Dissertation.

I had my first meeting with my Dissertation Supervisor today, it made me realize how close I am to finishing Uni now, it's so scary! I can't believe how fast the past 2 years have gone...it's crazy! I'm doing my Dissertation on Long Distance Relationships and Social Media (I'm reading a degree in Sociology, Media and Communications, so this subject ties in well with all areas of it).

I know it sounds crazy but I can't wait to just finish Uni now and get on with my life. I'm so over it now...also I can't buy a house and get a mortgage until I have a full-time job, Grr! So I need to get a full-time job as soon as I finish Uni so I can buy a house - wooo exciting!

Facebook - Good or Bad.

Many people love facebook, others loathe it. The arguments? It connects friends and family around the world...but it also invades privacy. I've found that those who love facebook are girls, women. Those who loathe it...men. The majority of my female friends on facebook use it as much, if not much more, than myself (and that is saying something!), while my male friends hardly use it, only updating it every few days...instead of every day or every few hours.

I am a self-confessed facebook addict, although the past couple of months I have tried to 'wean' myself off it. Instead of updating it every few hours, I now only update it once a day...sometimes every two days depending on how I feel. I am proud of myself, I feel I have done a good job in becoming 'less' of an addict. I still check it regularly and keep chat on on my phone...it's just useful to have if you fancy a chat with a friend. I guess blogging has helped me a lot...it's a new way to express myself and my views and opinions.

So. The arguments as to for or against.

Positives:

Facebook does what it says on the tin...it connects people. For those of us with friends and family spread all over the world, it is a useful way to update every person, but as a whole, instead of having to take on the painstaking and time-consuming task of emailing every person photos and updates etc etc. Instead of having to email every person individually, we can update a status with 'Moving house tomorrow!' or 'Back to Uni, loving it!' or whatever and ta-da, everyone knows within 2 minutes and you can get on with your day. And although many people argue that not everyone needs to know your business and you have no privacy with your whole life on facebook; 1. Everyone loves a good facebook stalk...don't deny it. and 2. You can easily control your facebook settings to control who sees what and who doesn't see what, so the privacy is actually pretty good. My Grandad even thinks its a good idea! My brother and I explained it to him after he asked what it was, and he said he thought it was a great idea and would consider joining it himself, in order to keep up with us all.

People also argue that facebook and social networking is unsociable, they say why don't you just pick up a phone instead of talking on chat? Well. Firstly, not everyone enjoys talking on the phone, and then secondly, some people don't have time to have an entire phone conversation, while facebook chat only takes 5 minutes to just have a quick catch up. There's also the issue that phone calls cost money, whilst facebook is free. Personally I don't think facebook effects my socializing with people in person, if anything it strengthens it because it is easier to get in contact with people to arrange to catch up, especially those you haven't seen for a while or have lost touch with.

Negatives:

Privacy. This is the one big issue everyone pipes on about. If you don't like facebook don't use it, simple. If you don't want all your friends and family to know your business then don't put anything on it, simple. But whatever you do, do not judge the people who do use it. It is THEIR page, and their page alone...unless there is something on there specifically naming and shaming you, leave them alone. There are many many people who abuse facebook, millions of people...so do not single out one or two people you know and ridicule them for wanting to keep their friends and family updated with what's going on in their life. Everyone is different, every individual has a right to their own opinions, and every person is comfortable disclosing different things.

Another issue with facebook is 'friends'. Many don't agree with having hundreds or even thousands of people as facebook 'friends'...personally I only ever add or accept people I have met in real life...people I know from school, work, or through my inter-club group, and obviously family...although my parents I refuse to add or accept. I have over 500 friends...and many times I have gone through and tried to 'cull' people...and found that I know and have a shared memory, experience and/or relationship with every single one of them. Scary!

So facebook....a god-send or a pain in the backside? To me it is a god-send. How else would I be able to stay in regular contact with 500 acquaintances, friends, and family members spread all over the world!

School Dinners.

On Friday it was the U35's School Disco and Dinner at the Lansdowne Club. Great evening with some great friends! Some people dressed up while others didn't, I was going to wear my St Trinians school outfit (see photo below), but decided it wasn't appropriate for the Club so went with a black dress and my old school tie instead.

