These Are The Days Of... A Pharmacy Girl

Mum...

2011-04-03T14:26:00.002+01:00

I love you.

I know sometimes I can be mean and nasty and I know you feel like I don't always love you, but I do. I'm sorry for being a typical teenager, and shouting and being moody and miserable, but I love you.

You're the best mum in the world, and you mean everything to me. You're the one who has been there for me through everything, telling me it'll all look better in the morning, even when we both knew it wouldn't. You came to my interviews with me, hugged me afterwards when I was convinced I'd made a fool of myself, and you drove me to work on my first day because I couldn't stop crying and I didn't want to go in.

You're the one who knows everything, and never backs down even when you're wrong. I've got my stubborness from you, and it makes life hard for us sometimes, I know. You gave me your humour, and your lack of willpower, and your love of tennis and swimming and the great outdoors in general.

You've loved me from day one, and I've loved you back in return. A mother's love is the best gift in the world, and I hope one day I can be as good a mum to my children as you have been to me.

So I just want to say, today, Happy Mother's Day, Mum. I love you. You're the best!

xoxo

I want to live a little before real life kicks in

2011-02-06T12:15:00.000Z

All my life I have been a dreamer. I have had so many ambitions I don't have enough synapses in my brain to remember them all. I wanted to be a vet, a showjumper, a pilot, an RAF pilot, an astronaut, a doctor, a traveller, a cheetah-sanctuary owner, a Jersey girl.

All my life I have been a dreamer. All my life I have been a non-starter.

My dreams are never in reach, because I fall at the first hurdle, afraid that if I try, if I really try, I'll be too scared, quit, give in. I never follow through with anything.

Take being an astronaut. My first dream, the one my mother laughs at, the only one I really want, and I mean really, with a fierce burning passion, want to do. I could have done it. I could have gone to university, done a physics degree, gone to America and joined NASA and been a space adventurer.

But, then again, I didn't want to. I'm too scared, scared of dying in space. Scared of being forgotten.

And that is where it has to stop. Stop being scared, go out and live. Touch the life of at least one person, and you will be remembered by them.

I want to live a little before real life kicks in.

I want to combat my fears, and be the better for it. I want to travel. I want to do things that I have only ever experienced in my dreams. I want to touch the stars and see beyond them.

I am dreamer. But I am do-er.

xoxo

One week

2010-08-25T12:48:00.000+01:00

One week, that is how long I have left before I start my job.

One week, which I am going to be spending in London and Windsor.

One week, and after that my life will be changed forever.

It's scary.

But, on the plus side, I'm going to be visiting my capital city for the first time ever, and Windsor for the second time.

In other news... I tried to put 'Manchester, England' as my hometown on Facebook. Guess what? There is no such place. There is Manchester, United Kingdom. But no England. Seriously? The UK isn't even a country. Come on Facebook owners, get a brain please. Let us put ENGLAND as our country. There is an England. United Kingdom or Britain are not countries.

xoxo

The thing that scares me

2010-08-17T12:54:00.000+01:00

...and also keeps me awake at night.

It's not anything truly frightening. It's not a monster under my bed, I waved goodbye to that phase before I was born - monsters don't hide under my bed, there's no room, and it's not a life-threatening illness. It is simply a job.

More specifically, my job. Even more specifically, the job that I am supposed to be starting in September.

Now, I know the whole 'you're lucky you've got the whole summer off just like you wanted' routine. It has been given to me by so many different people I want to scream: I don't care about the summer. I don't want this job!

And therein lies the scary bit. I do not want this job. More than anything I do not want this job. I would do practically anything if I didn't have to do this job. My mum wants me to do it. I don't.

I'm not saying my mum's forcing me to do it. She's not. She's trying to make me look at the positives, but I can't see any.

