SURFING CARCANS-PLAGE

SUMMER PLANS & STUDENT WORRIES

My Italy posts will be up as soon as possible. While in Venice we endured a day of torrential rain, so much rain in fact that it broke my camera thus I now have to wait for my friends to sort out their pictures and send them to me before I can actually get to posting them. Ohh the joys of rain and not so waterproof coats! 

After an awesome 2 (very hot) weeks travelling around northern Italy I am home for summer for a few weeks before I am off once more back down to Windsor/Egham with my family for a few days, Reading festival and then to the South of France to surf :D All of these things I am really excited for.

However, I am home and despite sending a gazzilion e-mails searching for work experience I have heard nothing thus far although I only sent some off recently so their is still some hope. Sometimes, actually most of the time, I feel really guilty for not having anything planned in terms of work/experience over the summer but to be honest, neither have my friends. I feel as though I should be doing something productive which will benefit me in the future. Despite this feeling, being at uni is incredibly stressful and tiring. Throughout first and second term which lasts from September to the end of March I had an essay a week to complete as well as seminar work and readings. Even through christmas holidays I was tapping away at my laptop writing essays while all my other friends from home were chilling and enjoying the break. I am not complaining because I love to learn and I like (although not always) being at a hard university because I really think (hope) that it will benefit me in the future but it does sometimes get a bit much.

I can not sit and do nothing and I think this is my biggest downfall. My friend Ruth was amazed by the questions I would randomly ask while we'd just be sitting in a cafe somewhere in Italy. She would say to me "Lisa, you think way too much in depth about everything. Just stop thinking for a bit". When I look into the sky I immediately think about space and planets and where does it all end - does the blackness just go on forever, surly it has to stop somewhere. Even while typing this my mind has drifted into attempting to figure out the unknown.

It's because of this relentless mind spinning that I have been throwing myself into reading a lot over the last week or so while also exercising everyday and working on my fitness blog - theimportanceofbeingstrong.wordpress.com . Working on this blog is something that I am really into at the moment and I hope that it will grow into something bigger in the next month or so. So really I am getting work experience, the experience of writing on a daily basis (with Lisi Loo and Importance of Being Strong) it's just that I am working for myself rather than a magazine or newspaper. Over the next few weeks I have also got to start reading and planning for my final year dissertation which is a bit scary but that's all I can do is my best and if that isn't good enough then I can't do much more than that.

So here's to relaxing, writing, working, exercising and enjoying summer.

SUMMER ADVENTURES // Cooling down in the sea

The relentless hot weather we've been having recently called for one thing - the beach. On Thursday Carwen and I decided to hit New Quay beach for a nice chillaxed day. Before arriving at the sea side we stopped in a little hilarious village shop where we bought our food for the day, after being stuck in a Welsh traffic jam (sheep not cars). We literally had a box full of stuff for £6! 14p Curly Wurlys anyone?! As it was a weekday the beach was relatively empty which was awesome. After setting up camp we headed towards the sea, and jee wiz the sand was boiling but sadly the sea wasn't! Despite the ice cold temperature of the sea we headed in and had a good swim for about 20 minutes before I heard Carwen scream. I looked over and the look of terror on her face was, although it shouldn't have been, hilarious! I think she touched the stomach of a jelly fish (there were loads on the beach) and in all the commotion she broke her sunglasses and swam to the shore as the glasses sunk to the bottom of the sea! 

After that incident we shortly packed our things up and went for a little walk to the other side of the beach where we sat on the harbour looking out towards the horizon in the scorching sun. Awesome. 

If Thursday wasn't enough, my mum and I headed to Mwnt on Saturday for another beach day. Mwnt is an actually awesome place which not many people (i.e tourists) know of so it's quite quiet there. I forced mam in to the sea and after some complaining she eventually jumped in and actually really enjoyed it. The sea was so calm, although I think it was colder than New Quay's, and it was perfect just to be able to lie there :) I also managed a good swim while in the big blue ocean and was absolutely shattered after arriving home because of it. I'd really love to do some open water swimming, I'm currently looking in to it to see if there are any clubs around where I live. 

