Olympic Torch and Eddie Izzard

Tuesday 17th July 2012 was a day I shall remember for a long long time.

It was the day that the Olympic torch came through my sleepy little town on its way to London for the 2012 Olympic Games!! And it truly was an incredible event for the whole town - it seemed like everyone was down on the seafront and spread along the route to see each bearer run their 300 metres with the torch.
I was standing outside the De La Warr Pavilion and that  was where local and international celebrity Eddie Izzard was running yaaay! I love him, especially his stand-up comedy from years ago. So my mum and I stood on the roadside for an hour and a half before he was due and waited. In the meantime we were entertained by two crazy men on bouncy stilts, a little like the feet that Paralympians use.

Then at about five o'clock the parade started and it was brilliant, every time someone went past even if it was a Policeman they got cheered everyone was just so excited

And then.
The big moment when the man himself ran by. You could only see part of him as he was surrounded by Gamesmakers making sure he didn't fall over or get attacked and it was over so quickly but I felt oddly humbled by the event and I'm not sure why. I guess it was then that I knew I was proud to be a citizen of this country and to experience this once-in-a-lifetime event.
Yes I know that things haven't gone to plan like the budgeting and the G4S mishap but things in life aren't perfect. This is a HUGE event so things are bound to go wrong and I think those people that dislike the Games for those few things that have gone wrong are just grumpy misers

But I think the best thing of all comes next.


Now I had been on the roof all day writing an article for Bexhill FM: a student run radio station that broadcasts for one week every year, and that day they were broadcasting live from the roof coinciding with the torch run. So we had heard rumours that Eddie Izzard would be returning to the roof of the De La Warr for pictures in front of Richard Wilson's "Hey lads I've got a great idea..." coach and for interviews with press - BBC, ITV etc..
And so when they had finished, I got out my phone, pushed my way to the front and interviewed Eddie myself. And it was amazing, my first interview with a famous person and I didn't even have to try very hard. Well I had to stop other people pushing me out of the way but I just jumped in there, asked my three questions and that Friday it was in the newspaper along with my article on Bexhill FM


So yes, a day that started out as me writing a small article for a local radio station turned into one of the best days of my life

Eddie with the Torch

College is over!

It's finally the end of my college days! Ah so many memories, sadly not all of them good.
I had my last exam today, A2 English Lit which was utter pig crap, the most horrible exam I have ever had the displeasure of taking. I honestly believe that I will be damn lucky to come away with a C overall for this subject. Media? That was a piece of cake, whipping down 20 pages of glorious fact, I even asked for extra paper (which I was the only person to do so). See that's what I can do. Plain solid fact, and that's why I'm taking Journalism at Uni and not English because I don't do well with the analysing of fictitious pieces. Fact all the way please!
But yes, college has been an amazing part of my life, and possibly the best time in the whole of my 14 years in education. Not once in these two years have I been bullied or teased, not once have I lost my friends to evil people, not once have I had to do a subject I really hate. Life has been pretty sweet. I've had two boyfriends (admittedly the first was a jerk I should never have let it go on so long) and my current is the most amazing, wonderful guy ever and I hope our time together is long-lasting and true. We're planning on going to the same University (out of chance) so long may it continue!!

I know that I've learned lots about the subjects I took; how to analyse a text, media theorists, what makes a good advertising campaign, but what I've learned the most is how to be a good person. I know it's rather cliché but my tutors really have taught me a lot about life, out there in the real world where not everything is given to you on a plate and you have to really work towards your dreams because one day you will achieve your goals.
I recently went to a Chinese restaurant for my brother's birthday and in my fortune cookie, it said: "All of your hard work will soon be paid off"

I know that that day will be a good day, but it means that I will have achieved everything I set out to do. But now I know in my heart that I will never achieve everything, there will always be something more, a new goal to strive towards, whether it be getting a 1:1 at University, seeing my child's first day of school, promotion or settling down into retirement and seeing my grandchildren grow up

As they say, a woman's work is never done

Now I just have to wait til the 16th August to find out if all my hard work HAS paid off

Rejected...by McDonald's?!?

So I applied for a job at my local McDonald's cos I'm getting pretty desperate for a job now, and umm yeah I got rejected. By MaccyD's. Feeling pretty low right now
And it wasn't even a proper interview, it was a group interview with about twenty others, during which we had to question another person, ask them five more questions of our own and then 'report our findings to the group', it was ridiculous! However during the questioning section, they didn't tell us that we'd then have to report back. If I had known I would have sold myself a lot more and asked more relevant question than 'Do you have pets?'
So disappointed. And frustrated. I've had so many interviews and they've rejected me on the basis of I don't have any customer or retail experience. But how am I supposed to get retail experience if no one will employ me for not having any retail experience!!

I guess I'll try the supermarkets next...

I don't even eat McDonald's

Beautiful Blogger

I just got nominated for a Beautiful Blog :)
I've never really considered my blog to be beautiful, pretty or even successful. It's just my musings on stuff really and that's all I ever wanted it to be. People complain about their ratings or boast about how they got 10,000 hits last week. I honestly don't care about page views as long as someone reads it at least

So, my seven things you don't know about me:

1. My parents divorced when I was seven and now I live with my mum while my dad lives at the other end of the country. My brother still loves him but to me, he is my biological father but he is not my dad. I have little emotional attachment to him. Bit of a sad note to start with but it's what came to me first
2. I love to cook, especially Italian food
3. I can't write fiction for love of trying so I stick to fact, hence the Journo degree
4. I probably don't do so well in exams because I don't study enough, but that's usually because I'm afraid of it. The amount of work that we have to go through is so daunting I will do nearly anything to avoid it. Apart from clean the bathroom, then I'll study the entire day.
5. When I have children, I want boys not girls
6. I wear glasses for reading
7. And finally, I spent two years learning Chinese as a GCSE but all I can remember apart from basic greetings is 'I love noodles' (wo xiao miantao for those who are interested)

