1000 Awesome Things 900-801

Wow, time flies in the blogging world.

Today I've decided to do my second installment of awesome things and look for a few more of my favourites. I've not actually read them yet, I'm going to do that as I'm posting. I wonder how many I'm going to feel strongly about this time? Let's see:

#898 Playing old-school video games - Because they're always the best! Like, I recently bought Sonic the Hedgehog for my Nintendo DS, although I'm still not very good at it!
#895 Getting something with actual handwriting on it in the mail - It normally means an unexpected (or even expected) letter from a friend, but then there's always the time when it turns out to be something boring.
#892 Taking your shoes and socks off after a really long day - There's something nice about having nothing on your feet.
#877 Getting in a line just before it gets really long - This doesn't happen to me very often, you're more likely to hear me say "wrong queue again". But when it does happen, it feels good!
#872 The feeling of scrunching sand in your feet - Because it means I'm on holiday. I could really do with a nice relaxing sunny beach holiday right now!
#858 The other side of the pillow - There's something strangely satisfying about it.
#854 Crying - Everyone needs a good cry now and then.
#840 Popping bubble wrap - Who doesn't love it!?
#818 When the dentist says you have no cavities - This didn't happen to me last time, I had to have two fillings today (luckily no injection though)

After thinking at first glance I wasn't going to agree with many, there was actually quite a few more I couldn't have mentioned. But also quite a few I really didn't agree with!

In other news, I went to see the Leonardo Dicaprio film, Inception last night. I won't say too much because I don't want to ruin it for people who haven't seen it. I will say it's a very clever film. But it's one of those ones you really have to concentrate on to make sure you get all of the information to understand it completely. And I actually didn't get confused like I thought I might after hearing people talk about it. If you're thinking about seeing it, I'd definitely recommend it.

1000 Awesome Things

The other day my boyfriend told me about a website called 1000 Awesome Things that he'd read about in a newspaper. He said he agreed with most of the things the newspaper had mentioned so I thought I'd take a look at the website for myself. The website is a blog, started in June 2008, that is basically counting down a list of 1000 awesome things. It was even made into The Book of Awesome, released in America in April 2010. It's currently up to number 460, which they say is The Childhood Super Jump!

So far I've read from 1000 to 901, because 1000 things is a lot to read all at once. So I'm going to list a few of the awesome things that I think are pretty awesome too, and will come back another day to do 900 to 801 and so on.

Here goes:
#995 Finding money you didn't even know you lost - Let's face it, who doesn't?
#987 Picking the perfect nacho off someone else's plate - Just because I love nachos!
#973 Sleeping in new sheet sheets - Because there's something so nice about a freshly made bed.
#917 The moment at a concert after the lights go out and before the band comes on stage -There's something magical about that moment, the excitement and anticipation in the air, knowing you're going to see your favourite band any moment after waiting months. I could do a whole blog entry on this!
#911 Getting served breakfast in bed - Always nice on a relaxed morning.

I know I haven't chosen many out of 100, but they're just my favourites. A lot of them are quite Americanised so I can't really relate to them, but in the same way there are a lot I can.

I'll be back another day with more!

London Baby!

How has it been so long since I last posted?

At the weekend I finally went to London after it being about six months since I last went! The main purpose for going was to do a tour of Arsenal's Emirates Stadium, that I'd bought for my boyfriend as a Christmas present. Now, as I may have mentioned before (I can't remember!?) I'm not really into football, and I'd said he could take anyone with him, but he wanted me to go. So of course I did, it meant a day out in London and a day together. I've got to say, I was impressed with what you got for your money, it was much better then the tour we did of Barcelona's Nou Camp Stadium. You actually got a tour guide to show you around, and he was really good.

The tour started in the director's box, which is where all the owners and people sit during matches. Very comfy seats indeed! From there you went to the players entrance, which is just where the home and away players enter the building from the underground car park. But there's a time capsule there that was put in when the new Stadium was opened. Then you got to go into the home players changing rooms where they played a video from the manager, and there was players shirts hanging up with the names showing so the fans could have their photos taken with them. Then we go to walk out through the tunnel and on to the side of the pitch and sit where the manager and players sit during matches. Lastly the guide took us to the press conference/media room where players sometimes do interviews, and then it ended at the Arsenal shop! The tour lasted an hour, and it also included entry into the Arsenal Museum for you to look at in your own time. There was only so much football I can take, but it's a must for Arsenal fans I'd say!

