10 Things About Me

1) I love horses and have been riding since I was 4 years old, which is 13 years of my life. Couldn’t live without it!

2) I am learning to drive which isn’t unusual for a 17 year old but still something that is happening in my life.

3) I DON'T LIKE TEA, which is shocking I know because I am British but here I am wrecking the stereotypes

4) I don’t like Nutella because I don’t like the idea of chocolate and bread, which someone must think is a little odd, not just me

5) I love politics and like keeping up to date with the news while reading my economist every week – you can judge all you want

6) I do the IB (as you can see from my blog post last week) and I really enjoy it.

7) I eat Jaffa cakes normally, i.e. I don’t bite around the jelly and leave it until last

8) I’m not a grammar perfectionist

9) I am a dog person

10) My motto is Keep Calm and Gallop On – i.e. don’t look back at things and regret them, move on with the wonderful adventures of life.

Merci Beacoup,

Much love

Harriet xxx

Why I love the countryside

So half term has swung around again in the busy school term and as always I go and stay with my grandparents in the Cotswolds. Now people may think that as I go and stay with my grandparents every holiday and enjoy it, I may be a little weird and not a 'normal' teenager. However, I love it!

I feel (yes, feelings!) that not only the countryside offers a little break from my mundane routine of school and homework, but also a new breathe of life (cheesy, I know). You feel automatically refreshed and ready ( but not looking forward) for your life where there are traffic lights around every corner, which I don't enjoy being a learner driver.

After living in quite a busy town near London, I have found myself craving for a country life where you see horses in fields everyday. My dream is to earn a lot of money, retire to the countryside at about 30 and buy a horse. I'd love to wake up every morning and just see fields of grass with no annoying people insight. Be able to shout with out people staring at you everyday.

I also believe in the country way of living, something I feel everyone has forgotten in the last few decades as we (as a population) only see the town way of life. The country way, I feel, is much simpler and more make do and mend. And by this, I do not mean that we haven't got any Internet or mobile phones because we do and are still connected to the world like everyone else.

Finally, I believe in the work of farmers and how they provide all our food and how we should be more grateful for the work they do to keep us fed as a nation.

I hope I haven't gone off on too much of a tangent but more of these rants to come!!

Much love,
Harriet
xxx

The IB - the bain/ love of my life

Hola peeps,

I am quite enjoying this blogging melarkee (new favourite word) , so I thought I would write another blog post from my every expanding list of things I want to blabber on about, and this was at the top: the IB.

The IB is an educational programme for students to do at sixth form (ie when they are 15/16). The IB stands for the ‘International Baccalaureate’ and is equivalent to A-levels. But, instead of choosing 4 AS levels for one year and then 3 A2 levels the next year, you have to stick to 6 subjects throughout the whole 2 years. This is a bit of a workload but if you enjoy variety, it is really fun!

There are 6 categories for subjects that you have to choose, but again this offers not only variety but a structure to your education.

•          Group 1 – English
•          Group 2 – Languages
•          Group 3 – Humanities
•          Group 4 – Sciences
•          Group 5 – Maths
•          Group 6 – Arts (this is optional as you can do 2 subjects from groups 2,3 or 4)

They are also divided into 3 higher levels and 3 standard levels. So if you don’t do maths, you could choose maths studies (which is maths but FUN!) or if you love Science, you could do a higher science which would mean more detail.

Just listing them makes me realise how much work they all are, however there is more fun. If you are an IB student you also have to complete some lovely things in the Core; which are: Tok (AKA Theory of Knowledge which is just mind boggling’ meaning you come out and do ask what is life), an extended essay (4000 words of cleverness) and CAS (Creative, Active and Service). If you don’t complete them, you FAIL the IB (even if you get 7 points in everything else...which would be a real shame).

I can hear people go, why 7? Well, 7 is the maximum points you can earn in each subject and is just the number the IB picked because they wanted to be different (the answer to almost everything they do, don’t get me started on Internal Assessments!). However, this is almost impossible to get if you want to eat or sleep but just happens to be the amount that Oxford and Cambridge want in ALL YOUR HIGHERS, which is nice of them isn’t it?

No, but really, I do actually really enjoy the IB, it has become part of me (I know, cheesy, but true). I have met some great people that I hang out with most of the time (as there are only 12 people in my year that do it). We have become the IB family and is completely #internationalbadasslaureate (inside joke, sorry!). So, my advice to anyone with the dilemma of choosing something else or IB, do IB because you will have a love/hate relationship but mostly love. I promise.

Speak soon. Much love!

Harriet

xxx

Little Steps and Big Ones?

Why did I choose this title? Well, there are a few reasons. Firstly, it is a take on a quote from one of my favourite book series: James Herriot. It is about the tales of a vet working in the Yorkshire dales around the 30s through to the 50s. It is a really good read if you like animals or just a good laugh! It is also an old BBC TV series which stars a young Peter Davison, Robert Hardy and Christopher Timothy. But anyway, back to the point, the quote is from the part where James is about to go off to war and these 5 words kept getting repeated: “Little steps and Big ‘Uns” (true Yorkshire accent!).

Even if you don’t know the source of the quote, it still gives a valuable message. My take on it is that there can be many events in our lives; big events that affect everyone, or small events that may only affect you or someone close to you; but the size of the event doesn't matter because it doesn't make it less important to that individual.

However, there are several responses to this sort of thing, what’s yours?

Much love,

Harriet

xxx

Helloo

Hello bloggers/readers

I'm Harriet, currently 17 years of age and this is my first blog post. I have started this blog because I want to start to remember my life as I realise I won't be able to keep every memory in my head.

I will be posting book reviews, film reviews, political issues and other stuff. As the title suggest, big stuff and little stuff that has affected me in my life which I want to share with you.

So carry on scrolling as I promise this will be one amazing adventure!

Much Love xxx