My NCS Experience

I took part in NCS this summer, I gained a lot of experience from it and got to do loads of new and exciting things!

WEEK 1:

During week 1, we went camping, which was something that I had always wanted to do! During the whole week, we took part in activities such as: low ropes, high ropes, climbing walls, canoeing, raft building, expedition, artery, fire making, shelter making and loads of little games and activities to help us to get to know our team. We were in teams of about 15, you could make friend requests to have certain people in your group and I ended up with 4 people I knew in my group! The meals were actually really nice, although the toilets and showers weren't! The tents were in different camps, boys and girls, with about 6 people to a tent, in my tent, there were 5, 3 of which were friends from school. The couple of down sides to this week was it was very tiring and it did become challenging, having to constantly be doing something and very active, also, there wasn't much free time, we were always busy, which was sometimes okay, but every now and then, we needed a break!

WEEK 2:

Week 2 was probably my favourite, we stayed at a local university and we had our own rooms and a good shower! The activities we did were very fun, we had time to rest and sit down and we got to do loads of new things. This week was the week that we gained the most experience from! I got to go out of my comfort zone and try new things. Our group worked very good together, and together, we won a lot of tasks, one of which we all won a £10 voucher, for our local shopping centre! We got a bit more freedom and free time this week and I gained new skills which will really help throughout my entire life!

WEEK 3: 

During week 3, we had to plan for our charity's fundraising. This week was very stressful, it involved a lot of patience and planning. We had to make sure nothing was breaking the law, we had to make sure we had permits, we had to make sure that the plan and idea for that certain day was near for everyone, we had to make sure we had permission and enough resources... overall, it was extremely stressful.

WEEK 4:

Week 4 was also quite fun, the best part of this week was every day was different hours, so sometimes, we could start in the afternoon, some was for only a few hours, some were nearer than others, so overall, some days were clearly better than others. 

Monday :

On the Monday, we did a graffiti piece for our charity in the morning, this was mainly done by my boyfriend, but also people from our team did small amounts.In the afternoon, we went to a local OAP home and played bingo with them. Although we didn't raise any money this day, we did raise awareness and did general nice things for the public.

Tuesday:

On Tuesday, we did a cake sale in a bank called Halifax, this was a very successful day and we raised about £240!

Wednesday:

On Wednesday, we were just bucket collecting, we raised about £65.

Thursday:

On Thursday, we did another cake sale, this time at our train station, this raised about £300.

Friday:

On Friday, we had a family fun day at a college on their field. We had many stalls, such as : henna, face paint, tombola, book sale, naan break stall, cake stall, drink stall, leg waxing, throwing wet sponges and we also had a team member in a bear costume! This was the most fun day we had that week and I'm not too sure how much we raising this day.

Overall, NCS was very fun and was very good for new skills and memories, although I found it very difficult at times and challenging, I would definitely read into it if you're interested! 

If you've taken part in NCS, want to or am in the future, leave any comments or/and questions down below! Also, please leave any blog post suggestions below also!

Thank you for reading! Paige x

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Email : paigecrowson@gmail.com

My Trip to London!

So on the 21st of June, 2016, me and my boyfriend, Liam went to London for the day. This blog post will just be about my day and a few photos I took on my travels.

We got the coach tickets for only £5 each way, which we both thought were so cheap! We booked them in advance to make sure they were cheap and the company we were with were called 'National Express'. The coach it self was really nice, there was a toilet inside, plug sockets, USB sockets, A/C, lights above your seats for night lights etc. The journey there was 3 hours, due to the high levels of traffic in the centre of London, and then 2 and a half hours back. We caught the coach from Leicester, where we are from, and we were dropped off at London Victoria Coach Station. 

When me and Liam arrived, which was at around 11:15, we headed straight to Buckingham Palace because it was about a ten minute walk away. When we got there, it was incredibly busy, we think there was something going on, but couldn't quite understand what. We looked around for a while and we took some photographs. While trying to find our way out of all the crowds of people, we found a little park to walk through, and we walked in the direction of Big Ben. 

