April round-up, the future of this blog and Grimes

*Feel free to skip to the end if you aren't bothered about me rambling on*

A little long side note to start...I have been writing on this blog for 4 months now (a third of a year, gasp!) and I feel like now is a turning point in my blogging life. From the outset, I did have in mind of making it slightly more fashion based, but it had been something that I logistically couldn't do, but now I can. I love doing the fashion posts, but I feel like that outfit posts don't really reflect the person behind the lens. You don't get to know their personality, what tickles their fancy or what floats their boat - in my case it is cheesy idioms - hence why I am doing these types of posts too.

I know I have a lot of new followers to my blog, so I am a bit apprehensive if I should publicise my personal life to stranger, simply because I doubt many people who don't know me personally would be interested in my measly life. The last thing I wish to do is to discourage people from following my blog! However, this blog is for own personal space where I can write whatever I want, and I am going to write whatever I want, regardless of what the expectations are for a "fashion" based blog. In the end, I am blogging for my personal enjoyment, rather than to see if I can get the most views/followers (even though of course that is fantastic too). This blog is going to be for my satisfaction rather than to please others - yes, I am selfish.

Cut things short as I have been rambling for sometime and I bet I'm boring you to death, I was going to start another blog solely for fashion related posts, but then I realised that I have barely anytime to tenderly care for one blog, let alone two. Therefore, I'm going to keep all my posts on this blog. If you are only here for outfits, you can press the little x in the corner, read no further and I am truly sorry for wasting space on your dashboard. But if you want to carry on reading, please do so!

Anyway, back to the actual post...
I'm sorry guys! I am a total of 4 days late for my monthly summary, simply because I have been so busy with work towards/revision for my GCSEs. Better late than never eh?
Click here for my March round-up.

In April I have:

• Had an awesome trip to Paris with my parents. Click here for my Parisian daily diary. Oh how I wish was I was still chilling in the streets of Paris, rather than drowning under the vast amount of revision I need to do.
• Went to London for MK's birthday for ice skating and a Vietnamese dinner :).
• Started fashion blogging and have finally got more followers than my age! Yipee.
• Finished my resistant materials GCSE. Yipee. 

Okay, it seems like I haven't much this month, but I spent half of it in France and half of it working my behind off.

Goals for May:

• Get some darn good GCSEs. Okay, now that we are pretty much on the home stretch, the last push will really make the difference between As and A*s so it's time to knuckle down and stop writing pointless blogposts like this and start to do some intense revision. 
• Revise
• Revise some more
• Revise even more
• Succeed in my exams - I have a total of 14 of them. 
• Get some decent quality outfit posts up. 

Carrying on from my last goal, I have finally sorted out my camera issues. My genius father made this really, really long extension chord with some wire, attached a switch and thus made  a remote for his Nikon camera, so I can actually be in focus in my images!  I have also digged out a tripod, so fingers crossed, the quality of my blog posts will improve drastically. Exams also mean study leave, which means that I will not be going into school everyday, which means, I will not have to wear uniform everyday, which means MORE OUTFIT POSTS OF BETTER QUALITY.

Current obsession: Grimes
Okay, I realise this doesn't quite fit in with this post, but since it is pretty much all higglety pigglety already, I thought I may as well add in someone that I have really been getting into after an spellbinding performance on Later.. Live with Jools Holland, one of my favourite television shows. She's called Grimes and I saw her mentioned in the ASOS magazine being described as "two-parts forest pixie, one-part Lykke Li". If you didn't know, I absolutely love Lykke Li, so I was keen to search her up. The fact that she had green hair with a totoro on her shoulder also drew me in to find out more about her.

It turns out Grimes is nothing like Lykke Li - the only similarity I can find is the fact that they both have high pitched voices and are really hot. The closest comparison I can make is to Blood Orange, but less R&B influenced and almost Oriental sounding with her use of the pentatonic scale on the synths, and obviously with a girl on the vocals. She creates a electro, atmospheric, entrancing sound that is topped off with her baby-sounding vocals. I'm not sure why, but I reckon a really low female voice would also go well juxtaposed with her synth-ey sound, but her high pitched wails do the trick. Her image is just weird enough to be alternative and edgy without being weird freaky - I love it.

 If you have made it through this marathon of a post, I congratulate you.

Rebecca x


P.S. I decided to change up the tabs under my header and also added a "FAQ" and "About" page. The fact there is one pixel between the header and tabs randomly is really pissing me off! Any wizzes at HTML know how to get rid of it?
P.P.S Outfit post tomorrow!

A rant about train fares

Between the ages of 16-18, the majority of young people are still in education and do not have a disposable income, or in fact an income of any sort for most of us. Instead, we are encouraged to continue our education, rather than get jobs and head straight into employment.  So why are we being charged such extortionate prices for rail tickets?

What's all the fuss about? 
Most people my age are completely put off travelling via the train, as it is quite extortionate. Fundamentally, train fares are ridiculous in this country anyway as on average, fares are 50% higher in Britain than on the continent, and especially living in the South East of England, rail fares are sky-high. I understand that the cost of crude oil is exponentially rising, thus it is fairly being reflected in the cost of rail tickets, but I think that it is ridiculous that it is expected that we have to fork out the same amount as adults with jobs and a disposable income. I do realise that there is a 16-25 railcard, and I think that this is a good option for university students aged 19-25, but between the ages of 16-18, I believe that having an extra 1/6 of a rail ticket off,would make a tremendous difference for us who only has pocket money of a few squid a week.

You think I'm how old?!
To make things worse, I have had various pompous experiences where I have been wrongly forced to buy an adult ticket rather than a child's ticket such as at Euston station earlier this year (at the age of 15), Being only 5ft, this was a strange experience for me as I always get mistaken for being far younger than I am, rather than older.  I was charged an adult single instead of a child's single, simply because I did not have any form of identification with me. This is ridiculous, as at this age, the only piece of identification I own is my passport, and that is something that I do NOT carry around with me willy-nilly. Lost, scared, afraid and without my parents, I just forked out the cash, but I was extremely annoyed by the terrible costumer service who were not supportive of this lost child at all. Shame on you London Midlands.

I love London, but I refrain from going there as much as I would like and spending my money there (thus helping the economy (tenuous link there, but a point!)), simply because I cannot afford the train ticket there. It costs me £8.50 for a railcard, which is ridiculous considering my friends who live in Chesham/Amersham can simply ride the Metropolitain line into the city centre for a measly £2! Damnation to the fact that I just live outside the underground tube system. I would like to participate in various free events, courses, visit more museums in London, but I do not have the cash for going regularly to London.

SOMETHING HAS TO CHANGE.

