University, The start of the journey...

I know it has been some time AGAIN since I have posted but I have honestly been so busy.

Starting uni I naively thought that we would be eased in nice and slowly...get some explanations, expectations of what the tutors want etc.

No.

Clearly that is too much to ask.

Thrown in right at the deep end, asked to complete multiple worksheets, read tons of books and understand every single thing I read in so much depth my head is bound to explode.
As you may know my background is somewhat a mixture of academics and performing arts, mostly focusing recently on acting and performing.
You may also know I decided to change all that and go straight into academics again. I thought I was ready to handle it after a gap year, I thought I was ready for a pile of work and books. In some ways I was right, If I had gone straight from A-level to University I think I would have torn all my hair out by now.

The problem isn't really the worksheets, or even the reading, its having to analyse everything critically, having to know what the authors thinking, or what the difference between liberals views on ideology compared to conservative views.
And the most guidance they give you is; Well what do you think?
I have told you what I think! now help me put it into a comprehensible sentence/thesis/paragraph!

You have to be 10-20 steps ahead of everything that's happening. You need to know what's coming up in 2 weeks time and read LOTS for it.

One last rant, HOW and I mean this in all sincerity HOW do people manage to drink/stay up late/socialise as much as they do AND keep up with coursework/essays? They must be gods.

Anyway, amongst all that hate, I am actually getting used to the demanding work schedule and reading, however I want to get ahead of the game and I am finding that hard.

I think I may just start a literature blog, I think it would help me keep up to date and give some in depth analysis on some of my thoughts.

I am sure I will get into the swing of things soon, but of course being a student other matters are prominent like money/travel/friends?/ food. ha.

Anyway, I will let you all know when my new blog is out etc.

Have a good day! God knows I need some motivation right now ( I have a cold also, not helping)

CIAO BAMBINO/BAMBINAS!

Starting University

On the 17th of September I started my journey towards a degree.
It was induction week at Kingston University, got to admit, it was fairly boring.

But during the week I had a long think about what it is I want to do. I love drama, music and the arts. But am I the right person to be taking on a career like this?
No was the conclusion I came too.

I love acting, I love singing and being there in the limelight. But how often will that happen being in that career, thousands maybe millions of people want to pursue a career in acting/singing and I am not ready to be in those thousands. I am not saying I am 'giving up', far from it. When/If my passion comes to the forefront of my life I will go out there and attack any audition I can get. Until then my logic has taken over and I decided to change my degree course entirely...

Instead of Drama and Politics I have decided to go for English Literature and Politics. My love of writing has come at a later age because the pressure has been lifted of NEEDING to write, and it comes to WANTING to write.

I know at degree level the pressure will be back on, and this time tripled in amount but I am up for the challenge!
Saying it now the gap year I took was well needed, I didn't rush into anything and now I have had a look back at myself I know I needed a safety net.

However, whatever your dream is I suggest if you have that passion/drive for the subject or career, for god sake do not waste it and go for it. Even if you think its impossible, in my life time of nearly 20 years if I have learnt anything it is that nothings impossible!

For god sake I'm nothing special and I have sung in English National Opera, been in a TV advert, had multiple retail jobs the most recent being Buckingham Palace, written and review for the Royal Albert Hall and now I am going to university to study English Literature when I didn't even take it at A-level!
I think as the saying goes 'The proof is in the pudding' !

Onto another issue, one of my big worries about starting university was making friends...
As I am not living in halls or near the campus this is going to be a difficult situation for myself.
However, I have met a couple of people in my Politics class that are 'my cup of tea' as people say. They have a high level of intelligence, are that little bit older and respect learning.
Hopefully I can keep up with social aspects as well as learning but I know that will be a challenge.

I am one of those people who acts differently with different company or in different situations. So if people are having fun, I will. If people are studying I will get in that mind set so on and so forth.

Anyway, to wrap things up I can not wait to extend my knowledge of literature and English vocabulary. Maybe one day I will be in the publishing business (here's hoping!)

Like I always say I love opinions and comments..

Leave one!

Ciao for now. 

My review has been published!

The review I blogged earlier has now been officially published on the Albert Hall website, it has been shortened a tad but who cares!

http://life.royalalberthall.com/2012/09/prom-75-review/

Check it outtttttt!


Officially been published ;)

Feel a sense a accomplishment!

CIAO

The BBC Proms

Well the other day I actually won a competition...
It was the review the BBC Proms, cool I know! haha

But anyway I thought I would post the finished article on here as well for you to give your opinions and thoughts :)

My Royal night at the BBC Proms

Last Friday (The 7th of September) was mine and my partner’s first trip to ‘The Royal Albert Hall’ to see the BBC Proms.

