A busier week than I realised | Finally Friday

When I started thinking about today's post I couldn't really remember what I'd done this week and didn't really feel liked I'd done a lot. Then I looked through my phone at the photos I'd taken this week and realised I'd done more than I thought. Time is just going by so quickly I lost half my week somewhere.

The weekend was, although relaxed, busy in a good way. I spent Saturday walking around the local village of Steyning with my mum. It was nice just to wander around in the sun and not think about college for a while. We spend too much time admiring sweets in the traditional sweet shop, too much time fawning over the first sunflowers I've seen this year and ate cake. A good day I think you'll agree.

I also went to see 12 Years a Slave this weekend with my family as our hyperlocal cinema has re-opened and is charging over the odds to see a film that all the other cinemas screened weeks ago. But I think it's pretty clear that it was the must see of this movie season so we couldn't resist. It was really good in a way that can't be described as enjoyable because it was disturbing and though provoking and heart wrenching but amazingly made and brilliant because of all those things. I made my own popcorn and definitely read the recipe wrong because I've been eating popcorn all week and still have half a tub left. 

Sunday was a chilled day. I got work done, packed for the week and spoke to Jack for a good few hours while everyone else was at rugby. Me and mum took the dog for what turned into a very muddy walk forcing Molly to be sat in the footwell on the way home, something, as you can see by the look on her face, she hates. Sunday ended with roast beef, my second favourite way to end a Sunday, my first being roast lamb. A good weekend all round.

This week has been intense. I started revision for my law mock. It feels like I've only just started learning and already I'm revising. Pulling out the coloured pens was a bit nostalgic as I flashed back to A-Level days drawing endless mind maps. I also made a nifty fake front page in production which I loved doing and am really proud of as it's something I've never done before. Might look easy, it's not. But this type of journalism, known as sub-editing, seems as of yet the most up my street. 

We went to crown court this week which is in Lewes. If you're in the area go for a wander, especially if it's sunny. It's an historic town complete with castle, cobbled pavements and coffee shops to your hearts content. I took Katie for mini tour of the town after court and after food obviously and she seemed to quite like the place. Again, it was nice just to get away from the dead end of Hollingbury for a morning and enjoy the sunshine. Court itself was dreadfully boring. If you want your mind to be numbed by an hour and a half of a dreary judge re-reading evidence to a jury from a two week long court case go along to the verdict day of a murder trial. We were all under the impression it was going to be exciting and make a great story neither of which ended up being true. The most exciting part of it all was realising I know the family on trial as they're quite notorious around my parts and realising I'd heard all about the incident a few months ago. 

I've been making salads this week and I've been enjoying them. I've changed them up each day but my favourite was definitely Monday's. Feta, spinach, rocket, tomatoes, cucumber and pomegranate seeds with a balsamic and chilli oil dressing. Fantastic. I've also got myself a new desk. My carpet. I've found sitting on the floor and working is much easier than on the bed so that's what I'm going for due to lack of dining room table/actual desk at my uncles.

It's my dad's birthday so this evening I'll be enjoying a fish & chips supper. Thank god I need some grease in my life at the moment. And probably a cider or two. 

So that was my week. A pretty busy one, hope your week was enjoyable and enjoy your weekend! 

Know Your Audience | Thursday Talks

Know your audience has been the key piece of advice I've picked up from the variety of guest speakers that have been into journalist works so far. They haven't all explicitly said 'know your audience' but I've always got the gist of it. Sometimes it's as simple as look at the people in the room and deciding the angle you're going to take with what you're going to say. I.e. in a room that's 90% female don't start throwing around sexist comments - yes I'm still talking about that three weeks later.

However it's been said, or in some cases not said or even considered, I've come to the understanding that knowing your audience is the key to successful journalist. However,  the paper you're working for is very likely to have already figured out who they're audience is and therefore that will limit what you can write to some extent. For example it's highly unlikely that the Daily Mail will let you print an opinion piece of why immigration is so great, for example.

The whole idea of knowing your audience and creating something for that target audience is quite restrictive in journalism, taking my example for example (last time I'll use the word I swear). However, with blogging I don't feel it has to be that way despite what guest speakers, with more experience have said. If you stick to the idea that knowing your audience is key to a successful blog then you're, in the same was as journalism, restricting what you write. If you believe your audience is forty-five year old librarians than it's unlikely, though not impossible, that a blog post about your love for One Direction is going to satisfy why they're reading your blog.