From the annoyed one,


Rebecca x

P.S. I know this is random and badly written, but this has been something that I have wanted to post in a long time. I've written this super quickly so there may be some mistakes!
P.P.S. Don't take some parts of this too literally, but my underlying message is true.
P.P.P.S Hello to all my new readers, you guys are awesome.
P.P.P.P.S More outfit posts like yesterdays? I really want to do more, but this may be hindered by the fact that I wear school uniform 5 times a week. I will try and put some more out though! 
P.P.P.P.S. Some kind of related music to leave you guys with - there are probably some more closely related songs out there but my musical brain is dead today. :)

Chinese Stereotypes Tag

Hello everyone. For today's post, I was completely stumped (again) for what to write about, so I went onto Youtube to find a tag to do. Low and behold, I came across the "Chinese Tag Game" and thought it would be perfect to do in the form of a blog post!

I'm sorry that the panda looks slightly deformed.

• Do you have pressure to get straight As at school?

• Yes, of course. Unlike the Chinese stereotype, this pressure is mostly from myself rather than from my rents- sometimes I don't even show my parents my reports or exam results, unless I want to flaunt it in their faces when I get annoyed. But I suppose my inner pressure is from my parenting and upbringing to always achieve, so yes, I have pressure to get straight As.

• What part of China are you from? 

• I was born in this country, but both my parents are from the north-east of China. My dad is from Heilongjiang and my mum is from Jilin. However, my mum did spend most of her childhood in Sichuan, Chengdu, and our ancestry does go back quite far there, so I don't really know what she'd count herself as. I suppose I'll say the north-east, but I only have one relative left living there.

From the head of the chicken.

• Do you fit into the Chinese stereotype?

• No:
• "East Asian women have been portrayed as aggressive or opportunistic sexual beings or predatory gold diggers using their feminine wiles."
1. Okay this came up when I typed Chinese stereotypes into wiki, and that definitely doesn't apply for me...
• I am not a master of martial arts, although I wish I were!
• I hate K-pop, J-pop, XYZ-pop...
• I don't wear glasses.
• Yes:
• I am very short.
• My eyes are squinty - but that's not a stereotype, that's a fact.
• I do like maths.
• I have eaten dog before. 
• This was when I went to Changbaishan mountains on holiday once when I was 7 or something. It was by the China and North Korea border, and the local delicacy was dog meat. At this time I was very young and I didn't really know what was going on, so I just ate it! Before you guys freak out and call RSPCA, very few people in China still eat dog meat - this restaurant was pretty much purely for tourists, so that they can "experience" the entire authentic culture. In their culture, dog is seen as a type of meat rather than a pet, just as pork and beef is in our culture, so I don't think we should judge and discriminate, simply because it is a cultural difference. (Before you guys all run off and tell everyone that ALL Chinese people eat dog, this is NOT true, as it was literally only a small ethnic minority that eat it - in fact most Chinese people are against it as I discovered when most of the rest of our tour group refused to eat it. It's only when the line between livestock and pets starts to blur, that is when we should start to be worried.)
• I like to save.
• Yes this is true. Us Chinese are love saving. Why? Since China is such a vast country (it is 37x the size of the UK and houses 1/5 of the world's population), so having a "nanny" state is simply not an option. That is why the Chinese always have vast savings, in case if one day disaster strikes, there is no safety net of a government that can afford to give out endless benefits, like in this country. Saving is just part of the culture. 
• I am a bad driver. 
• Well, I technically don't know this yet, but I can't imagine myself being very good at driving.
• I play a musical instrument. 
• You should see my orchestra, about 50% of the 1st violins are Chinese. 
• I had a bowl cut.
• Oh yeah, rocking the mushroom hair!

Teheh, it's me... oh dear!

• Rice or chao mein?

• Hmm, I don't like this question as it assumes that all Chinese people eat rice or fried noodles, which isn't true. There is a north/south split within the country though. Northerners have wheat as their main food source, since conditions are drier and colder. It isn't as humid and hot as the south, where conditions are perfect for growing rice. Since I could be seen as a "northerner", noodles would be the logical choice. However, the dominance and importance of rice in China is so significant, to the extent of the character for "cooked rice" (饭) is also means "food" in general. This is just like how the character for "home" (家) also means "family". It's quite interesting learning about how characters are derived. Anyway, I would go for rice.

• Does your future partner have to be Chinese too?

• I suppose I haven't thought that far into the future, but I suppose there is no pressure for this to be the case.

• Do you speak Chinese? Say something. 

• Ah, this is where I encounter a problem with having this as a blog post instead of a Youtube video. So instead I think I might type something for you guys who speak Chinese, or have the initiative to copy this into Google Translate.  

大家好! 如果你读不懂我写的中文， 你就是一只臭猪. 

但是, 如果你能了解这两句话，我爱你. 

• Ahaha, even though my Chinese is not that great, I can even tell what I just wrote is written so terribly. Sorry guys who are fluent Chinese speakers for my poor linguistic skills.   

I tag all my Chinese friends who have blogs to do this tag! (Just realised all my friends who have blogs are Chinese...)

1. Yingcen
2. Kevin
3. Wendy
4. Natalie 
5. Andy
6. David
7. And whoever wants to do it!

That is all,


Rebecca x
P.S. Check out the new tabs I made for my pages under my header! I have sorted everything out into 3 categories: Style (fashion, hair etc), Music and Life.
P.P.S I realise that this post is a day late! I'm trying to no break my BEDIE (Blog Every Day In Easter), but it's hard. I will write another post tonight to compensate, so look out for that.

A diary entry from 3rd April 2007

Today I was a bit brain dead for what to write for today's post, so I looked in one of my old note books and found a diary entry I wrote 5 years ago on this very day, when I was 10 years old. Back then during the holidays, I would also aim to try and write longer diary entries, but would often fail as I wasn't very persistent. However, this day was one where I actually wrote alot, and I thought I might as well share it with you guys. I do still remember this day very vividly as I was during the Easter holidays, and I did enjoy it very much. Below, I have copied out the diary entry, letter for letter, thus there are some terrible spelling mistakes, but I thought I might as well leave them in for authenticity.

3rd April 2007
Today was a cool day coz it was Kathryn's b-day! lol! In the mornin' I woke up and got dressed (as usual). I was gunna wear the pink top I love but mum was stupid and didn't wash da clothes so I had to wear this green choosbi top. 

Anyway, Mary came round and we dug a hole and found clay. Mary came round because it was Kathryn's birthday. Yay! 

