D of E, birthdays and Lio and Jacky

 Hello, my dear blog readers!

 I have just completed my final Gold Duke of Edinburgh's Award expedition! It was an amazing experience. I was in a lovely group of four, and we became very close over the four days of walking and camping.

 We were in the Lake District and we saw some beautiful scenery, stunning views, quaint little towns and all sorts of wildlife and livestock, including llamas!

 It was such a challenge, and I felt such a sense of achievement when we had got through the four days - never had I been so pleased to see the Keswick Pencil Museum (our finishing point)!

 It was very hard work, but so enjoyable, especially in the evenings on the campsites when we would sit around as a group eating, chatting and getting to know one another.

 It was a once-in-a-lifetime experience and I almost wish I could do it all over again! Hopefully I can do more camping expeditions in the future.

 This week has been a week of birthdays for me - about seven people I know have had birthdays in the last three days. If you're reading this and it's been your birthday recently, or it will be soon, then I wish you a very happy birthday! I hope you have a wonderful year ahead of you, full of joy and love and happiness ♥

 Now that I have finished my D of E expeditions, I feel as though the summer holidays have started for me, and I can now relax and enjoy myself for the next few weeks! I will try to update this blog as often as possible.

 I've been listening to some French 80s music, and one of my favourites has to be Tétéou by Lio and Jacky.

 This was one of many brilliant French 80s songs I discovered through the Platine 45 compilation CD which my brother and I have been listening to for years.

 Jacky was the presenter of the 80s French music show Platine 45, which gives its name to the CD. Lio was a huge star of French 80s music - I am a fan of hers, and will probably do a full post about her soon. 

 The unlikely pair teamed up for this bit of 80s madness, which I just love - the dancing especially! The video was supposedly filmed in someone's loft! I just love this song and video. It defines what 80s music was all about.

 Au revoir pour le moment

 Thanks for reading

 Liz x

 If you enjoyed this post I recommend: Bonjour!, ♥ Martika ♥, Eurovision 2012 Countdown: The "Divine" France, Sign of the Times, ♥ I've Been in Love Before ♥ and Zumba and Stooshe.

Song: Tétéou - Lio and Jacky - Sometime in the 80s! Can't find the actual year anywhere.

Mountains and memories: Nanci Griffith and Tina Turner

 Hello!

 I am very sorry that I haven't blogged for a while, but I was away on a Duke of Edinburgh's Award expedition at the weekend, and since then I have been completely exhausted.

 However, I had an amazing time! I was very homesick at first, as I often am on these things, but I soon got used to being away from home and I began to really appreciate the sheer beauty of some of the places we visited.

 We were up in the Lake District and we saw mountains, tarns, waterfalls, many sheep, some cows and all sorts of wildlife from rabbits and deer (I didn't personally see the deer, but other people in my group did) to swallows and spiders. 

 It was a brilliant and unforgettable experience. Not least because I was part of a wonderful group - we all really got to know each other over the weekend and became good friends. There are four of us, and we all worked together to achieve what we wanted to achieve. I will be doing another expedition next week with the same group, and I am really looking forward to it ♥ ☺

 A song which kept coming back into my head was These Days In An Open Book by Nanci Griffith.

 When I have more time and am less tired I will definitely do a long blog post all about this woman because I think she is amazing ♥ 

 I was brought up listening to her music because my parents are fans, and I came to really love her myself. It was my dream to see her live in concert, and that dream came true in March this year when I got to go and see her perform at Salford Quays as a treat for my eighteenth birthday. 

Needless to say, I was very, very happy. She was phenomenal. She sung as beautifully as ever, and she told little stories to introduce all of the songs. Some of these stories I hadn't heard before, and they really helped me to understand the songs better.

 I find These Days In An Open Book so upbeat and positive and this particular performance which I have embedded is brilliant; she just seems so happy and you can tell the song and its lyrics mean so much to her and she takes so much pleasure in singing them.

 Another song which stuck in my head over the weekend was We Don't Need Another Hero by Tina Turner. I can't really find a decent video to embed, but there are various versions on YouTube. I like it; not enormously, but I do like it. 

 I had listened to a lot of Eighties songs including this one on the way up to the Lake District; including many that I like more than this one. However, for some reason this song really stuck in my head when we were climbing one of the mountains and it was drizzling and I kept having to spur myself on to keep going, and I felt like crying out, "Is this all or nothing?!" like she shouts in the song. Silly, I know, but I couldn't get that bit out of my head!

 Anyway, we had an amazing time ☺ And all the long, hard climbs were worth the effort for the views we got from the top, and for the sense of achievement at the end ♥

 Today I went to see the Shakespeare play A Midsummer Night's Dream at the Royal Exchange Theatre in Manchester with a group from my college. It was enjoyable, but not as good as As You Like It, which I saw at the Royal Exchange last year. 

 However, the Royal Exchange is a unique and fantastic theatre; it is theatre "in the round"; the performance space is round and everyone sits in circles watching the action unfold in the middle, which gives it a more three-dimensional feel, I think. 

 I hope you enjoyed this blog and maybe have been inspired to try a Duke of Edinburgh's Award, or go to a quirky theatre... or maybe just sit back and listen to some amazing music ☺

 Anyway, thanks for reading ♥

 Liz x

 If you enjoyed this post I recommend: My songs of the summer: Part 2, D of E and the Cranberries, D of E, birthdays and Lio and Jacky, Ireland, the Olympics, Snowdonia and Nanci Griffith and Amazing news and the Kennedys ♥.

Songs: These Days In An Open Book - Nanci Griffith - 1993 (from the album Flyer)

We Don't Need Another Hero (Thunderdome) - Tina Turner - 1985