As for my blogs, I actually don't read that many mostly because I dont seem to have time or merely forget

First is the lovely lady who nominated me  http://curiositything.blogspot.co.uk/ she write such funny stuff, often about ho her bf annoys her and how much she loves soap (which I didn't know before I read it)

Secondly my lovely friend http://lightsoutwordsflow.blogspot.co.uk/ who does not need his ego making any bigger my me doing this but hey ho he's enjoyable to read

And last but not at all least is http://tobeconfirmedtbc.blogspot.co.uk/ who is literally obsessed with films and her blog is about - you guessed it, films :P 

This is what to do now:

Put down seven facts about yourself,

Link to the blog of the person who nominated you

Link to bloggers who you think deserves the award,

Let these bloggers know

Simples *squeak* xD

Just me...STRESSING

I've realised that I haven't written anything in a LOOONG time and that would be due to the mass of exam STRESS that has been piled upon anyone of school/college/university age including myself.
I know I only have three exams unlike other people I know who have like eight. However all those science and maths exams seem more like memory tests with short questions to answer. It's not like English or Media where you have two and a half hours to basically write two essays worth 40 marks each. They don't have all those case studies to learn about: plays, poetry, novels, films, magazines, advertising; it seems endless!
Sometimes I feel that subjects such as English are so much harder than other subjects but they get so much stick as the soft girly subjects - you have to be smart to do this! And sometimes I worry that I'm not smart enough to do this. Earlier this week I took my AS English for the third time...and even then I have a feeling I got totally the wrong end of the stick on one of the questions (or maybe it's because I'm not the biggest fan of poetry and didn't study as hard).
Either way it's a pain the but that we won't find out how well we did until we get our final grades and by then it's all over. It's too late to do anything about it.
At least I only have two subjects to worry about as Graphics was completed back at the end of March and I think that went quite well considering I did twice as much work as we were meant to. My tutor said '8 boards' as in 8 sides to the project. However I thought he meant '8 boards' as 16 sides. I managed to cut it down to 14 sides by the end of the project and I was very happy with my final images - even if my models do look rather effeminate
I shall return when my exams are over and I am free to write - that is if my brain hasn't been turned to total mush in the meantime...

Sitting On the Fence

This is a post about religion, I mean no offence if caused

Sometimes people criticise me because I say that I am Agnostic rather than having a religion, or just being Atheist. But to be honest, I think being an Atheist is worse than having the most extreme beliefs. Having absolutely nothing to believe in, and thinking that when you die that that's it...you just die. It seems pretty empty to me.
At least I believe there is something out there. Something watching over us and that something happens to us when we die; I just don't have a name for it. I don't for one second believe in Jesus, or that he performed miracles and the like.I don't believe it's a figure or being, just some kind of "thing" that is there.
For all I know, we don't meet whatever IT is until we die and then it welcomes us into wherever we go whether it be a reincarnation depending on how you lived your life; a kind of heaven and hell; or a place similar to Earth where we live our lives backward, growing younger and are reborn as new babies. 

For all I know, it could be a giant goldfish bowl somewhere in the depths of space and our souls float around in that for eternity...

I don't think that there is a 'God' or 'omniscient, ever-present being' because then why would bad things happen to good people? Seems pretty obvious that if there was a God, bad things would happen to those that had done bad things.

This is probably all very hypocritical of me because I also believe in science - Evolution, Natural Selection and The Big Bang. The world and universe began through science, but there's nothing to say it has to end through science. Yes science is used to prove that your life has indeed ended, but there's no way of knowing what happens afterwards.

This is - for me - where belief comes in. I know there is something after this life, I just don't know what it is and have no wish to put a name to it.

I just know that we still have to make the most of this life we have.

On the fence of religion

Let the 74th Hunger Games Begin!

SPOILER ALERT!

I know this is probably everywhere at the minute but I have to say this is the best book-to-film adaptation I've ever seen. Harry Potter was amazing yes, but it wasn't as true to the book as The Hunger Games is. It's phenomenal how well the writers have done - but then they did have the author on their team.

They only changed one thing, and to be honest it was an improvement - and it's not often I say that about this sort of thing - and that was to show behind the scenes of The Games, how the Gamemakers work, the strategic ways they go about making the Games interesting for the watching public. Because that's what it is after all, an entertainment show.
I didn't know much about the cast apart from Jennifer Lawrence who plays Katniss Everdeen and Josh Hutcherson who plays Peeta Mellark, but I think they were perfect for the roles. I was so glad they used a 'plainer' girl for the role of Katniss, I didn't want her to be some perfect girl. She was tough because she had to be and she'd had a hard life. Hutcherson was exactly as I imagined Peeta to be.  As for Rue, I have noticed that some fans are objecting to her because of her colour, but the book does state that she was dark. I think that Amandla Stenberg was ideal for the role, she had a power and confidence about her that hid her true innocence, because she is after all, just a child in the Games.
As for the costumes, they were just amazing, especially the 'girl on fire' dress for Katniss' Interview. I had imagined the Chariot costumes slightly different but what they did was still incredible. As for the people of the Capitol, they were even wackier than I had envisioned with their painted faces, especially Effie Trinket; she had a different colour palette every time she was on screen.
I'm normally always dubious about book-to-film adaptations as this was already a fabulous book, written by Suzanne Collins, but I must say my expectations have not only been met, but surpassed.