Day Four: December 16th

    My school has officially finished and even better it finished at 1:40 today which was nice as there was some time after school while it was still light so me and my friend Sophie decided to make a trip to the shops and it was a rather eventful trip, as it always is.
    We saw some people we know on the bus and were trying to help them out as one was attempting to think of gift ideas for his mum for Christmas but he didn't seem that keen on our suggestions which I thought were pretty good.. but I ended up buying something I have wanted for months, ever since I saw Zoe from Zoella on YouTube introduced me to them in one of her Primark hauls. I bought the monkey onsie. It has a tail and little ears and I probably should have found a better use of my £12 but I finally gave in to getting it. 
    My friend however bought a jumper and she counted all of her money to make sure she had enough which she thought she did after I leant her my last pound and she went to buy it but when she got to the checkout I noticed that she was taking a really long time buying it as I had a little chat with the sales lady who was really funny and bought my onsie and she got to the checkout before me. Eventually she calls me over and there are neat lines of 20p pieces layed out across the counter and she says to me 'Esther, can I please borrow another pound?' which I didn't have. It all ended with the lovely sales man giving it to her for £11 which was really lovely of him as Sophie was just beeing dopey as usual.
    9 days until Christmas!

Day Three: December 15th

I was at school today but only one more day remaining until the Christmas holidays begin and me and my friends decided to present swap today which was really exciting. I knew most of the things that I was getting but the excitement was still there as they were things that I have been wanting to try for ages but haven't been able to justify buying them for myself.
    In the wind down to Christmas at my school, teachers stop bothering to teach us because they know that it won't stay in our heads so they tend to just do Christmas quizzes with us but after three days of them practically every lesson, you start to loose purpose of actually going to school as you don't learn anything but oh well, it's my last Christmas at school so I best make the most of it.

Day Two: December 14th

I had a PE exam that I forgot about today. Usually the last week of the Christmas term is lovely and relaxed and you just do wind down lessons as teachers know that your brain has turned to mush along with the weather and it's a good chance to just have a relaxed time before Christmas but not this year. I had a PE mock exam which will determine me staying in the GCSE PE group which I really do want to do as I find all the the anatomy side of PE rather interesting although it can get a little tedious at times. The exam was easy but I made some stupid mistakes but I won't go into detail as it will be rather dull. 

    Me and my friends are exchanging Christmas presents tomorrow which I don't see the point in as we are going out for a Christmas meal and it'd be nice to do it then but hey-ho no matter.

    December 14th: 11 Days until Christmas!

Day One: December 13th

    I am writing this a day late as I had such a busy day and just wanted to go to sleep when I got home.
December the 13th and I have already done all of my Christmas Shopping! Well that has got to be a record for me seeing as I don't usually even have my tree up by now. Today was my schools Christmas Carol Concert/Service or whatever it's called now. It was the same as it has been ever since I have been involved in the band at my school: a soprano opens up with the first verse of Once in Royal Davids City and then the choir come in holding candles and it would all be so lovely and atmospheric if I hadn't seen it five times before and although, some people like tradition, this is going a little too far as every year in the rehursal I feel like I have either gone back in time or no time has past because nothing at all has changed. 
    One of the many perks of being in the school band is how much school you get to miss for it. Throughout the whole day I played for around an hour and got to leave the church at around 1.40pm which was amazing and I just went Christmas Shopping with my Dad and Sister. 
    December the 13th: 12 Days until Christmas!

12 Days Of Christmas

Just a quick note to say that I will be blogging every day for the twelve days running up to Christmas. Originally, I had decided to do the twelve days after Christmas but I have exams and think that the period leading up to it would be of more interest so that will hopefully start on Tuesday the 13th! Enjoy.

A Walk in the Woods

    These are pictures from the walk I went on with my family (minus my brother) after we had gone and bought our Christmas tree which there was some controvosy over as me and Lucy wanted to get the biggest one that we could but alas, my parents were not for our idea. It has been a sort of tradition but more to blame of how unorganized we are that we don't put our decorations up until the week before Christmas but what we have found in the trees that are for sale then really aren't very good so we decided, this year to be super organised.
 The woods were stunning and Autumn is still in flow with leaves everywhere. I did wear my wellies which I was very excited about but I was also wearing a skirt and didn't want to change so was a bit restricted. We found some rope swings which I wasn't very well dressed for but being me, I went on them anyway.
    I am very sorry for the poor quality of the top three photos. My dad isn't used to taking pictures with this camera.

