What a waste!

Free time is good and, no matter who you are, it seems to be all you ever want. Just time to do nothing. But when, as students, we're handed nearly 4 months of absolutely free time, suddenly we're itching to do something. 

And, if like me, you haven't got any Spanish au pairing trips sorted or aren't working as an activity instructor in Timbuktu or some far reaches of the globe, you're probably feeling like summer is going to be an unproductive period of over-eating and lazing about.

I know not everything is about having something to put on your CV, it's about doing things that you enjoy and actually want to do. But it seems that everyone is stretching for brownie points - things to make them stand out, as though we're all 'candidates' in a brawl over jobs rather than simply being 'people' where the world is what we make of it, not what it makes of us.

But, yes, to be fair, I do feel like 4 months of nothing is going to be a HUGE waste of my time and, if you're in the same boat, then I hope that we can help each other out.

IT'S LIST TIME (again) !!! And I'm going to be joining in so by the end of my summer, I'll fill you in on how well I did.

Here's my list of:

'50 things that can make your summer better/ more productive so that you don't feel like a tree-hugging sloth' 

1. Find some work experience
  Might sound boring but if you have a passion or curiosity then you can't lose. Many companies offer places for as little as 1 or 2 days! And ... if you get it out of the way in early summer then you've done good and don't have to feel guilty about lounging around the house all day for the rest of your holidays!

2. Head to the theatre and indulge in a good ol' play or, even a musical
3. Plan a local trip or a day in the city and soak up all the culture
4. Volunteer your time once a week to a charity/ shelter

5. See if you can get work as a summer temp
  They may even take you on afterwards!

6. Deepen your faith
7. Meet up with family and friends that you haven't seen for ages, take loads of pictures and have an AWESOME time (how about camping in the New Forest? Or in your back garden? Barbecues or a simple trip to the ice rink)
8. Try curing one of your fears
9. Do a movie marathon
10. Develop or find a new hobby
11. Attempt to create a business with your own innovative idea

12. Do a charity challenge
  There are plenty of things going on in summer - such as the Race for Life and various marathons. Get involved with one of these and get sponsored or make up your own challenge. I'm currently on my own challenge of going vegan for an entire month - I've had multiple slip ups so I'm now aiming for 50 days of complete meat free (a little hard when you have to stay with carnivorous family and friends!) You of course, don't have to go so extreme. How about trying to give up meat for a fortnight? Then donate the money you've saved to charity. For my challenge, I'm aiming to convert the amount of meat I eat in those 50 days in lb (pounds) to £ (pounds) - and double it if I succeed - in a project I've called ©"Pounds to Pounds". This is one of those things that you can do on your own without anyone sponsoring you and makes you feel super-good about yourself, proud that you're helping others as well as healthy!

13. Start taking driving lessons
14. Learn a language
15. Give your room a revamp -- how about jars filled with multicoloured or fresh pinecones? A fresh coat of paint? A cluster of assorted candles?
16. Begin your #100daysofhappiness
17. Soak up the sun with a load of picnics, beach trips and outdoor games with your friends
18. Have a wardrobe clear out and donate all the clothes to a local charity shop
19. Pick an actor and watch all the films they've been in - Every. Single. One. 

20. Start a blog!
  Need I say more? Blogging has been such an important tool for me in terms of communication, developing who I am and giving me something to do. What's more, I now have an entire archive of everything that I have every written and published which will live on the internet long after I'm gone. If you, haven't started, then have a go (I think I've proved that nothing you write has to have any direction AT ALL) and if you've started and 'failed', picked yourself up and try again!

21. Get baking and come up with some new creations ---> chocolate and chilli fudge brownies anyone?

22. Make a list of all your skills and everything they've taught you
  When I was looking for my job, I was in desperate need of revamping my CV and I started with writing out my 'skills set'. It had 3 columns: 1) What the activity was 2) What I did 3) What it taught me or what skills I demonstrated ... and the result was something like this;

e.g. ACTIVITY: Journalism work experience at "..." --- TASKS: designing my own version of the magazine --- SKILLS: creativity, IT usage, negotiation

It helped me oodles and I reckon that it was super useful in getting me my job. Plus, it was such a great exercise to pinpoint the things that I had learnt and where - such a great morale booster!

