Results of Doom

Two things happened on the 25th of August 2016 that are probably worth mentioning. First, I got the results to the GCSE exams that I've been blogging (and complaining) about since June. I did well! I can say that I did well and that's good enough for me - oddly enough not in English which probably isn't great for someone with aspirations such as my own, but I suppose that just means that more work is needed!

The other thing that happened was that I did my first payed work. I know that nobody reading this is really going to care, but I did some baby sitting and I am very proud of myself for not letting the child die or be injured during the time I was in charge of her so that's good enough for me.

No more updates for a little while. I do some proper writing. However, I have put up a short story on my wattpad for the first time in forever so that's also exciting.

I'm A Nerd

I'm a nerd. I won't deny it. I love typical nerdy things, from Pokémon to whatever weird fandom you can think of. I like books and school and all the sort of things that make others look at me with worried expressions and ask whether or not I am sane. I even wear typical nerd glasses (I look like a bit of a pretentious hipster, but that really wasn't the aim).

Unfortunately, the official dictionary definition of a nerd is as follows...

"Nerd - noun - informal: A foolish or contemptible person who lacks social skills or is boringly studious."

Despite the very obviously negative connotations to the word - at least according to the dictionary, I love being a nerd. I love all nerds really, because being a nerd means that you're passionate about something. It means that you love something so much that you want to put time and energy into it and you want the other people around you to love it as much as you do.

Sure, stereotypes about being unattractive and anti-social exist, but it doesn't been their true.

Despite getting weird looks and being called a nerd as if it's a negative thing, I hope that all the nerd of this world never give up on their nerdy quest to spread love because nerdism (yes, it is a made up word) is great. What more could you want than a person that has found something that makes them happy?

I will happily take the title of nerd... but not the one from the dictionary. Because that's bull.

Summer Excuses [NCS & DofE]

Well summer definitely didn't go to plan, but that's an update for another time. I thought I would tell you about all the reasons my summer didn't go to plan and that is mainly because I tried to do way too much stuff. 

NCS

NCS stands for ‘National Citizen Service’ and is a government initiative in the UK that gets 15-17 year olds in major cities (i.e. London, where I am) to do something productive with their summer holidays. It takes up about 4 weeks and involves heading off to some part of the English or Welsh country side to do outdoor activities for a week, then to a university campus to learn a new skill --mine was music -- and living independently for a week (funny stories to come on the 'independent' front) and finally, back home for two weeks, during which you would do community work, volunteering and planning. 

My NCS experience involved working with a large group of people, therefore really pushing me out of my comfort zone from the get go. I also had to work as the team director for the final two weeks, which meant I actually had to be in control and getting stuff done, which was much easier said than done when everyone would rather just be at home, but in the end my team were successful - even going as far as to 'win' the pitches (kind of like dragon's den - not really).

I immensely enjoyed the whole experience and it taught me so many new skills, however it did take up a good chunk of my summer - I knew I had about 10 weeks off and this took out almost half of that. During the time I was on NCS, I had no internet for one of the weeks, no laptop for two of the weeks and no energy for all 4 of the weeks, so doing anything from the list of the things I was planning to do was much easier said than done. Also, due to the fact that NCS was as the very beginning of my holiday meant that I couldn't start any of my larger projects *cough catching daydreams cough* and therefore they lost momentum after the exciting planning stages that had taken place only weeks before. Things did not go to plan. 

Silver DofE

The other thing I did during the holidays was my silver Duke of Edinburgh Award exhibition. This took 5 days and 4 nights, but during that time we walked over 50km while carrying rucksacks and slept in tents while cooking food on single hob camping stoves. We were highly successful during our exhibition and barely got lost, which is much more than can be said for our previous practise during which I don’t think we had a single mistake free day - someone also almost lost a figure thanks to my swiss army knife, but again, thats’ a story for another time. However during the time we were away, I was completely exhausted (understandable, right?) and again... had no wifi or laptop - it's sad how much I rely on being connected to the online world. 

Therefore, again, I struggled to get things done. I was planning to be super productive in the time after I came back, but I ended up recovering for about another week, including a 14 hour sleep on the day I came back. Also, when I returned, I was not in my lovely house in London, but in a small town in North Wales so that wasn't quite so brilliant either. 

