Visiting my neighbours :)

After nearly three weeks I could finally see my neighbours again. I couldn't visit them because I was away in half term and after that Marg needed to go to hospital again.. But I was very happy seeing them and talking what we had done, about my trips and of course: the weather!
Marg also made a lovely Victoria sponge cake with fresh raspberries which was just lovely. But after one and a half hours I already had to leave again because it was time for dinner back at home..

 

The typical British dish

I nearly forgotten try it, the very typical dish of the Great Britain: baked beans on toast! How did I dare to leave this country without trying them. So today was the day, I went downstairs and there they were, the ones everyone talked about.
No, but actually it was quite nice :}
The rest of my day was casual. I went to school, had psychology and photography and also worked on my english grammar test. Did I tell you that I will do the Cambridge proficiency examination when I get back to Switzerland? Well that is a test that shows how good your english levels are and it's also very good for your CV when you apply to get a job.

Study study study...

Today was not such an extremely interesting day... I was just sitting at my desk and studying the whole afternoon. I also skyped with a friend of mine, but mainly I did past papers, exam questions, etc...
It also rained, so the perfect day for studying because you don't even want to go outside..

Laundry day

This afternoon was mainly doing laundry. I walked up and down every half an hour to check the washing machine, hang up stuff and sort it all out. Now I have like ten tshirts hanging downstairs and five shirts in my room. That was the laundry of a couple weeks and I pushed it that far that I wouldn't have had any more socks for tomorrow...
But now all is good to go again. Quite a full schoolday tomorrow, but that's ok too mainly because it is photography and interesting psychology :)

Back to normal

Unfortunately those three very interesting days are already over and tomorrow I will need to go back to school. This morning I went with my friends to St Pancras because they needed to get a ticket to go to Luton to catch their airplane there and they still needed the tickets. After saying goodbye I went to eat another breakfast at "le pain quotidien", my favourite restaurant chain in London. This was probably the second last breakfast I will have in the city for a while but it's ok too :)
At home I was just sticking in photography into the sketchbook (so interesting) and talking to my family and friends over Skype.
We also just reached 13000 page-views.. Superb!

8145£

Such a planned day! This morning me and my friends woke up quite early for a Saturday and went to St Paul's Cathedral to make a walk and eat breakfast there. It was very nice but then, when the bill came we all had a laugh and our eyes wide open. One croissant had a value of 7210 pounds and they added 950 quid for the service... I asked the waiter if that really is the right price and he took it and gave us another bill. A little less :P

After that we hired bikes because we thought that it would be nicer than the tube and faster than walking, but we got accidentally and unplanned in a enormous crowd that just watched the queen pass by. I actually saw the queen, by accident, on a bike.. Amazing! We cycled all the way from St. James park to the Thames and then to the Tate modern because Elena really wanted to see it, was quite cool too :)

After that it was already time to go to our first appointment in the Shard around 15:30. We went to the top top floor of this 300m high building and you had a stunning view over the whole city :D

Yesterday evening we planned something really cool too and preordered tickets and went to see Charlie and the Chocolate Factory in the Theatre Royal. It was so cool but we were really sleepy afterwards...

15p

This morning I was picked up by my friend John to go on a little trip with him... Two family friends from Switzerland, Claudia and Elena, decided that they would like to visit me in London while I am here, and I was really excited for that for quite a while :D
So I was at the train station and booked the tickets. It was so funny because I had my railcard and a train-voucher that I got for the train delay to Edinburgh a month ago. In the end I only had to pay 15p for my ticket!!! I just gave the man behind the counter the two coins and off we went (we even caught the earlier train)
Then it was time for me to get away my luggage, because my friends will take a bag of mine with them onto the airplane.. So John and I searched the apartment my friends had hired near St. Katherine's Dock. I was about to meet with Claudia and Elena in Chinatown with two of their friends to eat Chinese which was very nice so we went there together and then John and I unfortunately had to go separate ways...
Later on in the afternoon I went with Claudia and Elena to Camden market because Elena has never been there. It was very nice too look at all the different market stands that sold different accessories and clothes. I also got a new jacket, one I was searching for quite a while.. We then sat down near the channel to eat the cookie and the croissant we bought in prêt :)
Unfortunately we had to be back at the reception of the apartment complex early because they closed at seven pm so we were in a little hurry, we nearly forgot the time! But we came back on time and I got my backpack and bag back. The apartment is just too good to be true, it is so nice. And warm!

