WEST WALES ADVENTURE WITH ELLIE

A few weeks ago my friend Ellie from university came over to my part of the world for a few days. I hadn't seen her for a month or so thus it was super nice to have a little catch up. From Monday afternoon 'till Thursday morning we traversed West Wales from Carmarthen to Aberystwyth and from Mwnt to Aberaeron.

I know I live in the middle of nowhere and I think Ellie was a bit shocked at how in the middle of nowhere I do actually live but we do have some amazing views on the coastline and this is basically what I showed her.

Monday
Ellie didn't arrive 'till around lunch time on Monday so once I picked her up from Carmarthen train station and we went and had lunch at Pethau Da which is located in Pethau Bychain  on King St. After a lovely meal we perused some shops, drank some coffee and then hopped over to the beautiful Llansteffan. We decided to climb up to Llansteffan Castle just to see the incredible views that looked out towards the horizon. A great way to end a Monday!

Tuesday
A trip to Mwnt was on today's agenda and boy was I happy about that. Mwnt is my favourite place in the whole wide world. It has an awesome little beach hidden away between massive cliffs which not too many people know about, except for the locals and a few tourists. On top of the cliffs, overlooking the beach and the sea is the most beautiful church you ever did see and if I ever marry, this is where I want the ceremony to take place. Before Ellie and I headed down to the beach where we would later eat lunch, read and have a bit of a sleep (ok, that was just me), we climbed the little mountain that is near the church and sat at its summit watching the dolphins and attempting to see the coast of Ireland.

On the way home we stopped off in Aberaeron where we went for a little walk, bought some chips and ate them on the harbour wall. Scrumdiddlyumptious.

Wednesday
Today we headed north to Aberystwyth, a nice seaside town where my brother goes to uni and where thousands of tourists flock to in the summer to smell some fresh sea air. We arrived in the town at around lunchtime so after buying a few things on our little shopping date we finally downed tools and ate some beautiful sandwiches at Agnelli's. My brother is in the middle of writing his Masters dissertation so he spends most days up in the National Library of Wales in Aberystwyth so myself and Ellie went up to visit the Library. It had a really cool Dylan Thomas exhibition which I loved. Once we had finished looking at all the exhibitions we went and had a coffee in the Library's caffe.

Thursday
As Ellie was heading home in the early afternoon I had planned to spend the day outside walking with Hendrix but alas the Welsh weather got the better of us and with rain pouring outside we gave the walking a miss and started our journey back down to Carmarthen where we had a nice little coffee before Ellie was on her way back to Somerset.

I really enjoyed my few days travelling West Wales with Ellie. I am just continuously baffled by the beauty that surrounds my home and I am happy that I got to show off my little corner of the world to Ellie!

Girl Power #1

Since becoming older and becoming more aware of what's going on in the world, especially since going to university, I have noticed that so many girls/women don't believe that they can do what the boys do. I don't only mean in terms of business and work but also in terms of sports etc. Growing up I was never exposed to this idea that girls shouldn't be playing football, rolling in the mud or building dens in the forest. Never had anyone told me that I should wear dresses or play with Barbies and thank God for that because as a child those were the two things I detested the most. Instead my mam would dress me in leopard print leggings, doc martens and my brother's old clothes while I played outside all day with my brother and his friends. I remember spending days and days playing football, rugby, cricket and our own DIY versions of hurling and gallic football and just thinking that this was what every girl did. This belief was probably made stronger by the fact that most of my girl friends at that time were similar to me in that we would all go mountain biking or swim in the river. Best time ever!

Even in secondary school, especially with my close friends, the topic of not doing the same as the boys never came up. Myself and Carwen played rugby and would regularly play with the boys, there was never that conversation of 'is it really our place to play?'. University is where I saw how limiting believing that you shouldn't do what the boys are doing is for the first time. In mixed Lacrosse training girls would be scared to go and tackle the boys or they would giggle and have hardly any confidence in their own abilities when the male sex were within a 100 meter radius which, baffled me to say the least. Even when it comes to lifting weights in the gym I would see girls peering over as if they wished to be able to step into the weights area. 99% of mornings when I hit the gym I would be the only girl in the weights room and it's not something I really thought about until some of my friends were asking if they could join me and lift some weights - a question that made me very confused. Of course they could, there is not a sign in the area that reads 'only boys aloud'. There is no such sign in the majority of society so why then do girls feel like they can't do what the boys can do?

