Manchester, Glasgow and Eurythmics

 Hello!

 It is Friday and it has been a while since I last posted on this blog, so I apologise for that. There have been times when I have really wanted to write a post to share a song or memory but I have had to put university work first.

 However, I am planning on making myself a blog schedule so that I can fit blogging into my week and still get everything else done. I am aiming to write at least two posts a week on this blog from now on. That is the plan!

♥

 How am I? Okay, on the whole. Tired! But enjoying Uni so much. I keep meeting amazing people and making wonderful friends.

 I really love the seminars and the style of teaching and I really look forward to lectures and learn a lot.

♥

 I also love living in Uni accommodation - it is really nice living with so many of my friends and being able to see them every morning and evening at breakfast and dinner - one of the many joys of being in a catered Hall.

 We had a formal dinner on Tuesday - it was the Hall's second one this year but my first. It had a Harry Potter theme so there were a handful of wizards and other spooky characters, and cobwebs draped over the wine bottles. The food was lovely, as it always is in Halls, and we got to wear gowns, which was fun. I had a nice evening.

♥

 Manchester looks very beautiful right now, in that bit of time when autumn and winter overlap, with the trees all green and gold and yellow. There have been some truly gorgeous sunsets and I am so proud and happy to call this place my home.

♥

 Over reading week, which happily coincided with my brother's half-term, I went with my family to Glasgow, another city I adore. The Clyde was as stunning as ever, especially at night with all the lights from the buildings and the bridges reflected in it.

 We visited the city centre at night, something we hadn't got around to doing before, and it was so scrumptious; all the lights and the beautiful buildings illuminated and the hustle and bustle of people doing their shopping and chattering and laughing.

 And somebody was playing an oboe in the street which was lovely and is a bit of a coincidence considering my last post on this blog was about an oboe piece!

♥

 We visited the Kelvingrove Museum and the Glasgow Science Centre; both were amazing as always and in the latter I watched a show in their planetarium which was really good. As I've mentioned before on this blog, I adore stargazing, and I learnt a few things that I hadn't known before. It was so soothing just sitting gazing up at the stars while gentle, relaxing music was played. A lovely experience.

 All of my trip to Glasgow was lovely and I was sad to leave, but it was nice returning first to my home in Wigan and then to Manchester. How lovely to have so many places you feel you can call home.

♥

 Music-wise I have been listening to a lot of The Cure, Nanci Griffith, Alison Moyet and Martika.

 "You've Placed a Chill in my Heart," by Eurythmics, got stuck in my head for a while for some reason, and at times I found it merging with with "Why" by Annie Lennox. Which is understandable in a way, because in my opinion the two songs are quite similar and of couse they both feature Annie Lennox's excellent vocals.

 I comment on Why in my post, "The Best of British," if you are interested in hearing my views on it.

 2.19 to 2.27: I love this bit! You go, girl! The above version of You Have Placed a Chill in My Heart is the original uptempo version, but for most of my life the only version I knew is the acoustic one below. 

 I love both versions but I think I slightly prefer the acoustic one because it feels, as acoustic performances often do, more raw and natural and honest, and straight from the heart. In fact, when I first discovered the faster version I wasn't keen on it, but have come to love it and see it as a great song in its own way.

♥

 I'll sign off here for now, but I will hopefully be back very soon! I still have some really good news to tell you, so watch this space!

 Thanks for reading!

 Liz x

Songs: Why - Annie Lennox - 1992

You Have Placed a Chill in My Heart - Eurythmics - 1987/8

You Have Placed a Chill in My Heart (Acoustic Version) - 1988

♥ I've Been In Love Before ♥

 Bonjour!

 Today is the 4th of July which for some people will mean fireworks and celebrations, so I hope that if it concerns you, you are enjoying this special day. For me, however, this date is important for another, more personal reason: it was the 4th of July last year when I first posted my finished Montpellier trip film on YouTube. Here it is:

 We went on this college trip in March/April 2011 and I really loved it. It opened my eyes to the culture of the south of France, where I had never been before.

 I really got the chance to practise my French, and I could feel it improving more and more during the nine days we spent in Montpellier and Carcassonne. And I really enjoyed making the film of the trip - it was hard work but was truly a labour of love. I am so happy with the final result.

 I had such a good time in Languedoc-Roussillon (the region of France we visited) that I went on the trip again this year, and again I had a lovely time. And again, I am making a film so that we can look back and remember the great times we spent together in such an amazing place.

