Cause you had a bad day...

Ciao,

Have you ever had one of those days where everything you touch turns to crap and you feel like the whole world is out to get you? I am having one of those days today, it's been one annoying thing after the other and quite frankly it has put a massive downer on my day. I would like nothing more than to go home, crawl under my duvet and forget that today ever existed. Sadly as an adult this is not a luxury I have. Boo for adult responsibilities. I honestly think toddlers are on to something, massive meltdowns when things aren't going your way seems not only very appealing to me at this moment in time but also good generally for your state of mind!

Lets end on a positive note...9 days left until I'm off for Christmas.

Ciao for now...

Things I love Thursday is back!

Ciao,

 

I haven't done one of these posts in a very long time, in fact I've been very slack on the whole blogging front for the past few months. However, I am fast approaching my 1 year bloggerversary and so I have decided that I should blog more often. As my blog is a general life blog it is quite difficult to find things to blog about all the time so I think restarting this little tag series is a good way to get started up again. So enough with the rambling, I better get on with it.

 

1. Feeling festive: Its been difficult to catch the festive feeling what with all that is going on in my family at the moment, Christmas is still a bit uncertain as we aren't sure what course Dad's treatment is going to take. However, Christmas is my Dad's favourite time of the year, even now at 50 years old he loves it. Starting advent always brings on the festive spirit and I know I will enjoy it more and more as the month goes on, especially when we get our Christmas tree!

 

2. My new job: I love working with children, they're never boring and no two days are ever the same. I am most enjoying the routine of it all, I am a self-confessed lazy bones and having no routine is detrimental to me in almost everyway. Given the opportunity I would sleep all day long. Not the most productive way to live life.

 

3. Christmas nail art: I think this may turn into another post as I plan on doing several Christmassy designs over the next few weeks. Currently I am wearing red sparkly polish with a feature nail on my ring fingers which is white with a Christmas tree :)

 

4. Christmas holidays: Even though I just said how much I am enjoying my job I am also looking forward to the 2 weeks off over Christmas and New Year because I can't wait to spend quality time with all my loved ones. I am super excited for my friend Kat to get back from Madrid, I haven't seen her since the summer and I have missed her tonnes!

 

This has been a very positive and Christmassy post which I love which I have written during my free lesson at work, productive much ;)

 

Ciao for now...

Every cloud has a silver lining.

Ciao,

Well howdy there blog. How's life been treating you? I have been extremely absent online these past few months and just reading bits of my last post still brings tears to my eyes. So today I am going to write a MUCH more positive post. A sort of life catch up. 

So lets list the big changes in my life in the last few months:

1. I have started to learn to drive. Trying to get a start on my 30 things before I'm 30 bucketlist...which I need to finish writing now I think about it. Lessons are getting better and better which is a relief. I started well and then 3 lessons in had such a disastrous lesson it took weeks to regain the confidence. 

2. I passed my theory test. Woop woop. Only more lessons and practical to go now...so no pressure. 

3. I have started a new job. After 4 years I have finally closed the door on my journey at the tuition company I worked for, although not entirely. I won't lie I went to visit last weekend and have also been in contact with some parents and kids. BUT the big news is the new job! I am now working at my old secondary school which is strange and wonderful at the same time. I am working as a Learning Support Assistant and have really enjoyed my first two weeks getting to know the children I work with but also getting to know the many teachers who taught me as actual human beings as opposed to robot teachers who only exist in school. It's so weird to be in the same environment,which I only left three short years ago, but on the other side of it all. Now I'm allowed in the staff corridor and staff room. Oh the luxury! 

I think that is about it for my life catch up, three pretty big milestoney life thingys. I have realised that I am a 'every cloud has a silver lining' kind of person, I'm making the best of a bad situation. I will not let cancer steal my life and happiness. 

Ciao for now...

Today.

Today marks a month since the worst day of my life so far.

Today marks a month since a day I couldn't have conjured up in my darkest nightmares. 

