My 19th Birthday

I can't believe it. I'm nineteen. It all seems surreal. I feel so old, yet I can already hear future me laughing at myself thinking that I deem nineteen as 'old'. For me it's the last years of teenagehood, so it's quite a big thing.

I am ever to lucky to have an amazing boyfriend who came up from Exeter to visit me. He stayed over the weekend until Thursday, so I managed to spend a lot of time with him before as well as after my birthday. But this is all frivolous - let's get to the big day. 

On Tuesday morning, I awoke with the curtains being opened and the morning sunlight caressing my face. It wasn't hard to encourage me to get up - I was way too excited to stay in bed and rest. I quickly showered whilst Adam*got everything ready. When I came out, Adam had all my presents laid out on the bed. I can't even describe my excitement. As people who know me know, I am obsessed with pandas and the majority of my presents were panda themed. They ranged from panda mugs, to panda face masks to a panda onesie! I can now cuddle my bubby and we can be two pandas together. Who could tell who is the real panda?!

Fortunately, and rather coincidentally, my lectures were cancelled and I only had to attend one seminar that day. Classes finished at 3pm and I had a few hours of napping before having to get ready. Adam had tried so long to keep my birthday surprise a secret, however just the day before, his mother called up and accidentally spilled the beans on where he was taking me as she got the dates mixed up.

'How was the ballet?'

When I first heard this I started laughing. Crazy laughing. I just looked over at Adam and laughed some more. I knew he could never keep anything from me.

I wore my long, navy blue Topshop dress. I guess it's my go-to for all nice social occasions. I paired it with my black choker, my black high heels, and I wore the eye shadow Everly* got me for my birthday. Adam wore a classic black suit which he looked dashing in.

Before the ballet, Adam took me to The Cube in Birmingham. It is a Marco Pierre White restaurant, with 25 floors and the most beautiful aesthetics. We got a table with a view, which cost Adam £10 alone. I personally wouldn't have spent that much, but then again when you see the view over Birmingham on a clear night as it was, one may waiver. The service provided was outstanding, as one would expect it to be, as was the food. I ordered a 10oz Sirloin steak, topped with escargot in garlic and butter sauce. Adam got Mushroom Risotto which was apparently delicious. For dessert, I ordered New York Baked Cheesecake with Fresh Strawberries and Adam got Mr. Coulson's Sticky Toffee Pudding. Additionally, our waitress brought out a complimentary brownie with 'Happy Birthday' written in dark chocolate on the place for me. It was a lovely surprise and I feel that it's the little things like that which make the whole experience a whole lot more enjoyable.

Time flew by at the restaurant. The atmosphere was really relaxing, and before we knew it, two and a half hours had gone passed and if we didn't rush we would have been late for the performance. Adam started dragging me, but ended up carrying me the majority of the way between The Cube and the Hippodrome. We had to run through backstreets, cross motorways, but somehow we managed to get to the ballet on time!

It was our first time seeing a ballet performance and it was such an amazing experience. We saw the Nutcracker, a timeless classic, which we greatly enjoyed. We sat on the balcony, which for me was an advantage since it meant that we could observe the entire stage as well as the orchestra below. The story of the ballet, if one could say ballets ever have storylines, was that a magician came to a Christmas do, and gave one of the girls, Louise, a nutcracker toy. She loved it so much that she spent her night holding her nutcracker under the Christmas tree, but it soon turned into a magical world where she shrunk and danced with all the toys. The transitions between each scene were very smooth and I loved the way a character's emotions were expressed through their actions. I came out feeling awakened, and wishing that I too could dance like them.

All in all, I had a perfect birthday. Thank you to everyone who was there for me on my special day and sent me birthday wishes.





* All names in this blog are fake in order to ensure the privacy of my friends and conceal their identities. However, the characters are all real people and the events actually happened

A Series of Unfortunate Events

For Everly*

Not sure why but Everly has never really come out partying with us. It's either been the excuse of Volleyball or the fact that she's overwhelmed with work. Both of which are lies, because why would one ever spend £9,000 to get active and work towards a first? Nevertheless, this Friday, Everly decided it was time to finally push the boat out and come to Everly for Steve's pre, pre-birthday celebrations.