 I'm really pleased with the way this year's film is coming along, and hopefully it will be up on YouTube soon.

 A song I have been listening to a lot recently is I've Been In Love Before by Cutting Crew.

 As well as being incredibly beautiful, this song brings back lots of memories for me: I remember around the first time I started listening to it was on a lovely family holiday in London, and I remember driving down leafy green lanes listening to this in the car. 

 It also brings back memories of another enjoyable trip I went on around the same time; a school trip to Belgium. I remember listening to this on my MP3 player in the coach and being moaned at for having my music too loud! I love this song ♥

 I hope you enjoy it too.

 Thanks for reading, 

 Liz x

Song: I've Been In Love Before - Cutting Crew - 1986/7

Eurovision 2012 Countdown: The "Divine" France

 Hello! Bonjour et bienvenue à mon blog!

 I will have to try to avoid getting carried away and doing this whole entry in French! I love the French language so much... It is so incredibly beautiful. And today I am blogging about France, and their Eurovision exploits.

 I was all ready to write about France Gall on here; she is a French singer whose song, "Ella Elle L'a" is one of my favourite French songs. I had known she won Eurovision; however on researching it I discovered she actually won the contest representing Luxembourg, and not France.

 However, this is my blog and if I say France Gall can be in it, France Gall can be in it! Here is Ella Elle L'a - not what she won Eurovision with, but such an incredible song. And she is a French Eurovision winner... she just didn't win it for France. Hmm. Don't know whether she should be in this blog entry, but here she is.

 Now, onto people who represented France itself. First up, Les Fatals Picards. If you are wondering what a picard is, it is someone from the Picardy region in the north of France. 

 They represented France in Eurovision 2007 in Helsinki - the year of Krisse, as I shall forever know it. Their song was called, "L'amour à la française," although I only found that out the other day, having always known it as, "that French song with that guy who looks like Richard O'Brien running round the stage with a stuffed cat on his shoulder."

 Here it is:

 I hadn't remembered it being in a mix of English and French; I had remembered it being completely in French. At first the "Franglais" was a bit off-putting, but then I came to quite like it. It's certainly something different, and the fact that they can jump straight from one language to the other in the same sentence is quite impressive and I don't know if I'd be able to do it without a lot of practice.

 It's a really catchy song, and you just have to smile when he's doing his, "Je cours, je cours..." ("I run, I run...") thing around the stage. There's something very likeable about this lot, and I may have a listen to some more of their music.

 The next year in 2008 France was represented by Jarvis Cocker, sorry, Sébastien Tellier, with "Divine," which in France caused controversy for being largely in English. I would have preferred it to have been in French because I love the language. But it still sounds amazing as it is.

 There are so many things that are great about this performance: his backing singers all disguised as him; his arrival in a golf buggy; his performance, his voice, the song, the eclipse. I love it all. It came joint eighteenth in the competition, and I think it should have been a lot higher - top five at least. It's a classic Eurovision song.

 The final French Eurovision song I wanted to share with you is their 2010 entry, "Allez Ola Olé!" by Jessy Matador.

 I love this: bouncy, happy, and you can totally dance to it. I love the energy of all the performers, and the way they are clearly really enjoying singing the song. There were many brilliant songs in Oslo 2010, but this was one of the very best. This came twelfth in the competition and I think it should have finished a bit higher. 

 I also wish the female singer was credited alongside Jessy Matador as I think she adds a lot to the song.

 I feel that France have a good track record at Eurovison, and I'm sure they're going to enjoy a lot more success dans l'avenir (in the future).

 Thanks for reading.

 Liz x

Songs: Ella Elle L'a - France Gall - 1987

L'amour à la française - Les Fatals Picards - 2007

Divine - Sébastien Tellier - 2008

Allez Ola Olé - Jessy Matador - 2010

One of my other favourite songs!

With just about every music video I see, I think, "If I was directing this, here are the things which I would do differently..."

Yet this video is actually just about perfect. The way such a huge story - the story of a man's life and love - is portrayed so clearly in just four and a half minutes, and all in the same setting. I love it!

Also, the lyrics of the song are lovely and the melody has such an upbeat and hopeful tone to it, that it can really cheer me up if I am unhappy. 

It is also a great song to sing along to - it is so catchy! And it is so tempting to get up and dance!

I love this song; in my opinion it is one of the best songs ever written.

"Don't you dare give up... love changes everything."

Liz x 

Song: Love Changes (Everything) - Climie Fisher