The return of Peep Show, my 19th birthday, and seeing Russell Howard

one.
I've listened to loads of Desert Island Discs recently, mostly because of the fact that I've been travelling to and from London and trains get cancelled and delayed and tingz, but also because it is one of my favourite radio shows. Listening to the David Mitchell and Morrissey ones had me laughing out loud at the station - probably not the most socially acceptable thing to do.

two.
As per usual, I made my own birthday cake (I don't mean this to sound at all bitter, I love baking!) but it was the first year I had to make a vegan cake! I think it actually turned out rather well, who needs eggs when you have vegetable oil and orange juice? (Yes, orange juice)

three.
I had a really nice birthday, I went out to a vegetarian restaurant (with a lot of vegan options) with the family and received a lot of lovely gifts (I did pick a lot of them out on a shopping trip with Mum a couple of days prior, but the thought was still there), the best present I received was probably a Gryffindor jumper - yes, I know I'm 19 now but I'd still like to delude myself into thinking I'm a student at Hogwarts and I'm bezzies with Ginny.

four.
Something that probably excited me more than the prospect of my birthday was the return of Peep Show! If you remember some of my vlogs (oh yeah, because I used to do YouTube before I started being unproductive and stopped uploading things) from earlier in the year, you may remember that I was obsessed with Peep Show and the new series has started off being just as funny as the last.

five.
For my assignment for Uni, I have to read some rather old articles on race and sexuality - it's strange how racist and homophobic they are like I've been reading them and almost thinking they're a joke because of how ridiculous they are. I find it really sad that despite the fact they're quite old, in the grand scheme of things it's all too recent and I do worry that there are still an alarming number of people who still think in the way the people who wrote the articles did.

six.
I went out with my friends to the same vegetarian restaurant I went to on my birthday and received some really lovely presents, one of which being a super cute photo in a frame of me and my friends from when they came down to Brighton to visit me, and another one being a Harry Potter Adult Colouring Book - just to mention a few.

seven.
I had quite possibly the most horrendous train journey of all time on my way back to Brighton - loads of cancellations, delays, and I ended up having to get a cab home because I couldn't get one of my trains due to it being super late (because of all the cancellations and delays). I'm certain I did something really bad to the trains in a past life because I have the worst luck with trains!

eight.
Dodie Clark from the YouTube Channel Doddleoddle (one of my favourites!) uploaded a cover of Happy Ending by Mika which is one of my favourite songs, she and two other girls did a beautiful rendition of it with lovely harmonies - well worth a listen!!




nine.
I went to a recording of Russell Howard's Good News and would you believe I got to sit in the front row like right in front of him (check the picture above and try and spot us)!! Me and my friends were in confusion for the first 20 minutes of sitting there thinking someone was going to ask us to move - it was such a surreal, amazing experience, I love Russell Howard and I like very happy knowing that I've been 2m-3m away from him ;-)

ten.
I brought my guitar back with me when I came back from London and it's been sorely missed, I've been spending a lot more time in my room getting reacquainted.

How have the past couple of weeks been for you?

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Childhood nostalgia, my first election, prom and vlogging

one.

Okay so y'know how in my last one of these posts I was saying that I was planning to book a holiday? IT'S BOOKED! We're going near Blackpool and I'm so excited, this caused me so much stress in trying to find a place to accommodate such a large group which wasn't so expensive but y'know what it's booked now which is just great.

two.
It was my friend's birthday so we went out to Westfield on the weekend and for a meal at Fire and Stone, and it was really lovely (obviously). One of the people who came is actually one of my closest friends and she moved away a couple of years ago so I don't really her much anymore, so it was really nice to see her again. Then a bunch people left, and the remaining people all went to Starbucks for a little catch up and that was super cute too.

three.
I have fallen in love with the app Hatchi. Since getting my new phone, I have been able to download a bunch of new apps (my old iPhone had half the amount of space so sometimes downloading things was a bit of a pain - having to delete 100 photos to update an app? No thanks) and Hatchi is one of them. It's like a Tamigotchi (nostalgia attack) but on a much bigger, brighter screen. I'm yet to have any deaths yet, and I've been taking great care of Ringo and Kanye - I'll be sure to keep you updated!

four.
I decided to re-watch all of the Spy Kids films over the space of about 4 days and it's been so lovely to have, after revision or homework and whatnot, a bit of time just to watch something a bit childish. I have to say since watching them I've wanted to start implementing the phrase 'oh shit-ake mushrooms' into my everyday language.

five.
I feel as if I mention one of Marina's video in every addition to this series, but the topics she talks about are so important and I want to do at least something to bring awareness to it. This video is about how being 'colourblind' is racist, and I think this is important because I know people who I actually consider myself to be well acquainted with who don't see why it's problematic to not see race, and it is because it basically gives the illusion that racism doesn't exist anymore - which it does.

six.

I had my sixth form prom and in all honesty, I didn't love it. There were bits of it I enjoyed, but my anxiety was at an all time high. I felt very awkward most of the time and essentially felt like I couldn't breathe for about 2 hours by which time I had retreated to the toilets to sit on the floor and try to calm down and I didn't feel comfortable coming out for nearly an hour. One of the reasons I went was because I really wanted to be able to do a 'screw you anxiety' moment because I was super anxious, another reason I went was because everyone around me was pressuring me to go. I don't blame them, it's not their fault if they don't get how anxiety works, I'm just annoyed with myself.

seven.

The election... bloody hell. I'm fortunate that in my constituency I got a Labour MP, but we have a majority Tory government and the thought makes me feel sick. Also, my Philosopher teacher pointed out that the Conservatives and UKIP combined got half of the votes which means half the country voted for these far right parties, and that terrifies me. My parents tried to make me feel better by telling me the first time they voted Margaret Thatcher got into power and they had a Tory government for 18 years (which is arguably worse) and that this is a good election to lose because the economy is not doing well and is only going to get worse, so if that happens under a Tory government we'll probably have a Labour government next time. It's just strange, I wasn't all that optimistic for the election after the election poll, but I feel very powerless right now. Also, Ed's stepped down as leader which makes me sad because I genuinely believed he had what it takes to be a good leader. Although, Nigel Farage didn't get his seat so I suppose that's a silver lining of sorts.

eight.
Why didn't I continue with Peep show when I watched the first series a couple of years ago? I've managed to binge watch the first three series in the space of a week, it's just hilarious (and it actually makes me not look awkward)

nine.
I've returned to the world of vlogging and I decided to vlog election day which was also my prom day, it's not the most cheery vlog but there's a lot of comic sans in there so it's all good.

ten.
I've been listening to Ben Folds and Nick Hornby's album Lonely Avenue pretty much non-stop this week, I don't actually own it unfortunately (thank goodness for Spotify) and it's just great. Nick Hornby is one of my favourite authors and Ben Folds is one of my favourite musicians so the collaboration is brilliant, I've been listening to 'A Working Day' a lot because there's one line in it that really makes me laugh:

'Some guy on the net thinks I suck and he should know, he's got his own blog.'

I just wonder whether David Cameron says that about me when I complain about the government.

How have the past couple of weeks been for you?

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