Beatlemania

Hey,

So in July I was invited to go see the Bootleg Beatles live for free with my boyfriend and his parents. The only issue with this is – i’ve never really listened to the Beatles music. I accepted anyway and listened to a few songs before I had to leave, finding some of them pretty decent. We had lunch at Harry Ramsdens and then headed off to go wait for the concert to start.

We arrived early and marvelled at the stage, which was apparently almost identical to the set up that the Beatles had in most of their concerts years ago. The impersonators finally came onto stage and the concert started… honestly I enjoyed the whole thing hugely! As mentioned i’d never really listened to the original bands music but I found myself dancing and singing along to the songs I did know, just like the rest of the audience. The impersonations of each of the Beatles was spot on and they even told jokes and made fun of what they were doing throughout the concert, which just made the whole thing more fun.

As they had an orchestra playing with them, they could play a lot of the songs that the original Beatles couldn’t play live due to the sheer number of instruments in the songs which was even more impressive! Everyone seemed to have a great time and the great atmosphere just made the whole thing even more fun. The first person to start dancing surprisingly was a young boy who couldn’t have been older than eight. He ran up to the stage after the first few songs and started dancing, before being joined by what I presume to be his siblings and family. One man even placed him on stage towards the end of the concert but had to be taken down due to the health and safety risk – the actual band didn’t seem to mind and even seemed to be encouraging it! Shows that they have an appreciation for their fans I suppose.

As the concert ended, everyone slowly streamed out. Him, His parents and I all walked back to his house. However, the whole set up was kind of beautiful as it was a literal moonlight beach walk along the pier, with fairy lights and the faint sound of music from a fair of some kind. I then slept over at his for the night (have to say, it’s weird sleeping in a boys room!). The day after, He and I strolled into Worthing town where we had Thorntons Icecream (which is delicious, I ended up with an extra scoop for free by accident too!), did some window shopping, sat in the park and even saw Inside Out! I loved the film as it was highly engaging and was an interesting concept – even if it did get really dark in places throughout the film!

This month I also took part in volunteering between my local family center and a nursery. I took part in activities that ranged from assisting in the daycare, designing posters, helping in weighing clinic, helping to run Play and Learn sessions, laminating, helping to make ‘scanning passports’, assisting in events outside of the nursery to raise awareness of school transitions and the stresses it brings and helping in a Bumps and Babies session. The whole two weeks were highly enjoyable although also very tiring due to the running around after children! I got some really good experience I can talk about on my Personal Statement and even have made connections with the community, which I can use as a reference for future work! I’m glad I took part and am tempted to even do it again some time!

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

Natural History Museum (AKA The Dinosaur Museum)

Hey,

So recently my three year old sister has been completely obsessed with the ‘Dinosaur Museum’ after she heard about it on tv a while back. She talked about it fairly non-stop and was bringing it up at every opportunity. She was absolutely delighted when my Mum said we could go to the ‘Dinosaur Museum’ in the Easter holidays.

We went yesterday and honestly it was a lot of fun! We had a fairly stress free morning and left when we felt ready. We arrived at the station with just enough time to buy our tickets and jump on our train straight to London Victoria straight away with little delay. My sister had never been on a train before so she was practically bouncing off the walls with excitement until she settled to just watch everything pass by in a blur. The journey there also passed in a blur of reading, playing with my sister and chatting with my Mum and brother.

Once we got to London we asked a guard for help and got directed to the Kensington train that drops you off pretty much outside the museum. We arrived at the platform and the tube train was there straight away, meaning we had to all hurry on. My sister was still as fascinated by train but was perfectly behaved the entire way there.

We quickly reached our destination after two stops and had to walk through this tunnel decorated with advertisements on the walls and a man singing with his guitar. My sister was nodding along to the music as we passed him.

Outside the tunnel was the museum pathway. The queue was huge! Seems like everyone else had the same idea we did. Fortunately, the queue moved quickly enough so it wasn’t too bad.  My sister was in awe of the building that stood in front of her – it was probably the biggest building shes ever seen. She kept pointing out things on the building such as stone lion heads and patterned walls.

Once inside the museum we headed to the cafe to have our lunch then headed to the ‘blue’ section to go look at the marine animals, human biology and dinosaurs section. However, we struggled to find the dinosaur section so we walked around the other exhibits at a leisurely pace. The highlights involved a huge blue whale hanging from the ceiling, going into the human biology section and actually knowing all the information and comparing our weight to various animals on this set of scales.

