“This Summer I Will…”|Dreams That Glitter

So last summer was the longest summer I’ve ever had after my GCSEs, we had about 10 weeks off I think! So of course as you do I planned that I wanted to do all kinds of exciting things and then the reality is that you just sit around at home watching TV series and soon the time goes past super quickly and I was back at school before I knew it!! But I just thought I’d comment on the list I posted around this time last year to see how much I actually achieved with all that extra time…

1. Get Fitter and Healthier
This one did actually happen! My mum is a fitness instructor so she teaches all kinds of group exercise classes and I went with her quite a lot last summer. I’ve started going on my own a bit more since then as well and I’ve been going with her this summer too, last week I managed 12 classes in 5 days!!

2. Improve Flexibility
I think I remember I did a bit of a stretching routine for a few weeks and then it went out the window. I do think I’m a bit more flexible from all the extra dance though.

3. Get a Job
Now this I did! Since my mum works at the leisure centre, they allowed me to do some receptionist training for a couple of weeks in the summer – I did about 40 hours voluntarily or something ridiculous. Come September there was some hours going though, so I applied for those, had an interview and got the job! So I’ve been working there ever since, not many hours and just at weekends and whatever cover I can squeeze in in between dance, but I quite enjoy it.

4. Go to London
I’m quite a frequent London traveler these days, I’m actually going tomorrow and Sunday! I’ve had a few really good days out in London even if they just involve wandering around aimlessly with my friends.

5. Learn Italian
I think this lasted a week. If that.

6. Read More
This may have happened last summer a bit, the only time I get to read now is on my super quiet Sunday evening shifts!

7. Summer Dance Intensive
I did a 3 day intensive at Hot House Dance last year, and there was another one in half term earlier this year which I really enjoyed; quite disappointed there isn’t one over the summer this year.

8. Pass Intermediate Foundation Ballet
This I definitely did do. I got a high merit! I’m currently awaiting my Intermediate results ahh!!

9. Go to a Blog Meet Up
This has sadly not happened yet!

10. Blog More Regularly
Ha. No comment needed really…

What goals do you have this summer and how likely are you to stick to them?

I’m Still Alive |Dreams That Glitter

I barely even remember the last time I blogged wow… I have absolutely no idea if there’s anyone left to read this as my blog has been completely and utterly abandoned and neglected for about a year! But I guess I kind of want to start this up again, at least for the summer – how else am I supposed to spend the next 6 weeks I have off school? (Ignoring the mountain of work I have to do before we go back, eek).

So I guess this post is just going to be a little life update and then I’ll start planning some posts properly, maybe even queue a few and have a set day to post them. Maybe. There’s also just as much chance of me writing this post and then not returning for another year…

Anyway. So as I said, I’ve just finished my first year of sixth form, I’m studying Fashion & Clothing BTEC and A Level Dance, I did Drama at AS as well but I finished it so long ago and I’ve been so busy with everything else that it kinda feels like I never did. Fashion literally takes up ALL of my spare time, it’s a double qualification equivalent to 2 A Levels so we have 10 hours a week, and basically all of my frees are spent in the department as well desperately trying to meet deadlines etc… I might do another separate post about the course and some of the things I’ve made at some stage?

So when I’m not doing Fashion, I’m dancing – my life basically revolves around dance entirely now, more than it ever has before. I’ve been on the Hertfordshire CAT Scheme this year (we have our final performance at The Place next week ahh!!) and that’s been really good, I’m also now in a local youth dance company so I’ve done a few different projects with them and I’m carrying on with that next year too. I did my Intermediate ballet exam last week as well, so now I’m officially an advanced ballet student… and I’ve been helping my ballet teacher with some of the younger classes which I’ve really enjoyed and hope to do more of when we go back!

Now I’ve got 7 weeks of dance supposedly… I looked at doing a residential intensive but decided to use my money to start learning to drive instead (I’ve had about 15 hours now so probably about half way there, I’d like to pass my test by the end of the year ideally). Last year I did a 3 day intensive at Hot House Dance and did workshops with Rambert, Akram Khan, Wayne McGregor and Richard Alston company members which was all amazing, there was a range of styles across the few days including ballet, contemporary and commercial. Unfortunately that isn’t happening this year, and another course that I applied for got cancelled due to lack of numbers… But I am hopefully doing a 5 day intensive at Rambert in a few weeks but it’s not booked yet so not entirely finalised… (watch this space).

