A Snippet of Life

  This afternoon I decided to take myself Christmas shopping because two and a half days studying resulted in me longingly eyeing up an empty bottle of wine at 12:00pm on a Monday, wishing it would refill itself so I could pour myself a large glass - and that's no good for anyone on a Monday.    While walking the short walk into York city centre I was happy, chilled-out and nice and toasty in my new fur coat. This mood soon changed as soon as I hit the cobble streets by the shops. Christmas shopping is meant to be fun, enjoyable and relaxing - especially considering the fact that it is still only November!! But, people don't look around them, they think they are the only people in the world and are pure rude. With this in mind, and while being bashed about by shopping bags left, right and centre, I came up with a theory about this situation that I found myself in.   You know at school in every class there was always a couple of people or a small group who act...

  So, being one of those people who lack talent in every aspect of musical theatre but having friends who are very successful in it, I've always admired the casts of musicals. Whether it's been in the West End or various theatres up and down the country or locally in Bury St Edmunds, I always love a trip to a musical. I come out after feeling so happy and usually attempting to sing all the songs, annoying people around me for days after due to a lack of singing capabilities on my part.    Recently I went to see the 25th Anniversary performance of Miss Saigon which blew me away as it always does. I saw it live on stage in the West End last year but this was a recording of their 2014 performance and it was shown in the cinema. The fact it was a recording of a live performance did not make me any less impressed and I loved every minute despite welling up before anything sad had even happened - so moving. After the amazing performance was shown the finale topped i...

  So I am writing this post having just returned from the York Barbican as I felt I needed to write it while still feeling the post gig hype so that you readers can feel this with me (though I admit I am in my onesie already because this place is freezing!!).   I absolutely love the feeling that you get after going to see someone perform live and KT was no exception. She completely owned the stage from her ability to loop the loop on the guitar pedal using various lush looking guitars, sing like a rock-star, entertain the crowd with so much banter and even mash in some Seven Nation Army while she's at it. Even the songs I had not yet heard made me want to dance and she kept the crowd so involved that people of all ages were up and enjoying themselves - from the over 60s in the wings to a little girl of about 7 moshing at the front. Not to mention when my favourite 'Other Side...' came on and the phone torches were swaying I was absolutely loving life belting every word (b...

  As a third year student who is gradually getting more and more terrified about post-uni/ real adult life, I thought this is an appropriate topic for a new post! Reminiscing the amazing years I've had, whilst trying desperately to hold onto the little time that we have left!   I began in 2014, a fresher who had very little experience of the North - this concept that you get half way up the A1 and you're in new territory, a different country almost. I remember driving to York with my Mum, car full to the brim and a very tearful face on my part due to beginning a scary stage of life like no other. I was shitting it! I knew absolutely nobody and I was going to be moving in that day with four total strangers! We stopped at a service station for a bite to eat and I remember starting off again because everybody had a northern accent! Where were all the Suffolk twangs of farmer speak? It was so different and just didn't feel like home.   After Mum had left, I sat in my pri...

  Grandad Mills. This is who he was. A man who appreciated life and everybody in it right until the very end and he taught me to appreciate this too. He would constantly say what a wonderful life he has had and what a credit his friends and family are to him and his memories (of which I can pretty much recite off by heart)! His memory was something else. The stories he told from sixty years ago, although repeated most times we saw him, were never wrongly recited. Every detail, from the exact place to what he was wearing that day, was included. It’s who he was. He had so much energy and was most definitely the fittest 89-year-old I knew. I remember being shocked once when I was playing football in the garden and Grandad came running up dribbling the ball then scored. He must have been in his late 70s at this point. Amazing, but it’s who he was. He was a man of extreme intelligence and independence and sometimes as stubborn as a Mule. “Grandad you’re a bit too old to be cutting yo...

  As the sun attempts to break through the clouds giving us the usual intermittent summer that we always get, we at the shop are keeping on our toes with many of you joining us and the coffee brigade no matter what weather England brings us!! Yes, on days when the rain is pouring, wind blowing and Mike shouting “Girls! Bring the awning in or it will go!!” - Still, some of you brave it in order to get your coffee fix, huddled with blankets! Kids swarming in after school using up all of the ice-cream machine's energy. Fran, as 'Mrs Machine' its humble assistant, produces marvellous displays of the stuff and Mike remains bottom of the league table of Ice-cream makers! I (Harriet) have just returned from Uni for my mammoth summer break and it is so lovely to see all the smiley familiar faces that frequent the shop and brighten the day whatever the weather. I still remember each customers little qwerks whether it's a particular mug that they like or how many grains of sugar...

  Being in the end of my second year of university, things are beginning to get a tad stressful. Especially because it is May time so I have deadlines coming out of my ears, my dissertation to consider and the fear of the fact that my time as a student is almost over! Scary. Reality is not for me just yet so I shall pretend that it is ages away for now.   I am the type of person who doesn't deal with stress and pressure too well - hence why I start essays a month or so before due date. For this reason, I strongly advise you NOT to follow my poor example, but here is a standard day in my student working life.   I work best in the mornings and by this I mean those of which I am not hungover, which is rapidly decreasing due to another coping mechanism that I often use - alcohol. Yes, as soon as anything feels a bit too much my brain tells me to go to the Spar down my street and by a bottle (or two) or their finest wine! This happens rather too frequently but let's forget...