Actually, thinking about it, I really don't think that they don't believe in themselves I genuinely believe that they are just conforming to a social construct that separates what boys should do/wear and what girls should do/wear. A load of bull if you ask me. Maybe it's a result of growing up with strong female figures in my life who do what they want to do and don't let anyone stop them. My grandmother and my mam were the ones that went to watch the rugby every friday night while my dad and granddad would stay at home. Thus, this whole constricting gender ideal is something that I thankfully was not exposed to when I was younger and I truly hope that in the future every girl and boy can choose what they want to do without being told that that's not what they should be doing. 

Here's a video I watched last night which sparked the idea for this post. It's a Ted talk by gnarly female skater Cindy Whitehead who I absolutely look up to and I think you should have a listen to what she has to say. 

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.

BACK FROM ITALY & 21 MILE WALK

I'm back from Italia and back on the grind. I have a few posts to catch up on!

On the 22 of June I walked, along with 8 other people, 21 miles from Carmarthen to a town called Pwll just outside of Llanelli in West Wales. It was all in the name of the National Eisteddfod that is arriving in Llanelli in August.

We set off just after 8am with everyone, especially me, still wearing their rather puffy and confused morning faces. The first three miles flew by as we walked through the centre of town and after a short bus ride across the dual carriage way (it was too unsafe to walk) we joined the Welsh coastal path which follows the whole cost of the country from its most northern point to its most southernly, its most West to its most East and everywhere in between. With great views entertaining us from Ferryside to Kidwely we quickly stopped so more walkers could join us. By now we were at around mile 10/11 and everything was going to plan. My legs felt fine and mentally I wasn't bored - I felt good. 

The 6 miles from Kildwely to Pembrey that were to follow were the hardest few miles of the day. Not only was the sun beaming down on us making us feel as though we were being roasted in preparation for Sunday lunch the next day but it was 6 miles of monotonous trees, long roads and uneven gravelled country tracks. We passed fields of cows and bulls with no fence to protect us and a horse fly decided to sting me on my wrist which almost immediately blew up to twice its size. 

Eventually we arrived at Pembrey where we sat on the grass to eat our lunch and having refuelled, rubbed antihistamine cream into my sting and placed blister plasters under my food I was ready to hit the road once more. The last few miles from Pembrey to Pwll were beautiful with the sun soaked sea keeping us company the whole way. With a mile or so to go my legs began to get very heavy and tiredness kicked in. I'm not sure if this tiredness was a result of walking for eight hours or if it was a result of walking 8 hours under the incredibly hot sun. Either way we were all getting very tired. 

The next day (Sunday) I was off to Italy for 2 weeks and I really wasn't that sore. The only things that were bothering me were my swollen and rather painful ankles. I really need some properly fitted trainers because running is becoming quite painful now. That is on the top of my to-do list - get properly fitted trainers to prevent injury!

RIVAL SONS [SCALA, LONDON 9/6/14]

Last Monday my friend Katie and I headed over to Scala at Kings Cross, London to watch one of my favourite bands, Rival Sons and it was one of the best gigs I have ever been to. Just incredible.

I first heard the band play on Dermot O'Leary's BBC Radio 2 show last April and I was instantly hooked. Jay Buchanan's voice is just magnificent and if you haven't listened to any of their stuff please do. For the last year I had been playing their stuff non-stop on Spotify and I had bought a few of their CD's. Basically my music listening was taken over my this band from LA so when I saw that they were playing down the road in London there was not two ways about it, I was going.

Scala is a great venue as it's so intimate which makes for an electrifying atmosphere. Jameson opened the show as the Rival Sons' support act and he was great. As well as being devilishly handsome his bluesy guitar playing and raspy vocals worked together flawlessly and I would honestly pay to go see him headline his own gig - so good!

The band opened with five songs from their newest album, Great Western Valkyrie. The first being the unmistakable Electric Man which was accompanied buy some awesome guitar playing from Scott Holiday. From the get-go the crowd was head banging, shouting and dancing. After every song the applause was almost deafening. Good Luck, Secret, Play the Fool and Good Things followed before an amazing rendition of my personal favourite, Jordan, from their 2012 album Head Down. It was spine tingling stuff.

With the high tempo Gypsy Heart and the newest single Open My Eyes the crowd was sent home with an amazing and equally emotional rendition of Face of Light. 

Wow. When we walked out of the gig towards the tube we couldn't believe what we had just witnessed. Two weeks before, both of us were at Finsbury Park for the Arctic Monkeys gig and I can honestly say that the Rival Sons gig was better. Controversial? Maybe. Truthful? Definitely.

