Moving To University

Once again, I'm late getting round to writing this post so I'm just going to openly accept that punctuality is not in my nature. Anyway, as you know following my results, I would be moving to the University of Manchester on the 17th September. I'm aware it's 2 weeks later but I felt like I would write about my experience of moving to uni and now I suppose I can even write a bit about what its like living away from home and having to actually succumb to adulthood finally.

Ok, I was super unprepared for moving to uni, I was still shopping for things I needed right up until I left and I didn't even start packing until the night before, you could probably say I'm quite an unorganised person. Anyway, I was so excited to move to Manchester, the last few months of living in Telford, I just felt like I was ready to start a new chapter to my life in a brand new city where I could truly find myself. I was so overwhelmed with excitement that i surprisingly wasn't nervous at this point.

Me and my family set out on the Saturday morning and got there at about noon, we unpacked everything, I decorated my room and then we headed out for one last meal as a family before they all left me in such a big city by myself, EEEKK (The nerves were beginning to set in)! I finally said goodbye to my family, watching them drive off and abandon me in what felt like the middle of nowhere; not knowing my way around and not knowing anyone either. I remember sitting on my bed for about 10 minutes in complete shock not knowing what to do with myself! Once I finally pulled myself together, I started to decorate my desk space; pinning postcards and photos to my walls and hanging up my tapestry and then I met all of my flat mates, clicking with them almost instantly and honestly this made me feel so much better and more at home. I began to get my excitement back at the prospect of having my own place in my favourite city.  

By the evening, I was sat in my kitchen with all of my flat mates and numerous people from various floors of my accommodation, getting drunk and just getting to know everyone. We all headed out to this really cool indie bar, Big Hands (as pictured above), where I met so many more Freshers and socialised with so many people; we even met these cool Norwegians who were into the Stone Roses and we ended up singing Sally Cinnamon together; at this moment, I knew that I was going to love this place. I ended up making one of my best friends that night and we ended up staying out when everyone had gone back home and decided to head to the Northern Quarter at about 2:00am in search of a curry! It was honestly such an amazing first night, it couldn't have gone any better; the pictures above were all taken that night which shows how much of a great time I had. 

I know people say this all the time but if you're debating whether or not to head to university next year because you're unsure about moving away from home.. just go for it! I am the biggest home bird going, I' so close with my family that for me the prospect of leaving them all was so hard especially my dog! But, two weeks in and despite missing them, I feel as if I've made a home for myself here already and I mean you can just get yourself a railcard and visit home as much as you like.

I never thought I'd hear myself saying this but step out of your comfort zone and just go for it!

The Clueless Blogger

P.S. Be prepared to consume incalculable amounts of free Dominoes pizza and strengthen your immune system for when the dreaded Freshers Flu hits (She writes whilst coughing profusely( You will feel like death))

Manchester

After months and months of anticipation, on results day, I finally found out that I'm going to be moving to my favourite city to study at my dream university, The University of Manchester. Yes, I know results day feels like ages ago now but ever since its been so hectic, preparing for uni, that I'm only just finding the time to mention it. As you can probably guess, I was absolutely over the moon to find out that I'm going to be living in such an amazing city in a few days, home to some of my all-time favourite bands: The Smiths, The Stone Roses, Oasis, New Order, The Verve; the list is endless. 

So, after finding out the good news, me and a friend decided to hop on a train and go explore the city further so that when I actually move there, I know where all of the cool indie bars are and record shops. Despite getting lost numerous times and it actually taking us about 2 hours to reach the city centre from the university instead of 20 minutes *Yawn*, we had such a great day just roaming around all of the different streets and alleyways finding so much street art on every corner, they were like hidden gems. 

Side note: the street art was definitely my favourite part about our day; there was so much of it and it was all so beautiful! There were graffiti tributes to Bowie and Prince and they were all done by such talented artists; it added to the sense of culture and the creative vibe that you feel throughout Manchester. 

It was such a lovely day and it was a great opportunity to take a few photos to grace my blog with; the trip has now made me even more excited about the fact that I will be living in this beautiful city very shortly!

The Clueless Blogger

Gin Festival

On Monday, thanks to the extended weekend me and my family decided to head to Shrewsbury as it was such a beautiful day and there is nothing nicer than roaming around Shrewsbury in the sun. Bank Holidays are so nice as it means that I get an extra day to spend with my family as normally everyone is at work on weekdays whilst I'm at work on a Saturday so whenever we have an extra day together we try and go somewhere nice and as there was also a Gin Festival on at The Boathouse, it was lovely to just go and have a few drinks by the river. 

