Top 15 Moments of 2015

Hi,

This is a list compiling the top 15 moments of this year for me personally! This year was a mix of good and bad things and I think it’s always better to try and remember the good moments! Not all of these were blogged about, but they all influenced me hugely this year.

1. Donating my hair – So a pretty big thing I did the start of this year was donate the majority of my hair to a charity that makes wigs for children. This charity was specifically chosen because of the wigs being made for children with cancer, trichotillomania or alopecia as I felt these were important groups to help. I also raised over £100 pounds and donated it to the charity to help fund future work. Although this isn’t a life saving charity and what I did won’t change lives, it might make a young boy or girl smile and feel better about themselves. I didn’t do it to get praise or to boast about it to friends but instead wanted to genuinely help people. This is why it was my top moment in 2015.
2. Work experience at the Royal Sussex County Hospital – My health and social care teacher managed to get me onto a neonatal unit for an observational placement. Although it was purely observational, I learnt a lot about the NHS and neonatal units in general. Everyone was super friendly and answered all my questions. This was such a big moment for me not just because of the experience but because I was the first person in my college history to ever manage to secure this placement – previously, students had been rejected. I not only got into the placement, apparently they enjoyed having me there so much they’ve opened the placement up for one student per year for the foreseeable future (their words, not mine!)
3. Getting an A in Sociology – Sociology is one of my favourite topics. It fascinates me to no end. I’ve been studying the topic since I was fifteen years old and loved it instantly. I’d been predicted As in this topic throughout GCSE but never managed to pull it off, with me being several marks off an A and instead scoring a B. However, when I opened my results this year for my AS Levels, I was gobsmacked to find I’d pulled off an A! Not only that, I was 27 marks exactly out of getting full marks total for both papers! This was really a highlight and has motivated me to work harder.
4. Michael Mcintyre – As a late birthday present, my Mum and I went to go see Michael Mcintyre live in Brighton. We went out for a meal, got some shopping done and then went and watched my all time favourite comedian in person doing his routine. It was a hilarious and fun-filled evening that had us in stitches! I enjoyed every moment and was pleasantly surprised to find he was better in person than on the TV!
5. Saw the Bootleg Beatles live in Brighton – Surprisingly, I was invited to go see the Bootleg Beatles perform live by His parents back in July. I’ll be honest – i’d never really listened to the Beatles and hadn’t even really gotten round to listening to more than 3 of their songs before we had gone out. However, once I was at the venue the costumes, the music and the crowd completely changed my preconceived views on the Beatles. I had a thoroughly enjoyable evening that ended with a night time beach walk that was actually quite romantic!
6. I Saw the Amazing Tour Is Not On Fire- On Halloween, a friend and I dressed up as Zombies, got on the train to Brighton and saw The Amazing Tour is Not On Fire. For those who don’t know, this was a tour done by Amazingphil and Danisnotonfire, two Youtubers. The entire evening was hilarious and thoroughly enjoyable. It consisted of the whole crowd singing along to emo songs, laughing hysterically at the show and making friends.
7. Mcm Comic Con – in October He and I went to London by ourselves to go visit Comic Con! Despite getting horrendously lost in London and having a mild argument, the whole day was a lot of fun. We met a lot of cool people, from Tomska to Ashens. We bought a lot of nerdy merchandise such as Pop! Vinyls and a plushie blue alpaca, ate far too much food and admired costumes. The actual venue was enormous and although we didn’t get to do everything we wanted to do due to time constrictions or other factors, I still thoroughly enjoyed myself.
8. We got a puppy– In the last month or so, my family got a puppy! He is a Pomeranian-chihuahua mix called Comet. He’s such a funny and adorable puppy. Despite only being 9 weeks old, he fits right into our hectic family life style and I honestly can’t figure out how we lived without him! He loves our house and despite being tiny, hasn’t quite figured out that trying to assert dominance over our much older cat is never gonna work (he will eventually figure this out). He’s already getting the basics of commands such as ‘sit’ and ‘lay down’ with only minor incorrect motions and even has started house training already!
9. Surprise birthday party– After a rather dull birthday at college, I came home to a rather disappointing birthday. My boyfriend couldn’t meet up, I couldn’t open my presents until we went to my Nans later that evening and the event we’d planned to do originally got cancelled. However, I was thoroughly surprised by a surprise birthday party at Tex Mex, a mexican food restaurant in Brighton. I was surrounded by my parents, my siblings, my Mum’s partner, my Aunt, Uncle, Nan and Him. Honestly, it made me tear up. The staff had written ‘Happy birthday Megan!’ on a sign on the wall, we had fake alcoholic drinks and I had an amazing birthday cake. The end of the day finished with a surprise sleepover with my boyfriend, which just completed the whole day. It changed my mood entirely and I enjoyed the day thoroughly.
10. First ‘proper’ party- In August, I attended my first ‘real’ party, complete with alcohol, music and guys. It was a fun evening and despite getting mildly drunk, I still have a perfect memory of the whole evening. I enjoyed myself thoroughly, met some new people and met up with some older friends. In hindsight however, maybe having my phone on me the whole evening and drunk texting friends wasn’t my greatest move.
11. Health and Social Summer School – In July, I attended a Health and Social Care Summer School for a week, run by Brighton University. The whole week we were based at one Brighton university campus and spent the week learning about different health care professions and how they work. This was set up with interactive sessions that made the whole event fun. This also included segments on personal statement writing and student finance which I believe really helped me in fine-tuning my personal statement. From this, I realised I definitely want to attend this university and that I enjoyed the teaching style. It wasn’t all hard work though – our time was split up with events such as a trip into Brighton to have a meal, a quiz night complete with lots of food and even a game of Rounders in the forest. I met some interesting people and i’m glad I attended.
12. Got a Christmas job- In November I got my first ‘proper’ job. By this, I mean I had to complete several interviews and an application to complete the job. Although I was only a temporary member of the team at Debenhams, I thoroughly enjoyed my time. The staff were all super friendly, I enjoyed my work and we even managed to have a laugh in between getting our job done. I’m honestly sad to have finished my work at Debenhams and definitely wouldn’t mind another job there in the future.
13. We visited natural history museum – At the start of the year, my family and I visited the Natural History Museum in London. Or, as my then three year old sister called it ‘The Dinosaur Museum’. She loved the experience hugely – from the train to the actual museum. I enjoyed looking around the more human anatomy exhibits the best. However, it was still an enjoyable day out with my family (even if it was a slightly hectic one with trains not being too dependable!)
14. Became Deputy Head Girl – This year, I decided to step up to more leadership based roles within my college, and applied for head girl. I planned a presentation and executed it to the best of my ability. Although I didn’t get the position I wanted, I got the lower leadership role of deputy head girl. This means I can still develop my leadership skills, but I also have more time to enjoy myself and also to study. Therefore, maybe it was a blessing in disguise that I didn’t get the role?
15. Visited family in Cornwall– During the summer holidays, my Dad, brother and I took our motor home all the way up to Cornwall for several days with family. This time consisted of drinking, playing cards against humanity, visiting family and having barbecues! We got to do some shopping and explore Cornwall, but it was also nice to spend some time with family I see the least often.