We finally found our way to the dinosaur exhibit but the queue had swelled to fill up most of the main entrance. This meant we stood in a queue for at least half an hour. By this point, our legs were starting to ache from all the walking.

We finally got inside the exhibit just to find we had to queue up even more to walk up over this bridge that overlooked all the dinosaur exhibitions. This took at least another ten minutes but everyone seemed entranced by all the dinosaur models. Lot of people were trying to pronounce the names of these various dinosaurs and were comparing their size to them.

Once over the bridge you walk past this large animatronic tyrannosaurus rex that roared and seemed to stare at everyone that walked past. I think that was one of my sisters favourite parts as she actually squealed with delight and ran up to the side of the barrier, waving furiously.

Once outside of the T-rex section we could go walk around the exhibits on the floor at our own pace. There were different sections talking about things such as how dinosaurs bred, the plants around at that time period, how various scientists think the dinosaurs became extinct and why and the archaeological process in discovering bones. Honestly, although it wasn’t my  favourite exhibit in the museum it was very interesting to see.

By this point it was getting somewhat late. After a quick trip to the gift shop we headed outside to have an ice-cream and a drink before heading back to the station.

Once we were off the tube and back at Victoria, we arrived at the station with literally minutes before the train we needed to get on was due to leave. This meant we all had to run like crazy to try and reach the train before it departed (the next train wasn’t for another twenty minutes and we needed to get home to put dinner in the oven). My sister ran as fast as she could, still clutching the rubbish she had in her hand. She even ran faster than my nearly fifteen year old brother!

Luckily we got onto the train just in time and all collapsed into our seats, all absolutely exhausted. We met this lovely older couple who were sat opposite us who commented on my sister and how bright she was. My Mum was practically radiating pride off of her.

We finally arrived back at Lancing station. My Mum reached into her pockets to grab her keys just to find… they weren’t there. Panic set in and led to Mum tipping the entire contents of her bag onto the side of the platform, to no avail. It wasn’t there. We ran to the train station office to see if the keys had been handed in… and they had. By the lady who served us and printed out our tickets that same morning. Apparently they had been found outside the station! My Mum was so thankful and would have hugged the man who gave the keys to her if the barrier wasn’t in the way.

How lucky. The timings on the train were just about perfect, we found all the exhibits we wanted to look at and we retrieved lost keys. What a day!

Well, until next time,

-Megan

Valentines Day

Hey,

So as I am sure you are all VERY aware of, a few days ago it was Valentines day. As this was technically my third Valentines ever, it still meant quite a lot.

I knew he didn’t have a lot of money to spend on me for Valentines day and I wasn’t that bothered. As long as we could meet up I was happy. I bought him a box full of Malteasers (his favourite) and a card. His present was actually really thoughtful – he’d gotten me about seven boxes of various herbal teas (I am obsessed) and had drawn out little pictures with messages on them. I think my favourite was a drawing of a ring. He’d simply written ‘I like it.’ I loved and still do love the present.

However, I was mildly confused where the money come from. I was aware he had very little money so how he’d been able to buy seven boxes of tea was beyond me. (Tea can vary in Holland and Barrett from £2 to £5 each). Later on in the day, it was revealed to me accidentally that my Mum had paid for the tea. It was all entirely his idea and he picked everything out – she just paid for it.

To be honest, I know this would definitely bother some people. ‘Why didn’t he/she spend money on me? Am I not worth it?’ But to be honest, I’m just happy I got to see him that day. The new teas were just a really thoughtful-yet-awesome bonus. We spent the rest of Valentines goofing around in my bedroom playing stupid games and chatting. It was really nice.

We then spent the following Monday (today) in Worthing Town, just us two. He’d managed to get £20 pounds off of his Mum to pay for the day. It was a really fun day that involved being nearly Mauled by seagulls (again), eating an extortionate amount of tea, meeting and helping lost Spanish exchange students, exploring shops and sitting on the beach. It was really fun and as much as I love meeting up with my friends, it was nice to meet up just with him and goof around. We didn’t have to cater to a lot of people’s wishes so we could do what we want. Sure it wasn’t exactly fancy with Mcdonalds for lunch but hey, we’re happy. That is all that matters!

We got there super early at 10 so by 12 we had done everything we needed to do. The weather was also cold and suddenly threatened to rain.