The entire day was filled with cocktails, laughs, good food and I was even treated by being taken into Paperchase and being told I could buy whatever I wanted ready for uni as a well done from my exam results. This was so so great as it meant that I got to get lots of stationery and filing in an attempt to try and organise myself when I go to uni as I'm the most scatter-brained person ever so hopefully this will create some order in my life. I also got some cute art prints as I'm hoping to create a mini gallery wall in my new flat to try and make it all nice and homely. At the minute, I'm overly obsessed with anything copper or anything with gold accents and Paperchase have got such a nice copper range in right now, I was so in my element! I also got the cutest mug everrrrrrrrrrr which I just had to mention as it's so so bloody cute! It's honestly the prettiest mug that I own as it has a geometric pattern and accents of gold foil.

Overall, I had a bloody lovely afternoon out with my family which actually turned into an unintended pub crawl as after going to numerous places in Shrewsbury for cocktails; I then continued my night out in Ironbridge with some friends. It was such an overly nice spontaneous day out!

The Clueless Blogger

Lazy Days

After spending all my weekend at work,  it was just really nice to spend my Monday off having an exceptionally lazy day. I spent my entire day in my pyjamas and just had the most chilled day that I've had in a long time. I spent my day doing some of my favourite things: reading, writing and over-indulging in crumpets and chai lattes. 

It was just so nice to take a step back from the daily rush of life and also gave me an opportunity to improve my blogging skills. This meant that I spent part of my day in my garden experimenting with taking photos and watching other bloggers videos on how to take the best flat lay photos. I actually found this really fun as I just got to play around with all different arrangements and got to create photos just by using some of my day to day essentials: my laptop, books, tea and my typewriter that I keep near by just on the perchance that I have a creative literary spell.

So, above are the results of my photos which I'm actually really pleased with and I couldn't help but feature my new Autumn favourite essential, my bobble hat. Yes, I'm aware that we aren't even in Autumn yet but I couldn't resist this as I walked through Primark's new Autumn collection; I mean for £2 how could I pass that up! 

I'm also heading to London on Sunday to visit my beloved Camden, so expect to see many photos featuring very soon of my adventure and hopefully I'll get into the habit of posting more frequently; that is if I stop procrastinating and succumbing to my lazy oaf tendencies anyway.

The Clueless Blogger

A Cornish Getaway

As previously mentioned in past blog posts Cornwall, is basically my second home. After visiting this beautiful county for the first time about 7 years ago, I've fallen in love with it ever since. I digress,  the relevance of this, is that last week I had a mini-getaway with my family to visit my beloved St Ives, Cornwall. It was definitely a much needed break away from reality as recently I have been so stressed out by the joys of A Level exams and attempting to sort out finance for university; it's as if I haven't really had a substantial break since I began sixth form two years ago now so, it was a getaway that was much appreciated. 

Anyway, come 8:00 am on Monday, I was hopping in the car aided by a much needed latte; an essential Literature classic and Bob Dylan bellowing through my earphones, ready to tackle the 4 hour car journey ahead of me. It was about midday when we arrived in Cornwall and after visiting some of our family in Looe, we continued to St Ives and I was finally at one with myself by the sea again. I don't know what it is about being by the sea but for me, I feel an enormous sense of well-being and my mood is lifted up almost automatically.  Once I'd unpacked, we went straight into town to indulge in a few whiskeys on a rooftop bar whilst overlooking the sea. 

For the rest of the week, we spent our time: exploring down all the hidden alleys; shopping in some of the best vintage and urban shops; paddling in the sea; sea shell collecting; over indulging in fish and chips; drinking cocktails by the sea; taking midnight walks down on the beach and capturing memories of the waves with my camera. For me however, the best part of my getaway was just going down to the beach on an evening and perching myself on the rocks armed with a different book each night and simply reading the night away whilst watching the sunset and listening to the crashing of the waves, the solitude was bliss. The entire week acted as a detox for me, the sea breeze in my hair and the sunshine on my skin was a cleansing break away from the usual rain and dark skies of the midlands. 

Below, are just a few of the pictures I took whilst being down Cornwall, unfortunately I painstakingly had to narrow them down so that they wouldn't take up the entirety of my blog. 

Once again, I definitely recommend anyone who feels as if they just need a break from reality, to head down South and enjoy the beauty of Cornwall. It's perfect if you can't afford to go abroad or don't necessarily have the time, as even a weekend down there can honestly make the biggest difference. The best part about it, is the fact that it is in the UK and although it is a 4 hour drive for me, it is still virtually on your doorstep as it's not like you have to catch a plane. However, despite it being in Britain, the beauty of it is that it's like you're abroad; there are palm trees every where; the sea is so warm and clear and there are cocktail bars on every corner, it's definitely worth the drive.

