Wanderlust: Barcelona (#2)

Another place that I am dying to go in Barcelona, Spain and I'm not ashamed to say that this first stemmed from my love of 'Cheetah Girls 2'. The architecture there seems absolutely stunning and I love architecture. I find it really interesting to look at and think about how it was designed and made so that it could still be a safe structure whilst being so unique. 
The Sagrada Familia is definitely a place that I would want to visit. The architecture that go into churches just look so amazing. All the small intricate details both inside and out. You can tell that a lot of thought and time went into it. I also love hearing the stories about the churches as well. When and why it was built and the traditions of the church now. 
The Torre Agbar is a skyscraper that always seems to be seen in any vantage point photographs that I see of Barcelona. It's a 38-story skyscraper that just looks amazing. The way that it looks in the night when the building it all lit up just looks fantastic. It's currently the tallest building in Barcelona at 142 metres high. 
I love looking at botanical gardens and the Jardi Botanic Barcelona looks like the perfect place to just be able to wander around for a while at your own pace if you just want a relaxing day out. 
The Mercat de Sant Josep de la Boqueria looks like such a vibrant and exciting place to go. Local markets of different countries are something that I want to see a lot more of when I go away on holiday and this one just looks like it's bursting with life.  Those are just a few of the things that I would love to go and see if I get the chance to go and see Barcelona but there are a few other things that are on the list. 

Coping With My First Term in Sixth Form

My first term in sixth form was probably one of the scariest things I have experienced for a lot of reasons. It was an entirely new school for me and I pretty much knew no one there, A Levels just seemed like a daunting prospect to me and the school was massive compared to my old one. But now it's all done and dusted with and I can say that I survived that first term. 
Settling in wasn't as much of a challenge as I thought it would be. I quickly got to know the people n my form class and classes and started to make friends and it didn't take me long to find a group of friends that I got a long with pretty well and individually were in my classes as well. One of the biggest hurdles to get through when joining a new school seemed to be cleared after three weeks of being there and I could not have been more grateful. 
My subjects seemed to be a completely different ball game compared to GCSE but that was something that I had been prepared for. I knew that it was going to be a pretty big leap going to GCSE to A Level but experiencing it was completely different. Maths was an entirely new syllabus for me since I hadn't done additional maths but it was something that I knew had to adjust to quickly. Whilst physics and maths were subjects that I found myself falling in love with even more, biology was a subject that I really wasn't enjoying and if anything, I was dreading my lessons so much. After two weeks of trying to get through the lessons, I realised that maybe this wasn't the subject for me and I decided to have a chat with my head of year to swap my subject around. I initially wanted to swap Biology around for History but it turned out that the History class was completely full with people moving into the class. So, in the end I decided that I would swap to Economics instead. That came with it's ow task of copying two weeks of the course up and trying to catch up with the basics that were right at the start of the course. I managed to get my head around it all though and enjoyed it a lot more than I did Biology. 
Towards the beginning of the term I decided that I was going to sign up to become a Prefect. The title doesn't particularly entail much and is mostly me having to make sure none of the lower school come into the building during lunchtime for half an hour once a week and help out the Parents' Evening and Open Evenings. As well as that, I managed to get a space on the HE+ program which is a scheme that's run by Cambridge University to teach students in Year 12 out of the syllabus and give them advice on applying to Russell Group Universities. Even though it's not the most exciting Tuesday evening, I have people there that help me get through it. 
Altogether, my first term in sixth form was enjoyable but still very stressful. I don't think anything was going to prepare me for what A Levels were going to bring with them but I'm slowly adjusting to them and getting use to them. 
I hope everyone's having a good second term back in school/college right now and everything has settled down.

Looking Back At: January 2016

What's Been Going On?

