More radio shows, an addiction to RollerCoaster Tycoon and Street Fighter playing fish.

Is it even possible for a week to go ridiculously fast but achingly slow? I catch myself checking the Florida countdown on my phone every day, expecting it to be less than a week to go. Today it says fifteen days and I can’t believe it’s come around so quickly! Still, it swiftly dampens my excitement when I realise that this time next month I’ll be back in England in the cold, but at least I’ll be back at university and I’m looking forward to that a whole lot too!

So this week I’ve got my second and third radio broadcasts in the bag!

On Monday I had a three hour long slot, and with it being my first show 100% alone it was immensely nerve racking. Especially considering how daunting the controls are. But it was fun pretending I knew what all the sliders and knobs did, despite the fact I was just winging it and hoping for the best. Here’s a photo of my hand pretending it knows what to do:

I was still profoundly nervous, but I tried my hardest not to vocalise my nerves on air and slowly but surely eased into it and tried to be a bit more natural and even had some one sided conversations about the ‘Ice Bucket Challenge’ and how un-ironic Alanis Morissette’s ‘Ironic’ actually is. And after a while it felt less rehearsed and just like I was going with the flow. I’ll get there eventually!

My show on Tuesday went by too quickly for my liking, it was only an hour slot but I did a bit of promoting for The Sesh at Linnet and Lark and played some up and coming bands so that was something a bit different. At the moment, the radio station is off air due to maintenance works so I didn’t do a show today, but I hope it’s up and running by Monday!

Today was mainly spent watching fish playing Street Fighter. Sounds crazy right? It really is so entertaining and it in no way should be as gripping as it is but most of my day was spent watching this and drinking copious amounts of very strong coffee. If you wish to watch fish playing Street Fighter (I promise you won’t regret it, but I can’t take any responsibility for large amounts of lost time), you can tune in here: http://www.twitch.tv/fishplaystreetfighter. There’s also a Fish play Pokémon Twitch stream, albeit boring compared to Fish play Street Fighter, it’s still good viewing.

I’ve also being spending extensive amounts of time on RollerCoaster Tycoon 4. I’d had it less than 24 hours and already completed most of the campaigns. I then rediscovered sandbox mode, with unlimited money and everything unlocked, just as I was going out. I found myself mentally building theme parks for the rest of the night.

I definitely started taking it way too seriously. Imagining up a theme parks with different themed lands and attractions. I even debated planning it out using pens and paper before building it, but when I caught myself internally drawing up theme park blueprints I knew I’d gone too far and snapped out of it and realised how ridiculous I was being.

RollerCoaster Tycoon is debilitatingly addictive though and I don’t plan on stopping any time soon (possibly after my holiday when I’m suffering from post-Florida blues and anything that reminds me of theme parks or the Sunshine State just makes me sad).

With fifteen days to go, I’ve finally downloaded the Universal Orlando app for my phone so I’m officially on countdown. Fifteen days seems so close, yet so far. This also means I have two weeks to pack everything I’m taking back up to university with me which is a huge chore in itself.

Anyway, it’s time to watch Sharknado 2 now, so I’ll catch you on the flip side. (What do you mean that saying isn’t cool any more?!)

 

That Obligatory Awkward First Post.

First posts on a new blog are probably one of of my least favourite things in the world – finding out Robin Williams has died is definitely number one on my least favourite list right now. First posts are awkward and unwanted, I just wish I could pre-load a blog with random posts, but that’s pretty difficult since I haven’t written them yet.

I just hate the notion of having to describe what I am, who I am and what I like in order to build an audience of readers, because I always end up missing something vital out. For example, I’m on my second paragraph and I haven’t even written my name yet. It’s Rachel by the way.

I decided to start a daily, weekly, whenever I feel like it-ly blog for several reasons. I’ve wanted to start one now for a long time, but I could never find the reason, or the words, to do so. But as my summer goes on, my life is getting a little bit more interesting (I say a little bit – no skydiving out of burning buildings for charity, or organising events that will be attended by thousands here folks).

But I guess I’ll get right into it and I hope you enjoy reading (because there’ll probably be a lot of words).

I’ve been volunteering at a place called BRiCWorks since I came home for summer. It’s a community hub for people recovering from drugs and alcohol and has been such a good place to spend my summer, and is undeniably a great cause to give my time to. The experience I’ve gained has been invaluable, and it would be difficult to pick up such a variety of experience and skills elsewhere.

