The Highs and Lows of 2009

After reading posts on both Lizzie In Wonderland’s blog and Cats and Chocolate’s blog, I’ve been inspired to post on my own blog about 2009…and what it meant to me…and what I’m looking forward to this year…

2009 got off to a bad start, in a way, because University life didn’t seem as exciting as it was in the first term…and I felt as if the course started to go downhill, unfortunately. I feel that the beginning of 2009 was an incredibly difficult period of my life so far – I was away from the family, friends and the boy, all whom I love very dearly. It was hard to go through the motions of uni everyday when I just felt like I didn’t want to be there, I remember having such a strong longing to be home…just to be home, that was all I wanted. And yet I stuck it out, and I am actually proud of myself for this…even though it was only until the end of the first year, I stayed on a course that I didn’t enjoy and in a place that didn’t inspire me at all.

After I left uni in June, I spent a bit of time soul-searching…trying to work out what I wanted to do, whether I wanted to stay or leave uni…in the end, I bit the bullet and decided to make a change and leave the uni. Instead, I enrolled on a part time course with the Open University, which means that I have a lot more time to do other projects/work/socialise etc, something that was lacking whilst I was away at uni.

In terms of travelling, 2009 was fairly good…in April, the boy and I went to Amsterdam to celebrate our 2-year-anniversary, which was lovely but I’d like to visit again when I’m not so stressed about university/work etc. However, my favourite travelling highlight from 2009 HAS to be the trip to Benicassim Festival and then Barcelona in Spain in July…I loved Barcelona and am hoping to go back this year in June to celebrate my 21st Birthday. In August, I went to Reading Festival, which was the third year in a row…it’s just a good festival for rock music… September meant another little trip, to Norfolk, with the parents, sister, her partner and the boy…was nice to get away for a few days, and then the boy and I had some time alone for a few days because we stayed longer than the others. In the summer, another highlight was a trip to Manchester, as I had never been before and absolutely love the city now!

From September onwards, I started to push the Jewellery venture more with my sister…and we hosted a party in December, which went really well and has motivated us to keep the whole thing going. I also managed to get some really good snaps in 2009, some of which I’ve posted on here; I’m hoping to delve into photography a lot more this year…with courses etc. Towards the end of 2009, I started to volunteer at the beloved theatre company, and whilst it was rewarding for the most part, I sometimes felt as if my time could’ve been better spent doing other things…hmmm.

After I came home from University, life seemed to improve a great deal for me and it’s only reaffirmed my belief that life is a journey and for me, it’s a journey for happiness…life is meant to be happy, and I believe that everyone should get a chance to have happiness, no matter who they are. Overall, 2009 was a year that started off slightly badly but it ended well, it was a 50:50 year.

2010 will bring:

*Barcelona in June (for my 21st)
*New York (fingers crossed) in December for my mother’s big birthday…
*Paris for the boy and mine’s 3rd anniversary in April
*Glastonbury Festival in June
*Volunteering at a Primary HIU (hearing impaired unit)
*Pushing Stars and Rainbows Jewellery to new heights
*Plentiful opportunities to get beautiful, happy snaps with the camera
*Exciting opportunities with Uni. work…

Generally, 2010 looks like it’ll be an exciting year, full of new and interesting opportunities which I am really excited about! I hope 2010 looks like it’ll be a good year for you all too…I know it’s a bit late but…HAPPY NEW YEAR

Candles burning, high and low

It has been a pretty inspiring summer so far, I must admit! The trip to Spain forced me to change my outlook on things and then helped me to decide what it is that I want to do at the moment, so I think I’ll always remember that trip as a good one. I’ll remember sitting on the train between the festival town and Barcelona, contemplating what the meaning of life is – to me. Just watching the scenery speed past really inspired me and it really did reaffirm my belief that: life is too short to spend being unhappy!

Then there was the fabulous Manchester…definitely paying that city another visit in the near future…and definitely going to be snapping away with the camera again (hopefully a DSLR by that point). Sometimes, I feel that all it takes is a trip to a place you’ve not been before, just to be given the opportunity to see things you haven’t seen can help to refresh you! I can see the whole point of “weekends away” now. Or even just exploring the place where you live…maybe?

I currently have two candles burning (yes, I have an obsession with candles!)…I love watching the flames, they always seem so calm and in control. For some reason at the weekend a conversational topic was devoted to fire…and my boyfriend (quite disturbingly…but I’m sure it’s ok) admitted that he “loves” fire…hmmm…I suppose, to a certain extent, I like fire – I have fond memories of sitting around the bonfire as a child, sitting around campfires at Reading Festival, playing (stupid I know) with candle wax over a candle flame…but I don’t like the out-of-control kind of fires. The ones that start to billow out of control and you have no means of stopping it – that kind I don’t like, the kind that has the capability to destroy lives. It’s the same with a lot of natural things I think, you have to know the limits and be able to judge when things will get out of control. A lot of people are scared of the sea because of that but I feel that you just need to be able to judge how strong the current is and whether you are strong enough to handle the sea – although I can definitely understand being scared of the sea/ocean because of sharks!!

Sometimes in life, you have to take a risk…without knowing whether you’ll shoot up high towards the stars or if you’ll end up keeping your feet firmly on the ground, mulling over your regrets. However, I read a quote today:

Your regrets aren’t what you did, but what you didn’t do. So I take every opportunity.
                                                                                                                                                – Cameron Diaz

Maybe then, we should all stop thinking too much about things and just go with our gut instinct? Because the decision to leave Uni took a long time to reach, when I was already thinking about it back in January! Heck, there was even a weekend in November when I was thinking about it, but me being me, I kept dismissing it and arguing that I was just having a bad week/month. Think how much happier we would all be sometimes if we just listened to ourselves, or maybe that’s just me?

Oh lovely, the candles are making my room smell absolutely lush. Go on, light a few yourself and let them burn your troubles away.

Some photographs from Manchester

Art + Music + City + Old + New = Manchester

Wow! It just goes to show that you should never judge something before you try it! Never thought I’d like somewhere like Manchester, always thought that it’d be bleak in comparison to London…how wrong I was!! It was a fabulous blend of old and new architecture, creativity, art, music and it had a great city buzz to it. I know I may be biased because I was just a visitor, but my parents’ friend, who grew up in Manchester and goes back up to visit every now and then, took us around the city and was our “insider” tour guide. Learnt some interesting facts about the place…there’s a statue of the first vegetarian (although he was probably the first publicly known…) in the city hall and he set up the vegetarian society, which is still established today good times! May have to research into that a bit more…what with me being a veggie too.

Visited many places in such a short space of time…we visited Urbis, which was a great modern building, and there are many exhibitions held there (one was showcasing art from New York…). Also popped our heads into the Manchester Art Gallery…another place to find good art, reminded me a bit of Tate Britain in London. Had time to do a spot of shopping…really should have listened to my earlier protests more – I said that I didn’t want to spend much of my pennies when I was there…as always, this went out of the window! We also visited (no favouritism here by the way) Manchester United’s Old Trafford stadium for a tour…was very interesting, and this is coming from someone who doesn’t really follow football. One other high-light was the opportunity to have a meal at the Hard Rock Cafe!! Wow! Definitely one of the best ones I’ve been to…they had these lines from Wonderwall along the wall: “And all the roads we have to walk are winding, And all the lights that lead us there are blinding.” – pretty cool huh?

Snapped quite a lot of photographs, so along with a few of the Cornwall photographs, the Manchester ones will find their way onto here I’d definitely recommend a trip to Manchester if you get a chance…what wasn’t to like about the place?!