THE START OF A NEW ADVENTURE & EXPLORING THE SHIP! (26/07/2014)

Hi, peepsicles! I've been away on a cruise holiday for the past week where there's no wifi, which is why I haven't updated my blog (annoyingly). It was amazing, all aspects of it. The ship itself, the views, the days out - all of it was amazing! Well, nearly all of it...I'll let you see for yourself...

So we (me, my parents, my friend, and her mum) set out nice and early in the morning on Saturday so that we would arrive at the Southampton docks with plenty of time to spare before we boarded the ship. This turned out to be a great decision, as we got stopped by the police halfway there...my dad was pulled over by a policeman on a motorbike on the A3 road. I actually learnt a lot from that most dreadful 20 minutes. I learnt that having a good job keeps you on the better side of the law, as does a clear record, obviously. I also learnt about penalty points which can get deducted from the driver's record if you get pulled over, which thankfully did not happen. And I learnt that if the policeman deems you to be a terrible driver, he'll send you to have another lesson on whatever topic you seemed to fail at. For £150. So my dad has to have a 'lesson' one day. According to my mum, it serves him right, because apparently my dad is too cocky when he drives... And me? Well, my dad wasn't driving dangerously or anything, he just didn't see the ambulance behind him and move to the side fast enough. But, whatever the policeman says, you better just do it.

Anyways, we still arrived at the dock quite early after all, giving us plenty of time to explore the massive ship after checking in and going through security. The security there is very much like the ones in airports - there's a bag tunnel scanner thing, and a human doorway scanner thing. I honestly have no idea what they're called...but after going through all that security and admin, we finally boarded the Azura, our cruise ship.

As we weren't allowed to enter our cabins yet, we spent a little time exploring the ship...getting used to the immense atrium, navigating the multiple decks, and finding our way around the horribly long corridors. I'm not joking, the corridors by the cabins span almost the whole length of the ship, and our ship was huuuuuuuge. It has to be that massive to be able to fit a sports court, theatre, casino, gym, multiple restaurants and swimming pools, and tons more. There's even an art gallery! We also realised there was no thirteenth floor (or deck, as it's called) because it's 'unlucky'. So cool!

Though the exploring tired us out, it was all worth it, because we ended up in one of the many restaurants open for lunch. Later in the week, we would find that Venezia and Verona, the two main buffet restaurants adjacent to each other where we found ourselves in, would become the places we would spend the most time at during our cruise...when we were not sleeping. You wouldn't be able to resist...a buffet open nearly 24/7 where every meal there's about 10 different desserts! I ended up having about five meals a day! If one restaurant was closed, you could go through the door to the other. It was pure bliss!

Carrying on...*trying to remember* I think the next thing we did was go to our room (cabin) where we needed to find our life jackets for a drill which was coming up later. The drill was at 4:15 pm if I remember correctly, and it consisted of all the passengers scrambling to find their 'muster stations', whilst dragging their life jackets around and trying not to trip over the straps. In the 'drill' itself, we just sat at the muster station (in our case it was the Manhattan restaurant) and listened to a man teach us how to put our jackets on...pretty boring. The fun part was actually after putting it on, as everyone there started blowing their whistle and switching the torch on. It was chaos.

Now you may be wondering, how on earth do you even physically have space for five meals a day?! Well, let me tell you. The first meal is at the beginning of the day, breakfast. That's fairly obviously going to be one of the meals. Next, we have the meal dubbed as 'I'm-hungry-can-we-eat-something?', which is at any time between breakfast, and the next meal, lunch. That's three meals so far. After lunch, we have another 'I'm-hungry-can-we-eat-something?' meal, which we shortened to the very British 'afternoon tea'. This is the meal we decided to have after exploring some more of the ship after the drill. After the oh so lovely 'afternoon tea', it's dinner, which we had at a different restaurant, which works like...a restaurant. Well, meaning there's waiters, courses, and tons of cutlery (but sadly no buffet). 

Anyways, that's enough about food...for now. Let's talk about the gym, to burn off some of that food. We went to the gym after our little tea and sandwiches, to try to prevent gaining too many pounds. In the introduction booklet, it said that the average person gains 1-2 pounds each day when on the cruise, so by the end of a week, someone could have gained more than 14 pounds (around 7kg). That's impressive, in a bad way. So we went up to the gym where there was basically everything. Treadmills, rowing machines, bicycles, weights, punch bag, even a large space for dancing or yoga or whatever. You name it, and it will probably be there. 

