Welcome To London

Today I had one of the best days since for ages!
The strikes meant I had a day off school, so me and my friend Sam were planning to see Bridesmaids because three of our other buddies were going on open days. But her art teacher really wanted her to take the opportunity to go to London to take photos for her art coursework. I was kinda disappointed but when I was looking up places to see graffiti and advertising and all the trains we'd have to get I was getting a little excited, so last night I really couldn't wait to go!
Usually when I go to London, or a place further than 3 miles from my house, I rely on other people because they always know the way, and if they don't they will be much more likely to get us home than I will! But today, as only me and Sam were going and we don't know our way around London, I really had to be careful. I took two maps with me! Every time we got a train we were practically jumping with excitement that we were on the right train when we were looking at the next stop in the map, but by the end of the trip we were actually annoyed at the perfection of our train journeys. I am so glad we didn't get lost though, well on the trains. Finding what roads to go down was hard, my map hardly helped at all, but we never asked anyone for help, we were awesome!
First of all we went to Westminster, and my dad was saying that there were three exits to that station so we were pretty lucky to come out at the one where Big Ben was right in front of us. I was surprised at how tall it was, it wasn't that big last time...

After that we walked across Westminster Bridge towards the London Eye, which wasn't actually on my map, probably because it was made in 1995! I'll have to get my dad a new one for his birthday... There was a capsule on it missing, which was kind of creepy, there was the outer shell left so it looked like it had just fallen off at some point on the way round.

Then we walked to the National Theatre where there's a legal spot for graffiti, and skateboarding. I didn't take any pictures of this because I wasn't the one doing the art project. But Sam will have some pictures on her blog at some point which you can check out here. There were a few skateboarders there, and they were so young! They weren't doing any cool tricks though, which was a shame. Then we started to make our way towards Embankment station so we could go to Piccadilly Circus. We saw a few protesters but the group was so small, and none of our teachers were there. We took some photos of the huge advertising wall screen things they have at Piccadilly. They are so cool, like a tiny Times Square.

I actually took this a while ago, I just couldn't be
bothered to get my camera out this time ;).

By this time it was 11.30 (we left for London at 10) and we were incredibly hungry! We wanted to find a McDonald's but had no idea where to go so we just started walking down a random road and we found it! It was just perfectly sitting there looking perfect - I was really really hungry. The girl that served us was amazing, she was so happy and friendly, if we were having a bad day she would have totally cheered us up. She wouldn't take Sam's 'No' to the sauce as an answer, it was so funny :). After our delicious meal we walked to Hamley's, I'd forgotten how big that was too! There were so many toys and we tried out the head massager and it was the weirdest feeling ever, I don't think it could be called relaxing... Then we went to the sweets and there were so many jelly bean flavours! It was awesome.

Then we tried to find Oxford street, finally we did, Regent Street was long. I hadn't been Oxford Street before, it was pretty amazing, so big and so many stores. I suppose it's like a normal High Street but about 3 times bigger and with more take away stands and phone shops than anywhere! We didn't go shopping, we were just repeating the names of the stores that kept appearing, like H&M and GAP. Oxford Street was so much longer than Regent Street so we were walking it for ages! And there were so many roads to cross. London has the worst roads, they are so confusing and the green man definitely doesn't last long enough! We just copied the crowds. Finally we reached the end and found the Jelly Baby statue, which was strangely placed near a giant horses head, which looks nothing like a horses head unless you see it from the side.

Cute right?

We decided we needed a break so went to the local McDonald's for a McFlurry. And then I asked for a chocolate milk, instead of a dairy milk McFlurry. I'm just too funny... So we ate our McFlurrys next to the giant horses head, where others were sleeping or eating McDonald's like us :). It was a bit cold though, I was starting to believe the shorts might not have been a good idea. We started to see some people we knew around, which we thought was weird because we just commented that we hadn't seen anyone yet. We went to Hyde Park out of interest because we'd finished our to do list for the day and we noticed that there was something going on, like a  music festival thing, which is where we think the people we knew were going. We walked around a bit and found some awesome deck chairs, which Sam was convinced we had to pay to sit on, and sat on them. They were so relaxing, but incredibly hard to get out of! 

