nostalgia

Posted by opheliahorton on May 28, 2014 · 6 Comments 

photos taken on my olympus OM10 during the summer -and captions to go with them

click on all thumbnails or photos in grids to see them larger and to read captions btw

grace doing her hair in the morning

theo hates u

maddie in the sand pit

the gloomy disneyland looking mont st michael or something

hana being ghostly

girls

the oh so virgin mary

theo checkin herself out

lollypop lips

magicccccc on maddie

ralllyyy looking lovely

morning dew

bright afternoons

hair

feet on the beach

leaving day

at the huge cemetry

hana next to the beach

theo and her ‘dutty’ gumball thingy

during activities week at the end of year seven and eight at my school, you always go on a camping trip to france. above are some pictures i took during our year eight trip last summer. the area was really beautiful, but of course hanging out with teachers, staying in tents for five days, being bossed about by immature cringey instructors threatening to throw water at me, literally crawling through mud and jumping off things when the harness doesn’t really feel like it’s going to catch you isn’t really my kind of thing. i actually managed to hastily write a diary throughout the whole 4 or 5 days we were there so i’ve typed out the extracts which i can share with you below…

monday

…today was the first day of our trip to france. we arrived early in the morning to school (probably 4am) -and we immediately boarded the coaches. Me and Grace sat at the back, in front of the boys, who honestly talked about different genres of porn for like an hour, which was obviously gross and so we tried to ignore it most of the time. we stopped off at a little mall, where we all had a bit to eat and where Grace accidentally wet her bag in the automatic-sensor sinks…

…when we got back on the bus i started doing the ‘classic’ flirting technique. well probably not so classic, but classic to me: looking at them and then looking away when they look at me. it’s not always so effective but it’s kind of fun lol…

…when we got there we had to do orienteering first and spent about an hour and a bit talking about what we already knew and then we were allowed to go off on our own, with compasses and maps, 5 minutes after each other so that we wouldn’t follow the other groups. it was actually really cute and the weather was beautiful, all i needed now was something to play some tunes on,  some sweets and a moonrise-kingdom-esque outfit- but we were all wearing trackies, so i didn’t bring my camera. we soon caught up with the second group and walked through the sunny suburban roads together, past the beach, the mooing cows, rushing stream, diagonal trees and then back to camp. dinner was average but not terrible and afterwards we ran about playing volleyball and then got dressed for the beach…

tuesday

we woke up in our tents – damp and ew. i scraped on abit of foundation or concealer or something and we left. for breakfast we had some bread, egg and cereal. we had to rush off and get ready for bushcraft. it was actually really fun: we put mud on our faces, did chants, carved spears, made shelters and even fires. for lunch we had some salad shit and pretty much straight-away had to go to the next activity which was raft building. I was luckily in a group with friends and we made a really good raft out of barrels and ropes. We did last man standing and pushed eachother off which was freezing and the bottom of the river was all squishy and then we had to dry off really quickly and scurried off to the coaches. after dinner i had to do washing up and the lady managing it really hated hana but said i could be a professional dish washer and really liked me (lol)…

wednesday

before we slept last night it already started getting really chilly. on the first day it was hot, on the second day it was gloomy. today it started getting even colder so in the night the wind starting blowing the tent walls to-and-fro and by the time it was dark it was raining a little. we all woke up really cramped because we’d tried to huddle up to keep warm and when i woke the rain was pitter-patter-ing down, and we talked about how we all were certain someone had poked their head in our tent really late last night (but i wasn’t scared cause theo put her feet on my face)…when i got up i realised all my bottoms were still soaking so i borrowed some trackies and a jumper off maddie for fencing, which was super boring. after that we had to do something called night-line, which was literally crawling around the grass on our hands and knees blindfolded. when we got back to our tents we stripped off our soaking shoes and clothes and spent ages trying to find something that wasn’t wet to wear, and when we got to lunch they sent theo and grace back for wearing ‘short-shorts’ ughhhhhh. the coach journey to mont michael took ages and we mostly waddled around the cold rooms of this cathedral. when the tour finished we were allowed to go down to the markets, where i got churros and there were other yummy foods…