My St Trinians outfit I wore to a 50's/60's themed birthday party

a couple of years ago...didn't think it was appropriate for the Lansdowne!?

The evening started with a champagne reception, before moving into the Ballroom for our 'school dinner', and it was a proper school dinner - complete with sausages, mash, gravy, somge pudding and custard, and trays! (although I didn't take a tray...I always was a rebel). But unlike school dinners we also had jelly shots and champagne. After dinner they cleared the ballroom of all the chairs and tables and we had a school disco - complete with a makeshift Limbo made from a school tie!

Our School Dinners

Me and Amy with our school ties

Everyone eating school dinners in the Lansdowne Ballroom

Work Experience.

Last week I had such a busy week! I had 4 days work experience with an Editor, Jon Walton, near where I live, and it was so much fun! I never realized editing could be so fun. I've done it a bit at Uni, in our Video Production module, and I have always enjoyed it, so I decided to do this work experience to see if it really was something I was interested in having a career in.

Throughout the week Jon got me practising different skills using old footage he had been given and had completed a few months back. On Monday I edited a couple of live music videos from a festival, and through this learnt how to use multicam editing, which I found really fun. Tuesday I practised editing EPK's...which was AWESOME! It was fantastic being given all of these music videos and an interview with the artist, and then having to create a story out of them along with his interview. Wednesday was the best day by far, I got to create a showreel for a major music company (just for practice of course). So for about 4 or 5 hours I just got to listen to amazing artists, watch their videos, and then create a showreel out of them. Incredible. It was also very rewarding and satisfying finding parts of the videos that fitted in perfectly with the beat of the music. I would definitely love to have a job in editing. And I think it suits me because I'm such a control freak.

At Uni we have been taught to use Avid Media Composer, which I personally don't really like. It's confusing, difficult to remember and time consuming. Jon taught me how to use Final Cut Pro, and I love it. It's so much easier, quicker and much more enjoyable to use. The Final Cut Pro tools are much easier to use, with trimming and cutting far quicker and less 'jumpy' than Avid's. I guess it's useful being able to use both, and will help me and give me an advantage in the long-run.

My week wasn't just busy with work experience though, I had my normal job to do as well. Luckily I finished work experience early a couple of days and Jon let me go as soon as I had finished, and we had gone through and spoken about everything I had done that day.

Thankfully, quick thinking and quick fingers = quick editing.

Here is my timetable for the week;

Monday:

10am - Go to Work Exp.

5pm - Finish Work Exp.

6pm - Go to my normal job

9pm - Finish my normal job

Tuesday:

10am - Go to Work Exp.

5pm - Finish Work Exp.

6pm - Go to my normal job

9pm - Finish my normal job

Wednesday:

10am - Go to Work Exp.

2:30pm - Finish Work Exp.

Nap.

6pm - Go to my normal job

9pm - Finish my normal job

Thursday:

10am - Go to Work Exp.

4pm - Finish Work Exp.

Cook Dinner for my family....which they didn't even end up eating until Friday night!

6pm - Go to my normal job.

9pm - Finish my normal job.

Friday:

10am - Go to my normal job

5pm - Finish my normal job

Get dressed, hair and make up done

6pm - Head to London to The Lansdowne's U35's 'School disco' event.

11:15pm - Get the next to last train home to Guildford (my Dad says never get the last train home!?)

Saturday:

11am - Go to my normal job

6pm - Finish my normal job

Sunday:

REST...finally!

Early One Morning.

I read two or three books a week, so I've decided I should write reviews on them all as I finish them. I finished a book yesterday called Early One Morning, by Robert Ryan.

Early One Morning - Robert Ryan. 4/5

Early One Morning is set in the Twenties in France. An Englishman called Williams and a Frenchman, Robert Benoist, are both racing drivers, competing against each other in swift and beautiful Bugatti's on the European racing circuits. When WWII break outs in the late thirties France is occupied by Germany, and the two men join the SOE (Special Operations Executive) to help the French Resistance destroy the German's horrifying occupying regime. Robert Ryan is a beautiful writer, bringing to life the experience of living in occupied France and moving your heart to your mouth as he describes the removal and mass killings of the Jewish people. This book is perfect if you like spy thrillers, war stories and cars, and don't mind being a bit emotional every so often. I loved every minute of reading this book, it had me on the edge of my seat with every turn of the page, especially with the switching back and forth between the 1920's-1940's and 2001. There's a bit of a twist at the end...but in a good way ;)

The Royal Automobile Club.

