Why 2011 has definitely been the best year of my entire life;

   Stopped sucking my thumb

  Passed my driving test ( 3 weeks before my sister may I add)

 Became an 'adult' in age.

         
                                                    EMMA AND PETE GOT MARRIED!

                                                   

                                                       Survived A-levels!(only just)

                                                Spent four weeks travelling Europe.

                                                           Soundwave Festival Croatia.

                                    Had my first proper proper job as a playscheme worker.

                                                 Got into Bournemouth University!
                                                       End of the Road Festival.

                                            Bought Mooshka my beloved dutch bike.

                                                         Moved to Bournemouth!

                                                             Granny got a boyf!

                                          Voulenteered at British Heart Foundation.

                                         Hitch Hiked to France and back for charity.

                                              Co-wrote and Co-directed my own play!

    Started sucking my thumb again (this is not a good thing) ah well at least lent is around the corner.

Although it'll be a challenge I like to think 2012 will be even better. Thank you to everyone who contributed to the most unbelivable year of my life ; I wouldn't change anything.

Routeen!

After 4 months of living on my own (well with 17 other flatmates, but independently nonetheless) coming back home was one of the most bizarre things I have ever experienced. From having my own room and life to being chucked back into a shared room with my twin sister and having to share EVERYTHING, it all feels very odd indeed.Adapting to the sudden influx of fruit and veg and being fed proper food wasn't hard at all, feeling the strains of parental control however has taken some more getting used to. From minuscule responsibilities  of walking the dog, to having to justify my spending habits (I really wish I didn't have my bank statement sent home!) , I've seamlessly slipped back into driving and my thumb has slowly slipped back into my mouth!

THUMB RELAPSE;NOT GOOD.

The initial yearnings of a long bath, dishwasher and endless access to wireless Internet soon wore off, especially my dreams of not having to wash up for 12 days , due to the fact our dishwasher is broken and won't be repaired until after Xmas! disaster. Once all the easy food in the fridge and easy viewing on the TV that my parents had recorded  had been consumed ,despite having the starting of a pot-belly, A strange feeling of emptiness washed over me in the bath (pun intended). There's not enough to do here but almost too much to occupy me, I find myself aimlessly logging in to facebook for hours, just to play catch up with my flatmates who are dotted about the country, enjoying their other lives. I'm finding it very hard to separate my student life and my family life.

Although I've managed to catch up with a lot of my nearest and dearest including all my neices and nephews, eaten extremly well and slept even better, there is a massive part of me which is itching to get back to Bournemouth ASAP! I have a whole new life down there, everyone knows me as me, a fully formed arcticle (which in itself is debatable) whereas here I feel as everyone knows my past , what I used to be, but not who I want to be. It all gets very complicated and confusing which represents my current state of mind perfectly. Before Uni everyone tells you of all the great times you'll have both at Home and there but no-one warns you of this feeling of dis-jointment and bewildreness.

Hometime already.

After spending the morning on the beach with my flatmates family and NEW PUPPY I've just finished packing to go home for Xmas.  Two days ago we had our fake Christmas with the flat, spread amongst 4 kitchens, we fed 14 people with 3 chickens and all the trimmings, to say we were stressed was an understatement. We played wink murder, yes, at the dinner table and exchanged our secret Santa gifts. It was such a lovely evening which was finished off with mince pies and Alladin.

Part of me is yearning for good food, good sleep and a good rest but another part of me wants to keep up this momentum. It'll be the first time alot of us have been separated for longer than 4 days, which is weird. At Uni you're worried that you'll fail to keep up with people from back home but now we'll have to consider keeping up with our Uni friends just as much. I'm sure it'll be fine.

I AM ALIVE!

Just need to write something to let everyone know I'm still alive, I want to blog so badly but have literally been so busy. From writing and directing my own play to trying to learn German aswell as completing coursework its all been a bit hectic. But I am alive, malnurished but alive.

Here are some photos of what I live a minute walk from literally;

Freshening up!

It's 3am in the morning when I'm writing this, it's finally quite enough. To give you a rough idea of my living conditions and basic quality of life ;my halls were once a 10 storey car park which now has a night club at the bottom of it and it opposite a homeless shelter. Despite all these tiny details, it is home and will be for the next year. For the first time in 10 days I finally feel relaxed enough to write something. I've just had my first full week of being a university fresher and can honestly say I have never met so many amazing, inspiring and insightful people in such a short space of time, it is insane! I have contracted 'freshers flu' (I basically feel like poo warmed up) by lack of sleep and lack of decent food (not to mentioned a steep increase in alchohol intake). University is a bizarre but brilliant place, I'll try and describe my first week as well as I can.

The journey down to Bournemouth was intended to take 3.5 hours but ended up being 5.3 hours as someone had pre-set the sat nav to avoid all main roads, taking us on the longest ,wettest, most pointless route imaginable. Once we arrived at my university halls  we cracked the car boot open, just as the heavens opened. Due to the downpour and possible downpour from my mothers eyes I shooed the parents as soon as I had everything in my room and had used their help enough. They left me £5 to get a proper full English breakfast before the starvation commenced.( I wouldn't dream of spending a fiver on one meal now!)  Once in my surprisingly spacious new room I began to unpack whilst setting up my iPod docks. It was so strange how conscious I was of what music I was playing due to first impressions, I think I spent more time sifting through 'shuffle' to find an appropriate unpacking and meeting song than I did actually unpacking! ridiculous! I went around knocking on my new flatmates doors (as daunting as anything!) and grabbed two of them and went to the shops.Eventually corridors filled as much the parents eyes. A question that soon became the most asked question ever of 'what're you studying' was our first topic of discussion ,if ever there is a pub quiz night, my flat would win, we have it all from biological sciences to computer animation. Everyone is so friendly,  we've already started planning weekly meals and film nights (we'll see how long our budget and film collections last).