Well, those were my top moments. Here is to a whole host of new ones in the new year!

Until next time,

Megan Stapleton

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Results

Hey,

I got my results for my AS levels and I have to say, the results are very mixed. If I could have predicted my grades based on past papers and mocks i’d predict i’d get a B in both psychology and sociology, with a D in biology.

However, this didn’t quite work out that way. My actual results were an A in sociology (Which is above what I thought i’d get i’m so happy) and then… two Es. I was shocked mostly at psychology. I’m hoping to get psychology and one bio paper remarked to at least bring the grades up to Ds or even Cs but who knows. My Mum managed to cheer me up by buying me ice cream and cake so it’s all good.

Yesterday was my four year old sisters birthday party. It was held in the Findon town hall and was actually a lot of fun. My Mum hired three people to entertain – The Fairy Luna (she’s from the moon), a Pixie named Teaspoon and a pirate called Seaweed (he was looking for his lost crew apparently). The entertainers were absolutely manic and had all the kids jumping and laughing. All the children took part in the games and seemed to have a lot of fun (even if they terrified me slightly!)

The food spread was impressive. My Mum spent weeks planning and plotting over it all and made it all up the day before. The spread included pizza hearts, Macaroni cheese cupcakes, soft cheese with celery and carrots, sandwiches in the shape of a snake, popcorn, chocolate covered strawberries, various crisps and lots more. My sister had a great birthday where she was ridiculously spoiled and an even better birthday party.

However, on our way home yesterday we heard about the plane crash at Shoreham airport. During a stunt, one of the planes went wrong and crashed on the A27, killing 7 people with 14 injured including the pilot. You hear about these events happening but you never expect them to happen so close to you – luckily nobody I knew was in the crash but I still hope everyone who is in hospital recovers. The entire road apparently needs replacing and there is talk of closing the air show at Shoreham airport completely.

It’s kind of scary.

Well until next time!

Megan Stapleton

A Busy July

Hey,

So a lot has happened recently! July has been such a busy month I haven’t been able to post as much as usual so i’ll do it all in one big update post!

I had a health and social care summer school at the start of this month, where I spent three days exploring different health and social care professions, eating far too much food and getting to know the different Brighton University campuses. I had a blast and have decided I am definitely applying to Brighton Uni – I loved the campus, the food was great and the teachers were interesting and engaging! Highlights of my time at the summer school included a game of rounders up in the downs, a quiz complete with lots of food and friends, a medical simulation with a robot who had diabetes who hadn’t taken their meds and a trip into Brighton where we had a meal at Donatello’s with friends. The entire experience was interesting and engaging and even included activities such as student finance sessions and personal statement writing lectures. We graduates wearing actual graduation gowns from the uni and holding our certificates.

The next big activity that’s happened this month was Activities Week. This happened last week and was five days filled with activities designed to ‘encourage the interaction of different year groups and help the community’. One of the activities we took part in was tyre painting. The tyres would then be filled with soil and flowers planted in them, so they could decorate our college. However, the tyres had been left all the way down three flights of stairs and naturally the department that needed them was on the top floor. Myself and several other sixth formers had to be ‘trained’ to lift tyres so we could assist in the transporting the tyres. Another day we took part in litter picking at our local beach – although beneficial to our community it was rather boring and cold. However, i’m glad I took part as the beach looked significantly more clean after we had visited. On Wednesday we took part in a nine mile walk along the Downs to fundraise for a new basketball court with our entire chapter. The actual walk was super fun as I made friends with different year groups and had a hilarious conversation with some younger years about dogs. However, my legs were killing by the end of the day and my skin was seriously sunburnt. On Thursday we took part in ‘International day’ where we spent the day learning about immigration, human rights and about a trip to Uganda and how different cultures live. It was a hugely interesting day and highly engaging with races, trying African foods and learning about new cultures. The Friday was spent at Lancing College, where we visited the working farm there and met the animals, watched a ram escape it’s cage, had a picnic, had a treasure hunt and spent the rest of the day relaxing in the sun. All in all, activities week was chock full of things to do that benefited both the pupils and the community – however, it wasn’t half exhausting though!

This last week was the last day at college before breaking up for summer and included PSHCE day where we spent the day creating UCAS applications and reworking our personal statements and Sports Day, where the sixth form mostly just spectated. Wednesday, however was my birthday.

My birthday started early – my sister was stomping around on a form of war path at around 6:30. I couldn’t get back to sleep so I spent the next half an hour in bed reading Harry Potter and being all snuggled up in bed. I finally got out of bed at 7am, where I came downstairs to boiled egg and dib dibs (our way of saying boiled eggs and soldiers) which is one of my favourite breakfasts. After eating, I opened all my cards and opened two little presents. The presents were two Lush products – a face mask that smells like cupcakes and a sea salt body scrub! Both smell amazing and I couldn’t wait to use them both. After I ran upstairs to get ready, we headed to school for my half day. I had some smaller presents from friends – mainly chocolate at college. One friend even turned up at break despite going to a different college to print me Dominoes cookies and a book as presents. Like, how sweet is that? I was even awarded a five pound Amazon gift voucher for having over 100 green cards (our reward system) which I plan to use to cut my book spending bill! The rest of the school day was a blur of small parties, laughing at an inflated dinosaur and a leaving assembly full of music and many speeches.

I stayed behind after the assembly to say goodbye to my tutor, who has now left. My tutor has supported me hugely the past three years and I even felt myself getting teary at her leaving. It’s really sad that she has left but hopefully now I have an opportunity to build new relationships with other teachers.

After college, I got a lift back to my house, where I was promptly informed I could not open any of my presents until six O’clock as we’re going to do that after our party food dinner at home. I have to admit, I got a bit grumpy at this and headed up to my room where I tried to kill time by reading books, tidying my room and playing on my 3DS. I started to feel desperately bored – He wasn’t even going to be able to come over as his parents had him doing chores all day and he couldn’t get away. Mum suddenly told me that plans had changed and that instead of party food we were going over to my Nan’s house for a barbecue and presents. This cheered me up as I love my Nan’s house, however time still dragged on.