For these pre, pre birthday celebrations, one of Steve's friends came up. By car.

This is a big thing because since coming to uni, I've had to struggle with the use of public transport and walking everywhere. Therefore, having someone who not only had a car but was willing to drive us places was a massive bonus.

Before going out to Steve's pre, pre-birthday celebrations, we decided to top up on alcohol. To do so, Steve's friend drove us to the local Tescos. When we arrived, Everly and I automatically got a cart and started food shopping. After all, why not take advantage of the fact we could finally do a big food shop without needing to carry it back?

We spent a solid hour and or so going through each and every aisle picking up whatever took our fancy. I mean, Everly went and got a sick pack of Coke cans - c'mon. After what seemed like a mere five minutes (which, by the way, was probably an hour), the three boys who were sharing the car with us came and stared in utter shock at what we were pushing in front of us.

"NO WAY ARE YOU COMING IN THE CAR WITH ALL THAT".

And with these damning words, the snakes left us to walk home with our cartload full of shopping.

But rest assured, this was only the first of our unfortunate events.

After a bit more shopping and a lot more impulse buying, we arrived at the tills. Everly went first, and beep beep beep. Sorry! No alcohol allowed since EVERLY WENT AND FORGOT HER ID! What was worse was that the cashier girl was younger than us and she had the audacity to tell us that Everly couldn't buy her alcohol, despite having adequate University ID.

This was the second unfortunate event, but there is more to come.

We obviously tried to fight the case but we soon gave up, due to pure lack of effort in fighting with a bloody minor. It was now my turn to go through with my copious amounts of food and alcohol. But alas!! Because I was seen as more than an acquaintance with Everly I wasn't allowed to buy my alcohol even though I had my ID with me.

WOE WOE WOE.

For the fourth unfortunate event in the series of unfortunate events, we had to carry about 10kg of food in our bags for more than 10 mins in the freezing cold. I was only wearing a t-shirt, which wasn't the wisest of my ideas, and one of Everly's bags broke on the way back, so we ended up on the floor sobbing surrounded by food and no alcohol.

What a way to start a Friday night out.




* All names in this blog are fake in order to ensure the privacy of my friends and conceal their identities. However, the characters are all real people and the events actually happened

The Boathouse

Every time I've been to Christchurch, I have always had such lovely days out. Today was no exception - the sky was blue, the birds were singing, and it was surprisingly nice weather considering that tomorrow is forecast 'torrential rain'. Hurrah for Easter.

I arrived in the center of town at around 10:30am, and spent half an hour sitting by the river reading Simone De Beauvoir.* I have recently found myself wanting to escape social media more and more, or just technology as a whole. There's a sense of release for me when I don't have to be looking down at my phone all the time. I'm able to look around me, take a deep breath of fresh air, and just appreciate my surroundings. That being said, I was reading on my Kindle, and was on loudspeaker to Adam**. Oops.

When arriving at the Boathouse, we were pleasantly greeted by a waitress who showed us to our seats. I'd recommend booking, as even though their most popular times are in the evenings, lunchtimes do get busy, especially since it is in a prime location opposite the quay. As shown above, I ordered Boathouse Burger (£12.75) and Adam ordered Chargrilled Halloumi & Roasted Vegetables (£12.95). Both were cooked to perfection, and served on an aesthetically pleasing dish. #snapchatworthy

Unfortunately, we were both too full to be able to slip in a Sticky Toffee Pudding or two, so we instead walked it off by visiting the ruins and walking along the rivière. I truly believe that an experience is enhanced when the weather is pleasant, but also, or even, more importantly, when you're in such great company.





* For those who haven't read The Second Sex I would highly recommend it. It tackles the treatment of women throughout history and is arguably what created the second-wave of feminism.