I really can't stay off the topic of food for too long when basically all we did was eat food all day... Every day, dinner was in a different, more posh, restaurant. Our one was called 'The Oriental', and you weren't even allowed to wear jeans in there unless they were 'smart' ones. There's actually a funny story about my dad - he thought that the name of the restaurant 'The Oriental' meant that we would be having oriental based food every dinner. He's ok with that, he likes oriental stuff. However, after about four nights of eating foods that are not oriental at all, such as risotto, steak, and cheesecake, he still didn't realise that it wasn't oriental food. And when he did realise, he kept on denying it and saying how on the cover of the menu, it says 'oriental'. Oh daddy, you're such a numpty.

The dinner dress code, by the way, was different depending on whether it was formal, smart, or casual. Formal and smart dress dinners were basically ball gowns and cocktail dresses for ladies, and a suit and bow tie for men. Casual dinners were a dress or a smart two-piece for ladies, and for men, it was smart trousers and a shirt. On the first night, it was a casual dinner, so that we could get accustomed to it first. Although somehow, the allocated tables were mixed up, so we had to separate into a group of three and a pair. Myself and my friend went to one table, and on the other side of the restaurant, our parents were at another. It was so awkward though because we had come unfashionably late, so everyone was staring at my friend and me, two teenage girls, sitting at a table for two...yeah, a couple table. Oh well, it was fun in the end!

I've just realised I had written tons...I'll start finishing it now I promise before you all fall asleep on me. So after dinner, there's always a show in the Playhouse. On the first day, the theatre company which works with the cruises, the Headliners Theatre Company (HTC?!), put on a theatre show. There was singing and dancing to songs, the typical sort of production you would do if you were welcoming people onto a ship, which I think was the theme. Something about beginnings and adventures... Anyways, that was a great start, and it certainly made me want to go watch them again.

And that, my dearest peepsicles, was the end of the first day on the ship, but the beginning of a new adventure.

I love y'all, and goooooooodbye!

LATHERING THOSE LIPS!

I've got tons of lip balms. I'm not kidding, I swap between them whenever I feel like a change, but I end up taking ten minutes picking which one I want to use... Anyways, today, I'm going to tell you what I have, and give them a kinda review (I guess?) just because...because. I just feel like it.

Body Shop Born Lippy:

These aren't really lip balms as such, but I love these too much not to mention them. I've got tons of these...my friend bought some for me at Christmas, which was awesome. They're the ones I usually bring to school, along with a Carmex. I always feel like I need two, I don't know why... Anyways, my favourite is the watermelon one...I guess it just tickles my taste buds...! That was terrible... I also like the passionberry one, and the satsuma shimmer. The thing I like the most about Body Shop products, in general, is the smell and taste, but I'm not really sure how beneficial it is to your body... If you're looking for something that's really good and solely for the purpose of skin care, then I wouldn't turn towards Body Shop first.

Carmex:

My friend was the one who recommended Carmex to me, she's always using her cherry squeezy tube Carmex. And I really like the tingles you get when you use it, the famous Carmex tingles. But anyways, even though I really love the smell of the tube Carmex's, I bought myself the lime and the pomegranate twist ones. It's really good but I must say though, even though it's easier to use and not as messy, the flavour doesn't really last long and the lime one is, for some odd reason, really squishy... But, as I said before it's really quite nice - it's got a good taste, tingles, and also SPF15. 

Vaseline:

My baby! I love Vaseline so much, it's unbelievable. I've been using Vaseline for years, and always the green aloe vera one because I'm just in love with it! Last year I did my Duke of Edinburgh's Award expedition, where we basically had to go camping with nothing but essentials. And I brought my Vaseline, that's how much I love it. I use it every night before bed and whenever my lips are exceptionally dry. It's the most moisturising lip balm ever, I would definitely recommend it to anyone who gets dry lips. I'm basically advertising Vaseline...trust me, I'm not getting paid to advertise it or anything, it's just that it would honestly be my pleasure to advertise such an amazing product...

Maybelline Baby Lips:

Everyone's heard of these, and nearly everyone's got at least one. Myself, well despite being addicted to lip balms, I've only got the cherry one. I think it's great, I like that it slightly tints your lips, and is really smooth when you apply it. Another one of my friends though, she has the pink punch, and she hates it...apparently, it's got a weird texture and isn't moisturising at all... I guess it kinda depends on your own personal preferences and which one of the Baby Lips collection you get... All I can say is that the colourless ones (for example the hydrate, intense care, and mint fresh) seem to be better than the tinted ones (pink punch and peach kiss)...

