GOLLYGOSHAROOO

I have failed at blogging. I will be the first to admit that openly. I haven't really written anything in a while either so this could end up really jumbled... or really boring. That will probably depend on whether you care about what I've been doing which warrants avoiding this blog.

I haven't been AVOIDING it as such... it's just difficult to summon the power to open up the page, select the blog and CHOOSE to write about all the insane things I've actually done since... oh balls, June.

29TH JUNE.

That's bad. In fact, it's dreadful.

VITAL UPDATES ABOUT MY LIFE:

I turned 18, that was a thing.

I passed my A-Levels.

I sang at Maria Eck in Bavaria.

I sang at the Royal Albert Hall.

I attended lots of concerts and rehearsals, pub gatherings and a few parties, they were pretty swell.

One of the biggest things I did this summer was go on an Outward Bound Classic course in Ullswater in the Lake District and that was phenomenal. The ultimate challenge (for someone like me!) and I met some truly incredible people and some not so incredible but fairly fun people. It was tiring but an excellent challenge. We had to perform and carry out an unplanned Mountain Rescue scenario at one point and I didn't freak out or break down like the other girl in our group but I just got on with it and sort of went into this sort of "just do it" mode and didn't grumble or complain about how cold and wet and seriously uncomfortable it was to walk in my boots that were rubbing whilst damp; I just did it. We also played a lot of pool and made many catch-phrases and nicknames, we were obviously the most mature group there. Well, we were the oldest. Three expeditions; three totally unforgettable weeks. Now and again when I look back on that experience as part of this summer just gone I get insanely emotional about it all, like really lamentable and I just want to go back. There's a huge part of me yearning to just get back in a minibus up to the centre, to see that sign that says "Outward Bound Ullswater Centre" and walk through stores, past the cage and up the stairs to F4 dorm and just sit there on the bed overlooking the phone booth... I think it would be too overwhelming to go back so soon, with my badge and pride and all of that. I want to go back though. Describing this is making me want to read over my diary entries again but the sheer exhaustion of the whole experience and the insane emotions I felt reading over it last week was enough for this summer! At some point in my life I'd like to return to the centre, look through the book and look for the Hargreaves' team picture from my course with me and my hat and red waterproofs looking absolutely hinging, fresh from final expedition on the canoes, maybe just roaming the corridors and seeing who is still there...

I returned from that INSANE experience and had five days at home before I got my A-Level results. I got an A* for English Literature (yippeeeeee so happy!), an A for Textiles (get in there, my comments to the examiners were obviously worth it and they loved my Kangaroo-pouch trousers from my coursework) and a B for Psychology which I was happy with but a little bit miffed because I was like 1 UMS mark from an A and it was just frustrating. All in all I was very proud because it accurately reflected how much effort/revision I'd put in (except I barely revised for Textiles because the exam was pretty straightforward and I got to draw pictures and diddle around) but didn't really reflect how enthusiastic I was about Psychology because it is still a fascinating subject to me... but PSYB4 was the dullest exam I have ever sat. This might all sound like exam-board nonsense to those of you reading this who haven't been through the devastatingly DULL English, AQA exam system for A-Levels... and good for you, you should keep it that way. Ignorance is most certainly bliss when the subject of flipping exam requirements is banded about. That is for those of you who will never have to sit them. If you have to sit these exams you should probably work for them because that would be pretty idiotic if ya didn't now, wouldn't it? YES IT WOULD. I'M TELLING YOU. OK? Yes, good.

With those well-received results, I accepted a place at the University of York to read English Literature and Language in Education and I'm off there in 9 days! WOOOOOO *many celebratory noises and gestures*

Packing up my life into boxes is liberating and fun, but also intensely frustrating. I keep stopping every time I find something with an awesome memory attached to it... which it pretty much everything because that's just how my brain works. Sometimes I get really sidetracked because I want to tell anyone and everyone the stories and things that I can remember and then they all get bored, just like you probably are reading this. Why are you reading this? You're either my Mother (HELLO), my sister, someone reading this from my other, more jumbled blog or one of my Canadian friends. Or a total stranger... HI THERE.