** All names in this blog are fake in order to ensure the privacy of my friends and conceal their identities. However, the characters are all real people and the events actually happened

Fall Out Boy

Truth be told, I have about five drafts which were typed out all before I even went to the gig expressing my excitement, so you can probably already tell how much this meant to me.

I love Fall Out Boy - a lot.

I really, really do.

But first things first (I'm the realest). Let's start at the very beginning. You may want to get a drink because this is going to be a really long post... 

About two days before the concert, I thought I had lost all chances of going. My friend Lauren* had printed off the ticket online, and guess what?! I lost it. She casually handed it to me at school and I must have misplaced it or left it in a classroom and lost it. My worst fear was that another student found it, picked it up, decided to save themselves £29.50, and went to the gig. You may be thinking that I could easily just, say, print another one off but NO, oh no, that bar code is a one and only and not only would I have lost a small fortune (gigs at the BIC in Bournemouth normally cost around a fiver but since it's FALL OUT BOY then it was undoubtedly dearer), but I would have missed the opportunity of seeing one of my favourite bands. smh. Thankfully, this didn't happen, and on the 10th of October, the day had finally arrived.

I went to the gig with Jane and Charlotte*, later meeting our other friends there. We didn't queue for long (despite arriving at 6:45 pm when doors open a quarter of an hour before) and we were within the main arena by half seven. As a side note, Lauren queued since 9 am!!! She's such a diehard fan, I love her. 

The support acts weren't that great. Charley Marley and Matt and Kim were both trying their hardest for audience participation, and admittedly I did enjoy trying my hardest trying to touch one of the balloons that were thrown vaguely in my direction (cons of being short at a gig), but all in all it didn't really work.

Professor Green was the main support act for Fall Out Boy, which I think everyone was shocked by. They're not even the same genre, and personally I don't think it was a great move. Might contact Bob McLynn to have a quick word. Anyway, my boyfriend Daniel* suddenly got into Professor Green about a week before the gig and forced me to listen to him, which I'm fairly grateful for as it got me quite pumped before seeing Fall Out Boy. We kind of went a bit crazy when Pro Green whipped out Monster and it was nice to have everyone sing along when they played Read All About It as it was probably the only song people knew there. Not that any real emo ever listened to pop radio, ew.

NB: Tap water at the gig cost 40p. If you didn't get charged, the waitress must have either been a b*tch or prejudice against my gay best friend who went to get me the drink. Let's sue them.

NB: If you're small and Asian like me, getting back into a crowd after getting water during the interval is really easy. 

NB: Finding your friends after leaving the arena isn't as easy as you may have expected. 

I guess it's more than you bargained for because I've been dying to tell you about wHEN FALL OUT BOY CAME ON STAGE! You may have guessed that they played Sugar We're Goin' Down, first of all, and then went on to Irresistible, then the Phoenix. I think it was around this time that Patrick spoke for a little bit, something about how great it is that Bournemouth is by the sea, but nobody really knew what he was on about, bless. Anyway, it quickly moved on and Daniel and I acted like that annoying couple at gigs who kissed in between the songs when the lights were off and moved our arms in time to the music. Go get that bucket if you need it.

After their 8th song, the screen came over the stage and a video clip was played. In hindsight, we should have all guessed that something spectacular was going to happen, but I assumed they were just getting some water. Patrick, Pete, and Joe all suddenly appeared on a platform at the back of the arena!!! They played an acoustic version of Immortals and everyone joined in the singing and waved our arms and it was all very cute. After that, they went back on stage through a secret underground channel (or so I assume) which Andy had a very intense session on the drums when everyone thought his arms were going to explode from the pressure.

The 12th song was American Beauty/American Psycho. Everyone knew that the gig was sadly coming to an end, and I secretly wished someone would just crowd surf or something exciting. AND GUESS WHAT MY BOYFRIEND DID?! HE OPENED UP A MOSHPIT. As soon as the chorus came in, everyone jumped in and started moshing, and all-in-all went a bit crazy. It was such a release of energy, and since our friendship group was quite big, we all dragged each other in and ran about and pushed and shoved and screamed at the top of our lungs. It was so amazing, I don't think I've done it justice in words. I guess you just ought to have been there.

