Silent Saturday #2

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The Liebster Award

As a novice and fairly nervous blogger, it was so lovely to receive a nomination for the Liebster Award from Emma.  The Award is a great way to be introduced to new or small bloggers (that's to say, those with under 200 followers) and just through this nomination, I've discovered so many new blogs that I have followed and will be reading.  

The rules for this award are simple: answer the questions given by the person you nominated, write your own 11 questions to ask your 11 nominees, all of whom must have less than 200 followers.  Such a lovely and positive thing to do and share.  

Here are Emma's questions: 

What tv show would you want to go on?
Do I have go alone?  If I had to go on a TV show solo, I think it'd pick something cooking related - perhaps Masterchef!  I'm not a great cook but I'd love it to give it a go and learn so much.  If I can be part of a team, it'd have to be Million Pound Drop with Dena.  Pretty sure we'd ace it, to be honest.

Favourite villain?

Bellatrix Lestrange from the Harry Potter series.  She is so crazy and horrible that she's bad-ass.  I think I just love how bonkers she is! 

What is your ideal bedroom style?

I'd love a large, airy bedroom with French doors that opened out onto a beach.  Furniture wise, I'd pick out white washed drawers etc, lots of large, vintage-style mirrors and a huge bed with an unnecessary amount of cushions.  I'd want that by-the-sea feel! 

If you could be told your future would you want to know?

No.  I'm a firm believer of what is meant to happen will happen.  I  believe that we have a path set out for us and it wouldn't be right to find out what's in store.  I think the future is terrifying at times but it's meant to be like that. 

Has your dream job changed from when you were little?

Yes!  Especially since I'm not actually sure what my dream job is right now.  I'm currently in the middle of a job-related crisis!  When I was younger, I wanted to be a flight attendant - a job I'm sure I'd love now if it wasn't for my fear of flying! 

What is an unpopular opinion of yours?

An unpopular opinion that I hold is that I think young adult fiction is just as good as "proper" literature.  YA fiction deals with issues and themes in an honest way that shouldn't be overlooked.  There are great YA novels out that dealing with anorexia, transgender, illness, bereavement, as well as love, friendship, hope in times of adversity and more.  It brings often inaccessible but real issues to the forefront of people's minds and that is never, in my opinion, a bad thing. 

What hair styling tool can you live without?

I'm really lazy when it comes to my hair, I tend to just wash and go.  I'll blow dry my hair if it's particularly cold outside and perhaps straighten it if I'm going out (which doesn't happen very often!).  The only thing I couldn't live without is my hairbrush. 

Favourite part about blogging?

My favourite part about blogging is that you have your own little space on the Internet where you can be yourself and say what you want.  I also like discovering new blogs that keep me entertained, informed, or introduce to me to new things. 

Who is your spirit animal?  Or someone who inspires you?

Jennifer Lawrence. I simply adore her and her attitude to life.  She seems so down-to-earth, clumsy, hilarious and talented.  She hasn't changed who she is and that really inspires me. 

What is your pet peeve?
Maybe I'd be better saying what isn't my pet peeve.  I'm quite a short tempered person, with an extremely good poker face.  Please see this Buzzfeed list for more info. 

How do you deal with spiders?

Erm... I really don't.  I'm a massive chicken so if I come across a spider, I have to find someone (read: Dena) else to take it out.  I hate them being killed but I don't like them so humanely removing them from my vicinity!  

My eleven questions to be answered by my beautiful nominees:

1. Where do you feel most relaxed?

2. What's your favourite song?

3. If you could only eat one meal for the rest of your life, what would it be?

4. Who do you tell your secrets to?

5. If you had to give one piece of advice to the rest of the world, what would it be?

6. Did you like school?

7. Half empty or half full?

8. What's your favourite kind of blog post and why?

9. What's your guilty pleasure?

10. Have you ever stolen anything?

11. Do you believe in aliens?

And now for my nominees:

Em

Laura

Rachel

Joanne

Danny

Dena

Levi

Ciara

Yaya

Rachel

Abigail

I'm always on the lookout for new blogs to read - please send me your links!

Disneyland Paris 2015 part 1

One cold weekend in January, seven of us piled into our purpose bought people carrier and journeyed to Disneyland, Paris!  It was my nephew's first time at Disney - he's 5 - and it was great to see someone enjoying it all with brand new eyes!  As for me, I don't need asking twice to go to Disney and I enjoyed it as much as always.  

We stayed in the Hotel Cheyenne this time; I'd never stayed in that hotel before and it offered a pretty comfortable stay for a value resort.  I think I preferred the Cheyenne slightly more than the Hotel Santa Fe, only because I adore the Cheyenne's Wild West theming!  

