In that place between asleep and awake......

Have I got News for You?!

2008-08-28T10:58:00.002Z

My summer is finally drawing to a close, which means that the pace is slowing down (almost imperceptibly, but I live in hope!). At the moment I am recovering from Greenbelt. It was my first time there, so I didn't really know what to expect, but I had a really great time! =)

Anyway...befooore Greenbelt... on the 14th August, to be precise, it was Results Day. It was kind of strange turning up at school in the middle of summer, but even stranger how everyone opened their results with a 'poker face'. Everyone was standing in little clusters with their friends, and everyone was saying, 'You go first', 'No! You first!', 'No, YOU go first!'.

I watched my friends' faces as they opened their results, and their facial expression gave absolutely nothing away. The thing is, you don't want to look too happy, because
a) if your friends are really disappointed in their results, you don't want to rub it in their faces, and
b) because you don't want to look like a loser. If you're grinning like an idiot at your 3Cs, and your friend bursts into tears at their AAB, I....erm..... don't really know what that could imply, but it's best to avoid complicated emotions and group dynamics during occasions such as these.

Anyway, eventually they forced me to open my results, and I stared blankly at the pieces of paper, not because I was being diplomatic, but because it took me a while to pick out the important numbers out of all the other numbers written there for camoflage or something...
In the end they snatched it off me and told me what I had. A for English Lit (and that was a high A, with an A in every module), and B for Biology. When I heard the Biology result, I nearly passed out from relief, because my teacher told me 2 weeks before exams that I had no hope of getting a B. But anyway, she said that to nearly everyone. And it was a totally respectable B - not skin of the teeth B! So HAAAAA! to her. I am going to have to try very hard not to gloat when I return my textbook. Or I may just sell it on Amazon and make some money out of her. They are changing the syllabus (dumbing down the system, no doubt! =P ), so they don't really need these books anyway.

So anyway, back to the story.... At this point, I knew I had AB...and I knew I needed ABB for Royal Holloway... but I had to go and pick up the result from the other school. By the time I got there, I was close to tears, because my friend and I had had to walk past a group of people panicking because they'd been given conditional offers from Royal Holloway, met the conditions, but been shunted on to a different course, because the department accidently gave out too many conditional offers (which must be illegal, surely?!). So, even if I got the grades, if I didn't pass well enough, I could have ended up doing English and Criminology or some other obscure combination like that. But it was all fine, coz I got a B in French. A VERY high B. I was 9 marks (out of 600) away from getting an A. 9 MARKS!!!! I did the maths (and then got someone who understands maths to check it for me) and I calculated that I was 1.5% off an A. 1.5% of 2 years!!!! What is that, like, an afternoon of school or something?!?!?! Grrrrr.....

So then I started ranting about how I was going to retake a module and get it up to an A, but my friends told me that as I had already got a place at Royal Holloway, to do the course I want to do, retaking any exams would be purely for my own pride. And then I felt bad... because a lot of my friends didn't get into the unis they wanted (some didn't get in at all). So, so make amends, I sat down with a copy of the Independent and went through UCAS clearing to help them find interesting looking courses in not too dodgy places.

But yeah, to cut a long story short, I'M GOING TO ROYAL HOLLOWAY NEXT YEAR!!!! =D

Though the next big step in the journey of my life (yeah...OK.... I'm taking the scenic route) is my gap year with Oxygen, which starts on Monday. It kind of crept up on me. I seem to have fooled myself into believing that a 3 month summer never ends.
But it does.
On Monday.

You are my Sunshine...

2008-06-12T09:41:00.003Z

...my only sunshine. =)
I once got caught singing that out loud in a bus stop. Kind of awkward.

Anyway...
Would you like to be involved in a big art erm... thingy?
Make one of these!

(Or click here for the big version!)

I know some of you may be wondering why I have included 'Constellations', but I like that song, and technically, it mentions a sunset. And even more technically, stars are just far away suns. There may be other intelligent life forms out there who think their star is the sun. Who are we to argue with them? Especially since it's likely that they are more intelligent life forms than we are.

This kind of thing is perfect for people like me, who have a well developed artistic sensibility, but the artistic capability of a slug. (Yes, I do realise that slugs have no arms. That's my point.) So make your list, upload it, send me a link, and I will promise not to critique your music taste too harshly. I can hardly talk... yesterday I put my iPod on shuffle and ended up listening to The Bear Necessities from Jungle Book.

Unimpressed

2008-06-05T15:53:00.001Z

Would you feel like revising when this is going on just across the room from you?!

Pah.

The Final Countdown!

2008-06-02T09:49:00.002Z

I realise that I have been distant lately. It's not you, it's me.
Life has been busy.

I have now officially finished school. This isn't like when I finished school after GCSE. This is final. This is forever. It is the end of an era.

I've been on study leave for about 3 weeks now. I could tell you about how my Mum went to Canada for 2 weeks, and that by the time she got back we were all desperate because the only food left in the house was useless 'ingredients' - no ready meals; and 2 mouldy apples.
Or I could tell you about how I went camping with a bunch of crazy people, and how we blew up a garden gnome using dynamite that someone had procured through a link with a medieval reinactment society, and unintentionally set fire to 3 bunnies who had decided to live in our bonfire during the days after it was built, and before it was lit. That was actually very, very sad, and it haunts me to this day. A whopping 7 days after it happened. ='(

I could even tell you about my experiences of voting in the London Mayoral Elections, and about how I voted for Sian Berry (Green) because although I thought we'd probably end up with a Tory, I couldn't bring myself to vote Conservative at 18. And I question the wisdom behind voting for a mayor who can't even control his own hair, let alone a massive, slightly dysfunctional city.

But I won't tell you any of those things, because my exams are coming thick and fast now, and, after all, this is study leave.

So I think I'll just tell you that the 'powers that be' ought to re-think the A level syllabusses (syllabi?! whatever...) because these 2 years are depressing enough, without adding extra depressing subject matter.
For example, at the moment I am revising Biology (genetic diseases, mutations, damage to the environment), English Lit (War literature with a focus on WW1) and French (moral and ethical issues - all of which seem to deal with death; abortion, euthanasia, death penalty, poverty, AIDS etc).
I'm supposed to be sitting here thinking, 'Oh, yes! Let me revise! I must get good A Level results so that the world can be my oyster, and I can continue (or possibly begin) to thrive in this beautiful society!'.
And actually I'm thinking, 'What's the point? A Levels won't stop me from getting a mutation which will cause a really awful disease, and even if I don't, there might be another war, and then we'll all be doomed, and even if we live through the war, we might get a new kind of government that kills everyone with the death penalty, or stops caring about us so that we start living in poverty, or infects us with AIDS in our sleep unless we have a particular eye colour...perhaps abortion should be compulsory to make sure we don't inflict the trials of life on anyone else, and maybe they should recommend euthanasia to everyone so we can just die and leave this sick, sick world.....etc....'.
OK, so maybe that's a little dramatic, but still..... cheerier A Level subject matter would be appreciated. Thanks.

All exams will be over by the end of June.
And then I won't be doing exams for aaaages, thanks to my Gap Year. =D
(That's a big deal when you've had loads of important, external, official exams every 6 months for the last 5 years).

So I'll be back by the summer.
If my DNA doesn't mutate, and there's no war.

Spring Watch

2008-04-08T13:22:00.007Z

I can keep plants alive, therefore I am responsible.

Get Lost!

2008-04-08T11:35:00.006Z

I have become totally addicted to Lost. It all started when I was sick a few months ago, and a somebody lent me season 1 so I didn't go mad from boredom. I was alone all weekend, and watched the entire first season in 3 days.

I have to mute it when the Lost title comes up, because the noise that comes along with it (you can't really call it a theme tune) is really scary.

[Edit: This next bit is optional. It is a bit pathetic and also grammatically crazy.]
Well, OK, the Lost noise isn't that scary, but when you've been alone all weekend watching Lost, and it's dark, and and the dog on Lost starts barking at the same time that your dog starts barking downstairs, and then you try and go downstairs to see whats wrong with your dog, and when you get half way to the kitchen, you hear that scary noise in your head, even though you know FULL WELL you paused it upstairs, and then you have to phone your friend to try and calm down, and as soon as your friend picks up the phone, you glimpse your own reflection in a glass door, think it is Sayid, and then start shrieking down the phone.......... yeah. Don't watch it for more than 4 hours at a time. (Btw, I look nothing like Sayid. I don't even have curly hair. I don't know why that happened. Blame it on The Island's magical powers.)
[----> Optional bit over.]

Anyway. I have had lots of interesting conversations with friends about Lost, and have heard many different theories behind what The Island is all about, and who The Others are.
I have almost caught up with the rest of the world now - I started season 4 today. The thing is, once I'm up to date, I'll only be able to watch them as and when they are broadcast. I won't be able to watch 7 in a row anymore. Even though I haven't run out of episodes yet, I kinda feel like it's the last day of summer camp or something.
A good thing is coming to an end. =(

Though on the plus side, we are going to get a lot of questions answered this season. It's meant to be the last one I think, so the big question is, IS THERE LIFE AFTER LOST?!
For the Oceanic 6? For the other suriviors? For The Others (or what's left of them, anyway)?
Is there going to be life for us, after the series is over? What will we do with ourselves?

Actually....thats a lie. The BIGGEST question is, who will Kate get with, Sawyer or Jack? I have not really nailed my colours to the mast when it comes to the 'Skate/Jate debate'. Though I thought the 'Jate is Fate' slogan was pretty cool, until I realised that 'Skate is Fate' rhymes just as well.

Admittedly, it took me all of 5 minutes to fall in love with Jack. I mean, he's so heroic in the first few episodes. He's handsome, charming, graduated from medical school a year early, and is the best spinal surgeon in the world. (*sigh*)
And at the start of Season 1, Sawyer is surly, uncooperative, and irritating.....and also hot, in a 'bad guy' kind of way.
So at first, I didn't even understand why the 'Skate/Jate Debate' existed. It seemed obvious that Kate should be with Jack. Why Sawyer? WHY? Yeah, he's hot, but he's no Jack.

Then I got to seasons 2 and 3, and suddenly it all became clear. Jack, although heroic, becomes a workaholic and is obsessed with protecting everyone and being the leader and not letting people get killed. Which are all worthy objectives, but they kinda make him a bit boring. Jack is too much of a good guy to be able to pull off the whole sexy, distant, 'brooding and mysterious' thing. Meanwhile, I started to realise that Sawyer is just misunderstood. And, let's be honest, Kate is a fugitive... Perhaps she is more suited to Sawyer. Then again, perhaps Jack could be the best thing that ever happens to her. Perhaps he could be the thing that changes her; her 'happily ever after'.

ARGH. You see?! That's why the love triangle is far more interesting than the Bermuda triangle (or whatever else could be the key to The Islands mystery).

And don't even get me started on what happened between Shannon and Sayid. I mean, how weird is that?! It took me until season 3 to realise that perhaps the Psycho Torturer Guy may, in fact, have some appeal. But I'm still kinda grossed out with myself for thinking that, even though most of my female friends, when pressed, said they also kinda get the appeal. To be fair, he's not so much of a Psycho Torturer anymore... he's quite sweet. (And also, Shannon and Boone were more messed up. I mean, c'mon, they're related! =/ )

Lately, my friends and I have been discussing how all the crash survivors (and The Others, in some cases) were linked together BC (before crash, obviously).

We drew a diagram. I thought you might like to see it. =)

I don't know if it'll go bigger if you click on it? In case you can't see, Jack and Sawyer seem to be linked to the most people.

Maybe that's coz they are hot, and hot people have more friends. Or maybe there's a deeper meaning..... Only time will tell!

Sorry I have been bad at blogging recently, but, well.... I've been watching Lost.

Yo, Sista

2008-03-12T21:45:00.003Z

At school today we were all told we had to be in school for last lesson, which didn't go down well, as Wednesday last lesson is a free for most people.
It was even worse when word got around that the reason we had to be in was for a talk on safe sex. I mean, it's a Catholic school, so for years, they haven't spoken to us about sex, because
a) we shouldn't be doing it until we are married, and
b) we shouldn't use contraception.
so there's not really anything they can teach us about it. (Except, as one girl pointed out, technique, but that would be unprofessional, peverse, and possibly illegal?).

Also, as most of us are 18 now, everyone who wants to do it has, and everyone who doesn't want to do it doesn't need to know. And we all already know anyway. Talk about shutting the door after the horse has bolted.

The teachers suspected that a lot of us would try to 'forget' about the session, if possible. So Sister Margaret went around at lunch time to remind us about it. We then started chatting about other things... like how we're doing with our lenten promises etc... and as she turned to leave, I called after her, 'Oh, sister, is this safe sex thing compulsory?'
She turned around with a mock-horrified expression on her face, and said, 'Of course it is, Anna! Safe sex is always compulsory, and never let anybody convince you otherwise!'

(I'd like to specify that this is a nun with a sense of humour. We go way back. She will never stop seeing me as the innocent little girl that used to swing on my chair at the back of maths, and get in trouble for talking too much and hugging people when I was meant to be listening. She does not, therefore, think of me as sexually active, and probably never will).

It turned out that the session was called SAVE sex, and not SAFE sex, which was what had caused the confusion.

It was surprisingly not religious, although it would probably have been better received if the boy presenting it had looked as though he was abstaining from sex through choice, and not through necessity. I know that sounds a bit mean, but he was a real nerd. And not in an cute way.

The session began with us shouting the word 'sex' as loud as we could, to break the ice. (Because, obviously, 18 year olds aren't used to talking about sex).
I didn't join in with as much enthusiasm as I'd have liked, because, you know, Sister Margaret was there, so I was trying to look like I didn't know what sex was.
Which, looking back, was kinda stupid, because she knows I do A Level Biology.

Anyway, did you know that if you're between the ages of 16 and 21, and sexually active, but you always use a condom, and you have a normal amount of sex (whatever that is) for a year, you have a 16% chance of getting pregnant. WHAT?!?!?!?! I thought they were, like, 98% effective? (Though according to Malikah, it's possible for them to be 98% effective and still have a 16% chance of getting pregnant. This is why I don't do maths. Perhaps I should ask Sister Margaret to explain?)

16% is rather high. And there's a much higher chance of getting an STD. Ew. EW.
So the Government is no longer calling it 'safe sex'; it's now 'safer sex'.
'nuff said.
Don't do it kids.

By the way, I went to see Juno a few weeks ago.
It's AMAZING. Possibly one of my new favourite films EVER.
And it's about a 16 year old girl who gets pregnant because she has sex with her tic-tac loving best friend in an Only-Fools-And-Horses-Type-Armchair because they get bored.
I went to see it, because apparently it's meant to be a good representation of my generation's values and general outlook on life.
I think it's really accurate. (At first, I resented the bit about having sex our of boredom, rather than, oh, I don't know...curiosity, but after today's sex talk, I think that may have been more accurate than I thought.)
Plus, I am convinced that Indie films are the way to go, and this one has an amazing sound track thrown in for good measure. And a cast you will fall in love with.
Go see it! =)

Leeeeegal

2008-02-04T00:13:00.000Z

I have been legal for several weeks now. I just forgot to blog about it. But it is a big deal though, right?! I mean, I'm an adult. I can buy alcohol, and vote in general elections. I have also become legal to buy cigarettes for the second time in my life, which is quite rare. There aren't many people in the world who can say that. When I was 16, 16 year olds could buy cigarettes. Then they recently raised the age to 18....and now I'm 18. Which is a relief, because, honestly, you have NO idea how desperate I've been for a fag...
(Sarcasm. Judging by my current level of fitness, if I ever took up smoking, I probably wouldn't be able to walk without going light headed).

I also realised today that if my parents die, I won't have to be adopted by someone. And I could possibly even make myself legal guardian of my brother, sister, cats and dog, so as to keep the remaining members of the family together.

Anyway, on to less morbid things. I am going to tell you about my first experience of (legally) buying alcohol:

It was a beautiful Wednesday in January. It had been freezing cold, and had rained non-stop for several days, but suddenly the sky was blue, and the birds were singing. (Surely they should all be in the south of France at the moment...?). It was the kind of day during which you feel inexplicably happy, but don't want to question it too much in case you jinx it. Like when you sit a maths paper and realise you're three quarters of the way through and haven't skipped a single question .

However, on this particular day, I had an extra reason to feel happy; it was my 18th birthday. I had extra freedom. I was my own person. I could do whatever I wanted. Yeah, technically I know that I will never be able to do whatever I want, no matter how old I am, but the sense of power went to my head just a little bit.

So, after school, I decided to go and buy alcohol - just because I could.

I went along to Somerfield. Not the classiest place to buy alcohol, I know, but it was the only place that was (kind of) on my way home. So I went in and tried to decide what to buy. I looked around... my preferred alcoholic beverage is red wine (yeah, I'm sophisticated), but to be honest, I really can't tell the difference between the different types of wine. There was a nice looking kind that was on offer. I walked up to the counter, bottle of wine in one hand, ID in the other.

I handed the bottle to the woman, who smiled at me as she scanned it. 'Thats £6.99 please, love'. You have got to be kidding me; for the first time in my entire life, I have ID thats actually useful, and she doesn't want it. I tried to hand it to her, but she just smiled again, and said, 'It's alright darling, I'm sure you're 18... you've got an honest face. You are 18, aren't you dear?'. Whatever happened to the whole 'Are you 21? It's my job to ask' thing? I mumbled, 'Well...yes, but today!'.
She flashed me another smile, but this was a completely different one. A patronising one. 'Oh, thats lovely! Congratulations, dear! 18! And what a lovely day to celebrate on! Here, pass me your ID - of course I'll look at it!'. By this time, there were several people queued behind me, and it was starting to get embarrassing. I didn't want her to look at my ID just to humour me, but I didn't feel that I could refuse. I passed it over, and she spent several minutes rooting under the counter looking for her glasses, while gushing about how lovely it was that it was my birthday, and wasn't I lucky to have the whole of my life stretching ahead of me, seemingly endless... Eventually the search was over, and she put her glasses on and squinted at my driving licence (Still provisional. Don't ask.). 'Ooooh, look at that! Wow... Is it really the 16th already?!' Well...yes. But if you don't believe it's the 16th, don't serve me. It's illegal. 'Awww, look at you, all grown up!'. I heard a snigger behind me, and decided I should probably try to draw the show to a close. I handed her the money, and stuffed the bottle in a bag as she rang it up on the till. 'Have a lovely day, won't you love? And don't drink it all at once...', she called after me as I power walked towards the exit. I turned my head slightly as I went through the door, in time to catch her winking at me conspirationally.

....and they wonder why this area is the underage binge drinking capital of the UK.

Since then, I have kept my ID hidden safely in my bag when buying alcohol, and only produce it when challenged. I am not going to remind people to 'challenge 21' if it's going to end in my humiliation, even if it provides amusement for other shoppers.
Fortunately I don't buy a lot of alcohol. Embarrassingly, my younger brother has a higher alcohol tolerance than I do. 3 pints of beer, and the room doesn't quite keep up with my head as I skip around, giggling like a 4 year old....

My New Hero!

2008-01-22T16:59:00.000Z

Mark Malkoff, an American comedian/film maker moved in to Ikea for a week while his house was being fumigated! He didn't leave Ikea for a whole week! Wow!

You can find out all about it at http://www.marklivesinikea.com/

There are lots of videos about the stuff he got up to, including a date he organises with his wife who didn't want to move into Ikea, and then thought he loved Ikea more than he loved her... (which he didn't deny!)

And, as if that isn't enough, he also visited all 171 branches of Starbucks in Manhattan in one day. He also bought something at each one... I'm assuming they weren't all cups of coffee. The caffeine in 171 coffees all consumed in 24 hours could have an interesting effect.... perhaps that's how he managed to visit every branch? By making himself really hyperactive?

Anyway, find out about that at http://www.171starbucks.com/

But yeah....Ikea and Starbucks are, like, my FAVOURITE places on the planet.

In my opinion, the real wonders of the world.

I mean, were the pyramids flat packed? No.

Could you get an iced-decaf-triple-grande-java chip-frappuccino with whipped cream and chocolate flakes at the Temple of Artemis? I think not.

And I'd choose that twin tailed mermaid in the Starbucks logo than that statue of Zeus any day!

Furthermore, it would appear that Starbucks coffee has life saving properties. ; )

Wow.

2008-01-10T17:40:00.000Z

I just realised something else

A 'Hobson's Choice' is (according to Wikipedia) 'a free choice in which only one option is offered, and one may refuse to take that option. The choice is therefore between taking the option or not taking it. The phrase is said to originate from Thomas Hobson (1544–1630), a livery stable owner in Cambridge, England, who, in order to rotate the use of his horses, offered customers the choice of either taking the horse in the stall nearest the door—or taking none at all'.

Wikipedia also says that a 'Hobson's Choice' is different from
'a true choice between two (or more) options
blackmail (do something, or have some unpleasant fact about your past revealed)
extortion (do something or suffer unpleasant consequences of some other sort)
a Catch-22 situation (all choices yield equivalent results)'.

The reason this surprised me so much is that 'Hobsons' is also the name of a company which 'specialises in student intelligence, recruitment, and enrolment management'. I know this because we had to fill out questionnaires for them at School a few years ago, and they have been sending me spam ever since. I should have fake e-mailed them, but it all seemed very official and serious, and I didn't have the guts to do it at the time. (Though I remember having to list 3 possible career options and I could only think of 2, so I ticked the 'armed forces' box as the third. Do you think it skewed their graphs? I wonder if I was an anomaly, suspended, all alone, above the line of best fit).

Is it just me, or is 'Hobsons' a slightly odd name to give such a company? I don't really know about everything they do, but all the spam they've sent me and all their magazines that have been thrust at me have been about going to university. Are they implying that a university degree is the only real option post 18? Is it brainwashing?

Their website says that they have 8 offices around the world. So if I really have uncovered some sort of conspiracy, we should act fast, before a big man behind a big desk dials a number on his big telephone and we are all caught in a big trap and...um....live lives of big oppression under a big dictator.

Argh. You see.... this is why it takes me ages to write an essay. I get side tracked so easily.

Though it's amazing what learning another language can teach you about your own. =)

In French, 'Hobson's Choice' is 'choix qui n'en est pas un'.
...so...erm....yeah....basically they don't have a word for it....

Be careful what you wish for...

2008-01-10T16:46:00.000Z

I'm in the middle of writing an essay at the moment, 'L'euthanasie est une forme de meurtre' ('euthanasia is a form of murder' for those of you who couldn't guess that!) and I was looking up words in a dictionary...... and it struck me that there is a difference between a 'dying wish' and a 'death wish'. Quite a big difference.
I'd used the wrong one at first, and then read through what I had written, saw the ambiguity, and thought I'd better check it. Good thing too - it would have changed the whole message of my essay!

_________
In case you were wondering, I won't be writing about Christmas and New Year, because they weren't fantastic. I got that famous bug - before it was famous - and threw up 17 times on Christmas Day. Yes, apparently it is possible to throw up that many times without eating anything. It just gets progressively more painful as time goes on.
They saved my Christmas Dinner, and I had it in a panini for tea on Boxing Day, as I was feeling much better by then.

Iambic Pentameter.

2007-12-10T18:20:00.000Z

Wow.

I should try that!

Or even do a whole university interview in iambic pentameter!

...which reminds me.....

GUESS WHO GOT A PLACE AT ROYAL HOLLOWAY THIS WEEKEND?! YES, THATS RIGHT, MEEEEEEE!!!

Surrey is the only place that had given me an offer til now, but they aren't particularly brilliant for English.

I didn't even have an interview for Royal Holloway, which is amazing considering the uni and the course! I need to get ABB, but that means they've lowered the entry requirements for me as well!

They must've loved my personal statement. Either that, or they need a semi-crazy person for the sake of diversity... =)

The Aga Saga Woman.

2007-12-05T22:47:00.000Z

Inner Poise?! Me?!

2007-11-23T17:25:00.000Z

I got an invitation for 'Picture Personality Test' on Facebook, so I decided to give it a go.

Normally they make the results of these things quite obscure, so that it would really apply to anyone. I think this is the first time I have ever violently disagreed with the results to a personality test.