Story Telling One

    Yesterday was the first day of the Christmas season which for me, is signified for me by walking along streets lit with Christmas lights. It's sort of a little compensation from the day ending so early and the night ending so late. On the first day of Christmas, I went shopping in Brighton with some of my friends which was, as always, something which I will struggle to forget. 
    We were walking up to Churchill Square from a trip to Lush which is inconveniently placed quite far away from everywhere we wanted to go and me one friend were walking really quite fast so that we could sit down and have some food because have you ever found that after shopping for a little while, you get a tad stressed, and food is always the answer for this. We realised that the rest our little group were no longer behind us and we just thought that they'd stopped and found a shop that they wanted to go into which they do a lot and is rather annoying  but really, they were stood there with bird poo splattered all over them. It was splattered over the four of them and unfortunately, I was the only one who found the funny side but in those situations, you've just got to laugh. They were literally covered in We spent about twenty minutes after that in the disabled toilet de-pooing my friends, but for the most part, I was laughing too much to be of much help so you can imagine how popular I was. 
    I will post a little 'haul' of what I bought and the pictures that I took when I get my camera back later.
    

Clothes Swapping Fundraiser

My little sister is going Kabubbu in Uganda next year to build a house out there with a charity and we are in the process of raising funds this so we held a clothes swapping event which is basically where you bring items from your wardrobe that you don't like any more or don't fit you any more but are still in good condition, and you put them all together with other peoples and then you see if there are any pieces that you like of other peoples. As this was raising money, if you wanted an item of clothing, you payed 50p to £1 depending on what the item was. It was a very enjoyable evening and as some of the pieces were.. well disgusting, we had a lot of fun in making the most hideous outfits. I spent £6 in total and got some really nice things which I was so surprised at. 

These boots are originally from New Look and are a really nice off white colour. I'm not too sure about the chain on the back as it gets stuck on the heel a lot but I love these shoes. They are a size 6 and super comfy!

Sorry that these pictures aren't amazing quality but I took them at night (probably not the best idea) and the lighting was not good. This dress is originally from Rebex or a shop like that I can't remember as I have never heard of it before. I have never really liked the two part dress but I really like this one especially for the holiday party season.

This top is a bit odd I do admit but I really like it. I like wearing it because it's so big and really warm and comfy and it is very loose fitting which I love! It is a size XL but I don't know if that's childerens size or anything but even though I don't really like stripes, this is perfect for a lazy day. I also got these jeans which had also never been worn.

 These shoes are so cute, I couldn't pass them by. I don't know where they are from but they have never been worn. They aren't the comfiest things in the world but I'll live. I got them more for the spring and summer because in the winter, i'd just traipse through mud in them and never be able to wear them again. 

 This is my sister wearing another dress I got. It is a really lovely strapless black lace dress. It looks beautiful on but I think that I am going to attach some ribbon as straps as it looks a little off strapless. 

This is the last thing that I have a picture of to show which I bought. This is a white shirt which was from H&M and I love the rouched detailing it looks lovely! I got this because it will probably be useful at some point in the future for work or a formal event. It is also ultra soft!


    I also got a few more tops but they haven't come out of the wash yet as for some reason they got put into a separate wash to everything else. Even though it feels a little odd buying other peoples clothes, after a while I realised that that is exactly what vintage shopping is and after everything has been washed, it may as well be new and I got all of this for £6!

Art Sheet One

This is going to be another blog post about art work that I have done for my GCSE because there is a hell of a lot of it and I think it is a really nice thing to see. All of these pieces are by an artist who I can't remember the name of but he speciallises in watercolour and I love his style.

 This is my most recent piece of work and I did it using oil pastles and white spirit and I think that it gives a really nice effect and turned out a lot better than I expected. 

<>

This is the same picture but in water colours. I really like the background on this but watercolour is not my strong point, so some parts are not accurate to the original.

Surf Art

This is an example of some of the work that I have completed for my Art GCSE. Enjoy!