I love the sea although I think the heat needs to calm down a bit because it's really tiring me out. Not that I'm complaining or anything! :)

 

SUMMER ADVENTURES // BBQ with friends

After a good swim, some blogging and some cleaning I headed over to Ruth's house because she was having a little BBQ with some friends. I brought some fresh watermelon and pineapple and we had some burgers and salad for dinner. Yuuuum :) It was such an awesome night to have a BBQ because it was scorching all day so the evening was nice and fresh. I haven't seen a few people for ageeees because of uni and everything so it was really cool seeing them on Tuesday night.

After some food we sat in the garden having a chat and catching up with what's been going on in our lives since we left for uni almost a year ago. As well has having a go on the trampoline we played with Ruth's two dogs and during like the millionth game of fetch I attempted a new throwing technique which should not have been tried as I threw Oscar's toy burger in to the top of the tree. It was a case of Bye, Bye little burger, it was fun while it lasted. Sori Ruth!

I eventually made my way back home after midnight after an awesomely chilled night of catching up with friends :)

W E E K E N D // Chillin' & Monsters University

My parents went to Cardiff for the weekend so Owen, Eve and myself were left to hold down the fort. Saturday I woke up early, wrote a blog post on my sports blog (here) and then headed out for a walk with Hendrix. It was incredibly warm on Saturday. I think it might have been the hottest day of the year so far and boy, it felt like it to! We even had to make two river stops on our walk just so Henz could have a little cool down and a drink! When we eventually came back home, Hendrix slumped in a cool corner of the house and I rushed in to the shower, got dressed and jumped in the car to make our way down to Carmarthen. We were off to watch Monsters University. Monsters inc. has to be my all time favourite Pixar/Disney film. I even have quite a sizable Sulley teddy sitting on my bed right as I type. The film was awesome and to see Mike as a little primary school child was worth the Cinema money alone! After the film we ran in to Tesco, grabbed a few things and made our way home. We finished the evening with some good ol' Fish & Chips for dinner.

Sunday morning we got up early and went for a swim. It was fitness lanes so it was a good way to wake myself up. I'm quite proud of the amount of lengths I did when considering everything that's been going on with the old back of mine. We were back home by just gone half 10 and I had my Sunday papers with me ready to have a good read. Before that however, I cleaned most of the house, blogged a bit, watched some of the Tour de France and skated. Since I was home with Hendrix for most of the day, I decided to spend it outside with him and with no cars on the drive I was free to Skateboard with minimal obstacles. Well . . . that was until Hendrix began to pick fights with my wheels and thus preventing me from boarding at all. I decided that the only thing to do was lie on my board and also sit on it and roll across the drive. Sounds odd but it was so much fun! When the parents came back they brought back some goodies from the capital. I received an awesome pair of glossy pink Doc. Martens and an even more awesome tie-dye Doc.Martens shirt :)

This week I've chosen songs for those awesome long summer days we've been having recently. There's a good mix of hip-hop, pop, rock, punk, reggae and rhythm & blues in their so something for everyone. I've linked all the songs down below so have a listen to them and enjoy the summer sun :)

1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6 / 7 / 8 / 9 / 10

SUPER SONG SUNDAY // This is Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band's Summertime Blues which I can only describe as one of the best sounds to have ever been heard through my ears. 

SUMMER ADVENTURES // back to school & lunch with friends

Last week I headed back in to my old school to give a little talk to some of the Sixth form about applying to university, UCAS and what to expect when attending university. I was joined by four other former pupils and we talked about our experiences and answered their numerous questions for almost two hours. It was really interesting actually because all of us have gone (are going) to really different universities, From Royal Holloway (myself) to Oxford and from Cardiff to Bangor so we all had different experiences from our first/second years at uni. Once we finished we went for a little tour around the school because so much has changed since we left less than a year ago. They have new buildings that are very fancy, the reception has changed along with the staff room and the canteen.

