A quick update.

So, as you can see, I haven't posted anything here for quite a while. Over three months in fact. I do apologise. A-levels have just completely taken it out of me lately. Aah.
So, I thought that I'd do a short and sweet post about some of what's happened.
1) It was Christmas. That was cool. I can't even remember most of what I got. I do however remember there being a lot of socks and I do remember crying at the presents off my three best friends. That was brilliant. Also, I ate so much food that I genuinely thought that I was going to explode. Oops.
2) (This is a really important one...) I GOT A BOYFRIEND. YES. ME. A BOYFRIEND. REALLY. AAAAH. I'll not ramble on, but what I will say is that I'm absolutely crazy about him. We've been together for over eleven weeks now, and I just can't believe how quickly that time has flown. Wow. He's absolutely incredible and everything about him is amazing. He makes me feel so happy and so wonderful every second of every day. And I think that that's pretty damn awesome to be honest.
3) I sent my UCAS application off. It was quite possibly the scariest thing that I've ever done.
4) I got my offers back from all five of the unis that I applied for, and I had to go for an interview at one of them the other week. Yes I bloody well was nervous. But it went really well and they were "impressed with my interview performance". HELL YEAH.
5) I GOT AN OFFER FROM THE UNI THAT I ACTUALLY WANT TO GO TO AS WELL. OH MY GOD. I FREAKED OUT. AND I'M PRETTY SURE THAT I CRIED TOO.
6) We attempted a second Lord of the Rings marathon at Mia's. I think that it was perhaps a less successful attempt than the first time. Although we did get to watch a pretty cool penguin documentary.
7) It was my 18th birthday. Yep. I hit the big one-eight. I am now officially old, according to Danielle. Isn't she lovely. Ha.
8) I got my results back from my January exams and they weren't so good. Not absolutely terrible, but not what I was hoping for. I did manage to get less in the re-sit than I did the first time, which I guess is some sort of achievement. You have to laugh at these things, you really do.
9) Mia has got Frank Turner tickets for later this month. YES. I GET TO SEE FRANK AGAIN. THIS WILL BE THE FOURTH TIME. OH MY GOD. *flails*
10) Mia, Dana and I went to a gig on the Upload Tour. Oh my god. It was fabulous. Dave Giles hugged me. Yes. HUGGED ME. He's bloody huge. I felt like a Borrower. And BriBry hugged me too. Another instance in which I felt like a Borrower. And Tom Law and Eddplant were lovely. Awwww. The whole night was amazing and those guys are all insanely talented musicians. Wow.
11) More uni stuff; I responded to my offers. I felt so horrible and mean and rude and guilty rejecting three unis. Aah. BUT HOPEFULLY I'M GOING TO LINCOLN IN SEPTEMBER WOOOOOOO!
12) I also applied for accommodation at Lincoln. That was both exciting and scary. I really can't wait to go to uni now. Eeeeeee.
So. I think that that's all for now. Thank you and goodnight. (well, good evening.) Au revoir.

My brother is better than yours.

Look at this picture. JUST LOOK AT IT. My brother rocks.

Tuesday Morning Hilarity.

Finally got time to post about this. It'll be short and sweet.


On Tuesday morning, Dana and I were still on a massive high after the wonderfulness that occurred on Sunday (see my previous post) and we were rather a bit giddy all morning.

Dana suggested that we go on Jim Lockey & the Solemn Sun's website.

So we did.

Dana then suggested that we clicked on the "Photos" heading.

So we did.

We were casually scrolling through the pictures when BOOM.

Christopher, what is your face?!

^This happened.

Good lord, I haven't laughed so much in such a very long time.

WE ACTUALLY CRIED. AND WE HAD STOMACH ACHE FROM LAUGHING SO MUCH. 



So we printed out three copies of the photo.

Dana tweeted Mia that we had a surprise present for her.

It was so funny watching Mia try and guess what the present was.

Eventually, when the suspense was killing us too much, we showed Mia her photo.

She found it equally as hilarious.

Now, Mia will put it up on her wall so that she can have a little giggle whenever she feels like it.

Dana and I have taken the "keep it somewhere in your school bag and show it to each other by going 'hey Dana, hey Dana, hey Dana...' and then pulling a Chris face" approach. (obviously Dana goes 'hey Hayley' etc. because she wouldn't say that to herself; she's not quite that weird.)


