Hello,
So we have just come back from a great holiday to Portugal and would like to share with you some of the things that we did whilst we were there. We stayed in Olhos De Agua but did also go into Albuferia and went to places like Zoo Marine and Aquashow.
We were walking distance from the beach and therefore we were often found going down to the beach in the evenings for meals which was very nice. the only problem with going to Portugal and eating out was that it wasn't very good for vegan food and we often found that one of us was constantly eating the same thing but the nice warm weather and the relaxing holiday was enough for it not to be too much of a problem.
We also went on a dolphins and caves boat trip and was intrigued by the beautiful caves as well as happy to see some common dolphins in the wild. We were accompanied by one biologists as well as the driver who were more than happy to tell us about the caves and the dolphins and provided a very interesting trip as well as an amusing one as it was no lovely boat ride but very bouncy. We got completely drenched by the sea on the boat despite wearing the coats that they had provided for us but it was all worth it.
We also went to Zoo Marine as we weren't sure what it would be like but we did enjoy it. It was both educational and fun as they were telling us about the animals as well as providing things like a pirate show to add humour as well as showing off some acrobatic tricks.
We also went to Aquashow which is a water park in Portugal which has a roller coaster. As you can see from the video on YouTube it was a big highlight of the trip as it was full of different rides for all ages and for everyone from people who don't like rides to massive thrill seekers. If you want to go and watch the video the link is here:
https://youtu.be/sdQjNIolFcM
If you want to see more videos like this on YouTube please leave a comment here or on the video. Thank you for reading, please leave a comment on where you went on holiday or where you would like to go as well as what you would like for us to blog about in the future.
Thanks,
ThePolkaDotaffodil x
Saturday, 26 August 2017
Sunday, 30 July 2017
Shopping haul
hello everyone,
we are sorry for non frequent blog posts but we were stuck on what to post and with the end of school we were quite busy but we are defiantly going to be posting more often now that we have the holidays.
For this weeks blog post I thought that I would post a haul of what I have bought in the past week. I was quite lucky when I went as there was a sale on in Cath Kidston so I was able to afford to get a few things.
The first thing that I picked up from cath kidston was this beautiful floral multi pocket backpack that was originally £48 but reduced to £28 which I thought was a really good price and worth the price because I have had a cath kidston backpack before about 2 years ago and it is still amazing. I was really glad when I saw that this was on sale as I have wanted for a long time.
I also really like that there are three different sections and that the back section is padded. This is good because it means that it will be comfy on your back. I like the cath kidston backpacks as well because of the back straps are really comfy on your shoulders and the two handles on top of the backpack are really useful for when you want to carry it or for when you want to get something out they are really helpful.
I also picked up this pack of 6 pencils that had pink polka , floral designs and mini horses on them which I thought were really cute. Originally they were £6.50 but they were reduced to £3.50 which I thought was a good price. I have had their pencils before and they were really good so i'm really glad that I got some more.
The next thing that I picked were this set of 3 A5 assorted exercise books. I picked these up because I really like the designs on all three and they will come in handy for when I go back to school or when I go to university. You could also use these for meetings or for general use around the house. I like how they are small so they will fit into my handbag so when I go out if I need to write something down I will be able to easily. These were originally £10 but they were reduced to £5.
I then picked up this set of 3 A4 notebooks because i thought that they would be really useful for school or university when I go. I also picked these up because I love the patterns on all three of the notebooks. The original price was £12 but they were reduced to £5 which I thought was a really good price as they will come in handy and the paper is really good quality.
I then went to Primark and saw this adorable Mickey Mouse mini backpack that I could not leave without buying. I thought that the bag would be really useful as I am going to Disneyland Paris in October so this will he really useful to take around the park. I also liked that it was small because when I go to Disney I don't want to carry around a handbag or a big backpack as they will get on my nerves but a mini backpack will fit all my necessities in but won't let me overfill it so it won't be heavy. This was £9.00 which I thought was a really good price.
I then saw this and also couldn't leave it in the shop as I have always wanted one but you can normally only buy them in the Disney parks and they are normally really expensive but I bought mine from Primark for £5 which I think is a really good price and I absolutely love tea so I am going to be drinking out of this all of the time.
