The Good, The Bad, and the Chippies: The Reality of Living in a British Seaside Town

If you’ve read pretty much all of my posts, you’ll know that I live in the UK. However, I haven’t expressed much that I actually live in quite a small seaside town on the South-east coast of England. I won’t say exactly where, for obvious reasons, but it’s about 30-45 minutes from Brighton by train.

Whenever I meet anyone who doesn’t live by the coast I always get the typical ’Oh I’d LOVE to live by the sea.’ I get it, I do. I really take the fact I live near the sea for granted. I’ll start by saying that I do know how lucky I am and that people would kill to live in the area I do. BUT, it’s not all fun and games by the sea.

That’s the summary of this post. The good side and the bad side to living in a seaside town in England.

(PS: To anyone who doesn’t understand ‘Chippies’; it’s slang for fish and chip shops, which I’ll definitely be getting to later.)

The Good

• It’s pretty. One of my favourite views in the entire world is down my local seafront just as the sun is setting, especially on a clear day. The sky is all different colours and the sea reflects that. But any time of day in pretty much any weather, you can admire the site of the beach and the sea. It really is incredible, and when I move away for university, it’s something that I’m definitely going to miss.
• You can always get a good ice-cream. This is something small but definitely a plus. This applies more in the summer, clearly, but you can still always find an ice-cream in the winter too. I believe personally that the best ice-cream in the world is from a place called Di-Paulos café, which is right near the beach in the centre of my town. It’s run by an Italian family and honestly, I could probably live on their ice cream and the ridiculous amount of flavours they have. So whether you like a bubblegum ice-cream with sprinkles and chocolate, or just a plain old Mr Whippy, you’d get it in a seaside town.
• It’s cool. As in, regarding the temperature. If a rare scorching day comes across England, then by the sea is the best place to be. Not only is it always cooler, but you can bask in the sun on the beach and maybe even take a dip in the sea. It’s great in the summer to just walk from college and chill out on the beach for a while.
• Supposedly it is healthier to live by the sea. I know that research has been done regarding this; however, working in a pharmacy, I struggle to believe this.

The Bad

• SEAGULLS. Although seagulls appear to be popping up across the country now, at the coast we have to deal with them the most. Lots of people call them the ‘vermin of the skies’ and wouldn’t go that far, but they’re certainly a pain. Want to have a bag of chips on the beach? Forget it. You will be surrounded and probably dived on at some point. They seem to not be phased by humans at all. I was sitting in a café just the other day, and a little girl sitting on a table outside had her chips stolen by a seagull! It’s completely crazy.
• To quote ‘Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging’ which was partly filmed in the next town over, it seems tube ‘God’s waiting room’. There are a LOT of elderly people, and although this isn’t that bad in itself, it leads toothier issues. Young people get bored. There is nothing to do, as obviously the town focuses on its elderly residents, so pretty much the beach is the only fun we can have. So yeah, it’s great for retirees but not too great to grow up in.
• Tourists and foreign students. In the summer, it’s a constant sight to see students EVERYWHERE. I get that where I live, it’s not too far to London or Brighton and it’s also cheap to stay, but honestly you can’t keep up. It’s the certain students, not all obviously as it would be wrong to generalise, that are so loud and just generally rude that make summer something to dread a little bit. It’s the same with tourists. The majority are nice and polite, but the odd few clearly just don’t understand English manners. Living in a hot-spot, this is something you have to deal with a lot on the coast, and it becomes very annoying very quickly.
• It’s windy as hell. Due to being by the sea, there’s nothing really protecting our little town from the wind. This can be nice on hot days, as you always get a nice breeze, but on cold days, it’s almost a form of torture to be down the beach. It actually stings your face, and you can guarantee your cheeks will go tomato red. It’s freezing!
• Chippies EVERYWHERE. I think I’ve come to the conclusion there are 4 specific chip shops in our town centre, and many more cafes that offer it. I think it’s a novelty thing really, but they seem to be doing really well. Personally, I’m not a huge fan of fish and chips and I guess there are lots of people who are and living by the sea it can’t get much fresher.

So that’s it! In my personal experience of living in a seaside town, these are the positives and negatives that I have picked up. Obviously, this is specific to the town I live in/surrounding towns, so it won’t be the same everywhere! Overall, I’m happy I live by the sea despite the negatives and I know I’m very lucky, and I also know I 100% take it for granted. Living by the seaside is pretty rad, and I think everyone should do it at least some point in their lives.