Today marks a month since the day I found out my Dad has cancer that can't be cured. 

I can't really explain what it feels like to have your worst nightmare come true or to feel your own and your families lives shatter into a million pieces, I guess if it's ever happened to you then you know what I mean. I can't possibly describe how my whole life shifted and changed on that day, in mere seconds. How I shifted and changed. How my whole future is now a giant question mark. I can't even bare the thought that this ugly disease will take my Dad like it has so many others. I guess I can't handle a whole lot right now and though this month has been the darkest of my life so far I am trying my utmost to keep going. There are good moments but there are also moments like these where I am consumed by sadness, dragged under by crippling fear and I worry that one day I will have a dark moment like this that I can't get back from. 

This blog was started with the intention of documenting the best and most adventurous year of my life so far, my year abroad. Instead it will most likely document some of the worst and lowest points. Life is a roller coaster I suppose and right now I am plunging into a black hole and as of yet I haven't found the light at the end. 

30 things to do before you're 30 - Part 2

Ciao,

Here is part 2 of my before I'm 30 bucket list.

11. Drive/ride a Vespa in Italy: as I am moving to Italy in February 2014 this is a goal that could be plausible. However, I don't drive so I may have to settle for riding on the back of one.

12. Swim with dolphins: I have loved dolphins from a young age and always wanted to swim with them.

13. Ride an elephant: carrying on the animal theme here, I think elephants are quite possibly my favourite animals so this is pretty self-explanatory.

14. Visit the Eiffel Tower: for a serious francophone who has far too many Eiffel Tower belongings, it is shocking that I have never visited the Eiffel Tower!

15. Bungee jump or something as extreme: I would love to do loads of extreme activities, it just seems so exciting.

16. Learn to cook: I already know how to cook but would love to get better and have a nice little repertoire of meals to make.  

17. Make my own clothes: I now own my own Singer sewing machine so the plan is to reach a point where I can make my own clothes. 

18. Go to 100 concerts: I don't quite know how many I have been to so far but I'm sure I could work it out. I still have nearly every single ticket which I plan to put in a massive frame :)

19. Go to Glastonbury: I have been to a couple of festivals, but only one I camped at the whole weekend and in my opinion Glastonbury is the mother of all festivals. 

20. Go to Disneyland/world: I have never been which makes me so sad I feel Disney has impacted my life a lot. I mean my favourite film is Beauty & the Beast which must have encouraged my love of French. No matter what age I am when I finally get to go I know I will act like the biggest kid EVER! 

My previous post in this series was focused on serious life milestones I want to have achieved by the age of 30, click here to read it: http://daisy-chaindays.blogspot.co.uk/2013/07/30-things-to-do-before-youre-30-part-1.html

To be continued...

Ciao for now...

Crazy for nail art!

Ciao,

A few months ago I shared a  sort of tutorial post on doing cute little polka dot nails and roses, fairly simple nail art designs. Since then I have expanded my portfolio if you like and have now attempted various other patterns and designs and still have many more I would like to attempt. I'm not going to pretend to be some sort of expert and do tutorial posts but I just wanted to write about this on my blog since I have bored my family and friends to death with all my pictures on Instagram! I have been asked by close family and friends to do their nails and have been told that I should start charging people but there is no way I would feel comfortable charging people! My skills are still firmly in the DIY bracket, nowhere near the level of technique in professional salons! But you know what they say...practice makes perfect. I am now going to bombard you with photos...

1. My sisters pink, white & blue floral nails. 

2. My best friends red corner daisy nails. (These are difficult to photograph)

3. My best friend's Mum's pink, white & purple floral nails

4. My lilac daisy nails

5. My turquoise nails with an accent anchor nail 

 6. My beige & blue leopard print nails

7. My white & pink polka dot nails with a corner daisy accent nail

8. My pastel converse nails

As you can see I have mastered flowers and I'm able to do these on both hands despite barely being able to hold a pen with my left hand! The converses were another thing altogether, I managed to do my left hand pretty well but trying to replicate it on my right hand with my left hand was unbelievably difficult. I nearly gave up and removed the other hand. I prevailed and managed to complete my right hand but it was very messy! I use nail dotting pens and have recently purchased the Barry M nail art pens in black, white and silver and they have opened a whole new avenue of nail art opportunities. 