On Friday night I attended an event at The Royal Automobile Club in London. It was a Comedy and Tapas night for the Young Members Inter-Club group which I belong to. So anyway, the comedy was hosted by the Comedy Store Players, and the Tapas...well, I personally wouldn't have called it Tapas...more like a buffet with some Spanish foods.

I got myself all dressed up, and got the tube from Uxbridge where my Uni is, to Green Park, where I met a friend of mine from The Lansdowne Club and off we went to the RAC, which is about a 10 minute walk from Green Park. The RAC is on Pall Mall, the same street as The Travellers Club, Reform Club and Oxford and Cambridge Club. The RAC is one of my favourite clubs, it's so beautiful and it really is my ideal club; beautiful architecture, great facilities, amazing food, and cars! The facilities include a large swimming pool, turkish baths, and squash courts. My friend and I met some other friends of ours at the entrance and we all made our way up to one of the ballroom's where the event was being held. We made the most of the drinks reception, before getting the cameras out to 'attempt' to do our regular photographer Scrym, proud. (He was unable to attend the event so it was up to the rest of us to get the photos).

Part of the Ballroom - I couldn't fit it all in!

The Comedy Store Players

Thankfully I was on a great table with a few friends, and we had a fantastic evening. Immanuel took it on himself to bully the waiters into giving us more food when I was still hungry, and then when we got back to our table to discover they had taken our cutlery, he wouldn't leave them alone until they gave us more. The Comedy Store Players were excellent, very entertaining and extremely clever! After the show we then proceeded down to the bar. I headed back to Green Park to get the last tube back, while everyone else went to Maggies (an 80's themed club on the KR dedicated to Maggie Thatcher), and my house-mate and friend Ana very kindly picked me up from Heathrow when I realized that no buses go near our house at 2am. What a life saver!

Nature's Miracle Babies.

I have always wanted to work with animals. Since I was a small child I have wanted to be a Vet, travel the world and work with Elephants and Orang-utan's (they have always been my favourite animals). Unfortunately, despite my best efforts, I just wasn't good enough at the Sciences (especially Biology...which you HAVE to have to be a Vet) and so this dream sadly ended, and I realized it would never be able to become a reality. Every so often I have a little bit of an upset and downer, and wish that I had tried just that little bit harder, but it's too late now. Becoming a Vet takes many years, and after 2 years of Uni studying Media and Communications, I really don't want to be a student forever. I still dream about working with Elephants and Orang-utan's, I often wish I had taken a gap year - worked, saved up, and then spent it on travelling to Borneo and Thailand to do some volunteer work with them. Unfortunately, for many reasons, a gap year just wasn't an option for me.

This evening a programme was on TV called 'Nature's Miracle Babies', which follows Zoo's around Britain trying to help endangered animals to breed. Today it was focusing on Gorillas and Elephants. Every time I see an Elephant or Orang-utan on TV I just want to cry! Just the thought of my dream and the fact it probably won't ever be able to become a reality. I always wanted to become a Vet and then do animal husbandry, ie; look after the baby Elephants and Orang-utan's. 'Nature's Miracle Babies' showed The David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust in Kenya, who take in and raise orphaned Elephants. It was so beautiful seeing what the keepers do for the infants, and although it may not be everyone's cup of tea, or idea of 'living the dream', I wanted to be one of those keepers - becoming a surrogate family member, sleeping next to them at night, getting up every 3 hours for the feeds, helping them to physically and emotionally recover from losing their mother, and being there for them and helping them for the first years of their life before they are eventually ready to move on.

