New Boots

I went to Matalan this morning to meet my sister from work and to have a look at the stock that will be in tomorrows sale. I found a nice bag that my sister has put in the stock room for me, ready for me to buy it at half price tomorrow! Hah hah!

It took me absolutely AGES to decide to buy these boots or not. I saw them, liked them and tried them on but then couldn't decide if I wanted them or not, I couldn't think of outfits to put with them and then the price put me off, £18, and I just kept being undecisive and finally left them in the shop.





Eventually, after looking online I decided I wanted them and so after picking my mum up from work, I went and got them and with 20% off, they were a bargain! They are quite unusual to what I normally wear but I thought I'd try them out. =]

2009 in a nutshell!!

The best bits of 2009 documented in Photographs!! Looking through Facebook, there are over 20 pages of photos from this year!!

Beginning of the year:











June/July/August time:















Towards the end of the year:


























and hopefully there should be more to come!

no subject

I can never think of an appropriate title for any post I ever write! I try and wait until the end to see if anything will come from what I've written but it never does..it's a sad thing.

Last night was my first day back on the bar and my GOD was it boring. I wasn't told that it was a Harley Davidson Xmas party event so there were only 100 people compared to the normal 550, and there were still 5 bar staff on. They really weren't all needed. Tomorrow is the Xmas party and I'm working it, along with one of the new girls, which will be really fun, not. I've worked there every holiday since 2007 and I'm not allowed to go to the xmas party. My own mum is going, and she hasn't worked there for years. I got a text tonight from my boss saying I can wear what I want behind the bar, wow, THANKS. I'd rather have my own clothes get covered in beer. Oh well.

Other than that I haven't done much else. I spent Thursday at work 10-1, which was really quiet, but I met Vince at 1 and we went to town, got some Chips for lunch and then fell asleep and had a lazy afternoon which was really nice. :D

It's not actually long until Christmas now, it's getting exciting. The presents under the tree are starting to build up..even though most of them aren't for me, haha! I need to do some more work on my Dissertation because before I know it, it's going to be January 4th and I'll be back at Uni with nothing to show. I know that the second semester is going to go SO fast so I need to get a move on with my work! and on that note..I better go.

Tis the season to be jolly..

I've been up since 10:30am writing posts for Styleclone.com about the British Fashion Awards, 12 days of Christmas giveaway and a rather awesome bag and jewellery website: LouLousBoutique.com. Honestly, it's got some really nice bags and the jewellery looks like something you could buy in Topshop, I might have to get something from there! I'm quite liking the LB Charm bracelet/necklace.

I am really liking writing for the website as it is making me look at lots of different fashion events and products that I wouldn't normally associate with fashion at all - such as a mobile phone. I sent in a suggestion that we should try and get press passes for 'press days,' such as the recent New Look SS10 press day which I am absolutely gutted I didn't get to go to. I have spotted some awesome shoes that I wan't when the collection launches, I just hope they don't cost too much!


Later on today I have to tidy the house up a little before mum gets home and tonight I'm going to settle down with my Dissertation folder and get cutting and sticking. All my research needs to go in there and I need to come up with some feature ideas!! It is the most important piece of work I will do this year as it is like a 'final project,' so I really REALLY want to get a good grade. I have set up an interview with Lost Prophets (who have also invited me to their album launch party) though I'm not sure if I can use the interview for my Dissertation or not. Basically I am creating a one off special issue of Kerrang! magazine. The theme will be British rock music of the past and present. I have already done an interview with Funeral For A Friend and I have an interview with the drummer of the High Numbers (The Who) lined up..but I still need other feature ideas. Altogether I have to split up the features/articles into 8000 words!

Referring back to my 'Scary Times,' post. I have now emailed a company with my CV and a list of positions I would be interested in. I have also applied for one of the jobs they listed on their website. Although the 'ideal' candidate was a graduate, I still applied because I am practically doing it already as a hobby!! It would be amazing if they would consider me but because I am not a graduate, I don't think they will. Vince and I also had a chat about what we would do if I stayed in Southampton so I don't have to worry too much..although the emptiness of what I'm ACTUALLY going to do is still there, I feel a bit better after having applied for a job and talked with Vince. I'm going to keep looking for jobs and really jump into the Life of a Freelance unit we have next semester!!

Topshop Xmas Jumble Sale

I wish I could go to this..

