Summer Round Up!

Hey!

So it seems I have been pretty poop when it comes to blogging this week! However, seeing as it is now September - where the hell has this year gone?! - I thought it would be a good idea to do a 'round up' type post of the things I've been up to this Summer.

2013 has been a hectic year for me; normally my summer's pass by in a dreamy haze of reading, eating and strolling around with friends. This year has seen me do so much more than that and I have loved it! 

My first year at university kept me brilliantly busy so when May came round and my exams were over, I was very happy to spend some down time relaxing at home in the garden. This didn't last long before I found myself spending many a golden night in a pub garden surrounded by my friends. A few of them have now got cars meaning that we're able to take a short trip out of the city to cute village pubs. When we weren't sipping drinks in the sun, we have been chilling round each other's houses chatting and playing games. Although evenings like this aren't necessarily the most adventurous or outgoing, I adore every minute. I'm a firm believer of it not mattering where you are or what you're doing as long as you're surrounded by good people! I've been very fortunate to get the chance to do this a lot this year.

Cake and drinks in the sunshine! (Posted from Instagram)

July found me travelling up to Nottingham for my close friend's (and soon to be housemate!) birthday! This was so much fun. The pre-drinks were themed as Alice in Wonderland and we spent the whole day catching up, baking and decorating ready for the evening. I wrote a post dedicated to the weekend which you can check out HERE. 

August has been my favourite month by a mile. Not only was it my birthday, (I mean, who doesn't love birthdays?) but I got to spend my birthday in London watching my favourite musical on the West End for the first time. Talk about perfection. Les Mis was absolutely brilliantly fanstastically amazingly mind-blowlingly spectacular. As you can probably tell by the vast amount of adverbs, I LOVED it. I still can't describe properly just how it made me feel; I always end up in a rambling mess of feelings like I am now, haha!

But that wasn't all... I also went to Summer in the City too! The gathering was so great, I had the opportunity of meeting some of the people who inspire me most in the world, as well as listening to some awesome music and great comedy surrounded by like minded people. If you'd like to read more about losing my SitC virginity, I complied 3 posts which you can read here, here and here.

I had such an awesome August, 2014 has a lot to live up to.

SitC 2013

This Summer has been one of the best of my life, and I hope Autumn continues the same way. I'm looking forward to watching the trees turn golden and being able to wear my favourite comfy baggy jumpers! 

This September I'm taking a huge step and moving out of my childhood home into a house near uni with two other students. I will also be fully starting my role as President of a society too so I'm feeling pretty nervous about it all! Hopefully by the time Winter comes around, I'll still be feeling as happy as I do now! 

Thanks for reading! What have your summer's been like? Do you have anything coming up in Autumn that you're looking forward too?

A

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xxxx

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

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xxxx

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

Hank and John - http://www.youtube.com/user/vlogbrothers

Ben Brown - http://www.youtube.com/user/benbrown100

Steve - http://www.youtube.com/user/stevebooker

Louis - http://www.youtube.com/user/FunForLouis 

Jack and Finn - http://www.youtube.com/user/JacksGap
Rosianna - http://www.youtube.com/user/missxrojas

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

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xxxx

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

Hank and John - http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCGaVdbSav8xWuFWTadK6loA

Ben Brown - http://www.youtube.com/user/benbrown100

Steve - http://www.youtube.com/user/stevebooker

Louis - http://www.youtube.com/user/FunForLouis

Jack and Finn - http://www.youtube.com/user/JacksGap

PJ - http://www.youtube.com/user/KickThePj

Ben Cook - http://www.youtube.com/user/ninebrassmonkeys

Luke - http://www.youtube.com/user/LukeIsNotSexy

Tom - http://www.youtube.com/user/TomSka 

Dan - http://www.youtube.com/user/danisnotonfire

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