A Celebration

Many things have happened since I last posted here. I've done my A2 exams, been to two eighteenth birthday parties, and on Tuesday I went to the sixth form prom, which was absolutely brilliant! Months before the event, I began looking at dresses on the Debenhams website. Most of my favourites were in the Yumi collection, which was unfortunately absent from the local Debenhams store. However, I remained persistant, and using the instore wifi, I discovered that a Yumi store existed a short bus ride away, so we headed over, only to find that the shop had closed down. Feeling defeated, we trudged home, and decided to return on Sunday. Thankfully, House of Fraser sells Yumi clothing, so I was able to try on a few of the dresses I'd seen online, and I eventually settled on this one:

My dress!

I accessorized the dress with pink nails, my shoes from the year 11 prom and Em's silver bracelet!

Daisy's dad kindly offered to give Chris, Jade, Daisy and I a lift to the venue, a lovely hotel in the city centre. We inadvertently arrived about an hour before the teachers, but the time passed quickly while I marvelled at the hotel's splendour. Eventually, all but three guests arrived, so we made our way into the room, where the teachers gave us each a delightful party bag. The food arrived promptly, and I wolfed down the starter, tomato and basil soup, but had little room for the creamy tortellini main course, and couldn't even finish the sweet cheesecake dessert. After the meal it was photo time; I had 17 taken with Mrs Royall, some of which were hilarious. Soon after, people began to depart. We were among the last to leave, and while waiting for the others, I was very tempted to jump in the luggage cart à la Sebalter in the Hunter of Stars music video!

Temptation!

The walk back to the car was majestic, and the evening was one I will never forget!

Eurovision 2014: Chris's Grand Final Party

Conchita, Queen of Eurovision!

Held last night, Chris's 3rd Annual Eurovision Party was certainly the best ever! The twelve attendees cheered, squealed, grooved, joked, and sang our hearts out during the three-and-a-half hour extravaganza. Chris's decorations were second to none, with brightly coloured bunting, #TeamMolly posters and #JoinUs diamonds adorning the ceiling, walls and floor. When Austria's Conchita Wurst was announced as the victor, we were all delighted, especially Chris, who supported her from the start. We were also pleased with the UK's score, a respectable 40 points, which put us in 17th place. Here are the final standings in our group competition:

1. Chris - Austria - 1st place
2. Chelsea - Sweden - 3rd place
3. Jess - Armenia - 4th place
4. Wendy - Ukraine - 6th place
5. Steph - Denmark - 9th place
6. Jade - Finland -11th place
7. Emily - Romania - 12th place
8. Georgina - Switzerland - 13th place
9. Megan - United Kingdom - 17th place
10. Daisy - Azerbaijan - 22nd place
11. me - Malta - 23rd place
12. Rosie - Slovenia - 25th place

Yes, my beloved Firelight ended up four places above the bottom of the leaderboard, but I wasn't at all dispirited. Their performance was delightful, and I somehow managed to vote for them 50 times during the short interval. Amazingly, they were awarded 10 points by the UK, so the binge voting was well worth it! In total, they were given 32 points, which meant my pledge to eat one Malteser for each point they received was significant, yet easily doable.

32 maltesers

Daisy's tactical choice of Azerbaijan sadly failed to pay off; their 22nd place finish is the first time they've ever placed outside the top 8. After her win last year, Rosie was relegated to last place this time around. Chelsea and Chris both improved by 13 places on last year, and my first choice actually qualified this time around! The UK didn't do too badly, and the rest of the attendees' countries finished on the left hand side of the leaderboard. After the excitement of the contest, today I've felt rather melancholy, but I will look forward to Austria 2015!

