Eliza

Eliza McCormack

Presentation of me

Good evening!
My name is Eliza McCormack.
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This is me.

I am 27 years old and I come from a twin town called Blairgowrie and Rattray. I grew up in Blairgowrie with my parents and my little brother Devon.
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My parents’ house in Blairgowrie and my childhood home.

My family has lived there since the late 18th centuries and as far as I know, all of them still do, besides me of course. My father and his brother started a jam factory 34 years ago and one of the biggest and most successful jam factories in the town of approximately 8090 inhabitants.
Ever since I was a little girl, I was always the type to explore and try new things. If I desired, I could easily have a job there, but I felt like doing something different. I don’t really like to ‘’go with the flow’’ so when I turned 18 and was finished with school I moved to London. My parents helped me financially in the beginning, but now I have a good job and live in a flat in Knightsbridge (upper class part of London in the west).

As mentioned I moved here mostly for the excitement of it, but also for school and larger job opportunities. I have always had a thing for fashion, so the first day I arrived to London I started looking for a job. I actually ended up as a cashier at Michael Kors, an exclusive fashion brand, which was perfect and exactly what I was looking for. Since I only had evening shifts, started attending University of Arts London and studied fashion. After about a year the store manager quit working at the store and I got the job! I met my husband, Liam, at my job. He's actually a model for several fashion brands like Mulberry, Ralph Lauren and Tiger of Sweden. I gave birth to a sweet little girl that I love with all of my heart 4 years ago.

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My husband and I. The picture is from a photo-shoot we had with Vogue. My daughter Isabella as a new born.

Task 3: When I first moved to London

The day I turned 18 I took the first flight to Heathrow Airport, to start my life. I felt really nervous the whole trip, but the second I got off the airplane and sat down on the train to London, I felt nothing but happiness. I could easily travel back home whenever I wanted. The closer the train got to London and I started to see thousands of people, cars and buses everywhere and all the beautiful old buildings, the more I got excited. When the train had finally arrived to the train station and took the cab to my apartment that was waiting for me, I felt kind of lonely. All my family was in Scotland and I didn’t know anyone and I didn’t have a job either. I kept myself busy constantly the first few months until I got my job and made friends. Then I could finally settle in and feel like the thought of this being my permanent home was a good feeling!

Task 4: ''Typical British''

When you hear the word typical British, a lot of you will think about this:

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Red telephone boxes and the world famous Fish n' Chips.

Other famous things are Big Ben, beer, fashion, their flag and not to forget their accent. Besides these kinds of things, the British people have other typical things about them. The British talk a lot about the weather. You'll never be able to have a conversation with someone without anyone bringing up the weather. It's kind of funny because in other countries if you bring up the weather in a conversation to break silence, it usually just makes things more awkward and is a social taboo.
Another typical British thing is standing in lines. They do it all day, I’m actually kind of wondering if they love it. They can stand in lines for hours without even commenting the fact that they have stood in line for ages. The way they speak is very sarcastic but at the same time very polite. They absolutely love watching television, especially soap opera. I think this might be enough about the British people, but if you are still interested you can read more on: http://metro.co.uk/2008/11/09/top-50-typically-british-traits-120837/

Task 5: Challanges in Britain

Sadly, UK has turned in to a ''trash culture''. According to www.parlament.uk drug abuse, violent crime, teenage delinquency, family breakdown, welfare dependency, poor urban environments, educational failure, poverty, the loss of traditional values, teenage pregnancy, dysfunctional families, binge drinking, children who kill are all big society problems for the United Kingdom.

Children from age 5 to 17 can actually drink alcohol at home or at a friend’s house with permission of a parent or legal guardian. The minimum age for purchase of alcohol is 18. People aged 16 or 17 may consume wine, beer or cider on licensed premises when ordered with a meal. With laws like these they have to expect alcohol as a problem. People start drinking so early in their life, and it becomes a huge problem that they can’t get rid of. I think that if they made more strict rules and punishments if breaking the rules, the problem would be majorly reduced.

As mentioned, another large problem for the British culture is drug abuse. According to several sources the UK has the worst drug addiction rate in Europe. Drug-related crime costs England and Wales more than 13 pounds a year. Not only is it a problem for the costs but also crime. More than 320,000 problem drug users commit "very high numbers of offences" - mostly shoplifting, but also violent crime. One child in 25 at secondary school in England has taken class A drugs. Class A drugs are defined as ecstasy, LSD, heroin, cocaine, crack, magic mushrooms and amphetamines. Any sensible person would understand that this completely wrong and unheard.
These are only two of endless lists of problems in the UK and their standards have changed dramatically.

Sources:

Task 6 – British Culture

I have chosen one of many historical and famous people from Great Britain, Diana, Princess of Wales. From her marriage to the Prince of Wales in 1981 until her sudden death in a car accident in Paris, 1997, Diana, Princess of Wales was one of the world’s most high-profile, most photographed and most iconic royalty and celebrities.


The video above is a short bio of Princess Diana of Wales.

Diana was born Lady Diana Frances Spencer on July 1st 1961 in Norfolk. Lady Diana Spencer married The Prince of Wales at St. Paul’s Cathedral in London on July 29th 1981. During her marriage the Princess had a wide range of royal duties. The couple had two sons: Prince William and Prince Henry (also called Harry). The Princess and Prince were divorced on August 28th 1996. Even though they divorced, the Princess continued to be regarded as a member of the Royal Family.
The tragic death of Diana, Princess of Wales occurred on 31st of Sunday, 1997 following a car accident in Paris, France. Even after her death, the Princess’s work lives on the form of charities and projects set up to help those in need.

You are pregnant.

A page from my personal diary.

06.02.2013
Dear diary.
I have something really big on my mind. I haven’t told Liam yet and quite frankly I’m not sure if I want to. The right thing to do is without doubt to tell him the truth but I need to figure out some things first. So the big thing that is on my mind is that I’m pregnant. Yeah, that’s right; I have a little baby in my stomach. First of all, this wasn’t planned at all! I don’t know what went wrong, we always use protection. I figured out because I was late on my period.
We never talked about another baby, and the time isn’t right either. Isabella is only 4 years old, and I can clearly remember the first to years of having a baby. It was extremely stressful, and I know for a fact that I can’t handle it right now. My work is doing really good now, and the timing is terrible. I mean, how am I supposed to go through my entire pregnancy while working? And after the birth I obviously can’t work. Maybe I could work from home, but I don’t really know if that would work either. Ah, why do these things happen when life is nearly perfect? It would be very good for Isabella to have a sibling, and I kind of miss having a little baby but there’s a lot of thing I don’t miss to. I talked to Em (my best friend Emily) this morning right after I took the test and obviously she advised me to talk to Liam which is the right thing to do. I really have NO idea what to do! I really have to think about this I guess.

Eliza

07.02.2012
Dear diary.
Ok, so I really thought things through. I didn’t come to any conclusion but I did decide to talk to Liam and I feel so good! He’s the best at handling these kinds of things and always says the right things. We were sitting at the dinner table and I just said it. At first his face went a little pale, but then he started to smile and then the smile turned in to laughter. We obviously didn’t react the same way. He told me that he was going to talk to me about having another baby. I told him it would be really nice and all of that, but we have to consider that I have a job and I can’t do it myself. He said that he has a lot of huge modeling jobs the next months which means that when the time comes to have a baby, he can turn down modeling jobs so he can stay home with me. I like the sound of it, so now I just need to talk to my boss and let him know what the deal is. This is really scary but I really am convinced that everything will be okay. I just hope that I can keep up with work at home. Toodles!

Eliza

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