Scary times

There are scary times ahead..in five months time I will have finished University and finished education for good. Of course, that means I have to start thinking about what I'm going to do after University. Obviously I would love to go straight into a job in the magazine industry but with the recession there is not much out there. It's hard enough to get unpaid work experience so getting a paid full time job..well, it doesn't look good.

One option is to move back home and freelance. I'm already freelancing for Styleclone.com, but I would like to write for magazines also. As well as freelancing I would have to get a job..probably back at Sandbay, while applying for Journalism jobs at the same time.

Another option is to apply to be the editor of the University magazine. Now I think I would be good at it but the person who gets the job is based on votes..I'm not good at public speaking and lets face it, I don't know many people so I don't think I would get voted in. Plus, even if I did do it, it would mean that the same problems would arise again after another year. However, it does mean that I would be able to stay in Southampton for another year with Vince as he has a year left of Uni.

It's all very confusing and I'm not sure what to do at all. I feel like I need some sort of guidance about what to do..there should be some sort of talk at University I can visit but that doesn't seem to be the case. We have a CV building workshop but that won't help me find a job, that will just help me have a snazzy CV. :\ Help!

AAHH

I don't know why I am blogging because I still have so much work to do! I guess blogging gives me a little break. I've just been sat in my housemates room for the past two hours working on our Dreamweaver website. I will NEVER, voluntarily use Dreamweaver again!! I swear on that! It's just so time consuming and fiddly and you just need so much patience for it, I'm quite a patient person I think but even Dreamweaver gets me annoyed.

I can't wait for Friday to arrive so I can go home for three weeks. Although I'm going to be working over Xmas it will still be nice to be at home and not have to worry about buying food and paying electricity, hehe.

Anyway, here are some pictures of the goodies and the Tshirt I picked up from the Clothes Show Live yesterday.

Clothes Show Live 2009

I'm currently sitting at the kitchen table on the laptop, in my pyjamas, with a cup of tea! What would make this even better would be if it was raining outside! Yesterday was quite a long day which started at 6:45am. We had to catch the coach at 8:10 outside Homebase and we wanted to stock up on food and magazines for the coach so we had to be ready to go by about 7:30. The coach journey took about 2 and a half hours but wasn't too bad. The Clothes Show itself was manic! The arena it is held in is so so big that there were so many stalls crammed in, it was impossible to see them all. There were goodie bags EVERYWHERE so we paid £10 each for a Barry M and a Rimmel goodie bag, which was well worth it because you get well over £10 worth of products! I now have some new colour Barry M nailvarnishes aswell as some new dazzle dust and lip gloss AND Rimmel eyeshadows and eyeliner!

The only downside to the event was the sheer amounts of people. It made it really difficult to walk ANYWHERE without being pushed and shoved and people kept stopping infront of me and were just generally annoying! Imagine a busy shopping centre but ten times worse.

The Clothes Show itself was..OK. I didn't realise it would be one of those dancing fashion shows. I don't mind them but I would prefer to actually see the clothes properly without having to watch the model bouncing around the stage.

I took £70 with me and came back with £30. I bought a cool, hand-made owl tshirt which I should take a picture of and post when I have time. I also bought goodie bags, food and little bits and pieces. I now have a bald patch on my arm where some lady showed me a hair removal product which I didn't even end up buying, haha!

Overall it was a good day, though I would have liked longer to look around all of the stalls! I went there with the aim of writing an article about it for Styleclone.com but I don't think it's really possible as I just shopped all day, I did pick up a lot of 'business cards' from the stalls that were there so maybe I could write some sort of Top list of stalls.

I'm looking forward to my Sunday dinner and then I'll be getting the train back to Southampton for my last week of term. I have one hand in left, but theres still so much to be done!!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

It certainly is =] I am excited, I have all the Christmas presents done already so I don't need to worry about that anymore, unlike everyone else, hah. I just have to lug them all home with me next week and hope that none of the wrapping paper gets ripped or anything. I hope everyone likes what they've got!

Today I finally got rid of the Pitch I was writing, by get rid of I mean hand in. :P I didn't find it too difficult if I'm honest, I showed my lecturer and she told me to make a few changes and now I'm pretty happy with what I handed in. Now I just have to work on this online magazine stuff. I have to come up with some more content for my subpage as well as make sure it all works and THEN I have to write a 1000 word evaluation which I've just found out has to include 6 to 10 quotes from website related books, which I've never even looked at. I'm going to attempt it all on Monday, I will probably just sit in the library for most of the day and get on with the paperwork for the online magazine on Tuesday and Wednesday day time..and then...it will all be over for a few weeks.