23. Become a dog walker for a neighbour 
24. Start saving for something worthwhile ...
25. ... or blow all your money on some concert tickets (you only live once)
26. Designate a whole day to go without a TV, laptop/ computer, internet, music, phone and any other electric devices
27. Begin writing a novel
28. Make proper lemonade and sip reading your favourite book under a tree
29. Go out for a day with nothing but the things that you can fit in your trouser or cardigan pockets or carry in your hands ... OR ... with as little as possible

30. Read an entire series of books or pick up some classics and get through them
  As my 19th birthday dawned on me and the words of the late Stephen Sutton rang in my ears, I knew that there were just somethings that I HAD to do whilst I was still, technically, a child. One of them was to complete the entire Harry Potter series (something that I had never even thought of when I was younger). But if, unlike me, you've already done that and read every other book series that's going, how about picking up some of the classics and giving them a read. I know what you're thinking, "aw Laura, is that the only alternative?" Well, I know not everyone has a passion for Shakespeare (unfortunately - me included). When I was told to read classics,  picked up Jane Austen and fell in love. But there's so many more. How about Frankenstein, or The Great Gatsby (I know that they're on my list for summer) ? Or, you could even try reading a book of a film that's out at the cinema and see if you can finish the book and make it to the cinema in time to see the film (or maybe try to finish it before it comes out on DVD).

31. Host a tea party with your friends
32. Make an exercise routine and stick to it (for a month, at least)
33. Watch an entire box set 
34. Get rid of your anxiety by writing your worries down on a piece of paper, folding it into a bottle and sending it out to sea
35. Make a scrapbook of your favourite memories
36. Get hooked on a new genre of music or a new artist that hardly anyone has ever heard of

37. Head out to the selection of free festivals and carnivals available throughout the country
  Check out the link, here: http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/deals/free-uk-festivals
Money Saving Expert have got it all sorted. Simply select your preferred region and get scribbling the dates down in your diary!

38. Make a birthday cake for one of your friends or a member of your family
39. Get active
40. Buy dinner for a homeless person
41. Get your body to your ideal size/ weight
42. Set yourself a budget and see how far you can get on public transport with it
  Got a spare tenner in your wallet? See how far you can go on the train! Can you go further on the bus? Wherever you end up, get out and have a look around - seize the day and get home when it's dark

43. Read a collection of children's books
44. Go to a book signing, find someone famous or attend a celebrity event to get a glimpse of the stars
45. Plan and execute a 3 course meal for yourself or your family

46. Spend a day being a child again
  Take yourself back to your youth and spend a day being a child again. Buy an inflatable swimming pool and spend all day in it. Chase your dog up and down the fields. Play hide and seek. Spend hours drawing. Take silly pictures on your camera. Make rice crispie cakes. The possibilities are endless!

47. Start a diary
48. Spend a day detoxing your body - drinking green tea, eat plenty of fruit and veg, guzzling water and meditating

49. Re-work the way you view yourself
  Write down a couple of your favourite qualities about yourself. Ask your friends to describe you. Write down your greatest achievements and display them.

50. Write your bucket list

*UPDATE (from my friend, James): GO KAYAKING!*

Life, if anything, is all about experiences and what you can get out of the time you have here. It's true, going to different countries and working or volunteering do give you the most FANTABULOUS experiences, but just because you've missed out this year doesn't mean you have to spend your summer missing out. 

50 things you ought to know about me

I guess the best thing to do when you're in a new situation is introduce yourself. Well that's what everyone says, anyway.

So you start; 

"Hi I'm ... And what's your name? Oh really? I used to have a guinea pig with the same name...so..." 

Now what? 

I can see this conversation happening to me very often over the next few weeks as I move on to uni. So, I'd better have something to say. 

This is a sneaky little preview of some of the conversational gems I'll probably get round to using within the first few days. I guess I'd say you're lucky, but if you read most of these, I would quickly withdraw that statement. 