When we were close to Big Ben, we sat down near some grass to have something to eat and we discussed everywhere where we wanted to go. After the little snack, we went towards Big Ben and we stopped by where the memorial is for Jo Cox, which is an MP which was sadly killed recently. The memorial was lovely and had lovely messages and flowers around it. While walking around, we continued to walk around and take pictures until we reached a bridge, which we walked over, continuing to take pictures, this is when we saw the London Eye properly, and this is when we tried to find 'House of Vans'.

We used our maps to try and find 'House of Vans' but sadly, it was closed, but we did get to see loads of amazing graffiti pieces around there and we managed to take a proper look at all of them. This is when we took a little walk to the Waterloo Station to get the underground. The underground was quite an eventful experience, we managed to figure out how to buy an all day ticket, which is £6 if you're under 15 and under, and £12 over 16. Although, I had used the underground before, my dad was the one in charge and he managed to take us to the right places, me and Liam had never done this on our own, so we took about 20 minutes, using a map to find where we were going, we eventually found the correct underground line and then took the underground to Covent Garden area. 

When we got off the underground, we took a look in The National Portait Gallery, because me and Liam really enjoy art, which we can safely say Liam is better at, haha. The newer art work was really fun to look at, although, after a while, it gets very tiring and luckily, they have portable chairs in there for you to carry around with you, which I used. 

Straight after that, we found the nearest Nandos, due to me being staving as well as needing to sit down, and because Liam was also starving. While walking towards it, I said to Liam "This looks so small and cute!", but when we got in, there was another floor, downstairs, which was so nice! There were little booths for large groups and the room was really nice. We sat down for our meal and soon headed off again to explore!

We headed to Covent Garden to have a little look around, although we didn't buy much, there were some cute little shops that sold some really nice things. I didn't buy anything there but we did enjoy ourselves and the shops. We then found the shops 'Supreme' and 'Palace' nearby. We looked around in these shops, and again, brought nothing. Round the corner, we found a Costa and I brought myself a double chocolate cookie iced coffee, which was soooo nice! Using a map, we figure out, Oxford Street was only a 5 minute walk down a straight street. When we left Costa Coffee, we walked down the street and about 10 minutes later, we found ourselves not on a straight road, this is when I got the maps app out on my phone and realised, we walked down the street the wrong way. Because we were both tired, we said we wanted to get the underground to where we needed.

We then found a underground station and then had the issue again of being confused about where to go and what line to get. While looking at a map, which we believed was an underground map, a worker walked over to us and asked us if we needed help, we explained where we wanted to go and she explained why we couldn't understand the map we were looking at.. we were looking at a bus route map, so the lovely woman gave us an underground map to help us and this made everything so much easier.

We traveled to Oxford Street to do some shopping and we looked in so many shops. We still ended up buying nothing but we did look in all the shops we wanted. I saw atleast 4 Zaras on the same street, 2 Primarks, 2 H&Ms, 2 Topshops, and we hadn't even gone down the whole street. 

When it was about 8:30, we headed to the coach station back via the Undergorund and we headed back home. Liam's mum then kindly picked us up at 12 from the coach station and we went home. 


Even though, neither of us brought anything, we both loved our day in London and we both were so worn out the next day, I even had blisters...!


Thank you for actually reading this very long blog post, please a comment below for me to look at when I come home from NCS, which I am leaving for the day I post this. I wont be taking my phone so there is no way of reading the comments until Friday. I hope you all have a good week.
I have also made an instagram account for my blog, called 'paigesblog' :
https://www.instagram.com/paigesblog/?hl=en
I will be posting any sneak peaks and blog information on there so be sure to give it a follow. Also, as always, leave any comments on posts you wish to see in the future, thanks for reading, 
Paige x