So, it's been two weeks since my last blog post. I took a proper break from it for a while in the run up to my two exams this week but they're over now and I'm back and blogging :)
Other than revision, there are only two events worth mentioning this week...
Tuesday 24th January - Wakefield Mayor's Awards :)
One of my English teachers from last year, Jonathan, nominated me for this. I won a Community Silver award for the work I do with the Amnesty group, college magazine and the charity fundraising I've done in college. It was a lovely night and the stories of some of the 'Individual' award winners were so touching. It was so thoughtful of Jonathan to nominate me and did mean a lot. I plan on finding him this week to thank him. I also thought it was very appropriate that Wakefield's coat of arms (seen in the photo) was on display everywhere and the motto was ''persevere and prosper'' considering some of the stories we heard.
Saturday 28th January - Jess' 18th Party :)
It was my lovely friend Jess' 18th birthday on Thursday and she had a rather large house party ;) small gathering at her house last night to celebrate. Below are a few photos... But, firstly, a few highlights: Sophie deciding she needed to slide off the sofa and onto the floor; Matt wondering if he might have put his pizza into his pocket; the great language debate held by a bunch of languages students.
Besos ♥
Rachel
Happy Sunday :) I thought today I'd try something different and blog about my favourite mid-January things. I've also put together a collage of recent photos for something that I intend to make a recurring feature called 'Sunday Catch-Up'. I don't have much time to write during the week, so I thought that if I don't, I can do something regular on a Sunday to compensate for it.
So, here are my mid-January favourites...
Make-up products
1. The Body Shop Colourglide Lip Colour in shade 48, Soft Peony. I picked this up just after Christmas when I was looking for a nice pink lipstick that wasn't too bright but was still very obviously pink. I trailed around all of the stores that sell lipsticks in Wakefield and found nothing that I liked enough to warrant spending money on, then tried out The Body Shop at the last minute. I found many pink shades in here and took a liking to this one, shade 48/Soft Peony. It's not *too* bright and its staying power is quite good. I think it was £8.
2. Urban Decay Eyeshadow in Sin. This is my favourite shade in the Naked palette, and has gone straight in as my number one eyeshadow shade. The only shadow I own that I could potentially see becoming just as favourable is MAC Patina. I find that Sin is a good base for any colour-combination that I'm likely to use on an everyday basis. I got this single shadow for Christmas because I hit pan on it in the palette :(
3. The Body Shop Lip Balm in Pink Grapefruit. I owned this several years ago, and I also had the shower gel, but the lip balm lived in my school bag and I never seemed to use it. It ended up with things stuck in it and it just became unusable. I repurchased at the same time as buying the lipstick, and have been using it a lot during the day since. I absolutely adore the smell and it's not too greasy.
4. Nails Inc polishes in Madison Avenue (full) and Holland Park Road (mini). I also received these for Christmas and am in love with both shades. Madison Avenue is definitely my current favourite polish, with Holland Park Road taking second place. Madison Avenue is the perfect deep green, and Holland Park Road is what I would describe as 'alternative purple' - it's not fully purple, but purple with undertones of maroons and pinks. Both of these take two coats on my nails.
Randoms
1. Books. The first book I've been loving this month is Jon Richardson's 'It's Not Me, It's You!'. The book itself had me laughing hysterically (and several people can vouch for this) in public, but also contemplating life and love and everything in between. It's also made me even more excited to see him live in March (woo!). I've also been reading The Complete Winnie the Pooh. My mum bought me the latest film for Christmas and after watching, I dug out the book. Winnie the Pooh will never get old. Ever.
2. Jewellery. The necklace in the top-right corner is one of my favourite ever purchases. I bought it in the autumn at some point and it has become one of my everyday pieces. I love the different colours in it and how it changes colour in the light. The second necklace, the black butterfly, is another piece that has become one of my 'everyday wears'. Both necklaces came from Accessorize and I bought them at the same time. The butterfly actually has a proper butterfly print on the other side, but I wear mine backwards because I just like the black silhouette of the butterfly. I often pair up both necklaces too. The pink rose ring is handmade. I've been enjoying wearing it as a 'statement' piece recently. I bought the ring backs from Hobbycraft, and the rose itself came from Yum Yum Beads in Leeds.
3. Stationery. A bit of an odd one, but still, we'll go with it. I've been loving using my document holders from Artbox this month a lot. I have three with Rilakkuma designs on them. I bought the first one years ago when I visited the Covent Garden store with my family, and I'm currently using it to house all of my spare lined paper. The one pictured is my Spanish oral exam notes folder. The second picture is of my neon pink (my camera washed the colour out no matter which settings I used) heart stickers from Paperchase. The pack cost £1.99 (I believe, don't quote me on that though) and there are several sheets of the small stickers. I just thought they were quite cute and they seem to come in handy for random things - like sticking down an envelope that wouldn't close yesterday :) The third photo is of Sharpie highlighters. I'm mainly mentioning these because I've been without proper highlighters since starting college again in September and my one green highlighter was driving me insane. These have small tips, so if you're highlighting small text (like I do because my handwriting is very small) it's all nice and neat, unlike if using a highlighter with a thick tip. I use these everyday without fail.
