This Week in History Series!

This Week in History: Week 14

 

March 30^th: 1296 - Edward I sacks Berwick-upon-Tweed, during armed conflict between Scotland and England. This was known as Capture of Berwick, it was the first significant battle of the First War of Scottish Independence. After a raid on the town of Carlisle on the North-West the English, under Edward I, began the initial conquest of Scotland in the first phase of the war. They went to capture Berwick-upon-Tweed, a town that at the time sat just north of the border and was Scotland's most important trading port. The garrison was commanded by William the Hardy, Lord of Douglas, while the besieging party was led by Robert de Clifford, 1st Baron de Clifford. They took the castle, whereupon Douglas surrendered and his life and those of his garrison were spared.

 

March 31^st: 1855, Charlotte Brontë, English novelist best known for Jane Eyre, died at age 38.

 

Charlotte Bronte

 

April 1^st: 1815, Birth of Otto Von Bismarck. Born in Schönhausen, Prussia, Now Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. He was the German Chancellor from 1866 to 1890.

 

April 2^nd: 1836, English novelist and social critic Charles Dickens aged 24 marries Catherine Thomson Hogarth who was aged 20.

 

April 3^rd: 1043, Edward the Confessor was crowned king of England at Winchester Cathedral.

 

April 4^th: 1581, Francis Drake was knighted by Queen Elizabeth I aboard his ship the Golden Hind at Deptford, South-East London.

 

Sir Francis Drake being Knighted.

 

April 5^th: 1614, American Indian princess Pocahontas the daughter of chief Powhatan marries English colonist John Rolfe.

That's it for this week!

 

Claire

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Speedway Saturday!

What is Speedway?

For those of you who know me well will know I am a massive fan of Speedway. So I'm going to explain what it is for those who don't know :)

 

Speedway is a motor race involving bikes, with four riders racing on an anti-clockwise oval track.

 

The bikes only have one gear and no brakes.

 

The speedway motto is No Brakes, No Gears, No Fear.

 

The bikes can reach a max of 70mph on the straight sections of the track!

 

More in-depth info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motorcycle_speedway#History

 

The scoring system is set as winner of the heat gets 3 points, second place gets 2 points, third place 1 point and last no points.

 

So you now know the basics of what it is :)

 

Now I'm going to share my accessories for my speedway obsession and some pictures of my favourite moments so far!

 

 

First up is my new Radley Bag I bought to take with me to carry my pen and board of marking off the scores. I chose this because of the colours Black and Gold, these are the colours of my home team!

 

Next up is a headband my parents gave me, again the colours are appropriate!

 



 

I have a few hoodies, but the one pictured below is my favourite, my team hoodie!

 

My team are called The Berwick Bandits!!!

 

Next is a montage I made myself of the Bandits from last season 2014.

Like most teams we have a Mascot, our Bandits Bear!

 

 



 

We've even had the privilege of having Sky Sports to our Track for a meeting again Edinburgh!

Sky Sports Booth on the 3rd Bend

 

 Without the track staff and all the other staff this sport probably wouldn't be happening in my home town.

Track and starting tapes staff :)

I have a few friends and family that go to the speedway with me, but I've chosen two pics of two of my favourite people who go to the speedway :)

 



Me and my Mum.

Me and my Friend Linda :)

Below are two pics of two riders who are coming back this season to ride for the Berwick Bandits again!

Claus Vissing

Kevin Doolan
 

Below are a few pics of some of the riders racing!

 

Finally, my last two pics of another two speedway riders, who I hope to see again one day!

Linus Sundstrom

Maciej Janowski

 

 

Thanks for Reading!

 

Claire

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Throwback Thursday!

Throwback Thursday!

This week isn't a proper throwback as I want to pay Tribute to a very Special Lady who is no longer with us in person but is always with us in spirit!

 

This tribute is to My Grandma, who is missed every day! Today would have been her birthday! So to celebrate her birthday and her life I have chosen a few pictures of my wonderful and spectacular Grandma to share with you all!

 

My Grandma with My Auntie Eileen, my Mum and My Uncle Ian!

 

My Mum, Grandma and me as a baby!

My Grandma with my Family at the time! (18years ago!)

Mum, Grandad, Grandma and Me!

My Great-Auntie Fan, My Dad and My Grandma!

My Grandad, Me and Grandma!

Grandad and Grandma!

My Great-Auntie Fan, Mum and Grandma!

Mum, Grandma and Uncle David!

Grandma and Grandad at their Golden Wedding!

Grandma and family at My Cousin Lizzie's Wedding to Peter!

Grandma(in Pink!) at Uncle David and Jo's Wedding.

Grandma and Grandad at the Wedding Reception!


We will love you forever and always Grandma!

Claire
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My Top 3...

Young Adult Fiction Authors

 

Hi again! This week I have chosen Young Adult Fiction Authors, I'm well aware its mostly teens who read their books, but even though I'm now 24 I still like to read them as they catch my interests.

 

So here we go!

 

3.) Stephanie Meyer: Not only do I love the whole Twilight Saga, I love her Short Story about Bree Tanner and the book the Host. Her writing may not be top notch, but her plots, characters and themes are so appealing and keep me captivated. Some of her plots are relatable even if it is fantasy.

 

 

2.) Richelle Mead: Both of her Series Vampire Academy and Bloodlines are epic, both are so gripping and have such lovable characters. She touches on issues that some teens may experience in school. Again it may be fantasy but many people can relate to the themes such as Bullying, Bereavement, Romance and choices for your Future.  To me she is am amazing author and all her books are fantastically written.

 

 

The Big Reveal!!!!

