The last post of 2009 (and the noughties)...

Seeing as it's nearing the end of the year (and of a decade! It's gone so fast! I remember back to 2000 when everyone was wishing everyone a happy millennium. It's quite scary having been through a whole decade, this is my first time that I've experienced the first year of the decade, the last year of the decade and all the years inbetween. I guess older people like my parents are somewhat more used to it, but still, it's sad and a tad scary at the same time! I've had so many good memories this decade... *must end brackets now or I will ramble on and on*) I have decided to make a list of um, things (I can't think of a better word) that have happened this year. I'm sure I will forget quite a few things, then have to update my blog later on. Here goes (also, there is no chronological order to this, that would make things too confusing ('tis the holidays)).

- Became a little bit more nerdy seeing as I have now seen Star Wars and become a fan of it (I love it! I want chopsabers!) and also become a fan of Discworld (I love it! I've started reading my tenth book). Also reread Lord of the Rings and become a little bit obsessed with it (I love it!). Tried to get into Star Trek and completely failed (I don't love it. :( Hey, too much nerdiness would not be good!).
- Seen some movies at the cinema, none of which have managed to make it onto my favourite movies list. These movies would be: Let the Right One In, Star Trek, Harry Potter 6, District 9 and St. Trinians 2. Although I'm pretty sure I've left one off. I'll add it on if I remember.
- Alternatively, seen some movies not at the cinema and quite a few have been added to my favourite movies list. Blade Runner and The Fifth Element are two of the main ones. and I re-saw Labyrinth! and then I bought the soundtrack.
- Which reminds me, music this year, I bought a load of CDs at the start of the year and almost none at the end. I've been getting into stuff that isn't classic rock, thanks to last.fm, mainly 80s pop and old-school goth. and I reallllly want to buy some Blue Öyster Cult.
- Been to the Japanese restaurant with the conveyor belts that I have been meaning to go to for so long. Bought some Pockys! ("Men's Pockys". Which are just dark chocolate versions of the original things).
- Discovered some very addictive websites, namely darkroastedblend (link in the sidebar) and cracked.com (link NOT in the sidebar). I'm pretty sure I discovered listverse last year, however this year I have learnt a lot of stuff off of that website.
- Discovered a love for lumberjack shirts. They're just so warm and baggy and comfortable.
- Received a dinosaur ice cube mould from Zoë for Christmas. It is a T-Rex skeleton and it is awesome (I've already used it once, even though it is winter). I am going to use it a lot in the summer. (on a side note, discovered the song "Godzilla" by Blue Öyster Cult, much love!)
- Had some really really odd late night conversations, thank goodness I don't have them anymore. :D (and now have random in jokes... gahhh).
- We ♥ Katamari! Awesome game, except when I last tried to play on it it didn't load, though I have a feeling this is to do with the laser within the Playstation because the disc isn't scratched... and the laser can be cleaned easily... please let it be the laser...
- Drunken shenanigans at Zoë's house (let's forget about those now shall we...)
- Table tennis rage. Ahh I do miss our table tennis sessions.
- The New York art trip.
- Going into charity shops and going through all the old records and looking for funny covers.
- Meeting new people and making new friends.
- Getting good grades in my GCSEs. and being happy that they were over.

That's the main stuff I can think of for now.

Oh, I guess I should mention what I got for Christmas:

- The Silmarillion (yays!) but no Discworld. :(
- One of those foil things you scratch to make a picture (it's black and you scratch it to get to the shiny foil part... you know what I mean).
- A scarf
- Professor Layton and Pandora's Box
- A Topshop voucher
- Pens
- Some Revels
- and the obligatory socks

and a whole load of stationary in my stocking. Also watched The Nightmare Before Christmas on Christmas Eve since I hadn't seen it in ages; it's so fun.

I am going to miss the noughties (that's such a silly name for a decade, but I guess there's not much else) and I have too many memories to list here for all ten years of it. I wish you could hug years goodbye, it's a bit of an abstract thought but hey. That's not really odd though for me, I usually want to hug something.

Anyway, bring on 2010! and the next decade! (whatever it ends up being called).

(Next decade: Totally looking forward to The Hobbit movie! Although that's two years away yet (part 1 anyway). Plenty of time to re-read the book.)

(Totally random but have found out that there are "light swords" for the Wii that you can use with the Wii Lego Star Wars game... I know what game I want next.)

It's that time of year again!

MERRY CHRISTMAS ALL!

Shiny new computers, art canvases and Godzilla

This is the first blog I'm writing on our shiny new Windows 7 computer. Windows 7 is new and shiny. That's all there is to say. Also I have a proper clock on my desktop as well as a calendar (those gadget things).

My art canvas is not going to be done for Monday. No one's is. I'm stressing out. Some people have gone past the stressed out stage and gone straight to the "wheeee I'm hyper" stage (where you get so stressed you just don't care). I don't like what I'm painting, mainly because it's not my idea but my teacher's. It also focuses on perspective, and I have always hated perspective, especially on big scale pieces as it's bound to mess up. It already has.

Been on Popcap games recently, completed the free version of Plants vs Zombies in around an hour (no, I don't have an addiction).

I've been ill the past few days (was properly ill on the weekend, all tired and runny nose and headachey) but have been at school/on psychology trips (that was on Monday, it was alright but I wanted to sleep). Being a combination of tired and ill is not good. I sometimes feel all lightheaded and floaty.

Read a book for the first time in over a month (mainly on the trains to and back from the psychology trip) - it was Slaughterhouse Five. I quite liked it, even if it did get slightly confusing with all the jumping around in time.

They sold lemon muffins in the canteen today which made me happy as I had been randomly craving lemon cake for a while (except they were 428 calories (I only checked because one of the art teachers asked me to, I never check the calorie count otherwise)).

I have been looking up Kaiju on Wikipedia (this probably stems from my obsession with Blue Oyster Cult's "Godzilla". How can you not love a band that has a song about Godzilla?) and now I finally know what the other creatures are from the end of the Simpsons episode (the one where they visit Japan) which had been bugging me for a while.

I have noticed other people haven't updated their blogs in a while *coughcough*...

New York! ...and other stuff

I do really need to write a blog about NY so I will do it now (instead of my fucking psychology essay that I actually cannot do).

Friday I arrived at the airport and while we waited I played Irish snap with Suzy, Jess and Ailis. Fastforward to getting on the plane. There is a fault with one of the computers. We wait over an hour to get it fixed. Finally the plane takes off. On this flight I watched the US version of Life On Mars (It's awful! Don't watch it!), Flight of the Concords (I've never seen it before so I watched the two eps they had, good stuff, may watch more one day) and Coraline (this was good too). Finally we arrive and there is trouble at the US customs with a few members of our group or something like that. We finally get on the coach... but it's the wrong one! We get off and get on the coach behind, which is the right one. Arrive at hotel. Dump stuff. Go to Bubba Gump's about four hours late. Get high on Mountain Dew. Off to bed.

Saturday we visited the Metropolitan and Whitney. Now the Metropolitan was pretty awesome, but I didn't like the Whitney. The layout was odd, it was too dark and there was nowhere to sit (did you know you can get addicted to sitting? Yeah, I found that weird too). That day I purchased on of those infamous I <3 NY hoodies. A lot of walking, my feet started to hurt. Dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe (where I bought a t-shirt). More cheeseburgers! More Mountain Dew!

