Feel like a kind of 'not' week this week - the beginning was very productive but writing this on Saturday I'm feeling very groggy and tired because another dance competition but let's chat about that at the end.
Monday was a lot better than last Monday where all my lectures were cancelled - Lifestyle PR was on this week and it was brilliant, I love my tutor and she's brilliant but also I worked with my group and we feel a lot more on top of things now. Annoyingly, I"m not going to be back in Lifestyle PR for three weeks now because of my work experience but we're all going to work on it and come back together in March.
Music journalism was another story - we were all sat down in the lecture and then someone popped their head round the door and said that Jerry was 'so ill' and wasn't going to make it in today... why couldn't he have told us this earlier? I'm now not going to see Jerry for about six weeks because he's so ill and I've got work experience. Is Jerry ill or is Everett True, his pseudonym for music criticism, ill? Because he views them as two different people and it's creepy. I love music journalism but he's the most useless tutor I've ever had.
Tuesday was slightly better - it was a Mettricks morning and I waited until today, deadline day, to start editing my package today. Though, I cut the video down pretty quickly and the audio didn't take long at all, I wrote the script for the video and audio voiceover and made a start on the copy. I'd done 90% of the editing before I went into uni that afternoon but then I was given quite a lot of video editing to do by my tutor who was giving me brilliant feedback to work on before hand in and it was all uploaded with more than half an hour to go. Good job me.
Wednesday was another live news day, I was on the TV bulletin and I was really excited about it because I love being on the TV bulletin. I did the 3pm bulletin that went quite well, I think - I had to do a live link with someone at a university football game and I used my own package story that I'd submitted the night before about the Family Orchestra workshops and I got to talk about my dance teams which was really fun. On the 1pm bulletin I played the videos over the script and on the 5pm bulletin I was vision mixing, which means I picked which screen is live out of the two cameras, the VT videos and the outside broadcast live link - it was a job I hadn't done before and I thoroughly enjoyed it and hope I get to do it again in the coming weeks.
Thursday saw me leaving Southampton for the weekend - my boyfriend and I left our flat at 10am to get a 10.30am train which got into London at about 12pm, we went from Waterloo to Kings Cross by about 12.20pm and then waited to get on our train at 1pm. This is where shit hits the fan. Storm Doris ruined our day - we sat on our train for nearly an hour before being asked to 'detrain' and no train was leaving until 5pm but somehow we got on a 3.22pm train that actually left the station but took a really long as time to get to Peterborough and our three and a half hour journey turned into an eight hour stress fest. But it ended with my dad's shepherd's pie so it wasn't all bad.
Friday was fab - had an amazing lie in, very chill day, went into town in the afternoon and went to my favourite bakery and bought some new make-up and tried to do a photography project but it didn't work. Essentially, my plan was to take pictures every 20 paces and put it all together into a cute video and overlay it with my monthly covers that I make on my YouTube channel but I'm not sure how well that's going to go. I'll let you know.
Then this weekend is a busy one - I've got another dance comp today (Saturday) and it's much later in the day so I won't get there until about 4 and we're not dancing until gone 7.30 and Lucas and I are getting a train back very late tonight.
And tomorrow I've got work and somehow I've got to prep for my work experience with BBC Three next week. I'm trying not to think about this one because I'm very scared so, again: I'll feedback next week.
So in reflection, this week has actually gone pretty well but I'm very apprehensive about next week - it's just hit me that I'm going to the BBC in two days and I'm very scared, like really, really scared. But a little bit excited.
Personal blog: sophiecountsclouds.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sophiecountsclouds/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/sophiecountsclouds
The Student Seat: https://thestudentseat.wordpress.com/
Saturday 25 February 2017
Monday 20 February 2017
Week 16: A Week of No Progress
This week has been a mixed one - writing it now, a week later, it feels like far more than just one week ago but this is why I document it I suppose!
On Monday I woke up so ready for the day - the week before I'd been ill and I was ready to come back and smash it today, but I got an email from my tutor for my first three hours today and she was ill so it was cancelled... so I carried on getting ready, just taking my team a bit more then I got another email and my tutor for my second three hours of lecture and seminar was ill too and all of sudden - my six hour day at uni had whittled down to a sudden day of nothing.