Most people hate their school dinners but there is something about them that you just can not dislike. They hold so many memories, they remind me of conversations I've had during lunch time, the laughs we've had and just the memory of school in general. With that being said we had to go and grab lunch in school before we left for home. We all had our school's legendary roast dinner - turkey. stuffing, gravy - the lot! We saw loads of our teachers and spent most of our time just having chats about what we've been up to since leaving school. It was so nice to see them - our teachers were so nice and sometimes I miss them because in Uni you are totally left to your own devices and don't really have that close relationship with your lecturers. Sometimes I do miss school but I'd never go back there.

Yesterday I went up in to town to have lunch with Ruth. We haven't seen each other in soooo long because she goes to Cardiff uni, I go to RoHo and we've been so busy with exams and stuff so it was so nice seeing her. We had a lovely meal and saw some more teachers from school as they were out in town for their lunch break. We sat there for ages just talking about things, catching up on life and talking about some possible awesome things we might be planning soon :) We then ventured out in to town and grabbed a Starbucks from the uni cafe. While walking back to our cars we passed the school so we decided to go in because Ruth hadn't seen some of the teachers in ages. After we visited some of our teachers we went our separate ways but I'll be seeing her soon later this week.

 

 

GLASTONBURY WEEKEND // BBQing in the sun

This weekend is Glastonbury weekend and oh how I wish I was in Worthy farm listening to the Stones, Arctic Monkeys, Primal Scream, Elvis Castello, and the list goes on and on but alas I'm home in Wales. It's not all bad though because the sun has been beaming down on us here in the countryside and that calls for one thing and one thing only - BBQ! We turned the radio on outside so we could listen to Glasto while enjoying the sun. We made awesome salads, had loads of burgers and had the chiminea going to keep us all warm. Before we began our food we had a bottle of Bollinger to celebrate Owen getting a 2:1 in History from Aberystwyth university. Radio 2's coverage of Glasto was sounding as we ate our food just as the sun went down. After being filled to the brim with BBQ food I had a little skating session around the house which is always fun. I genuinely think that my Penny Nickel board is one, if not the, best present I have ever received!

We went in side just in time to watch the Rolling Stones absolutely rock Glastonbury. They were superb, even though at time is thought Keith Richards was on his way out! Mark Radcliffe (whom I absolutely love!) said that he has never seen such a big crowd congregating around the Pyramid stage to watch a band before. It was crazy - well over 100,000 I'd say. Satisfaction, Sympathy for the Devil and Brown Sugar were just some of the amazing songs they had in their set. Once they were off stage we watches some more highlights. I first heard The Strypes play on Jools Holland a few months back and I though they were superb, I even wrote their name down so I could include them in a future Super Song Sunday. Their set on the John Peel stage was incredible. Some have been saying that they are as good, or even better, than the Stones were at their age. To think that they are only 15,16 and 17 year old is mental but exciting. They are also playing in Reading and I will definitely be there to watch them.

 

 

 

 

UNIVERSITY // cheerio Block J, Hello Summer

Friday afternoon at 4pm as we walked out of Founders Lecture Theatre summer officialy began. That was our last lecture of first year! Woooowza how time has flown, like seriously. It's still a strange feeling knowing that we will never step foot back within Block J, my home for the last 10 months. Block J was the perfect place to spend my first year because it wasn't like your traditional flats it was a three floored open building with 17 people all mixing with each other - a perfect way to make some of the coolest friends! While packing on Friday evening it felt super strange that within a few months we'll all be living in our respective houses and paying rent and bills etc but I am looking forward to decorating my room. 5 people live in my house (including me) and literally 10 seconds, or even less, across the road from us our friends live (yaaaay) and then on just the next street our other friends live. Our block have decided that during freshers we're going to sneak in to block J and just see who's living in our beloved block! Well, maybe . . . !

Block J you have been pretty awesome man but now it's all about the Cherrywood!

Sulley saying see ya later Reid :)