Ciao for now...

P.S. Apologies for the mismatched pictures, my aim is to take better photographs of my nail art for the next blog...

Rainy days, Harry Potter & duvets...

Ciao, 

I am writing this blog post from underneath my duvet. It's raining and gloomy outside and it feels just like the middle of winter. On days like this there's only one thing to do, take to the sofa with a duvet and put on a good film. Coincidently my sister and I were having a Harry Potter Marathon today, we were just starting The Goblet of Fire when it started to rain so the weather has simply added a nostalgic edge to the day. I feel like a little kid recreating my childhood. Sometimes you just can't beat a day in. 

    

These are days to remember, you're never too young or too old to snuggle under a blanket and spend a day engrossed in the magic of Harry Potter. 

What's your ideal rainy day in?

Ciao for now...

The night a dream came true...

Ciao,

I started this blog to document my year abroad which is fast approaching but I've realised I should also use it more often to document other experiences and events in my life so that in years to come I will have an online memory book. So here goes...

I am lucky enough to have been to a lot of music concerts in my lifetime thanks to my generous parents who have always bought me tickets for birthdays and Christmas's and believe me I have seen some amazing artists! I have been waiting since I was about 10 years old for the beautifullness that is Justin Timberlake to tour. That's 11 years of waiting my friends. When the Wireless Fest line up was announced I was beyond gutted. I had just had my 21st birthday so I had money to buy a ticket, I had someone to go with and the headline act was Justin Timberlake but wait when is the festival? July. When I'm in France. I was certain someone was out to get me.

Obviously I then had to come home from France and the minute I knew I was going to be coming home I started to look for tickets to Wireless...unbeknown to me my amazing Dad had already bought me tickets! He knew how upset I was at having to come home and so to cheer me up got me my most awaited tickets as a present! How amazing is my Dad! So I was lucky enough to be at Wireless Festival with my best friend just over a week after I got back from France and OMG was it good. 

We didn't arrive until around 2ish and then had the long walk from Westfield to the Queen Elizabeth Park where the festival is now situated and we nearly melted on the walk! Once we got inside we headed straight for the main stage because we were only bothered about watching Justin. I normally would be excited to see various artists when I'm at a festival but because we had not had enough time to prepare for all the artists who were on we decided to set up camp in front of the main stage. We watched Miguel, John Legend, Trey Songz and Snoop Dogg before Justin Timberlake came on. One of the things that made this gig so memorable was the proposal which happened right next to us in the crowd with John Legend singing the beautiful 'Ordinary People'. The guy who proposed actually told us about half an hour before to keep an eye out cause he was going to propose, it was so cool to be involved in such an important moment in someone's life! 

Snoop Dogg was amazing and you can't help but be amazed when you see such a mixed crowd all rapping away with him. If you haven't ever been to a festival or a rap concert it's hard to describe the atmosphere, all I know is I love it. After his performance the crowd were all hyped in anticipation of Justin Timberlake and he didn't disappoint! My god can that man sing! I didn't think it was possible to love him more than I already did but that gig was more than worth the 10 year wait. He sang all his hits as well as some new bits off his newest album and I danced and sang the whole way through. There were several times where I stood in complete awe of Justin's amazing talent. He is one of the best people I've ever seen live and the festival atmosphere just added to the experience. Amazing.

I am ecstatic that I finally got to see him perform and will be keeping an eye out for his album tour so I can go and see him again :) I can't get enough! 

Ciao for now... 

30 things to do before you're 30 - Part 1

Ciao,

I suppose this post is kind of a reflective post for me to look at in years and years time. A measure of what I have achieved in a decade of my life. So here is the first half of my 30 things to do before I'm 30.