The day after I received my A-Level results, I just casually packed a suitcase to go to Bavaria with my Chamber Choir for 4 days. Those were definitely four days that I will remember for as long as I live. Silly heat, silly clothes, silly people. All of whom I love and cherish very dearly and we are the best Chamber choir! We're like an extremely close family. Gosh I want to go back there, with those people. We walked up to Maria Eck and performed the best and most emotionally filled concert I have EVER sung in on the second day. I was given an orange rose for singing my solo in Fix You which was not really expected and the other soloists were real solo pieces, I felt like an impostor in a way but it was just gorgeous and WAAAAAAAAAAAH. We then went to an insanely German beer festival and we all got pleasantly drunk (inc. the under 18's wheyyyyayyyeee, some more than others...) and it was an hilarious evening when we returned to the Convent. Oh yeah, we stayed in a Convent because it was pretty much entirely ours apart from a family that stayed one night out of the three we were there. We had a an afternoon by Lake Chiemsée and a day in Saltzburg where we went to Mozart's Geburthaus (nerd MELT). We actually sang outside his house which was a big deal because we had to ask permission ahead of the trip and they don't just let anyone do a performance of Mozart's "Ave Verum Corpus" and "Laudate Dominum" outside the main man's house! But they let us and it was wonderful. The heel/sole fell off my boot (THEY WERE ONLY FOUR DAYS OLD, SOB) when we were on the train back and I was the first person to hop off the bus and onto the flight back from our group!

When I returned from Bavaria I had two days to turn around/pack up again and I zoomed off down to London to sing at The Royal Albert Hall as part of the BBC Proms... no biggie!

I kid, MASSIVE BIGGIE!!!! AAAAH!!!! LIFE CHANGING STUFF. We sang Mendelssohn's Elijah, under the conductor Paul McCreesh and it was phenomenal. I can't adequately describe how much fun I had, how tired I was and how lost we got in Camden (which actually wasn't that lost but Rachael had a huge panic) that weekend but it was just amazing. There were lots of moments whilst actually singing on the stage when I was totally overwhelmed and the performance just struck me right in the heart as an exceptional moment... it was awesome.

THEN... I came home and lamented my travelling summer by watching programmes online and going to see Comedy with my cool family, films, trains, Church, so much blogging (elsewhere...) video-blogging, skyping.

Now I'm packing up and moving on; my biggest adventure is just about to begin...

UNIVERSITY.

Stay adventurous,

Hazel :)

"As I approach you at near the speed of light, I hope I can experience the time dilation of seeing you for eternity."

It makes me really sad to see that I haven't blogged about being "out and about" for 8 months...

In all reality I've not been far in that time. Probably the furthest I've been is Birmingham when I went to the Clothes Show with school and purchased clothes and presents that I should probably write about on my "fashion" blog...

All in all my life was taken over by illness (swine flu) and sitting my A-levels. Now that they're done, I'm free to roam around and have adventures and enjoy my summer, which is a glorious thing. Providing I pass my A-Levels and get at least three B's I should be on my way to the University of York in October to read English Literature and Language in Education, and that is an awfully big adventure, don't you think? I'll be properly packing up and moving out... which is really scary but I'm thrilled about it. I'm just hoping I've done enough to get there! So in the time I've been absent from blogging I've been up and down to York to visit and decide... and take part in Guiding things and conferences and what not! That was fun! I can't wait to join societies and get my leadership qualifications to lead a Brownie Pack! Hooray!

This time last year I was quite literally AT Disneyland Paris. It's phenomenal and rather frightening how quickly this year has flown by, I'm struggling to get over it to be quite honest with you but it has been an absolute whirl. I applied for and got a place on Outward Bound and unlike this time last year when I was badgering you for comments and wishing that you'd read this blog so that I could recount my adventures from camp, this year I can't do that. I'll be in the wilderness, camping and making friends and trekking and jogging and dipping and all sorts of really adventurous things!