It was possibly the hottest day of the year, so the Underground got a bit unbearable at times, but it's what you expect. After the Emirates we headed to Oxford Street to do some light shopping and stop off at Ben's Cookies. It's a tiny little cookie shop, but they had one where my boyfriend went to uni so we couldn't resist. I had a double choc and all the chocolate in the middle in melted and they're just so yummy. If you ever fins yourself on Oxford Street in the mood for a cookie, it's next to the biggest Boots store.

By the time we'd finished shopping it was dinner time, and we decided Leicester Square was a good place to start. We we headed there and eventually decided on Chiquito, which was extremely yummy! Our starter got given to the table next to us at first, and our mains almost got given to the table on the other side, but the food was good when we did get it! Can't resist a good Mexican, it's one of my favourite foods, especially nachos, fajitas and enchiladas.

After dinner it was time to head home as it had been a long day. And now can't wait to go to London again!

Twilight

It's been a few days since I last post, and I was struggling for a subject to write about again. And I went to see the new Twilight film, Eclipse on Sunday, so I thought I'd give my view on the whole Twilight Phenomenon.

I don't remember exactly when I first heard about the Twilight Saga, I think it might have been just before the first film came out. I never thought I'd bother reading the books because they weren't really my thing. I've not read anything else vampire related, although in a way you could count Harry Potter as they're both fantasy I guess? Anyway, a few of my friends had read the books, and then the film came out and went to DVD. I ended up watching it at a DVD night and annoying one of my friends who'd read the books asking lots of questions about all the in and outs. It was then I decided I should probably just read the books, so I went out and bought Twilight, New Moon and Eclipse.

I thought Twilight was OK, it helped me understand all the things they gloss over in the film. I'm kind of undecided, I think I need to re-read them all to be honest. There's a couple of things the Stephanie Meyer does that annoy me, like repeat the same phrase over and over in all the books. But I guess when you write a certain way that's inevitable.

I enjoyed New Moon slightly more, the storyline was a bit more interesting with the introduction of Jacob, it's probably my favourite of the books if I had to have one. I did have to rush through it a slightly because it was just before the New Moon film came out and obviously I didn't want the film spoiling the ending of the book. Even though the film and book end differently.

With Eclipse the Jacob character really started to annoy me the way he just wouldn't take no for an answer from Bella. In that way I guess I'd lean slightly towards "Team Edward", but really I'm not that bothered to be honest. Having only just seen the film, it's hard not to get the two mixed up as it's been quite a while now since I read the Eclipse book. I've also just read "The short second life of Bree Tanner". Which is about the girl that "surrenders" after the big fight between the Cullen's (and werewolves) and Victoria's new born army. I found it interested to see the other side of the story and the point of view of vampire.

When it comes to "Breaking Dawn", I didn't read it straight way after finishing the other three. I didn't want to buy it in hardback form so I ended up borrowing it from a friend. But this is where it lost me. The whole vampire baby storyline is a bit too far-fetched for me, not that the whole thing isn't. Not that I didn't enjoy reading it, because obviously I wouldn't have finished it if I thought it was that bad! I did find the ended slightly disappointing.

Sorry I'm not very good at the whole reviewing thing, that's why I have blogs, I'm hoping to get better at it! I just wanted to put my opinion out there. I'm not a major Twilight fan, but I did enjoy reading the books and watching the films. As I said earlier, I think I'm going to re-read the books so maybe I'll take in things I didn't notice the first time.

And I'm afraid I don't see the whole Robert Pattinson thing!

Friends

And by friends I mean my friends, the people I choose to spend my time with, not the television show (although I do like that too, but that's for another post maybe!).

It might sound like a cliche, but without my friends I would not be who I am today. With my friends I've had the best times of my life, I met my boyfriend because of one of them and they make me amazingly happy.

My friends have always meant a lot to me. Probably as far back as when I started school. I've always been shy, when I was younger, I'd say I was painfully shy. But I was never short of friends. I've never had a lot of friends, but the ones I do have I'm close to.

At this moment in time I have two "groups" of friends. For the purpose of this post I'll called them my home friends, and my away friends.