I'll be working back at the holiday camp but I'm not sure if I'll be behind the bar or in the cafe but I'm really annoyed that Vince isn't going to be working with me this time. I don't know why either. I told the manager that we were both free but she said she only needs me. :( Hopefully it will be ok, I'd much prefer to be behind the bar I think, the Cafe get's really boring!

Anyway, I'm off to put on my pizza and I should probably pack for going home this weekend. =]

Rain

I hate this cold weather, this morning I had a tutorial at 10am and had to walk to Uni in the pouring rain. It just makes you miserable! My feet were soaking wet, my hands were freezing and so was my face! I desperately need to invest in some gloves and a scarf and my new ankle boots will definitely have to come out a bit more!

Thankfully my essay didn't need too many changes, thank God!! Which means I won't have to really work on it for the past week or so, I can make the changes and then forget about it until the hand in deadline, woo!

I'm looking forward to going home on Thursday, just so I can have some nice food and be able to slob around the house doing nothing! Although I will try and get some website work done. Then on Saturday I'm going to the Clothes Show Live in Birmingham. I haven't saved any money for it yet and I'm not sure what to wear but I am definitely looking forward to it!

write write write

I started my 2000 word essay today, I have got to 942 words and suddenly got really tired. I'm going to keep going with it though as it means less for me to do tomorrow, or more like, it means I can get on with OTHER work tomorrow.

Tonight is 'movie night,' at Vince's house. My Transformers 2 DVD came yesterday, and it's not even out until Monday (yay HMV) so I'm taking it round to Vince's and myself, Vince and Andy are going to watch it on the projector to make it feel like we're in a proper cinema. We even have lots of snacks :)

Achoo

I've just about had enough of sneezing every single day! I have rhinitis which is like 'asthma in the nose' apparently. Match that with allergies to Dogs and Cats and also a little bit of a cold and you have me..although in Southampton it's a lot better because I don't have any animals, but the tablets the doctor give me don't work. I'm actually in Southampton now and for the past week or so it's been so bad again, it gets to the point where I can't actually sniff, it's pretty gross. So I'm going to the doctors on Tuesday and I won't be happy if they give me the same tablets again..though apparently there is no cure for it! Great!

I currently have an extremely dead arm because I had to have a Swine Flu jab yesterday. It started going dead in the evening while I was at work and by the time I got home it felt so bruised and stiff that I couldn't even move it, it's pretty much the same today.

Today I have a day off uni so I need to get on with some work urgently. I have so much to do, it's ridiculous. I need to go to the library to pick up a book, then get some wrapping paper and a train ticket for when I go home next weekend. I can't wait, I'm going to the Clothes Show Live with my sister :)

Plan plan plan

Calm down. Plan the direction of your work and the development strategy carefully

This is what my fortune cookie said on Monday night, which was very weird because that very same day, I was moaning to my mum about how much work I have and she suggested I make a plan for when I'm going to do it, sort of like a timetable. Which I haven't actually done yet but I will try to get round to doing it, I'm actually trying to get on with some work today!

I have several deadlines looming and I'm not liking it one bit. They are all coming at once so on the survey we got yesterday about our third year I suggested that subjects be spread out a bit and deadlines weren't all in the same week!

I guess I better get cracking..

Silly

I can't believe I left my USB stick in the back of one of the Uni computers again. Because I was in such a bad mood I wanted to get out of that room quick so I totally forgot that the USB was in the back. They really shouldn't have USB ports on the back because SO many people forget their USBs and by the time they realise, someone has stolen it! I went back to see if there was the slimmest chance it was still there, but no, someone stole it. Very nice. So now I have to go and buy another one. Why am I so stupid?

I've spent most of the day on Dreamweaver creating my 'Topshop magazine website,' though it's a bit difficult seeing as I don't have Photoshop, haha. I'm going to have to put all the images through Photoshop when I get to Uni so they come out a better quality! Dreamweaver is so time consuming that I became quite cross eyed and gave up, which probably wasn't the best idea. :\

Since then I've been online, eating dinner, having a bath and basically doing not much at all. I have two reviews to get done before Holly comes on Friday and once shes gone I really just need to concentrate on my Dissertation as well as start an Essay on Ethics. So much work, so little time. Though I do get time to blog so I'm trying to do it often and I like the fact that I have 10 followers now, that's pretty good, though not many comments on my posts which is disappointing!

I was wondering if anyone knows of any nice layouts for Blogspot?