Staying on the subject of dance… I auditioned for the English Youth Ballet production of The Sleeping Beauty in Stevenage a few weeks ago, I didn’t get in on the day but they put me on the waiting list and then contacted me a couple of weeks later offering me a place! The casting day was last week and I’m one of the ‘Guests’ which obviously isn’t a major part but I think I’ll be en pointe for the whole thing and should get a couple of dances, so I’m really excited and think it’s going to be a fantastic experience. The performance is in October so we have a few intensive weekend rehearsals from September-October; it’s going to be completely exhausting but totally worth it!

I think that’s it for now… I’m not really sure when I’ll post again but I’d like to get back into it.

Thanks for reading!!

Meeting Dianna Agron after seeing her perform in McQueen

Ballet Show Feburary

On stage at the London Coliseum after an English National Ballet Workshop

With my mum at the Red Nose Day Danceathon

West End Live

Last weekend I went to West End Live, which is a massive gala of the shows currently being shown in the west end. It is a free public event and allows people to see the highlights from the biggest and best productions. There’s a huge variety of performances from Billy Elliot to Phantom of the Opera, and it’s a big family event which everyone can enjoy. This year the event celebrated it’s 10th birthday. I’ve never been before but after going this year I’m already excited to go next year.

The event took place in Trafalgar Square, London, and the first performance was due to start at 11, and being about an hour’s train journey from London, I got the 7:20 train into St Pancras International with my friends to ensure we got there early enough to get a good spot. I think we queued for about an hour before being let in, and the queues were enormous and rather confusing, but when we got in we ended up quite near the front and had a pretty good view of the stage. I was slightly concerned about not being able to seeing anything considering my height (flashbacks to the Imagine Dragons concert where I couldn’t see anything excpet the odd flick of Wayne’s hair), but it was fine.

We saw performances from the following shows, varying from 5-15 minutes each:

The Commitments
Once The Musical
Wicked
Billy Elliot The Musical
Les Miserables
Phantom of the Opera
Miss Saigon
The Pajama Game
Matilda The Musical
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
Dirty Rtten Scoundrels
Jersey Boys
Mamma Mia!
The Bodyguard
Since it was a scorching hot day, 6 hours later after all that standing directly in the sun, we were all pretty tired and needed food and drinks, we’d seen everything we were desperate to see and so we headed out of the venue and went to find somewhere to get refreshments.

 

Everything was fantastic, I’ve never seen a show in the west end before so everything was pretty new to me, other than the really well known ones like Les Mis, Wicked and Mamma Mia. Seeing all the snippets from the shows has made me even more keen to go and see a show though, but there’s so many to choose from, I’d honestly love to see them all!

If I had to pick a top 3 from Saturday, I think it would have to be Les Mis (their performance managed to give me shivers and goosebumps even though it was about 25 degrees – if that’s not something I don’t know what is), Wicked and Miss Saigon, which are all really different. I’ve wanted to see Wicked for ages now, I missed the opportunity to see it on tour at Milton Keynes which is the closest theatre to me, but I’m really hoping to see it in the west end soon. I’m currently reading the book, so at least I’ll get more of an idea of the story. I’d also really love to see Once, I have the soundtrack on my iTunes and I love it, it’s so relaxing. My friend went to see it back in April and loved it, so that made me want to see it even more. I need to watch the movie!

I’d never heard of it before Saturday but I’d quite like to see The Pajama Game too, it looks like a really fun show and I loved the choreography, it made me want to join in.

So yeah, I’m not sure if I put this on my Summer Bucket List already, but consider ‘See a West End show’ added to it!

Lauren x

My Week In Pictures |Dreams That Glitter

I wanted to write a short summary of my week so here we go… On Monday I had a revision day, and that makes it sound like I had a productive working day but actually I just did a few pages of notes and got bored, but I guess I can say I’ve officially started revising now?

