Lifescouts: French Language Badge.

Bonjour Sweeties!

Comment ça va? - How's it going?

Oui! Je parle Français, un petit peu! - I speak French a little bit.

When I was little living in Kent we'd used to get the ferry over to France every other weekend just to have a look at the markets. I always found the French accent funny to hear as I didn't understand it one bit.

Until, I moved to Newcastle where learning French was mandatory in my new Primary School.

Right the way through from Year 1 till Year 10 I was taught French, you'd think I would be fluent but I'm not. I never really stuck at it enough and when the summer holidays came around, when we'd go back to school I'd forgotten most of it!

I know enough to get my by on holiday which is always a plus :)

In Year 6, we actually went to French for a week we stayed in the amazing Château de la Baudonnière, we went on day trips to Le Mont Saint Michel which was beautiful, to the local shops in and around Normandy and we made bread! 

As simple as it sounds it was so fun!

Oh, and we ate a snail covered in garlic sauce and a frog's leg. Both  taste like chicken, yes I know everyone says that but they DO!

 I took the snail shell home as proof to my mam, she wasn't happy my bag stunk of garlic for about a week.

I really need to go back to Le Mont Saint Michel and to actually go to Paris then my love affair with France will be over.

Do you speak French?

Much Love, 

M! xo

Changes.

Hey Sweeties,

My current house has been my home for 13 years, every wall, door and window has seen my tears and heard my laughs. Many memories have been created here, too many good and a few bad. When I was 9-12 years old I had the typical girly pink room, 13-20 my room has been purple and white.

But now it's time for a change as my mum and I are moving.

Closer to family.

All my life I've lived in a 3 bedroom house, now we're downsizing to a 2 bedroom ground floor flat.

My mum says it's a new chapter of her life, in this house her marriage broke down and her partner died, now she's on her own, obviously she still has me.

&

For me, it's a new start to make new friends, not always be late for lectures. A new chapter to start my impending adult life, yikes! The end of uni going out into the big wide world. I will be sad to leave this house but I'm also extremely excited to move, hello new bedroom!

 (It's all planned out and everything, in my head)

Now, the stress begins packing everything up and reminiscing, living out of boxes and decorating, basically not so much fun times ahead. 

Just got to keep thinking of the end product.

There'll be many stressed tweets and photographs on Instagram, so I'm apologising in advance!

Much Love,
M! xo

My Hero.

Hey sweeties!

I know in my last post I said this one would be a NOTD but there's something much more important I'd like to share with you.

Mr Eric Fudge.

This ladies is my grandad.

 My earliest memory of him was placing me into a washing basket with his work hat on, this memory was thankfully captured on film which I only recently found out, so now its placed on my wall. When we lived in Ireland, Germany and Kent he and my grandma would visit regularly from Newcastle. Once my dad finished the army we lived with him for a while, then when my dad left me and my mam he became a father figure, a fantastic one.

As I grew older I started to spend more time with him, when school finished I'd go to his and watch Countdown until my mam and grandma came back from shopping. He never had a bad word to say about anyone except for the horses that lost him money. 

He collected coins, read books on ships and maps, he loved to watch the horse racing and football supporting both Newcastle and Sunderland, as his dad was a Sunderland supporter BOO! :)

 Every Boxing day the family would gather and we'd play Chase the Ace where he'd always cheat, sometimes we'd pretend not to see :) 

We'd always call him a silly bugger.

He'd always sing a song and say 'Who sang that?' Me! :)

I'd ask 'You alright? No I'm half left' :)

He wasn't just my grandad, he was a dad, a husband, brother, father in law, uncle and  most importantly my friend too. Whenever I was sad I'd tell him, if I had a secret I'd tell him. I could trust him with anything, he wouldn't say anything he'd just listen. 

I was lucky to have him in my life for 18 and a half years.

He passed away a year today.

He waited for us to be beside his bed until he passed.

A week after he passed we took a trip up to Eyemouth for the day scattering his ashes by the sea. My grandma chose there as they'd take a holiday there every year in the olden days.

My last photo with him a week before he passed.

My grandad worked on ships, so to honour his memory I wanted an anchor tattoo on my wrist. So I searched in Google specific anchors to do with Shipwrights, clicked on a link and scrolled down to see my Grandad over 30 years ago. 

Since finding this photo I know that its the perfect thing to do.

Thanks for reading,

I hope you have someone in your life like my grandad.

Do you have any memories of passed loved ones?

Please share in the comment section, I'd love to hear them.

M! xo

Monday's Memory - School trips

Hello sweeties!

I'm currently looking to go on my first holiday with friends and no adults!

While searching through destinations I'm remembering some fond memories I thought I'd share with you.

#New York.

The most exciting holiday I've had so far. I went for 5 days with my art class last year which consisted of 14 pupils and 2 teachers. We stayed a hostel which was very basic you had a locker to put your stuff in, a bunk bed and a sink. The window wouldn't open the fan wouldn't work and the room was far too hot. I had to sleep in shorts and vests baring in mind there was half a foot of snow outside! We followed a little itinerary that we all put together, as it was an art trip we had to visit art museums, which I love doing anyway. We visited MOMA (I need to go back now! My favourite artist Cindy Sherman has an exhibition on now), The Met Museum,  American Museum of Natural History (I wanted to get lost in here forever! It's amazing!!) and more. Views from the Empire State Building and the Rockefeller Centre were truly breath taking. Everyday we'd have breakfast next door at the cutest diner ever, I'd have pancakes everyday (I know, not healthy but this was America baby!) We went ice skating in Central Park and had our tea in the Hard Rock Cafe, made a new friend called Mustafa.

Times Square was just phenomenal we past MTV studios where Justin Beiber was filming, we stood outside trying to see if we could spot him a friend got interviewed; 

Camera guy: Do you like Justin Bieber?

Ellie: God no.

(Ellie is the poshest person I know)

#Stratford Upon Avon.

This was another trip with the school but this was with my English Literature class.

English Literature + Stratford Upon Avon = Shakespeare!

Yes, the birth place of the worlds greatest writer. Our main intention was to see a play performed by The Royal Shakespeare company, but the theatre was closed for repairs. So it was a mini trip away still learning about Shakespeare for our then up coming exams. We stayed in this beautiful mansion. We had to drive down which felt like ages, but our teachers were the entertainment whilst Mr C drove he constantly bitched about other teachers. On the trip we took an open top bus tour around the city, we sat at the back upstairs so when we passed the trees people were getting hit by the branches. As Mr C brought a schools credit card we all went for a lovely meal and bought plenty of wine! We visited Shakespeare's home which was so small yet quite cute. On day it was extremely hot so we sat by the harbour and fed the ducks.

One thing I hated about this trip were that the bathrooms were communal.

I was in the shower and heard someone knocking on the door. I knew that Stephen and Matthew were also having a shower at the same time (I checked the locks so many times, they DID work) I didn't know what to do so I hid behind the door with my head popping out.

Stephen: Michelle is there anyone in your room?

Me: There should be why? 

Stephen: Well, we've left the key in our room so we only have this *looking down at the towel wrapped around him*

Me: Oh, well yeah Kate should be in so just knock.

I came back to the room and Kate showed me this picture. They had to go downstairs like that, thank god there was a spare key.

M! xo