I tried to use that time productively - sitting at my desk and working through a bunch of admin stuff (finally getting the confirmation of my work experience at the BBC!) before going to see Busted in Portsmouth that evening. I wrote a review on my personal blog sophie counts clouds if you're interested!
Tuesday felt more like an accomplished day - I went to Mettricks, my favourite, favourite cafe, for about 9.30am, I made a long to do list of things I needed to really focus on. It was only 7 or 8 things long (that's a short list for me) but I still didn't finish a lot of it, I'm finding it very difficult to focus right now and then I get sad and feel more unproductive and I feel even less focused, I'm working on it.
I did get a little ahead in blogging and write my post for Wednesday in advance and plan everything a little bit more, so I feel a little bit like I had more of a plan - one of my unfocused coping mechanisms.
Wednesday was News Day, I had a somewhat mediocre story that was managed to pull together, we did a live link with the TV bulletin meaning I was live on location, presenting to the news room which was very fun and a little bit scary. When we got back to the news room we tied the story together and I also helped with the 3pm and 5pm TV bulletin too.
That evening I helped one of the third year's film an interview for their FMP package and then went to another friends house because it was an emotional day. I needed love and attention.
Thursday was a new start however! I had work during the day and I remembered how much I love my job and I enjoy it so much right now, then in the evening I worked at my uni's cinema, showing Split, the new James McAvoy film.
Thoughts on Split: incredible performance by McAvoy, if it had been released a few weeks earlier he would definitely have an Oscar nomination, but the rest of the film was very disturbing, unnecessarily sexual and a horrifically negative representation of mental illness, even though it's meant to be exaggerated, almost supernatural it paints a very negative image of mental illness.
Friday was meant to be my day off - late Valentine's lunch with my boyfriend then a chilled afternoon getting on with some work before my first dance comp the following day, but I ended up going straight from lunch into work then having to rush everything in the evening. Still waiting for a day off day!
Saturday, however, was my first dance competition of the season and even though I hated most comps last year, I thoroughly enjoyed it. Future Cheer was so much fun, getting up at 4am actually made me feel quite good, I like being up early and then it was a busy morning of make-up, costumes and dancing and I thoroughly enjoyed it. We then came in the top half for our jazz dance and improved on last year's hip hop placement, though the winning hip hop team did tell us they thought we should place higher and that they didn't expect to win, but I'll keep my opinions on that to myself...
Sunday was a more chilled day - stayed in bed all morning, went to Asda over lunch then spent the afternoon trying to get some stuff done (again, not to much success).
This week is going to be much more productive - I've got another dance comp, I'm going home for the weekend and next week I start my BBC Three work experience. It's all looking up now!
Personal blog: sophiecountsclouds.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sophiecountsclouds/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/sophiecountsclouds
The Student Seat: https://thestudentseat.wordpress.com/
On Monday I woke up so ready for the day - the week before I'd been ill and I was ready to come back and smash it today, but I got an email from my tutor for my first three hours today and she was ill so it was cancelled... so I carried on getting ready, just taking my team a bit more then I got another email and my tutor for my second three hours of lecture and seminar was ill too and all of sudden - my six hour day at uni had whittled down to a sudden day of nothing.
I tried to use that time productively - sitting at my desk and working through a bunch of admin stuff (finally getting the confirmation of my work experience at the BBC!) before going to see Busted in Portsmouth that evening. I wrote a review on my personal blog sophie counts clouds if you're interested!
Tuesday felt more like an accomplished day - I went to Mettricks, my favourite, favourite cafe, for about 9.30am, I made a long to do list of things I needed to really focus on. It was only 7 or 8 things long (that's a short list for me) but I still didn't finish a lot of it, I'm finding it very difficult to focus right now and then I get sad and feel more unproductive and I feel even less focused, I'm working on it.
I did get a little ahead in blogging and write my post for Wednesday in advance and plan everything a little bit more, so I feel a little bit like I had more of a plan - one of my unfocused coping mechanisms.
Wednesday was News Day, I had a somewhat mediocre story that was managed to pull together, we did a live link with the TV bulletin meaning I was live on location, presenting to the news room which was very fun and a little bit scary. When we got back to the news room we tied the story together and I also helped with the 3pm and 5pm TV bulletin too.
