When I look at 2012

The end of the year is finally here, and I'm taking the opportunity to look back on 2012.

When you look at 2012, what is it that you see?

(Partly inspired by this tumblr post)
In the future, my 2012 will be memorable to me for the reasons listed here. Enjoy!
FF54B0 32 Emilys Candy

Concerts!
I attended six this year and each one was marvellous for it's own reasons! NKOTBSB kicked off the year back in April, memorable for the insane energy and wondrous excitement (and some crying). I saw Twenty Twenty in May, the evening after my RS GCSE exam and it was awesome; I was into it as soon as the first support act performed "Good Vibrations". July 1st was the next concert date, T4 On The Beach. We woke up at 4:15am and queued in gusty wind and intermittent rain for over 4 hours, but it was worth it to see and hear acts such as The Wanted and Labrinth. In September I went to see Aiden Grimshaw with two of my best friends from primary school; we managed to get second row and the concert experience was great, very comfortable. Exactly four weeks later I was back in the O2 Academy watching Labrinth along with my mum and sister. It was horrifically sweaty but I loved seeing him and hearing the songs live. Just 8 days later the three of us were off to London for the last concert of the year: Owl City. It was wonderful, we met the support act, Matthew Koma, and we weren't at all disheartened by not getting to meet Adam when we stayed outside after the concert till almost midnight.


School changes!
Despite staying at the same establishment, lots has changed education-wise for me this year. I'm now a student because I choose to be. Many of my friends have gone to different places; Rachel now resides in Australia! The last few days of year eleven were lovely, but I knew things would never be the same again. Thankfully, it's not unmanageably different now, and we all seem to have settled in well to our respective courses and locations. Lunchtime in the common room is becoming the norm, and it's pleasant to get to know different people better. Also, signing up to Envision has been a great decision this year, I've already gained great experience and helped to earn £500 for our project via a pitch and video.


NCIS!
I'm not quite sure how my obsession with love of this show began, but I started watching it in mid-February and have been enthralled ever since! So far, I've managed to see all the episodes in seasons 1, 2, 3 and 5, plus most of season 8, quite a lot of season 6 and the first third of season 4 on my DVD box set. In some ways, it has defined my year, [psychology part] each episode acting as a retrieval cue for events around the time I watched them [/psychology part] and I'm sure it has helped my happiness. It's safe to say my exploration of the series has been emotional: on numerous occasions it has made me laugh, cry and almost cry with laughter! I think Kate and Palmer are my favourite characters, but I adore them all, and I don't think it's possible to watch an episode too many times (I've seen one, About Face, 5 times already!).

Turning 17!
My birthday was only 12 days ago, so I'm still getting used to this new number, but I've never been this old before, and I'll never be this young again. It's scary to think that this time next year I'll be an adult... probably best to not think about that for now! My birthday itself will be memorable because I was ill and barely got out of bed. I had my cake today though!

An owlsome couple of days

This time two days ago, my sister, mother and I were getting ready to go to Owl City's concert later in the day. We arrived in London soon after 1pm and grabbed a quick lunch from McDonalds before looking at Buckingham Palace and walking through Green Park and St. James's Park. We then caught the tube to our accommodation in Southwark and dropped off our luggage before heading over to Charing Cross and joining the queue outside Heaven nightclub, which was already extending in front of the stairs up to the station. We spent one-and-a-half hours in the queue, nibbling on Krispy Kreme donuts and dodging spilt coffee before successfully passing through the metal detector and into the venue. We managed to get really near the front on the left side (from our perspective) and waited a little under an hour to see the warm up act, Matthew Koma. He was great, and after the show we met him and got a picture with him! The Owl City set began promptly at 8:30pm and was awesome! After the show we waited outside the venue for about an hour and a half and saw some of the musicians. The next day, we shopped on Oxford Street before returning home.

Matthew Koma

Owl City

Adam Young

Summer: Done

This time tomorrow, I will be eating my lunch on my first day as a sixth former. On Thursday, I will have my first full day of lessons since 23rd May, over 100 days previously. Back in June, I posted this list of things I could do over the summer, and now that the season is ending, I feel it's time for a "Things I actually did over summer" post...

Things I actually did over the summer

1. Listened to two albums in their entirety: 8:09 by Joey McIntyre on August 9th and How The Mighty Fall by Mark Owen on the 27th. I was also "treated" to The Midsummer Station by Owl City, courtesy of my sister.
2. Watched at least 60 episodes of NCIS (actually, it's probably nearer 70+, as I watched About Face four times in the past three days)
3. Rekindled my character ideas, which were originally based on watching a few minutes of Power Rangers: Lightspeed Rescue when I was much younger. I also drew a character and created more.
4. Met up with friends a few times, this included three birthday parties, a trip to two parks and going to the seaside with my sister and some of her friends.
5. Created many roller coasters on RCT3
6. Had a great time in Derbyshire
7. Set up an Animal Crossing blog, purchased a second Wild World game and created an account on Animal Crossing Community
8. Saw two films at the cinema, Ted and Chernobyl Diaries
9. Completed the 25 Day iPod Challenge on here
10. Ate ketchup flavoured crisps dipped in ketchup!
11. Oh, and I've done a little preparation for my A-level subjects