For 'Temperament', I got the following result:

Flexible
Nothing seems to bother you - you sail through life crisis free. It's not that your life doesn't have its ups and downs, it's just that you handle everything without unnecessary drama and antics. You approach each day fresh, not worrying about yesterday or tomorrow. You are confident that you can handle anything that comes your way and experience has shown that you are absolutely right about this.

You have GOT to be kidding me. I am one of the most dramatic people I know. And I have crises on a weekly basis (Sometimes daily, if I'm having a really bad week!).
My close friends have lost count of the number of times I've sobbed 'But I cant DOOOO this!' into their shoulder.
I can normally cope with things fine in the end, but I definitely make mountains out of molehills. A total Drama Queen.

Though my results seem to contradict each other, because look what I got for 'Amusement':

Thoughtful
You are easily stressed out and overwhelmed - you need to take care of yourself first and foremost. Because you tend to be self reflective, you know your limits quite well and must remember to not exceed those limits. When you overwhelm your life with obligations and responsibilities, you tend to shut down and go into yourself even further. Take some time to find your serenity and kick back your feet.

Easily stressed out and overwhelmed? Yep, that sounds more like me!

However, 'Interests' and 'Passion' are a lot closer to the truth:

Interests
Simple
You are continually pursuing a simpler and less complicated life - you don't allow yourself to fall victim to all of the "should do's" that society continually bombards you with. You are thoughtful about your life choices and think in terms of yourself, others and the world in which we live. You have a great sense that we are part of something much bigger and we must be good to others, if we want others and the world to be good to us.

Passion
Physical
You are a cuddle bug - from a warm hug shared with your best friend to steamy sex with your partner, you enjoy every bit of human contact that you can get. You demonstrate your love for others most fluidly through physical one-on-one contact and you feel the most loved when you are being touched. You feel disconnected when you are physically isolated from others. You're a people person and a lover of all things human.

I once did a personality test called 'Which Dysfunctional Barbie are You?'.
My result was 'Lactating Barbie'.
That was years ago, and the result was so horrifying that it has stuck with me to this day. My friends also did the test, and they came up with different, but even more horrifying results. I guess it's the 'dysfunctional' part that does it. =/

You've gotta be careful with these tests!

In other news, I've had bird flu all week. It's been awful. And I've been very brave and gone in to school every day, because I really would not be able to catch up on all the work, and then I'd fail my A Levels and end up living on the streets and catching things that are even worse than bird flu. I thought I'd probably be dead by the weekend, but I perked up a lot today, so I think I may make a miraculous recovery.
If I never blog again, assume I didnt make the miraculous recovery.

(I just re-read that last paragraph. I guess it's confirmation that I really am a drama queen...)

Globe Trotting

2007-11-19T18:18:00.000Z

Today we had an English Lit trip to the Globe Theatre. It was reeeeeeally good! =)

The only thing is, it didn't stop raining all day. They should really put a roof on that thing!

We didn't actually get to see a play, which was a shame, but it meant that we got to walk around on stage during our tour of the theatre. I guess something like standing at the centre of the Globe Theatre's stage and delivering the line, 'To be, or not to be - that is the question' will be something to tell the grandchildren. ; )

On the way to the The Globe, we saw the Queen! (Yes, the actual Queen!). One of our teachers nearly got run over by her first motorbike escort. We turned around to laugh, and then another motorbike came along, followed by 2 sleek dark green Rolls-Royce limos, and the Queen was sitting in the back of the first one! We weren't on a main road at all. We'd been walking through a load of alleys and back streets that the teacher claimed were a short cut from Waterloo Station to The Globe. (Incidentally, he also claimed that it was only a 25 minute walk. We were jogging to keep up, and it was more of a wade than a walk to be honest, but I guess we can't realistically blame the weather on him as well.)

Anyway. We got there, eventually, and had a tour of the theatre, and then did an interactive workshop on the differences between Shakespearean and modern acting, and then more specifically about Hamlet.

We learnt a lot of really interesting things, but unfortunately I've forgotten most of them. (They may come back to me later...?!) One of them was that most of Shakespeares plays were only written to be performed about 6 or 7 times. He had no idea that hundreds of years later, they'd become known as some of the best plays ever written.

Also, the actors wouldn't receive a copy of the whole script, because copyright laws didn't exist back then, and Shakespeare didn't want people ripping off his work. He gave them each copies of their lines, and a cue to bring them in each time. The cue was only 3 words long! JUST 3 WORDS!!!! So they didn't really know what the play was about until they all got together and rehearsed it.

And thats another thing - because they had a different play on nearly every day, and Shakespeare's plays were always performed at 2 in the afternoon, the only rehearsal they could have was on the morning of the performance! (Apparently they couldn't practice in the evening, because actors like to go out and drink all night...so their morning rehearsals couldn't start too early the next morning either!)

Our lecturer/Globe actor/tour guide (the guy looking really surprised in the first photo) said that he thinks the fact that the Shakespearean actors didn't have copies of the whole script beforehand made the acting seem a lot more spontaneous, because when you went on stage, you didn't know whether you were about to be slapped, or kissed, or whether you'd have to stand there for 10 mins before being expected to deliver your first line.

I don't know if I could deal with that. But hey, maybe I'm just high maintenance.

Me and Phelan were planning to go on a literary pilgrimage and visit the Poets' Corner in Westminster Abbey, so we could pay hommage to the likes of Oscar Wilde and Jane Austen (The Jane Austen Book Club came out on Friday! Haven't been to see it yet though...) but when we'd finally managed to get there, we discovered that it is closed on Mondays.

Though we weren't too depressed, because we'd seen a few entertaining things on the way there.

Like a giant spider outside the Tate:

(Don't worry - Phelan didn't get eaten!)

And lots of anti-busking signs:

(I won't upload them all, but to be honest, they were kinda the highlight of the whole trip...!)

And some modern art next to the Thames:

It was meant to be about noticing people (and realising how special and significant they are, realising their potential etc.) but we thought it was a bit obscure, so I decided to make it easier to notice people through it.
(I would just like to emphasise the fact that the modern art was not meant to be at all sexual. I know that's a novel concept, especially considering some of the other modern art on that stretch of the river, but you'll just have to trust me on this. I would not have put my face there otherwise. =P )

And some Storm Troopers on the roof of County Hall:

...maybe they heard that the Queen was out?!

And a Scottish man with bagpipes on Westminster Bridge:

He was very friendly, but practically made us promise to go to Edinburgh University if we get accepted there, on the basis that it's 'the best in the world for medicine'. Well....it's not, and neither of want to do medicine, and we've only visited it - neither of us have actually applied there - so we could quite happily promise, as we are both confident that we won't get an offer from there.
He was still a nice man though. =)

And Big Ben:

And some nutters protesting opposite the Houses of Parliament (no offence if you were one of them...we loved your masks and coordinating outfits. Obviously very well planned):

They totally hogged all the limelight, so the poor people protesting about Iraq got no attention at all.

Then after that we got to Westminster Chapel and saw that it was closed, and decided to go shopping on Oxford Street instead. And we didn't really see anything else interesting. The lights were pretty though. =)

Lacking, but by no means lesser.

2007-11-17T17:31:00.000Z

Ben and Jerry went to the vet this week, and came back...well.....with bits missing.

But they did gain a chip each, so at least if someone tries to steal them, we can prove that they are ours because we now have copies of their barcodes.

I wish I had a barcode. =(

Though I got my fingerprint done for our school registration thing, which is the next best thing I suppose...

I really think they should link the fingerprint registration to the door, because the way it is at the moment, we have to scan our fingerprint to register whether we are going in or out, and then enter a code to unlock the door. It's SOOOO much more 'mission impossible' to link it to the door. And then I'd actually remember to do it.
The thing is, I haven't successfully scanned myself yet, because there are loads of buttons on the fingerprint machine, and I'm not sure which ones I'm meant to press...

And also, at lunch and break there's a mad scramble around the finger print machine because everyone's trying to get it to scan them properly, and to be honest, it's a bit unreliable. It doesn't recognise that many people.
I'm still not sure if it recognises me or not, because I still don't know if I'm pressing the right buttons.

And anyway, we still have to go to registration, 'in case they have to give us messages'.
I think the main point of it is so that they know which site we are at.
In case there's a fire, or a bomb threat, or some overdue coursework...

Anyway, back to Ben and Jerry, they seem to be OK after their trip to the vet, although when they first got back they walked in a really funny way. I'm not sure whether the anaesthetic still hadn't worn off, or whether they were having to adjust to living with certain parts of their anatomy missing.

They seem to be OK now though. I'm not convinced that actually know what they have lost. I think they just feel different, but are unaware that something is missing...

The rest of the family went out today, so I spent some quality time with them. =)

As you can see, Ben isn't very sociable. He preferred the warmth of the fire to the heat radiating from my hot body. ; ) Jerry had the right idea!

Jerry is a little cutie pie

Though, obviously, I'm very fair and don't have favourites....

UCAS is Ooooooover!

2007-11-12T21:55:00.000Z

I submitted my UCAS form today! =)
I'm glad I've got all of that over with!

I changed the last sentence of my personal statement at the last minute. It now reads, 'I believe that the opportunity to gain a degree in English would be instrumental in my search for a rewarding and life enhancing career'.
I'm having second thoughts about it now... =/
Oh well, surely being a bit hyperbolic is a good characteristic in an English student.
Plus, all artists are drama queens. =)

I applied to Royal Holloway, Southampton, Lancaster, Surrey and Goldsmiths.

I'll be very surprised if Southampton accepts me, and very offended if Goldsmiths doesn't, as that's my insurance choice in case nobody else wants me.
I'd LOVE to get into Royal Holloway - that's my first choice, but it's actually harder to get into Lancaster and Southampton... so we'll see.
I decided not to apply to Edinburgh in the end. It's a beautiful city, but I don't know if I want a Scottish MA....or almost certain rejection, for that matter.

The thing about applying to do English is that the rest of the country also has that idea, and funnily enough, the rest of the country also wants to go to the most popular universities, making it very competitive...

I had a dream that I was in Royal Holloway (and living in a really nice flat), but if my dreams are anything to go by, the university I get into should be the least of my worries...

I'll keep you posted!

Photographic Evidence

2007-11-08T22:05:00.000Z

I was flicking through the camera (how wierd does that sound?!) and found a picture that shows the piercing! Unfortunately, I'm not holding a copy of The Times, or anything else that would help to date it as having been taken this week, so you'll just have to take my word for it I'm afraid.

I thought it would be particularly good example, as the light of the flash is glinting on it...

Despite what my mother may think, it's quite a subtle piercing, so you may have to look carefully. And as you can probably tell, it is completely hidden when my hair is down, unless I cock my head to the side (as shown) which is something I don't really do, or perhaps hang my head upside down, which I also don't do.

Try not to be too jealous of my Ikea duvet cover in the background. I know you all want it.

Gimme More

2007-11-08T21:30:00.000Z

I just watched Britney's new music video...

In English Lit today, in between discussing existentialism, and fatalism, we touched on her new single, and a few people in the class seemed to be of the opinion that it is the best thing since Chris Brown's last song-rap thing. (Apparently Chris Brown is 'Safe...innit').

So I thought I'd at least give it a go before dismissing it as yet another money making publicity stunt that glorifies an unhealthy view of sexuality and the objectification of women.
Because I am, after all, a very tolerant person. ; )

It's thoroughly predictable. A very unimaginative melody, with even less imaginative lyrics. The words 'gimme' and 'more' make up about two thirds of the lyrics.

And I didn't really understand what was going on...
She was dancing, obviously. But I really didn't get why she was so close to a pole. I mean, surely, it would get in the way. And there is always the obvious risk of banging ones head in the middle of ones power grind...
I also didn't get why she spent at least the first two minutes (that's all I watched) of the song asking someone/something (the pole?) to give her 'more'. More of what?
Obviously, knowing Britney, there must be a really deep symbolism in that. I am just too uneducated and insensitive to grasp the metaphor.

The thing that concerned me though, is the fact that for the middle of November, she wasn't wrapped up very warmly. I mean, she hasn't been particularly well recently... she should look after herself properly, and get some layers on.
Though with her stressful family situation, and all the court cases, perhaps she's short of money and can't afford a lovely warm winter coat? Come to think of it, there were a lot of holes in her tights...

Poor girl.

I'd post a link to the video, but I really don't think you should watch it, to be honest.

Yoga 'Pants'

2007-11-06T20:57:00.000Z

Today I decided that the time had come for me to get some new yoga 'pants'. (I use the inverted commas because I hate Americanisms, but 'yoga trousers' doesn't sound right). My old yoga 'pants' were very old and had never been particularly flattering, and to be honest, I can't actually remember where I got them, and I have had a sneaking suspicion that they may have originally been pyjama bottoms... These yoga 'pants' are far more comfortable than the old ones, and they even came with a free mantra: My life is a creation of my mind. I find that more terrifying than soothing. I don't know I lot about yoga, but I'm pretty sure it's more about calm than terror. I always knew I'd be bad at yoga.

The yoga pants I bought are soooo comfortable. It is so easy to move in them (this coming from someone who wears jeans day in day out). It's like being naked, but without getting cold. And they feel really nice against my skin. They are nice and baggy, but with just the right amount of pressure around the waist to feel comfortably secure. Like they aren't going to start sliding while you're trying to hold a plank and breathe without making noises that sound like you're giving birth.

The thing is, they are so comfortable that I could quite happily wear them for the rest of my life. However, I am the kind of person who is totally against dressing as though I am on the way to the gym when I'm actually just going about normal life... It's so pretentious! In the past, I'll admit, I have dashed out to buy a pint of milk and a newspaper wearing pyjama bottoms. But in my opinion, that was acceptable, because it wasn't pretentious; I was dressed as though I was the kind of person who is a slob at the weekend. So basically, someone with a pretty normal lifestyle.

Though having said all that stuff about being pretentious, I don't actually do yoga. Never have, and probably never will. My body was most definitely not designed with yoga in mind. I wear them for circuit training (Yep! I still go!).

....And it would be nice to wear these yoga 'pants' out of the house. We'll see what happens.

In the mean time, I'd like to encourage all of you to go out and get your own pair!
(And no, they AREN'T chavvy. Unless you're wearing them behind a bus station, while swigging a can of White Star that someone in your Krew stole from the Spar down the road).

Thrifty Celebs!

2007-11-05T19:36:00.000Z

Keira Knightley and her boyfriend, Rupert Friend, share clothes! Well...more specifically, hats.... but who knows?! They may share countless other things.... (Hmm...let's not go there).

I have proof! And I think I may be the first person to realise this!

Look:

and then:

They switched hats! Probably thought they could get away with it, since it seems that they did it 2 seasons apart - summer, then winter, HOWEVER, nothing gets past me.

I could SO do this for a living. Write a celeb gossip column. Maybe.

Back off, Butterfly Boy

2007-10-27T23:12:00.000Z

Today I was helping out at a family fun event thing, and for the first time, I did face painting.

Normally, I'm not allowed anywhere near face painting (unless it's to get my own face painted), but today I decided to paint Ali's face, kiiiind of against his will.

He sat down, and I decided to paint him as Spiderman. I'd nearly finished covering his whole face with red paint, when he said, 'Oh, erm....yeah.... I once had an allergic reaction to face paint'. He said his whole face swelled up and went red and blotchy. We decided that it was a long time ago, and people tend to grow out of these 'petty' allergies. =)

It took me a while to get the web all painted on. Ruth had to step in to help at the last minute - symmetry is not one of my strong points.

When we'd finished, a little boy came up and asked if I'd do him as spiderman too. I felt obliged to do it, because all the other face painters were busy.

I got started, and he said, 'Actually, can I be half spiderman and half venom?'. I was slightly worried, as I'm really not artistic, and I wasn't sure who Venom was, and I didn't know how uncool I'd appear if I had to ask him...
I guessed that Venom was Spiderman turned evil in the 3rd film, and it turned out I was right....which was fortunate, because it meant I'd be able to paint it!

I carried on with the spiderman side, and his friend (a little boy whom Nicky was painting as a butterfly) turned around and said, 'Oy, you look really gay'.

I was thinking, 'Excuuuuuuuuse me?! Am I really going to take this coming from you - Butterfly Boy?!', but instead I just said, 'Thats coz I'm not done yet'.

By the time I'd finished doing Spiderman/Venom, Butterfly Boy had been finished and was standing watching me. As soon as I put down my paint brush, Butterfly Boy asked me to change him to Spiderman/Venom instead.

Ha! So he didn't look so gay after all!

Face painting is addictive! I did lots of kids, and then when I ran out of kids, I forced adults to have their faces painted as well.
Nicky also painted my face. I was a butterfly - but a much cooler one than Butterfly Boy.

At the moment I feel a bit like I assume Michelangelo must have felt......except with faces, and not ceilings.

=)

.....erm......OK......

2007-10-22T15:28:00.000Z

Overheard, when someone's phone rang during a lesson:

Teacher: Wow, that was loud! Who's that song by?
Student: Panic! at the Disco.
Teacher: Hmmm....I once panicked at the disco....

=/

I've become a 'thug'.

2007-10-21T17:10:00.000Z

I decided to go crazy this week. I've been depressingly predictable and respectable recently, and quite frankly, something had to be done about it.

So I went and got another piercing.

Up until last Friday, I just had one piercing in the lobe of each ear. Very conservative. Acceptable to people of my parents' generation, and even to some people of my grandparents' generation (though admittedly, not acceptable to all of my grandparents).

I'd been toying with the idea of getting a cartilage piercing on and off for years. I think it started when I was about 14, and wanted several piercings as well as other additional body modifications...(words can't express how glad I am that I didn't opt for the barbed wire tattoo around my neck.)

The cartilage piercing was the only thing that still appealed to me now...and I thought, 'Why not?'.

I knew my parents weren't too keen on the idea, but I wasn't sure whether they had just said no because they thought it was the thin end of the wedge at the time, and a possible gateway to the barbed wire tattoo.
Anyway, I asked them again, and to cut a very long story short, came to the conclusion that their main objection was on the grounds of taste - they didn't think it looked nice.

My Mum had told me several times in the past that she thought I should just wait until I left home, and then I could do whatever I liked; so, now that I am an incredibly mature, almost legal adult, I knew the kind of things they wanted to hear.

I explained that, while I knew they would prefer it if I waited until I moved out, I didn't think it would be productive to start coming up with a 'to do' list of things that I wasn't allowed to do at home that I was saving up to do at university. I pointed out that if I thought it was morally wrong, I wouldn't do it at all, wherever I was living. I reminded them that I'm currently in a very narrow margin of life in which it would be socially acceptable for me to have that particular piercing, people will dismiss it as being 'one of those student fads', and 'a phase' that I'll grow out of eventually. Once I get that inevitable high profile job, I'll probably have to take it out, as it would no longer be appropriate.
I also (childishly?!) added the fact that I didn't actually need their permission to go ahead with it, and was merely asking for their opinion in order to test the waters and establish exactly how long I may be in exile after returning home with the offending piece of jewellery.

In the end, they agreed that untimately, it was my choice. (Mum: 'I only carried it for 9 months, and let it take all the goodness out of me, but it's your body, do what you want with it, I don't care.')

Being the responsible person that I am, I researched it, completely freaked myself out, and decided that there are some occasions in life in which ignorance truly is bliss, and in which it is best to just do it and not think about the consequences (which actually demands a certain degree of maturity to realise....maybe...).

The internet warned me that cartilage piercings 'frequently' go wrong, and are one of the most dangerous to get. It said that, if done with a gun, there is a possibility of puncturing a main artery, or shattering cartilage, and that using a needle only slightly reduces these risks. It said that due to the lack of blood supply to cartilage, it is very easy for infection to set in, and that many people are hospitalised every year for cartilage infections caused by piercings.

Once I had calmed down, I remembered that it is not compulsory to believe everything you read on the internet. It also struck me as strange that it was possible to 'puncture a main artery' in an area that has a 'lack of blood supply', and that it was even possible to have a 'main artery' in your ear without it exploding from all the blood roaring through it at such high pressure. I also wondered whether it would be possible for something that isn't brittle (such as....say....ear cartilage) to shatter.

I phoned a relative who is a GP, and has been a GP for many years, and asked her how many patients she had seen with infected cartilage piercings. None. And she's seen a lot of disgusting sights over the years.

So I decided I'd done enough research, and that I would definitely get it done. However, although the internet strongly advised me to get it done in a 'proper tattoo place with a needle', I decided to opt for the gun. Call me crazy, but I'd rather not waltz into a seedy back room somewhere and allow a tattooed old man with no A Levels and any number of diseases to stab me with a needle of unknown provenance. The idea of getting it done in a shop window wasn't particularly attractive either, and I never thought I'd call the people who work in Claire's Accessories 'highly qualified', but I guess it really depends who and what you're comparing them to!
I can remember when you could get it done at Bentalls and H Samuels and other places like that, but they told me they didn't do it anymore... So in the end, the only place that would do it with a gun was Claire's Accessories. I got my first piercings done there, because I was 10 and didn't know any better, but to be honest, although they have been infected a few times, the first infection was several years after I'd got them done, and so can't realistically be blamed on Claire or the people who work in her Accessories shops.

I gathered some friends for moral support, and headed for our local branch ridiculously early so that nobody else would be around to watch through the window. I was terrified. My hands were shaking so much that my signatures on the consent forms look like they were written in arabic.

Having slandered Claire's Accessories, I've got to admit that I was actually very impressed. The lady who did it was the manager. Although the fact that she was dressed in red hotpants with fishnet tights didn't exactly inspire confidence, she really seemed to know her stuff. She explained that you can't necessarily get a cartilage piercing wherever you want, because it depends on the shape of your ear and the thickness of your cartilage. She used a 'surgical pen' to draw little dots to show me where I could have it done, and explained how to clean the piercing before she had even done it. She remembered to check my ID, but I was very conscious of the number of things she touched after she'd put the surgical gloves on, but hey...at least she was wearing them, right?

As she loaded the 'piercing system' (apparently it is standard procedure to call it that, rather than a 'gun' due to a controversy that caused all the jewellers to lose their piercing licences) I took deep breaths and tried to relax as each of my hands were stroked by friends who already had sympathetic looks on their faces. She positioned the gun, and I felt my whole body tense. I closed my eyes. I heard a loud popping/crunching sound, and felt a small sting in my ear. Then nothing. I opened my eyes, and saw three anxious faces peering back at me.
That was it!

I couldn't actually believe it was over, and I felt really pathetic for being so scared. It didn't hurt very much at all. It was just like having an injection; you're aware that something has been poked through your skin, but it's not as painful as you think it should be.

She handed me a bottle of 'Claire's Ear Care Lotion' (apparently not the same thing as surgical spirit), reminded me to keep the stud in for at least 12 weeks, and it was all over.
As I negotiaged my way to the till through all the shelves crammed with feathers and sequins and other bits of tat, my friends bounced up and down and told me how cool it looked, the manager bounced up and down and told me how cool it looked, and I bounced up and down and enjoyed the adrenaline rush.

We had literally just walked out the door, when Phelan turned and said, 'You know what? That looks so cool, I think I want one as well'.
I said, 'What?! You mean now?!'.
She thought for a grand total of about 2 seconds, and said, 'Yeah! I mean, it's not like it hurts or anything, right?'

So we headed back in for round 2.
It was only on the way out after she'd had it done that she stopped and yelled, 'OH NO!!!! WHATS MY MUM GOING TO SAY?!?!?!'

We didn't manage to convince Em to get hers done too. It was slightly more complicated with her, because she doesn't have any piercings done yet, and so she'd have to get her mum to agree first. I get the feeling that it's only a matter of time though.

On our way to the bus stop, we met Kath, who saw our new piercings, and said, 'Wow! Did it really not hurt? I'll go and get mine done next week!'

I know, I know......I'm such a trend setter.

The thing is, once I was back home, and my mother had informed me that I now look like 'a thug', my ear started to warm up, and then it started to hurt a bit. I think we were quite lucky that we had chosen a particularly frosty morning when our ears would be numb from the cold...

I've been really good at remembering to clean it and twist it though, and it only really hurts if I touch it a lot (yeah....I know....I probably shouldn't touch it at all). Yesterday at work, I momentarily forgot, and whacked the phone against my ear when I answered it. I managed not to yelp down the phone, but it did sting for about an hour after that.

Today hasn't been too bad though. I have to grit my teeth when my hair gets caught in it, but it no longer hurts if I twist it around.