Well...those are the main lip balms and products I use...there are more, but no one cares about the ones from years ago which I didn't even know I had. As you can see I do very much love my lip balms, and I'm always looking out for more, to my mum's dismay. But anyways, that is all for this blog post, there is nothing else for me to say so...

I love y'all, and goodbye xxx

LAST SPORTS DAY 2014: A HAPPY ENDING!

Heya peepsicles! We had sports day today! And it was my last one, probably last one EVER. But it was great because I came first in my event! And broke the school record! Yeah, go me! I do broad jump, which is basically long jump but without the run-up. You start standing, and then just jump as far as you can. And I came first, and broke my own record, and broke the school record too with 2m 17cm! Woohee! I love my friends who were cheering me on so so so much. Virtual kisses to all of you *sent*. And thank you, my friend, for killing my hand with a high five, virtual painful high five back at ya *sent*.

I'm so happy and pleased with myself, I spent the whole afternoon just chilling and binging on chocolate, and now it's bedtime and I haven't done anything, so...

Byesies! Love y'all xxx

JUNE FAVOURITES

Hiya my gorgeous peepsicles! As I mentioned a month ago, I'm thinking of doing monthly favourites, just as something different to my normal blogging. So without further ado, here you go, my favourite things of June...

Food: Waitrose 'Rich & nutty Belgian chocolate chunk & hazelnut all butter cookies'. Woah that's a mouthful. But it is literally what the packaging says, it's got the most delicious chocolate chip chunks, and it's so buttery and rich. However, I kinda hate it right now as well, because I can't help eating it, even though I told myself I need to stop eating sugary sweet foods. Though that didn't stop me from eating a whole packet of Starbursts today so...oops?

Film: There are two films I've really enjoyed this month, and they are How to Train Your Dragon and The Fault in our Stars, unsurprisingly judging by the number of times I've mentioned them. TFIOS is really popular right now (and rightly so), I don't want to give away too much, but it's got cancer, happy moments, cute moments, and seriously sad moments, AKA half the film. The storyline is amazing (and just like the book, for those of you who've read it) and it really showed me how my problems, such as not having any more chocolate or being annoyed that the wifi is turned off, are really really really insignificant and unimportant. I mean, even though it's a fiction, it's still got loads of truth in it.

And HTTYD is just plain adorable, there are no other words for it. I want my own Night Fury now :(

Makeup: Bourjois Color Boost in the shade Peach on the Beach. I've had it for a while now, but seeing that I don't really wear makeup, I haven't worn it in a while. But last week I was going through all my lip things, and I put a bit on, and omg I'm in love with it again. It's pink, but its a really subtle colour, sometimes almost the same shade as my natural lip colour. But that's what I love about it, it stands out, but doesn't look like I'm overdoing it. Also, apparently it's waterproof, lasts 10 hours, and has SPF15. Which is great.

Clothing: I've got a clear favourite in terms of clothing for June. For about half the month, whenever there wasn't school, I literally wore the same outfit, as long as no one saw me in it twice. And not only going out quite a lot in June, I also met loads of people...so I had plenty of excuses to wear it again and again... Basically, it's skinny jeans, light grey camisole, and a candy pink winged jumper (I think that's what it's called...) Don't judge, but I wore it for about 4 days in a row once...I'm disgusting...

Anyways, that's all for today. I went to one of our family friends' house today for a BBQ (I seem to be having a lot of those recently), but we had to drive for ages to get there and then get back, so I'm so sleepy. And I was wearing wedges, and trust me, even though they're not as bad as heels, it's still hard to run after a 6-year-old kid in them.

So toodles, love y'all, bye! xxx

TEAM BUILDING ACTIVITIES DAY!

Hey, peepsicles! Sorry about not posting anything these last two days, on Tuesday (two days ago) I had a really fun day at school but was sadly too tired to write anything. As the title says, I had a whole day at school where we were in groups of around 15, and basically played a variety of games on the school field, which was supposed to help us work better as a team.

The first activity I did was the one which we ended up getting the most wet in, which wasn't fun at 9 o'clock is in the morning. But at least it was better than my friends who had it last, they had to get wet in the dirty water which had accumulated over the whole day...poor guys. It was fun, it was basically just an assault course with mini hurdles, agility pole things, a huge wet slippery slide, then finally an army net thingy which soldiers are supposed to craw under...I'm no good at explaining... Anyways, we not only had to do that, but we had to do it a few times whilst carrying a cup of water... Needless to say, we all got wet, cold and muddy. It was fun though anyways.

