Sarah Starkey

So today when i finished work i was feeling a bit peckish and i had half an hour to kill until my bus was due so i thought i would take a trip to Tesco. I barely had any money with me but i managed to scrape 25p out of the bottom of my purse and i thought that would be enough, at least to get a Freddo or something similar. I walked over to the confectionery stand and the cheapest chocolate bar they offered was 60p which is absolutely ridiculous. I was so disgraced by it, when i was a young child i remember buying a Milkybar for 10p now they are an extortionate price. It just made me think how times have changed and how bad the economy actually is!

Seeing as i work here i felt it was necessary of me to blog about their sale. Now everybody knows how crazy Next's sales can be but i didn't expect it to be as busy as it was today on menswear. At one point i was actually scared i was going to pass out from the heat and the lack of food i had eaten. Customers just kept turning up. There was a massive queue winding around the department and it was overall just way too hectic. Probably a health and safety risk from the amount of people that were in the store. Not only were there hundreds of customers but there was extra staff employed for the sale too which made it even busier. Apparently there was free water available for the staff but having not realised this until the end of the day when i went up to the staff room there wasn't any left. So unfortunately i just had to deal with the stress and lack of refreshments. Even though i have basically just been moaning about the sale it is actually really good for the customers. There are a lot of good bargains out there and for the quality Next brings with its products it really is worth it. On the first day of sale which was yesterday the store opened at 5 in the morning and i heard from another colleague that apparently the first queuing customer arrived at 1;15 in the morning waiting for the doors to open. Personally i think that is absolutely ridiculous, as good as the sale may be i will never be one of those people who gets up at stupid times in the morning to go shopping. A good part of the sale for me was the t-shirt. At the last sale i survived through i had a mens XL t-shirt in vomit green colour however for this sale i have a womens XS in red so not only does it actually fit me but it's a much better colour too. If you haven't already been to the sale then i recommend you go because it apparently lasts 2 weeks and there are some really great things available.

So a few days ago i went  to go see Minions and even though it is a kids movie i absolutely loved it. The comedy was mild but it was still quite funny. My favourite character has to be Bob because he is just so cute and funny. I won't reveal anything as i don't want to ruin it for those who haven't yet seen it but if your not sure whether to watch it or not i would definitely recommend that you do. Me and my friend decided to see a fairly late viewing so that there wouldn't be many kids in the cinema and there was barely any so we made the right decision there.

Now as much as i love summer the hot weather is really starting to become annoying. When it's too warm it makes me feel drowsy and i have no energy to do anything which isn't good because my life is not very productive. I have been given so much work to do from college and then i have been made to do extra hours at work and all i really want to do is just lay on the floor in the garden. I mean i wouldn't mind if it was possible to complete my work in the garden but it is all computer based so I'm not capable of doing that really which is unfortunate. Still i only have 2 weeks left  of college and then i will be able to properly enjoy the sun!

So yesterday was my sixth form's subject fair to the aspiring year 10's so that they could find out more information from current students about the subjects they were interested in. Me and my friend Beth were there to promote textiles and i think there were a lot of potential students who were genuinely interested in the subject. Anyone reading this who is considering textiles in the future i encourage you to go for it. I enjoy it more than anything and it is such a good subject to express yourself and the interests you have in fashion. It is the only thing which gets me through the week at sixth form. On the other hand if you live in an area which would allow you to go to The Consortium then i would encourage you greatly to goo. It is an amazing sixth form. All the staff are really supportive and help students out with everything in every possible way they can. Anyways overall it was a really good day and i was glad to be a part of it.

So my A2 courses started today at college and they are not much different to AS in all honesty. Everyone kept talking about how much difficult they would be but i actually thought that they are much better than AS. I only had graphics today but i came up with the perfect idea for my personal investigation this year. I have decided to create a series of dark fantasy character movie posters. After mulling over many ideas for the lesson with TV and fairytales crossing my mind i finally came up with this and i believe i have made a good decision. I didn't really enjoy graphics this year but with this theme i think i will love it however the course this year does come with a 15 hour exam which isn't great but i'm sure i will get over it. I am yet to find out what IT and textiles will be like at A2 as i only had graphics today but hopefully they will be just as good.