I never thought that I'd be able to actually paint this picture but when I found it on exposed monkeys facebook page I fell in love with the colours and the cloud formation and I had to try and it turned out a lot better than I expected. Exposed monkey is an Australian photographer and his facebook page and website are both well worth a visit.

This was painted using acrylics to achieve the strong colour and reflections and I used brushes, sponges and also cotton balls to create the effect of the clouds.

http://www.exposedmonkey.com.au/

This was also painted using acrylics and is another photo by exposed monkey but I changed this one up a little to make it clearer. I love the colours in this and I liked this so much that I painted it on a canvas and gave it to my mum for her birthday and it sits on her mantle piece in her room. I used cotton on this one too and also some flat top cotton buds to create the spray on the wave and all over the picture. 

Drew Brophy

 We all had to pick out an artist to copy the style of and I found Drew Brophy on google search and I fell in love with his art. It's so expressive and full of colour and emotion and I think he is a real inspiration.

http://www.drewbrophy.com/

I had to use a lot of different media besides my trusty acrylic paints so I used water colours for this and I built up the colour so that it would be be bold and I am really happy with how this turned out.

 This is another copy of his work which I love. I used my acrylics for this one and I really enjoyed painting it and mixing all of the colours although the wave was quite hard to blend the colours with. I especially love the sun on this painting and how it blends out.

I love this. This was the first piece of his work that I copied to see if i could do it and I just love how freeing it is. I used chalk for this which is a media that I have always hated but after using them for this I quite like them.

 This is the complete page that I did on the artist Drew Brophy. I love his style of painting and I think he is a truly amazing and inspirational artist and if you want to find out more about him, visit his website which is so impressive!

http://www.drewbrophy.com/



This painting is huge in real life and it took a lot of work and a lot of paint to create when I did it about a year ago now. We had to paint natural things and I was having a lot of trouble so my replacement art teacher at the time told me about what artists hundreds of years ago used to do. As art was so expensive to do, the only people who could afford to do it properly was the church and they only allowed the artists paint things related to Christianity so what they did was they painted a huge and beautiful landscape and then did a little bible scene in the corner and that was classed as okay. So what my art teacher told me to do was paint something that excited me. Something which I love and which inspires me and when I found this photograph, something just clicked and it was this which inspired me to do my whole theme as surfing.

Made of Gold

"Someone one said,
That a story once told
That these streets were paved with gold,
But unless you're standing on them
Or sitting on our throne
They mean nothing to me but stone"
Orla Gartland

A Place In Your Heart

No distractions. Just the blinking of a line on a page; hungry for the ideas which haven't yet formed inside my head. Seemingly waiting for some inspiration to take hold of me so that it can skim across the page, recording my thoughts.

My day wasn't the best I've ever had. I've got so accustomed to writing essays that I could diverge all of these reasons and analyse them all so that I could write a detailed conclusion but I really don't like doing that so, in short: My fears were confirmed today but it didn't hurt me as much as I thought it would, but I think this was because it was the truth that I had unconsciously accepted. I have also come to a realisation that, when I play my flute, it sounds beautiful. Beauty has a direct connection to the heart. Whatever you find beautiful holds a place in you and there is little that will make you loose sight of that love of beauty.

Beauty.

Wishing for a Never Ending Summer

Looking out of the window this morning doesn't give many promising signs of the beach day that I was hoping for. The sky is completely concealed by a lot of light grayish cloud but the sun does seem to be breaking through so there is still hope!
I go back to school the day after tomorrow and I will have to face the horrible truth that the summer isn't going to last much longer, and these days of sunshine may be the last chance we have to spend the entire day on the beach.
Me and Leah had just got into the sea yesterday and we decided to swim to the buoy which is quite a long way offshore and I have kayaked there countless times and gone out way past it in a fishing boat but I have never swam to it and it isn't really that far. The thing which made it a long way was our want to swim up to the buoy and touch it and as the current was pulling us in the complete other direction it doubled our journey but it was still very refreshing. We went out later too as we found this huge rubber ring floating way out to sea so we brang it in as the current had probably dragged it from way up the coast. We both went in this rubber ring at the same time and had a smashing time as we were just floating around in a ring of yellow. Then we went windsurfing which was awesome but we got carried to almost the other side of my little village by the current so we walked back as we didn't fancy swimming among fishing hooks.
All in all we spent about 3 or more hours in the sea and it was amazing but I was incredibly tired by the end and all I wanted to do was sleep. :)

I wanted to make Leah look like she was on my sofa in the middle of a park but the sofa was at a strange angle and the version I managed to change it on, has vanished!