I had to accept this job because after applying for so many it was the only one I'd been offered. If only life was like it used to be, before the stupid Americans sitting in their stupid banks decided to crash their economy and bring the world down with it. (My slight annoyance at people from certain other countries tends to come out when I'm angry.) If life could be just like it was however many years ago when people could leave one job in the morning and have another by the afternoon I would be dandy. I wouldn't need to do this job, because I could get another.

This job is, I'm sure, amazing for the right person. That's just not me. It's great pay, I have 5 weeks and 2 days holiday. I get paid double time for working Saturdays. But I just don't want to do it.

I'm scared to do it. I really am. And what makes it worse is that this last summer was supposed to be amazing. Free of worry, and just there for me to live because it's the last one I'll ever have. But the people at the job have just messed me around so much I've not been able to put it out of my mind.

I've had to constantly phone up just to get things sorted, when that's their job. And every single time I do, I get told I have to go in to collect whatever I need, when it could be posted out. It's an hour round trip in no traffic from my house, and it's too much. I've just got another letter telling me I need to drop something off to confirm my training. Why can't I post it, you ask? Because there is no address for the place I need to go, only written directions. If it has to be given in before I start I'll post it and hope it gets there, and too bad if it doesn't.

Once, I had to go in only for the nurse to say, can I phone your doctor to see if you've had the MMR jab. Couldn't she have asked for my permission on the phone? No, of course not. Because I might not have even been asked, she might be lying to the doctor. And she couldn't have been lying when I was next to her, even though I didn't speak to my doctor myself once.

It's just so annoying. And it may seem like my fear is just anger, but it's not. I can't put it into words, but I don't think a week has gone past since I got the job back in May that I've not cried about it. I'm so scared, I can't think straight sometimes. I just want it to go away and for me to never have to think about it again.

If it was a different job, it would have been fine. I wanted a job with an airline, either as part of the staff in the airport or as a member of the cabin crew. I love aeroplanes, I truly do. On my birthday, which was Saturday 7th August, the Red Arrows flew over my holiday home and it made my birthday. It probably even made my year. I know they weren't there for me but it felt like they were saying 'Happy Birthday' to me. I wish I was working in an airport or on an aeroplane. But I'm not.

The other bad thing about it is that I have to stay in this job for two years, which doesn't seem like a big deal but it is because it's ruined my plans. I wanted to travel. I wanted to au pair in America for a year, then go to Canada, France, Denmark and finally Jersey. Now I can't because it doesn't give me enough time. It's ruined everything, including my ability to stop thinking about things I don't like.

That is the thing that scares me. My job.

xoxo

Italia ti amo

2010-07-30T20:25:00.000+01:00

Soo... I have been a little absent for the past two months ish, because of exams etc. But I'm not here to rave about my exams, which went so amazingly badly that I will not be getting a call to come in early on results day, more likely a call to say "don't bother coming in, your grades came within the last six letters of the alphabet". I.e. a U grade. The joys.

Anyway, Italy. The reason for this post, some may say the reason for the sun's existence, but I don't so we'll gloss over that bit.

From the second weekend in July I went to Garda, on Lago di Garda, for two weeks. I stayed in an amazing hotel, and made some amazing friends, although one of my friends did make me speak to her in Italian, which I wasn't so keen on.

I went to Milan, Venice and Verona, just like I always wanted to.

In Milan we saw the cathedral and La Scala opera house, and this amazing shopping centre built in the 1860s. We also saw the castle and the arch which is a copy of the Arc de Triomphe, which I also saw in Paree. Milano was wonderful, and very hot. It was 37 degrees in the shade, and 40+ in the sun. Amazing. Me, the cold-blooded one, was very happy :). Unfortunately, our map was a little bit very bad so we couldn't find a lot of places, for example, the Chanel store, which saddened me because I have an obsession with Chanel and really wanted to find it. But, despite that, it was an amazing day.

