Tuesday, 9 July 2013
Photos (hopefully)
This is my attempt to upload photos to this blog. Please leave a comment to tell me if it works or not as sometimes it does and sometimes it doesn't. All of these photos are on my Facebook page which is called thoughtsofaswedemovinghome so if you can't see them on here go there.
Here goes nothing
Monday, 8 July 2013
Packing
Hi!
I am officially done with compulsory education. It doesn't feel like anything has really changed though. My exams finished almost a whole month ago and my last lesson was in early may. Mum and I have been packing today. We're leaving on Wednesday to go to Sweden and are bringing a lot of stuff for the move at this point for various reasons. We have too much stuff, it's official after today.
We've vacuum packed a lot of our clothes. It's really cool to watch because the clothes really decrease a lot in size. It is quite weird to see my prom dress vacuum packed though.
We also went shopping and did some recycling. I was tired when I woke up so now I'm exhausted. Not physically more mentally. It's quite mentally taxing to pack the room you've lived in for eight years. Despite the fact that I never wanted to live here in the first place, I'm going to miss it.
I was asked a week ago after commemoration how it feels to be 'finally free'. I wasn't sure at the time and I'm still not sure. I'm going to miss my friends but at the same time I've never felt like I actually fit in here. I won't miss getting lost in the identical looking lanes every other day. I certainly won't miss school uniform. At the same time it's going to be strange to not wear school uniform. In short, I don't know how to feel about leaving Guernsey. I'm happy but sad at the same time.
Plenty of people have asked me if I'm excited to move to Sweden. My immediate answer is always a big grin. I'm so excited. That was why I started this blog. It was for me to record my feelings about moving home and hopefully offer some insights on the differences between these two wonderful countries.
So yeh, same thing tomorrow I guess. Pack the last stuff, find some wellies and hopefully we'll start packing the car so that Wednesday isn't too stressful.
Thanks for reading this blog. I'm now going to post some photos from Jersey zoo on my Facebook page (thoughtsofaswedemovinghome) so please go check that out because I think I got some cute pics.
Bye Banan!
I am officially done with compulsory education. It doesn't feel like anything has really changed though. My exams finished almost a whole month ago and my last lesson was in early may. Mum and I have been packing today. We're leaving on Wednesday to go to Sweden and are bringing a lot of stuff for the move at this point for various reasons. We have too much stuff, it's official after today.
We've vacuum packed a lot of our clothes. It's really cool to watch because the clothes really decrease a lot in size. It is quite weird to see my prom dress vacuum packed though.
We also went shopping and did some recycling. I was tired when I woke up so now I'm exhausted. Not physically more mentally. It's quite mentally taxing to pack the room you've lived in for eight years. Despite the fact that I never wanted to live here in the first place, I'm going to miss it.
I was asked a week ago after commemoration how it feels to be 'finally free'. I wasn't sure at the time and I'm still not sure. I'm going to miss my friends but at the same time I've never felt like I actually fit in here. I won't miss getting lost in the identical looking lanes every other day. I certainly won't miss school uniform. At the same time it's going to be strange to not wear school uniform. In short, I don't know how to feel about leaving Guernsey. I'm happy but sad at the same time.
Plenty of people have asked me if I'm excited to move to Sweden. My immediate answer is always a big grin. I'm so excited. That was why I started this blog. It was for me to record my feelings about moving home and hopefully offer some insights on the differences between these two wonderful countries.
So yeh, same thing tomorrow I guess. Pack the last stuff, find some wellies and hopefully we'll start packing the car so that Wednesday isn't too stressful.
Thanks for reading this blog. I'm now going to post some photos from Jersey zoo on my Facebook page (thoughtsofaswedemovinghome) so please go check that out because I think I got some cute pics.
Bye Banan!
Sunday, 7 July 2013
Jersey
Hi!
I came back from a weekend trip to Jersey a few hours ago. I went with three friends. It was the first time we went on a trip completely by ourselves so that was exciting. I've uploaded photos of Elizabeth castle and from the beach on my Facebook page (thoughtsofaswedemovinghome). I'll probably upload them on here when I have access to a computer that cooperates with this website (that I am technically competent enough to figure out).