The original picture.

 Tom really didn't want his picture taken but I caught him.

Tom taking out the windsurfer and me and Leah out in the rubber ring xD

This is Leahs blog as she has also recounted the last few days. Enjoy!:

http://alwaysfreetofly.blogspot.com/2011/09/last-couple-of-days.html

Early Morning Fantasies

I make my home in the most unsuspecting part of the building. The building with so many stairs so I know that my brothers and sisters would never dare venture up. I have been here for years, in the gap beneath the fire place from a time when I wasn't afraid to go because the humans seemed to be blind to our presence. All until one day, one of us didn't cover our tracks and they discovered our being inside their nest. The first I heard of the whole business I fled. I knew they they would be unsuspecting on the upper floors and proceeded to climb for what seemed to be many days. I was separated from everyone I knew: I had chosen exile for the hope of life and I didn't even stop think about the implications of my decision. When I arrived, I spent some time collecting my breath in a room which reminded me of my days outdoors, living in fields and making honest work. Not the criminal act that my family still perform: no wonder we're hated and feared by a large part of the human race. I was sitting there on the ground which bought back memories of when I was young, when one of them came in. It just looked at me, eyes wide with terror and I knew that I was powerless. She ran. Ran away from me whom would never hurt her. I knew that my only chance of the upper floor now was to go into hiding which is when I found the whole under the fireplace. I crawled into the cozy space and waited for my unspoken sentence.
They shut me into the home I made for myself and for a long while, all I had to eat were the occasional dog biscuit dropped into my chimney and the cardboard box which kept me captive but it was to no avail. All there was to do was wait.
I waited a long time but eventually, she found it fit to remove the box which imprisoned me making me free. I had to squint at the light and ran about freely for the rest of the day to celebrate my escape after so long. After everything was silent, I made the return journey down the stairs, and then down again into the basement where the nest was. I smelt only fresh food. No scent of my kind. I scampered around all of the old haunts but found nothing.
I had succeeded. I had kept my own life while all of my family was killed for their crimes. I saw myself for what I was: a coward who would live out the rest of their life alone: without their martyred family because now, I know that if I were to relive my time, I would have stayed and lived out my life as a free mouse.

Cornwall

I came back from Cornwall on Saturday and I truely had an amazing time. Surfed twice a day, every day, jumped off some cliffs and did a lot of sleeping (and waking up in the night because my sister snores like a man). It was so nice to get back on my board again and just be hurtled along by a huge amont of churning energy which you are relying on. Every so often, there would be a lull in the waves and you could just see the people working the waves with such skill that all you wanted to do was just stand there in the water watching them. It almost puts you into a trance as you watch them move across the water. I am in awe of them and one day, I want to be half as good as them: that is my dream.
There was also some amazing sunsets and as the beach we were staying on faced the west, it set over the sea which is one of the most beautiful things that I have experienced. It was truely amazing.

Now that I am back, I am back into the regular swing of things and trying to make the most of the summer days and trying to run away from the idea that summer doesn't last forever.

We didn't really have anything to do during the day on Friday which was the last day we were there so we went to play golf and I did terribly and got into a bit of a mood because of it: I don't like loosing.

This was also taken on the last day. We were walking back up to the house and we had a little game of french cricket which I am also not too good at and resulted in my getting hurt as it usally does. My brother hit my fingers with the bat..

I think it had just stopped raining here and was one of the few bits of sinshine that day and we had gone for a walk to this huge waterfall but as it happened, you had to pay to see it and no one was really bothered so we just walked back to the car.

This is me falling off a cliff. I didn't do it on purpose. I was meant to fling myself out and enter the water flawlessly but I bailed at the last minute and just fell off which was actually quite fun. I did manage to do it properly later which I am very proud of :D

Me surfing far in so that my dad could get a picture :D

Beautiful Sunset over the ocean.