    So, I have recently returned from a three day stay in Grasmere which is a tiny village within the giant district of the Lakes. As lovely as it was, with the beautiful scenery surrounding this tiny place, sheep filling the field and lambs laying on the backs of their mums, Grasmere did give me and my friends a few laughs along the way!    Coming from a rural background, it was not too different to what I expected until I took a stroll down to the center of the village to find that there was one single pub, which happened to be where both teacher's were staying. Yes, the next closest pub was 3 miles away, surrounded by nothing but fields on a B road which had about two vehicles travelling along it every hour - one of which was the local bus service delivering bored teenagers to the nearest and slightly busier "town", hourly. We did seek out this pub as one of the only decent places to eat which sold reasonably priced beverages and this was such a good idea until ...

  OK, so we are fully into the swing of spring and  how I have not yet 'blogged' about this, I do not know. Easter has just past, the sun has been shining, the Daffodils and other pretty coloured  flowers (of which I know no names because I am not Alan Titchmarsh) have bloomed. Looking out of my window, I feel so lucky to have the view of a field full of bouncing lambs, full of life and happiness, so sweet and so innocent. The trees, of which I have been moaning about since I have been back from Australia, are finally showing signs of life in the buds on their branches. The air is feeling warmer. The World is seeming brighter. Sounds of lawnmowers and the smell of freshly cut grass, bring that beautiful season of summer closer and closer. Take a moment to appreciate your surroundings. The tweeting of... no not Twitter tweeting...but the actual real life tweeting of the birds. Ducks and Geese waddling along, followed by cute bundles of tiny fluff - their babies. ...

  Every year for as long as I can remember my mum has always arranged two Easter egg hunts for myself and my three siblings. The first is a simple go out in the garden and find a certain number of eggs each and for the second we are each given eight clues which lead to our egg. This may sound straight forward, however these clues are created by my mother who's thinking is often somewhat skewed. For example 'If you're cold use my nuggets to keep you warm' lead to a clue in the coal bunker, simple? No. We all went to the freezer in search of chicken nuggets...   So each year we all partake in these hunts and I am (of course) always the winner.   This year was no different. The first hunt began and I set off in the garden, almost immediately grabbing my 4 eggs and announcing my victory at the top of my lungs, then relaxing back into my spot on the sofa to finish my coffee as if nothing had even happened. Then the heated second hunt came. We set off and I found my f...

  So mid-way through last semester I began a fitness regime. By this I mean I started actually doing some form of physical activity to compensate my rubbish diet of too many snacks and not enough veg, with a rather large amount of alcohol to help it go down. I then had a break during my six week Christmas holidays because I was working too hard and eating too much (any excuse), but I have just got back into it and plan on continuing this time.   Due to the fact that I haven't got a single 9AM contact hour at uni all week until Friday, I use running as a way to force myself out of bed and prevent me from turning into a sloth for 12 weeks. This has proved successful for the past two mornings, although I did have to give myself a talking to and cancel out all the excuses I was making: still recovering from my cough? Nope, that was last week's excuse. It's raining? Well, it wasn't. I haven't got my running stuff...it was folded in a neat pile on the floor ready to go...

  Having just landed back in York after the best 6 week Christmas break at home (obviously NOT a ridiculous amount of time off AT all), I have been thinking about the two lives that I lead and how I never want this structure of my life to end, although I know that it inevitably will. I am sure if you reading this are or once were students then you'll feel the same about this stage of life, where you get the best of both worlds and a total life of bliss.   Firstly I have my life at home, in a kooshty little village in Suffolk. If I were to use the term 'unique' to describe this place then I would not be doing it any justice. This place is beyond unique, so special and I do not think you'll find another village like it in the UK! Everybody knows each other, cares for each other and certainly drinks with each other. In fact my liver gets a shock each time I come home from the second I set foot on the streets of Moulton (despite the fact Uni life is pretty heavy on the dr...

  So along with millions of others I have made one or two new years resolutions that I hope to stick to for the duration of 2016. One of which is to write more as I have become a bit idle on this blog towards the end of 2015 with assignments and festivities taking over! The other is the generic 'lose weight/ be healthy' having gained a stone whilst at university...oops! But I thought how appropriate it would be to stay loyal to my first resolution in beginning the year with a post on just that...resolutions.   We all make them, the 'new year new me' statuses flood our Facebook news feeds and do any of us stick to them?! Probably not. But there certainly is something in the air at this time of year that gives us the motivation to keep our self-promises for at least a week. The runners among us hit the January sales and purchase a brand new pair of trainers that aid them for the first few days of 'I'm going to run every day of the year...' until they give up...