How To #13: Things To Do this Summer if You’re Skint
Summer is nothing like it seems in the movies. Shocker. We
plan road trips, late night beach parties and a girlie/lads holiday but in
reality, it appears summer includes lying in until noon, the sofa and the TV
becoming your best friend and an endless supply of Maryland cookies and
Doritos. Whilst this may seem like heaven for the first week, there’s only so
many old episodes of Friends one can
take. And if, rather than central New York or London, you live in a quiet, rural
area, where the greatest attraction is a field of cows, it can be difficult to
keep yourself entertained. Thus, here are my top tips:
1.
Pass the
time with Netflix- How to ruin your life for £5.99 a month. If you are a
Netflix newbie, here are my top TV programmes to watch that will keep you
entertained for hours:
·
Orange Is The New Black (if you are the only
person who hasn’t seen this weirdly addictive comedy drama, you need to)
·
Friday Night Dinner (predictable comedy, but an
easy way to pass the time)
·
Gossip Girl (an old favourite, something to do
if all other avenues fail)
2.
It helps
to have a friend that drives: if like me, you are licence-less having a
friend that drives is brilliant. Just careful they don’t start doubling up as a
taxi service as this can cause tension about petrol etc. Instead, offer to chip
in to help pay for travel expenses.
3.
Take
advantage of free festivals: If, also like me, you were too poor to afford
Glastonbury this year and every other year before that, there are free
festivals available. Although they are few and far between, they are out there.
The Notting Hill Carnival is very fun although it can get crazy busy, so make
sure you plan ahead.
Visit http://www.visitlondon.com/things-to-do/event/9023471-notting-hill-carnival-2014
for more information on the Notting Hill Carnival 2014 in London
4.
Get
Creative- ugh, effort! It can however, be rewarding and you could even
stumble across a masterpiece. Some of
the best inventions and creations were made when their creators were bored,
apparently. So take advantage of your boredom and write the next Harry Potter
or something.
5.
Get Fit:
Go out for a run in the mornings, get ripped abs or body builder biceps. Why
not get a bikini body even if you’re not even going on holiday, let alone
wearing a bikini. Great fun, right?
6.
Fake It:
So you’re skint and thus not going on holiday, but who else needs to know that?
Get down to your nearest beach on a sunny day, snap some pictures to put up on
Facebook and just pretend that you spent two weeks away in Barbados. Might need
to get the fake tan on to make it look convincing though. No one has ever got a
golden sun kissed tan from sitting on Brighton Beach.
7.
Bake!-
Baking is fun and also takes up a lot of your time. It also gives you an excuse
to stuff your face with the old, “well, it would be a shame to let it go to
waste…”
Check out the food blogs on my Must Read
Blog List or scour www.allrecipes.co.uk
for all the best ideas and recipes.
8.
Explore
the great outdoors- no one’s asking you to make your garden resemble
something from the Chelsea Flower Show, just go out for a walk or a bike ride.
You can forget how nice the area you live in is. Or, if you live in a not so nice
area, just plug your headphones in and pretend you can’t hear the sirens and
people yelling abuse at each other from across the street.
WHAT NOT TO DO:
1.
DON’T
procrastinate on Twitter, Facebook and other social networking sites: then you
just see all the fun things that everyone else is up to, only making you feel
more depressed about your disappointing summer
2.
DON’T
constantly tweet about how bored you are. No one cares.
3.
DON’T
constantly ask your friends if they want to do something. If they haven’t got
the message by the third text, they never will.
Have a lovely summer!
Georgia x