So, if you've been thinking about getting yours done, my advice would be to go for it. Yes, it is more painful than a lobe piercing, but only slightly. And don't worry about getting it done with a gun - I didn't puncture a main artery, my cartilage didn't shatter or break off, and 3 days on, I still don't have an infection. My ear didn't swell at all, and the redness went away after a few hours. It is possible to sleep on that side of your head if you're very careful and have a squishy pillow that you can make a dent in, though if any of you know where I can get one of those water polo hats with the plastic ear covering thingies, please let me know.

I still don't know how long it will take to heal. In my non-medical opinion, I'd say I'm making good progress, but according to some sources, it can take up to a year before it has totally healed (though it should stop hurting sooner, and you can change the earring before then).

The only down side to it is that yo've got to have one of those really big butterfly backs on it - the same as the ones you start out with in earlobe piercings. Apparently they help to stop infection (presumably just because they are so big, they cover all the space around the piercing so no dirt can get in) but I don't know how long I'll keep it before I switch to a normal back. I mean, I wouldn't want to be hospitalised with cartilage piercing or anything like that..... ; )

I'll put a picture up when I can find the camera....

Spidey meets Jack Black.

2007-10-17T14:50:00.000Z

and one for the ladies.... =D

Mmmm

Headline for Daily Bugle: SPIDERMAN BRINGS SEXY BACK.

Oyster

2007-10-13T19:18:00.000Z

Look what I found!

I know it's kinda small.... it might go bigger if you click on it?
Or click here.

If bus fares continue to rise at the same rate as they have during the last 10 years, by 2017 we'll be paying £14 for a single bus ride inside London. =0

And I've been walking EVERYWHERE for the last 2 weeks because I refuse to pay £2 for a bus ride.

I can't believe they've already stopped my Oyster card from working! Where's the logic in that?!
I'm not 18 for another 3 months. Making me get my 18+ Oyster card now is basically forcing me to carry fake ID. Which is morally wrong.

Ken Livingston, I hope you can't sleep at night.

Anna is _____________

2007-10-08T17:50:00.000Z

The thing about Facebook is that when you break up with someone, you have to change it on your profile....and when you change it on your profile, it goes on everyone's news feed.....and then everyone sends you messages asking why/who/how/when....

And don't even get me started on the status thing.

What are you supposed to write?
Anna is dejected
Anna is feeling rather glum
Anna is eating anything in sight
Anna is wanting to hear lots of jokes
Anna is a bit confused
Anna is not a happy bunny
Anna is NOT WISHING TO TALK ABOUT IT, THANKS.

I know I've always said I love the voyeuristic uses of Facebook....

I guess every silver lining has its cloud....
(Wow. I don't think I've ever used the words of that expression in that order.)

Don't you wish you were cool like me?!

2007-10-02T18:16:00.001Z

Go to www.blibs.com.

Hooooooours of fun! 8-)

...and I don't even eat cheese!

2007-09-28T16:26:00.000Z

I had a very vivid dream last night, which is not particularly unusual....

However, I killed someone in the dream, which has never happened before.

To be honest, he started it. He was one of those Spanish men with swords who used to go around challenging people to duels, in like, the 1800s or whenever it was. 'Three Musketeers' style.

He didn't even challenge me, he just got his sword out and started, kinda like Johnny Depp in Pirates. The duel lasted quite a long time. We were in my kitchen, and I was standing on a chair, and he was on the floor, so I had the advantage of height, but the handicap of not being able to take a step either backwards or to the side (otherwise I would have fallen off the chair).

I kept on lunging and thrusting and whatever else it is you do in sword fights. We were quite equal when it came to skills, so it went on and on with not much progress, until eventually, I got a bit fed up (I distinctly remember feeling bored, and wishing he'd hurry up and die, because I was quite busy and had a lot to do), so started to put more effort in, and I managed to get my sword quite far into his right arm, which meant he had to switch his sword to his left arm, which was a lot weaker, and he couldn't block himself so well, so I stuck my sword in him a bit more, and he collapsed and ended up kinda sprawled across the kitchen floor.

I jumped down off the chair, and walked over to him, and he seemed to be twitching a bit, so I could tell he wasn't dead. I didn't want to get too close, in case he was just playing dead so I'd come near enough for him to skewer me on his sword.

Then, after that, it gets a bit hazy.

I think that he came round a bit and muttered something about me doing the honourable thing and killing him to put him out of his misery, but I'm not sure whether my conscious added that part after I woke up, so that my subconscious didn't seem so brutal. Either way, I picked up his sword and killed him with it.

Then I woke up, and thought, '.....I am such a loon....'

It probably says something about me.
Something along the lines of me (or at least, my subconscious) being profoundly, and possibly irreversably, screwed up.

When I told my immediate neighbours during registration, Debbie said, helpfully, that she'd read something about meanings of dreams, and that if you dream you've killed someone, it is symbolic of something far less sinister than actual murder, or even death. Unhelpfully, she couldn't remember what it was.
Phelan, on the other hand, seemed both impressed and pleasantly surprised. She's always dreaming about killing people, in ways far more gruesome than that, and apparently she didn't think I had it in me.

Fortunately, I stopped believing that dreams bear any relation to real life long ago.

Hey there Delilah

2007-09-17T22:38:00.000Z

I can't get enough of this song at the moment!

Watch out for the Plain White T's!

They deserve to be HUGE! =)

Ben & Jerry

2007-09-17T20:08:00.000Z

Towards the end of the summer holidays, I had a lot of time on my hands.

It's true what they say about idle hands, and about the 'youth of today' developing bad habits during the long summer break....sex drugs, rock & roll.....binge drinking.....

Well, I'd just like to say that none of us are infallible.

'Let he who is without sin cast the first stone', and all that.

I yielded to temptation. I put up a good fight, but unfortunately some people are just too practiced in the art of sedcution, and we all have to succumb to the carnal pleasure at some point.

I think you know all who I'm talking about.

Yep, that's right. Ben and Jerry. And their sumptuous cookie dough ice cream.

Mmmmmmmmmmmm.......... =)

To cut a long story short, I developed an addiction to it. In a stunning act of self control and determination, I tried to fight the desire by eating half a jar of stuffed olives, but it just left me with an even stronger yearning for the ice cream, and a slightly queasy feeling in my stomach.

So I gave in. Again.

I gained half a stone in a month, and I'm dead serious about that. I've been exactly the same weight, give or take a kilogram, since I was 13. I reached my all time heaviest during this blip. I've lost most of it now, what with starting school again, and all the running around like a headless chicken trying to meet deadlines....but still, let that be a lesson to you.

I was clearing off my desk for the start of the new school year, and amongst the debris were the remains of my sweet summer fling with Ben and Jerry (both of them. I know, shocking).

Then a photo opportunity came to mind:

We didn't name them Ben & Jerry for nothing!

You may notice that they aren't licking out the cookie dough ones...

I'm afraid I relapsed. I wanted to lick them out myself!

Edinburgh!

2007-09-09T16:58:00.000Z

I went to the Edinburgh University open day on Friday!

It's the only time I've ever been to Edinburgh, and it really is a stunning city, with loads of beautiful old buildings, and the people are really lovely (if a little hard to understand). Also, being a 'city of literature', you can do tours of all the places of literary importance, and even do a literary pub crawl (not sure how that works...).

The thing is, I found out that there are 29 applicants for every place on the English course, so the chances are, I will never live there, but I'd like to go back on holiday! =)

In the coach on the way back home (it's a long way!) I came up with some really good inventions that will earn me millions, so I won't need to go to University after all. Or if I choose to go anyway, just to pass the time, the fees shouldn't be a problem.

You know how when you get shampoo and conditioner, they come in bottles that are the same size, even though you tend to need more conditioner than shampoo? Well, I think that they should sell the conditioner in a bigger bottle than the shampoo. Because that solves the problem of having a quarter of a bottle of shampoo left over, when you're already having to balance the conditioner upside down, and slap it to get anything out.
Especially since I have a thing about standing bottles upside down. I don't know why, but it just feels unnatural, and wrong somehow. The only time I can justify it is when it's those ketchup bottles that are meant to be upside down. Do you know the ones I mean? They have a really big lid at the bottom, to make a large, stable base, and the top is pointy, so you couldn't put it the other way around even if you wanted to.

.....I digress.

My other invention is muffin coated blueberries. Just because.

'Compare People'

2007-08-22T00:39:00.000Z

I received a Facebook invitation to add an application called 'Compare People'.

I thought it seemed interesting, so I added it, instead of clicking 'ignore' like I normally do. =)

It's actually quite good fun!

Basically, it asks you questions, such as, 'Who would you rather be stuck with on a desert island?' and shows you 2 of your friends, and you have to click on the appropriate person.

It stores all of the info, and then uses everyones statistics to compare you with your friends.

At the moment, I'm winning for 'Person with the Best Smile', 'Best Shopping Companion', 'Most Talkative', and 'Person who would make a Better Mother'

When it shows the results, it tells you your rank (1st, 2nd etc), the number of times you were compared with someone else, the number of votes you won, and the percentage of votes you won.

Looking through my results has reminded me about a lot of statistical problems I did in GCSE maths.
For example, although I'm ranked 1st in my network for 'Person who would make a Better Mother', I only won 3 votes our of a possible 4; i.e 75%.
And I'm ranked 2nd for 'Person I would rather have dinner with', for which I got 100% of the vote (3/3).

Not surprisingly, I am ranked 33rd in my network for 'more tech-savvy'. 0% of 3 votes.

But guess what? For 'more talkative', I won 100% of a whopping 7 votes. 8-) (Actually, maybe that doesn't surprise you either...?!)

To be honest, making a good mother is a far more useful life skill than being an entertaining dinner guest in my opinion. Not that my opinion effects the statistics in any way.

______

Update: since writing this, I have been over taken by someone who is, apparently, 'more talkative' than me.
That person is Mike Pilavachi (Big Loud Greek Man In Equally Loud Poncho Who Heads Up Soul Survivor). A worthy opponent.
And actually, he may have 22 votes, but that represents only 79% of his total votes, and he has a much bigger network than me anyway.

I think it would be bordering on stating the obvious to say that I have the moral victory. =P

Oh, and I also have 100% of the vote for 'rather marry'. Though my charm and sophistication aren't as widely appreciated as it may seem, since there have only been 2 votes in that section! hehe

Switzerland

2007-08-21T23:34:00.000Z

I feel like I should write something about Switzerland.
I started a post about it, but now I can't be bothered to finish it...

But I kind of feel obligated to write something, what with it being a new linguistic/cultural/independent/educational/strange experience.

It was really hard work. I was working in a guest house - mostly in the kitchen, but also cleaning and stuff like that.

Very long hours.

We had to be in the kitchen at 7:30 am, and we normally weren't done until 9:30 or 10 pm (though we normally had about 2 hours off in the afternoon - mostly for taking a nap!).

But hey, my French improved, which is the main thing, right? I mean, I now know more names for different kinds of bowls in French than I do in English. Which should have many practical applications in the future. =/

While I was there, I had one day off, which I spent climbing a nearby mountain, Le Suchet. (there were actually a lot of nearby mountains, coz I was very high up in the Alps).

Those of you who know me will probably be thinking, 'Wow....Anna.....voluntarily going for a walk that doesn't involve shopping.....on her day off.... the mountain air must have got to her'.

No. There was a Dutch boy there who had the same day off as me. He thought it might be fun to climb the mountain. I agreed. It didn't look that far, or high, or steep on the map. And the map didn't say it would be freezing cold and very windy at the top.

Anyway, you have to hand it to him, because he only asked once whether my level of fitness was representative of the average level of fitness of people in my area. (To which I replied, 'YES!!!! *gasp* I'm actually quite fit compared with some of my friends. *gasp* Actually, I'm fitter than it may seem, *gasp* because the air is very thin up here *gasp* etc.')

He is one of those ridiculously energetic people who cycles an hour to school and an hour home again. Technically I'm half Dutch, and I've never been particularly into cycling, but why can't I at least have the weird fitness gene? Or at least the gene that gives you the desire to be fit...? On the way up, I made a mental note to join a gym as soon as I got home...but now.... well, I ran about 150m for the bus today, and lived to write about it here....surely that's enough...???

Though at one point on the way up, I thought I might die up there... all alone except for one person who's English wasn't good enough to properly understand my last words. And I also had to decide which language my last words would be in. But the thought of dying on foreign soil (and at that point, we weren't even sure whether it was French or Swiss) and saying my last words in a foreign language, to someone who would probably get confused and misquote me to the millions of people clamouring for my final words of wisdom was so depressing that I had to start singing songs from The Sound of Music and running about with my arms out like Julie Andrews in her habit. Then I felt less like I was going to die.

Aaaaaanyway..... we made it to the top. The whooooole way to the top, and guess what we found?

A big metal thing. That is IT.

Wow. I'm really glad I bothered.

The view was alright I suppose, but I could see a lot of it from the guest house. I had a really great view of Mt Blanc from my bedroom window. We could see France from the top (the guest house is only 2 miles from the French border though, so that's not saying much!). We also saw a few lakes. And some towns. And a lot of cows. And we could hear the cow's bells (but that was nothing new...there wasn't a single minute in the whole time I was there where I couldn't hear one of those bells).

Here's a picture of the metal thing:

There you go; it saves you lot having to go up now. ;-)

About a week later, we drove most of the way up with the others (theres a road that winds the whole way around the mountain about a million times. It's much further than the footpath, but obviously far more practical, in that you can fit a car up it...). We watched the sun set, while clinging onto the metal thing for dear life so that we didn't get blown away.

It was quite a pretty sunset, but I was a bit distracted, because the air felt like it was moving too fast for me to breathe it properly, and I was picturing my cells and tissues slowly suffocating and dying (which kinda detracted from the prettiness of the sunset, tbh...).

Here are some more pictures:

The lake in the distance is Lac Leman. (Otherwise known as Lake Geneva, but apparently only the people who live in Geneva call it that, and everyone else hates them for it...)

...and that one is Lac Neuchatel.

And that would have been a picture of France, if the sun hadn't decided to be all arty and get in the way...

And this is a picture of us at the top. We took our lives in our hands and let go of the metal thing to get together for a nice group photo.
You might notice the early stages of windburn, and how we are having to fight to keep our eyes open against the wind.

This is why the New Radicals should never have broken up

2007-08-10T18:52:00.000Z

Lyrical genius. 8-)

I haven't been this proud since Brownies!

2007-08-07T21:20:00.000Z

I won a badge competition!

I'm probably the only person in the world who has been given any sort of recognition for peeing on a campfire. (At least, the only female person).

Does that make me the world wide expert?

Does that earn me a world record? Or an appearance on Ripley's Believe it or Not?

I will start looking for an agent first thing tomorrow morning.

Packing

2007-07-17T14:52:00.000Z

I have almost finished packing for my trip to Switzerland. (I leave at 5am tomorrow...)

I'm so proud of my packing efforts, that I thought I'd share my success story.

Before I go into all my hints and tips, I think I should first tell you that I am not known for having a minimalist approach to packing. I like have every eventuality covered just in case... You can never be too prepared. But do you think people congratulate me on having duct tape and screw drivers and citronella candles and other vital stuff handy? Nope, they just slap flourescent 'heavy bag' stickers all over the place.

So yes, in the past, there have been times when all my essential items added up a bit more than they should have done (weight wise) and I have been known to ram a foot under the scales at Check In, to stop them going down any further.

I probably wasn't the only one who did this, and I think the air lines realised, because now they have a different kind of weighing scale and they no longer have bits you can ram your foot under...

So, after a lot of travelling experience, I've come to realise several things:

1) A suitcase seems bigger than an equivalent sized bag, so if you pack in a massive bag rather than a suitcase, people think you're bringing less stuff.

2) Make sure there are wheels on your bag... there are some situations that are really hard to pack things for - like a hernia. Or an aneurism. Wheels are good. Also, it's a lot more dignified to wheel a bag behind you as you stride confidently through the airport, than to pant and stagger under the weight of a bag you're attempting to carry over your shoulder.

3) In the (unlikely) event that you don't fill your bag to bursting point, the fabric will look loose around the stuff inside it, which also creates the illusion of not having much inside it. (Same principle as wearing baggy jeans over chunky thighs, as opposed to leggings).

4) Zip Lock bags were DESIGNED with travelling in mind. (Granted, probably more to do with travelling with food, and less to do with travelling with shampoo and suncream, but still....).
Anything that could possibly leak or explode or get lost or unravel or twist up or break..... put it in a zip lock bag. =)

5) Rolling clothes up instead of folding them can make a lot more space. I don't really know why, but I've decided to embrace it rather than question it. I learnt this from Julie on a trip around India when I couldn't fit all my clothes back in my bag and everyone else was waiting to check out of the hotel. Also, rolling clothes can sometimes make them come out less creased than folding them. (If you do it carefully). Rolled up clothes are also easier to wedge into place, and putting heavy things like bottles and shoes on the top will help to hold them down.

So... here's a picture of my work so far:

....and the great thing is, there's still loads more room in there for other stuff! =) (I know it looks quite full, but thats just the angle, I promise!)

It's an 80 litre bag (why are bags measured in litres?!) and I think it's only about 3/4 full.

This is the best packing I've done in my whole entire life. OK, I haven't been around all that long, but still.... I'm proud of this! It's a big deal for me! And just think how good I'll be by the time I'm 40!

Also, I've already checked the latest hand baggage rules online. You're still not allowed more than 100ml of any liquid. I'll be dehydrated! And anything liquid or squidgy (eg: toothpaste, lip balm, moisturiser etc.) has to be in a separate, clear, resealable (zip lock!) bag that is no larger than 1l, and you have to give it to them so they can check it through before you get on the plane.

At least I'm prepared.

BRING IT ON.

Hot Fuzz: Part 2

2007-07-17T12:49:00.000Z

We had a sleepover round Em's house last night (yep, technically on a SCHOOL NIGHT, though none of us had any lessons today...but it still felt deliciously rebellious).

We watched all the 'usual' DVDs, and some new ones that will probably end up being added to the 'usual' list.

One of the films we watched was Hot Fuzz - a first for me.
I was pleasantly surprised.... it's not the kinda thing I'd normally go for, and I was slightly worried that it was going to be really gory and violent.
It's quite a good film, actually.
It is gory and violent, but in a very far fetched, artificial way, so that the overall effect isn't particularly scary. (Either that, or I'm becoming hardened and desensitized by this cruel world...)
Also, the 2 cops looked SO MUCH like our cops, that we couldn't really be scared of them.

Oh, that reminds me, I had another run in with our cops last week!

I was walking back through that subway (with different friends this time), and there were some more police officers loitering there...
A policewoman stopped us and started asking us questions about whether we think it is too dangerous to use the subway at night (uh.....DUH!), and about whether we know of anything illegal that goes on in it. Evidently the graffiti and drug paraphernalia down there is not a large enough indicator for them.
Anyway, while we were answering her questions, those 2 policemen who had stopped us for supposedly smoking dope in the subway cycled up and stopped.
They both smiled at me, and Blond Guy said, 'So....is this the third most exciting thing that's ever happened to you?'

Meet Ben & Jerry!

2007-07-11T09:13:00.000Z

They arrived on Saturday afternoon, and are SOOOOOOOO cute!

The darker one is Ben and the lighter one is Jerry.
(They were very nearly called Darcy and Bingley instead though!)

This picture was taken during one of the rare times that they were actually staying still, because that have SO MUCH ENERGY! It's really hard keeping track of them!

They aren't allowed out of the house yet, because they are only just 8 weeks old, and I think they need to be 10 weeks old before they can be vaccinated, so it means that there is a contained area that we need to find them in... it would take so much longer if we had to search the whole neighbourhood!

We've realised that they quite like to sleep in the washing machine, so we normally check there first if they go missing.

Yesterday dad found them in the dishwasher...

Mars vs Venus

2007-07-03T20:28:00.000Z

So much like real life!

Sorry abt the subtitles though... no idea what language that is!

Boobs! =0

2007-07-03T19:14:00.000Z

Haha.
I just got a really funny e-mail, and I thought I'd share it with you. =)

What Religion is Your Bra?

A man walked into the ladies department of a boutique and shyly walked up to the woman behind the counter and said, "I'd like to buy a bra for my wife."
"What type of bra?" asked the clerk.
"Type?" inquires the man, "There's more than one type?"
"Look around," said the saleslady, as she showed a sea of bras in every shape, size, color and material imaginable. "Actually, even with all of this variety, there are really only four types of bras to choose from".
Relieved, the man asked about the types.
The saleslady replied: "There are the Catholic, the Salvation Army, the Presbyterian, and the Baptist types. Which one would you prefer?"
Now totally befuddled, the man asked about the differences between them.
The Saleslady responded, "It is all really quite simple...
The Catholic type supports the masses.
The Salvation Army type lifts the fallen,
The Presbyterian type keeps them staunch and upright,
and The Baptist makes mountains out of mole hills."

Have you ever wondered why A, B, C, D, DD, E, F, G, and H are the letters used to define bra sizes?
If you have wondered why, but couldn't figure out what the letters stood for, it is about time you became informed!
{A} Almost Boobs...
{B} Barely there.
{C} Can't Complain!
{D} Dang!
{DD} Double dang!
{E} Enormous!
{F} Fake.
{G} Get a Reduction.
{H} Help me, I've fallen and I can't get up !

Hot Fuzz

2007-07-03T16:34:00.000Z

For the first time ever, I got stopped by the police for doing something bad. It was so exciting!

Well, to be honest, it was a bit of a cheat, because we weren't actually doing anything bad...but they thought we were.

This happened last Thursday. We (Lobz, Phelan and me) were walking from Physics (or Geography in Phelan's case) to English Lit (or History in Lobz's case) which is on the other site. This walk involves crossing the A3 using the subway.

We'd just got to the subway, when I heard something behind us, so I looked around and saw 2 policeman coming towards us on bikes. You don't often see them on bikes around here, so I said 'Oh, look! Policemen on bikes!'. They looked round, and Phelan remarked on how they seem far sexier when they are on motorbikes, then they passed us, and we continued with the previous conversation.

When we got through to the other side of the subway, and saw them stopped at the side of the road, talking into walkie talkies. I smiled at them, and we carried on walking up the road. About 3 mins later, they caught up with us, and asked us to stop so they could talk to them. We stopped, and I assumed they were going to ask us whether we'd seen anything suspicious going on.

But one of them (blond hair, South African accent... and between you and me, kinda attractive, in a powerful, authoritative way, for an oldish [i.e. early 30s] guy) said, 'When we passed you in the subway, what were you doing?'
I said, '...Nothing....'.
Coz we weren't doing anything. Other than walking, but I thought that would kinda go without saying...

He turned to Lobz and said, 'When we cycled past you, she [he pointed at me] warned you I was coming, and you had something in your hand which you hid, what was it?!'
She is really shy, so she blushed, started trembling a bit, and whimpered, 'I wasn't holding anything', which probably made us seem even more suspicious than they already thought we were...

It was around about then that I thought I'd better take over.
So I said in my hybrid charming/innocent voice, 'She really wasn't holding anything, I promise! I did point you out to them, but only because it's a novelty to see policemen on bikes around here'
(I left out the bit about how they would be sexier if they were on motorbikes...thought I'd better not offend them....)

He said, 'Are you sure you weren't [insert obscure slang word here]?!'
I looked a bit confused, and said, 'Huh?!' (this was probably a smart move, as it made it us look innocent because we aren't down with all the drug lingo)

He said, 'I thought I saw her hide a spliff.'

I laughed.
I couldn't help it.
For those of you who don't know her, Lobz is the most law abiding person I know.
She has never even had a library fine.

He looked a bit shocked when I laughed, and then there was an awkward silence.
I composed myself, and said, 'You can search us if you like, we really have nothing to hide'. (Plus, between you and me, being searched by Blond Guy may have even been a bit....well....enjoyable.)

Another slight pause. The policemen exchanged glances.
Then Blond Guy said, 'When you saw us on our walkie talkies, we were talking to our supervisor at HQ to ask about whether we could search you.....but because we are both male, we can't do it, even though there are witnesses.....so if we believe that we have enough evidence to search you, we'll have to take you down town and get a woman to do it...'

I said, 'But then we'll miss English Lit.'