And here is my Sunday catch-up...
1, 4, 5, 6, 7, 13, 14 & 15 Last night was my friend Katie's 18th party (Katie is the girl I'm with in #1). Pretty much everybody stayed right until the end and had a good time :) Highlights included 'the balloon game' (everybody's played that, right? Where you have to keep the balloon off the floor?) and watching Eliza completely fail at the Macarena.
2 We spent a bit of time checking over Miss Peanut yesterday afternoon after I thought she didn't look herself. My mum decided to make her stand on her feet (kind of).
3 Delivery of Artbox goodies. The I <3 Artbox badge was free.
8 While taking photos of Peanut, I couldn't help but get this shot of Miss Dusty, who was very intrigued as to what was going on and why she was not receiving much attention.
9 Nails Inc Electric Avenue. My party nails for last night.
10 Delivery of Mark Watson's 'Bullet Points'. VERY excited to read this when I finish Winnie the Pooh.
11 Speaking of Winnie the Pooh...
12 An odd drive to college with Fern. The sky was striped and just completely unique. I took this when we stopped at traffic lights and Fern, who was driving, thought I was insane.
Besos ♥
Rachel
They say that Disney's magic, right? Today's been a giving up kind of day.
Here is my new motto: "If ever there is tomorrow when we're not together.. there is something you must always remember. You are braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think. But the most important thing is, even if we're apart.. I'll always be with you."
As I sat and sobbed all the way through Pooh's Grand Adventure: The Search for Christopher Robin last night, I thought about the past and all of its challenges, and the future and how those challenges never seem to go away. It (the film) taught me two lessons: 1) never stop believing in the magic of Pooh, 2) there's nothing wrong with regressing a little when you need somewhere to escape to, and the Hundred Acre Wood isn't a bad place...
Besos ♥
Rachel
In the past five years or so, I can only name two books that were read from beginning to end with no skipping ahead: Eleven (Mark Watson), It's Not Me, It's You! (Jon Richardson). I find this fact quite important. I am still reading Jon's book. I'm on page 221, and even flicking the pages to find out how many there are remaining to read made me cringe and my eyes divert themselves away from the book itself. Yes, I realise it made the exercise entirely pointless. I also realise, after doing a spot of not-so-secret-anymore Googling, that I am certainly not the only person who cannot help but read the last few pages of a book before even looking at the first page (on occasion, even including the blurb).
There are arguments that reading the end of a book first can actually enhance the experience of reading it, an argument that I am slightly inclined to agree with. I like to know what is likely to happen, in any given situation, so I can adjust my behaviour appropriately throughout. In school, a lot of kids know that they are likely to get the dreaded detention if they misbehave, and so they are well-behaved. Prediction > response. I don't like situations popping up just when you think that life is perfectly levelled out.
Put bluntly, I don't like surprises. [And I certainly don't like them when they're some form of surprise test, an unexpected argument or, the worst, a traffic jam.]
Arguably, the fact that I don't like being, or feeling, surprised accounts for a lot of the decisions I make...
I know that topic is unlikely to appear in the exam, I'll revise it anyway just in case.
She was in a foul mood this morning, I'll stay here for a while longer until she's likely to have calmed down a bit.
If I cross the road when a car is approaching, I'm likely to get run over. I'll stay here on the pavement until the road is car-free.
I like to see the lack of the element of surprise in my life as more of a good thing than a bad one. My worst-case scenario would almost definitely be something along the lines of a surprise party. Firstly because I have been to several parties that I would describe as badly organised and executed - and this would irritate me no end considering my daily planner has a colour-coded system so that by simply glancing at a day I'll know whether the birthday marked is for a relative or friend - but secondly because there is no normal way to react to walking into a room full of people there to celebrate you in some form.
Equally, I'm not a fan of horror films. There are enough REAL horrors if I turn on the news, therefore I don't think it necessary to force false horrors onto myself so that I live the rest of my life reminding myself that I won't get killed if I set foot into a shower, but equally I need to be wary of any shower taken when I am in the house alone. The way I see it is this: why add to the looming pile of worries and concerns I already have?
Arguably, I don't need to be worrying about being surprised in my day-to-day life either. And I'm not. Not really, anyway. But equally, by at least acknowledging the fact that one day I might have to be surprised by something, I am counteracting the odd emotions that will inevitably follow as by simply thinking about the possibility, by brain is going over every potential situation and thinking of ways I could react. And this, my friends, is why I never seem to get any sleep...
