AUGUST MUSIC FAVOURITES

Like last month, I thought I'd do a little recap of the songs of the songs I've loved this month! However like I said before, I'm not very up to date so these songs are basically just the ones I've added to my Spotify playlist since last time...

YEAR ABROAD INSURANCE

Oh my god I'm actually writing about something semi-useful to anyone needing year abroad advice!!!

MY TOP 10 BOOKS

I know I posted about the BBC Top 100 Challenge but I'm not really a classics reader and would love some recommendations, so I thought I'd roll this in with my top 10 books. If you could recommend any new ones based on these, preferably ones with ebooks I can get for free - poor student and that - I'd love you forever! Well, at least a day.

MY TOP 10 TV SHOWS

As a student I don't really watch TV the conventional way - I always watch it online on catch-up, or on Netflix, or downloading the whole thing and marathonning it. It means coming home for the summer watching actual TV with the adverts just annoys me. Following on from my top 10 films, today I'm going to tell you about my top 10 TV shows! I have most of them downloaded to my external hard drive so I may end up rewatching them in Spain.

HOPES AND PLANS FOR MY YEAR ABROAD

Until I'm actually there, it's difficult for me to actually write about my year abroad. However my creative juices are flowing hence all the posts about other things. I do hope they're interesting. Anyway today I wanted to talk about what I hope to achieve whilst I'm out in Spain!

INDEPENDENCE

It's now less than two weeks until I move to Spain. Even though I am deathly petrified about the whole moving to a different country and having to study in a different language thing, I cannot wait to have some independence again! Being at home with my family is nice but they're so annoying. It's just going to be nice to have a space that is all mine again, a room that is just mine, a sitting room where I don't have to hoover it until I want to, a kitchen where I choose when to do the dishes. I sound super ungrateful and I'm really not but once you get used to having your own house and then having to come back and live under someone else's rules is just so annoying.

A NORWICH REUNION

Been a bit silent on the blogging front recently, but for a good reason. I spent the last weekend, Thursday to Monday back in my lovely lovely Norwich, for a last visit with my amazing pals, to celebrate James' birthday and to have a nice pretendy birthday for me. I can't even explain how fab it was to see everyone again. I'm just going to relay the events, mainly so I can remember. I know not everyone will be interested in our hourly movements but it's the last time I saw them before Spain and waaaah sad. It's now two weeks before I go which is insane.

DECORATION

One of my biggest issues at the minute (other than the fact I move to Spain in less than three weeks whaaaat) actually concerns what happens when I reach my room in Spain! I'm looking for ways to make my room feel homely without bringing my lifesize cutout of Robbie Williams. In first year of uni one of the walls provided was basically a giant pinboard and mine was covered in photos and other bits and pieces. 

TIMELAPSE

I saw two videos the other day that made me realise just how lucky I am. As the title suggests, they are timelapse videos.

CHILLI & GARLIC CHICKEN | RECIPE

I love cooking so much and obviously I'm great at it because Gordon Ramsay followed me on Twitter. Since being back home for the summer, I've stuck to the same few dishes. Mainly because I don't do my own grocery shopping and have to contend with what's in the house! I think I've probably made this at least 14 times since June. My nana came round the other day and asked for the recipe so I thought I'd stick it up here!

WISHLIST

Yep. I've become one of those bloggers. Doing a wishlist. Well, my birthday is coming up and I'm about to leave for Spain sooooo gotta push my luck somehow. Also my student loan comes in next week so that's dangerous and it's better if I make a list!

HOME

As one of the few people in my hometown to actually leave and become a student elsewhere, I've since felt disassociated from where I grew up. It's not because here is awful (it kind of is awful, but that's not why) but being at home doesn't really feel like being home.

MINIMALISM

I come from a family of hoarders. My stepdad is the worst. He keeps EVERYTHING. I used to be the same but recently I keep having the same compulsion to get rid of everything. The last time my Mam cleared out our shoe (and coat and tool and other crap) cupboard, I was there saying "bin it!" to absolutely everything. Also quite often I have to dust our sitting room and there are all sorts of little trinkets everywhere. Like paperweights. And empty vases. And a wine glass covered in glitter. I don't even know. They annoy me so much! Recently I've been watching more property programmes (I'm an unemployed student, shush) and they always buy stupid little trinket things to decorate. What is the point! They just collect dust! Oh man, it annoys me so much. I am having ZERO trinkets/ornaments/things in my house.

OTHER BLOGGING PALS

If you're reading my blog you're either a family member or you think a year abroad is interesting or have nothing else to do, so you may as well read some other blogs by my fellow LCS lovelies who are also being flung across the world to pretend to know what they're doing! Only a few people are doing them so far but I will definitely update the list if more people decide to. If you're an LCS pal reading this then please make a blog so I can read it and stalk you and miss you loads because I already do aw pals.

JULY MUSIC FAVOURITES

Since we've just got out of July, thought I'd write about the songs I was loving last month! I'm not even going to pretend I'm up to date on music. I haven't known what's in the charts since I started university because I stopped watching music channels. Heart FM is my favourite radio station and all I listen to is my Spotify playlist which is full of Robbie Williams and 80s power ballads and 00s boybands like Blue. However I thought I'd do a post on a few of the new songs I actually found this month. I promise none of these are Robbie Williams.

DAFT MYSPACE QUIZ

I'm in one of those moods where I want to write but have no inspiration so when I saw this 'myspace quiz' type deal in my Tumblr drafts I decided to answer it here. I haven't done one of these for aaaaages.

• 1:6 of the songs you listen to most?
• At the minute? Outgrow - Lewis Watson, Bloodstream - Ed Sheeran, She's Like the Wind - Patrick Swayze, Bubblin' - Blue, Latch - Disclosure, XO - John Mayer. I'm so weird.

L'ÉCUME DES JOURS | MOOD INDIGO | FILM REVIEW

On Friday when I told an Oxfam campaigner I was going to see a French film, all she responded with was 'why?' So many people miss out on so many films just because they're in a different language and it makes me sad. Anyway. I saw 'L'Écume Des Jours', translated as 'Mood Indigo' at Newcastle's independent 'Tyneside Cinema'. I do love an independent cinema, they show some really good films that the big chains don't, like anything in a different language or something like 'Boyhood' which I saw a few weeks ago.