On the first night 'I have never'(a drinking game) got us all suitably sloshed , finding out some hilarious stories along the way (one girl broke her boyfriends nose accidentally whilst having sex). Fully tipsy and ready to socialise we headed to what is now our regular, the Old Fire Station, which is literally an old fire station renovated into a pretty amazing club. The next two days consisted of drunken divulging in drinking games, eating absolute rubbish and being totally sleep deprived. By the third day we were all physically and mentally drained so headed to Lidl to stock up on some much needed fruit and veg!

The second night was 'Back2school' at the Old Fire Station but once we saw the que to get in we decided to go elsewhere. We found a club called Lava , £1 entry and all drinks (including the essential yagerbombs) were £1.20 ; heaven. I met a fellow scriptwriter in the smoking area after he'd banged his head on the wall, he claims this never happened but I blame the concussion. The club soon turned into a sauna and we craved  cold air so headed down to the beach.It was 2am on a monday night and was the first time that I had seen the beach since I had arrived, naturally I ran as fast as I could into the icy waters, luckily I couldn't feel it as I was conveniently numbed by this point.

The next day were spent nursing my hangover and feeding my hunger, we had a quite night out at the Acoustic Fayre and saw some brilliant live music at The Old Fire Station. A personal highlight was the last act called 'Stanners' who sang Jamie.T covers, but had been given free beer the entire evening resulting in him forgetting the majority of the lyrics and turning to the audience for guidance.

The days that followed were spent sunning overselves on the surprisingly scorching shores as the heat wave began. We were in heaven! Our clothes were full of sand and our bellys were full of Harry Ramsdens fish'n'chips! One of my favourite and most poignant time I had was actually spent alone. I went for a bike ride down the seafront which gave me the opportunity to actually soak up what was happening without feeling hungover or distracted in anyway. The sun was beating and my face was beaming, I felt so so happy and privileged to be living in such a beautiful place.

To continue the beach themed day nicely we went to the 'Beach Party' at the Old Fire Station, I'd love to go into excessive detail about it but the truth is, I can barely remember what happened after we got into the que. I do however distinctly remember the sheer ,excruciating agony of receiving glowstick juice(this is not an innuendo) to the eye ball! The strange thing is when I went to the toilet to extract the scream evoking liquid I bumped into my flatmate who was already rinsing her reddened eye after being put through the same hell moments earlier. Like ,well everything in this snap happy life this turned into a kodak moment.

I hope you enjoy our pained faces as much as we did the morning after!

The night ended with an hour conversation in a chippy about films. Something that has been a continual conversation focus since I met other scriptwriters. I ended up inviting four people back for a sleepover (bearing in mind I'd known them 3 days top) , it's strange how quickly bonds form in such an intense environment though! We took all the cushions off the chairs in my living room and made a bed the size of the floor. The night was spent giggling until we slept. The laughter continued into the next day as we were given a break with 'Comedy Nation' at the Old Fire Station, it was absolutely hilarious.

My idea of freshers was wreckless drinking, drunken regrets and lots of sick but I hadn't encountered any of these things (okay maybe my drinkign was a little wreckless) but we were so tame! We spent the first Friday shopping for our first Sunday roast and beach bbq. We each contributed £5 and managed to buy enough food (including stuffing and parsnips) for the roast and two bbqs that followed! Our Friday night was even more wild as we stayed in baking cakes with our Romanian flatmate who is possibly the nicest boy I have ever met! If that wasn't crazy enough to feed our adreneline cravings we topped the night off with 'Bridesmaids' which was surprisingly less chick flicky and more crude than I ever imagined!



After living off bread and butter for a week, these badboys were heavenly!

Saturday was spent walking to the campus, soaking up some sun then winding down with a beach bbq. My flatmates boyfriend provided the bbq and the insanely loud sound system and the night was just beautiful. After filling out stomachs with steak, burgers and sausages, playing a bit of frisbee,dancing round in the sand and singing some disney classics , we went home (when you get to the point of singing disney classics it's usually home time).

Once we'd changed out of our smokey and sandy clothes we went to our favourite bar, Inferno, where you can get a drink and play pretty much any board game you want, for diddly squit! The games were childish and the night was still young. So a few of us headed out in search of 'sound circus' , a heavy metal rock bar. After having yager bomb pitchers and far too much sambuca we couldn't believe our ears when they stopped the music in aid of an annual award ceremony! It was, and still is one of the most bizarre things I have ever witnessed. To start with the host, intentionally or not, resembled dracula an unholy amount and the recipients were crayolas! There was also an award for best pole dancer which was basically an excuse for the host to get far too excited. We were given party poppers to pull and really did feel like an odd, gothic, slightly incestual family.

After Saturday nights shinnanigans Sunday didn't start til about 3pm. With a Sunday Roast to cook by 5pm the pressure was on we only had 2/3 ovens working aswell! We had two hours to cook two chickens , carrots, potatoes,parsnips,stuffing and gravy not to mention homemade yorkshire puds! Three of us did most of the cooking, between two kitchens, just to remind you though,our kitchens have no windows and a vent that you can barely call an extractor fan, oh and we have to keep the kitchen doors shut to prevent setting of the fire alarm. All in all our kitchens were roasting more than the chickens!  40 minutes into the cooking, the fire alarm sounded. Turning off all of our cookers we ran down the stairs, leaving potatoes and carrots still on hot hobs our timing was thrown right out of the window! We joked that we caused the fire, until the joke died along with a part of me as I saw smoke coming out of my bedroom.

