Credit-crunch holiday disaster

My holiday story as promised, I had already written this up as a university task so here it is...

It was mid-July, the grass was a luscious green, the birds were chirping and the rain was pounding.

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I was in North Devon, in a tent at 3am on a summer’s morning, however the birds weren’t chirping because of the sunshine - they were trying to find some cover from the gale force winds. 

The field around me was becoming more like a pond and there were bits of awning flying around in the wind. I could see the waves lashing against the Devonshire cliffs even in the darkness of the early morning.

We all know the credit-crunch is affecting everyone’s pockets, and many believe this is why we have seen the increase of camping and caravan holidays. But after one-too-many holiday disasters for me you can count me out.

The Great British Weather is notoriously known as being “wet and dull”, but people still risk the weather when making choices that would otherwise break the bank. This is what happened to my family.

It had been raining all week, but nothing compared to what came on the second last night of our stay in Ilfracombe. I was in my sleeping bag lying awake at 2am, we had got back from the club and the rain wind was keeping me up. I was also worried about the water leaking through where it was making a puddle on the roof of our tent. I opened the zip of my bedroom compartment to find the front of the tent collapsed. For some reason I didn’t tell my parents I just lay awake worrying until my Mam woke up with the sound of my sobs.

Me and my Mam escaped to the safety of the car and were shortly joined by my Dad. Even the car was being shaken by the force of the wind. It started to get lighter at 4.30am and the full picture of the nightmare holiday started to show. There were tents completely flattened to the ground – almost everybody was emerging to try and pack up and go home.

Trying to take the tent down and fit everything in the car was hard. The tent had turned into a pool and was difficult to fold. The rain was beating down on me so hard I couldn’t breathe and I was soaked to the skin even through the 3 layers and waterproof jacket I was wearing.

Even with the little amount of room I had in the car on the way home, I felt a sigh of relief as we drove further away from Devon. I’ve always said the best part about going away is when you come home and see the Angel of the North, but I’ve never been so happy to see her.

Just My Luck!

Just my luck. This saying is used to express angst, annoyance or anger.

My annoyance is I have stayed up until 2.23am - refreshing my online banking page every few minutes. It then tells me that it is "temporarily unavailable". Just my luck.

On another note, it is now new years eve. I have arrived upon yet another mundane end of the year.Why is it that when I want to do something with my friends they already have something planned?

I have come to expect that I wont have go into 2010 with a bang but I hope to make the whole year dazzling. HA how corny was that?

Well this might be my last blog of 2009 so I'm going to do a sum-up of my year. If anyone's interested.

January- Nothing much happened in this month, I died my hair and went to someones 18th who I don't really care for anymore. Who am I kiddin, I've never really cared for her. Oh I also took and miserably failed a statistics exam.

February- My beautiful baby 2nd cousin was brought into this world weighing 5lbs14oz. Erin Gorga Wood. I developed a "friendship" with a mister Daniel Anderson. This was fun while it lasted but I just wasn't that into him.

March- Hmm now I can't remember much happening this month,I'll get back to you on this one

April- ...

May- The summer month. This is when I donned my favourite vest tops and sandals and had school breaks at the park. I sprayed on a very patchy false tan - my own doing - and attended Erin's christening. I then went to Longhougten, spent the day on the beach with a barbacue and drove my uncle's brother's boat. I also believe I went to Birmingham for the basketball finals with the parents and my good friend Ti. Ti is short for Tiger whose real name is Jessica, she gets called Tiger because she likes tigers.

June- The exam month. This month was spend furiously cramming revision in before the exams. Stress, more stress then celebration as I realised ... No more school! I then went to Lightwater Valley with the other school leavers and got burnt by the sun.

July- This month brought joy and sorrow. Leavers assembly was funny and emotional, followed by an amazing Prom. The friends theme tune is now etched on my brain for a different reason than Rachel, Chandler, Ross, Pheobe, Joey and Monica. Then came the holiday from hell, although the first 4 days were brilliant. Myself and my parents went to Osmington Mills Holiday Park in Weymouth, most probably my favourite place outside on Newcastle. We then drove onto Devon. I can't even say the name without shivering. It was cold, wet, windy and more wet. I'll post another blog about that though, I don't have enough energy to write about it now. Then the really bad stuff starts. My Nana was took into hospital while we away, at first for nothing serious. They then found ulcers in her stomach, the results came back as stomach cancer. The last time I saw her she had tubes everywhere, she couldn't talk and my Dad even had to spoon feed her some ice cream. I cried when I left her, because it was the first time for the whole 2 weeks she had been there that  I let myself believe she might die soon. It was the next day. That was the first time I've every wrote about her death, it was harder than I thought.

August- Although my Nana's death was deeply saddening, it also brought me and my family some happiness. Myself, my sister and my Mam all remembered our love of speedway seeing people we knew from there at her funeral and we also gained more family members. Well ones we never really knew before. I had never met my dads side of the family before the funeral but now I have and they are like a kind of replacement for my Nana. No not a replacement, a reminder.
I also failed my first driving test this month and passed my exams to get into university.

