When do you think it will all become clear?

I had to take my own advice yesterday and keep calm and have a cup of tea. Yesterday was rubbish. Not only did I have to get up for a 9am lecture but the lecture was completely boring and a waste of time, it was supposed to be a 'refresher' lesson in Adobe InDesign and we just literally made a layout for 3 hours. Boo

After that was my dreaded meeting with my course leader so she could see my Timeline feature and it did NOT go well. She got half way through and basically told me it was complete rubbish and that I had to start again. I also have to see my old Music Journalist teacher because she doesn't know anything about music so I'm kind of going to have them both as my Major Project tutors. So now I'm back to square one, having to start the feature again and still get ideas for the rest of the features. I just wanted to cry all day yesterday. I don't know how to write a decent feature after nearly three years on course for it. I don't know if that reflects badly on only me but on the course aswell?

I vowed not to do anymore work for the rest of evening, which is probably not the best idea but I really wasn't in the mood to do any. I haven't done any today either so I will have to really catch up at the weekend. I'm supposed to have my feature done by Thursday. :|

Vince came round later on after I had spent the evening watching TV and we played Who Wants To Be A Millionaire on the Wii at about 1am. It's so hard! I wasn't getting past £1000! Vince however managed to get to a million, with the help of the internet. CHEAT! It's not a brilliant game and the questions got repeated after about 2 rounds so it would be quite easy to learn the answers!

I'm still in the process of getting my new Polaroid printer to work, once I do, I'm going to put a review up of it! I'm going to be announcing the winner of the Topshop Voucher giveaway on Sunday! Look out!


Image from weheartit

Keep Calm

My new motto in life!

What's the point in a post-it note that doesn't stick?

That's what I always wonder with the rubbish post-it notes I have! I've actually started blu taccing them around the place because they are so rubbish.

Well tonight I was supposed to be going to watch Vince play a gig at the SU but I got a text message when he was supposed to pick me up, saying that sound check went really badly and the whole sound of the Union wasn't good so I wouldn't be missing much if I stayed home, so I did, and it turns out the gig went well and sounded good and lots of people turned up, so I could have actually gone in the end. =\

So instead of sitting and doing nothing all evening I wrote out some interview questions for Young Guns and I also contacted the PR people for The Blackout and Funeral For A Friend to try and get some interviews done with those guys as well! I initially emailed them asking if they would answer questions for my Major Project/Dissertation but they wanted a full interview or nothing, so I've stuck my dissertation questions in there as well. Typical PR people.

Tomorrow is going to be 100% work day! I got an email back from my lecturer about my Timeline feature and she said just to keep writing until I cover everything and we can edit it on Thursday, so I'm going to be writing thousands and thousands of words tomorrow!


Today was a do nothing/go shopping kind of day, woops! I had to go and pick up my perscription from the doctors and then I wondered into town to look for Valentines presents, but I won't tell you what I got Vince incase he reads this but I hope he likes it! I just have to share my growing hatred for Primark. Does anything in that shop have any shape to it? The only decent things I can buy and wear from there are socks and the two jumpers that I have. Everything else is shapeless and shabbily made. There I said it, hate me. :P

Onto a completely different subject now, Style Eyes has listed me in her 10 blogs that make her happy! I'm so happy that someone actually reads this thing!! :D Thank you so much!

Just a sweet reminder that I am running my £25 Topshop Voucher giveaway! until Sunday! I already have 16 entrants which is great! I've decided I'm going to get Vince to pick the winning name out of a hat for me!

Image from weheartit

Topshop voucher giveaway!

Thanks to the lovely people at DISCOUNTCODER.COM, I am holding a competition to win a £25 Topshop Voucher!

All you have to do to enter is become a follower of my blog and leave a comment on this very post that is relative to the subject and in 1 week I will randomly pick a winner!

Please let other people know about the competition by posting links on your blogs and twitters!

The competition is open to UK residents only!

While you're waiting to find out if you've won, you should definitely check out DISCOUNTCODER.COM who offer great discount codes for many highstreet stores including NEW LOOK, ASOS, LA SENZA and many more!

