Liebster Award!

So a few days ago I saw I had a new comment and it turned out it was from the lovely Abbie over at About A Girl nominating me for a Liebster Award! Now to be totally honest I've seen these floating around and didn't really pay much attention to it, but from what I can gather it originated in Germany and is generally a way of promoting smaller blogs and showing the blogs you like that you like them! So thank you Abbie! (You should all head over to her blog straight after reading this!) 

However there are some rules:

• You have to link back to the person that nominated you.
• Write 11 facts about yourself.
• You must answer all 11 questions given to you by the person who nominated you.
• After completing these questions you must nominate 11 bloggers with under 200 followers and give them 11 questions of your choice. (I'm allowing myself to nominate bloggers with slightly over 200 as well...it's only fair!)
• You must not nominate the person who nominated you.
• You must let your nominees know that they have been nominated and provide a link for them to your post so that they can learn about it.

So here are my 11 facts about me! (Wow they were surprisingly hard to think of!)

1. I cannot stand anyone touching the front of my neck! I don't know why but it REALLY freaks me out...I think it just makes me feel like someone is going to strangle me! (I have friends who take great delight in trying to touch the front of my neck, they're such lovely people!)
2. I play piano (although not as well as I'd like to) I have my grade 5 and it's one of the ways I stop stressing about things and just relax! (Wow that was kind of cheesy)
3. My favourite subject is drama, I am literally obsessed with all things theatre!
4. I once ate a fish eye...It was for a dare, don't worry! (Your opinion of me has probably significantly decreased now)
5. I absolutely love the 1950s fashion, hair, everything...I'd love to be brave enough to style myself in that way but sadly I am not!
6. My favourite book is George Orwell's 'Nineteen-Eighty-Four.'It's such an incredible book and I really recommend you read it! A fantastic theatre company called Headlong also produced a stage version which was simply mesmerising and that is also currently my favourite piece of theatre! (I highly recommend you check them out if you are so inclined)
7. One of my favourite films is 'Trance' directed by Danny Boyle, starring James McAvoy. It has so many plot twists and I mean, who doesn't love a bit of James McAvoy...?!
8. My obsession with Doctor Who got way too out of hand a long long time ago!
9. Sometimes meeting new people actually terrifies me, I'm really bad at starting conversations...I never know what to say!
10. I find it really difficult to think of 10 facts about myself!

Questions asked by About A Girl:

What is your favourite childhood memory?

Oooo this is really difficult! I have so many to choose from! I'd say that visiting family in Australia was definitely a highlight!

Who was your first concert?

I'm pretty sure that P!nk was the first concert I went to! It was honestly incredible...I think I was about 8?

What is the worst thing you have endured?

I don't think I've ever endured anything particularly bad...

Although once when I was younger, we went to Turkey and these really nice shop owners gave us food to try and it was horrific! But I had to eat it out of politeness even though it tasted awful!

What is your favourite social networking platform?

I'm a bit of a twitter addict if I'm honest so I'd have to say twitter! You can follow me if you like @EveryEnvy is my blog twitter and my personal twitter is @pal0mafaith (Shameless plug!)

What is the craziest thing you have ever done?

Ooo, the craziest thing I've ever done...I don't think I've done anything that crazy to be totally honest! I've been zorbing which was so much fun, although half way down the hill one of the straps holding me in came undone meaning I basically had to cling to the strap and hope the other one didn't come undone! We went in two different types of zorbing balls, one was just the usual clear ball and the other was pitch black! 

Where do you go for your sweet escape from reality?

I absolutely love the theatre and I think that gives an escape from reality, both watching and performing! (Oo-er cheesy response) If I'm not doing anything drama related though I'll probably just go to my room and read a book or play piano!

Would you ever consider shaving your head for money?

I would depend, I mean if someone was offering me a significant amount of money then I probably would. It's just hair, it grows back!

What is the most endearing book you have ever read?

I would have to say 'Nineteen-eighty-four' OR in a clichéd response 'The Perks of Being a Wallflower'

What is the one song you would skip if it came on the radio?

I think this is pretty predictable but honestly, any song by Justin Bieber would be skipped without hesitation...

First word that comes to mind?

Eclectic (I have absolutely no idea why!)

What is your favourite pineapple brand?

I have no idea! I prefer fresh pineapple so I'll just say Tesco pineapple...

