Ernest Hemingway Appreciation

Ernest Hemingway was born on this day in 1899, so in celebration of that, since this guy did give me my crazy long blog title after all ;) ,  I give you this quote:

"There is no friend as loyal as a book" ~Ernest Hemingway~

Maybe a little exaggerated, but a fair point I think!

Catriona xx

Ernest Hemingway (www.americanlegends.com)

"Those were the best days of my life..."

I'm not long back from what was a truly amazing week at Abernethy Trust Outdoor Centre, Netheybridge as part of the Rotary Youth Leader Awards (RYLA) Girls Camp 2014.

I applied for this through Stonehaven Rotary Club who, along with clubs from all across the district 1010, were sponsoring a place on the camp. After attending an interview, I found out that I was the successful candidate.

The week was aimed at developing leadership skills, and each day included a 1 hour talk from an inspirational speaker, followed by a jam-packed day of activity, with each member in the ten teams of 8 girls taking a turn at playing 'leader', and the teams competing for points overall!!

Over the course of the week, I took part in canoeing, rock climbing, assault courses, challenges, swimming gala, sports day, gorge walking, hill walking, raft building and mountain biking! As well as banner making, zumba, debating, nukem ball and more in the evenings!!

These activities pushed me both mentally and physically, and allowed me to achieve more than I knew I could. They made me change my attitude and convince myself that I CAN do anything if I put my mind to it. I cam home badly bruised & scratched, exhausted and a little sunburned, but I am extremely grateful to have been given the chance to do so many things I never normally would, without having to pay a penny!!






I also gained from RYLA something very special, and that was strong friendship! I wouldn't usually believe that you could become close and attached to girls you barely know in such a short space of time, but when you're with each other all the time, there for each other when your struggling, supporting each other every step of the way and relying on each other's skills, you quickly form a wonderful bond! I genuinely hope that some of these girls are friends for life because I love them to bits! Haha!

I'll put a few more photos below, and  I hope I've done justice in this post to what was quite possible the best week of my life!

Catriona xx

6 Month Celebration!

Just a quick post to say yaay!

I have officially managed to keep my blog running for 6 months, here's to many more posts to come!

The style and standard of writing is a bit hit and miss at the moment, but I'm grateful to those baring with me while I write about what I like and get into the habit of blogging; every view and comment means a lot :)

I (stupidly) made a promise to myself that if I managed to keep my blog running for 6 months, then I'd post a link to it on Facebook, so here goes! If you're reading this, having seen my Facebook post, welcome! Please browse through my posts and keep popping back as I hope to improve and I update quite regularly.

So for now, it's just a huge thank you and if anyone has any suggestions, feel free to let me know! xx

Roles of Responsibilty

"Working hard is important. But there's something that matters even more...believing in yourself." - Harry Potter

Badges

So today I was pretty chuffed to find out that I've been chosen as House Captain of my house at school for the next school year.

On the whole, I tend to thrive off of challenges like these, and I'm, really looking forward to getting into the role and hopefully bringing some of my qualities and ideas to it.

I've been taking on responsibilities for years, because I've always been more of a leader than a participant- I'm a wee bit too bossy and opinionated to always sit back!

I aim to do things to the best of my ability not because it'll look good on my CV, not because I enjoy being considered a smarty-pants or a goody-two-shoes, but because I almost feel as though, when given roles of responsibility, I'd be letting people down if I took it for granted, particularly myself.

For me, the one main focus is to not allow responsibility to become stress, because at that point it becomes unhealthy. Unfortunately, I'm not always the best at handling pressure, but I do put on a brave face that's convincing enough that people think that things are easier than they really are.

I've touched on a similar point before when I said that the reason I get sometimes get good grades is because I work hard for them. Well, the reason I can speak to groups is because I make myself do it, I'm no more comfortable initially than anyone else, but I challenge myself. The reason I can organize, is because I offer to do it, etc...

While I'm really pleased to have been given the Role of Responsibility I've wanted since about first year haha, I do, in this and my every endeavour, have to know when to say no to a request, when to take a step back and pass on the weight. I love it, that's why I do it, and I'm really glad that effort is recognised. Not everyone likes leading, but that doesn't make them unable to thrive off responsibility of some kind, and I reckon its a pretty crucial, and enjoyable skill.

Two In One

Well I've been back at school just two weeks and it's already been fairly crazy!!

 

On the first week back we had daily Rock Challenge rehearsals followed By the Scottish Finals where my school came 4th. T'was a fab day!!

 

Then I was helping out with Primary Seven induction which was fairly exhausting. Plus I visited Glasgow Uni on Thursday which was great except that I lost my new phone (thankfully I have it back now!). And the next two weeks are set to be equally as jam-packed!

 

So I really hope I'll squeeze in more blogging time but for now I'd really like to let u know about two films I've seen on the cinema and not reviewed yet! Both in one blog so it's an exclusive Film Review double bill haha ;)

 

 

No. 1- 'Bad Neighbours'

 

The first one I saw 3 weeks ago at the cinema with 2 friends, and that was 'Bad Neighbours'.

It was pretty funny, if a little melodramatic!!

 

The idea of people becoming parents and wanting desperately to hold on to their 'youthfulness' despite their priorities changing made for a cracking comedy, and this theme was very well portrayed by Seth Rogan (who sticks out to me as starring alongside Katherine Heigl in 'Knocked Up') and Rose Byrne ('The Internship') . All the comic stresses of being ne parents were exaggerated and brought to life.