For me, January is always a month that's slow to go by and it's never the happiest of months after the high energy of Christmas quickly come crashing down. Heading back to school does nothing to help that either and after finishing my first term in sixth form the school thought that it would be a great time to start mock exams off. So, heading back to school was exactly a cheerful experience at the beginning of the month. Thankfully, I only had four mocks to sit: two maths, one economics and one for physics. And respectively I ended up getting 2 As, a B and a C which I was definitely pleased with. 
Other than that, it's been a pretty quiet month. I've seen the arrival of my new bookcase which I was extremely excited for. My room had been painted in August and since then my books have been residing in boxes in my parents' room since I haven't been able to find a bookcase that I've liked and would fit in my room since I haven't got much space. But I finally found one and nothing has brought me greater joy than to see my book all lined up on shelves. 
I've been slowly getting myself back into blogging and it's been helping me find a balance between school work and just having me time again. It's been so nice to just be able to write since all of my subjects are maths based. Hopefully, I'm going to be able to keep this up for now, even if I'm just posting twice a month to start of with until I get back into the swing of things again. 

Books?

I'm so glad that this has been a month that I've slowly been able to get back into reading. I set my reading challenge a lot lower than previous years, down to 15 books but I had to make it realistic. I've been so busy with sixth form, I wasn't sure how much time I would have to read when summer came along and towards the end of the year when I'll hopefully be applying to Uni. But, whilst it's been quiet I thought I would get a head start. 
So, here's what I've managed to read:  

• Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo 
• Binge by Tyler Oakley 
• Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them by J.K Rowling 

And I'm currently reading: 

• The Complete Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle 
• The Queen of the Tearling by Erika Johansen 

Instagram

Who needs A Levels when I could bake my way to success? { #baking #redvelevet #cupcakes #food }

A photo posted by Saira Ahmed (@sai_498) on Jan 24, 2016 at 12:00pm PST

Nothing will beat the beauty of words lying gracefully across a page, especially after a bad day. Slowly but surely making some progress with Sherlock. It might be a long book but it's so beautifully written, the words seem to flow so nicely. I really am hoping that I can make so more progress once mock exams are done. { #bibliophile #books #bookworm #bookblogger #igreads #bookstagram #theadventuresofsherlockholmes #sherlockholmes #sherlock #johnwatson #reading #currentlyreading #sixthform #alevels #mockexams #goodreads #goodreadschallenge }

A photo posted by Saira (@growingxwings) on Jan 18, 2016 at 2:09pm PST

Currently reading: Beginners Guide - Engineering by Natasha McCarthy. One of the most interesting books that I've dread and it's definitely made me fall in love with engineering so much more. { #igreads #bookstagram #bookwork #bibliophile #begineersguide #engineer #engineering }

A photo posted by Saira (@growingxwings) on Jan 29, 2016 at 2:36am PST

I've been working on filling this bookshelf this evening. Since I've had my room repainted all of my books have been residing in my parents' room. It's funny how empty it's felt in there until I've had my gorgeous book back with me again. { #bibliophile #booklover #bookblogger #bookshelf #roomdecoration #inprogress #ya }

A photo posted by Saira (@growingxwings) on Jan 29, 2016 at 11:53am PST

I'm absolutely in love with this book and I still have another half left to go! It's been so long since a book has captivated me in the way that this one has. Major book love right now. ❤️ { #queenofthetearling #erikajohansen #booklove #bookbloggers #bibliophile #books #bookworm #fantasy #dystopia #currentlyreading #igreads }

A photo posted by Saira (@growingxwings) on Jan 31, 2016 at 2:41pm PST

I hope you all have had a good start to the year! 

Book Review: Eleanor & Park

Title: Eleanor & Park 
Author: Rainbow Rowell 
Publisher: Orion 
Release Date: 12/04/2012
Pages: 325
Service: Library 
Format: Paperback
Buy: Book Depository
Author Twitter: @rainbowrowell

'Eleanor is the new girl in tow, with her chaotic family life, her mismatched clothes and her unruly red hair, she couldn't stick out more if she tried. 

Park is the boy at the back of the bus. Black t-shirts, headphone, head in a book - he things he's made himself invisible. But not to Eleanor... never to Eleanor. 

Slowly, steadily, through late-night conversations and an ever-growing stack of mix tapes, Eleanor and Park fall for each other. They fall in love they way you do the first time, when you're young, and you feel as if you have nothing and everything to lose.'

This was the first Rainbow Rowell book that I picked up and I can quite happily say that I was not at all disappointed in what I read. I had started to read this book with high hopes and if anything, this book exceeded all expectation. Rainbow Rowell, you have yourself a new fan. 