LONDON DAYS

Since moving to Royal Holloway two years ago, I have taken central London being only 19 miles away for granted. My friends and I would just pop in and basically go to the same old place, you know the obvious places - Oxford Street, Westminster etc and I began to get bored of the city. My mum would come up to stay and she would just be fascinated and excited by the whole hustle and bustle of the place. She would love the tourist filled Selfridges and would just enjoy the fact that we were in London at the heart of civilisation rather than in the middle of nowhere with but fields to keep us company which is what we're normally used to back in Wales.

However, this all began to change (although Westminster is still one of my favourite places in the City). Days were spent discovering the city with friends, family and on my own (I quite like going around London on my own). We would have mulled wine and chorizo and rocket baps in Borough Market during christmas time after watching novice ice-skaters fall outside the tour of London. Brunch was eaten after a morning of strolling around Notting Hill and Portobello Market. I began to scratch the surface of London, the real London that is, the London far from Oxford Street.

Last week my friends and I decided to get all touristy and head to a few museums and galleries that are in the city. What's great about the museums and galleries we went to which were the British Museum, Tate Modern and National Portrait Gallery, is that they are all free. In fact the majority, if not all, of the museums and galleries within London are free so go and explore! We spent hours in the British Museum strolling through centuries of history that varied from the Enlightenment to Asia, Europe and my favourite, the ancient Egyptians. The Egyptian exhibition was extremely popular and you had to push yourself through groups of people in some sections but that didn't take away from the magic of it all. We were able to see and to read about actual mummies and their tombs. I know that I am a history student so this might interest me more than others but seeing coins or jewellery that were made in 400BC just blows my mind.

If modern art is your thing then the Tate Modern is for you. We strolled through  4 floors of free exhibitions with varying opinions of the art that we saw. On the top floor there is a great view of St Paul's which I urge you to see if you ever visit the Tate. There was a Matisse exhibition on when we visited but you have to pay to see that exhibition but from what I have heard, it is well worth the money.

The David Bailey exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery has been on the top of my to-do list for a very long time and since exams are finally over I headed over to Leicester Square last Saturday to witness the cool photographs for myself. This specific exhibition was £12 for students and it was well worth the money but there are plenty of exhibitions throughout the gallery that are free. With portraits of artists, african tribal figures, rockstars such as the Rolling Stones and models like Kate Moss the whole experience was awesome and I am glad I got to witness it before the exhibition finished last Sunday.

After a bit of lunch we roamed around Shoreditch in East London and it was great. Brick Lane was filled with Indian restaurants, underground vintage warehouses and vinyl sales. We roamed around Spitafields market where we sat, had a coffee and watched the world go around. While exploring the area we came across Rough Trade which is a famous and very awesome record shop and it is in here that we discovered their photo booth so obviously we had to have some photos taken :) I have to say I really enjoyed my first proper taste of East London and I am looking forward to another trip of East London exploration.

So the next time you head to London, steer away from Oxford Street, just jump on the tube and get off at a random station because I am sure you will find treasures in every corner of the city. Also, when you walk around the city you come across some spectacular architecture and some stunning houses. My friend and I would regularly stop and look at flats and houses and their great doors - massive strong doors which just makes you want to own a flat or a house in central London. If you are a lucky person and are looking for luxury apartments in the city then be sure to check out Redrow London :)

I'd love to know where your favourite London spots are - tweet/intagram me @lisagwawr and use the hashtag #LoveLondon :)

HALF MARATHON RUNNING FOR MIND

I'm a person who likes to be on my own a lot of the time. I am not a great fan of being surrounded by people 24/7. I have to have downtime to read, listen to music, to watch a few shows on netflix or to simply sit on my own with nothing but my thoughts. Being this type of person can be quite hard when you get to university especially if you live with very outgoing and extrovert people. Thankfully I lived with people who were understanding that not everyone wants to go out 3/4 times a week and stay up until the sunrises and I am INCREDIBLY thankful for this.

Also I am a morning person. A typical day for me would see my alarm go off at 6am and me closing my book or closing my laptop at 10pm. I have always been this way and will probably always be this way and this is a reason why I would never be able to work in a bar. I just get too tired. This tiredness thing is really annoying. Somedays (most days) I wake up almost as tired as I was when I went to bed. It's just one of those things I guess but it is tres annoying none-the-less. It is also for this reason that I get up early because I know that if I do all I need to do before 5pm then I will complete my tasks with energy that I will not have come dinner time.