After 20 minutes of worrying, the building was given the all clear, except we could all still definitely see smoke coming out of my bedroom. Once we were allowed back in the building I paced it up the 7 flights of stairs to check on my room, it was fine. I looked out the window with such relief as I realised the vent from the extractor fans is placed just above my window. Drama over, we got back to our roast. 2 hours later than expected but still highly appreciated our first ever flat roast was ready! Having small kitchens the sweat the food out of you before you even tuck in forced us to eat our dinner on the floor of the living room.

We finished our beautiful beach weekend off with a film, five minutes into it however I was flat out, the week full of new faces and new places had taken its toll and I just couldn't keep my eyes open.

Freshers week was unbelivable, luckily that was just the first week and we had another whole week of freshers to go!!

European adventures: Wroclaw (Poland!)

In Wroclaw in Wroclaw, it's raining in Wroclaw!

The train journey was 6 hours and probably the smoothest yet, no thunder storms, no directional errors and I slept for 4 of the hours so it went pretty quickly indeed! On the train on the way to a new location I'd make a habit of whipping out my electronic translator ( a family friend bought it for me so I was determined to get some use out of it!) I'd teach myself and attempt to teach the others basic phrases like please and thank you. 'Jimcoya' , how you say it ,not spell it ,was thank you in Polish , I can't get it out of my head,whilst out there however I could not pronounce it at all! I made a habit of declaring my feelings of a country pretty early on. Annoucning ' I LOVE POLAND!' pretty much as soon as we crossed the border was maybe a little bit rash.

We arrived in Wroclaws temporary train station ( rubble,falling ceilings, paper walls) with no water, no food, no Polish money and no idea where we were in relation to the centre or more importantly our hostel! We walked through what appeared to be the slums of Poland, the entire time I was absorbing the new scenery I was dreading our two nights there! The slums soon turned into streets and streets turned into a beautiful square, bearing a much needed cash machine. We took out what we thought was enough money however when changing currency and exchange rates so much it was hard to keep track of what we were actually spending! Cash in had we headed to the first shop we saw, stocked up on crisps chocolate and supposedly,water. I was so dehydrated. The taste of carbonated water was the last thing I needed ,I was thoroughly gutted, it even said it in English on the bottle! The others found it mildly amusing, much to my dismay. Through asking many non-English-speaking Poles we eventually (after 3 hours of lugging our bags around, in the sweltering heat) found the 'Moon Hostel'.

Our backs were dripping with sweat, we were utterly exhausted after having to climb 3 floors of steps (later realising there was a lift), Eds feet were swollen and we were all sickening. John had been ill from day one and we had all slowly contracted it, morphing from your average, bearable cold into sneezing fits,headaches and phlegmy chests! Drained but still determined to get a fresh taste of Poland we went to the square, which we had earlier passed but had been too exhausted to appreciate. After walking around the entire block in search of a suitable place to eat we finally settled for an Italian, how very Polish!

After our meal we roamed the secret streets of Wroclaw, passing courtyards brimming with people and beer, lit up by candle light. In that moment of peering in through the iron gate I realised that Poland was nothing like I'd thought it would have been. Firstly, I was expecting it to be cold, I even packed jumped and jeans especially for this leg of the journey, secondly I thought it would be fairly expensive but it was beyond cheap! We managed to get two hefty jugs of authentic Polish beer for about £5, squeezing about 3 glasses out of it each, calculating as about 41p per pint! Beer goggles donned we walked back, batting about the idea of getting tattoos. Thankfully we dismissed the idea, however hilarious it may have been.

Our one and only full day in Wroclaw was set to be a corker. The weather was scorching and our spirits were high, despite our drinking antics the night before. We had one of our longest lie ins of the whole trip (until 10am) however we managed to do so much with the day. We had no plans, we rarely did but simply explored until we found something of worth to do. We walked through the town, through parks and beside the river, eventually stumbling across the fairly famous 'Panorama'. A 360 degree painting with 3D elements, we booked tickets for an hours time and filled the wait with blueberries in the park. We managed to keep ourselves entertained for quite sometime by simply seeing who could throw a blueberry the highest, catching in it their mouth. Leaving a mound of squished blueberries behind us, the ones that never made it, we walked over the hill to the Panorama.

There was an English commentary that I found very interesting although after 20 minutes of listening to the same man, talk about the same painting, we began to bore. Energy fully zapped we needed some grub. We saw a boat cafe with a jetty and decided it was perfect. It not only looked great, but the food smelt great, we ate pork straight from the barbecue with complimentary gherkins, bread and mustard. Probably the most Polish meal we had the entire time. On the jetty we saw people canoeing down the river and after letting our food settle, decided to join them. We entered the non-English-speaking boat house and managed to explain what we wanted, through hand gestures and familiar phrases. To hire a canoe for an hour was something silly like £3, we spent 45 minutes travelling in one direction at a leisurely pace then spent the last 15 minutes, having realised the time, going as quickly as our little arms would take us back to the boat house. When we returned the spectators and boat owners were laughing at our flustered states and typically touristy time keeping.