We wanted to find the lake in the park but it was so big we decided to go to Tower Bridge, which I confused with London Bridge so we got off at the station and had to walk far. But we did get some photos :)

Then we walked back to the station and decided we would walk up St. Paul's Cathedral, we felt like being crazy. When we got there though it was so expensive to get in. Well maybe not that expensive but for us it was :P so we went to Starbucks, where I got an awesome Chocolate Cream and we sat in the sun to get a tan ;) definitely didn't regret the shorts here. We were the coolest looking people there! Not even kidding!

We went home after this, after eventually finding the right road, and we were so tired we nearly collapsed onto every train. We kinda got lost at Liverpool Street but we decided to get the Circle Line to find a station we actually knew. Then we got the c2c home and almost fell asleep :P.
It really was a great day, I definitely want to do it again. It was nice having the freedom to explore London without a proper plan for the day. So exciting and spontaneous :). I just love London. I might have to rethink where I want to go University!

Feeling Hot Hot Hot

It was so darn hot today, it was unbelievable! I was wearing knee length socks and was rolling them down when I got into each lesson, because they looked too crazy to wear the rolled down where people could see... At lunch we went out and I just took em off, might have got a tan ;). We bought some Fro Yo which was so good! I really needed it. I also really needed to have some ice cream when I got home, so I did.

I'm feeling hungry just looking at this!

The school was so hot all day, luckily the Sixth Form block has Air Conditioning so that was on all day. Leaving those rooms was horrible, I was practically melting outside. My glasses struggled to stay on my face. Our last lesson was Biology and we had to go out and look at plants, it was horrible. I should have looked forward to that because we did no work but it was so hot i'd rather have done work!

I drank so much water today, I love ice cold water now :). Iced Tea from Costa is really nice, and full of ice. Perfect for a hot hot hot day. I recommend the raspberry one, the peach can be a bit strong but if you like peaches go for it. It doesn't really taste much like tea, in a good way. It just so refreshing! I wish there was a place that sold Slush Puppies near my school, they are always yummy.

Nottingham

I was surprised that I loved Nottingham so much! It was really good. The biology course sounds amazing and they let you do modules from other courses, like languages, so I might be able to do the biological side of psychology which i'm really interested in. The course for Bath wasn't very detailed, but I did manage to find an outline today and it is pretty similar to everywhere else so I don't think i'd mind going there, but i'd love the chance to do some psychology. But I would like to do that professional placement on the Bath course, I'd love to get that experience. Oh, it's going to be so hard to choose a university to go to. Hopefully i'll know in a couple weeks when i've been to all the open days :/.

I did prefer the accommodation in Bath, it was much more open and modern. The shared en suite at Nottingham looked really cramped and the shared study had pretty small rooms but the single study was really nice, and in Florence Boot Residence Halls were the best rooms, the windows were awesome and had little balconies. And every room has a fridge! I will totally be storing coke and chocolate milk in those ;). The whole campus is catered, so we get 19 meals a week, which is great because I cannot cook, and the menu was so varied it was amazing. The Dining Halls were so large, like Hogwarts! Okay, so maybe not that large but they were definitely bigger and more sophisticated than my school canteen.

There was a lake, like Bath, with ducks, like Bath. But luckily they didn't try to steal my food, which was really good ;). Instead they just left poop everywhere! We saw an empty bench and thought, 'perfect, now we can eat', but there was so much poop we left and sat on a field :P. Then my coat got covered in grass -.- I just can't win!