On Tuesday I went down to London for the day on my own for an audition (I got there and back successfully without being mugged or getting lost, go me) and it was quite a fun day, it was a good experience at least. I got the letter back today and unfortunately I didn’t get into the course but whatever…

On Wednesday I went to Nottingham, which I’ve been wanting to do for a good few years now. For those of you who don’t know, it’s the hometown of Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean, and if you don’t know who they are by now then go and find out before you continue reading. I’m serious. Me and my friend got dropped off at the National Ice Centre and we met up with a twitter friend who is over from New Zealand which was lovely. From there we decided to walk to the TnD estate because why not? I’ve always wanted to visit it and I’m glad I got the opportunity too. However, I do recommend if you’re going to walk 5 miles then don’t wear shoes that hurt because by the end of it your feet will be cut up and walking will prove to be difficult. Anyway we saw all the signs and took pictures and got a couple of strange looks from the people who lived there but we can’t be the only ones to do that… It was worth all the walking anyway, and we had to get the bus back to the rink. We then skated for about an hour before returning home, and I had a really nice time there. I really like Nottingham and I can’t wait to go back!

On Wednesday evening I went to my friends house for her birthday which was on Tuesday and that was fun, we had a joint cake made by two of our friends which is in the collage, and it tasted really good.

On Thursday I went to see Divergent at the cinema which was amazing! I’ve read the books and they’re one of my favourite series and because I love the books so much the movie was a disappointment in places but overall I really enjoyed it and totally recommend. After that I went out for an early birthday meal with my family which was really nice.

Friday was my birthday and I had a really good day, my mum dragged me along to her fitness classes (she’s an instructor) and made me wear a birthday banner and then got everyone to sing happy birthday…not embarrassing at all… After a quick trip to tesco to pick a cake and buy a few other bits, I had some friends over and I don’t really know what we did exactly but we had a good time!

So that brings me to Saturday and I went shopping with my mum which is always amusing, we just end up laughing at the most horrible clothes we can find.

I appreciate this post is mostly personal ranting about my life and I don’t know if you guys like these kind of posts but let me know either way!

Lauren x

Internet Friends |Dreams That Glitter

Starting from yesterday, going right through to next Saturday, this week is going to be amazing… It started with our long awaited sleepover last night, which I’ll talk more about in a minute. On Tuesday I’m going to see Imagine Dragons, then on Thursday I’m going to see the second part of The Hunger Games series, Catching Fire. I wanted to read the book again before I went but I don’t think that’s going to happen now I’ve been busy (procrastinating). On Friday Glee is on which always makes the week better but I do believe there’s a fair bit of Klaine interaction including a kiss so… *squeals*. Then, on Saturday I’m going to see The Family which I’ve been waiting so long for and can’t wait! When I was at the train station yesterday I saw a poster on the wall and nearly fell on the ground, I’m 100% serious. 

So, yesterday me, Vicky, Willa and Lucy slept round Ellena’s for our ‘bluewater reunion’. It has conveniently now been exactly 5 months since we went and slept in a shopping centre, one of the most crazy experiences I’ve ever had and I’d so do it again over and over given the chance (if you want to read the experience from 16/06/13 click here).The fact that we all met one of our biggest idols (and made fools of ourselves probably) and now we’re all the best of friends because of that, it’s quite special. 

Reunion photo…

These people (along with a couple of others who couldn’t make it yesterday) are just really special to me and I’m so glad I met them and Chris gave us the opportunity to do that ❤ We literally watched so many episodes of Glee over the course of the time we were together including the Glee Live Concert Movie. We just flailed and screamed and cried over Klaine and were on the floor every time Blaine was on the screen (then there was Ellena the Kurt stan who did the same for him) and we just had the best time because we were all together. We didn’t sleep until about 5am, not until we’d watched some weird ass British television. If you’ve never heard of a show called Fuzzbox, go search it on YouTube. After about 10 seconds you’ll be wetting yourself with laughter and be incredibly disturbed, and possibly consider the fact that you may well be high and hallucinating. Or maybe this is just the effects of watching it at 4am after consuming a lot of pizza and sweets. We came to the conclusion that it’s a bit like a stoned version of Glee, it has the singing and everything, and you can kind of link up the characters too, it’s quite worrying really. 