We headed back to my Mum’s workshop and hung around there until she was done so she could give me a lift back. (His bike was literally two minutes away so it made sense for him to hang around). She didn’t mind too much either which was an added bonus.

Well, that was my Valentines day. We don’t make a big deal out of it as our anniversary is next month… he has no idea what i’m doing for it! Somehow i’m not convinced he’s sure what he’s doing either. But, only time will tell.

Until next time,

Megan Stapleton

Christmas and new years eve resolutions

Hey,

My phone is back from the dead! Being left in rice for 24 hours and then left over night in a room with the boiler dried it out, and if anything it actually works better than before. We found out it worked  just as we were getting ready to go and buy a new one – lucky!

So Christmas has been and gone… this means my 5 day Christmas is over! I actually really enjoyed Christmas this year. It was fun, not a moment of it was dull and I got some amazing presents.

On Christmas Eve, He came round and we opened each others presents. This was my first Christmas. He seemed to like what i’d gotten him (pixel heat mug, a zombie keychain, band shirt and a Google Play Voucher. He seemed to be happy!). From him I got a bauble, a money pot and a fake leather jacket. I was so happy! He knows me so well. We spent the rest of the day chatting, cuddling and watching Christmas movies. It was perfect.

While my mother has been very busy with work at home, a lot of her stuff had to go into my room so the essentials could be where she needed them. However, this meant my room had to be moved around. My mum promised me i’d have my room back to the way I wanted and with the help of Him and my mum, my room was soon back to the way I wanted it. I’m glad to have my room back. I didn’t mind lending my room out for stock but it wasn’t exactly practical. Plus, I kept loosing things as nothing really had a place.

On Christmas morning, I woke up first without an alarm at precisely 6am. This was my second Christmas. I quietly tip-toed to my door and unhooked the stocking on my door handle. I then proceeded to wake my brother up. We took each present out of out stocking and tried to guess what it was before eventually putting it back.

At 7am we were allowed in to mum’s room that she was sharing with her boyfriend and my baby sister. They were all already awake and smiled at all three of us as we piled onto their bed. We took turns opening things from our stocking. The highlights of my stocking were LBD perfume, owl socks and tons of sweets!

Afterwards we went downstairs. We waited at the door frame of our living room, counted to three and burst in, so we could see the giant pile of presents under our tree. It was magical. The lights looked really pretty.

While my mother and her boyfriend made pancakes for breakfast, my sister, brother and I sat on the sofa and watched Prep and Landing. Usually my siblings wont sit still for a movie (even a short one) but they were captivated by this movie.

After pancakes, we sat expectantly waiting to be allowed to open our presents. However, my brother had a headache so we waited until he felt better, before we did.

Everyone took it in turns to open presents, and everyone also had their own little pile. The highlights of this were two onesies, £20, a Cyber Candy Japanese sweets gift box, Doctor Who Matt Smith calendar and TONS of books. It was amazing.

The rest of the day consisted of eating, drinking, chatting and playing with our new presents. I was allowed a very low alcohol content beverage called a snowball at Christmas lunch. It was actually really nice. However, barely two sips in, I coughed with my mouth full of Snowball all over the side of the table. There was silence for a moment, then laughter erupted.

My nan came round at 7pm. This was my third Christmas.  However she said we couldn’t open presents until after Doctor Who as we’d all be antsy – which was fair enough. So we ate some of the delicious cake she’d brought with her and watched Doctor Who. Although I was very confused by the episode as all of season 7 doesn’t make sense now, I’m sad to see Matt Smith leave. He was easily my favourite doctor.

After Doctor Who we opened my nan’s presents. My nan bought me a necklace, a turtle-neck jumper and a pair of skinny jeans that fitted perfectly!

On boxing day, my mother, brother, sister and I went into Worthing to go spend our twenty pounds. We also had a 15 pound gift card for WHSmith from my Gran in Cornwall, and I had a 5 pound waterstones voucher from my friend. I spent both my gift cards and bought a DS game. (although I currently did not own one, I had a sneaking suspicion I was going to get one!) My brother did’t spend his gift card, but did by three games from Game for the computer. The queue in Game was horrific, but it wasn’t as bad as it could be. Everyone was fairly civilised. However the line of people being out of the door meant that staff had to ignore the alarm going off every few minutes, as it was just people lining up.

