Arabella's got a 70's head

Last week, I took a trip down memory lane and spent a week at my old school for a bit of mainstream work experience to help boost my PGCE application. I had a great little week and was amazingly not put off becoming a teacher despite witnessing the teachers' mass hysteria at the impending threat of ofsted and lesson observations in the staff room every day. 

Aside from using my degree for a real purpose (there's a first time for everything...) by explaining lots of English Languagey things to the A-level groups and being told I'd make a great teacher by some year 9 girls (I complimented one of them on her crazy collection of stationary, not sure whether that makes me an outstanding teacher or just a stationary nerd but she seemed impressed regardless), one of the highlights of the week was getting to spend a week looking at the little trends and styles the kids had. 

Back in my school days it was socially unacceptable to carry your books in anything other than Jane Norman and Kookai school bags, having absolutely poker straight hair to the point where you could practically hold a spirit level against it was an absolute necessity and every teenager needed to be seen wearing so many charity wristbands that they looked as saintly as Mother Teresa. 

The kids in school this time around were mostly wearing Kickers, there was always at least one pair of Ray Bans being sported in every classroom and the school bag of choice was a brightly coloured satchel. Looking around, the world seems to be breeding an army of mini-hipsters, but actually I thought that was pretty cool. The kids that were considered 'cool' back in my school days were generally the chavvy girls with tonnes of orange make-up and Lacoste trainers for PE and people unconsciously seemed to follow their choices of horrific shoes and school bags, now it seems the kids that set the trends have a totally different outlook on style and their inspiration and I just loved seeing it. 

People seem to think kids are growing up far quicker as the years go by, and in a lot of ways that probably is true. Despite this, what I actually saw last week was a school full of kids who were acting their own age, not trying to look older by plastering themselves in make up, and cool points being given to the kids who were happy to look 'cute' and a bit 'quirky' rather than 'sexy' and (lets face it) 'slaggy' as seemed to be the case back when I was in school. 

I couldn't decide on an image to finish off my ramblings with, so ended up delving back into the archives and finding a picture of mini-Kaz and co from when I was in Year 11. I have a feeling that if I put my old uniform on again now I wouldn't look much older than I do on this picture...

Arabella- Arctic Monkeys

Louder than sirens, louder than bells

It occurred to me when all of the new baby freshers started appearing in Leeds (I can tell they're all appearing as their trolleys full of supernoodles and frying pans getting in my way in the aisles of Morrisons when I'm trying to buy excessive amounts of chocolate and biscuits...) that 5 years have passed since I was squished between six thousand boxes and bags in the back of my Dad's car and driven across the pennines to my new home in Leeds. At that point I had no idea whatsoever what the next few days were going to be like, let alone have any inkling that I'd still be here with no intentions of leaving five years on.

Looking at all these new little people in my city (and silently judging the horrific quantity of baseball caps that the youth of today seem to possess) made me think back to my own 18 year old self finding my way through this strange new city I was going to be calling home for the next three years of my life. All through sixth form I'd been massively excited for my big move to Leeds but a few weeks before I was due to leave I suddenly got really scared of the big unknown world I was going to be jumping into. So much so that I managed to pull some strings to get a place on a course at Liverpool University instead and was all set to change my mind about where I was going. Until the admissions tutor at Liverpool told me I needed to officially give up my place at Leeds before they'd accept me. I did everything I could not to have to do this and buried my head in the sand for a few days but eventually put two and two together and realised my reluctance to give up my place at Leeds was probably to do with the fact that deep down I knew I was doing the right thing moving there. 

At this time of year, I always end up thinking about how different my life could have been if I'd accepted that place at Liverpool back in 2008. In the end, I made the complete right decision- I've grown up so much in the last few years (in some ways at least... there's still a big part of me that thinks I'm only about 15!) and most of that is to do with making Leeds my home, making roots in a new place and meeting some of the best people in the world in the process. 

Drumming Song- Florence and The Machine

We visit a life we both left behind

Despite all that's happened in Great Britain this year to make it one that I'm sure won't be forgotten in a long time, personally 2012 has been one of those years that's just tootled along, there've been no major obstacles or momentous occasions to mark it out in my mind (I suppose the end of a big relationship technically does fall into this category but I'm not seeing that as a bad change now by any means).