The wonderful bloggers I have nominated are: 

1. http://thewolfinthecity.com

2. http://ThatGirlSaadiya.blogspot.com

3. http://hollys-beauty-box.blogspot.com

4. http://beautybyemily.co.uk

5. http://EmilyBelleBlogs.blogspot.com

6. http://CherrySodaBlog.blogspot.com

7. http://www.thatgirlcalledjoanna.blogspot.co.uk/

8. http://Graceedd.blogspot.ie

9. http://strawberrylovesvintage.blogspot.com

10.http://janagodin.blogspot.co.uk/

11.http://daintyandivory.blogspot.co.uk/

Question Time!:

1. If you had a time machine and you were only allowed one trip where would you travel to and why?
2. Why did you start blogging? And is this your first blog?
3. If you were to binge watch an entire series of a TV show what would it be?
4. If you were to write a book what would it be about?
5. What is the most embarrassing thing that has ever happened to you?
6. Would you kill one innocent person if it meant saving one hundred others? (getting deep now!)
7. The most exciting thing that has ever happened to you?
8. Chocolate or sweets?
9. What is the worst lie you've ever told and were you caught out?
10. Describe yourself in 4 words (but only positively!)

Bonus Question (It's my blog I'll do what I like): Favourite piece of theatre?

I hope you all enjoyed this post, once again it's a little different (what is going on with my blog at the minute?) but I think you guys now know a little more about me!

I urge you all to check out the blogs mentioned here!

It'd be really great if you maybe left a comment with a random fact about yourself, or maybe you'd like to answer one of the questions yourself?

Do let me know some of your favourite blogs too! I'm always on the look out for new ones!

Until next time, Cheerio! 

xx

#NTUSR14

If you saw my UPSTART! 2014 blog post you'll know that that was a big reason for my lack of existence within the blogosphere; however you may have noticed that that only took up two weeks of my time! Another reason for my absence from this blog is that, 2-ish weeks ago, I went on a residential at the Clifton Campus of Nottingham Trent Uni for three days and it was brilliant! We stayed in halls, tried different sports, did tasters sessions and of course had a party!

Photobooths are a heck of a lot of fun!

Now any of you that know me in real life will know that I'm not particularly good at meeting new people and starting conversation so I was incredibly scared when I turned up by myself and walked into a room full of strangers! I, however, completely surprised myself, as when I was putting my bag down I saw another girl doing the same and went and asked her if she was on her own and we went and sat down at a table with three other girls on it and I ACTUALLY MADE CONVERSATION! HALLELUJAH! GOLD STAR FOR JESS! The other girls turned out to be super nice and we ended up sharing a dorm together! Stopping in dorms was a really good experience as we got to see what they're actually like and get a better idea of what to expect!

After the majority of people had arrived we went outside in the wonderful sunshine and did various ice breaker activities, one of which included making a chair out of balloons and I'm delighted to say that our team won with Derek the chair! Waheyy! We then got into our band-related groups (we were all given a coloured band upon arrival to make things easier!) and had a campus tour which was nice although Clifton campus is having a lot of building work done to make it all shiny and new! Afterwards we had lunch and got our dorms! We had 6 people in our room, including Danetta our student ambassador who was lovely! They were self-catered halls but we only had breakfast in there as the rest of the time we were in the SU having food!

Speaking of food, we had domino's pizza that night and oh my gosh I have never seen so much pizza in my life! There was so much left over that we pretty much took a whole pizza back to our room!

Have you ever seen so much pizza?! (Credit: @NTUOutreach)

However before having pizza we spent the afternoon doing sports activities to get an idea of what was on offer at Trent in terms of sports and societies; there was the choice of either rounders or yoga to begin with (I of course chose yoga which was great!) and then we all got together for an hour of Zumba which took quite a bit of effort and I was hopeless at keeping up with but was brilliant!

After battling through the aforementioned mountain of pizza we went bowling, (I lost spectacularly), and went to the SU on the city campus for a pub quiz and some games which was fun! When we got back to our dorm we were all pretty tired so went straight to bed. Now I wasn't expecting luxury from the bed, and it was actually okay to sleep on, but the pillow...my gosh it felt like someone had stuffed a dead animal into a pillow case (that isn't even exaggeration) so I stayed awake for quite a while trying to figure out how best to put my head on this delightful pillow to make it slightly more comfortable! 

Our little volunteering group!

The next morning after breakfast in our dorm we went down to The Point (the SU on the Clifton campus) and had a seminar on skills and communication which was surprisingly quite fun! We then split based on our coloured band groups and one half did their taster sessions while the rest of us did volunteering! For volunteering the group I was in had to cover a path with wood chippings to basically make it more environmentally friendly as Trent is one of the Greenest Universities in the UK! We split into two groups, and a few of us started at each end of the path while some others wheelbarrowed (word?) the wood chippings onto the path for us to rake. This was actually surprisingly fun, which probably had less to do with the actual activity and more to do with the people because we had quite a laugh!