In fact, to be more specific it was Prom 75: The Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra performing Haydn’s symphony number 107 and Strauss’s Alpine symphony.

On arrival to the hall I was lost for words, approaching this vast beauty of architecture. The dome shaped building with all its grandeur was utterly breath taking. We entered the main entrance to collect our tickets, and then headed to our seats. All of the staff were extremely friendly and well mannered.

Entering the hall was again an experience in itself, the hall was illuminated with coloured lights and decorative banners which told us we certainly had arrived at the proms.

The tension of pre-performance wasn’t a long one as we sat down and discussed the beauty of our surroundings the lights dimmed and the orchestra appeared from the side of the stage.

They were welcomed of course with a warm round of applause and then were seated ready to tune up and begin. The conductor Bernard Haitink entered with grace and poise well prepared to start Haydn’s last ever symphony entitled ‘London’; Quite fitting for the location! The air began to fill with a slow simple melody which slowly injected its way around the circular hall. The tension of the piece slowly built with crescendos and healthy harmonies slowly arising. The mellow vibrancy and simple melodic phrases only found in classical works such as Haydn or of course Mozart. This was 30 minutes of mellow music with a string dominated orchestra just characteristic of the classical period, which I think is just charming. At the end the orchestra were again welcomed by a colossal round of applause, which was well deserved.

The lights arose and the interval began, we decided to take a wonder around the halls and admire the pictures of celebrities who have played in this wondrous hall. We then headed to get a bottle of water which took a while because of the queues, and then returned for the second half.

As we walked in the setting of the stage had changed to accommodate the full orchestra needed for a Strauss Symphony.

The same round of applause was used to greet them once more and we began. The mood had definitely changed as we have moved on through music history into the late romantic period. The full orchestra took us out of our seats and astounded us. The addition of the wind and percussion section just added a fuller sound in which everyone could appreciate. These 50 minutes of Strauss told a story and the ups and downs kept me seduced the whole way through.

When the whole event was finished the orchestra was met by astronomical applause and admiration for their superb playing. In fact this caused the conductor to go on and off stage several times and then to my surprise an encore was played!

Such a fantastic night and reminded me that the sophistication and regal atmosphere is why the Royal albert hall remains one of the top music venues.

It certainly put the ‘Royal’ into the Albert hall.

Written by Sophie Ogden

There it is for you, hope you enjoy it!

Also here are a few pics I took;

Me and the boyfriend looking smart!

 I know I haven't blogged in a while, I will do soon and I am starting University so might have a few bits to write about!

BYE!

A London endeavour

As I had a couple of days off from work I decided not to sit around as I usually do but do something.
Also the fact it was mine and my boyfriends anniversary kind of helped(1 year).

Chiquitos
On Wednesday night (the night of our anniversary) we decided, despite having no money to go out somewhere nice. We went to a Mexican restaurant in Leicester square called Chiquitos, it was amazing!
The atmosphere was lovely and the choice on the menu spectacular!
We received free nachos to begin with and came just in time for the weekday happy hour on cocktails which meant they were all £3.50 hooray!
The array of traditional Mexican cuisine was so much, I decided to go for the traditional fajitas BUT with two types of sauce on the chicken. I had a sticky BBQ one and one named Louisiana hot.
It came on a sizzling plate with mini fajita wraps and loads of little extras including cheese/lettuce/sour cream/salsa/guacamole, just amazing!
Highly recommended.
My boyfriend decided to take a picture of me whilst enjoy them...

yum yum fajitas!

After the restaurant we headed to the Ben&Jerry's shop (for my benefit of course) and there I decided on an ice cream milkshake, any Ben&Jerry icecream flavour in a milkshake...wow. I went for my favourite choice of phish food. SO NICE. So creamy and a little bit sickly but worth the money I paid.

My boyfriend

And then we decided to be tourists for a bit.












But not for very long you'll be pleased to know,we headed home for the night.



London Zoo

The next day I woke up wanting to do something exciting, but we all know that costs money. But you don't get many opportunities to have a nice day out so we went to London zoo for the day.
Started out as a lovely day nice weather and an elated mood to match, we booked out tickets only £20 each, which I think isn't too pricey!
Got 2 buses to the zoo and started our tour.
The venue is MASSIVE we were lost straight away.
Penguins were what we spotted first luckily this made me happy, such delightful birds. And they were darting about in the water.
As we continued we found it hard to find anything and this got tiring and eventually we were exhausted. We saw just about everything, my favourite being the bats!
And they have an aquarium built in with the zoo so extra value right there.
I will upload pictures to my blog google+ account if you want to see more but here are a few pics I managed to take on my phone.

https://plus.google.com/100561541777987630135/posts

Upside down jellyfish

Crab

Moon Jellyfish

A bird that tried to attack Damo!

