Blogging in 2014

Well, another year is almost over. And as everyone in the history of ever has pointed out at the end of every year, this one went rather fast. The year certainly did seem to fly by, with the months quickly bleeding into each other and the hours becoming seconds.

But this year has been a big one for me, both emotionally and physically draining, with some of my biggest challenges and achievements yet. This year I completed two dissertations, and therefore my degree, and I graduated from education, and left to my own devices with what is essentially a glorified and very expensive piece of paper. (Pretty scary stuff, I gotta say).
I also moved from my student home into the city of Manchester, and became a business owner. Again, pretty scary stuff.
Although this year has contained some great highlights, it’s had a lot of darkness. And I think that has reflected in my neglecting of this blog.

I looked through my posts from this year and noticed I only wrote 7 blog posts since the beginning of the year (excluding this one), while in 2013 I wrote 17. That, I think, shows the difference between the two years for me. This year has been a real struggle, despite the highlights. It’s been emotional and yet also emotionless, with the year passing in such a blur that now it almost feels as if it never happened.

What I’m hoping for, is that next year will be better. That my mental health will improve, and by extension my physical and emotional health. I want to achieve more and aim higher, and most of all I want to be happier.
2014, for all its triumphs, also had crippling lows; days where I struggled to even find the strength to get out of bed, and sometimes I couldn’t even find that. Overall, I don’t see 2014 as a good year, though I was lucky enough to have met some amazing people, who are now friends for life and made some wonderful memories with them.

2015 is a new start. I’m looking forward to what’s next. And to getting back to posting blog posts more regularly, as well as uploading my photographs more regularly to my Flickr, rather than letting them build up in queues waiting to be published.
Next year should kick-start a new chapter of my life, and I’m hoping for a positive one.

I hope everyone out there had a very Merry Christmas and will have a very Happy New Year, and to those of you who didn’t, or for those who find the festive season difficult, then I hope you stay strong and that you can find some happiness and peace during the coming days and weeks.
Hold in there, you’re not alone, and it will get better. I promise. ❤

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Well, it’s been a while…

5 months to be exact!

I’ve certainly been a little rubbish in the upkeep of this blog! I think it became one of those things where it had been so long since I wrote something, that I found it a little too easy to keep putting it off as it had already been so long anyway.

So, sorry about that, dear readers. I will certainly be making a much better effort to be updating this regularly- I miss blogging!

Well, since I last wrote a post, quite a lot has happened! In the time I’ve been gone, I’ve completed my degree, graduated and moved out of my student house and into Manchester. So, in my very weak defence, I have been busy!

I think this post is lacking in some colour, so let’s throw in some photos of the above events. Let’s start with mine and my boyfriend’s graduation!

Dom’s graduation!

My graduation with my nutcase of a sister and brother in law!

My graduation! (This isn’t my ‘final’ professional photo by the way- just one my boyfriend took as I was posing!

So, that was a pretty big thing! A few other big things happened in the time that I’ve not blogged for (turning 22, meeting one of my best friends for the first time in seven years!) but I think I will leave some of that for the next post! (Let’s not dry up all my subjects too quickly!)

Oh, and for anyone who may be wondering, I graduated with a very high 2:1 (as in, a few points from a 1st) in Photography and Creative Writing. 🙂

Well, that’s it for now! Just a quick little update! It’s good to be back!

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My Life in Letters: U.

University.

If I had never gone to university, I would never have had the courage to move to Manchester and find my true home.
If I had never gone to university, I would never have discovered an interest, and hopefully a talent in poetry.
If I had never gone to university, I would never have become informed and involved in various aspects of activism.
If I had never gone to university, I would never have learned how to use a 5×4 format camera, or how to use studio lighting.
If I had never gone to university, I would never have started, and stuck to, my 52 week project.
If I had never gone to university, I would never have met some amazing new friends.
If I had never gone to university, I would never have met my boyfriend.
If I had never gone to university, I would never have learned how to be self-sufficient.

If I had never gone to university, I would never have gotten a degree in the fields I love.

For these reasons, and many others, University is my topic for the letter U in my life in letters.

 

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My Life in Letters: T.

Well, I’ve finally finished my second year at university. I say ‘finally’, but it feels like I only just started it… either time is flying by, or I’m paying four grand to be in Uni for 3 lectures a week and for only 6 months a year. Or both.