We then had a short break (drinks and biscuits anyone?) and went to our taster sessions! I'd chosen the English taster session which was a seminar in American Literature where we looked at the Indian poet Sherman Alexie and three of his poems which was incredibly interesting!

Lecture Theatre selfie with Barrie!

After lunch we took a bus to the city campus where we were supposed to have a lecture on volunteering however we were late arriving so it was cut short so we could fit in the two taster sessions we were each attending! The first taster session I went to was criminology which was quite interesting and actually enjoyable! We looked at why a criminal might offend and what we thought the suitable consequences might be. My second taster was law, I won't say much about this other than that it made me realise I did not want to study law! 

We had a bit of spare time while all the groups were arriving back so of course selfies were taken...


We then had a campus tour and the city campus buildings are beautiful! Now during this tour one of my roommates Emily and I took quite a few selfies with the most random of things (everyone needs a selfie with a climbing wall right?) the reason for this being that there was a competition for being the most active on social media and Emily seriously wanted to win (and I mean seriously, there were so many selfies and photos of things over the space of three days!) and sure enough you'll be pleased to hear that one the last day it turned out she had won! We also had a group photo on campus which we were all given a copy of!

Can't beat a bit of treacle sponge and custard!

After getting back to Clifton, we all went back to our dorms to get changed ready for the barbecue that night! My gosh those burgers were so nice! We sat outside in the lovely sunshine just chilling, eating food, and there was treacle sponge with custard (an obvious highlight of the experience)!

We then went back inside, where the tables were filled with bin bags, tin foil and sellotape...
We were then told that we all had to dress up like pirates using these for our 'pirate-bin-bag-basement-party' in the club of the SU which was actually quite hilarious! In the party we had a DJ, a photo-booth which was great, a reaction-tester game thing (yup, that's definitely what it's called) and a basketball game (like the ones you get in an arcade)! It was so much fun and there was a lot of horrific dancing going off which made it even better!

The final day began with a lecture on student support which was again surprisingly fun and useful! We then did a finance quiz where we got into teams and each picked out an envelope with a country on it and played the quiz with a world cup twist! Spookily the team that picked Germany won! After a quick break we again split into two groups, half of us spent half an hour on computers looking at course options and getting the information we needed or writing personal statements with help; and the other half had a lecture from the careers team on how to make decisions for uni and we then switched! The lecture was so unbelievably useful as it explained a lot of how to decide on the best course and things you might want to look into when choosing a uni!

The Epic Yellow Team!

A bit later on we got back into our coloured band groups to do a presentation activity, we were given a topic which we would have to present in a lecture theatre for 3-ish minutes. Our topic was 'the day in a life of a student' which was relatively easy given that we had a student ambassador working with our group so we based it around Sophie's usual days. Myself and Barrie wrote a brilliant poem going through each activity of the day (we were oh so creative) while the others created a miniature Sophie with different sets to project in the lecture theatre and time cards to hold up. After we had finished and everyone had presented, the SAMs decided which group should win best presentation and...we won! (Well we were pretty EPIC)!

We then had to go back to our rooms to get ready for the evening which was a little more formal and pack all of our things away! Then we went down to The Point where our parents all arrived and we had a little buffett (which was very yummy, especially the cakes!) after which we moved into a lecture theatre where we watched the video that had been made of the week and were all presented with our group photo and a certificate for going along! And then it was time to say goodbye to everyone, although seeing as we're all on social media I'm sure some of us will keep in touch!

I honestly had such a fantastic three days and seriously recommend that if you're thinking of applying to Trent next year or even if you're not but you live in Nottingham then you should definitely apply to go! (I'm sure they'll be running it next year!) I was pretty unsure of what to expect when I arrived but it was so much fun and I met some really lovely people! It also helped a lot with knowing how to be more prepared for uni and what to expect when you first arrive which I'm sure will be a massive help when the time comes to start uni next year! Plus it was all FREE! YES FREE! Which is pretty damn incredible seeing as you do so much!
 And if any of you who were there are reading this then thanks for a great three days!

Well if you've read this far then I salute you! That was a heck of a long post!

I hope you enjoyed this slightly different post, I know the last two have been quite life-based but I wanted to blog about them because I think it's good to share you're experiences with the world, which I guess is what blogging is all about really? (getting a bit deep now oo-err) and I also want to remember them and be able to look back at what I've done this year!

I promise my next post will be a little more back to normal!

Do let me know in the comments if any of you have been on any uni residentials or taster sessions! 

I'd love to hear about them!

Or if you haven't just let me know what you've been up to recently!

Until next time, Cheerio! 

xx