By the end of the night, we were all exhausted. The crowds cleared, and we saw a few more friends who came running up to us in floods of tears because Pete touched their hands. (But would I have queued over 10 hours for Pete Wentz to touch my hand?! Probably.). I genuinely believe going to a gig should be considered a work out, because I genuinely sweated more last night then I do when going to the gym. Oh well, Thnks Fr Th Mmrs Fall Out Boy! 

* All names in this blog are fake in order to ensure the privacy of my friends and conceal their identities. However, the characters are all real people and the events actually happened

Manchester Open Day

Eek - my second uni visit finally done! It was a long trek from Bournemouth up to Manchester (roughly seven hours each way with only a couple half our breaks to stretch our legs and get a Costa) but it was worth it.

Friday afternoon, Grace* and I drove up to Manchester and had to spend the night at The Chancellor's. We were fortunate as this was only a few miles away from the University, and the next morning we caught a Magic Bus into the centre, which to our delight only cost us £1.

In total, I went to three talks. I guess I ought to have gone to more since I travelled all the way up there, but I just didn't have enough time! The language building named Samuel Alexandre (pictured above) was very grand and I really liked its interior. Despite dating back to 1919, the building had a very fresh atmosphere and the lecture theatres which I went to were ones which I could easily imagine myself studying in...

One talk that really intrigued me was the IPML presentation (Integrated Professional Masters in Languages). If anyone reading this blog has studied it or has heard about it, please comment below as I'd love to hear first-hand experience of it!

For lunch, Grace* and I went to the Univesity Place for lunch. I think its official name was University Place... Everyone around us called it the 'tin can' - I won't state the obvious and explain why. Anyway, we had beefburger and chips and the portion was absolutely massive and for £4.50 it was definitely worth it! I wish I had taken a photo but I was so hungry that I scoffed it all before I could whip out my camera..ooops.

I think this sums up my blog post! Apologies for not posting a lot recently - I've been overwhelmed with coursework of late and settling into Year 13.





* All names in this blog are fake in order to ensure the privacy of my friends and conceal their identities. However, the characters are all real people and the events actually happened

image link: x

Le Toucan

When driving back to England, I had the opportunity to stop off and have a little walk around the town of Saint-Lo. I really like how friendly the people are in the North of France, and everything seems very clean. By searching on TripAdvisor, the Toucan had received very good reviews and my parents and I ventured there to try it out. It's a crèperie and therefore their dishes are based around pancakes, however they appeared to use a different batter for their main meals (a thick, savoury batter) to their deserts (a lighter, more delicate batter). Just the look of these photos make me want to go back!

Mediterranean Markets

Call me cynical, but to me, most Mediterranean markets are the same. There's the same old pointless junk sold in each of the stalls, with overly-eager sellers (or, seemingly laid-back sellers who glare at you from afar) who are just gagging for your money. Plus, they can literally smell tourists from a mile off and bunk up their prices when they see yo' skinny white ass approaching. Have you not heard of bargaining, darling? I must admit that I used to be a bit fearful of doing so, perhaps after my first experience when I was 10 and my Father pushed me to ask for a lower price for some tacky hair band that most 10 year olds want, and the woman merely pierced her lips together and said "Non, petite. Allez, va t'en". This was condescending, and psychologically damaging as I didn't try to push market prices down for about 4 years until my ego recovered.

Nowadays, I rarely accept the suggested price on items I find at markets. After all, the price on an item is called an 'Offer to Treat', to give it its legal name. This means that the price that they place on the item isn't necessarily the one you settle upon. It is just an 'offer', as the name suggests. Occasionally, and this just goes to show how low my life has become, I enjoy bargaining with market sellers on items I don't necessarily want to buy; I like bargaining just to see how much percentage I can get off. Then again, this can go awfully wrong. The other day I felt like Johnny English trying to escape the crazy cleaner lady because I had to run away, literally run away from this guy who didn't get the hint that I didn't want to buy his tacky faux P'tit Marcel bag. I used the common excuse of "Oh, I'll be right back, I just have to get my money" but the idiot wasn't street wise enough to get the hint and followed five paces behind me until I escaped to some public bathrooms and stayed in there until I 100% knew he was no longer waiting for me outside. Tragic, I know.