Kathyrn party was sooo cool We went to the pottery project as it was amazing! lol before that, when Kathryn picked me up and Mary. It was sooo imbarasing coz the house was a tip! 
Anyway, at the party we chose an object to paint. I chose a gecko. I really wanted the penguin but the other Rebecca allready picked it up. Grrr!!Anyway, my gecko looked quite good, but I think I did too many dots on it! Oh well! By the time the other Rebecca had done three things, most of us only had done one!

After the painting, we went back to KT's house. We played in the garden for a while. We did this couse thing. It was really dumb coz Emma, she went round to the shed leaving Mary, Ellie and me behind when when me and ellie did it, we got told off well badly! Stupid Emma. Then we ate and watched this "Queen's Nose" which was sooo lame but the "Clutter Nutters" was on and that was good. Then we played more games and then we went home. 

Just before I started writing this, I made a timetable of what I'm gunna do in the holidays. By gum I've made myself do a lot of work! (I signed it) The holiday isn't really a holiday for me! I've given myself to much work. Oh well, it's good me isn't it? I'm getting tired now so nighty-night. 

P.S. How come no one is every on Msn? It wierd!

My thoughts on the diary entry

• My style of writing back then is still so similar to how it is now. I still over use exclamation marks and have terrible spelling
• I don't think your stupid Emma! I just call anyone who annoyed me stupid. It just got really angry back then as I got into trouble for going round the back of the shed, when she didn't! I remember there was a Tracy Beaker style wig in that shed, and it amused us greatly by trying it on.
  
• I clearly remember digging up the clay, and then making it into a little man who we then painted with a red long sleeved t-shirt and blue jeans. However, since he was made out of clay we literally dug up, he quickly disintegrated and limbs were falling out. 
• I am still really proud of my gecko that I painted. I'll insert an image of it here.

Still quite pleased with how this turned out.

I thought I was hilarious by writing "Hand Painted by Me"

• I can't believe I wrote "by gum". 
• Even back then I was obsessed with the Internet, and I remember chatting on MSN with a variety of emoticons was all the rage.  
• I also used to use P.S. in my diary entries then, as I do now!!!
• In addition, back then I also used to miss out words when I wrote my diary entry! This is something only my friend the other week pointed out - sometimes when I write posts quickly or do not proof read them, I have sentences that have entire words omitted and I would not notice. This is mostly likely simply because my brain is working faster than my fingers. I suppose I had the same problem even back then. 

My conclusion
Reading this diary entry back again has just made me realised I haven't particularly changed over the last 5 years. Yes, I have matured, but my attitude, things that get me annoyed and priorities in life really haven't changed. I still care alot about my clothes, get easily annoyed by some situations, and am very motivated and driven to do something productive during holidays. However, with the last point, I never seem to succeed in.

Even though it is only technically the second day of the Easter break, I am already getting into some sort of weird routine, that I strangely enough seem to really be enjoying:

• 10.00-11.00am: wake and get up
• 12.00-12.30pm: have brunch/lunch/breakfast
• 12.30- 8.00pm: mill around all day doing pointless stuff
• 8.00-10.00pm: do some Chinese revision
• 10.00pm-11.00pm: write a blog post
  
• 11.00pm-1.00am: read the hunger games
• 1.00-10.00am: sleep
• ...et répétez

Love,


Rebecca x
P.S. I have a few more diary entries similar to this about my 2007 Easter holiday. You interested in a few more?
P.P.S. Cheers to all you guys following my blog this Easter, don't forget to follow it via Google Friend Connect - all you need is a Google account (a Youtube account works too!). Also, you can make a little bookmark with a tiny little brain logo on your bookmark bar by doing as follows:

March Round-up: The Hunger Games, Basil plants and Chinese cakes

I know... It's been a bit too long. In fact, I have not written a post for an entire week, which is the longest blogging hiatus I have had since the birth of this blog. It seems to be the same story, but I have been beyond stressed and busy with attempting to complete coursework and other silly shenanigens. Its not that I haven't had ideas for what to write about, I have just had no time to write! But fear not, since it is another school holiday, its time for Blog Every Day In Easter (BEDIE). To commence, I am just going to quickly summerise everything that I was planning to write a post on, and also do a round up of everything that happened in March. Click here for my February round-up.

In retrospect, March has actually been a pretty good month. Very busy and stressful, but good, nonetheless. I feel like now until the end of June, I will be saying this about every month.

In March I have:

• FINALLY FINISHED MY MUSIC COMPOSITIONS!
• If you do not do music GCSE at our school, you probably don't realise the significance and the sheer achievement of doing this. After spending a year and a half on my first composition, then a week on my second, I can finally say I will never have to compose ever again in my life. Hallelujah!
• Had the school "Magic" concert
• This was probably causing the most stress for me during the first half of the month. I had gotten to a stage where I would literally not have a single lunch or break time free, and it was quite overwhelming. In the end, I was in 6 items in the concert, and they all seemed to go pretty well. I am so proud of our Glee Club! I am thinking of uploading our performance onto Youtube and posting it on this blog - you guys want to see it? 
• Ace of Herts concert
• We sung in front of a few Mayors of local towns to raise money for homeless people. It was okay.
• Been to the Big Bang Science Fair
• This was actually one of the most suprisingly enjoyable outings that I have had in a long time. I doubt anyone is actually interested, but my basil plant is doing really quite well. It managed to germinate in a few days, and the first leaves sprouted after 5-6 days. Now after 2 weeks, the plants are around 3mm tall. Yipee! 



Is it sad that I'm really proud of this photo?


• Gotten back my exam results 
• With mixed feelings, as shown in this post.
• Hype for prom, yearbook and after prom parties have started
• Even though there are still 4 months till the summer holidays, plans and pressure for the end of compulsory education are already commencing, with prom, yearbook and after prom celebrations. I hope they live up to the hype. 
• Went to Bicester Village 
• Last Sunday, I went with my mum to Bicester Village, which is an outlet shopping "village", selling marked down designer goods, that are still beyond ridiculously priced - in other words, the worse place on earth ever for me. If you know me, you probably realise that I detest designer/branded clothes and that I rarely ever spend more than £1 for jewellery, £10 for a top, £15 for some bottoms and £20 for a coat/shoes. Here in Bicester, the most you could buy for a tenner is a keyring. It honestly makes me pity all the people who simply throw hundreds of Pounds towards these greedy multi-billion Pound businesses simply for a tiny emblem which is barely visible, on the corner of a shirt. If you have so much money, that you can afford to use it as toilet roll to wipe your arse, then go for it. But it's those people who work so hard for their money and save up so much to just blow it on something they view as being of such prestige and social significance, when I see it as such a waste, who I feel the most sorry for. As you can probably imagine, I stuck out like a sore thumb in this horrible place. 