We also tried to return some clothes to Newlook but the queue was out of the door, so we gave up.

Later on, we went over to my nan’s for a family dinner that consisted of cold meat, sandwiches, twiglets, pasta, an assortment of pasta and cold pizza. I got presents from my aunt and uncle there. After dinner had been eaten, we sat down and opened presents. The highlights out of my aunt and uncle’s presents were two books and a sleeveless coat with a fluffy coat. It looks like it’ll be really warm – so handy for the oncoming winter. We chatted, joked and discussed Doctor Who theories, until it was late, and then we had to go home. It’s nice seeing my Aunt and Uncle – I don’t see them that often. However they are huge book nerds and love the same sort of TV shows that I do, so they always get perfect presents. This was my fourth Christmas.

The day after boxing day, my dad picked my brother and I up at midday, and drove us over to his house. We exchanged presents. My brother and I got my dad a Tshirt and a type of pen he was really after for work. As my presents were more expensive, my brother got more, lower priced presents such as an Ipod Shuffle, a watch and books.

My father bought me a 3Ds and Animal Crossing New Leaf! I was – and stil am – ecstatic! I loved the original game and the new game and console meant I could play it again. It also meant I could play DS games in general again. I’m super happy and have played it every day so far.

That concludes my fifth Christmas.

I’ve been very lucky this year with concerts, dates, school events such as Uni, getting two GCSEs and my one year anniversary with Him.

Hopefully this next year will be as good, if not better!

My new years resolution is to make more time for friends instead of cancelling all the time. I want to make some lasting memories before I finish my GCSEs and go to college.

So now i’ve just got to buckle down and start studying!

Until next time, and a happy new year!

-Megan

How to kill a phone and get given the wrong certificate within a day of each other

Hey,

So I killed my phone. I have quite a talent for doing this, but I was always somewhat proud of the fact that i’d never dropped a phone in water. However I had: lost it in snow, dropped it, thrown it, lost it and nearly cooked it. This record was broken. I was home alone with my 2 year old sister (my mother had gone to go pick my brother up from an enrichment course). She was being especially grumpy that day and had bitten me, pulled my hair, scratched it, screamed and cried. I was getting to the point where I was quite upset and wanted nothing more than my mum to come home so I could go upstairs and calm down. I decided I was going to let her calm down, and sat her down in front of an episode of Elmo, gave her a drink and a biscuit and went to go do the washing up. I even locked the stair gate on the kitchen to make sure she didn’t get in so I could get some peace for a bit. 

He then called me and was in floods of tears. I promised myself I would finish washing up a plate and would then sit down and try to calm him down. However, I did not hear my little sister quietly open the stair gate (which I was not aware she could do), creep over to me and shout as loud as possible ‘boo!’  and burst in to a fit of giggles. I freaked out and… dropped my phone into the water. He was still crying. I felt so awful that I actually started crying once mum came home. 

So i’m going to go to Tesco today and see if I can get another phone. Or get them to look at it and see if they think it can be saved. 

So school has finished now until January 7th. It feels like ages away, but it really isn’t. Afterwards, the most stressful 6 months of my entire life will apparently ensue – fun times. Oh well.

On the bright side, I finished school on Thursday with a half day. We essentially came in for our registration in tutor time, went to first lesson (I had film studies so we just watched Kick Ass 2), went back to our tutor until five to twelve and then had a really long assembly.

Just before film studies, I was asked to have my picture taken with a box of old clothes and tons of canned food that was to be donated to a homeless shelter. I’m not sure why ‘I’ had my picture taken though as it was nothing to do with me. But, I didn’t mind. I also had to help carry it back to owner of the homeless shelter’s car. 

Film studies was pretty fun. I’d never seen the movie so it was just a chill out lesson. 

Break time had been extended by an extra ten minutes so everyone could eat their lunch, and I have never seen so many people be really excitable all at once. It was really fun. I was technically meant to be on Prefect Duty as that is my duty day, but as it was a half day and it was Christmas, I was told that it was up to me whether I go on duty or not. 

Tutor time was also pretty fun. We did secret santa (everyone got chocolate), listened to music and just chilled out.

The assembly also wasn’t as bad as Christmas assemblies usually are. However, it did run over. In the assembly, I was nominated for two awards. I was nominated for a sociology award and a film studies award. However, as I was leaving the assembly hall, I noticed one of the certificates I was given didn’t actually have my name on it. It was someone called Emma. So naturally I try to find the person in charge of awards and they essentially said they could not be bothered and they will get another one in the new year. That wasn’t helpful.

