Wednesday 27 June 2012

my time away (text post)

Wow, nearly 2 months without blogging. I think that's a record for me. The last time I blogged was on the 4th of April and it seems like such a long time ago (which it was really). A lot has happened in that time and my main reason for not blogging is purely the fact I've been busy (same old excuse eh?). I wanted to start posting again sooner but I thought I should do a little post explaining where I've been, what I've been up to etc and I was going to do it in the form of a video. My very first one! Now I did film the video and I was really happy with it considering I couldn't edit it (due to the lack of video editing software). However, blogger decided not to cooperate with me and won't upload my video. Brill. It keeps saying there was an error with the upload but doesn't tell me what exactly the error is. I thought about uploading it via YouTube but I'm not ready for my debut on there and as I mentioned on the video that you guys won't be able to see (bummer), I feel that it's easier for my friends (who don't know i have a blog) to find me on YouTube than on blogspot. Anyway, enough about that, on to the main topic of this post!

          why i'm doing this post
It's basically just because I've been away and didn't want to go straight away into blogging without any explanation of my lack of posts. I also didn't want to start of my next post with a 'sorry for my absence' type thing that I usually put at the start of my posts. Not only do I have a lot of blogposts to write up, I also have an unbelievable amount to catch up on of other's blogs that I haven't read. I think that reaches about 3 months worth of blogposts to read from other people's blogs. I do have tomorrow off from school so I think that would be a good opportunity to catch up on some of my much loved blogs!

          recommendations
So in my video, I showed what I was filming on top of which was a VANs shoe box and some books that are in my 'next to read' pile. They include Dracula by Bram Stoker, Mrs Dalloway by Virginia Woolf, The Hours by Michael Cunningham, In True Blood by Truman Capote, Hard Times by Charles Dickens (these books were from the reading group i was part of at my school), The Bad Tuesdays: Twisted Symmetry, One Seriously Messed Up Week In The Otherwise Mundane And Uneventful Life Of Jack Samsonite by Tom Clempson (the authors of these two books came to a book fair at my school and they both sounded really interesting so i thought i'd get them) and finally Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets (i read the first book ages ago and haven't had chance to get onto the second one unfortunately, hopefully soon eh?). I took this as an opportunity to ask for some book recommendations. I love reading and usually read any type of book as long as it sounds interesting. If I end up not liking it, I persevere with it until the end. I'm currently reading Peter The Great by R K Massie, Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte and the second book in The Hunger Games trilogy, Catching Fire (a real mix as you can see). I loved the first book but it's taking me a little longer to get stuck into the second one. My dad's nearly done reading it so I'll probably get stuck into it when he's finished. I'm also struggling to find time reading books as I'm constantly reading prospectus' for universities (i go in 2013 so the next year and a half is a big'un for me). Not only do I ready actually copies of books but my dad recently got an iPad so I got his Kindle and I have six books on that - Les Miserables by Victor Hugo, Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte, Pride And Prejudice by Jane Austen, The Five People You Meet In Heaven by Mitch Albom, The Luxe by Anna Godbersen and The Single Girl's To Do List by Lindsey Kelk. So yeah, after all that, all I want is some book recommendations. If you want to see any of the other books I plan to read then take a look at my Goodreads page. Also, speaking of recommendations, if any of you have any iPhone apps you think I should get, please let me know! I recently transferred from BlackBerry to iPhone and I'm so glad I did. I LOVE my new phone, it's brilliant! I have all the obvious posts but if you have any good ones that not many people have heard of, do comment.

          what i've been up to
The main thing that has consumed my time is my exams and the revision for it. I had 7 AS exams and I had to work very very hard for them (i feel that it all paid off though!) so blogging wasn't my main priority, unfortunately. My last exam was on the 29th of May but other things have been happening since then. I've also recently got a job of Costa Coffee and I work some pretty tough hours which means that when I get home on a Saturday/Sunday I just have no effort to do anything else. But ah well, it's so worth it (£6.10 an hour, yes!). I also have had to increase the number of driving lessons I have to make up for the ones I missed during my revision/exam period and also, my test is next Tuesday. How crazy?! I don't feel like I'm ready but please pray for me! I want to pass first time most definitely! During my time away from blogging I have also had a holiday. From the 31st of May to the 6th of June, I went to Italy with two of my best friends (one of which has a house there in which we stayed). It was the first time I went to Italy and I loved it. We only stayed and visited the rural parts so I'd like to go again and to visit places like Rome, Milan, Venice etc but it was a really good week. However, I was sick on 2 days and my sinuses went into meltdown on 1 day but apart from that, I enjoyed myself. And finally, I went back to school a few weeks ago and I assumed that we'd get a bit of a break from all the hardcore studying we had before exams. But no, we got stuck right back in with year 13 work, fun! It's a little stressful but to be honest, I only have 2 weeks left before I'm done (although saying that, i'm pretty sure my summer is going to be one of the busiest and most stressful i've ever had).

In terms of blogging, I do have a lot to post about including 3 glossyboxes (yes, i am going to post about past ones because i do like to give my view and it'll remind everyone about past products), a MAC lipstick (my very first one, eee!) and 9 wishlists so expect them in the near future. I'm also thinking about doing some posts on my trip to South Africa. I'm leaving on the 11th of July (two weeks today!) and I'm so so so excited. I never thought I'd get the chance and I feel so lucky to be having this privilege. But anyway, I thought that maybe I'd do a 'my south africa wardrobe' post where I take some photos of the clothes I'm taking/the outfits I'll be wearing. Then when I get back I can obviously do posts on the different days. Let me know what you think and if you want to see that.

          what i'm up to in the near future
Blogging obviously! But amongst that I do have a lot coming up and I thought I'd share it with you. I've got 2 weeks left of school and in those two weeks I have my driving test as previously mentioned and I also have some university open days to attend (some in September also) so I think those events will bring stress, nerves and excitement. Then on the 11th to the 23rd of July I'm in South Africa and when I get back I'm on my summer holidays which is very nice indeed. On the 30th, however, I jet off to Egypt with my parents for our family holiday and whilst I've been 3 times before I'm still really excited. We're going to Sharm El Sheikh and staying at the Sharks Bay Hotel which looks gorgeous so expect some posts when i get back from there too. After that I have a week until I go to V festival (my first time - looking forward to it very much!) and in this week I do actually have results day so if you all could pray for me to get good results that'd be brill. After V I have a day back at home before I leave for Leeds festival (unfortunately on my dad's birthday but i should be able to spend the morning with him). All in all, I have an extremely busy summer planned and I want to take you all along with me!

A few other things that I want to mention are the fact I have new hair (just a new colour, aha). It is ginger/ashy with blonde highlights as I wanted to go lighter for summer. I'm planning on growing my hair out now and hopefully going back to my natural colour. I also have a new camera! An SLR actually. It's the D90 18-105 VR Kit. I always used to borrow my dad's and in the end he said he would get me one so I had a good camera for South Africa but I got it early so I could have a practice on it and I love it!

Woaaah, this was a long post. And all text. Sorry about that but I really did want to tell you all everything and a video would have been obviously easier but I've put everything that was in the video in the post. I'm going to also put up a post of pictures from what I was up to whilst not blogging. I have really missed blogging so it's nice to be back and I hope everyone enjoys my future posts. 

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