We went to the cinema, shopping and the Zoo. It was very fun. Kinda bittersweet because I won't see those friends much more before I move (I think they're relieved).
Also, there was a group of people our age who we kept seeing. It was a large group of Danes and Swedes. It was quite funny at the Zoo when they looked surprised at someone talking to them in Swedish. Also, a group of leaders were walking in front of us talking in Swedish with no idea that I could understand every word they said.
I think that's enough rambling for today so good night and
Bye Banan!
I came back from a weekend trip to Jersey a few hours ago. I went with three friends. It was the first time we went on a trip completely by ourselves so that was exciting. I've uploaded photos of Elizabeth castle and from the beach on my Facebook page (thoughtsofaswedemovinghome). I'll probably upload them on here when I have access to a computer that cooperates with this website (that I am technically competent enough to figure out).
We went to the cinema, shopping and the Zoo. It was very fun. Kinda bittersweet because I won't see those friends much more before I move (I think they're relieved).
Also, there was a group of people our age who we kept seeing. It was a large group of Danes and Swedes. It was quite funny at the Zoo when they looked surprised at someone talking to them in Swedish. Also, a group of leaders were walking in front of us talking in Swedish with no idea that I could understand every word they said.
I think that's enough rambling for today so good night and
Bye Banan!
More photos
Hi!
My iPad is not cooperating with my attempts to put photos up. I will keep trying but for now I'm uploading photos on my Facebook page. There are photos from Guernsey, Jersey etc.
I'm going to keep trying to upload photos on here but if you want to see some photos of two beautiful islands, they are on my Facebook page. It's called thoughtsofaswedemovinghome. If you hit the lonely like button, you'll be updated when I put more photos and posts up.
Thanks for reading my blog!
Bye banan!
My iPad is not cooperating with my attempts to put photos up. I will keep trying but for now I'm uploading photos on my Facebook page. There are photos from Guernsey, Jersey etc.
I'm going to keep trying to upload photos on here but if you want to see some photos of two beautiful islands, they are on my Facebook page. It's called thoughtsofaswedemovinghome. If you hit the lonely like button, you'll be updated when I put more photos and posts up.
Thanks for reading my blog!
Bye banan!
Monday, 1 July 2013
The return of the fog
Hi!
I know I've already written about fog on this blog but it is annoying me again. My dad was in London this weekend, supposed to return this morning. Fog!
We had lovely weather last week (of course I didn't not get burnt mum) with lots of sun and warmth, for what feels like the first time this year.
Then came the fog.
This is the problem with living on an island. The planes depend on there not being any fog so that they can fly. Although a positive is that when we had the ash cloud from Iceland our planes could still fly because they fly much lower than normal planes, courtesy of their small size.
The ferry depends on the seas being calm as they would probably roll on wet grass. This is not ideal in the English Channel, where the D-Day landing convoys had to be delayed due to choppy seas. Storms are frequent in winter (erm all year long) and fog is a constant menace.......
So I'm waiting for my dad to hopefully make it back today. After all, it would be tragic if he missed my last commemoration service with school.....
Bye banan!
P.S. check out these awesome blogs
georgiabrouard.blogspot.com
eleanorshaw.blogspot.com
I know I've already written about fog on this blog but it is annoying me again. My dad was in London this weekend, supposed to return this morning. Fog!
We had lovely weather last week (of course I didn't not get burnt mum) with lots of sun and warmth, for what feels like the first time this year.
Then came the fog.
This is the problem with living on an island. The planes depend on there not being any fog so that they can fly. Although a positive is that when we had the ash cloud from Iceland our planes could still fly because they fly much lower than normal planes, courtesy of their small size.
The ferry depends on the seas being calm as they would probably roll on wet grass. This is not ideal in the English Channel, where the D-Day landing convoys had to be delayed due to choppy seas. Storms are frequent in winter (erm all year long) and fog is a constant menace.......
So I'm waiting for my dad to hopefully make it back today. After all, it would be tragic if he missed my last commemoration service with school.....