Six O’clock finally arrived and we all grabbed our things, then hopped into the car. I felt excited as finally I could see all my family and celebrate my birthday properly! However, Mum then slowed the car in Worthing and said we had to make a slight detour as she had to make a quick delivery. We all hopped out the car and she grabbed a white box and indicated where we all needed to head. We walked slowly to the destination and the only thing was when food was going to be ready as I was hungry. I was so distracted by internal struggle for food and not wanting to seem ungrateful that I didn’t notice my Aunt, Uncle and Him crossing the road quickly just ahead of us.

We stopped outside a mexican restaurant called Tex Mex where I was promptly informed that ‘You are the delivery!’ and my family and Him were all revealed to me! There was a lot of hugging and yelling ‘surprise!’ that I was completely blown away. We finally headed into the venue, where we were seated at a ten seater table and told to sit still while our waitress grabs menus. There is no other way to describe it – Tex Mex was busy! The walls were covered in glass bottle clocks, odd posters and paintings, lizards stuck to the wall and even a chalk board with ‘Happy birthday Megan!’ written on it. I was completely over stimulated and a bit in shock still. My Nan arrived just before the waitress appeared and did the obligatory happy birthday comment. We ordered drinks and suddenly my Dad arrived, looking a bit wind swept and sat next to me. Turns out he’d driven for three hours to come see me on my birthday! That’s adorable.

With everyone here, we ordered starters and drinks – I had a Havana Banana (non alcoholic cocktail that tasted more like a fancy banana milkshake to be honest), nachos as my starter and a spicy chicken burrito. Oh my gosh, the food was delicious! There was so much spice in the food that your nose burned every time the waitress brought more food through and it was all so filling! In between eating and chatting with everyone, I opened my presents. The highlights included MCM October Comic Con tickets, pretty jewellry and lots of books i’d been after!

After food had been eaten and our plates were taken away, a waitress gave us the dessert menu. My Mum quickly grabbed them all back and handed them back to her, then whispering something to her. I didn’t think much of this at the time as I was too busy telling the story about the inflatable dinosaur at my college. Moments later, a huge cake is carried through by the members of staff, with the whole restaurant singing ‘Happy birthday’ to me. I started laughing so much from a mixture of shock and embarrassment that I started crying (how ridiculous, right?). The cake was shaped like a huge book, with a miniature version of myself sat on top of it, leaning against a mug of green tea. I blew out the candles and a chorus of whistles and ‘Yaaaay’s echoed throughout the restaurant.

We then all dug in and honestly, it was delicious. However, I was too full from all the food i’d eaten that day to truly appreciate my slice of cake, so I couldn’t finish it.

A final surprise for the evening was that He was sleeping over! We paid our bill and carried all the presents into the back of my Dad’s car and spent the evening cuddled up in PJs and watching Guardians of the Galaxy. I was so exhausted by the end of the evening that I crashed almost instantly once I was comfortable. My whole birthday was amazing – I was spoiled rotten by my family and friends and got to see everyone who was important to me!

The morning after, He and I spent our time eating Macarons, chilling out in bed and chatting. It was really a nice way to wake up in the morning – no big rush until about 1 where I had a BBQ with a bunch of friends. Once he’d been dropped off back at his house, Mum and I stopped off into Onestop to grab some food for dinner and to contribute to the BBQ and then headed on our way.

However, then a car came out of nowhere and we crashed. It was rather terrifying – we could have been badly hurt considering the speed the other car was going! Luckily, besides my Mum’s hurt shoulder nobody was seriously injured. Even the cars weren’t too badly damaged – just a few dents and scratches on both parties. Once the issue of the crash was sorted and the insurance details were sorted, I was dropped off at my friend’s house.

I arrived at her house with hands full of two bags of Doritos and shaking slightly, however I got over it pretty quickly once i’d sat down and relaxed. I was given some more presents-  two bars of Cadbury’s chocolate, a time turner necklace and a hot air balloon model, which was really sweet! We then spent the afternoon eating food, playing dorky board games involving Logos, Charades and modelling with clay and relaxing in the sun. It was a really fun afternoon!

Just before we were going to start the next game, a few of my friends whom I hadn’t even realised had run off had reappeared, carrying a giant Jammy Dodger cake/biscuit. She didn’t have any proper candles so was just holding a smaller candle which I blew out. I was once again, blown away. The Jammy Dodger was delicious and totally filling – i’m stuffed beyond belief and don’t think i’ll need to be eating for a while now!

All in all, this month so far has been hugely positive. I’ve made new friends, helped the community, had a surprise party with all my family and then even got another meet up with some of my closest friends! It sounds cheesy, but i’ve really learnt how truly spoilt I am for friends and amazing people now. Hopefully, the rest of this month is just as positive!

Well, i’m dying my hair blue tomorrow, and I start volunteering next week! Busy as ever…

Until next time!

-Megan

Bullying, finishing school and a birthday?

Hey,

So I finished my ISA paper! It was really hard, including topics we hadn’t even covered in class. This is reflected in my grade.. 26/50 or an E… ouch. Oh well, I have one more shot at this ISA so i’m going to work really hard for that! The rest of my class got about the same grade so at least it wasn’t just me.

So I finally had parents evening! I went really well. I’m either on track to meet my target grade in a subject, or i’m set to exceed it so i’m very happy! All of my teachers seemed very positive and all described me as ‘conscientious’.

In other news, it’s been His 17th birthday! My parents evening was on his birthday, as was an interview for a college (which later got cancelled) meant that it just wasn’t viable to meet up on his birthday. So, instead we met up the day after! I went round his house to watch him open all of his presents (he saved all of them for that day too. He just opened cards on his birthday – got £197 pounds though!). From his parents he got a modelling kit, paints, a modelling book with ideas on how to design your models and some base coats for his model. He was very pleased!

Next, he opened the cards from my Mother and I. We bought the cards at separate time periods, both by ourselves and somehow we’d gotten him the exact same card – a dinosaur card with some form of Topgear pun on the cover. How bizzarre. Once we had laughed about the cards being the same he opened his presents. I had bought him Cards Against Humanity, The Walking Dead compendium 2, a Zombie-related Tshirt and lots of drawing equipment. He seemed to be really pleased, especially when he realised it was all the drawing stuff he had complained about not having a while back to me.