We already felt we had filled the day with fun but the best part was yet to come. We caught a tram to the not very Polish 'Japanese Botanical Gardens' and wandered into a massive fountain with synchronised music. Straight away we were blown away by the beauty of the place, I still couldn't believe we were in Poland and the sun was that strong! We hadn't even reached the proper gardens but one we did, we knew. There were ornate bridges, coy carp and symbolic statues, had you have been transported there, not knowing where you were you would genuinely believe you were in Japan. After a few hours sunbathing on a jetty and watching an entire synchronised fountain performance we headed back to the hostel.

When we went out on the evening we were greeted by a huge stage and an even bigger crowd, full of football fans. It turned out that Wroclaws football club had won some cup (clearly not a footy fan) and all the players had come to the city to see their fans. We were kind of annoyed,intrigued ,but annoyed. The beauty of the square at night time was ruined by dramatic X-factor esque music (which was repeated for every player) and strobe lights. We ate quickly then went to find a bridge that we'd passed the day before. We found the bridge and much much more, the bridge was full with locks (with lovers names on) but once we crossed the bridge we heard the all to familiar sound of an acoustic guitar. Following live music, as we found ourselves doing alot, we reached a small band of boys, one on guitar, one on Cello and one singing. It was magical, as was the majority of our time in Poland.

I say majority as the travel day that followed was one of the worst.

We woke up at 7:30am in order to check out and leave plenty of for getting lost. We asked the receptionist at the 'Moon Hostel' which tram to get to the train station, which she confirmed was the number 17, a fairly frequent tram. Naturally, as soon as we caught one glimpse of a '17', suitably placed on the front of a tram, we ran for it. Running , I do not mind, but running with 15kg of bag on my back is not fun at all. Puffing and panting we only just made it onto the busy tram. Once settled  in the fact we were going to make our train to Prague we began trying to relax but a rather rough polish family had made us their sole source of entertainment for the journey. They sniggered at us , clearly analysing our stereotypical 'tourist' appearance. However they may have realised that we were infact going the wrong way on the tram, forty minutes before we did. As soon as rows of shops turned into rows of crops and the number of bus stops and people dwindled, we began to get worried. We looked around the tram in hope for someone who spoke english. I noticed that there was a woman behind us reading an english book and asked her the question we had all been replaying quitely for the past half an hour ' are we going in the direction of the train station' she needn't have replied as her face confirmed our doubts, we had been travelling the wrong way for forty minutes, with 8 minutes to go until our only train left the station.
Thanking the lady profusely we got off at the soonest stop and ran across the road to catch it the other way. We had given up on the idea that we were actually going to make it to Prague that day. We got off the tram with no idea which direction the train station was, it even began to rain. Perfect pathetic fallacy. We had truly given up so we sat down to eat on a wall. Eventually we made out signs that pointed us to the station and quickly got up with our last threads of hope , we made it across the road when Ed realised that he was no longer in possesion off our 'European train timetable', bascially our bible! The threads of hope had snapped, Ed traced our steps as well as he could in search of the book but returned with a glum face. We all slumped and sighed, wallowing in one of the lowest points of the whole trip. A cheeky grin sprung on Eds face just before he got to us, pulling his jacket up he revealed the book! A little bit of happiness was enough to encourage us to continue on our quest; find the train station. Once a basic direction was acquired through asking various locals we managed to find it, after 2 and a half hours, for what should have been a 30 minute tram journey we made it, to the temporary train station which had no reliable train timetable, no seats, no shops, nothing bar rubble and pipework.

John being the most spontaneous of the group toyed with the idea of going to Warsaw then catching a night train to Prague. We wern't having any of it, after the two hours we had been through all we wanted to do was get out of Poland. John came up with the plan of going back to Germany (Dresden) the to Prague from there. We all agreed it was the best idea depsite having to wait 4 hours on the cold concerete floor. Eventually we made it onto the correct platform, unaware that the train we wanted had been stationary for the past 30 minutes and was literally just about to depart! We ran as fast as we could and just about squeezed onto the packed carriage. We were forced to stand  for 40 excruitiating minutes, John even had a nose bleed which only added to the stress.

Once we finally made it to Dresden we treated ourselves to ice creams and sandwiches then boarded the 17:08 to 'Praha', so after 10 hours of waiting , standing, running and bleeding, we were finally on the correct train with the correct destination!

A Universe-away.from.the-city

Tomorrow I am leaving Birmingham and going to Bournemouth. I have just completely gutted my old room so that my brother can quickly re-inhabit it. I'm sure most people are leaving the majority of their possessions at home but it seems like I am taking everything and hardly leaving anything here. My dog has been moping about the entire day, she knows I'm going because the same thing happened with my sister last week, one minute boxes appeared in the hallway and the next minute she was gone (for what my dog must assume) for good. It's so hard as I can't actually tell her that we'll be back.

I currently feel like raiding the fridge and cupboards for healthy food to gorge on before my three year binge of rubbish food and too much alcohol commences. I just feel so unprepared. I can't wait to meet new people in one sense but in another I finally feel completely content with my friends and life at home. Change is good though. We'll all be back for Xmas before we know it and laugh at ourselves for making such a fuss about leaving. Just at the moment it has all become so real.

I have my possessions sporadically spread around the house due to all these room changes. When I return for holidays and weekends I'll have to share a room with my sister but I think we'd want to anyway. She has been away for a week now and it already feels like I've lost touch of what is happening in her life. It's all part of growing up I guess, not living in each others pockets all the time. Tonight I'm going to the Electric cinema in Birmingham to say goodbye to one of my favourite places for a while (I probably won't be able to afford to go to the cinema much when I come back), I'll tuck myself up in my old bed , in my old room, with my dog and try and get some sleep.

