I've Lost Something

I’ve lost something very valuable to me. A notebook.

A notebook filled with everything I’ve done in the last year. You could call it a diary or a calendar. It’s valuable to me due to the fact I can’t replace it. I can’t go out and buy a notebook filled with everything I’ve done in the last year; I’ve been keeping a record of what I do to enable me to look back and remember the moments.

These are the moments that I can’t relive, which is what makes them so precious and dear to me. When I’m old and have forgotten, I want to be able to have the opportunity to read through a notebook of mine and see what I did with my time when I was younger.

I’ve never been able to keep a proper diary where I write my thoughts and actions down each day. So last year I decided to keep a small notebook where I write down memorable things: not full sentences or poetic lines, one or two words describing something I wanted to remember.

If you're in the same boat as me and can't keep a proper diary, I really suggest having a small notebook and writing down one or two words describing what you did if you want to keep some type of record of your life. Just don't loose it.

A Trip To The Coast: The Last Day

On the last day before we came home we spent some time travelling down a part of the coast as the sun slowly started to set. It was a good way to end a holiday.

We attempted to walk beside the overlapping sea water but it would always try to catch us. However we did finally see sand. All week we had only seen pebbles covering the beaches and I was starting to dismiss the idea of there ever being proper sand covering the beach there.

Anyway the holiday offered us adventures, late nights listening to music, a trip to the beach one late evening in our pyjamas, falling asleep on the sofa after a busy day and numerous opportunities to be stung by nettles (this wasn’t necessarily a highlight but part of the ‘experience’). And let’s not forget the beautiful sunsets. Maybe next time I will see a sun rise.

A Trip To The Coast: A Collection Of Days

It’s odd to think that a week ago I was away in the sun and now I’m stuck inside as water runs down the windows and drowns the trees. I would have posted this earlier but I was away collecting GCSE results. If you received any today I hope they were what you wanted.

Anyway today I thought I would share with you some photos from various days. One day we were able to visit a beach further away from the one we had visited on the first evening there. I quickly learnt that it was a lot of hard work to actually walk along it due to the fact that the beach was largely made up of thousands of pebbles and rather noisy. But it was still a beautiful beach especially as there were a number of fishing boats lying on the beach and I loved the colourful houses.

In addition we were lucky enough to have the opportunity to eat lunch on an old lighthouse boat one day and one evening we made the decision to cycle down to the same estuary that we visited at the beginning of the week.

However I'll stop typing now as I fear I've already overwhelmed you this week with a number of photos. Tomorrow I'm planning to upload a post on our last full day on holiday so hopefully I'll see you then.

A Trip To The Coast: A Cycle Ride

During my holiday I rediscovered my love for cycling: Little old six year old Gemma was found again but this time more stable on a bike.

One evening we were lucky enough to find an area where hay stacks were placed and there was a clear view across the fields to see the sun set. The following nights we returned as much as we could to this spot and on one night the sky was clear enough for an amazing sunset so I hope you enjoy the photos above of it.

A Trip To The Coast: Walking By The Estuary

 

If you haven’t realised yet, I do like a good sunset. Bunting, fairy-lights, beach huts and sunsets keep me pretty happy.

On our first full day for some reason we ventured out of the house and walked to the estuary nearby. I didn’t even feel tired as we kept going and continued on to the neighbouring town, which we never planned to do that day. I must have been under some kind of spell.

It may be odd, two young teenage girls going for a walk but it enabled us to see something new and different as well as talk about anything and everything. And strangely the weather in Britain was warm enough for us to wear shorts and not need to be wrapped up in blankets. But I can't say the same for when we got home, then it was snuggling up in blankets and hot chocolate. A good first day.

A Trip To The Coast: The First Evening

For the next few days I hope to upload a post every day of my recent holiday. By the end of this week you may not believe me when I say I honestly tried my hardest to narrow down my photos to one post: I just couldn’t do it. So I hope you will enjoy my posts from the next few days, including this one.