The summer is now stretched out before me, with Download Festival fast approaching, a trip to Venice not far behind and then finishing off with my 21st birthday. When the hell did a quarter of my life disappear? Wowzers.

Over the summer I’m also planning on doing a few personal projects, one of which is starting to really dedicate my time to my 52 Week Project. I’ve neglected it so badly within the last few weeks of semester, with it turning more into a 52 Week Project Over The Space Of (Undisclosed Amount Of Time.) That’s going to change over summer- I have a lot of photo opportunities coming my way, plus the time to really focus on it.
I also aim to do some writing projects, including getting back into blogging frequently again. Maybe even start a YouTube channel finally. We’ll see on that one… (I’m shy).

ANYWAY, onto the letter ‘T’. (I’m taking so long to do this series- I swear I started this over a year ago now).
The obvious person to talk about for the letter ‘T’ is my oldest friend Tom.
I’ve known Tom since I was four years old, and he was only two. (aww).
We’ve consistently been BBFL and never once had a falling out.
We don’t get to see each other often now that I’ve moved to the other end of the country for uni, but when we do see each other, our friendship just falls back into place like no time has passed, which is something that I think is a very rare thing to happen in a friendship. I’m very thankful to still have this guy in my life, even though he’s an unreliable bell-end. 🙂
He is like my brother, and I love him to death.

 

Tom and I- 2006. (HAHA).

Tom and I, 2011. (Look how much we’ve grown! *cough*)

Love ya, buddeh. ❤

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My Life in Letters: M.

I’ve kinda lagged a bit with the blogging recently. The last blog I wrote was weeks ago. I’ve had a bit of a writers block; in all respects. I’m gonna force myself out of it with another Life in Letters.

Right, the letter ‘M’.

The thing I will talk about today is Manchester.

A year ago I moved to Bolton, a town in Greater Manchester. I grew up in West Yorkshire, Hebden Bridge, and my sister and I spent a lot of our time in Manchester at Afflecks, the Arndale, The Northern Quarter, etc. I probably even met my now boyfriend when we were kids both hanging out in Manchester, and just never knew it. (:

I was so happy when I finally made the move up nearer my now favourite city. I truly feel at home in Manchester, and though my house in technically only on Greater Manchester, I still visit the city every week, and I’ve been primarily only living in the city for the entire of the summer.

It’s the most amazing place. And it’s so nice to finally have a place I can call ‘home’ and genuinely love to live.

I expect that once I’m done with University, I will move into the city centre. I doubt very much that I will return down south to Oxford.

I love Manchester!

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Summer Bound…

Well, the first year of University is over. Dom and I have been on break now for a few weeks, and are currently house sitting for his mum. The weather’s been shocking so we’ve mainly stayed in- it’s been okay though as we’ve been baking, gaming and keeping the dog amused. He bought be Crash Bandicoot last night on Xbox and I wound up being stuck in nostalgia for a few hours while he played Minecraft. He also introduced me to Eve Online. In Eve you have a set of beginners tasks to complete in order to get to know the game, and overall contributes to your character’s skill set- the game is fairly complex, but I impressed him by completing 2 weeks worth of training in under an hour (about 25 tasks in total). 
Well… looks like it’s finally happened… I’ve become a gamer. I’ve been playing Halo, Minecraft, Blur, and now Crash again, my favourite childhood game, and Eve.

The sun is finally out today so we’re planning on going into Manchester soon to go to the cinema and get some Japanese food.

Next week we go to Oxford, yet again to house sit. Dom will get to meet most of my friends for the first time, and more importantly, my cat. I’m looking forward to seeing everyone- my best friend Tom is picking us up from the train station, and he’s the one Dom will have to impress. I can’t wait! 😀

Summer’s looking good so far. (:

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The Easter Weekend Down South

On Thursday I got the train back to Oxford from Manchester at half twelve in the afternoon. Since then, I’ve had a BUSY time, considering it’s only been a day and a half.

