This Christmas I received a card from my best friend, a girl who is the Wayne to my Garth, the Ashely to my Mary-Kate, the wind beneath my wings, the Yin to my Yang. Inside was the printed conformation of the AC/DC tickets for July 2015 that she had bought for both of us for my Christmas/21st birthday present. I literally couldn't ask for a better best friend, I'm so lucky to have such special people in my life. Inside of the actual Christmas card however Aisha had written a little summery of all of the things we've done throughout 2014, and I was so shocked that I'd done so much in one little year! It made me feel a sense of pure accomplishment, and has made me so excited for 2015 and for all of the new adventures waiting for me!
It has inspired me to write a post about all of the various little adventures I've been on in 2014, both alone and with Aisha aka Wayne.
So I started out 2014 with brown hair... Now previously to this I'd never dyed my hair in my life, literally never touched it, I was naturally really light blonde and because everyone always told me how lucky I was to have the hair I did I was so scared to ever do anything to it. Then just before christmas I went for it and had it dyed a reeaallllyyy dark brown. And I bloody loved it!! It was so much fun having completely different hair!
Honestly, we flew to NYC on New Years Day, and I've never been so excited in my whole life. Anyone who knows me knows that New York is somewhere I'd wanted to visit my whole life, and who knew that a student loan could stretch so far?! Anyway, it was the holiday of a life time and I cherish those memories as some of my absolute favourite. Brace yourself for loads of photos, there are just too many to only show a few, (seriously, there will be loads):
Phew!
So... the beginning of 2014 was spent working hard, commuting to London from my dad's house and dealing with the thought of how mental it was that it was my second year already. I was wearing everything I'd bought from New York, burning my three wick Bath and Bodyworks candle every day, and writing essays left right and centre!
Then I retweeted a tweet by Dallas Buyers Club UK to win some tickets to go to the premiere and I only bloody won them. Thing is before I went to uni I wasn't one to go to all of these different things, the only thing I'd ever been to like that was as one of the thousands who rocked up to Trafalgar Square to be a part of the last Harry Potter film's atmosphere. So when I was messaged saying me and a friend could go to the premiere I almost had a coronary. I mean Jared Leto and Matthew Mcconaughey would be ten feet away from me, what the hell was I supposed to wear? But luckily the whole thing was fine, but it was so amazing to be able to see the film before the rest of the UK. (Even if we had seen it in a crummy cliche cinema in New York a few weeks beforehand), and to have such an unexpected experience was amazing!
At this point in the year I think I decided I wanted to become Angela Chase so I bought my bodies' weight worth of plaid and 90s boots.
Then it was the spring and me and two of my friends started planning our next trip, to Switzerland... Now if there is one thing to be said about Aisha it is that her determination to see 30 Seconds to Mars is second to none. And so before I knew it we were booking a short three day break to see the band at Paleo festival (I'd never heard of it either) and we would get to see The Black Keys as well, so we were super excited!
But before any of that could happen, I had two end of year exams to revise for and my dad's birthday to celebrate, and me and Aisha went to see a gallery of original photographs of Elvis, Blondie, the Beatles. I celebrated my great granddad Harold's birthday and we got a rare photo of (almost) the whole family.
Then Jodie and I got seriously pissed during our end of year celebration at the pub, and sang Edge of Seventeen by Queen Stevie on the tube. Then all of a sudden it was June, almost my twentieth birthday, and my second year was done. Oh the horror.
Then my Granddad Ray had a camping trip for the whole family in June and we all went, it was so much fun, we took over a whole bowling alley, Granddad brought his husky Tam into the building much to my dismay, I went go-karting and we had a meal with so many people invited that we cleared the restaurant out, as disgruntled Sunday roast diners couldn't put up with the infamous noise of the Tempest's and co.
Then I went back to being a blondie!
Then we went to Paleo festival, I wrote a post about our trip to Switzerland here.
What a crazy/sleepless few days that was, and so amazing to get to see so many amazing bands! I've never laughed so much in all my life, Jodie and Aisha were a dream and I still crack up every time I think about that trip.
After that me and mum drove practically the length of the country to visit my grandma, and we had a wonderful time, see:
Then I discovered how vain I am and suddenly became Aisha's muse:
I spent loads of time with Aisha over the summer, when she came to visit my house we somehow ended up on a boat to some random island, and then in August we celebrated her birthday. We made a 30STM birthday cake and took loads of rad polaroids, look:
Then I started my third and final year at the University of Greenwich. I'm planning for my dissertation, and commuting from my mum's house. I decided I don't want to be a publisher, or a teacher, or anything else remotely linked to the degree I've been doing, and I've set my sights on acting school, or maybe doing an MA...
Jodie and I went to a freshers masquerade ball and dressed up all fancy, and then we went bowling:
Then it was Halloween and Aisha came to stay at my house, we dressed up in matching skeleton onesies and ran about, it was SO much fun. We carved pumpkins and made spooky gingerbread houses. We went for a walk at like one in the morning to the beach and stood on benches singing Take That pretending we were performing in Wembley and got drenched on the way home.
Aisha and I had another adventure and went to see Linkin Park, my dad was jealous in the extreme, and we had the best time ever, I met some new people and they were rad, and I was so tired I thought my brain had collapsed so naturally I went home and tidied my whole room...
Then it was almost Christmas again, my dissertation is well under way, I've submitted three assignments and I'm working on my fourth. I went to the Tate Museum for research and saw some amazing paintings that made me want to jump around like an excited kid. I've baked about a million gingerbread biscuits, and I've made a Christmas cake which I've been soaking for weeks and weeks and weeks.
Then Christmas was amazing, such good food, with such good people, my grandma came down in her sleigh from Ripondell (as we like to call it), and Boxing Day was a buffet feast with a wonderful quiz (which my team won)!
Now it'll be 2015 in a few hours and I can't stop thinking about how amazing this year has been. Don't get me wrong, it hasn't been happy and shiny every single second. There have been heaps of tears and hopeless moments of wondering about what the point in anything is, I've lost friends, I've gained some, and I've grown as a person. Corny though it sounds. I've changed and grown stronger, I've grown a thicker skin and even though my life is uncertain, and it worries me, I look back at the year I've had, and the things that I've done that I could never have predicted I would do, and it makes me feel less worried, because if I can go to New York, Switzerland, a film premiere, dress up fancy countless times, spend more hours in my pjs in front of Netflix than I ever thought possible, start ballet lessons and love them, spend some amazing time with my friends and family, and see some of my favourite bands in the world, all in one year, then 2015 is sure to hold a load more incredible, unexpected, and fabulous bunch of memories to make. And I literally can't wait.
If you can ignore the cringe inducing sentimentality of this post, then I wish you a happy, fulfilling and healthy New Year, and cheers to another!
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