1. Graduate from university: I actually got my results for second year today, I didn't do very well but I expected that after the year I have had. However, I would love to graduate with a first but chances are I will only be able to get a 2:1.

2. Get a grad job: I'm still unsure as to what exactly I want to do but definitely want to take advantage of my degree. 

3. Learn to drive: self explanatory really. I'm looking forward to the freedom. 

4. Own my dream car: my dream car is a Mini Cooper...ideally a red one. 

5. Live in a foreign country: this one for many people is fairly unachievable but for us language students it's always part of the plan and the journey to fluency.

6. Speak at least 3 languages fluently: I have one language down and I'm at the beginning of my road to fluency for 2 more, fingers crossed the next year of my life will cement this for me.

7. Learn sign language: I've always been fascinated by language and communication of all types so this is something I've always wanted to do. 

8. Go travelling: this is a favourite on bucket-lists. I mean who doesn't want to see the world?

9. Get married/meet my life partner: I don't really know how I feel about marriage, if I met someone who wanted to get married then I would but if the person I want to share my life with doesn't want to get married then I'd happily not get married. 

10. Buy a house: again this is part of everyone's life plan, I'd love to own a house before I'm 30. 

There is the first part of my before I'm 30 bucketlist...next part coming soon. 

Ciao for now...

Unexpected Blog Post.

Ciao,

Well this is a post I NEVER expected to be writing. Ever. I am writing this post from Toulouse airport...again. My 10 week stint in France has been cut drastically short after just 5 days here. To cut a long story short my friend hated where we were staying and wanted to leave, I had the option to stay on my own but seeing as we were living in the middle of nowhere and I don't drive, plus the cabin we had was in the middle of a field I felt that I would be far too isolated. So sadly I had to make the decision to come home, a decision I did not take lightly. I had a major problem with not being professional and wasting someone's time, money and effort - not to mention robbing someone else of an amazing opportunity. But these things happen, you can't plan for them or even anticipate them, they just happen and you have to deal with them the best way you can. 

I have decided to focus on the positives of this situation, I now will be home to celebrate my best friends 21st birthday with her, I will be able to go to my cousins daughter's christening and best of all I am going to finally fulfill my 10 year old dream of watching Justin Timberlake live. Excited is an understatement. I am a tad worried about the fact that I am unemployed for the first time in 4 years and that I have to find a job for a very short period of time as I am leaving for university in Lyon in September but I'm trying to think of all the positives, silver linings and all that. I'm contemplating bringing one of my plans forward by a year and learning to drive and buying a car this summer as opposed to next summer after my year abroad. I'm going to fix my sewing machine and learn to sew and finish my projects. I'm going to blog more. I'm going to practice my languages. I'm going to spend evenings watching Disney with my little sister. I'm going to spend Friday nights getting drunk and making memories with my brother and cousins. I'm going to make the most of an unexpected situation. This is all you can do when an enormous spanner is thrown into the works. 

Ciao for now...

Bonjour, je m'appelle Daisy et je suis en France.

Ciao or should I say bonjour,

Firstly lets talk about my geographical location. At this very moment I am in France, Toulouse to be specific and this is where I will be until 4pm today. I am sitting in a café in Toulouse airport waiting for my best friend Hayley to arrive from Madrid, she's not arriving until 2.30ish and so until then I have to entertain  myself in the airport so what better thing to do then write a blog to document this! I did plan to watch films but since my laptop has the battery life of a fly and I can't find a plug socket, let alone my plug adaptors which are buried deep in my enormous suitcase,  I am going to have to do something else. BUT how exciting I am now officially in France and I will be spending the next 10 weeks in Gascony working with my best friend. Life is good. 

