Let's do ALL THE THINGS!

Let's do ALL THE THINGS!

After my Grade 8 French Horn exam on Wednesday I rushed right down to the cinema to watch The Amazing Spider-man! Since now I'm officially free I've decided to do as many things as I possibly can!

Oh, I am such a nerd for these films now it seems!

Seriously though, what's not to like, it's got Andrew Garfield AND Emma Stone in it! 

I'm definitely going to watch it again next Wednesday!

Busy Bee.

Busy Bee.

There were a lot of goings-on last week! 

Monday and Tuesday were a combination of collage Art Foundation inductions and enrolments, along with a school summer concert.

On Wednesday 26th I helped out all day with the Brass Bonanza, a day for primary school children who play a brass instrument. It was quite an occasion. I shall explain!

My family are quite infamous with BaNES' music service. I have been part of the Saturday morning routine since I was in year 3 or 4, about 8 years old. I'm 18 now, so that's quite an achievement! I moved on through training band, intermediate band, Brass Tacks, auditioned and got in to SWB (symphonic windband) and auditioned the next year for SPO (school's philharmonic orchestra) and got into that too! By this point I was in year 10- about 14 years old.

Now, following me up the ranks are my siblings. The fact that there are four of us, all playing a brass instrument, is what makes our little family unique. With me playing french/tenor horn, my brother playing tuba, my sister playing trombone, and my littlest brother playing trumpet, we've got a full blown brass quartet. 

"The Bailey's" they call us.

What made Wednesday so special was that not only were me and my brother both helping out, as we have been on holiday for a long time now (he's in year 11), it was technically my last ever brass day. AND both my little brother and sister were playing in the band for the day. 

So, with that, we broke the record! Four children in the same family all at the Brass Day! Woo!

18, 15, 11 and 8 years old.

On the Thursday we had a second prom sort of do. We had booked out The Huntsman for the night and all got dressed up again! Drinking Pimm's from a massive bowl with colourful straws was a classy pre-drink idea!

Melodian in the meadow!

And finally, on Saturday we set up a tent in a field near my house for Cat's birthday. Typically, the British weather had us roasting for 5 minutes and then soaking wet the next! The tent was my idea, giving us an excellent hide-out from the weather.

Now, for the last week I've been panicking over my Grade 8 horn exam next Wednesday! To say that I a shit-scared would be a drastic understatement!

Over and out until then, finger's crossed it all goes okay!

                                                                                                                                                            

Wider Opportunities

Wider Opportunities

Wider Opportunities was basically an event repeated on two days, where primary school children from Bath and North East Somerset have a day of playing the instruments that they have been learning for about 10 months. I helped with some friends of mine on both of the days and to be honest, for the most part it we just sat and talked before getting up and playing Match of the Day with the children playing brass instruments! 

On the Wednesday there were 600 kids and on Thursday there were 500, one of them including my younger brother, playing instruments from the likes of a Ukulele or a Recorder, to a Djembe drum or a Violin!

It was madness...!

We had some hilarious times though, including making friends with a duck that likes to eat Mini Cheddars:-

Louise named the duck Franny Cheddar...don't ask!

Me and that duck got very attached to each other! 

Warming up for the big finale of "I am the music man"

My brother as we sat on the sidelines

   

The lovely view we had as we ate lunch, and also where we met Franny the next day!

Overall, the two days were full of hilarious moments, sneaky trips to Nero's and little kid's getting excited by the fact that us 'older kids' were playing and singing along with them!

From the beginning

Now then let's start with yesterday, Sunday 17th June.

Yesterday was the most eventful day that I can remember! The muscles in my legs are hardly working right now because of it!

We begin in the morning, when I ran the Race for Life! It was a 5k run, which might seem short for most runners, but for me it was quite a big deal that I managed jogged the whole way and rarely stopped. I was always the kid at school who was one of the last to finish in long distance races because of the fact I have asthma. I ran with my sister and we finished the whole thing in 35 minutes, and I raised £100 too!

Compared to my sister ( that's her on the left, the right is me), who collapsed and stayed sat on the sofa for the rest of the day, I was like a Duracell Battery Bunny after the race, inspired and full of energy! 

I went down to the Widcome Rising for the first time. Walking around so much really wasn't a good way to go after the run, but the Widcome Rising was awesome!

As I'd never been before, I had no idea what to expect. They had closed off the whole of the road and there was a big Ferris wheel in the middle, along with a load of stalls and music stages.

My two favourite stalls had to be the Pimm's stall and the Candyfloss stall, by far - childhood and adulthood AT THE SAME TIME!

Low angle + head thrown back = double chin!

This has got to be one of the most unattractive photos of me ever, but hey! We've all got to poke fun at ourselves once in a while or how would we manage?! All I've got to say is this picture definitely portrays my excitement at the candy-floss and alcohol situation, even though that isn't Pimms :(


After all that excitement and awesome music, (we even wandered into a random car park rave for a bit!) my quest for lift home was denied and I had to walk up the hill. I can safely say, now, because of that, my legs won't work now!

 Totally worth it, and a pretty good way to start SUMMER!!

(left) We watched these crazy chappy's whilst eating the best chips in the world from the Manhattan. (right) My lovely friend Cat as we stood and watched a guy eat swords and hang rocks clipped to his eyelids!

(above) The Ferris Wheel! (below) Me with the Candy-floss! 

Hello All!

Hello all!

I would like to welcome you to my brand new blog - Flying with the Hummingbirds! I was inspired to create this blog when my friend showed me the blog she had just recently created - http://www.browntonabbey.blogspot.co.uk/

The concept for her blog is something that I've always tried to achieve through the various blogs that I have created over the years, but all have failed to keep my attention and were forgotten about.

I decided to make this blog as a colourful documentation of my shenanigans over the long summer combined with all manner of different things that I love in life.

A few of my loves that I will definitely post about will be things like photography (film especially), my cooking expeditions, all things arty and of course anything vintage! 

I hope you enjoy!

Hatti