I saw this next to chip and I also had to get this honey pot tea mug from the Winnie and the pooh as it is one of my favourite Disney films and pooh bear is one of my favourite Disney characters so there was no chance that I was leaving this in the store. I also bought is because I thought that it would be nice for the winter when I have hot chocolate because it is a big mug so it will fit a lot in and also I thought that I could have my porridge in it in the mornings. This was £6 which I also thought was a good price.
The next place that I went to was Paperchase, where I picked up this amazing famous landmark notepad. I bought this because I thought that it would be useful for either school work or just a notebook to write down information that I need or to write down things that need to be done. I really liked this notebook because of the design and there are different sections in the notebook which I always find useful. I also really liked the paper as you could tell that it was good quality. I really liked as well the string that holds the notebook pages together as means that if I put any loose pages in there thy will stay in the notebook and not come out. I think I paid £10 or £12, I can't remember as I bought it quite a while ago.
I then went to Waterstones where I bought two new books. The first one that I picked up was Wilde Like Me by Louise Pentland. I have wanted this for quite a while now so I was very excited that I could get a copy. I have watched Louise's youtube channel for a long time and I always find her very inspiring and someone that enjoys what she does and is thankful for all of her viewers and followers.
The second book that I picked up was Carrie Hope Fletchers book which came out around this time last year and she has just released the sequel to this book. I have also watched Carrie's youtube channel for a long time and have gone to see her when she played Truly in the Chitty Chitty Bang Bang UK Tour last year and we are going to see her play Wednesday Adams in the UK tour of The Adams Family on the 4th of August. I am really excited to see the musical as I have read the reviews and they are really good so if you live in the UK and you get the chance to see it I would recommend going to see it. I am really excited to start reading this book as I have heard good things and it sounds like a really good book.
This is all for my shopping haul blog post this week. I hope you enjoyed reading it and if you want to see more shopping haul blog posts don't forget to comment or message us on any of our social medias which are below. We would love to hear from you and to get some feed back and to hear what you would like us to post.
Thank you for reading and don't forget to come back next week to read next weeks blog post. xx
we are sorry for non frequent blog posts but we were stuck on what to post and with the end of school we were quite busy but we are defiantly going to be posting more often now that we have the holidays.
For this weeks blog post I thought that I would post a haul of what I have bought in the past week. I was quite lucky when I went as there was a sale on in Cath Kidston so I was able to afford to get a few things.
The first thing that I picked up from cath kidston was this beautiful floral multi pocket backpack that was originally £48 but reduced to £28 which I thought was a really good price and worth the price because I have had a cath kidston backpack before about 2 years ago and it is still amazing. I was really glad when I saw that this was on sale as I have wanted for a long time.
I also really like that there are three different sections and that the back section is padded. This is good because it means that it will be comfy on your back. I like the cath kidston backpacks as well because of the back straps are really comfy on your shoulders and the two handles on top of the backpack are really useful for when you want to carry it or for when you want to get something out they are really helpful.
I also picked up this pack of 6 pencils that had pink polka , floral designs and mini horses on them which I thought were really cute. Originally they were £6.50 but they were reduced to £3.50 which I thought was a good price. I have had their pencils before and they were really good so i'm really glad that I got some more.
The next thing that I picked were this set of 3 A5 assorted exercise books. I picked these up because I really like the designs on all three and they will come in handy for when I go back to school or when I go to university. You could also use these for meetings or for general use around the house. I like how they are small so they will fit into my handbag so when I go out if I need to write something down I will be able to easily. These were originally £10 but they were reduced to £5.
I then picked up this set of 3 A4 notebooks because i thought that they would be really useful for school or university when I go. I also picked these up because I love the patterns on all three of the notebooks. The original price was £12 but they were reduced to £5 which I thought was a really good price as they will come in handy and the paper is really good quality.
