Hi Friends!
As I'm sure you are generally aware, unless you've been in a coma for the last 12 months, it is now December and the year that has been 2013 is almost over and it is not long now till 2014 kicks off. It is this time of year when families start sending out seasonal cards or newsletters (my family prefers the latter option) as an annual bulletin detailing what members of that family have done during the year. Now cos I write to you guys once a week you would feel that you're pretty clued up as to what I've been doing this year. However, for procrastination's sake, I'm going to do a short series of blogs as a review of my year of which this is the first part. In this part, I'm going to do a brief summary of each month which up until about August time will reveal some events that are classified as BFOT!(Before FOT!), bit of something old that is a bit something new for you.
January: After beginning with a memorable night out in Hazel Grove for New Years, January went on to be a very cold and bleak start to the year. Was it withdrawal symptoms from the awesomeness of 2012? Perhaps. January exams were the main priority and I spent much of the month doing the last little bits of revision before taking exams in Political Ideologies, General Studies and resits of French and Spanish AS written papers. Despite tons of worrying, I was relieved when I got the results in March (A's in French and Spanish, C in Politics and C's and D's in General Studies). The month ended in spectacular fashion as I was part of the Marple Swimming team that beat Saracens (Our rivals) Away for the first time ever in the Intertown League. A sign of things to come...
 |
| New Years with Feltham, Alisha and Chenko |
February: Back to the A level studies for the final set of exams (a continuing theme here). Aside from that, there were a few highlights. In the second week, I organised and took part in an Open Mic for Aquinas Day at my college which despite some technical difficulties, weather problems and a sore throat on my behalf it seemed to go down successfully. Within a few hours of Aquinas Day finishing, I was off on the train down to Southampton for my Interview and Taster Day at the University which included staying over at my sister Imogen's student house (I celebrated her birthday which was the day before by bringing her presents and a cake from home) and going on a social with the Uni swim team either side of being enlightened by how impressive the Modern Language Department was. Lols were had at the end of the month when I stupidly agreed to enter myself into my college's version of hit TV show 'Take Me Out'. I made a real fool of myself at many points during the show, one of which I came on at the wrong time and had to awkwardly moonwalk off stage (it was recorded and that clip still gets played around on the TVs at college on a regular basis). However, idiocy aside, I did somehow get a date and we had a great time.
 |
| Swim team social in Jesters, Southampton. The first of many to come I expect! |
 |
| Take Me Out date with Kasia |
March: I'll remember March mainly for three words: University Open Days. Following my time in Southampton the previous month, I went on a mini-tour of England in the space of about 3 weeks as I visited some of the other institutions that I had begrudgingly put on my UCAS form in search of an insurance place to compliment my firm choice of Soton. First, I was up at Newcastle Uni (my parents' former Uni) for the day with my friends Laura and Luke (who is a now a student there) and I finished with a day at Birmingham Uni with Sally and Katherine which was by far the most impressive however my weekend trip to UEA (University of East Anglia, Norwich) will be the most memorable. It was bizarrely cold, pretty much snowing and despite an encouraging visit the previous summer I left dissatisfied due to some key drawbacks in the course but this is not why I will remember it. The weekend was the last time I saw Gramps before he passed away. We visited him at his care home in nearby Wymondham and watched the England vs Italy 6 nations Rugby match together whilst conversing on various topics. He was particularly cheerful that day and it was certainly a special way to spend my last memory with him. On a lighter note, in March I also went to see one of my favourite bands,
Theme Park, play at the Ruby Lounge in Manchester and I met them afterwards. Very humble blokes who make some funky tunes, you should check them out sometime.
