Favourite Holidays

Sept 18th: Tell a tale of traveling, a city or country you've been to or a favorite vacation.

This is going to be short because I'm having a pretty hectic/stressy time of it right now and my brain is frazzled, so, apologies in advance.

I have two favourite holidays. One was actually a college geology trip to Iceland in October 2012 and the other was a trip to Orkney (as part of a tour of Scotland) in summer 2013. 

Iceland was amazing because a) Vikings akfhslafha b) It's just magical there and c) THE NORTHERN LIGHTS 4 NIGHTS OUT OF FIVE :D ( one night viewed from a hot tub ;) ) 

Orkney was amazing because a) Vikings akfhalshlfashl b) Goregous accents c) Maes 

howe, Skara Brae, Ness of Brodgar, Ring of Brodgar, Stones of Stenness & Tomb of the Eagles 

So yeah, not a great post but all my brain can manage today. Has anyone else been to Orkney or Iceland? Or have any of you seen the Northern Lights?

My Kiddie Wedding and Kiddie Divorce

Sept 16th: "Most people don't know this but..."

So....I found this one pretty hard because I can't really think of anything of any significance/interest I haven't already shared with most people I know. Well, that is, of the things I am prepared to share.  I'm drawing a complete and utter blank here. So I asked my friends and one suggested I share a story from my childhood, so, here goes:

Most people don't know this but...when I was 11 years old (in Year 6) I had a "kiddie wedding" to my then "boyfriend". 
I would like to point out that this was not my idea, nor the idea of the boy in question. No, this was some kind of strange project orchestrated by my then circle of friends and one girl in particular who led the whole enterprise.

You see, I had made the mistake of being the first in our group to get a "boyfriend" and that only happened in the first place because of my friends practically forcing the poor lad to ask me out and then practically forcing me to say yes. But because I was the first, mine was the "relationship" which held the most novelty factor and novelty factor to my 11 year old friends meant: "They've been dating for a week. Get them to have an embarrassing kiddie wedding"...I may be paraphrasing there but you get the gist.

So, it was only a couple of days before the planned day of the wedding and my "boyfriend" and I had just been informed of it's impending arrival. I remember being told by friend to everyone to bring in lots of jewelry like badges and rings for me to wear and that her and my "boyfriend" were going to sort out the "wedding ring". 

Then the day rolled round.

Lunch time. My friends help me pin a number of random pins, badges and brooches onto my school jumper, I go out of the Year 6 corridor door into a space of empty playground hidden from view of most of the school. The "boyfriend" stands there, looking as geeky and as nervous as he usually looks, but, pleasingly, looking happy at my arrival. My friend stands in front of him, ready to perform the ceremony. My bridesmaids and I walk over (they're also suitably adorned). When I reach the "boyfriend" the friend acting as registrar speaks. Says some words I don't recall. Then my "boyfriend" produces a ring. He puts on my finger. There's debate over which is the correct ring finger to wear it on. The "registrar" declares us "Kiddie Married" and so we are.

Jump forward a month of so.

Year 6 residential trip. By this point I have decided I no longer wish to go out with the then "boyfriend" and that I actually fancy another boy in my year. This leads to me being far too wimpy to break up with the "boyfriend" and instead making the awful mistake of allowing two of my friends (involved in the original plot to get us together in the first place and then in out kiddie wedding) to break up with him for me - Oh the shame, 11 year old me - and they declare than we have now had a "kiddie divorce".

So...that is the story of how I had a "kiddie marriage" with my first "boyfriend" which lasted all of a month. I did later ask the boy I fancied at the residential out and we "dated" for a few months before he began to annoy me and I ignored him until he got the hint......Don't judge year 7 Rachel....I judge her enough for the both of us....And even if you do judge me, don't judge me too harshly as the ex-"boyfriend" number two turned out to be a bit of a hardcore right-winger in the forthcoming years, with some pretty unsavoury views...."boyfriend" number one was a lovely boy who I actually realised I still fancied even when I was with "boyfriend" number two...but he moved to France half way through Year 7 so....love dilemma solved....

[ Also, Most people don't know this but Sarah is freaking awesome ;) ]

This is my fictional world

Sept 15th: Make a mood board. Are you brainstorming a room re-do, or are you dreaming of glamping with gal-pals? Share a collage of any kind! (Examples here and here).