That evening I helped one of the third year's film an interview for their FMP package and then went to another friends house because it was an emotional day. I needed love and attention.
Thursday was a new start however! I had work during the day and I remembered how much I love my job and I enjoy it so much right now, then in the evening I worked at my uni's cinema, showing Split, the new James McAvoy film.
Thoughts on Split: incredible performance by McAvoy, if it had been released a few weeks earlier he would definitely have an Oscar nomination, but the rest of the film was very disturbing, unnecessarily sexual and a horrifically negative representation of mental illness, even though it's meant to be exaggerated, almost supernatural it paints a very negative image of mental illness.
Friday was meant to be my day off - late Valentine's lunch with my boyfriend then a chilled afternoon getting on with some work before my first dance comp the following day, but I ended up going straight from lunch into work then having to rush everything in the evening. Still waiting for a day off day!
Saturday, however, was my first dance competition of the season and even though I hated most comps last year, I thoroughly enjoyed it. Future Cheer was so much fun, getting up at 4am actually made me feel quite good, I like being up early and then it was a busy morning of make-up, costumes and dancing and I thoroughly enjoyed it. We then came in the top half for our jazz dance and improved on last year's hip hop placement, though the winning hip hop team did tell us they thought we should place higher and that they didn't expect to win, but I'll keep my opinions on that to myself...
Sunday was a more chilled day - stayed in bed all morning, went to Asda over lunch then spent the afternoon trying to get some stuff done (again, not to much success).
This week is going to be much more productive - I've got another dance comp, I'm going home for the weekend and next week I start my BBC Three work experience. It's all looking up now!
Personal blog: sophiecountsclouds.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sophiecountsclouds/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/sophiecountsclouds
The Student Seat: https://thestudentseat.wordpress.com/
Saturday 11 February 2017
Week 15: Finding My Own Feet
It's been a very mixed bag this week - it started slow and self-pitying and ended on a surprisingly hard working and self-sufficient end.
Monday was a slow day - I got out of bed ready to go to uni for 10am and I managed about 5 minutes out of bed before I crawled back to my boyfriend in tears because I felt so ill and the day was done. I didn't go to uni, I barely ate and then I went to watch my dance training class because I definitely didn't have the energy to join in.
I didn't blog, I didn't edit any videos, I didn't do any uni work and I didn't eat any real dinner either - Monday was a write off.
Tuesday morning didn't fare much better - I stayed in bed and did my best to try and recover, slowly preparing myself to be at uni that afternoon and I managed it, 4-6 I was in university and 6-8 I went to watch another dance class because whilst I made it into uni, I'd still barely eaten in the previous five days so I wasn't going to make myself try to dance for two hours.
And I was also mentally preparing myself for Wednesday - News Day, the 9-5 day that I was hoping wouldn't be too strenuous or difficult. And luckily the story I was on wasn't strenuous or difficult - I was on a story about how Southampton is going to become a dementia friendly city, we got a really good interview and then we spent a casual afternoon writing copy and editing the interview and sourcing pictures. Pretty chill.
Thursday and Friday I had two full days at work (bearing in mind I usually only work four hours a week, so it really knocked it out of me), Thursday evening I was still working at Sonar and Friday evening my boyfriend and I made pizza for dinner and it was really fun but I needed another early night.
Saturday morning was another early start because I went to a Family Orchestra Workshop just outside Southampton city centre to film, take photos and do a few interviews for my first assignment package. I now have over a week to edit it all together and that makes me very happy.
The rest of Saturday and all of Sunday are going to be my chill days - I'm still getting over whatever this illness is and I'm very excited to have the rest of the weekend to recover a little bit before a manic day again on Monday.
Next week is set to be another really manic week with my new Monday with a changed timetable, hopefully I'll see the end of this illness and I've got my first dance competition at the weekend!
Personal blog: sophiecountsclouds.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sophiecountsclouds/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/sophiecountsclouds
The Student Seat: https://thestudentseat.wordpress.com/
Monday was a slow day - I got out of bed ready to go to uni for 10am and I managed about 5 minutes out of bed before I crawled back to my boyfriend in tears because I felt so ill and the day was done. I didn't go to uni, I barely ate and then I went to watch my dance training class because I definitely didn't have the energy to join in.