The whole university was huge though! It would take me ages to get places because the halls of residence are on the outskirts of the university and the biology labs are right in the middle. That kind of put me off, it was so easy to get lost, and I love the layout of Bath, so simple and the Parade that connects everything is perfect. There was so much space in Nottingham, and I thought there was so much space in Bath! It was like a National Park or something, absolutely huge! And the Portland Building was really nice, it had a bank and bookshop and Boots, there was also a Student Union shop that sold all of the essentials, and beer ;). Also, Bath had an incredibly amazing library but the libraries in Nottingham were pretty small and joint to the halls of residence.

 Nottingham                                                    Bath
Pretty sure this shows that Nottingham is so much bigger :P

The Student Union at Nottingham has so many societies, even Cheer leading and Pole Dancing! Bath had some too but I didn't go to a talk about Student Life so I didn't hear as much about it. Nottingham has a 'First Week' thing where all the new students are taken to nightclubs and forced to befriend people, sounds rather scary to me but apparently it's great. They also have a Summer Party where good bands and people play.

Travelling to Nottingham was so much easier. We left the house at 7am and arrived there about 10am. There wasn't any traffic or anything, it was amazing! At one point we thought we'd finally joined the open day traffic but there'd just been some police cars on the road. People were definitely rubbernecking. I totally slept on the way there and back though ^.^ I was so tired. I was wearing contacts so when I woke up I was so surprised I could see!

Bath and Nottingham are both good but for different reasons, I hope a university I visit later will have everything I want :) otherwise I don't know how I will decide. I've still got UEA, Kent and Queen Mary in London to visit. Can't wait ;).

Bath

On Thursday I went to the Bath University Open Day, and it was definitely better than going to school! I still had to wake up quite early though :/. We left around 8am and didn't get there until around 12, the journey was so long! Most of it was on the train to Bath so I just ate my sweets and listened to Taylor Swift and Glee. As we arrived we saw the city and it was so lovely! The buildings were all made out of the same colour bricks and they just looked so clean and wonderful. We got lost so got to explore more of the town than we needed to and it was just so beautiful. They had the same shops as anywhere else but they looked fabulous. The bus journey was good, it took the scenic route and 2 miles ended up taking 40 minutes, but that could have been due to open day traffic... Seeing more of the town was good though :).

When we got to the university you couldn't see much, just the logo on a wall and some accommodation in the distance but once we went further and reached the parade it suddenly became gigantic! We went to the science building first because we were almost late for the talk, turns out they were the furthest buildings, but we made it and the talk was good, I did find out a little more about what the course involves. I'm not sure if I liked the sound of the course very much, but there's a professional placement in the second year which I'd love to do. Then we went to the labs, which were massive. There were benches lining the room, and they looked so clean and modern. I think they were the size of 2-3 classrooms in my school. And the microscopes were too awesome, they had two eye pieces, like binoculars, and they made the specimen, which was a buttercup, look almost 3D. They also had giant stick insects which were terrifying! I had to get away before they made me hold it. There were some sheets and leaflets on each bench and my dad starting grabbing them all and handing them to me, even the ones for courses I don't want to do, I think I picked up 3 each of leaflet they had!

This is the Parade, I don't think I could imagine it
this empty after Thursday.

There was a lake and so much grass space so we had lunch there. There ducks wandering around and my dad fed one some bread and then it started climbing over me and my mum trying to get our sammiches! We weren't even the ones to feed it! I was so worried it would bite me... There was some people filming, i'm guessing for next years undergraduate students, and they totally caught all the action with me being attacked by the ducks. Suddenly there was a sausage roll involved with a seagull a bit further from us so the duck left and we took our chance to run away then! We didn't even finish our food :( I was so hungry!

I went to the Library too and it was massive and amazing. The bookshelves reached the ceiling and there were little stalls to stand on to reach the top. There were also loads of study areas and so many computers. I thought Level 4 had loads, but it turned out each level had the same amount!

I love the glass walls, so fabulous!