'Eleanor & Park' was a memorising story of two people discovering love for the very first time and how they cope with that. It was such a beautifully written story and Rowell's writing style was something that I gelled with so well. I couldn't get through the book faster once I had started it. 

Her characters were perfectly written. I loved how they weren't your stereotypical character. Both Eleanor and Park had insecurities that they knew about and they didn't like and didn't really come to terms with feeling comfortable with. It was nice seeing that side of characters, seeing them not feel comfortable with the way they look or just who they are as a person. They had problems and they were realistic problems, ones that you would come across. Rowell has no problem with throwing diverse characters into this story with made it such a refreshing read. We see different cultures in there and the way that those cultures effect the characters. 

The plot itself was written so well. There were parts where my heart just ached for some characters and the plight that they were in. You couldn't help but empathise with them. Though you could see where the plot was going, it wasn't in an annoying predictable way that you didn't want to read the rest of the book. I wanted to keep reading to see if I was right, to see how things were going to end. 

Did I expect the ending? No, not at all. It's such a heart breaking book that when I read the ending, I wish that it didn't finish there. I am yearning for more of Eleanor and Park's story.

I can give nothing but praise for this book and I'll definitely be picking up more of Rowell's books. 

Favourite Quote: 

Rating:  ★★★★★

Book Review: Clockwork Prince

Title: Clockwork Prince
Author: Cassandra Clare
Publisher: Walker & Company 
Series: The Infernal Devices #2
Release Date: 01/05/2012
Pages: 500
Service: Bought
Format: Paperback
Buy: Book Depository 
Author Twitter: @cassieclare

'In the magical underworld of Victorian London, Tessa Gray finds her heart drawn more and more towards Jem, though her longing for Will, despite his dark moods, continues to unsettle her. But something is changing in Will - the wall he has built around himself is crumbling. Could finding the Magister free Will from his secrets and give Tessa the answers about who she is and what she was born to do? As their dangerous search for the truth leads the friends to peril, Tessa's heart is increasingly torn, especially when one of their own betrays them.

As usual when I read Clare's books, her prologue immediately makes me want to devour the rest of the novel. It's something that you can't ignore and always plays on your mind whilst reading the story. In the second instalment of 'The Infernal Devices' Clare's writing didn't fail to take me back in time before transporting me into the world of Shadowhunter and Downworlders. 
It was incredibly easy for me to be able to nip in and out of the different story line were working alongside each other in this book. I didn't struggle to keep up with what was going on with each character and idea that Clare had woven in. If anything it made me want to keep reading so I could find out more about each one of them. A fantastic job was done here about making sure to keep the reader interested and at the same time, making sure that we weren't left confused or in the dark about things. 
The character development in this book was great and I still am a huge fan of Henry Branwell. The relationship between Jem and Will is always great to read but it was nice to see them not be the perfect pair all the time and have to face some problems that were shown in the book. It made their friendship seem a lot more realistic in my eyes. However, Tessa did manage to annoy me in some parts of the book since I did feel she was a bit indecisive when trying to figure things out and make decisions. 
It has been a while since I read 'Clockwork Angel' and with the books being as thick as they are I was worried that I wouldn't remember what was going on. That's wasn't a problem though, since when I started the books I seemed to remember what had happened and where there were hole in my memory, Clare filled them in quite nicely.  
I cannot wait to read the last book in the series now and I hope it will be able to put to rest all of the questions that 'Clockwork Prince' has given me. 
Rating: ★★★★1/2