What I wore that day (also what I wore for Mufti, though I doubt people care): Denim shirt £15 - vintage shop, Tie-dye top £0 DIY, Shorts £5 Indian shop, Necklace £0 sister's present, Docs £lots

• Seen "The Hunger Games"

• Last Wednesday, I went to see "The Hunger Games" with MP and my, oh my, it was so ridiculously good. Here are my thoughts on the movie compared to the book (in the last 3 days I have managed to read the first book) :
• I feel like the movie did have to chop out quite a few aspects of the book out, since it's already around 2.5 hours long. I don't they they had to compromise too much, but at some points, it was slightly confusing/ hard to understand what was occurring without Katniss' narrative. For example, I watched the movie before I read the book, and I did not get how the magic burn cream from the sponsors managed to miraculously heal her wounds, but then after reading it, I had a far clearer understanding. Same goes with the constant flash backs of Peeta throwing the burnt bread at Katniss - I highly doubt people who don't read the books would have understood the significance of it.
• The book is written in a 1st person narrative from Katniss' perspective so obviously we get to understand alot about her, and her emotions and feelings are strongly felt in the book. Of course a movie is always very much from a 3rd person perspective, which in some ways was an advantage, as it was possible to see the gamemakers controlling the game and reactions from around Panem of the games, which was quite interesting.  I also thought it adds another interesting layer to the underlying message of the story - the book criticises reality tv, and televising the torture of other human beings for the entertainment of others, when in fact, the very reason we are watching the movie is for entertainment. I obviously understand that it is a fictional story, but it just goes to show that seeing the suffering of others is something that humans do find entertaining, regardless of whether it is just fiction or not. 
• Since we don't know what Katniss' inner feelings really are, unlike in the novel. I do think Jennifer Lawrence's acting was satisfactory, but obviously she cannot telepathically convey her thoughts and feelings to the audience, so some of the pure emotion and her strength of character is lost.
• I thought the portrayal of the Capitol's pompous fashion sense and superficiality was excellently executed. The outlandish costumes designs, hair and make up were all spot on to what I would imagine the Capitol to be like, and it really highlighted just how disconnected they are to the rest of Panem.
• One criticism I have is that they should have made it more gory and bloody. I acknowledge that they wanted it to be a 12A, but in the novel, by the end, Katniss and Peeta are battered and beaten to a pulp with a multitude of wounds, scars and gashes. In the film, they look far to pristine and clean for two people who have been burnt by fireballs, stung by tracker jackers, and been close to death on numerous occasions
• Overall, I think it is a fantastic movie/book and everyone should go read/see it! I like the book because the story line is just so fast, exciting with so many turns of events. It's definitely one of those books that are really hard to put down. Also, the language used is not too complex, so I can read it leisurely without having to think to hard to process the storyline. I have also worked out why so many girls love "The Hunger Games" - it has a love triange involving 2 guys. 
• Made my mother an awesome birthday cake



I do realise it looks kinda rubbish as I had no good fruit apart from kiwi. I could not be bothered to make the orange segments look more aesthetically pleasing.

• Yesterday was my mum's birthday and I made an awesome Chinese style chiffon cake. We haven't even eaten it yet, but I'm sure it's going to be delish. I got the recipe from here.

Okay, I was going to do targets for next month, but I cannot be bothered as I've been writing for over an hour now! 

See you tomorrow!


Rebecca x
P.S. My mum is probably the funniest/most annoying person to ever sit next to whilst watching a film, due to her running commentary. Today, Avatar was on telly, and some quotes include:

• "Why do they have a long pony tail, they're like Chinese people!" <- speaking about the Na'avi.
• "Omg they have bamboo forests too, that's really messed up." <- regarding Pandora.
• 15 minutes into the movie...
• Mum: "Wow, that was quick! it's already finished!"
• Me: "It's just an ad break mum..."

Coffee Obsession

How do you start a day? For many, it is with a cup of coffee - each morning commences with the routine ritual cup. Whether you prefer it dark, white, a latte or a mocha, coffee is far more than just a warming beverage - it is has a crucial role in today's society. Even in a country where it has been historically classified as more of a tea-drinking nation, the prevalence of coffee is still widespread and deeply felt. The whole persona of being a swanky, high-earning business man with an overpriced bitter coffee match suit their personality, in one hand, and the "Financial Times" in the other, is very much glamourised and stereotyped by the media. In many restaurants, a meal is never complete without a cup of it. Look around your hometown, and I bet there are more coffee shops than you can count on one hand. 

King Coffee

The most obvious reason of why it is one of the most beverage in the world is because of it's stimulating effect on humans due to caffeine content. Moderate caffeine consumption equates to increased attention, memory and physical performance. Many people find themselves reliant on the drink to combat the hardships of modern every day life.

Ye Olde Days of Coffee 
However, its energising effects have been documented ever since the 15th Century and even lead Johann Sebastian Bach to pen the miniature comic opera: "Schweigt stille, plaudert nicht" meaning "Be still, stop chattering" and is commonly known as the "The Coffee Cantata". the cantata amusingly tells of an addiction to coffee, a pressing social problem in eighteenth century Leipzig, where this work was premiered - and it appears not much has changed since then! It features lines such as "If I can't drink my bowl of coffee three times daily, then in my torment, I will shrivel up like a piece of roast goat" - a problem I am sure many people can empathise with. Moreover, in East Africa and Yemen it was previous used for religious ceremonies, but it appears that nowadays, it is drunk religiously ever day.

Why is it so precious?
Perhaps it is because I haven't reached the age to fully appreciate the wonders of caffeine, but I personally think that coffee bought from coffee shops is beyond extortionate and do not comprehend how so many people can justify regularly buying coffee which costs £4 a pop. However, something I am beginning to understand is many people do not go to cafes simply to buy a coffee and leave, but instead see it as a place where you can socialise, work on laptops or tablets or simply relax for a few minutes or even hours for some whilst slowly sipping the calories and listening to the terrible mood music that they play. The worse offender in the market is most obviously Starbucks.

The Power of Starbucks 
Coffee is the world's second most traded commodity behind oil, with 7 million metric tons traded annually. A kilogramme bag of coffee beans sells from the farmer for $0.23, but in a Starbucks coffee shop, it would be worth a staggering $230. Of course there are various middlemen involved, but the profits that are made in that one cup is absolutely humongous, and considering the sheer quantity of coffee sold by the chain - they have a total of 19,435 stores in 58 countries. Some may say the amount of profit made is unjust to the extent of being exploitative, but there is no denying the founders are entrepreneurial geniuses. Last year during my holiday to China I experienced how social power that a mega brand such as Starbucks can have.

