A hill

She walked along the top of the hill, the fog engulfing her tiny figure. She felt her mud soaked feet sink into the viscous earth with every step she took. She was cold, wet and exhausted. Every time she moved her whole body screamed from the ache, every slap of wind caused an eruption of trembling nerves. Her body shook with the wintry wind, the layers she wore had done nothing to protect her. They were useless. More of a burden then an aid. The rain had soaked them, weighing her down like she was carrying rocks in her pockets. How she wished to tear them off and embrace the malevolent air. The thought was refreshing but she knew in the long term it would do more harm then good. Whilst the weight would lessen the cold would gnaw at her more. 

She tried to take her mind off of it all. Off of the pain from the bag she kept strapped tight to her bones, she tried to stop thinking about the shiver she felt in her blood and the smothering cling of her wet clothes to her body. She started to listen to the sounds around her, ignoring the pain she felt at a constant. She heard the agonising howls of the wind blowing from the west right into her face, it was as if there was a raging fight happening right in front of her. She heard the scratching of tree branches crawling along. Trying to escape the hill just like her. She heard the trickle of their blood squelch beneath her feet and began to hear the pitter patter of the skies tears as they fell onto her. She could hear the skies vexed moans and woeful sobs. It too was trying to leave this  treacherous place. 

The sounds failed to disillusion her pain, if anything they increased her mental pain. All she felt was the trauma of these poor things stuck on this hill... Forever. She began looking around, hoping to preoccupy her brain. She saw barbed wires caging in animals who bared the storm and all its hell. She watched as leaves flew past her in a haze of Autumnal distress, the shades of brown bringing new colour to the landscape of green and white. Her eyes attached themselves to the path ahead, focussing on every sharp rock she stumbled over. Planning every step she sunk into. They lost focus for a moment. Only a moment. They wandered away to a scene of momentary happiness on top of the hellish hill. Two sheep hiding from the rain under a large tree, lush in hanging green leaves. It had not yet fallen under the curse of winter. The scene of joy didn't last long as her eyes had stopped securing her safe journey and so she tripped on a jagged edge falling to the ground in a painful shriek. 

She blinked. She felt the heavy bag compressing her chest... Almost stopping her breathing. She blinked. With a sharp intake she rolled to her back. She blinked. Her body sunk deep into the flowing mud. She blinked. She could see the trickle of blood rolling down her broken hands, the openings like serrated mountains. She blinked and saw the wicked rock that had caused her fall. Her mind took pity on it. The hell of the hill had caused it to become evil too. Wearing it down to a point, storm after storm. Whilst the pain was immense she clambered (slowly) to her feet and kept walking with watchful eyes on the ground. 

She started to smell the salt from the red essence dripping of off her hand so she wiped it on her ripped trousers. She could smell the dirt deep in her nails, the mud hugging her clothes. It was a foul, putrid smell of anger, pain and depression. For this dirt was only looking for a way off of this hill. A new smell invaded her nose, it carried past her in the wave of the wind. The smell of something warm and comforting. The smell of memories from home, of happier times with family. The smell of freshly printed photographs in an album of good times. It was the smell of hot food, of something meaty and delicious. 

She looked ahead and she saw it. Her camp. In all its forlorn glory. Never had she been happier to see such a small tent in all her life. With new found strength in her bones she hurried to her tent and climbed inside as fast as her aching bones would allow. Peeling off layer after layer of frozen clothing before finally settling into new, dry material that hugged her with a sense of care. She pulled on thick new socks, they wrapped around her feet in an embrace of love. Waiting for her in a ceramic mahogany pot next to her sleeping bag was a concoction of hope, relief and comfort. Otherwise known as soup. 

She reached for the blazing pot, pouring herself a cup she drooled at the steam that whispered away from the liquid. Her eyes widened in disbelief that all was over as she poured the soothing cup of hot solace down her throat to heal all that the hill had done to her. The taste of assuage engulfed her senses as she savoured every flavourful burst dejectedly. Because whilst the soup could cure the physical pain, it could not save her heart that ached with anguish for the nature stuck on top of the hill.  

Duke of Edinburgh practice assessment!

Welcome to the hardest weekend of my life.... 

This weekend I did a practice assessment for dofe in which I learnt how to navigate a map, observe more around me and walk for a VERY long period of time. The weekend began in Saturday when we packed up our bags into a van and set off for Hemel Hempstead in which our assessment would begin. 

The journey wasn't very long and was very quite due to it being around 9 in the morning. When we arrived in was straight into battle mode, bags where unpacked, tents given out and the torture of moving stuff around in each other's bags in order to fit everything necessary in began. Finally we were done and our bags where loaded onto our shoulders and we began our VERY VERY VERY long walk. It started off fine, the weather was nice and sunny and our bags didn't seem to heavy but after the first half an hour and the first uphill a trench everyone was feeling the struggle. Our shoulders where being weighed down by the weight of our bags and sweat was dripping from us. We were clearly very unfit! 

The next stretch started off okay as well because we had a short break to catch our breaths and eat some food. Yet again after about 20 minutes we were all feeling the pain again, no matter how tight our bags where to our backs they weight still pulled at our shoulder muscles. We kept walking through and that's when the skies slowly darkend, the clouds drooped  and finally it began to rain heavily. We trudged through mud with rain coats wrapped around us right, many slipped and fell on endless fields and we were almost chased by a herd of cows. After a second break disaster struck as I slipped down a muddy slant on a hill twisting my ankle. 

After a quick bandage up and my obviously very supportive friends taking endless photos I was up and going again and we kept on walking ... Still in pain. The day seemed to go on and on, and the bags got heavier and heavier and we got more and more tired. We had a few laughs and tried to encourage eachother to keep going, the many farm animals we met along the way definetly kept us smiling! 