There have been a few minor hiccups in the lead up to this journey; about a week before I was due to leave I got the biggest blisters on the soles of my feet. Yes both of them. I'm talking the size of a 50p and sticking about a centimetre off my foot. Yep they really were that big. So needless to say that left me unable to walk normally for a fair few days. Just as I got over that hurdle another popped up in the shape of a sore throat. I tried so hard to pretend it wasn't happening but there's only so much pain you can ignore. A nurse told me it was a viral throat infection which would probably last 5 days. Not too bad. BUT she was wrong and some lovely white blisters appeared on my throat last night. Yes, mere hours before my flight my body decided to give in to the tonsillitis bug roaming around my body. Boo for my immune system. However, I am still here, blistered feet, yucky tonsils and blocked ears and all. 

I am going to love and leave you until next time when I will hopefully have some nice snaps of where I'm living :) 

Au revoir mes amis. 

P.S. I am having a coke with you ;) 

PRA = Period of Residence Abroad OR Petrified of Relocating Abroad??

Ciao,

Well this feels like a foreign concept; actually sitting down to write a blog post. Pretty fitting considering this post is going to be about all things foreign. Since my last post, oh so many months ago, I have completed my second year of uni, moved back home with my parentals and have been making the most of my last month in England . So on to the topic of this blog post. 

In 23 days time I will be sitting in Toulouse airport waiting for my best friend to arrive from Madrid so we can spend 10 weeks in Auch working at a little holiday place called Pèyloubere. As much as I am excited to see my best friend for the first time in 2 months, I am scared stiff. I don't think anybody is ever ready to pick up and move to another country, I'm petrified that I will forget everything I know and be so homesick that I will be on a plane home every single weekend. After 10 weeks in Auch I will be going to Lyon to start university and will be there until January. Then home for 3 weeks to a month and then in February I'll be of to the south of Italy to go to university.

This sounds so exciting to everyone else I speak to but in actual fact it is as far away from what I wanted and what I planned for my year abroad. I wanted to work the entire year so I didn't have to take out any student loans but with the job market being crap all over Europe and Erasmus having such strict rules this has not worked out. So now it's looking like uni the whole year for me, which I really didn't want to do but hey maybe it's fate!

Ciao for now...

DIY Flower Nails

Ciao,

I have been wanting to do a nail post for ages and just haven't got around to it. I love painting my nails and have more nail polishes than any one person could need. I also invested in some nail dotting pens to take my nail painting skills to a whole new level. Up until today I had mastered polka dots, simple but very cute.

Then today I decided to try a pattern a work friend of mine had on her nails a few weeks ago...she wouldn't tell me how to do it but I googled it. Oh how I love the internet. Et voila!

Cute huh? Especially the pastel colours...perfect for spring! So here is how you get these cute nails!

1. Choose your colours: You will need a base colour, a light colour for the main flower shape, a darker shade of the same colour to draw petal lines and a green for leaves. Also nail dotting pens or a thin brush or even a cocktail stick.  

2. Apply your base colour, I did 2 coats of this lilac and obviously waited for it to dry. 

3. Next take the lighter of your two flower colours and dot random sized circles all over the nail, you can do as many as you want. 

4. Whilst the flower is drying I use my dotting tool to paint on the leaves, I do two on either side but again you can adapt this however you want. I find the easiest way to get paint on the dotting tool is to put a pool of nail polish on the applicator lid of another nail polish so you can literally dip the tool in whenever you need more and you don't have to keep fiddling with lids.  

5. When the flower shape is dried, take your dotting tool and using the darker colour paint small lines within the flower so as to create the look of petals. 

6. Once all the nail polish is touch dry apply a clear topcoat to prevent the nail polish chipping. 

There you have it, cute flowery nails. Enjoy :) 

After I wrote this blog post my sister came home from school and she wanted hers done too. So here's some more pictures, hers are the blue and mine the purple. 

Ciao for now...

Imagine

Ciao,

I'm currently on a revision break and decided that I would change location from the stuffy library where I've been all day and move somewhere much more comfy and cool in both senses of the word. So here I am sitting on a huge luminous orange bean bag surrounded by a mismatch of things which really shouldn't work but somehow look so cool. 