thursday

i woke up and everything is greasy and grim. i was kind of annoyed because i was having this great dream about a party and then i woke up and i was in this gross tent. maddie was all pushed up against grace because she got scared in the night and i could hear a teacher telling us to get up outside. breakfast was the same as usual and i had to wear my soggy leggings from raft building for our first activity. when we got to the river we were kitted up immediately and sent to the river. i was paired with pessimistic ben but we played lots of games switching kayaks and in the end i was with grace, which was funny because on the way back to the base we got stuck in this tree. after a rushed shower we had some lunch which no one really ate. after that we were doing high ropes with some other groups, which consisted of the kiwi, fan, and trapeze. in the kiwi, you’re lifted of the floor and spun around in various ways, high up in the air. i did the trapeze but then half day through climbing up the totem pole i realised i may as well just go down from there, because there was no way i was going to reach or even attempt doing the leap of faith thing, and jumping down would be easier from there. the last thing was the fan. i had to wait for ages to go on it so when it was my turn i was really ready to go and confident and i quickly attached my harness before climbing up. but when i got to the top i realised how high it was and freaked!!!! the harness which i secured myself (trusting me…um) was on my back and felt weak, light and useless- i felt like nothing was holding me and could feel gravity pulling me downwards (almost). it took me several minutes before i convinced myself and closed my eyes and stepped off, half screaming in my mind. i survived (obviously) and after dinner we all got dressed for the beach and i walked down there with rocio and hudson, leap-frogging all the way. even though we weren’t allowed in the water, when we got there we were allowed to just chill, so most of the boys (and the girls who could be bothered) played football but we mostly ran around and threw seaweed at each other or danced around and made sand castles. the sky was grey and the sand was damp, but it was humid, with quite a breeze. after a while we left and when we got back to camp we sat down and i could hear the wind swishing and the birds chirping. we were rushed to bed and told to pack but we mostly moaned and ate skittles…

friday

we are finally leaving!!!!! and i am kind of feeling a bitter and pointless nostalgia for camp. we were woken at 6am and spent afew minutes in our grimey surroundings soaking up the last moments of sleep. then we stumbled around trying to arrange last batches of clothing before scrambling out of the tent, leaving maddie screeching at theo about deodorant. we had a rushed breakfast and on the bus i was forced to sit next to dylan for possibly the most painful and awkward 35-40 minutes of my life, until hana saved me …we stopped off and walked around this huge cemetery, which wass sad. when we got back on the bus it was only half an hour before we reached another village to stop off at. we spent a mere 15 minutes strolling around before we walked up a hill and watched something in the 360 degree cinema. we marched outside and ate a quick-lunch on the hillside. we’re now on the bus to calais to catch the eurostar back home and we’ve been rolling past the beautiful green and yellow french hills -i am under hana’s blanket and have been writing for ages now…

these (above) are some photos when theo came to my house during one of the last weekends of our last term of school. we made a waterslide with the plastic slide and a big tarpaulin in my garden and used washing up soap to make it all slippery and then slid down it and made rainbows with the hose water.

hana and theo in our last recess of year 8

rally lying down on the grass listening to music in the park

theo brooding on the grass

above are three pictures from our last day of school and year eight, in july, during summer 2013. we all left school in alot of relief and got changed before meeting at the park to fool around and go really high on the swings etc.

a picture of theo in her room. it was a saturday, the day after school had finished. everyone slept over at mine, but maddie and theo left in the morning and went theos because she had stagecoach, and i stayed home and went to my cello lesson. afterwards theo called me up and said i should come to hers and dye my hair. this picture was taken after we’d bleached my hair. it was a really gross turnip yellow color. theo had dyed her hair purple that day and i took this photo as we were about to go to amelia’s house for her brother’s birthday.

sunday and theo is applying her ‘signature’ lipstick look

a day or two later (after dying my hair) pia invited me to come to hers and after a small gathering i slept over. in the morning we went to a park nearby and it was a really hot day. this is nancy climbing a tree.

theo probably during the first week of holidays, at brockwell park.

aurora

sophie on the swings in dully

(above) these are some photos from the first week or two from summer. it was really hot and i mostly wore little but my flowery halter from queer tears on etsy. these first few days were some of the best of all.

during the summer i also met up with rachel for the first time. we first started talking when we added each other on facebook after speaking on outsider zine’s group page. we met at a station and walked to the hampsted heath lido, which was really busy as it was a super hot day. as we intended to shoot some photos, i had brought some different clothes in a bag, my olympus OM10 and some film just in case. and after i had an outfit on we found a spot in the scarce remaining space left and put down a towel to lay out our things. i was kind of nervous about shooting because everyone was looking at us like why are they all dressed up wtf and the life guards were giving me evils but after a while i was like wateva and stopped being a dweeb and we took started. we took some photos of me posing in different stuff and we also used an underwater camera of rachels, whilst i dived as far down as i could and pretended to be a mermaid. it was a fun day of shooting.

afterwards we gathered our stuff and hid it in a bush before getting some food in a cafe and then walking up the hill and around the heath. we got to the top and there was a really pretty view (below are some photos rachel took of me)…

and after that we walked back down and climbed over a gate to this running track. i took some photos of rachel on the bleachers and we walked around the track abit, before fetching our bags, some sprite from the nearest store and taking trains our seperate ways.

