I know what you're thinking. "This guy sucks at blogging man! He hasn't done it in over 2 weeks and he's been in the country too - no excuse!" If that is what you're thinking, then I'm right (Ten points to Gryffindor) and you're right too (I do suck don't I? Ten points to Hufflepuff for you!). So much has happened these past two weeks, the pile of things to talk about and discuss has grown like a snowball running down a hill. I.e. quickly! As this pile grew, my arch nemesis grew stronger. His name is Procrastination.
(For those of you studying English Shiterature, this example of personification is on the house).
Procrastination is a bit of a lazy dude. He's always up for going out with the guys, and I mean ALWAYS. Every time I want to sit down and do something I have to do, such as university work, he knocks on my door and asks if I want to go for a drink. Sometimes we just sit listening to music together. Other times we discuss my future and how awesome I want to be, formulating a strategy together to achieve this goal. However, whenever I start to implement said strategy, Prokey (that's his nickname) always intrudes, and asks me to play him a song or show him my friends on Facebook.
Now people tell me that Prokey's a bad influence on me, that he's even ruining my grades at university! I'm trying to distance myself from him to be honest. I found out who he hangs with you see - those lathargic folk who just live off the State. He likes them. He says they're way more fun than I am.
I had done well without him on holiday. He had to stay home you see, couldn't afford the ferry ticket. But as soon as I got back, Prokey stopped me from updating this blog properly. I'm sorry guys, he likes the same music and films as I do for God's sake!
So that's why I haven't updated the blog in a while, and I am sorry. But not to worry! I will summarise the month of August in a few paragraphs. Let's do this!
THE HOLIDAY
Together with my parents and two younger brothers, I travelled to St Antonin Noble Val in the Aveyron area of France. It is a beautiful region; an amazing valley that puts my welsh one to shame! But before you think that we were taking a busman's holiday, I want to affirm that the weather was beautiful. It was at least 30 degrees in the afternoon on top of a hill, and there was seldom a cloud in the sky. We stayed in a renovated farmhouse with our own swimming pool, into which my brothers and I liked to perform artistic jumps.
We also went canoeing on the river - our holiday tradition. The views were beautiful and the water was wet, much to our surprise when we splashed each other with our paddles. We travelled to a nearby village for une marché gourmande. This was where the local community assembled a bunch of tables and erected stalls around it, where customers could buy local produce (and Coca Cola at the bar - globalisation ftw) and eat it in the middle. The roast duck we had was divine - French meat is so much better than British. I would not want to be a vegetarian in France (in fact, I wouldn't want to be a vegetarian at all! Veggies reading this, why do you put yourselves through such herbivorous torment?) We also tried this strange cheese product that tasted like cheese fondeau with potato in it. Savouring the taste of this cheesy stuff (If any Frenchies know what it's called please comment below, merci!) dipped in freshly-baked bread was one of the highlights of the trip for me, as we experienced first-hand French rural culture.
Spending time with the family was wonderful too. I don't get to see them much, being at university and what not, and when I am home, everyone has such busy lives that spending time together can be difficult to sort out.
On the way back, we checked out Rennes, the place where I will be undertaking my year abroad very soon. After finding the accommodation and business school itself, we left satisfied for Calais to catch the ferry back to England. Since then I have been at least twice as excited for Rennes as I had been beforehand.
THE READING
The part of the holiday that stood out for me, however, was the fact that I read three books FOR PLEASURE! I had not done this reading thing in such a long time, and I realise that growing up, reading was a huge part of who I was, so I was almost reconnecting with my true self through reading the different books.
I started with 'Into the Wild' by Jon Kraukauer, which is the true story of Chris McCandless, a young man who travelled solely around North America for over two years in search of adventure, before succumbing to the harsh wintery conditions of Alaska. It was a fascinating read that explored why someone would go to such extremes to become one with nature, and was strangely both upsetting and inspiring. A very profound read.
Secondly, I thought I'd see what all the fuss was about with Stieg Larsson's Millennium Trilogy. So far I have only read the first installment - The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, but I was hooked early on. The characters of Lisbeth Salander and Mikael Blomkvist were original and compelling due to their imperfections and their deviation from the heroic norm. The story was fantastic as well - a very interesting murder case that takes some unexpected turns.
I finished with Yes Man by Danny Wallace. This is not like the film. The only thing that is the same is the concept of saying 'yes' to everything. Unlike Jim Carrey's financial advisor, Wallace's story is set in London, and is apparently a true story, told in a fantastic fashion. I was so addicted that I finished the book in a mere three days, reading the last 20% of it the night before we were due to leave early for our return journey. When I had finished, I was so inspired and excited for the future that I could not sleep. Just read this book - it is already my favourite behind the Harry Potter series, and that is the highest honour I could give to a book, to be honest!
THE INTERVAL IN WALES
I am nearing the end of the three-week period between the holiday in South France and the Year in North France. That time has mostly been spent catching up with friends (including Prochy), going to the gym, playing some pool, celebrating my brothers' fantastic exam results etc. I met a cool French guy too. He had been lodging at a friend's house, and was telling me about the nightlife in Rennes. He's from Quimper, also in Brittany, so we'll be pretty local! He was a really cool dude and was very patient with my poor attempts to speak to him in French, but I also helped him a little with his already impressive English. I hope the locals in Rennes are as nice as he was.
The highlight of the time home for me was, somewhat ironically, the day I spent in England, at Reading Festival a few days ago. Unfortunately, due to my poor financial management and student status, I was only able to go for a day and not the whole weekend. So my brother and I picked Sunday, when Muse were playing. After leaving, I had decided that the band name 'Muse' was an acronym for 'Most Uber Show EVER!' There is a lot of hype about them as a live band, but trust me, it was all true! There were amazing musician skills, pyro, lasers, graphics, a set that looked like their album artwork, lit up drums and bass inlays, topped with crazy vox courtesy of Matt Bellamy. Check them out yourself if you can! My ticket was great value because it meant I could also see We Are The Ocean (one of my favourite bands), Taking Back Sunday, the brilliantly talented Frank Turner, the comic genius pianist Tim Minchin, some Enter Shikari, Panic! At The Disco and Elbow (who were brilliant but the excitement for Muse meant I could not really enjoy their set as much).
So that's it guys! My month in a nutshell. I hope you stayed until the end and didn't ditch me for Prokey. I will add photos tomorrow because Prokey's come back and he wants me to go to sleep. Or maybe that's his cousin, Fatigue....
Rant over
Ollie
PS. I'd love some followers - would make me feel like a leader of sorts (well not really, but I'd feel more loved) so go on! Follow the blog! The year abroad will begin soon and the posts will be more frequent, I promise :) Night!
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