Crikey, I've had a busy year. I wish I could sit here and type out everything I can remember about what I've done but, 1) I fear that would be insanely boring and 2) I am still a busy woman!

Believe it or not my summer isn't actually as free as you might think! Well, if you know me you might already think/know I can't really do actually "doing nothing" so...

I'm very busy with choir rehearsals at the moment because I'm preparing for final concerts and a trip to Bavaria and perhaps most importantly our trip to the Royal Albert Hall in August to perform Mendelssohn's Elijah with many other choirs and Paul McCreesh! AAH!

I'll love you and leave you for now, I really want to update this and my other blogs more, so watch out with hope! Please!

Stay adventurous,

Hazel

I haven't stopped travelling altogether

I promise, but this blog did stop as soon as I was grounded at home.

I really miss being in that Media trailer, writing about what I had done during the day at GM, with everyone around me marvelling at my ability to be English (which I've been practising for 17 years now, I think it's pretty convincing) and asking me to say things. They also stalked me on Facebook, but I didn't mind, because they were in the room with me, so they weren't strangers and everything was fantastic in that way.

I wonder where Harold is. On the last day of camp, Alana gave me this Duracell bunny, and asked me to take it home with me. Begrudgingly, I had to decline because it was impossible to take in my luggage around Canada trippin' with me, and so I took him back to the media trailer with a little note telling my friends to keep him safe and call him Harold. He was a frightfully delightful chap.

(Trying to sound extra English... LOL)

Anywhoo, I have done a little bit of travelling recently.

This week, I went down to London for the day on Friday, and just yesterday we travelled down and west a bit to see my sister, Elizabeth, because she's at university, so we went to visit. We went with my Nana and it was really lovely because I got to sit in the car and listen to music and hurtle down the roads at 100mph and watch the clouds and the trees go by. Also, Mum fell asleep in the back of the car next to me and I had a good five minute laughing session as I kept looking around at her with her jaw slowly willing itself to touch her shoulder.

So yes, I was in London on Friday with school, and I ended up being on a coach for 10 hours in total. What. An. Immense. Drain.

I've only just really recovered today from the utter fatigue, and even then I haven't really cleaned my room. Well, that's a combination of tiredness, procrastination and the inability of myself to drag my tiny little keyboard fascinated fingers away from the ever-present internet facility of my laptop. Still, I can claim that I'm tired.

We went to see Birdsong, which had been adapted from Sebastian Faulks' novel and put into a play. It was really bizzare, but I do need to think about it properly and perhaps less critically as I do actually have to write a review for it for my Literature class when I go back to school.

Other than that, my travelling is fairly ordinary; to and from school everyday, to Cadets and Guides which is within walking distance of approx. 3 minutes from home, to Piano which is a short, 15 minute drive away, and to Choir on a Friday which is in the centre of Durham; a ten-minute walk into town and a bit to get there.

Once I have finished school, I'm packing up and hopefully going on a mighty adventure for three weeks. I shall let you all know if my application has been successful, because I have 6 days to go until I might find out! I'm unbelievably excited for this opportunity, and will keep a huge, written diary for myself and yourselves if I go.

Until then, you can have this quote which has been floating about in my head since I went to Stratford on the 14th July.

"To die would be an awfully big adventure" - Peter Pan.

Stay adventurous,

Haze

Unpacking

You know when you unpack a huge bag, and it just goes everywhere? Then you wonder how the mountain of useless stuff you had in the bag actually managed to squeeze into it in the first place?

I am still in that state.

I'm onto my second full day of being at home, and to be quite honest with you, it's freaking me out how free I am. I don't have to do *anything* if I don't want to. I could just sleep all day, which would really be lovely, but I have decided to be productive. By watching films, reading, and writing.