Not to mention the wild fraternity house next door, with whom the young couple find themselves
battling! Lead by hotties Zac Efron, and Dave Franco (21 Jump Street), the college crew are set to cause some serious disturbance!

The cherry on the cake, cast-wise, is Lisa Kudrow as the Principal, I will  never grow tired of her sarcastic tone!

Overall, a pretty good movie!

No. 2- '22 Jump Street'

I recently did a review of '21 Jump Street' and promised I'd post when I saw it's sequel '22 Jump Street' which I did on Sunday!

My sister had been the week before and loved it, and it did not let me down!

Teamed with (my very first) EXTREMELY LARGE popcorn and drinks, my friend and I laughed our heads off as (Channing) Tatum and (Jonah) Hill once again rocked the big screen in their epic undercover drug-dealer-finding mission... but this time in college, and it was Tatum who got to be cool!!

As usual, the unrealistic car chases and shooting sprees were present, however it didn't bother me this time because they were teamed with comments about how expensive the repairs would be for the police department, which at least showed acknowledgement of the scale of their action!! Haha!

Another thing I particularly like about 22, was that the Boss had a bigger role to play. I won't say
much more because I don't want to cause any spoilers, but an unanticipated plot twist casts the police officers boss,  Captain Dickson (Ice Cube) in a humorous and crucial role.

While the final credits rolled, the background was of different scenarios that could be future "films" for the Tatum-Hill duo, leading up to about 40 jump Street!! While this was a great idea, it indicates to me that there probably won't actually be any more Jump Street movies, which may be for the best I suppose... They say you can get too much of a good thing?!

Overall, grab some friends and go and see it if you haven't already! And If you have, let me know what you think!




 

My Stratford Experience

Before I sat my exams, I was determined to plan what I would do with the remainder of my study leave so that I wasn't sitting around doing nothing all of the time! So, I contacted my Auntie and Uncle in Derby and asked if I could spend a few days with them, which they were delighted about.

The extra special treat was that my Auntie decided to book a trip to Stratford for when I was there and me, being the English geek I am, was ridiculously excited by this!

The weather was (mostly) gorgeous for our trip. It rained on the evening we arrives, but it was fine as we ran to a Greek restaurant that my Aunt and Uncle knew of and had a delicious meal! I couldn't remember having been to an exclusively Greek restaurant before and the food was really lovely.

Then we went to the new refurbished Royal Shakespeare Theatre and saw King Henry IV Part 1. The theatre was quite cramped but the atmosphere was brilliant. Unfortunately, there was tecnhnical hitch after a couple of scenes so they had to stop for about 20 minutes and fix it but after that it was amazing.. The performances were outstanding and the sethe and costumes were so cool and dramatic!

The next day was glorious sunshine and we began by eating breakfast outdoors in an Italian cafe. We had beautiful bread and croissants and this awesome coffee and rich dark chocolate diy drink thing that wasn't mocha it was so much nicer! Then we drove to a small place called chottery and saw Ann hathaway's cottage, Shakespeare 's wife. The gardens were gloriously beautiful  too. 

Then we walked from chottery to Stratford and saw the church where Shakespeare and his family are buried nd other sites. A pub lunch and a walk back later and our couple of days in Stratford had come to an end.

Not only was straford amazing but my stay with my aunt and uncle was too. I also got to meet one of.my pen friends for the first time and that was pretty cool! It was a great way to celebrate the end of exams!

Catriona x 

Book Review: 'Looking For Alaska' by John Green

Been about 3 weeks since I read this, but so far been too busy and too lazy to get anything down 'on paper' about it.. oops! So this could be kinda short but thought it was such a good book that it deserved a wee space on my blog...

After my successful completion of 'The Fault in Our Stars', I was quite keen to read another John Green book and had bought 'Looking for Alaska' for my kindle. Sort of the wrong order as I found after I read it that 'Looking for Alaska' was actually John Green's first novel, so before 'The Fault in Our Stars'.

For some stupid reason, I still had the character of Hazel from TFIOS in my head when I first started the book, and so I spent the first few pages thinking that the narrating character was a girl, rather than a boy. Then I had to start all over again haha.

But once I got over that, it was a really good read.

I was warned that the character of Alaska becomes annoying, but actually I just found her human and fun. I was also warned that, just like for TFIOS, I would cry. I didn't, but I must say that when events turn (and I won't say what events because I really don't want to be accused of spoilers!), well I was deeply saddened.

I think the idea that friends will never be fully able to accept that their friend isn't around anymore, whatever the reason, is something we can all relate to in some respect. Moving on is one thing, but we remember them. I also think that the character of Miles exhibits common feelings of confusion and a desire to be accepted, as well as a phrase which has become increasingly popular recently, he is stuck in the 'Friend Zone'.

There is a very strong sense of friendship among the characters in this group and Green successfully captures the feeling of being in a place in your life where school seems most important, but friends seem super important, being loved and being hated are necessary in almost equal measures and trying things for the first time is exciting. Alaska, although far more wild and confident, crazy and beautiful than myself, seems to me to portray the emotional struggle many young girls go through. It may just me my interpretation but I would say she is probably struggling with a bit of undiagnosed bi-polar because her feelings and moods are outwith her control and, while this leads to consequences much darker and more exaggerated than the average schoolgirl, it holds a bit of real life in there too.

So, if you'd ;like a hard hitting, well written and at times highly amusing read that can be described by me only as wonderfully bizarre, then please give 'Looking for Alaska' a go.