Bye banan!
P.S. check out these awesome blogs
georgiabrouard.blogspot.com
eleanorshaw.blogspot.com
Seafront Sunday
Hi!
So last post was about the cage fighting on Saturday. This post should be about Seafront Sunday.
Four Sundays every summer the island has a Seafront Sunday. It's supposed to be the first Sunday of each month but neither one has been so far. In my experience they always coincide with at least one cruise liner being present off the coast of St Peter Port.
So anyway, people have stalls along the seafront where they sell things like antiques, jewellery, food etc.
The catering company I work for basically does a promotion of Guernsey produce. One stall had a sausage making competition for visitors. Another was teaching people how to cook mussels. The stall I was at (with 9 other people for some reason, we had 5 last time) was giving away freebies of cold leek and potato soup (can't spell the French name), Guernsey cheese, Guernsey peppers and basil (for some reason). Ten people were doing this.
The soup wasn't well received at all last time. People heard the word soup and ran for the woods. That's a joke, we don't have any woods on Guernsey. Yesterday the weather wasn't great so people were more willing to try the soup. Towards the end we put cups of soup on trays and walked around trying to get people to have some soup.
We also had cheese of four types.... We were only giving away free samples but people kept asking how much it was and trying to buy packets. We kept directing them to the only little supermarket in town open on a Sunday. We did actually check that they had the cheese after directing what felt like a million tourists to the shop. Luckily they did sell it. If they didn't, that would have been bad. Someone asked if they sell Guernsey cheese in the US. I replied that I haven't been there (that I remember) so I don't know. I then added that they probably export it to the UK but probably not to Jersey.
We also had peppers. Red, green, orange and yellow Guernsey grown peppers. They are absolutely delicious. We also had a herby mayonnaise to go with the peppers. Apparently it was delicious. We had loads of peppers.
We used up all of the soup yesterday. We also used up all of the cheese. However we were nowhere near using up all of the peppers or Basil.
Yes, Basil. We had bowls of Basil which we trying to get people to take samples of Basil from. We didn't understand why we were giving out basil. My friend ended up going round all the stalls and asking people to buy packets of basil for charity. She did get rid of about half the box.
I like working on seafront Sundays because last time we got to take cheese and peppers home and this time we were allowed a pack of basil each. Free food!
In other news I now have blisters on my feet from walking around in uncomfortable shoes on Saturday night at the cage fighting and yesterday. Add that to the blister on my thumb from Friday and the lack of blister plasters in this house, I am not a happy funny (a phrase my old physics teacher used to use).
Bye banan!
So last post was about the cage fighting on Saturday. This post should be about Seafront Sunday.
Four Sundays every summer the island has a Seafront Sunday. It's supposed to be the first Sunday of each month but neither one has been so far. In my experience they always coincide with at least one cruise liner being present off the coast of St Peter Port.
So anyway, people have stalls along the seafront where they sell things like antiques, jewellery, food etc.
The catering company I work for basically does a promotion of Guernsey produce. One stall had a sausage making competition for visitors. Another was teaching people how to cook mussels. The stall I was at (with 9 other people for some reason, we had 5 last time) was giving away freebies of cold leek and potato soup (can't spell the French name), Guernsey cheese, Guernsey peppers and basil (for some reason). Ten people were doing this.
The soup wasn't well received at all last time. People heard the word soup and ran for the woods. That's a joke, we don't have any woods on Guernsey. Yesterday the weather wasn't great so people were more willing to try the soup. Towards the end we put cups of soup on trays and walked around trying to get people to have some soup.
We also had cheese of four types.... We were only giving away free samples but people kept asking how much it was and trying to buy packets. We kept directing them to the only little supermarket in town open on a Sunday. We did actually check that they had the cheese after directing what felt like a million tourists to the shop. Luckily they did sell it. If they didn't, that would have been bad. Someone asked if they sell Guernsey cheese in the US. I replied that I haven't been there (that I remember) so I don't know. I then added that they probably export it to the UK but probably not to Jersey.