I hope it’s not too long until our next meet up, and hopefully at Christmas we’ll be able to have another big sleepover 🙂 

More pictures on http://www.twitter.com/chimaloud_ 

 

Fitness Event: The Armageddon Project |Dreams That Glitter

Above ~ one of my freebie t-shirts from Sunday

I’ve been meaning to do this post all week but I’m only just getting round to it now, Friday evening as I’m sat watching The Face (I can’t decide if I actually like this show, all the bitchiness is putting me off a bit, it’s a bit annoying) as ballet is cancelled due to my teacher not being in the country…

Last Sunday I spent the day in a sports hall full of sweaty people for 7 hours, basically. I was at an event called ‘The Armageddon Project’ which involved a lot of hard work, in a few words. It started with an Armageddon class, which if you don’t know is HIIT training – High Intensity Interval Training. After warming up you have so many stations and go round each for 45 seconds each and a 10 second change over in between each one. By about half way round you want to die… And if you’re not working hard enough you get taken to the naughty step…

If any of you in the UK watch The Biggest Loser then you might know that Richard Callender is one of the trainers on the show and Armageddon is his thing. Basically he’s injured and came in on crutches on Sunday after everyone thought he wouldn’t be there at all, and he sat at the back and watched everyone. When I got round to the burpees station I was right in front of them and when I stopped for a few seconds he stood up behind me and pulled my hair to get me back to work and it made me laugh because I didn’t even see him move even though he was right there next to me… my mum found it even more hilarious as she went round the stations with me.

The next class was Urban Funk which was a bit like zumba mixed with street dance, usually it builds up to be a routine at the end but this time it was different and more like zumba in the sense that it was just one track routines that didn’t build up to anything. After that was a class I can’t remember the name of but it was basically more interval training.

Next it was Fierce Pilates and it was definitely fierce. It hurt. A lot. It was then Total Conditioning which also hurt rather a lot, by which point I really just wanted to curl up in the corner… There was zumba after that, which was a bit more relaxing if even a little boring… I’m so bored of zumba it’s unreal.

That’s 6 classes, and the last one of the day was a much needed stretch! I think I recovered from all the aches and pains about yesterday… First lesson on Monday I conveniently had PE and had to do fitness tests I thought I was going to do… I had to do agility tests, flexibility and the 12 minute cooper run – after about two laps my legs were burning… and having just done our exercise plans in previous lessons we were supposed to beat all of our results from the previous tests and mine weren’t getting better on account of the fact I could barely walk without wincing… Then on Tuesday I had a dance exam and our set dance involves a lot of rolling around the floor and being quite mobile which I definitely was not (I still managed to get an A/B though. By Wednesday I could walk normally again so that was ok… until last night when I had to do mum’s weekly Armageddon class.

Wow ok so I didn’t mean for this post to be so long but there you go… Now you all know what I was up to last Sunday, and I don’t have a lot else to say but fancied writing a post. Tomorrow I’m working from 8 till about 5, two separate jobs… so yeah um that’ll be fun.

September in Instagram |Dreams That Glitter

 

 

 

It just occurred to me I haven’t done my monthly Instagram post yet as I have the past few months and I wanted to keep that up so here we go.

 

 

 

I think you can clearly see what happens when I go back to school… The lack of pictures here is also because I had to delete the Instagram app off my iPod for a while (I re-downloaded it a few days ago) because the memory on it is so bad (8gb which I think they’ve actually stopped producing because the software takes up so much space these days??? I’m hoping for a new one for christmas). So here’s September, or some of it, a lot of it having been consumed by school. From top to bottom there’s a ring I bought for £2.99 from H&M (bargain!), my signed Kimberley Walsh book (a new prized possession), a drawing of the cast of a pointe shoe for my art coursework, my Madonna fancy dress outfit and my ballet results which have already been posted here previously. Not of immense interest I know! However I think there will be a few more pictures for October 🙂 Hope you’re all having a good month! 

August in Instagram |Dreams That Glitter

It doesn’t really seem like a whole month has passed since I did my last month in instagram post, wow time flies. I’ll try and keep this up if nothing else and in a month’s time you will have September in Instagram!

 

So August has been a lot of dance again, practising with Maisie in the studio, and a lot of book purchases which I am slowly making my way through! You may have noticed I have a bit of an iced coffee addiction too, my top three favourites are Costa Coffee Coolers, McDonalds Mocha Frappucino and Starbucks Triple Caramel Frappucino… I’m craving one right now. I’ve got myself a Costa coffee reward card and then realised that 90% of the time I get my Costa coffee from one of the franchises which you can’t use the cards in…. boo.

