I have spent most of my day cutting out shit and sticking it onto my diary, as well as hole punching and threading string through the back cover. Whilst I have been doing this my whole family have been panic packing for the various different places their going next week. I am all packed and sitting in my room like a satisfied child. However, my paps has just come home so I'm literally waiting for him to stomp upstairs shout at me for being so pleased with myself and "take the bloody dogs for a walk". Oh well, the joys of being back home.

On the plus side, paid for Uganda now just searching around for flights. Think me + Rosie are going to stay for a week or so at the end and maybe fly to Kenya for a bit off chill time and exploring.

au revoir x

I haven't written my blog for quite a while! There's just been so much going on with the end of term and the last two essays to be handed in.

First things first. Florence. What can I say? The woman is a Goddess. She was incredible, not only with her live performance but with her interaction with the crowd. I'm soso happy that my sister was there as well, we where both literally pogoeing up and down the whole time, just bouncing. Imagine two incredibly tall girls, one with long ginger hair and the other with long blonde hair bouncing for a solid two hours. It was so much fun though! Got some really good quality videos and we where really close to the front, thanks to the gigging skills of my flatmate Megan. For 'Raise it up' she ordered everyone to put 'the special lady with them' on to their shoulders. Me and Ray couldn't quite manage shoulders, but we piggy backed my thoughout the whole entire song whilst still bouncing! I felt about 10 ft. tall (which I probably was!) and it was such an adrenalin rush ahaha. Best moment ever.



waiting for flo! megs, ray and me.



amazing art nouveau backdrop and flo herself!

Also, I've been accepted to work in Uganda! Reallllyy really pleased, booking it this weekend. Going to France on sunday for 11 days with my ma and pa, having my 19th birthday there! Planning on going to the beach and running into the sea, no matter how cold it is! Weather is absolutely beaut at the moment though so hopefully it will be there too. Unfortunately due to my gingerness whilst my entire family can bronze themselves as much as they like I'm the freckled vampire hiding under and umbrella MJ style. No one likes to look like a lobster for the majority of summer.

anyways, gotta pack and doing some cheeky downloading of my sisters cd's!

enjoy the sun x





"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines, sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover."

Mark Twain

 

So Indonesia's off, but it looks like Uganda's on! The friends who I was meant to be travelling with have decided not to do Indonesia, which is completely fine because I thought I wanted to do a volunteer placement anyway. Sometimes things happen for a reason! When I was in India in the summer the project work we did was by far the best part- Bisham and Numraj where the babies (2+7) of the Nepalese women who worked there are all over my walls. Playing with them and talking to them was the most memorable and rewarding part of my trip. I think that if I'm going to travel, which I certainly am until the day I die, I want it to be leaving a good mark. And I don't just mean giving a little child a few rupees or meeting amazing people. I want to go all the way, I want to work it, live it, entirely engulf myself in it. And to go to Africa would be absolutely incredible. Especially Uganda with all of the KONY hype at the moment. Its just meant to be. The people who I have applied to volunteer with are called IVHQ (only sent it about 7 minutes ago so still awaiting a reply) are New Zealand based and so good! Their youtube channel is amazing and there are loads of videos on there from volunteers. They are so well priced, seem very reliable and have assured me about travelling on my own!

 

 

 

http://www.volunteerhq.org/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ovBOeZZo1TA - a video of an IVHQ volunteer in Kenya.

 

Going to Africa would be completely insane. I've studied it in World Development for so long, with all its issues and the conflicting programs for its help, but to actually go there and be doing something small but actually impacting would be absolutely incredible. So much different then discussing the IMF and World Bank in a clean, sterile classroom.

 

 

 

Anyway, I've spent the whole weekend in the library doing my essay. It's 3000 words but for the first time in MY LIFE i have gone over by about 200. I accidently deleted the last 400 in the library earlier so had to write the end, soul destroying I tell you. Anyway, just gunna have a quick whizz over the editing and send it off tonight.

 

 

SEEING FLORENCE + THE MACHINE TOMMOROW AND MY LITTLE SISTER IS COMING UP TO SEE ME!  I'm so excited she said she was bringing marmite. What a gem.

 

Usiku mwema

(Good Night in Swahili)

x

 

"No one looks back on their lives and remembers the nights when they got plenty of sleep"

Roughly 3am after a cheeky night at Bar One. Left: Me, Ayla, Caitlin (above) and Kat.

It's nearly time to break up for Easter and then after that its just exams! It feels like my first year of uni had gone horrendously quickly, I don't want to not be a fresher anymore and have to actually take work seriously! But I can guaruntee that there will still be ridiculous nights out, no matter how many essays are due in or how many zero's we're overdrawn in the bank.

 I have an irrational fear of growing up and the last thing I see before I die is all the things I wish I'd done but instead I 'stayed on the safe side' and let them pass. I may be very poor with an unhealthy cigarette and alcohol intake but it's what I want to do at this point in my life. I want to do absolutely everything  and if that means seeing the sun rise most nights of the week then that is absolutely fine with me!

ध्यान रखना

(Take Care in Hindi). 

Tattoo Stalking.

Absolutely flawless.

This is possibly one of the best tattoo's I have ever seen. Can't believe the photographic quality of it.

I really would love to get a scarab beetle tattoo, they're just so cool and remind me of going to Egyptian exhibitions with my umma when I was little.

I have finally started researching for my essay on art and biography. Which is due in in four days time. Probably should have got me ass moving sooner. I'm focusing on Oscar Kokoshka and Frida Kahlo. It's super interesting I want to know absolutely everything, I just don't have enough time and it is not relevant enough for me to properly get into it.

 Found a really cool old book on Kokoshka at the Barber Library today, from 1947 and on the first page in old italic blue ink someone had written 'For Derek, Have a wonderful birthday, Love Mother. 1949'. So cool! And D. Flower was inked in at the top. That was given to him before my mum was even born! I got very excited about the whole thing.

On Tuesday my little sisters coming to Brum to see me and we're going to see Florence + the Machine at the LG Academy, I am sosososososo excited I think I will cry. Last time I saw her was Reading 2009 before she was massively famous, but so many people had so much love for her even then! Her new album is so special to me and my sister so I'm really happy to be seeing it with her.

Just to finish, this really made me laugh today. Ahahaha I'm starting again.

Byeee!

P.s. My flat has run out of loo roll. Myself, and all of my other sane flatmates, have been using tissues. My less sensible, but maybe more resourceful (??!) flatmate Magic decided to use a takeaway menu. We now have a little scrap of paper saying '20% off' floating at the bottom of the bowl. Very, very funny but also a little bit off putting.

My little sister Patch took this for her A Level Photography.

It looks amazing, very proud of her! Love the ghost quality of the communters and one train pulling in and one leaving and the dead centre of the composition which gives the idea that the station is a solid moment in time, always there no matter how many people rush around it everyday meeting friends or going to work or missing trains. She did guuuuurd.

Photo: Rachael Jervis, 8th March 2012. Woking Station.

The boy did good.

Damien Hirsts 'Anatomy of an Angel'

Sold for £1 million at his sale entitled 'Beautiful Inside my Head Forever'.

The sale took play in Sotheby's and was estimated to fetch around £65 million, which is an extortionate amount for an artist. Instead, he made around £111 million, smashing the world record for the most amount made by a single artist at an auction sale. The sale was made up of 223 lots.

Although I have mixed feelings about Hirst's ethics in terms of money and in some cases his borderline notions of art, I think this is absolutely stunning. It is beautiful and chilling at the same time and I love the way the texture of the surface changes from rough rock to smooth stone, even looking at a picture of it makes me want to reach out and touch it.

Beaut x