I know I haven't written in ages, but hear me out. A lot of things has happened lately! And as per usual, when it comes to reflecting about it all in my blog, my mind goes blank! Blahhhh.
Okay, so this is my first blog post as an 18 year old! Yeah buddy! On my actual birthday, I went to an Italian restaurant in a LIMO. Hell yes. It was Jess, my parents, stepdad, stepbro & his girlfriend, gran, cousin, brother and me! It was so fun and I really loved it. The Saturday after, I went to the Elvis Festival with Jess, Ellen and Ben came from North Wales for the night and that was also a good laugh! Jess and Ben slept over and that was great, too. We stuffed our faces and just had a good time.
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| Jess & I at my birthday meal |
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| LIMO! |
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| The closest to a date I got... my mother got me the balloon... |
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| Ellen & I at the Elvis Festival! |
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| Sleepover! |
Pepsi has finally arrived! Yes, I officially have two dalmatian puppies! They're a handful but they're great fun and I love them to bits! Pepsi has grown a hell of a lot. She was tiny when we had her, but not as tiny as Louis when we had him. She's marched on in here and has taken the role as the boss, for sure. I cannot wait for their first Christmas.
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| When Louis met Pepsi! |
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| How gorgeous? |
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| Ready for Christmas! |
I speak to a lot of girls on Twitter and fangirl over 5SOS, One Direction, Olly Murs, etc. and I arranged with a girl, Sarah (who I now love to bits!),to meet at Cardiff Central Station to go to the meet up with. Now, I know it is dangerous to meet up with people from the internet, but if you follow certain rules, it should be okay (I’ll give tips at the end of this article!). We met with other fans at Cardiff Castle and there turned out to be between 15-20 fans there in total, all there for 5 Seconds of Summer. We all made friends and got along really easily. We went around Cardiff, including Starbucks and the Apple Store and all had a great time, discussing the band, singing songs and bonding. We all love the band a lot and by the end of the day, we got on so well.
To top it off, Calum, one of the members of 5SOS noticed our meet up photos and tweeted them as well as the video I created of the day. Talk about the icing on the cake!
The meet up was really fun, but not all online meet ups go as well as ours did. If you ever plan to meet anyone from the internet, take extra care, get consent from your parents/guardian - or even take them with you, and never go alone. Here are some tips to ensure that it is as safe as possible.
• Make sure the meet up is in public and daylight - this way, if anyone dodgy does show up, you have a lot of witnesses and people can see what’s going on.
• Have an adult with you or nearby - even though I’m 18, I had my scary-looking dad walk with me to the meet up so he could see who people were and make sure they seemed okay. A parent, guardian or family friend would be ideal.
• Have a mobile phone with you at all times - you never know what could go wrong. From people turning up you didn’t want there, to arguments or even someone becoming ill. A mobile always comes in handy.
• Bring a banner/wear specific clothing- If you walk up to someone and assume it’s someone at the meet up, they could lie and say they are, when they’re actually not. We wore 5 Seconds of Summer shirts/told each other what we were wearing that day so we could identify one another.
• Don’t feel forced into attending any meet up if you’re not comfortable - if you don’t feel okay with meeting up, you can always say no. You’re not forced into doing it!
Video I made!
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| Aren't we cute? |
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| Being patriotic! |
26th November was a special date. Why? I FINALLY MET OLLY MURS. I was on Twitter one day to see OllyHQ tweet from his account saying about the HMV 'Sign and Selfie' and how he was only going to do one in London. I was gutted because I’ve never had the chance to meet him. I carried on my week like normal, but was slightly gutted that I was missing yet another chance to meet 1/6th of my idols. A few days later -forgetting where the signing even was - my dad offered to take me to London for the day as he had a 'little Christmas surprise' for me. He said it didn’t cost much, but I’d really like it. Thinking it was a day of Christmas shopping, I agreed to it.
On the morning of the day, a friend of mine Tweeted, saying about the signing…that’s when it triggered in my mind - could I be going to meet Olly? Nah, probably not, but just in case, I took a letter I had written once that I always wanted to send but didn’t and a present I always said I’d give him if I ever met him. Stupid, I know, but still.
When we arrived in London, I just thought I was being stupid and I clearly wasn’t meeting Olly. I followed my dad to the London Underground from Victoria Bus Station and we got on the Victoria Line. When we got off at Oxford Circus, I still just thought it was probably Christmas shopping. Until we arrived at the back of HMV, to see a queue of 200 people. I freaked out - this was it. I was in the queue to meet Olly Murs. I thanked my dad a thousand times and even though I had to wait five hours in the cold, I didn’t care. I still thought there was a possibility I wasn’t going to meet him, until security informed us after 600 people arrived, they’d close the queue. I asked where about in the queue were we and he said the 200 mark. I froze. I was in the queue of people definitely meeting Olly. My heart was racing and I didn’t know what to think or say. It didn’t hit me for ages.