I thought I'd share a few of my photos from our stay!

I love le Château de la Belle au Bois Dormant (or better known as Sleeping Beauty's Castle!) in Paris!  I'm struggling to decide if I like this one or Cinderella's Castle more in WDW! 

My favourite ride at Disney and I would even dare to say that Big Thunder Mountain in Paris is the best version (although it was closed when we visited Disneyland in Anaheim). 

Walt Disney Studios Park has great theming, from the old vintage Hollywood to the new Ratatouille Parisian area.  We didn't manage to go to the new Ratatouille attraction.... next time! 

 We managed to get a good spot for the parade - one of the perks of visiting during the cold, low season!  The Disney   Parades just make you feel all warm and fuzzy inside!

Have you ever visited Disneyland Paris?

Silent Saturday #1

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CRP | I'm leaving on a jet plane...

Booking your flight to Florida can seem like a daunting task; you have countless airlines to choose from and Orlando technically has two airports.

I'm going to go through the process of booking our flights: where we looked, what we took into consideration, where we're flying to and from etc.  I hope it helps as some kind of starting point if you feel as overwhelmed as I felt when I was booking mine!

As you already know your dates, I would say your first port of call is probably SkyScanner.  You're able to get a rough idea of general prices, airlines and routes.  Don't be fooled however, into thinking that SkyScanner will give you the best price or amazing deals; often it ends up being cheaper to look at the airlines own website.

If you're lucky enough to be under twenty five, check out STA Travel.  You can get some great deals and it offers a wide range of airlines; often with stop overs which can lower the price but lengthen the journey (both significantly!).  You need to be honest with yourself and your priorities - are you happy to save pounds but lose an awful lot of hours and sleep?  I know I'd rather pay a bit more for a direct flight than worry about finding my way around an airport etc. I found that, as an oldie, STA really didn't offer very good value for money but it's worth a look.

We now arrive at the big chartered vs scheduled flight debate. My preference is scheduled flights: less chance of your flight getting cancelled, and often direct flights with reputable airlines.  We looked at British Airways, Virgin Atlantic, Delta, and United for scheduled flights.  The prices were pretty much the same across the board; they didn't have any amazing deals, but that could well be because we are flying at the peak of peak season (August). I have however got great priced flights with those airlines in the past.  I didn't really expect to have much luck with the chartered airlines, but they came up trumps. We looked at the usual package holiday outfits- First Choice and Thomson, as a flight only option to Orlando, but they (surprisingly) don't fly there.  It was Thomas Cook who had some great prices, and one way too!

When we started looking, we were expecting a return ticket to be cheaper, and then having to pay to change our flight dates home.  However, Thomas Cook had one way flights which worked out half the price of a return with all the other airlines.  We don't have to worry about changing the date of our flight back to England, and as Disney give you an allowance to fly home with, it made sense to get the one way. the fact that it worked out cheaper anyway was a bonus! If you're considering coming back to England for a week or two at any point during your program, a return will probably be worth the money; but if you're planning to stay out there for the entirety (like us), a single was the most economical choice.

What we have learnt so far:  shop around; look at chartered airlines; and don't be hasty!

Two pieces of advice which will which help before you decide to actually book after pondering for ages are : Secret/incognito browsing.  I'm not sure if this is actually true or not (I'm not that technologically minded), but apparently websites store your searches and whatnot in your cookies, so if you keep returning to a page and putting in similar dates/times, the airline will slowly increase the price of the flight.  I think it's true: every time we returned to SkyScanner etc, it would remember our search info.  One way to get around this is to open an incognito browsing tab so you appear as a "new" customer on the website.

The second genius, money saving tip is for checking how quickly your flight is getting booked up. If you're waiting on a pay check, it can be a nervous business if you've found a great deal; so top tip is to try and book 10 (or whatever the highest amount you can put in is) seats.  If it lets you potentially book ten seats, don't worry, you have time, the flight isn't very full.  However, if you can't, that means the plane is getting booked up so you might need to whip out a credit card/beg for a loan/busk Disney songs in the high street (if you opt for the latter, please put it on YouTube) to ensure you get the cheapest price possible.  As the flight gets fuller, the price is likely to rocket.  Simple supply and demand.

So there you have it.  A strangely simultaneously stressful and exciting part of the Pre-Disney Cultural Representative Program.  Booking your flight really does make it sink in that you are going to Florida and you will be working in the Happiest Place on Earth.

Good luck; if you have any other tips or questions, let me know!

Five things I'm looking forward to : take two.