We spent the rest of the day watching The Hitchhikers Guide to The Galaxy, reading through the Cards, eating a fry up (not a big fan of black pudding, I learnt), ate cake and goofed around in his room. It was a really fun evening spent with my favourite person. As his Mum had made too much cake, two cakes were taken home. He and I got a taxi back to mine that was extortionately price (18 pounds from his house to mine, then back to his! It doesn’t even cost that much in petrol and the guy started on three pounds!) where we said our goodbyes. All in all, it was a fun evening and i’m happy he loved his presents.

One of my friends has always been obsessed with Danisnotonfire and Amazingphil… so when their tour was announced and they happened to be coming somewhere local on the 31st of October she just bought the tickets – and invited me! I am so thrilled, it was such a nice thing to do. I will pay her back when i’m paid but oh my goodness it’s just so sweet!

In other news, my brother got cyber bullied. I was added to a chat that was started by one of my brother’s primary bullies. There were hateful comments that included insulting him, swearing, comparing him to gollum and death threats. It was a horrible chat. They even had my brother (whom wasn’t online at that point) in the chat so when he came online he could see all the horrible things they had written. Luckily, I was added to the chat by one of the boys in the chat so I could take screen shots and report it. He also removed my brother from the chat so he couldn’t read everything that was said. It was horrible! I reported it to every authority figure in my school (head teacher, tutor, chapter leader, vice principle, assistant principle etc) to ensure it was dealt with quickly and it even led to the police getting involved. While my brother didn’t seem bothered by it too much as he was ‘used to this’ he shouldn’t be. He’s a fourteen year old boy and nobody should have to deal with that. Luckily, all the boys involved were dealt with and I doubt they will be messing with him again – not while i’m there, anyway. He deserves to not have to look over his shoulder while in an environment that he should feel safe in.

We’ve finished school now, so it shouldn’t be too much of an issue. It ended with a lengthy and dry school assembly.It just seemed to go on forever. It was easily over an hour long too. I did win an award for Health and Social Care, however.

Well, tomorrow is He and I’s three years! I’m excited  – i’m sure he’s gonna love my present to him!

Until next time,

Megan Stapleton

Stress, exams and…blue hair?

Hey,

So it’s just over a week until we break up for Easter and… oh my goodness I am scared. Not because of the actual two weeks. If anything i’m looking forward to those. The part that is freaking me out quietly is the fact that my exams start so quickly afterwards. Even then, once we’re back once my actual exams start, five out of six As level exams are over in two weeks. That’s terrifying.

I’m probably gonna start revising every day of the Easter half term for at least an hour, if not more. I may even start staying after school at college once we’re back to try and get more work in. It’s just so much information I have to cram into my little brain – so many details. It’s going to be interesting to see how I cope with this considering I was awful during GCSE (but I DID have sixteen exams. I now I have six. If all goes well, next year i’ll have four!)

This is the plan, anyway. Hopefully I stick to it. When it gets to exam period and the stress really hits (54 days until my first one) I can’t think of anything but revision. I even feel guilty when I take a day off of revision or even just have a free moment if i’m not solidly working. I just about survived the madness the last two years…

On to more general life, things are about to get really busy. Thursday is the experiment for my actual biology ISA experiment and then i’m going to go see Hairspray with the school. The following week I have my parents evening, His birthday, our three years and potentially seeing relatives to all cram in to the space of a few days.

I can’t see Him on His actual birthday as he has an interview for his ideal college that lasts several hours as it involves some form of examination and then on our anniversary i’m potentially going to be in Selsey visiting family. God knows how that’ll work. I still need to work on His present, now I think about it…

My family life is where everything goes a bit chaotic. My Mum and sister’s father are constantly arguing and it’s making life more miserable for everyone. Furthermore, my Dad hates his job and wants to quit but isn’t sure about where he’ll get the financial stability though. I never really mention my parents in this but it’s just adding stress from worrying about what’s going to happen in the future. The funny thing is, they get along better now than they ever did married. It’s strange.

In other, less dramatic news, I am going to hopefully dye my hair bubblegum blue in the summer! It’ll only be temporary dye as i’m scared to dye my hair but hey it’s going to be a change for a little while. That’ll probably happen in the Summer holidays… so not for a while yet.

Well, this is going to get hectic.

Until next time,

-Megan!

Top 15 Moments of 2014

Hi,

As a very busy year finally draws to a close, I thought a nice way to end the year would be to do my top ten fifteen moments from 2014!

15. Good Wood Festival of Speed – He and I went to the Festival of Speed at the end of June – mainly due to His father getting free tickets for us! It was a fun day spent eating at The Real Burger Kitchen, eating an extortionate amount of sweets, showing Him what Chichester is like and all the little shops as we waited for the Good Wood bus to arrive. Neither of us are that interested in cars or motor sports. We were more interested in the ‘stalls’ (more like buildings!) that were designed to be fun, such as the slide, the weather simulator and trying out the Occulus Rift to design our ideal car. It was a great impromptu date and coupled with the hot weather, it was a nice day.

14. Braces Taken Off – Very early on in the year, I finally had my braces removed after having them on for roughly a year and a half, and boy was I glad! My braces, while I am glad I opted to have them done, were not the most comfortable things. Or attractive, for that matter. They were difficult to clean, broke on more than one occasion and it was not fun having them tightened. However, like I said I love my straight teeth and now I am actually proud of my smile, therefore meaning it has a place in the top fifteen moments! I will always remember walking into my physics class, beaming because I love my smile and some boy shouting ‘Oh my God Megan your teeth are huge’ – serves me right really.

13. Caro Emerald – In October, my Mother took me and her boyfriend with her to the Brighton Center where we saw the legend Caro Emerald live in action! It was an amazing show that led to my Mother and I physically standing up and dancing down at the bottom of the seats along with a whole other gaggle of people. She was even better live than she is on her CDs. It was a great evening spent eating expensive food, dancing ridiculously and loving the music. It’s one concert i’ll certainly remember for a long time.

11. Bar Mock Trial – In November I was dragged to what I thought would actually be a really boring day in a stuffy old court room arguing with strangers from other colleges. What actually happened however was my team losing the case we were supposed to win and winning the case we were supposed to fail at, befriending the enemy, having a selfie with a judge in my full court gear and being hit by a metal detector. It was a great day and I am glad my head of sixth form managed to convince me to take part in the event. I even made some new friends on my own team with some of the younger years!