I then went to Primark and saw this adorable Mickey Mouse mini backpack that I could not leave without buying. I thought that the bag would be really useful as I am going to Disneyland Paris in October so this will he really useful to take around the park. I also liked that it was small because when I go to Disney I don't want to carry around a handbag or a big backpack as they will get on my nerves but a mini backpack will fit all my necessities in but won't let me overfill it so it won't be heavy. This was £9.00 which I thought was a really good price.
I then saw this and also couldn't leave it in the shop as I have always wanted one but you can normally only buy them in the Disney parks and they are normally really expensive but I bought mine from Primark for £5 which I think is a really good price and I absolutely love tea so I am going to be drinking out of this all of the time.
The next place that I went to was Paperchase, where I picked up this amazing famous landmark notepad. I bought this because I thought that it would be useful for either school work or just a notebook to write down information that I need or to write down things that need to be done. I really liked this notebook because of the design and there are different sections in the notebook which I always find useful. I also really liked the paper as you could tell that it was good quality. I really liked as well the string that holds the notebook pages together as means that if I put any loose pages in there thy will stay in the notebook and not come out. I think I paid £10 or £12, I can't remember as I bought it quite a while ago.
This is all for my shopping haul blog post this week. I hope you enjoyed reading it and if you want to see more shopping haul blog posts don't forget to comment or message us on any of our social medias which are below. We would love to hear from you and to get some feed back and to hear what you would like us to post.
Thank you for reading and don't forget to come back next week to read next weeks blog post. xx
Sunday, 9 July 2017
Portsmouth
Hello,
So on the weekend we went to Portsmouth university open day and it was a great experience and had us fall in love with the place. The university was like a city university except it also had aspects of being a campus as everything was in such close proximity of each other.
Everyone at the open day were nice and were very eager to help which lives up to the expectations of the university as they are very well known for their student support and this was evident throughout the day. From being given free water at registration to given an email to contact for further information.
What we experienced, which we had not experienced at any other university open day, was a city coach tour which was nice to see the area where you would be staying as well as know the distance from where you are in the university. It was led by a university student so they provided information about what students normally get up to and the places where they hold things for students.
Overall, the university was great and the people within the university were very helpful and eager to talk to you about the university. We even went down to south sea and it looked amazing as well as having loads of things to do if you ever want to go for a short city break (which we really want to do now).
If you have any questions about open days leave a comment.If you go to a university or are looking at them leave a comment on which ones you are looking at or the one you go to. Make sure to follow our social media at the bottom of the page.
Thanks for reading,
ThePolkaDotDaffodil x
Tuesday, 27 June 2017
Capital Summertime Ball
Hello lovelies,
Its been awhile since we last posted a new blog post but we have been planning lots of new exciting things for our future posts so get excited for them. For this post we decided that we would share our experience of Capitol's Summertime Ball.
It took us so long to get to Wembley stadium but it was well worth it and we were well prepared. Our one bit of advice when travelling is to make sure that you plan in advance and if you are in the car and travelling a long way, like we were, make sure that you are comfortable on the way back as the show is very very long.
We felt that the security was really good especially after all the talk about what had happened previously and it made us feel much safer about going in. |It calmed our nerves that there were thorough security checks and therefore we could relax more and enjoy more without worrying as much.
When we got to our seats it was nice to have a sit down as we had to take a quick ten minute walk from where we had parked to the stadium. Our seats weren't the best but it was good for the price and it was nice to see the entire stadium and you could see the whole stage and the artist wherever they went.
Its been awhile since we last posted a new blog post but we have been planning lots of new exciting things for our future posts so get excited for them. For this post we decided that we would share our experience of Capitol's Summertime Ball.
It took us so long to get to Wembley stadium but it was well worth it and we were well prepared. Our one bit of advice when travelling is to make sure that you plan in advance and if you are in the car and travelling a long way, like we were, make sure that you are comfortable on the way back as the show is very very long.
We felt that the security was really good especially after all the talk about what had happened previously and it made us feel much safer about going in. |It calmed our nerves that there were thorough security checks and therefore we could relax more and enjoy more without worrying as much.