In Venice, we saw it by night too because our tour was the nighttime tour. But Venice in the afternoon was beautiful! I took about 200 pictures in Venice, seriously, plus an amazing one of Piazza San Marco at sunset. We went on a gondola, saw the Ponte Rialto and the Grand Canal. We saw the Doge's palace, St Mark's Basilica and Floriens, the oldest coffee shop in Venezia. It was unbelievably hot there, and very very humid which made everything so sticky and horrible, and that was the day when I didn't like the weather. We saw the Venetian masks, too, and my auntie kept saying "you can see the difference between the 10 euro ones and the 800 euro ones" but we couldn't! We also went on a lagoon tour, and saw the island University, and a monastery, the cemetery and one of the islands that accepts cars and one that got flooded. We also saw people sunbathing on sandbanks! Motorboats there are like cars on the mainland, only everyone's got one and everyone drives one. Beautiful!

In Verona, we saw L'Arena and Casa di Giulietta, and I took a picture of her balcony. Outside the Arena I saw a Roman, who scared us because he came up behind us and slammed his sword down. Then a bit later I said he's not a good Roman, because he was drinking out of a plastic water bottle, and he heard me. He came over, pointed his sword at me and said "what did you say". I tried to pretend I hadn't said anything, except what a great Roman he was, but he said I'd hurt his feelings and I shouldn't lie. Then, he said that I need to be killed and he'd make sure I was later. But then he changed his mind and asked my mum how much she'd sell me for! She said "you can have her" so he said he'd give her a horse for me. The cheek! Sold to a Roman soldier :O

Lake Garda was so nice! We went around a few places, and went up Monte Baldo on the Funivia. On the top, I had a huuuge beetle on me, that was the size of the outside of my circled thumb and forefinger. A German family actually stopped and stared at me, pointing and gasping. It was on my back, but my mum had to get rid of it. I'm so glad I didn't see it, because I hate insects! Italy is full of unnatural creatures. Especially old men who think we all want to see them in itty-bitty Speedos, when we don't. Rather disgusting. And they were very itty-bitty! Very very itty-bitty.

There were two huge storms, too. One on the middle Saturday night in the early hours of the morning (Sunday morning), and one on the last Friday during dinner. They had to close the shutters because rain was still coming in through the windows, and when they opened them again after 20 minutes the river was raging. It was like white water rapids! We wondered as to the fate of the duck family in the river, but decided they probably flew away or drowned - cheery, eh? The swimming pool was overflowing, and the hotel owner's daughter, one of my friends, said that once the river overflowed so much that it came into the hotel! The good thing about the storm was that we all got to talk for the entire evening, which we wouldn't have done if we'd been playing a game. Unfortunately, we left our towels outside, to dry, ironically, and by the time we remembered they were soaked through. We thought we'd have to leave them but another one of our friends said that they'd put theirs in the tumble drier, so we did and they dried thoroughly, so we could take them home!

I've wanted to go to Italy since I was tiny, and now I have, and I got to practise my limited Italian when my shoes broke and I had to get some Superglue to stick them back together.

Italy had surpassed my expectations, definitely. One of my friends came with her grandparents, who've been going to that hotel for 14 years, and next year she's coming back with her family, and identical twin sister, so we may go back next year too, rather than going to Mallorca. But I really want to go to Mallorca, so who knows.

All that remains to be said is, Italia ti amo moltissimo!

xoxo

And, well, y'know... be jealous of my amazing photo skills :)

Sunset at Piazza San Marco

Me and my friends

Part of Garda

I love England

2010-05-24T11:19:00.000+01:00

Have I mentioned before how much I absolutely adore my country? It's probably going to get a little bit big-headed at the moment with everyone worshipping it, but I mean, seriously, it's only here that a few days of sunshine can wipe away the memories of five months of freezing Arctic weather.

Oh, glorious sunshine. It's been beautifully sunny and warm for the past five days now, the temperature in the mid to late twenties. I've been wanting to sunbathe, but unfortunately I'm revising. Isn't it always the way? The sun comes out and you have to be stuck indoors. I am seriously considering whether to skip revision classes today so I can sunbathe, because I bet that tomorrow when I have the afternoon off it'll be cold and miserable. But I won't. I'll be a good little student and go in like I don't have to do but should really be doing. Urgh. I hate English.

