Berlin October 2013 - The Best Bits

It's hard to believe that two months have passed since we boarded the coach to go to Berlin, but it's true! Here's a countdown of my 20 favourite memories from the trip of a lifetime:

20. Arriving at the bowling alley
19. Playing on the climbing frames at Potsdamer Platz
18. Dancing in the cage in the club
17. Playing a mass game of UNO in the hostel corridor
16. Finding the tower U2 jump off of in the Stay (Faraway, So Close!) video
15. Playing card games in the evenings
14. Filming the tour of the room
13. Visiting the East Side Gallery again
12. Bowling while "Roar" was playing
11. Eating delicious desserts at the hostel
10. Waiting to go up the TV Tower
9. Drinking peach nectar in the club
8. Playing UNO in the Eurotunnel
7. Receiving and eating the Spreewald Pickles
6. Daisy's Wurst joke: Chris: "I hope it's not Bratwurst..." Daisy: "That would be the Wurst!"
5. Being in the Reichstag dome
4. Mrs R's announcement intro: *tap* *tap* "Toot! Toot! Hello, can you hear me?"
3. Waiting to board the U-Bahn train to Zoo Station
2. Miss A's Goodbye Lenin apology
1. Walking home from the club

Vorfreude

The past few weeks have been pretty busy, but now I'm just a couple of days away from reuniting with the city that captured my heart three years ago today: Berlin! I'm really looking forward to our reunion; the week I spent there in 2010 was one of the greatest of my life. Yesterday I bought boots and other essentials for the trip, which means that next time I go shopping I will be in Berlin. Next time I get into a vehicle I will be on the way to Berlin. Next time I eat toasties I will be in Berlin (as long as I remember to take them). I'm getting rather excited!

Results day 2013

Today I received my AS exam results, and they were better than I thought they would be! Yesterday evening I was feeling rather jittery and anxious, so in order to relax, I painted my nails, using the polish "Galactic" from the Revlon Moon Candy range.

By morning, the nerves had gotten to my appetite; I could only stomach a handful of black grapes for breakfast. To keep my spirits up, I chose to wear my shimmery lace navy dress to school, despite warnings of wet weather. A little after 10am I left the house and walked up to school with my sister, who'll be doing the same thing next week to find out her GCSE results. Em was the one who spotted my name within the piles of paper; she lifted the sheet out, and we found out that I got 4 As! I'm really pleased with my results, but I know I need to put in maximum effort in year 13 so that I can feel joy like this next year too!

Happy/sad

Wednesday 10th of July was a day of contrasts for me; I awoke feeling refreshed and enthusiastic, but fell asleep with tear-stained cheeks and muddled thoughts. My emotions for most of the day were excitement about my sister's prom (a highly edited picture from the event is featured below), and anticipation for the NCIS season 9 finale, which aired for the first time on terrestrial UK TV at 9pm.

Prom people! (My sister is in the centre wearing purple)

Before the prom, I was nervous about taking photos for my sister, but once we were there I snapped away freely, capturing all of the main moments as the leavers paraded outside the front of the school. They were soon on their way to the prom venue, as my mother and I walked home. During the evening my excitement for the NCIS episode grew and grew, and it certainly did not disappoint; Jimmy and Breena are so sweet together, but the bomb blast and Ducky's heart attack on the beach moved me more than I expected them to. It didn't, however, prepare me for the bombshell that hit three hours later, when it was announced that Cote de Pablo is leaving NCIS. Initially I was in disbelief, but soon the reality hit me: Ziva will no longer be a part of the show. I cried a little, but I'm feeling better about it now; I'm just a bit apprehensive about the manner of her exit.

4th of July 2013 - A sort of Timestamp

On the way to school I listened to the U2 song 4th of July on repeat, which I didn't do last year. Today was better than I anticipated; biology went smoothly and chemistry was actually one of the best lessons of the year! Maybe slight pessimism does pay off... Today also marks one year since my school prom, so I've been reminiscing a little, but not too much - that was then and this is now and, although the event was wonderful, I'm happy where I am now. Tomorrow I will return to the city of blue-and-dreams-come-true to check out the university, which should be fun.

Mark Owen concert!

Last night, we threw ourselves away... but we made it out all right.