I really enjoyed writing my last "Five things I'm looking forward to" post, even if it was ages ago, as it made me realise I have so many positive and exciting things coming my way and not to wish my time away!  Here we have another five things I'm excited for in the upcoming weeks:

1.  Disneyland Paris
When this post goes live, I'll probably be on my way to Disneyland, Paris!  The Paris Disney parks were the first ones I ever visited and they'll always hold a special place in my heart.  I last went in June 2013 and had such a fantastic time and I'm hoping it'll be just as magical this time round.  There's seven of us going and it'll be the first time my five year old nephew will have visited Disney.  It'll be a completely different trip to what I'm used to as I'm usually pretty organised when it comes to knowing which rides to hit etc but this time, I'm going to go with the flow and enjoy seeing the magic through a small child's eyes.  I do really want to meet Anna and Elsa though!


2.  Benefit Make Up Lesson
I love buying high end make up; I love how luxurious it feels and how it's a real treat when I go and buy it.  However, I'm pretty rubbish at applying it; I never really know what I'm doing and I don't think I get the most of out my products.  Luckily for me, I got given a Red Letter Day experience of a Benefit Make Up Lesson at the Carnaby Street store for Christmas!  This combined with an overnight stay in London in a beautiful hotel and eating Mexican food means it's set to be a pretty special couple of days! I can't wait!


3.  Swan Lake ballet
A couple of days before heading to London for my make up lesson, I'm heading up the road to watch the Swan Lake ballet in Norwich.  I've never seen any ballets but when Dena said she wanted to go, I got us tickets.  I'm sure I'll get dance envy watching the amazing ballerinas but it'll be so nice to do something different.  I'm sure a visit to Jamie's Italian will be on the cards too.


4.  Spring
Okay, so it's probably still a long way off but I'm really not a fan of this wintery weather (and it's not even that cold!).  I hate having to defrost my car in the morning, not being able to move in my coat because I'm wearing so many layers and having permanently cold fingers and toes.  I'm looking forward to the lighter mornings and seeing everything looking fresh, green, and new again.  I've probably just got to get through a couple of spells of snow first though, right?


5.  Eating pizza.
This may seem like a strange one but I haven't eaten a slice of pizza for over a year.  It's not even that pizza is my favourite food  but my gallstones have stopped me eating anything naughty really and sometimes all you really, really want to do is eat pizza.  My operation to have my gallbladder removed is imminent and once I've recovered from surgery, I'm going to eat all the naughty things I've deprived myself of, without feeling guilty.  Hurrah!

Exploring American Culture Through Literature : Beloved by Toni Morrison

I thought I'd take a deeper look into the culture of the country I'll be living in for a year and what better way to do that than reading?  American literature is such a vast and complex branch of literature but luckily for me, help was at hand in the shape of Dena, my resident American studies graduate!

I've got a list of books that I'm going to hopefully work my way through before Florida.  I've read a couple of the 'must-read' books about American culture like The Great Gatsby and On The Road (even though I didn't particularly enjoy either of those books!), I'm hoping I'll find some books that I love!

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The first book I have read is Beloved by Toni Morrison, a Pulitzer Prize winning novel, so naturally, I had high hopes.  I really enjoyed this book, it wasn't a horrifically taxing read but you still feel that you can get your teeth into the dark and horrifying subject matter.  

Firstly, the story revolves around an escaped slave Sethe in Ohio, and although she has managed to escape the shackles of being a physical slave, there is something a lot darker holding her captive.  Morrison creates an incredibly complex and vivid character, who unfolds as you get further into the book.  Sethe is central to the story and the role of her family is to weave and interlink throughout society and indeed, the black community feel that was evident and important at that time.  

This book made me contemplate atrocities that I cannot begin to comprehend.  It was written so plainly and openly on the page that you cannot shy away from the words, you have to read, live and deal with them in the same way that our protagonists did.  The slaves were freed by the law, legal citizens, but they still dealt with the same prejudices, racism and treated as second class citizens.  One particular reference that shocked and stood out for me was where Sethe realises that white pupils were being asked to write down what animal characteristics black people had.  To think that real people lived through this kind of treatment, well, honestly, it makes the bile rise in the back of my throat.  

However, it wasn't all negative in this book.  Toni Morrison makes every word count; there are beautiful descriptions and imagery that jumps off the page into your mind, combining the supernatural and the physical world seamlessly.  I was whisked between scorching hot days in the Mid-West through to ice-skating on frozen lakes in the icy winter.  For me, the beauty of the language acted as a harsh contrast to the realities of slavery and the abuse and torture that black people went through at that time.  

I'd go so far as to say that this book could sit in the horror genre.  It is truly haunting, in both content and language.  It's spine-tingling and raised similar questions in my mind as The Turn of the Screw, you're almost left asking what's real and what's not.  

A quiet, understated novel that will make you question on pretty much every page.