Thirty Five: Indefinite Hiatus.

Does what it says on the tin.
Goodbye, Blogger. I don't know when I'll be back.

Thirty Four: Ekby Hensvik.

Because I suppose I should, and anyone who reads this will look at the title and think 'Huh? As she lost it more than I thought she had?', Ekby Hensivk is the name of the new shelf I've got for my room. It comes from Ikea, which should explain that. Did you know Ikea was founded in 1943 by a 17 year old? Wikipedia provides.

I should be revising for my Critical Thinking exam on Wednesday, but if I learn any more about ethical theories I may scream, so instead I'm going to tell you about yesterday.

So yesterday we met up with Uncle Dave, Auntie Jan, Emma and Matthew (Emma and Matthew are my cousins on my Dad's side) at Alton. We went on a train (because we could) and had lunch at a pub. Photographic evidence:

BYE :)

B xxx :)

Thirty Three: Decisions.

"Hate those times when the mirror's not my friend

When everything I see in it offends

Talking back at me I swear it says

All the things I think they're thinking

All the things I think they're thinking about me

About me

On rainy days when there's absolutely nothing to do

But stay inside, bite my nails and chew

On all the things I'd rather not think about thinking

All the things I think they're thinking"

I think they're thinking- Natasha Bedingfield

So yesterday I was ill and was stuck at home, so I decided I would do a whole bunch of uni stuff. Mainly being confirming Chichester as my firm choice and Greenwich as my insurance (firm and insurance are really weird terms to use) and doing student finance. It was scary to see it all suddenly...decided. I mean, I already I knew that Chichester and Greenwich were going to be 1 and 2, but seeing it on the screen, seemed scarier. The student finance form is stupidly long but it's done now; I'm only getting a loan for the tuition fees and not for the accomodation and everything else.


I've had a few exams, my last one being on Wednesday. I came out of English Language feeling almost like I did last time, only slightly more confident about the Child Languag Acquisition question (something like 'Discuss the ways children's grammar develops' only it was a longer question than that, I'm sure). The first question was about electronic texts, which I hadn't revised for because it hadn't come up last year and I didn't appear to have any notes on it. Critical Thinking was the same as last time, except I think I may have actually done worse. What's worse than failing?

I haven't read any more books recently, I'm still reading The Almost Moon. Book recommendations? Although I still have...10 books on my Amazon wishlist. Maybe I should get through those first. I've made some more cookies, and discovered why exactly it says you should only put 150g instead of 200g in it. It's a bit, 'Hello, I'd like some cookie with this white chocolate.',I've developed an odd obsession with painting my nails...they're a light pink/purple at the moment and I took the lenses out of my 3D glasses so now they look like nerd/Doctor Who glasses. Yeahhh. Also, my brother got his exam results back and he got a C in English Language, which means he can do English Literature in the summer. When I was at school (back in the day and all that) we had none of this passing one exam to be able to do  another business.

Casualty's on and I'm up early in the morning (I'm going to see my cousin's on my dad's side. I haven't seen them in about two years and as much as I'd like a lie in, I haven't been out the house apart from  to go to Oxfam today since Wednesday.) so BYE.

B xxx :)

Thirty Two: This one's in English.

Hi. So I’m annoyed, mainly because I can’t do the topic I wanted to do for English Language, and instead must inform/persuade/advise/argue on the topic which we chose for our first piece of coursework. Now, let me make this clear: I have spent the last two months of my life reading every piece of information about language and gender and under no circumstances do I want to spend the next two months doing the same thing. No. I have two different teachers (Have I mentioned that Leona has a wardrobe of the same coats/giant poncho things?) which makes things more complicated and Leona told us we could write on any topic we wanted. Within reason!

Anyway, moaning about English over with. The other day at college I was watching a free episode of Outnumbered as part of the iTunes 12 days of Christmas thing, and I noticed that they have the same height chart I used to have. I knew my dad didn’t put it in the attic!


