April 30, 2013

My Big Sister's Getting Old

This is just a quick post to say Happy Birthday to my sister Hannah who turns 24 today. She's officially in her mid-twenties!
When we were cute.
I've mentioned Hannah many times on my blog before, mainly because we do a lot together. When you live in the middle of nowhere as we do you can't help but be close with the only other person your age.  I'm not gonna go all soppy, that's not something we do as my friends will tell you, but she's put up with me for nearly 21 years which even I admit is probably not the easiest of tasks. So I just thought I'd make this little post in an attempt to vaguely make for all the times I've been the annoying little sister that's always tagging along and never has any money on her so "borrows" yours instead.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY HANNAH!

We're both getting old, that photo was taken 16 years ago! What the duck?! Why did we have to grow up, we were so adorable back then. And because it wouldn't be a post about Hannah without one, here's a random Darren Criss gif for your viewing pleasure.




Now all of you should head on over to her blog and spam her with birthday messages to make her feel as if she has friends! 

April 25, 2013

Bring on Summer 2013!

For the first time in, like, well, ever, I actually have plans for a good chunk of my Summer holidays this years and they're good plans at that. So that means I won't be spending 3 months planted on my backside. It'll just be like 2 months instead. Last year was an amazing Summer for Britain as a whole but this year is quite possibly gonna be even more awesome for me!

Me and my sister Hannah last Summer :)
First of all, in less than a month (!), I'm going a la Florida avec ma famille. I don't know why I went all French there but I'm just gonna go with it. I'm so excited as it means that I'll finally get to go to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter! The Potterhead in me can hardly contain herself. We're staying on Universal for the first week so that means I'll also get spend, you know, like a good day just riding the Hulk rollercoaster over and over cause that beast is just all kinds of awesome!

After our themepark orientated week, we're going to tootle on down to Key West for some relaxation. I plan on lying in the sun and reading for the whole week. Sounds like a plan to me. Well, I might have a wee bit of a snorkel and a few other things but for the most part me and my Kindle are going to spending a lot of time together.  One of the best parts of this holiday is that I'm guaranteed at least 2 weeks of sunshine this Summer no matter what the weather decides to do here! 

After I get back I do technically have a good month before the rest of my plans get in to full swing and unfortunately that month, while I will be sitting on my backside, I'll also be making my way through  a mahoosive pile of textbooks in order to try and find a possible research question for my dissertation next year. Not so fun but hopefully it'll be sunny and I'll be able to sun myself while I'm doing it.  A girl can dream, right?

Come the start of August I'll probably be heading up north to see my friend Charlie for her 20th birthday and in true "I don't want to be an adult" style, we're hitting the lazer quest and bowling! Oh yes! It also means that for exactly 20 days she can't call me Grandma! Double Win!

Then on the 8th begins the 4 days Hannah and I have been waiting a long time for....LEAKYCON LONDON!!!!! I'm pretty excited if you can't tell. An entire 4 days with likeminded people just geeking out about Harry Potter and various other fandoms. It's going to be awesome I can tell! I'll also be able to rock the Slytherin robe that I will have purchased from the WWoHP. Planned that well, didn't we? 

YouTube will be my focus on the 18th and 19th of August cause I'm going to Summer in the City! I didn't think I was going to this because all the tickets had sold out then Hannah's friend from work told us about the new batch of tickets and well, fast forward a few days and skip a bit of faffing about trying to get our card to work and we had tickets! I'm going with Hannah and her friend Beth and I'm so excited to get to meet some of my favourite YouTubers! Plus, Hank Green is confirmed! ERMAHGERD!

Only a few days later and I turn the big 21, except it's not that big cause nothing actually happens on your 21st in the UK but nevertheless it's still both cool and scary at the same time. I don't mind turning 21 per se, it just scares me how fast my life is moving at the moment. Before you know it I'll have graduated and entered the world of unemployment and no one wants that. I've no idea what i'm doing for my birthday, probably nothing massive as I had a pretty big 18th but we'll see.

There may be our usual annual trip to the wall of corn, otherwise known as Cornwall in there somewhere too, but that's not particularly exciting and will probably be cold and rainy. Still, if it is nice weather, it'll be nice to go down to the beach and eat my weight in fudge.

The downside to all of this is of course the damage it'll will cause to my bank account but I'm not gonna let that bother me. I'll worry about that in September when I'll be getting my student loan anyway so it'll be fine. That's totally what they give you a loan for. Obviously. I may be broke at the end of it but I don't care cause it's gonna be totallymegafoxyawesomehot!

Have any of you guys got any cool plans for this Summer?

April 23, 2013

5/7ths of the Way There!

I am a very happy bunny right now as I have finally finished the beast that is Harry Potter und der Orden des Phönix! It only took me 8 months...

I've been slowly making my way through the German Harry Potter's for the best part of two years to try and help improve my German. While I'm reading I don't look up any words, I just rely on my knowledge of the series to fill in any of the gaps that I miss and I have to say I feel like I'm relying on my previous knowledge much less as I make my way through so it's nice to know it's working, at least somewhat. It's also a good thing I'm understanding more as I'd forgotten half the stuff that happens in the 5th book. I hadn't read it since it first came out (I know, I'm a terrible Harry Potter fan. But, it's just so darn long!) so most of the scenes that weren't in the film I couldn't really remember at all.

Reading the Harry Potter books in another language almost feels like I'm reading them for the first time again because they feel so different yet they're still the story you know and love. It's a strange feeling but a pretty cool one too. I'm reading the book much slower than I would in English so, ignoring the bits that I just straight out don't understand, I feel like I actually took the whole thing in much more than I had before, even with the earlier ones which I've read so may times I practically know them backwards.

Funnily enough, despite the monumental task that was OotP, once I'd finished all I wanted to do was move onto the Half Blood Prince. I didn't because I wanted to make a bit of a dent into my English to-read list plus I needed to give the old brain cells a bit of a rest. It'll probably take me the good part of a year to finish the last two books but it'll be pretty awesome to be able to say that I've read the entire series in German. Now I just need to buy some more books so all that hard work doesn't go to waste. Maybe The Hunger Games. Maybe even one day a book I've never read before! 

Have any of you guys ever read any books in a foreign language?