Dragon fish

Look fishes!

ME+FISHHHHHHHH

All in all a good day and totally worth the money, the only thing I disliked was the amount of children moaning and banging into me!

They just have no manners/awareness. 

Anyway I hope you enjoyed my recent endeavours and I am sure I will have some more opinions about life to share soon! 

Bye for now!

 

Everyone wants to be on top

A thought hit me the other day whilst on the humid and sticky Picadilly line...

Everyone wants to be something, there are millions of people wanting/competing to be the top of their game. Or even to be in their dream careers!

So when I am sat there thinking about how hard it is to be an actress or a singer or a musician. I now think, everyone else thinks that too.
When you are sat at an audition or an interview you think 'everyone is better than me' they must have more experience/more talent, but what if they don't? What if in fact you are superior in that respect?

Self doubt is something EVERYONE of us has. It's the first thing we think, could we have done more? are we prepared enough? we will succeed?

Most of the time you know if you're prepared, deep down honesty lies there, you either made enough of an effort or you didn't.

You have to live in the moment. However hard it is not to look into the future and determine your own fate, you have to resist.
Also looking into the past and saying 'what if?' that is all irrelevant now. The past has gone it has been left behind for you to live in the present and nothing else.

Threat is a big topic on auditions/interviews. As I was saying we judge ourselves and others around us in these tense situations.
In my line of work what comes into mind is 'she has better looks' or 'he's in good shape' or most of all I bet they can dance/sing/act/unicycle/speak 10 different languages....
But in fact, all you need to know is your strengths.

My mum showed me a clip from that program 'Superstar' yesterday including a guy called Nathan who was an amazing singer. But the fact is he knew he was. He used that confidence to perform well and sing well all the time. He never made a mistake and was flawless.
But Andrew Lloyd Webber hated him. He hated that he was a diva. But his talent was undeniable...

What is that fine line between cockiness and being humble about your talent?
And when does confidence turn into cockiness? You are slated for being too shy, too confident, too talented, not talented enough..
There is no such thing as perfection which I think today's society needs to fully understand.

Don't let people's opinions get to you, because in the end they are not fact they are SOMEONE'S thoughts.

I may not like some celebrities or pop stars but I respect where they are and what they do because the industry is tough and they do well not to let it get to them.
A good example of this is Lady Gaga, she is admired by millions and called crazy by millions more, but she doesn't let it effect her. She knows it happens, she is probably hurt by people's comments. But she remains to be herself. And for that I admire her.

The moral of this blog is basically just get on with YOUR life, don't let people ruin it for you. Don't let silly doubts get in the way of living your dream. Because the fact is, everyone could be where they want to be.

All you need is self confidence and determination!

Confidence, What is too much?

Confidence has always played a vital role in my life, whether it has appeared when needed or in fact not appeared at all.

In any career, especially performance based confidence is a key factor.
You need it to give you the adrenaline to perform in front of millions of people or a few people who can change your career forever.

Over the years whilst performing both acting and singing I have met a lot of people who have similar goals in life to me. And they all seem to differ from me in one way.
They have mounds of confidence, in themselves and what they do. Which is a great thing to have!

But the question is, when does confidence become over-confident?
and when does cockiness and arrogance start worming there way in...

From my experience and from my perspective I find most (not all) people who are in my profession to be intolerable. Their confidence spreads into their everyday life which causes an over dramatic side to follow with great speed. And sitting there talking to someone about themselves all day doesn't strike me as a day I would enjoy.

My view on drama/acting/singing is this:
I act when I need too, I sing when I need too and I don't let it take over me.

I am believe it or not quite a level headed person who also enjoys using the right side of my brain as well as my left side. I like that I can do this, but it also means I don't quite "fit in" anywhere...
I love drama, music and writing, but I also like the logic of a good political debate or working with computers.

Most people in the performance profession are creative and not much goes on with logic, I would say emotion takes over like in a performance.

You may think I am being quite biased but I have a mother who is an opera singer and I have performed since the age of 8, so you would think I would be all for over-confident!
But living with a dramatic mother all of your life puts a dampener on the excitement it is supposed to bring.

I also think there are a lot of factors with confidence, but here are just a few;
-Good looks
-Good figure
-Actual talent
-Multiple talent (can sing/act/dance/play an instrument)
-Being supported from a young age
-And most important LUCK!

You can be the most talented person in the world, but unless you are at the right place at the right time you won't get anywhere...
I've been taught this from a young age and I believe it to be the truth!

When I get all of the above ^ I will let you know how the confidence thing is going....
Who knows I might become the thing I most hate!

Ciao!

I would love to hear people's opinions on the subject and there experiences, and like I said I love a good debate !