He rolled his eyes at me, and exchanged another glance with the other policeman. It was like they could communicate with eye signals or something. Secret code...

Then I said, 'Uh....are you going to arrest us or something?!'.
Blond Guy laughed, and said, 'No, we can't do that...'. Which was a bit of a relief, coz depending on what they thought we had on us, we could have ended up in one of those juvenile delinquent places or somewhere like that. And if I'm honest, I don't think I'm butch enough to survive in a rough place like that. I'd leave with permanent emotional scars...

So then, because I was so relieved, I actually started to enjoy it.
I mean, that kinda thing probably won't happen to me again.

The the other guy said, 'Well, either way, we'll need to take your details...'
He pulled out a little black notebook thing (Yeah! They still have those! Though surely in this day and age, it would be far more useful to have a Blackberry or something like that...?!).
Then he said, 'We are going to do something called a 'Stop & Search', would you like my to tell you your rights?'
I smiled and said, 'No, it's OK... we trust you!'
He looked a bit taken aback, and tried to hand me a booklet with my rights in it, but I didn't take it...

Then he said, 'Right....erm....OK... well, who wants to go first?'
I shouted, 'ME!!!! Please?! PICK MEEEEE! I WANNA GO FIRST!'.
They both looked at me. I guess they aren't used to that sort of enthusiasm...
I said, 'Sorry....It's just that this is, like, the most exciting thing that's ever happened to me in my life....'

Notebook Guy laughed, and said, 'OK, name?' I told him.
'Address?' I told him.
(And strongly resisted the urge to add, 'England, UK, Planet Earth, Milky Way etc.' on the end. That wouldn't have been helpful...)
Then he started writing my description. So he looked me up and down, and said, 'Right, brown hair, grey hoody, jeans...'.
I said, 'My shoes are pink converses, except they look more like a dirty grey now, so I dunno what you want to put for that...'. He raised his eyebrows, and wrote something down.
Then I said, 'I have green eyes'. He wrote it down.
'I'm 1.65m'. He wrote that down as well.
'I weigh 52 kg'. He sighed, and wrote it down.
I added, 'I've got size 5 feet'.
Blond Guy started laughing, and said, 'It's OK... we don't need that....'

Then he moved on to Phelan's description.

While Notebook Guy was writing her description, Blond Guy asked, 'Is this really the most exciting thing that's ever happened to you?!'
I said, 'Yeah...... well actually no. There was this other time that I got stopped by security in Abu Dhabi Airport, because my brother put a metal spud gun in my bag, and it came up on the metal detector, and they didn't really speak English, and they thought it was a real gun.....'
(I won't type the whole story because it's long, and I'm pretty sure I've put it on here before... If I haven't, tell me and I'll add it!)

He was very entertained by my story, and said, 'Wow, thats really funny! We need to think of a way for you to get revenge on your brother....' (Yes...a policeman helping me to come up with revenge ideas...)

Then Notebook Guy interrupted, and said, 'Wait, so you mean this isn't actually the most exciting moment of your life?'
He even looked genuinely disappointed.

So I said, 'Well no offence, but the airport security guys had guns, and all you have is handcuffs....'.
He nodded and said he supposed I was right.
I added, 'But this is still the second most exciting moment of my life', which put a smile back on his face.

I asked them if they had ever used guns. Blond Guy said that he'd done National Service in South Africa, and that he'd been trained to use a gun for that. Notebook Guy looked a bit shifty, like he didn't want to be out-done by Blond Guy, and said, 'I go clay pigeon shooting at the weekends'. Blond Guy laughed at him.

Then Notebook Guy changed the subject by moving on to describing Lobz. She has kinda Strawberry Blonde hair that sometimes people mistake for ginger. So he said, 'erm...how would you like me to describe your hair....is auburn alright with you?!'.
She gave him The Look, and said, 'To be honest, I don't really care'.

Then I said, 'Erm....does this mean I have a criminal record? Coz I really haven't done anything wrong...and I have a CRB check being processed at the moment.....'
Blond Guy smiled and said that it wouldn't come up on a criminal record. And then he asked how old I was. So I told him.
And then he said, 'Well, you're 18 in 6 months, so your criminal record will get wiped clean anyway'
I answered, 'Oh, OK, so basically, you're saying that I only have 6 months to do all the rest of the illegal things I've got planned....'
He smiled at me and said, 'Yeah...something like that'.

(See..... my smooth talking had got it to the point that we were now joking about me being a criminal. It's a shame I'm not a real criminal, coz I reckon I'd be really good at talking my way out of things...!)

Then we chatted for a bit longer, and eventually I said, 'Well, it's been really nice talking to you, but we don't want to be late for English Lit, so is it OK if we go now?!'
This time they both smiled, and said if was fine for us to go.

As we turned to go, I said, 'So, do you still think we have drugs?!'

Blond Guy grinned.

Typical man.... can't admit he made a mistake...

I smiled back, and said, 'Enjoy the rest of your day!'

They smiled back, hopped on their bikes, and rode off.

And that was that.

I later found out, from a friend who....uh.....used to regularly be involved in activities of questionable legality.... that they would have been community policemen, and that we weren't actually legally required to tell them our names and addresses. I found out that this friend carries one of those booklets with your rights in a 'Stop & Search' situation with him at all times.
He keeps it in his wallet.
Seriously.

last.fm

2007-06-26T19:36:00.000Z

The more observant among you will have noticed a new addition to this blog.

Did you notice?!

It's over there ------>

That blue thing with a list of the most recent tracks I listened to.

Pretty cool, huh?

One of my friends started talking about Last.fm, and I suddenly remembered that I have an account. So I went to the website and tried to log in, but I couldn't remember my password. And I couldn't get them to e-mail me my password, because it asked for my username, which I'd also forgotten.
I spent ages trying all my usernames I could remember, and trying each of my passwords with them (I reuse passwords. I have 3 'core' ones that I use for most things)
It all got a bit complicated....

So I did the only thing I could have done in a situation like that; I phoned a g33k. (This g33k)
I got him to sign on to Last.fm, and find out my username. It was Monkey007. I mean, what kind of idiot comes up with a username like that?! ;-)
Seriously though, I never put numbers in my usernames, because I'm scared of numbers, so it must have been one of those 'suggested' usernames that the website gave me coz all the good ones were taken... =/

Anyway, I tried that with all of my 'core' passwords, and it worked! =) (I can't remember which one it was now...)

So I have downloaded the thingy that hugs onto Windows Media Player tight enough to hear what I'm listening to, and then it tells the internet.

And apparently, it makes you a personal radio station that only has stuff you like on it!
Which really appeals to my Inner Princess, that likes to be waited on, hand and foot. =)

I never knew about the personal radio station when I used it before!

However, this little episode in the soap opera that is my life has reminded me of a little niggling concern that started on Sunday.
I mean, Mike didn't seem at all surprised when I phoned him up and asked for my last.fm username. I didn't even have to explain anything. I just said, 'What's my Last.fm username?', and he said, 'Hold on, I'll just check'.
And on Sunday night, I phoned Elisabeth and said, 'What lessons do I normally have on Tuesdays', and she said, 'Biology and French' without even having to think much.
And the week before, I phoned her up and asked what my holiday dates for this summer are, and she told me.
Those are just 3 of many examples I could give you of people being more 'on top' of my life than I am.

How will I cope next summer when I have to start looking after myself?

HOW?!

These are the kind of things they should have told us in UCAS week.

Is living on your own one of those things that seem impossible, but when you try it, you realise you can do it?! Like touching your little toe to your forehead, and other stuff like that...?

Reading

2007-06-22T20:53:00.000Z

Today I went to the Reading University Open Day.

It was alright. Just not as alright as it was in the prospectus. And yeah, I know the whole point of a prospectus is to make the university look better than it is, but i just hadn't expected the real thing to be that different.
I'm still an 'Open Day Newbie'...it was my first one. I'll learn!

I still think it's a good university.

Just now I'm slightly more interested to see what Edinburgh is like! ;-)

Coz, you know, it would be nice to be in a proper city. There would be more to do. And I'd get an MA instead of a BA.

I have had some slightly concerned people telling me that Edinburgh is one of the drug capitals of the world. But I've never heard that before, and to be honest, I don't think that should necessarily put me off. After all, in the borough I live in at the moment, we are meant to have one of the largest underage binge drinking problems in the UK. And 1 in 3 under 18 year olds who are sexually active have chlamydia. (I think. Or some other similar disease).

And I'm pleased to tell you that I don't have either of those problems.
So I think it's reasonable to assume that even if I move to Edinburgh, I won't necessarily become a druggie.

And Scotland is meant to be a nice place, right? I've never been, but Sandi Thom and Paolo Nutini are Scottish, and they are pretty cool.

In fact, nearly all the people I know who are associated with Scotland are pretty cool, which is more than I can say for the people I know who are associated with England (though possibly because I know more English people. Haha).

And, since I've never been to Scotland, I like to assume that most of the guys there look like Paolo Nutini. In which case, I don't know why I haven't already moved there.

So... now for the clincher....

Will I be able to pick up a convincing Scottish accent in 4 years?!

Biology Field Trip

2007-06-18T19:50:00.000Z

Today was Day 1 of the biology trip.

I'm not really looking forward to Day 2, because it POURED with rain most of today.

I'm definitely taking wellies when we go back tomorrow.

It's the kind of place that has those really fanatical, David Attenborough - type people. With the anoraks and everything.... And also no signal, so that you cant txt people to tell them exactly how much of your will to live has been lost...

At the end of the day, we did something that can only be described as 'yoga with numbers'. Seriously, we stretched them and bent them in ways that seemed like they should have been impossible. And afterwards, we knew we'd managed to do something difficult, but were left wondering whether it actually did any good...
It is called the Mann Whitney U Test, and apparently is a widely accepted statistical technique.

Anyway, tomorrow we are going back to start our coursework investigations.
I will be looking at the effect soil has on the frequency of the occurance of Bluebells.
I don't know why I came up with that topic, because I know absolutely nothing about it.

Something tells me this is going to be a steep learning curve. =/

By popular demand....

2007-06-13T19:35:00.000Z

(any single demand is popular on this blog!)

This is The Laptop Bag.

Yes, the one bought in the 50% off, PC World, Bank Holiday Sale before I even knew which laptop I was getting.

As you can see, it has a buckle on the left hand side, and as you can't see, there's vecro on the right hand side. Which presumably makes it ultra-secure.

There is space to carry a (smallish) folder inside it, as well as lots of different pockets, all designed with a specific purpose in mind, for all the different computer accessories and leads and cables and plugs and CDs and instruction manuals that it is necessary to lug around with you.

Oh, and it's got one of those little holes to put your ear phones through.

They really did think of everything.....

It's heeeeeere!

2007-06-07T12:36:00.000Z

My new Laptop/Notebook/whatever you want to call it is here!

In fact, I'm typing this on it! Can you tell?! Is there a different, more modern, feel to this blog now?!

Vista is beeeeeautiful.

I'm getting the hang of the 'non-mouse' thing really fast. I hate using the mice (mouses?!) that don't have the spinny wheel to scroll up and down, but on this laptop, there are lines along the sides of the touchy square thing that you use for the mouse, and if you slide your finger up and down the lines, it scrolls!!!

(Sorry about my lack of technical terms).

For those of you who are interested, it's a Dell Inspiron 6400.

And now, the information you've all been waiting for:

It's silver with white bits, and it's got the media buttons on the front. =)

Sorry about the flash on the screen.....

As you can (kind of) see, there are little things down the right hand side of the screen. They are not excessively large icons, they are amazingly cool representations of the wonders of modern technology. (They have a proper name, but I can't remember it).

The top one is a clock. An analogue one, with hands and everything. Analogue clocks are way better than digital ones, because it's easier to time yourself when you hold your breath, or eat a banana as fast as possible, or check your pulse etc. when you have a second hand to watch.

The second thing down is a little notepad that you can leave yourself reminders or messages or jokes or inspirational quotes on.

The third thing down tells you the weather and temperature for your location. If you need to know if it's raining, you don't even have to look out of the nearest window. It's there....right at the side of your screen. Incredible.

The fourth thing down gives you news as it happens!!! So, for instance, I can tell you that 14 mins ago, The Guardian published an article entitled 'Harvard Students Scalping Tickets'. Which is really handy. There are so many practical applications of how that could be useful on a daily basis. Like if the world was about to end, I'd know about it, and I'd be able to e-mail all my friends who don't have Vista, and tell them.

The fifth thing is a little photo slideshow. It goes through all the pictures on your hard drive and displays them randomly.

So. I bet you all wish you had Vista now.

The only problem is that I can't find our wireless network to connect to. So far I've been bootlegging someone elses broadband. I know it's technically 'not the done thing', but if they didn't want people connecting to their network, they would have put a password on it, right? So they are obviously just very kind, generous people. Possibly hippies.

And as soon as we find a way of UN-hiding our network, I will join it. This broadband I'm on at the moment is a bit slow, and it keeps crashing. Probably because lots of other people are 'sharing' it.

Eat Fresh

2007-06-04T13:21:00.000Z

I haven't written about Subway in a while, because, well....I haven't been there in a while.

But my brother showed me this video on YouTube, and I thought I'd share it with you. =)

P.S:
He also told me to tell you that Joseph the female goat has died.
Probably of an identity crisis.

Back from holiday!

2007-06-01T11:43:00.000Z

I've returned!!!!

I went camping in Cornwall and lived to tell you all about it.

This morning, when I woke up, I did wonder whether it had all just been a really really bad nightmare. But then I rolled over and felt that stiffness you get after spending several days on an airbed in sub-zero temperatures, and realised that it must have actually been real. (I've found that airbeds at room temperature have a completely different effect on my...erm...intercostal muscles (?!) than airbeds in freezing tents).

I know that I am prone to exaggeration, but the sub-zero thing isn't an exaggeration. At all. There was a frost one morning, which means that it must have gotten cold enough during the night to freeze the water, which means that it must have been below zero because thats when water freezes.

Mmmhmm... I know my stuff.

Obviously I didn't know that it was sub zero at the time, but I did know it was cold because Joy's teeth were chattering really loudly and keeping me awake. Also, I felt the need to close up my sleeping bag completely (it's one of those 'mummy bags' that can close so that you just have a little air hold to breathe through), and thats really not like me, because normally when I do that I get claustraphobic and start lashing out, and it annoys the people I'm sharing a tent with.

Anyway. Enough about the coldness. I'll move on to the wetness now.

We were there for 4 days. It rained the whole time minus 2 hours when the sun made a brief appearance. There were a few thunder storms, and we had 29mph winds, which is bad news when you're in a tent. =/

So anyway, eventually we decided we needed a bit of fun, so we went to the cinema to see Pirates of the Caribbean 3. I had actually already seen it, but it was quite funny, and better than sitting in a puddle, so I joined them. I was planning to shout things like, 'Don't worry, he's not really dead', and repeatedly sing 'I know how it ends! I know how it ends! I know how it ends!' in a really irritatingly childish voice.

I didn't do either of those things though, because as soon as we sat down, one of my cousins tapped the (slightly chubby) boy sitting in front of her on the shoulder and asked him for some popcorn. He grudgingly handed her one piece, and she took it, looked slightly annoyed, and then said, 'Is that all you're going to give me?! You've got loads!'.

It was really embarrassing.

So after that, I kept quiet to avoid drawing attention to myself in case people saw a family likeness...

That has got to be the most quaint cinema I've ever been to. There was a huge sign up outside, saying 'Now with FIVE screens!!!'. Our local cinema has 14.

When we got inside the cinema, it was tiny. There were only about 70 seats in the screen we were in, and it had stale, musty smell, that I assumed was coming from the weird, retro carpet (think Del Boy meets Flash Gordon).

A few minutes after we sat down on the rickety chairs, the trailers started, except there was no sound. Everyboys craned round to look through the little window at the back, to see the guy who was doing the projector. He looked around for a bit, found the volume knob, and turned it up.

After the final trailer, we were all expecting to see the copyright warning, but the screen went red and classical music started playing. Everyone looked at the projector guy again, who was frantically trying to change the film reels in the projector. Eventually he got it in, stopped Mozart, hit play.

We had sound first go this time, except the screen was blurry. We turned around again and saw him fiddling around, trying to get in focus. Through the first 5 mins of the film, it was still shifting in and out of focus, as he tried to get things figured out. In the end, he must've thought, 'Oh, screw it... thats good enough', because he just left it.

Pirates 3 is a very long film. At the end, everyone was stumbling around on the stairs, because our eyes had gone crazy after staring at an out of focus screen for so long.

Humph.

And when I told my Dad the story, he accused me of being like an American Tourist, which was an unnecessarily strong insult, in my opinion. I know that Cornwall isn't exactly the most high tech place in the UK, but they could at least teach the film-projector-operator-guy how it works, before they let him loose on it...

Hello Kitty

2007-05-23T16:04:00.000Z

We might be getting a kitten!

My Aunty's cats had kittens. She had two cats (sisters), who both got pregnant at the same time, and gave birth within a day of each other. So she now has 2 cats and 9 kittens.

Yeah.... came as a bit of a shock.

Especially to me. I thought the cats were both boys.

It does remind me of the whole Miss Joseph thing, but names 'Storm' and 'Sunshine' could hardly be described as being gender specific, and apparently cat's willies are hard to find even when you're looking for them (they have no idea how many girl kittens and boy kittens there are).

So anyway, now my 3 little cousins are trying to come up with 9 more weather-related names for all the kittens, like 'Foggy', and 'Misty' and 'Tornado'. I suggested 'Sunny Spells', and 'Smoggy', but they weren't too impressed. But then I came up with 'Tsunami', and went back to being their 'cool older cousin'.

I've always hated cats. Well, not always, but ever since I witnessed our beloved first pet, Stevie the Guinea Pig, being butchered by a cat in the garden back in '97 (I was too traumatised to help him out, but I still feel personally responsible, and I'm still racked with guilt) I've been convinced that cats are evil. To make matters worse, I had to go and be a bridesmaid later that day, and act happy and try not to show any of the earlier trauma in the wedding photographs.

However, watching those tiny little kittens squirming around in their big cardboard box kinda softened me a bit...

There has been a glut of new babies recently, which has made me feel a bit broody, but since my mum is too old, and I'm too young, I'm having to make do with playing with everyone elses babies when I'm around them.

So if we got a kitten....... thats kinda like a baby.......

And as I was explaining to my Dad, I think this is an important healing process for me. I may finally be able to let go of the guilt I feel about Stevie.

Because it seems to be like a circle; This is the same aunty who's wedding I was a bridesmaid at the day that Stevie was killed by a cat that looks like one of the mummy cats that has kittens who also look like that evil cat that killed Stevie.

That is too much of a coincidence for it not to be a healing process, don't you think?

The kittens aren't old enough to leave their mummies yet. They need another 8 weeks.

But maybe thats a good thing, because there's a bit of resistance towards the kitten at the moment, and I'll need some time to wear people down.

I want it (which, you'd have thought, is a big enough miracle to prove that it's meant to be...), my Dad wants it, my brother wants it.... even my Mum kinda wants it (another huge miracle - she hated them too...and one of the kittens peed on her when she was holding it), but my sister, who used to be the biggest cat lover in the family, really doesn't want us to get it.

And she's being a bit cryptic as to why she doesn't want us to get it. I think one of the reasons was that she thought Honey would hate the kitten and feel like it was replacing her, and then be heartbroken and die.

But I don't think Honey will die. She's very tolerant. We do loooads of weird stuff to her, and she doesn't care.

Like the time we put wellies on her, for example:

Does she look bothered? I think not.

Or the time we put swimming goggles on her:

She even looks like she was enjoying that.

So I'm sure that a little kitten won't bother her.

I explained that to Joy, but she's not convinced.

She woke me up this morning to tell me me that she dreamed that we got the kitten, called it Tigger (yep, I've chosen the name already. It was either that or Tequila, which my mum objected to on principle), and then it died right in front of us.

Whatever.

That won't happen. It was just a bad dream.

I want that kitten!!!!

I told them that we need it. This time next year, I'll be at university, and we'll need something to take my place.

A cat is just the kind of high-maintenance thing that would be appropriate for replacing someone like me.

Miss Great Britain 2007

2007-05-16T18:01:00.000Z

I had a look at the contendors....and would advise you all not to.

It's embarrassing.

There are 50 finalists, and only 9 of them are dressed in a way that I would consider...well....consider dressed.

And this may make me sound really horrible, but there are a few who, in my opinion, aren't even that attractive.

I am cultured enough (actually I've just seen Miss Congeniality) to know that to be Miss Whoever, you have to be more than just pretty, so I clicked on their pictures to try and find out more about them.

They have to list Achievements, Talents, Interests & Hobbies, Ambitions and Experience.

Most of them have nothing under the 'Interests and Hobbies' section. The few who have filled it in, wrote things like 'Fashion' or 'Make Up'.

Under 'Achievements', the thing that comes up most often is having been in magazines. And we're not talking National Geographic or New Scientist, or even Gardener's World here... names like Zoo, Maxim, The Sun, Max Power, Nuts.... which of course mean nothing to me (*ahem*) but perhaps you know what they are...

Don't get me wrong though, they didn't only mention the magazines they've appeared in - there were other things too; one girl listed the fact that she has an A level (emphasis on 'an'), and another, perhaps my personal favourite, said, 'I was a member of the girl band 'Candy', the rivals of 'Kandifloss' (Chantelle from Celeb Big Brother's band)'. Wow. What an achievement.

Under 'Talents', one girl listed pole dancing. I hope you're all duly impressed.

The 'Ambitions' section was largely left empty...... perhaps they have none? Surely they could have thought of at least writing something like 'Becoming Miss Great Britain 2007'...?

The people who wrote something mostly just said that they wanted 'to have a happy life'. One girl wrote, 'to be able to say I've achieved everything I wanted to achieve', except she spelt it 'echieve' instead. And perhaps it would have been more constructive to give us a flavour of what those things actually are.

Some people filled in their whole profiles using no capital letters or punctuation of any kind. I'm pleased to report that most of the spelling appeared to be at least phonetically correct though. =)

Having said all this, there's one girl who seems really nice, and I really hope she wins. She's very pretty, and is actually wearing clothes in her picture. Her first listed achievement is 'having two beautiful children', and the second is 'graduating from college'.

Good luck to her!

Argh. Am I really horrible for slagging them off like this?

I'm in the middle of AS exams. It's been raining all day. I had a really hard Physics practical exam and didn't get home til almost 5:30. I'm tired.

Does the fact that I don't consider pole dancing much of a talent, or that I don't consider passing 1 A level a particularly great achievement make me a snob?!

Apparently they are looking for the 2008 Miss Great Britain, and anyone can apply.

I'll be 18 by then... what do you think....?! ;-)

'I blame the Ethnics'

2007-05-16T17:49:00.000Z

My brother just asked me whether it's politically correct to refer to people as 'ethnics'.

Apparently some of the boys in his class had been blaming 'the ethnics' for world poverty and global warming.

I told him that it is gramatically incorrect to refer to people as 'ethnics', which probably means that it's not politically incorrect, just stupid.

I looked it up to be sure, and the word 'ethnic' means 'referring to people grouped according to a common racial, national, tribal, religious, linguistic, or cultural origin'.

So unless you state their common racial, national, tribal, religious, linguistic, or cultural origin at the time of calling them 'an ethnic' it is basically meaningless. We are all 'ethnics'.

These are the same boys who, after being inspired by the school's Enterprise Day, made a catalogue of weapons, and are planning to import them from the USA and sell them to their class mates.

Evidently they are a group of boys who are a few standard deviations short of the mean, if you catch my drift.... ;-)

And don't worry about the blackmarket weapons dealing - apparently they are a bit stuck, because all the American websites that sell weapons need a Visa card, which none of them have.

One boy's older brother has got one, but the last I heard, he was worried about going to jail, and so is not letting them use it.

Ross Copperman

2007-05-08T17:02:00.000Z

Here's a little heads up for all my friends and e-friends - if you haven't already, check out Ross Copperman!

He's well worth a listen!

I especially like the song 'All She Wrote'.

So.....see you at his next gig?!

Bank Holiday

2007-05-07T21:08:00.000Z

In my experience, Bank Holidays are usually spent going to some big commercial place that the rest of the world has also decided to go to.