10. Getting into College – Okay, originally I was pleased I got accepted into Worthing College. I loved the college, the atmosphere, the classes… everything seemed great. However, on the enrolment day it just didn’t seem right. I didn’t seem to be fitting in with everyone, half the teachers never turned up and I was constantly getting lost around the college. However, I still had my place at The Sir Robert Woodard Academy sixth form which I ended up going to. Looking back on it, I think I made the right choice of colleges. I have friends, I have good teachers, challenging work and a constantly evolving wacky school life thanks to various teachers and people within the school. It keeps things interesting!  I don’t think i’d enjoy college as much as I do currently if I didn’t go to SRWA. This therefore means it deserves a spot in the top 10 moments.

9. 2 years – On March 28th this year, He and I had our two year anniversary. It really didn’t (and still doesn’t) feel like it has been that long at all. Sure our presents were great (I gave him 365 reasons why I love you on separate coloured pieces of paper in a Maison jar and he used his tablet to draw me a poster with many of my favourite things on it) but the day was, as christened, our ‘Failiversary’ due to arguing. However, we made it up the day after by going into town to have lunch at Interwok, exploring the shops, messing around on the beach and then going off to go see The Lego Movie (Which was actually much better than I thought it’d be!) I think the anniversary deserves a spot in the top ten as although the actual day was ruined it was very quickly saved by an amazing day out.

8. Graduation – So in June-July I graduated high school forever. Forever. That doesn’t feel right. Like, at all. We were led to a very glittery school theatre and watched a video that summed up our journey from year 7 to year 11 with many embarrassing clips and funny stories. It was, I think, the only assembly that had nobody messing around in… ever. Many people were crying. It makes me so nostalgic to think about now. Many people were given out awards like ‘most red cards’ or most likely to be a teacher’ (He got that, was not very amused as he doesn’t want to be a teacher!) Yet, it doesn’t feel like that long ago. And looking at the year book I got that day only makes my nostalgia worse.

7 Halloween – On Halloween, I had my first ever sleepover with a guy (We were in separate beds). It was a scary idea but the actual day went really well (minus setting microwave popcorn on fire by accident and feeling sick towards the end of the evening due to sweets). We watched all of the Alien films and several episodes of The Walking Dead and carved pumpkins. It was certainly the most interesting sleep over i’ve ever had. It was a fun day and I honestly wish I could relive it sometimes. The day after my Mother, brother, little sister and I all went and had a really fun day out at Tulley’s farm. The highlights included an actually scary haunted house and a ‘spooky hay ride’.

16th birthday – So for my 16th birthday, I decided to go into Brighton with my friends for the day. We got their by train, had lunch in KFC, waited at the beach to see if Pewdiepie would turn up as we messaged him asking to see if he would (he didn’t), gave up and goofed off in the arcade. We also explored many shops, ate far too many sweets and bought some new things. Later on in the day I went over to my Nan’s for an ‘afternoon tea’ style dinner with many family members and him around. The food was great, my favourite songs were playing, the decor was beautiful… minus the crying on my birthday it was a great day.

5 Getting a job – So I got a job! My first job! Sure, it’s only working as a monthly cinema attendant at my sixth form and it took forever to actually be paid, but a job is a job! It’s a pretty fun job too. My trial day went perfectly and my most recent day of work went even better (we did a showing of Frozen. There were so many small children). I can see myself working this for at least a few more months but I plan on it being longer.

4 Wicked – So in November I went to go see Wicked live with my Nan, Aunt and Mum! It was an amazing late birthday gift and the day went perfectly. Sure, the weather wasn’t great. But Yo! Sushi for lunch (we ate so much), exploring the local shopping centre and messing about with different outfits, perfumes and books. When we got to the theatre we were given even more sweets by my aunt. The actual show itself was beautiful – the acting was spot on, the singing was amazing and the set designs were breath-taking. It’s definitely the best musical i’ve been to thus far. This is why it was in the top 5!

3 GCSE results day – So on the 21st of August, I hopped into the car with my father and got a lift to my school – we did make a minor detour to pick Him up though! The first song that played when we turned on the radio was the chorus to Tragedy by Steps, which did mildly terrify me at the time but I now look on with a sense of amusement and an appreciation for timing of the song. With new shoes, parents and a boyfriend in tow we all marched down to the school to get our results. Some people already had their results and most people seemed to be happy, which calmed me down a bit. He and I opened our results at the same time and… I passed maths! The single subject i’ve struggled with most in my life… I passed! I was so happy. I still AM so happy. Even though maths was my lowest grade at a C, I was so happy with it. My teacher even gave me a hug. My results in total were 2 A*s, 3As, 5Bs and a C. It was a great day well spent eating icecream with Him (I got a tub of ben and jerrys for every A) This was such a big day for me, which is why it goes into the top 3!

2 Prom – So in July I went to prom. Even with the hecticness of getting my hair done a few hours before prom, having to pick up Him already ready and having to get all my makeup on and getting into my dress… it turned out perfectly. Sure, my hair wasn’t curly by the end of the evening and my makeup smudged from laughing so much. But the food was great, I danced with all of my friends, I got some photos taken of many of my favourite people and in general it was  great night. Everyone looked amazing, the venue was amazing… he looked amazing. I’m surprised his tie matched so well considering he was only told the colour of the dress, not the shade or anything.

1 NCS – The National Citizens Service. When I signed up for the programme early on in the year, I didn’t expect much from this. Maybe some okay weeks away and maybe raising 100 pounds for a charity, but nothing spectacular. But boy, I was wrong. Right from the moment I met these people and we decided to spend £150 pounds of ‘bonding’ money on a picnic and a water fight, I knew I was with the right people. The activities themselves were so fun – the giant swing, going to the cinema, getting free time in Brighton, an awfully designed disco, a game of capture the flag and raft building were just a few of the many highlights that NCS brought. I made some amazing friends that i’m still in contact with even now, we raised quite a bit of money and we really helped out a charity. I’m so glad I signed up to NCS and I got to do all of these wonderful things.

What a busy year.

Well, I hope this next year brings many more happy memories!

Until Next time,

-Megan Stapleton

What a Wicked day

Hey,

So as a late, joint birthday present, my Aunt bought tickets to the musical Wicked for my mother and I. And yesterday we actually went to see the show! I’ve always wanted to see Wicked live and it was even better than I thought it would be!

The day started out with an hour long car journey to South Hampton with my Mum, Aunt, Nan and I. It was cramped, but I was with some of my favourite people so the time flew by.