Sunday we visited the International Centre of Photography and went to Brooklyn to draw views of Manhattan. Walking over the bridge, you could look down between the slats and see the flea market and river and other stuff below. Thankfully I'm not afraid of heights (only of falling) so I found this pretty fascinating. Other people didn't. More walking, hurty feet, Jess and I getting dragged around the clothes shops by Suzy and Ailis. I'm pretty sure it was Sunday we went on the Staten Island ferry and saw the Statue of Liberty from afar. Dinner at Bubba Gump's again, met a waiter George and asked him lots of questions, found out he had been in an advert, ate Southern fried shrimp. More Mountain Dew! Times Square is crazy at night. There is so much light pollution that the area above looks like day. Went up the Empire State Building (after being in a queue for about 2-3 hours - totally worth it though).

Monday we visited the MOMA which I loved and we also went to Ground Zero and drew that. In the evening we went to a secret floating garden place (it was some old Metro thing) where there was an amazing sunset. Plane back to England, which I tried to sleep on and didn't watch anything.

I have seriously condensed my trip down but I do have a tendency to attempt to write every tiny little detail - most of which you probably don't want to know (there were loads of odd people in NY. The prize goes to the large woman dressed in an American flag clothing making out with the stomach of a mini Statue of Liberty (that was outside a shop). Still disturbs me). Also on the last night all boundaries were lost between me and my roommates. You don't want to know what we were talking about. Oh and breakfast was good too. Pancakes and waffles! We all craved healthy food after a while.

Tuesday I arrived back but then had to go meet Sophie a.k.a "my friend from Pontefract" (one of the people from HS). Wednesday we both went out to Kingston and didn't really buy much (I did however get Jess' birthday present). Then went and invaded Twickenham's charity shops and bought some stuff, went to Blockbuster and bought second hand Blade Runner (director's cut) and Shaun of the Dead (Sophie told me it was good). We spent ages looking for a third DVD (it was 3 for £10) so she got one of the Scream movies for herself. Watched SOTD that night, it was good. Thursday went to Portobello road and Camden market, I bought some seahorse earrings (I love them!) and a new bag. That night watched half of Blade Runner (Sophie hadn't seen it) and watched the other half next morning. Again I could go on about how I love BR but I won't. Oh and the DVDs weren't scratched! They worked fine! So maybe only the rent-y DVDs are scratched. Also introduced her to We <3 Katamari, she thought it was really weird (don't blame her). On the train to King's Cross she was talking about her favourite movies and now I would like to see Rocky Horror (well, it was already 1st/2nd on my to see list (it keeps switching with Die Hard)). This means I'll have to search Blockbuster again one day. One day.

(Also I have broken my Star Wars virginity! I have seen the first episode. It wasn't the greatest but I didn't have high expectations in the first place... I'll see the second ep soon).

Oh you may have noticed the lack of pictures in this blog... I will do a post one day that will be all NY pictures so don't worry.

Hello new readers

Well thanks to Gursimren (you got another mention!) telling my critical thinking class about my blog I'm guessing I got a couple new readers *waves at*. As per usual CT was boring but Molly did make some nice chocolate cake.

In other news I have been watching Carnivàle and True Blood. Both have awesome opening sequences. and Carnivàle just has good music throughout. I thought I wouldn't like True Blood and I wasn't originally planning on watching it but hey, I've seen five episodes now (1-4 and 7. It was to do with messed up internet links that I've randomly seen ep 7). Most of the characters annoy me in some way or another. My friend's told me Eric is interesting and I've just been introduced to him - he has Kurt Cobain hair. Apparently this gets cut off though. The Southern accents are hilarious. What can I say about Carnivàle? It's a bit crazy, you should go watch it (there are only 24 episodes, seeing as it got cancelled).

I've also finally read Alice in Wonderland/Through the Looking Glass (yes I know it's a children's book - I just didn't want to do art) mainly because there is some crazy Czech film I've heard of that I sort of want to watch where the caterpillar is a sock puppet! Apparently it's one of those somewhat creepy films though... it's called Neco Z Alenky if you want to look it up.

Psychology essay? Naaah...

Yeah this is just a blog so I don't have to do my psychology essay which is on problems when diagnosing people with mental illness. I hate writing essays but psychology is now my favourite subject. We had chocolate chip muffins on Friday. I'm making brownie for critical thinking on Wednesday but on the same day I have a biology test (the real one this time. Last week's was a "practice"). I hate hate hate hate art because there is too much work to do and I don't want to do it.

Also I don't know if it's wrong to like the new KISS song or the new Europe songs (yes the Final Countdown people). I don't know which is worse. Oh well, I stopped caring about my music taste a long time ago. Just looked at my last.fm - it's now full of 80s pop music recommendations :D.

I have also worn lumberjack shirts for seven days in a row now. I feel like I have broken some sort of record.

I've finally seen The Matrix! I really liked it too. That's one more film off my "to see" list (so I'm happy).

Time to update...

Since I haven't updated in three weeks it's List Time (not in chronological order because that would take effort).

- We got a new kettle (the old one broke)! It is lit up blue when it is off and red when it is boiling water... (although I wanted the kettle that cycled through all the colours).
- I don't like General Studies. Although today we saw a boy that looked like Nick Jonas, so Gursimren tries to take a photo of him secretly which was amusing.
- Went to see District 9 which was alright. I also watched Casino Royale since it was on the other night (now I can say I've seen a Bond film! (You all know I fail at watching movies)).
- Had a failed spork pirate meeting.
- Have had two cake psychology lessons - yay! and we're having cake tomorrow in critical thinking.
- Life drawing in art isn't too bad.
- Otherwise art pisses me off. Psychology is my favourite lesson and I quite like maths, even if I don't understand a lot of it. Biology is usually uneventful (and yes I have witnessed Mr L with his shirt tucked into his boxers).
- Have had too much work to do (we had to make a poster in psychology. I don't like making posters - I spend too long on them when I should be doing other stuff - they are a form of procrastination!).
- Lots of other stuff which I have done but forgotten.

Tetris Pieces and Cake Friday

Well I've had four full days of sixth form so far and I am exhausted. I even tried to nap today but failed. This was mainly due to me still trying to solve a puzzle in my head that we were doing in tutorial. In our tutorial program at the moment we are doing mathematical reasoning and we got one of those confusing maths puzzles. This one was where there was a 4x4 grid and each square was a different colour, with the one where the treasure was being gold. There were certain clues as to where certain colours were in relation to another. To work this out I saw which colours I could map out, and then tried to fit them together. At this point they turned into Tetris pieces in my head, which made it easier for some reason. By the end of the half hour the Tetris pieces had become slightly angry and more evil. I have now figured out the solution (I got distracted from my maths homework. I also got excited when I realised I had a whole sheet of maths homework. (This probably Miss K's fault; she taught me maths the last two years and is so enthusiastic about it.) This is completely different from year 7 where I hated maths and got 49% in my end of year test) and the Tetris pieces are happy.

One thing that I have managed to annoy myself with is the fact that I use my blue/turquoise folder for psychology and purple folder for maths. It should be the other way round seeing as psychology is a Purple subject and maths is a Blue subject (they are on my timetables). Although if I switched them around I would get confused. Maybe they should just stay that way round.

Tomorrow in our psychology lessons it is cake Friday! Although we haven't yet devised the cake rota so I don't know if there will actually be any cake (I will obviously be making brownie when it is my turn). I actually quite like Friday. Psychology, Art and PE (where there will soon be squash rage! I actually hate sport, it's just now we can sort of mess about (or so I'm hoping)).

Subject colours and Obese Starfish

Haven't updated in a while (yes I know I said I would update more - well I lied. I'm very sorry) so I guess I should talk.

Tuesday I went to Hannah's house for her leaving party so we just sat and chatted and I got to meet Ella, one of Hannah's friends.