Just thought that I would take the time to inform you of the wondrous things that occur when Dana and I are in a giddy mood.

"Did you enjoy the gig?"

If you didn't already know, I went to see Frank Turner again on Sunday. (Twice in a fortnight; crikey!)

AND OH MY GOD THERE AREN'T ENOUGH WORDS TO DESCRIBE WHAT HAPPENED.

I'll go in order...

Firstly, we got there super early and were about ten people back in the queue. HELL YES. That meant that we got right to the front when we went in. We were about five feet away from the stage. GAH.

We got to see Jim Lockey & the Solemn Sun again. They're incredible. They're definitely my new favourite band. They're so so so good. They're real music. None of this crappy chart stuff. Go listen to these guys; they're the real deal. Needless to say, there was a lot of squealing on mine and Dana's part. We bloody love them. Wish that the gig on their solo tour wasn't at an 18+ venue though. (I think that they should let me in anyway; it's only two days before my birthday...) BUT ANYWAY. JL&tSS were brilliant, AGAIN. I wished that they didn't have to leave the stage. Me and Dana were sad. Oh so very sad.

Tim Barry came on afterwards. He's great too. He's quite an angsty man. I like an angsty singer. Me and Dana sang along to the words that we knew from before, and also counted the number of times that Tim said "y'all". It reached 11. "Y'all" sounds so great in his American accent. We also spied Frank sat on the steps at the side of the stage having a sneaky listen. Tim then told us about how he rides trains back home; just freely hops from one to another. I'd love to do that one day. Not know where you're going to end up; just enjoying the ride. I bet it's a real eye-opener.

SO. After Tim was finished, the tension started mounting. FRANK WAS UP NEXT.

Me and Dana squealed when he came on stage. And clapped. And wooed. It was totally different to the gig in Nottingham.

The next however long it was (Hour? Two hours? I don't know, my head was too full of awesomeness to keep track of the time) was incredible. I've never felt more alive than when I was singing along and jumping up and down and screaming and clapping. The atmosphere was incredible. I felt like I was a whole new person, and that nothing else mattered to me in the world but Frank and his music. That feeling will never leave me.

THEN. When it was over (BOO ;_;) we were awkwardly trying to find the way out (almost began to queue for the Cloakroom, whoops), we spied Jim Lockey & the Solemn Sun hanging around by the merch stall and all of a sudden we were like "GUYS, SHOULD WE GET A PICTURE WITH THEM?!?!". So we did. Mine turned out a bit blurry, and as Dana later pointed out, Bass Player Phil was poking his finger in Drum Player Simon's ear. It's bloody fabulous. I could have cried at the pure hilarity. Mia's photo came out less blurry, and there was no finger-pokage in this one. Both photos are equally as brilliant. So thanks Jim, Chris, Phil, Simon and Roadie (we think that your name is Ryan?).

After photos with JL&tSS, we went outside and we were like "AHHHHAAHAHA THAT WAS SO GOOD OH MY GOD AND WE GOT A PICTURE WITH JIM LOCKEY AGH" and then we saw a crowd of people waiting outside some door. It suddenly hit us; they might be waiting for Frank. AND THEY WERE. So we did too.

And then so many indescribable things happened; I'm still questioning whether or not it actually all did happen. I'm still in shock, even now. It just hasn't sunk in yet.

I HAD MY PICTURE TAKEN WITH FRANK TURNER. AND HE SIGNED MY TICKET WITH MY NAME AND THEN HIS SIGNATURE. AND HE HUGGED ME.

I think that my life is now complete. Frank Turner hugged me. All further arguments shall be deemed null and void.

I still can't believe that it actually happened. Even the pictures don't seem to be enough proof to me; it could be some horrendously constructed plot to Photoshop my dream into reality. That would be awful.

But anyway. I should probably refer to the title of this post. "Did you enjoy the gig?", Frank Turner asked me, as he was signing my ticket. I, being in such a state of shock that I thought that my lungs were going give out, panicked of course. In my head I was instantaneously creating all of these elaborate responses, but all I could manage to say was "Uhhhuhhmmm, yes?! It was amazing!" very quietly. Smooth. Meet your idol and you come out with a lame-ass answer like that. But Frank didn't seem to mind. He must be used to this sort of occurrence. So, I asked for a photo, and he was like "Yes, of course!", so I had my photo with him, and then he smiled and hugged me. FRANK TURNER HUGGED ME. I really can't get over this fact.

