London's Finest Cheese (I don't even like cheese...)

I'll explain the title later, but to begin with, I WENT ON THE BEST TUBE. It was one long carriage and you could see all the way down and every curve we went on you could see the whole thing bend. Awesome.

The reason I was in London to start with was for the London universities Open Day. After having taken pages of notes & bombarded the lecturers with questions, it was of course time to hit the streets of London to meet both E & my dad for lunch, who both happened to be working in London on the same day.

We met in the Spitalfields area where E was working & naturally we were spoilt for choice.

In the end we settled for this huge falafal sandwich (no idea on official the name...). I think I was more attracted to the look of it than the actual taste, but nevertheless it was tasty & incredibly filling for the size of it...

In the afternoon, I searched Spitalfields & Covent Garden for traditional food from different cultures - this is what I'm focusing on for my A2 Art. How come I couldn't find a single food market in Spitalfields?!

Incidentally, this photo below includes 3 of my favourite things right now: my scarf, stripy top & new boots! I wear all three a lot.

After searching nearly everywhere for some cultural food. I landed upon an adorable little British cheese shop.

I don't even like cheese (there's where I got that title) but this shop was perfect for my art. No kidding. The owner was really helpful when I told him I was there for my art & gave me loads of papers and information about the cheeses.

Just look at those textures! Not sure how I can approach drawing cheeses, but it's worth a go, maybe watercolour? Let me know if you have any suggestions.

It was a looovely day (I even managed to pop into Urban Outfitters, ooh yeah!). And on a completely unrelated note, I'm back doing work experience this week, woooo. Except this time I have to do it after school, so everything is pretty busy right now... but I looove it.

Listening toooo: 'Sleepyhead' by Passion Pit & 'You're The One That I Want' by Angus & Julia Stone

Architectural Drawing at the V&A

Towards the end of the holidays, I travelled up to London on my own for the first time in like, forever AND didn't get lost. Major success.

But the fact that I'm now a train & tube pro (okay not quite...) isn't what I'm here to say. The reason I went to London was an architectural drawing workshop at the delightful V&A.

15 of us had managed to book a place at this workshop & every person I met was super friendly, creative & intelligent which was looovely.

The first task of the day was to discuss a selection of the very best architectural drawings. This one below was my favourite; From afar it looks pretty standard, but when you look close, you see that every little piece of this drawing is created using lines & plenty of cross-hatching.

Next up, we went up to the architectural gallery of the museum & sketched three structures. 

The first one we did had to be a line drawing, the second, a tonal drawing & for the third building, we created an atmosphere using colour, weather, people, perspective or anything we could think of. This final task was really fun to go a little wild with.

And then it was time for lunch. As we all got to know one another a little better over lunch & exchanged summer stories, the fountain was filled with children paddling & the place was buzzing with art enthusiasts. Perfect or what?

As the afternoon went on, the tasks became even more creative. Our final task of the day was to come up with our very own concept for a community sports centre. It could be ANYTHING.

I let myself go slightly crazy and decided to create a place where skiing, painting, huge hanging lightbulbs & hidden hills all came together. My jumble of ideas wasn't particularly photogenic so instead here are a couple of my favourite ideas from the others:

The day was absolutely perfect, not only was it exactly what I'm interested in but it was also great to meet the other students & the organisers, who provided us with loads of great advice, as well as encouraging us to approach architecture in new ways.

At the end of the workshop, I had some time to kill, so after a compulsory trip to the cafe & garden, I set off to the nearby houses, snapping away before settling down for a spot of painting.

Yup. That is me sat on the pavement across the road from the house I was painting. And yes, that is a bottle cap I am using as a water pot...

Before long, E met up with me and we wandered towards our train home, passing these pretty places on our way home.

Listening tooooo: Bastille's cover of 'We Can't Stop', Rizzle Kicks' cover of 'Summertime Saddness' & Ellie Goulding's cover of 'Mirrors'

Can you tell I'm loving Radio one's month of live lounges?

READING PART THREE

On day three of the festival, the morning was a face-painting fandango. By this time the smell of the campsite toilets was creeping to our camp, so to stay & paint was a true sign of dedication. After all, when else is it socially acceptable to do this?

Below: Paul, myself, Loz, Luke & Abby

The rest of our morning was spent at the main stage of the arena, where Luke make a heroic transformation, and I spotted some pretty cool boots.

Later on, Abby, Luke & Paul bought drinks from the slush hut & they came in these oddly shaped 'bottles'. I had a little taste & blue was the best flavour, although I have no idea what flavour that actually was...

Below: Myself & Luke

Music-wise, Sunday was one of the days I was most excited about, so as we were waiting for a good spot to see Alex Clare & Haim, Sophia & Viki introduced me to the very dusty dance stage. It was so much fun. If you forget the fact that you can't breathe from all the dust in the air, it's an awesome place to just go crazy dancing seeing as everyone else is too.

Then for Alex Clare & Haim. Okay so the crowds were apparently not as into these people as I was, but nevertheless I loved them. Especially Alex Clare... and Haim, aaah I loved them both! No but really I think Alex Clare was one of the best when it comes to music.

Followed by Disclosure! We weren't even standing in the tent, but the atmosphere at the screen was perfect. Everyone was dancing/moving to a sort of rhythm/climbing up the tent/ doing gymnastics, and it was an incredible atmosphere.