Where did summer go? |Dreams That Glitter

Well, I seemed to have taken an unintentional break from blogging for the past week or so, I really didn’t mean to, I thought I was back on track with getting those stats up, but clearly not. This is actually what happened last year too, I blogged a lot in July/August time and slowly drifted back out of the loop… this time I blame the fact that I had to delete the WordPress app on my iPod because I didn’t have any space for it to stay. 

I’d say I’ve been busy, but I’m not really sure I have to be honest… I guess I have sort of. Last Monday I went on a boat trip with my family, we got up a bit too early for my liking and spent the whole day on a boat (don’t ask my what kind of boat it was, all I can tell you is that it had an engine and went about 4mph) so that was quite fun. We just sat in the sun, occasionally getting up to change the locks. 

I’ve been working a few shifts in the library volunteering too (I’m not sure if I’ve mentioned this before but you’re going to hear it again). Basically I had to sit behind a desk with a bright green lanyard round my neck while children came up to the desk and told me about all the books they’ve read, and in return I gave them stamps and rewards. Oh and at the end of it (I did about 20 hours over the six weeks I think) I got a little goody bag which included a couple of books, chocolate, a pen, and a voucher to get out a dvd/audio book from the library for free. 

On Friday I went shopping in Milton Keynes with my friends and had a lovely day, I can’t wait to do something like that again soon. We’re planning a mass sleepover with all our internet friends soon, it’ll be epic… 

 

Friday’s only purchase (other than coffee)… can’t wait to start reading this, I’ve heard it’s the best one in the series

 

New schools shoes I got today… I also managed to find some leggings for dance that aren’t completely see through too, which is quite an achievement

 

On Saturday after I went to a step class I worked in the Coffee Pot from 1-5, my friend worked there for work experience and got a saturday job there, and they needed extra help so she called on me. £20 later, I’m hoping they’ll call on me again some time. 

I’ll admit first of all that I’m a real wimp when it comes to theme parks, and on Sunday I went to Thorpe Park with my family. It was an ok day, I mean considering I didn’t go on much it wasn’t that bad (I may or may not have spent a few hours reading fanfiction whilst the others went on big roller coasters, sshhh). The biggest thing I went on was the log flume, because I don’t mind water rides… I would feel guilty if mum had paid for me to go in because it’s like £30+ entry, but luckily I have a blue peter badge which means I get in free so that’s not an issue! Otherwise I’d probably have stayed at home. 

I can’t believe it’s September already, I go back to school on Thursday, boo! Still haven’t touched my homework, oops… I only have dance and there’s a competition in textiles I was planning on entering but I haven’t done any work on it so… (I just want to go to the clothes show). I should probably learn some spanish vocab as well but I don’t have the concentration for that. Oh and I’ve got to read Jekyll and Hyde for english, oh the joys… Speaking of reading, I finally finished Harry Potter and The Order of the Phoenix yesterday, I only started it in like January… I just kept getting distracted and reading other books instead – shameful I know. So I‘m aiming to finish the series by the end of the year at least. I think I’m gonna read Looking For Alaska next though. 

I guess I’ll try and blog at least once or twice a week from now on, I don’t think I’ll have enough to blog about to make it every day, let alone the time when school starts back, and I might actually have to revise and stuff this year as it’s my GCSE year, I probably should stop winging it and put in a little more effort. I should get my ballet exam results back next week too, eeeek! I’m kinda nervous, I’m not sure if I even want to know what I got oh god. Ok that’s it for now, you’re all updated with my post of excuses for lack of blogging. 

 

10 Things To Be Excited About |Dreams That Glitter

 

If you’re ever feeling upset or down I think a good way to lift yourself up a bit is to make a list of things you’re excited about. Now, it doesn’t have to be anything that’s necessarily planned out and going ahead in the very near future, it can be anything from a film/book release to someone you’re looking forward to seeing! Here’s mine…

1. Divergent movie (21.3.14)

2. Allegiant (22.10.13)

3. Imagine Dragons concert (19.11.13)

4. Meeting up with people I met at Bluewater

5. Catching Fire Movie (22.11.13)

6. Going back to ballet with my new pointe shoes 

7. Finally finishing reading and watching the HP series

8. Future musical marathons

9. Starkid marathons

10. KImberley Walsh’s book (and signing if I get to go)