The Writer

You never get to see their faces: only the world that they create but you can tell so much of a person by how they write. Hidden behind an open book where what they write is all people know about the people that they imagine. They aid all the other open minds to dream of another world. They write of the impossible for in their world it is likely. They paint a picture in our minds which we don't even question because we trust them completely; like dreaming someone else's dreams. But it must be hard for those people who are so used to writing the stories of so many, to let people write their own stories as they walk the path of life, making their mistakes as they go.

''Why don't you be the writer and decide the words I say?''- Ellie Goulding

Beauty is in the Eye of the Beholder

Three more days to live through untill I can get back on my board and just spend hours on end on the open ocean without a care in the world. Going for long walks on the sand as the sun sets. The beauty makes everything in the world that bit smaller and makes everything align a little better. Everything seems clearer out there. Forgetting all the small things that you worry about back home which, when you think, don't actually matter at all.

[photo from tumblr:reblogged by eastcoastaussie]

London

You know those days when everything goes right? And even if it doesn't, it works its self out and makes everything that bit better because what could of turned out to be a disaster was actually a great mistake to make. It's strange to think of a mistake as being good but, today, every mistake we made was good in its own way and will be remembered for years to come.
I don't know what it is about traveling but it just makes me feel alive. Like anything could happen because everyone around you doesn't know you and will almost definately never see you again and even if they do, won't remember your face. It's quite a nice feeling: like being invisible and forgotton in a place which swallows you up in it's activity.
We got the train from our little seaside town to London Victoria at a ridiculous hour in the morning but it meant we really did have the whole day in our native capital city. I really like the word native. It's sort of like naieve but means the complete opposite but at the same time, although it is in the country that we legally belong to, most foregners know more about it than I do. I'm getting distracted. We arrived at London Victoria station and it didn't feel real. It's sort of the feeling of when you go on a plane for the first time and everyone around you has done it a million times so the excitement has worn off. When I'm in that situation and see someone enjoy someting like I used to and it makes me see how amazing it actually is. From the South coats to London in 90 minutes. Being able to be above the clouds. When you think about it, it's amazing but it's things that we've come to expect. That's why I didn't feel stupid when me and my sister took hundreds of pictures out of the plane window and just generally making a big deal about everything. I love being naieve sometimes. Right back to the London trip. We decided to walk everywhere because we'd  come to see London and there'd be no point in spending a lot of our time in London underground in place of seeing how beautiful the city actually is. That's another thing about travelling: you never really get familiar enough with a place that you get bored of it which is where the feeling of leaving a part of you behind comes from. Wherever you go, a little peice of your heart does to. With the sights you see, the people you meet and the stories you fall in love with. I fell in love today. Not particulaly with the buildings although they were amazing, but with the fact that it made me happy and the people I met and the people I spoke to really seemed to have time to talk which I never really expected, especially in London. We saw the London Eye, Big Ben, The River Thames, Trafalga Square, Covent Gardens and a lot more of the amazing places that London is most famous for. I feel like a bit of a cheat going to the tourist areas, but I justify it with, it's my first of many trips to London and I will have polenty of time to do some of the other things this amazing city has on offer.
I really am babbling today I am so sorry. I will tell you about Covent Gardens. We got there and we'd just spent an hour and a half waiting for David Tennant.. Don't ask. It was lunch time so everyone was tired and starting to get hungry which I knew would happen and was dreading it when it did but it didn't last long which was a releif for me because I was just as excited the whole way through our trip as I was when we first arrived. We only really went in two proper shops which I don't regret at all. I actually regret going in so many: Lush and Octupus or something like that. It sells kitchin utensils with faces on them (that's the one I wasn't bothered about) but I fell in love with the Lush there! Most of the shop is downstairs in the cellar and it just reminded me a bit of my kitchin and then a bit of a cheese storage.. which is a strange thing of a cellar to remind someone of but there you are. I loved it. For the rest of our stay in this lovely little place we went to the little market and as it was saturday, arts and crafts were for sale and I got some little goodies there. I won't go into any more detail on anything because this post is getting really long.