I blog about something different everyday, although everyday has a theme, it allows me to write about whatever I feel best. I don't restrict myself by calling it a lifestyle blog, a book blog or travel blog. To me my blog is all those things because I write about those things and therefore open myself up to more audiences.

The power of a hashtag, or tag, or label, depending on the surface you are using to reach people, vastly increases the audience you might get. Don't be restrictive with the tags. What you've written about is likely to cover a large variety of things so tag all those things and open yourself up to larger reading numbers and don't be scared to tweet or facebook your blog link. Publish your link on as many different platforms as necessary.

Obviously it is important to know your audience to a certain extent. My blogger stats help me find which posts people most enjoy reading, where they come from and what link they're following to get here. Therefore I can, although not limit myself to, but do more posts similar to the ones that are enjoyed the most, I can target them to specific places and I can also know where to focus my promotional efforts.

So although the advice you might here when you start blogging is know your audience, get to know them before you restrict yourself and don't be limited by your audience.

#Shelfie | Wednesday Reads

You've all heard of the word 'selfie' and if you haven't where's that rock you've been hiding under because I want piece of that blissful ignorance.Anyway the book world has taken it upon themselves to make the selfie hashtag much more book related by installing a 'h' and creating 'shelfie'. Essentially a photograph of your shelves.

These untidy calamites are my bookshelves, though not all my books are on these shelves. I have books in drawers, books in boxes, books in the loft, books everywhere - oh how I long for the day when I can have as many bookshelves as necessary to house all my books. The books on my shelves are a collection of my favourite books, the books I studied at school, the books I'm reading at the moment and the books I'm yet to read. 

Harry Potter is virtually central to my bookshelf and yes I do have a mixture of the original and adult cover, yes it does bug me, yes I do have to fight the urge on a weekly basis to re buy the whole series so they match. To the left of Harry Potter collection you'll find my English literature class books: Miller's 'A Death of a Salesman', Bronte's 'Wuthering Heights', Bradley's 'Shakespearean Tragedy' but to name a few, topped with a few random ones that kept falling from the top shelf, Moran's 'How to be a Woman' and Downham's 'Before I die', and my kindle (I'm not going to name all the titles on my kindle. To the right of potter is a few of my favourites, Green's 'Looking for Alaska', Austen's 'Pride and Prejudice', Youngs 'My Dear I Wanted to Tell You', among others, and the beast that is 'The Magicians Apprentice' that I really want to get through. 

The top shelf is largely books I'm intending on reading though Bryson's 'The Complete Notes' lives there as it is huge and I'm currently half way through but taking a break, there's a few up there that I've read but meant too much to put away, Stockett's 'The Help', Green's 'The Fault in Our Stars', and others that I've read, not enjoyed but have become a pillar for other books to rest on cough Rowling's 'A Casual Vacancy'.

All the books on my Australia To Read List are housed on my top shelf so if you want to know what's up there check that post out.

So that's a run down of my bookshelves, if you have a book shelf share your pictures with the hashtag #shelfie you might even find some inspiration of you have shelves and books but no idea how to organise. Personally I think bookshelves organised by colour look awesome and one day that will be how my books will be organised, but for now piles and stacks with no rhyme or reason is the look I'm going for.

My Travels: Top 5 Most Wanted | Tuesday Travels

Today I thought for a change I'd stray from rambling on about Australia and boring you with the very uncertain trip that I'm taking in under three months and instead share some other travel related things with you. I love the idea of travelling but haven't done a whole lot of it. However, in my twenty years here I have figured out a whole lot places I want to go and as writing 99% of the planet would make a very short, boring, blog post and as posting a picture and telling you why I want to go to each place would make a very long, and boring, blog post, I've narrowed it down to my top five so here we go.

Canada. Now Canada has always intrigued me, north America never really has so much but Canada has something about it. Since going out with Jack he's really got me interested in the idea of skiing and is slowly bringing me around to the idea that it might not be as scary as I first thought - let's be honest though it will be. Anway, two birds with one stone seems fitting here. Canada and skiing. 

Who doesn't want to go to Hawaii? If not simply because you're under the impression you may come into the possession of a cute funny looking dog that turns out to be an alien, or that you're suddenly be amazing at surfing. Either way you only have to look at the colour of that water to know it's somewhere you want to go. 

