Monday 12 November 2012

Sofar Sounds Living Room Gig

Hello! As promised, here is my post on the first Sofar Brum event! :-)

A few weeks back, on Saturday 27th October, I went to a living room gig as part of one of Sofar Sounds' gigs which was debuting in Birmingham! I went with my sister and a few friends (including Anna) and were also going to support our friend Nadi and her sister, Rukaiyah, who are both part of the musical duo, Cannon Street. They actually organised this particular Sofar Sounds event in Birmingham and held it in their own apartment! It was an amazing night full of great music and a truly wonderful atmosphere.

It was great to just sit back and enjoy the music without any interruptions. All four acts were genuinely so talented in their own rights, despite being quite different too. What's even more incredible is that the event was also free, although we did give a voluntary donation to help fund transport and editing of the videos. Nevertheless, we paid very little in terms of what we received, which was a really lovely night listening to some fantastic music in such a great atmosphere. I hope that I get to go to another Sofar Sounds event soon!

I sincerely apologise for the upcoming bombardment of photos. If ever there has been a severe case of photo-overload, I'm pretty sure this trumps it, but it was just such a fantastic night that I felt the need to share all of the photos with you!

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1. The amazing Cannon Street (Nadi and Rukaiyah)
2. Social networking + Sofar Sounds
3. The second band, Count Drachma!
4. With the pals
5. More of Count Drachma
6. Cannon Street; Count Drachma
7. Home-made rainbow cupcakes!
8. Fairy lights everywhere
9. Living room gig!
10. To Kill A King!
11. The final act of the night, Goodnight Lenin
12. My friends with Rafe Offer, the founder of Sofar Sounds
13. Sofar Brum!

Told you this was going to be a massive photo overload! Anyway, hope you've enjoyed this post and the photos :-) Please check out Sofar Sounds as well as the bands mentioned in this post, they're all amazing!

Hope you're all well and gotten over the post-weekend blues. Happy blogging! :-)

Chloe xxx

Saturday 10 November 2012

London, Pt. IV - Work Experience

Hi! Apologies for the lack of posts over the last couple of weeks. School has just sapped up all my time, but it's finally the weekend! So time to catch up on blogs, chill out and spend some time with family!

I realised that I still haven't managed to post about my work experience in London, so here goes... Way back in October, I spent five days at an investment bank in Canary Wharf, the financial district of London. It was pretty scary to be commuting to and from London every day on my own, considering I'd never gotten the tube on my own before, especially during peak time rush hour. It took me about an hour and a quarter to get to Canary Wharf and and then another hour and a quarter on the way back each day, but it wasn't actually too bad on the days that I managed to get a seat. I'm pretty sure that I was the youngest person on the trains too, which was kind of weird. To be honest, I quite liked those train journeys when I could sit there and read or even do some people-watching whilst I had my headphones in.

Anyway, I was working from 9-5 every day and it was such a massive eye-opener into the world of work. The buildings were so swanky and the people that I met were so friendly and welcoming. I learnt a lot about what goes on in the finance industry and experienced far more than most 16-year-olds get to experience, for which I feel truly lucky. Without wanting to bore you further about the things that I did there, I just want to say that London is a great place to be for work, in my opinion. It is a city full of opportunity and I truly hope that I get a chance to work there in the future. The work experience was invaluable and has motivated me to try and strive for a great job in London!

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1. Thomson Reuters building @ Canary Wharf
2. The DLR track
3. Bank Street, Canary Wharf
4. Morgan Stanley, Canary Wharf
5. Canary Wharf tube station
6. Sneaky shot on the escalators; Coffee overload!

Above are just a few photos in and around Canary Wharf. I genuinely really miss the independence of being in London on my own, as well as the fast-paced nature of the working environment. Right now, I've been back at school for two weeks and so finally getting back into the swing of things regarding schoolwork and whatnot. Just been busy busy busy. Anyway, coming up soon is a post on a recent living room gig courtesy of Sofar Sounds! Hope you're all well. Happy blogging!

Chloe xxx  

P.S. Can I just say how relieved I am that Obama was re-elected as President of the United States? I stayed up to watch the election results during the early hours of Wednesday morning, despite the fact that I was exhausted that day! However, even my fatigue couldn't ruin my day because Obama got what he deserved! :-)