Wednesday and Thursday I didn't really do much apart from finish off some homework and watch Harry Potter 4 because it was on television. It is such an awful film but not as bad as the third. (and it has Edward Cullen in it. Hilarious.) Well I didn't really have anything better to do so it was a good time waster. I also tidied my room up. Upon tidying my room I found drawings I did of Milky (from Blur's Coffee and TV video) in year 9 and also other anthropomorphic food and just generally remembered good times. I also found rough books from year 7 and remembered how I sort of wanted to be a goth back then. I have no idea why. Most of my rough books were filled with doodles that Rosie and I did. Good times.

Friday - first day back at school but we didn't really do anything and Imogen and I argued about what colours certain subjects should be (we were colouring in our time tables).

Yesterday I got my DofE book finally signed off (wahey!). One stress over. Now I am stressing about buying white lab coats and maths text books.

Today I met up with Frankie, we went to Shakeaway and I had a Bournville flavour milkshake. We wandered round shops, then went down to the river and listened to some of the Labyrinth soundtrack (I want to watch it again now. and I need to buy the soundtrack) and some of her other songs (some by Hannah Montana. Yes I know, I know). We also decided that a giant obese starfish lives in the Thames with loads of rubber and foam duck henchmen. We are not insane. Really. Before I left she gave me Gareth David-Lloyd's (Ianto in Torchwood) signature which was cool.

Now I'm stressing out over general stuff. Rawr.

What have I been up to in the past two weeks?

Well Friday the 14th I went up to Somerset, spent a couple of days there at the windmill. Then on the 16th I went to Bristol station, met up with my cousin Megan (seeing as Hannah is now too old to go) and we journeyed to Queen Ethelburga's School (yes it is as posh as it sounds) just outside of York for the Quaker camp (that sounds boring and religious but it really isn't). It was great meeting people who I hadn't seen for over a year and also making loads of new friends. It was better than last year seeing as I knew people this time around, but the food was still damned awful. Our rooms were better than last year, loads bigger. I shared a room with Sophie and Olivia (a different Olivia from the one I usually talk about on here) but Megan (different Megan - not cousin Megan. Argh they all have similar confusing names.) couldn't fit in our room seeing as we were too late to get a 4 room so had to get a 3 room even though ALL the rooms had 4 beds (the 4th was folded up into the wall). I'm going into detail again. I could spend a week writing out every single detail. I will bullet point stuff (my blog has taken away the bullet point option! Nooo!).

- Fancy dress theme for last social this year was fairy tale creatures so I went as a pixie (last year it was up in the clouds and I was a fairy).
- For activites this year I did cooking and we all made cookies and stuff to sell at the tuck shop so yeah it was fun.
- I got an award on the last night! (each year the leavers give out one award each on the last night). Mine was for 'most beautiful smile' from Jenny.
- On the leaving day I got hugged so many times it was insane but I love hugs so :D

You can trawl through the pictures: http://www.yfhs.org.uk/2009piccies/index.html

So I stayed there for a week, went on the 23rd (sad to leave!) back to Somerset, was bored for a week (we did go places like the swimming pool (it closed down about a day later) and some zoo which was then on the news since atheists didn't like it as it was a Christian zoo and it had stuff about animals being created or something... I did however buy some clothes: two new t-shirts (plain black and plain white - mainly to wear under my new lumberjack shirts), two new lumberjack shirts (blue & brown and orange, white & brown) and a pair of jeans. Then yesterday we went to Bath to visit my Granny and stayed overnight. Then my second cousin Gabriel and his wife and kid Jude (who is almost a year old) came to visit us there which was nice and Jude was sweet.

I've run out of blog titles.

Well yesterday I finished re-reading LOTR and I have to say I forgot how much I loved the books. Moreso than the movies probably, (I haven't seen them in ages however) but I do love the movies, even if loads of stuff was cut out (the Tom Bombadil chapters and Scouring of the Shire are probably the two I miss the most) and the storyline deviated a bit (but hey, what movie adaptation ever did stay completely true to it's literary counterpart?). I could ramble on about LOTR but I'm sure you don't want to hear my ramblings.

In other news, I have been playing Top Trumps with my sister to pass the time. I introduced it to her yesterday and she loves it. The ones we own we got free with Weetabix - Predators, Dinosaurs and LOTR:TTT (yay. Except she doesn't want to play that one. Fair enough). I think we also have a Beano one somewhere.

I can't really write a blog now. For one thing it is the afternoon and I blog better when it is the evening, but I am going away for another two weeks so I thought I'd blog now. Another thing is that my head is all LOTR-y as you can plainly see (well it would happen if I read the whole thing in one week. Under one week). So bye for now.

Have some websites though:
http://www.ludomancy.com/blog/downloads/ < nice games
http://www.kimbawlion.com/rant2.htm < lion king is a rip off!
http://omegle.com/ < sure you know of this one anyway but still, 'tis amusing (sometimes)

Blog Post #86

I am oh so tired. You know the feeling when you just want to close your eyes and curl up in a ball and sleeeeeeeeeeeeep? Yeah, that one. (If my blog is weird today blame it on the tiredness)

Anyway, lets see what Sophia has been up to in the past week. (I'll make a list, it's easier. and more fun)(damn, my bullet point button thing has disappeared. Well it will have to be a not so good list. Simply because of the lack of bullet points.)

- On Sunday I went to a pub and had hoisin duck salad.
- Our new Clio arrived on Tuesday (remember how the old one went up in flames). It is a very yummy shade of green. Every time I go past it I wonder what it would taste like (if it were edible).
- Read three more Discworld novels (Equal Rites, Wyrd Sisters and Moving Pictures). I have now decided to have a break from them (just so I can re-read Lord of the Rings. I have read about three pages so far. But still, I started it today (after finishing Moving Pictures) and I've been out most the day). But I do like Discworld (for some reason there I wanted to refer to myself as "we". I do that sometimes).
- Yesterday Lily (who now has a 14mm flesh tunnel and can put her little finger through her ear) and I went out with our sisters (it was my Mum's plan!) and we went bowling and to the cinema. So I finally saw Harry Potter 6 yesterday. Wasn't as shit as I thought it would be. I actually thought it was alright, not the best but still decent. They did cut out loads though (which pissed me off) and they destroyed the Burrow (wtf. That doesn't happen in the book). But yeah, amusing romance scenes.
- Went out clothes shopping today (gyarhhhh. I hate it.) because I'm going to the York place again like I did last year and I basically need a "posh" outfit for one of the nights. But it's not so posh I can't wear it normally. But I do vaguely look like a girl for once(!). It's a black and grey chequered top/dress thing that I'll wear with leggings. Oh and whilst shopping they played some stupid r'n'b song that had completely butchered Bowie's "Let's Dance" which made me sad (okay apparently it's by Craig David. nyargh). But now I'm listening to the original and I'm happy.
- Now listening to "Hurry On Sundown" by Hawkwind. 'Cos it's awesome.
- What more should I write? Once I start writing a blog I want to write and write and write but beforehand I just don't want to write a blog post at all. Oh well.

La France

So I have returned from France. I had a rather nice time. I am now also convinced that all French men are called Jean.

We rented out a small villa that had a swimming pool and it was really nice.

I kept a sort of diary. Here it is in compressed form:

~First Week~

Sunday: Went to Southampton Airport which was very small. Got on a small plane. Arrived at Avignon airport which was TINY. Arrived and met the owners of the house who live forty minutes away - showed us the house. I was tired. We ate pasta with tomato sauce. I got the green room but actually wanted the blue room (because it was blue).

Monday: We had a lazy day, just swimming in the swimming pool and stuff.

Tuesday: This is the day I actually started keeping the diary, since I had no paper beforehand. It is creepy French paper which is gridded with extra lines in. They don't have lined paper over there. Visited a small French town today. Took some pictures there, visited some churches. On the way there took photos of awesome rock cliff things - local legend says that they are monks that got turned to stone after falling in love with some Moorish women.
















(they're all looming and ominous!)