When we got to our seats it was nice to have a sit down as we had to take a quick ten minute walk from where we had parked to the stadium. Our seats weren't the best but it was good for the price and it was nice to see the entire stadium and you could see the whole stage and the artist wherever they went.
There were a variety of acts so that it appealed to everyone and the line up actually worked out well as many of the artists actually had collaborations with each other so they were able to perform that song as well. Overall the acts were all really good from beginning to end. Bruno Mars set the tone and was a great way to kick off the show as he got the crowd up and ready for the whole seven hours. It was followed well and everyone was really good and the atmosphere was incredible. Little Mix finished with a bang as everyone was up and dancing and singing along with them.
Check the bottom of the page for our social media and make sure to check our instagram as we have uploaded some videos of some of the acts. See you next week and don't forget to leave a comment and get in touch via social media.
Thanks.
ThePolkaDotDaffodil x
Monday, 5 June 2017
Hay Festival Day Three
This is the final edition to the Hay Festival blog posts as it as our final day at Hay festival as part of the Beacons Project. We didn't want to leave as it was so good and gave us a lot of inspiration. Similar to the day before we had to get up very early to be at the festival but we were used to it by now. Our day was packed with different events as well as different workshops.
We started with breakfast with Peter Florence, the founder of Hay Festival. He sat and ate breakfast with us and talked to us about our aspirations for the future as well as giving us advice and talked about how he started the festival and how it has grown. It was a very interesting breakfast and very different but it was amazing to talk to him and get advice from him.
We then went to see a performance of 3000 chairs, which was based off of the poem by Nicola Davies 'The Day War Came'. It was a very interesting performance and really did intrigue us and inspire us.
We followed this with a one on one workshop with Oliver Balch who talked to us about his experiences of writing and working as well as giving us advice on writing and getting published. He was happy to answer any of the questions we had and was very easy to talk to.
After our workshop we went to a talk about 'Utopias' which was very interesting and gave us an idea of things to write about and how to fictionalise them. It also helped with gaining a wider knowledge of different things and therefore improved our knowledge of different topics like many other events that we wouldn't have necessarily chosen to gone to ourselves but found them very interesting.
We then went to a talk about 'The Cyber Effect' which in todays society is a very big topic as it talked about the internet and how dangerous it is and how it is consuming our lives as well as the positives of the internet and therefore it linked back to the discussion of utopias and therefore gave us an epiphany moment as we were very intrigued by how some of our talks over lapped and flowed into each other as if they were having a debate and therefore we found this very interesting.
Our last talk was Alex Wheatle who started talking about his life and how it related to his novels and although they were fiction you could see aspects of his life that had influenced him in his writing and therefore showed where he got his inspiration from. It was very interesting to see this as well as listening to him read as he was very passionate about it and also very happy to answer the audiences questions at the end of his talk.
Our last event of the day before our entertainment was a workshop with Tom Bullough. Although, we had little time with him to do the workshop we still managed to have one foot in England and one foot in Wales at the same time as we were on the Black Mountain where the cover of his book of 'ADDlands' is taken. He got us to do a bit of writing about our surroundings using our senses and we even got to make friends with a horse as it came closer and closer and tried to eat out notepads but it was very interesting. We even got to have a chat with him about our interests at the bottom before leaving and he gave us some great advice. We also got many pictures from the mountain:
Later in the evening we went to see Will Young perform and he was amazing it was the perfect way to end our time at Hay Festival even if we didn't want to leave. We can't wait until next years Hay Festival and hope to go to their festival in the winter, If you have any questions or advice or want to know more leave a comment, Don't forget to follow our social media linked at the bottom of the page and we will see you soon with another blog post.
ThePolkaDotDaffodil x
We started with breakfast with Peter Florence, the founder of Hay Festival. He sat and ate breakfast with us and talked to us about our aspirations for the future as well as giving us advice and talked about how he started the festival and how it has grown. It was a very interesting breakfast and very different but it was amazing to talk to him and get advice from him.
We then went to see a performance of 3000 chairs, which was based off of the poem by Nicola Davies 'The Day War Came'. It was a very interesting performance and really did intrigue us and inspire us.