I went to see Avatar on Sunday in 3D. I was tempted to take my English Lit books and try and finish my coursework when the adverts were on at the beginning, but we left too late and the queues were ridiculous. As for the film, watching it in 3D was...weird. It took a while to adjust to wearing the glasses, because wearing them without my normal glasses meant I couldn’t really see anything, and I jumped quite a few times. It was a bit long, which is my only criticism of it, but it was really good :)


I haven’t read any more books recently. I’ve started on The Almost Moon by Alice Sebold. Speaking of Alice Sebold, they’ve made a film of The Lovely Bones and it’s coming out here in...eight days, I think. I might go and see it, as the book was okay and I need to get out of the house.


I’m sat in the LRC right now and I have nothing to do, because all my work’s at home and despite bringing in what feels like a mini library of books, there is nothing helpful in them, so I’m listening to Michael McIntyre talking about man drawers and people who spill red wine and then put white wine on it and all manner of things. I have tutor after this, and then I get to go home because my double last has been cancelled :) I’m going to see my mum’s friend Helen because she’s just had a baby girl, who’s called Emily Rose, which is a nice, sensible name, not like Madonna or Gwyneth Paltrow & Chris Martin or Brangelina, who have all given their kids stupid names.


Anyway, I should get back to doing...nothing. I really hate when it’s pointless me being here.


B xxx :)


P.S. “This is the British way- you think prick, you say tut...because I suppose it was three o’clock in the morning, because I was a little hungover, because of the flicking, I sort of panicked and for some reason I thought tut, and said prick.”


EDIT EDIT MAJOR EDIT: email from my English Language teacher saying that it's not compulsory that we do the same subject as we did for coursework 1. YAY. Leona wears things like this only they're twice as big. Her wardrobe must like be the one that leads to Narnia.
 
I went to see my mum's friend Helen and her baby is tiny. She's a week and a half old. I got to hold her, which was oddly comfortable, and although I was sitting down I was scared I was going to drop her! She was opened her eyes, yawned and wriggled around for a bit. She held my finger for a little bit, though I think she was more fascinated by my fingernail than anything else.
 
That height chart from Outnumbered:

And now it won't let me type from left to right and I have to type in the centre instead.

Okay, Byebyebyebyebye...

Thirty One: Ten possible statuses in Italian.

(A note before I start. You're probaby thinking to yourself, Really? Has she got nothing better to do with her time? Answer: No, not really.)

1. Io vado al cinema domani per vedere 'Avatar'.
2. Ho letto 'The Abortionist's Daughter' sul luogo di lavoro e hanno quasi finito '13 Little Blue Envelopes'.
3. Ho scoperto che non dovrei testo persone e vorrei solo stare zitto e smettere di cercare. (An English side note: I'm sorry, but I wanted to include a picture)
4. Sono ancora sconvolto a causa di alcune cose che è successo e vogliono nascondere nell'armadio e di ottenere il mio pinguino a scrivere questi blogs. (An English side note: the one in the picture isn't actually mine but is as close as I can get.)
5. Mio padre sta facendo il bucato ascoltando le 'Spice Girls'. :P
6. Ho comprato tre serie di 'Torchwood'.
7. Non mi dispiacerebbe il mio 'flashforward' proprio così so cosa accadrà a settembre.
8. Vado a mangiare 'Maltesers'. Erano un regalo di Natale per qualcuno, ma non ho avuto la possibilità di dare loro.
9. Ho resistito alla tentazione di rubare il rotolo gigante del pluriball da John Lewis.
10. Potete leggere il mio racconto qui.

Well, this has been fun.

B xxx :)

Thirty: Da Penguin's back.

Beth's quite clever and has managed to lock herself in to her wardrobe (why it has a lock I don't know. It comes from Ikea though, which might explain it) and doesn't want to come out, so I've stolen borrowed her laptop so I can update you.

Beth has been reading a lot of books lately and has decided to keep track of them using Goodreads. She has recently read An Abundance of Katherines, The Treasure Map of Boys and Marley and Me and is currently reading The Almost Moon. For reasons I- or the rest of her family- can understand, she has ordered yet MORE books.

Beth has an exam tomorrow and is very, very, scared about it.