Wednesday: Visited a small French town named Lurs in the mountains, visited some churches and stuff. Mainly went there for the tourist office, but it was shut on Wednesdays.

Thursday: There was a big lazy cricket in my room. Otherwise a lazy day today.


















Friday: Visited Gorges Du Verdon - very scenic. Then went swimming in a nearby lake. Nice and cool. There was an area of the lake we (well me and my sister) that was bright green. Reminded me of the poisonous liquids in Spyro that you died if you stepped in. Afterwards visited a mountain village.

Saturday: Lazy day. For some reason the main entry for today is about me slicing my thumb open on a bread knife. and there was blood everywhere! :D
but it was only a small cut.

~Second Week~

Sunday: Went to the infamous Lavender fields there.

Monday: Went to Sisteron and visited a citadel with good views over the rest of the town. It has some history to do with Napoleon but I can't remember what. Really hot though and it was really nice in some cellar place we found which was all dark and smelt of that lovely underground smell that you get in caves (but it smells nicer and more natural in proper caves (sadly we didn't visit any caves (they were too far away))).

















































Tuesday: Went to a market, didn't buy anything but there was a dead body there. Covered by a white sheet and everything. Police and firemen (yes France uses the firemen instead of the ambulance in cases like this) wandering around. It turns out he died of a heart attack (not some inventive murder like I imagined) but still, RIP market man.

Wednesday: Dad, Virginia and I went to the observatory and I didn't understand a thing because they spoke French too quickly. But it was nice inside the observatory. All sci-fi-y. They had thirteen telescopes in all. Also they were having a sci-fi film night on the day we left for England; playing Wall-E (would like to see), Star Trek (already seen), Hancock (don't want to see) and Jurassic Park 3 (don't want to see). Not the greatest line up for a sci fi film night IMHO.

















Thursday: Went to another town and market, purchased two pairs of earrings. One is black with some blue and green in, um, an explosion shape and the other are blue dreamcatcher type things. My sister bought a necklace and mum bought some soap and kitchen items. Afterwards went to a lake and went swimming. Not as good as previous lake though because there was no beach. There were rocks that you had to step off to get into the lake.

Friday: Lazy day

Saturday: went home.

^ Oh that was awfully written. I do apologise. See for some reason I only kept the diary for one week and then gave up so the second week I did from memory.

Anyway other things about France:

• BNs!!! I had some!! Photo proof of them (and, um, a packet of Pringles):

(look at them being all happy!)

• Magical French food! (well not magical). They have all this awesome stuff over there that we don't have (but then that's true for pretty much all countries). Crazy cereals - I quite liked the Lion cereal - caramel and chocolate flakes. BNs of course. Other awesome cereals including flavours of Special K we don't get over here. I tried snails. Can't say I was mega impressed. But they were all garlic buttery. Chocolate spready stuff. Rillettes du Mans!! I had that on my sandwiches every day. (just looked it up on Google images. It looks disgusting there. It really isn't). Tried a little bit of Lavendar ice cream. Weird.
• Wearing my blue dreamcatcher earrings now. My first pair of dangly earrings and they feel weird. My head's all "there's something dangling from my ears!".
  
• Trying to extend my sister's vocabulary I gave her a new word each day to learn, although near the end of the holidays I usually forgot to give her one. and she usually forgot what they meant.
  
• Books! I brought seven: Frankenstein (which I had read a third of), a half read Lolita, The Colour of Magic, Mort, Sourcerey, Animal Farm and Northanger Abbey. I liked them all. I also managed to pace myself fairly well so I finished my last book on the second Friday but then had no book for the aeroplane journey. (for those that know me that read this blog if you have any Discworld novels then pleasewouldyoumindlendingthemtome? :D (oh I have just been to the library (the other library, not my usual one) they have a fairly large collection of Discworld novels. I got three out. Which ones I can't remember.)
  
• Speaking of aeroplane journeys it was weird going to France in an aeroplane because before I went on the ferry or the Eurostar/Shuttle. I may have been on an aeroplane to France before mais je ne sais pas.
• By the end of the holiday our house was full of insects. Moths, crickets, flies, wasps, weird beetle things, mosquitoes, spindly legged house spiders (I don't mind these ones), fat house spiders (I abhor these ones. Only when they're moving though); you name it, it was in our house.
• Pool was full of insects every evening when we switched the light on. Usually moths or fly-things. One time in the morning I found two dead big house spiders at the bottom. My sister would insist that I save as many insects as possible with the net.
• One day Virginia came to show me two flies; one was on top of the other, it was obvious what they were doing. Then she goes and says "I wonder what they're doing". She's thirteen dammit, she should know.
  

Our villa:















I would put more pictures in but it is the most annoying thing on blogger because you have to drag them down all the way since they appear at the top. I may make a Photobucket album so you can see them there. OK I have now made an album but it doesn't show up. Screw that. I'll work on it.

Argh that was a horribly horribly written blog post. It has also taken me a day to write it. Started yesterday and added little bits at intervals throughout today.

Au revoir, mes amis.

Well this is the last blog post for a while as tomorrow I am off to France (Provence) and have to get up at 5 AM to get some early flight at 9 or something. Which just sucks. But I think this is probably the sixth time I have been to France. It is my most visited country. I am actually looking forward to it though since we haven't been abroad for a summer holiday for three years now (we did nothing last year and went to Devon the year before) although we did go to Tunisia in October last year and I went to America in the Easter holidays on the school ski trip which I did blog about. But anyway I have this mental image of me in France watching Fort Boyard whilst eating BN biscuits. Oh yes, they have BNBNs there. Haha all of you who miss them. And Fort Boyard I only saw a couple of times when I was younger but it is amusing watching adults do silly and sometimes icky games. I also plan to take a lot of reading material (including some Terry Pratchett, as I have never read any of his stuff and so feel wrong. Also need to finish off Lolita which I found in my Dad's cupboard whilst looking for HP7 and have been meaning to read for a while but never knew we owned a copy of it) as a lot of the time we just laze around. But the place we are renting out has a swimming pool which is cool (no pun intended). Um I don't really have much else to say, I just wanted to warn you of lack of blog posts over the next two weeks because I doubt there'll be a computer where we are staying. But you never know...

Party.

I have just got back from Hannah's party. But I will tell you all about my day from the beginning. My last day of work experience and I was sad to go (manager is now in hospital after repeatedly passing out and "seeing blue" yesterday evening). I got to print off my car brochure thing which I may upload here (that means I never will) and also got to leave early. Since I had no reason to go back to my own house I headed off to Hannah's which was near my work experience and was therefore rather early. Hannah was making cake and I got to eat some of the cake mix. Hannah's present was series 2 and 3 of Peep Show (I couldn't get series 1 because it was an 18), which I have never seen before *shockhorror*. Hannah put Series 3 on and I saw about 3 episodes of that, during which people began to arrive. I met Hannah's friend Scarlett which was nice. We then put on Extras because Scarlett was bored of Peep Show (I preferred Peep Show). Also the theme tune for Peep Show is Flagpole Sitta by Harvey Danger which I used to hear quite a bit in my XFM days but now... well never. But it's cool. We went to Hannah's room and chatted, then went downstairs and chatted some more, mainly about the new Harry Potter movie which only Hannah and Scarlett had seen. I will be seeing it after I return from France, as my Dad will take me because he really wants to see it. Then we cooked food and ate it, whilst playing "most likely to". We like this game. Hannah's cake had marzipan bees on it and was a very rich chocolate cake. Then it was time for Eun Young, Amy and me to leave. So we left, and then Divya ran to catch up with us. Once on the train we chatted, and I learnt that Amy shares a birthday with my sister and that her mum shares her birthday with my Dad. and now I am here blogging.

News: my new first cousin-once-removed has been named "India". I don't really like it as a name, but then that's my taste.