I am so nervous.

seperation.

This summer has been one of the best summers I have ever lived through, from Interrail (which I will eventually finish writing about) to many bike rides, to End of the Road festival( which I wanna write about) and some very memorable evenings out! The home town fun is nearly over (for a while) as close friends are slowly making their way to their new university's, and their new lives. It's all very exciting, naturally, but it does feel as if it's an end of an era.

Who will remain in close contact and who will drop off the face of the planet? all that is left to do is wait and see I suppose. I told myself last year when I saw older years writing status' about missing home 'what is the point in missing something, that will only make you have a crap time away and won't get you home any faster' but now as I'm allowing that thought to slip away I fear I may miss home and my sister more than anything.

We went to separate colleges but still came home every evening to each other. Since I returned from travelling we've slept in the same bed almost every night, despite having our own double beds, I think we're clinging on. Despite the initial strangeness of being apart I think university will do so much more for us than any usual siblings, because we've never truly been seen as individuals, even with our close friends it's 'I'm just with the twins' or 'I'm just at the twins house'. For years I have admittedly been robbing my sisters clothes, make up and jewelery so having to go out and buy essentials for myself I'm already starting to feel less dependent, don't really know how well I'll cope with an extremely reduced wardrobe though!!

Although it's all very scary at the moment, not knowing who we will meet or what will happen. I can honestly say I have never been so ready to leave home I think travelling triggered it. From being totally independent for a month, with money, food, safety, everything, returning home to my parents asking questions revolving around where I'd been or how much money I had spent (although it was my own 'hard earnt'(I worked on a play scheme, the best job you could possibly ask for) money). I'm just craving that independence again.

So my sister leaves tomorrow and I go the following week. Only time will tell.

European Adventures: Berlin.

Chillin' in Berlinin

We woke up at 6:30am to leave Amsterdam in order to get the 8:32 train to Berlin from Schipol, only we arrived at Schipol at 8:35 ,missing our train by a few minutes! We  had to wait 2 hours and 45 minutes for the next one. Mand and John passed the time by erratically playing snap causing me and the surrounding people around us to jump out of our skin every few minutes. Once we finally got on the train we managed to bag table seats for the four of us. Within the first few stops though we found ourselves hopping from seat to seat as we hadn't made reservations (we sound so unorganised!). Eventually we found seats which weren't reserved and settled down for what soon became one of the longest journeys of the entire trip. The train journey was meant to be 6 hours maximum but due to going the wrong way (I have no idea how that is possible on a train track) and then being caught in a thunder storm we ended up staying on the same train with limited food and water for a bum numbing 9 and a half hours!

Despite how hell-like that sounds I found it all enjoyable , having adopted the role of 'sloth' I managed to sleep through the majority of it anyway. Once we arrived at Berlin Hbf we got the S-Bahn to our hostel ,which turned out to be anything but the 'hostels' we had in mind! When we got off the S-Bahn storm clouds were brewing and I was adamant we would get caught in a downpour, even attempted to put my waterproof on, luckily it didn't rain. We found our Hostel really easily, well anything was better than the maze that was Amsterdam.We thought our Hostel in Amsterdam was alright until we were exposed to the wonders of 'Plus Berlin'. When we walked into the massive reception the wind was blowing and the 'reception' sign was swinging violently, I thought it was meant to swing until a member of staff shouted 'close the doors!' and the sign stopped swinging. Besides the disappointment of the simple sign the place was so cool, and spacious! Walking with our jaws on the floor we opened our room to discover a massive en-suite, bunk beds and cupboards,luxury! From our room you could see out into the courtyard which had ping pong tables and rabbits roaming about it. We genuinely thought it couldn't get better, until we saw the restaurant,bar,swimming pool and sauna! For 10 euros a night we truly couldn't believe it.

Although we'd been up since 6:30am we were determined to check out the city before our friends came the next day. We walked around,admiring the graffiti and the layers upon layers of posters until the sound of live music diverted our attention we responded accordingly, by following it. The sound lead us to what looked like a standard house, as we stepped through the door way an enthusiastic barman beckoned us into the room (which looked like a front room) where a Swedish band were playing. There were quirky paintings on the walls and candles everywhere, I'd found heaven. We had our first tastes of Berlin beer, suitably named 'Berliner' listened to the bands entire set,then decided to headed back to our PLUSh pad.

Our first morning in Berlin was an early one, due to a very high pitched, non-english speaking cleaner. If  I was ever worried about feeling disorientated when waking up in different countries every few days this wake up call only confirmed them. I completely forgot where I was, which country I was in and was totally unaware of who the hell was shouting 'House Keeping'. Ed was also in a total daze and found himself quizzing the house keeper as to what time it was. The cleaner replied in German then continued to bash about in the bathroom, forcing us all to heave ourselves out of the beds.

Our friends from home who were also visiting Berlin at the same time as us ,even staying in the same hostel  arrived at 'Plus' at about 10:30am.We headed straight out to explore our surroundings. We walked through backstreets, beer in hand, with John leading the way we ended up getting lost at least three times so decided to get the more reliable 'S-Bhan' to Alexander Platez. When we arrived hunger had set in and the smell and previous recommendation of the local 'Currywurst' stall was too much to ignore. We sat on some grass to experience our first proper 'country' dish whilst a few of the other lads, after all day and night travelling, had a little doze. The lads decided to head back to the hostel to check in properly and more importantly catch up on their sleep in order to hit the bars later on. The 'Interrailers', myself ,John,Mand and Ed decided to stick around and explore further. We walked down the longest road I have ever walked down to arrive at the Branden Berg gates .As soon as we arrived the 5 year olds inside us all surfaced and we found ourselves instantly drawn to Mickey Mouse , as a natural response we seized the opportunity for a photo. Only after the quick snap Mickey removed his glove and repeatedly pointed towards his dirty palm. We had no idea what to do, we had no change and couldn't speak German, I think we just walked away, with our once pristine image of Mickey thoroughly tarnished.

