V Festival

I am lucky enough to be going to this again :) I can't wait!

I know I said I would create a post with loads of pictures last time, and I did try but the pictures took ages to upload and I got bored and distracted and ended up never trying again. To be honest, the pictures weren't that amazing, I was nearer the back for the best artists. So i'll just list who I saw (as reminder to myself as well as for your information):

• Kassidy (I think) - I hadn't heard of them before, they were a group of four guitar players and they actually sounded really good. There was hardly anyone there as they were the first group on and the camera was always on us, that was fun
• Big Country - they were okay, my dad had actually seen them when he was younger
• Aloe Blacc
• Kids In Glass Houses
• Olly Murs - the atmosphere for Olly was so good, everyone was dancing and singing and I think it probably helped that it stopped raining
• Bruno Mars
• Jessie J
• Lostprophets
• Kaiser Chiefs
• Razorlight - it had just gotten dark and their backdrop thing was 'Razorlight' in big light bulbs, it was absolutely amazing
• Arctic Monkeys - but only from really far away, we were too tired to walk nearer the front
• Dizzee Rascal - heard him play, don't really listen to his music so just sat near his stage, he was the last act on that stage so I was super tired by this point!

It was a really good day. I don't think we got up much earlier than we would have for school and the journey there was so easy, just one train a couple stops and then a bus specifically for V Festival. 

We didn't explore the place that much, we most walked between two stages because there was always someone on we wanted to watch. There were loads of food stalls, but the food was quite expensive, but I think it was worth it for the foot long hot dogs and curly fries ;).

There was also a Just Dance thing that I had to see but then they wanted us to dance on this small crowded dance floor so we left. There was a Coca-Cola thing but I think it was the opposite side of the park and we never got there...

I only went for the Saturday so I didn't see that much, I really wanted to see Ellie Goulding though but unfortunately she played on Sunday :( but at least I was lucky enough to see the few I did.

This year I will be camping, and I've never been camping before so it should be interesting. The Killers are headlining, which I really can't wait for! I have wanted to see them for a couple of years but I've only ever seen them playing one place during school time, so I'm glad to get this chance.

When it came to getting the tickets it was so stressful, we wanted to get the same camp as our other friends who got pre-sale tickets but they had sold out so we ended up getting camping and coach tickets so we have to go all the way into London to get the coach back the way we came! And it's compulsory to get the ticket. It's a bit annoying but I'm so glad to have tickets and for everyone to be together.

I was just looking at the V Festival website about camping and everything and they said there would be theme park rides and film viewings on Friday night, which is good (when you camp you go there the day before) and the more I was reading the more excited I was getting, it is going to be too much fun :) bit worried about the washing situation though.

New York!

Most amazing experience ever :) still can't believe I got to go, it doesn't feel real at all.

The trip was quite short and we did so much, which is why it probably felt like i've been away ages, but it went so quickly.

I'd never been on a plane before so I was a bit worried about that but I was just super excited about going to New York so I didn't even worry about the flight at first but then getting to the airport I was getting more and more terrified. And we did everything so quick, checking in and going through security, even though I was told it took a while, so we got to the boarding part pretty soon. And i'm sure the coffee didn't help calm my nerves, but I had to get up at 4:30 so I needed it! Getting on the plane wasn't incredibly exciting, it just looked like whatever they show on TV and my seat wasn't near any friends because the flights were booked in alphabetical order so I was at the front of the plane and they were right at the back. Luckily they swapped with a couple people and all was good :). When we were going to take off the plane was just driving around for ages then suddenly it went super fast and we took off, it was amazing! It had to turn and you could see all the houses and it had been snowing so it was all white and beautiful. The rest of the flight was pretty boring, it was seven and half hours and it took forever. I watched the glee concert movie though, which was awesome! Unfortunately, not enough Blaine for me. By the way, aeroplane (airplane?) food is so cute!

When we got off we noticed loads of American flags everywhere, we thought it was just because it was the airport but as we got the airtrain and subway around the city we noticed there were flags everywhere! And the streets looked so amazing, and all the houses were different. We definitely were in America.

So when we got to our hotel everyone was given their key cards, except us! So we didn't actually go in our room until we got back after walking around the city for the night... We walked past Times Square and it was amazing. Then we walked along 5th Avenue to the Apple Store. We also went to Grand Central Station. There were loads of weird people on the subway, all talking to themselves. It was so strange.

Times Square

Apple Store

Gand Central Station

We got back around seven then went around the hotel for dinner. We ended up going to the Bread Factory. It was so cute. It sold pizza, soup, burgers, cakes, cookies, everything! I got a slice of Margarita pizza, chips and a carton of orange juice.

Yummay

My bed was so comfortable that night. I was so tired. The next morning it was snowing, and it looked so amazing.