Bored at work experience?

Yeah me too. Hence why I am writing this blog during WEx hours. It is my second week at the same company and the manager is not here so I don't know what to do, and the other person who was helping me has gone on holiday to the Benicassim festival. There is hardly anyone in the office (more people arrive later) and I have finished my car brochure thingy. The reason why the manager isn't here is a long story (everyone just says to visiting people that he is "ill"). Basically he went on a bender over the weekend, but was found in the bins on Friday night. Monday he had to be locked in his flat, but smashed the window, escaped, got money off people and bought more alcohol, then went missing. Tuesday he was in bed being looked after by someone, and now he is just "ill". (It's so weird typing this because on a Mac the " and @ have swapped around so I keep typing @s instead of "s). And another person tore his muscle trying to lift something. It is all very interesting and dramatic here. I think it should be turned into a television series... a sitcom perhaps. Well I only have two more days here, and tomorrow is Hannah's birthday party so I am going to buy her present after WEx today.

Still reading HP 6, as per usual I have forgotten most of what happened. But what annoys me is the fact that we have lost the seventh book, and I really cannot remember what happened in that book, apart from a load of people die. I've looked in all the usual book places (our books are scattered around the house in bookshelves everywhere) and it's not there. We keep all the books in Dad's room but nyah, not there!

Also I don't know if I will actually get my ears pierced again, I get all confused thinking about it. I think I may wait a year and then see if I still want it done.

I have had a few odd dreams past couple of nights. Including:

• I was returning from WEx and walking to my house from the train station when a little girl appeared (about 9/10 years) and wanted me to be her friend. But she wouldn't tell me her name or what school she went to. By the end of the walk she had sort of turned into my sister, and had really chocolatey hands, then hugged me getting my green checked shirt (which I had been wearing that day. It's a new one, from H&M and it's really nice. I want more shirts now) all chocolatey. As usual I thought my dreams were real life and got really stressed out.
• I was going to the river with my friends (cannot recall which ones, they may have been made up ones) and one of them had got a pile of fish, which I felt sorry for (even though they seemed dead) so I got my wand out (been reading too much HP you see) and with a flick returned them to the river. The one who had got the pile of fish was really angry and said she would starve. I then had to help get more fish, using my wand and some elaborate arm movements. and then some people fell in the river. But we had a laugh about it.
  
• I did have other dreams but all I can remember is random fragments. I think the one I just described (the fish one) may have had flying in it, but I was the only one that wanted to. I love flying in my dreams, except usually I cannot fly properly, as I usually descend after taking off, so usually have to find a high point in my dreams and take off from there.
  

I like having dreams, especially as my ones are crazy. I wonder what my dreams mean.

The people in my office have said "fucking hell" about 10 times in a row now.

Argh what to do!? People haven't blogged in a while, well Jess has after ages but still.

Should go back to pretending to work now. Bye.

Bits & Bobs

I haven't updated for a week and so I have a lot to tell you. But first: my blog's very first poll:




Last Sunday we (Hannah, Jess, Livvi and I) went to the park for a picnic and hung out in a tree like wild nature children. I heard the crazy stories that Jess and Livvi had made up which included Andy Murray and tennis rackets made of evil and cows and kidnapping and making out. I have such wonderfully normal friends. I will talk about the picnic since people actually understand picnics. Hannah brought along chicken legs and sandwiches and homemade shortbread which was nice. Jess brought along homemade gingerbread which was also nice. I brought along homemade brownie which obviously was fantastic. and Livvi just failed. She brought along non homemade stuff. There was other food too. After having our picnic we went to some trees and Jess decided it would be a good idea to get stuck up one for twenty minutes (it was more like ten, but we like to exaggerate). Afterwards we looked for a better tree to climb and I knew of one so we got up that one and read Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. We also phoned up friends and asked questions. Hmm, I guess that was last Sunday.

Then onto Monday. This was the first day of my work experience (at a graphic design place - AD Creative Consultants) and so I woke up at 7:30 (later than I have to for school) and was at the train station by 8:35 ish. What made me smile was the fact that they were already advertising the Torchwood series 3 DVD before any Torchwood had actually aired. Anyway I got the train to Clapham Junction, then got the bus to my work experience placement. I got off and headed towards the big gothic castle-house thingy (it is pretty awesome). I nervously stepped through the door and made my way into the actual office place. The manager John (who is crazy) was all crazy and wavey. Anyway I soon started on my actual work which was to design a logo, carrier bags, tags and shop front. The sheet said I had to do it for either David or Victoria Beckham but apparently I wasn't allowed to do them so I had to choose someone else. After quickly looking at a classic rock website I chose Bruce Springsteen. (they also use Macs there! I hadn't used a Mac in years. Our very first computer was a Mac but of course now IT HAS ALL CHANGED. Since it's all new and different from our old Mac. But it was easy getting used to.) The logo was a guitar but the body said Bruce... the body was made up of the letters of 'Bruce'. I might upload one day, but that would mean scanning stuff in. Over consequent days I designed the other stuff. and ate baguettes and drank tea. One thing I learnt there was that every other word the people seem to say there is either "fuck"/"fucking" or "shit". Usually "fucking". It's amusing. It's good there even if your wrist does kill after seven hours of using the mouse. and when I come home I get all confused because we have a PC at home and I have been using a Mac all day and try and press the wrong buttons. and go to the top corner to make everything smaller and it just doesn't work.

I should get a Mac emulator so I can play Scarab of Ra again. For purely nostalgic reasons. Although that game did really creep me out when I was younger. Especially when the mummies came when you got the Scarab (I didn't know how to defeat them then. I do now. Ha ha). Strange how a game with extremely basic black and white graphics can be creepy. Now I just remember all the creepy creepy sounds that our old Mac made when doing stuff. and the creepy voice that would talk to you if you wrote a text document and wanted it to play out loud. Also Dr Brain 3. That was fun and educational. There were also some other random eighties games that we had. Our Mac was second hand - originally one of my Aunts had it (who coincidentally lives in Clapham) hence all the crazy games (because of her kids). We also had some Disney games too: a Lion King one which was awesome, a Aladdin one which was even more awesome and a Toy Story one that was shit - there were no games on it. I swear it was one of those stupid demo CDs you get. The other two were cool though. (this just reminds me I haven't seen any Disney for a very long time. I would like to Wall E though. But that is Pixar). We also had Civilisation! 1 and 2! Except I usually played on 2 because 1 fucked up a lot. and 2 had better graphics. But now I have Age of Empires 2! That's the only computer game I still play on. I still have the Sims installed on here, but that's no fun, you can't create a huge army full of infantry and cavalry along with trebuchets and siege onagers and then go kill the enemy. It's fun killing people (in the game!). I usually have my army killed off as well so have to create a new one. But I don't use the cheats anymore.

Torchwood - I could tell you all about it but there is no point because those that wanted to see it have seen it and know everything and those that didn't want to see it couldn't care less. But Iantooooooo!! and it seems like they've pretty much wrapped up Torchwood - little chance for a fourth series. But maybe a possibility that Harkness will appear in Doctor Who? I don't know. I don't really keep up with Who news. (oh I just edited the Torchwood Wikipedia page! That's a first, never edited a page before (they had forgotten on the page that Jack also blamed himself for the death of Suzie, so I added that in).

Anyway, onto Saturday. This was Livvi's birthday party. For a present I got her Labyrinth (went after work experience on Thursday to get it) and a card. Labyrinth was ideal because she got obsessed with it after seeing it at my party. So at around six-ish I got to her house. First of all she opened her presents (mainly books and DVDs) and we sat around and chatted. Divya (as per usual) said some legendary things:

• "Can you have sex with your clothes on?"
• "Can you get pregnant with your clothes on?"