Oh, and editing through 1:28:30 of video clips from Canada. Yes, that's right, almost and HOUR AND A HALF. I mean, what am I going to do with that?!?! A series! That's what! Don't get your hopes up now though, it may take the whole of the summer to get the production value just into the amateur category.

I currently have a looming pile of clean and not quite folded any-more laundry/clothes sitting on my desk chair. It's high enough to beat the height of the stereo on my desk. Just imagine that. I can't show you; it's too embarrassing, and it gives you something to do whilst reading this. Success! An Active reader! I can see my Hufflepuff tie sticking out at the bottom of the pile though, reminding me of how AWESOME the Ontario Science Museum display of Harry Potter artefacts was. I LOVE YOU ALAN RICKMAN. Just getting that out there, incase you didn't know already. Why is he 64? WHY?!?!

*cough* Moving on...

The top on the top (hehehe) is a lime green GM2010 top that Denise and the group bought me for my birthday at the camp. It's AMAZING, and I can't wait to wear it. Although, I'll probably just wear it to bed.

I have music, sitting there, screaming at me to be listened to.

I have clothes, sitting there, screaming at me to be worn, blogged about, talked about, to feel good wearing.

Overall, I'm really excited about being home, because it feels right, I feel settled.

In another way, I feel slightly crazy because I have lots of freedom and opportunities ahead for me.

Sorry for this not being a very good post, when I've done videos and photos, I shall hopefully write on here about our fantastic week touring in Ontario :D

Stay adventurous,

Haze

It's all good in the hood

However, there are tears a-brewing in our eyes here in the Media trailer.

I cannot thank everyone enough for making me feel so welcome, included, and almost a celebrity over this camp.
This experience has been seriously FANTASTIC, and has made me realise that I could not actually be a celebrity at all. The fists of fury would definitely come out to play if people asked for photos and signatures everyday IRL.

Today we did a load of stuff in and around Niagra Falls.
It was awesome and I never want to forget it.

We leave camp tomorrow at half past 10 in the morning. For Quebec.

A new stage of my life has only just begun, and I would like to thank you all, collectively, for following my journey as it has been so far, and if you're discovering this after I have done this, I hope that you enjoy reading my experiences as they happened.

It really has been buckets.


Stay adventurous,
Haze

Stratford Ahoy!

I apologise in advance if this post seems a little bit jumbled up, the heat is most definitely getting to my brain.



I've been asked, and I also think I personally should celebrate the fantastic work that the journalist and photography team have been doing by posting a link to the GM Buzz they have been writing whilst here! For those of you who are Face(fail)book-literate, here's a link to the official group... right here. In the left hand corner of the page is a little section that says "30-something LINKS that have been posted" just underneath the 'Photos' section of the page. From there, there are and will be links to all of the editions of the GMBuzz newsletter that have been written. For those of you who don't know how to work Facebook or even someone who is Facebook-literate, then I am sorry, but I have no official links to the GMBuzz somehow. I hope for your sakes that it works and you can keep updated with the rest of the camp.



I'm just starting to cool off now, and bits and bobs from yesterday, memory wise, are popping back into my head.

Ooh, apparently we're due a storm. That would be refreshing...please!



We were up SO early yesterday, as in 10 past 6 early. Nichola and I went to get breakfast and found that we had enough time to sit and eat our waffles and sausages before heading over to the bus depot. It was foggy and STILL SUPER EARLY when we got to the buses, and the queueing was kind of crazy. We set off eventually, and we sat at the back with Belinda and Sarah, who are awesome and we talked about Harry Potter and ALL sorts. Belinda's parents are from England, and we had a chat about Birmingham and how she needs a heck of a lot of shoes for a wedding in her family over the summer. Offsetting the awesome people was the stack of lunch boxes on the back seat next to me. Made of polystyrene. My. Worst. Nightmare.