As it is now, according to GMT, it is after midnight i will talk in past tense. So last night i went out for a meal with the girls in my textiles class as a celebration that the exam was over. I absolutely love Nando's and i do actually go there quite a lot. I love peri peri chicken and even though it is seen to be quite expensive it doesn't bother me as the food is soooo good. I got a wing platter to share with a friend of mine and our table got a portion of fries on the house which was really nice. I had a wonderful time out with everybody but it was really sad at the same time to think that i will never see my friend Katie as often as she isn't continuing sixth form into A2. Hopefully we will still stay in touch though!

So today was my first ever A-level exam and i have to say it was much more difficult than i expected. Textiles is an area i want to go into in the future and this exam therefore meant a lot to me as i really want to achieve an A in textiles. I found the exam fairly difficult but everyone else said they found it easy which is worrying for me as i probably didn't do that well. Unfortunately i won't find out until results day which is some time in August. When i sat my GCSE's exam's never used to bother me but this morning before i went into the exam hall i was really stressed out and panicked. I guess you could tell that it meant a lot to me to get a good grade in textiles and hopefully i will!

So last night i had my first ever experience of staying in a hotel. As my friend had come to visit from Ireland she had booked a hotel room and last night she asked me to stay with her. I always thought that somewhere like Premier Inn would be really luxurious but it wasn't what i thought it would be. Don't get me wrong it was nice it just wasn't as good as i expected but maybe i just had incredibly high expectations.

Tonight i went to see Pitch Perfect 2 with a few friends and i have to say i thought that it was amazing. I am usually quite reluctant to watch sequels as they are never as good as the original movie however this sequel was amazing. Anna Kendrick (Beca) was obviously amazing, as she always is, and Fat Amy was much more funny than she was in the previous one. I actually hope they make a third movie as i love both of the Pitch Perfect's so much now. It was just as funny as the first one and the music set up was very varied. In addition to this today was the first time i have been to the cinema in ages and it has made me wan to go more regularly as i enjoyed it so much.

Finally it is payday today. I haven't had any money since 5th May and i was so glad to be paid today as i finally have freedom to do what i want. Even though i have only been working for Next for 3 months i really don't know how i survived before without been paid every month because for the few paychecks i have received i have managed to spend all of my money within the first week. However i am not going to do that this time and i am going to try my best to save some of my wage as i am saving to get a Macbook. I hope to have achieved this by September however everyone is very doubtful of that but i know i will definitely get it before December. I just need to be better at managing money, especially in preparation for the future!

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Everybody has that one TV show that they can repeatedly watch over and over again and cliche as it may be mine is Friends. I much prefer the later series than the first few and so i never really watched the earlier seasons properly however i have started rewatching the entire collection again and i am really enjoying the first few seasons. Even though the acting is not as good and the comedy is a bit corny i still find them quite funny and i have come to realise that they are just as good as the later seasons i always used to watch. I recommend that everyone should watch it if they get the chance and i have introduced the series to many close friends of mine and they loved it. One of them even bought the box set like i did they loved it so much.

So i have just signed up for Disney Movie Rewards and i believe it is an excellent service, It never really occurred to me to sign up in the past but i decided to watch a Disney movie this morning and noticed the leaflet for it inside the case. I thought to myself that i could actually get a lot of free stuff if i sign up because i have so many Disney DVD's. Unfortunately you can only enter up to a maximum of ten a day so it will take me a few days to enter all of the codes i have but you get 100 points for every DVD entered and the rewards you can get start from 500 points so i have already ordered myself another Disney DVD. I haven't yet finished the Disney Classics collection but now it will be so much easier for me to do as i can get the movies i haven't seen out of my rewards. I encourage everybody to sign up if you like Disney and watch a lot of Disney movies as it really is worth it.

So i woke up this morning with a cold. How ridiculous is that in May? I didn't get a cold during Winter or through Christmas and i most certainly didn't expect to have one in May. I mean it's pretty much Summer and i am so annoyed because i have to go to work today with a headache and a runny nose which is going to be a big inconvenience. I'm just glad i am only working a 5 hour shift otherwise i would probably be dead by the end of the day. I haven't even left for work yet and i already can't wait to get home and go to sleep.