Today was no exception. We went to PC world. It took us 40 mins to get out of the car park. It reminded me of a game my sister has that has loads of plastic cars and trucks on a grid, and you have to slide them around until you get the little red car out. I can't remember what the game is called.
I always used to cheat by making the cars to 3 point turns in impossibly small spaces.
According to the rules, you're only meant to make them go backwards and forewards, but that's not very lifelike, is it?!

Anyway, PC World.

I'm planning to get a laptop. A Notebook actually. I haven't yet worked out the difference yet (I phoned Mike, who helpfully said that he thought notebooks might be slightly smaller), but I prefer the name 'Notebook'. It sounds a lot more personal. But then people like my mother think I'm talking about a few hundred spiral bound lined A5 pages. So it's probably better to stick to the word 'laptop'.

There are millions of computers in PC World. I was a slightly frustrating person to be finding a computer for, because when I was asked what I wanted it to do, I kept saying things like 'play music' and 'watch DVDs' and 'word process' (hey...may as well...on the off chance that I actually decide to do some work on it).
Apparently all computers do those things.
So, instinctively, the next thing I'd look at is the colour, but I couldn't exactly say that, could I?! It would have made me look shallow, which we all know I'm not...

Anyway. After getting out of the car park and getting home, I did some research, and I've found out that there are some computers that will play music and DVDs without you having to turn them on completely. So they act like a CD player without you having to wait for all the other computery stuff to load up.

Cool, huh?

I am coming up with slightly more specific criteria. Progress.

I don't know whether I should actually admit to something like this, but this afternoon, I actually spent more time researching laptop bags than the actual laptops.
To be honest though, it's easier to see a difference between the bags than between the laptops.

But looking back on today, I think it might have been more worthwhile going to Ikea. I mean, it's impossible to leave Ikea without buying anything (even if the things are a cactus and a hotdog) so at least we wouldn't have come home empty handed.

Dude looks like a Lady

2007-05-01T13:22:00.000Z

A while ago my brother got the game 'Harvest Moon', and has been playing it non-stop ever since.

It's like The Sims, but you have a farm instead of people...

You have to look after your animals and keep them alive and water your crops and everything and if you're good someone gives you some more animals. Or maybe you have to buy them...? Not sure....

Anyway, Josh got a new goat, and whenever you get a new animal, you have to name it. He decided to call it 'Joseph'.

Later that day, my sister asked why he had called the goat Joseph when it had udders.

....Josh thought that both male and female goats had udders.

And you can't change the animals' names after you choose them. So there is now a lady goat called Joseph. She will probably die of an identity crisis, and then he won't be able to sell her milk to buy corn, and then he'll be sorry.

Funny how it didn't strike him as weird to be milking a 'male' goat.

I guess thats what comes of being brought up in suburbia.

Close encounter of the famous kind....!!!

2007-04-17T15:11:00.000Z

Guess who I saw?????

None other than Christian O'Connell!

It was a very surreal experience, because although I've woken up to the sound of his voice every morning for the past 3(?!) years, I never expected to actually come face to face with him.

And the weird thing is, it was kind of more than a coincidence that I saw him:

I was in HMV, looking for birthday presents for people, and it was really difficult, because all my friends have loads of music, so I had to try and think of CDs they definitely wouldn't have...highly complicated...

For some reason, I went to the soundtrack section at the back. I never go to the soundtrack section, because

a) It's right at the back

b) You have to walk through either Jazz & Blues, or Classical to get there, which are highly embarrassing places to be seen in, and

c) Because there aren't many sound tracks worth getting, except Bridget Jones, A Knight's Tale and other rare films like that.

So anyway, you get the idea.... it was already quite strange that I was there...

I jogged through classical, hoping nobody would see me there, and nearly ran straight into a man who was looking at the books at the back (you know...where they put stuff like Johnny Depp's Biography, and a book of the stories behind every Beatles song etc.).

I managed to stop in time, and I had to walk in front of the man to get around to the soundtracks.

As I walked in front of him, I looked up, can't remember why... probably to sort of smile apologetically coz I was blocking his view or something . When I saw his face, I froze in front of him and stood there staring at him.

I believe the expression is, 'like a bunny in the headlights'.

I don't know how much time passed before I un-froze, possibly several minutes, and then I realised that I was still blocking his view of whatever book he'd been looking at.

So I mumbled something like, 'Uhhh.....sorry.....' and moved out of the way. He kind of watched me walk past, in a way that a semi-famous person might watch someone who they thought had recognised them.

I still wasn't sure if it was actually him.

I stood in the soundtrack section staring at his back, trying to figure out whether it was him or not. Every so often he glanced around at me, which was a bit embarrassing, because then he knew I was staring. Though he probably felt my eyes boring into the back of his head.

I just looked at the Virgin Radio website, and I'm pretty sure it was him.

The only thing that makes me think it might not have been him is his bag.

I know I have a thing about bags, but the bag he was carrying was not at all stylish. Not even in a kitsch way.

I txted Em, who replied before I'd even put my phone down and told me to get his autograph.

But how could I, after I'd disturbed his quiet browse of the shelves at the back of HMV, and then stared at him for hours on end?

The Unibrow Song

2007-04-05T18:47:00.000Z

Needs no introduction...

Premonition

2007-04-02T12:23:00.000Z

I went to see Premonition on Friday with Em, Lobs, Phelan and Debbie.

The Physics crew were all trying to drag me along to see 300, but I heard that 1 hour and 15 mins of the film are all killing, and that theres lots of Spartan men in thongs, and lots of body parts being blown off, which isn't my idea of a good time.

So basically, it was either Premonition or 300.

Premonition is a 12A, 300 is a 15, so I assumed Premonition would be easier to watch. Plus I like Sandra Bullock. =)

Don't get me wrong, Premonition is a good film, but I've never got on particularly well with psychological thrillers...

Remember the time we went to see Secret Window? We only went coz it had Johnny Depp in it. The three of us ended up all sitting in one chair, screaming.

And when it finally finished, none of us wanted to leave the cinema in case we got a screwdriver smashed through our heads.

However, Premonition wasn't excessively gory. There were some things that made you squirm in your seat, but on the whole, they were quite conservative when it came to gore.

There were only 2 scenes I can think of that had blood in them. One was when she trips over in the garden and her hand goes into a dead crow. That was REALLY disgusting.

The other was when her daughter runs through a glass door and gets cuts all over her face. There was a lot of blood in that scene. And it was quite upsetting, coz, you know, a kid going through a window isn't really an enjoyable thing to watch.
(Unless, of course, the window is open).

They did a lot of scary music, and those creepy black and white shots of wind blowing through trees and crows flying around and stuff...

Oh, and the lid comes off a coffin, but you don't see inside. I think. I wasn't taking any chances with that part - my eyes were shut.

But it was a really good film.

In case you don't know, it's about a woman who has a premonition of her husband's death. She had quite a few premonitions, so she is able to keep a diary and work out what will happen the week her husband dies, and try and stop it from happening.

But, the plot thickens, because she finds out that her husband was planning to have an affair the day that he dies.

So she has to decide whether it would be better to let him die than to have their family ripped apart by the affair (they have 2 small children).

Also, she has to work out whether letting someone die is the same thing as killing them.

So yeah, it's a really good film. The only reason I don't like it is because they could have SO easily made it have a happy ending, and they didn't.

I like films to have happy endings even if it makes it totally unrealistic. I don't care. I just want everyone to be happy.

Premonition could have had a happy ending, but it didn't. And the thing that makes it even worse is that they tease you. Up until the last minute of the film, you're so sure that they are going to live happily ever after; everything is falling into place, all the problems are starting to be resolved. And then right at the end they snatch all that away from you.

I literally felt robbed when it happened.

But looking back at it now, I think that the ending wasn't as bad as I thought it was at the time. Even though they didn't let everyone live happily ever after, the ending isn't as bad as it first seems... it kinda leaves you thinking that yeah, the world can be a harsh place, and bad stuff happens, but there's still hope.
You can still find happiness when things don't work out like you planned.

I won't tell you how it ends though. Go and watch it!

This might actually make you cry...

2007-03-28T08:48:00.000Z

I think it's the song that does it..... ='(

(Though the retro hairstyles from the early episodes may turn your tears of sadness into tears of mirth.)

Starting the Heatwave Early

2007-03-27T16:25:00.000Z

Today it was a whopping 18C.

I know it sometimes feels like I only ever talk about the weather on this blog, and some of you may be thinking, 'If you can't think of anything interesting to say, don't post. Don't just talk about the weather'. But seriously, the weather is very interesting at the moment.

Plus, I'm English. I was practically brought up to talk about the weather. It's what we do.

Also, when the population of the whole planet is wiped out because of all this global warming, and aliens more suited to living in hot/flooded climate move here, they can check out my blog and work out what happened.

I'll be famous.

They will print all this out, and make it into a history textbook.

Though, to be honest, I've never particularly had a burning desire to write a history textbook.

And I kinda hope that this blog is too interesting to be a history textbook.

Anyway, today, when I went shopping, I saw:

A long queue of people by the ice cream vans

Lots of people wearing sunglasses

Some people in shorts

People in vest tops/boob tubes/topless etc. (The topless people were boys, and the people in boob tubes were girls. Just in case you were wondering...)

Loads of people in t-shirts

A few people wearing coats (but those were the goths who wear coats all summer to avoid getting a tan...)

Which basically means that it's summer.

And if you don't find that evidence conclusive, I've been craving fruit all day.

'nuff said.

So.... surely starting summer in March could have some serious implications...?!

I've decided not to care though.

You shouldn't look a gift horse in the mouth (or something like that).

I'm bored of winter. It's been winter for ages, and I'm over it. I want something new now.

Bring on summer!

This is a picture of Jack Johnson surfing. Which, I thought, would be a good way to illustrate summer.

BST

2007-03-25T14:57:00.000Z

So, the clocks have changed.

I hate it when we change back to summer time. The whole 'losing an hour' thing really doesn't sit well with me.

It's like having jet lag, but without the holiday. =(

Also, I know it's possible to go on the internet, and have loads of time pass without even noticing, and then afterwards you feel really bad, because those were hours of your life that you have nothing to show for, and that you'll never get back.

But technically, you were doing something during those hours.

But when the clocks change, you lose the hour without it even being your fault.

So far in my life, I've lost 17 hours.

I know that we get the hour back later in the year when we change the clocks again, but it all seems like a bit of a dodgy deal to me.

And on top of the dodginess(?!) of it all, it's really confusing.

I'm not a morning person. Loads of people arent good at mornings. So when you wake up, and try to get your eyes to focus on the clock, you have to try and figure out whether you're:

a) An hour late

b) Can sleep for another hour.

c) Awake in time.

Which just shouldn't happen. Nobody should have to make decisions like that first thing in the morning.

I was actually OK today. Fortunately, I only live a 5 minute jog from church.

In fact, now that I think about it, the only day in the whole year that I wake up on time is the day that we gain an hour. Extra hours can be handy.

Spring! (....boing!)

2007-03-21T11:49:00.000Z

Today is the official first day of spring!

I thought the first day of spring was on 1st March, but I don't mind being wrong, becaise this way I get to celebrate twice! =)

It's so nice and sunny today.

Like it was last week, the first time I celebrated spring.

The thing is, I have come to realise that the sun is very deceiving, because I stopped wearing Eskimo clothes, and I have now got the worst cough and cold I've had all winter.

Actually, you can't call Eskimos 'Eskimos' anymore, you have to call them 'First People'. Apparently the term 'Eskimo' is no longer politically correct.
Which I think is stupid, because surely calling yourself a 'First People' (or 'First Person'?!) is not politically correct?
I mean, how do they know for sure if they were actually the 'First People'?
And even if they were, is it politically correct to use it to distinguish themselves and make themselves superior to everyone else?

Plus, I don't know what the big deal is about calling them Eskimos, because I'm unlikely to offend them, because I never talk to Eskimos. I prefer to go to warm places on holiday.

Unless....

Hmm....

Maybe some of them have immigrated here.

Oh well.

'First People' is it then.

The definition of 'Politically Correct Terminology' in 'The Cynic's Dictionary' is:
Inadvertently comical euphemisms mandated by committees of humourless adademicians for the purposes of offending no group except believers in free speech.

Example:
Abundantly capitalized individual = Rich Man
Financially challenged individual = Poor Man
Self-employed outdoor monetary solicitor = Beggar Man
Personal-property appropriation specialist = Thief

Joey-isms

2007-03-06T21:19:00.000Z

Phoebe : Joey, what would you do if you were omnipotent?
Joey : I'd probably kill myself, hey, if little Joey's dead, big Joey ain't got not reason to live.

Hahahahaha......

Thats funny for at least 3 different reasons.

Friends can always turn a bad day into a good day! =)

Unless you watch the last episodes, because then you think about when it ended, and then you want to cry.
There are some other episodes that make you want to cry. Like when Ross and Rachel break up/get back together/break up/nearly get together/get together/nearly break up/break up etc.
Or when Joey falls in love with Rachel, and he can't tell her. But you realise that this is the first time Joey has loved someone that much, and you realise that he's actually got a huge capacity for love even though he is normally just shallow. You realise that he and rachel could actually be amazing together but they could never really try it properly because Ross would be too upset. And you realise that there's no way it can work out without someone getting hurt.

And you realise that that's how love is in real life. Sometimes when you love someone, it's impossible for nobody to get hurt by it, because we're not machines. We are people who were designed to interact with each other, and that our lives are, in fact, intrinsically linked with loads of other peoples lives, whether we want it or not. We don't even have much of a say in whose lives become linked with ours, because it happens subconsciously, and all of a sudden, you realise that there's yet another person who you can't even imagine living without.

Hmmm.

I think I sometimes might get a little bit too attached to fictional characters.

I haven't watched Neighbours for years, because I cried for 3 days when Flick and Joel broke up. (And that was, like, in the late 90s or something. I would have been less than 10 years old).
Reality can be cruel enough. Why do they have to take all our escapisms and make them cruel like real life?
Where are we meant to escape to now?
They will have to start putting escapisms into our escapisms.

Oh well.
At least there are really funny bits in friends, to make up for the really sad bits. =)

Joey: If the Homo Sapiens were, in fact, Homo Sapiens... is that why they're extinct?
Ross: Joey. Homo Sapiens are people.
Joey: Hey, I'm not judging.

Pachelbel's Canon Rant!

2007-03-05T16:24:00.000Z

This video is the funniest thing I've seen in ages!!!

It made me laugh so much!!! (Even though it's Monday and cold and raining and everything is rubbish...)

Mooooooooon!

2007-03-03T22:18:00.000Z

There's a lunar eclipse happening at the moment!

It started when I was out driving earlier this evening, which was a bit dangerous, because I was staring at the moon rather than watching the road.

But it didn't matter too much, because I only ever try to park behind shabby, non-expensive cars...you know.....just in case.

I'd take a picture of it for you (the moon, not my parking), but to be honest, I really can't be bothered. And it doesn't matter, because it's the thought that counts. =)

I don't really have anything to say, other than that.

Except....

OH!

.....

never mind.

I'll tell you later.

Hmmm

Have you ever been to the postsecret blog? It's SO interesting.

Basically, people send in their secrets (anonymously, of course) on a postcard, and then they get scanned in and put on the website.

There aren't that many on the blog, but there is a myspace with more on.

(warning: some of them are funny, but some of them are slightly scary and make you think that the world is full of psychopaths. It probably is full of psychopaths, but even if it is, I'd rather not know...)

Here are some of my favourites:

Miss me?

2007-02-24T21:28:00.000Z

Sorry.

It's been ages, I know.

But I do have a lot of excuses, as always.
However, this time, for a change, I'm not going to list them all. Coz yeah, they are pretty shabby excuses, and they are the same ones I always use, so it's starting to get a bit boring.

Anyway.

Half term is now nearly over. =(
It's gone really fast, because I haven't really done very much.

I went to see Music and Lyrics though!!! That was soooooooo good! Nearly as good as The Holiday! (Not AS good, because I didn't cry in Music and Lyrics.... - crying from laughing doesn't count.)

Hugh Grant is excellent in romantic films!
He's even good when he's not playing the 'nice guy'. Like in Bridget Jones.

He looked so cute with Drew Barrymore. It's still slightly upsetting that he's 46, but I can overlook that! I have a good imagination!

Also, the song, 'Way Back Into Love' is really cute. I may have to get the soundtrack when it comes out!

Awwwwwwwwww......

If you haven't seen it, you HAVE TO GO!!!!!!!

Lots of Hugh Grant hip thrusts and 80s music. ;-)

Tonight I watched Beauty and the Beast which is my favourite Disney film EVER!!!!!!!

I don't know why....

I've seen it about a million times, and it's always been my favourite.

Maybe because when I was younger I could identify with her? Because she has brown hair (not like Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty etc) and she likes reading. And her Dad is a slightly crazy inventor.

And I think I may have said this before, but I always kind of wish that the beast didn't become human at the end. because you get used to him, and you learn to love him despite his ugly appearance. If they had to turn him back into a prince, they could have made him look a bit more attractive.......

Anyway. Mustn't be shallow.

Speaking of which (being shallow....not a beast), I went to the Sandi Thom concert last week, and she was being supported by Sam Beeton, who I've never seen before, but is absolutely gorgeous. In a quiet bit, I shouted 'MARRY ME!!!!!!!' and he looked at me!!!! =) Not surprisingly.

But he made eye contact with me about 5 times.

And let me tell ya, he has the kind of eyes that can make you go weak at the knees. =)

Mmmmmmmmm

Well, I must go now, because my brother sounds like he's about to resort to physical violence.

Which is entirely unnecessary if you ask me.

There's no way...

2007-02-04T15:42:00.000Z

...that Hugh Grant is 46!!!!!

But he was born on September 9, 1960.

So, he must be 46.

Not good.

Though, this probably wouldn't be the first time that Wikipedia has been wrong....

Sisterhood of the Travelling Bracelet

2007-02-03T18:57:00.000Z

OK.

Remember aaaaaages ago, I told you that we (me, Phelan, Emu, Tanz and Lobs) were going to form a 'Sisterhood of the Travelling Bracelet', inspired by the film (and books) 'The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants'.

In case you don't remember, or haven't seen the film, its about 5 friends who find a magic pair of jeans and share them over a summer, posting them to each other, with a letter about what happened to them while they were wearing the jeans. We don't have a magic pair of jeans that fit all of us perfectly, so we used a bracelet instead. And we sent a diary with it to write what happened during our week of having the bracelet.

We finally met up today to read through it.

I know. It is February. And this happened last summer. But we are busy people. And Tanya decided to ditch us all for another 6th Form, so meeting up has been a bit tricky...

But anyway, I'm going to type up everything written in the diary, in case anything happens to it.
And I'm going to copy it all, complete with spelling mistakes and embarrassing confessions. Some words are a bit hard to read, so I might just have to guess them...

I was the first person to have the book:

Anna
Hi everyone! I did warn you all that giving me the first week would result in a very boring start to our book, because to be honest, there's only so much that can happen to you while in your home town! But anyway, I'll do my best to make this week's events sound as exciting as possible!

I picked up this postcard in London. I thought it was topical because of the world cup and everything...
Also, I haven't been on holiday yet, so I don't have any 'proper' postcards...
Check out the inspirational message on the back!
(the message reads 'Who says girls can't play football?' - Eni Aluko, striker, Charlton Athletic & England). (I have written 'EXACTLY!!!' underneath, and underlined it 3 times.)

I told you all that David, his mum, his sister, his sister's boyfriend and some kid (not related to them) were coming to stay with us for a few days. Well... that was eventful!

After they left, my family agreed that they are probably the weirdest visitors we've ever had - and trust me, that's saying something!

Anyway, on the Friday, school still hand't broken up, so it was my job to single handedly take them around Londond. I thought it was very brave of me, especially since i dropped geog in yr 9, but they seemed vaguely surprised that I haven't ever taken the time to memorise a map of the underground. They also thought it was a bit odd that I didn't know the streets of London like the back of my hand.

I took them to see the Houses of Parliament, Big ben, and the London Eye.

Then they decided to go to London Dungeon. I'd never been there before, so I thought it would be a good idea - it would get us out of the sun, and hopefully take a long time so I wouldn't have to think of anything else to do...

The dungeons were TERRIFYING!
They have actors down there that suddenly jump out at you from dark corners and scream scary things at you (eg: 'You're about to journey into hell!' Well...thats not much incentive to enter the dark alley way, is it?)
I was hoping that David would reassure me, since on top of the actors, cramped spaces and smell, I was also afraid of the dark, but he was just as scared as I was, and kept holding my hand and screaming...wimp!

By the time we got out, we were all starving hungry, so we ended up squatting in London Bridge bus station, eating Burger King chips with the 'peanut butter and banana' soggy sandwiches that the American guy had kindly made for us that morning, and then carried around in his sweaty back pack.
Nice.

We then went to Buckingham Palace to watch the guards changing. One of the soldiers tripped, and was laughed at by the hundreds of tourists who were watching.
By then we were all tired and fed up, so we decided to go home early.

On the underground, this (very attractive) guy walked up to me and said, 'I overheard you talking, and I'm going there too!'
So he got the train back with us. He was in his second year at university, doing a really boring and intelligent sounding course. He was also a surfer (YAY!!!).
He turned out to be a really nice guy, and when we got off the train, he asked for my number. I didn't really want to give it to him, and he could tell I wasn't sure, so he said, 'I'm not gonna force you...It's OK if you don't like me!'.
But then I felt really rude so I gave him my number. I was gonna give a fake one, but he tested it - so it's a good thing I didn't!
On the way home, we stopped at a Korean Supermarket, and they all bought cans of drink. The only English word on them was 'SWEAT'. They assured me that the translation meant 'sweat replacement' but I still refused to drink any.

On the way home from the shop, Dave kept telling me to block the train guy's number. I would if I knew how!
I mean, I'm not gonna lie, the guy was hot, but I'm not going to meet up with a 21 yr old! So I'm ignoring his txts. I'm also debating whether to get a guy to phone him up and shout 'WHY ARE YOU TXTING MY DAUGHTER, YOU KIDDIE FIDDLER?!?!?!?!' but I think that may be an excessive amount of force, which is against the Just War Theory. I know that this isn't a war, but it still feels a bit morally wrong.

I also got my hair cut by an emo Korean hairdresser who made me look very emo and very Korean. I was very shocked and very upset. Never trust a hairdresser who doesn't understand English, and who has 'Rock Your Body' (Justing Timberlake) as the ringtone on his land line phone!!! He was wearing a very tight shirt with a wide yellow tie, which means he was probably gay on top of everything else.

However, when I got home, Phelan had dropped off this book and the bracelet, so I put on the bracelet, and then took it off again to have a shower, and after I got out of the shower I looked quite normal. Probably because the gay emo Korean guy had straightened it until it was extremely straight.
It's very short though. But now that I'm used to it, I quite like it. So maybe gay Korean emos who can't speak English aren't so bad after all...?!

We went to brighton yesterday. It was full of topless guys with nipple piercings - some of whom started flirting with me, which was GREAT! Not that I was interested or anything...it just made the day more interesting, thats all!

So anyway, I think this bracelet is a HUNK MAGNET! So use it wisely!

We went to an Art Gallery. I'm not that into art, but they had a really cool chair in the shape of lips! See the pic --->

Anyway, if I'm gonna get this to Phelan in time I need to shup up now!

I hope you're all having a really great time!

I'm going on summer camp tomorrow, and then to soul survivor the week after! Look forward to seeing you all soon!

Lots of love and hugs!
Anna xoxox

Phelan:
Heya Guys! Well first off I just want to really sorry (hang on I don't think that made sense!)Anyway, I'm really really sorry, but I appear to have made the bracelet really slimey and possibly s;ightly blue because I kinda accidently sprayed sun cream on it! On the upside, a little extra protection never goes amiss! And secondly, Anna I told you so! Did I not tell you how you would be able to make your 'entry' interesting! Hell, your time at home sounds more interesting than my holiday has been so far! Anyway, onto more interesting things than this self righteous claim to being right all the time!