I didn't blog, I didn't edit any videos, I didn't do any uni work and I didn't eat any real dinner either - Monday was a write off.
Tuesday morning didn't fare much better - I stayed in bed and did my best to try and recover, slowly preparing myself to be at uni that afternoon and I managed it, 4-6 I was in university and 6-8 I went to watch another dance class because whilst I made it into uni, I'd still barely eaten in the previous five days so I wasn't going to make myself try to dance for two hours.
And I was also mentally preparing myself for Wednesday - News Day, the 9-5 day that I was hoping wouldn't be too strenuous or difficult. And luckily the story I was on wasn't strenuous or difficult - I was on a story about how Southampton is going to become a dementia friendly city, we got a really good interview and then we spent a casual afternoon writing copy and editing the interview and sourcing pictures. Pretty chill.
Thursday and Friday I had two full days at work (bearing in mind I usually only work four hours a week, so it really knocked it out of me), Thursday evening I was still working at Sonar and Friday evening my boyfriend and I made pizza for dinner and it was really fun but I needed another early night.
Saturday morning was another early start because I went to a Family Orchestra Workshop just outside Southampton city centre to film, take photos and do a few interviews for my first assignment package. I now have over a week to edit it all together and that makes me very happy.
The rest of Saturday and all of Sunday are going to be my chill days - I'm still getting over whatever this illness is and I'm very excited to have the rest of the weekend to recover a little bit before a manic day again on Monday.
Next week is set to be another really manic week with my new Monday with a changed timetable, hopefully I'll see the end of this illness and I've got my first dance competition at the weekend!
Personal blog: sophiecountsclouds.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sophiecountsclouds/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/sophiecountsclouds
The Student Seat: https://thestudentseat.wordpress.com/
Sunday 5 February 2017
Week 14: We got a house!
Let's just jump into this, because I'm actually quite ill right now and I know it's a day late (will try and get back to Saturday uploads, sorry!) so I'll just start with Monday.
Monday is my busiest day at uni - I went in for my 9am however my tutor wasn't going to be there till later but we got some extra work done before she showed up and then I had to leave a bit early to go to a house viewing. We'd been to a viewing on Friday of a house that we loved but we just wanted to check this house to see if it could compare to the one we'd seen but we all left the viewing on Monday saying we were going to apply for the one we saw before (trying to describe this without giving the addresses is proving difficult!) and by Thursday we'd finished the application for the house and on Saturday we were told the landlord wants to proceed with the application and we paid our deposit so we're just waiting for the house to come off the market now.
So after that viewing, I went back to uni for my music lecture and seminar - still super creeped out by my lecturer, this week on 'what did he do now?': telling us about how he and Chris Martin of Coldplay talked about losing their virginity... I don't want to know.
And after this seminar I had to make a visit to the council for a news day story and it was mostly a waste of time but I did it. I then went to Asda and did a weeks shop and then I had to rush dinner before I went to dance and I was very tired. I was emotionally drained and felt like the whole day was awful even though we started the process of applying for a gorgeous house and I am excited about it but I wasn't on Monday.
Tuesday saw the return of Mettricks mornings - 10am I was ready and working and I struggled a little with focusing and getting things done but I got something done and that's better than nothing, I then took a little walk to get the rest of the footage for the news day story I was working on, I had uni at 4, dance at 6 and I really wanted an early night but I don't think I got one.
Wednesday was my first live news day of the semester and it wasn't too bad - we were given a story about how the Northern lights won't be visible from the UK by 2050... Yeah, I didn't know you could see the Northern lights from the UK either. But we managed to make it a story about how global warming is effecting a lot of the worlds most beautiful natural phenomenons and you can read that here if you're interested!
On Thursday I was working from 11-3, I went to drop off the last of our house application at the letting agents and then I walked a very long way to my dads hotel and spent the afternoon with my dad and then I was at Sonar Film and finally saw La La Land, I wrote a full review on my personal blog if you're interested! La La Land review
Friday I went to Sainsburys with my dad and he bought me shopping (yay) and then we picked up the boys (how I refer to my flatmates) and we all went for lunch and then I went home for a nap, then we went and met my dad for dinner and then we went to the pub and then I went home.