China and Coffee
China and tea go hand in hand, like salt and pepper. Tea drinking is deeply routed in Chinese culture, as it has been part of it since 3000BC. It is considered one of the seven necessities of Chinese life, along with firewood, rice, oil, salt, soy sauce and vinegar. Yet this is all being shaken up by globalisation and in particular, the growing increase of coffee houses. The young Chinese (especially in the cities) are seeing the Westerners drinking their coffee, and of course, are trying to emulate this as drinking coffee is "cool", "modern" and "fashionable", when drinking tea is only for the old generation. Starbucks (or 星巴克- pronounced xinbake) cafes are spreading like some sort of pandemic disease, but this time the government can't simply isolate it away in a quarantine.

Here is a Starbucks in Kuan-zhai Lane, Chengdu that I walked past last year on holiday. Kuan-zhai lane is a conservation of old architectural buildings, which has been converted to tourist hotspot with the housing being converted into restaurants, pubs, tea houses, coffee shops, stores selling souvenirs and crafts, etc. Of course, there is the obligatory Starbucks, which I think sticks out like a sore thumb amidst the Qing Dynasty architecture.

 What I found the most surprisingly though was that in the UK I think Starbucks is expensive, but in China - even though retail prices are soon catching up with the Western world - a standard beverage from Starbucks is in some cases, more than 10x more expensive than anything else sold in any similar calibre Chinese cafes. Yet, many young people are willing to waste away their money, spending large amounts of money at Starbucks when, then could have the same thing for far less, simply because they see being able to drink at 星巴克 as almost a status symbol. If you are seen sipping a drink from Starbucks, you must be cool, young, on trend and rich. This can be seen similar to the Chinese obsession with  Burberry and Nike- the young and incredibly wealthy generation that has grown up in newly industrialised China have no idea how to spend such vast amounts of money, so they simply do what they see portrayed in the media to the extent of becoming almost obsessive over branding and consumerism - one of the many problems of modern day China.

Of course, when something like Starbucks comes to China, there will always be a counterfeit version of it. In this case, when we passed a "Teabucks" it certainly made me chuckle. Lots of Chinese business fusing the relaxing and socialising atmosphere with the traditional tea house, to create a hybrid store which combines both aspects of coffee and tea houses with some harmless plagiarism - true Chinese style.

So yes, that was my long rambly post about coffee; it slightly segwayed into a few of my views on modern day China, but oh well. I was going to write a gripping and enthralling ending to this blog, but I'm tired now so...

Goodbye and drink good coffee,


Rebecca x
P.S. So glad to have finally have completed this post - it has taken me a long, long time. 
P.P.S. I like to listen to classical music whilst watching "University Challenge" to kid myself that I am well cultured and sophisticated. Here is some coffee related music:

Arkwright Scholarship Failure and GCSEs

Recently, I have been feeling quite down about life and just where I am heading towards. I have been a slight emotional wreck the past few days, and since haven't done a really personal post in quite a while, so I thought might as well write one now. Please note that this post is not to evoke sympathy for myself, and I also know that this post is probably going to be completely meaningless and boring for an outsider to read (and probably include many lexicon and syntax errors as my brain works faster than my fingers!) , but it is quite therapeutic to just let your thoughts spontaneously flow and just get out all of your emotions by filling up a blank word with absolutely everything that is bothering you, rather than let them manifest in the human psyche and let them affect what is truly important at the moment.

GCSE Results

I am sure that most of you are aware of the fact that yesterday, the nation's 14-18 year olds have received their results from the January unit exams. As for myself, I got back the results from my 3 science units: biology unit 2, physics unit 2, and chemistry unit 2 and I suppose I did alright. I know I may annoy many by me saying this, but I am not jumping off the roof top in ecstasy, proclaiming it to the world for a variety of reasons.

•  Everyone has their strengths and weaknesses, so to one person a B may be absolutely fantastic, but to others, it may equate to failure. So long as you have done your personal best, it shouldn't matter what your friends around have achieved as we are all individuals. 

Don't compare yourself to others! 

• These are my best subjects, so for myself, this is what I honestly had expected, as I had done lots of past papers and managed to achieve similar results. I personally feel like science exams are not challenging to any degree, simply because I revise from the specification points. Every exam board publishes this to the public, so if you learn every single point on this list, you have covered absolutely everything that could ever come up. Don't believe me? Well, the exam boards HAVE TO to produce exam papers that comply to their specifications and they are checked vigorously many times to make sure that they meet the guidelines. There are also various independent groups (such as Ofqual) that are paid to do tediously monotonous jobs to ensure that regulations are met. Some may argue that the B2 exam this year did stray away from the syllabus, and I do agree to  certain extent. There was a question on protein synthesis, which is not expected to be known in extent at this level, but many people became got really stuck on it, when in fact I think that, yes, it was a poorly worded question, but I reckon that too many people were overcomplicating it. With the sciences, there is always either a right or wrong answer and is purely factual, unlike languages and arts which is more opinion based. This means that if you can memorise the entire specification back to front, you will technically be able to answer every question possible. Obviously, this is easier said than done and exam technique is a huge contributing factor in exams, but I feel like this is something I managed to succeed with this for unit 2, thus ended up with some good results. 

Don't rely on revision guides!

Arkwright Scholarship 

So yes, yesterday was going pretty well until I found out the news that I have not made it through to the next stage of the application process - i.e. the interviews. Here is a diagram outlining my roller coaster of emotions regarding it. I made it an actual roller coaster/graph thingy as I am a nerd.

a) This is was the time between doing the aptitude paper and finding out the results, with the tension building.
b) Here is when I found out the I hadn't gotten a place - pretty much a downwards drop.
c) Due to the shock of finding out I was not successful, I went into this weird hysterical mood where I was in denial and thinking, "Wait, was I just dreaming that I didn't get it?" and "Perhaps they accidentally wrote down the wrong names?!".
d) This is when I was I was an emotional wreck: one minute I was feeling alright, next I would burst into tears. Darn emotions/hormones.
e) This is the stage that I am at: I have accepted that I have not got through, and have now moved on.

