Hello, World

I thought I'd make the most of our wifi actually working again and whip out a new blog post, because I am seriously overdue one. I promised myself that I'd write one at least once a month, but I think we can all see that I haven't been doing that. I guess I'm just extremely forgetful. And lazy. I AM JUST BUSY, OKAY.

So hello, I'm back. I'm now in my final year of sixth form (oh my goodness) and I have a gargantuan amount of work to be doing (which I should be doing now, BUT THE WIFI IS BACK) so I am genuinely very busy most of the time. Soz. 

India was incredible. I never got round to writing about it when I got back to England, so I guess you'll have to hear about it now. It really was a completely life-changing experience and I am more than hoping to go back again next year. There's so many things to be thinking about at the moment though; university, gap-years, working full-time: I just don't quite know what I want to do with my life yet. But fingers crossed that I'll be able to go back next year with Chennai Challenge again.

Life out there was extremely different to life here in England, which is something I loved being able to immerse myself in. The one thing I noticed mainly when I got back into England was out quiet it is here. I remember walking out the airport and just thinking, "...Wow." Because of how silent is seemed. In India, whenever you were awake, you could guarantee you'd hear the horns from the autos or people talking, or just some form of noise. Here, it is SO QUIET. In fact, it took me a little while to get used to it again. Crazy stuff.

All in all, I am so grateful for my time out there in India. I am grateful for being able to meet all the wonderful people we met, I am grateful for all the different foods we tried, I am grateful for everyone helping me with my fundraising, I am grateful towards Chennai Challenge for providing an absolute life-changing experience. I now really do see life with a whole different perspective; it's odd to think how just under three weeks can completely change you as a person. I can't urge people enough to sign up with Chennai Challenge for next year; I really can't emphasise how rewarding and brilliant the time out there is. Hopefully you all kept up with our blogs on the Chennai Challenge website(?!) If not, you can still read them now here! Also, if you'd like to know where all the fundraising money went, you can read about that here. There's some good reading material to get your teeth into.

Since being back in England, I have been doing a lot of thinking (Frances Corbett, thinking? What). As I said before, it's my final year of sixth form and we are being thrown decisions at us all the time. I am only seventeen, I feel like I'm too young to be deciding exactly what I want to do with my life yet. The main goal is going to drama school, but I am swinging towards the idea of British Sign Language and perhaps doing an interpreting course. I passed 102 of my Level One award and I have my final exam coming up at the beginning of November, so please pray for me! I think I'm dealing alright(ish) with the amount of work being given to us constantly, but I am trying to stay positive and keep reminding myself that in a year's time all of this hard-work will be over and will hopefully pay off. Even though this is the case, I don't want to leave school, I've only been at my new school for one year and now we're already so close to leaving next year, I don't feel like I've spent enough time with everyone whatsoever, but I am grateful for meeting so many people that have contributed to my life so much. (Gosh, it's not even Thursday). 

I guess I really should get back to my English essay before heading to the bus stop, so I am concluding this post RIGHT NOW. Thankyou once again to everyone for the last few months, and hopefully I will start blogging again more frequently soon. Even though I always say that, and we all know that doesn't happen. And I say my English essay, but really I am downloading some more music for my iPod. This is just as important as A Levels, right?

Jumping out of aeroplanes

Alas, one finally has internet. I have been planning to write a new post just before I go to India for a while now, but that happens to be difficult when the wifi at home is broken and I have ran out of 3G. Darn.

ANYHOW. Here I am. The last few weeks have been extremely exciting and I am now finally at the airport waiting to board my flight to London, where we will then be boarding our flight to CHENNAI. It's crazy how fast the last few months have flown by and the day is actually here when we're all ready to leave. After months and months of fundraising and preparation, Chennai Challenge 2014 has finally begun. (#deep)

A week and a day ago I did my skydive (which was my main fundraiser for Chennai Challenge) and it was literally the best thing that I have ever done. I loved it so much that I'm planning on saving up for the Accelerated Free Fall course so I can jump again, but on my own next time. How intense. I raised a good amount of money from the jump and it was makes things even better with the fact that I enjoyed it, so thankyou to everyone who has sponsored me! 