Image courtesy of TOPSHOP.COM

Dizzzzy

This morning I woke up with a headache, then I got up and nearly fell over and I've been feeling dizzy all day. It's a bit strange really as nothing else seems to be wrong with me, I'm hoping it will pass and I'll see how I feel tomorrow.

I also woke up to a phone call from Argos. I got an email from them on Thursday saying the Wii Fit had come into stock and was available for home delivery so I ordered it. £60 and then this morning I got a phone call saying the Wii Fit was no longer in stock in the Warehouse and that because they've got a new catalogue, everything has changed and the Wii Fit is being replaced as standard by the Wii Fit Plus which is £90, so now I'm not going to bother with it. I'm just going to carry on saving for Green Day Rockband and enjoy the games I have. =[

I have good news! I have written 1000 words of my feature so far. The bad news is, I have only covered the 1960s when I am supposed to write 1500 words in TOTAL about the whole of music history. I'm thinking of changing the piece into a 'where it all started,' feature. I've emailed my lecturer and hopefully she will give me some good advice!


Last night I went to see Vince's band Statement Code at the Talking Heads and I have to say it was their best performance yet, I just wish more people would bother turning up to gigs! There was quite a good crowd but it would be good to see friends there to support as well. They have another gig at the SU on Monday so instead of me working behind the bar I am actually going to be the otherside of the bar enjoying the gig. =] Everyone should check out the band's Myspace.


Speaking of work, we have our new shifts and I'm still working Tuesdays. But this time I'm starting at 5 until close which means there isn't any chance of me going home early anymore but I'm trying to see that as a good thing because it means at least 6 hours of guarantee money! Woo.

Today has been pretty boring to be honest, apart from doing my feature I haven't really done much else and so on with the not doing much..bye bye!

P.S. If anyone knows of any free Blogspot layouts can you please let me know? I want to give this blog a new look. =]

Life as a Freelancer & Styleclone posts!

My first day back at Uni today and I was only there for 2 hours but in those two hours I got very scared about life after Uni again. We had to fill out a questionnaire for the lecturer to 'get to know us,' or just have a really good nose. Basically one of the questions was 'What are your plans after Uni,' and since I was being REALISTIC I put that I will probably end up back home trying to freelance while searching for a job. I'm not sure that was something she wanted to read but I was only being honest!

I surprised myself by actually doing the work though. We had to read the newspapers and pick out stories that could potentially be made into other stories for other newspapers and magazines and I managed to pick out two good stories that she thought would make good features/articles. Usually I end up sitting and doing nothing but I really need to work in this unit as it's what I'm going to be doing when I'm finished with Uni.

I've also cracked on with my dissertation and I am now 500 words in to a feature on British Rock Music. I can see I am going to struggle with fitting fifty years worth of music history into 1500 words but I will cross that bridge when I come to it. So far I've touched upon The Beatles and The Rolling Stones and have gone into a little more depth about The Who..which has also lead me to think about another feature about rock music and fashion. Good/Bad idea?!

I need to email a whole range of bands and get their opinions on British rock music and I need to do my Freelance work but other than that all is dandy. No shopping for me today, except to buy magazines. I decided to ring up Kerrang! and Company magazines about work experience but all I got was the usual line that placements were full and I should email. Yawn.

I'm wearing my new jumper today, it's a bit low cut so I've put a vest top underneath and I really like it. I'm glad I didn't buy the size 8 because that was just too baggy, anyway, here are last weeks Styleclone.com posts for you all! Enjoy!

JIMMY CHOO TO COLLABORATE WITH UGG AUSTRALIA

ASDA'S TUMMY TAMER DRESS

NEW £100K NOKIA SUPREME PHONE

Shopping makes me happy

Apart from Vince, music and tea, shopping is the one thing that makes me happy! So as I was feeling really rubbish after my tutorial today I accidently on purpose fell into Topshop and bought this new jumper! :) Not usually something I would pick up as I don't really like V-necks but I was drawn to it and ended up buying it. Good mood all round!

