Florrie Elizabeth.

With less than a week until Christmas, thousands of people across the people are rushing frantically about, grabbing anything in sight that could possibly pass as a viable present to give someone. I am one of these many thousands of people. I've bought one present so far. And I can't even remember what it is (to be fair, I did buy it over two months ago for my brother but that is literally all I can remember, so I have nothing to go by when searching for it. His next Birthday present instead, perhaps?). So, if you're like me and are finally heading out to do that dreaded Christmas shopping in London, why not visit some of my top 5 places to go at Christmas in London? 1. Winter Wonderland, Hyde Park  Photo from www.royalparks.org.uk I went to this place for my Birthday (Birth-mas is a thing, you know) and you truly cannot visit a Christmas-ier place. With adorable little German market stalls selling everything from waffles to woolly socks, festive funfair rides and

In 8 days (I have indeed been counting), I'm going to be turning 17. But, should I be that excited? Firstly, when you turn 17, your freedom is still very much restricted. On the day 17 years after the day you were born, you are suddenly allowed to... Drive. And that's it. There isn't really anything else you are allowed to do on your 17th Birthday that you couldn't have done the day before it. And, obviously, the chances of you being so talented that you pass your test on the same day you first drive a car are pretty slim, so no going and picking up your friends to wizz them away to a place you've never previously been allowed to go to to celebrate. Also, how do you celebrate your 17th? Clubs? No. Pubs? No. Silent disco at the top of the Shard? No, not even that. There is literally nothing to do. I'm meeting up with some friends next Saturday to celebrate being one year nearer to being 18 but I'm still completely clueless of what to do when I see the

It was the Friday evening of one of the most stressful weeks I've had in months. There had to be the perfect occasion to celebrate the week coming to an end. And indeed there was. Last Friday, I took a trip up to the brand-spanking new Dorfman Theatre on London's South Bank to new immersive theatrical pieces, Here Lies Love, new to the UK after its triumphant run on Broadway. Produced by legends Fatboy Slim and David Byrne, when I had first read about the piece, I was immediately intrigued and snapped up some tickets. The piece reflects on previous events in the life of the former First Lady of the Philippines, Imelda Markos, from her destitute childhood to life as the First Lady, and then to her ultimate farewell to life in politics. Although I knew to expect to feel involved in the piece, admittedly, I perhaps didn't quite prepare myself for the extent I was to be 'immersed'. My first thought when I walked into the theatre: what on earth have I put myself up

On Saturday morning, I arrived at the Roundhouse, Camden, with no idea of what to expect. The weekend before, I had applied to take part in the Roundhouse Bloggers' Project, which is a course aimed at 16-25 year olds, who want to get into the competitive media industry. The workshop immediately appealed to me as an aspiring journalist, so I sent my application form, along with one blog post idea for the Roundhouse website, and hoped for the best. As I had applied at the last-minute, I didn't have to wait long to find out if I had been successful and, the next day, I was delighted to find out that my idea of a series of 'How to Get Into the... Industry' blog posts had won me a place on the project- yippee! Photo taken from the Roundhouse website: www.roundhouse.org.uk Famous for welcoming some of the world's most famous stars through its doors, the Roundhouse is currently staging the annual iTunes Festival, which music acts such as Kasabian, Kylie and Ed Shee

After picking up my exam results on Thursday, last week, a few of my friends and I jumped in the car and travelled to Reading Festival. You have no idea how long I'd been counting down the days until this event so I was very, very excited. When I was 12, I went to Glastonbury Festival (Under 13's go free!) and that still remains to be one of the best weekends of my life but I hadn't been to a music festival since then so I had mostly forgotten what they're like. Music festivals are phenomenal.  From the second I received my turquoise Reading wristband, to the moment I bid the site farewell, I had an incredible time. Admittedly, before arriving, I had been a little apprehensive of what to expect. I'd been told my previous festival-goers that Reading is full of aggressive, in-your-face people, who clamber into your tent in the middle of the night and steal your sleeping bag with you still inside it. However, this was not the case in the slightest. The majority o

Finally, after a very busy two weeks, I have found time to write a blog post about one of the many things I did on my fabulous tour around Scotland. Our week started with the drive up to Scotland. Okay, so I think we all knew this wasn't going to be the highlight of our trip but I can't think ANY of us imagined how long the journey would take us. Usually, London to the place we were going to be staying for a while in Scotland takes approximately 7-8 hours- quite a long time, yes? Well, our journey took us over 13.5 hours... Nearly DOUBLE our expectation! And that was all because of a (huge) bit of traffic in Birmingham. Although I normally love Birmingham, on that day, I had a particular hatred towards the place... Despite the fact that we'd had a pretty horrendous drive up, we had not been put off doing another long drive to the Isle of Mull the day after we arrived. Yup, back in the car we all got; suitcases repacked and sleeping bags re-stacked. We were off to find o

As many of you will be aware, the Commonwealth Games are kicking off in Glasgow this evening- and I am going to be there! No, no, I did not get tickets to the Opening Ceremony, beginning at 9pm at Celtic Park, but I did manage to bag tickets to see two nights of athletics at Hampden Park. And I am very, very excited. This Friday, my family and I are going to bid our adored canine a fond farewell as we start our 7 hours long drive up to the 'Land of the Brave' for a week-long holiday. Along with those two nights in Glasgow, we are going to visit the Giant Pandas in Edinburgh Zoo (cannot wait!) and hopefully we're also going to the Isle of Mull to go to Toblemory- all depending on whether we manage to find a room available on the island before then, of course... Other than being unable to contain myself about the week to come, my reason for informing you about that is that I will be absent from this blog until I return from my travels... I know, it's a tough world. M

Yes, that is a reference to High School Musical and, yes, I am still referencing High School Musical eight years after it came out... But, like Troy met Gabriella, I have just met someone knew: you! So, to introduce myself... Firstly, my name is Florrie. Yep, just Florrie; not Florence, not Florian (I have been called that before), just Florrie. A few weeks ago, dismayed at the fact I'd still never met someone else called Florrie, I googled the history of the name. And, what did I learn? I learnt that the name 'Florrie' peaked in popularity in the 1890s. My name is ancient. Moving on from my name, I should probably talk about my likes to prepare you for what is to come on this blog. My likes include... Dogs Since a very young age, I havebeen a huge admirer of the canine-kind. Whether they're tall or small, curly or straight, the odds of me wanting to take home a dog are pretty high (with the exception of the dogs that take a disliking to my dog, obviously). Four