Love England though.

Speaking of England love, I finally bought an England flag on Saturday. Yey for me. Now I can hang it outside my house from June 11 to whenever we get knocked out of the World Cup.

Another funny thing about England is its people. They - note how I'm not including myself in this generalisation, being the resident heat seeker I am - constantly moan about how cold it is and when it gets hot, like today, they moan its too hot. Me, on the other hand, I love the heat. I need the heat. I'm practically cold-blooded. Nothing is too hot for me. Nothing. I bet even standing on the sun itself wouldn't be too hot for me. I mean, a million degrees? Pah, that's the temperature I need to survive!

But, really, why do they do it? Don't they realise England will get offended and take away the glorious sun?

That's decided. I'm not going to school this afternoon.

Well, I will, of course, but I'm making a stand. Or taking one. Making? Taking? Who cares. The main thing is I am standing.. somewhere? I'm confusing myself.

I love you, sun. Never leave me. I'll go blue without you-ou-ou!

xoxo

England's new Prime Minister

2010-05-12T18:05:00.000+01:00

It is official. We have a Conservative-led government. David Cameron, as of last night, is our new Prime Minister. The Tories have formed a coalition government with the Lib Dems, and the Queen invited David Cameron to be the new Prime Minister of our country after Gordon Brown made his formal resignation as Prime Minister and head of the Labour party to the Queen.

What a great day for England.

xoxo

Fully Licenced Driver alert!

2010-05-10T18:17:00.001+01:00

It is official. I have passed my driving test today at 11:24 am. I am now a fully qualified, fully licenced, but as yet uninsured driver. I got 2 minors, one for gears and one for observation at a junction. I think the gears one was because I couldn't get the car into first gear, when I was stopped, which is a fault with the car because it's done it before. And I have no idea about the observation one. If only the gearstick hadn't got stuck I'd be fully qualified with only one minor.

Ah well.

I no longer have my provisional licence.

And now I can crash into as many kerbs as I wish, because I no longer have the threat of my driving test looming over me.

Did I mention I'm an excellent driver, who passed with only 2 minors? And that I passed with only 2 minors when most people get 8 - 10?

I'm so amazing, and I'm so modest :)

But I don't care, because I am a fully qualified, fully licenced driver!

xoxo

General Election

2010-05-07T18:29:00.000+01:00

Okay, wow, well, today has been an exciting day to say the least. Yesterday we had our General Election, which unfortunately I am still not old enough to vote for, and the results were being relayed live onto the BBC and ITV all through the night. The BBC was scheduled to have 14 hours of election coverage from 10pm last night to 2pm this afternoon. I didn't watch all of it, obviously, I have a life, but I watched on and off about an hour.

It has been an historic election. It has been a very close election, and before voting began people fully expected the Liberal Democrats to dramatically increase their seats in the House of Commons. Before this election, it has really only been a two-horse race, between the Labour party and the Conservative party, but after the three live TV debates the Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg got the support of a lot of people, purely based on his personality not his party's manifesto.

The results are in now, and unfortunately we have a hung parliament. The last time we had one was in 1974, which lasted only 18 months. To win, one party needed to have 326 seats, which would have given them an overall majority. However, the Conservatives got 306, Labour got 258 and the Lib Dems got 57. This means we now need two or more parties to form a coalition for our government to work, basically. It's a lot more complicated and less opinionated than that in reality, but I don't understand politics!

I have found very few people in my school who would vote for the Tories, as they are under the false impression that the Tories are only for rich country people. I'm from a Tory family (on one side) and as a result I am biased against the others, with the exception of some which will remain unnamed. But I believe the Lib Dems should never be allowed to put forward their policies, because they, or more specifically, Nick Clegg, want to destroy everything that is British and sell out to Europe.