The accommodation was nice too. I actually preferred the rooms where you share the bathroom with the hall than the rooms where you have an en suite bathroom. I think it reminded me too much of Travelodges. I can't decide if I preferred the rooms being down a hall or on separate levels (it's hard to explain the layout). But the one where you're on separate levels is where they had 4 showers and toilets which I thought was pretty good, as the one where you're on a hall only has one shared bathroom I think. I think the best rooms were the biggest ones with the double beds and en suite, but they were also the most expensive... I think i'll chose Eastwood accommodation, it seemed the friendliest, brightest. Oh and did I mention the desks were so big! They were amazing! I think I could see my self using that ;).

The journey home was pretty disastrous though. The bus took ages because of traffic, so we walked after an hour stuck on there. And then the train due before ours was cancelled so they got on our train and we didn't get seats straight away but some people got off so luckily we did because it was a long journey. There was a fatality on the tracks at some point which delayed and cancelled some trains so they said we were allowed to  get another train from Reading to Waterloo but i'm pretty sure that took longer! I think we were on that train for a couple of hours or more. Eventually we did get home, at 9pm and I had half a chicken burger at 10pm for dinner, it was pretty good. I had an ICT essay to do so had to get into school early the next day to do that, but mine was about half as long as everyone else's! I hope it was all right. Then I had to do Biology work! It was hectic, but luckily my Psychology lesson was brought forward and I got to leave school early, then I slept for a couple hours ;) it was awesome. Except my mum kept calling me like every half hour, and she was so loud, I woke up with my heart beating really fast and feeling scared! But I found out that I have next Thursday off, that means I've missed two of my full school days ;). Whoop!

Tomorrow I'm going to Nottingham University, this will give me a chance to compare it to Bath, because I've never been to a university so I have no idea if it looked good or not! I think it did... I have to get up at 6am though because we're driving and it could take 3 hours to get there so my dad wanted as early start, at least i'll be able to sleep on the journey though :). And i'm bringing at least 3 cans of Coke ;).

Sorry if this post is boring, but at least I can use it for a reference when I'm deciding which universities to apply to. Oh, I don't know how i'll chose...

P.s. Just in case you were wondering, I didn't see/find/kidnap Charlie. Maybe next time :/

Enchanted

I just downloaded the new Taylor Swift album. I know it's not really new any more because it's been out a while, but i've only just got it, so it's new ;). It's absolutely amazing. I didn't realise it would be so good, I was kind of sceptical because I hadn't heard much about it and I'd only heard one song from the album. But I love it. Especially the song Enchanted, its so different to what I have been listening to so it's lovely. I also like The Story of Us, Better than Revenge and Mean. I haven't listened to all the songs enough to judge all of them as I only got the album a couple of days ago and I have to go to school :/.

I like the cover of the album too :).

I also downloaded some music by other people like Green Day, Good Charlotte, Ellie Goulding and 3OH!3. My iPod is getting full. I think it's about half full now, I deleted some music from it that I didn't really like any more so I managed to save some space too ;).

Lip Smacker

I got a CocaCola Vanilla Lip Smacker, you jelly?

Apparently even my mum knew I was slightly obsessed with Coke Vanilla!

It turned my lips from dry and sore to this:

Now they glow. Okay, i'll stop showing off.

Last night I had dream about going to New York. I've not flown before so I was really nervous and was convinced I would die, but I still got on the plane. And then we arrived in New York, it was so easy. It was kind of a boring dream really. Don't know if it made me any less nervous to fly in real life :/ i'm sure i'll be fine... But when I got to America it was so weird. We went on an underground bus, and my oyster still worked so it was free ;).