We followed this with a one on one workshop with Oliver Balch who talked to us about his experiences of writing and working as well as giving us advice on writing and getting published. He was happy to answer any of the questions we had and was very easy to talk to.
After our workshop we went to a talk about 'Utopias' which was very interesting and gave us an idea of things to write about and how to fictionalise them. It also helped with gaining a wider knowledge of different things and therefore improved our knowledge of different topics like many other events that we wouldn't have necessarily chosen to gone to ourselves but found them very interesting.
We then went to a talk about 'The Cyber Effect' which in todays society is a very big topic as it talked about the internet and how dangerous it is and how it is consuming our lives as well as the positives of the internet and therefore it linked back to the discussion of utopias and therefore gave us an epiphany moment as we were very intrigued by how some of our talks over lapped and flowed into each other as if they were having a debate and therefore we found this very interesting.
Our last talk was Alex Wheatle who started talking about his life and how it related to his novels and although they were fiction you could see aspects of his life that had influenced him in his writing and therefore showed where he got his inspiration from. It was very interesting to see this as well as listening to him read as he was very passionate about it and also very happy to answer the audiences questions at the end of his talk.
Our last event of the day before our entertainment was a workshop with Tom Bullough. Although, we had little time with him to do the workshop we still managed to have one foot in England and one foot in Wales at the same time as we were on the Black Mountain where the cover of his book of 'ADDlands' is taken. He got us to do a bit of writing about our surroundings using our senses and we even got to make friends with a horse as it came closer and closer and tried to eat out notepads but it was very interesting. We even got to have a chat with him about our interests at the bottom before leaving and he gave us some great advice. We also got many pictures from the mountain:
Later in the evening we went to see Will Young perform and he was amazing it was the perfect way to end our time at Hay Festival even if we didn't want to leave. We can't wait until next years Hay Festival and hope to go to their festival in the winter, If you have any questions or advice or want to know more leave a comment, Don't forget to follow our social media linked at the bottom of the page and we will see you soon with another blog post.
ThePolkaDotDaffodil x
Hay Festival Day Two
This is the second edition to our blog about our time at Hay Festival. Read our last blog post about our first day at Hay Festival as well and be sure to follow us on social media. So our second day was long and tiring just like our first day but it was definitely amazing. We started off with a morning walk from where we were staying to the Festival to be there for eight where we either wrote our reflections of the previous day or did yoga. Having done yoga before we decided to take the time to do some writing instead even though yoga is quite a good way to relax.
Our first talk of the day was Owen Sheers who is amazing as he is so down to earth as well as being an amazing writer. We highly recommend that if you don't know who Owen Sheers is you go and read his poetry or novels or plays as he is very talented and like us started with the Beacons project. His talk was about the reform of males and was very interesting to listen to as he addressed it as a poem to his daughters and therefore gave a meaningful and sentimental tone to what he was talking about. In the afternoon we were able to have a private Q and A with Owen Sheers who is so lovely and very humble. He was very helpful when answering questions on how he started writing and his advice for us as well as being very cheerful and happy to sit and have a chat.
We also went to a talk about how to write a novel with the BBC's 'The Essay' where they had two novelists, a historian and fictional, talk about how to write a book by reading out Essays that they had done. Both gave great advice and were very helpful for aspiring writers. We also went to see Luciano Floridi who talked about the internet and our society as well as getting into political issues and answering questions about economy problems. Although it doesn't seem interesting to very many people as a writer it was very interesting and gave ideas for fictional writing as well as giving someone's perspective and thoughts of the research that they did.
We also went to Matthew Francis who talked about the Mabinogi and how he translated the stories and wrote them as a poem in English. This was very interesting to us as being Welsh and not being able to speak the language we were able to look at the Mabinogi without needing our teacher to help us understand what was actually happening. It was also interesting as it showed how Welsh culture was important to people outside of Wales as well.
We also went to the BBC live sessions in the afternoon where we got to see performances by aspiring singers as they worked with people like Ed Sheeran in the past. We followed this with the comedy store players, which we were very eager to see as after such a long and intense day we were in the mood for a good laugh which is exactly what they allowed us to have.