 So here a couple of collage things inspired by a story I'm currently writing. It's basically about a world that's been massively changed by some kind of environmental change that they call 'the disaster'. In the North (where the story begins about 14 years after the disaster) this has led to a lowering of sea levels and a colder, darker, wetter climate. The first collage (below) is for my main character, Pip. He's about fourteen years old, a shepherd boy and lives with his adopted family in a village on a small island close to the mainland. The fire is because his adopted family are blacksmiths and he often sleeps in the smithy. The stew and the cat are connected to another main character that Pip meets early in the story.

The second collage (below) is for the island in general. It's small, shaped like a fish and lies in a bay close to the northern coast but is only accessible by a wooden bridge/walkway with rope sides (like the pier in the collage). It's fringed by mudflats, meadows, marshes and sea. The mud and the rain signify how waterlogged the ground is by the near constant rain (caused by the disaster). The fog and the stormy sea show the Autumnal weather at the start of the story. The forge and the hall are examples of the kind of buildings I imagine to make up the village. The iris is for one of the main characters who is called Iris because of the colour of her eyes and the rabbit is because one of the only luxuries since the disaster is rabbit stew.

[I got all the images from Google image searches and I made the collages on www.befunky.com ]

Blog-tember: Late to the party

Seeing as I am late to this party, I'm going to do days 1 to 13 a bit more rapid-fire than was likely the intention but hey ho. 

Sept 1st: Imagine the front sleeve of a hard cover novel. Give us your "About the Author" so we can get to know one another, and for fun tell us what your imaginary novel would be about.

"Born in Portsmouth in the mid-90s, Rachel was a bit of a suck-up for most of her school career - well she had to do something to compensate for the distinct lack of pets in her childhood. For GCSE she took a second humanities subject instead of an arts subject as she is no way visually creative, good acting, especially musical (though she did play violin for 6 years as child) nor sufficiently geeky to take a computer course. For A level, she made the mistake of taking both maths and physics in her first year which went...well it went, anyway. Outside of education, Rachel likes to read - well duh, she's author (apparently) - pine for a pet kitten, fangirl over characters from 'Bloodline' & the 'Vikings' and basically have no life."

I'm currently part to mid-way through writing maaaaaaaaaaany stories. One is about a girl at court in the C16, one is about vikings in Ireland in the C10, one is set in a fictional dystopian world in the future-past, one is set in Orkney partly in the Neolithic, partly in the C12 and one is about a band and is set in the present day. OH and one is one I started writing when I was 13 and is well...bad...

Sept 2nd: Write about what makes you happy, from the little joys to the huge game-changers.

Lot's of things make me happy. They everyday little things that make me happy are all those 'uplifting' stories you see sometimes in the news. Things like, "10 year old boy with Autism tells his mother he loves her for the first time" or "75 year old lady marries her partner of 30 years after the legalisation of same-sex marriage" or "Family reunited with pet after house fire". Any positive story about ordinary life makes me happy, at least temporarily.
On a more personal level, my friends being happy (especially if they're clearly very happy or excited) makes me happy. Learning makes me happy. Reading makes me happy. Listening to podcasts and singing badly to music makes me happy. Baking makes me happy. Nice food makes me happy. Scandinavians make me happy. Anglo-Saxons make me happy. Bloodline makes me happy. I could go on listing for a while, so I'll stop...

Sept 3rd: "When I grow up I want to be...." Feel free to answer as your 5-year-old self or as of now.

When I was 5 I wanted to be a steam train driver. I still kind of do, in my heart of hearts. The dream ended when I realised that to sell the Steam Engine Driver look, you had to wear dirty overalls and probably a flat cap. 

When I was a bit older I wanted to be a receptionist in a vets (I dunno either). Then, briefly and in quick succession, a teacher, an author and a actor in musicals.

When I thought about it seriously, aged around 11, I decided I wanted to be an archaeologist and this carried on until about 18 months ago (save for a short time when I wanted to be an astrophysicist hahahahaha) 

Now? Well, the dream is to be a documentary maker/presenter for the TV and radio. If that doesn't pan out (or even if it does) I'd like to work for a museum (curation/research/education) or for a university (teaching/research).

I also want to be a Dr...not a medical doctor....but I want a PhD...I don't know if it will happen...but I'm aiming for it.

Sept 4th: Pick a fashion trend you love and a fashion trend you hate. Win us over!