Yesterday I went to the cinema to see Kung Fu Panda 2 and it was so good! And so funny! It was just as good as, if not better than, the first. I will definitely buy the DVD when it comes out. The first Kung Fu Panda film is on tonight, on BBC One, and i'll totally be watching it seeing as they stopped Doctor Who :'(, and I enjoyed it, of course. I bought some sweets to buy while watching the film, I don't usually like sweets but I tried Rowntree's Randoms and they were amazing! I liked all of 'em, even the green and orange ones. I love all the different shapes they do, some are so random obviously like rockets, paint brushes, post boxes, palm trees and saws! They were awesome :). I also got Rainbow Drops, which I should eat more often because they are delicious and so colourful. And they don't even contain artificial colourings!?

Feeling Thirsty

This is just a tribute to thee greatest drinks in the world due to my boredom.

1. The classic, most awesome Diet Coke :). I have to say I do prefer it to Coca Cola and Pepsi. Even though Pepsi and Coke seem to have to same ingredients, apart from an extra preservative in the Pepsi.

Woah, look what I found! I have no idea where they sell this but it has been around for a while. A couple of places on the web had it dating back to 2008.

I'm hoping to try Coca Cola with Vanilla when I go to New York in Februray because for some reason they stopped selling it here :(. Even though it isn't Diet I think I could make an exception. There is a little American Sweet Shop near me but the cans are so expensive i'd rather wait a little while.

 

I've seen this Black Cherry Vanilla around a while too, but they do not sell it anywhere! I'm pretty sure this is just an American drink too.

2. Yazoo Chocolate Milkshake. I didn't actually think I liked chocolate milk but my friend was drinking it every morning for breakfast and then I found some in my fridge and I kind of became addicted! You have to shake it to get the best flavour, just saying ;). I prefer the little ones best, much easier to shake.

3. Iron Bru. A nice refreshing orange drink. I don't really mind whether its Diet or not because both taste the same to me :). I think this either came from Scotland, or the Middle East. I really can't remember. And I think the orange colour actually comes from Iron inside the drink. So technically it is good for you...

4. Mocha Coffee. I recently discovered this because this was a drink another friend always ordered. I don't really like coffee or hot chocolate that much but they make a pretty good combination. I've not bought it in a coffee shop yet, i've only got sachets from the supermarket so it might taste better done professionally. But the powder smells so good.

Oh, this looks so good, i'm definitely ordering
this next time I go to a coffee shop!

I don't really like many other drinks... My list is pretty rubbish. I don't like lemonade or water or milk or tea or coffee so most of my drinks are pretty unhealthy. Apart from the Calcium in the choc milk and the Iron in the Irn Bru ;). I do like really cold water though, so cold you can hardly taste it! 

Does ice cream count as a drink?

Kung Fu Panda 2

Really really want to see this film. The first was excellent and i'm hoping the second will be better, though I don't want to get my hopes up and then it turns out to be rubbish. That happens to me a lot. And McDonalds Happy Meal contains Kung Fu Panda toys. Sounds like the perfect date to me ;).

So school has been okay, only been back two days and i'm already so tired! I'm going to sleep so much on the weekend. We've only started proper work in Maths so i've not got a lot of work to do. We're watching films in Psychology and we helped Year 6 people in Biology and in ICT we talked about work but haven't done it yet so that doesn't count either... We're watching One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest in Psychology and it is so good. I'd seen it on TV before but I didn't think it would be that good because it's quite an old film but it is pretty excellent. It's quite funny too and the characters are the best. Haven't finished the film yet but i've got a triple lesson on Friday and i'm looking forward to it!

I've realised i'm completely addicted to collecting points... I signed up to Cokezone a few months ago and I cannot stop collecting points! I don't think i'm buying more Cokes than usual but I am totally fixed on making sure those points are entered on my account online. And i'll take everyone elses, no one gets in my way. I got started because I wanted to get a t-shirt for 150 points but I think I might try and get another, I drink plenty of Coke so I may aswell :P. A couple of days ago my mum got a Beauty card from Superdrugs and I totally took it for myself. I've got 16 points already and that was only in one day. But I don't think this will be as exciting because it'll only get me money off Coke ;).