New Zealand comes hand in hand with Australia (which would have been number 1) but seeing as putting Aus in would have been boring and predictable I went for New Zealand. Next door to Australia but so different - or so I'm told. Personally I think New Zealand looks a lot prettier than Australia and seems more of an outdoors exploring type of place which is right up my street. 

South America has always amazed me. I can't explain my fascination with it I just love the idea of being there and seeing it and travelling around it. I wouldn't mind seeing all of South America but Rio has particular pull for me, particularly after seeing the film Rio. I swear I don't base all my travel choices on cartoon films. I'd really like to get over to South America and do a relatively big trip in 2015 but I don't hold out much hope at the moment.

I love Europe and there are so many beautiful places in Europe that prove you don't have to fly to the other side of the world to enjoy the sunshine, the beautiful landscapes and some adventure. Venice is such a cool sounding place and there's no where else like it. It definitely ticks the exploring box and if Rio doesn't happen maybe Venice will. 

So that's it. Not many words today as it's all pretty self-explanatory I'm sure. I have so many places I want to go and it was hard narrowing this list down to these five but I think these are the ones. For me travelling is about adventure and being outdoors and all these places offer this. These aren't the type of places I'd want to go on holiday and sit in a hotel for two weeks. 

Where would you most like to visit? 

The best things come to those who do | Motivational Monday

Photo Credit

It's a well known saying, good things come to those who wait, but it's not overly productive. It suggests the best thing to do is to wait around at let the good things come to you without really being active and getting the good things - whatever they may be.

Sometime's it's probably true, waiting for cake to bake, waiting for your nails to dry, waiting to hear back about a job. Sometime's waiting leads to good things, and being patient leads to good things. However, often doing things means better.

Actually being active about getting whatever that thing is and pursuing it in an active way is far better and far more successful than sitting around waiting for it to come to you. Everyone's got one thing they want but are waiting for it to come to them. Today do something about getting closer to it, whatever that may be.

There's something out there you want and to get it you must do.

How to spend a Saturday | The Weekend Post

I spend five days a week quite stressed out about how much I have to do. This is week it definitely got the better of be and I let it get on top of me and stress me out to the point where I had to ring my mum for a cry. I was shattered like I've never been shattered before, I'd slept through my alarm and was running late and I knew I had a mountain of work to do that seemed unclimbable - sorry for the very poor metaphor. At the moment even when I get home from a college that's not a time I really have to sit down and relax. I normally get in, sit down for five minutes with Terri to talk about our days and watch the news headlines, go and do some work, have dinner and sit for half an hour with my uncle, go and do more work, face time with mum & dad and sometimes Jack depending on how early he's awake, go and have a cup of tea and watch the news and then go to bed.

Therefore, I have never relished weekends like I do at the moment. Even when I have work to do I can get a fair amount done and still have a good amount of hours to enjoy the day. I still get up at 9am which is something I never thought would happen unless I had good reason, but it happens and I suppose I have to admit it's the first sign of getting older. Nevertheless, this Saturday I did just that. I made myself breakfast then sat down to work for two hours and got a good amount done. I planned a couple of blog posts for the future, made the pictures for this weeks posts, did my law homework and topped it all off with a two mile run. Successful morning.

Mum and me decided in the week, post mini breakdown, that we'd spend Saturday afternoon strolling around the local village of Steyning. So we did. It's one of our favourite ways to spend a Saturday, especially when the weather turns out to be decent.

Steyning is a lovely little village not far from Brighton, and it's a proper village - a pub, a couple of cafes, a school, a church all those things that make up a village. It's full of quirky and independent shops, shops you can browse without feeling obliged to buy. If you want to buy someone a gift, have no ideas, head to Steyning. I can assure you'll find something you didn't think you'd find. Me and mum did go with the intention of finding my dad a little trinket for his birthday, but that was to no avail purely because we had something in mind but they didn't have what mum wanted. However, that did not put a downer on the day. The sun was out, the streets were busy, and there were sunflowers for sale, always a winner. A village day out wouldn't be a village day out without a cuppa and a slice of cake. We went into the tea rooms in The Cobblestone Walk (which is the cutest little collection of shops/stalls that you should definitely check out if you're in the area). Chocolate and orange was on the menu for me. I've decided no chocolate this week and possibly throughout lent (yes that will include mini eggs but I that's likely to change by Thursday) so this weekend I gorged on all things chocolatey. 