So, there is my exceptionally long list of excuses for my failures as a human? Impressive. 

I will be doing a proper follow up to my list of goals for the summer, however I wanted to do this now as I knew I wanted to have a record of doing NCS and of my Silver DofE (to begin with they were meant to be separate, but they came together rather nicely under the title of 'summer excuses').

Olympic Spirit

I will not deny my love for the Olympics. Actually, I will happily watch sports on TV at any given opportunity (*cough* six nations *cough*), but there just seems to be something else about the Olympics that I just can’t get enough off.

Four years ago, the 'greatest show on earth' (that's what they call it right?) was in my home town, London. I got to see the Olympic torch run along my local high street and enjoyed the atmosphere and the bunting immensely. But now, even though it isn't at home, I still get the joy of watching it on TV - often at 3am due to the time difference which wasn't a problem last time, but oh well, you can't have it all. So, to celebrate the joys of the Olympic games, I thought I would make a list of my top three Olympic moments so far, because hey, why not.

3. North Korea and South Korea coming together. The selfie between the two gymnasts has done the rounds of the Internet after the two met during one of the gymnastics events and is proof that the Olympics really does bring people together.

2. Horizontal Cycling. During one of the super dangerous cycling races, there was a mass crash, including multiple cyclists. To escape the carnage, one of the riders moved to the top of the track, only to be pushed further up by and on to the horizontal wall separating the spectators and the competitors, where they continued the race until they had space to come down. Watching this live was nail biting and completely amazing.

1. Caring 5000m runners. I was watching one of the women's 5000m qualifying races, when one of the athletes fell, taking another down with them. One of the pair quickly got up and I fully expected them to continue with their race and fight to catch up with the rest of the pack when they turned around to ensure the other runner was okay, and even convinced her to get up and keep running. Despite the pair coming last in their heat, they were still given places in the final. This is by far my favourite moment because not only did the athletes look out for each other, but they were rewarded for their efforts.

So, that it was my top three, however, I must give special mention to the coverage of the events by BBC Four due to the massively creative time filling they did including (but not limited to) the reoccurring mention of the copaca-binmen - the bin men that emptied the bins on Copacabana beach each evening. I cracked up every time I heard that pun. I am not sorry.

Brains

Sometimes I'm acutely aware of my brain, as weird as that sounds.
When looking downwards while reading, I suddenly remember that inside my head is a big mush of gunk that controls all my actions.
This weird mush of gunk is receiving electrical signals from all over my body and making sense of them before sending more signals back to wherever it was they originally came from.
I move my neck around and know that while doing that I'm shaking up my mush of gunk.
I remember that I have a big rounded bone that protects it all and that also moves with me when I move my neck around.
I'm really weird okay.

Women to Inspire

When watching a music industry award ceremony, I noticed one of the bands included a women. It wasn't a band just of girls singing and dance in skimpy outfits and wasn't one person performing on their own. It was a real band. She was playing a guitar.

What stuck me was that this was something you never see. Other than this one band, I have no memory of ever seeing a girl in a band playing an instrument - the only group that springs to mind is Haim. She was there not because she fit in with the look of the band and not because she was another voice to harmonise behind a male lead. She was there because she could play the guitar really well. As a "musician" who has complained multiple times at the lack of females in bands - real bands - this was like a breath of fresh air.

Even now, when someone mentions strong women in history, I still get a feeling of pride,  simply because I am also a girl so therefore I look up to these people and aspire to be like them. With all the talk of the political parties changing leadership and new prime ministers gaining power, I can't help but rejoice that a women is the new p.m., just so we can say there have been two female leaders of the UK. While I don't agree with all of Margaret Thatcher's policies, I still cannot help but look up to her because she was such a power and strong woman.

I strongly believe that the world needs more women that inspire. Many women inspired me in music: Taylor Swift to play guitar, Nina Nesbitt to write lyrics and Gabrielle Aplin to play for a wider audience online. Wanting to write was inspire mainly by Carrie Hope Fletcher, who manages to balance writing novels, having a massive online presence and performing in West End shows. In science, I look up to Marie Curie and Rosalind Franklin. There are many others with Emma Watson and Malala Yousafzai and while all these are fantastic people, the world still needs more. Though thinking about it, can we ever have too may?

I'M BACK