A lack of blogs

I feel quite guilty for not blogging in over 10 days! I don't even know why I have been missing out blogs and only managing to do small ones before this. I suppose my life is toning down for a little while and the interesting, exciting details stopped with it.

 However, this weekend is going to be an interesting one as I am going to Glasgow to play in the National Concert Band competition at the Royal Scottish College of Music. As geeky as this sounds I am really excited, because I do enjoy the company and pieces we play, and the laughs that Roger (My conductor) brings to our lives. I am more excited to spend a weekend with my lovely friend Laure Caveney! We would have been joined by Catherine Hill, but unfortunately coursework is getting the best of her, and she will be greatly missed. The plan of action for this weekend is to go to an activity centre called "Exscape", also based in Leeds to eat and go to activities such as laser quest, football, cinema and even skiing! I'm really looking forward to my 'candle-lit' dinner with Lauren at Pizza Express. I haven't been there in so long and I want a really nice, different pizza to eat! Maybe, one with rocket on top? Mmm! and then after we eat, we are going to play rounds of laser quest!! I can't wait, even if I'm 18, laser quest is fun from time to time!

On the subject of food, recently I have been obsessed with baking once again! It really is time though that I conquer cooking savouries. However, my most recent project was a milk chocolate tart which I picked up on Food Network UK. It is an Andy Bates recipe and it went down very very well with my family and Boyfriend's family. Gone in two days, as per usual. Here is the Milk chocolate tart recipe for those who would like to try it!

A quick blog about criminal minds

I have a new 'love' in life thanks to my Boyfriend and his family; Criminal Minds. It is a crime drama of which the FBI prfiling unit investigate extreme cases of murder. It is so so interesting and really addictive, no matter how disturbing the content is. Here is all you need to know.

I'm fed up.

My back has been in a dull agony for a whole week and a bit now and I was waiting until today to go to see the doctor. However, that was a fucking fail as my doctors is rubbish and everytime I go I am seen to by a trainee as if my problems are never bad. If this wasn't bad enough, the "examination" they gave me would not detect even a mole on my back, I do not understand how lightly fluttering their fingers down my back is going to detect anything wrong. Even with a direct localisation of the pain by myself, they still did not know. I waited for over a week to see a doctor and all they could say was 'muscle pain' I could have told them that I have muscle pain. I am fed up now and all I want is an entire new body. I feel so ugly and useless.

A beautiful piece of music.

On the nature of daylight.

All that work paid off.

I GOT THE CONDITIONAL OFFER FROM SALFORD I WANTED!! I nearly cried.

Leeds Met Article: Oxbridge; how far would you go?

As everything gets harder for all students, I can’t help but think for the early applicants for which the process has been hard from the start. With the rush of the early deadline to interviews and most of all the dreaded UCAS reply. But alas, you have to consider what is really going through the minds of the lecturers and applicant administrators at Oxbridge. Do they really think about the academic skills and aspirations of the wishful students?

For some, as Oxford and Cambridge are some of the greatest universities in the world, would say that of course they do as it would be unprofessional for them not to. However, statistics say otherwise. A BBC article dating 31^st January stated that statistics show that the independent sector of schools take up 7% of the population in England and Wales, whereas they make up around 46% of Oxford's undergraduates.

It astonished me when I was having a discussion with a fellow applicant from Liverpool at an interview for a university recently, which a school and sixth form in Liverpool that has compulsory lessons to decrease their scouse accent so their students have a higher chance to get in to such universities like Oxford and Cambridge. I simply could not believe that students would go that far to reach the goal of having an Oxbridge qualification. Is this a reconstruction from ‘My Fair Lady’ gone too far? After all, isn’t your regional dialect what gives you some form of personal identity? 

Another issue is ethnicity. It was reported in 2009 that over 20 Oxbridge colleges didn’t send offers to black students, one of which hadn’t admitted a black student for at least 5 years! This raises the issue of the concept of an elitist society, which the main people in authority roles being of white, middle class and Oxbridge decent; this is a key issue in the House of Lords. In 2005, the average age in the House of Lords was 50! It’s unreal. According to a Guardian article dating 6^th December 2010 by David Lammy MP showed that figures made under the Freedom of Information Act showed that Oxbridge’s profile shows that 89% of students come from the top 3 socioeconomic groups, whereas according to UCAS the national average is 64.5%. 

However, it isn’t all one sided. It is also the fault of the state educated and the government. On the state educated behalf, it is a problem of not enough state sector children are applying for Oxbridge either due to modesty of thinking they’re not good enough or their teachers just don’t want to put them under the stress so deter them away from applying  - sadly enough it happens. On the governments behalf, not after the rise in the tuition fees however, should create a scheme which defeats this tendency by the state population to have the courage to apply for Oxbridge. This will discourage the idea that the new coalition government is trying to create a society where only the middle and upper class children can make it.

The interview

I know this is a delayed blog for when the interview was fresh in my mind, but I was too busy telling people how pleased I was and making my friends and family cakes to eat due to the new kitchen.

So, the day started off with a trip to Tesco to update my self with the latest news of the day, as of course wanting to be a journalist, you need to know what is going on and new developments as soon as possible. I bought a selection of local and national media to add to my 'current affair' mind map! It was full to the brim by the time of the interview, which was useful for the quiz I had to endure earlier on in the day! The time was closing in for when we had to leave to set off to the University of Salford! At this point I didn't really know what I was feeling as I was nervous, but I wanted to keep calm, so all in all I can probably say I wasn't feeling anything but numb.

When half 11 struck, it was time ot leave for Salford as we had to drop my Dad off in Manchester for an international conference before hand, when I think about it now, arriving an hour early at Salford was probably a better option as it gave me time to relax in my surroundings. I read the student newspaper to add things to what I'd say in the interview. There were many people in the waiting room for interviews that day, but luckily over half were for an preforming arts audition rather than for a BA Journalism interview! turned out from about the 20 people waiting in the foyer only 8 were for my course., that made me relax even more thankfully.

As 1 o'clock approached, the programme organiser for the Journalism course appeared in the foyer. All 8 of us gathered by him and followed him down through a maze of corridors down to the Journalism suite of the Adelphi building at Salford. We didn't get a tour of the buliding itself because as of September 2011, all journalist students will be studying at a new building at MediaCityUK where the BBC is relocating some of it's programmes and so is the set of Corination Street. It's going to be amazing!

The first section of the interview was a current affairs quiz, this asked you about things that had happened either the day before or a few days before at least, another few questions were about the organisations which affect journalism today. I feel as if I answered the questions witht he best of my knowledge and as many as I could, although some were just over my head, but in the actual interview he said that I answered the quiz well, so not all is lost! Once my name was called for my one to one interview, the ideas just kept flowing. It was strange though, it felt as if I was driving the interview really in some way as he hardly ever had to ask me a starter question, I just made it flow from one point to another, which was amazing for me!

So, all in all I think my interview went really well and I will hopefully get the offer I have been waiting for! If I do get an offer I think I will probably cry with happiness and it would really make me want to do the best I could ever do in my A-levels!