My home friends are the group I spent all my time with in Sixth Form. We had some of the most amazing parties, nights out and a lot of laughs just sitting around in the Sixth Form social area at school. I'd say there's three of these girls I'm still quite close to (one more than the others, she gave birth to a baby boy last night and I couldn't be happier for her and her husband) and another five I still occasionally meet up with. But when we all get together we still have a great time. Unfortunately one of the girls I'm closest to now lives thousands of miles away in a place called Ascension Island. No ones can blame her for moving home, but every year she comes back to visit and we all try and persuade her to move back here again. And every year we get a little closer!

My away friends, as you may have guessed, live away from me. And I met them all online, on a forum for a cheesy boyband! This must be a good eight years ago now, maybe more. We're never sure of the exact date it started, but we have a lot to thank that certain boyband for. There's a group of five of us from this website that are very close. We try to meet up with each other in London or someones home town as much as possible, but it's getting harder and harder with everyone having full time jobs and boyfriends and babies! There's quite a few other people from this website too, some we meet up with when we can, there's even a few from Norway. I miss those four girls so much. They met up last Saturday but I couldn't make it because I already had plans, and I hate that.

A teacher said when I was in Sixth Form that you make the best friends you'll ever make during University. I don't agree with this. I made a few friends while there, but no one I was ever close to, or even keep in touch with.

And of course, there's my boyfriend, who I couldn't live without. I met him because of one of my home friends, and one of his friends (who happens to be the husband of my friend who just had the baby!) and I'll be forever thankful to them for that!

Basically, the reason why I love my friends so much is that they accept me for who I am, and they always have. None of them have ever tried to change me. They're there for me when I need them and have never let me down. It may sound harsh but if a friend can let you down, they're not a real friend. I miss the days of going out with my home friends every weekend, and meeting up with my away friends at least once a month.

Life changes, but whatever happens, I'll never lose touch with any of these friends, because without them, I wouldn't have a life.

Writer's block.

I really wanted to keep to what I said yesterday and do a proper blog entry today, but I just can't think of anything to write about. My mind's a total blank! I'm sure when I'm away from my laptop I'll think of something. Until then, sorry for the lack of an interesting update.

I will leave with something funny. Check out this video of my cheeky cat sneaking milk from my mum's glass!:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kgiwXI5PI0o

Blog!

Yes, I'm back to blog again! I know, I've said it at least five times, but I'm really, really going to try this time. I want to update at least once a week, and I want to try and update my music blog a bit more too. I did so well with that when I had to regularly update for uni. What I say may not be interesting but at least I'll be posting and hopefully people will read, and I'll get back into writing again. Because once upon a time I actually enjoyed writing.

I spend so much time in the evening wasting time online, why not do something productive with my time?

So this is me, promising myself to update more!

Busy busy!

It's been a little while since I've posted. I've been quite busy the last few weeks. My friend's been back visiting from a little island called Ascension in the Atlantic Ocean (we became friends in Sixth Form, but she moved back there a few years ago to cut a long story short. She visits once a year and this time she's been back five weeks, or will have by the time she leaves. So I've been meeting up with her lots, and we've had some good nights out like we used to! We always have such a good time when she's back, everyone makes an extra effort to meet up because she's not around much.

Tomorrow a big group of us who have been friends since Sixth Form and our other halves are all going bowling. Also another friend who did an exchange from China and is studying in Nottingham is visiting too so is coming along with us. Will be good to have everyone together again.

This is what's making me happy right now, and spending lots of time with my boyfriend.

Barcelona - Days Three and Four

I'm going to write about the last two days in one post as I don't have so much to write about and they'd be pretty short entries otherwise.

Adam wanted to do the Barcelona FC stadium (Nou Camp) tour as part of his birthday celebration, so that's what we did on the Monday morning. If your interested in football at all then I'd say it's worth doing. You pay 17 Euros per person and you get to go all around the stadium including the away players changing room, players tunnel, beside the pitch, and the press room as well as several places in the stands. You also get to look around the museum. Now I'm really a football fan but Adam loved it so it was worth it just to see him enjoy himself!