Every time I go to markets, it's like I can already tell what is going to be there. There'll be the fruit section, the clothes section, and the trinkets section. I mean, c'mon, here's a check-list of people in markets that you can use to play 'I Spy' with.
 - a stall with tons of bracelets attached to cardboard poles
 - a fruit stall with melon samples which is covered with flies, but nobody seems to know the definition of hygiene as they happily stuff their face with the bacterial-ridden fruit
 - a mysterious white haired woman selling spiritual books and crystals
 - a guy with amazing dreadlocks, tattoos and piercings selling intense and Buddha statues (he often seems really, um, /high/ on life)
 - a token English couple selling some weird English stuff eg. scones, which nobody really wants bar other English people, who are often friends of the couple and who only buy their products out of pity
 - a stall with huge woven baskets in pretty colours, pretty designs and pretty big sizes
 - a stall with all the varieties of 'saucisson' there is, which includes tasters and is probably one of the most popular tables in the market until a little kid screams because there is the option to buy some little horsy meat too... which, by the way, is delicious
 - an organic honey store with tasters of bread and spoons to spread the honey on... again, very unhygienic - but who cares apart from the tourists?
 - a mobile pizza van which nobody really goes to
 - a stall selling bread that looks like rock hard plastic which would 'kneed' a strong set of teeth to eat, let alone a good deal of stomach acid to digest
 - a dench old guy who attends a surprisingly huge book store who insists on reading you Voltaire in a deep, calming voice... and thus convincing you to buy an anthology of French poems (true story)
 - second hand clothes 'stores' which looks like a bomb exploded in a teenage girl's wardrobe and then taken to the market and set out on a tressel
 - overly eager Moroccan men ready to sell you imitation leather bags and belts (reference to the story above)
 - and finally, the most random store which sells stuff ranging from mattresses, to kitchen utensils, to loom bands to zips...

If you've ever been to a Mediterranean market, did you recognise any of the people I mentioned above? If not, do comment others that you've seen so that I can add them to the list. This post has quite a negative view of markets, but there is a part of me, deep deep down, which actually likes them. I guess I like their ambiance, which one can't really get in England. I like the chaotic cries coming from the loud fruit sellers, the rush of people as they go from store to store, but what I love most of all, is spending my money buying all the pointless junk I find there.

Andorra La Vella

Personally, I find that the views in Andorra are breathtaking. When driving to the capital, you get to go through many tunnels within the mountain and come up in a valley with the mountains towering either side of you. I've always dreamt of skiing there, however the closest place I've been skiing was Les Angles, which is more towards the French boarder.

I did intend to take some photos of the views, but as we left early in the morning to drive to Andorra, I fell asleep in the car journey. Oops, sorry about that.
As you can tell, we chose a beautiful day to travel. If I recall correctly, the temperature rose to about 33 degrees Celsius, which enabled us to walk around town without it being unbearably hot. We found one of Dali's sculptures in the town centre (pictures below) which was a pleasant surprise as he's my favourite artist. I wrote about a restaurant he used to visit here, if you are as big as fanatic about him as I am. I've often visited his museum, as well as his house and Gala's palace, if you'd like me to recollect and assort a post for you about there, please leave a comment below.




For lunch, we went to a Michelin star restaurant which received dazzling reviews on TripAdvisor. Its name was Bodega Poblet and was quite hard to locate as its outward appearance is very closed off. The restaurant gives off a very rustic feel, with home-like decor and about a dozen tables, which only added to its allure.