Anyhow, these are just a few things you ought to know about me :) 

Number one: I always thought I had straight hair until I was 16 when I realised it was curly 

Number two: I hate the theme song of the Titanic which is why I will not watch the film 

Number three: the only vehicle I ever want to drive is a moped even though I love classic cars because owning a car is too much responsibility for me 

Number four: I have a MASSIVE obsession with Holby City (a UK medical drama)

Number five: I love the smell of petrol 

Number six: my favourite chocolate bar is Crunchie 

Number seven: when I was 12, despite not being able to sing, I entered a school singing competition with three of my friends and was so embarrassed that I lip synced the words even when it was my solo

Number eight: in high school my favourite sport in PE was benchball

Number nine: when I was fourteen I used to pretend my rabbit was a kangaroo so that I could make a nature documentary about catching kangaroos in Australia

Number ten: I've said 'I love you' more times to my dog than my parents (sorry, guys) 

Number eleven: I used to play the violin 

Number twelve: I would secretly love to become a police women but I know I wouldn't get the job because I'm not scary enough and would probably be hiding round the block if I had to stop anything involving large groups of teenagers

Number thirteen: if I could travel back I time, I would live in 1920's England 

Number fourteen: I could eat prawn sandwiches and pizza for the rest of time 

Number fifteen: I used to swim for the county squad 

Number sixteen: I have never (touch wood) broken or fractured any bone in my body 

Number seventeen: I have only ever lived in four houses 

Number eighteen: I joined the knitting club in year 6

Number nineteen: I have a fetish with the British royal family 

Number twenty: I have written a novel called The Warden based on true events of patient abuse in hospital 

Number twenty one: my favourite dessert is Crème Brûlée 

Number twenty two: my dad says I'm an excellent con artist (which is true) - I once bought 2 dog bowls and a month later had convinced my dad to buy us a dog 

Number twenty three: I love car journeys (I could sit in a car for a whole year and never get bored) 

Number twenty four: I'd like to have 8 children when I'm older because I think big families are happy families ever since I watched Cheaper by the Dozen 

Number twenty five: I'm actually not too bad at spontaneous rapping 

Number twenty six: I LOVE baking 

Number twenty seven: I made myself hate clothes shopping when I was little because I wanted to be a zookeeper and thought that people who work in zoos don't go shopping 

Number twenty eight: my favourite animals are orang-utans

Number twenty nine: when I was 2, my mum and grandma lost me in Heathrow airport and only found me because I had wandered into another plane (just about as daring as I've ever been!)

Number thirty: I scare myself with the fantasies I invent which include falling off a cliff and being trapped in a locked car rolling down a hill 

Number thirty one: I'm petrified of death because I can't imagine what happens 

Number thirty two: I get really confused with sarcasm 

Number thirty three: when it snows in England I never want to be anywhere else 

Number thirty four: I'm rubbish on a night out because by 10pm I already have a headache 

Number thirty five: my feet only have to sniff a shoe and they have blisters all over them

Number thirty six: I bought my most recent pair of roller skates this Christmas aged 17

Number thirty seven: I hate exercise  

Number thirty eight: the only time I have been severely told off by a teacher was in year 2 when I was talking at the back of the class about octopuses 

Number thirty nine: I never liked the fact that I could read well in junior school because I was never picked to leave the class and read with the support teacher 

Number forty: after spending 2 weeks in the Indian Himilaya last summer, I came home adamant that I would convert to become Buddhist 

Number forty one: I'm very clumsy, once pulling the door shut by the inside so that I shut my fingers with the door in a kind of finger sandwich (just stupid!) I only realised what had happened when I found that I couldn't move because I seemed to be stuck to door (as unreal as it sounds, yes, this can happen)

Number forty two: when I walk into a book shop I always have to go out again and walk back in because I get so excited I feel sick (even now and I'm 18) 

Number forty three: my favourite shop in the world is The Works in the UK (a discount book shop) 

Number forty four: I've only ever been unconscious once when I tripped over my own shoe and smacked my head on the pavement in America and it was for about 5 seconds (typical me!)

Number forty five: one of my favourite books is To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

Number forty six: I have two middle names which makes my entire name 23 letters long 

Number forty seven: I used to go to my friend house when I was in reception class and eat strawberry lip gloss with her from a small container in her garage (I couldn't help it!) 

Number forty eight: I used to love the feeling of not being able to breathe and would constantly hold my breath until I felt like I was going to fall into myself (and I know that's not healthy!)

Number forty nine: when I was in junior school my favourite after school snack was a slice of white bread smothered with mayonnaise and dried garlic 

Number fifty: I'm an Aries 

So that's me and now you know! Weird? Maybe. Different? Definitely!