The year has been absolutely brilliant and so many good things have happened. I can't believe that I now have several things ticket off my bucket list (do a skydive, learn sign language, volunteer in India, etc) and all of this has happened within just under a year. I have now a raised a total amount of £1,911 for Chennai Challenge and I just want to make a final point of how grateful I am for everyone who has helped me raise THAG amount of money and to how many people have sponsored me. THANKYOU SO MUCH.

When I'm in India, I'll be blogging but through a different blog (dreadful, I know, how could I betray Blogger?) which is under the URL of www.franceselizabethcorbett.wordpress.com. The URL won't be working just yet as I haven't uploaded any posts yet, but as soon as I get to India I'm hoping to update it regularly to let everyone know what we're doing and how the project is going.

So from me, it's goodbye for the next three weeks. I am now sitting with everyone else who's playing UNO (I'm not being unsociable, I promise). 

Thankyou once again! Au revoir.

Chennai Challenge Fundraising Update/Ideas

So the last month and a bit has been pretty stressful with exams, hence the lack of blogging. Although, I have been up to quite abit and have been doing a lot in terms of fundraising for Chennai Challenge.

The big news is that I HAVE RAISED MY TOTAL OF £1,500! This is absolutely brilliant and I am eternally grateful to everyone who has donated and supported the cause. I've now raised my minimum, but this doesn't mean that I need to stop fundraising. As I haven't done my skydive or a carboot sale yet, I should hopefully be able to raise more for Chennai Challenge. I have pushed my target on JustGiving up to £1,600 which I'm sure that I'll be able to reach. Please carry on supporting me! 

I'm now going to list a few of the fundraising events that I've been doing to help raise my minimum amount so other people can get ideas if they're fundraising also.

1) Selling old clothes on eBay. This has been a great contributor to raising the money as I have lots of old clothes that I don't need and am more than willing to sell them and then give the money to charity. 

2) Selling Chennai Challenge wristbands. These have been highly popular as the person who's buying is getting something back for their money. To do this, myself and a few friends who are also going contacted a wristband company, designed the wristbands and then ordered them. I've been selling them for £1 each and have almost sold 300 of them. :-) 

3) Collecting spare 50ps that you have. My grandma has been doing this for me and she raised up to £100! 

4) Skydive. Although I haven't actually done this yet, I have received a number of sponsors. As this is something that is completely out of my comfort-zone then people are more than willing to sponsor me because of this.

5) Cake sales. A highly popular one. No one can say no to cakes.

6) Rabbit flannels. Myself and my two grandmothers made rabbits out of small flannels and then put Easter eggs inside of them. These were highly popular around Easter time, but now we're still doing this but with bath bombs instead as obviously the Easter eggs are now out of season.

7) Sweet jar. I bought a small jar and filled it with sweets and asked people to guess how many sweets were in the jar for 50p. This has raised quite a bit and I will be announcing who's won it on Friday! Woooooo! 

8) Carboot sale. I haven't done this yet, but obviously this is a good way of getting rid of old belongings whilst also raising money for charity. 

And that's about it, I think. I've thoroughly enjoyed fundraising and I cannot wait whatsoever to get to India already. Only 52 more days to go!

If you have the time, please like the Chennai Challenge page on Facebook. https://m.facebook.com/chennaichallenge

You can also still donate to my JustGiving page which you can visit by clicking this link here.

Au revoir. 

Decisions

WARNING: BORING POST.

As of late, I have found that absolutely everywhere and everything involves a large matter of decisions. I only recently noticed this the other day as I'm generally quite laid back about things, but all of this talk of university is beginning to seem extremely terrifying. I feel that sixth form has flown by incredibly quickly and I am no where near ready enough to be choosing where I want to spend three years of my life when I don't even know how to cook a suitable dinner. Nevertheless, I am still trying to stay happy despite the many decisions that I may have to face soonish. I'm considering a gap year doing volunteering work in a foreign country, but I guess I'll pass that bridge when I arrive at it.

My job is going reasonably well and I feel that I've settled in happily. My school-work and revision is going swiftly and I'm generally getting everything finished. 

With my next training weekend for Chennai Challenge next week, I have already topped my target of £1,000 by this meeting and I am now only £200 away from my minimum amount. This really is brilliant and I couldn't be more grateful to everyone donating and being so generous.

And here's a picture from The Railway Children seeing as you're THAT interested.

Don't lie, of course you are.