September- For most of september I bummed around doing, well not much. I went to Uni, Freshers, new basketball season ,passed my second driving test and bought a car. Ok so maybe I didn't bumm around for most of it.

October- I turned 19, enough said!

November- I had to work on bonfire night. I sat at work looking out of the open window - so I could get a feel of the night. I got stressed with uni deadlines and broke down on my Mam and my tutor, regained my calm and got a 1st on my first essay.

December- finished my first uni term and realised how much I love my uni friends. I think they should be named and shamed. Zoe Cooper, Lisa Johnson, Nic Robinson, Fay Crowley, Daniel Welsh, Karen Turkington, Francessca.
Christmas came and went, and now I am at the present day.

I have probably left some stuff out, on the account it's now 3.02am and I am tired.

So I am going to abruptly end this REALLY long blog to go to sleep

G'night 2009

xxx

Deadlines!

So I'm sitting in the library surrounded by eight books and two notebooks, trying to at least get 1000 words done on this essay.

It's not going very well.

I wish books were magic, you could wave a wand and say the word or phrase you are looking for and walla....it would turn to that page. And not only that it would highlight the bit you need to.

I wish...

The deadline is tomorrow... so is the deadline for another essay.

I'm going to go and do them now...you know...so I don't fail.

Joe McElderry the male version of Cheryl Tweedy?

 Is it just me, or does no one else think Joe looks a bit like Cheryl in the old days?
We might just have ourselves a male version of Cheryl....I hope so!
I absolutly love Joe... he did it for the geordies...go on son!!!!
Anyway this is a rubbish blog, its 12.30am just after he won so what do you expect?

Stress Stress Stress

University is meant to be the most exciting time of your life. Everybody says so. They forget to mention that it is probably the most stressful time in your life.

I've only been at uni since september and I'm already looking forward to it being finished, because of the amount of work I'm getting. Now don't get me wrong, I didn't go thinking I was having an easy ride I just thought I wouldn't find it that hard - because I was doing something I enjoyed. I didn't realise I would have to do modules that involved history or study skills.

The thing is, I am enjoying myself. I get a really good buzz when I get a first for my work, I've just got no self-motivation or belief when I am actually doing the work. Even right at this minute I should be writing 1000 more words on an essay due in two days and another 800 word essay also due in two days. Instead I choose to spend my time moaning about it!

I suppose the moral of my story is: Kids, if you're thinking about going to university think, "can I really cope with it". If yes then go for it, because although I moan I think it'll be worth it in the end.

“Walking with Dinosaurs”

I thought I was witnessing the start of the original Willy Wonka when an old man hobbled through the Cinema doors holding onto Julie Bradford. As soon as Martin Bell started to give his talk, he seemed to spring to life, walking perfectly across the front of the room. He said: “This is the closest you will get to walking with Dinosaurs.”

The ex-BBC war correspondent donned his trademark whitish suit and came up to Sunderland to give us aspiring Journalists an interesting talk. I wasn’t overwhelmed with excitement about his visit. I actually had forgotten he was coming that day. However, when he opened with that joke he had me listening. I suppose he knows how to get people listening, he is a reporter, how would he make money otherwise.

Martin expressed his concern on the future of British broadcasting. He said: “I’m worried we might go down the Fox News way, though Fox News has lost its way.” This was after discussing how speculation has come to be news telling. He said: “Now I know some people, and I love her to bits, Christiane Amanpour, CNN, when the less she knows about something, the more convincing she gets. These are the people that really thrive, I’m being unfair to Christiane she’s a really good reporter.”

Bell discussed how the coverage of the war is censored. He said: “I want to show more not less, they said the images were upsetting.”

Martin then gave hope to the whole room. He said: “Let me tell you, if you want to be a journalist, I think it’s still the best profession, it really is.” When everyone around us is telling us how journalism is struggling and how we are going into this profession at a very hard time, this is a refreshing statement. He then advised: “If you are not willing to take no for an answer, if you are willing to persist, if you will please retain a sense of right and wrong, if you will be conscious of the effect of what you write - especially in broadcasting - can have on people in highly fraught situations, and you've got to be willing to know that you're trying to be manipulated.”

Year of the death of celebs

What will spring to mind when you think back to 2009 in a couple of years?
For me it will be the amount of deaths of celebrities...

Jade Goody
Michael Jackson
Farrah Fawcet
Patrick Swayze
Steven Gately
Wendy Richard

There are much more, on one website I found 5 pages of celebrity deaths in 2009, and the years not over yet.

I only found out about Steven Gately today, he died unexpectly yesterday on holiday with his civil partner. Although I loved Boyzone, he wasn't my favourite member, but his death has shocked me most.He was only 33 with no known illness, that is definatly to young to die.