So it occurred to me that it is exactly a year ago since my school set on fire. It was a very unusual thing to happen at a school like the one i went to as there was never any drama but it did and everyone was in shock. It was actually the day of my GCSE geography exam and i can just recall all the geography teachers panicking to try and help students revise whilst we were all stood out in the rain for an hour. When i got into my exam the school was still not open for the rest of the students but we had priority and when i walked into the exam hall the room was black with soot and smoke. I still had to take my exam unfortunately and i was sat freezing cold and soaked from the rain in a room that smelled of smoke and was black with soot. It's the most drama to have ever happened at the school and i guess it's kind of cool i was there to experience it.

Link to newspaper article below
http://www.hulldailymail.co.uk/Investigation-blaze-boys-toilets-Hessle-High/story-21132565-detail/story.html

I figured i would make today's post about my favourite Disney character which of course is Stitch. I haven't always been a fan of Disney, i mean i saw some of the movies when i was younger but they never massively interested me until a few months ago when i became friends with someone named Lauryn. Now Lauryn is a massive Disney fan and her all time favourite was Lilo and Stitch and as i was her friend i felt it was necessary for me to watch it. The first time i saw Lilo and Stitch i fell in love with it. It was one of the most under rated Disney movies ever. Stitch's cute yet mischievous personality makes the movie comical but awe worthy at the same time. We both love Stitch so much that i named my hamster after him which we have shared custody over. I have only seen the movies however i will watch the TV series that was released to continue my love for Stitch even further.

As i have spent most of my day baking i thought i would share a favourite recipe of mine with everybody. The best thing i have made has to be cupcakes and therefore i will share my recipe with everybody, of course they can be decorated however you please but i just chose to make them pink!

Firstly you need to preheat the oven to 160c or gas mark 4.
Next you will need to mix together 4oz sugar and 4oz butter in a bowl until they become a paste.
Then you need to crack 2 eggs into a bowl and beat these and then add these to the butter and sugar paste. This then needs to be mixed together.
Next you need to add 6oz self-raising flour to the mixture and combine these together.
If the mixture is a little doughy then add a few tablespoons of water until you get the right consistency.
This should then be baked in the preheated oven for about 15 minutes or until the cupcakes turn a golden brown colour.
Decorate as you please and enjoy.

So i thought i would use today's post to discuss a much loved TV show of mine, Glee! When i first saw Glee it was from season 2 and i never got the opportunity to watch season 1 until now. A few weeks ago i discovered that it was actually available on Netflix and i have just finished watching season 1 and i have to say it was amazing. It was almost as if everything just went downhill from there though as i don't feel i enjoyed the other seasons quite as much, especially after Cory Monteith died. I have to say though that Glee is one of the best feel good TV shows i have every watched and i would recommend it to people of all ages.

It only really hit me today of how much Coca Cola i actually drink. It has always been my favourite but it never really occurred to me that i could potentially have a slight addiction to it. Now i am the sort of person who recycles and therefore when i have finished a drink or anything like that i don't put the bottles straight into the bin. They tend to clutter up after a while and in about a week i would collect them and put them in the recycling bin outside. When i collected them this week i found that i had gone through 16 bottles of Coca Cola this week. This shocked me as that is more than 2 a day which is just ridiculous and i think i need to try and control my need for Coca Cola. Maybe it's caffeine i am addicted to and so i think i am also going to stop drinking coffee and maybe i will not waste so much money on Coca Cola and Costa everyday!

For today's post i thought i would share my bucket list with everyone. I only have 30 items on my bucket list but there is a lot more that i want to accomplish in life.
1. Watch a meteor shower
2. Learn to speak French fluently
3. Run a marathon
4. Go skydiving
5. Sing in front of an audience
6. See the Northern Lights
7. Learn to play piano
8. Be a vegetarian for a prolonged period of time
9. Experience Lucid Dreaming
10. Fly first class on a plane
11. See the Mona Lisa
12. Learn to drive
13. Go zorbing
14. Participate in a colour run
15. Solve a Rubik's cube
16. Attend an olympics event
17. Swim with dolphins
18. Ride a hot air balloon
19. Go up the Eiffel Tower
20. Volunteer for a charity
21. Get a tattoo
22. Be an extra in a movie
23. Trek the Inca Trail
24. Go to a casino in Vegas
25. Ride on a camel
26. See a West End show
27. Make ice cream
28. Give blood
29. Go on a safari
30. See Times Square