I am proud to be in a monarchy, and have my own currency. The euro is going downhill at the moment, and by being part of the European Union, we are forced to abide by their rules. How ridiculous is it that our government cannot make some decisions for its own country, and has to consult with people in Belgium who mainly hate British people anyway. If there is ever such a thing as a United States of Europe I'll move to another unnamed country, which will be a feat in itself as I rather dislike things about said country.

Anyway, that is all beside the point. Basically, we want David Cameron (Tory leader) to be our Prime Minister, and to have another General Election after my birthday so I can vote. It's impossible for this country to be run well by a hung parliament.

Conservative majority all the way!

xoxo

Nick Clegg (Lib Dem leader);

David Cameron (Tory leader);

Gordon Brown (Labour leader and current PM)

St George's Day

2010-04-24T20:37:00.001+01:00

Well, yesterday was St. George's Day, and there were England flags everywhere I went. None in my house, as we still haven't managed to connect our thoughts on buying one and our actions of going out to get one yet. We'll get there eventually!

Despite everything that is going wrong in my country, I love it with all my heart. I am so insanely proud to be English, and I wish that more people would accept how great it is to be English. It seems like it's wrong to be patriotic at the moment; like its being racist to support your country. One of my friends really annoys me, because she is everything that is wrong with this country. She is English, born and bred, but hates her nationality and her home country with a passion. Why can't we be more like other countries that aren't afraid to express their patriotism? Why do we have to hate England to feel like we deserve to be here? It's all wrong, and we need to change that.

I know it's not their sole fault, but I do feel that our government is to blame for this. They are constantly apologising for our history, as if being the most powerful nation in the world for centuries is something to be ashamed of. Why should we apologise for things that happened hundreds of years ago?

A prime example is the World War Two. In Europe, books are being published that completely erase the enormous part England played in saving the world from the evil of the Nazis. I accept that the winning of the war wasn't totally down to us, but we were the people who stood up to the Nazis, no-one else dared. If we hadn't, the world would be a totally different place. And, yet now one of the candidates for the election in May has accused England of having a bigger debt to society because of the war than Germany. He has said that the English are worse than the Nazis. And this is the man many people want running our country?! It's unbelievable.

We need to instill some national pride back in our people. Let's stand up for our country for once, rather than letting the other superpowers, the Americans for one, sneer at us and look down on us. We're not weak, we're just too scared to show patriotism for fear of being labelled racist. Patriotism is not racism.

Cry God for Harry, England and St. George!

HAPPY ST. GEORGE'S DAY!

xoxo

The Eleventh Hour

2010-04-06T13:36:00.000+01:00

Okay, so, the first episode of the fifth series of Doctor Who was on the TV on Saturday. I watched it last night, and this is my verdict. My professional opinion, because, yes, I am a super-duper TV and film critic. I cannot believe I have just said "super-duper". I never say that. No-one ever says that. It's so 1980s. Actually, I don't know when it is, 1980s just sounded fun.

Professional opinion: The opening scene, when the Doctor was hanging out of the Tardis, flying over London, was quite amusing. Not excellent, but adequate. I was expecting something better, seeing as it was a first for the writer and the lead actor. After that, however, it just got better. The scene where the Doctor was trying to find food he liked was my favourite childish part. I laughed all the way through it, although I was a little disgusted by the fish fingers and custard part. The face on the apple was a nice touch, I felt. The creepy door opening without Amelia Pond even noticing was good, but it was even better when Amy Pond (grown up Amelia) went inside, after knocking the Doctor unconscious. The little comment about the screwdriver rolling underneath the door and then hopping onto the table was good, too. I wasn't so keen on the whole policewoman pretence, but it did come in handy when she had to make her way into the hospital. My favourite adult part was when the Doctor went into Jeff's room and took his laptop off him. I think everyone past adolescence knew what was coming, but the comment "Get a girlfriend, Jeff" was priceless! Prisoner Zero was freaky enough as the snake with whale-like teeth, but when he morphed into the man with the dog, and the woman with the two children, that was scary. Not adult scary, but just unnerving scary. Especially because the audience believed the woman with children was just another scared person. I wans't impressed with the rescue, i.e. the ladder through the window, as I thought that a more action-packed rescue scene would have been appropriate, considering Prisoner Zero's nature. The rescue was more suited to an angry cat scaring a little girl, rather than a dangerous escaped prisoner alien. I didn't see the whole point of the Doctor calling back the Atraxi just to tell them to get lost again, but I can only assume it was reaffirming the possible changes that happened with the Tenth Doctor in the episode The Waters of Mars, the whole "I'm a Time Lord and I can do exactly what I like, and two fingers up to the rest of you" affair. I liked that he appeared to go back to Amelia Pond, like he promised, but I didn't expect that to happen. It was a nice touch to an overall excellent episode.
Rating: *****