The tutorial went ok, basically I just have to stop flitting about and start writing the damn thing. I have to get a 1500 word feature done by the 28th ready to show and I'm also going to be having a meeting with my old Music Journalism tutor so that should be helpful. I feel a bit better now that I've got some feature ideas in place, I'm just worried my research isn't enough. :\ But for now, the number 1 thing on my to-do list is the feature.

I've got work tonight but I am not fretting about the boredom this week because I am taking the latest issue of Company magazine with me to read! I have saved it especially! That reminds me, I have got some work experience at Sugar magazine confirmed for September 27th-October 1st! YAY! Finally. The offices are in Mayfair in London and I've been looking at cheap places to stay but too be honest, none of them are cheap so I think I will commute and stay with Vince for a week. :D I'm already excited about it!

Visitor..

On Monday Holly came to visit for four days and it was really fun. :) Monday was a lazy day, we went to the pub to have dinner and came back home and played Wii and had Indian takeaway. :) On Tuesday we planned a shopping trip! I had a tutorial on Tuesday morning which I came away from feeling really disappointed because I got a bad mark for my dissertation Pitch but after speaking to Holly, I feel better about it and I really need to see my lecturer about it properly and get started with my features.

Shopping was fun of course! I got some great goodies including these:





Of course, both are from Topshop. I actually spotted the shoes on Monday night and they only had size 4's left so I took it as a sign and used my giftcard towards them and with student discount they were £36 :) I have yet to wear them but I will!
The jumper is a cropped jumper which I'm still getting used to, it was £35 which is a bit expensive but I used the rest of my giftcard and student discount to get it down to £25. :D

Holly did well on our shopping trip aswell. She got a Blackberry Curve! I'm so jealous because it is so much better than mine! It has so much more stuff on it and it's prettier. :(

I also bought underwear, a black cardigan, photo frame and some bits and pieces from boots including a new nailvarnish! I counted up all my Barry M nailvarnishes yesterday and I have 17! Every time I go into the shops now I can't find a new colour!

Unfortunately I forgot that I had to work on Tuesday, I tried to get the night off but no one ever seems to want to cover my shifts. The main reason I wanted it off was because Vince was playing a gig in the Union Venue that I obviously wanted to go and watch. LUCKILY when I got to work, they needed someone to work upstairs so I got to watch the gig anyway. :D It was awesome. Tomorrow they are playing a gig in Bournemouth and on the 21st Jan they have a headline gig at the Talking Heads. (Myspace.com/StatementCode)

On the Wednesday I had ANOTHER tutorial but this time I did really well so I was really pleased! Then in the afternoon I went and got a tattoo. :D Very simple, easy to hide. Exactly what I wanted and I don't care what anyone else thinks of it.



I also got the musical note on my wrist added to as the people that did it, didn't really do a good job so I'll post a picture of the new version a bit later because it's in the middle of healing and is not looking so nice.

Holly went home on Thursday morning so I was left all alone and had ANOTHER tutorial, I was actually really surprised with my mark for this work because I was expecting to do really badly but I did quite well. :D


Yesterday was a pretty lazy day as well. Vince came round with his new rice cooker and we made risotto and it was the best tasting risotto ever! Tonight he is going out for a mates birthday so I'm going to get on with some work. I want to make a list of questions for my lecturer and get some feature ideas. I'm feeling really unmotivated with my Dissertation at the moment so I need to get on with things. I have a tutorial on Tuesday which will hopefully help me.

I have my night all planned out. Dinner, work..and that's it! Hah. Goodnight!

Young Guns - Winter Kiss

It seems to be becoming a bit of a trend for bands to release their music as free downloads, but if the bands are happy to miss out on making money in favour of pleasing their fans, then we are all for it.

Young Guns are the latest band to offer up their latest creation as a free download, available from January 25th. Talking about their choice to do so, front-man Gustav Wood said “we wanted to release the new track as a free download-only single, because we wanted to give something back to those that have given us so much; it’s the least we could do.”