Some of Chris's decoration

The artists we supported

Prüfung und Pesto

Almost two weeks ago I sat my German A2 speaking exam. During the night I dreamt that I completely messed up, as documented in this tweet, but as morning rolled around, I became unusually calm. We were able to meet our examiner at the start of the day, and it was reassuring to find that she was just as jolly as we'd been told. After this brief introduction, Chris, Nilloy, Daisy and I left, while Rosie began her fifteen minutes of preparation. The remaining four of us returned to the Study Area, where we nervously carried out last minute revision and I correctly guessed that the word for sadness is "Traurigkeit". Over the course of the next two hours, Rosie returned, and Daisy, latecomer Lily and Chris all completed their exams. Finally, it was my turn. When I arrived, I was somewhat thankful to find that Chris was still in the examination room. Upon leaving he seemed content, which was encouraging. Before I could begin my exam, the examiner had a quick break, but she soon returned, and allowed me to choose my card. After this, the invigilator ushered me into the planning room. The time went by rather quickly, but I did manage to plan all three questions, so it was already going better than the dream. Thankfully, the topic was interesting and I had a lot to say about it. I recalled my Exposé faultlessly, then I only needed clarification on one of the questions during the discussion. Afterwards I couldn't stop smiling, and psychology breezed by in the afternoon. Later on Daisy drove Chris, Emily, Georgina and I to meet Rosie for a celebratory meal. Earlier, the examiner recommended that I have a big meal to commemorate the effort I put into the exam, so at the restaurant I chose the Rigatoni al Pesto, which almost put me off pesto for life, then later I shared a lemon meringue dessert with Chris. Coming home we realised just how great a driver Daisy is; her concentration never faltered despite the noise coming from her passengers, Chris in particular. It seems really odd that I'll never do another German speaking exam, but it's also a relief. Now I just have the three hour written exam to complete, as well as six exams from my other subjects... not too much!

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!

Prom

It's been four days since the class of year 11 formally waved goodbye to compulsory education, and the celebration certainly didn't disappoint! We had pictures taken at school, then twelve of us, in a sea of blue and purple, squeezed into a fire engine limo and were whisked away to the venue.

Posing in front of the limo

The event itself was brilliant! We lapped up the American-style buffet, before heading to the dance floor.  There, we grooved to classics such as the Macarena, as well as recent chart hits and nostalgic requests. All too soon it was over, but the memories still remain, assisted by the flurry of photos uploaded within hours, and videos, including this keek.

Broken Dawn

Today, Em, Daisy, Georgina, Elisha, and the new couple, Chris and Chelsea, went to the cinema to see Breaking Dawn Part 1. We had a good time, eating loads of popcorn and pringles while Bella and Edward married, honeymooned and more on the 60 ft screen. After the film we said our goodbyes and departed, but Em and I will see Georgina, Elisha and the lovebirds again later as we're going to a film night at Chris's house!

Recent good times

So, topless Bono month on my U2 calendar is officially over (has been for days), and I'm still yet to compile a blog post in the merry month of July. What can I say, I've been not at all busy! Here's a few excerpts from the more interesting events of late:

Tuesday 28th - Brace date
I got braces a week ago today! They ached a bit at first but I'm getting used to them now.

Thursday 30th - Bad Teacher
I went to see the film Bad Teacher with Chelsea and Chris. It was fun, especially watching Chris on the dance game in Bowlplex.

Saturday 2nd - Georgina's party
I had so much fun around Georgina's house with her brother James, Em, Chris, Daisy, Chelsea and Elisha, especially trying to catch food in your mouth (I'm surprisingly good with small pieces of dorito!)

Here's to a fun-filled July!

Happy Breathe Day!

16th of June, 9:05, doorbell rings, man at the door says if I wanna stay alive a bit longer, there's a few things I need you to know... three!

Fun, fun, fun, fun!

Had a great day out today with Rosie, Chelsea, Daisy, Chris, Rachel and my sister Emily. We went to a park and enjoyed playing on the swings, roundabout and zip wire as though we were 5 years old again! I took a few videos on the camera including ones of Rosie falling off both the zip wire and a random spinning thing; luckily she wasn't hurt!