Personal opinion: Well, I have to admit that, despite my doubts, Matt Smith does have the makings of a good Doctor. He'll never be as good as David Tennant, but then again I am biased in favour of David Tennant as he is my Doctor. Everyone has their Doctor and their companion, depending on what "era" they watched it in. As I mentioned in my "professional critique" the food testing scene was my favourite childish scene and that made me think that Matt Smith isn't all that bad. Amy Pond, however, is a whole different story. Again, I am biased towards Rose Tyler - I hated Martha Jones because I felt she was taking over Rose's position - but I wasn't happy with her at all. She seems really fickle and selfish, pretending Rory was just a friend and refusing to say he was her boyfriend, and running off with the Doctor on the eve of her wedding and simply saying "just stuff" when he asked her what she had to be back for tomorrow. Whilst I acknowledge that Rose Tyler also ran off leaving her boyfriend behind, she at least told the Doctor who he was and she didn't leave the day before she was due to get married. Also, if you have lived in England for 12 years, you would probably have lost your Scottish accent by then. But, I know that this is not the character's fault, rather the writer's fault. As is everything, but I'm blaming the characters for most of it! At the start of the episode, there were two things I wasn't happy with: the new Doctor and the new companion. Within the first two minutes, I added another three things to that list: the new theme tune, the new title sequence and the new logo. Why they felt it was necessary to change those, and especially since they'd only just changed the theme tune, I'll never know. But it did put me in an even worse mood about the whole thing. Then, at the end, I saw the new look Tardis. Why? Why? Why? As I said to my mother, if it ain't broke don't fix it.

I'm still going to give it five stars, after all it is Doctor Who, despite its faults. It's my first love, as it were! I'm looking forward to this Saturday's episode now. I think Stephen Moffatt will also be a good head writer to replace Russell T Davies.

I still say bring back David Tennant, but I'm going to let Matt Smith have a stab at it for now. And if he ruins it, I'll have a stab at him.

xoxo

P.S. - I'd written out nearly all of this post, then left to go and watch Wildfire, and when I came back, half of it was missing, so I apologise if it's not as eloquent as it definitely was before :)

The Eleventh Hour

Pasta, Pot Noodles and "I thought it was Spring"s

2010-03-31T13:29:00.000+01:00

The pastas and Pot Noodles of this post title are seriously becoming a way of life for me. In the past 17 years and nearly 8 months of my life I have rarely touched a Pot Noodle or Cup-a-Soup, or Mug Shot (great name for the pasta I'm currently eating), thinking them to be a little bit strange, and really unhealthy. They are known as student food, in my country at least, and that's pretty much why I avoided all contact with them. My thoughts were further supported by one of my friends finding what looked like a fish eye in her sweet-and-sour noodles. We never found out what it was, but it wasn't any type of vegetable. It was slimy and white, with a black dot in the middle like a pupil of an eye. Thoughts were passed around that it could be a black-eyed pea, but none of us knew what they looked like, if they were even a vegetable and not just a band. But then, my mum made me some tomato and basil Mug Shot pasta, and it was so nice. She bought me some more, and eventually I know have several cartons and sachets of various quick lunches to choose from.