After this we decided to do the second route on the open top bus tour, because there was a couple of things we wanted to see; Sagrada Familia and Guell Park (both designed by Gaudi). In the end we wished we hadn't! By that time it was raining, so we had to sit downstairs to save from getting drenched (I'd already had to buy a scarf because it was getting cold!). We eventually arrived at Sagrada Familia having found everything before it rather boring (apart from our only glimpse of the beach, not quite the same in the rain!). And it is as amazing as they say it is. It's actually still being built, which I didn't realise, as Gaudi died before he finished it. We didn't go inside but took plenty of photos of the outside:

After that we decided to get back on the Metro again to head to Guell Park because we just couldn't fave the bus tour! We got off at the nearest Metro station and still and to walk a little way (and ended up buying an umbrella!) and eventually came to Guell Park on top of a hill. I really liked it there, the mosaic design of the buildings and things. I just wish we'd seen it in better weather because I feel it would have look even better. And we would have really been able to appreciate the amazing view of Barcelona too. I'd love to go back one day. Here's a few pictures we took there:

And that was the end of another long day, so we grabbed so dinner before retiring to the hotel for the last time.

I'll be honest, we didn't do an awful lot of the last day. Although our flight wasn't until the late evening. The first thing we did was go ans take a proper look at the Olympic Stadium, as we'd only passed it briefly on the bus tour. You can go inside for free. You can't go around the whole stadium, but it's interesting to see what it's like inside. We also saw this:

But unfortunately all I can remember about it is that part of it is at the same angle as the axis of the Earth! After that we did some shopping, took our last walk along the Ramlas and wasted some time before we had to head back to the hotel and off to the airport.

All in all we had a fab time and I'd love to go back again, maybe when the weather's better and for a bit longer so we can do more. We ran out of time to go to the zoo!

Barcelona - Day Two

So I realised, I haven't finished writing about my trip to Barcelona, despite being back nearly a month now! I'll do my best to remember the interesting bits at least!

Day two was my boyfriend's birthday, and we were tired from the long day the day before, so we had a nice lie in before heading out. It was a lovely sunny Sunday as we headed back into the city for the day. Before we could do anything else we had to find my boyfriend, Adam some sunglasses as he'd left his at home. We ended up finding some in H&M in the shopping centre by the port. We then bought an ice cream and walked along the waterfront by all the boats enjoying the sun.


Here's I am:
Then Adam wanted to do an open top bus tour to again make the most of the sun and see all the sites. The bus we decided to get had 2 routes, so we got a two day ticket thinking we could do the other route the next day. Places we saw included the Cathedral, the Olympic Stadium, National Art Museum of Catalunya (or MNAC), and some of Gaudi's works; Casa Mila (Or La Pedrera) and Casa Batllo. At the end of the tour we also looked inside the Cathedral, as it was free to enter. Another of the sites you should take a look at if you ever go to Barcelona.

After a day of sightseeing we went back to the hotel to get dressed up for a birthday meal for Adam at the Hard Rock Cafe in Barcelona. Despite waiting and hour for a table, the food was lovely and my Margarita went down well after a long day!

You can check out the bus tour we took here.

Barcelona - Day One.

I've been back two week now so I thought it was about time I wrote about my break to Barcelona. I've been so busy at work since I got back, I've just been too tired to do this. At first it was all a bit of a jumble, and now it's a bit hazy, but I think I can remember all the important things I wanted to say, with a little help from a photo or two!

My boyfriend and I got up early on Saturday 10th April to head to the airport. After work 12 days in a row I was definitely looking forward to a few days off. We had a good journey to the airport and a good, quick flight. We arrived at our hotel around lunch time, or should I say siesta time being in Spain. We were very impressed with our five star hotel room, which even had curtain that closed across the floor to ceiling windows at the press of a button!

Our hotel was on the outskirts of Barcelona, just near the station for the last stop on the red line of the Metro. We got ourselves a four-day Metro ticket for just over 20 Euros each and headed into Barcelona. We got off at a stop called Espanya, as we didn't really know where we were going and it seemed quite central. Here's a few things we saw when we came out of the Metro:

Then we realised this is where the Magic Fountain was, and as we wanted to watch the "show" later, decided to head somewhere else until then. So back on the Metro it was and down to a stop called Drassanes on the green line. This was just at then end of La Rambla and near Port Vell. We decided to take a walk along the waterfront and found a little shopping centre, which we found ourselves at quite often. After this we took our first stroll along La Rambla looking at all the little stalls and street artists and performers. I must admit, La Rambla wasn't as amazing as people had told me it would be, but it's an interesting Street! Then it was time to head back to the Magic Fountain (of Montjuic), and this was as good as people said it would be. If you haven't seen it before, the water seems to move in time with music, and when it's dark, it lights up too. It may not sound that great but it's a definite must see in Barcelona.