The second day was just as good as the first and the last day was also amazing. Read our next blog to find out about our last day at Hay Festival and also follow our social medias at the bottom.
Thanks,
ThePolkaDotDaffodil x
Our first talk of the day was Owen Sheers who is amazing as he is so down to earth as well as being an amazing writer. We highly recommend that if you don't know who Owen Sheers is you go and read his poetry or novels or plays as he is very talented and like us started with the Beacons project. His talk was about the reform of males and was very interesting to listen to as he addressed it as a poem to his daughters and therefore gave a meaningful and sentimental tone to what he was talking about. In the afternoon we were able to have a private Q and A with Owen Sheers who is so lovely and very humble. He was very helpful when answering questions on how he started writing and his advice for us as well as being very cheerful and happy to sit and have a chat.
We also went to a talk about how to write a novel with the BBC's 'The Essay' where they had two novelists, a historian and fictional, talk about how to write a book by reading out Essays that they had done. Both gave great advice and were very helpful for aspiring writers. We also went to see Luciano Floridi who talked about the internet and our society as well as getting into political issues and answering questions about economy problems. Although it doesn't seem interesting to very many people as a writer it was very interesting and gave ideas for fictional writing as well as giving someone's perspective and thoughts of the research that they did.
We also went to Matthew Francis who talked about the Mabinogi and how he translated the stories and wrote them as a poem in English. This was very interesting to us as being Welsh and not being able to speak the language we were able to look at the Mabinogi without needing our teacher to help us understand what was actually happening. It was also interesting as it showed how Welsh culture was important to people outside of Wales as well.
We also went to the BBC live sessions in the afternoon where we got to see performances by aspiring singers as they worked with people like Ed Sheeran in the past. We followed this with the comedy store players, which we were very eager to see as after such a long and intense day we were in the mood for a good laugh which is exactly what they allowed us to have.
The second day was just as good as the first and the last day was also amazing. Read our next blog to find out about our last day at Hay Festival and also follow our social medias at the bottom.
Thanks,
ThePolkaDotDaffodil x
Hay Festival Day One
So last week we got to go to Hay Festival as part of the Beacons project. We stayed there from the 29th of May to the 1st of June. It was overall a fun experience and now we would like to share our experience from Day one of the festival.
We started the day with the interview between feminist writer Laura Bates and Harriet Harman. They talked about feminism and Harriet's experience and her knowledge of feminism as well as answering questions from the audience. The talk was very inspiring and even inspired our writing. We also got to have a one to one Q and A with Laura Bates later in the day which allowed us to pick her brains on how to get into the world of writing as well as her own inspirations for writing.
However, before our one to one Q and A with Laura Bates we also went to a talk with Meg Rosoff who was talking about the book she had finished for Mel P, who unfortunately died before he could finish the book. This talk was also very interesting as she talked about not wanting to copy Mel and not second guess what Mel would do and instead the book became her own and she was proud of what she had written. It was insightful as she explained that with her own experience of writing she prefers to have a resolution and develop each character and therefore she gave an insight into different ways to write like many other novelists did at Hay Festival.
We also went to see Tracy Chevalier who talked about her book 'New Boy'. We have since bought the book and read it and found it to be a brilliant novel. She talked about the inspiration from Shakespeare's play 'Ophelia' and how she put it into a different setting so it was relatable. She interpreted it and set it in a school yard in a time period where she would have been at school and therefore she felt confident with writing at this time period.
We also had a one to one talk with Karla Brading, who is one of the nicest people you could meet. She talked to us about how she got into writing and all the professional details of getting published and how she did it. She gave many anecdotes that we could relate to and was overall a lovely and bubbly person that we hope to meet again.
In the afternoon, we went to see Philip Reeve talk about his book Rail Head and found it to be interesting as he would read from his book accompanied by music which helped with the mood of the story as well as make you feel like you were involved with the story. He was very interesting to watch and listen to and his creativity of Rail Head is intriguing.