I exercise a lot and eat very healthily, not as a part of a weight loss diet, but because it is something (the exercise that is) that calms me and gives me a sense of achievement. It's an hour or so out of my day when I am completely focused on the single challenge that I have to complete, be that an hour of circuits, some sprints or a 10km run. I usually do this in the morning as it puts me in a good mood moving forward, the rest of the day (during term time) is spent in the library and then in bed. Ohhhh what an exciting life!! It might not be all that exciting but I enjoy it :)

Despite being a person who likes to be on their own, if I spend too much time on my own then that is not good. My thoughts become very loud, I feel lazy, I feel like I never do enough and that I should constantly be doing things even though I know that I do more than most on one of my 'lazy days'. This feeling has begun to creep up on my during this time in limbo between exams finishing, 3rd year lectures beginning and summer.

If you haven't guessed it already I suffer from anxiety. I guess all of us suffer from anxiety from time to time it's just that some of us get more affected than others. Since about 3 years I have been dealing with a sort of chronic anxiety which never really goes away but certainly it comes in waves. It's not the most fun thing in the world and it gets a bit tiring after a while. Somedays I feel great, these are usually the days when I am busy and doing something that I love. Other days aren't so great and these days are not fun. You could say that I'm having a bit of a down day at the moment but as soon as I am busy again and feel like I'm contributing something to society then I will be tip-top or as close to tip-top as possible.

I worry about stupid things that I won't bore you with here and the annoying thing is that deep down I know that there is no need to worry which frustrates me even more. I am currently making a conscious decision to concentrate on the positives in life and see how far I have come rather than how far I have left to go. I am learning not to compare myself with others because this really gets me down and makes me very critical of myself. I yearn to live a simple life and not get bogged down with little trivial worthless issues which we all seem to obsess over. I want to just be happy. That is my single goal in life, well I have two goals in life - to be happy and healthy. Isn't that what life is all about at the end of the day?

I am running the Cardiff Half Marathon on October 5th in name of MIND, the mental health charity. If you would like to donate here is my Virgin Money Giving page. Thank You. 

ARCTIC MONKEYS FINSBURY PARK 24.5.14

I think it was less than a week after seeing the Arctic Monkeys in Cardiff back in November of last year that I had already bought tickets to see them at their Finsbury Park gig. The Monkeys are definitely the band of our generation and seeing them live now is totally different to when I first saw them back in 2007 - which is a great thing.

There is no doubting that Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not & Favourite Worst Nightmare are two of the best albums from the last decade and with songs such as Dancing Shoes, Fake Tales of San Fransisco, Brianstorm & Fluorescent Adolecence it is obvious why. However, their  2009 and 2011 albums Humbug & Suck it and See respectively, despite one or two songs such as Don't Sit Down 'Cause I've Moved Your Chair, didn't connect with their audience as much as AM has.
Since AM's release last year it has just exploded and their new live set that is filled with most of the tracks off the new album feels as comfortable and familiar as any of their hit-filled shows.

Armed with coats and umbrellas we headed on the tube over to Finsbury park last Saturday ready for an evening filled with great music. It all began at half 5 when Royal Blood came on to the stage. I had never really heard much about this Brighton duo but wow, they were awesome. Personally I felt that they were the best support group out of the three that performed before the main act came on stage. Their heavy rock sound made from just a simple bass and drum duo was insane and I have certainly added all of their songs to my Spotify playlist. Miles Kane was next, I had seen him once before as he was the support at some gig I went to which I can not for the life of my remember but despite one or two songs he was not all that great. I much preferred Royal Blood. Tame Impala were the penultimate act on stage at Finsbury and at this point we had made our way to the back of the crowd where we had THE best view of the stage as we were perched on a little hill and we had loads of room to dance/head bang and chat to random people. Tame Impala's tracks would be awesome to put on in the house on a sunny relaxing day when you just want to chill.

Just as the sun was setting the thumping sound of Do I Wanna Know sounded out around North London and Alex Turner and the band came on stage to perform to over 30,000 people. Their setlist was once again very awesome and I must say that I think my favourites from Saturday was Brianstorm because everyone just went mental, Dancing Shoes, Arabella ... actually I could go on forever. Although, there is no denying that finishing the show with R U Mine was genius and a great way to leave the crowd pumped as tens of thousands of us queued to get on the tube back to our homes after yet another awesome, mostly rain free, Monkeys gig :) Oh, and did I mention that there was a Last Shadow Puppets reunion during the encore ;)