In the evening, nearly everyone went to see the headliner, Biffy Clyro, but Paul & myself set off to see Spector (highly recommended by my sister), via the food stalls for my last trip to the veggie van! I bought an irresistible Burrito, mmmmm.

SPECTOR WERE AWESOME.

Literally my favourite of the whole weekend. They worked the crowd really well, everyone was up & dancing and the music was soooo good.

We even managed to catch the end of Biffy Clyro's set from afar before heading back to camp for our last evening with the group.

On the Monday, we all packed up & witnessed our neighbour's burning their tent (true Reading experience eh?) before leaving for home, with beds & flushing toilets, bliss.

Not being one for band tee's, this was my little memento for the festival.

I definitely want to go to another festival next year.

READING WAS AWESOME.

Listening toooo: 'F For You' by Disclosure, 'Better Off' by Haim, 'Hands Are Clever' and 'Up All Night' by Alex clare & 'Friday Night, Don't Ever Let It End' by Spector

READING PART TWO

Erm, so this is my first post as an adult. It feels strange, but I like it.

As for part two of Reading, here is a bunch more of photos from my festival experience. Minus a photo of my falafel and hummus wrap from my beloved vegetarian van. It was delicious, but sadly not photogenic, so you're going to have to trust me when I say it was gooooooooood!

Although I have no idea what order I saw things in, I remember Imagine Dragons. I went in thinking they would be really slow and calm compared to most acts at Reading, but the crowd was awesome, I loved it! Even though I knew hardly any lyrics, I somehow made noises to sound like I did & it was so much fun!

The rest of the day went past as a blur (a very good blur) but I remember the evening.

We began by watching Chase & Status at the main stage, and not long into the act realised this was a baaaaad idea. The mosh pits were insane so few of us from our group tried to weave our way out of the crowds, and after a good ten minutes of avoiding mosh pits, we finally came out of the crowds. We lost a few on the way out, but in the end Alex, Paul and myself managed to make our way out. It was a miracle. (Okay maybe I'm making this sound more heroic than it was...)

Anyway, after all that fandango, the three of us had what I think was my favourite evening of them all.

That evening was the coldest so once we had escaped the mosh pits, Paul was a true gent & bought us all hot chocolate & chips to share as we all kept warm under his jumper. (Erm so yeah I have a pretty awesome boyfriend...) We then heard some familiar music playing nearby so moved our little picnic to watch the NME screen, with JAKE BUGG. Ooooh yeah.

He was great, and what followed was also perfect - alt-J. I never realised how much I liked them until that moment. Their set was really relaxed but dancy, it was loooovely.

That night consisted of another 'campfire' with the group, some 'interesting' new dances created & a lil' trip to the silent disco with Luke & one of my bestest buds (and also tent buddy), Abby. The perfect evening.

Listening toooo: 'Sunlight' by Modestep, 'Tessellate' by alt-J, 'It's Time' by Imagine Dragons, 'Chocolate' by the 1975 & 'Broken' by Jake Bugg

READING PART ONE

I'M BACK FROM READING FESTIVAL IN ONE PIECE. YEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH! 

I also have no voice left & feel the need to sleep all the time but it was insane (that's a good thing).

You'd think everything was calm & peaceful from this photo, it couldn't be more deceiving! Roars of cheering Mexican-waved their way through all the campsites in turn, people were running around to see campsite attractions & the way to greet strangers was to scream 'READINGGGGG'.

Our group (12 of us camped together), stayed in Red - the one with the fair & silent disco in it - wooooo! Naturally we had to explore everything we could on the first night, then settled down to talk the evening/early hours of the morning away.

We all woke up really early the next morning for some strange reason, so spent the morning having a very elongated breakfast bar feast sat on the grass. THEN FOR KODALINE.

Oooohmigosh they were wonderful. The first act we saw of the festival & one of the best. Their songs just get you inside and all you want to do is sing your heart out (which I did).

Now for a very important matter. The food. It was sooo good, there were loads of stalls which catered for literally everything, never have I seen so much good food (and that's coming from someone who's worked in a Michelin-starred restaurant). 

My favourite van was one particular vegetarian one which made everything really delicious; Day 1 meal from them : A Mighty Cheeseburger. Mmmm.

Paul & Sophia both went for this genius idea: A GIANT Yorkshire Pudding.

At some point in the day, I went with Abby & Sophia to the NME tent to catch a good spot before BASTILLE. So good that they deserve capitals. Oooh yeah.

Below: Abby, myself & Sophia

Some more people from our group joined us a little later on & we met with someone else with the name Abby. 

Then Bastille started. They were incredible. Everyone was packed into the tent (we were so lucky to be at the front of the second section) & singing at the top of our voices, dancing to every song, it was a dreaaaam.

The security guards were really good too, they took this photo of us all screeching & handed / sprayed us with water to keep us cool.

Above: Abby, Abby, Me & Sarah

After Bastille, we went back to camp & painted our faces before going back out to the Arena for Greenday & Skrillex, then spent a long night around our campfire/garden light meeting our neighbours & feasting on the delicious chips from our campsite. SO GOOD.

Below: Viki, Sarah, Abby, Sophia, Me & Abby

Oh yeah, and HAPPY SEPTEMBER GUYS, THE BEST MONTH. Maybe also influenced by the fact my birthday is TOMORROW...

Listening toooo: 'Every Vessel Every Vein' by Joel Baker (my favourite from the introducing stage, he was really really good), 'These Streets' by Bastille & 'All I Want' by Kodaline