I Love Lists

So, October is over and finally my life is going to start settling down again. October was a mad rush of meeting international friends (be they American, Irish or Australian), preparing for and attending Disney interviews, Halloween, work and of course a little ol' place called New York City.

I'm sad to say that New York didn't drive me wild with excitement like I hoped that it would. I don't know whether this was due to the particular circumstances of my trip, but I would definitely return to find out. I did manage to do almost everything I wanted to do, except for the Brooklyn Bridge and the Metropolitan Museum so next time I'll have to catch those. To be fair, I should never reign supreme on the Met steps without my girl, M. I may even add New York to my list of places I want to live for a year.

Speaking of lists, I sure do love to make 'em and now I need one more than ever. I had my Final Face To Face interview with Disney yesterday and as the results won't be emailed out until the first week of December at the earliest, I need lots to keep me distracted. Therefore I present to you:

November's To-Do List

• Watch Season 7 of Buffy the Vampire Slayer
• Catch up with my reading, I'm currently 7 books behind on Goodreads. SEVEN!
• Blog
• Work on my 23 Things list
• Go shopping at Bentalls Annual 20% Evening
• Start preparations for the festive season - Christmas is coming!!
• Continue to be glued to my new favourite blog, The Londoner
• Catch up with M & H at Starbucks, then go and see Catching Fire together
• Cook some new recipes
• Attend my Work Christmas meal on 29th

That should keep me busy for the next four weeks, plus I'll be back to work the day after tomorrow, sob sob. As for today, I have finally unpacked my suitcase, done my usual Sunday chores and now it's only one hour until roast dinner and the Downton Abbey series finale! Enjoy your Sundays everyone. xo

Exciting Times!

October has arrived, and with it has brought not only my favourite holiday (sorry Christmas) but also lots of exciting news to tell you.

First of all, in accordance with Thing #17 of my 23 Things, I have got myself a ticket to a music festival for the first time in 5 years. And not just any festival but the big cheese itself, Glastonbury! I feel very lucky as a lot of people missed out, I didn't even manage to book the tickets myself and must give all credit to my amazing friend Ellie for having three laptops open at once and paying my deposit for me without hesitation. She is a babe. Now just got to cross my fingers for a good line-up.

The next piece of news, relating to Thing #15, I have landed myself an acting job. The best thing was, I didn't even go looking for it, it came to me! 

I was sitting at home on my day off when I received a text from the extras agency that had employed me for Les Miserables, Universal Extras. They were wondering if I could do some filming for the upcoming Stephen Hawking movie The Theory of Everything. Could I?! Considering that only my favourite actor of all time (and dream man) Eddie Redmayne was playing the lead role, I think I could squeeze it in to my busy schedule! Miraculously, the three days that they wanted me all fell on my days off, which was a relief as no way would work ever give me the time off and I'm too much of a good two-shoes (read: coward) to call in sick. So I will be filming in London on 20th October and my costume fitting is this coming Thursday. My scene is set in the 80s so I'm interested to see how they're going to make me look haha. I will take pictures. 

QT PIE

And finally, my Pre-Screen Interview for the Walt Disney World Cultural Representative Programme was yesterday. It was a really fun day and I met loads of interesting and lovely people. 

We met at 11.30 at London Waterloo and spent ages walking around the Southbank area hunting for Brasserie Blanc where the interview was being held. About 40 minutes after initially setting out we finally found it, then had a quick and delicious lunch in Pizza Express next door. 

The Pre-Screen event started with a presentation given by the three Yummy Jobs representatives; Nick, Louise and Jason. They told us about the kind of work we would be doing, told us all the perks being a Disney employee (and my goodness there are a lot) and did a general knowledge quiz. I learnt a lot of interesting facts about Disney World - for example it would take you 67 years to stay in every hotel room in all the Disney hotels if you stayed in a different one every night. Crazy! The presentation made me want a place on the programme even more than before, which in turn made me a touch nervous for the interviews because suddenly I realised how much was riding on them.

However, I genuinely wasn't very nervous. I luckily got the interviewer and the slot that I wanted which was great. During the interview (which was conducted in a group of 8) we were asked the following questions:

• Tell me one interesting fact about yourself
• What brand/company besides Disney do you admire and why?
• Tell me about a time when you've given really good customer service
• Do you have any tattoos or piercings?
• Which role would you prefer?
• Give me one word that you think best describes your personality
• Tell me about the item you brought with you (we had to bring an item with us that we felt represented our hometown or England in general)

I'm sure there were more questions but my memory of them isn't so great, I was concentrating to hard on my answers! It was a really nice interview and although we were in there for nearly an hour, the time flew by and it was more like having a chat. Though of course I think we were all still conscious of saying the right thing and making a good impression.