So I went on to The David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust website to see if they do any volunteer schemes/work experience/intern-ships...basically ANYTHING that could get my foot in the door to work with these animals! But no. They do not accept volunteers because of strict Kenyan laws regarding foreigners working or volunteering :'( my heart sank. I guess when I finish Uni I'm just gonna have to have a gap year and go to Borneo and Thailand and just 'visit' the animals...not exactly the same as working with them, but I guess it's better than nothing. I've even searched all the Zoo's in this country to see if they do work experience or intern-ships or anything...nothing. They only accept Vet students. *sigh*

9/11 - 10 Years On.

I'm not even American, yet I'm watching the special broadcast on BBC2 choked up, with tears streaming down my face.

Today is the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks.

I still remember the day like it was yesterday, it was 11th September 2001, I was 10 years old and in year 6 at school. The first plane hit the north tower of the World Trade Centre's at 8:46am NY time, 1:46pm UK time. I was at school, but I didn't know what had happened until after school, when I went to After School Club for a couple of hours while my mum worked. I remember sitting at the colouring table with one of the play-workers Eleanor, and all of the teachers from the school were sitting around our television watching the news. I asked Eleanor what was going on, and why were they all watching the TV with their heads in their hands and hands clasped over their mouths, Eleanor explained that terrorists had bombed the World Trade Centre's in New York City. I didn't think it was a big deal, I said so what? Bombs go off around the world every day...why was this so important? I remember the look of horror she gave me, and when she told me that they weren't just 'normal' bombs...they were hijacked planes, flying into towers full of thousands of people...it hit me. The teacher's were watching thousands of people dying, they were watching an event which changed the world as we know it. Even at just 10 years old, it terrified me.

As the days and weeks passed after the event, the news continued to broadcast new images, new videos, a continuous new death toll, and new conspiracies. And then the war began.

10 years on, our soldiers are still fighting, and the 11th September 2001 still feels like yesterday. I am sitting here crying for these people on the Television, those who lost loved ones in the 9/11 attacks, those who saw their city crumble before their very eyes, those who witnessed the death, destruction, and disaster. Every person on those planes, every person killed in the collapse, and every person who was forced to jump out of those windows, had a life, loved ones, a story, memories. All 2,983 people were, for much too short a time, very much alive.

For me, personally, the most horrific scenes are the ones of people being forced to jump, and the ones of the people on the ground, watching, and knowing in horror that people they know and love are dying in front of them.

When this tragedy struck, it amazed me how these people came together. The fire-fighters, police and volunteers who risked their lives to help save others. I admire the Americans so much; their ability to rebuild their city, their country, and their lives. Their patriotism and love and pride for their country is something we should all learn from. And I think this is the reason I sit here crying. Not just for those who lost their lives on that day, but for the ones left behind. And for the way these people are doing everything they can to respect and preserve the memories of the dead and the event in which they died in. I often wonder if we British would do the same for those killed in the July 05 bombings. Obviously the number of deaths in London was minimal, but they were still killed in an act of terror, and it still effected our entire country.

I guess these events are a reminder to us all that you never know what is going to happen, it's so scary how in minutes your entire life can change, life is too short, don't waste it. Never have regrets, because all of a sudden, it might be too late to change things.

9/11 - A day of remembrance. We will never forget.

'On this day of National Remembrance, we stand strong and vigilant against the forces of evil. Today we honor the thousands of men and woman, firefighters, police officers and EMS personnel who gave the ultimate sacrifice on 9-11; and the soldiers who still fight the fight this very day, ten years later. They are Something To Be Proud Of.'

Puppy Play Time.

Dylan makes me laugh so much! He's almost 2 years old but he's still such a puppy, he loves playing and gets so excited when he meets new people or we get home. He races to the door, and as soon as the door is opened he runs back into the kitchen or living room, grabs one of his toys or a blanket and then runs to the person and 'shows' it to them. It's so funny.

What inspired me to write this blog post is Dylan's 'play time'...quite often in the afternoons after his after lunchtime nap he'll entertain himself by playing with his toys or blankets (it's very funny when he gets himself all wrapped up and stuck in them). This afternoon he decided he was going to play with his tennis ball...all of a sudden while I was watching Border Security UK I see a tennis ball go flying and Dylan jumping in the air and rolling around on the floor with it. It was so funny I just had to get some photos. Next time I'll try and get a video so you can see the full beauty of my puppy dog's play time.

