My Holiday Experience: Dubai

I just got back from Dubai and, while everything is still fresh in my mind, I thought I'd write about my trip! Anyway, if your interested in travelling to Dubai on vacation or are in need of inspiration on your next holiday, then read on! :)

Dubai in general

✈ Dubai is in the UAE, United Arab Emirates, and from Heathrow (London) takes roughly 6 to 7 hours to get too. There's a plus 3 hour time difference. 

✈ Climate averages at 40 degrees and the hottest time of the day is 1-4pm. June, July and August are the hottest months with rest still hot but not as much. Perhaps a little more bearable.

The hotel we stayed at was Atlantis, The Palm which as the name suggests is located on the man made palm-tree-shaped island. It's surreal. You could literally live in this hotel and it's probably one of the best I've ever been too. Just google the hotel and you'll be amazed.

They have a massive swimming pool with sun loungers literally built into the water. It's also built next to a water park called Aquaventure which is free for hotel guests or paid for for non-guests. The water park itself is amazing and you could literally spent all day there - I wouldn't recommend that if your a hotel guest as it can get a little too hot and there is hardly any shade there.

I'm picky with food but there is so much variety. We had breakfast at Kolidascope and dinner either at Rostang, a French resturant and Saffron, a buffet. It was really good, especially the French one!

Oh and I nearly forgot that the hotel has it's own beach which is at least two miles long and covers the whole hotel. We were told not go to far into the water because of jellyfish!!! I didn't really go down their much because of the heat. Even though the temperature by the pool is the same as by the beach, a somewhat weird physcological factor makes you feel the heat 10x more! It's nice to have the option though, and it's perfect for extreme tanners!

There are so many shops inside the hotel too: newsagents, gift store, rather expensive jewlery stores which, if your in the market for, is convenient because of the *small* discount. 

All of the hotel is based around the myth of the lost city of Atlantis and you can definately see that by the structure and design of the hotel. Everywhere is so clean which is understandable concidering the hotel only opened 7 years ago and is in a newly built location.

Last bit about the hotel... everyone is so freaking lovely! Everyone from the cleaners to the lifeguards to the waiters to the cashiers are just super nice, always saying good morning/evening, asking how your day is etc when they see you wondering around. It's really nice to have that frendliness as some hotels I've been to everyone just seems pissed off that they're working that day (*cough* New York *cough*)!

I took these photos below on my iPhone at around 7.30am before hardly anyone was in the pool!

I could write so much more about the hotel but I won't so check out their website if your interested in going to Atlantis. Love.

If like me you love shopping then omg, Dubai is your ideal place to go. All of their "malls" (shopping centers) are inside which you'll greatly appreciate when you first visit Dubai. The two main ones are The Emirates Mall and The Mall of Dubai. 

The latter is the biggest mall IN THE WORLD. It's huge. If you're a serious shopper you'll need the whole day, no joke. It's so big it has an aquarium inside that literally takes an hour to go around if you're walking fast that is. This is my favourite of the two. It has losts of "typical" American stores that we Brits crave to visit such as Sephora, Bath and Body Works and Bloomingdales. The Emirates Mall is also extremely big and also has an inside ski slope with real snow. In a 40 degree country. I didn't go to The Emirates Mall this time but I did on my last visit to Dubai and it was so much fun. 

Due to the size of Dubai city everywhere is pretty easy to get too. It took us around half hour to get to the malls and just over half hour to the airport!

Arab countries can be strict when it comes to dress code and various clothing regulations. There are signs plastered on walls of all the shopping centres talking about what's appropriate to wear and it's important to know when you're packing to go to Dubai or any other middle eastern country. The main regulation is that shoulders and knees are covered so no shorts or tank tops! You won't get punished or kicked out for not obliging however it is respectful to follow their rules concidering you are in their country. Just remember to bring a cardigan with you and a pair of leggings or jeans just incase you want to visit a public area.

Advice: When I went it was Ramadan which for them is a month of fasting. It lasts for a month so it depends when in the year you go. If you do visit during Ramadan there are things you need to be aware of. They can't eat or drink from dawn to sunset therefore the majority of food and drink establishments are closed during these hours. So bring water with you in a bag! Sometimes this effects hotel stores as well. At your hotel I wouldn't recommend going to dinner as soon as the sun goes down. People celebrating Ramadan will obvs be starving so will want to eat and drink as soon as possible! Therefore it can get a little busy depending on where you are. And that's it for Ranadan, everything else is pretty normal!

I really hope you enjoyed my post and have a fun summer holiday :) Xoxo

Disclaimer: I promise to baby Jesus that this post isn't sponsored, I just love the Atlantis and Dubai haha! We paid for everything ourselves ("we" being my family).

Revision tips and advice to help with examinations

This post is completely off topic, but I feel as though it might be useful to those in the midst taking exams or have exams coming up. I feel as if the advice and tips given apply to both GCSEs and A Levels. Yet of course you have triple the amount of exams in the GCSEs (roughly nine or ten) as you would at A Level standard (two or three) which means more stress when it comes to revision as you have to remember more, obviously! Today I'm going to talk about revision tips as well as giving some exam advice, all of which I have received myself from teachers. To make it easier to see the actual tips and advice, I've highlighted them in a different colour.