Well this is only really my first day because we flew out yesterday and didn't get here until half 9! So like I said this holiday has been fairly non descript thus far!. I have spent the entire day, minus an hour and a half when we were being bored to death by the reps in the intro meeting. 'snore'! Lazing on the grass by the pool with either a ridiculously garish portugal hat or a large towel on my head!
I have however made several discoveries! If i want a sunbed I have to get up at 6am to claim it, the electricity will only switch on if I don't go near the front door, and only jardits [or possibly 'jordies'?! I can't read it..] become Thomas Cooke reps!

The more interesting aspects of my holiday are that this mornign we upgraded to all inclusive, so that now all drinks, snacks, meals, ice cream, the hiring of sun mats & brollies [when she was reading this out loud, she said, 'I can't believe I used the word 'brollies!'] is free! I am certainly taking advantage of this with copious amounts of their delicious toffee and caramel ice cream with 'real choc' chocolate sauce!
!YUM!

Unfortunately I haven't been in the pool yet. it was full of seemingly unwashed stupid people - you know how intolerant I am of them!
(my god, I sound like a snob, help meeeeeeeeeeeeeeee)

Anyway, erm, what else, oooh!
I have managed to snaffle the BEST bed in out appartmenty thing! It's like the sofa version of a bunk bed! basically the sofa is a bed as it is, and then you roll out the underneath and hey presto theres another bed. You are actually meant to fold the legs out so that it becomes a double bed, but I leave it on the floor so that it is more like a kind of side way bunk bed.
*[she has drawn a very crude diagram of the sideways bunk bed, with arrows labelling her and Livie. In the diagram, she is snoring and Livie isn't. I don't know whether that is significant.]*

This is a towel I saw by the pool and the owner is the only other non-chav in this place! She also has a Roxy suitcase and O'Neill bikini thingy.
*[Another crude diagram of the towel. A rectangle with the words 'This is my box of special things' indside it, and lots of kisses and pictures of lips.]*
Before you ask Em, she wasn't waering it, it was on her towel, so no, I was not staring at a girl in her bikini.
Although she does have the hair that I want.
*[Yet another crude diagram of the hair, with an explanation next to it:]*
long with a fringe in case you weren't sure.

Oh, another thing I might well will or have as the case will be soon! is that my extended family, as in my aunts + uncles and the like, seems to be able to find me anywhere! For example, it just so happens, coincidence I think not! that my aunty cher (cheryl) the one that likes Charmed and does line as opposed to square dancing (not amused) is in portugal at the same time!In fact, we are going to meet her tonight! I shall let you know how that goes tomorrow, before I send this to Tanya. Also, look what I found in our room. It was on the floor beside the desk, so may have fallen out of something.
*[It is a piece of paper that says:
3 January 2006
We are going back to school tomorrow. Today I got most of my school stuff ready, in the morning. In the afternoon mum went to tge dentist to have her cap back on. When she got home we went to see fletcher clare and nan. Oscar an Olivia weren't there, because they were at school. Me and Mac weren't at school because we had a teracher's training day.

On the other side, it says:
4 January 2006
It was my first day back at school today. Because we have got to finish our topic ready for the Brazilian Rain Forests our next one, we had a whole day of topic apart from maths. The day was pretty good apart from I didn't like the maths lesson. It was a bit boreing.

OK. So Phelan found a page of someone's diary. I don't think the kid will miss the page, because I doubt her diary will ever be published. I mean, no offence, but surely she can come up with something more interesting than her mum's dentist appointment? (Though I guess you could argue that my blog is just as boring).

I'll give her one thing though, hher writing is a whole lot easier to read than Phelan's. And her grammar is better too.]*

Oh, and we also found a cool Irish Pub! I found out this
*[Followed by an extremely crude diagram of the bottom (?) if Ireland, indicating the positions of Cork, Waterford and Kifleenney(? I think. I can't read it)]*
So cute, they must only be little! Or at least littler than us! [presumably referring to the 'map' of Ireland]

Well last night with my aunt wasn't so bad I guess, but you guys know what I'm like about family!
Anyway, other than that there isnt rwally much else I can say except that on Monday (the 7th I think? well around then anyway) I am going to a water park.
I have the choice of going around on my lonesome all day, what fun, or going around with Olivia.

Oh, speaking of Olivia, she got her hair braided.
*[A very unflattering diagram of Olivia before, with something exploding out of her head. I think it's meant to be her hair. In Olivia's defence, I think she has really cute curly hair. The second diagram is of Olivia with braids in her hair.]*

I have included a postcard so you can see the beach, but I haven't! (we are not going to the beach now that we are all inclusive!)

Oh! I wish you guys were here, I hate being left on my own! And the meat was delicious Em, sorry I didn't txt back, I didn't finish eating til gone 11 (it was all you can eat meat fest!)

Well, better sign off or it will never get to Tanya.

Hope you guys have a great holiday!

Bye!

P.S:
Tanya, can you please stick the post cards on- 1 on each outside edge - with sellotape! I couldn't get any! Apparently they don't think tourists need sellotape!!! If you can't don't worry about it though!
Hope you have a good time
!!!!!!

*[There is a wicked post card which I have to add here! I might try and scan it later!
It's called 'The Cock of Barcelos'. It says, 'The legend of the Barcelos cock originated in the middle ages in Barcelos, then just a small town in the North of Portugal. A pilgrim was on his way to Santiago de Compostela, still today a city of pilgrimage in spain. On his journey he was accused of theft, tried and found guilty. He still protested that he was innocent, and begged to be allowed to plead his case again personally at the Judge's house. Praying to Saint Jacob for help, he claimed that a grilled cock on the judge's table would crow to prove his innocence.
As is the way with mediaeval legends the cock duly came to life, crowed and the fortunate man was released. The Barcelos Cock has become a symbol of faith, justics and above all, extraorsinary good luck and timing.'
On the back of the postcard she has written 'HEHE, IT'S BARCELOS' COCK!!!'
Yep....you knew there would be innuendo somewhere, didn't you....

She has also put a postcard of her hotel and circled her window on it.]*

P.S
I caught my mum reading it so sorry Anna!

Tanya
HEY DUDES!
Wow. I actually found a pen that works, although you can't see it that well...hang on a mo...
Is this one better? Nope, goes through the page too much.
Damn it, no pens work in this house!
Oh well, I'll just use this one!

OK, enough about the pens Tanya, you dumb dumb! LOL.

How are you guys! I've missed you!
As you know, every time we come to Portugal we always stay in our house, which is nice, but I would prefer to stay in a hotel once in a while.
*[She has put in a post card of a castle thing, and on the back, she's written 'This is my house in portugal in Cascais! (I am only kidding...wishful thinking hehe!)]*
We got here last Wednesday on the 2nd I think it was. The flight was OK, but I think that our pilot was a bit drunk, coz as we were landing, the plane tilted and it looked like the right wing was gonna hit the floor! Ahhh.
This didn't help my phobia of flying!
I think I'm the only one in my family who doesn't like planes, and theres my grandma!
Anyway, we didn't land on the tarmac very gently either, and we were very close to the city
as we were landing, it looked like we were gonna crash into it!

We got to the airport, and everything was fine, except we had to wait over an hour for the rented car because there was a huge queue! (I dunno if I spelt that right).
We've been going to the beach a lot too, and I have a nice tan, finally! hehe. My dad keepswaking everyone up at like 8:00 so that we et to the beach early. We have to leave at about midday coz it gets way too hot!

Shoot! Theres a fly in my kitchen! looks like I'm going back on the fly diet!
(Emma knows what I mean, I'm not some kind of freak! LOL!)

We go back to the beach at about 4 until 7 as well, so I've got a nice tan, although I did get freaking sunburnt again on my legs!

There are loads of cute topless guys there as well, which is good! hehe!

On the subject of beaches, we went to a different beach yesterday than we normally do but it's still close to where we live. I found a freaking Jelly FISH in the water. So I didn't go in. A while later my dad found another Jelly fish, and then another one. He kept taking them out of the water in a plastic bag. I def. refused to go in the water after that! Then my brother found one in the water too! All in all we found 4 jelly fish in half an hour. I'm never going back to that beach again.
It's very close to the one I told you guys about last time I went to portugal and we went on one of those boats with slides abd we were surrounded with jellyfish! My dad really doesn't care if there are jellyfish or not, but I do. I'm not sure if they were alive at that beach that we went to, but dead or alive they are still flipping JELLYFISH!!!

There were also women that wore those thongy bikini bottoms which is horrible, not that i was looking or anything! LOL...
Anywayz... What else has happened... Oh, we saw Miami Vice here 2 days ago. It was OK, it wasn't as good as I was expecting. Seriously, this is for Emma and Lobs - don't watch it! It's only a 12, but you see peoples brains being splattered on the walls, and there are some seriously wrong scenes! hehe. [in Tanya speak, that means sex.]

We're going to the Algarve on the 15th for 5 nights. it's gonna be really fun! I would have more to say if i had this book during those 5 days, but I'll tell you what we might do. I think theres a seaworld there, and we're probably going. You can also swin with the dolphins but theres a huge waiting list so I don't think we'll do that! We cal also drive up to the other end of the Algarve and then get a boat to spain coz they're close by! Theres loads of shops there - tax free apparently! Yey!

I am not going to the water in the beach there because there are even more jelly fish there and spiky fish like things that hide under the sand and hurt like hell!
*[She has drawn a spiky fish roaring....and a jellyfish....]*
I am actually terrified of jellyfish and spiky aquatic animals in the sea!

The other day we had dinner in a restaurant, and there was a really cute guy looking at me...at least I think he was looking at me! I hope to, but I think he looked a bit gay! LOL.
Anywayz, on that same night we were going home but we wanted to go by the Casino Estoril, which is obviously a casion, anyways, we were going in to have a look, and I was wearing a halterneck dress, and we were going in to the casino part with slot machines and those cool games (coz theres another part with dinner and show) and one of the people who work there came up and said that the child (my brother) couldn't go in. He didn't say anything to me coz I think he thought I was 18 or over, becaue over 18s can go in, that was good!
We had to go home though, coz we weren't appropriately dressed, although I think I could have gone in with that dress...LOL.

I had some really strange dreams the last 2 nights. The first one was Phelan getting married (I have no idea why I dreamt this), another one is too long to explain, but the last one was godzilla loose in portugal! I am such a weirdo!
We're having our neighbours over for dinner again! It's quite annoying, but hay, life goes on! hehe.

I kinda have some bad news. Please don't hate me you guys! You know the bracelet that we're sending, it kinda broke because the band on the bracelet was really thin. I didn't even notice it was broken until I saw the beads on the floor. I'm really really, really, really, really soweeeeee! Please don't hate me! I collected all the beads back and put them in an envelope and I'm still sending it to you! Emma I think you should put the envelope in your padlocked bra for safe keeping.
I bought a new bracelet and tried to make it as similar as possible so we're wearing her sister bracelet! I'll send that too! You guys, I'm soooooo soweeeeee. Please forgive me!

OK, I really need to send this to Emma now, or it won't get there in time!

I miss you guys loads! Hope youre all having a great time!

I'll see you guys soon!
Lots of hugs!

Tanz-mania
xxx

P.S
If you look closely at Phelan's postcard of her Hotel I think you can see her! hehe! xxx

*[A postcard of a donkey. On the back it says 'My uncle says hello to all my friends! xxx'. I'm assuming her uncle doesn't look like a donkey, but you never know....]*

Emu:
Hello!
OK have found a pen that works! hehehe!
well basically today is the 4th september (2006) and there was a small issue with the postage which means that the book didn't arrive until I had left the place I was staying in on hol and a very nice person forwarded it to me! THANK YOU! whoever you are! =)
So I am going to use the book and bracelet over the next 5 days and pass it on to Lob!
OK so this is my first day....the bracelet is on.....wish me luck!

Oh my god! I just saw the 11:30 news on 5 and the crocodile hunder diaries' guy Steve has been killed by a stingray! I loved him he was so funny! Am going to cry...sniff sniff. ='(

*[she has stuck in a newspaper cutting from the Daily Telegraph of Steve Irwin's death]*

Have finished reading a Jackie Collins book. Was thrilling! hehehe! Have just gone to library was v. fun. So far the day has been good...maybe bracelet does work! hehehe!

Well, it is almost the end of my first day! I cannot believe it's 6th Form tomorrow! Am v. scared! Oh well, have been on phone to Lob for 2 hours! =0 hehe! But I must now say GOODNIGHT
xxxxx
zzzzzz

*[she has drawn a stingray with big fangs, and an arrow saying 'evil in it's purest form!')

Arrrrrrgh. I will finish this later. My eyeballs are going crazy from staring at the screen so long. And my arms are going stiff. See how I sacrifice personal comfort for my friends?!

Skinny Water?!?

2007-01-31T16:04:00.000Z

This is real.

You can actually buy bottles of 'skinny water' on the internet.

The website says it is, 'a no-calorie water, enhanced with a unique combination of ingredients to help people lose and maintain their weight'.

Their clinical studies show an obviously air brushed picture of a woman in a bikini (who is not only skinny, but is also beautiful and has flawless skin), lying on a towel with a bottle of the 'skinny water' next to her. How 'clinical' is it to air brush bodies?

You can buy a pack of 6 bottles for about $40 on the internet.

The company, Jana, claim that after drinking Skinny Water, 'You may notice a "full feeling," less craving for sweets and an increase in energy'. Good old Thames Water does that for me....

OK, so maybe their 'secret ingredient' does actually do something. But most dieticians will tell you that drinking a 500ml glass of tap water 20 mins before a meal will make you feel fuller, and therefore eat less.

I think the main difference between tap water and 'skinny water' is that tap water doesn't cost you $40 for 6 bottles.

And I'd be interested to see the calorific difference between 'skinny water' and tap water.

Marry Me?

2007-01-31T15:48:00.000Z

What do you think it feels like to be this beautiful?

Do you think he knows how attractive he is?

Probably.

But I'd like to think he is blissfully unaware of it.

For some reason, I find attractive people who have no idea how attractive they are, more attractive.

(I think that makes grammatical sense. Just.)

He's probably arrogant in real life. And one of those 'male divas' who goes into 5 star restaurants and then demands food that isn't on the menu.

He's probably really difficult to live with.

Well, thats what I'm telling myself, to try and soften the blow that I'll never have him.

And it's working.

I know it's a bit of a cliché, but I honestly do believe that personality is more important than looks. I would rather be married to a guy with a great personality who is a bit plain looking, than to a guy who looks amazing (like Josh Hartnett) but is about as deep as a puddle in a parking lot.

And if they have a great personality, they usually end up appearing more physically attractive as well...

Especially if they wear dog tags.

Maybe I should join the army or something.

I am still alive...

2007-01-26T21:34:00.000Z

I realise that it has been a while since I last blogged.
So yeah.... this year's resolution appears to be failing as well.

But never mind. We all knew it wouldn't work. And I've made another resolution to 're-organise my life'.

I know that the word 're-organise' implies that my life used to be organised, and in a way, it was. Although my room was a tip, if you managed to clamber over the stuff on the floor to open the wardrobe, all my clothes are arranged according to colour. In rainbow order, no less.
And my books - they are arranged as in a library; fiction, non-fiction, reference, poetry...

So, as I was explaining to Elizabeth, that proves that I can be organised. I just need to channel the organisation vibes in a more useful direction. So Elizabeth has taken on the mammoth task of getting me organised. Starting with my school work.

I started digging in the corner of my room, and found my desk. So my desk is now very tidy, and all the stuff that used to be on the desk is stacked on the floor.
But thats OK. After all, I don't walk on the bit by the window. And I'm planning to move it when I'm next free.

Anyway.....except for being busy keeping up with work, not much interesting has happened...
I'm trying hard to think of something to write about.

I've finished all my exams now. But I don't want to talk about that. They were awful. I don't want the results back. I think I'll just tell my teachers I'll re-sit the modules in June, and leave it at that.

Ummm....................

Oh! I went to Subway the other day, on the way home from work (OK...so I took a big detour), and the Subway Man was there! And he remembered me! =)
But it was quite busy in there, so we didn't have such a meaningful conversation.
Not that the other conversation was all that meaningful.

hmmmm..........

My Mum told me that my stalker approached her in the Waitrose car park and asked if I have a boyfriend.
Apparently she said, 'No. At the moment Anna is wanting to concentrate on her studies.'
I told her she should have said that I have a very butch, jealous boyfriend who is a black belt in karate. You would have thought that my Mum would now start to think that legal action should be taken, but no, she still thinks it is hilarious, and is still refusing to phone the police.
I'm contemplating taking out a restraining order.

And just to clarify, the 'concentrating on work' thing is my excuse for when my Mum's friends ask me why I am still single. I know it's not particularly true that I am concentrating on school work, but every day I plan to start concentrating on it, and one of these days, I will. And thanks to Sarah, it's not strictly true that I don't have a boyfriend. She helped me to make up an imaginary boyfriend. He's called Ben, and is very romantic. He is practically perfect in every way. Like Mary Poppins. (Btw, I've found it's best to try not to think too hard about the psychological implications of having an imaginary boyfriend.)
Anyway, why do my Mum's friends ask me that? It's not like I'm the only single 16 year old in the country. In fact, it's quite common to be 16 and single.

Actually, I'm 17 now.

AND I'VE STARTED DRIVING!

Yeah, Dad put me on the car insurance!

I haven't had any formal lessons yet, but Dad's taken me out a few times.

It's WICKED!

The first time I went out, I stalled quite a lot, and the first time I used the brake was very exciting, because I thought you had to push the brake in as far as the clutch. So it was quite a sudden stop. Not quite sudden enough for the air bags to go off, but it came pretty close....

So apart from that minor incident, I think I'm a natural. I can do 3 point turns, and parallel parking and reverse round a corner and everything.

And I must say, I am very impressed at how much you can see in the rear view mirror. You can see the whole road behind you. It's amazing!

The hardest part about driving is the idiots on the road. I don't know how they passed their tests. It really freaks me out when the car behind drives really close to me. It makes me feel like I have to go faster, but when I go faster, they go faster, and it has a tendancy to spiral out of control when that happens.
My latest technique is to lightly touch the brake pedal - not enough to slow the car, but enough to make the brake lights come on. Then the driver behind freaks out and thinks, 'Oh no! The stupid learner is about to stop in the middle of the road' and they slam on their brakes and allow you to carry on driving without them on your tail. It's quite effective. Unless you do it to the same driver more than about 3 times (sometimes they manage to catch up...).

Another minor incident was when I was driving in the dark, and there were 2 joggers running across the road wearing black. I managed to stop in time though. I always knew there had to be something dangerous about jogging....

Well. I should really get back to my Biology coursework now. I started writing this because I couldn't come up with a way of justifying my choice of filter in the colorimeter. I used the 590nm one because everyone else was using that one, and I thought it would be easier to go along with them. But I can't write that in my coursework.
You don't get marks for living in peace and harmony with other scientists...

Driving Videos

2007-01-07T17:29:00.000Z

It's really frustrating to have my provisional licence and not be able to drive. The licence isn't valid for another 9 days (it feels like YEARS!!!).

So to try and occupy myself until then, I've been watching videos about how to drive, on this website. The videos are unbelievably boring. It's just a man driving a car and telling you how to do everything...

I watched about 15 video clips of him doing stuff like parrallel parking, reversing into a minor road on the left...etc. He keeps on saying 'prepare the car as you would do normally....', but he never once explains how to do that.

What does he mean by preparing the car? Is that just making sure it is switched on, and that you're tuned to the right radio station?!

Anyway, it was getting a bit boring, and I was about to forget about it and move on, but then I saw that the next video was the emergency stopping one.

On my 13th birthday, I'd been beggin my Dad to let me drive the car for ages, so he finally let me have a go (on private land, obviously. My Dad is a very upstanding member of the community. He wouldn't unleash someone like me on the general public. And he wouldn't break the law either.)

I was just driving around in circles, not doing anything too fancy. i was having a great time, but Dad kept telling me to go faster coz he said he was getting bored.

Eventually, he must have got a bit fed up with it, because he told me to try an emergency brake. He said all I had to do was stop the car as quickly as possible.

So, I started driving the car, just in a straight line, but getting faster and faster (and a bigger and bigger adrenaline rush) and then he shouted "STOP!!!!", so I slammed on the brake pedal, and yanked on the hand break as well, and I left some long skid marks on the field. It was really exciting.

Which meant I had high hopes for the next video.

So I clicked on the link, and watched the clip.

The man was pulled over at the side of the road, and then a deep scary voice said, "I'm going to ask you to do an emergency stop. I want you to start the car in the normal way [see? There is is again! The 'normal way'.] and when I say stop, I want you to stop the car as quickly as possible, while maintaining full control of the vehicle".

Maintaining full control of the vehicle.

There goes any chance of having a bit of fun....

Anyway, the car pulled away, and started driving down the road.

I was getting a bit excited, because, you know.... I was anticipating it.... I was waiting for the deep scary voice to shout, and the car to suddenly stop.

After what seemed like ages, the deep scary voice calmly said, "Stop," in the least sudden way I've ever heard anybody ever say it.

And then the person who was driving kept both hands on the steering wheel (apparently that was to 'maintain total control' but it would have stopped faster if he'd used the handbrake as well) and he put his foot on the brake.

That was IT.

I know some people who normally brake the car like that. Even when it's not an emergency. It's slightly less comfortable than braking smoothly, but it's not very exciting.

What a let down.

Still, it's gonna be wicked when I can drive.

I already have L plates.

Maybe I'll go and stick them in the car now. Just so that they are ready.

I'd better not. My Dad still hasn't given me any indication as to whether he is putting me on the insurance.

I told him that if I accidently crash it, it would give him an opportunity to get a better car (our current car is pretty shabby to be honest. And covered in dog hairs).

But he told me that he has only insured it against theft and 3rd party damage.

I don't blame him. It would probably be cheaper to scrap our car and get a new one than it would be to make a claim on the insurance.

Guess what arrived today?!

2007-01-05T18:09:00.000Z

Yep, thats right. I can now drive.

(Don't be offended by the censoring.... I just think that you're an obsessive stalker. Which is bad. But I just want to let you know that it doesn't necessarily make you a bad person. There are support groups for people like you. You deserve a second chance.)

(I actually thought about censoring the picture as well, because it's not very flattering, but then it could have been anyones licence... so I left it there. Please, no malicious comments!)

Earnest Quotes

2007-01-04T17:12:00.000Z

I watched the Importance of being Earnest today.
Oscar Wilde is a literary genius.

Gwendolyn: In matters of utmost importance, style, not sincerity, is the vital thing.

Jack: Algy, you're always talking nonsense.
Algy: It's better than listening to it.

Jack: How you can sit there eating muffins when we're in this terrible trouble, I can't make out! It seems to me to be perfectly heartless...
Algy: I can hardly eat muffins in an agitated manner. The butter would probably get on my cuffs. One should always eat muffins quite calmly. It is the only way to eat them

(After Algy has finished playing the piano)
Algy: Did you hear what I was playing, Lane?
Lane: I didn't think it polite to listen, sir.
Algy: I don't play accurately - any one can play accurately - but I play with wonderful expression.

Jack: You don't think there's any chance of Gwendolyn becoming like her mother in about 150 years, do you Algy?
Algy: My dear fellow, all women become like their mothers, that's their tragedy. No man does, and that's his.

Lady Bracknell: I do not approve of anything that tampers with natural ignorance. Ignorance is like a delecate, exotic fruit. Touch it, and the bloom is gone. The whole theory of modern education is radically unsound. Fortunately in England, at any rate, education produces no effect whatsoever. If it did it would prove a serious threat to the upper classes, and probably lead to acts of violence in Grovesnor Square.

Jack: My dear Algy, you talk exactly as if you were a dentist. It is very vulgar to talk like a dentist when one isn't a dentist. It produces a false impression.

Algy: It is awfully hard work doing nothing. However, I don't mind hard work where there is no definite object of any kind.

Gwendolyn: I never travel without my diary. One should always have something sensational to read in the train.

Lady Bracknell: An engagement should come on a young girl as a surprise, pleasant or unpleasant as the case may be.

Lady Bracknell: To speak frankly, I am not in favour of long engagements. They give people the opportunity of finding out each other’s character before marriage, which I think is never advisable.

I'm going up in the world!

2007-01-04T16:17:00.000Z

Guess what everyone?

I now have an official blog!

Don't get me wrong, I will always love this blog. And I will go on writing in this blog.
Because I can write whatever I want here, and it doesn't have to be interesting or grammatically correct.

