The BIG Reunion!

This marks off another points on 'My Bucket List' (see here) as I finally attended a "sort of" festival..

So last weekend I attended the well-known indoor music festival, The Big Reunion and it was awesomeee!
The Big Reunion is for those that went on holiday in the summer with Club 18-30, there are other similar events such at 2wentys, Naughty Reunion. It is the "worlds biggest indoor music festival" and was my first experience of a festival atmosphere. This year the headlining acts were DJ Fresh and Katy B; and make no mistake, I attended both their sets.

The only way to show you the weekend is in pictures and videos, so here they are:

Day One

On the train journey to Skegness - 6 hour train journey!

Ready for the first night partying it up at Katy B

During the gig - right at the front.. yes boyssss!

  Only Chris got  a video of Katy B but as you can imagine.. She was awesome!!

Day Two

WARNING: Explicit Content - This is Dirty Sanchez!

Last night we were red.. Now we're blue :)

NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA... BATMANNNNN!

NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA... BATGIRLLLL!

 

THE LOVEABLE ROGUES - LOVE THEM!

On to the headliner DJ Fresh... 

 

All in all, it was a fantastic weekend and I will definitely be going on holiday next year to possibly go to this event again :)

Hope you all had a lovely weekend too

Oh and if you don't hear from me for a while on Twitter, Facebook or Blogger its because I'm off on my preliminary placement for 2 weeks and I'm in.... WALES! :(

J

Twi-hard!

As some of you might know, I'm a big Twilight fan. I've seen all the movies more than a couple of times (I even know the some films word-for-word in places) and read each of the books within a week. And I have been looking forward to the final film since the previous one came out (so a year) and I can honestly say, it did not disappoint.

I am always going to be an avid follower of the books and I will always defend that the books are so much better than the films.. Therfore, if you've not read the book.. Read them! Same goes with Harry Potter.. Personally I think people who have read the book ought to see the film.. Everyone else is just too lazy to read. Haha, but thats my opinion.

So, onto the film itself.. I was a major geek and went to the midnight showing of the film at an Odeon in Liverpool. It was an expensive night out for definate but sooooo worth it! So we very keenly arrived an hour and half earlier than the film was meant to start because as there were two showings at midnight, we knew it would very quickly get busy. So we picked up the tickets and got popcorn and drinks, as you always should when you go to the cinema (although, prices are increasing rapidly, and being a poor student doesn't help)! We carefully chose the best seats in the screen and chatted until the trailers began at 00.01am on 16th November haha. To entertain ourselves up until this point we took silly photos to amuse us and those are below, please excuse my face on most of them, I was quite hyper as I was so excited to see the film!

My Review

100 stars out of 10 if you ask me. It sticks to the detail of the books and adds extra bursts of flavour to spice it up. I'm not going to give to much of it away for those of you that haven't seen it but honestly, you ought to put some money aside to see it. The film had me gripped for the opening credits just the same way the book held me word for word. The addition of the fight scene at the end of the film was a shocking moment as this never appears in the book as graphic. And yes, I do mean it when I say its graphic.. If you are a queasy person, do look away nearing the end.
I don't really have anything bad to say about the film except the obvious that its nowhere near in as much detail as the book. I love reading for pleasure so I would say that, some of you might have opposing opinions.


I recommend everyone sees this film!

Now on to the pictures:

Not bothered no more

I am special..

Love this photo! <3

My eyes are freaky!

Flat mates ;)

They wanted a "nice" smiley photo.. I did not obey haha

The more than an hour wait was too much for Kitty..

J

Back to the Motherland!

What a weekend its been returning back to Doncaster for the first time since I left for university; its definitely been a roller coaster of emotions. The reason I've come back to Yorkshire this weekend is for my sixth form's presentation evening which is basically where everyone returns to school for one last evening of speeches and the presentation of our A-Level certificates.

So lets first tell you all about my journey back to Doncaster on Friday. Well, as you all know, Friday's are empty for me as I have no lectures so due to packing my suitcase the night before I got up, got ready and left my flat at university at 9.20am (pretty early for me!). Firstly, I was required to take the EdgeLink bus to the bus station and walk to short distance to the railway station. On arrival at the station I realised that I couldn't use my 16-25 railcard before 10am, fortunately I only had 15mins to wait until 10 so got a return ticket to set off from Ormskirk at 10.05am. The train required me to make 3 changes :( and by 11.22am I was only just setting off from Liverpool Lime Street station towards Manchester Piccadilly! By now, I was getting fed up of switching trains, having to find seats and lugging my suitcase around that I honestly.. nearly fell asleep on the train and would've missed my stop if my grandad hadn't rang me. So, my final train was from Manchester to Doncaster; the ironic thing was that I met with a friend from sixth form at Sheffield stop, who was changing there to come home for the same reason I was.