Once we’d parked up and made the appropriate jokes about being parked in 2B (or not 2B, that is the question) we strolled into this ginormous mall. The show wasn’t on until 2PM, so we had some time to kill. We spent an hour and a half exploring this maze of a mall, buying books, trying on silly hats and masks, taking selfies, and eating heart sweets my Nan had bought for us all. It was fun. I was even gifted a new blue travel mug by my Mum, which I was very pleased about! (she’d broken my last one before i’d gotten to use it. I had not been amused,)

For lunch, my Nan took us to the restaurant my aunt had recommended – Yo! Sushi. None of us besides my aunt had never been there before and with the question ‘who doesn’t love food on a conveyer belt?’ replaying in our heads, we took the plunge. It was literally Japanese food on a conveyer belt on coloured plates, The colours correlated with different prices – for example food on green plates were just under two pound each whereas a pink plate was closer to six pounds. We were all a bit anxious about picking the first meal off of the conveyer belt but once we had we couldn’t stop! We could also see the food being made from where we sat, which was interesting. The whole experience was bizarrely quite fun. the food was delicious and I definitely wanted to go again. My favourite meal I tried was either the pumpkin karroke or the chocolate mochi. Plus how can you go wrong with free refills of traditionally made green tea?

I did accidentally pick up something off the conveyer belt which contained fish, which was not very nice. Ah well.

After a slight detour to the Cath Kidston shop, we finally left to walk to the Mayflower theatre. It was raining quite heavily so we half ran half held onto each other – it’s a miracle nobody slipped over!

We arrived at the theatre, bought a programme and sat at our seats. Que more selfies and excited chatter. My aunt then produces these premade tubs of pick and mix sweets and hands them out to us, prettily decorated. They contained a mix of M&Ms, smarties, Malteasers, and jelly babies. It was really very delicious and sweet. The lights then dimmed and the show commenced.

Honestly there was nothing I could fault about Wicked. The songs were catchy, the costumes dazzling, the storyline was emotional but also entertaining and engaging and it really showed the characters in a different light. It even explained the back stories of the tin man, the lion and the scarecrow. I loved every second of it and would happily watch it again.

On the way back to the car, it was still raining heavily. I managed to convince my relatives to let me explore the local Disney store, which I loved. Classic Disney songs played, I fell in love with a Stitch plush from Lilo and Stitch (one of my favourite Disney films ever), I nerded out with a Disney employee over their film display… it was great. My aunt even bought me a Nutella hot chocolate from a smoothie joint in the mall, which was absolutely delicious.

In the car journey home, I realised that even with travel sickness, I did not want the day to end. It had been a great day and not one i’m going to forget any time soon.

Well, that has been the end of my very Wicked day! I enjoyed every second of it and i’m proud I now understand the references my musical-obsessed friends are making!

I get my GCSE certificates on Tuesday. I’m actually pretty excited.

I even went to the fireworks with a group of friends and Him on bonfire night! We went on far too many rides, ate too much cotton candy and felt our feet turn numb as the evening progressed but it was a great evening spent with friends.

My Mother, aunt and I just before Wicked started!

My Nan and Mum just outside the mall.

Until next time,

Megan Stapleton

Sweet sixteen

Hey,

So on Tuesday, I turned sixteen years old. The night before I found it really difficult to sleep as I was just so excited. However, I eventually slept, and was awoken to the sounds of ‘happy birthday, Megan!’ being sung to me at ten to seven in the morning by my brother, mum and baby sister. A quick round of hugs and I went downstairs.

For birthday breakfast, I had chocolate cupcakes with white chocolate in it (made by mum’s friend, Ellie!). I decided to scrap my healthy eating for a few days and resume the week after. It was delicious, and definitely tasted better than muesli.

I agreed i’d open birthday presents later in the evening with all of my family present, so I opened my cards from family. The cards were very sweet – I even ended up with sixty five pounds to spend. I took this money into Worthing town to spend with my friends later in the day.

As my brother had to go to school, the birthday morning was short lived.However come twenty past ten, I set out to the local park to meet my friend, and we then ventured to lancing train station together, chatting on the way.

Soon, we reached the train station. By this point, we were boiling due to the extremely hot weather – I didn’t really mind though. I was too ‘it’s my birthday!’ed up to care. Two of my friends were there already. After some hugs were exchanged and presents opened, we waited for everyone else in our group to arrive, and then got onto the train.

By the time we were off of the train, He was already at our meeting point (KFC) so he was getting a little impatient. We all hurried to the destination and tried to soak up as much of the sun as we could on our way.

Eventually, we reached KFC and headed inside for some lunch. I ordered a snack box, a Krushem and a cold drink. The people at the till were hugely unorganized so they messed up the orders of a few of my friends several times – this meant we all ended up eating and finishing our meals at different times. We didn’t mind though.

After KFC, we headed to the beach. The night before, He had messaged Pewdiepie (famous Youtuber) asking to meet at the pier for my birthday. While he never replied, it showed he viewed the message twice, meaning there was a chance he’d show. We figured we’d take that chance.

After a while, it became evident he wasn’t going to turn up… but we weren’t too disheartened. Instead, we decided to ditch the beach, and headed to the arcade on the pier for a bit of fun. We managed to break one claw grabbing machine that stated you were guaranteed to win a prize on somehow. Even though technically only three people paid for a go, all eight of us ended up with teddies from this game.

After this, we decided we were hungry again so we headed to the local pick and mix shop and got a pint of sweets to devour each. Mine was mostly filled with Haribo strawbs, white chocolatey treats and jelly beans. The rest of the afternoon was spent exploring shops, buying books and clothes and goofing off around town with a whole bunch of friends.

At two thirty I got a text from my Mum telling me that He and I had to head back to her work shop so she could give us a lift to my house to kill time before we went to my Nan”s. He and I were slightly late due to how hot it was, how far away from the station we were and the fact that His side had started hurting so he had to sit down. When we eventually reached Mum’s work, I don’t think i’d ever seen her so angry.

Apparently even though we were only ten minutes late we had screwed up her entire afternoon – she was late to pick up my sister so my sisters dad had to drop her off at our home (so we inconvenienced him), she had been sweating due to the extreme heat and just the general fact that we were late all combined into one huge rant at both he and I.

I don’t know… I didn’t expect to be so seriously yelled at over what, in retrospect, really wasn’t that big an issue. ESPECIALLY, on my birthday. I felt tears threatening to escape so I just stared out of the window and desperately wished I was somewhere else for most of the journey to pick my brother up from school. I probably wouldn’t have cried if I hadn’t spoken… but when my Mum then asked my why I looked like I was about to cry my voice cracked and completely betrayed me. Cue the waterworks.

So, how was your birthday? I cried on my sixteenth birthday. Great memory there. I’d never cried in front of him either, so that was embarrassing. Mum must have realised I was genuinely crying because she then starts apologising for the yelling and hugs me, all while i’m still crying.