And now, to play us out and to send us (hopefully) to sleep is this. Beth likes the lyrics.

Penguin

Twenty Nine: Generic post about snow.

College is cancelled tomorrow and I've only been in for half a day this week :) This is good. Anyway, because I can, the rest of this entry will be filled with pictures. Most of these are from the second snow day because the first day I went out it was FREEZING and the snow was blowing in my face a lot. There will be more pictures tomorrow and on Facebook and all that :) B xxx :)

Twenty Eight: Sliding Doors.

There was something I wanted to say in this entry, but then I went to change into my pjs, came back, and I had forgotten. I'm now clean, not that it matters. It's not like they were going to invent smell-o-vision in the ten minutes I was in the bathroom. ANYWAY.

I'm currently watching QI with David Tennant in it. I'm half paying attention; a cow's just appeared. I like Stephen Fry.

The title of this entry has nothing really to do with the film (which I have seen and isn't too bad) but is instead to do with exams, college and university. I'm nervous about all three of them. When I went to Taunton's (I'm presuming I don't need to explain that I'm not referring to the place but the college in Southampton? Good, right. Moving on.), although I was nervous before my interview, once I got in there I felt perfectly normal (or as normal as you can do when being interviewed!) and the same with Brockenhurst. I just sort of assumed that I'd get in, and I did none of this what if-ing business that I'm doing with university. There are several situations playing out in my head (hence the title. Now d'ya get it?). One where I get the grades I want, go to Chichester and am happy with my life. Now, let me make this very clear. I want to go to Chichester. I felt comfortable there, I liked the course, I liked the accomodation, I liked the shops, I like the fact that it's an hour from home, there wasn't (and still isn't) anything I didn't like about it. Another when I don't get the grades I want but get enough to go to Greenwich, which is my second choice because it was the only uni I picked with lower grade requirements (two Ds, I think. I'm not sure, I don't think it was three...). I haven't been to see it yet so I can't really pass judgement on it but I know it's not what I want, Chichester is. And although it would be fun to live in London, it would be an even bigger step. There are times when I feel like a complete child; despite the fact that I'm 18 and legally an adult it scares me that after I go to university I'll have to get a job and buy somewhere to live and do taxes and do all the boring things my mum and dad have to do that thoroughly confuse me. Another is that I fail spectacularly and end up not going to university at all and instead spend the rest of my life doing a job in which I can predict that I'm going to be doing the same time tomorrow. I don't want that. And I'm absolutely terrified about the fact that I don't know exactly what I want to do in the future- I seem to be able to decide about things like university courses but I can't decide what job I want. I used to want to be a journalist, but I went off that idea. I went to see Sally Taylor record at BBC Radio Solent and I relly enjoyed that, but I have no idea about radio production. I just...don't know. And while you could argue that I would have three years to work it out, I'm worried that at the end of that I'll still have no idea. Anyway, all worrying aside, I guess I wish that I could approach this like I did with my college interviews: remain calm, don't panic and getting what I want at the end of it. *insert sound of me making incomprehensible noises of worry*

On a completely different note, books arrived for me yesterday: An Abundance of Katherines by John Green and A Treasure Map of Boys by E.Lockhart (I've discovered via the acknowledgment pages that they know each other. This made me happy.). I finished reading A Treasure Map of Boys and I loved it; there are so many places where I can relate to the characters, I really wanted two of the characters to realise that they like like each other. There was a moment when it all went wrong but everything got resolved in the end, not in your typical happily-ever-after way, but it was still good.

I need to attempt to sleep now. My sleep patterns are...interesting.

B xxx :)

Twenty Seven: Bored?

If you ever get bored- and I mean seriously bored- then here's a game.

You'll have to click on it to get the full picture. That's all 2000 words of my short story in a word cloud. If you get bored, try and piece them together.:P

I stayed up to midnight last night, and watched New Year Live on the tv. The fireworks were pretty.

Off to read Crocodile Tears. It's the latest Alex Rider, and ever since my brother got it for Christmas, I've been begging him to let me read it.

B xxx :)