After we'd all had photos and got signatures and things, we all said thank you and had to go back to the car to go home. I say "go" very loosely; there was a lot of squealing and running and several exclamations of "OH MY GOD!" going on. I'm pretty sure that Frank heard us and laughed. Oh well; he'll probably remember us forever now.

On the way home, me and Dana were like AHSDKSHFJSHDLFJAHDKFJSH and there was much "OH MY GOD DANA" and "OH MY GOD HAYLEY" to be heard. Mia was joining in too. Rosie hardly said a word the whole way home. Shock affects people in different ways, guys.

So that was what happened on Sunday.

Now, when I explain to people and they look at me nonchalantly I'm like "YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND". Because they genuinely don't. Frank is my favourite person in the whole world; he's brilliant, inspirational and an all-round fantastic musician. And after meeting him, I know that he's so nice and kind too. Although I really don't think that he realises just how great he is. I don't think that he expects squealing fangirls. I don't that think he realises how much he and his music mean to people like me. I would definitely not be who or where I am today if I hadn't had this man in my life. He's helped me through so much. I know that that sounds far too sentimental to be written down, but it's the complete and honest truth.

So enough of the soppy for now. I also would like to disclose that fact that one day, I WILL get a tattoo of Frank's logo, and I WILL get some of his lyrics tattooed. The only problem is, as me and Dana discovered in Psychology on Monday afternoon whilst listening to Frank, THERE ARE FAR TOO MANY BLOODY FANTASTICALLY BRILLIANT LYRICS. Seriously, there is at least one line that sticks out to you in EVERY SINGLE SONG. So this might be a lot harder than was originally anticipated. ARGH. I think that if Frank wasn't a singer, he should have become a poet. His lyrics are a million times better poetry than some of the drivel that I've read.

So, I think that I've just about got everything off my chest. It feels even more incredible seeing all of this written down. I'm literally beaming whilst typing this. THIS IS ALL BECAUSE OF YOU FRANK. Thank you for being such an amazing individual.

The Importance of Being Inspired.

Last night I went to the theatre. I LOVE going to the theatre. IT'S BRILLIANT. I love watching people act rather than always being the one on stage. It's such a breath of fresh air. Refreshing, if you will.

ANYWAY.

I went to the theatre to see The Importance of Being Earnest. AND IT WAS BLOODY FABULOUS. I was thoroughly impressed. What a fantastic piece of theatre.

I studied The Picture of Dorian Gray last year in English Lit. and I loved it so much. I found Oscar Wilde to be such an incredibly interesting character and to have such a unique writing style. I love Victorian Literature; it's fascinating. So when I saw The Importance of Being Earnest playing nearby, I knew that I just HAD to go. So I told my friend Mia about, and it was set.

THANK THE LORD THAT I SAW THIS PLAY ADVERTISED. AND THANK THE LORD THAT WE GOT TICKETS. I PROBABLY WOULD HAVE CRIED UNCONTROLLABLY IF WE HADN'T.

But we did. So it's all good.
Anyway. I should stop rambling and get more to the point.

I thought that the entire performance was simply marvellous. I could not have taken my eyes from the stage even if I'd wanted to. Transfixed is an accurate description. I was utterly captivated; that's when you know that it's a good piece of drama. No amount of words can adequately describe what I felt about the performance, so I should probably just go into more detail about the particular aspects which really stood out to me.