My brother eventually comes out of school and it’s almost like nothing happened. The crying isn’t mentioned the rest of the day.

We get home and I dump my bags of presents and things I bought in my room. He and I then sit on my sofa and just hug for a bit until my sister comes home, then we’re stuck with babysitting duty until it’s time to leave for my nan’s. It was a bit awkward.

The car ride over to nan’s was ten times more pleasant than the drive home – my sister provided entertainment by singing ‘happy birthday’ on loop, the heat wasn’t quite so intense, my brother was talking about his game and I was filled with the same ‘oh my goodness it’s my birthday’ euphoria I had earlier in the day.

I had been given strict instructions earlier in the day by my Nan that I A) wasn’t allowed to come into the house via the back door like we normally do as it was locked and instead that we had to use the front door, and B) That I had to be the first person at the front door when it opened. This made me slightly nervous but when the door was opened, a giant bouquet of the most beautiful flowers i’d ever been given was thrusted into my hands by my Nan.

After ‘happy birthday’s were exchanged and flowers were placed in a vase, I was told to sit in the living room until everything was set up. A few minutes later, I was allowed to walk through the kitchen and outside into the garden and honestly my family out did themselves. The entire thing was planed by my nan, aunt and uncle and the Afternoon Tea set up was super fancy with hand picked flowers from the garden, a table cloth, a candelabra, tealights, fairy lights, mini mugs for tea coupled with tiny plates and silver knives and forks. Everyone even had a seating plan, with the names of the person written on little cards.  Mine said ‘Miss Megan Stapleton’. There was even music playing on a stereo that was balanced precariously on the top of an open window – i’d been asked to compile a playlist of my favourite songs but I wasn’t allowed to know what for.

Mini menus were laid out on the table – first meal was finger sandwiches, second was home made scones with jam and clotted cream, and the last course was a selection of cakes and biscuits such as a Victoria sponge cake, macarons and the cutest cupcakes i’ve every seen! During the meal, the music was changed to what I can only describe as typical ‘restaurant’ chill out music that put everyone at ease. Each course was delivered and tidied away by my nan and aunt while the rest of us were told to sit down. Drinks were also refilled regularly – you had the choice of normal tea, ‘posh tea’, pink lemonade, cloudy lemonade, water and juice.  Every thing I ate was delicious, displayed beautifully and every meal was filled with happy chatter of family.

He was seated next to my Dad but they seemed to get along pretty well and were even talking by the end of the evening. In between meals, I played various games of ‘it’ with my sister, brother and Him, posed for pictures and watched the fish with my baby sister. It was a really fun evening that i’d have loved even without the presents.

After the meal and once picture posing was officially over, it was time to open presents from everyone. The highlights of the presents included an owl pillow, an assortment of books, skinny jeans, money, an owl flask, and…. TICKETS TO GO SEE WICKED LIVE WITH MY MUM, NAN AND AUNT! I’M SO EXCITED! It was a joint present with my mum as our birthdays are so close together (mine is exactly two weeks after hers) and we opened our very flat presents together. The tickets were in a black card with ‘Wicked’ and ‘Admits one’  written on it. We go see it November the 8th – i’m so excited! Going to see Wicked has been on my bucket list for years and I can finally go. Apparently we’re gonna go have a meal afterwards too.

I’m so excited.

The rest of the evening was spent chatting, playing silly games, posing for even more pictures and eating what was left of the food. He ended up getting a lift home with my dad (where he admitted he never knew I had a thing for owls apparently!)

All in all, my day was amazing. While some parts were definitely better than others, I spent the day with my favourite people doing something fun and different.

My birthday presents from him were given to me on the 24th of July at his house. From him, I received two charms (one with an owl in a graduation hat for graduating and one silver oval shaped charm with blue stars to represent the date we had to go see The Fault in Our Stars.), an owl backpack, a phone case and an owl money pot. His parents gave me a book mark (coincidently, with owls on it) and a notepad (also had owls on it).

I feel there was a definite owl theme going on with my birthday.

While it wasn’t the ‘typical’ birthday party a sixteen year old has – no big party, no getting drunk or anything like that, and it certain;y wasn’t the trip to London i’d originally hope for I still think it was pretty perfect.

The rest of the day at his house was spent watching the movies Beetlejuice, Ghost Busters and A Knights Tale. For dinner we had breads, cheeses, pate and veg for dinner – it was a sort of serve yourself thing that was delicious and actually pretty fun. It was a good, relaxing evening that concluded the end of my birthday.

I have NCS soon (National Citizens Service). I went to a meet up on the 23rd to meet my official group and decide what we were going to do with 150 pounds for a bonding activity…before our bonding activity. The traffic was so awful that I ended turning up an hour and a half later than it started (whoops) even though we left with fifteen minutes to spare. Luckily the people were really friendly and didn’t mind.

With 150 pounds, fifteen teenagers decided to spend it doing… a picnic with a water fight. Yup. It sounds dorky… and like these are the people I want to hang out with. We’re going to meet up at ASDA, go pick food to eat at our picnic with 150 pounds, get some water pistols and then go enjoy ourselves. It should be fun. I was expecting something adventurous like paint balling or lazer tag.. nope, picnic was voted for the most. Not that i mind, it should be fun.

Less than a month until I get my GCSE results… aaaah.

My dad has moved to a new house in Selsey! I’ve not actually been yet but i’ve seen it in pictures. It looks really pretty! Could definitely use some work though.

Lots is happening soon – going away for ncs, gcse results, Wicked, going to go see Caro Emerald live… I can’t wait!

Until next time!

 

the birthday set up

Dad and my uncle Mac

Macarons!

Picture of my friends and I with our newly won teddies

birthday cupcakes

Harry Potter World Two Days Before My Maths Exam – Not My Best Idea

Hey,

So if you couldn’t guess by the title, I went to Harry Potter World today, with one of my best friends. It was a treat for her birthday and she invited me – I feel so lucky! Her Mum and sister drove us all the way to Warner Brother Studios in London and us two went on a tour around Harry Potter World. It was everything I wanted and more!

The day started at 4am for me, where I was woken up by thundery weather and lightening. After walking off a dead foot, I managed to sleep until seven. I got up, had breakfast and got ready for the day – I was really excited. As a way to kill time waiting for my train, I revised for my Maths exam.

Finally the time to get on the train arrived, I got onto the train, said good bye to Dad and off I went back to where my Mum’s home is. The train was super packed, so it was difficult to read through my revision guide without being elbowed by someone every few minutes.