A holiday. Somewhere spent away from home relaxing or experiencing leisure. This was a holiday I want to remember. What made it special for me was that there were no fancy restaurants or the fact that we didn’t have to go on a plane to reach it. It was just us in the middle of just about nowhere.

We didn’t have access to a shower or bath. Now don’t worry, we were able to wash regularly as we had access to a local gym where we were able to wash daily. And we had no television, the wifi was pretty bad and there was no heating. What I like to call it is an ‘adventure’. Well as far as an adventure can go for two fifteen year olds somewhere in England among fields of hay and odd green plants, which I would call broccoli but apparently weren't.   

Anyway I shall stop typing now as I've already bombarded you with a few photos and there's a lot more to come in the next few days. Do you like these kind of travel posts?

Something I Did Back In March

I unfortunately don't have a photo that I can use from when I first got my hair cut but the photo above of me with shorter hair was a month or so after.

I wasn’t planning on ever writing this post but today I thought it could help and raise awareness that this is actually possible.

Last year on a random day I came across a video online introducing a little girl receiving a wig from a charity. Something inside me clicked… I’m aware that that sounds clique but honestly it did. I went on to research and discovered this charity, the Little Princess Trust. They ask for hair donations that are made into wigs, which are then given to children who have lost their hair due to cancer treatment or other illnesses.

Unfortunately they receive few hair donations and a wig costs £350 to make. They also ask for donations of money though you don’t have to send money with the donation of your hair, but it is suggested.

One day I remembered that there’s at least one person right now who doesn’t have hair in the world and who really needs a wig. I could help that happen so I decided to book the hairdressing appointment to get my hair cut last March. Consequently 20cm of my long hair, which I had had for four years straight, was cut off and placed inside a bag to be sent to the charity.

At the end of the day it was just hair. My hair meant a lot to me but it will grow back. My hair probably meant a lot more to someone else. It was such a small thing for me to do. But it could be such a big thing for someone else who receives a wig made of real hair because of it.

The idea of losing all my own is unconceivable so I couldn’t have even grasped what many children, who have lost their hair as a result of cancer treatment or other illnesses, would be experiencing as well as having to deal with the illness they are having to endure.

I really wanted to help someone feel more like how they used to feel before they received the illness. Many lose their confidence when they lose their hair, understandably so. Hopefully my hair went towards helping someone and it’s not bad having short hair for a while.

As well as cutting my own hair off, I wanted to raise as much money as I could towards the making of the wig. I never thought I would raise more than £100 and amazingly I was able to send £543.60 (£623.60, including gift aid) to the charity. It’s really an eye open to see how many generous people there are out in the world. So if anyone who donated is reading this thank you, it meant a lot to me as well as the people who benefitted from the money.

I made the decision to upload this as I was never aware that anyone could donate their own hair to be made out of a wig for someone, who had lost their own hair, so hopefully at least one more person in the world now knows because I’m guessing if I didn’t know someone else doesn’t. And maybe at least one more person is able to donate their own hair or tell a friend.  

Wandering Around London

I had this post scheduled to go up yesterday but somehow I hadn’t pressed the publish button and for the majority of the day I was either sleeping or in a car so wasn’t able to check. Therefore I’m sorry it’s a day late but anyway here it is.

I’m currently trying to press the pause button on my life. Every summer that I can remember has gone quicker than I can blink and as this is my last summer before things get really serious, I really want to experience as much as I can as well as rest as much as I can. Once in a while I count how many more weeks I have until summer is over and sometimes that helps but it can also force me into thinking I haven't done enough.

As I haven’t uploaded a post about a day in my life for a while I thought I would take this opportunity to share this day with you. Last week I woke up at eight o’clock in the morning (I’m not sure how, I just remember that I had to fling myself out of my bed to stop myself from falling back to sleep) and I later met up with my friend to visit a gallery in London, called the Saatchi Gallery.

There was something really free and liberating about having a travel day ticket in London that day. It meant I could go anywhere in the London and we weren’t in a rush to go anywhere so we were able to just chill and wander around London roads after we visited the gallery. I hope you enjoy the photos!