I'm currently eating, as mentioned earlier, a roast chicken Mug Shot pasta, and it is very nice, despite the sauce being rather thick. However, some of the herby things in it don't seem to have unfrozen, and taste and feel exactly like plastic. A large piece got stuck in the back of my throat and I nearly couldn't swallow it, it was that horrible. Also, on my first attempt at making tomato and basil pasta, some of the pasta and sauce didn't unfreeze, and so I had a clump of stiff pasta swirls and powdery sauce mix in the bottom of my cup. How that happened I'll never know. I did exactly the same the next time I had pasta, and it worked fine. It was clearly a faulty packet. But it was very strange. I mean, the water gets everywhere, so there must have been some freaky protective layer around that bit. Hmm... :)

Anyway, the "I thought it was Spring" bit... basically, ever since we entered Daylight Saving Time, the English, and also British, weather has been having a little bit of a problem working out what season it is. In Scotland they had snow on Monday, I think, and it's hit Northern Ireland too. There wasn't snow in my town, but some cars had come into school with snow on their rooves so it must have snowed in the next door town. Its also started snowing a little bit here just now, but its not sticking. Now the cheerful post about Spring arriving seems a little premature. Apparently the snow has caused power cuts and more in Scotland. I can't believe it was only last week that I thought I could put away my gloves, scarves and winter coats. Now the temperatures are lingering around the 3 and 4 degrees, and my hands are once again turning blue.

And, a road on my walk home has flooded for the second time in five days. It did it last Friday, but today the water was touching the top of the kerbstones, and in fact going over it onto the pavement. If this rain is in March, what is going to happen during the April showers! I was going to take a picture of it because it was so big, but there was someone stood behind it, so I didn't want them to think I was taking a picture of them!

If we don't get a summer this year I'm going to sue.

Some links to the news items about the snow:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/north_east/8596486.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8596056.stm (this one has the title of someone being killed in the snow, but the article isn't actually about that. It has some facts and information throughout, and only a paragraph or two about the girl)

xoxo

Hailstorms and rainbows

2010-03-29T19:03:00.001+01:00

The other day, last Monday to be precise, there was a huge hailstorm in my town. I was walking home from school when it happened. I put my umbrella up, as if I was going to let marble-sized hailstones shatter my skull(!), and prepared to enter the onslaught. I looked behind me and I literally could not see more than two feet behind me. When the hail moved position and came down straight, I moved my umbrella above my head, about three centimetres away, and I actually got hit by hailstones. They were that heavy! I think they even set off a house alarm.

But, on the plus side, the sky was beautiful! It was pitch black, and I do mean that literally, with the tiniest strip of pure yellow where the sun was still shining through above the houses. The top part of the sky was all black. It was so dark, but so so pretty! I wish I'd taken a picture of it but I didn't want to risk taking out my phone.

However, after my tea, I came upstairs to see two beautiful rainbows, lighting up the sky. One was so bright and shiny it hurt your eyes to look at it. It was like the sun. The other was pale, and on the photos (which I've finally managed to upload - my Bluetooth was being weird) you can't see it very well, but they were fantastic!

Enjoy the pictures ;)

... hmm okay, maybe not. They won't currently upload, but I'll try again later :) - managed it (31/3/10)

The paler rainbow is clearer on this picture

xoxo

Spring is finally here... for now

2010-03-09T12:43:00.000Z

Its so nice outside now. Yesterday and today have been really warm, compared to the past few months weather at any rate. I've not worn my scarf and gloves, and that is an indication of the temperatures; I normally wear those until the end of March. I may be exaggerating a little there.

The sky is bright blue, with a few fluffy white clouds, and the sun is shining. It's so beautiful. I'm going to get all gushy and poetic about it soon I think. When I was walking home today - school got cut short because my teacher wasn't in! - the sun was so warm I could actually feel it on my skin, and that normally doesn't happen until May at least.