 I am talking about Imagine, a lil spot on campus where students can chill, study, buy yummy frozen yoghurt or just marvel at the funky décor  This place is such a gem, there's bean bags, cool lampshades, round chairs you can plug your music player into, various funky plastic tables and chairs, deck chairs, astroturf, funky lampshades, chairs suspended from the ceiling and more "feature" walls than you can shake a stick at. One of the feature walls is an extremely cool and useful whiteboard wall. Yes you heard me right, a wall of whiteboard. Epic. 

As my description cannot really do this place justice I will instead give you a load of pictures...enjoy!

Ciao for now...

Ciao,

So it's Thursday already? Say whattttttttt? Time is literally flying by and my exams are creeping ever closer. Shit. So I think I shall take my mind off things by writing a Things I Love post.

1. The emergence from winter...*do not jinx it* As I am writing this there are dark grey clouds looming and the sun is fighting to break through but the Brit in me feels that the solitary days of sunshine in this country must be celebrated. 

2. Sara Cox's Radio 1 show: after getting my iPad I have started listening to Radio 1 through the iPlayer app and I love Sara's morning show. She's a hoot.

3. My friend tweeting funny things about her new born baby...my fave so far was "*****'s belly button just fell off!!!!". HEHEHE.

4. Cooking, now I'm back at uni I'm cooking everyday and I didn't realise how much I missed it. :) Shame I have the belly to show for how much I enjoy it.

Wishing anyone out there a fabulous Thursday and also sending love to those who have been affected by the Boston Bombings and now the explosion in Texas :( <3

If anyone is reading this please do subscribe I'd love to get to know anyone reading!

Ciao for now... 

All work and no play.

Ciao,

So I'm not blogging as much as I'd like :( I've had a hectic 2 weeks involving absolutely no revision which is bad. VERY bad. I am now suffering the consequences with long library days and probably far too many cups of coffee. It doesn't help matters that the two departments I study can't sit down together and work out a reasonable exam timetable. I have 7 exams in all and this is just part and parcel of doing the degree I do. However, you'd think that the two departments would realise that having 4 exams in 3 days, including French speaking, French grammar, French writing and just to make it ultra confusing Italian speaking, is a teeny tiny bit stressful and not at all helpful for doing well! They are not consistent with this tight timetabling, ohhhh no, my last 3 exams are one a week meaning I have 23 days of torture in all. Bastards.

Rant over. 

'I don't love studying. I hate studying. I like learning. Learning is beautiful.'

-Natalie Portman

http://www.brainyquote.com

Ciao for now...

Hola! I'm back!

Ciao!

Well I am sorry I have been absent on ye old bloggersphere for so long things have been busy for me. I broke up from uni 2 weeks ago (how time flies...eek) and had a few days before I headed off to Madrid to see my best friend who is on her PRA! It was so lovely to see her and spend 6 whole days together after 3 and a half months of separation. I had a lovely time being shown around the very centre of Madrid, which is called Sol. However, I ate far TOO much food and my jeans actually broke whilst on holiday! Now I don't think, or maybe don't want to believe that I ate that much that I broke my jeans as they are fairly old and it was only the zip that broke so I'm going to stick by the story that they were always going to break...it had nothing to do with all the tapas or calamari. Definitely not. 

 Amazing hot chocolate which is so thick you need

 a spoon and glass of water...you dip the churros in it.

This is a plate of tapas, we shared clearly. 

The sauce on the potato is so yummy! 

It was a pretty relaxed 6 days full of lie ins, food, alcohol, laughing and shopping! Half way through the week Hayley decided we were going to row a boat. At first I was sceptical but it turned out to be my highlight of the holiday, it took us a good 10 minutes to even get out of the jetty bit and everyone was laughing at us. Must have been hilarious to watch, I know it was hilarious to experience. My other highlight is my amazing birthday present, Hayley really does know me too well. She spoilt me rotten, she bought me a Pandora bracelet with 2 charms; the first is a red glass charm with little daisies on it and the other an Eiffel tower. It's so pretty and I love it to pieces, a real 21st keepsake :) it couldn't have been more me if it tried, red is my favourite colour, my name is Daisy and I am a complete francophile! Parfait!