After almost reaching our destination we noticed that our route led to a moterway that we couldn't walk up so we had to figure out a different way to go. That didn't work out too well either as we got lost countless times and ended up trespassing on private land in which we where ushered away very quickly by a rude man. However we pulled together and got going figuring out where we were and best route home... When we finally reached the campsite. Exhaustion took over and we collapsed on the field, the other groups having gotten back 2 hours earlier then us. However their is no rest for the wicked as we had to get on with building tents and cooking dinner. The night didn't go very well because as you can imagine sleeping in a tent on the ground isn't very pleasant and my sleep was broken up a lot but I didn't manage to get a decent amount of sleep before morning. The next day wasn't looking too great for or group, we were covered in blisters and sadly lost a member of our group to another injury meaning we where one man down and needed to repack our bags again. After that was done and we had eaten something and packed up, we stared the shorter of the two routes and began walking. Whilst the pain in our feet was worse somehow the bags seemed less heavy and more manageable and so did the walking. Plus my new strategy was to keep my head down and keep walking, only talking to the group when we had to check the map. This worked very well as I felt time went quicker and I felt less pain but obviously missed out on talking with my friends.  We made quick progress with regular breaks and a more scenic area to walk through we were done in no time and where the first group back! 

The other two groups made it back shortly after us and finally we could make our way home. On our arrival most of us limped out of the van, our legs barely holding us up and our feet simmering with every step whilst most of us resembled the hunchback of notre dame, our shoulders so stiff and stuck in the same position. The recovery of the trip was torture, I slept for over 13 hours. Obviously physical exhausted but still my muscles aches but I found a hot bath really helped. Whilst the trip was hard and I didn't have much fun at the time. I'm very glad I went, I had so much fun with my friends and I'm so proud of myself for what I have achieved. Whilst I'm not to excited for my final assessment I know I can do it now. Plus I have learn so much and know more, so I think next time will still be hard but a lot more manageable. 

Miss Peregrines Home for peculiar children

Miss Peregrines home for peculiar children is the first book by Ransom Riggs and takes place between 2 time periods/settings, 1940 Wales and modern America. This book is unlike others as throughout the story there is tonnes of black and white, eerie and illusionistic photos from the past that match to the plot of the book. We start off in modern America in which Jacob Portman has been told many stories through out his childhood about monsters and strange children by his grandfather. Whilst he believe they were true when he was younger he has slowly realised they weren't real and his grandfather just made them up. But when his grandfather is murderd he sees the monster that killed me and relises his grandfather was telling the truth. He then travels to Wales with his father to a small almost uninhabitated island where the children (predictably now adults) are supposed to be living but soon he finds out they all died in a bombing in 1940. During a visit to the old house Jacob falls through a ceiling and meets some children who run away at first but Jacob follows and falls through a time loop to the 1940s in which the same day has been repeating itself for years and years. The children turn out to be the same one his grandfather talked about before, whilst learning some history about his grandfather and making friends with the peculiar children who all have strange almost talents, Jacob relises that's the children and their ymbryne, Miss Peregrine are in danger. Only he can save them. 

Firstly this book is unlike anything I have read in a while, the plot is so imaginative and evocative. The use of the pictures makes the story seem so much more real. I love the mystery of the story, every character you read about might not be who you think it is. Minor characters don't seem important to you until the end when you find out what role they truly played. I'll be keeping my eye out for characters like this in the next book. As I said the story is very imaginative and each character is so individual, there peculiarities not being stereotypical, such as flying or reading minds. They are more wispy, they fit with the whole aura of the book. For example: Olive doesn't fly, she floats, Emma doesn't breathe fire, she creates it with her fingers, Hugh doesn't just control bees, they live inside of him. The whole nature of the book is very whimsical, it creates a very fantasy feel and I like the childlike vibe through out the book. It's almost as if the children look young but are old within, which is actually very true due to them being in a time loop. The setting is very historically correct, with the strong theme of war playing a big part in the plot. Both the world and children are at war during the story. The descriptive language used in the story creates very detailed images in your head, you can almost feel everything the children are. Plus the realistic look on family life in the beginning of the book only makes this book more strange with how normal the book starts compared to how peculiarly is ends. However the mystery of the plot is what grabs me, in the beginning your unsure if grandpa Portman is telling the truth or making it up. However then as Jacob starts to believe it so do you, the plot is very immersive and you feel as if you are actually Jacob. Struggling to find the hidden children, not sure if you should believe your crazy grandpa. Angry that people think your crazy. 

I do have a few minor problems with the book though. The story starts of very slow and then suddenly speeds up missing out major storylines, such as Emma and Jacobs relationship. Which I find very weird due to her being with his grandpa previously. Also the lack of explanation as to how Miss Peregrine  knew a bomb was to be dropped on the house confuses me too. Furthermore the beginning of the book is quite boring, I feel as if more could have been done to grab the interest of the reader in the beginning as some may switch off and miss key points that are important later on. Also whilst the language is impeccable it can get confusing, especially if the book is aimed at younger adults. But i guess it does have a learning aspect to it. Additionally I would love further insight into the stories of the peculiar children as they are sort of brushed aside to focus on Jacob when they could play a bigger role in his story too. Other then this I love the book a lot and there isn't too many negative things to say about it. 

Overall I thought the book was a truly wonderful read, I enjoyed the way it made me feel and how different the story was to others. It's very original and I would definetly recommend it if your into fantasy books with modern twists. However I do warn readers the language can be quite complicated and the story ends with a cliff hanger so you will have to read the rest of the series if you want to know more.