We also had peppers. Red, green, orange and yellow Guernsey grown peppers. They are absolutely delicious. We also had a herby mayonnaise to go with the peppers. Apparently it was delicious. We had loads of peppers.
We used up all of the soup yesterday. We also used up all of the cheese. However we were nowhere near using up all of the peppers or Basil.
Yes, Basil. We had bowls of Basil which we trying to get people to take samples of Basil from. We didn't understand why we were giving out basil. My friend ended up going round all the stalls and asking people to buy packets of basil for charity. She did get rid of about half the box.
I like working on seafront Sundays because last time we got to take cheese and peppers home and this time we were allowed a pack of basil each. Free food!
In other news I now have blisters on my feet from walking around in uncomfortable shoes on Saturday night at the cage fighting and yesterday. Add that to the blister on my thumb from Friday and the lack of blister plasters in this house, I am not a happy funny (a phrase my old physics teacher used to use).
Bye banan!
Sunday, 30 June 2013
Health and Safety
Hi!
Health and safety is very big here in Guernsey.
At school we were not allowed to cross the road for drama classes in the community centre without a teacher during school hours for health and safety reasons. Although some of my friends and I came to the conclusion that it was more because they don't want to be blamed for anything.
I find it fascinating that a group of fifteen year olds were not permitted to cross a road by themselves when the school has nothing against the majority crossing that same road before and after school at times when it is exceedingly more busy.
When I did the Duke of Edinburgh Bronze Award last year my friend was not allowed to use her petrol stove for health and safety reasons, basically she didn't have a certificate saying that she knew how to use it from the DofE organisation.
I can't remember the point of this post anymore.....
Oh yes, inconsistencies.
I already mentioned my (soon former) school not letting us cross the road. This same school has mould in the classrooms. A set of outside steps have been fenced off for most of the year because they were unsafe. Last year my year had a locker hut. This hut had a very strange floor which made it very easy to trip..... Where was health and safety? We were not allowed to sit on the equipment in the gym before a teacher came. At the same time the school is so badly built that a small part of the roof fell in when there was (guernsey amounts of) snow.
In order to stop my mum from complaining about me being too negative about my school I will wrote this next bit.
Despite all the problems with the building the school is still ranked outstanding and manages to churn out great results in exams. Also they are improving the school. Last summer the new art and drama block was finished and some time before that the new sixth form centre was built. They're also revamping the outside of the building to make it look fresher etc. (happy mum?)
Oh yes, main point of post......
I was at work today and was very surprised that a place with so much health and safety allowed the activity that was taking place.
(I work for a catering company.)
The activity was cage fighting.....
A place where fifteen year olds may not cross the road by themselves allows cage fighting
Hmmmmm
Did I get my point across?
Bye banan!
Health and safety is very big here in Guernsey.
At school we were not allowed to cross the road for drama classes in the community centre without a teacher during school hours for health and safety reasons. Although some of my friends and I came to the conclusion that it was more because they don't want to be blamed for anything.
I find it fascinating that a group of fifteen year olds were not permitted to cross a road by themselves when the school has nothing against the majority crossing that same road before and after school at times when it is exceedingly more busy.
When I did the Duke of Edinburgh Bronze Award last year my friend was not allowed to use her petrol stove for health and safety reasons, basically she didn't have a certificate saying that she knew how to use it from the DofE organisation.
I can't remember the point of this post anymore.....
Oh yes, inconsistencies.
I already mentioned my (soon former) school not letting us cross the road. This same school has mould in the classrooms. A set of outside steps have been fenced off for most of the year because they were unsafe. Last year my year had a locker hut. This hut had a very strange floor which made it very easy to trip..... Where was health and safety? We were not allowed to sit on the equipment in the gym before a teacher came. At the same time the school is so badly built that a small part of the roof fell in when there was (guernsey amounts of) snow.
In order to stop my mum from complaining about me being too negative about my school I will wrote this next bit.
Despite all the problems with the building the school is still ranked outstanding and manages to churn out great results in exams. Also they are improving the school. Last summer the new art and drama block was finished and some time before that the new sixth form centre was built. They're also revamping the outside of the building to make it look fresher etc. (happy mum?)