Giant Pepsi ad on Times Square

First we went to The Empire State building, we could see it in the distance as we walked towards it. It was so high up it was getting covered by the snow clouds! And when we got there and had our tickets that were stamped with 'No Visibility :(' which was kind of awkward but the visibility wasn't too bad when we got there and the snow was getting lighter. We had to go up 85 floors to reach the top. Everyone's ears were popping! The views were awesome, and everything looked so tiny.

Macys and a million yellow taxis, love it!

Think they're the best pictures, with views all around... It was absolutely freezing up there, I kept my mittens on while taking the pictures and it was so hard but it was definitely worth keeping warm hands. After that we went to Wall Street, for some reason we skipped visiting the Wall Street Finance Museum (it was a Business and ICT trip) but that was completely fine with me.

New York Stock Exchange

Then we got the ferry to Liberty Island and saw the Statue of Liberty. Oh my gosh, it was so friggin' cold!! But we had to go outside to take the pictures so we braved the cold.

Then we went to Ellis Island and I found some relatives, whoop! Loads of people with my name were from Russia and Poland which was random, but I did actually find some from Great Britain :P.

For some reason we had lunch super late that day, 4pm! We went to Katz Deli where Harry met Sally. I got a hot dog and it was so yummy :) they gave us these tickets and at each station we went to, like for burgers, sandwiches or drinks, they would add up the price and we used those tickets on the way out. One of the girls I went with was asking for chips and the guy had no idea what she was saying! Sam had to correct with 'fries'. 

Forgot to take picture of hotdog, it was good though, trust ;)

It was so packed in there! Don't know how we all fit!

After that we went back to the hotel, think it was around 6ish, and our teachers gave us two hours until we had to go out again to Times Square. We were like, what on earth are we going to do for two hours?! So we decided to explore the hotel. There was a sign outside the elevator on our floor and it said 'Ice machine in basement. Vending machine on floor two.' So we went to the vending machine and got giant Mountain Dew's, which were incredibly delicious, then we went to Ice Machine and Sam pressed it once to make sure it worked then Sinead held it down while holding her bottle underneath and so much ice came out, it was ridiculous! None if it went in the bottle. We were all just laughing so much and we were desperate for the toilet, there was a restroom there so we had to use that. Then we got some tissue and went back to our room with tons of ice. We had a fridge in our room so we stored it in there, it didn't even melt! Then we went down to lobby and watching this Italian guy on the computer, he was always on it! 

Once we'd finished we went to Times Square. It was so amazing. We had two hours there but I wish we could have gone every night.

Whoop, got to see the poster ;) missed Darren though!

It started snowing again by the end of the night.

When we got home we were all so tired. I think I fell asleep as soon as I laid down, had the best sleep that night. The night before I could hear all the traffic and people shouting, our room was facing the street, not good.

The next morning I had Fruit Loops for breakfast, they were so sugary it was crazy! There must have been so many E numbers in that cereal. It was so much fun. It was Sunday so we were going to mass at St. Patricks, on the way we passed the fire station that went to the Twin Towers after the attack and I think we passed the Rockefeller Center and there was an ice rink outside.

The Cathedral was really big and there were screens all down the side so we could see. Some of the priests came up to us and were asking where we were from. When we said London one of them told us that he really enjoyed it there and whenever he went to England he always got Fish and Chips because he loved it so much, so cute! So mass started and then a little way through one of the men that worked there started talking to one of my friends on the end of the row, and he asked to speak to our teacher and then he asked all the people in our row to do the collection. I was like for reals? I didn't want to do it... And the baskets were on sticks and I kept scraping the walls and people with it. But it was actually a pretty good experience, I suppose not many people could say they did that. The mass was pretty similar except almost everything was sung and there were two collections. But i'm not sure if it was just like that because the cathedral was in New York so it was special or something.

After mass we went to Brooklyn Bridge. It was cold on the way there but then on the bridge it was pretty warm, i think the sun had come out. That was lucky.

Even the subway trains had flags on!

Then we went to Ground Zero. We didn't actually get to see it because you needed to book passes online and they'd finished giving them out that day :( which was a shame. I did get a picture of the memorial nearby though.

For lunch we went to a panini place, can't remember the name. I got a wrap and it was so much better than expected! It was totally packed and delicious. It even came with Tortia Chips. Then we went Dunkin' Donuts, they were amazing! Usually I don't like donuts! On the subway to Macys three guys got on with big speakers and started dancing. It was so amazing and totally unexpected! I can't believe they got on our carriage.