It's pretty cool as a language student to be in a country where you have no knowledge of the language, it's amazing how much you can understand and how quickly you can pick things up. Being there got me all excited for my own year abroad which is getting ever closer...I leave on 26th June (ARGH). I'm lucky to have found a job with Hayley for 2 months in the south of France and I am so excited for it but equally just as scared. I'm planning on taking my blog with me as I do my year abroad...I can now confirm I will be going to Gascony, Lyon and then Lecce in Italy to finish off with a 2 month gap between France and Italy so I can complete a qualification which means I can teach English as a foreign language all over the world. Very handy. 

This was taken on the 9th floor of a shopping 

centre which is where we ate the first night.

Hayley sent me a picture of her with this sign on my 

21st birthday so we had to take a photo on the day I went to Madrid! 

More photos to come when Hayley uploads them :) 

On that note I shall love and leave you...

Ciao for now...

Things I love Thursday...

Ciao,

 

So this week I love:

 

1. The fact that I now only have 1 week left of lectures :) and since I am going away on my year abroad I will not have any lectures until this time next year when I am in Italy!

 

2. The anticipation I have building for a couple of events which are happening in the next two weeks. The first is that I am off to Spain on 26th March for 5 days to see my best friend who I haven't seen since New Years Eve. I am so excited. The second is that someone I have been friends with since I was 11 is going to have her baby girl any day now, I can just about contain myself!

 

3. My toe nail polish..black and white polka dots. So cute...I am planning a nail blog post so stay tuned.

 

4. The fact that Thursday's mark the start of my weekend...wooooooooooo for 3 day weekends every week thanks to my clever timetabling.

 

5. How well I have done at staying within budgets, there's always a first for everything! Maybe this means I will be able to start saving properly now? Here's hoping!

 

 

www.verybestquotes.com

 

 

I hope you all (if there is anyone reading) have a fantabulous Thursday!

 

Ciao for now...

"I've got the key to the door, never been 21 before!"

Ciao,

So it happened. I aged another year. Funny how these things sneak up on you!  I am now the grand old age of 21 and can now get into over 21 clubs and drink in America, if I ever get to go that is. Personally I don't get the hype about turning 21, I don't think it's as big a deal now as it was 20 years ago but hey it's still seen as important and I'm not going to complain about the attention! I wasn't too fussed about the actual number of my age, I was more focused on the fact that I will probably not be in the country for my next birthday so I wanted to celebrate it with everyone I possibly could.

So my birthday was yesterday and it was the second time that Mothers Day has fallen on my birthday, I was 10 last time...it seems to like my milestone birthdays! :) Sundays are a bit rubbish for doing anything and obviously people were spending time with their mummys so I celebrated on Friday and Saturday instead. Friday I went for a meal with 20 odd friends, I have mixed feelings about this part of my birthday as the food was atrocious! I really struggled to pick a restaurant because so many of my friends are really fussy with food and certain restaurants which really bugs me cause personally I will eat anything except maybe a carvery but only because carverys are never as good as my Mum's roast dinner! I ended up booking a restaurant I'd never been to that does all you can eat buffet in loads of different kinds of food, this was the kind of restaurant I was aiming for but the one I wanted was fully booked :( The one we went to was appalling; there was barely any variety of food and what there was didn't look that appealing to be honest. I only ate a teeny plate of food, I wasn't really hungry weirdly and also I was circulating the table chatting to everyone but yeah food was very disappointing. The company was the other end of the scale, it was so nice to see everyone and have my uni friends and friends from home mingling!