Oh yes, main point of post......
I was at work today and was very surprised that a place with so much health and safety allowed the activity that was taking place.
(I work for a catering company.)
The activity was cage fighting.....
A place where fifteen year olds may not cross the road by themselves allows cage fighting
Hmmmmm
Did I get my point across?
Bye banan!
Thursday, 27 June 2013
Puncture
Hi!
Today was a good day. I did virtually nothing. I went for a long bike ride yesterday. My route was cut short by the abundance of road closures. Seriously it's like they like digging up roads for a couple of weeks and then filling the hole back in. Sometimes they close the roads just for the fun of it, it seems. Perelle Coast Road actually has a reason for being closed because they're repairing the sea wall. It was badly damaged in a storm last autumn.
Anyway back to what I was saying. The bike ride was lovely and long. I didn't need to use google maps at all because I didn't get lost. Google maps is brilliant. I don't know what I would do without it. But all in all I haven't been doing much.
Back to the topic of this post (I ramble when I'm tired), I went to scouts today at Fort Grey for beach competitions. Fort Grey is a decent distance from my house. I cycled there with my dad. I then had a great time as usual. We did a race with an inflatable object. My group had a dinghy and the other group had my shark. Every member of the group had to hold on to the dinghy/shark for the duration of the race which was to a boat and back. We then did 'synchronised' swimming. The other team made up their routine on the spot. Very entertaining. Ours was too short, according to them. We them jumped in the sea. It was a long jump competition and the water was
very mucky.
We then got dried changed and I started my bike ride home. I didn't know that it would take two hours. I noticed something was wrong as soon as I started cycling. It was like my back wheel was jumping. It's difficult to describe. There was a weird noise as well. Anyway, I thought it would go away of I carried on cycling. It didn't. I turned off the coast road as soon as I saw a sign saying airport in the hope that I would be able to find a route home that doesn't include the Rohais. Although in hindsight I must say that this hill was worse than the Rohais (which autocorrect wants to correct to rehabs), maybe that was because I walked. When I tried to cycle the back tyre was basically whining. That's what it sounded like. Anyway I walked home. I think I took the longest route possible. I would have called my dad to come pick me up but I didn't know where I was most of the time and I didn't think it would take that long.
I'm glad that out garage is full of bikes because I need my bike, especially now that I'm not in school. Add that to the fact that my mum is away and dad works all day, I need my bike. I'll be using my other bike until we can fix my normal one. That reminds me, I need to take it to a bike store to get the gears fixed pretty soon because I leave in just over two weeks and then my bike will never return here. Mwahaahhahaha.
I'm completely mental.
Thanks for reading.
Bye Banan!
Today was a good day. I did virtually nothing. I went for a long bike ride yesterday. My route was cut short by the abundance of road closures. Seriously it's like they like digging up roads for a couple of weeks and then filling the hole back in. Sometimes they close the roads just for the fun of it, it seems. Perelle Coast Road actually has a reason for being closed because they're repairing the sea wall. It was badly damaged in a storm last autumn.
Anyway back to what I was saying. The bike ride was lovely and long. I didn't need to use google maps at all because I didn't get lost. Google maps is brilliant. I don't know what I would do without it. But all in all I haven't been doing much.
Back to the topic of this post (I ramble when I'm tired), I went to scouts today at Fort Grey for beach competitions. Fort Grey is a decent distance from my house. I cycled there with my dad. I then had a great time as usual. We did a race with an inflatable object. My group had a dinghy and the other group had my shark. Every member of the group had to hold on to the dinghy/shark for the duration of the race which was to a boat and back. We then did 'synchronised' swimming. The other team made up their routine on the spot. Very entertaining. Ours was too short, according to them. We them jumped in the sea. It was a long jump competition and the water was
very mucky.