Yesterday my mother, Emily, Joe, Daisy and I attended Mark Owen's concert at the O2 Academy in Bristol. We got to the queue an hour and a half before the doors opened and my feelings, as we waited, were more of awe than excitement; I couldn't believe we were actually going to see Mark Owen live! The O2 priority queue extended much further than our non-O2 line, but we once the doors opened we managed to find a decent spot. The support act, Animal Kingdom, came on earlier than we anticipated and we enjoyed their songs, but the early start lead us to believe there would be another support act to follow. It turned out there wasn't; we realised this when we watched the rug, which Mark picked up from the set of Alan Carr: Chatty Man a few weeks ago, being laid out on the stage. The excitement continued to bubble up, then at 8:50pm the lights went down, the music began and Mark appeared! He started off with a couple of songs from the new album, which we weren't very familiar with as our (super deluxe, signed) copy had only arrived a few hours earlier, then he launched into the new single, "Stars" (available to download here), before Take That favourite "The Flood". By this point I was getting really into it, and still in disbelief at how close we were to Mark Owen, when a very familiar tune started and tears formed in my eyes as I realised we were about to hear one of my absolute favourite songs: "Makin' Out"! I put my all into singing along and dancing, while Em trustily filmed the song, and it was glorious! The rest of the show was the perfect mix of Mark's older solo hits, songs from the new album, and rousing Take That anthems, which were lovely to hear and sounded wonderful even without the other 3/4 members. "Shine" was another song which made me well up: I have so many memories attached to that song, which I didn't fully realise until we were there, hearing it live and dutifully singing along. Over all, it was an absolutely fantastic night that I will never forget!

Exam free!

At exactly 3pm today I put the pen down for the final time on an AS exam (unless I have to retake next year, but I hope I won't). Psychology 2 was a pretty good paper, I was happy that the twelve-marker was on stress because that meant the other stress questions were shorter, and the abnormality section was as good as I'd hoped it would be. I sat psychology 1 two weeks ago and it was all right, but I much preferred today's exam. This Monday I did biology 2, which was my least favourite of all the exams, but I had a good go at it. Chemistry 1 occurred 13 days ago and it was great (for an exam); I finished with 25 minutes to go, but of course used that time to check, and I'm confident I got at least a B. The second chemistry test was always going to be worse, but it wasn't as bad as I'd feared, and the question based on the pre-release document was fine. I now have four days of peace before returning to school to begin year 13, but even during the first week back I still have Animal Crossing: New Leaf and seeing Mark Owen in concert to look forward to!

Show of a Lifetime

On Saturday 11th May 2013 I was one of roughly 5,000 concert-goers to witness the spectacle that was The Big Reunion tour, when it hit the Motorpoint Arena in Cardiff. I woke up that day buzzing with excitement, so much so that waiting forty minutes for the bus, trying not to gag while having to sprint through underpasses and only just arriving at the bus station on time hardly phased me. Promptly, we boarded the coach, and after 1 hour and 20 minutes of delightful tunes in my ears and serene thoughts in my mind, we arrived in Cardiff. Becoming instantly windswept, we quickly headed over to the shopping centre and spent most of the afternoon there. I purchased seven CDs from That's Entertainment for £5.99, including Honeyz's Wonder No. 8, Liberty X's second album and two 911 albums. We also bought loads of food for lunch and tea, half of which we didn't end up eating, for reasons which will become clear. By 5:00pm we had finished shopping, so ambled over to the arena entrance and a little bit further round the corner where, to our great surprise, we spotted the tour bus parked up ahead! We took a few pictures including the one below, and decided to join the other people standing there for no particular reason.

OMG tour bus!!!

The placement of barriers perplexed me, and my sister continually pleaded that we go somewhere warm, but the atmosphere was pleasant enough that we decided to tough it out, because you never know. If nothing else, it was exciting to know that the groups we had flocked here to see were only metres away… but then something happened. The people standing at the other barrier started to screech with excitement, and we soon realise why: Ritchie from 5ive was there! I couldn't believe it. Not only was a member of 5ive stood a few metres away; he was also my favourite member, back when I was a 5-year-old! I became rooted to the spot and could hardly speak, but did manage to take a photo of him before he returned to the venue.

Ritchie!

Soon I noticed another figure approaching, who looked vaguely like Lee from 911… and he was! To our surprise, he came straight over to our side, and my sister and I both managed to get pictures with him! 

My photo with Lee!
(That is me, I just don't want to properly put my face on here)

I was really hyped up now and couldn't stop grinning as we watched Lee meeting fans on the opposite side. A little bit later we saw Abz from 5ive, then at 7pm it started raining, so we decided to head into the venue.

Abz!

We bought some merchandise then headed into the arena as "Price You Pay", the new song by Honeyz played. We found that row DD really isn't as far from the stage as we thought, and settled in for a phenomenal evening! I was on video camera duty while Emily took pictures including these ones:

5ive first set

B*Witched first set

911 first set

Honeyz first set

Atomic Kitten first set

Liberty X first set

Honeyz second set

911 second set

Liberty X second set

B*Witched second set

Atomic Kitten second set

5ive second set

And finally... the finale

It was certainly a night to remember!

Prüfungen machen mir Spaß!