I am now writing a blog for work. It became official a few days ago.

You can check it out here.

That blog does have to be interesting and grammatically correct. And also vaguely applicable to people of all ages and backgrounds.
So I thought I would begin by writing about politics, current affairs, and parental love and guidance. Which was probably a bad idea, because I now have to think of something better than that for next time.

Any ideas?

Banana Ketchup

2007-01-03T19:51:00.000Z

I have a Froogle wishlist!!!

I forgot about that!

I can't remember making it.

At first, I thought it couldn't be mine, and there must be someone with the same name as me.

But then I realised that they couldn't have the same e-mail address as me, so it must have been my wishlist from a while ago. (I know.....just call me Sherlock!)

Also, it had the kind of things on it that I would probably put on a wishlist.
Like stripey socks. And a hippy van.
And BANANA KETCHUP!!!!!

I bet you didn't know that existed. (Even if you did, pretend you didn't so that I can feel good about myself.)

And I bet you want to know more about it...so I did a little bit of research for you.

Wikipedia has the following to say about Banana Ketchup (my comments are in red):

"Banana Ketchup is made in the Philippines [but presumably it can be made anywhere that you can get hold of bananas, right?] from bananas [...no kidding...], mashed, with sugar, vinegar, and spices and red food colouring [is that just so that it looks like normal ketchup? coz personally, I think that yellow is a much less aggressive colour, and therefore something that I would feel more comfortable putting on my food. Maybe.]. It was said to have been invented during the Japanese Occupation [so it wasn't actually invented by Filipinos?] of the country, 1942-45, when American-made condiments became virtually impossible to find [Why were the Japanese people looking for American condiments? What?! I'm confused...]. It began to be mass produced in the 1950s and achieved widespread use in the 1970s. [If it's widespread, why isn't it available in Asda? Or Tesco? Or the Indian corner shop where we buy milk? Those places sell EVERYTHING.]"

Hmmmm......

"It is often used as dressing for Filipino fried chicken [Also made in the Philippines, I'll bet...](not breaded) [I'm guessing thats important...] and mixed with local copies of Worcestershire Sauce [Worcestershire is in England. That's not local to the Philippines.]. Banana ketchup is also mixed with mayonnaise to be used as a salad dressing. It is also used as an ingredient in Filipino spaghetti [Spaghetti is Italian. Except for Filipino spaghetti, which is Filipino.], instead of spaghetti sauce. This spaghetti is unique in that it's normally sprinkled with grated cheddar cheese and diced hotdog, vienna sausage, or in some cases, corned beef [It's also unique in that it is Filipino and not Italian]."

Anyway.

Bananas........sugar........ vinegar..........spices.........food colouring........

Those are all household ingredients.

Are you thinking what I'm thinking?!

Ready, Steady, COOK!
.......as Ainsley would say.

Revision doesn't work.

2007-01-02T16:09:00.000Z

Right.

OK.

I'm fed up.

I'm going to prove to you that revision doesn't work for everyone, and that I am one of the people it doesn't work for.

I am revising now, and I am going to give you a blow by blow account of everything that happens. Along with the time it happens at.

OK?
Ready?
The time is 4:11.
Let's start.

4:11: I'm reading about the Miller's Tale on Wikipedia.

4:15: Well....that was quick. I've found a critic now, so I'm reading that...

4:17: You know what? I really hope the exam question is on the description of Alison, coz I'm really good at that bit. Mainly because it's the easiest, and most interesting bit. Anyway. Back to work.

4:18: Actually, I think I'll research the Knight's Tale, because although thats not what the exam is on, it would be good if I could compare the 2 Tales.

4:20: I'm listening to some rubbish music at the moment. I need to quickly make a playlist. It won't take long...

4:24: The Beatles would probably be a good thing to listen to, because they are considered a classic now, like the Canterbury Tales, and they are mostly dead, like Chaucer (who is, in fact, totally dead).

4:25: I just learnt a new word. 'Servility'. It means 'abject or cringing submissiveness', and is apparently a quality that the perfect Medieval woman had. That is nothing like Alison. Thats good. I can talk about it in the exam. As long as the question is about Alison....

4:28: I reeeeeeeeally hope the question is about Alison. Theres only about 4 characters that the question can be on. So theres like, a 25% chance it will be about her. Unless they ask questions about Chaucer. Or life in 13th Century Britain. Honestly, thats so stupid. If I wanted to learn about 13th Century Britain I would have picked History instead of English Lit.
Anyway. Back to work.

4:31: I need a drink.

4:36: I'm back. But it can't possibly have taken me 5 mins to get a drink. Thats ridiculous. Maybe I need to start walking faster.

4:38: Wow. The Canterbury Tales were banned in a school in the USA for being 'too lewd'. That was in 1995. It must have been in one of those Puritan or Amish settlement places they have, because I like to think that the average Briton is less crude than the average Yankee.

4:41: Hahaha.... Geoffrey Chaucer's dad was kidnapped by his aunt when he was 12, because she wanted to force him to marry her daughter so that they could cheat the law and keep a property somewhere. Talk about having a dysfunctional family. No wonder Geoff ended up writing slightly rude stories when he grew up. Freak. Do you think he'd mind people calling him Geoff? Is that like calling Shakespeare 'Will'?

4:43: Or 'Willy'! Hahaha..... *ahem*

4:44: My toes are cold.

4:45: Chaucer wrote in continental accentual-syllabic metre. Whatever that is.

4:47: Ooooookay. This is getting really boring. I'll revise Biology instead.

4:48: 'Theres nothing you can do that can't be done, nothing you can sing that can't be sung....'
Why does this song start with the French national anthem? Is it a subliminal message, trying to make us love french people or something?

4:50: Hey......I just invented my first conspiracy theory without even realising it!

4:51: Is it morally wrong to make up conspiracy theories about songs written by people who are now dead, and unable to defend themselves?

4:52: Well....Paul McCartney can defend it. He helped write it.

4:54: Maybe I should keep my conspiracy theory to myself. It wouldn't be fair to Paul. He's trying to get over the break up of his marriage. It would be insensitive of me to shove him back into the public eye when he is already feeling vulnerable and used.

4:55: And tbh, I'm probably not the first person to have thought about the subliminal message thing.... Irritatingly, all of my greatest thoughts have already been thought of by someone else.

4:58: The AS Guru website has animations of how molecules join together to make bigger molecules! Thats exciting!

5:10: It's quite therapeutic to watch polypeptides forming. Like watching tropical fish or something.... The two amino acids move closer together, and then the water molecule slides out so gracefully........and then, POW, the amino acids join up and form a dipeptide. And then another amino acid comes along, moves up close, another water molecule slides out, and, POW, they bond, and it becomes a polypeptide.... and then another amino acid comes, and.... anyway....you get the idea....

5:11: Did I really just spend 13 mins staring at a simulation of polypeptides forming?!?!?!?!?
That is NOT time efficient. I better remember it after all that time spent watching it.

5:12: It is quite mesmerising though.....

I HAVE BEEN REVISING FOR AN HOUR, AND THE ONLY USEFUL THING I HAVE LEARNT IS THE MEANING OF 'SERVILITY'.
DO YOU SEE WHAT I MEAN NOW, WHEN I SAY THAT REVISION DOESN'T WORK FOR ME?????

I could have put the time to better use, and be over half way through watching A Cinderella Story. That is an hour of my life that has been wasted, and I will never get it back.

Thats so depressing.

'Yesterdaaaaaaay.........all my troubles seemed so far awaaaaaaay.......Now it seems like they are heeeere to staaaaaaaay..........ohhhh, I believ....in yesterdaaaaaaay............'

I'm going to cheer myself up now.

New Laws.... =)

2007-01-01T21:36:00.000Z

The Government is raising the minimum age for buying cigarettes.

It's been a while since a new law has come out that actually has the potential to oppress me in some way.

But you know what? I don't feel oppressed. Nevertheless, I still feel I have some right to make my voice my opinion on this new initiative.

I think it's an excellent idea. To be perfectly honest, I'm not convinced that it will make a huge amount of difference, but I still think it's a good idea.

My classmates have been able to obtain cigarettes for years now; and technically they should only have been able to buy them for about a year.

Based on my personal experience, since I am too lazy to do any official research on the matter, most of my friends who currently smoke started before they were 16 anyway. And although they are still 16/17, I think they will still be smoking when the new law comes into effect in October. They'll get hold of their fags somehow. They managed it before, and they'll manage it again. After all, they are older now, and in theory, more intelligent and more capable of fooling whoever is manning the till at the local off licence/petrol station.

The first day of the rest of my life...

2007-01-01T16:10:00.000Z

Here are some photos from the fireworks in London last night.

I didn't take them myself. My photos were rubbish, and I haven't got them off the camera yet...

It was really crowded, but we managed to get quite a good spot. We were on the road right in front of the houses of parliament. So we were standing at the foot of Big Ben, with a good view of the London Eye on the other side of the river.

I don't know where The Feeling were playing...it would have been nice to have been able to watch them live, but there were big screens put up in the road, so we watched them playing there. A surprisingly small number of people were singing along. (I probably don't even need to specify that i was one of the people singing, but I'll say it anyway! =D )

This is the first year that I've been to Westminster for the fireworks, but I think I'll probably go along next year. It was really good fun. But I think next year I will take public transport. On the way back, the traffic was really bad, and it took us ages to get out of the centre. (It also took us ages to find a parking space to begin with... and we were there at 10:30. So everyone else must have arrived really early...).

Today I decided to get some work done, but I knew that the odds of me staying focussed at home were not good at all... so I decided to go to Costa, because it's not too far, and I thought it would be nice and quiet since it's new year. I had assumed that most people would be sleeping off their hang overs. I got up at about 11:30 (not bad...! I've been very disciplined so far this year.) so I was there by about 12:30. It wasn't too busy when I got there, so I sat down at the back and started writing notes on The Miller's Tale. It wasn't as boring as I thought it would be. I have a growing appreciation for Chaucer. To begin with I thought he was a semi-illiterate idiot trying to be funny. Now that I have got my head around his weird spelling and (imo) made up words, I actually think he was quite good.

I'm sure that a modern equivalent of what he did with the Canterbury Tales, or even just what he did with the Miller's Tale - a kind of parody of a popular plot, would be a best seller now.

Anyway - thats going to be one of my New Years Resolutions (I've decided to make lots of them, because then it's more likely that I will stick to at least one of them...). I'm going to read more.
I've actually started doing that already. A few weeks ago I went out and got some books that I've been wanting to read for ages, but never bothered to get hold of them.
I'm a few chapters into The Da Vinci Code, but I don't know whether I'll finish it. I read Digital Fortress (also by Dan Brown) a few months ago, and it was really good, but all his books are really fat, and I don't know if I have the stamina and determination to get through a fat book at the moment. I have a lot of stuff I need to read (and do) for school, so a fat book will only get in the way of that.

I'm about a third of the way through reading 'A Walk to Remember' by Nicholas Sharp (It cost 1p from Amazon! That didn't include the postage, but I still think thats pretty good!).
The film (same title) was based on the book, and it's one of my favourite films! Except, I don't watch it very much coz it makes my eyes hurt from crying so much... But anyway, the book is really good so far. It's different from the film, but it's not a 'bad different'. I don't think it's necessarily a 'good different' though. So far, it's just a 'different different'.

I've also read the first chapter of a book called 'The Alliance' which I got for Christmas. I'm not totally sure what it's about yet, but it seems pretty good.

I got a book of poetry out of the library, called 'The Nation's Favourite Love Poems' or something like that, and there were several poems by Wendy Cope. I hadn't heard of her before, but when I was out getting The Da Vinci Code, I saw a book of poems by her, so I got that as well. She's really good.

And (don't worry, this is the last one now), I'm also reading Four Quartets by T S Eliot. Actually, it's more like attempting to read at the moment. I only got it coz I thought it would be good for me... Kinda like eating vegetables. It's not that fun at the time, but you reap the benefits later. And in some cases, you even start to enjoy eating the vegetables.
It's good writing, but you have to concentrate really hard when you read it, and since I'm on holiday, I've put him on hold for the moment.
I understood him enough to realise that one of Wendy Cope's poems is a parody of his Four Quartets.

Oh.....I also bought a copy of The Times on Saturday night. I wanted to read about Saddam Hussein's execution... (my motives weren't as morbid as they sound....I promise.).
The Times is quite good actually, it's not as boring as everyone says, so I think I might read it more often. It's probably easier with a dictionary on hand, but I don't really use them because I'm rubbish at getting my alphabet in the right order, so it takes ages.

So, I might not end the year fit and healthy, or with a livelier blog, but at least I'll end it well versed and up to date with current affairs (hopefully...).

Happy New Year!

2006-12-31T16:05:00.000Z

I can't believe it's already the end of the year.

I can clearly remember writing the blog entry at the start of the year which is now ending. i.e this year. 2006.

Remember it?
It was the one with the top 40 songs, according to how I was feeling at that particular moment. (If you had asked me the same question 10 mins later, it probably would have been quite different).

Now do you remember it?

Here, allow me to refresh your memory.

I've been trying to think of something more interesting to do for this new year post.
I know that this blog has been looking a bit forsaken recently. Like the elephant grave yard in the Lion King. In fact, when checking back to see if I had written another profound, witty, informative (or otherwise) post, you may caught sight of some tumbleweed blowing across your screen.

I'm afraid don't have an excuse for this blogging hiatus.
Just like I haven't had excuses for any of my other blogging hiatuses. (Or is it hiati? Or hiatii? Isn't there a place called Haiti?!)

I could tell you that I've been busy, and it would be true, but I could have made time to blog. I mean, this blog has survived for a year and a half now, (depending on your definition of 'survival'), and life is always fairly busy, isn't it?

With it being Christmas recently, we have received a lot of Christmas cards, and many of them contained news letters boasting about how busy everyone has been, what with their recent promotion / the arrival of their new baby / their extensive travels / their impressive sounding degree course / their home improvement plans / their half finished autobiography / their extraterrestrial abduction etc.
Everyone is busy, but that doesn't stop them all from blogging.

I could also tell you that I have had more important things to do, which would also be true, because I have had more important things do do. I just haven't done them.
For example, I didn't write any Christmas cards this year.
Not a single one.
This is probably the first year I haven't sent out cards since I was 6 or 7. Before that, it wouldn't have been worthwhile to send them, because my writing wasn't clear enough for people to read who the cards were actually from.

The exchanging of Christmas Cards has become a social obligation, and to be honest, it actually felt quite good to eye the other people in the supermarket queues, buying piles of christmas cards, and knowing that I was rebelling against society in a fairly significant, but ultimately harmless way.

I suppose I could even try to excuse my lack of posts by telling you that I forgot I had a blog. However, this is not true either, because several people have told me that they have read my blog recently. Some said it helped them to understand me more (what's that supposed to mean?!) others said they found it quite funny (thats fine, I don't care. Go ahead. Laugh at my pathetic little life. If you get pleasure out of sick passtimes like that, it says more about your pathetic life than it does about mine. So there.).
Actually, why do you all read this?
Thats not a rhetorical question.
Why do you, yes, YOU, the person reading this now, keep coming back to 'that place between asleep and awake'?
And when you're here, why don't you leave comments?

Other people on Blogspot get comments.
I have had very few comments.

If you read my blog, leave a comment.
Don't come and find me in person!
This blog wouldn't exist for you to read if I told you everything in person rather than writing it here.

Erm.... argh.
See what's happened?
I'm out of practice at blog writing.
There are even more tangents now than there were before.

What I was trying to say is that there isn't really an excuse for my lack of blogging.

But I need a new years resolution, so maybe mine can be to blog more regularly.
My new years resolution was actually going to be to go swimming once a week like last year, if you think back to what happened, it wasn't very successful in the end. In fact, I think it would be safe to say that it totally failed.
I think regular blogging is a better resolution, because it's not very strenuous. As you all know, I don't really 'do' strenuous.

Anyway, as it is new year, I thought I would upgrade to the New Blogger! It's been asking me to upgrade for ages, but evidently, I must be quite a conservative blogger, because I was a bit concerned as to how the new Blogger would be different. I liked it the way it was. Also, I couldn't really be bothered to undergo another extensive registration process.
Today I finally took the plunge, and registered under the new Blogger. And, truth be told, I don't think it's all that different from the old Blogger. But I haven't had a chance to explore it yet. Apparently, you can do a lot of cool things with the new Blogger. Like privacy settings to pick and choose who can view your blog. But to be honest, I don't think I can afford to be picky with my limited (but lovely) audience.

Anyway. Why am I writing all this?
I'm meant to be wishing you all a happy new year.

I'm going to watch the fireworks in Westminster. =)

Let's hope it doesn't rain. And that I don't get stuck behind a tall person.

Christmas!

2006-12-09T22:26:00.000Z

I think that the way I did Christmas this year kinda reflects the rest of my life at the moment.

I didn't manage to get my advent calendar until the 8th December. By the 12th December I had eaten all the chocolates up to the 19th December. After that, I lost the advent calendar, and I still haven't found it.

This year, rather than traipsing around London like last year, Emma, Phelan, Lobs Tanz and Me decided to cook our own Christmas Dinner. It turned out to be a very interesting, edcuational and enjoyable weekend. =)

Here are some photos from our Christmas weekend!

Tanya and Emma.

Note Phelan's newly painted bedroom walls. =)

Emma, proudly displaying her new Captain Jack Sparrow action figure - complete with bottle of rum.

Phelan and Elizabeth - spreading the love.

Proof that Emma is a bad influence on the rest of us.

Phelan and Elizabeth, making a big noise while the rest of us were trying to watch Never Mind the Buzzcocks.

Elizabeth, Me and Emma, after being woken up the following morning.

Emma, proving to me that it is, in fact, possible to make Yorkshire Puddings yourself. Until then, I was convinced that 'Aunt Bessie' was the only person who knew how to make them, and that they were only available from the frozen food departments of supermarkets.

Nearly all the food was finished by this point.

Phelan and Elizabeth were stressing over the Roast/Mashed Potatoes. (deciding what mush in the dish could be described as, and working out whether it could be salvaged).

This is Elizabeth filming us while we were trying to drink shots of Brandy Sauce.

One of my famous 'M&M Cakes'. They always manage to end up looking like they have already been eaten, and then regurgitated back onto the plate, but that actually taste quite good. I promise....

I can cook some things, despite what previous posts may seem to have indicated.

When we were going to set fire to the Christmas Pudding, Elizabeth (always the responsible one) said there was no way she would let us do in in the house, because we'd probably burn the whole place down (does she think we are total idiots?). We went out into the garden, and it was freezing cold, and really windy, so it wouldn't light...

When we went back inside, nobody felt like eating it because it was so covered in vodka. (I know brandy is more traditional, but we couldn't find any...)

Anyway, HAPPY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE! =)

I Quit Chemistry!!!

2006-12-06T21:42:00.000Z

Yep, I did it!

I've hated AS Chemistry since I started it, and I started to realise that I wasn't really getting anywhere with it, and that I don't enjoy it, and that the only reason I was doing it was so that I could get into medical school. Which eventually stopped seeming like a good reason to me.

I mean, if it's so important that they specify that you MUST have Chemistry A2 (and for most universities, thats the only subject they specify) do I really want to spend 7 years of my life (and run up a £20,000 debt) doing something that I'm not really going to enjoy, and that I'm going to find really stressful because I'm always going to be struggling to understand it?
The answer to that is, 'probably not'.

So, I quit Chemistry. I thought I'd have to fight to get them to allow it, but both the head of 6th form and the head of academics were both really supportive. Much more supportive than I thought they would be (considering I have wasted a whole term doing chemistry, I've been entered for a Chemistry AS Exam in January, and I'm asking to start a new subject and catch up on a term's worth of work). But it was great. They kept saying, 'Yes Anna.....definitely.....as long as you're happy.......whatever you'd prefer.......', and even, 'Did your chemistry teacher upset you? Would you like us to have a word with him about it'.
I just smiled graciously, but with a slightly hunted expression on my face which, I hope, indicated that the whole 'chemistry experience' had been terribly traumatic for me, but that I was willing to suffer in silence, and just quietly get on with the decade of therapy it would take for me to get over it.

I had my first french lesson yesterday. It was a bad day to join, because they were doing a listening exam. So I had to do an exam in a subject when I haven't actually been taught any of it yet. It was a bit scary, but I managed to pick up some of the conversation. (Believe it or not, the people on the tape speak even faster at AS than they do at GCSE!)

But yes. This is the start of a new era for me.

I am no longer planning to do medicine.

And it feels GREAT!

My life has an element of 'unknown' again. =)

Btw, if you type 'I hate chemistry' into Google, you get 1,280,000 results.
And it manages to find all of them in about 0.12 seconds. That's fast.

Nearly Christmas!

2006-11-26T14:21:00.000Z

It's less than a month until Christmas now!!! =)

So here's a song for you.

Apologies for the Jessica Simpson version.... It was the best quality video I could find...

I have to do my Christmas shopping soon.
Dunno when I'll have time. I'm always at work on Saturdays.
But the shops will probably be open later so it should be OK...

I went back to Subway last week, and they still haven't changed the 'Sub of the Day'. And the nice guy wasn't there. How disappointing.

I think Subway would be a really cool place to work though.

On Friday Jay nearly killed us all in Chemistry by producing a lot of Chlorine gas in the lab. I guess she missed the bit that said, 'Do this part in a fume cupboard'.

Luckily nobody died. But it was really smelly. And it hurt our eyes a bit. And it got a bit difficult to breathe.

Luckily the only person with asthma was right at the front of the room.

Also, the boys burnt the sink by pouring something down it. We don't know what it was. They had quite a lot of test tubes, so they forgot what was in them all. It was quite a cool colour though.

Is it too early for me to start wearing my Father Christmas hat to school?

Oh....I think my Biology coursework is doomed.
There's been a little problem with my bananas.... I was ripening them at different rates, but they are all the same colour.

How irritating.

Never mind.

Surely if it all goes wrong, I can repeat it? Or make up the results?

Anyway, it's probably quite good to have some anomalies, because then you can talk about the possible reasons for them and all that other stuff, and so it gives you a chance to 'exhibit your knowledge'.
When I did my last physics coursework, all the results were perfect, so I had to change one of them to make it anomalous so I could have something to talk about in the evaluation. Maybe A Level is the same

The important thing is, I managed to somehow get a water bath into my experiment. The lab is freezing first thing in the morning (and we have to start at 8am!!!!!) so I can use it to warm my hands. =)

My Desk

2006-11-12T20:18:00.000Z

I don't want to do my Chemistry exam papers, so I thought I'd make a labelled photo of my desk.

Because I know you're all dying to know what my desk looks like.

*ahem*

Hmmm....it won't go very big.

Thats kinda hard to read, isn't it?

Maybe it will go bigger of you click on it? Or maybe you'll just have get your magnifying glasses out?

OK, click on this link.

http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d132/AnnaNunn/Mydesk.jpg

I hosted it. Coz I'm so technical. =)

Really don't want to do those Chemistry papers. They make me feel stupid.

Hmmm.......

Honey likes it when I sing Whitney Houston songs to her.

...............mmmmmm...................

Windows Media Player is trying to put music onto the Digital Camera. WMP is always very enthusiastic about music. Anytime I plug anything into the computer, it immediately trys to force music into it.

I think that's commendable.

Though kinda silly in the case of a camera, which has no way of playing music back. I think.

..............

OK. I'm gonna do the chemistry now.

I'm such a good gardener!!!

2006-11-12T19:38:00.000Z

I got some plants on my 16th birthday, to try and convince myself that I'm ready for responsibility, and can keep things alive etc.

I have 6 cactuses (I think the plural is meant to be 'cacti' but 'cactuses' sounds better), A little Christmas tree thing (I don't know what it really is) and a pink flowery plant thing (I also don't know the name of that).

I accidently sent the plants into a bit of a comatose state several times. Most of the time it wasn't my fault, coz I was on holiday or something.... But I kept on just about reviving them. I have one plant that is technically supposed to have lots of pink flowers on it, but it hasn't actually had any flowers in aaaaaages because I keep sending it back into a coma before it has a change to make any flowers.

BUT, I must've gone through a spurt of maturity or responsibility or something, because it has flowers again!!!!!!!