So, the presentation evening was interesting. It was brill seeing my past year; music friends; childhood friends; there was a substantial amount of people there which made it worth the while for going. After going up onto stage to collect my certificates and be congratulated my former teachers it was time for the traditional post-presentation evening event of going into town with all old friends and partying!

So, lets see the photo's from that night! By the way, according to my auntie, I'm starting to lose weight and she can tell now so I don't know whether anyone else can but I thought I'd share that with you as I'm proud that my cheerleading is finally taking its toll :D

Well yeah, my goal now is to achieve my goal dress size of what I was in year 11, before I let myself go and get too comfortable. I will get there!

Hope your all good

J

Being Reflective

Being reflective.. What does that mean?

For my university course, the aim of each section is to be reflective on your studies. Being a teacher requires the skill of being reflective upon everything you learn in sessions and any readings. It is an intense course and requires a lot of outside work on essential reads, being reflective (there's that word again) and creating journals. At the moment, I am doing the core subjects (Maths, English, Science, TTL and PPD) and my minor specialism (Music) as sessions, however I will be gaining more sessions after Christmas such as the foundation subjects (Geography, PSHCE, P.E, History, Music, Art, D&T, R.E and other I might have forgotten) and each of these require documentation of reflections of my studies. For example, in English and Music I am required to keep a personal journal where I can be as creative as I want (hopefully I will post some pictures of my progression in completing this) or a literal as I'd like. I'm not all that creative but as my chosen career is primary teaching, I'm expanding my creative side and attempting to make them as creative as possible, lets just hope they turn out okay.

So the idea of being reflective.. Still, to me, this idea is difficult to comprehend and I'm struggling to grasp the concept of it. However, I am trying my hardest and will make these journals as good as I can to gain the best marks I can.

I've found the following quotes from here which explains some aspects of reflective teaching which is what I'm aiming to be: a reflective teacher...

"Reflective teaching means looking at what you do in the classroom, thinking about why you do it, and thinking about if it works - a process of self-observation and self-evaluation." 

"This may then lead to changes and improvements in our teaching."

This has been a thinking post to any trainee teachers out there being asked to be reflective in their studies and teaching. I know this will not be useful to most of your reading this but the idea of being reflective has been confounding me since I began university so I thought I'd share it on my blog which is all about my life.

Hope your well

J 

Shopping Spree in Liverpool!

(This would've been posted earlier but I've had 2 presentations, work and friends for home visiting so all been a little hectic - better late than never)

Having now been for a good day shopping in Liverpool, I am so glad I live so close! Liverpool literally has every shop imaginable which is good because Ormskirk variety of shops is a little sparse; we have a New Look, but you take like 10 steps and your at the back of the shop, it really is tiny.. There's no Primark! There's a Dorothy Perkins and really they're the only clothes shops available; we do have a Bodycare though which is brill!
However, shopping in Liverpool was a little like shopping in Sheffield's Meadowhall (biggest shoppest centre nearest to Doncaster).. but sooo much better!

Now if you follow me on twitter you will have seen I uploaded this picture:

16th October 2012

These aren't all the shopping bags I acquired in Liverpool, there is more but couldn't fit them on the chair haha! So lets begin telling you what I bought :) I did spend like £100 (incl. dinner) but it was all worth it and now my uni wardrobe is getting more weighted with autumn/winter clothes.
So lets see the thing I now cannot live without...

Lets see the most important thing I bought.. The things in the Ted Baker shopping bag:

Eek! So pretty!

I didn't particularly want to buy a bag this expensive as I'm like little iffy about bag prices because they just end up breaking of something but Ted Baker's worth it! I has a choice between this bag and the big version but Kitty persuaded me to buy this one as it more professional for placements (plus black goes with everything). Well, now I don't know how I managed without this bag before.. It literally goes everywhere with me, its so strong it holds many library books, folders, stationary and daily essentials (money, makeup). I am totally in love with this bag!

 Other things I bought:

• Pumps for Cheerleading
• Geek Fancy Dress
• Underwear
• Extra jumpers for the cold

• Dinner in Whetherspoons (mmmm!) 

Kitty disapproving the cheapness of Whetherspoons haha

 

 

J

Halloween 2012 in pictures

J