a photo i took of rachel just before she got on her train home

another thing i did was i went on holiday to la rochelle in france. some friends of ours have a really cute little house there and every few years or so we’re able to go stay there whilst they’re on holiday- i took a short plane trip over there with my little sister and mum, and when we got there the house was only a while away, which was good, although we did manage to get lost on the way. i loved the area we were staying in -it was like rustic suburbia and really beautiful. we dumped our stuff and then took a trip to the nearest (french) supermarket -which was heaven (the ham and cheese and baguette is so much nicer over there ok i swear!!!) and on the first day we chilled, tried to restrain our temptation to stand on the newly growing grass, tried to catch lizards, played table football and relaxed on the swings or on the patio where it was really hot. most car journeys were spent proclaiming our love to randomers out of the window ot jamming to the typically trashy (but really cheesy warm and fuzzy in ur heart) pop tunes (like icona pop and get lucky) over and over again (since it was the only thing they played). afew days after we arrived, my older sister, saskia, and my friend rocio (theo) flew over, and i can’t recall what we did on every day but i’ll try to remember from some of the things we did through some photos i took (below)

this photo was taken on the top of thise fort my mum made us climb. theo was chanelling spice girl vibes and looked rad.

this is theo sliding down this huge slide at the little water park. going on this was probably oneof the scariest things i’ve done, and there are no photos of me on it because i only went on once. i decided i’d regret it later if i didn’t at least have one try and convinced myself i could be missing out on something so i climbed up the stairs and sat at the top for like 5 minutes, nodding my head nervously at the french men behind me trying to convince me to hurry up and go, but i was just so freaked out. all the water beneath me was rushing downwards encourigingly and theo had survived it but from the top i couldn’t see the bottom of the slide. it was higher than it looked and i felt like i would ust fall off, but with a line of angry french kids behind me i soon realised the only way was down the way in front of me so i uneasily closed my eyes and let go of the sides. i didn’t see anything but i felt the steep rush and then opened my eyes to see i was on the ground again lol. here’s theo going down.

aurora next to what she spent most of her time on in france: carousels

i hate how lopsided this photo is. in the middle you can see the splash theo made.

this was the first photo i took in la rochelle. it was just outside the airport and we were waiting for our hire car to be ready. aurora was boiling so asked for an ice lolly.

this is theo at a resturant. this photo doens’t do justice because she actually looked so fab that day.

i took this photo of aurora on one of our first evenings. the light was shining really beautifully through their fish bowl and you can see aurora’s eyes magnified through the water.

this is theo waiting with the plants in the changing rooms after swimming.

saskia

excited aurora jumping on her bed in the house when we arrived.

on the carousel

there’s a popular island off la rochelle, that you can drive to, called ‘ile de re’ -the whole place kind of has an american roadtrip kind of feel, with it’s hay stack feilds, heat and dappled skies rolling on forever. at the time of this photo being taken we were probably on our way back frmo the beach and listening to ENRJ the hip french radio.

theo and the ferris wheel

this is aurora looking super cute with her doggie on the ferris wheel

this photo was taken on our first visit to il de re. we had just finished half a day on the beach and were on our way to explore around the coast. these watermelon ice lollies were the greatest.

above are more candid shots but since i was with theo and surrounded by a pretty suburbia i took several photos for the pulp zine whilst i was there. the below photos were taken near the water park in chantellion (or something along the lines) -where there were rows upon rows of kitschy cottages and houses. my family were really patient and hung around in the nearby areas whilst me and theo walked around looking for the best houses and taking quick shots.

the next set of photos are more of just theo. they were taken during our last trip to ile de re. the family who’s house we were staying in came back from where they were on holiday early and took the whole family on a biking trip. we took a special bus and then rode bikes all around the island and although it was probably quite stressful for both theo and my sister who hadn’t ridden bikes in ages, it was really great for shooting because we could just hop on and off at places we liked. in the car the island felt like fields rolling on forever, but on bikes we took special back-routes and pathways through an array of areas, which felt completely different. the whole place was just like a paradise: with its dry bushland, rocky plains and soft leafy woods (with light coming in through the trees) – plus on a bike you could watch it flashing past whilst speeding along and feeling like you’re flying, which amplified the whole experience. we also rode past this bay and i got the nicest banana ice cream you could ever imagine. on the way back there was there was the warm glow you get just before the sunset – and we even managed to have a quick dip in the sea, which was freezing but refreshing as our feet were all sore from peddling. ahhh it was such a great trip.

these last three photos were taken just before school time. the first and third were self-portraits taken in my room on timer and the middle was taken by my dad in the forest where there was a little fairy flower den. i miss the summer so much <3333

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