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Monday 26 August 2013

5 things I hope to do before I die...

During my morning scroll through Bloglovin', I spotted a cute post written by Aria describing 5 things she wants to do before she dies. You can find it HERE - be sure to let her know I sent you! The post really got me thinking about some of the things I hope to complete during my life time, so I decided to be cheeky, steal her idea and create my own version.

1. Travel with friends.

Coincidentally, this is the same as the first wish that Aria has. I love exploring new places, and going on long journeys (preferably not in planes though). I really want to see more of the world than I have so far, and to do this with your favourite people seems like the most amazing thing to me. I really hope an opportunity arises where I get the chance to do this!

2. Visit New York.

Sticking with the travelling theme for the moment, I would love to visit New York. It seems like best place to lose yourself in. For those of you that don't know, I have a massive love for theatre so to see a show on Broadway would be a dream come true.

3. Graduate.

I'm hoping to make this dream a reality within the next 2 years! I've always wanted to graduate from university and I'm hoping everything goes well enough within my studies that in 2 years time I will be able to throw my very own hat into the air!

4. Fall in love and have a family.

One of the less 'exciting' ambitions I have, but this one probably means the most to me. I really hope that one day I am lucky enough to get the chance to raise children of my own alongside somebody I love. It may sound very cliche, but I think it would be the best thing ever.

5. Be an inspiration to somebody.
This has also been a dream of mine for a long time. I hope to become a teacher once I have graduated, and within that job I feel I can achieve this if I haven't managed to outside of it. I have been exceptionally lucky to be surrounded by some amazing people who have inspired me. If I can change even one person's life for the better the way they did with mine, I will feel as if I have succeeded.

Anyway, I think I'll end this post here before I get too deep and soppy and bore you all! Thankyou for reading if you have. I hope you enjoyed finding out a bit more about me. 
What are your 5 things you want to do before you die?
Do you share any of the same dreams as me?

A
xxxx

Saturday 24 August 2013

Summer in the City! | Part 3

Hello!
This is my third and final post on this year's Summer in the City! If you haven't read parts 1 and 2, you can check them out HERE and HERE. Yesterday's posted ended with me mentioning the planned trip to India that Jack and Finn (jacksgap), Louis (funforlouis), Ben (benbrown) and some others are going on next month. Two of my favourite YouTubers are Louis and Ben. They are both relatively small in the YouTube world- with Ben having less than 50,000 subs. However, they both upload high quality daily vlogs and I watch their content daily. 
After the panel with the twins, Cara and I headed into the West Hall for some food. I decided I quite fancied an ice cream so we moved over to the stand and to my surprise we bumped into none other than Ben himself! He was at the coffee stand with Steve Booker, another of Louis' closest friends. I had not expected to bump into either of them, and was very happy that I had! Due to not a lot of people knowing who they were, I got the opportunity of having an actual conversation with the guys, and they are just as lovely off screen as they are on! Meeting them both was a highlight of my weekend; it's much nicer to actually have a conversation with a creator than it is to just run up and snap a selfie with them. That being said, I did grab a cheeky photo with them both.

Steve
Ben
 (At the end of the post there will be links to everyone I have mentioned so far; I highly recommend you check these boys out. I predict they're going to become very popular very fast!)

After this, we stayed in the Mainstage area for the closing entertainment. Jack and Dean performed a brilliantly hilarious live set in which they sang Incognito for the final time! Their pairing works so well, they bounce off each other brilliantly. The crowd were going wild; the atmosphere was amazing! After them, the wonderful Hank Green performed for us all. I know I've said this before, but isn't he just the best?! Anyone that sings songs about why their should be an eighth Harry Potter wins in my book. Apart from this though, Hank raised a brilliant point regarding the struggle the media has reporting on an event like Summer in the City as unless you are a part of the YouTube community, it can be a difficult concept to grasp. He then said we should give them something to report that they could understand. 'Hair for Hazel' is a campaign his brother John has become involved in recently since the actress who is playing Hazel in the film adaptation of his novel 'The Fault in our Stars' cut her long locks off. It involves cutting off at least 8 inches of your hair, and sending it to a charity that provides wigs for children who have lost their hair. Hank called up on stage Rosianna, John's assistant and proceeded to cut off her beautifully long hair, live! 
Here is her vlog of the exact moment 9,000 people cheered as her hair fell down:


Alternatively, if this doesn't work you can watch the video HERE.
The whole thing ended Summer in the City on such an inspiring high. The creators and organisers of the event did such an unbelievably good job at pulling the weekend off. They overcame many obstacles on the first day, and the whole thing ran so smoothly. I thoroughly enjoyed myself, and will definitely be returning next year!
I hope you have enjoyed hearing about my experience at SitC. I found it so inspiring to be surrounded by such a vast amount of content creators both big and small. It reminded me that to get better at something you love doing, you have to practice and to push yourself. As the saying goes, 'Do more of what makes you happy.'
Although I am not brave enough to sit infront of a camera and talk to people the way many vloggers do, I adore sharing stories with people. And I love writing, therefore I am determined to get better at blogging. I am going to post more, (dare I even say daily?!) about my life and the things I am learning about myself and my surroundings as I complete my degree. My life may not be the most interesting, but even if only ONE person reads, I'll be happy. So thankyou, if you have read this far. I promise I'm going to try and make these better!

A
xxxx

P.S. Here are the links to everyone I have mentioned if you haven't already checked them out!

Friday 23 August 2013

Summer in the City! | Part 2

Hello!
If you read my previous post you will know about the start of my SitC adventure last weekend. If you haven't read it, you can catch up HERE. If you have, welcome to Part 2!
My previous post ended with me telling you about getting the awesome chance to meet both Jack Howard and the lovely boys from WOTO. 
After this, we stayed around the Mainstage area, I bought my first ever deck of Sopio cards (yes, I'm late to the game). We then watched the Brett Domino Trio perform. I hadn't watched many of their videos before, but I found them absolutely hilarious! 
Next up was the beautiful PJ and his panel. They screened 3 of his recent short films and then opened up the floor to questions from the crowd. Watching as someone who has never really known much about the process of making a film, I found this really interesting. It's amazing the amount of time and effort that goes into a 2 second shot. 
The Becoming YouTube panel was after. There was a lot of excitement and anticipation surrounding this panel. Benjamin Cook was joined by Luke Cutforth, Caspar Lee, Hank Green, Chris Kendall. TomSka, Dan Howell (danisnotonfire), Emma Blackery and Shawna (Nanalew). They discussed some of the main topics covered in the series, especially the infamous gender gap on YouTube and whether the British YouTube community is something to be envied across the globe. It was great to watch everyone interacting, and talking so passionately about something we all love. Although I'm not an actual content creator, I felt very proud to be British as other YouTubers were complimenting how great the Brits are. I love the friendship they all have, and how supportive the community is. If you weren't able to see the panel for yourselves, it was live streamed and has been archived onto YouTube. You can check it out HERE
After the panel, Cara and myself headed back to the hotel as we were absolutely pooped!

DAY TWO
Once again, we started off early and arrived at the venue around 9:30am. The queue was long but moved much quicker as we all had our wristbands on from the previous day. The first thing on our agenda was to meet Hank Green. I have wanted to meet Hank for years. Every Tuesday and Friday, I watch John and his videos; I find them both so inspiring and brilliant so my internal fangirl was dying for this moment!! At first it was confusing to find where to queue, as two of the meet and greet areas how now been moved into the Main Hall. Jack and Finn were working their way through their second session of the weekend, in the same slot as Hank was scheduled to be in next. The volunteers were very helpful, and managed the situation excellently. They sorted the queues well and divided up the people who were there for Hank so that they didn't get confused with those there for the twins. 
Luckily we were in the first lot of people who got to meet Hank. Due to the demand and lack of time, it was rather rushed but I managed to snap a photo with him. It was such a great moment.


We then headed over to the Panorama Room for Jack and Finn's talk. The queue was rammed with excited fangirls -not all that surprising really, I mean have you seen them?!- so I was slightly apprehensive of what the next hour was going to entail. I really admire the boys for the amount of good work they do for charity. They are great role models, and they are still so humble despite having 2.5 MILLION subscribers. I hoped that the talk would give us a chance to hear them talk properly and wouldn't just be an influx of 'You're so hot, like OMG will you marry me?' Thankfully, it wasn't and we got the chance to hear about a lot of exciting new plans they have for JacksGap, including an upcoming trip to India along with Louis Cole, Ben Brown and others. They will be racing across India in tuck-tucks to raise money for Teenage Cancer Trust. I'm looking forward to watching them take on this journey, especially since Louis and Ben are two of my favourite YouTubers. 