I'm not really into fashion but there are definitely fashions I dislike. One being wearing leggings (which are quite often cheap and pretty much see-through) with nothing covering the bum area. It's the same as wearing thick tights and a t-shirt but one is more acceptable than the other even though both are stupid. Also, finding a well fitting pair of jeans is a nightmare. As is trying to find "fashionable" shoes that aren't dead flat or heels.
Fashion trend I like? I don't know that it's a trend exactly but I really love waistcoats.
  
Sept 5th: "I am passionate about ______________. "

Oh well I guess I'm passionate about quite a few things. I can certainly enter into heated debates about any number of different topics. I suppose the thing I'm most passionate about is a sense of fairness. Unfairness and hypocrisy are the two things that make me the most passionately angry.

From the interests perspective, I can't really think of too many things I'm passionate about. I get far more passionate about ideas and principals and actions than about the things that really interest me.

Though, having said that, I do really passionately fangirl over anything to do with Vikings, Celts or Anglo-Saxons or Scandinavian because alsfhakfhalksfhalskhfa 

Sept 6th: A "currently..." post. Tell us what you're loving, hating, reading, eating, etc. If you want to borrow a list, mine is here.

...reading Oh I'm half way through dozens of things but I guess the real answer would be 'The Last Viking 1066' by Berwick Coates

...watching Vikings series one and two again, Great British Bake off, Doctor Who, Strictly.

...trying to make a dress for Comic Con in October with mixed results 

...eating the yummy yummy junk I usually eat

...tweeting the usual inanity.

...going to university in London very soon

...loving my friends and family 

...discovering I'm really going to need to work hard at uni if I'm going to manage my time/budget/diet properly 

...enjoying the books I'm reading at the moment and volunteering

...thinking about all the amazing experiences I'm going to have throughout my four years at university

...feeling excited, stressed, excited, under-prepared, excited, tired, excited, happy, excited a bit more, scared, back to excited

...hoping I'll get along with my flatmates and course mates and for a good year for all of my current friends.

...listening to Fall Out Boy, ABBA, Adam & Joe podcasts, Just William stories, S Club 7...Most of the contents of my iPod

...thanking anyone who bothers reading this

...starting to freak out about just how close I am to moving away from home 

Sept 7th: What's on your current reading list? Or what have you read that you recommend?

I actually wrote something a couple of days ago about my favourite books:
http://buildingabookfort.blogspot.co.uk/2014/09/my-favourite-books.html

Sept 8th: Music that moves you. Are you a Spotify addict or a Pandora guru? Tell us your favorite artists/stations!

Well....if I'm taking 'moves' to mean an emotional thing then most, if not all, of the Les Mis soundtrack has me sobbing every time and, as with most people I'd imagine, a song that resonates with my current situation is more likely to make me emotional. Songs that always make me happy include Imagine Dragons 'On Top of the World', ELO 'Mr Blue Sky', The Killers 'Mr Brightside', Mika 'Elle Me Dit', anything by S Club 7 or ABBA or from an upbeat musical and basically anything I can sing along to loudly and out of tune.

In a slightly different sense, something else in me is moved by anything vaguely celtic or dark sounding and anything in a language other than English. 

I don't really have a favourite band or artist and I tend to listen to spoken radio (Radio 4) more than music centred radio but, generally, I like rock, country, folk and some pop.  

Sept 9th: Let's talk personality types. Introverted? Extroverted? Unsure-troverted? ;) If you know your Myers-Briggs type, tell us about it! If not, you can take this similar test and share your results.

I'd say I was definitely an extrovert. I really hate being on my own for long periods of time and get really hyper when my family come back from work after I've been home alone all day. Even when I can't really be bothered to go to volunteering or get up early to go see some friends, once I'm there, I crave and enjoy the company. That's not to say I don't get sick of being with people, because I really do. It's a bit of a bummer really that I hate being on my own but I get pretty easily irritated by annoying habits. I certainly don't suffer fools gladly (as my mum would say)...Generally, though, I'd MUCH rather be in company (not too big a group though) than on my own.

Sept 10th: List 10 things that you love about yourself! Let's kick that negative self-talk outta here!

1 - I like that I want to learn new things even though I'm out of compulsory education.
2 - I think I'm a pretty good friend(?) I dunno...
3 - I like that I care about things that I think matter...even if I can't do anything about it
4 - I like that I've got waaaaaaaaaay more confident around new people since I started volunteering
5 - I like that I had the guts (stupidity) to decide to study a subject I really want to do even if it doesn't get me directly into a job
6 - Linked to above, but I like that I'm brave enough to pick a course which involves studying in Danish in Denmark for a year which is something I really want to do but am realllly scared about

7 - I like that I have amazing brave, thoughtful and clever friends who have been through so much crap but are still here

8 - Superficial, but I like my eyes and my nose

9 - I like that I bake pretty alright cakes, as it goes

10 - I like that I like myself enough to have good self-esteem but not so much that I don't know my own flaws (of which there are many)

(I found that list sooooooo hard to do :/)

Sept 11th: How do you stay inspired? Who inspires you the most?