Because this was a Business related trip when we went to Macys we had to fill out a sheet with questions like 'What 5 ways does Macys use ICT?', 'What 2 methods of data capture does Macys have?', 'How does Macys cater for tourists?', 'What links Macys to a movie about a famous historical event (1912)?', 'What is odd about one of the floors?' and then the last was about something special Macys did each year. I was with Sam and Sinead and we were super competitive. We kept saying okay, we're going to win. And we were asking people in the store to help us. We could answer the first two questions okay because Sam had done business, but I couldn't remember much from ICT last year (I dropped it) and Sinead doesn't do any Business related subjects. So we asked one of the guys that worked there what it was Macys did each year and he said a Thanksgiving parade so Sinead asked what date Thanksgiving was and he said Thursday and I just laughed, I was expecting a date. But Thanksgiving is on the last Thursday of November each year. But he just kept repeating that it was on Thursday, it was hilarious! Then we went up to the top level and found a really happy woman who worked there so we asked her the other questions and she said she had a history friend so she went and came back and told us that in 1912 the Titanic had sunk and the owners of Macys were on the ship and had died, she said there was a plaque downstairs and she told us to take the elevator round the corner. When we got to the first floor we suddenly realised this women could tell everyone else what she just told us so we ran back to elevator and went all the way back upstairs! But she had just started working on the wedding gift registry section and we thought no one would go there so we took the elevator back downstairs to get a picture of the plaque but we couldn't find it so we asked the security guard and she told us that Macys had been renovated and the plaque had ended up behind the jewelry section in the offices. So we thought maybe we could ask someone to take a picture of it. So we asked someone in the jewelry section and they said we weren't allowed back there but we should talk to the manager. She was just on the next desk. So we told her we heard there was a plaque behind the jewelry section and she said we weren't allowed back there so we asked if she'd take a picture for us but then she said wait there i'll go get security. And we were like oh my gosh, security, this is too crazy. And we saw one of the other groups coming towards us and we were trying to look nonchalant while looking at the jewelry but I couldn't stop laughing at the whole situation! Then security came, even though it was just this one guy, and we went back into the offices and got a picture of the plaque.

I think the security guard was asking what was happening or something because the manager said 'They came all the way from London, England to see this plaque. I couldn't disappoint them.' And then she pointed out that both of them were born on the same day and told us that the wife had been offered a place on a lifeboat but she turned it down because she didn't want to leave her husband, so they both died. She said that the woman's body was found but the man's never was and that he now haunts the store, we were just like oh, that's spooky and then she said 'Haha, I'm only kidding'. And we laughed. They were so nice! So when we left the offices we were like oh my gosh, we are totally going to win, no one else could have seen this plaque! We even wrote on the sheet seen plaque and both were born on the same day! In the end we did win but the teacher practically gave us our prize secretly, no one else realised we had won...

After that we just explored Macys and even tried on some Prom Dresses. When we went to the fitting room we were trying to tell them how many items we had and the woman was said 'I don't care, just bring them back with the hangers' and we were like wow, we don't even need a number here! Then we went in this really big fitting room and tried on the dresses, it was crazy! Some of them were incredibly ridiculous!

After that we went back to the hotel and had an hour to spare before we went to Little Italy. We returned to the ice machine (of course) and I noticed the sign by the stairs said roof access so we went all the way to the top of the building and the roof was actually open! We were just in socks and the floor was freezing, there were even puddles of ice. We said we'd come back at night.

And then we went to Little Italy to Lombardi's. It was so yummy! Me and Sinead shared a small pizza, her half with pancetta and mine with red peppers. It was so good!

Me, Sam and Sinead were the last to leave out of the whole group and when we left the restaurant no one was around. And it was so dark and we didn't know what to do so we went to a newsagents over the road and bought some sweets. Then we were just waiting around outside and Sinead said her sister had told her to find some cannoli. So she asked this random American guy walking past where there was cannoli and he said 'Can you say that without your British accent?' so we were all laughing and then Sinead asked with her amazing American accent and he said 'Is that a store or a product?' and we weren't too sure, but he pointed to way to a pastry shop and we actually found them! They were pretty good. No idea what they were made of though...

Then we went back to the restaurant and still no one was there so we went into Pinkberry, a frozen yoghurt place and got some free samples. I tried pomegranate, and it tasted nothing like it! It was more like strawberry yoghurt, I tried some of Sinead's Peanut Butter and it tasted exactly like it! It was pretty good.

When we got back to the hotel we went up on the roof for an hour. It was so amazing, I took some pictures and Sam set her camera to timer and we all ran to the other side of the roof and tried to do jumping shots. It was so hard! There were two flashes and we didn't know when to go but we finally sussed it out and the pictures looked so funny! We got a bit worried that the people below could hear us and we left pretty quick after that... We didn't get back to our room till past midnight and I still needed to wash my hair. So we went to bed pretty late :P.

Times Square was just down that road.

