I have seven weeks left of placement. Two months to go. Can someone hurry up and invent a time machine so I can go back eleven months and re-live it all over again??
The month of May has been quite a stressful one. With Student Finance sending reminder texts every few days, the nagging thought of needing to sort out my accommodation for next year in the back of my head, needing to purchase concert tickets, book accommodation for Dublin, organise flights and train tickets amidst two weekend trips to Liverpool, two weekends of family visiting – remember when I said May was meant to be a quiet month for me?!
I had a lot of life admin to sort through this month, oh and I forgot to mention I also had a university deadline thrown in there too for good measure. My to-do list was never-ending. I wanted to get stuck into the gym this month but that went out the window very quickly.
The more things that get added to my list of things to do, the more I seem to avoid the list altogether and let it pile up. And then I wonder why I start to get anxious at the amount of things I have to do and the little time I have left to do them. Tips for avoiding procrastination anyone?
Most of May was taken up by random life admin tasks, nothing of much interest but here’s a little round-up of month eleven. Can’t believe we’re here already.
Bank Holiday fun
The best thing about May is the two bank holiday weekends – am I right or am I right? Three day weekends never felt so good.
The first weekend of May was relaxed. Well the Saturday was. I got up nice and early, went to the gym, grabbed a Starbucks and made myself a brunch. I finally got around to organising my flights and accommodation for Dublin and a few other things that were on my to-do list. I even typed up some blog posts. A quiet yet productive day. Very much needed.
Sunday morning and I was on the Virgin Train to Liverpool at 9am. I had some flat viewings on the Monday and wanted to make a short trip out of it, because if you didn’t already know, Liverpool is my favourite city (besides Dublin) and home. I spent the whole of Sunday shopping and buying lots of things that I probably didn’t need but, I’m a recovering shopaholic. It takes time.
On Monday morning I met my friend and we headed to my favourite breakfast spot, Leaf on Bold Street. This was the place where I sampled my first ever avocado on toast, so obviously holds a special place in my heart. I viewed two flats on Monday but neither seemed right. I would have called it a waste of a trip if I had been anywhere else, but a visit back home is never a waste of time. Even if it only was for 24 hours. I even had time to go for a walk along the docks and we also finished up in Concert Square, with two jugs of cocktails and two hours worth of sunburn.
Is Tuesday the new Friday?
Remember when I said I was never going out again on a work night? Well surprise, surprise I didn’t stick to it. But I am writing it here and now, and vowing to stick to it this time. I’m really selling myself as the dream candidate right now, aren’t I? But in my defence, they actually started out as work-organised drinks (can I also blame it on my Irish-ness?). It’s just that they kind of escalated until two in the morning, ending in me getting a black cab all the way from Soho (we even ended up in The Box) all the way back to Wimbledon. £100 poorer, I struggled with the best part of Wednesday morning but as I always do, I came around by lunchtime after I’d devoured a Subway.
Me, hangovers and 9am starts just don’t mix which is why I’m going teetotal until I finish my placement. You heard it here first.
My own project
As you know I was given my own little project to work on which was the launch of two new fragrances from one of our brands. I sent the products out to press and influencers and tried to secure as much print, online and social coverage as I could. This month I focused on influencers and reached out to a lot of bloggers that I follow myself and a lot more micro-bloggers than we would usually approach. The brand received some amazing coverage and I’m really proud of the social and online posts that have been coming in over the month. I even got product placement in ELLE (again)!
I’ve also been able to start new relationships with a lot of bloggers and am so grateful that I was able to take my own little project and run with it. My favourite thing is to see our brands in magazines and online. I also proved to myself that I can actually do PR and gain coverage all by myself!
I honestly think this may be the highlight of my placement year. Never mind the fancy Awards Shows, celebrity parties or free bars – I can do PR! I can gain coverage and I have never felt anything as satisfying. It was a little reassurance that I can actually do the job I want to have a career in.
Family weekend
My cousin Aaron came to visit one weekend in May and of course it was full of the usual sight-seeing, breakfasts/brunches, drinks and walking. So much walking.
On the Friday evening we went to the Rita Ora concert at the o2 Academy in Brixton. I have always said that I’m not the biggest Rita Ora fan, but I won’t deny that she has some pretty good songs. She performed tune after tune and it was a pretty great sing-along show. It was also the most staging I had seen in the o2 before as I had only seen Niall Horan and the Global Citizen concerts there before which was just performer and band. But Rita had extensive use of wind machines throughout.
As is the norm now for every time someone visits me in London, we added in a theatre show and went to see Chicago. I had been dying to see this ever since it was announced that Cuba Gooding Junior would be performing as Billy Flynn. You know me, never one to miss out on a celebrity opportunity. However, I think I may have hyped it up too much as it wasn’t as good as I initially expected it to be. I think I may have needed to see the movie first to get a better understanding of the actual story-line. It was good, but not the best West End show I’ve seen. But that’s nine shows I’ve seen now, one more to go until I hit the tenth for my London Bucket List.
