Australia - The Rest Of.

So I was a pretty shoddy excuse of a blogger while I was out in Australia. I thought I'd have more interesting things to blog about on the regular but alas that was not the case.

My time out there consisted mainly of working in a coffee shop, staying inside to avoid the overbearing heat and steering clear of the multitude of spiders I happened to come across - not surprising really.

My life was not all spider avoiding and coffee making though. My life was also very much bridge climbing and One Direction concert going, oh and getting into university-ing.

I thought I'd write this post (a month and a half after I arrived back in Blighty - sorry!) to skim over some of the exciting things. And maybe a few of the mundane too.

The 2014 half of my trip was mostly me settling in, me learning to make coffee and me in awe of the Aussie accent and too hot to handle weather. A few trips to the coast happened, allowing me to see outside the black hole of Australia -as the security man at the airport called it- aka Canberra.

We took a week's trip to the coast for Christmas too. It was a little odd standing on a beach on Christmas day, but the pouring rain we had for majority of the time made me feel right at home.
Despite missing home a lot and the rain that dashed any dreams of a sunny Christmas, it was a lovely first Christmas away from home and Christmas Eve marked the end of my first three months down under.

Amidst everything else, I decided that I wanted to apply for university and took on the mammoth task of deciding what course and where with only the information on the websites. Nonetheless, I wrote a personal statement with such ease I surprised myself, and by the end of January I had two unconditional offers. It was the perfect boost I needed to know what I was going home to.

Oh, and I won One Direction tickets in January. wHAT. I already had a trip to Sydney planned with my auntie and her friend, but a week after that I went back with a girl I'd become good friends with at work. To add the the brilliantness of the situation, the stadium had mucked up our tickets resulting in upgraded floor seats metres from the stage. It was pretty great.

At this point it was early February and I had about a month and a half until I flew home. There was one thing I wanted to do before then, and I was adamant to do it whether I went alone or not. So on the 11th March, 9 days before my flight home, I got the coach to Sydney on my own. This was miles out of my comfort zone considering I hadn't even been to London on my own and I know London. So I navigated my way across the city to Circular Quay and then did something else I never thought I'd do. I climbed Sydney Harbour Bridge. Doing all that on my own, and getting back to Canberra alive, was probably one of my proudest moments. I got lost, I walked up and down the same road three times, I had to ask a policeman for directions and got off at the wrong train station without realising until I was ten minutes down the road, but looking back that was what made it a fun day exploring.

2015 has been brilliant so far and starting it in Australia was pretty incredible. I'm super excited to see what the rest of the year brings. I'll leave you with this photo of me and Sydney Opera House.

Australia #1

Fortnightly (if I remember and have a decent amount of photos) posts from Australia, this first one consists of photos from two separate trips to the coast - plus the view of Canberra from Mount Ainslie.

Pebbly Beach, NSW

Pebbly Beach, NSW

Pebbly Beach, NSW

Lake Tabourie Beach, NSW

Lake Tabourie Beach, NSW

Lake Tabourie Beach, NSW

Summer in the City 2014

This is gonna get very rambly and very long, just so you know before you read any further. So much happened this year and I want to try and fit it all into one blog post so I'll try and condense it as much as I can but can't guarantee it.

So, my second year attending and volunteering at the event and it beat last year by a mile!

Friday was Creator Day which we attended and learnt some stuff. The highlight of that day for me was definitely the 'Working With Brands' panel which included PJ, Tyler Oakley, Jamie from Sorted. Food and other people who worked for brands or agencies. It was both entertaining (how could it not be with Tyler on the panel) and informative.
We also managed to chat with Hazel Hayes on that day as well as a few other creators. It was basically the expo hall plus panels throughout the day so we spent majority of our time trying out Google Glass (weird at first but when you get used to focusing on the little screen, it is so so cool!) and playing Playstation and XBox games.

Saturday was our first day of volunteering and as much as there was a schedule I don't think anyone really stuck to it. I queued for the Dan & Phil meet and greet but then ended up helping out taking photos for people anyway. It got to the point where Dan would look to me even when I wasn't taking the photo, that's how many I took. They were super nice and it was fab to interact with them as much as I did. Cue photos from that.

Clear Space, Clear Mind.

As someone who struggles to be productive unless sat at a desk, I realised that wanting to actually do productive things means I needed a desk.
So I bought one, I while ago actually and learnt that yes desks are great and I was writing a lot and getting creative but over time a problem became clear. A desk very easily becomes a dumping ground and I found myself guilty of throwing things on it until I could no longer find space for my laptop.

Gig Review: Fall Out Boy at Wembley Arena, London.

Fall Out Boy graced Wembley Arena's stage again after headlining last years Radio 1's Teen Awards and they did not disappoint.

The party was started by Danish band New Politics, whose album had just dropped here in the UK. They blew up the stage, completely succeeding in getting the arena full of people ready for the rest of the show. Their latest single, 'Harlem', was the song that got the crowd singing along the loudest and set the energy bar high.

Also supporting was hard rock band, The Pretty Reckless, fronted by former Gossip Girl actress Taylor Momsen. They were a little too full on for my liking bar a few songs that I knew, but the arena was full of fans that joined in with their songs and enjoyed their performance. They too performed their new single 'Heaven Knows', which had a very 'We Will Rock You' vibe, one of the songs that I loved, especially performed live.

After a short wait the lights dimmed and the arena erupted with screams, only for the lights to come up again, thank you tech guys. But then five minutes later, it happened for real. To no ones disappointment, Fall Out Boy had decided to kick the show off with the one song that was guaranteed to get everyone pumped for the rest of their set - "The Phoenix" As soon as the famous "PUT ON YOUR WARPAINT" introduction echoed out around the arena we all lost it and the four piece appeared donning black masks, referencing a line in the song.  Everyone immediately rose from their seats and started singing along, a lot of the time the crowd was louder than Patrick.