In the blink of an eye, Young Guns have become one of the nation’s best kept secrets and recently reached number 1 in the ‘Best British Newcomer’ category in Rocksound magazine’s Reader’s Poll. And it really is no surprise at all as their new single ‘Winter Kiss’ is another outstanding piece of work from the guys. The track is a little darker and heavier than their previous releases but it is definitely a positive reflection on the band as it shows just how much they are willing to push themselves in order to make good music. The track has some epic stadium qualities about it and the strings and piano give it an almost haunting yet beautiful coating.

Young Guns are on their way to huge things. The band embark on Kerrang! Relentless Tour this month alongside The Blackout and All Time Low, so they have some giants to contend with, but we’re sure that Young Guns will pull it off. 2010 looks set to be a top year for Young Guns.

Good and bad times

Today I was supposed to be travelling to London to attend the Lost Prophets album launch party and also interview the band. I wasn't 100% sure I could go or if Vince could come with me and by the time I was looking at places to stay, train fares and coach fares, it was a bit late. I managed to find a coach to take us there but everywhere in London is full or too expensive! It's just as well really as London is covered in snow so I'm not sure I would have been able to get there anyway.

Luckily, their PR girl was kind enough to ask if I wanted to send my questions via email, so I did! I also cheekily added a few questions that should help me with my Dissertation. :)

I've also just sent questions in for The Blackout who I have interviewed for the next issue of Noise Addiction magazine. :) It's pretty hard to think up questions for a band you don't know much about but hopefully they are ok!


Yesterday I got my hair cut :) I'm still getting used to it, I have much more of a fringe then I did previously and it's a little bit shorter. It will take some work to get some volume in it but today I'm not going anywhere so I've just let it dry naturally and it's gone all wavy, which I quite like.

Holly is coming up to stay again on Monday, if the snow stays away that is. We have big plans to go shopping in the January sales and I have been saving money especially! I hope I can find some bargains. I've actually made a shopping list of things I need but so far it only includes a black cardigan and some underwear. I'm being good until then and not going shopping! The snow is helping me as it's too cold to go out!

2010

So, since my last post, Christmas day and New Year has been and gone. It's January 2nd already! I had a great Christmas and I got LOADS of great presents, so many presents in fact, that I have to go back to Southampton a week early in order to take them all with me in Vince's car. I don't actually have lectures until January 11th so I don't really want to go back early but I think it will be a good chance for me to get some dissertation work done! I'm really behind on it. :\





Have wanted these shoes for ages! Mum had to give me her debit card so I could order them myself to make sure I got the right ones!


Lots of smellys! Vince also got me the Friends Series 1-10 boxset which I have wanted for years!


Cute calendar and notebook =]


Some really nice bedding and stuff for my room from my nan =]


This was my Pre-Christmas present from Vince =D


Such a cute top from my Sister =]


I can't believe Vince got me a Nintendo Wii! I've wanted one for AGES!!! He is the best boyfriend :)

Vince also got me some lovely earrings to match my necklace, as a New Years eve present and he VERY kindly bought my family a Blu Ray player! We couldn't believe it when we opened it, everyone was quite shocked.

I spent New Years Eve at Vince's house with his family and his two friends. It was really nice, loads of food and when Midnight came we went outside to watch all the fireworks. We set off a Chinese lantern as well, but it seemed everyone had the same idea because there were about 20 in the sky! We stayed up till half 6 in the morning just watching rubbish TV so was pretty tired yesterday!

I was planning on getting my hair cut today but I'm being particularly lazy as I can't be bothered to get dressed and get the bus to town. My sister has taken the car to work so I might wait until I go back to Southampton, unless the hairdresser is open tomorrow. =\ Tonight I'm meeting up with Keely, Kayleigh and Vince and going to the new Greek restaraunt in town which will be nice, we haven't seen them for a few weeks, it is so hard to arrange a time to get together when we are all free!

I suppose I better get dressed and ring the hairdresser or something, ta ta!