For the first couple of months I was mainly working on their newsletters, behind the reception desk, or drinking lots of tea and hearing peoples recovery stories – the latter probably being my favourite while I’ve been there. I’ve met some really inspiring people, who have shown me that no matter how hard it gets, it’s always possible to pull through, and come out at the other side victorious.

Anyway, BRiCWorks have their own community radio station, Hull Recovery Radio, and after months of umm’ing and ahh’ing about it, I finally bit the bullet and asked if I could do a show. I really wanted to be involved with the radio side of Spark at university but didn’t have the confidence, so I knew if I built confidence through HRR, by the time term started I’d be ready to go back to Spark and get more involved, so this really was something I HAD to do.

They said they could fit me in on the Thursday, bearing in mind this was Monday, and I was expecting at least a week to mentally prepare myself for this. To say I was extremely nervous would be an understatement.

But I did a whole lot of preparing, and loaded about 20 songs I wanted to play on my trusty University of Sunderland USB stick and turned up on Thursday ready to do my show. As 1pm rolled around (I was due to go on at 1:30pm), I was told that it was time. It was 30 minutes earlier than it should have been so I went into full-on panic mode right then and there.
“What do you mean?! It’s only 1, I’m not due to go on until 1:30.”
I got a lot of words of encouragement and a hug from my Mum. As if I wasn’t nervous enough, my Mum was also there so that added to the nervousness tenfold. She even stood by with her phone to take a photo!

I sat in the chair and loaded the computer with my songs, which now, in hindsight, were a bad pick. I tried to pick songs that would be kind to everyones ears and not play a load of Bring Me The Horizon, Four Year Strong and A Day To Remember, but I just felt awkward when I introduced The Kinks and Oasis. Don’t get me wrong, I like The Kinks and Oasis, I’m just not really into them.

I genuinely felt like a poor mans version of Annie Mac, sat there in the presenters chair, with a myriad of computers and speakers around me, and a microphone in my face. It felt great to be honest. Here’s the aforementioned photo:

After doing a considerable amount of awkward things such as stopping songs too early, or too late, not fading songs out properly, and admitting to having the Sound Of Music soundtrack LP live on air, I finally got into it, stopped feeling so gawky and relaxed a little.

It helped that I was joined with one of the other DJ’s, Rick, (we’d had a lengthy conversation about games beforehand, so I liked him already). He had had only done a couple of shows for HRR but seemed so relaxed on air. I would have probably been a nervous wreck if it wasn’t for him to be honest! In between songs we chatted about music, got a couple of other people in to talk about things and just had a laugh. I’m pretty sure my show was meant to start at half 1 and finish at half 2, but we ended up occupying the radio studio until half 4.

I honestly never could have imagined how much I’d enjoy presenting a radio show, and I didn’t even get conscious about my horrible voice either! And doing this was a huge boost for my confidence, not to mention that I’m yearning to do it again already! So that’s one for the portfolio!

Speaking of portfolios, another reason I wanted to start this blog was so that I could blog about my holiday, which you’ll no doubt he hearing a lot about over the coming weeks if you read my blog. Finally, after four long years of waiting, and a couple of months of packing and re-packing my suitcase, I’m going back to the motherland. Florida. (Not really the motherland may I add, but it feels like I’m going home!)

I blogged my whole holiday in 2010 which you can read here: http://rachelamystriptoflorida.tumblr.com if you wish to. It’s full of awkwardness and crude language, but it’s a good read and has pretty photos. The URL is also meant to read like “Rachel Amy’s Trip To Florida”, not “Rachel Amy Strip To Florida”, sounding like I’m doing some kind of stripping road trip, I apologise.
Not even a trip to the moon could beat 2010’s trip (well maybe). It was amazing and one of the best holidays I’ve ever been on.

So yes, it’s just 24 days, 5 hours, and 13 minutes until I (with my Mum, Dad, sister – Emma, and Nanna), set off for Manchester Airport for two weeks in the Sunshine State. And honestly, I’m having trouble sleeping due to excitement already. Florida is 10x better than Christmas in my opinion and it will be so good to be back there!

If you’ve read this far, you deserve a gold star because this post is LONG. I don’t think my posts in future will be this long but you never know. Anyway, thank you for reading and be sure to keep an eye out for future posts – I’m going to Wales on Thursday so that’ll be an interesting read…

See y’all real soon!

(I’d just like to add a RIP to Robin Williams, will be sorely missed in the comedy/film world. Such sad news.)