Well...my friends inspire me a lot. Lots of them have had or are having rough times but they're getting on with it, however bad things are or however bad they feel. On the one hand this makes me feel guilty about my laziness and lack of motivation for many things, but on the other it shows me that if my friends can get up everyday and do something, so can I.

In terms of inspiration for my future career and my passion for public archaeology/heritage/history, I'd say my inspirations are: Mick Aston, Mary Beard, Alice Roberts, Michael Wood, my A level Archaeology teacher, my GCSE History teacher, everyone at the museums I've volunteered at this past year and probably so many more I can't think of right now. 

Sept 12th: Tell us about a favorite tradition. It could be a family tradition or from a holiday, university, you-name-it. What makes it so special?

I can't really think of any specific traditions apart from at Christmas. When we were young, my parents would try to minimise mine and my brother's hyper-active excitement on Christmas Eve by having my brother and I exchange presents before going to bed on the 24th. We still do this to this day even though by this Christmas I'll be 19 and he'll be 26.

Sept 13th: Your current relationship status. If dating/married, give us a glimpse of your story! If single, share about this special season.

I'm single at present and it's okay. There are many upsides to being single and some downsides. I'm not looking for anything but if it happens, it happens. 

Sept 14th: When did you start blogging and why?

I started a few months ago.....I don't really have a good reason why other than because I felt like it at the time....I suppose I kind of thought it would be a good hobby, something to do to get my random musing about things down somewhere and as a way to archive uni when I get there... but mostly it was just....'cause...Not a very good response but that's because I really don't have "a reason" for starting...

A Week Today

I’m starting university a week today. Well, that might not be strictly true. I can say that I’m moving into my university accommodation and that this signals the start of Freshers Week but the nitty gritty of university? That probably won’t be starting for a couple of weeks.

Still, moving out of the parental home and being in charge of my own shopping, cooking, clothes washing, budget and overdraft is a big enough step for the time being. The independent studying and freaking out about not being able to get good enough at Danish is two years to be able to study in Danish in Denmark in year three (Okay. Breathe), can come later. Well, a week later.

Weird thing is, the first step doesn’t really scare me that much. Maybe it will the day before or when I get there or maybe never. I feel like I’ve been preparing for independent living for this past year and, whilst not always entirely successful (okay mostly not), it’s made the whole ‘moving out of home’ thing far less scary. That and the fact I’m only moving two hours away by train. Having visited London for day trips twice in the past month, the proximity and the relative familiarity has taken the edge off the nerves.

What I am getting stressed out about is being under-prepared. I don’t even really know what I mean when I say that. Maybe it’s that I haven’t really done much packing or that I haven’t finished reading two library books due back on Friday or that I haven’t finished my dress for Comic Con (I need to do it before I go because I’m not going to have a sewing machine/time at uni). Maybe it’s just displacement because I really am worried about moving but I’m distracting myself with all these perceived preliminary tasks.

I am so so so SO excited about going to uni and beginning my course. I am so excited about being in the middle of London with everything on my doorstep. I am so excited about meeting people from all over the world and from diverse cultures. I am so excited about sharing a room with one of my best friends. I am so excited about going to seminars. I am even so excited about writing my first essay.

So, with just a week to go before I’m off, I best stop writing this and carry on with all the things I have to do.

It's been a while...

Okay, so I was going to do a lot more posts from my Northern Ireland trip and all the things that have been happening to me since, but well....I kinda...didn't.

Partly this was because I was just busy having a nice time. Partly this was because the camera I was using to document things started playing up and it's far more effort to transfer stuff from my phone to my laptop (it's actually easier but I didn't realise that at the time). Partly this is because we had car problems on the way back and it disrupted the next week and a half after we got home.

Anyways, the point of this is to say that I am, once again, going to be making a conclusion effort with this blog.

At least for a few weeks.

Oh and I will finally be putting some stuff up on my Mostly Books blog as I have a few things lined up, including an awesome trip to see The Crucible at the Old Vic!