Looking Back At: 2015

I just want to start off with saying that I'm extremely sorry about the extended break that I've taken from this blog. As soon as exam season came around in May I was so busy and I didn't end up getting back into blogging once it was over. But I'm back and hoping that I can stay around for a little while longer again. 
2015 has been an absolutely amazing year for me! It's been one of my best years with so far with so much going on, a lot of good news and new adventures. I can't begin to tell you how much joy this year ended up bringing me and I'm so sad to see the end of it. 
January kicked off the start of this brilliant year since I brought 2015 in with my sister in New York! I still can't believe that I had the chance to do that and it definitely made sure that my year got off on the right foot. With musicals and sight seeing around the city, I couldn't have asked for anything more. 
There were a few exams to sit when I got back home though. However, January also become the month that got offered my very first job! There was a new store opening in the city centre and I applied with the thought that I may not get it but it doesn't hurt to try. I got a call towards the end of January after my interview offering me the job and I'm still working there now. 
May and June were both extremely stressful and emotional. Exams were in full swing and it was just crazy. It was the last hurdle to jump before I was able to completely finish school and I don't know how I managed to get out of it with my sanity. June also meant me saying goodbye to secondary school which was slightly upsetting. Unlike the majority of my year group, I was heading to sixth form with one other person in my year going with me. So, June was a time of goodbyes for me. 
My last day had me in near tears and I was doing everything I could not to cry like a baby. My leavers' assembly left me in fits of laughter though as we sat in the main hall as a year group for the last time. I couldn't believe I had made it through five years of secondary school and was finally saying goodbye. Prom night left me with a huge smile on my face and it was the perfect way to end five years and say goodbye to everyone. I danced and screamed songs at the top of my lungs and knew that I was leaving with a new adventure waiting for me. 
Exams were finished, prom was done and summer started for me a month earlier than everyone and I loved it. Three months off to spend with my family with the looming thought of school in the back of my mind. We did day trips to Liverpool and Chester Zoo, I did workshops in Lush. It was a holiday that I was actually able to enjoy and the weather could have been a lot worse! 

As well as some amazing days spent with my family in August, I knew that it also meant that GCSE results would be coming out and I was anxious to have that brown envelope in my hand. Results day had been far from what I had expected and it was truly memorable. I ended up having to open my results on Welsh radio which I hoped meant that they were okay. The shock I felt that day when I saw that day was astounding and I nearly cried when I saw my maths mark. I walked out of school a few hours later with 3 A*s and 8 As. 

Those results meant that I was able to move on to another exciting part in my life and one that made 2015 even better. I was joining sixth form which was a part of a school that I had never gone to. September was extremely exciting but also nerve wracking for me. Thankfully, I settled into sixth form life pretty well. I adore the subjects that I've taken and found a group of friends that I really get along with. Even though the work is a lot harder. I love the challenge of it all. 

December has been a brilliant month. I've managed to survive my first term in sixth form and also took a trip to Bath with my sister and my mother to have a look around at the Christmas markets which was a present for my results from my sister. Even though it was extremely busy, it was brilliant. The city was so gorgeous and the markets were lovely to have a look around in.  
Overall, 2015 has been a really good year for me. Especially academically. I feel like I've finally found my feet and for the first time in a long time I've looked forward to going to school. I can't wait to see what 2016 will hold for me and my family and I can only hope that it'll be ten times better! 
Happy new year my lovelies and I hope 2015 gave you everything that you hoped for and 2016 will too! 

This Is Halloween?

It's Halloween and in all honesty it isn't a holiday that I really celebrate to the extreme like some people do but I still enjoy the day and the run up to it! There are a few aspects of the holiday that I love. 

Halloween movies are always great to watch. Admittedly I don't watch any super scary movies, okay, I don't watch scary movies at all to be honest. But I love watching 'The Nightmare Before Christmas' and 'Corpse Bride' around Halloween because even though they aren't scary movies they do have a spooky, Halloween sort of feel to them. I also love watching the 'Disney Halloweentown' movies. Some people might think that they're slightly childish but I really do enjoy the movies. It doesn't feel right watching them any other time of the year. So, I have to wait until Halloween comes around. 
Other than that, Halloween is quite a quiet time of the year. When I was younger I did love dressing up for the Halloween disco at my primary school. I loves searching for a costume that I wanted to wear and then see what everyone else was wearing. Enough though I never won best dressed, it never bothered me and I really enjoyed the nights. 
I do love seeing some of the houses and shops around the area get decorate for Halloween though. Some places seem to go all out for the seasonal holiday which always makes me smile because even though some of the decoration can be seen as quite corny I still love seeing them and sometimes Halloween can be the best time of year to find some really snazzy decorations. We went to 'Asda' the other day and when to the Halloween aisle, but I have no idea why, and we came across these really nice white candles that had this black lace around the side of the candle. I don't know what made is specifically Halloween related but it look really lovely. 
So, how do you guys celebrate Halloween?