I did manage to give the girls whose certificate I had, hers back. However she did not have mine and instead gave me Bradley something’s certificate. 

After twenty minutes of running around, He and I gave up and we just went home. However, not until we made a little pit stop at a teachers office. This teacher sat us next to each other in a graphics lesson, which actually led to us becoming friends and eventually dating. He went up and said thank you. It was actually really sweet.

Yesterday I went to a Chinese restaurant with some family and family friends. We got there at 8pm and we left at midnight after a very heavy five course meal. I was so tired by the end of the evening that I just wanted to curl up into a ball and fall asleep there. It was a fun evening though.

It’s four days until Christmas! I’m so excited!

Until next time!

-Megan

The Sea of Lights

Hey,

So yesterday at 11am, I had my college interview. This interview determines whether or I have a place at my first choice college through a series of questions and an awful lot of paper work….And… I was offered a place! I was, and still am ecstatic! However I had to go back to school afterwards, but we made a slight detour at KFC to great a celebratory meal with my mother and baby sister. I am so happy I have a place at my ideal college. The actual interview only lasted fifteen minutes… so naturally I turned up over half an hour early for my interview. A complete stranger in a track suit even wished my good luck in my interview. He was obviously a student and even smiled. It was so unexpected, but it did make me smile.  

The only condition is that I get a C in maths. Maths is my worst subject, so this’ll be interestiIng. I really am gonna start buckling down and studying from next week. Especially maths. However, if I don’t get a C in maths I can still do two of my options. I will just need to take maths again besides it.

In the morning of my interview I had an English mock, and by the time I was back, I had the second part. It was fairly easy, so i’m not worried. I’ve also done my Film Studies mock exam (I literally had to design a super hero and watch a clip three times, then write about it!) 

I’ve got my sociology, history and calculator math exam paper left and then I have no more mock exams… ever. And that is terrifying. 

I also have under six months left of high school. Like whaaaaaat. Where did all the time go?! Also, how is it 18 sleeps until Christmas? This year has gone really quickly. 

This afternoon, my mum, her boyfriend, my sister and my brother all went to the Sea of Lights. It was a parade in Lancing town full of loud music, lit up sculptures and floats and beautiful costumes. There was also a Christmas market! It was actually quite fun considering nothing happens in Lancing. He even held up a light in the parade and was beaming the entire time. I am glad I saw him actually in the parade. After he was gone, my little family group grabbed a take out meal and went home. We ate and watched Doctor Who. 

However, just over an hour later, He turned up, freezing cold, coughing and nearly in tears. Apparently he had been made fun of because he was the only person not dancing with his girlfriend. That made me feel awful. I just wanted to cuddle him and never let him go. He then went on to say family issues were also upsetting him. 

We spent the evening curled up on the sofa with cheesey Christmas music playing. He seemed to have cheered up as his mother left him. However, he had been outside since 12, and the actual parade started at four. He wasn’t wearing many layers, was cold and ill.The poor thing. If I could take his problems and worries away, I would do. 

Until next time,

-Megan.

Meeting the family

Hey,

So yesterday, I was invited to a meal to celebrate his great nan’s 90th birthday. I was totally petrified of meeting His family and had no idea what to expect! What do I wear? What are they like? So many questions…

I got on a train very early in the morning and after a very quiet journey arrived at Lancing station at half 9 in the morning. I then headed over to His granddads house until his parents came to pick us up at a later time. His mother, step father and the pair of us were all dressed in black – his step dad even jokingly said we look like the Addams family.

We arrived super early at a cosy pub called The Fox. It was really pretty and candles were dotted around everywhere. As time passed, more of his relatives arrived and were all super friendly. They seemed to have looked into me a bit as they seemed to know all about me and what I want to do.

His Great nan soon arrived and turned out to be this sweet, smiley old lady in a blue jumper. She was also super friendly and seemed to be very surprised by the sheer number of people that had turned up (around 16 people turned up and were crammed around an extended table!). She was very quiet, but sweet all the same. There was a huge range of age groups at the table. It ranger from 12-90! It was interesting.