Ed outside the Reitzster

We walked through the gates and ended up at the Reitzster, where we sat for a while, the weather was beautiful as was the building.After lazing about we decided to walk back down the very long road to explore the 'Siegessaule' which we had earlier passed.The exploration consisted of climbing the thing! There must have been at least 200 steps, and after a days walking around the city we were thoroughly drained. It was completely worth it though as the views from the top were astonishing. We were able to see the park we'd walked through and how green the city actually was, we couldn't see a great deal for trees! After the grueling ascent and equally as fear evoking descent I was very happy to be back and ground level, once across the deathly roundabout that the Sigessaule sat on we went in search of a comfy seat and some refreshments.  Following signs for 'cafe' we ended up at a quaint 'English' Garden however, ironically, non of the waitresses actually knew English. After quenching our thirst with large coca colas , pulling putrid faces then taking ridiculous photos (something we made a habit of doing at every meal, or drink time) we caught the S-Bahn back to our Hostel.



The Siegessaule.

When we returned to the hostel our friends from home had already done all their basic shopping which consisted of, shots,amaretto and lots and lots of beer. With this concoction floating about the place and after a few dirty pints we were tipsy to say the least. We went on a Berlin bar crawl, starting from a bar that we didn't realise was in fact a gaybar, well that was until we noticed the pornographic paintings within.We then hopped from rock bars to beach bars and finally to a shisha bar where we got a true taste of Berlin and more importantly, mint tobacco. We decided to call it an early night and headed back to Plus at about 3am as we were going to the Zoo early the next morning.



After a few dirty pints, worse for wear.



The 'Zoological Gartens' were beautiful. From Bears to Sloths it had them all, a personal favourite, as always is watching the monkeys and their ahem, unusual, habits. Once we'd witnessed enough wildlife we headed back to our Hostel in search of the Berlin wall. We thought we'd have to get the S-Bahn but after asking a local man it turned out that the wall was a few hundred metres away from our hostel! We started at the East Side gallery, wrote our names on a tatty sticker, admired the graffiti then rested at a beach bar alongside the river.

When we returned from our cultural trip to the Berlin wall the lads were already in the pool.We had urgent washing to do as dirty clothes were festering in our bags, we put them in the washing machines then quickly donned our cozzies and soon followed (swim) suit. bad bad joke. The pool was freezing but the sauna was sweltering, still we appreciated it all as we remembered it was only costing us 10 euros a night! After we'd 'swam' (no swimming was actually done) we went to check our clothes and put them in the dryer in hope that they'd be dry for the nights outing. 35 minutes later our clothes were still soggy! We couldn't be bothered to hang around by putting them up to dry so I went out in damp socks, yum! The night started with more dirty pints in the lads room. One of our friends hadn't yet turned 18 so we were worried whether he would get in to Lidos 'Rock AG' night. It turned out that he got in fine whereas we were questioned for ID! With us all feeling happy that we all made it in the tone was set for the entire night. The music was brilliant especially in the silent disco. We all went in, dubious and doubting but within minutes we'd found a station we liked and began to belt it out, I'm sure you're not meant to actually sing a silent disco but we did nonetheless. Being the only British people in the small room at the time we dominated, probably because we were the only ones who actually knew the lyrics. I caught glimpses of the locals moving their headphones back as to hear the lyrics first hand from our mouths. Most of the night was spent there,loving every moment. The interaillers amongst us had to leave as we had to catch our train to Poland, leaving the Hostel at 7:30am. We thought the night couldn't get any better , until we walked back to the hostel, through an under passage ,to discover an amazing band playing a public gig! From that magical moment onwards, I started to realise just how much I loved Berlin.



Despite our early night (of 2am) the lads weren't content with our early departure, singing screaming and banging on our door, they let the whole of our corridor, the hostel and probably Berlin know that they had returned. We got them back in the morning by returning the favour by banging on their door, hoping they already had banging heads. We grabbed breakfast at the local bakery and walked to the train station feeling like we'd only just got off the train there! We witnessed creatures of the night crawling out from every crevice who had clearly been drinking and dancing the entire night. With that lasting image, we left Berlin, full of beer and freshly baked bread!

Bye Berlin, you certainly wern't the CurryWURST place we went!

ASBO-LOOT-LY RIDICULOUS!

I have never been so enraged in my entire 18 years of life.

Having been evacuated from our work place early my sister and I found ourselves glued to the television , watching footage of familiar shops in Birmingham being ransacked. When things get close to home they really do have a huge impact. Videos from  the bbc website left a nasty taste in our mouths and a storm brewing in our minds.



The London,Birmingham,Leeds and now Manchester riots highlight everything that is wrong with humanity. I am all for the power of the public and political protests but these riots are purely opportunities for criminals to club together to reek havoc. The fact that rioters who have been interviewed cannot even confirm which political party is in power shows just how naive and mislead they really are.They claim the reason they are 'forced' to loot is due to the recession , which causes me to struggle to see how ruining small businesses and local shops is going to do anything but sink us deeper into it! A little bit of logic would go a huge way right about now.