 

1.) Cassandra Clare: Her series of The Mortal Instruments and the Trilogy of The Infernal Devices are so fantastic. The imagination she has to create a whole new race of people and a world that co-exists with our own is fabulous!  All her books are very well written and the themes are again gripping and enthralling. Every book she has written so far has had me hooked! The characters are epic and all the stories are so different from anything I have ever read before. She leaves the biggest cliff-hangers and has some of the most amazing twists and turns!

 

 

 

Thanks for Reading!!

 

Claire

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This Week in History Series!

This Week in History: Week 13

March 23^rd: 1933, The Enabling Act made by the German Reichstag grants Adolf Hitler dictatorial powers.

 

March 24^th: 1603, The Scottish King James VI, the son of Mary Queen of Scots, becomes King James I of England in succession to Elizabeth I, thus joining the English and Scottish crowns.

 

March 25^th: 1133, Birth of Henry II, King of England, who reigned from 1154 to 1189.

 

March 26^th: 1892, Walt Whitman; an American poet, dies in Camden, New Jersey at the age of 72. Cause of death was Pneumonia.

Walt Whitman

 

March 27^th: 1708, Jacobite Pretender to the English throne James III (son of King James II) flees to Dunkirk. On his father's death in 1701, James declared himself King, as King James III of England and VIII of Scotland and was recognized as such by France, Spain, the Papal States and Modena. These states refused to recognise William III, Mary II or Queen Anne as legitimate sovereigns. As a result of his claiming his father's lost thrones, James was attainted for treason in London on 2 March 1702, and his titles were forfeited under English law. (For More Info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Francis_Edward_Stuart)

 

 

James III

 

March 28^th: 1866, the first ambulance goes into service in Ohio, USA.

 

March 29^th: 1827, 20,000 people attend Ludwig von Beethoven’s burial in Vienna, Austria.

 

That's another week over!

Claire

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My London Adventure!

My London Adventure!

Part 12: Tower Bridge and Boat Tour.

 

This week I'm sharing my photos from Tower Bridge and the lovely boat tour I took, which only cost me £5.20!

 

Tower Bridge is one of my favourite landmarks in London, though I am not sure why haha! Also it's hard getting a selfie with a huge bridge but I did it!

 

Bridge Selfie! (Though it looks Photo shopped!)
 

Tower Bridge!

 

 

Here is some info about Tower Bridge:

-It is a Bascule Bridge.

- It is 244 Metres long and 61 Meters high.

-It was opened on 30th June 1894, nearly 121 years ago.

-It is a Grade 1 structure.

 

River side of Traitors Gate


Many of you who have read previous posts may remember I saw the other side of Traitors Gate, when I visited the Tower, but this time I got to see the outer side, all thanks to my boat trip!

The Tower of London.
 

City Hall & The Shard!


The Shard is an 87 Storey high Skyscraper, which has a viewing platform, a restaurant and a 18 floor 5* hotel called the Shangri-La!

HMS Belfast.

Another Shot of HMS Belfast.


HMS Belfast is now a Museum ship, it weighs 10,480 tons! It was launched on March 17th 1936 and it was decommissioned 24th August 1963.

City Hall again!
 

Butlers Wharf.

A Man cleaning the Windows.


I only took the above picture because it amused me for some reason, I think it was because he is so far up the building cleaning the windows haha!

The Millennium Bridge. 

Cleopatra's Needle.


Cleopatra's Needle is  made of red granite from the quarries of Aswan, weighing a hefty 224 tons each. Standing tall at 68ft (21 metres), they were originally erected in ancient Egyptian city of Heliopolis by Pharoah Thutmose III (1481-1425BC) around 1450BC. Ramesses II (1300s-1213BC) added the hieroglyphs around 200 years later to commemorate his military victories.

 

I think this is a Restaurant.

The London Eye.


Thanks for Reading

Claire
x



Throwback Thursday!

Throwback Thursday!

This week I'm off to Celebrate another Birthday! So I thought I'd share my 21st birthday celebrations from 2012!

 

For this birthday I chose Gangster theme as most of my close friends know I love anything to do with Gangsters haha!

 

(Again this is mostly photo based!)

 

My 3 Housemates Cat, Pippa and Naomi got me a 21 balloon!

 

My Balloon!

They also decorated the house, got me a cake and set up snacks etc. for these celebrations!

My friend at the time Katie got me an awesome Disney present to complete my Mickey family, none other than Pluto!

My Pluto!


For me when it comes to a house party, it is not complete without my homemade punch!
(This consists of 300ml of Blue WKD, 300ml Raspberry Sours and 300ml Lemonade!)

My Punch!

Cake!

I don't do half-hearted dress ups, and this was no different!

I went all out! Even had the fake cigar, Hat and Tommy Gun, disguised as a handbag!

Me ready to Party!

Me with Cat!

Me with Pippa!

Cat and Pippa!

3 Cool Gangsters!

Catherine and Jess!

After some snacks, cake and a few pre-dancing drinks we headed off into Lancaster to hit my favourite clubs!

We went to my favourite club first, Hustle, they serve the best shots ever! I always have a Wizard's Sleeve and Toffee Apple!

From there we hit another bar/club Bentleys!

Me and Cat in Bentleys!

Cat and Pippa!

Me and Pippa!

Me and Catherine!

The girls were so lovely and bought me a Blue Lagoon Fishbowl! (I was nice and shared!)

Birthday Fishbowl!

Our last place to visit was another of my favourite clubs Elements and the photographer in the club was kind enough to take a group pic of us!

(Below I have made a Gangster tribute to compare our Authenticity!)

How'd we do?

 

Thanks for reading!

 

Claire

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