I will find out in two weeks time whether I am through to the Face to Face Interview which is the final stage of the process. Fortunately my mind has been put at ease as the date for final interview is 9th November which is one of my days off work and it's the day after I get back from New York so I'll definitely be able to go.

So now all there is to do is to keep busy and try not to think about it too much. I am so nervous about the results because I'll be crushed if I don't get a place, but I've done my best and I have a good feeling. Feels like all my prayers are being answered lately :)

I can't make soup

Just a little update blog post tonight. I have good news and I have bad news. Let's start with the bad news:

You may recall that goal #7 of 23 Things was to cook dinner at least once a week, using recipes from recipe books. Well, not only have I not been cooking once a week (nowhere near) but last night when I did attempt to cook from a recipe book, I crashed and burned. The thing is, when I actually set aside some time to cook, I'm usually really good at it.

I have a real thing for Jamie Oliver (in an entirely non-crush way, he's not my type at all) so when I saw a copy of his first ever cookery book, The Naked Chef, peeking out at me from a British Heart Foundation window, I had to have it. I was going to cook my way through it! I would become Julie Powell, of Julie and Julia fame! It would be Olivia cooks Oliver or something equally poorly titled!

Julie and Julia - The Original French Chef Theme

I fell at the first hurdle. Minestrone soup became thick mush with too much cabbage. Who puts a whole cabbage in a soup?! Even if it is supposed to be for 6 people. "Isn't it supposed to be red?" said my poor mother, who lovingly sat and ate two bowls of the stuff afterwards. Feast your eyes on the disheartening mess below:

Looks none to appetising, doesn't it? I'll have to try something a bit easier than soup to boost my morale and then return to defeat my gloopy enemy.

Okay, that's enough of culinary disasters. My GOOD news has been something of a secret up until now. In August, I applied for a job. The job was to work at Walt Disney World in Florida for a year, in the United Kingdom pavilion at EPCOT, as part of a programme called the Cultural Representative Program. I would get to go out to America, live there for a year and represent my country at the happiest place on Earth! As a huge Disney fan and one heck of a patriotic Brit, it seemed like the perfect job for me.

I am proud to share with you that my application was well received, enough for Yummy Jobs (the recruitment company in charge of hiring us) to invite me to a Pre-Screen Interview in London on 6th October!!

This would be my first of many forays into living abroad. I will keep you posted with my progress. I have, of course, a back-up plan. If not Disney then I plan to go to Australia for a year, leaving in July after I complete the academic year in my extra-curricular French class and go to Glastonbury with my friends. Ironically, tickets for Glastonbury go on sale the same day as my Pre-Screen interview. At least I know that either way, there's a light at the end of the tunnel and fun is in the not-so-far future. Something to bear in mind while I'm dragging myself to work each day!

PS - Dear readers, if you're out there and enjoying my blog, I'd really love for you to leave me a comment. I'm happy to keep this blog just for me, but I'm always up for conversation and making friends :)

Hometown Glory

I've been home from Paris for almost two weeks now and though I've been missing it and the friends I made like crazy, being in a foreign country surrounded by people of other nationalities did instill in me even more British pride than I already had.

Since it looks like I won't be doing any long-term solo travelling until 2014 due to other commitments and quite frankly lack of funds, I am settling in for the cosy autumn and winter at home and will be spending my remaining time in England appreciating my amazing city - London.

London Town - Laura Marling

I thought it was about time I started working on my list of 23 Things To Do While I'm 23, so I sat down on a rainy afternoon during my annual leave and wrote a letter to my local MP for a Members' Tour of the Houses of Parliament and Big Ben. Whilst doing my research I discovered that UK residents can also get free tickets to Prime Minister's Question Time on a Wednesday afternoon, so I asked for a couple of those too.

Since seeing The Iron Lady I've become steadily more interested in politics. It's a difficult topic to avoid in this household as my mother talks about it constantly, my granddad was also very political. I still don't quite know where I stand in terms of which party I support, but I read my first political autobiography this year too, The Path to Power (I've got a thing for Maggie T, okay?)

Hopefully these experiences will leave me better educated about politics and the history of my city, plus with a UNESCO World Heritage Site right on my doorstep, I'd be silly not to go and explore it for free while I'm still here. I think that until I go travelling I'm going to be a London tourist! Watch this space!

Photographic proof will be provided for all 23 tasks

Art, Apple Sauce, Australians, Argentinians, An Amorous American and other A's in Paris

I arrived home after 4 nights in Paris yesterday. What an amazing, eye-opening trip. 

The trip encompassed several firsts; the first time I had travelled abroad alone, the first time I'd ever stayed in a hostel, the first time I'd kissed someone who wasn't English(!)

Although I went to Paris to be alone, take photographs, practise my French and eat rich French food, it's pretty impossible to be alone when you've opted to stay in a room with 11 other people. That's something I never would've considered an option before but it turned out to be the best decision since I met so many amazing people. 