LOOK:

Admittedly, the Christmas Tree thing is dead and brown and crunchy on the front half, but the back half is very green and alive. (How does that happen? HOW? I think it's actually quite clever...)

But the plant has a massive pink flower.

And lots of little pink buds that will become massive pink flowers because I will continue to nurture the plant.

Here is a close up of the plant:

See? Thats a LOT of buds. It will look quite exotic if they all become big flowers...

I'll take another photo when they all become flowers.

I don't know what the screws are next to the plant. They've been there for ages. I think they might have been some extra screws from my wardrobe that I thought were unnecessary. Thats the awkward thing about Ikea furniture. I mean, I love Ikea and everything, but I sometimes wonder whether they accidently put in extra bits by mistake, because they make them very cheaply....

The wardrobe is staying up fine though.

Ohhhh..... they might be from my sisters old desk that I pulled apart?

Remembrance Sunday

2006-11-12T19:18:00.000Z

Today is Remembrance Sunday.

I always get a bit philosophical around Remembrance Day.

Every year, I get closer to the age of the people who were sent out to fight in the wars. This year, some of my friends would have been sent out to fight. Thats so young.

I am nowhere near ready to die. I'm not afraid to die, but I haven't finished living yet. I still have a lot of things that I want to do. Places I want to visit, goals I want to achieve, things I want to experience.

There are people who sacrificed their lives so that I can have the life that I'm enjoying now.
Thats a really big deal.

"When you go home
Tell them of us and say,
'For your tomorrow,
We gave our today.'"

There aren't many war veterans still alive, and every year there are fewer. I think it's really important that we continue to remember the people who died in the wars - especially after there are no people who lived through them still around to remind us of what they had to go through to earn the freedom we take for granted today.

'They shall not grow old, as we that are left grow old;

Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn;

At the going down of the sun and in the morning,

We will remember them.'

Hmmmmm....

2006-11-08T16:47:00.000Z

You Are 48% Addicted to Myspace

Your Myspace addiction factor is: Moderate

You're slowly building a very strong addiction to Myspace. Get out while you still can!

Are You Addicted to Myspace?

Toaster Heat

2006-11-06T19:42:00.000Z

Do you know how irritating it can be, having a scientist for a father?

Probably not, so I'll tell you.

He is into global warming, and climate change, and saving energy in a big way.

Which I think is commendable. And I am into those things as well.

(Think back to the solar panels posts earlier...I'm putting up with cold showers when it's cloudy. Actually, he's switched it over to so that it's partly heated by the boiler now! =D )

Since we just got a real fire put in, Dad has decided that we don't need the central heating on yet. (Hence the fact that I'm sleeping with 3 duvets...).

This morning I came downstairs to eat breakfast in the kitchen, and it was FREEZING. So I asked Dad when he was planning to put the heating on. He said, 'Not yet! Don't be silly! You're such a wimp! It's 17C in here!'.

17C. That is below room temperatue. And I'm normally still cold at room temperature. I must have bad circulation or a slow metabolism or something.

So I went and plugged in a fan heater and switched it on, to try and make it bearable in there.

Then he said, 'You have no concept of energy, do you?'

(Btw, dnt you think it's a bit silly to say that to an AS Physics student? I must have some concept of energy....even if it is a bit flawed. Just coz i don't have a stuffy Physics PhD thing from Imperial College. Honestly... *sigh*)

So I said, 'Yes, I do actually.'

Then he looked at me and said, 'Well then, you'd know that the heater is 1000W.'

I smiled and nodded. (I did know it was 1000W. I just didn't really know how big that was).

He said, 'You know a light bulb is 60W, right?'
Erm...yes.....

'Think how many light bulbs that heater is equivalent to.'

..........*silence*................

'Do you care about global warming or not?'

I told him that I do care about global warming, I just care more about my own warming.

The I went and put some toast in the toaster, and he took the opportunity to dart across the room and turn off the heater.

I gave him an evil look.

'Well, the toaster is throwing out loads of heat now. You don't need the heater and the toaster. Don't you think thats a bit extravagant? Why don't you just put an extra jumper on?'

Weirdo.

Nobody uses a toaster to heat their house.

Bad Blogger

2006-11-04T20:40:00.000Z

I know....I haven't blogged in ages. (Or whatever the appropriate verb should be).

But at least that shows I've been doing something with my life, and haven't just been sitting staring at the computer screen...

Today I left work at 3 coz she owed me some overtime that I did 2 weeks ago. =) It was wicked. I went shopping, which I haven't been able to do in ages (because I'm always working during shopping hours on Saturdays).

All the Christmas decorations are up in the shops, which is really exciting!

I should start my Christmas shopping. Wow. I love Christmas shopping. This is great!

Although I'm not very good at christmas shopping. Coz theres always so much stuff in the shops....I don't know what to choose.
Like, today, I went into Subway, and there is so much different stuff in there, that in the end I just said, 'I'll have the special'.
You have to be careful saying that, coz sometimes there is really skanky stuff in the special. But today it was OK.
Then he made me choose which type of bread I wanted. After thinking for an embarrassingly long time, I picked one, and then he looked all shifty and said, 'Actually, we're out of that kind...sorry'. So I picked another kind.
Then he said, 'Do you want cheese?'. I just nodded, in case I thought for ages again.
Then he said, 'do you want it toasted?'. I just said yes, so that he's put it in the toastie thing and stop asking me difficult questions. So he did.
I thought it was all gonna be over after that, but no.
'Do you want lettuce?'
'Erm.....yeah, why not?'
'Tomatoes?'
'Uhhhh....OK, yes please.'
'Sweetcorn?'
'.....uh.......Yeah....?'
'Olives?'
'What? With sweetcorn? Seriously?'
'OK, maybe not. Do you want anything else in it?'
'No thanks.'
'Are you sure?'
'Yep.'
'Positive?'
'YES!!! I'M POSITIVE!!!'
'What sauce do you want on it?'
(Panicking coz of all the questions.) 'Uhhh....What do you recommend?'
'Honey and Mustard?'
'Yep, go for it!'
'OK babe. Do you want a drink with that?'
'No thanks.'
'Are you sure?'
'Yes'
'Positive?'
'Yes.'
'Absolutely?'
'Yes....'
'OK, Sorry. Thats £2.10 please.'
'Thanks'
'Thats OK, have a good weekend!'
'You too!'
'Bye darlin'!'
'See ya!'

He was actually quite a nice man though.
I miss him.

Argh.
What am I saying?
I don't miss the Subway man.

I just think he was nice.

And I'm not gonna go back there tomorrow to see if he works on Sundays.
Coz I really don't care whether he works Sundays.
Because it's not like I'd go in there just to see him again or anything.

Thought Provoking Questions....!

2006-10-24T21:08:00.000Z

1. You can press a button that will make any one person explode. Who would you blow up?
I don't know.
I don't think I dislike anybody enough to want them to die.
I'd probably say the guy who shot all those Amish girls at that school, or the terrorists and suicide bombers who blew up the underground and crashed planes into the twin towers....But they killed themselves already.

I guess thats part of the reason I hate them so much. In killing themselves, they took the easy way out. It doesn't feel like there can be any justice...

2.You can flip a switch that will wipe any band or musical artist out of existence. Which one will it be?
Eminem.
I don't like his choice of genre, and he inspires a lot of hatred.

3.Who would you really like to just punch in the face?
wow....this is violent!
I honestly don't know.
hmmmmm
Maybe Saddam Hussein. However you spell it.

4.What is your favorite cheese?
Cheddar

5.You can only have one kind of sandwich. Every sandwich ingredient known to humankind is at your immediate disposal. What kind will you make?
Marmite. =)

6.You have the opportunity to sleep with the movie celebrity of your choice. We are talking no-strings-attached sex and it can only happen once. Who is the lucky celebrity of your choice?
Hmmmm.....Josh Hartnett? Ben Affleck? I don't know.
I think they are attractive, but I dnt think I'd sleep with them.

Actually, you know what? George Clooney would probably have been a great lover back in his day. Not that I have a thing about old men or anything, but.....you know......30 odd years ago..... ;-)
He's charming. I'd like to spend the day with him - with no sex. I'd just have to remember not to call him grandad. lol.

7.You have the opportunity to sleep with the music-celebrity of your choice. Who do you pick?
I don't know. Probably Evan, but I think that most celebrities are up themselves.
I don't think I'd want sex with him. I'd like to spend the day with him though.

8. Now that you've slept with two different people in a row, you seem to be having an excellent day because you just came across a hundred-dollar bill on the sidewalk. Holy shit, a hundred bucks! How are you gonna spend it?
On music.

9.You just got a free plane ticket to anywhere. You have to depart right now. Where are you gonna go?
Mexico. I've never been there, but I've kinda been above and below it.
So if I go there, then I can fill in the gap. =)
And I like Mexican food.

10.Upon arrival to the aforementioned location, you get off the plane and discover another hundred-dollar bill. Shit! Now that you are in the new location, what are you gonna do?
Lol. Probably on food then! =P
Though mexico is probably quite a cheap country, so i might use it to stay in a 5 star hotel!

11.An angel appears out of Heaven and offers you a lifetime supply of the alcoholic beverage of your choice. It is...?
Ummm....I could try and act butch and say something like Jack Daniels, but I think I'd actually prefer to have red wine.
Because I'm feeling quite mellow atm.
And I'd be able to drink more of that than JD because I'm not very good with strong alcohol. =/

12.Rufus appears out of nowhere with a time-traveling phone booth. You can go anytime in the PAST. What time are you traveling to and what are you going to do when you get there?
The 60s. I'd be a Hippy, have a Hippy Van, and witness the birth of some of the best music ever produced.

13.You discover a beautiful island upon which you may build your own society. You make the rules. What is the first rule you put into place?
Do NOT kill each other.
Reproduce as fast as possible to we can populate our island.
But only reproduce with one partner so that we dont get any STIs/STDs on the island.

14.You have been given the opportunity to create the half-hour TV show of your own design. What is it called and what's the premise?
The Anna Show.
I get people with issues to come on and talk about their problems in front of a live audience who will laugh at them, poke fun at them, make jokes about them and generally humiliate them and therefore add to their issues.

Kinda like Jerry Springer and X Factor rolled into 1. Genius.

15.What is your favorite curse word?
Bummer.
OK, not that rude, but I think it has a ring to it.

16.One night you wake up because you heard a noise. You turn on the light to find that you are surrounded by MUMMIES. The mummies aren't really doing anything; they're just standing around your bed. What do you do?
Scream.

17.Your house is on fire, holy shit! You have just enough time to run in there and grab ONE inanimate object. Don't worry, your loved ones and pets have already made it out safely. So what's the item?
My folders for school.
Sorry, but everything else is replacable.
I am NOT sitting down copying up all my work that gets burned. I have a bunch of slave drivers for teachers. I've written several encyclopedias worth of stuff already...

18.The Angel of Death has descended upon you. Fortunately, the Angel of Death is pretty cool and in a good mood, and it offers you a half-hour to do whatever you want before you bite it. Whatcha gonna do in that half-hour?
Say goodbye to everyone.

19.You accidentally eat some radioactive vegetables. They were good, and what's even cooler is that they endow you with the super-power of your choice! What's it gonna be?
Healing.
Then I actually would get to be a doctor. And I'd be good at it.And I wouldn't have to be clever, or understand. I could just do it.

20.You can re-live any point of time in your life. The time-span can only be a half-hour, though. What half-hour of your past would you like to experience again?
Probably a time when I was a baby.
People paid attention to me, fed me, dressed me, cuddled me, called me cute, and everybody was quiet when i was asleep and never tried to wake me up when i wanted to stay in bed.

21.You can erase any horrible experience from your past. What will it be?
I dunno. I'm starting to see how they have shaped who I am today. I've learned a lot from those mistakes, and I think most of the lessons would be harder and more painful to learn the older I get. So I think I'll just leave em. ;-)

22.You got kicked out of the country for being a time-traveling heathen who sleeps with celebrities and has super-powers. But check out this cool shit... you can move to anywhere else in the world! Bitchin'! What country are you going to live in now?
Maybe Italy?
Everyone is romantic there, and I could just sit and eat pizza all day.

23.This question still counts, even for those of you who are under age. Check it out. You have been eternally banned from every single bar in the world except for ONE. Which one is it gonna be?
OBVIOUSLY Bar Malden.
It's seriously HOPPING down there on a Saturday night. ;-P

24.Hopefully you didn't mention this in the super-powers question.... If you did, then we'll just expand on that. Check it out... Suddenly, you have gained the ability to FLOAT!!! Whose house are you going to float to first, and be like "Dude, check it out...I can FLOAT!"?
Probably my house. To make my sister jealous.

25.The constant absorption of magical moonbeams mixed with the radioactive vegetables you consumed earlier has given you the ability to resurrect the dead famous-person of your choice. So which celebrity will you bring back to life?
Kurt Cobain.
Actually I feel bad for saying that....
Maybe Mother Theresa. (She is dead, right?) or Princess Diana or someone.

26.The Celestial Gates of Beyond have opened, much to your surprise because you didn't think such a thing existed. Death appears. As it turns out, Death is still a pretty cool entity, and happens to be in a fantastic mood. Death offers to return the friend/family-member/person, etc. of your choice to the living world. Who will you bring back?
None of my friends or family members have died.
Except my Great Grandad. But I think he's quite happy in heaven. I'd feel bad dragging him back down here.
(When I said none have died, I mean none that I've known personally.... Obviously some of my ancestors must've died by now...)

27.What's your theme song?
The A Team

I Hate Physics

2006-10-04T20:37:00.000Z

When I signed up to do Physics, they said we didn't have to do Maths as well.

They said it was fine to do Physics on its own.

They said GCSE maths was good enough.

They said that I should have no problem with it, since I got an A in GCSE Maths.

Whatever.

Imo, they are just trying to make me a failure so they can laugh at me.

Coz so far, thats all anyone has done in Physics. Laughed at my maths ability.

I thought Physics was actually going to be science. It's not. It's basically just maths, but with a story built into the question.
Which actually makes it harder, because you have to pick the appropriate numbers out of a long and complicated story which is full of numbers that you don't even need, just to try and trick you.
In maths they just give you the numbers you need and tell you to get on with it.
No messing around with stories about rockets leaving earth and then doing lots of twirly things in space before almost landing on the moon, but then shooting off backwards and then having a crash landing back on earth.

I want to drop out. I hate it.

We started out with 4 girls in a class of 27 people in total. But then Natalia decided to drop out. So now theres only 3 girls left.
And all the boys keep complaining about the heat and opening the windows, even though its nearing sub zero temperatures outside. So it makes it even harder for me to concentrate, because I'm shivering too much to write in a straight line.

The teacher even said that he thinks 26 people is too many for a Physics class, so he's going to kick out all the thick people. (He didn't exactly say it in those words, but the way he said it was still insulting).
I have this really bad feeling that I'm gonna be one of the thick people that gets given the boot.

I think he has the wrong idea anyway. At HX, there were way too many people wanting to do biology, but instead of discriminating against stupid people, our teachers decided to make 2 different classes, with 2 different teachers. Because they actually care about us.
RC don't care about us. Surely if the Physics teacher was actually into Physics, he'd encourage as many people to do it as possible, and make 2 different classes for all of us, and be really nice to us...? That would be the sensible thing to do. But no, he just insults us, shouts at us, and threatens to throw us out of the class.

That is part of the reason why I hate the boys school.

The other reason is Chemistry. Just like with Physics, nobody told me that Chemistry was essentially just going to be Maths with a different name. I don't get Chemistry at all.
And part of the reason is because I can't understand the way the teacher talks. So I thought, 'It's OK, I can handle this...I'll just work out what he's talking about by reading what he writes of the board...'.
But do you think I can read his writing? No.
I don't think he even tries to write straight. His '+' and 'x' signs in his equations both look the same. And although I'm bad at maths, I know that getting the signs the wrong way round can make a big difference to the answer you get.
And when he writes chemical equations, they are just squiggles with squiggly indices. I tried sitting closer to the front, but that just makes the quiggles look bigger. They are squiggles no matter how close you get.

Also, he thinks I'm an idiot, because I was mature and responsible and decided to carry out an experiment as safely as possible, by moving the beurette lower down when I filled it, to minimise the risk of pouring acid over my head (which, incidentally, is the way they teach us to do it at HX). But he came over and said I was being stupid. He put the beurette back up, and then grabbed the HCl and poured it in at the top. The man is tiny. About the same height as me. He was waving a bottle of corrosive acid above his head, tipping it all over the place (without wearing eye protection, I might add), and he accused me of being stupid.

That school is full of sadistic, disciplinarian mysogynists. I don't want to go there anymore.

='(

I'm going to fail everything. And everyone will point and laugh at me as I walk down the street, and say, 'Look, there goes the worthless failure', and my life will not be worth living.

On a more positive note, we extracted DNA from Kiwis today in Biology. It was fun. =)

Get a Clue...

2006-10-03T21:08:00.000Z

'You couldn't get a clue during the clue mating season in a field full of horny clues if you smeared your body with clue musk and did the clue mating dance.'

-Edward Flaherty.

How to get out of a car....

2006-10-02T15:44:00.000Z

If only I'd watched this before I went to the wedding on Saturday.

At least I'll know for next time.

Heres the link, so the rest of you don't make the same mistakes I did.

http://www.videojug.com/film/how-to-get-out-of-a-car-without-showing-your-knickers

The Debate Society

2006-09-23T18:28:00.000Z

Yep, I joined it. It seemed like a good idea at the time.

After a few days, and a lot of ridicule, I wasn't so sure. But We had our first debate on Thursday ('This House would Abolish the Monarchy') and it was really good fun. And my side won. Not through any amazing arguments on my part, but there were some pretty good people on my side. They refferred to people on the opposition as 'The Right Honorable Gentleman' and things like that. They sounded quite experienced.

We were against. Obviously. The Queen is sweet. Why would I want to get rid of her?

Anyway, I'm glad I joined now.

The only problem is, it's on the same day as football. At the same time.

Paul is back from university now, and he'll be coaching us again, because Wes has decided to be a Fitness Trainer (much to Malikah's disgust!).

As you can imagine, she's heart broken. But I'm giving her the necessary therapy, and reminding her that she once claimed to be in love with Paul, until he left and a few months later she claimed to be in love with Wes. (And then Niall. And then she went out with Niall. She went out with our football coach. Against my adivce. And then decided to never go against my advice again. But we try not to talk about that now. ;-P )

So yeah. My point is, she will probably find herself in love with Paul again soon. He seems like less of a player than Wes (in the girls sense - not the football sense!) so maybe thats not such a bad thing. I don't know how much drama I can cope with at the moment.

But now I'm kinda in a dilemma. Should I continue going to football, or should I go to the Debate Society?

I think it's gonna have to be the Debate Society.

It's all about the UCAS points, baby! ;-)

I have an innappropriate song stuck in my head.
'Stacey's Mum has got it going on, she's all I want and I've waited for so long...'

Good thing I don't know anyone called Stacey.

Stacey is a popular name to write songs about. The new song by The Zutons is called 'Stacey'.
Or is it called 'Oh Stacey'? Whatever. It's about someone called Stacey.

'Lola' is another name that there are a lot of songs about. I know someone called Lola. I think Lola is a cool name. =)

This post has fallen apart. I was actually only going to write about the Debate Society, and about how next Thursday we are debating whether alcohol is the root of all evil.
In November I will be speaking at a debate about whether we should restrict the influence of Hollywood. I'm speaking for it.

There.

I'll shut up now, and stop wasting fibre optic cables and all the other bits that make up the internet.
Also stop wasting time. Coz I have a lot of work to do. I haven't been very focussed recently.
Argh.

SHUT UP!

I'm going.

Should I be concerned about my brother?!

2006-09-17T19:26:00.000Z

He is sucking a tea bag. He said it tastes nice.

That is something I would expect to see on documentaries about what happens when people smoke so much dope they become insane and have to be put into institutions. (I don't think anyone's ever done a documentary about that. I should sell my idea to BBC. It could be presented by Dick n Dom.)

Oh dear. Now he is throwing it in the air and catching it in his mouth. It will end in tears.

It just hit him in the eye.

I think I'll give you a running commentary:

He's still chucking it in the air and catching it in his mouth.....

.....I can't believe he's doing that with a tea bag.....

....OK.....It just fell in the dog's bed. And he's picked it up and put it in his mouth. That is DISGUSTING. I love my dog and everything, but her bed is kind of smelly.

Uh oh. It's exploded inside his mouth. He's now jumping up and down and screaming.

I can't believe I'm related to him.

I'm so weird.

2006-09-15T14:28:00.000Z

I've been eating all day.

I'm not even hungry right now, but I'm eating an onion. Because there is nothing else left in the fridge. Except an avocado. Which would probably be a slightly more normal thing to eat than an onion, but I'm not really in the mood for an avocado. And I'm kind of in the mood for an onion.

Anyway, I'm going to watch Sleepless in Seattle now. Hopefully it will take my mind off food.

Beetles Seduce Bees to Survive

2006-09-15T12:47:00.000Z

I kid you not.

I was on the discovery channel website, watching their 'Pandacam' (a webcam inside the panda cage...) and I was a bit bored, because the panda was just sleeping, so my eyes started to drift around the rest of the page. An interesting headline caught my eye: 'Beetles Seduce Bees to Survive'. I clicked on the link, and it sent me to an article by someone called Jennifer Viegas who apparently works for Discovery News.

Heres what she said:

Sept. 12, 2006 — Clusters of blister beetle larvae mimic female bees in an act of deception so successful that male bees try to mate with them and bring them back to the nest. There the larvae live in the lap of bee luxury by receiving free food and shelter, according to a new study.
Scientists believe the behavior is the first known example of cooperative, aggressive mimicry among insects. Cooperation is involved since the larvae stack up on top of each other and work as a unit to mimic just one female bee. The act is aggressive because,
once in the bee’s nest, the sneaky parasites either eat the egg or the bees' hard-won food.

I promise I'm not making it up. You can read the rest of the article here: http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2006/09/12/beetle_ani.html?category=animals&guid=20060912100030&&clik=news_tkr

Do you think seductive mimicry would work for me?!

Rock Treatment

2006-09-05T20:45:00.000Z

This is an interesting idea.

www.rocktreatment.com

Guess how bored I am?!

I've had a Bagel Related Accident

2006-09-04T14:00:00.000Z

It happened at lunch time.

I was cutting a bagel, to put in the toaster, and I slid the knife a little bit too far through the bagel without moving my hand, so the knife went into my finger, leaving me with a huge laceration that my heart might fall out of any minute now.

I burnt my other hand on the stupid thing when I was trying to get it out of the toaster.

Why is it that bagels get so much hotter than anything else which is toasted?

Apparently I'm not the only one who has suffered a Bagel Related Accident though. This article appeared in The Washington Post in 2005:

"Experiencing a Slice of Bagel Life: The Less Adept Find the
Cutting Edge of a Round Bun."
(Page A1, A18. Washington Post, Feb 25, 1995.)

Every weekend, they arrive at District and suburban emergency rooms with blood dripping from their injuries: upstanding citizens, often leaders in their fields, sometimes with their pajamas showing beneath their coats.
It happened one morning to Eric Berman, head of research for the Democratic National Committee. He tried to hide his wound, wrapping it in a red kitchen towel. But when his face turned ashen, his mother-in-law shoved him into a cab and took him to George Washington University Medical Center.
"When I pulled off the towel, the doctor said, 'Oh, a bagel injury.' He knew immediately, " Berman said of the cut he suffered while slicing his breakfast. How could the doctor conclude that about a patient he'd never seen before? "Oh, we get a bunch of these every Saturday morning," Berman said the doctor told him. Indeed, an informal survey of area hospitals revealed that bagel-related accidents are, in the words of Mark Smith, head of George Washington's Department of Emergency Medicine, "the great underreported injury of our times. I wish I had statistics, but I can say it's unbelievable how many there are."

Mr Big

2006-09-03T15:33:00.000Z

This morning, as I lay in bed, listening to the radio and trying to wake up, I heard a song that I haven't heard in a very, very, very long time.

I really liked it. So I thought I'd share it with you, because you probably haven't heard it in a very, very, very long time either, and I always like to share a musical find.

Here's the video. It's worth watching, if only to check out the retro hair styles.

Enjoy! =)