Thursday 30 June 2011

What have I been doing?

Well. It's been a while, and though I mostly write these blogs for myself, I do feel that I have let my blogging slip a bit in the past few months. Truth is I've been busy. I don't just mean a little busy. I mean my calendar gives me about 2 free days a week, if that. So right now I'm going to give you a breakdown of my life, things I've been doing and a little about each one. Onwards!

Exams
I had my end of IB, end of school, end of mainstream education, end of an era, potentially the end of everything exams last month. May was hectic and hellish on some accounts. Sometimes I felt less stressed that I had during the 2 years of IB because I had to concentrate on exams only. There was so coursework or homework, only revision. There are 6 days left 'til our results come out, and frankly I don't know where I stand. I came out of each exam thinking that it hadn't gone badly at all, but what does that really mean? Who knows. Time will tell.

Post exam week
So right after my final German exam I was ready to welcome summer in with wide arms and lots of muscles for a pre-summer-holiday-shop. It was good, I bought some clothes and a bikini and had a nice time. Of course exams and school were still with me and I thought I had to speed shop because I had to get home to revise. Which of course I didn't have to do at all. Bliss. Monday I went out with all my 'IB buddies' to celebrate the end of everything resulting in a sleepover and thus getting up early for an 8.10 clarinet lesson which I had to cycle to. Highly amusing when still slightly drunk from the night before, especially for my clarinet teacher. I also went to the gym that day, but I'm pretty sure I ate the weight that I lost in picnic snacks and the BBQ my friend had the day after. It was glorious weather and it was lovely just to relax and eat and talk and do nothing else.

Italy
Next day. Italy. My oh my, I don't think I've had such a lovely holiday in a long while. Roman culture from 4 days in Roma. Walking round, sunny days, good food, beautiful people and exciting sights. Then a week in rural Tuscany in a mansion farmhouse with a brick yard, resident cats and rustic furnishing. It was just beautiful. We ventured out to some hill towns during the week, tasting a lot of wine and sampling the best hot chocolate I have ever had. The weather was quite an event in itself. With days so hot that you could barely be bothered to do anything other than lie in it and read dozens of books. Rain showers so hard that standing outside for 5 seconds would no doubt result in you become very very wet and hailstones so big that when driving to the airport on the motorway people had to put on hazard lights and stop under bridges for fear of their metal cars being dented. Standard Italian weather.

A week at home to rest
To see friends and to catch up with British life as a whole

Before heading to Spain
Ah, my first trip to Spain, and my first trip away without parents or a plan. We had rented an apartment which was so ideal it makes me squeal with joy every time I think about it. White walls, marble floors, a large balcony, a pool and the beach literally a leap away. No joke. We ran down into the sea in our bikinis with our towels and popped back home to get drinks and food during the day. No money, no keys, nothing else needed. Such a beautiful area with the mountains as your back drop whilst you swim and Africa onwards ahead of you. Nothing less than a beautiful relaxing, exciting place to be. Especially when the party doesn't start 'til 3am in Puerto Banus!

The Lion King
So our flight home was delayed by 5 hours... and I didn't get into bed until 6.30am the next day. This was also the day of Charlotte and I's trip to see the Lion King which we had got tickets for from our friends for our birthday. It was a good job it was amazing otherwise I would have been sleeping in the comfortable theatre seats. So good. So much colour and exuberance and wonderful singing. It made me want to be on stage singing those words pretending to be a lion everyday as my job. If only.

Other things since...
Include having my first driving lesson - bit late on that one. Music concert and various picnics with various friends. Garden parties, TV days, reading days, rainy days and very very hot days.

Wimbledon
I get a bit obsessed and glued to the screen this time of year, because of Wimbledon. I cannot play tennis at all, though I have tried and failed many many times, but that doesn't make me less interested in the sport when for two weeks the BBC broadcast live tennis from the Wimbledon championships. This year I wanted to take my obsession one step further, to actually attend the event in the flesh. So I did a bit of research on how to get tickets if you didn't get any through the ballot they have every year. Camping is the answer. So on Sunday I packed my tent, sleeping bag, food, clothes and Pimm's and off I went with some friends to camp in The Queue for the 2011 Championships. Little did we know that arriving at 5pm on Sunday for 'Manic Monday' was a bit too late to arrive. People had been queuing since Saturday morning. No joke. Despite this, we got our place in the queue. Number 1564. Not good enough for a show court ticket. We decided to stick with a ground pass. 9.30 on Monday we were in. A beautiful sight to behold. We watched the Murray match on 'Henman Hill' with strawberries and cream and Pimm's (no Wimbledon trip is complete without these, even an amateur knows that!). Went to see some doubles matches and junior matches on the other free courts and then decided to queue for resales for the Federer vs Youzhny match. Such a good decision. Within 20 minutes we had our tickets and were running at full pelt to court no. 1. We managed to catch the whole match bar 25 minutes, and what a good match it was. We left running on a high, but ready for bed.

Now I'm home and normal life has begun, though next week it's all off again with Benenden music school, theatre trips, exam results and more music concerts. I think this has been my best, if not busiest summer so far. I have had so much fun and I'm barely 2 months into this 4 and a half month extravaganza!