So after waiting for like 6 hours, Olly arrived and we were all in what made me think of sheep pens made out of the HMV aisles. I was, like, in the fourth one and it was about 30 minutes until my turn but it felt like forever. In the background, the new DVD that comes with the special edition album played and everyone was so excited. Olly finally came out and the press took their photos and we all went wild. I was so overwhelmed; I didn’t know what to do!
Finally, it was my turn. It was super quick and (because my memory is like a frigging film developing camera when I'm excited) I still can't remember everything, but he was like 'alright darlin?' and I was like 'hiya! Umm. I brought you a present, it's not much but...' 'Oh thanks! What is it?' 'It's a Welsh lovespoon, the letter explains it,' 'thanks, babe,' he put it to one side, signed my CD and then took a selfie on my phone and gave me a hug and let me kiss his cheek, said 'bye darlin!' and that was it. But he had 600 people in the 2 hour slot so I didn't expect much but I loved it even if it was over in a flash.
I broke down in tears after meeting him and I still can’t quite get my head around meeting him but I’m so glad I did and I am so happy my dad took me to London just to meet him for not even two minutes. It meant the world to me and it still does and it will be something I will never ever forget.
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| Forever to be treasured. He smelt amazing! |
That Saturday was another amazing day because I finally met Tash. Tash is my dear friend who I have been talking to since I was like 13. We met on Stardoll and have been close ever since. She's in uni now and that's in Cardiff AKA an hour away from me so 30th November we finally got to meet! It was a bit emotional, but so much fun! We walked around Cardiff before meeting up with my friends Adam and Beth to go to Winter Wonderland which was absolutely great fun! Tash is amazing in person and online and I hope we will continue to be dear friends for many years to come!
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| We were like 15 in the above photos and then the bottom one is under the foam spray in Winter Wonderland! |
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| Glad we met! |
Finally, my last piece of news is the 5SOS CHRISTMAS meet up. Basically what I said earlier but 2.0 and much more fun. I organised this one so I made sure it had a lot of activities in it. After weeks of online promotion for the event, the day finally arrived on Saturday 14th December where fangirls for the Australian band, 5 Seconds of Summer, travelled from all over South Wales to meet up in order to celebrate and share their love for the Aussie boys who stole their hearts.
The event began about midday in front of the Coca Cola truck outside Cardiff National Library, where everyone met up, 5SOS cakes (made by yours truly) were shared, Christmas cards were given out and people were vlogging. It was very fun to meet the newbies and reunite with the originals.
Once everyone arrived, we all queued up for a photo by the Coca Cola truck and the staff was a bit blown away by how many of us there were. It was all very exciting and we were very hyped up with the spirit of Christmas and our love for 5SOS.
With the photo out the way, we watched the Coca Cola choir singing and got involved ourselves- getting them to sing happy birthday to 5SOS as it was their second birthday last week and I even got a bunch of people to dance to Mistletoe and Wine with Sir Cliff’s famous swaying dance. It was all great fun and I think we’ve made friends in the choir!
After taking some photos with some iconic places in Cardiff (The Millennium Stadium, for example) and a quick chat with Santa, we had a McDonalds before heading off to Winter Wonderland for some fun. Rhian and I went on the Around The World ride, which I normally love, but it was so windy, our cart was like up the top of the ride and rocking from the wind- I began to believe I wasn’t going to make it to Christmas at that rate!
Once we were back safely on the ground, we dominated the Penguin Bumper Cars and tried to hit each other’s cars, which was really funny and just good fun. We hung around together for a bit longer until it began to get dark and it was then we decided to say our goodbyes and send our Christmas wishes to one another before departing from another fantastic meet up.
It was so much fun and to be the one to have organised it was amazing. I loved it so much and I cannot wait until the next one! I love all my friends I’ve made from these meet ups and I can’t wait to see them next year!
The thing that topped off that weekend was the fact that none other than 5SOS THEMSELVES FOLLOWED ME! I cried, I screamed, I freaked out. It was just unexpected but a completely pleasant surprise.
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| How Christmassy is this? |
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| Collages are fun |
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| Laura got the plods involved! |
This is my last blog of the year so have an amazing Christmas, you guys!
Merry Christmas and see you on the other side of this year!
oxoxoxox