 |
| Theme Park gig @ Ruby Lounge, Manchester |
 |
| Picture of myself and Tom Flan with Oscar Manthorpe, lead guitarist in the band |
April: The month the final dreaded A level exams begun. Much of my time was spent learning presentations on the films 'Welcome' and 'Los Diarios De Motocicleta' (The Motorcycle Diaries) for my French and Spanish oral exams respectively as well as retaking my Spanish AS oral exam. I did find time to go to another gig though,
Dog Is Dead, at Sound Control in Manchester. This was my 3rd time seeing them and as always they didn't disappoint. We then stayed and chilled with them and their support band-
MT while they packed up their gear and got talking about all kinds of things from Festivals to Leicestershire Cheese to Peru to Guitar strings. April also contained a trip to Wigan to watch my beloved Norwich City lose 1-0 to the home side in the Premier League and a family get-together for my Auntie Lizzie and Uncle Morgan's wedding anniversary which was a big meal down in Gloucestershire near where they live. A great opportunity to be reunited with many family members who I don't have the pleasure of seeing on a regular basis and to meet a few new members as well.
 |
| Family reunion for Auntie Lizzie and Uncle Morgan's wedding anniversary |
 |
| Dog Is Dead gig @ Sound Control, Manchester |
 |
| My view for Norwich City vs Wigan Athletic |
May: May meant more revision and more exams (a Politics AS resit) but it was also the month in which I finished my two years of studies at Aquinas College and the occasion was celebrated with a massive Leavers Ball at the luxury Midland Hotel in Manchester. Everyone dressed up in their finest suits and dresses and had a ball of a time (see what I did there) dancing the night away in between copious amounts of red wine and champagne. Twas the perfect way to top off our time at college and everyone really did look amazing, luckily I wasn't too drunk to not remember it!
 |
| Group photo at Pre-Drinks for the Leavers Ball |
 |
| me with Erin |
 |
| Me with Jimmy, the two chinese kids |
 |
| Me with Fiona |
 |
| Me with Andrew |
June: Crunch time. Within two weeks I had my final 5 A level exams (Two general studies, one French written paper, one Spanish written paper, one US Politics written paper) which was real hard graft trying to deal with all my revision and testing whilst the weather was so lovely outside. I did get out of it the other side though despite a few wobbles and culminated in a pub trip to the Bamford with Josh and Sally after my final exam. A year and a bits work all finished, now what do I do? The rest of the month consisted of doing all the things I couldn't do while revising such as exercising, playing music and watching hours and hours of TV on 4od/iPlayer although I did get stuck in with helping out with the Aquinas new student taster days as my final job as Student Ambassador for the Languages Department which did take up a lot of my concentration. I also really got back into my swimming including Open Water training prior to some Open Water races in July but my finest moment was the Celebration gala, the season finale to the Intertown League series. We may not have won the gala itself but my mens medley relay team did win our race and the whole team were crowned Intertown Champions for the first time in our history. A momentous occasion to be celebrated in only one way-by throwing the coaches (including myself) into the pool at the end of the gala!
 |
| Marple SC, Intertown League Champions 2012-2013 |
 |
| 'I could tell that you wanted to, JUMP IN THE POOL, JUMP IN THE POOL!' |
July: Into the thick of summer, July continued on from where June started with more swimming. This time, the North West Youth Open Water Championships in which I gained a silver medal in the North West event (a downgrade on my gold the previous year) and I retained my title as the Cheshire champion. However, a silver medal wasn't enough to qualify me for a second consecutive National Youth Championships which I was a shame but after a grueling 3k swim in barely legal conditions, I couldn't really complain. For my next race, the Great Manchester Swim, I was invited to attend a launch event which involved having a photography session of me in my wetsuit and an interview with BBC Radio Manchester before an Open Water session coached by none-other than Olympic bronze medalist Steve Parry, one of my Swimming idols who I had met only once before at a training camp several years previous. The race itself was a blisteringly warm day which meant for slow times across the board (I went 45 seconds slower than my time the previous year) but I finished 4 places higher in 16th place out of 5000+ swimmers whilst raising over £300 for Cancer Research UK (was to support Auntie Lizzie who contracted leukemia a few weeks before) so there wasn't much I could be unhappy about. In between these events, I went away with some of my friends to Bilbao BBK Live festival in Spain for a week which involved lots of coach travel, scorching mid-day heat, lots of great live music and some memorable moments along the way which I plan to discuss in a future blogpost, stay tuned.
