Daily Shenanigans, 28/02/2014: De-stress Day.

Well I decided not to audition. I knew for a while that would be the decision I would make, but I just have too much going on right now. I didn't have a song fully prepared, would have to hang around for 7 hours waiting, wouldn't have got to see Mat tonight, needed to get on with things, and didn't feel excited enough about it to want to commit to it after Uni. In fact all I want to do after Uni right now is curl up and sleep for weeks. The only thing that made me feel like I should do it is that everyone else thought I should and I didn't want to let anyone down. But in the end, I have to go with what is right for me. I thought I would spend the whole day moping and filled with regret and disappointment in myself. Instead, I had a really nice day today! I think that just confirms that I made the right decision.

I had a tutorial this morning with my Stage Management Tutor, who told me that she was pretty pleased with my progress so far. This is a great weight off of my mind as I was worrying that I had missed things and show day is fast approaching. From then on, I did a bit of work for an hour or so, then before going home, popped into work to let them know a few things about upcoming dates that I couldn't be there for. Having sorted that, I had time to get a bit of reading done on the train home (I'm making my way nicely through 'Wolves'). The book itself looks big but isn't actually that long, so I'm about a quarter of the way through it now as I had to put it on hold to finish challenge books. I'm still waiting for 'Tithe' and 'Daughter Of Smoke & Bone' to get here, so unless they arrive tomorrow, it's looking like I'll be starting Ivey's 'The Snow Child' next. I may just pick that one as my first full-length March read anyway, I'm so desperate to get into it!

'The Hotel Fakir' (Adam Smolka) did arrive today meaning that all of my giveaway reads have now arrived. It's such a short book, literally about 70 pages long, so I think I can get through it pretty quickly. I know it wasn't in my planned reads but I do want to get through all giveaway wins ASAP because I want to review them for Goodreads, so I think I'll read that while finishing 'Wolves' and starting my next book. I have every confidence that it won't take much more than a couple of hours! It looks a bit different to my usual choices but certainly intriguing enough to give it a good go! Talking of Goodreads, I joined a new group. Check it out, it's called Into The Forest and centres around Myth/Folklore/Fairy Tale retellings/spin-offs! There's a challenge and a few lists of some excellent looking books to check out!

My evening was spent with Mat and I had a lovely time. After pretty much spending the week with him last week, I've found I have really missed him over the last few days. We mostly chilled out and it was great just to de-stress and not think about my growing pile of work and stress levels for a while. I'm seeing him again tomorrow, and we plan to go to the cinema to watch 'The Book Thief'! I am literally so uncontrollably excited for this film, it is my favourite book (no exaggeration, I could read it again and again) and the trailer looks fantastic. I can't wait to blog all about it tomorrow and give my opinion on it. I've thought about doing proper film reviews seeing as I go to the cinema a lot (same with the Theatre) but I figure that for now, a book blog is enough to be dealing with. It's much better to express my opinions in a daily post like this one.

Back again?

Well folks...

I can only apologise for my profound lack of blogging, and suffice to say, I'm feeling rather sheepish. Many many things have cropped up over a rather busy year which have prevented me from keeping this up...until now!

So let me start with a brief catch up of my second year at Uni, which I have finished. I originally planned to restart this many a time but never quite got round to it, partly due to the large number of assignments that were being thrown at me left, right and centre. Having finished those and receiving all of my marks (I've passed the year with a barely scraped 1st, very pleased) I decided to get involved with the annual UCF (University Centre Folkestone) Musical, applying to be in the Stage Management team. Having studied both Production Techniques and Stage Management as part of my course this year, I've found that I've really enjoyed these subjects and am very much considering a career in this kind of work. Having Stage Managed a devised piece for one of the Third years (Link here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tqczYHSpOd8 I highly recommend giving it a watch, the entire thing was written and directed by a very talented student who has just graduated) and helped back stage with a number of different shows which the University have put on, the Musical would definitely be the biggest I have done. 

This years chosen Musical was 'The Witches of Eastwick', one that I had previously heard of and became very excited about! Needless to say, I was not disappointed. Despite the huge stress levels and bruises it entailed, it has been by far one of the most fulfilling and fun things I've done for a while, and has made me many new friends. For those interested, more pictures were taken by Jason Dodd and can be found here. 

All in all, the whole thing was a wonderful way to say goodbye to not only the students leaving this year, but to the UCF campus as we are all moving to Canterbury. It's been an emotional rollercoaster, but well worth it (though it is nice to sleep again).

Perhaps this post was a little short but I'm tired. I am off to London from tomorrow for a few days to visit the Harry Potter Studio tours and to watch Matilda the Musical, which I hope to blog about when I get the chance! I would like to thank my little sister for getting me back into this finally (though it's now beginning to sound like an Oscar speech), and just a bit of shameless promoting, her blog is here. Give it a read, she'd be ever so grateful!