Lots of love,

RubyLauren xx

So pretty...

Sutton Trust Summer School at University College London

As a disclaimer; this is a very UK based post. I’m sure there are similar things in other countries, but I have absolutely no idea about them.

So a few months ago, at around March time, I applied to go on a summer school at University College London (UCL for short), via The Sutton Trust. This was an English themed summer school and I’d been looking at studying English for a while AND doing so at UCL. Somehow, I managed to get accepted and here I am, having just come back from the week-long experience, and I’m about to tell you how fantastic it was.

Now first things first, if you are between 14 and about my age, so 17 and living in the UK, then the Sutton Trust is definitely something that you ought to know about. They fund summer schools from around Year 9 to Year 12, and prestigious universities across England and there’s even one programme that goes to America to visit top universities there. I believe most of them are aimed at people from underprivileged areas, whose parents haven’t gone to university and are successful academically, but I’m not an expert so maybe this isn't the case for all of them. I just know that it was for my summer school. So yeah, basically the Sutton Trust is a very good thing to be aware of. Just Google them to find out more. (That sounded like I’m being sponsored but I promise I’m not.)

It was brilliant. I never thought I’d say that. Just before I went I was terrified and thought I was going to hate the entire week, but knew I had to go in order to improve my chance of not just getting accepted to UCL but also many other universities would be impressed by my attendance.

It was a busy week. We were literally doing things from around 9am until at least 10:30pm with minimal chill time in-between. However, everything we did was so interesting and in most cases, a lot of fun too. 

I probably should mention as well that there were 3 courses going on at the same time; English, Natural Sciences and Biosciences and UCL wasn't the only university running summer schools. This means options are pretty extensive.

During the days, we’d have around 4 hours worth of lectures and seminars. On the English course, we did a different text each day. Our 3 texts were Beowulf,Paradise Lost by John Milton and Beloved by Toni Morrison.  If you didn’t know, lectures are where you are pretty much sat down and talked at, where as seminars are much more group-based and interactive. Those lectures and seminars were thoroughly interesting, and although sometimes I’d get lost in the lectures the seminars would soon bring me back to understanding what was going on.
They all gave me a way of understanding texts and much more of a university standard, which I feel will help my chances greatly when it comes to both applying and going to university.
We also had various talks about the cost of going to university and how the admissions process works which included personal statement writing, which I found very useful as I’ve discovered, writing a personal statement, is not as easy as it looks.

We also had to do a presentation at the end of the week. I hate presentations and I always have done, but the week at UCL has actually dramatically improved my opinion of them. I’ve always been shy and it’s always been the case that I know the information but I’m never able to say it out loud, which is not only frustrating but also somewhat holds me back. We had to do a presentation on one of the three texts we’d studied and we could do it on whatever we liked regarding that text. My group chose ‘Fortune, Identity and Transience in Beowulf.’ I’ll be honest, to start with I had no idea what that even meant, but as I got through the week I understood it more and to the point where I actually felt confident I was presenting something that I knew a lot about. My group’s presentation ended up being super successful and although we didn’t ‘win’ best presentation, we still got super good reviews from everyone. His presentation, I feel, has built my confidence massively. I managed to present complicated ideas confidently and in a way other people understood, and that was a real step forward for me.

Although there was a HELL of a lot of work involved in the summer school, we also got the chance to have the most incredible treats in the evenings which were completely paid for. We got a river boat cruise on the Thames and a trip up the Shard on the Tuesday. We were so lucky to have such a clear day because we could see for miles.We went up to the 72nd floor, watch which point the corners of the building arent there. There is literally wind blowing in. It's incredibly scary but incredible. The next day we went to see ‘The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time’ at a West End theatre and that was almost indescribable. It was astounding. The production, the acting, the story itself; all bloody fantastic. It was so good I bought the book when I got home and read it in a day. (I’m going to do a review at some point, so keep your eyes peeled). We also got a bowling alley rented out for us on the last night, where there was karaoke and free pizza; what more could you want?