 |
| Marple swimmers at post-race at the North West Youth/Junior Open Water Championships, Salford Quays. I'm in the middle (obviously),Caitlin also won Cheshire Gold and Alex won a Cheshire Silver |
 |
| Launch event for the Great Manchester Swim (me in the Orange hat). My friend Finn Cristo next to me in the blue cap is currently rowing across the Atlantic in the Talisker Whisky Atlantic Challenge for charity. Olympic medalist Steve Parry is in the centre (white cap) |
 |
| Action shot from the launch event |
 |
| Post-Race at the Great Manchester Swim, Salford Quays. I'm in my wetsuit and Cancer Research UK tee with my medal and hat and the Lowry Theatre in the background |
 |
| Faye, Anna, me, Josh and Hannah (left to right) at Bilbao BBK Live festival |
August: My summer at home continued with more music events of which my favourite was HomebrewFest, Homebrew beer festival set up by some of my buddies at Marple Scout Hut. I played a 45 minute set (the longest I've ever been given) largely filled with covers for an excited crowd who were buzzing off all the powerful Homebrew that was available and it was by far one of, if not the best gigs I've ever played in my short time as a singer/guitarist. A level results came a few weeks later which despite not meeting my offer, confirmed my place at the University Of Southampton to study Modern Languages in 2014. Not too long after that, I went off to work as a volunteer at Leeds Festival which was a week filled with great live music, friends, meeting new people, interesting experiences and ultimately a lot of fun. For those who remember my very first blog post back in September then this will be all old news but if you would like to read it/re-read it then the link is here:
Hello, Hola, Bonjour! Introduction, A level results and Leeds Festival
 |
| Playing at Homebrew fest 2013 |
 |
| At Leeds Festival with my fellow Hotbox volunteers |
.jpg) |
| Alex Clare |
.jpg) |
| Spector |
 |
| Selfie time with Harry Koisser, lead singer and guitarist from Peace |
.jpg) |
| Foals |
 |
| Picture of me with Lucy Rose that features on the NME website |
September: After coming down from post-festival depression, going on my weekend TEFL course in Manchester and saying goodbye to my friends and family, it was off to Mallorca for 3 months, the first adventure on my gap year. When I first arrived on the Mediterranean Island, it was still the last dying days of summer with soaring 30+ degree heat and constant sun (not that I was complaining) and I hit the ground running with my host family, getting to know the kids, speaking en francais with the visiting relatives and protesting in the streets.
 |
| Early Birthday celebrations with the siblings from this blogpost |
October: This was probably the best period during my time in Mallorca. In this month I got to know the city of Palma quite well venturing out on Thursday evenings and during the days, I saw both Spain and Real Mallorca play Football as it should be and introduced my family to my new temporary home over a long weekend while also celebrating Oktoberfest, Halloween and my Birthday.
 |
| Pumpkin carving with Simó and Júlia for Halloween |
November: If October was my best period in Mallorca then November overall was probably my worst. The weather decided to make up for what was a lovely and warm September and October by raining virtually non-stop for the entire month, I was ill for a couple of days (something that very rarely happens) and it was a very difficult and lonely time for me with the passing away of Gramps. Many times I longed to be home yet there will still some moments that made me cheerful including my spontaneous performance at the Jazz Voyeur club in Palma and the family weekend trip into the mountains.
 |
| Group photo op |
 |
| Me and my host family |
December: Last but not least, December. I spent my final days in Mallorca before waving goodbye to the Torres Bustillo family and returning home for a christmas at home.
 |
| Christmas tree decorating with all the kids, feels like such a long time ago :'( (Mallorcan Christmas) |
 |
| Christmas day with the bro |
So, in the shortest way possible, that's been my 2013. I missed many moments and details out there but overall my year was packed full of challenges, hard work, new beginnings, goodbyes and interesting experiences but overall some great memories that should be long-lasting. It may not eclipse my incredible 2012 but 2013 was a special year none-the-less. Thanks to everyone who shared it with me and helped me on the way. Let's hope 2014 is just as good if not better.
#FraserOnTour
FP
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
No comments:
Post a Comment