Friday was the day I really started feeling really ill, I kept getting stomach cramps and I felt really tired and week and this only got worse.
I barely slept that nice, I was up 9 times in the night because I was in so much pain and I felt horrific. I tried to spend more time with my dad on Saturday but he could tell, I knew, everyone knew that I wasn't in the right space to be out of bed. So he dropped me back at home and I collapsed back in bed, I called in sick to work on Sunday because I knew I couldn't rely on my health for the next day and called the day a write off.
And today (Sunday), I am actually feeling a lot better - I slept through most of the night last night and I'm not as completely knocked out today but I definitely wouldn't have made it at work today and I'm very, very grateful for the day off.
Hopefully today will be the last day of whatever it is I've got and I can kick off next week with a bang, but having our house application approved was definitely a nice positive to make up for the end of the end of this week!
Personal blog: sophiecountsclouds.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sophiecountsclouds/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/sophiecountsclouds
The Student Seat: https://thestudentseat.wordpress.com/
Monday is my busiest day at uni - I went in for my 9am however my tutor wasn't going to be there till later but we got some extra work done before she showed up and then I had to leave a bit early to go to a house viewing. We'd been to a viewing on Friday of a house that we loved but we just wanted to check this house to see if it could compare to the one we'd seen but we all left the viewing on Monday saying we were going to apply for the one we saw before (trying to describe this without giving the addresses is proving difficult!) and by Thursday we'd finished the application for the house and on Saturday we were told the landlord wants to proceed with the application and we paid our deposit so we're just waiting for the house to come off the market now.
So after that viewing, I went back to uni for my music lecture and seminar - still super creeped out by my lecturer, this week on 'what did he do now?': telling us about how he and Chris Martin of Coldplay talked about losing their virginity... I don't want to know.
And after this seminar I had to make a visit to the council for a news day story and it was mostly a waste of time but I did it. I then went to Asda and did a weeks shop and then I had to rush dinner before I went to dance and I was very tired. I was emotionally drained and felt like the whole day was awful even though we started the process of applying for a gorgeous house and I am excited about it but I wasn't on Monday.
Tuesday saw the return of Mettricks mornings - 10am I was ready and working and I struggled a little with focusing and getting things done but I got something done and that's better than nothing, I then took a little walk to get the rest of the footage for the news day story I was working on, I had uni at 4, dance at 6 and I really wanted an early night but I don't think I got one.
Wednesday was my first live news day of the semester and it wasn't too bad - we were given a story about how the Northern lights won't be visible from the UK by 2050... Yeah, I didn't know you could see the Northern lights from the UK either. But we managed to make it a story about how global warming is effecting a lot of the worlds most beautiful natural phenomenons and you can read that here if you're interested!
On Thursday I was working from 11-3, I went to drop off the last of our house application at the letting agents and then I walked a very long way to my dads hotel and spent the afternoon with my dad and then I was at Sonar Film and finally saw La La Land, I wrote a full review on my personal blog if you're interested! La La Land review
Friday I went to Sainsburys with my dad and he bought me shopping (yay) and then we picked up the boys (how I refer to my flatmates) and we all went for lunch and then I went home for a nap, then we went and met my dad for dinner and then we went to the pub and then I went home.
Friday was the day I really started feeling really ill, I kept getting stomach cramps and I felt really tired and week and this only got worse.
I barely slept that nice, I was up 9 times in the night because I was in so much pain and I felt horrific. I tried to spend more time with my dad on Saturday but he could tell, I knew, everyone knew that I wasn't in the right space to be out of bed. So he dropped me back at home and I collapsed back in bed, I called in sick to work on Sunday because I knew I couldn't rely on my health for the next day and called the day a write off.
And today (Sunday), I am actually feeling a lot better - I slept through most of the night last night and I'm not as completely knocked out today but I definitely wouldn't have made it at work today and I'm very, very grateful for the day off.
Hopefully today will be the last day of whatever it is I've got and I can kick off next week with a bang, but having our house application approved was definitely a nice positive to make up for the end of the end of this week!
Personal blog: sophiecountsclouds.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sophiecountsclouds/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/sophiecountsclouds
The Student Seat: https://thestudentseat.wordpress.com/
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