Finally I arrived at the right station and was picked up my my mother. We picked up my stuff, and waited for my friend and her Mum to arrive. When they arrived, I said goodbye to my mum and sister and once again, off I went. I’d never met her mother before so it was definitely a good chance to get to know her – and she’s lovely! Her elder sister came with us too.

The drive to Harry Potter World took three hours. These three hours passed really quickly through singing along to songs from Rock of Ages and other more summery music, pulling silly faces at each other, and general chatter. We also had some sweets shared between the four of us. The stormy weather we’d had in the morning had completely vanished and was now replaced with really hot almost humid weather.

We arrived in what felt like no time at all. However our tour didn’t start for half an hour, so we tucked into the massive bag of food her mother had brought. Once the time for the tour dawned closer, we practically leapt out of the car and ran to the entrance. We were both buzzing with excitement. The outside of the building has giant Harry Potter posters outside of them from the last movie that only highlighted our excitement. Inside the building was gobsmacking. There were more giant posters, the car used in the flying car scene was hung from the roof, there was a little cafe… and a massive queue of people. And I mean MASSIVE!

Once we had our tickets checked, we joined the queue for the tour around the building. While we were waiting, we could look at and take pictures of the set up of the stairs Harry lived under while at the Dudley’s with the glasses he actually wore, as well as read some inspirational quotes about JK Rowling and the cast.

Finally, the doors open and an ocean of people flooded – us two included – to a dark room in the room over. The room was surrounded with screens with different Harry Potter posters that faded into different pictures. They were posters from different countries.

Once the door was shut, a clip played that showed the impact Harry Potter had on the world. It was actually a really nice video to watch, and cheerful. We were then guided to a another room which was reminiscent of a cinema, where a video about the making of Harry Potter played – and how none of it was possible without the work of the cast. The video only lasted ten minutes at most.

Once that was over, we went to the set of the Great Hall, where a tour guide talked us through the different costumes on display, what they all meant, what certain props were and what they did, and why they were needed in the first place. The tour guide then opened the door to a massive hall full of props, costumes and other things and said we were free to explore and take as many pictures as we would like.

This hall was… massive. Every nook and cranny was careful built to show off every aspect of the films and books. There were sets of everything from the Weasley’s kitchen to Potions classes. It was amazing. It took us an hour to work our way through the massive hall; taking everything in.

We then found our way outside. The sun was shining, and we were both enjoying ourselves hugely. We both queued up to buy a mug of non-alcoholic butterbeer. We were slightly anxious as lots of people didn’t like it, but we both found that we liked it hugely. However, it was still a good idea to share one between us as the drink is very sweet and sickly. My friend said I could keep the mug as a souvenir, so I held onto it until I could wash it out at the end.

We also explored the Midnight Bus, saw Tom Riddle’s grave and saw the front of Dudley’s home. After we were done exploring outside, we went back inside to investigate the second half of the tour. This half was very heavily about the concept art, the making of the movie, the props and the costumes. However, it was still just as enjoyable.

Finally, we found our way to the gift shop. Even if we managed to momentarily get separated, we bought our things and headed out, back to the car. The Journey home was must quicker than the one there, and I was on a train and back at dads within a matter of hours. While on the train, I did have a minor panic attack when I saw a sign for Chichester university just as the train doors was closing. I thought I missed my stop while revising on the way home – but luckily the stop after that was my stop, and I got home without incident.

All in all, the day was fun, and different. While the timing isn’t exactly great (my maths exam is Monday, which just happens to be my worst subject), the day was definitely one I would repeat again. I feel so lucky and thankful that my friend invited me to go on this with her, and I definitely owe her one.

To make up for me not revising all day, He is coming over to my Dad’s house to help me revise for Monday’s exam. He’s also meeting my Dad properly for the first time, and staying for dinner. This could be interesting..

Until next time!

-Megan

Half term

Hi, 

So the month is drawing to an end, and quite a bit has happened. 

I’ve completed exams for biology, chemistry, physics, english literature unit 1 & 2, History of Medicine, Nazi Germany and Sociology Unit 1 & 2. It’s great. I no longer have to go to the lessons for these subjects meaning that more often than not I get to sleep in while everyone else leaves. Or, I get to go home early.   and none of the exams were especially difficult outside of science. I thought chemistry was my worst science but according to how I felt when walking out of the exam, it might just be my best. Physics.. we’ll see. It went better than biology I reckon, but not by much. 

However, I still have exams for English Language, History of Surgery, Maths calculator + non calculator and Film Studies – which has two papers. I’m getting through them though! The only exams I have left that i’m worried about are, predictably, maths. However i’ve improved! Before Christmas I was an E- student. Now i’m three marks off of a C. Just need to work on getting onto a steady C. I’m getting more confident though.

Now it’s half term. I have just over a week and i’m determined to not spend ALL of it revising. Maybe half of it. But i’m also going to try and have some fun and catch up on some of the books that have been slowly multiplying in the box under my bed. Should be good. 

On bank holiday monday I could potentially go shopping for my prom dress! I’m super excited. The place i’m (hopefully) getting it is called Para Siempre and it’s based in Portsmouth. If it’s not open I might go at the weekend instead. Either way, i’m happy. I’ve been waiting for this for months and it’s so close. I have two hundred pounds to spend and I intend to use it wisely! 

It was my little brother Nathan’s birthday this month. He turned fourteen. It’s weird to imagine him as fourteen years old.. I guess I still picture him as my annoying seven year old brother? Oh well. It was a fairly quiet birthday as it was a school day (unlucky.) however after school we went over to a lady called Julie’s house. She unveiled my brother’s Thor themed birthday cake – and it tasted as good as it looked! It was a Thor hammer with his name inscribed into it. It also had a Captain America shield and a Hulk fist punching through next to it.  He seemed to enjoy the heavily Thor and Science themed birthday. Some of the highlights of the presents included a telescope, a metal detector and a large collection of new Minecraft and Marvel themed posters. 

Recently, we went to Brooklands park with my brother, sister, Mum, Him and I. It was a ridiculously hot day that led to me getting sunburnt shoulders, but in the grand scheme of things it was worth going. We all played with my sister in the park and sat by/jumped into the paddling pool. Half way through the day He and I split off from the main group and go sit on a nearby bench, near the main pond. Being the random person he is, he creates an entire Eastenders-Esq story line for each of the ducks that led to us both in laughing fits.

Overall, this month has been very positive. I’m looking forward to finishing my exams for good though!

Until next time,

-Megan