1) Every single one of the actors was INCREDIBLE. Utterly flawless performances.
2) The costumes, THE COSTUMES. They were so incredible. I felt like I was sat in the 19th Century. Bloody fabulous.
3) The chairs. Oh my goodness me, I wanted to take them all home with me; they were beautiful.
4) The set was wonderful. Simple yet very, VERY effective.
5) The lighting was excellent. It was perfect in each act; it didn't take anything away from the performance. I hate it when people go all crazy with the lights.
6) IT WAS HILARIOUS. ABSOLUTELY HILARIOUS. I didn't think that I would laugh so much. But it was just so funny!
7) This isn't really anything to do with the performance, but the actors did a post-show talk in the bar which was lovely. I didn't ask a question; although I probably should have done. What a silly Drama student I am. But I just went all quiet and the actors had to leave because they had to travel to their next theatre. BUT, the lovely Ashley Cook (playing Algernon Moncrieff [brilliant name I must say, I wish that could be my name too]) came over to talk to Mia at the end. Mia, like me, does not often bode well in awkward situations. Although, me being a Drama student, I should probably have more confidence. But I don't. I think that my confidence comes out on stage rather than in real life. Which kind of sucks. But anyway. Mia is a little more shy than me; she may or may not have gotten a little bit of a panic rash going on. So, Ashley came over and was so lovely to us, and asked Mia what her question was. She asked about context in the play and its relationship with The Picture of Dorian Gray, and she then asked how you get the confidence to speak in front of people, let alone perform on stage.

This was a pearl of wisdom from my dear companion. Such a brilliant question. Because I have always been inquisitive myself. It's weird that I take Drama as an A Level, and have been studying it for over six years, and yet the thought of standing in front of a room full of people and talking to them fills me with dread. I'm actually starting to feel a little bit nervous just thinking about it. I really don't understand myself. I think that there's this invisible barrier between my acting/confidence/performance skills in Drama and then those very same skills in other areas. ENGLISH PRESENTATIONS. GOOD LORD. They're horrendous. I hate doing them. I hate that I'm not at all confident in front of people that I've grown up with for years. So you can just imagine me in front of strangers.

I've always thought that this is because of the fact that, in Drama, the performance isn't me; I'm an actor playing a character. But in other subjects I get so nervous because it's my own work, and I'm me. Mostly I'm always terrified that my work will be wrong, or won't make sense, or that I don't explain it properly. I always get panicky and my heart races and my hands start shaking. Then when I talk, I stand looking at the floor or at my notes. ROOKIE MISTAKES, HAYLEY. DID YOU NOT PAY ANY ATTENTION TO ANYTHING IN DRAMA OVER ALL OF THESE YEARS?! You don't look at the floor. You don't look at your notes. You make eye contact with your audience and you project your voice. I do that in Drama, why can't I do it at other times?!

Okay, so I kind of went off on a bit of a tangent there. Back to the main point. I never told you Ashley's answer to Mia's question. He said that you just have to not care what anyone else thinks. And you know what? He's so right. Maybe that's really why I get so nervous when I'm not in Drama; in Drama I don't care. It's my interpretation of the character and I can do whatever I want with my performance. But in other situations, I always care. I always worry about what others think. And I probably shouldn't. If I have the confidence in what I'm saying, then it'll be great.

Still, I don't think that this will happen easily. Or quickly, for that matter.

But one day, I will stand up in front of a room full of people, not be nervous, and will put my heart and soul into every single word I say. I WILL.


So thank you, Ashley, for your inspirational take on things. I'm eternally grateful.

If you've got my back I'll go on.

This Sunday night will go down in history as THE GREATEST NIGHT EVER IN MY LIFE, OKAY?!?

For those of you who aren't already aware, I went to see Frank Turner. For those of you who are aware, I DON'T CARE, YOU CAN KNOW AGAIN.

I should probably stop using capitals now. You guys might get scared that I'm angry. BUT DON'T FEAR; I'M NOT ANGRY. I'M JUST VERY EXCITED TO TELL YOU ABOUT THE WONDROUS EVENTS THAT OCCURRED.

For starters, I was excited because I'd never been to Rock City before. Let me say; I will definitely be going there again in the future. It's a bloody fantastic venue. Especially considering the view that we got from the balcony. Brilliant I tell you, BRILLIANT.

We got there quite early (blasting out some Frank on the way there of course) and so we were quite near the front of the queue. ALTHOUGH IT WAS FREEZING. But me and Dana soon distracted ourselves by spying through the windows of the tour bus... But then they shut the curtains, which made us sad (imagine us pulling super-duper sad faces. That's how sad we were). However, we had a little giggle at the man that appeared to have gotten stuck in the door. Sorry Man In The Door.

