Where did i leave off from?
ah yes.
Well i would have started uni and my new job as a caterer; and by November I would have already completed 3 assignments and revision for exams in the new term. I had worked at Brighton's Pride, Freeze festival, Olympia Horse Show, The Vaccines and Bloc Party concert, the George Micheal show, London Ice sculpting festival, Carfest in Cheshire, the Wedding Show exhibition (i so wanted to get married - at the time.. at the time) and much more.
January 2013, i flew to Antalya, Turkey with my mother and my sister for a week as a break. We were living in luxury with open bars and 24 hour buffets which great sunshine and lovely people. When i returned, I began my first internship placement at the DCAL research centre located in UCL, North London, which stands for Deafness cognition and language. Initially I was working 26 hours per week then after a few weeks it was dropped down to Mondays and Wednesdays for 4 hours. I was working on the functional transcranial doppler imaging project and the executive functioning project collecting data onto a spreadsheet on SPSS. I would go into details it but i won't as it would be tiresome for you and me! Anyhoo i was there for 6 months as it became too demanding for me to keep attending. At this time, I applied for other universities as i felt that i wasn't getting enough from the University of West London (UWL), i wasn't happy and i just wanted to move. I managed to submit and send a UCAS form in time and awaited responses.
Around this time I grew close to a guy who lived in the same residential area as me; at the start we kept bumping into each other and would briefly chat. It was nothing big but the chemistry was firing, well for me anyway. After swapping numbers and tolerating his frequent cockiness, we somehow started hanging out almost every night talking for hours and hours until daylight! I kept this a secret until i fell for him completely - late after we were introduced to the world of dating and started going on dates. He had not been to a cinema nor a west end musical for who knows how long - so we were booking tickets and having meals out to visiting attractions in London. I thought, goodness we're getting serious but not quite so. He was doing Music Technology and was the loudest one at every party but he would never dance. He is a year older than me and just loved drinking beer, eating chicken and making me laugh - i really liked this guy, I never really understood why.
Greece in April'13 was a great break with my flatmate and it was amazing, we flew to Kefelonia island then spent a few days in the city - Patras before flying back home again. Still, I was completing assignments and hitting deadlines on time, I sat exams and completed my first year at UWL! I got accepted into Kingston University as a transfer student after attending an 'are you good enough' interview and a tour. I was due to start in October but dreaded starting all over again.
Now now, Summer '13 was to be the best yet - in June, I went to Pinkpop Festival in Landgraaf, Holland with a friend for a week - headlines included Ellie Goulding, Greenday, Kings of Leon, Kodaline, Paramore, The Scripts, 30 Second to Mars, Fun and Tom Odell. Just fantastic - we camped in Site B with the rest of the Dutch and it was just surreal you know, being the only fewest English goers, it felt proper, like true means of travelling. Soon after I went to Marrakech, Morocco with my sister for my 19th birthday, we spent the week racing quadbikes, visting the Jardin Majorelle, trekking with Camels, hiking desserts and climbing waterfall sites.
In July, Saffron and I booked a flight to Thailand with no plans, only to stay for two months. We reserved the first 2 nights in Bangkok then thought to sort the rest out from there - it worked out very well! (In fact I ought to uploads pictures from Cambodia and Thailand shortly just to show you and definitely inspire you to visit too!) The first 3 weeks of our time in Thailand was pre-booked from an agency we visited while we were wondering around the city. We first went up north to Kanchanaburi by car for 2 nights to visit the waterfalls, Jeath Museum, riding and washing elephants as well as playing with tigers in another region then from there spent 2 days travelling south by an overnight train then a ferry and a car to the islands of Koh Samui. Here we spent the week visiting local events such as fire parties and bars and chilling at a beautiful hotel located directly on the beach, booking thai massages and nail fun. We were helping at a Dogs home basically cleaning up shite, brushing hairs and clipping nails. We spent the last moments there naming puppies and playing with them. They were so damn cute; my favourite was Bailey. We also visited Angthong National Marine Park for a day with lunch and saw wild monkeys, we also did kayaking which was so scary as we were rowing in the middle of the sea! After our stay there, we then took a boat to Koh phi phi where the island has no cars! NO CARS!? Can you just imagine? It was just beautiful. One night i lost my flip flops then ended up walking around with my bare feet, me, bare feet, me. We spent a few days there climbing hills, meeting people and eating out. We also took a trip around several islands and even attempted snorkelling - this (we saw so many fishes!) then to 'The Beach' island where we had to swim to the shore against the waves!! Ofcourse i had my lifecoat on, actually i'm pretty sure everyone did!! It was raining and the waves were so dangerously rough, we generally thought we wouldn't make it home. We headed to Koh Phangan island and attended the world biggest full moon party which went on until the AM and several of other events and trips. After Phangan, we took a boat then coach to Krabi for a few days going around islands by a speedboat which could have broken my back and neck, seriously! We then tried snorkelling again which was not too successful at the time, no. We were on tsunami hazard zones which was a little spooky too but handled rather well. We then made it to Phuket for a few nights then made a last minute decision to go to Chiang Mai which took 27 hours in total on the coach. We overstayed in Chiang Mai but there, the people were more locally friendly! We tried different thai food and went to several historical places. We were working at Buddha school for the boys - Dhammukshra School - assisting the English teachers and helping on the pronunciations and spellings. We also helped with the World Peace Ethics contest. We visited the train market also known as the umbrella market, floating markets, saw fireflies from a longtail boat. We went to Pai for 3 nights visiting the grand canyon and feeding elephants, also attending the monkey show. We spent the day visiting the long neck hill tribe village in Chiang Rai - we returned to Chiang Mai for a few days, bike riding and sightseeing. Soon we took the coach to Surin which was further south near Bangkok, where we did a homestay at a headmaster's house with his wife. Here we were teaching English at his school - Surriphinpittaya Government School - we were given a timetable for each day. Soon it was time to head to Bangkok before our flight home, we spent the last few days shopping and going out to places we needed to tick off our list. We splashed on a classy hotel in the city to enjoy our evening in the tallest building, drinking sherry and listening to live soul music reflecting on our adventures. It was a sad enjoyable moment.
12 hours on the plane felt like a short moment in the toilet! I went straight home to Milton Keynes to tell all then spent a fabulous week with the boy i so liked. I was soon due to start my second year at Kingston University and began a new job also as a caterer but at dinner parties, conferences and as a bar staff at Royal Albert Hall.
December '13, myself, my mum and my sister flew to Turkey again this time to travel. We visited Istanbul, Pamukkale, Belek, Bodrum and Cappadocia within 2weeks as Antalya being our base home to return to - just wonderful.
You know what, I've gone on again, so i'm going to stop here now.
I will return shortly to discuss my exciting news for summer '14.
do come back xxx
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