The Clueless Blogger

Solemn Liverpool Blues

After months and months of anticipation and sheer excitement, the time had finally come for me and one of my favourite gig buddies to head off to Liverpool for the annual Sound City Festival on Bramley Moore Docks. Fuelled by cider and a longing to be reunited with Van McCann once more, I packed my Docs and fishnets and we hit the the road. Soon, after a long drive, I was finally at one again in my beloved Liverpool and not long after arriving we were putting on our hippest vintage shirts and ripped shorts as of course the indie stereotypes that we are and got ready to make our way to the festival. Unfortunately, the festival didn't turn out to be as grand as we had expected; for one, the taxi there ended up costing half of my wages and the cider and pizza at the festival further cost the rest of my wages *slight exaggeration for dramatic effect*.

With having no choice but to arrive at supposedly the last entry at 4:00pm, we were then forced to sit around for 7 hours until Catfish and the Bottlemen headlined at 11:00pm. Whilst being left with no choice but to wait around for my favourite band, I was further forced to remain sober for this entire ordeal as there was no chance I was paying £5 every time I wanted a shitty 250ml bottle of Bulmers. So, hungry, sober and poor, we decided that there was no chance we could put ourselves through that all night so at about 6:00pm we decided to jack that shit in and head in to the City Centre; on the way selling my wristband to some 40 odd year old raver with a tenner at the back of a pub.

Despite the festival which was an absolute disaster; with dead crowds, live drawers of naked men and a shitty VIP section; I also forgot to mention that Palma Violets were cancelled days before which absolutely killed me although, I probably wouldn’t have stuck around to see them anyway because we could just not cope with the atmosphere that was equivalent to having a filling without anaesthesia. *I digress* Nonetheless I still had an absolutely great time in a great city which allowed me to escape the stressful horrors of exam season for a short while.

After ditching the festival, which is better left unspoken about and of which we also didnt return to the next day, we spent our days exploring Liverpool instead. We headed to the Albert Docks and picked up some ice cream to refuel our happy vibes and just sat for a while, appreciating how nice it is to just do nothing and watch time go by aimlessly. We engulfed ourselves in the city, exploring its culture and history, indulging ourselves with good food, good music and overall good vibes. One of the highlights to my weekend was visiting Tate Liverpool; I'm an absolute sucker for art galleries and museums in general and after already visiting this art gallery a few years back, I just couldn't wait to return and I felt like there was no opportune moment like the present. We roamed around for hours appreciating the fine work of Francis Bacon, Franz Kline, Picasso and then eventually headed to the high street to do what I do best... spending all of my money on things that I do not need. 

I am now broke whilst also being the proud owner of some new Doc Martens and many other things that have left my bank account very empty (My Liverpool purchases may be featuring on my blog very soon!). But, I can honestly say despite my now lack of money and the regret of not getting to see Van McCann and Pete Doherty. I have still had an absolutely incredible weekend and am now suffering solemn blues after arriving back in Telford. 

Above, are all the images from my adventures over the weekend and I definitely recommend anyone who has not had the joys of going to Liverpool, to hop on a train, bus, coach or any other form of transport and just hit the road Jack.

The Clueless Blogger

The Eden Project

Recently, I have been been back down to one of my favourite places again..Cornwall. For those of you who don't know, Cornwall is home to The Eden Project. Basically, The Eden Project is an educational eco-park consisting of huge biomes which contain plants from all over the world. Ok..so that sounds really dorky and probably a wee bit boring but honestly it's completely the opposite! I have always wanted to go and have always put it off as its quite a long drive away from where I stay, however I was so happy that I finally went. For any of you, who are major enthusiasts of anything botanical, thrill seekers, organic food lovers or even if you're someone who just appreciates the beauty of nature; this is the perfect place for you (I sound like I've been paid to advertise the place, ha).

I have never been so in my element before (besides when I'm in a vinyl shop)and the whole experience completely blew me away. There is just so much to see and do there: you can have endless amounts of fun strolling through the Mediterranean and Rainforest biomes; gaze at the giant bumblebees; wander through the palm trees; experience a traditional Malay house; sip on an organic coconut cocktail; roam through the muddy bare-foot trail or even have a quick cream tea in the cafe( She says in her best Stoke accent). There are also numerous exhibitions that take place, I was uber lucky for there to be a dinosaur one on at the time of which I was able to release my inner-geek. Unfortunately, I didn't have time to go on the sky high zip wire of which I was extremely sad about however, no doubt I will be returning.

Throughout my entire adventure, I took so many photos that would completely spam my blog so instead, below are a few that basically sum up my experience. 

I almost forgot, they also had a giant green house full of plants that you could purchase; for me this was one of my favourite parts as I have an obsession with filling my room with them! Thanks to The Eden Project, I now have a total of 20 plants in my room of which I can now basically call a jungle.

*HIGHLY RECOMMEND A VISIT*

The Clueless Blogger