We had no plans as such for the Sunday but it was another scorcher of a day and there’s nowhere better than Southbank on sunny days in Central London. We took a walk from the London Eye all the way to the Tate Modern where we sat out on the pier and regretted not bringing a few drinks to chill with. We didn’t really now how to spend the rest of our day so I suggested a visit to Greenwich. I had been meaning to return ever since my first visit a few months back. We walked around the whole of Greenwich (more sunburn) and I finally got to see Greenwich University (which is beautiful) and the grounds of the Greenwich Observatory* but we didn’t attempt to go the whole way to the top – it was way too warm for that. Instead we headed to Greenwich Market and had a glass of Pimms, belissimo.
*Did you know that GMT stands for Greenwich Mean Time, aka where time is measured?? You know when you have to fill in your timezone and you select GMT +00? You may not find this interesting but I found it quite fascinating and felt a little stupid that I didn’t already know. Little random fact for your day if like me, you didn’t know already.
Bank Holiday number two
My cousin Aaron left on Monday morning and my mother arrived into London on the Thursday evening. Imagine I actually had a weekend to myself. I had taken the Friday as a holiday as it was time for me to seriously sort out my accommodation in Liverpool.
Sadly for me, a lot of my friends are graduating next month and won’t be there when I get back for my final year. Other friends that I have in Liverpool are living quite far outside the city centre as they don’t attend the same university as myself and since my campus is city centre based and I need to be close to the train station for work, I didn’t really have any other option. Plus I love being in the city centre and super close to everything.
So my mum and I took the train to Liverpool on Friday as I had one flat viewing. Just one. I kind of already had my heart set on it from the photos so hoped it would be just as perfect when I finally saw it in person. We got to Liverpool early so we could head to my favourite spot for breakfast. I had thought of venturing somewhere different other than Leaf on Bold Street, but they really do the best eggs and avocado plus I love the morning atmosphere of the café.
Luckily the flat was absolutely perfect and I am probably too excited about moving back to Liverpool just so I can wake up in my new flat. There’s so much natural light and I even have a balcony. I’m already envisioning myself waking up on a weekday morning, lying in bed with a cup of coffee and watching Netflix. Or on a warm weekend morning, heading to the shop (below my apartment block), grabbing a croissant and coming back to my apartment to sit with it on my balcony along with a cup of coffee or a cold orange juice… I’ve thought about this too much, haven’t I?
With my flat sorted, it will be another new experience for me in that I’ll be living totally by myself and have that added independence that I haven’t had before. I do love my ‘me-time’ so this part will be quite nice. Although being so close to Concert Square (a literal stone-throw distance) I’ve already been told I’ll be hosting all the pre’s and everyone will be crashing at mine after our nights out to avoid the expensive taxis. So maybe I won’t be by myself that much after all.
My mum and I had hoped to make the Liverpool trip a full weekend, but as Liverpool were in the final of the Champion’s League the next day, every hotel was either booked or way too expensive. We were gutted to have to miss watching the final in Liverpool, but we would be spreading the support the whole way down to London. I won’t talk any more about the final as we all know how it went. If you don’t, you can Google it.
I also got to tick ‘See 10 shows on the West End’ off my Bucket List this weekend!! Only one week after seeing my 9th show. My mum and I went to the matinee showing of Mamma Mia, and although I was a little bit skeptical that it wouldn’t be that great, it was honestly one of the best I’ve seen. I loved it. I think it was nice that I always remember having ABBA CD’s in my house when I was really young and listening to the songs from a very young age with my mum, so to be there with her was really nice. We were both up singing and dancing and it was such a feel-good show. I already can’t wait for the second movie to come out!
This is getting ridiculous
These monthly round-ups started out as little recaps of what I had done on my placement that month, but with every one I write, the less I talk about my job. I’m basically giving a month-by-month run of my life. Hello and welcome to my online diary – literally.
I do have a few fun-filled weekends coming up in June with three concerts in the space of eight days – all three back in Ireland too. Yep, I’m finally going home! But since it’s the last two months of my placement, I promise I’ll focus more on what I get up to in my work and not what I get up to outside of it.
I’m pretty sure you read these expecting to find out about the inside world of a PR girl, but you’re just getting a run through of what touristy things I get up to and how many brunches I manage to have that month. Maybe month eleven is a bit late to cop onto this and change but at least you can expect the next two months to be different. Apologies if you’ve read these last few installments and have been disappointed by reading about my non-exciting life. Times, they are a-changing. Promise.
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