As you can probably tell, I am pretty annoyed about it for a variety of reasons:

• Why, why why?: 
•  I am extremely gutted, not because of the fact that I didn't get a place, but instead because I cannot imagine how I would've improved my application, or what I would've done better next time if I hypothetically could. I have pretty much flawless grades and I spent so much time making sure each section was filled to the brim with extra-curricular activities, volunteering and achievements (this is why I waste so much time in my life doing all this extra shizz.). As for the exam, I personally didn't feel like I did too badly regarding the designs, but of course, I don't not know how the entire cohort of the country did. 
• Statistics:  
• This may sound really bitter and like I can't take a loss with stride, but I completely perplexed as to why some people who on paper had a far weaker applications and designs than me got an interview, when I didn't. I sound really bitchy, but even my DT teacher said to me that I had the strongest application. However, then again, past statistics were going against me as :
• 28% of scholarships goes to private school students, when they in fact only educate 7% of students in the UK. I go to a state school myself.
• Only 20% of scholarships go to girls. I don't know about you, but I think these statistics are absolutely shocking even if it is a more "male-orientated" industry. They are attempting to encourage more women to work in these industries, but how are they going to achieve this if even from this early stage, there are clear inequalities. However, I do realised that I suppose I can't blame them for my failure - only myself.

• No Feedback?: 
• On the rejection letter,  they state that "With so many applications to assess, we are unable to provide specific feedback on any individual application". That I do understand, they have 1106 applications, so obviously cannot write back with a report about what they did wrong, but surely they could have at least given us a number out of 50, showing how we scored on the aptitude test. This couldn't have been that much of a hassle, and I would've felt like it would have made things so much clear as whether it was my application or my exam that let me down. However, OBVIOUSLY, they have so little time, that they can't even do that, if they can't even spell my name correctly...
•  Excuse Me?!:
• ...On my rejection letter, they also stated that my names was "Rebacca" not Rebecca. I do not understand how they could make such an idiotic mistake, I mean, it's hardly a hard name to spell and it could not have because they mis-read my hand writing as I wrote it on Microsoft Word. I am not a type of tobacco, nor am I a character from Star Wars!!! 

You may think I am a sore loser, but I suppose I am - I don't respond well to failure, especially when I have no idea why I did fail. I suppose the lesson I have learnt from this traumatic episode is that you cannot rely on anyone else for the future; if you want something to happen, you have to grasp it with your our hands and make it happen yourself. For example, in this case, the outcome of this scholarship was very much dependent on that one horrible marker. Yes, I am still distraught that this will not be something that I can add onto my CV in a few years time, but I feel like I now have a sudden epiphany - there is no point in trying to depend on these little things, and simply waiting for these opportunities to arise - and I am so grateful that I have had it at this stage, rather than have a nervous breakdown down  You should try to make them occur yourself, and let nothing be in the way of your goals or control the outcome. YES I am a control freak, but I'm proud of it.

I hope this is the last rendezvous I have with Arkwright, but time to say sayonara, move on and do something way better with my life. I hope that one day, I can look back at this moment of my life, and laugh about how worked up I got about not getting the scholarship as I am the CEO of a huge multi-million company, or future world leader. Muahaha.

~RANDOM BONUS NUGGET OF KNOWLEDGE~ 
(Because I feel like it, even though it has nothing to do with this post- sort of physics related?) 

Eureka!  
Did you know that the intejection usually associated with celebrating discovery is derived from the Ancient Greek "εὕρηκα heúrēka" meaning "I have found (it)"? This exclamation is most famously attributed to the ancient Greek scholar Archimedes. He reportedly proclaimed "Eureka!" when he stepped into a bath and noticed that the water level rose—he suddenly understood that the volume of water displaced must be equal to the volume of the part of his body he had submerged. This relation is known as Archimedes' principle and he was so eager to share his discovery, that jumped out his bath and streaked through the streets of Syrucuse naked.

Onwards and Upwards!


Rebecca x
P.S. As you can probably tell, my academics do mean an awful lot to me, and I am extremely self-motivated to do well in life, hence why I can write so much about it, but I apologise if this has been boring.
P.S.S I know I have said that I was going to finish my Chronicle of Ombre hair series, but I thought it would be way more meaningful and easier to understand if I actually recorded/ photographed the process of me dying my hair, instead of just describing it, so I'm going to postpone that until I dye my hair again. Truly sorry to anyone who wanted to see that!
P.P.P.S I love being in my weird essay writing mood. 
P.P.P.P.S If you have managed to read to the end of this waffly post, I commend you! You're a cool bean.

What I would do if I was a guy with boy parts

This is the eagerly anticipated response to my post on Sunday asking you guys for some random questions for me to answer. Surprisingly, I managed to have 3 questions asked, which is 3 more than I expected therefore I am very happy! Thank you to all my regular readers - you know who you are! You're awesome.

Question 1:

 Hello there Andy! And that is a good question - I have put alot of thought into this and there would probably be so many things that I would do if I was a boy. You hear alot of talk about gender equality but to be honest, having an XY chromosome makes a huge difference to if you have an XX chromosome, simply because we biologically built differently, so it would be stupid if we were all treated 100% the same.

All of that aside, the first thing I would do if I miraculously turned into a guy, I would put my hands down my pants. BEFORE you all judge me for being crude and disgusting, this is not to do what I can imagine what you are thinking that I would do!

Yes it's the return of Dwayne, the common chav. Fo'shizzle. Check him out in my previous post!

Many of my male friends have told me on various occasions that it is quite warm down there, hence why they always seem to have their hands down their pants, NOT doing what may be commonly assumed. I'm not too sure if I 100% believe this, so if I had the opportunity, I would like to experiment and see for myself!

Question 2:

 Hi "Anonymous" commenter! How are you today? Now, this is a tricky question, but if I had to pick someone in the whole world it would obviously be...

...FIONA, Princess Fiona from Shrek!

I worship thee.

Honestly, she is just such an inspirational fictional character, with such a big heart! She gives up her delicate, feminine beauty to become a grotesque green ogre for all eternity, simply because she is in love with one herself, and willing to make that selfless sacrifice. Also she is an expert in hand-to-hand combat with knowledge of Japanese martial arts, so she could also woop your arse. All in all, I think she is such a positive role model for everyone out there, and I love her so much. To show my dedication towards her, I am even forcing my Glee Club to sing a Shrek medley to celebrate her sheer godly-ness.

Question 3: 

 Yo MP! Oooh, good question, and to be honest, I don't think I have a straight answer. If you think back to what civilisation was like back in 1012, it is so completely different to what it was like now, so I cannot even imagine what it would be like in 3012. I doubt what happened in Wall.E would ever happen in reality, although I can imagine natural disasters exacerbated by global warming causing severe devastation to the planet - perhaps even a supervolcanic eruption? And as for Star Wars? I'm going to embarrass myself and say that I have never watched it before, but if we all end up with light-sabres, that would be cool. One of my favourite TV shows - Futurama - is set in the 3000s, and if the world ends up anything like it did in the television series, I would be happy.

Toodle-loo!