The food was very good, his family was really nice… all in all it was a super fun day and i’m glad I went. It was nice to meet his family and try to spot where he gets certain facial features from and where his personality also comes from. They all get on really well and were all very cheerful.

In other news, my side of the family all seem to be at each others throats. Lots of screaming, yelling and anger in general. I’m fed up of it. It isn’t fun. It is making me dread coming home from school everyday.

Until next time!

-Megan

Work experience – take two

Hi,

So today I finished my last week of work experience (that my school offers. I plan to do more in college!) at the Castle Day Nursery. I can honestly say it was an… interesting week. 

My mum and I actually drove past it a few times while looking for it, the day before I due to go on work experience. It is sort of hidden by huge bushes and is next to a convenience shop in an area packed full of different schools. It is essentially what used to be a house but was bought and converted into a nursery, with an added room known as the baby unit for – as you guessed it, babies. 

I arrived at work experience nervous and unsure what to expect as i’d only been given a week to prepare for it all but was quickly put at ease once I met the person looking after me and the other girl I was with for the week. We were sent to different rooms. I was in the baby room on day one. The next two days I was with 4-5 year olds. Then, for the last two days I was with 2-4 year olds. 

I can honestly say I had a lot of fun at work experience. The staff were friendly, the kids were sweet and although it took me a few days to find my way around that old converted house, I had a lot of fun. I helped tidy up before and after lessons, helped at snack time, played with the kids during free play and ‘garden’ (basically break time), reading to them, singing with them as well as other staff members, helping out at nap time and just in general acting as a sort of teaching assistant. 

A lot of them were assassinated by my braces. One girl claimed they were ‘the prettiest things she had ever seen’.

Bless.

All in all although it was incredibly exhausting, i’d happily help out again at the nursery.

Until next time!

-Megan 

Second birthdays and GCSE results

Hey

So yesterday was my baby sisters birthday – she turned two! The day had a sort of difficult start with arguing from Mum and her boyfriend and a four hour trip to the hospital when he revealed he was having heart problems, but he came home fine. There was some sort of argument on the way back with my sister in the back (my brother and I stayed at home while mum, my sister and her boyfriend went to the hospital and then to Tesco.) The argument meant that it was a pretty tense atmosphere when they walked through the door. However He dropped by to give my sister a birthday card – technically the first thing she’d open by this point. This sort of mellowed everybody out. They kept changing their mind on what they wanted to do for her birthday once we got home, so we ended up going to Brooklands (a sort of park with lots of things to do), going on a mini train ride that she completely adored and then taking her up to the park to play. We finished the day with icecream, and then went home to open her presents from all of us and my Aunt that had arrived.

We had pizza for dinner and sat and watched In The Night Garden. Her favourite presents were easily the Mickey Mouses’ Club house toy she got, and her little Wendy house. Once my sister and brother were in bed, the day unfortunately ended with Mum and her boyfriend arguing to a point where Misty (Mum’s boyfriend’s dog) was sat on my lap cowering. It was pretty scary. Raised voices and slamming doors… then mum asked him to leave. He grabbed a bag of his stuff and left, leaving Misty. He eventually came back for Misty and demanded that mum give him his dog, but Misty refused to move. She was so scared and if anything, tried to get closer to me. Mum ended up having to pick her up and hand Misty to him. He then procceeded to call our house around 10-20 times in the space of an hour and even rung my phone once.

Mum ended up crying on the floor. I’ll admit, it wasn’t the way i’d expected the day to pan out. I’d hoped for a good day for Anna’s sake… and wound up with this. To be honest, Anna barely noticed all the arguing. She was too busy playing with her new toys and demanding I let her play with the Talking Tom 2 app on my phone.

I don’t know what to do.

In a lot happier news, I got my GCSE results back today… I got a B overall in science and a B in RE! My hand was shaking so much while I opened that envelope… my dad whom had come down from Horsham to get the results with me even commented that he’d never seen me shake that much. He also got two B’s and an A! He got a B in math and RE, and got an A in science! I am so pleased for him. (He took his math GCSE early, which is why he has an extra GCSE.)

I’m also going to go visit Cornwall later, for a few days and to see family. I’m gonna try to learn to surf.. and shall fail miserably. Hopefully the weather isn’t too bad

These last two days give me mixed feelings. I’m happy about my results, but my sisters birthday kind of leaves a sour taste in my mouth.. I guess it’s just lucky she probably wont remember it.

Until next time!

-Megan