The service is what I loved most about Bodega Poblet Our waitress, as we discovered, originated from Lisbon, Portugal, and had a very charismatic persona. I informed her that I came to practise my Spanish, and she kindly helped me translate the Spanish Menu into English for my parents, even though she could have easily done so herself as her English was flawless. (On a side note, English spoken with a Portuguese accent is so charming). At the end of our meal, she made a special point of thanking us for choosing the restaurant and wished us a good and happy life. The whole experience - from the wonderfully prepared food to our waitress' loveliness - makes me want to recommend this restaurant to anyone who plans to go to Andorra la Vella any time soon!

REVIEW: Flirt

I always thought Flirt was a transvestite bar. Not that there's anything wrong with being one - I actually have two cross-dressing friends who are absolutely lovely - but I thought I'd look a little out of place if I went to a bar full of them. Nevertheless, a group of friends lead me to Flirt, located in Bournemouth's Triangle, and it has already become one of the few places in Bournemouth that I'd recommend.

The atmosphere is very laid back and relaxed. The décor reflects this, having some comfortable sofas placed to our right as we entered, as well as some more seating areas within the café. The customer service was also excellent, with two smiling employees who were very welcoming (as well as attractive!)

Now, I don't know about you, but I'm always intimidated when faced with the vast array of options to choose from in a bar/restaurant/café, especially when I've never been there before. The young girl thus recommended me the most expensive drink - as they are trained to do - Bubble Tea.

I've been infatuated with the thought of Bubble Tea since watching Chonny's Vlogs on Youtube. Firstly, it's super kawaii. Secondly, is there a need for any other reason? It's Bubble Tea. If you have no idea of what I'm talking about, you're missing out (says the girl who's tried it once). Pearl Milk Tea, more commonly known as Bubble Tea, is a drink which was invented in the 1980s in Taichung in East Asia. It can be either tea, fruit, or milk based and is mixed with tapioca balls (which resemble 'bubbles').

I chose mango juice with strawberry bubbles. Admittedly, I was slightly shocked when the first bubble popped into my mouth. Do I bite it? Do I suck on it? Do I spit it back into my drink? (Gross, I know, sorry). I think the best way to handle the situation, it it can be called that, is to just brace yourself and bite into it. There's a sudden explosion of strawberry/mango/whatever-you-have-chosen juice into your mouth and you'll make an appropriate exclamation to go with it "Oh my gosh!", "What just happened?!", "You have to try this!" "Cameron isn't a true Villa fan he's doing it to get the public to like him!"... Sorry, but you get the picture; you're very excited and you'll either be gathering all the bubbles up to do it again or forcing your friends to try it too.

Overall, I greatly enjoyed my experience at Flirt, as well as my first Bubble Tea. I'd highly recommend it to anyone, whether it be for a group outing like I did or to snuggle up to your cute date (to/,) just go to Flirt.

REVIEW: La Tasca

Choosing La Tasca wasn't a hard choice. My Spanish A-Level class were looking for a local Spanish restaurant, we typed it into Google, and chose the first thing that came up. Simple.
It is situated in Bournemouth town centre, on the outskirts of the main square and right next to Tesco Express (so, if the tapas don't fill you up, you always have the chance to grab a meal deal). Parking isn't ideal, but if one follows the road up past the church, there are usally some places next to all the industrial works.

The décor really creates an Hispanic atmosphere and encourages the customers to imageine that they have been transported to a local bar, perhaps in the backstreet of Galicia on some humid, Friday night. There is a rustic feel to the place and the posters layering the walls add an interesting conversation starter. I believe that the employees are latino, as the waiters who served us had a slight accent. One also didn't understand when Lauren* asked for a milder source, he simply took it all off (probably cutting the cost in half too whilst keeping the price the same, sneaky bugger).

As I have found out in the past year after studying Economics and Business Studies, the recommended "have three tapas for each person" was merely to make us buy more. I went for Rustic Garlic Bread (Andalucia, £2.45), Calamares (Andalucia, £4.65) and Pollo Marbella (Malaga, gluten-free, £4.95). For an average price of £4, it was cheap and good value, yet prices may quickly increase if drinks are ordered as well.




*All names in this blog are fake in order to ensure the privacy of my friends and conceal their identities. However, the characters are all real people and the events actually happened