We also went to see Roman Krznaric talk about Carpe Diem and were hooked on every word he said. it was interesting to hear the research that he had done into the subject as well as relate it to todays society and question whether we are really seizing the day anymore. He also cleared up the five types of Carpe Diem and provided a very interesting debate on todays society in general.
Our last talk of the day before our entertainment in the evening was with Ifor Ap Glynn who talked about Hedd Wyn. This topic deeply intrigued us as we come from Wales and have studied Hedd Wyn before. Although, it also made us feel bad as we don't know Welsh and therefore found it very intriguing that his work has been translated and interpreted into English and Dutch. Learning the history of Hedd Wyn and the importance of it to other countries put into perspective what it meant to be Welsh and gave us a very patriotic feeling.
Finally in the evening we went to see 'Fat Freddie's Drop' which was an interesting experience. Although. not to ur taste it was still a fun night as we spent the time laughing at all the other people who were drunk as well as just letting go and having fun even if the music wasn't to our taste.
Overall the first day at Hay Festival was long and intense but definitely amazing. Especially as we have never been to Hay Festival before we definitely recommend you go to it next year as well as their winter Festivals.
We started the day with the interview between feminist writer Laura Bates and Harriet Harman. They talked about feminism and Harriet's experience and her knowledge of feminism as well as answering questions from the audience. The talk was very inspiring and even inspired our writing. We also got to have a one to one Q and A with Laura Bates later in the day which allowed us to pick her brains on how to get into the world of writing as well as her own inspirations for writing.
However, before our one to one Q and A with Laura Bates we also went to a talk with Meg Rosoff who was talking about the book she had finished for Mel P, who unfortunately died before he could finish the book. This talk was also very interesting as she talked about not wanting to copy Mel and not second guess what Mel would do and instead the book became her own and she was proud of what she had written. It was insightful as she explained that with her own experience of writing she prefers to have a resolution and develop each character and therefore she gave an insight into different ways to write like many other novelists did at Hay Festival.
We also went to see Tracy Chevalier who talked about her book 'New Boy'. We have since bought the book and read it and found it to be a brilliant novel. She talked about the inspiration from Shakespeare's play 'Ophelia' and how she put it into a different setting so it was relatable. She interpreted it and set it in a school yard in a time period where she would have been at school and therefore she felt confident with writing at this time period.
We also had a one to one talk with Karla Brading, who is one of the nicest people you could meet. She talked to us about how she got into writing and all the professional details of getting published and how she did it. She gave many anecdotes that we could relate to and was overall a lovely and bubbly person that we hope to meet again.
In the afternoon, we went to see Philip Reeve talk about his book Rail Head and found it to be interesting as he would read from his book accompanied by music which helped with the mood of the story as well as make you feel like you were involved with the story. He was very interesting to watch and listen to and his creativity of Rail Head is intriguing.
We also went to see Roman Krznaric talk about Carpe Diem and were hooked on every word he said. it was interesting to hear the research that he had done into the subject as well as relate it to todays society and question whether we are really seizing the day anymore. He also cleared up the five types of Carpe Diem and provided a very interesting debate on todays society in general.
Our last talk of the day before our entertainment in the evening was with Ifor Ap Glynn who talked about Hedd Wyn. This topic deeply intrigued us as we come from Wales and have studied Hedd Wyn before. Although, it also made us feel bad as we don't know Welsh and therefore found it very intriguing that his work has been translated and interpreted into English and Dutch. Learning the history of Hedd Wyn and the importance of it to other countries put into perspective what it meant to be Welsh and gave us a very patriotic feeling.
Finally in the evening we went to see 'Fat Freddie's Drop' which was an interesting experience. Although. not to ur taste it was still a fun night as we spent the time laughing at all the other people who were drunk as well as just letting go and having fun even if the music wasn't to our taste.
Overall the first day at Hay Festival was long and intense but definitely amazing. Especially as we have never been to Hay Festival before we definitely recommend you go to it next year as well as their winter Festivals.
If you want to know more about our time at Hay Festival read our other blog posts. Please follow us on Social media at the bottom and leave a comment with any questions you have for us.
Thanks,
ThePolkaDotDaffodil x
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