If I were in charge I'd place a curfew so that anyone found on the streets past 9pm would be arrested, immediately, we need to nip it in the bud. Why are we laying down and just letting this happen? Water canons, rubber bullets, tear gas, anything to shake them up! What really annoys me, despite wanting to emigrate myself, this country has so much to offer, so many opportunities. Why can't these hooligans remove their masks, metaphorically and literally, and see what they've got and appreciate it!

One thing that made me smile is watching this video of a woman who stands up for herself, her local businesses and Hackney. Also on the news they mentioned how 600 people turned up to help clean up Clapham streets, despite the minority that is truly ruining everything for the majority there are still good people in this world. I haven't lost all hope in humanity, yet.


The looters need to get a lives of their own and stop ruining everybody elses.

European Adventures ; Amsterdam.

Damn you Amster!

On July the 3rd myself and three friends embarked on our month travelling around Europe, full of apprehension and excitement. We caught a plane from Birmingham Airport, where we all gained an insight to how heavy our bags were. The lads weighed in at about 11kg each and Mands bag weighed at about 13kg. Myself probably being the lightest and in turn, the weakest ended up packing and therefore carrying a back-breaking 14.9kg bag! Carrying it for a few minutes in the airport allowed me to forsee the sheer pain I'd be in for the entirety of the trip. I have an obsession with the number 23, something I've been meaning to blog about but have always put off. We were seated in row 23 (a,b,c,d) which I convinced myself meant that everything would be alright. The journey was surprisingly smooth, having only travelled with my parents in the past I was used to constant stress revolving around passports and tickets but already I was seeing for myself how easy travelling could be. The plane was sprinkled with your typical 'Amsterdam' visitors, people who go purely to abuse the lenient marijuana laws, young and old.

As soon as we arrived in Amsterdam I realised that the seedy city I had in mind had been completely abolished by its clean streets and beautiful buildings and parks. We managed to get a great ,unplanned, tour of the city as we got lost for 3 hours trying to find our Hostel! Once we arrived, we realised that we must have passed the street at least 4 times , even stopping for a break, to nearly give up on our search, opposite it! Our first hostel experience was pleasant, it was better than what I expected anyway. We had two other people in our room, which was interesting. The first night we sampled the coffee shops, accidentally stumbling across the HIGHly regarded 'Abraxus' ,that in itself was full of awkward moments, from not having a lighter to coughing after the first drag.If anyones been to Amsterdam you'll know that it all looks scarily similar, especially at night time, after certain chemicals had entered your blood stream, all this amounted to usgetting hopelessly lost again (something we later made a bad habit of). After another 3 hours trek,we came back to find that the key we had left in reception was missing and we had to wake the two people (who we'd never met before) in our room in order to get in. After a few ambiguous knocks we gave up and went to get a spare key from reception, once in the room though the giggles kicked in. The whole idea of us trying to undress really quietly in the pitch black as to not disturb two women we didn't know at all just tickled me, as it did the others. We found ourselves cramming in the toilet ( we had an en-suite) to brush our teeth and more importantly try to extinguish our giggly bouts.

In the morning we had to endure the same pain as we tried to get ready in the least noisy manner, having packed my bag with everything being in individual plastic bags,this was near impossible! Once we had escaped the room we went downstairs to claim our  breakfast that was included in the price. Everyday the lads had a cup of tea and I ended up having multi-vitamin with bread and butter, very exotic. The three days we spent in Amsterdam were mainly spent at Vondel park, we'd go to bakeries and the market in search of fresh,cheap and local food, buying baguettes and humus we had a beast of a picnic in no time. The sun was shining so much that by the end of the day we were all a shade of crimson! On our second evening we went to Anne Franks house. One quote that really resonated with me was her desire to 'ride a bike, dance, whistle, look at the world, feel young and know that I'm free' because it almost exactly summed up how I was feeling, knowing that she never had the freedom made me emotional but appreciative of the opportunity I had, as I had never felt so free.

After another exotic breakfast of bread and butter and multi-vitamin our last day in Amsterdam was spent hiring bikes and almost being killed by trams. We hired them for three hours and within 5 minutes of loosing the lads me and Mand got hopelessly lost and ended up at the Hienekin factory! Luckily I'd bought a phone to use whilst away and rang the lads to meet up in our beloved Vondel park. Once we came back to the Hostel Mand discovered that her expensive filter bottle had leaked all over her Interrail pass and Passport! Although her hair was now green in the passport photo no serious damage was done,luckily. Panic over we went out to eat (something we did every evening whilst there) at some cheap Italian restaurant 'Venisia' and headed over to 'Easy Nights' for a spacey dessert. Returning to our hostel we noticed we had new guests in our room and always enjoyed trying to guess their age,nationality and gender.After a few hours they kicked in, from water fights to whipping wars we giggled ourselves gaga. We slept like babies, we needed to as we were travelling to Berlin the next day.

saying goodbye.

Today I said goodbye to my twin sister for 5 weeks. She's going to Greece for a week and I'm going Interrailing for 4 weeks, this will be the longest we've ever been apart from birth. I'm a bit apprehensive about spending so much time away from her, who will tell me when I really do look like shit or when I was out of line. It will be good practice for Uni I suppose but it still sucks at the same time. Bar that tiny disadvantage Interrail is set to be the best 4 weeks of my life. With tours of Anne Franks house, Bone Museums,Boat parties and music festivals how could I not enjoy it? I'll be sure to blog blog blog and blog until I blog myself to death about it.