We then got dried changed and I started my bike ride home. I didn't know that it would take two hours. I noticed something was wrong as soon as I started cycling. It was like my back wheel was jumping. It's difficult to describe. There was a weird noise as well. Anyway, I thought it would go away of I carried on cycling. It didn't. I turned off the coast road as soon as I saw a sign saying airport in the hope that I would be able to find a route home that doesn't include the Rohais. Although in hindsight I must say that this hill was worse than the Rohais (which autocorrect wants to correct to rehabs), maybe that was because I walked. When I tried to cycle the back tyre was basically whining. That's what it sounded like. Anyway I walked home. I think I took the longest route possible. I would have called my dad to come pick me up but I didn't know where I was most of the time and I didn't think it would take that long.
I'm glad that out garage is full of bikes because I need my bike, especially now that I'm not in school. Add that to the fact that my mum is away and dad works all day, I need my bike. I'll be using my other bike until we can fix my normal one. That reminds me, I need to take it to a bike store to get the gears fixed pretty soon because I leave in just over two weeks and then my bike will never return here. Mwahaahhahaha.
I'm completely mental.
Thanks for reading.
Bye Banan!
Saturday, 22 June 2013
Midsummer
As you may know Midsummer's Eve is a big deal in Sweden. We celebrate with maypoles, lots of yummy food, (alcohol) and dancing.
I celebrated by working. I was waitressing at the Midsummer Ball at Government House. I haven't
celebrated Midsummer properly since I lived in Sweden, it feels like. That's probably because I've been in school at the time.
I also made a chocolate cake (kladdkaka) today. I don't know how it tastes but I hope it's good. The photo should be above if my blog is kind.
I'm also going to add a photo of a maypole (midsommarstång?) to my blog at some point
Oh yeh, I officially finish school in a couple of weeks time but I haven't had lessons since early may and my last exam was almost two weeks ago. Yippee!
Bye banan!
Thursday, 20 June 2013
The day has arrived
Hi!
It's my prom today. Well it's a joint prom with the boys college. Yes I go to a private girls school (don't judge me).
I think it's going to be pretty cool because we're having it at a castle.
Some of my friends are coming over beforehand and my older sister has put herself in charge of cocktails etc.
Should be fun.
I'm going to be really tired this weekend because of prom and the fact that I'm working tomorrow. It's a good thing I don't have anything to do.
Bye banan!
It's my prom today. Well it's a joint prom with the boys college. Yes I go to a private girls school (don't judge me).
I think it's going to be pretty cool because we're having it at a castle.
Some of my friends are coming over beforehand and my older sister has put herself in charge of cocktails etc.
Should be fun.
I'm going to be really tired this weekend because of prom and the fact that I'm working tomorrow. It's a good thing I don't have anything to do.
Bye banan!
Saturday, 15 June 2013
My professional photography of Guernsey
Hi!
So a couple of days ago I went cycling with one of my friends from school, Etta. We were out for about two and a half hours. Apparently I was too fast because I had to keep stopping pretty much every minute. Oh and Etta if you're reading this please leave a comment to tell me if you've recovered yet. Lol. Anyway I had time to take some photos and probably broke the law by taking photos while cycling. Oh well!
Here are some of the photos I took
In other news I only have to wear my school uniform of ugliness three more times. Hooray!
Bye banan!
So a couple of days ago I went cycling with one of my friends from school, Etta. We were out for about two and a half hours. Apparently I was too fast because I had to keep stopping pretty much every minute. Oh and Etta if you're reading this please leave a comment to tell me if you've recovered yet. Lol. Anyway I had time to take some photos and probably broke the law by taking photos while cycling. Oh well!
Here are some of the photos I took
In other news I only have to wear my school uniform of ugliness three more times. Hooray!
Bye banan!
Some thoughts
Yesterday I watched Les Miserables (2012) for the second time. If you haven't seen it do watch it if you get the chance.
I'm not a massive fan of music but Les Mis is my all time favourite musical. I was only ten when we went to see it but I still remember it as being amazing.
I will now post some photos of the south coast of Guernsey which I took when I was there for Scouts a while back;
My professional photography from Herm
As I wrote yesterday, I went to Herm yesterday with a friend.
She and another friend have great blogs. Go check them out:
georgiabrouard.blogspot.com
eleanorshaw.blogspot.com
Here are some examples of my professional photography. It's such a shame that IB at my next school doesn't offer photography......
Lol
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