Once we'd finished wanting to eat everything in the sweet shop, buy every quirky item, and buy every bunch of flowers in site we headed to Asda. Very dull, I know. But the weekly shop is a must. All things healthy were in my basket for the week ahead, salads and fruit being the main theme of the shopping bags this week. I even swapped the dunkable Belvita's for a healthier. Again something I'll probably regret as I find myself dunking a twix bar into my 10am cup of tea in Wednesday's shorthand lesson. 

I finally went to see 12 years a slave last night. What? My god was it good. Harrowing, undeniably harrowing in so many ways but an amazing film nonetheless. Steve McQueen is clearly a genius and the actors and actresses couldn't have done a better job. Awards received so far well deserved. Although Fassbender needs one because his performance is outstanding. Possibly might review it for the blog but we'll see, I'm undecided as of yet. 

So my ideal Saturday was pretty much wrapped up in one big bundle yesterday and I felt a lot better for it. Today I'm planning on going for a run, having a chat with Jack as he's been away for the weekend, probably taking the dog for a walk and then enjoying roast beef before heading back to Brighton to do it all again.

Hope you enjoyed your weekend! 

The week I ate the most expensive salad I've ever eaten | Finally Friday

This week was a funny one. I started it a bit down and ended it a bit down. Stress definitely got to me this week but looking back it was quite productive and a good week, in general. It ended on a high, with me feeling a lot less stressed and happier so that's a good thing. I still enjoyed my week so my motivational monday was successful in part, however, I could have enjoyed it more so I think I'll be going back to that one at some point. It's scary to think that when I revisit that particular resolution it will be the penultimate week of my course, so maybe that won't be too successful either but we'll see.

This week 12 of us went to Brighton Museum & Art Gallery to complete the review part of our portfolio's. We went to look at the Subversive Design exhibition they've got on. It was really good and I really liked what they had on display but reviewing it was the hardest thing I've ever had to do. I thought it would be relatively easy. I enjoyed what I saw, good sign, and I've written reviews before, experience could come in handy. It didn't. It didn't matter how good I thought what I saw was and how many things I could say about it I couldn't write it down in review form. The 250-300 words we were set sounded like a doddle, it was more like trying to draw blood from a stone trying to get those words out. Finally I got there but I spend the two hours of trying mainly spinning on my chair, chewing my nails and drinking tea in attempt to figure out how I was going to get it done.

I also bought a salad that day. For some reason the wonder that is Pompoko vanished from mine and Katie's mind and we stumbled into Eat defiant we were not heading back to college empty handed forced to surrender to the claws of Asda's sandwiches again. I chose a healthy, vegetarian salad. Falafel, hummus, chilli's, green leaves and all that jazz. And it was delicious. I enjoyed it a lot although I left the scary looking chilli's out of fear that they might destroy my taste buds for life. However, the £5.22 price that was announced to me at the till nearly made me fall over. For a salad. I thought it was some cruel joke. It wasn't. So I paid the money and made a mental note that Eat will only be for me when I'm not a poor student.

I met a new dog this week. Excitement overload. Jack's family have adopted the little fella that has now been called Loki, although the poor thing has gone through Luke, Lucas, Stavros and Milo over the past week. However, he apparently seems to be responding to Loki so is sticking. He's a character and he's adorable. Very excited that him and my second best bitch, Tess, will be coming to stay in April.

It was sunny again at the end of the week, at present it's continuing but I don't hold much hope for this week coming. It was nice, though to get home in daylight and not in rain and to walk out of the flat in the morning and get a dose of vitamin D. Makes me feel more ready for the day and generally people's moods are better. Although when I'm sat at the computer at college answering a reporting question for nearly two hours and I can see the blue skies and sunshine through the blind it does make me sad that I'm not out walking along the seafront in it.

The week ended on a high for me. I spent last night at the rugby club for a quiz night, and obviously to watch the France, Wales game. Any night spent at the rugby club is a good night. Spirits are always high and everyone has a laugh. The pork pie and minstrels I devoured when I got home though suggest I had one too many Koppaberg's as that's not my normal 12am diet. It was good night and a good end to my week.

I hope you all had a good week and enjoy your weekend! Until, next time.

N.B Today I enjoyed the pork pie and minstrels