Note: the information below is based on UK exams (GCSE's and A Levels). Different countries have different exam schemes which means some of the information such as the ages and year groups won't make any sense. The advice and tips will though :)

> Revision
It's pretty obvious that, in order to do well in exams, you need to know as much information as possible on that subject. Otherwise, there's no hope. Unless your Einstein. But I bet he still had his weaknesses! Anyway, the most important thing to do is revise. Yet, what you shouldn't do is cram lots of revision in the night before. Studies have shown that the brain doesn't fully understand - or remember - the facts given at night, or even the day before exams. Too much information can cause the brain to forget everything, leaving you with a "mind block" in the exam. To prevent this, it is best to spread your revision out over several weeks. This ensures that, not only do you remember the information, you know and understand it in depth. It also becomes common knowledge.

If you are taking GCSEs in year 10, I would recommend revising three to five prior to the exam. When taking GCSEs in year 11 (the final year), I would recommend study at least twice as much, for twice as long. This means up to ten weeks prior to the exam. Most schools spread out the number of exams in GCSE level over two years; with the most in the final year. Yet currently, less than half of the exams take place in year ten. For me, I'm taking eight GCSEs this year which means I'll have twelve next year.

Most people take on average two to three subjects, sometimes four depending on the course, at A Level. These are the subjects the student is most passionate about and could be possible future careers. So, does fewer subjects mean less revision? NO! A Levels are defiantly much harder than GCSEs as they go into much more depth than the year ten/eleven exams do which means more studying. When you get into A Level you're already studying for your most important exams which means that, everything you do in school such as homework and in lessons counts as revision. This is different compared to GCSEs as most of the information learnt is brand knew.

Overall, the more revision you do the better. Yet the secret is not to cram it all in at once - break each subject into sub-topics, create revision cards and go over the cards as much as possible. If you have a half-term or study leave to prepare for an exam, I would revise around eight hours a day (an average school day). Revision is boring, but it's the only way to succeed.

> Taking the actual exam
All of the revision you've done all leads up to the exam. The final test. In the current school curriculum, most subjects are not based on a single exam which makes up 100% of your final grade. Most have several short exams (roughly an hour and a half long) or a few exams and coursework. Some even have 100% coursework - the only one I can think of is ICT! For reference, coursework means short assessment done in class. Common subjects that have coursework in are geography, art, textiles, history and english. Subjects that don't do coursework include maths, science and sociology. The subjects that don't have coursework are normally the most challenging as it completely relies on knowledge.

There are some tips and advice I can give when it comes to taking the actual exam. Whatever the length of the exam is, whether it be an hour or three hours, take water in with you. You'll have to take off any labels to ensure there is no cheating, but having water - even if you don't need it - is vital. If you start to panic, water will most likely calm you down. The most common advice given is take your time and don't rush to which pupils reply "but we're on a time limit!" It's hard to balance out the time scale, but it's something we all have to do. Another tip is to always check the time. All exams have a clock at the front, but I'd recommend to wear a watch. Checking back on the clock means you are aware of how long you've got until the end of the exam. In addition, if you are finding a question difficult move on and go back at the end. If at the end of the exam and you are still unsure about the answer, the best thing you can do is to take a guess. You won't get any marks for leaving the space black yet you might pick up a couple marks if you write something down. Whatever it is, obviously related to the subject - perhaps define what a key word used in the question is - is better than writing nothing. If on any question you have made any notes that are near the answer box, make sure you cross these out neatly. You don't want the examiner marking the wrong answer just because the way you have written is unclear. Yet you don't want to loose marks because of removing the working out. To prevent this, make sure you do all your working out away from the answer box. My final tip is to breathe and stay calm! Take each question as it comes and tackle it to the best of your ability.

Good luck!

I really hope this was useful. And again, I wish you all the best.

Suzanna xoxo

A quick and simple, step by step guide on how to get rid of image borders and shadow on Blogger (with pictures)

This post is off topic however I think this will be useful to many people out there.

Literally, 10 minutes ago I discovered how to get rid of those annoying, grey borders which are around images on blogger. I searched the internet, looking at what others thought when I decided just to try it out myself. Everyone makes it SO complicated when really, all you need is one small code.

So I thought I'd show you how to do it! I'm also going to use screen images just to make it more easier to understand. No-one else - that I've come across - has done this.

Firstly, go to a blog post of yours and click on the HTML button. Normally, you write your blog posts on the Compose layout so I recommend writing the post first and then clicking on the HTML button.






Then, you'll see a load of gibberish like this:

Ignoring all the writing (the stuff you wrote on the Compose setting), focus on the codes.
Here is a close up of the first code you see in the image above:

To get rid of the border, simply add: class="noshadow"

But make sure you add it between height="480" and src=(your photo url)

This is what that section should look like after adding the code:

See it? Then, after doing this for all the images you want, click on Publish and the borders should be gone!

Before:

After:

Easy as pie. I really hope this helped some of you who were finding it difficult. It's easy once you know how to do it. My only issue with it is that it takes a long time - especially if you have loads of images. Blogger needs an option that says: Do you want a border? Yes or no. That would be much easier, don't you think?!

Anyway, I'll talk to you soon.

Suzanna
XOXO