Rebecca x
P.S. I might make this a monthly feature on my blog, so if you want me to answer anymore questions, post them below in the comments section, and I'll most probably feature them in a future post. :)

Gobbledygook

*PLEASE IGNORE THE TITLE OF THIS BLOG POST* - I couldn't think of what to name it, so I just called it an interesting word to pronounce, even though it bares no connection to actual content of this post. 

When I haven't written a blog post in some time, I always go out the swing of things, and find it hard to know where to start. I always love writing lists, so here's a few that I have been taking down mentally throughout the week. Since it is almost the end of February, I thought I might as well do a monthly round up! Click here for my post about January. 

In February I have:

• Been to HJ and MB's 16th birthday parties
• Eaten so much food in 2 days that I have felt physically sick - Indian restaurant, followed by a "Brett-fast" and finished off with a Thai buffet
• Got a new phone - finally
• Made profiteroles with MP
• Went to the South Bank for a music GCSE trip
• Completed phase one of my Adventures with FC
• Was scared shitless by Woman in Black

I know that I'm really stressed/busy when...

• I have literally no lunchtimes or break times free during the school week because I have that many extra-curricular clubs.
• I spend more time in the music department than with my friends.
• My forehead is an oil-slick, exploding with a plethora of spots.
• I have no time to write beloved blog posts (I'm sorry guys!)
• I worry too much.
• I look like death in the morning, but I'm too tired to attempt to put on some make up to mask it
• I don't dream at night - I only dream when I'm not sleeping deeply.
• I have no time to catch up with my favourite television programs, such as Skins and Desperate Housewives.
• Everything else, apart from the task I need to do, seems so interesting and alluring. 
• I am constantly hungry.
• I shout at my parents about the most trivial things. 
• Time goes by rapidly.

That pretty much sums up my last week. However, it hasn't all been doom and gloom.

I have been liking...

• My new phone! I've now got a new HTC Wildfire S (like most of my friends it seems nowadays) and I've really been enjoying it. I have made the wallpaper of it match this blog and my favourite app by far is one for making to-do lists - yes I am that lame. Whoever made that app is a genius as it's pretty much perfect for me.
• Glee club! Yes, again, I am super lame, but it's been going suprising well - I am really looking forward to the school concert now. Don't know what Glee Club is?
• Blogging! I'm going to end up writing this every month, but this blog is like my baby. I really do enjoy posting.
• The fact that it's the 29th February tomorrow! This only happens every 4 years so it must surely be exciting.

What I am currently craving: 

1.  UNIF H8 Ball Tee - I need some more graphic tees
2. Deena & Ozzy Rayanne Lace Up Boot - These are probably the most fugly shoes ever, but I absolutely love the 90's grunge vibe. 
3. Purple Tie Dye Crop Top - I've decided that when I have a chance, I'm going to do some more tie dying as I actually quite like the look of it. Plus, this top is also velvet - my favourite fabric.
4. Stripy Leggings - Been wanting some for yonks, but I want some that are of a thick material, so I can wear them as trousers, but not printed denim jeans, as I hate wearing jeans. 

Aside from clothing and shoes, I also really really really want to get onto the Headstart course, get into the next stage of the Arkwright Scholarship and go to Madagascar next year for the expedition.

Just to finish off, here is possibly one of my favourite songs ever. It's such a haunting and chilling version of Britney Spears' Toxic, but it's so beautiful. I love the dark and avant garde twist.

I would put some goals for March (time flies) but I can't think of anything at the moment, plus my eyelids are feeling rather heavy - I have already spent over an hour on this post already.

Toodle-loo


Rebecca x

P.S. Just like to ask, does anyone actually care about my thoughts on fashion, clothing and style? If not, I'll stop posting about it, and make a separate blog for it!
P.P.S.I'd just like to say hey and THANK YOU to all my regular readers. If you want to make sure that you don't miss any posts, add this bookmark to your browser by dragging the picture below to your bookmark bar. It'll work I promise, just test it out!

I'm thankful for...

I feel like I haven't written a talky-talky post is quite sometime, so I am going to do one for today's BEDIHT (Blog Every Day In Half Term). On Wednesday, my friend Stripeytofu, wrote his post: "I'm thankful for...", and I'm going to write my own version of it in response to it.

WARNING: THIS IS A WAFFLY, BADLY STRUCTURED AND A MARATHON OF A POST, SKIP TO THE BRAIN AT THE END FOR A SUMMARY

My Parents:
Obviously my parents are who I am most thankful for, as most people would say. This is because they are usually the people in the world who  teach you some of the most important and basic skills required for a successful life: what is right and wrong; how to converse and communicate and how to look after yourself, so hopefully one day, you can leave the nest, live your own life and pass on these skills to the next generation - it's basic biology.

Now as for myself, I may not have a story as poignant as Stripeytofu and even though I may have not appreciated it at the time, I am eternally grateful for what they have taught me and done for my upbringing.

• Independence
• I personally think that I am a very independent person for my own age (you can be the judge of that). This is mainly because my parents have given me so many opportunities to explore the world by forcing me do things, which to begin with may feel scary, but is something vital to learn. For example, I have been to a variety of places by myself, plus I also went on a plane to Finland for the first time when I was 11, which at the time, was really nerve racking, but now I know how to navigate an airport. It has taught me try new things, take the risk and not be afraid.
• I also think that this independence has made me very self-motivated. I strive to achieve, not because my mum is going to shout at me if I don't, or to impress to parents, but for my own satisfaction. Even though perhaps, deeper down that may be still a reason, but it is not the sole reason. If I achieve an A* in an exam, I don't go telling my parents, or anyone else for a matter of fact. I try to be pro-active as possible, and find my own opportunities, than relying on other. 
• Eek, I just realised these two paragraph makes me sound so egotistical and I hate talking about myself, so don't judge me And no, I am not using reverse psychology.
• Appreciating other cultures and travel
• This is something that is a huge part of my life, and is something I am extremely, extremely thankful for. Being a BBC means that I have been able to appreciate two different cultures, and my parents have done very well to try and bring alive my cultural heritage. We go on holiday almost every year to a variety of countries. These holidays, however, are never just sun bathing on the beach. I always manage to learn something from these holidays to places of cultural/historical importance. I feel like appreciating other cultures is absolutely imperative for the future as the world is becoming increasingly globalised, and multicultural. Cultural understanding and acceptance is the key living harmoniously together (I sound like Confucius or someone!). I am going to write a more in depth post on this subject later this week, as I feel like a measly paragraph cannot do it justice.
• Obviously, I am thankful that my parents have the time and money to take me on holiday, as I do realise that lots of parents aren't able to do that, so thank you!
• Modesty
• This is almost a paradox by saying this, but I thank my parents for making sure that I'm always modest - lol, what a hypocrite.
•  Violin lessons
• Again I am not attempting reverse psychology or anything, but I do not think I am very musically talented in anyway, at all. Why are you grade 8 violin I hear you ask? Well, I think it's simply because my parents have been sending me to music lessons since I was 7, and I practise (sometimes!). This is all thanks for my parents, especially since music lessons are so PAINFULLY expensive.
• Taxi driving
• Some of my musical activities are very far away, so thank you Dad for driving 60km a day for a week, for my music course! Also, I must mention that my school is 15 mins away from our house and there is no bus, so thank you for driving my sister, others and I to school every day for the 11 years - now that's dedication.
• Having a love for food
•  Something that is a HUGE part of my life is - of course - food. My parents have taught me something, which I am SOOO grateful for, and that is to not be picky with food. I can honestly say I am probably the least picky person you could ever come across. This is probably because I love food so much and that my parents fed me some food from a young age, which you guys may find rather bizarre/grotesque/stomach turning, but I find delicious! For example, in this week alone, I have eaten frogs legs, pigs ears, and fish cheeks.
• Culinary skills 
• My mum is a whizz in the kitchen and has passed on a few tips to me about food preparation, but I really hope to learn as much as I can before I leave for university.  

