Skins Series 5

I’ve watched Skins since series one. I wouldn’t say that I’m passionate about the programme but I have enjoyed it and found it engaging so far. With the new series out now, from my own experience, there have been many people who think that it is shit. Now personally, I have to agree.

Some might say that I’m jumping on the bandwagon of hating the new skins but if we actually look at the episodes and characters that have been introduced, there is evidence to support this.

Ok, not everyone may agree, but I think that the first episode of a series HAS to engage the audience and get people hooked. The audience needs to feel empathy in some form for the characters, and if not empathy, sympathy. The typical message that people got from skins was about teenagers having a good time, getting drunk, doing drugs etc. Now obviously not all teenagers are as extreme as the ones showcased in Skins, but the majority all can empathise with these things. I felt that the first series was funny, witty at times and a good watch with decent characters in an almost believable setting in that they were a legitimate group of friends.

The second cast also has a wide range of characters who were all friends pretty much at some point, and if not friends, then in the same friendship group. We also had the link to the first series with Effy (and Pandora to an extent), which gave the series more meaning.

Now we come to the current series. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think that there's a direct link between any of the characters to the previous series. Apart from the college setting and Bristol, I can't see any others. It's almost as if it's an entirely new show. I wouldn't have a problem with this, if it was a decent watch, but I've found myself flicking over to other channels at the same time, rather than watch a whole episode. It hasn't had as many jokes in it, or the same character bases that we saw in the previous two casts. I'll probably continue to watch this series of Skins, but I fear that I may be forced to change my decision if this series carries on in it's dreadful style.

Sound. xx

Univarsity not going to plan :(

As a promised update of my life, here is a quick overview of what has happened since I last blogged (Well, the last blogging block). Hmmm, so I didn't get into my first choice uni :( Bummer right?

Needed 3 A's to get into Exeter and ended up (after a bit of a mix up with stupid Further Maths) with AAB. Gutster.

Luckily I already had a back up plan if my results didn't go the way I'd hoped them to. I didn't want to take up my reserve offer as my accommodation and everything else would be behind everyone else, so therefore I ended up on a Gap Yah.

That's the basic overview of the Uni sitch. I'm in the process of reapplying again and stuff, so just the same again really.

More to come on how I'm spending my year out and stuff, because I don't want to bore you too much atm.

Song in the head today was Closer to the Edge by 30 Seconds to Mars

:)

x x x

Song in head.

Ok, so it's been a while since I've blogged, but decided to start up again for the umpteenth time.

Well, I have a lot to bring you all (no one) up to date with my life, but cba to do that right now, but basically not at uni this year, and got a job.

Now each day while working, I tend to get a song stuck in my head. I'll try and keep posted at the end of every blog, what the particular song is. It's been completely random and I have no clue what triggers it as sometimes I don't have my ipod with me.

So today it was Make me wanna die, by The Pretty Reckless. Cool song. I'll talk more about it next time maybe :)

xxx

Mozzies

Ok, I haven't had a problem with these little demons for over a year now, since Greenland where they were rife. But now, there's one in my sitting room and y'know what, it's annoying me. If i were a little insect like that, then I wouldn't go buzzing around in a room near to a what would be a giant.

Stupid insects. But I mean, like it's buzzing right in my ear. I guess I should be thankful that it isn't in a biting mood. Now that would be a shame. But it's just got me thinking about last yah and how annoying they were. So many bites and scratching. :( Needed all the insect repellent in the world.

So yeah, i don't like mosquitos.

Boom!
x x x

Waiting....

Ah, for the 4th year in a row, it is time to wait for results day. Now, aside from this one being the most important, it is also, for me, the one that is causing me the most worry. I mean, it's bad enough that if these ones don't go ok, I don't get my first choice at uni, but also, I don't have anything huge before them to take my mind off them. Year 10 wasn't so important, but still, my first proper exams meant a lot to me. Luckily for me (in some ways) I was away in Holland for results day and just before, so I had something to take my mind off it.

Year 11 I was in Cornwall before the dreaded GCSE results, and had other stuff on my mind, so leading up to that day, I didn't really think about them. Got back just before the day and I don't remember being nervous or anything.

Last year for most of the summer I was in Greenland and so again, had something to take my mind off it. And even after I got back from G-land, I had a lot of other stuff going on in my life (for once) so was thinking about that more than what my results were.

But this year, for the most important set of them, I have no big expedition, or holiday before the day, and no drama going on, so yeah, unfortunately I'm more nervous.

Shame. I wish some drama would unfold or suddenly it's the 19th of August.

Actually, scrap that, I got important things to do before then :)

x x x

Holidays :)

Right, I have just returned from Newquay, with my pals, Ali and Cam. Met up with Gatesy while he was down there too and had an eventful night out!

Basically it was kind of a short term thing before the hols, me and ali only knew about a week before, but yeah, we went down to Cornwall with Cam's family. We stayed pretty much in the centre of Newquay about a minutes walk from the beach there. Pretty jizz to be honest. But we stayed in this really nice rented house, which was pretty good all round, except for my bed, which had a rather strong tendency to break for no reason :(.

So yeah, we did sort of the usual stuff you'd do in Newquay. Went to the beach a few times, surfing etc. Had Cornish Pasties (a must), played golf (twice). Yeah, we weren't the best at golf, but twas a laugh, so worth it.