2011 was a year with a lot of change in my life, finishing Uni, graduating, becoming a real life person with a real life job, moving away from Leeds, moving back to Leeds, moving into a new house. In comparison, 2012 has just been a bit stable. I make that sound like a bad thing, when in actual fact it really isn't. I took a little look back through my photos from the past year and I have to say, there have been a lot of highlights. Being my first full year of working life, the fun bits of the year have been even more savoured as time with friends has become more valuable, shifting from student life to real life means we no longer have the luxury of being able to wander into each other's rooms at all hours of the day or whiling away hours just sat at the kitchen table. Instead, it means that when we do all spend time together there's a definite air of excitement and a lot of effort goes into making it memorable. 

I've picked out a few snaps as a bit of a review of 2012 in the life of Kaz. It probably won't mean a lot to you guys reading but I had a whale of a time looking back at all my pictures of day trips, nights out and weekends away. 

1. Birthday celebrations- lots of my favourite people all in one room (and some spookily coordinated outfits) 2. A day out at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park with my Mum, Dad and new DSLR 3. Live at Leeds 2012 4. A sunburnt sunny day in Nottingham 5. Sailing round the Isle of Wight with the Ellen Macarthur Cancer Trust through work 6. City living 7&8 Olympic stuff- seeing Friendly Fires for free definitely made me warm to the occasion 9. 'rowing' in Stratford with one of my favourites 10. Monkeying around in Edinburgh 11. Leeds Festival- seeing Florence was a definite highlight of my year/life in general 12. We're a very distinguished little bunch. Especially when filled with wine.

Roll on 2013. Bring me some more good times like these please.

Reunion- The xx

Like those before and those to come

2013 has definitely been a good one as far as music goes. I've been thinking for a while about what I'd say my top 5 songs from this year are and I've struggled so much to actually come to some sort of definite list as once I think I have my five another song from the last few months pops into my head and takes me right back to square one. I could have probably done a top 10 (or 100...) the way I was going, but eventually settled on this little lot (I'm writing this in a rush now before I change my mind again).

If you've not heard of some of these songs before and are partial to a bit of indie goodness then definitely give them a listen. I've always got music blaring out of my laptop when I'm typing out blog posts which is why it always ends up creeping into my post titles (I should probably start linking them in my posts so they make a bit more sense!).


Default Django Django

Now this is one of those songs that I've sung along to for ages on nights out and had a jolly good time watching them at Leeds festival in the summer, but despite this, they're not a band I'd paid too much attention to until quite recently. I'm now making up for lost time by listening to them on my iPod ALL THE TIME. The rest of the album is great too so if you like the sound of this then definitely give them a go.


Sappho Tribes

I cast my mind back to the start of 2012 to think about what I was listening to earlier in the year and this was definitely one of my most played songs. I love the lead singer's voice, he's got that whole grungy rock vocal thing going on and is great to sing along to if you're not having the best day ever- sometimes you just need to belt out a big song to make yourself feel a bit better (apologies to my neighbours).


Breezeblocks alt- J

Probably one of the most hyped up bands of this year, but alt- J's album An Awesome Wave is too brilliant and refreshingly different from a lot of other stuff out there at the moment that its impossible not to give them credit for it. Breezeblocks is the first song of theirs that I heard, thanks to my old housemate who was in the same course group as them at uni and was all excited because they were about to release an actual, proper album.


Pelican The Maccabees 

I went to see the Maccabees back in March and even then this song was sending the crowd crazy. Then at Leeds festival they were headlining the NME tent and the electricity the song produced then was absolutely mind blowing. Its impossible to listen to this and not have a bit of a boogie when it builds up to the chorus. This one also took the crown as the lyric in my post title... that must count for an extra star or something!


Celestine Spector

I've had so much love for Spector since probably around February/March time and resorted to listening to their songs on youtube whilst counting down until August when they FINALLY released their album. Celestine is a song I've been continually listening to for most of the year and is always one of my go-to songs when I put my music on. If you ever get the chance to see Spector live then my word just do it, they're brilliant live and aswell as putting on a great show they don't take themselves too seriously and aren't afraid to interact with the audience (when I saw them in Leeds in May they extended an open invitation to the bar they were going to after the set to the packed out o2 Academy... if that's not audience interaction then I don't know what is!).


So there you have it, a little insight into what my ears have been enjoying this year. If anyone has any recommendations of new stuff that I can kick start the new year with then give me a shout!