Thankful Thursday #18

It's quite shocking how long I've been writing this blog for and I've only done eighteen thankful Thursday's. Hmmm. Actually, it's quite shocking in general just how much I've been abandoning my blog. As exams are rolling along very soon, I'm not going to say that I'll try and blog more frequently as I just need to focus on the next month to get it all out of the way. 

As I haven't been blogging so much, there's many things that I'm thankful for but I'll try and just include a few. (Queue not being able to think of any now).

- GAME OF THRONES IS BACK. So is Bates Motel, but we all know that GoT is more important.

- The run of The Railway Children running entirely smoothly and successfully.

- Spending a wonderful birthday with Lewis, my family and getting the opportunity to see Henry IV Part One at the RSC.

- Finally purchasing a pair of Buffalo boots.

- Having my next project lined up; Animal Farm at the Lichfield Garrick in October. 

- Spending a lovely Easter with my family and finally being able to eat crisps and McDonald's again. 

- Starting my new part-time job at KFC and looooooving it. 

- Popping to Alton Towers on Monday with Lewis, Sarah and Anthony. 

- Raising £1,300+ for Chennai Challenge (only £200 more to go)!

The Easter holidays have treated me extraordinarily well but I feel that I haven't been working hard enough. Lacking motivation isn't too positive.

You can still donate to my JustGiving page for Chennai Challenge at: http://justgiving.com/Frances-Corbett

Tortured Life - Kickstarter

TPublications are now working on a new project (via Kickstarter) to create the next issues of Tortured Life, a thriller graphic novel by Neil Gibson. After reading the first issue of Tortured Life (which is free to read on their Kickstarter page and their website), it is very clear that what they have in store is going to be highly successful and completely enrapturing. After their Twisted Dark and Tabatha graphic novels that have already been published and were completely brilliant, Tortured Life is guaranteed to follow in their footsteps and keep TPublications' theme of excellence running along smoothly.

So, in a nutshell...

Tortured Life is about a guy named Richard Carter who has somehow developed the ability to see how each and every person dies. After firstly thinking that this ability was given to him to help save others' lives, he then begins to feel powerless as he is seeing the inevitable fate of all the people around him; resulting in Richard living an incredibly Tortured Life. 

I have loved all of TPublications' graphic novels so far and have thoroughly enjoyed supporting them through being a member of their street team. When first meeting them and trying out their comics in early 2013, it has been exhilarating to see how they have grown in just over a year. With the brilliance of Gibson, Wijingaard and Watters, Tortured Life is guaranteed to be a novel to remember.

Support TPublications on Kickstarter by clicking here.

Thankful Thursday #17

I really should apologise for not blogging this time, as it was purely down to laziness. I always think, "Hmm, maybe I should write that blog post now," but end up postponing it every. Single. Day. Nevertheless, I am here now and here is a new blog post. You're welcome.

This week I am thankful for: 

- Going to London this Saturday and seeing 1984.

- Getting a B in a Psychology mock. B. I GOT A B. (Big thing for me).

- Finally deciding to give up reading Emma by Jane Austen. I'd decided to force myself to read it as it's "one of those classic books you need to read before you die" but eventually abandoned it as I've never read anything so pretentious in my whole life. Holla at Jane for being one of the first women writers, but damn her writing is dull. Gah.

- Finally having a good clear out in my wardrobe. 

- Selling out for the run of The Railway Children. 

Now the big one. I AM HALF WAY TO MY TOTAL AMOUNT FOR CHENNAI CHALLENGE. HALLELUJAH. 

 

Well I am 53%, so I guess that's even better. I am so thankful to everyone who has donated and supported the fundraising as it completely means so much to me. Quite soon I'll be holding an Open Mic night at school as it'll be a good opportunity for people to sing in front of others and to do a little more fundraising. 

And on the subject of fundraising, I'm now selling these babies: 

It was difficult to find a decent angle of these, but myself and my grandma have been making little rabbits out of flannels with creme eggs in the middle. It was a sweet little idea, and they're ideal at the moment as we're rolling up to Easter. I'm selling them for £2 each, so if anyone wants to buy one and would prefer a certain type of egg/colour flannel then please let me know.

You can still sponsor me here at: http://justgiving.com/Frances-Corbett

Perhaps I'll blog again next week if I don't put it off AGAIN. 

Imogen Finkle Appreciation.