I'll round of by saying, I loved my time in London and willd definately be going there again at some point in the near future and the far future too and if you haven't been there, go. I wasn't really expecting to like it because I'm a complete beach freak and I feel homesick when I'm not by the sea sometimes but the aliveness of london sort of made up for that fact. Thankyou London for being so amazing for all of the people that you gave me the opputunity to meet!

We were so excited to see the London eye it must have been quite entertaining for any stranged walking past us. But we finally got a picture with it which is harder than it looks because of the amount of people!

We wanted a picture by the Sherlock Holms Pub which we found. It is the building in the background above my head and to the right a bit (the black building) but as you can tell it didn't really come out too well. Oh well we know what it's of ;)

The sun was amazing all day for us and I thought this was pretty.

I have always wanted to see the Thames river. Not because it's anything special to look at but it's just so open and free which is such a contrast to the middle of a city.

This was the first building we took a picture with. I love being young xD

Johnny Depp :O (lookalike)

Eastbourne Extreme Day 2

Waking up to good weather always puts me in a good mood and especially when I'm going to be out all day. If was forecast to rain later in the day but over the years I have learned to not trust the weather forecast because it is wrong most of the time it is wrong but on this occasion it was accurate.
There were so many sports to go and watch but my favorites by far were the windsurfing and the aggressive skating. I saw the skating first and the way they throw themselves around is amazing and even when they fall down, it doesn't dishearten them: they just get up again and go on with there skating which is inspiring. I saw someone that I knew from my primary  school compete and he wasn't as good as the other skaters but it's still impressive competing. Windsurfing is something I've always found impressive. The way they work with the water and the wind is amazing. I didn't go into the skate courts to watch the in line skating because frankly, it's boring and standard. I guess it's just because it's the least impressive sport there. I wasn't really there for long before it started tipping it down which forced everything to shut down making the skating, windsurfing and bands the only things I really watched. I was soaked through, hungry and cold when I got back to my friends house but I enjoyed what I experienced of the eastbourne extreme weekend and that was more than most people :) Peace

Eastbourne Extreme Day One

Eastbourne extreme last year was a busy event in the sun of the south coast. This year, it was deserted by the rain which engulfed my seaside town but, being loyal to it, me and Leah set out anyway and got soaked on the way there which resulted in us having to hairdry our jeans. Even though the events weren't on we still found ourselves entertained by watching windsurfurs and making ourselves as attractive as possible for the camera. Good ol' Eastbourne :)

Never Enough

    Wanting what I can't have is the story of my life and on the rare occasion that I do actually get what I've wanted for so long, I don't want it any more. Life is just a game and I've just started a new chapter.. again. Life and love walk hand in hand but they don't exist together easily. Love interrupts life: prevents you from sleeping and concentrating through the day but life also interrupts love. All the business and other priorities that we make, force us to realise that love isn't always enough.
    It's hard for me because what I want, even now I know that if I ever did get it, wouldn't last for long because of so many reasons but it doesn't stop it from invading my dreams. I thought that I could exist alone but there are so many times when I just want to have someones shoulder to cry on but I no longer have the right to that. It's one of the many things that I have lost and I'm trying to patch up the gap with some perfect thing which I know could never exist to me. The outside seems perfect. Everything is so awe inspiring but I know my admiration is not wanted but this just makes the game more dangerous and for some reason, this keeps me chasing dreams.

Learning to Breathe

I'm sitting here on my bed with a clean page infront of me. I have written so many beginnings but noting says what I want to say. I'm restless. I want to move on. Going away was again a wake up call to me that I don't want to be stuck with the same old life. Evey move I make is helping me to decide which path I want to take but I'm still a long way off and I might have to start to take my steps quicker because my time is running out. Time always runs out. When I moved here, I never imagined college. I could never imagine being this old but I think that the younger me would be happy in how I'm turning out. And even when I started my secondary school, I looked up at the people in the uniform which I now wear and could never imagine a time where I'd be in there place. But the time has flown past but I don't regret how I spent it because I know that I have learned from each one of my mistakes. Well, except one. There's always one mistake that I never learn from: love. But I know that what I feel now isn't love. It's just a lust. I want something and the fact that I can't have it just makes me want it more. But I've made a promise to myself which I know that I'd break in the blink of an eye. And this worries me.