So; the things we did were amazing. Both the academic side and the evening side of it. However, I met the loveliest and most supportive people. From the adults who organised it, to the student ambassadors who were constantly there for us to bug with questions (Shout out to my group leader Tam who was both hilarious and informative), to my fellow students themselves. I couldn’t have asked for better people to share my time with. There were people from all around the country so no-one knew each other so we were pretty much all as nervous as each other, it turns out. The girls on my floor almost made waiting of the showers bearable and the people in my presentation grouped couldn’t have been more supportive with my confidence. I’ve got some people I met on Facebook so we can check in with each other regarding all sorts of university matters, and if we’re incredibly lucky then maybe even meet again back at UCL next September. Never let the fear of meeting new people stop you from doing things like this; everyone will be in the same boat as you, so no-one is hostile or bitchy. They were all just damn nice people. 

That was my summer school story. It’s a bit long but honestly I could have talked for thousands of words longer, but I didn't want to bore any of you who this has no appeal to. I would advise everyone who’s going in to Year 12 next year that can get the grades to apply to one of these summer schools. You will definitely not regret it. Plus, if you do hate it, it’s still a damn good thing to have on your personal statement.

Feel free to email me or leave any questions in the comments if you want to know more:)

Lots of love,

RubyLaurenxx

View from the Shard .Pretty cool, right?

New Year, New Beach Hut?!

So my family have been on a waiting list to get a beach hut in my area for around 6 years, and then finally, it the very end of last year/beginning of this year, we finally got to the top of the waiting list and got a beach hut! It might not seem like the most exciting thing, but when you live in a seaside town you sort of take the beach for granted a bit, but now we have the beach hut,we don;t have a choice but to use it! 

We went down the beach to see it the other day,when it was sunny but super cold, and I took a few snaps! So enjoy!

View along the beach from our hut!

idk, i thought this was a cute shot

the previous owners of the hut left some really cute decorations and bits in it
for us, which was incredibly lovely!

cute little sign

even more cute bunting

view of the sea from inside

view from outside (a little bit scruffy)

my niece checking things out!

I really can't wait to spend hours on the beach in the spring/summer with friends, family, or even on my own! I've always loved going down the beach,and now I can spend even more time down there!

And as an update, I'll most likely be posting weekly rather than every couple of days, as I've got tonnes of college work to do pretty much all the time. So you can expect posts every Sunday!

Thanks for reading!

Much love, RubyLauren xx

A Day Trip to London.

On the 8th of November, I went on a day trip to London with my family. I'm very lucky with the fact that it's only  a train ride away from where I live so it didn't take too long. We went up to London to see 'Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red' which is an art installation dedicated to fallen soldiers, at the tower of London, but I'll explain more further on in the post. However, we also went on a general stroll around the city. So here is my day, told via photos and (probably badly explained) captions...



We got off at London Bridge station, which means we had to walk along the river Thames to cross Tower Bridge to get to the Tower of London. It was a grey, cold day, as most autumn winter days in England, which you'll probably see in all the pictures.

 
Large poppy on HMS Belfast, which is a military ship turned museum on the River Thames, next to where we walked along.

Crossing tower bridge. As you can see from the ground and multiple coats, it had been a bit rainy, but that's nothing abnormal in England.

Then we got to the Tower of London to see 'Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red'. Basically, it is an art exhibition of 888, 246 ceramic poppies in the moat of the tower. The significance is that 888, 246 is the same amount of soldiers that died in the first world war,and this year was the centenary. By the time I post this, the exhibition will have started to be taken down) from the 11th November. Which is why we went up on the 8th, as almost all of the poppies will have been positioned by then, as more are added every day until the 11th. Anyway, it was absolutely STUNNING. The sheer number of poppies doesn't hit you until you get there, which makes you realise the devastation from the first world war.There were massive crowds surrounding it, however most people didn't mind, as it was brilliant to see so many people having such an avid interest in both art and history. I haven't got the best photos from the best position, but you can get the idea of the exhibition.

Incredible, right? I still can't really comprehend the sheer number, it's so overwhelming!


Anyway, that's about the end of my post about London. I would definitely recommend going to see the poppies whilst they're still there in large numbers, which they won't be for long!

Thank you to anyone who's read my first post on this travel blog and I'm sorry if it isn't perfect, as I'm just learning to do this properly! Feel free to comment any questions or advice for me!
Thank you and see you soon (I guess??)
Ruby x