The Internet: 
We are the first generation who cannot remember a time without the Internet, or a personal computer, thus in that sense, I am so grateful to live at a time in history when technology is so quickly evolving and changing our lives.

Why it's so cool:

• If anyone has any problem they need solving, type it into Google and BAM, there you go, an answer in around 0.15 of a second. 
• They say the uprising and revolutions in the Middle East were catalysed by social media via the Internet. 
• Over 35 hours of video is uploaded to Youtube every minute.
• Imagine if North Korea had the same level of technology and accessibility to Internet as South Korea, and everyone suddenly became computer-literate, what would happen?
• We can't deny that we do enjoy those Internet memes such as the troll face, nyan cat or rickrolling. 

 

What optimises the Internet - in my eyes - is that there is freedom of speech, and when there is opposition against it, such as SOPA/ACTA/PIPA, a huge backlash is prevalent. That is why I do believe that when governments do block/regulate the internet (such as the Great Firewall of China), it can be so detrimental. That, and also the fact that it does enable opposite sides of the globe to be connected in milliseconds, linking into the ideas of increasing globalisation and other points I mentioned earlier.

Anyway, I enough about all that deep stuff. I really should do some more research before these types of posts - I don't claim to be a expert in this topic! Back to what I was getting, I am also so thankful for blogger, as doing BEDIHT, has made me realise just how much I enjoy doing it, and being able to express my views online, even if no one is reading it.

Future Posts:

• Being a BBC (British Born Chinese)
• Drinking culture vs Food culture
• Cultural intolerance and Stereotyping
• (They sound so lame, but they will be enlightening!)

Okay, that was a really long post. Sorry if my writing and grammar is a bit flouncy and incoherent- I am in a weird essay writing mood (what has the world come to!) and I think I went off on a tangent on quite a few subjects. I am a pseudo-intellectual, at least at the moment!

In summary, I am thankful for my parents for teaching me everything I know, and the internet for being awesome. 

Hasta la vista,


Rebecca x

P.S. CONGRATS if you've gotten this far and the entire post, you are a true fan!
P.P.S.   Support me by following via Google Friend Connect
P.P.P.S Create a bookmark of ScatterrBrained, to stay updated to the posts, simply drag the image below onto the bookmark bar above your tabs. Please do this as I spent yonks making and editing that tiny image - time to learn how to use Photoshop/Gimp etc!
P.P.P.P.S I probably have missed out lots of words etc. in this post, but my eyes are going funny from after staring at this screen for 2 hours, so I'll proof read it later, and you can giggle and laugh at it for the moment being. 

Tribute to my dad and careers

Yesterday, my friend Wendy wrote a post about role models that she has in her life, on her blog, which made me ponder who is my role model in my life. This, coincided with the fact that I have reached a stage in my life where I have to make vital decisions about my future (such making A Level options and future aspirations and careers), has made me realise that possibly the greatest inspiration for myself, is my father/dad. 


The primary reason why I see my dad as such an inspiration is because he is so clever. He is obviously academically intelligent, but then again, lots of people have parents who are- some even have multiple PhDs, for example! However, what is most inspiring is not his achievements in academia, but his practical ability to solve every day problems. 


Every single problem that I can come across, my dad can usually think of a simple, yet effective solution, one which is probably so obvious to him, but absolutely genius to us mere mortals. If you look around our house, there is something in each room which he probably made/fixed/improved by hand. 

• We needed a new bookshelf, he made 5 new ones from planks of plywood
• We needed more room for storage, so he converted the loft and placed new floor boards and built a conservatory
• The light in the cupboard under the stairs had broken, so he placed a new LED light which would automatically turn on when the cupboard door was open
• He made my grandma a chicken pen for her chickens when they grew too large for their old one
• He made my mum's wedding ring by melting and casting some gold that he had

And the list goes on and on...

I suppose those examples just make him sound like a handy man, but he really isn't. Anyone can nail some wood together. It's having intuition to think of innovative solutions that impresses me. 

For example, once we were going on holiday for a few days, leaving behind no one to feed the fish. Therefore, he created this fish feeding device. He had this sort of tape player device, and within each layer of the film, he would place a few flakes of fish food, and then place the device a the top of the fish tank. We would then press play on the tape player, and the film would unravel, causing the fish food to drop and thus, feed the fish. He worked out a speed for the tape player to run, in order for the fish to not be fed too much food, and how much fish flakes would be needed for the entire duration of the holiday. It's hard to explain, but basically he came up with a contraption which actually did work well, using resources that were available to him, and solved the problem. 

For his career, I must admit, I don't really understand his business, but what I find most interesting is that he once told me that some of the technologies that he is developing and using didn't even exist during times that he was in university. I know that he isn't Lord Alan Sugar, and isn't making millions from his products, but, this is something that definitely spurs me on in life - I also wish to make discoveries, and then develop them further into viable products to improve and make a difference and advancement to the society we live in. Of course, people skills are invaluable, but development in sciences and technology is what is going to shape each and everyone of our futures. 


So here I am, soon starting to build the foundations of my career with my A levels. It is always good to think about what your end goal is going to be, and it's important to learn from the people around you. My dad is someone I definitely someone I am going to aspire to be like.


Good speed, 




Rebecca x


P.S. If anyone is wondering, I am taking maths, further maths, chemistry, physics, Chinese and design and technology for AS, and maths, chemistry and physics for A2! I hope!