Talking to the Australian girls that I met, Evelina and Dani, I heard all about their travels around Europe, where they had been and where they were heading to next, the friends they had made. It really whet my appetite for more travelling, all I can think about now I'm home is planning another trip somewhere and a longer, proper one this time.

Dani and I were talking about confidence, as we discovered we were both actresses. She said that travel definitely changes you, she felt like she had changed over the past few weeks that she had been away. And that is what I want. Change. I feel like my life is stuck in a rut which I hadn't even noticed until I broke up with my boyfriend. Now I want to get out, quit my job, leave my home (sorry mum), say goodbye to my friends who go to the same pub in Croydon every week. I'm ready for new, exciting experiences. I'm ready for the next chapter in my life.

Being in Paris taught me that there is so much out there to see, so many interesting people to meet from all over the world, adventures and unexpected romances to be had around every corner. I thought I would be spending my first night in Paris resting after my trip on the Eurostar, perhaps unpacking and getting an early night. Instead I was swept off my feet by a handsome boy from New Hampshire, taken to see the Eiffel Tower sparkle and to smoke mint flavoured shisha in Pigalle, ending the night dancing in a club next to the Moulin Rouge. We both agreed it was attraction at first sight ("I could see it on your face. Did you see it on mine?") and though it's ships passing in the night he has said he'll come to London. He's studying in Pau, in the south of France until Christmas.

Whatever comes next, we'll always have Paris.

23 Things To Do While I'm 23

I realised a few weeks back that 22, as a year, had been uneventful. Or rather that it had been eventful in all the wrong ways - I broke up with my boyfriend, I acquired a job that I have hated with a passion since day one and my biggest achievement seems to be buying a MacBook Pro (which I'm still paying off anyway). 

I made stupid decisions, kissed old flames I knew were wrong for me, wasted time. To rectify this problem, I made a list of things to achieve in my 23rd year. I have listed them below (in no particular order). 

If you wish to know how I'm getting on with each one, I'm hoping to make a page for each of them so progress can be tracked. Evidence will be provided!

1. Spend more quality time with family and friends.
2. Quit my current job.
3. Get a job that I enjoy, that teaches me valuable new skills and allows me more time for my other interests.
4. Learn to play guitar.
5. Visit a country I've never been to before.
6. Take up running and run a 5k.
7. Cook dinner at least once a week, using recipes from recipe books.
8. Go on a girls holiday.
9. Write in my diary more often, ideally every day.
10. Get my provisional driving licence. 
11. Buy a DSLR.
12. Write a letter to my MP to arrange a free tour for myself of Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament.
13. Dress more creatively, wear jeans less.
14. Get headshots done.
15. Do more Acting/Extra work.
16. Learn more about photography.
17. Go to more gigs.
18. Book a one-year working holiday.
19. Buy a Pashley Poppy Bicycle in Pastel Blue and start cycling.
20. Travel more within the UK.
21. Pay more attention to good grooming.
22. Ride every ride at Chessington World of Adventures, Thorpe Park and Alton Towers.
23. Start writing regularly about my life and experiences on my blog.

"I am trying to live my life with a sharpie marker approach. You can't erase the strokes you've made, but each step is much bolder and more deliberate." - Dianna Agron

Lucky 23

On Monday, I turned 23.

I've always had a good feeling about 23 as an age, just as I knew the 22 was going to be yucky (apart from the whole coinciding-with-the-release-of-Taylor-Swift's-hit-single thing).

I was supposed to be at work that day. I work a lot of Mondays and I was down to work this one, even though it was my birthday. I'd requested it off months and months in advance, but due to staffing issues, it didn't look like it was going to happen.

I asked one of my colleagues if she minded working on a low head count that day and she said no, so after some persistence my managers okayed the day off.

At about 3.15pm on the day I was at the station with my mum, waiting for a train into London as we were going to a restaurant to celebrate. I got a call from my Area Manager to say that the store had been the victim of a robbery. I won't go into detail, but the incident was frightening, dangerous and sinister. It was of a completely different nature to that which these stores are used to. Thankfully, no one was hurt.

For the rest of that day, I couldn't shake off that chilling feeling. It could've been me, I could easily have been there. How would I have dealt with it, how would it have affected me? What might have happened differently? Might things have been worse? Seeing my colleagues in counselling a couple of days later and hearing the full story was shocking and surreal.

Two things I have learnt from this situation, are that: 

1) I am a lucky person. Even though I complain, I don't really have any problems, and God is looking out for me.

2) Asserting yourself is important. If I hadn't made myself ask again (and I did hesitate about it) I would have been there. At best, it would have been the worst birthday of my life. At worst, I could've been injured or even killed. You just don't know.

A thought-provoking start to what I hope will be a positive and productive year.