Aimless

When asked why I wanted to do the idea I am doing for my dissertation/major project, I couldn't answer. Or more like I couldn't think of an answer when put on the spot, which lead to me being asked why am I bothering..to put it simply, which then lead to me becoming even more unconfident about it and not wanting to bother at all because obviously there is no point working on a project about a subject that is too damn hard to research. I have zero motivation and I don't know how to get it back.

Christmas is coming...

..it certainly is! Though I'm not really excited for it just yet..it's a bit TOO early I think. Though I am definitely getting prepared as I have bought a bunch of presents already! I just need to think of a main present for Vince and a present for Holly and then decide what I want from Santa! I really have no idea..of course, I want a Nintendo Wii but thats a bit pricey so I won't ask for that. :) I'm going to save up and buy one myself and wait until the January sales when the prices will hopefully go down a little bit.

I think Christmas is going to be weird this year and the one reason I'm not looking forward to it is because Grandad won't be here, which still seems wrong. Nan is probably going to spend Christmas day with us this year which will be nice :) I'm hopefully going to be working a fair bit when I go back home, if the bay will have me that is! Fingers cross. I can't believe I actually want to work, haha. Hopefully Vince will decide to work aswell which will make it much more fun :D

Anyway, I must be off..more work awaits me.

Essay time

I know I should be writing my contextual analysis essay right now but when it's so difficult and I don't know what to write, I get easily distracted. I have a literature review longer than the actual essay and no theory so far. When people say they don't know what to write, they are usually just exaggerating and they eventually get it done anyway but I'm really not exaggerating when I say I have absolutely ZERO clue about what I am writing. The books I have are useless, the lecture we had the other day on this, didn't help me one bit and I'm just generally failing at it. I'm not expecting a good mark because I DON'T KNOW WHAT THE HELL I'M DOING, but no lecturers actually care or are willing to help so this will probably drag my final mark right down. I can't be bothered with it.

Ouch

My feet hurt so much! I worked Monday night 7-12, Tuesday night 6-12 and then today 10-3 and I have to wear proper shoes that don't have any support or anything so my feet are absolutely killing me! I could do with a nice foot massage :D Vince is coming round later, maybe I'll ask him :D:D Because I've been working I've hardly seen him! :(

We're going home tomorrow for the weekend which will be good, I'm going to try and get some work done and we're meeting up with friends for a meal, we're also going to try and find a fireworks display but a lot of them aren't actually on November 5th, which is silly.

I have an essay to complete before the 18th November and it's going to take all of my strength not to get mad at it and throw it like I usually do! I'm really having trouble understand it but I absolutely HAVE to do it so I'll get there in the end..wish me luck =]

Happy Halloween!

Busy bee

So, I have to write a book review for Styleclone.com on the new Audrey Hepburn: International Cover Girl book.



I got it free from the website last week and as it's about £25 in the shops, I'm pretty happy. Audrey Hepburn is an absolute style icon but I've never reviewed a book before. I will post it here when I'm done with it.

This post contains PR samples

Well..

You know theres always that one band that you just HAVE to see live, and although they aren't actually my favourite band, I had to see Green Day live. I've been a fan for years and years now and I've gone through stages of listening to them furiously and then not listening to them for ages.

I really wanted to see them live when they came to the UK last time, which was quite a few years ago now so I was mega happy that I got tickets to their 2009 UK tour and I was pleasantly surprised how easy it was for me to get tickets, I literally bought mine a minute before they were meant to go on sale, which was weird?!

Anyway, the show was amazing, intense, brilliant, inspiring and every great describing word you can imagine. For a band that are the same age as I am, they are extremely impressive live, they know how to hold the audience in the palms of their hands and they just love to lap up all the attention from the crowd. It was an awesome awesome awesome gig, one of the best I've been to. I loved every moment of it, especially the encore of Wake Me Up When September Ends and Good Riddance (Time Of Your Life) which was played on acoustic guitar, with a spotlight and 16,000 singing all at the same time, which is the best sound ever.

I am just hoping they bring out a DVD of their current tour so I can relive it all again, haha. The only down side was that we had to leave early this morning because I had a presentation to do. I wanted to go into the city centre and do a bit of shopping, but maybe it was lucky that we didn't because I really can't afford it at the moment!

Tomorrow will be a day of work I think, have to pop to the library to take a book back because some damn person has requested it and I haven't even looked at it yet! But other than that, I'm going to try and get my Ugly Betty feature finished as well as trying to write a review of last nights show.

On with the pictures!