Thanks for reading Part Two! I hope you're enjoying hearing about my experience. The final part will be uploaded tomorrow! Please let me know if you went to SitC this year and have written about it, I'd love to read some others!

A
xxxx

Wednesday 21 August 2013

Summer in the City! | Part 1




Hello!
As I mentioned in my previous post, last weekend I travelled down to London with my friend Cara to attend Britain's largest YouTube gathering, Summer in the City. The event was held at Alexandra Palace and around 9000 people came! I had an awesome time, so thought I would share some of my favourite parts here with you.
The day before SitC was set to begin, we had booked with the Megabus to take us down to London. It was a typical Midlands morning; the rain drizzling down from the grey sky. Still, this didn't stump our excitement and we arrived at the stop in time to begin our weekend. Ten minutes passed. Then an hour. An hour and a half. TWO HOURS and we were still at the stop! The bus was incredibly late, and what made this worse was the fact that they didn't tell us at all. I ended up ringing the centre up in Scotland to find out how long we were going to be stuck waiting for. Eventually, it arrived and we were London bound!
After checking into our hotel, we headed out for some food and then got an early night in preparation for the exciting days ahead.

DAY ONE 
We awoke early to (thankfully) blue skies. Our hotel was situated ten minutes walk around the corner from Ally Pally so it was ultra handy. As we were ascending the hill a gradual noise could be heard getting louder the nearer we approached; the sound of excited chat as people sat on the floor queuing to get in. I couldn't believe the size of it considering it was only 9:30am! However, it moved pretty quickly; the staff and volunteers were so professional and we found ourselves in the venue at 11:10am. Alexandra Palace is HUGE. I loved the style of the building, it has such a classic vibe to it what with the huge rooms combined with delicate dated decor. 
We had looked at the schedule previous to the event and planned the main things we wanted to attend. The first place we went was to the West Hall for Joe Sugg and Jim Chapman's Meet and Greet. The room was packed within the first few seconds. I was surrounded by girls charging through one another to reach queues. As Joe and Jim were scheduled at the same time as Jack and Finn, and Dan and Phil you can imagine the demand for space. It was confusing which queue to get into and for a while we were stood in the wrong one! The queue moved pretty quickly for us though and we got the chance to meet the boys. They were both so lovely! 


Before heading to the Taste and Decency panel, we had the chance to hear both Dave Giles and Daniel Dobbs perform on the main stage. They're both excellent musicians - definitely take some time to check their channels out if you haven't!
I found the Taste and Decency panel very interesting. The panel included comedians who push boundaries within their content, for example Benjamin Cook, Jack Howard, Emma Blackery, Hazel Hayes. The main topics discussed were to do with the amount of freedom content creators have on YouTube as opposed to other media platforms such as television and print and whether this helps or hinders a comedian, and whether this freedom of speech is good or bad. It was nice to get the opportunity to hear about the issues they have had behind the camera since we are so used to just watching them be 'funny.' 
Another debate raised was whether a viewer should be offended by jokes made within comedy. Some excellent points were made on this, especially by Jack and Ben. They were talking about how if something is addressed well, and clearly intended to be a joke then no, it shouldn't really have any offense taken from it. However, there is a fine line that can sometimes become blurred. Comedians have to be careful not to be misleading with their language, as Ben found out in the Becoming YouTube episode directed at the 'Women of YouTube.' If something is worded wrongly, you can have some pretty harsh labels thrown at you.
The panel ended with a focus on the community that is YouTube. Because it is a community and a conversation between creator and viewer, situations can be addressed directly. Therefore, when Ben accidentally offended many women with his episode, he got the brunt of the attacks back directly. That way he was able to address the issue immediately. Other media platforms don't have this. They lack the personality that YouTube has. 
After the panel, we headed back into the Mainstage area where we got the unexpected chance to meet Brad and Liam from World of the Orange and the lovely Jack Howard! This was great as their actual Meet and Greet's clashed with other things we wanted to do, so we had resigned ourselves to the idea of not being able to meet them!


FRIENDLY FLOWER!
As you can probably tell by the title of the post, I have decided to upload my SitC 'story', if you will, in more than one part so that I don't end up rambling on and on and on. 
If you've made it to the end of this one, thankyou! I hope you'll return tomorrow for Part Two!