(No she wasn't joking). But we do love Divya. We also played some table tennis, with normal table tennis bats, books and spades (due to lack of bats). After a while Jess, Hannah and I left to have a Torchwood discussion, where we basically decided the ending was shit after the first four good episodes. and there was Ianto mourning. We're going to miss our gay bulldozer driving tea making Welshman. After eating crazy stuff (including smiley faces) we headed to Blockbusters where we spent ages (as per usual) deciding on a movie. Trouble is, we all have different tastes and Livvi's Blockbusters is tiny and hardly has any DVDs in it. Well compared to mine which is scary huge and has loads of scratched broken DVDs. We finally got out Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist (only because Imogen really really wanted it), In Bruges and something else. We only ended up watching Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist which I could stand but did find too indie and cutesy. I just don't really like romance movies in general - I find them a bit boring. Any other genre is alright, apart from maybe chick flicks. and I haven't seen much horror, only Alien, which wasn't scary at all. After this we tried watching In Bruges but no one was in the mood for it, so the classic "The Princess Bride" was put on. Which Livvi fucking adores. But now it has competition from Labyrinth! 80s kids movies wars! But she has a shiny new Princess Bride DVD which has shiny better quality. Which was awesome. At this point Jess tried to get to sleep and Zoe did get to sleep, and we chatted whilst Princess Bride played in the background. We did a quiz Imogen had made for Livvi, and then chatted about random shit, as teenage girls do. But we aren't normal teenage girls. We found out Livvi has a fetish for purple men dressed as oxen. and likes to be "plowed" by them. I can assure you, there were no drugs at this party. We did get to sleep in the end. In the morning we played more games and one of them was "most likely to" where someone says something and the other people have to decide who is most likely to do/have/etc that. So we decided Livvi probably also has a foot fetish. and according to Zoe, I would make a "fit aeroplane pilot". The Eight Ball was also asked questions. I managed to get home pretty quickly since the buses were there when I got to the bus stop (that happened on the way to Livvi's house as well. I just have psychic bus powers). Got home, managed to finish off some art so now I only have to do two paintings and then started to reread the sixth Harry Potter (for the third time) because the movie is coming out and I cannot remember what happens in the book. or any of the books for that matter. I get all angsty when it mentions dead Sirius though.

Also, I don't know if I should get my ears pierced again. I probably can't be bothered, I just want to be like all those crazy rock star people. I'm so deluded. Mum says I may regret them in the future, if I let them close up and get scarry ears. But multiple hoops in one ear would just be so pirateish. I want to have a pirate headband and wear pirate boots. Except the pirate look wouldn't suit me, I love my jeans. but argh, I am confused.



This has probably been one of the longest blogs I've written. time-wise. It's taken me about an hour. But there is Hannah's party next week to look forward to! and I am going to France soon! I need reading material. I have stuff from the library I haven't read yet, because I fail. I also need to see more movies. I've sort of lost my "to see" list in my head. So now I have two lists. "really want to see!" and "would quite like to see, but don't really mind". I haven't actually gathered much movies for either list.

(the spell check on this is very stupid. It says words don't exist but when I go to correct them they are exactly the same. silly).

I should go now, I desperately need sleep for more work experience at crazy graphic design place tomorrow. But do vote for what types of blog posts you like. It will affect this blog!

You sometimes drive me crazy, but I worry about you

I have been doing art all week long. I am quite proud of myself, even if the copy of the painting I am doing at the moment (The Crowd by Wyndham Lewis) in pencil fails a bit - due to the fact that I don't have the correct colours so have to blend colours and always end up with the colour a bit off. I have however done my Per Kirkeby research, my photo page and a painting of Arvin the squirrel (who represents the green spaces found in the cities, the calmer, more peaceful side of London; since the topic is Essence of the City). I have already written up my definitions and done a copy of The Cyclist by Natalia Goncharova (which I quite like, even if I didn't have all the pencil colours). I don't like The Crowd because it looks quite easy but then it's got all these little complicated bits in it. But I'll survive.

I have also realised that I do actually like Bon Jovi (shh!) and that there is no point in trying to pretend I hate them. It's annoying though, I have waaay too many guilty pleasures in music. I'm not going to attempt to list them here. I think I may have gone off Mötley Crüe though which is good. Well I only knew three songs in the first place. But yays for me anyway. (oh dear I am listening to Whitesnake.) >_<

I guess I've gone completely past the stage where I care what people think about my music taste. As long as I don't like Poison I'm happy. and since they don't play them on the radio I'm all good. Also, Rush have been growing on me. There are still some songs that I really quite dislike (Spirit of Radio and Closer to the Heart to name a couple. Mainly due to Geddy's voice being really annoying in certain parts. But I don't usually find his voice annoying unlike some) but there are some songs that I like (now listening to Distant Early Warning. I think his voice is adorable in this song. No idea why.)

In other news:

• Torchwood is back next week! Yaaays. But it's only five episodes long... but an hour each instead of 45 minutes! I need my Torchwood due to lack of Doctor Who this year.
• I have just made brownie. I make so many brownies all the time that my Mum has started to get slightly annoyed with me. Also due to my incessant brownie making I have grown very used to the taste of brownie mix and no longer find it as awesome as I once did.
  
• I've been catching up on That Mitchell & Webb Look due to watching the current series (3), liking it and then deciding that I needed to see the old series since I haven't seen them.
• Pirate Facebook makes me so happy.

Arrr. Off ye go now.

Visiting Relatives

(I've blogged quite a bit in the last few days. My life has been eventful for once).

Anyway today I went to Southend-on-Sea to visit my maternal grandmother who is ninety today. Ninety already! It only seems a couple of years ago she was eighty, but then that would be 1999! Crazy stuff. On the way down my Mum decided to put the Disney CD on and my ears died to Hannah Montana. Anyway we arrived, met up with my Aunt Liz and my only cousin on my Mum's side, Sara, and went and had lunch. I had roast beef and all the trimmings for a main course and then for pudding I had a homemade cherry cheesecake. Yum.

After this Sara and Liz departed in their car and headed for the care home that Nana stayed in. My family and I headed off and reached the care home a little later, and then all of the family apart from Mum went off to the beach. The "sea" is the river's estuary, so it isn't really the sea as you can see (a very faint) outline of Kent across it. When I was younger I used to think Kent was a foreign country (not connected to England at all) where they spoke a different language that was like French but slightly different. For some reason as soon as we reached the beach it went from being really sunny to cloudy (evil weather!), but it was still warm. I paddled my feet in the sea, I hadn't brought my swimming costume with me because I hate wearing swimming costumes of any sort. And the beach is all pebbly so my feet were hurting.

After catching my brother and getting him dressed again as well as making my sister get in the car we travelled back to the old people's home to visit Nana. All the other old people were out so it was just her and all of us. We sat and talked and then Sara showed me her new dSLR camera which she then allowed me to play around with. She had just got it because she was getting annoyed at not being able to take good pictures whilst on holiday (she had previously been to Africa and couldn't get good enough wildlife shots) so it was new to her too. I want a dSLR camera but they are so expensive. Also something I noticed: I swear blue eyed old people have really really blue eyes. Or maybe it is just me. Then the other old people came back and one was saying how rubbish the care home was and how she wanted to get back home which depressed me and reminded me that I want to die before I get senile. Nana has Alzheimers so she can't really remember us. :(

After a while we all headed back home (minus the Disney music! But I had Eighteen and Life in my head which was annoying me). Now I'm listening to Def Leppard because I'm that cool.

My big day out.