Saturday was AMAZING! I had a little family party at my parents house and to be perfectly honest I wasn't looking forward to it that much because half my family couldn't make it. :( BUT it turned out to be soooo good. I got extremely drunk and just had so much fun and banter with all my family, including my Mum and Dad who were doing Sambuka shots with me ahahahahaaa! Very funny, we also took loads of photgraphs on my iPad and there are several videos of me being absolutely ridiculous! We waited until it turned 12 to light my candles and sing Happy Birthday and then we popped the champagne from my 18th birthday :) One of the best bits was that my best friend who is on her PRA called me at midnight from Spain! So thoughtful of her! Needless to say that I was not feeling my best yesterday on my actual birthday. I saw my Nan and my Dad bought me a McDonalds (always my hangover cure), gave my Mum her Mothers Day present and card and opened all my cards from my family and a few pressies from friends. I didn't get presents off my immediate family as they gave them to me over a month ago...I'm going to do a blog post of what I got once I've taken photos. So yeah I just sat and chilled all day with my family and then my friend Chloe picked me up and took me home to uni and gave me her presents...I watched TV and went to sleep. Very chilled actual birthday day but very good birthday weekend! 

Now I'm 21 I feel like a proper 20 something and I think I'm going to make a list of 30 things to do before I'm 30...a sort of 10 year bucket list. I suppose that 20 - 30 is when most of the massive life things are going to happen to me so why not give myself some aims...after all who wants to reach the end of their life and say "If only I had..." 

HAPPY 21st BIRTHDAY TO MEEEE! 

Ciao for now...

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.

Ciao, 

So I haven't blogged in a while, unfortunately good ol' life got in the way. It's literally been one thing on top of the other plus prioritising essays over blogging (yawn). Apologies to anyone who may read my blog for the absence. :) 

Words, mots, parole, language, lingo! However you say it is irrelevant, I have come to the conclusion that I have a wee little love affair with words. Now this is not a short term affair, it has been going on and building since I was around a year old. I'm not sure exactly when my first word was said or what it was but I do know that by the time I was 1 and a half I could sing nursery rhymes to my newborn baby brother and my parents always like to brag about how when most children my age were still on single words I could hold coherent conversations.  From then on it has evolved in several ways, firstly being that I never shut up! The whole way through school teachers always made the same comments "She's a bright girl, but she talks too much.". To be completely honest this is one of the outcomes I least like, I do wish sometimes I could keep certain things to myself but alas I have to get the words out. It's like a compulsion. 

The second thing that has come from my love of words is my love of reading. Granted I don't read as much as I used to at the moment because of uni obligations and general life getting in the way but it is one of my favourite things to do. I can get lost in a book for days, ask my family I finish books at an alarming rate and at the age of 7 I had the reading age of someone over twice my age... Just call me book worm. Another of my passions is music, in the lyrical sense. I wish wish wish I could write amazing songs, or just simple ones if I'm honest but I will have to stick to collecting amazing lyrics from other peoples masterpieces and pretending they're mine! Weirdly I also doodle words as opposed to pictures. I doodle all over the cardboard backing of my pads and most of what I doodle is words in different fonts and styles...what a strange little bean I am! 

Now obviously my choice in degree and hopefully career is the biggest result of my love of words! If you didn't know already I study French and Italian at uni. I have always found languages fascinating and I genuinely love being able to speak more than one language! I find it mind-blowing that people have developed languages so we can communicate with each other and while I've been studying I've become even more interested by the way words and languages have changed and evolved through the ages. Okay I sound sufficiently geeky now, but c'mon you must admit that the fact that we are the only thing on the planet that can speak is pretty amazing, non?

I think my love of words has brought me here, to this very moment, to what you are currently reading (if anyone is out there). Blogging, an outlet for my crazy mouth that never stops, a place to share things albeit with complete strangers but you know sometimes your friends and family get bored of hearing about your life! So yeah, I love words, I love language, I love speaking and communicating and I know this post probably makes me look like a complete loon but hey maybe nobody will ever read this! 

Ciao for now...