My summer exams got off to a pleasant start today with the German Listening, Reading and Writing paper, and this post is the only place I've written "Spaß" today! Some of the questions were difficult, but I persevered and answered them all. The essay topic I chose seemed to be the most popular among my classmates and I found it fairly easy to write about, but I really don't know what grade to expect, as many of my answers seemed to be only half right. My next exam isn't for eight days; in that time I intend to revise (naturally) and complete my post about the incredible Big Reunion concert I attended on Saturday!

Party girl

Last week I attended a friend's birthday meal. We were meant to be eating at Nando's, but a potential wait of over an hour put a stop to that notion. Thankfully, Frankie and Benny's was able and willing to seat the ten of us, providing we had vacated the table by 8pm. Swift service ensured that occurred, and my Mediterranean veg burger and mixed lemon and mango sorbet were delicious. Afterwards we popped in the arcade, then left. The birthday boy waited until Sunday to open his presents, and apparently preferred the card my sister and I made for him to the present!

Sprechen Sie Deutsch?

"Früher habe ich meine Deutsch sprechende Prüfung gemacht."

That should translate to "earlier I did my German speaking exam", as that is what happened at 9:15 am today. I won't go say anything about it's content because some students won't have done it yet, but I was very happy with the cards I had and actually didn't feel too nervous!

Things I am excited about:

• Going to a Big Reunion concert in May (More here)
• New (season 9) NCIS every Wednesday, plus season 7 Saturdays
• Animal Crossing: New Leaf being released on 14th June
• NCIS season 9 being released in the summer
• Going to Berlin in October

And more, but I can't think of anything else at the moment!

The Big Reunion

Last night saw the finale of ITV2's The Big Reunion, a show charting the reunion of a selection of popular music groups from the 1990s and 2000s. The series, which began on 31st January, culminated in a 1½ hour concert special. I thought it was spectacular, and I'm very glad we've purchased tickets for a show on the tour!

Watching the acts live will be nostalgic if nothing else; although I'm a bit too young to remember the 90s first-hand, I bought both B*Witched albums a few years ago, and I'm familiar with 911's greatest hits from spending hours watching 90s boyband countdowns, in which 5ive also featured. 5ive was probably my first "favourite band", even though they split up when I was 5. On Sunday afternoons my mum would blast their Greatest Hits album while I danced around and sang along. My sister and I listened to the Atomic Kitten album "Right Now" regularly on our stereo; once I cried because we were told to turn it off! I actually remember the song "X" by Liberty X, despite it failing to reach the UK Top 40, and although I hadn't heard of Honeyz before the show, I think I will enjoy their live performance.

My excitement for the tour has already manifested itself in my B*Witched inspired nails:

Keavy even tweeted me about them!

Dressy Jessy

Yesterday, as it it is supposedly Spring now, I went shopping for warm-weather-ready outfits. The song "If It Don't Fit" by B*Witched rooted itself in my head and accompanied me into the changing rooms; this perhaps made me more discerning about my clothing choices. I tried on multiple tops and dresses to no avail, until a shimmery lace navy dress graced my figure - and fitted perfectly! I also found a nice stripy vesty top and a denim jacket which would be perfect to wear to The Big Reunion Tour show I'm going to, if it fitted. Hopefully I can exchange it for a better size.

My dress, photo source 

February 2013

Somehow I managed to avoid posting on here last month. It wasn't intentional; I think it's just because my studies are becoming more important. At the start of the month I was revising for the chemistry mock, which I managed to scrape an A in, and this morning I did the same in a psychology paper on the stress (biopsychology) topic. My sister spent a few days away in Paris, which she loved, and seeing her off at 5:45am certainly increased my excitement for Berlin October 2013! A couple of days after she returned we went to Derbyshire and I really enjoyed returning to our favourite haunts and trying to work the new camera. The carefree, post-Derbyshire mood continued into the first week back at school, but in the last few days I haven't felt so cheerful. It might be as a result of staying behind after school to construct a biology essay instead of walking home with friends. I'm hoping I'll feel happier soon! :)

Difficulty remembering

I've been working on a post about the best little moments of 2012 for a while now… actually, I noted a few things at the end of last year and haven't added to the list since. I'm not sure why it's so difficult; I enjoyed the year, and my memories from it tend to make me smile. I think I'm finding it hard to single out specific moments, points in time when I remember truly feeling joyful. My recall of what happened seems pretty clear, but I can't remember whether I actually did feel joyful. Many things make me feel happy, but true joy is rare, and often difficult to distinguish from it.

First AS exam: done!

I took my first biology exam towards the A-level qualification earlier and I thought it was quite a good paper; I felt very comfortable with the first few questions as well as the two 5-markers. In the end I think my revision was sufficient, and I really hope that will show in my results. I should probably check when the results come out - I think it was March 8th for the German GCSE exams I took in January last year, so I only have about two months to wait! Hopefully I won't have to retake!