We next did a zorb racing activity (it was the small type though). That was really fun, my friend and I were an awesome team! She's quite small and skinny, so she literally completely curled up inside the ball, whereas everyone else had knees and feet sticking everywhere. Then I was the one pushing her around, and our job was to stop the other team from getting around the track. We were awesome, we did an amazing job, YOU SHALL NOT PASS! That was so fun! I'd never even been near zorb balls before, so that was exciting and new.

The next activity was a bit more boring...it was called the calculator game, where there were basically just cones with numbers on them, 1 to 15, and we had to go up in turn and tap the cone in order from 1 to 15... It was timed though and ended up getting really intense, so I guess that just shows that even the most boring-sounding games can be fun...ish...

Now the next two, I don't remember which one came first, but there was another assault course, and also a catapult-building game. This assault course was different though, this one was mainly focused on a jungle gym sort of inflatable. It was so fun, there's a little hole you go into, then there are these huge pillars you have to go around, a tall wall you have to climb, then jump or slide off the other side (which was really steep), horizontal rolling-car-cleaner-machine looking things, which you literally have to dive into, and finally to get out there's a thin gap you dive through too...all one after the other, smushed into a space the size of a bouncy castle... That one was my favourite I think, mainly because I've always loved those sort of things, and also because I actually felt like I was doing some exercise, which I really need to do...I'm getting way too lazy :/

The catapult building activity, well that one went horrifically. Using only a few items, we were supposed to make a catapult. We made it in the end (by copying the other team!) and then we had to use it to catapult eggs, whilst someone else has to catch the egg without it breaking! The other team went first, they went all out and got their catchers to go really far away, and they frickin caught their eggs! All three of them, caught by different catchers, were all caught! Then guess what happened when we tried it...yeah, none of them were caught, and the one that nearly was, it broke in the catcher's hand so it went all over her...oops. That was not a fun activity.

Wel anyways, moving on...the last activity was to use drain pipe sections, one each, to create a line for a ping pong ball to get to a flower pot on the ground on the other side of the area. There obviously wasn't enough of us to make a full line all the way there, so there was tons of running and screaming, it was crazy. That one was the one that required the most teamwork, not only because we were all shouting over each other, but also because whenever we lost control of the ball it would always roll off someone's drainpipe because no one was on the other side of that person, to carry on the line of drainpipes. Anyways, after the drainpipes, there was a hula hoop activity, then those dreaded skis which we always failed at in the practise runs. They're the ones which five people go on, and if only one person doesn't lift their foot up at the right time, the ski can't be lifted up at all. So yeah, teamwork was essential...something our team weren't that good at... Whilst doing that, the rocket builders had to start building the rocket. After everyone had finished, we pumped it up and the rocket went off! It was amazing, it went really high up, and the water that was inside the bottle of the rocket all came out over us. It was fun I guess, but mainly satisfying, seeing our rocket take off like that! Wacco! Bomb! Wizard! (In true Lord of the Flies spirit!)

So yeah, that was a really fun day. Sadly though it's only organised once, so there's no more team building activity days anymore for me, sad face. Oh well, at least I got to experience it, I guess.

Well, I've written tons, so I'm just going to go now before I start writing an essay, which by the way I had to do today for homework...800-1000 words on how Simon is presented in The Lord of the Flies...

Anyways, before I actually do write another essay for you guys (I wonder how many words this post has...) I'm just going to go...

Love y'all, bye! Xxx

MY SUMMER 2014 HOLIDAY!

Yay, I'll be going on holiday in the summer! So usually, my parents book our holidays really early in advance, sometimes even one year earlier, but this year we didn't have a holiday for the summer, which was sad. But...OMG I'm so excited...today, we booked a cruise ship holiday!

It's going to leave England and go to Norway and around the fjords there, I've never been before, so that makes it even better! But the most exciting thing is that it's a massive ship with basically everything you could ever wish for on it! There's a library, theatre, casino, spa, sports areas (for example golf course and basketball court), multiple swimming pools, bars, lounges and tons of other cool things. There's even an outdoor swimming pool WITH large screen, so it's like a swimming pool cinema thing! I'm so so so so so excited! And I'm going with my friend, so that's even better! It's going to be a whole week of pure bliss... It's even better than Venice, where I've always wanted to go and used to be my perfect holiday destination. 

Anyways, I'll just stop talking about it before I just can't even... I'm going to go start hyperventilating now...

Love y'all, bye! Xxx