Today I went up to London to visit the Tate Modern for my art summer homework. I pretty much decided to go today on my own at the last minute as I wanted to get the whole Tate thing over and done with, so I could start on the research and numerous paintings I had to do as soon as possible. So armed with money, camera and a notepad I headed off to my local train station. I caught the 11:08 train to London Waterloo and arrived roughly forty minutes later. Dad had shown me a shortcut so I could reach the Tate quicker, but I didn't understand this route and naturally headed towards the London Eye, cut across the green and then turned right. It was the first time I had been to London on my own and I didn't get lost! (Well it was pretty hard to get lost, from London Waterloo to the Tate Modern). Also along the way there were spotty trees! Red with white spots. It had turned out some guy named Yayoi Kusuma had wrapped them up in this fabric and named it "Ascension of Polkadots on the Trees".





















It was also a nice sunny day so it was a good choice to visit London today.

At the Tate I had to visit the Per Kirkeby and Futurism exhibitions, and it was lucky I bought extra money (which is a habit of mine) as it cost £13 in all to get into both. I bought my tickets and headed up the escalator.

I decided to visit Per Kirkeby first. I didn't really like his work; it just looks like he is full of angst and to release his sorrows/rage he just gets a load of paint and scribbles it all over the masonite or canvas. After that he would add many more layers of angst-filled brush strokes, making it a very confusing angsty angst piece full of angst. I mean, just look at this piece, Nikopeja I:






















Then it was on to the Futurism exhibition. By this point I was slightly impatient due to my dislike of Kirkeby's work and the fact that my feet had started to ache very slightly. The Futurism exhibition I enjoyed much better, seeing as there are loads of different artists in this exhibition and so not all are angsty. I saw some Braque; I had researched him for some homework last year. I also saw a piece by Boccioni; the Unique Forms Of Continuity In Space sculpture which has a place in one of my year 7 art homeworks. (One of the reasons I went on my own today is because I hate going round art exhibits with other people when I am doing research because I always feel I am making them wait. Also I can go where I want to go and do what I want to do, which I like).

I exited the Futurism exhibition and went to the Tate cafe to see if I could get a bite to eat. After looking at all the sandwiches and not seeing any normal fillings (seriously, they were all weird posh fillings) I decided to head over to St. Paul's Cathedral because there is a place nearby that does good breadcrumbed chicken, mozzarella and sundried tomatoes ciabattas, so I crossed the Millenium Bridge, taking a few pictures as I also need to take photos for my art. After eating I headed back over the bridge and walked along the river up to Tower Bridge, taking photos as I went along. I saw a man with an owl on his head near the pirate ship asking if anyone had seen an owl fly "that way".






















Heading further on, where was a new sculpture that I hadn't seen before ; a kangaroo in lingerie. I'm also pretty sure I saw Matt Berry (the guy who plays Douglas on the IT Crowd) which is cool because I don't really see famous people unlike some (well he isn't really famous, but nyeh). The only other "famous" person I have seen is Jacqueline Wilson in her car when were waiting for the bus to go on some year 6 trip. I didn't go all the way to Tower Bridge, just close enough to get a picture. I slowly headed back to Waterloo station, buying an ice cream (mint cornetto) and drink (apple juice) on the way.

As I headed back there were many many street performers. They included a blue guy playing a guitar, gold and silver king and wizard people, some guy teaching kids to dance, another guy playing with a crystal ball to music, a policeman in drag (a tutu) with white face paint taking photos with people, a couple more guys pretending to be Zorro and Captain Jack Sparrow and cycling chameleon people:



















I walked on until I got to the London Eye:

















I haven't been on it in years. It would be nice to go again. I will persuade my parents to let me go on it the next time we all go to London.

Also today I noticed that there were a large number of people wearing AC/DC shirts, but I have a feeling that they may have a concert on tonight, which would explain this.

I then headed back to London Waterloo with achey feet and feeling quite thirsty and caught the 16:27 train home. But I'm glad because I have been to the Tate and selected the images I will use in my book, as well as taking photos of the city, it's people and the environment. (I'm sorry for the silly number of photos in this blog but I like using photos in my blog so you're just going to have to live with it). And that, everyone, was the story of my big day out.

Look! I have a blogroll!

I was messing about in the layout section of my settings which I have never really been in before and noticed I could add a blogroll, which would make sense seeing as I sometimes talk about people's blogs here. Also Hannah has started updating again (oh yes now you can see it - link on the side!!) which is cool.

So today we went spork pirating. By "we" I mean Ellen, Hannah, Imogen, Livvi, Suga and myself. Ellen was the latest - being an hour and a half late. Suga and Imogen arrived early and I arrived on time. Hannah was a little late and then we spent ages waiting and decided to buy food. When we had got everyone we headed over to some gardens which are tucked away behind the buildings near the river. They have some gigantic statues of water nymphs and stuff. We ate the food (bread, houmous, taramasalata (for Imogen), guacamole, giant chocolate buttons, small pirate buttons (!)(It even had a poem on the side!!), crisps (Kettle Chips and Hula Hoops), gummy snakes, cherries, raspberries and brownie. I've probably forgotten something but they were the main ones. We ate and then played games at Imogen's request. Then Suga had to leave and we played more games and had story time, with Imogen reciting the first couple of pages of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone from memory. Which reminded me I need to read the sixth book again before the movie comes out because all I can remember that happens in it is that *a certain person* dies. No spoilers here. We also met Arvin the squirrel, who came to investigate our picnic and tried to steal some crisps. A picture? Yes I think so.



















There he is in all his fluffy glory.

In the evening I went to the art show at my school, where my work was displayed. I decided I like Rhena's work. She has good ideas. (There is a bird that keeps tweeting really loudly and I keep thinking it is inside the house when it (probably) isn't). I also started thinking to myself how much I regret not taking history, because I know little about the subjects that the course offers, and it would've been interesting to learn about them. I would've done it instead of DT Graphics, because, let's face it, that subject was a total waste of time. It also means that I would've been in a different geography class (good! no Mrs West!) or maybe a different art class (bad! We love Kilpatrick!). Oh well. I didn't take it because I disliked our teacher we had in year 7 and 9... and our year 8 one was awful. I do have a few good memories from year 8, one being me against quite a few friends arguing that David Tennant was NOT attractive, across the classroom, and of course, everyone disagreed with me. (I think I reminisce too much for my own good. I have been thinking about my primary school rather a lot recently; nostalgia has made me remember all the good parts and forget the bad... I also keep thinking about some weird dream that my old school appeared in. I have to think about something otherwise my mind strays into unknown scary territory). But there is the internet to learn history on! Good ol' Wikipedia (which is not always right due to silly people messing with the pages).

Oh also yesterday my blog was not well written, what I was trying to say is that I think I may have scared the new people slightly, being all quiet and emo and "defensive".

So, what's happened in the past week (and a bit)?

I'm only writing this blog otherwise I'm going to get killed in some very inventive and imaginative way tomorrow otherwise. I guess I wouldn't write a blog until next weekend otherwise. Anyhow the reason why I haven't blogged in over a week is sheer laziness and lack of something to write about. I usually just write random shit anyway.

So lets look back over the past week. I did my stats exam which was stupid because of the amount of spare time I had, which I spent playing with my calculator and thinking about stuff. Also colouring in graphs. That was on tuesday. 2 months after my birthday already.

Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and the weekend I cannot remember what happened due to my poor memory. I'm pretty sure I spent it reading or playing on the PS2. I did go to the library again. That's all I can remember.

So on Monday I went to a party at Zoë's house. and I made brownie, which proved to be very popular. Zoë and I suggested that one day Livvi and I should have a brownie-off, since Livvi also makes brownie. Which I obviously prefer since I am bored of my brownie. :P Anyway my brownie would win, because it just would. But yeah at Zoë's we had a book burning and burnt mostly revision notes, although Zoe did burn one of her school dresses and shirts which was very satisfying to watch. Goodbye fugly tea towel sack. Met some new people too.