THEN, Mia gave us our tickets, which made us happy. My ticket is very pretty. It has sparkly letters on it. I shall keep it forever and ever. It's pretty cool.

So eventually we went in (WOO) and the ticket man took my ticket stub and then a big scary man looked in my bag. Now, I'm the sort of person that panics in a situation like this. Even though I had nothing to panic about; I had my camera and my house keys in there. Hardly volatile substances... But anyway. Then we went inside and the room was starting to fill up, and so we went up to the balcony and secured the prime spot. It was great. Although the floor was VERY sticky. I think that I remember Dana comparing it to quicksand...

After much anticipation, Jim Lockey & the Solemn Sun came on stage. And my word, they were FABULOUS. Me and Dana were dancing along so much! I felt as though I'd heard them a million times before; they were so catchy! (I listened to them on Spotify for like an hour earlier. THEY'RE SO GOOD) Please check them out!

After JL&tSS, it was Tim Barry. He was from AMEEERICAAA. (please read that in a Southern American accent.) He was good; he said "y'all" quite a lot and sang some very real songs about life. Then he told us to challenge ourselves more often. You know, I think that he makes a really good point.

Then when Tim was finished it all got a bit tense... FRANK WAS NEXT.

9:30 came. It was the moment of truth. The following two hours passed so quickly. They really didn't seem to last that long. I wish it could have gone on forever. And ever and ever and ever and ever.

First and foremost, he started with If Ever I Stray. My second favourite song. My favourite was saved until last... But more on that later. ANYWAY. He sang If Ever I Stray really slowly to start with, just him on his own with his guitar, and then the pace picked up at the chorus and The Sleeping Souls came on and it all just went BOOM. Not literally like something exploding, but the bass and the drums just vibrated your whole body. It was amazing. I love that feeling; there's really nothing else like it. Then I don't really remember the rest vividly. It's all just a cumulative ball of Frank-ness. BUT A BLOODY FABULOUS ONE NEVERTHELESS. I really didn't want it to end. I sang along to every word (my throat was very sore by the end of the night. I was very surprised to wake up Monday morning with a voice...) and I clapped and shouted and danced and screamed a lot too. It was amazing. There really aren't enough words to adequately describe it.

So when it got to the end of the set, everyone went off stage and nobody quite knew what to do. So we all clapped for an encore. One of those claps that starts off really slowly and gets quicker and quicker until there's just loads of noise.

SO THEN THEY CAME BACK ON STAGE AND SANG PHOTOSYNTHESIS. MY FAVOURITE SONG. IT WAS SPECTACULAR. And he sang Dan's Song too, which made me feel as though the whole crowd had been transformed into this one big happy family who loved being in each other's company. Nothing else mattered but Frank and his music. That was a pretty special moment.

So, in summary, I had the most brilliant time. It will never be forgotten. I recorded the end on my camera, so now whenever I'm feeling down I can just sit and watch it and relive the magic. IT WAS DEFINITELY MAGIC.

I really don't know what else to say now. Other than GO SEE FRANK TURNER LIVE BECAUSE HE IS AMAZING.

P.S. I have realised that I have used the word "amazing" rather excessively in this blog post. I would apologise, but it's really such a fantastic adjective. It's amazing.

Hot Chocolate and Explosions.

This time last night, I was at a bonfire. It was brilliant. I do love a good set of fireworks. My little cousin loved it too. Despite all of us complaining that we had cold fingers, cold feet, or cold toes; we all had a great time. I feel like sharing the photos I took with you guys. Although they're not that brilliant; it's hard to get the timing right for photos of fireworks. As soon as you press the screen, they've already exploded and the next ones are about to. It was annoying.

The one on the left was the bonfire when we first got there. I thought it looked so pretty.

The one on the right was awesome. It looked so cool when it left red smoke everywhere.

The ones below were amazing. They made the sky look like a nebula.

 

The one above was my favourite. It looks and sounds a lot like popcorn. It was great. 

 These ones were fantastic. It's just a shame that the photos can't show how big they were.

I think this is my favourite photo. I love how you can see the moon and how everyone can just be united in awe for that half an hour.



It was a lovely night I got to spend with my family. I got to watch my cousin have the time of her life on the rides, drink hot chocolate, eat candy floss and have an all-round wonderful time! Brilliant!