Seasons change,it will never be the same.

Lyrics from the sensational Bonobo never cease to sum my exact feelings up.

 Although there are so many exciting things to come, travelling, summer job,End of the Road festival and the biggie ; Uni, I can't help but feel as if I'm going to loose so much. I went out with a group of my friends on Friday to celebrate the end of exams, honestly one of the best nights out I've ever had, despite maybe passing out on the toilet. It made me so happy to see so many familiar faces but at the same time it made me so sad, the realisation that I won't probably have that opportunity to be with so many people in the same place on the same night again. With some friends doing 6 months out in Canada (bloody jealous) and others parents moving away from Walsall, its going to be so complicated to just agree to get everyone together at the same time.

This summer is going to be utterly dedicated to my friends, squeezing every last bit of joy out of them before we're forced to depart.

Bye-ology.

I do not know how I have survived to tell the spine tingling tale but, I have finished my Biology A-level. I had one exam last Monday and one today.I've also done my English Literature exam and have my English Lnaguage exam on Friday.

I have never felt the sheer joy  that ripping my revision notes off my wall ( okay slowly peeling them of as to rip the paint away with the blu-tac, it's the sentiment that matters anyway) brought to me. I have never seen my recycling bin brimming with so much highlighted paper. If all has gone to plan and the gruling hours spent locked away with nothing but fruit tea to keep me sane actually pay of, I should be swapping the streets of Walsall for the shore of Bournemouth. Where better to cure a continual hangover from freshers week (and the rest) than the golden sands of the Southern shore.

I have no idea how I have faired but all will be revealed on August 18th. eeeeep. Except I won't be getting mine until the 23rd probably because I got myself a summer job! My sister and I both landed one of the most rewarding and fun jobs an 18 year old could possibly have over the summer. We're going to be Playscheme workers at the local deaf centre. Basically we get paid (very well) to run around pretending to be kids again, including free trips to the likes of Drayton Manor and Legoland. Excited is not the word!

More pressing issues, where do I purchase the cheapest bottle of vodka? Jokes aside, the more pressing issue is my month travelling around Europe. By the end of April I had raised enough money to get me to Amsterdam and that's about it but through selling my clothes on facebook, to asking for sponsors from school the figure slowly began to decrease and became more managable. Eventually all I required of my parents was emergency money ( blatently just going to be spent on cheap German beer). So my backpack ( which is literally the size of me) is packed, and has been for the past month, I've had exams okay, the only thing that kept me going was putting a new thing in it everyday. Wow I really am sad. My sister and boyfriend brought me a Fisheye camera which I am dying to fill with photos of the trip. 10 days til I go, I'm slightly apprehensive and nervous but excited beyond belief more than anything.

Wish me luck. I hope I live to share the stories, my god there will be so many.

Revision and relapsing.

Three weeks ago I chipped my front tooth whilst drinking from a glass bottle at a night club, my friend is a very adventurous dancer and has been known to throw his limbs about, in this incident his arm was the weapon of choice and my tooth the innocent victim. Anyway due to having had to have a cap put on (so I could happily venture out of my house!) I'm unable to drink tea for a month or so until I feel as though it has settled. (I'm not allowed coffee or wine either, but that's not the point) From going to drinking 4 cups of tea a day on average to nada, my body has really felt the difference, surprisingly the benefits. I always used to have a cup of tea before I went to sleep every night but now ( having been on fruit tea for the past week) I've slept like a baby, I've noticed that despite a severe lack of caffeine I've felt much more energetic and in turn productive. I did however give in last night, the tea bags were tempting me and the kettle was convincing me, I couldn't resist. I thought I'd feel waves of satisfaction wash over me but I actually disliked the taste. Despite my little relapse I don't think their is a future for me and tea! tooth luck tetley!

Anyway revision is firmly underway with my revision notes firmly plastered all over the walls of my parents house (yes even the toilet!) the ceiling seems to be falling in (surprisingly not due to the lack of notes I've stuck on it) because there is just far too much to learn! There is 30 days until my first (Biology) exam, I'm running out of time!!!!

A weekend of weddings and weeping.

Friday was the Royal Wedding and I can't say that I was that elated to have the day of school. There are 7 weeks until my A-level exams and to tell you the truth, I am no way near prepared. However I wasn't a total scrooge and spent the day watching my friend play cricket then went on to a street party. There were a few bands that played, a free BBQ and face painting, what more could you ask for really?

Saturday was spent travelling to my Boyfriends (new addition, feels odd typing it) friends wedding where we were treated to even more free food and by Jove did we take advantage of it, we even stayed until after the reception to not only help tidy up the hall but to more importantly tidy up the buffet! Eating aside, the weather was glorious and the bride looked beautiful , I may have nearly blinded her with my awful confetti throwing technique but the day went without a HITCH nonetheless.

Sunday was very much a day of recuperation, doing absolutely nothing until 6pm when I was rushed out of the house to go and watch my sister in her most recent show 'Take A Bow'. I always enjoy going to my twin sisters performances because in the interval I always get mistaken for her (what? I'm not going to turn down praise) haa. The funniest thing is , even the director who has been working with her for the past year came up to me after the show and congratulated me, poor bloke, his face when I told him he'd got the wrong one.

If my sister does become a success I may as well lead my life as a professional lookalike.

Bloomin' beautiful day with Baycat.

My sister and I are pretty keen photographers and when our mates band Baycat needed some pre-gig photos doing we were more than happy to lend a hand, or four. The flowers were in bloom and the sun was beating down, what more could you ask for?