Last port of call for day one was a typical Spanish dinner - Tapas and Paella! And after a very long and tiring day we headed back on the Metro to our wonderful hotel.

Still to come, Day Two - The bus tour!

Sorry!

I know, I got back from Barcelona nearly 2 weeks ago. Check back in the next couple of days for a write up!

Barcelona!

I'm finally going back to Barcelona!

Me and Adam got around to booking our weekend break to Barcelona for his Birthday (two weeks today)! He mentioned about a month ago he quite fancied going away for his birthday, then he eventually decided on Barcelona and today we finally got around to booking it.

We spent ages looking at different hotels on the Thomas Cook website, but we couldn't find anything that looked particularly great, in a good area and for a good price. We were about to give up but then Adam remembered lastminute.com. So we put in the dates we wanted to go and where, and the first hotel that came up at the top of the page was 50% of and FIVE star! We didn't even look at any others! It was a great price, good flight times and looks amazing. We decided we could sacrifice the not-so-great location because it was such a good deal. Plus there's a free shuttle into the centre of Barcelona and the airport. We also got what's called a deluxe room! The hotel's called Hesperia Tower.

I say I'm finally going back to Barcelona, because I went there on a day trip while on holiday in Salou with my family when I was 9. Except the day trip got called off after we'd seen the football stadium and half the zoo, because of a major thunder storm. The puddles on the floor were inched deep and the thunder was the loudest I've ever heard. I wasn't very happy though because we were in the zoo about to watch a dolphin show, and then we were going shopping. So I'm really excited about going back and getting to see all the things I didn't get to see first time around.

My job.

Okay, it's rant time, you've been warned!

My job is really getting on my nerves right now, not that it hasn't always. It's just stupid things. So we're about to get really busy because of the Easter holidays, and we don't have enough staff. A lot of this a due to the manager, because he advertised for staff, and we had applications in, but he's left it so long there's not not enough time to get people in and trained. We try and get people from the restaurant who used to work in the hotel to help, but obviously the restaurant is their priority not. The restaurant always comes first.

And it also gets on my nerves when you makes the effort to be done on time and other people take the piss and you end up having to do extra work because they take so bloody long.

I'm not sure how much longer I can take this job. I'm looking every day but there's just nothing around at the moment. Nothing I can do. Lots of managerial and shit jobs advertised.

It doesn't help that the only thing I have experience in is what I want to get out of.

A degree doesn't count for anything.

Especially when it's a shit degree from a shit Uni.

Rant over.

Dream a little dream...

A new type of post today, not about happy thoughts or sad thoughts, but a rather strange dream that I had the other day. I don't normally remember much of my dreams, but for some reason this one stuff in my mind when I woke up.

I started with me packing, I think. I was looking through lots of old CDs with all my friends from Dover and giving away the ones that I didn't want.

And then I was moving into a house. But it was a shared house, almost like a stupid house, or even a foster home, except I was still the age I am. The house was pretty big, I know it had a least 6 bedrooms. I know this because at one point I went upstairs in the house, and there was three massive bedrooms there, all newly decorated. And I remember there being three bedrooms downstairs as me and two other people who obviously didn't get a room upstairs were trying to decide who should have which bedroom.

The bedrooms downstairs were smaller, not as small as my room is now, but still small. They clearly hadn't been decorated and had mis-matched furniture. One strange thing about these ones was that one room could only be reached by going through one of the other two rooms. So, two of its walls were outside walls, and on the other two walls were doors, leading into the other two rooms. I ended up in this room. But the strangest thing about the dream was who the other two people were. One was Fearne Cotton, and the other was Jacob Black. And yes, by Jacob Black I mean the Twilight character. It wasn't Taylor Lautner who plays Jacob either, it was definitely the Jacob character. I know this because I'd been reading Breaking Dawn before I went to sleep.

I can explain parts of this dream. For instance, I'd been listening to Fearne Cotton on Radio 1 at work earlier in the day. I'd watched Extreme Makeover: Home Edition before reading Breaking Dawn, maybe explaining the difference in the upstairs and downstairs of the house. But why did I dream about all of these things, and why all in the same dream?

Anyone any good with dreams?