Once I reached Oxford, narrowly escaping death at the hands of my clearly psychopathic, very talkative but not legible seat-mate on the train, I was met by my friend Lucy. We went back to her house briefly to select some films for our night in with chocolate, and headed to a pub for some drinks. 
Then to my best friend Tav’s house for the three of us to have a meal. Tired from my journey and early morning / late night, I wanted to go home and relax. They had other ideas. A club in Oxford was doing an  Easter free entry night, and they decided we had to go along. After much persuading I agreed, and we headed to another pub for a drink with my parents, before back to my house, then back to Lucy’s to get ready for our night out.
In all honesty, I’m glad I went now. The club was kind of quiet, but it was a good night; I got to see my friend Grant who I’d not seen for ages, and also my friend Kat, which was good. Plus I got a new dress out of it, as Lucy didn’t want it any more. (:

Today, my sister, her boyfriend and his son came over for a family Easter meal. Tav stayed too as she was over the night before. We had an Easter Egg Hunt, which is always violent when myself and my sister Gwen are involved as we are both very competitive, and made worse by adding her boyfriend Mark, Tav and Mark’s son Shamen into the mix. Tav ended up slamming a door on me as we rushed to find the next clue, and shoved me to the floor when I found it before her. I love my best friend. 😛
Tav and I also found time to squeeze in a photo shoot for Uni before she left.
The rest of my evening has been spent cuddling my cat, eating M+M’s and being on Skype to Dom. 

Still got a lot to fit in before I go back to Manchester on Tuesday, and I’m already knackered! Still, it’s been fun so far. Happy Easter everyone!

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My Life in Letters: E.

Well, kids. Today’s letter is E.

Immediately with this letter, there are three people within my close family I can mention. For one, my mother, Evelyn. I’ll mention, that it is pronounced “EVE-LYN”, not “EV-LYN” or “EVER-LYN”, as she despises it when people pronounce it wrong.
So, what to say about my mother? Well, we clash. Quite a lot. We’ve certainly had our differences and certainly made sure the other knew, in screeched tones, that these differences made us clash. We never used to get along very well at all. However, since I moved out almost a year ago, and then moved away altogether, to Uni, we’ve been getting along much better. When I visited her last, we both seemed to just accept that the past was behind us, and we got along brilliantly. We even bonded a bit.
Though we’ve had our differences, and thousands of arguments over the years, I’ve always admired her for bringing me up as a single mum. My biological father left when I was only 4, and she raised me on her own, in a one bedroomed bungalow that was all we could afford. She even let me have the bedroom, while she created her own in the back of the living room, separating it with a screen. Eventually she remarried, but I’ll never forget those few years when I was young and we were all each other had.

Another person, as my step-sister Eva. Though the “step” part is not something we’ve ever acknowledged. We’re sisters through and through. My father remarried quickly, and Eva and I went from being best friends, to being sisters from the age of 6. She will always be the person who knows me inside out, the person who was there, by my side, the entirety of my childhood. We are only a couple of months apart in age- people used to think us twins. We desperately wanted to be. Eva is the best sister I could ever have asked for, and she’ll be there till the end.

 And then there’s Edward. He’s my step-brother. Again, we don’t use the “step” part. He and Eva are full brother and sister, but I’ve been in Ed’s life since he was a few months old. He’s now 14… I can’t believe how grown up he’s becoming. It’s terrifying! Of course, being our little brother, Eva and I put him through all kinds of torture over the years. Such as dressing him up as a girl and sending him down into the pub we live in for the locals to laugh. Bless him.
I’m incredibly protective over my little bro though. No one messes with him. I’ve seen to that in the past. One finger laid on my brother, three fingers broken.
I love my brother. The little twerp. (His nickname, from me, is “Scrote”. He loved the nickname, and proudly told people that his big sister called him it. Until he had sex ed. He came home looking mortified. I’m so evil.) The photo of him below is a still from a video taken a few years ago. So he was still only about ten here.

Finally, I will mention one more thing beginning with ‘E’ that was a large part of my teen years. The website “Elfpack”. Don’t know if many of you will of heard of it, but it was a quirky and cool community site, and myself and my friends spend a lot of time on it. Unfortunately, it’s kind of dead now. Not many people seem to use it any more, and we all left it behind long enough. Regardless, I kept my profile there for nostalgia, and I log on from time to time to see what’s going on. Those were the days, kids. Those were the days.

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Photography

To speak technically, Photography is the art of writing with Light. But if I wanted to think philosophically, I can say that Photography is the art of writing with Time. When you capture an image, you capture not only a piece of space, you also capture a piece of Time. So you can have this piece of specific Time in your square or rectangle. In that sense, I find that Photography is more to do with Time than with Light.

To me, Photography is an expression of Life.

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