The next day was our last day, everyone was so shocked it had gone so quickly. I had a waffle for breakfast, yummy! At around 11am we were ready leave and we made our way to central park. And we passed a school bus, it was so cool! After that we went to Bloomingdales and had a chance to go shopping around 5th Avenue. I didn't really buy much, just loads of sweets, I finally found Candy Corn in the FAO Swhartz Toy Shop where there was the giant piano used in Big. It was good ;). I did get some Black High Top Converse, but I don't think they were much cheaper than what they sell them at here but I really wanted to bring some back!

There were so many of these in Central Park and they kept
offering us rides, but we had no time :P

This was by Strawberry Fields 

We went to McDonalds for lunch and the kids meals had 6 nuggets, and the adults were 10 nuggets! So I got the kids meal :P it was good. I'm pretty sure most of my drink consisted of ice though... After shopping we returned to the hotel for the last time and got the subway and the airtrain to the airport. We also went through check in and security pretty quick and I bought two big bags of Twizzlers (couldn't find Red Vines :( ) and we got Chinese at Panda Express which was so delicious! The plane was delayed because there a sign saying the cargo door wasn't shut or something so we were waiting for a couple of hours, I should have napped! We took off around 11pm New York time and we were served dinner about half an hour later but I just had the chocolate pudding, it was so yummy! Then I tried to nap but aeroplanes are quite loud, and it started to get really cold so I put my coat on. I ended up watching the Tintin movie which was actually really good :). And I took some amazing pictures of New York when we took off, it looked so unreal.

It looked a lot more amazing in real life, I totally didn't expect that view! So, it really was an amazing trip :) really want to go back, it was brilliant!

Chameleon Circuit

I just realised that I have actually met Charlie McDonnell, and I can cross that off my Bucket List. I think this is more exciting than when I actually met him!
He was at a CD signing with his band, Chameleon Circuit, consisting of Alex Day, Ed Blann and Liam Dryden.
It was absolutely amazing to meet him! When we got there though we had the choice of either getting a photo with them or getting a CD, both signed. Me and Emma (a.k.a Physics Friend) were changing our minds constantly, but we decided to get a photo. So I stood next to Charlie :O. It was amazing. I think he's more perfect in real life, don't care how ;). Then we waited for it to be  printed and we met them again to get it signed. Best day ever!
The shop they were in was called The Who Shop, I told my Mum that it was probably Doctor Who related, but my Dad wasn't convinced. Turned out it was! You could get anything there, even Doctor Who postcards.
We'd been waiting in line for about three hours, with a fear of leaving to buy lunch. After we finally got our photos signed we went to this little cafe and had ice cream for lunch. And it was the most amazing ice cream ever, with chocolate chunks and a flake. A great way to end a great day!

The next day I went to the V Festival, it was awesome :). But i'll do a blog about that once I upload my photos...

P.S. My excuse for not posting is that I was on holiday for two weeks and I still haven't gotten over the shock of meeting Charlie... ;).

Reading and Stuff

Guess what i'm reading?
Harry Potter!
I'm finally reading the books, I feel really crazy for not starting before, but I have tried. When I got Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, when I was eight, I tried so many times to read it but never got past the first chapter. Now I can kind of proudly say i've finished it and I've started the second book :). The films are very close to the first couple books but there are little extra magic bits in the book that don't happen in the film, like an extra room to reach Voldemort and the Philosopher's Stone and Garden Gnomes in the Weasley's Garden. It's really fun.
I have seen all the films though, I watched the final part of the Deathly Hallows yesterday and it was really good, much better than I thought it would be. For the past four Harry Potter films I've never really understood what has been going on, but I actually enjoyed the last one! That's another reason why I want to read the books, the films are exciting and I'm pretty sure the books will be better and make the films easier to understand...

This is the only book in the series I own,  my Physics buddy
has kindly lent me the next two ;).

So, it's the summer holidays now. I think i'm too tired and worn out to appreciate it but hopefully after a little break I'll be so happy and desperate to never go to school again!
As well as reading the Harry Potter books over the holiday I've got to read some Biology books. I've just finished Bad Science by Ben Goldacre, it was interesting because it went against a lot of stuff that has been in the media, and has revealed shocking stuff about how scientists have manipulated data to get a positive result to support their ideas, when there obviously wasn't. I'm glad to have finally finished it though, it took a lot of concentration, like Bill Brysons book, but I can actually say i've finished this one :). I've got to read Guns, Germs and Steel by Jared Diamond now, which looks the same size as Bad Science but it's so much heavier, i'm scared to start it!

Heartbeat

Yesterday I completely forgot to mention something amazing that I saw at UEA. There was a little demonstration about birds, I think it was about how the heart is so important and how it develops in the embryo, and there were open eggs under the microscopes. There weren't any properly developed birds, just a web of blood vessels and you could see the heart beating! It was absolutely amazing! It was so small but you could see it with out the microscope too. It was like a little miracle for me, I just thought it was to most amazing thing i'd ever seen :).