So today i had a pretty good day. I got a new pet hamster called Stitch. I know this seems like a strange name for a hamster but as me and my good friend Lauryn have shared custody over the hamster we chose the name together. We came up with the name Stitch as our favourite Disney movie is Lilo and Stitch and in this movie the character Stitch is very mischievous and destructive which my hamster was before I even bought her. The employee which gave her to us put her in a pet box and before we got to the tillpoint she had bitten through it and destroyed it which we believe reflected the personality of a Stitch. I only bought her 5 hours ago and already she has made herself at home by rearranging everything in her cage. Even though it was only 10 days ago that my last hamster Hamlet died i feel complete again now i have Stitch in my life and i hope she lives a full hamster life.

So tonight i went to Frankie and Benny's for my friends birthday meal. It is a really nice place don't get me wrong but i just felt that everything was really overpriced. This is a big issue for me when it comes to food because not only is everything so expensive but i would always end up wasting money because i never manage to finish an entire meal. Knowing this ahead of ordering i decided to just get a side order which still cost me £4.25 which i think is ridiculous for a serving of fries. Aside from this i paid £2.65 for a glass of Pepsi as well as £5.75 for a dessert. It cost me so much money for the amount i actually got and i don't think i will go there again unless it is for a special occasion. Even though i am moaning about how expensive it was i have to say that the food i got as incredibly delicious and the guy that waited on us was lovely which made the experience much better.

As i have not had a very interesting day i felt it was time to share another one of my favourite things so i decided to discuss my favourite movie which is of course Alice in Wonderland. I do love the Disney cartoon version however my favourite movie is actually Tim Burton's take on the story. I love the dark, twisted appearance that Burton has put into the movie and how eerie the setting is throughout the story. I believe it to be an excellent spin on a classic children's novel. The way the characters have been developed in such a way to attract audiences of all ages is spectacular. The special effects used throughout the film are brilliant and i also like the added touch of having each of the Wonderland characters represent a relative of Alice's from the real world. Even though i do think Alice is quite alike myself my favourite character has got to be the Cheshire Cat. I love his creepy yet settling smile as well as the sly personality his brings with him. He helps Alice a lot throughout the story but yet he is somehow still seen to be a villain in the movie as he is quite a mysterious character. The first time i watched Alice in Wonderland i fell in love with it because it is just such a unique movie and even though it was developed from a classic there are still some elements of surprise within it.

Well I'm pleased to say that after a lot of hard work i have finally completed my AS graphics coursework. The task i had was to design a feature for the Hull City of Culture 2017 and i therefore designed a poster. I hope to get a good grade in the subject so that i can guarantee my place on a costume design course at university. Overall i quite enjoyed designing my final piece, i just didn't like all the coursework that came with it!

Well today i had my first actual cooking experience and i think its reasonable to say that it didn't go as planned. I chose to make something as simple as an omelette and somehow i still managed to mess it up. To begin i started slicing onions which probably seems like something incredibly basic but not for someone like me. i made the mistake of itching the corner of my eye whilst chopping onions so i was then blinded in my left eye, this was only the beginning. I then moved on to slicing tomatoes unaware that they could potentially splatter which they did all over the pure white t-shirt i wore today. The next step seemed fairly basic as it was just beating eggs and milk together but i ended up burning the tomatoes and onions whilst i was doing this. Hopeful as i was i decided to continue and as i thought the omelette stuck to the base of the frying pan. I eagerly tried to save it by folding over the edges and attempting to make it look more appealing. And your probably all thinking things could not possibly get any worse but they did as when i was serving my omelette onto a plate i spilled half a litre of oil which i had left on the side to which this then dripped down the cupboard doors and onto the floor. I think its safe to say that cooking is not my forte and i will certainly not be trying this again!

As i am still new to blogging and people are still getting to know me I thought this would be a good opportunity to share my favourite song with everybody. This of course is Robbers by The 1975. I always enjoyed the song when i listened to their album but i never really heard it properly until i saw the music video. The first time i watched it i cried. This probably sounds really stupid and when you watch it you will think I'm crazy but something about it just spoke to me. I have never robbed anything so it's not relatable so i don't really know why it spoke to me the way it did but i just found it very emotional. I would love a relationship like the one they share in the video and it is just overall a fantastic song! I encourage you all the watch the video included below and i hope you enjoy it as much as i did.