Did you go to SitC this year? Have you ever been to an event like this? I'd love to hear from you if you have! 
I'd also be very grateful if you followed me on any of the links below. :)

A

Wednesday 14 August 2013

The calm before the storm...

Hello!
This weekend I am travelling down to London to attend Summer in the City (SitC)! For those of you who may not know what this is, SitC is a large YouTube gathering of creators and viewers alike. It's basically the British version of Vidcon; there are schedule talks, panels, meet and greets, music performances etc. This will be my first gathering of the sort, and I'm looking forward to meeting lots of like minded people and to get the chance to watch some of my favourite YouTubers talk about what they enjoy most! Although some people might not class me as a 'YouTuber' because I've never actually had the courage to upload content myself, I feel like the community has a huge part in my life.There is not a day that goes by where I don't check my subscription box, or like and comment on new videos. I may not have actually uploaded anything myself, but I'm a very active member of the site. I'm really excited to meet other people who love the it as much as I do. Who knows, maybe they'll inspire me to make my first vlog?! 
The gathering is taking place in Alexandra Palace on Saturday and Sunday, and my birthday just so happens to fall on the following Monday! Talk about a happy coincidence! So, my friend Cara and myself have decided to stay on in London til Tuesday. We've also booked tickets to see Les Mis on the Monday evening. I am at a loss to describe how excited I am for this!!! I adore musicals and live theatre anyway, plus Les Mis is one of my all time favourites. I'm so looking forward to weeping my way through it! It's going to be interesting to see Carrie Fletcher's performance of Eponine too; I've heard great things. 

Are you attending Summer In The City? Please comment or contact me through the links below if you are, I'd love to meet up!

A
xxxx

Sunday 11 August 2013

Dolphin Delight! | Holiday Update

Hello!
It's seems like forever since I last updated on here; this is for a number of reasons. The first being that I have recently been on holiday to Tenerife with my mum and sister, which you will find out more about below. The second is that I've been experiencing a bit of 'Blogger's block' if you will, and have found myself really struggling to find inspiration for posts. (I did actually write a post about this a few weeks ago but chose not to upload it as it was rambling and depressing, aha!) Anyhoo, my hope is that my inspiration shall return soon and that I will finally get round to creating some worthwhile content for people to read!
But for now, here's a little update on the first family holiday abroad I've been on in many years...


This year my mum, my sister and myself jetted off to the island of Tenerife for a week. I was rather apprehensive beforehand as I hate flying and hadn't stepped onto a plane in years. However, after being delayed for only an hour the flight went smoothly and we arrived safely. We stayed in an all inclusive hotel resort in Peurto de la Cruz, which is a lot quieter than the 'party' areas. Again, this is something we hadn't experienced in an even longer period of time. For many years, any holiday we have been on has been self-catered; I was so looking forward to being able to grab a drink or snack whenever I liked!

On our first day we explored the area around us. This was the view literally just round the corner from our hotel...





And this is who I found on our way back!

He was out enjoying the sun with some friends...


One day we went on a boat trip to attempt to view dolphins and small whales in the wild. It was incredible. The views of the surrounding scenery were breathtaking, and after a couple of hours we had travelled far enough out to find the dolphins. I mainly videoed this as their heads bobbed up so quick, my photos would have been poop. After years of seeing them on wildlife documentaries, I was amazed at getting the chance to witness them in real life. As the boat pulled away from its resting position, the playful mammals chased along behind, jumping up out of the water. If you go anywhere where a trip similar to this is being offered, I highly recommend taking it! Although the tickets were a bit towards the pricey side (55 euros per person) it was definitely worth it. 
These are some of the views we had, and the spot in which we had the chance to go for a swim alongside the fish!







(Catching up with some Sense and Sensibilty on the homeward journey!)

I also took a couple of balcony OOTD type photos. I kept forgetting to do this though! 



Taken on a daytrip up the volcano Teide. Wearing: much loved Converse, playsuit - Bank last year.


Wearing: blouse - Primark, skirt - Primark, sandals - Primark (God Bless student budgets, haha!)

Wearing: vest - Primark, skirt - Topshop, sandals - Primark

Finally, possibly my favourite part of the week; a gorgeous mojito and strawberry tart. They were delicious!



So, that was my holiday! Hopefully soon I will have some posts a bit more creative than this but I hope you enjoyed seeing these. Have you been on holiday this summer? I'd love to hear about it!

A
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xxxx