P.s. I'm so glad it's becoming Summer. Even though some days have been a bit crazy with the rain. But it shall get better and I can break out the vests, whoop!

Time to Take Over the World

So today was my last exam and although I totally failed ICT and Critical Thinking, I just can't be upset because I don't have to revise for anything anymore! I could watch Youtube all day or sleep or eat. Ah, I can't wait for tomorrow. My plan so far is to wake up late, so late that I'll have to rush eating lunch because it's past 12 o'clock, then maybe wash my hair, go library to 'hang' and maybe try and make a white chocolate milkshake. I decided white choc because I think it's more exciting than galaxy. And on Thursday i'm going to party in Thorpe Park - might break out the short shorts ;), and Friday i'm going to a pool party - ditto ;).

So who watches Doctor Who? Turns out River Song is Melody Pond, Amy's daughter :O. I get that the other language used different words but I don't understand the different order? Except Song River doesn't sound as awesome... But I was wondering, did the writers plan all this, with Amy and River or was it a coincidence that ended up leading to something amazing? But I can't believe we have to wait for the second half of the series.
I watched a program about Egypt the same day so all my dreams have been DocWho and Egypt related. I think i'm the only one who thinks an Egypt related episode would be exciting though? I also had a dream that I got married in Egypt, and the strange part was, my husband wasn't even there! No one said anything though so I assume the ceremony went well...

Oh man! They already went to Egypt and I missed it...
I'll have to look out for it on Watch or Gold ;).

My Physics Friend told me she has a hatred of the noises of vacuums, I took this to be the same as a phobia so I tried to use my psychology knowledge, from my hours of revision (not), to help her find the cause of her problem. I have come up with a few theories:

1. Her mum, while pregnant with her, went into a vacuum shop and there was a power cut so the owner turned off all the vacuums at the switches, but the owner was tired, maybe he was reading a really awesome book or a good film was on late the night before, so he actually flicked all the switches to the on position than BAM the power comes back on and all the vacuums come on. This all happened while her ears were growing so they were extra sensitive to the noise. Thus she is scared of vacuums...

Okay, so I don't really have any other good theories apart from maybe her mum visited seven people in one day, and they were hoovering to make their house look nice as her mum arrived so she was exposed to a lot of vacuum noise. But the first is my favourite and probably most accurate/correct.

Apparently images of a 'scary vacuum'
do not exist...

So I completely forgot to mention my plan to take over the world! Well, tomorrow, seeing as I have so much time on my hands I am going to try and invent something that is suppose to help thousands of people but will actually result in an ice age (long story). I hope you haven't stocked up on summer wear because you will not get a chance to wear those flip flops. However, you will need goggles after this Wednesday because it might be so cold your eyes might start to hurt. But don't wear science goggles, that's my thing ;).

In other news my Physics Friend finally received her genomes which I received months ago! Read about her trials and tribulations here and here. Because she hadn't received her genomes the same day as me she actually re-ordered them and received two packets of genomes. She is one crazy chick! Okay, so it was my idea to order a second packet ;).

I also finished watching the three Pirates of the Caribbean films! They were so long yet so good, I need to watch the fourth one now but might wait for it to come out on DVD because I really want to see Kung Fu Panda 2 in the cinema :D. Oh, that reminds me, I need to get Tangled and maybe Gulliver's Travels for Fathers Day as an excuse so I can watch it ;). 

Also, this morning while eating my Cinnamon Grahams I found an article in the Metro about White Holes. Scientists found something in space they couldn't explain so they created a theory to explain it, which was the theory of White Holes. These are the opposite of Black Holes and emit light and other things. The White Holes are actually linked to Black holes that are in the past, or they are connected to another Universe, which is called a Wormhole. Isn't that exciting? I actually forgot I was suppose to be revising for my ICT exam.

P.s. Sorry if this is totally random but with me doing exams and not venturing outside for weeks has left me slightly insane, lonely and lacking interesting stories. Peace out ;).