Besos ♥
Rachel
There was a wonderful moment today when I was driving back to the park after an impromptu trip out for coffee. The sun was shining, the rain had dried up, I was warm for the first time in days, and I was alone.
As I squinted to avoid being blinded by what I considered to be an oddly bright sun, parts of me were there. They were back there, squashed in the back of what was probably the world's most humid minivan, driving through the Croatian countryside, weary from what had been a brilliant week. It had been brilliant, but as I sat in the back of that stuffy tin can on wheels, I realised it had both broken me and pieced me back together.
Of course, in reality I was just driving along what I can only describe as a dual carriageway that wasn't, but in my head I was somewhere so much bigger. My head was full of memories, memories that are usually locked away in the little compartment I like to call 'Hrvatska'. But, with every piece of reality that found its way into my daydreaming and reminiscing, I found a dozen more memories to mask it.
Right, roundabout has successfully been completed, we can tick that off the to do list for this journey and go back to sitting in a minivan feeling broken...
So, yes, we're in the minivan. Chasing Cars by Snow Patrol is building, its volume increasing. We're all lined up in two rows singing too, and Margaret is still asleep in the front, which does not go unnoticed (we are secretly glad of the break). My mind races through the week we've just experienced. One minute, I'm despairing on the coach to Novigrad as the group bicker and make a point of throwing the shopping list up and down the seats as if it's going to explode. Lesson 1: you'll often find that nobody is willing to be responsible, not even for a piece of paper and a pen.
The next minute, Jacob and I are somehow hurtling towards Jemma and Catherine, our paddles somehow contradicting the movements we believed could be described as ''paddling backwards''. We hit them. It's a dull thud, plastic hitting plastic and then less than a second of silence. We've gone under. And it's on top of us. Parts of me are angrily wondering why I'd bothered to imagine that kayaking could ever end well, other parts are really enjoying it panicking. The overriding thought inside my head is simply "you cannot drown, that's not going to go down well". Somehow, I find my way back into the kayak, as does Jacob. And then a minute later some of the boys manage to knock us off what was really only a 'very small waterfall', but when you've just nearly drowned is obviously just a curse. By now, though, nervous laughter has kicked in and I look mental. Great, I'm standing on a rock in Croatia while I laugh at the fact that we're all so incompetent that we can't manage to stay afloat for more than a minute. Lessons 2 and 3: never go kayaking, never confront your irrational fear of being underwater in front of a teacher who will get drunk and present you with an award for ''amusing the whole group when you fell out of that kayak''.
But, mainly, in my dream-like state, I was just back in that minivan, that krvavi minivan, convincing myself that if I didn't get eaten alive by ants, I'd certainly die of heat exhaustion while listening to Margaret repeat ''when the going gets tough..." But you know what? I reckon I left a bit of me in that minivan. Whenever the sun is out, I'm instantly back there. We're singing as loudly as possible while our driver (a lovely young Croatian woman whose name I never learnt) smiles in the rear-view mirror and turns the radio up, even though we're stuck in Trogir traffic and all of the windows are down.
That moment is a moment I would relive everyday if I could. There, the atmosphere was, simply, magical. Because, you see, we had started out at the back of a coach, tired and weary after an airport mishap and about to murder one another over whether or not tomato soup truly was a necessity for our week in the Croatian wilderness. We had nearly drowned each other in the middle of a river that was, quite frankly, hours away from anything resembling a hospital. We had embarrassed ourselves, we had injured places we didn't know existed, everybody else seemed to have been bitten (but not lucky me), our teachers had embarrassed us by getting drunk in a campsite bar, we had each experienced something that resembled a nervous breakdown in a mini-supermarket over the budget, and we had hated the world beyond any hate we had known to exist. But, and this is the big one, we had lived. We had gathered around the campfire, sharpened twigs, toasted marshmallows. We had gathered by the water and laughed until our sides ached at a rather enthusiastic lady dancing wildly for hours. We had rushed down a mountain to get help for team members who were ill and we had spoken vividly about how much we all loved each other. Lesson 4, the important one: no matter how bad you feel, how embarrassed you are, how much you hate someone or something, how helpless you feel, teamwork will always make it better. In our case, it wasn't better, it turned into something beautiful.
And there I was, driving back to college, grinning to myself from behind the steering wheel like my invisible friend had just told a really good joke. Embarrassing, I thought, but not as embarrassing as falling out of a kayak in the Croatian countryside. And certainly not as embarrassing as being awarded for it.
Besos ♥
Rachel
Saturday 28th January - Jess' 18th Party :)
