thinking.
I feel a lot better for having written all this down. I feel like these are little parts of my life and I'm so happy I've finally got them in one place to look back on when I feel like it.
I know students are meant to be poor and not buy any luxuries (like clothes and makeup and anything fun) but I kind of couldn't resist when I saw these bits and pieces in town. I heard this girl the other day say "Primark has an amazing collection in right now"... Collection might be of a, um, extravagant word for it but they do have some great things at the moment. Two examples of this are these beauties:
They're made of a really thin, sheer-ish material but have little velvet swirly patterns. I think they're so wearable and only £8 each which is such a bargain. I've been pairing them with high waisted jeans but they could also look great with a dark skirt or something. I'll have to experiment. My next purchase was also from Primark, this time a white boxy tshirt. Is boxy the right word for it? It's definitely a box shape and isn't actually at all flattering, but I loved the pattern. I haven't actually worn this out yet but you can't really go wrong with jeans, can you?
Wow, that really doesn't look too good. I kind of like it though... #hatersgonnahate. Two days ago, I headed into town for what was supposed to be a cup of coffee in Central Perk (more on that later!) and to buy a loaf of bread. It actually turned into a full blown shopping trip and I picked up these babies from H&M. I honestly treat them like they're my actual children, I love them that much.
They really don't look it, but they're actually hella high and consequently a bit difficult to walk in. I'm sure I'll get better at it. I hope so, anyway! Ah, my babies. I also headed into New Look. The only non-push-up, non-strapless bra in my size happened to be in the sale, and also happened to be really cute. It was only £3 too, so I can't argue with that:
And finally, I managed to fulfill one of my lifelong ambitions which was buying a university jumper. Don't even ask me why I've always wanted one - I can't tell you because I don't actually know. The students union shop was having a clear out sale so I got a tenner off this lovely hoody:
All in all, I'm lovin da uni life. The work is getting harder day by day, but at least I'm getting my money's worth. £9,000 my arse. I'm trying to do a bit more blogging because I kind of do have a lot of spare time. I just spend it all watching Glue (omg, what an ending?!!??!) and The Great Interior Design Challenge (there's another five episodes waiting for me on iPlayer). Here's a little look at my £88 per week student digs:
I'm also queen quarter pounder maker at the biggest McDonalds in town:
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