They were squeaking and rattling and ARG! You have no idea how traumatic that was for me. Being as I was sat on the back row, I then had to pass these bad-boy-boxes off the bus for lunch time when we arrived in Stratford. It took a lot, lets just say that.



Canadian Stratford is rather starkly different to Stratford-upon-Avon in England. My English ways and means may have tainted me, but there was a quaintness apparent in England that seemed less in Shakespeare, Canada. Either way, it was a really lovely visit.

We went to the costume/set/theatre warehouse before roaming the streets of Stratford, and it was totally awesome.



The streets were calm, shops were open and everything was warm. We went to Tim Hortons and a chocolate emporium and we had some ice cream. Chocolate and Peanut Butter...nomnomnonmom!!!!

We all trapsed through the heat to the Avon Theatre and saw Peter Pan.It was a theatrical masterpiece, staging wise. I was in absolute AWE of how the wires worked so fluidly and were operated with such skill. The set was fantasmagorical and amazing. The actors were super enthusiastic, but I was a little bit unconvinced by the Scottish accent of the narrator. I guess it must be really hard to have a strong Canadian accent and put on any other accent, but actors must do that, it is their job! We spoke to the actors that played Mr & Mrs Darling afterwards and they were lovely!



When we got back to camp, which was late for an out trip (even though we were the first back) we went straight to the Island for food. We had CUTLERY. PLATES. HOT FOOD (which we have had, don't get me wrong, but these were REAL) Metal cutlery, china plates and FRIED CHICKEN things. Glorious! All of this to celebrate our leadership as Rangers. We also received these awesome Ranger bags with Dove products in. They had either realised that we are the smelliest people on the camp, and NEEDED lovely smelling things, or that we needed something just to boost up our feelings since it's been so sweaty and full of hard work helping people.

After our meal, we designed a celebrity resort and went back up to camp for a night literally full of giggles, it was great!



Today has been too warm. It is International Day, so we've spent a big chunk of time doing International Awareness sessions *and* organising our presentation for tonight! Eeep!



It's time for me to go back to the camp and fret about making cups of tea. That, and get some food.





HAPPY BIRTHDAY MUM!



Stay adventurous,

Haze

p.s. Please visit back tomorrow, probably late, I will try to put up pictures, they just aren't cooperating right now.

Hectic

"What is the World?" by Brittany Roberts

A thousand pieces to the puzzle

Try to put it together

Love is bright, vibrant

Start, stop, beating like a heart

Full of feelings I don't understand

'I love you' is the strongest part

Flowing merrily on its way

Which way does the flow of time go?

Time is relevant, never to stay

And the trickle of water slows.

Sun shines through the branches

As wind blows softly through the trees

Leave me undisturbed

In this sense of quiet peace.

The chatter of girls drifts through

Giggles and screams and shock

Society at work as the volume grew

So difficult not to mock

As I listen a little closer

I hear the cicada's scream

A tiny siren whistling

Sounds to a perfect summer scene

As the waves crash upon the shore

Dissolving into the sand

A million tiny grains, a mosaic

Of watery pieces of land

The sky is blue, the clouds are white

As they drift steadily across

Along with the quick, cool summer breeze

As stray leaves fly and toss

A small, white butterfly skitters along

A symbol of tranquility

To see what will become of it, what the fututre holds

Now that would be a sight to see

The call of a bird whispers true

An un decipherable sound

I watch as it flaps its wings

Up and down, up and down

The sun is bright, its warmth is strong

The power of life and love

There are those who complain, it's too hot, it's too warm

But I look upon it with awe

Hard and brittle under my feet

The twiggs and sticks crack where I step

I am reminded that nature surrounds me

Like all of the people I've met

A thousand pieces to the puzzle

Try to put it together

Because the picture you'll find

Of life and the world

Will amaze you down deep in your heart.

(It's been hard for me to get to a computer yesterday, I'll hopefully post this afternoon again with what I did yesterday :D)

Stay adventurous,
Haze