Enjoy :)

We Will Rock You.

On Monday my family and I went to see We Will Rock You in the West End. We have always been avid musical theatre goers, and I am so grateful to my parents for that. Musical Theatre is one of my favourite things I spend my hard earned money on. I am a huge ALW fan, with Whistle Down the Wind, Phantom and LND being my favourites of his, and then Les Miserables being my 'all time favourite musical'. I have been playing the flute since I was 9 years old, so I have a huge admiration and appreciation of composers, lyricists, musicians etc etc.

Anyway, so we went to see We Will Rock You on Monday for Freddie Mercury's 65th Birthday. I saw it years ago when I was about 14, and although I loved it then, I loved it even more this time around. The storyline, just like Love Never Dies, is pretty shockingly shit (excuse my language). Just like Love Never Dies it is the music which makes it what it is...utterly brilliant! We Will Rock You is great fun, everyone was up dancing and clapping and there were more than a few Freddie Mercury lookalikes and dress-ups (which I found slightly weird and creepy :/). All in all it was a fantastic night! And after visiting a saxophone shop on what my Dad says is the 'most famous street of music shops' in the country, I am having trouble deciding whether or not to trade in my Alto Saxophone for the Curved Soprano Saxophone I have always wanted. I'm such a hoarder, I just hate selling or giving away things people have given me as gifts or whatnot, especially things from my parents (the Alto Sax was my 15th birthday present from them). *sigh*

Cornwall Trip.

Last week my family and I went to Cornwall. I'm pretty lucky, we've travelled a lot, ever since I was just a few weeks old, we've been around the world and stayed in beautiful places. This year I went to Australia twice (via Singapore and Dubai), Egypt, and then Cornwall. You know you travel often when you are greeted on every flight with; 'Welcome back Miss Lux!' and have more than 3 different currencies in your wallet (I always have AUD, USD and GBP in there, and then this year I also had some Singapore Dollars leftover from Australia last Christmas and Egyptian Pounds). I also have 3 different mobile phones...my UK contract phone, my UK 'cheap international calls' phone, and my Australian phone. People around me always give me weird looks when the plane lands and I get them all out to turn them all on :/

Anyway, so this summer we went to Cornwall for our 'UK trip', it was a lovely week - very relaxed, and we were very lucky to have such wonderful weather, with only one day being drizzly. We stayed in a beach shack...on the beach (obviously). It was very different from our usual luxury hotels...simple, small and basic, but it was nice and cosy and it was perfect for what we needed (especially with a sandy/wet/muddy dog!). We did the usual beach trips, spent a lot of time looking for dog beaches for Dylan, went out for dinner, had pasty's almost every day, ate far too many cream teas, and visited the beautiful Minack Theatre. (Apologies for the poor quality blackberry photos...I haven't had a chance to upload the DSLR pics onto my computer yet)

Minack Theatre

Our Beach Shack

Louis Vuitton.

So I've decided what I want for my 21st Birthday next April...a Louis Vuitton handbag. A staple accessory in any girls wardrobe. The classic bag that never goes out of fashion. I've been wanting a designer piece for a while but I'm just so clumsy and awful with wearing out handbags I've never trusted myself to actually buy one. But with my turning 21 I think I'm ready...I think it's a good time to invest in such an iconic piece of fashion. 

The problem is I can't decide which LV to get....

The Speedy 30 in the classic Monogram canvas;

The Speedy 30 in Damier Ebene canvas;

Or the Westminster PM in Damier Ebene canvas;

How is a girl to choose!?!? Obviously the Speedy Monogram is the pure classic/never go out of fashion piece. But the Westminster PM Damier is a shoulder bag which I prefer to a top handle...and it's so pretty! There's about a £200 price difference between the Speedy (£450) and the Westminster (£655). I think I'd maybe have to go into the store in London to try them out though...I'm quite fussy about sizing and how they sit and look when you're carrying/wearing them.

I'm really hoping that my parents will be super nice and get me this as well as give me the personalized numberplate 'C5 LUX' that they've kept for me for years ready for when I turn 21! *fingers crossed* I might start dropping hints after Christmas....unless they see this first :P