All the photography :D

I was nearly all day doing photography because in two weeks we need to hand in our folder with all the pictures and texts in it. But I did not take any pictures, I just tried different filters on them, wrote about the pictures and what filter suits which photo. This took quite a while and in the end it turned out being 20 A4 pages and four A3 pages. The printer was occupied for quite a long time :P

Tomorrow I will go on a little trip.. Really excited :D

These noisy cows!

One day in the last weeks we got new neighbours: cows. I don't have anything against cows but these ones just have some problems. In the middle of the night they just start mooing, and that in a very loud way! They woke me up twice last night and I was so annoyed about this. Afterwards I tried sleeping with my headphones but luckily that was too uncomfortable otherwise the alarm in the morning wouldn't have woken me up...
The rest of the day was quite usual, studying studying studying and a bit of piano :D

Jam Tarts for Breakfast

What am amazing start for a wonderful day, Jam Tarts that my host mum made yesterday for breakfast. What do you want more in life? Well of course more jam tarts, but a very warm and sunny day is a good addition too :)

Then, when I got back from school my host mum asked me "Would you mind cooking dinner tonight" and I was very happy because I really like cooking. So I made another time the salmon with cream spinach and Rösti because they really enjoyed it last time I prepared it :D

Straight after that I got a taxi to my piano lesson which started at seven pm. I always really enjoy that too because I learn something new on the piano every time and my teacher is another interesting person I can talk to and learn from.

Studying with the sun

This day was amazing. I had quite a lot to do for school though... But in the afternoon, just after lunch, I grabbed all my schoolwork and toddled outside onto the grass. The weather was just lovely again. But I was not the only one thinking of this idea, there were quite a few people outside.
Later on me and my friends all went outside again and when I got home my host mum told me "Ah, you have got freckles"! :D

Low centre of gravity

Oh it was just hilarious! Every day nearly exactly at six pm me and my host parents are eating dinner together. And as usual we talk a lot. But some days my host dad Chris really likes making a joke about our dog and that he has very short legs. Then my host mum reacts really upset. It is so funny watching the reactions and sometimes I start giggling about his joke and she gives me a perfidious look :P
But today Chris made the joke of the year. We just finished our supper and Muffin, our dog, came toddling in. He tried to put his head up to the table and since he is quite a "low" dog my host mum said "oh darling, isn't it hard to get a look on what we are doing" and Chris replied with "That's only because he has such a low centre of gravity". And we both started laughing hard and my host mum walked out of the room. So fun! (Sorry Margaret and Muffin...)

Yeah otherwise not that much happened. I did a past psychology paper, called my grandpa and my friend on skype and played the piano...

Fan Art

This day was pretty cool. First of all I could sleep a bit longer than in the days I need to go to school. But then in the afternoon I started on something: I think by now you know that I am a huge fan of Bill Laurance and his piano skills. He also writes music by himself which I love to listen to. So I thought that probably no one has ever made a fan art for him and I have never made any fan art for anyone. So I sat down, planning what to do and it came out like this ;)

Sylva!!!

This day was very nice. Firstly because I could go swimming again since the last two weeks and I saw John there again and we had our nice Friday-Swim-Talk as always.
And then in the afternoon the best thing ever happened that I waited for since a couple months: Snarky Puppy released their album Sylva. It is so cool, the combination of them with the Metropole Orkest. Take a listen into it here because it's just amazing!
I am also working on a little painting and I hope that it'll be finished tomorrow :D

WEEKEND!

Something new to do :D

This day was quite a usual one. Quite a bit of schoolwork and in the afternoon studying for my final exam and of course playing the piano.
But I discovered another cool thing today.. Let me explain: I think I have never mentioned here that I became quite a fan of Doctor Who since I lived here in England and some people told me to watch it. (If you don't know what Doctor Who is I don't blame you because I didn't know it yet 8 months ago... It is a BBC programme that exists since 1963 and it is quite since fictional but also historical. Very beloved by a lot of people especially in this country. Take a look into it ;)
So I (somehow, don't remember how really) found out that the BBC did another program simultaneously to their new Doctor Who series called Torchwood which involves one of the DW characters. It is really really interesting and I try to get some time watching it next to the studies and the other things I do here. But it is really cool and interesting :D

So sunny!

I am sure that this was the most lovely day that I had in 2015 in England :)
It got about 20 degree which I never expected form that country since everyone always told me how cold and rainy it is here all the time.
So in my study period I sat outside in the sun doing my work before lunch for about an hour and it was just lovely. So warm!