I'll talk more about the night out in another post because i ceebs now and it's late, but yeah was pretty crazy!

So yeah, went to newquay, had fun :)

More on it later.

In other news, the q on my keyboard seems to be only working intermittently. Annoying.

Good to be back
x x x

Just shut the F up!

Right, over the past 2 days, I've been at the international hockey at Beeston. It was good stuff, lots of skill and great play and the best thing is that both the England teams we watched won, so yeah the men and women won their matches. Good stuff.

However... the thing that has annoyed me the most is...bearing in mind that this is a hockey tournament...the fucking vuvuzelas.

I mean come one, it's a hockey tournament. About 300 people tops are there and a few people in the crowd decide to buy stupid vuvuzelas and blow them at the most innapropriate times. I don't have a problem at a huge sporting event in say South Africa, but not here in England at a much smaller event, for a completely different sport.

Grrrrrr

Starting to sound like an old man lol :)

No worries though. And hey, at least I didn't title this post as Stop f'ing blowing (:

xx xx

Next Yah!

Next year, I'm off to uni. I'm really looking forward to it, but it's gonna be a complete change to what's happening now. I mean in terms of school. There's a much more relaxed attitude, even though I guess the last 2 years have 'taught' us to kinda work for ourselves and not rely on people to push us to work, but now it's going to be an even bigger step up in that respect. All of the work I need to do, I'll have to have the motivation to do myself without anyone pushing me to do it. To be honest I'm not bothered about that, I reckon i'll be ok at doing that (or at least I hope I will be). :)



Another change will be the amount of 'free' time I'm going to have. I think I'm only going to have 4-8 hours of lectures a week, which leaves me so much free time. A lot of that will be taken up by work for the course, but what of the rest of it? I hope there's gonna be a lot of sport I can do.



Also, as I'm hopefully (if I get the grades) going to Exeter, then there might be some opportunity, when it's warm, to go to the beach. That is going to be amazing. Another thing is the social aspect. I'm gonna meet loads of new people, which will be really great. However, with that could come losing contact with friends I have now. I really want to keep contact with loads of people I know now. but I don't know whether that'll be feasible. there'll be some people who I'm sure I won't speak to much at all when I'm at uni, and there'll be some where I'll try to keep contact with them and then slowly lose touch. I don't know which people they're going to be, but there'll be some (I hope) that i'll keep talking to for ages. I've made some great friends and I'd hate to not be friends with them in the future. So yeah, aside from nostalgia, I'm really looking forward to uni and think it'll be a blast!

Peace
xxx

1000 splendid suns...

It's been a while since I read this, book, but it is one of the best one's I've ever read. It's by khaled Hosseini who also wrote the Kite Runner. It follows the lives of two Afghani women, who struggle against different political backgrounds.

I'd never read anything by this author before, and nothing else about middle east either, and it really told you a lot about the history of Aghanistan and how it affected the individual. Highly recommend it as a read.


Just read it yeah?

Ceebs to tell you anything that happens.

x x x

Hayley....

Well, as some of you may know I am a huge fan of Paramore and in particular Hayley Williams. It's kinda an anomaly for me because I tend to like bands who have male singers and female solo artists, but with Paramore, it's different. A female singer, which gives a different feel to the whole band. And I just think that Hayley's voice is amazing.

I've loved the bands for a few years now, and got into them just after their 2nd album came out, riot, which still is one of my favourite albums btw, but anywho I really liked some of the songs and so bought their first album. It's not as good as Riot, but is still pretty damn good, especially Emergency. Love that song. It's brilliant. But I kind of went through fazes of liking them and then not really listening to them.

Then their third album came out. This came out at around the same time as tickets for their concert went on sale, which me, along with a few mates bought. However, when the album came out, I didn't really listen to all of it in depth. There were a couple of songs I liked, but I didn't really think the album was as good as Riot, which was a shame. But yeah, slowly the gig got closer, and only a couple of new songs were really stuck in my head.

The gig... OMG, it was really good. Paramore were so good live and Hayley did look fantastic :) Just the songs they played were brilliant and yeah, not to mention the crowd was pretty good. Got pretty close to the front, so close at one point I could touch the barrier. Unfortunately the crowd deterred Dan from following me, but no worries, I think he enjoyed the gig.

So after the whole think I was into them again and listened to the album more, starting to realise that it was pretty sick. But it wasn't until recently that I've seen the true genius of Brand New Eyes. In my opinion, it is better than Riot, and it is now one of my favourite albums of all time :) It isn't just the music that is brilliant, but the lyrics too. I am a big fan of lyrics and I think that to truly appreciate a song, you need to listen to the words carefully and see the messages. Brap. But pretty much every song is so good. I could just have the album on repeat all day. I think it's got to be Hayley's voice, because I'm loving the new song airplanes too..

But yeah, here's just a list of my favourite paramore songs, and I recommend them to anyone who hasn't listened to them much :)

Brick by Boring Brick
Careful
Looking Up
Emergency
Pressure
When it Rains
Let the Flames Begin
Misery Business

To be fair I could go on to name all of their songs. But yeah, I really recommend them.

Listen to them!

Love you all.

x x x