Yesterday I set up for the art show. Arrived early in the morning and got to leave later on in the morning so I had the rest of the day free so that was good. Not much else to say. I did play on Age of Empires 2 yesterday though. I played some Viking scenario and won.

Today.... well today was induction day. Not good that I was feeling rather depressed for no apparent reason and so really didn't want to talk to anyone. In the morning we did team games with some guy called Jared. I won a couple of games, the skipping one and some triangle puzzle thing. Jared didn't like the fact that I had my hands in my pockets for one of the games. I then folded my arms (because I have to do something with my arms! I hate it when they are just dangling there...) and he said I was getting "all defensive" or something along those lines. What the hell am I meant to do with my arms then? Chop them off? Silly Jared and his labret piercing. In the afternoon we went kayaking and played some games (one involved rubber ducks!) and got soaking wet (due to a throwing wet sponges game). Luckily I had brought a spare change of clothes. In the afternoon we went to school and I got my summer work and shitted my pants when I read how much art we have to do. I'll survive though, I always do. I got home, still feeling rather down and decided to draw whilst listening to the radio. I listened to the radio for over an hour which I haven't done in a long long while. and the DJ was nice to me today, playing me songs I like which I don't get to hear often. Started off with Magnum - Don't Wake The Lion, but I missed the cool dark sounding bass-y part about 2/3 minutes into the song. I started drawing a dragon, but it annoys me because it looks out of proportion but I don't know how and when I try to change it it looks even weirder.

After giving up on the dragon for the day I went and played on AOE2 again, because damn I like creating huge armies and killing people (and getting killed in the process). This time around I chose not to do a scenario and just do a standard game - I chose to be Aztecs this time. I should choose to be Persians again one day because then you can create war elephants which are awesome.

Well tomorrow we are having another spork pirate outing, I think our last one was in September of last year. We have tried to organise other ones but end up invading charity shops. I am making brownie for tomorrow. Maybe I should sell my brownie. This year it will be a good spork pirate since more people are coming instead of the usual three and myself. Yays.

Oh also, on the way home after I got off the bus I walked past my primary school clutching my AS summer work sheets and it just depressed me even more showing how fast time goes. Made me feel all nostalgic. The wrong type of nostalgia. The one that makes you sad.

I might go now since I have been on the computer a lot today and my wrist is dying.

P.S. I also got sunburnt today even though I applied sun block so I am on my way to becoming a lobster.

P.P.S. This is why I don't like writing blog posts. This one was long and boring and I want to bore you all that read it. Just wondering: who actually does read my blog? Leave a comment. :)

FFS Blockbuster.

I am only writing this blog because the Blade Runner disc has died. I have only got movies out of Blockbuster twice and they have both been scratched. It was doing good! Deviates quite a lot from the book but I was liking the bleak futuristic look. Also I have not seen a Harrison Ford movie since year 7 when Rosie and I were staying at the windmill and Temple of Doom was on... so we watched that. Rosie had a crush on Ford which I couldn't understand. Still can't.

Anyway, about today. Virginia, Dad and I all went to some place called "Toby Carvery" where we had a meal. The roast potatoes were really good. I also had the obligatory chocolate fudge cake. If I go into a pub and do not have the chocolate fudge cake as a pudding, you know there is something wrong with me (and ALL pubs serve that. I have not been to one where they haven't). I completely stuffed myself. After that Dad dropped me off so I could go to Emma's party in the park by the river. Since Emma is leaving and not coming back to sixth form, she invited the whole year. The whole year certainly didn't come and the number of people at the party kept fluctuating since people kept going away and coming back with more people. It was nice to hang out in the park and Emma was the only one who got drunk and eventually it got awkward and Livvi, Goldie, Isabel and I decided to leave seeing as most people had left by then. We met up with Divya, who was going to go to the party, but was about four hours late, and we all went to Starbucks. The Goldie left and we decided to be spontaneous and go to Wagamama's (mainly because I had never been there before). The way Divya uses chopsticks is hilarious. She speared the gyozas with the chopsticks... Isabel decided it would be a VERY good idea to get a knife and fork for Divya. Good thinking. Isabel and I also remembered the Mush Maleks... something we had in year 8 but neither of us can remember what the fuck they were, apart from we had an initiation ceremony for newcomers. We also compared Divya's taste in men (which is awful. Sorry Divs if you're reading this... but it is) to Isabel's and Livvi's. Not mine, because I don't really have any celebrity crushes. I'm the type of person who will watch a movie or music video whatever and think someone is attractive and then forget about them afterwards. Also it is rare for me to find someone attractive. But anyway, Divya has got this idea in her head that I want to rape somebody. She thought it was Bob Marley - to which everyone apart from Divs burst out laughing. I had trouble eating my chicken ramen. I think she meant Bowie, who I have never stated that I wanted to rape, this is all made up in Divya's head. Besides, I only like Jareth (this is due to not seeing much non-Jareth Bowie). We also tried to see if Livvi liked anyone under 30, but failed. Because she is an anti-pedophile. She likes old men. I have nothing against this but liking someone who is 79 is a bit odd.

Well the double meal today has made me very tired and very stuffed and tomorrow I will not want to eat anything. There is some thing at the church tomorrow that the parents will drag me along to. But it always means free Pimms! and I do like Pimms. As certain people know.

I have pretty much finished my flying wyvern painting, so I will upload tomorrow. I also am very much in the mood for reading, especially in the garden if it is a nice day. It isn't a great picture, I was more experimenting with watercolours since I haven't used them properly in ages. I was also experimenting with wyvern anatomy, but it was hard since it is a view from the top of it.

I think I am drunk from too much food which doesn't make any sense but it does to me. A lot of things only make sense to me. I cannot stand up straight and have to use the wall for support. Also tiredness is affecting me.

What a lovely long blog post. I wish I could blog this long more often.

The end of a tiring week.

I'm only blogging because Livvi wants me to blog. Otherwise I wouldn't. Ok: review of the past few days. Physics went better than expected. I now only have stats left. Livvi has started watching Heroes, which is good, which means I have to watch ST, which puts me in a CBA mood.

Anyway on Thursday I went to the library and got some books out. These were:

• Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (I never knew this was written by the guy who did Treasure Island. Well, you learn something new every day. Also finished reading this one.)
• Solar Lottery
• The Chrysalids (Currently reading - is awesome!)
  
• A Thousand Splendid Suns (I loved The Kite Runner)
  
• War Of The Worlds (one of the most famous SF books and I haven't read it yet!)

There are two libraries which I visit. Well the one further away from me I used to visit all the time, never do now. It has been refurbished and it has made itself smaller with the new design, with less space for books. I hate it now, so I will always go to my local library which is a lot bigger and the SF section is all hidden away so no one can see me being a neek.

Today I painted a picture of a wyvern, with watercolours and ink. I don't think it's that good, due to my inability to use watercolours well. It's red, flying over cliffs and sea. Except it doesn't really look like cliffs, more of a grey and green blob because it is a plan view. I will finish and upload tomorrow possibly.

Tomorrow Virginia, Dad and I are going to be doing something. I don't know what. It is also Emma's leaving birthday party tomorrow, which I am going to.

I also think that I need to listen to more bluesy stuff. It is good because Planet Rock likes the blues and so has a couple of blues shows on a week. One is presented by Joe Bonnamassa who is one of those hyper, lively types of people and makes me smile with his enthusiasm. But that is on a Tuesday evening, repeated on either Saturday or Sunday. I think Saturday. Yes, either at 7 or 8. See, I'm talking to myself again. I must invent some imaginary friends so I won't appear so mad to myself.

I don't like the sounds that the dishwasher is making. It is making creepy sounds that occasionally sound like footsteps. Well I am tired and my mind is distorting things.