I hope Spring is here to stay. After the past few summers and winters we definitely deserve a good warm summer, maybe even a hot one. I've only been able to be warm in summer in Paris (2008) and Jersey (2009). Last year, Jersey was 27 degrees, roughly averaged, each day, and when I came home I immediately needed a jumper. It was that cold. Barely 15 degrees. In summer. The Gulf Stream does nothing for us. But that is one of the reasons I love Jersey, it's so much warmer than the mainland, even if it is plonked in the middle of the English Channel.

But, the summer needs to start on the 1st of July, as that is the day I am finally free of exams, and if it starts at any other time it will be totally unfair as I will have to revise rather than enjoy the sun. In this country there's no knowing how long summer will last.

xoxo

P.S. - Totally typically, as soon as I finished this post, raving about the wonderful sun that we barely see, it has practically disappeared. It'll snow in the next two minutes.

Not happy.

Avatar

2010-02-27T11:59:00.001Z

Yesterday I was finally able to go and see Avatar. I'd wanted to watch it for a while, and I was so grateful that the cinemas had decided to leave it running for a long time, with plenty of showing times.

The film started at 4:50pm, so my friend and I decided to go to Pizza Hut after buying our tickets to order a take-away. I got pepperoni pizza (of course), garlic bread and Tango, and she got mozzerella pizza, potato wedges and Pepsi. When we ordered them, the waitress said it would take 15 minutes for them to be ready. It was then 4:45, so we were confident we'd get our pizzas and be in the cinema in plenty of time. I was quite hungry by that time, and the minutes seemed to drag unnecessarily. Then, after 20 minutes, we started to get a little nervous. The film had been scheduled to start at 4:50, but they never start on time. However, we thought that they usually start between 20-25 minutes after the official start time. So, we were wondering where on earth our pizzas were so we could go in. Finally, 25 minutes later, the manager saw us (again... several people had seen us several times and none of them had questioned where our pizzas were), and said "Are you waiting for your food?". So we answered "Yes". Then, she pulled two pizza boxes out of a shelf, where we had seen them sitting for at least 15 minutes, thinking they were empty or waste boxes. So, that made us rather annoyed, that we had just wasted 15 minutes, and possibly wouldn't see the beginning of the film.

Unfortunately, the pizzas and side orders came in enormous boxes, which wouldn't fit in either of our bags. So, we decided to wrap the food in tissues and put them in our bags. This was really disgusting, but the only way we could get into the cinema without being seen bringing food in. My friend wanted to eat her potato wedges then, rather than put them in her bag, so she stuffed them in her mouth, barely chewing them. Keep in mind there were about 15 potato wedges in total. We managed to get into the cinema without being seen with food, and nearly walked into the screen without our 3D glasses, but I remembered in time and we ran to get them. My friend was by this time nearly choking on her potato wedges.

Once in the screen, we pulled our food out of our bags and saw that the grease had soaked through the tissues and onto our bags. It was probably the most disgusting thing I have ever done with regards to food containers. When we tried to eat them, they were sweet, rather than savoury, and not at all nice. We decided it must be the cheese, or possibly bag germs!

But, despite the mishaps with food and such like, it was a great film. I'm not sure if it was entirely worth the £9.45 price, but that is obviously a result of my fondness for saving money. The special effects were amazing, particularly considering the film was almost entirely special effects. And watching it in 3D made it even better. I'm not a fan of 3D films, because they hurt my eyes, and the dark glasses make everything, well, darker, but I really enjoyed watching Avatar in 3D. It wouldn't have been as good without 3D. At first, I thought, this film is like Pocahontas, and there were some predictable bits in it, but every film has some predictable aspects. I think I was overly critical whilst watching it because I wanted to be sure it was worth the price tag, and also because the entire world is Avatar-crazy, and I didn't know whether it'd live up to my expectations. But I am pleased to announce that it most definitely did. I wouldn't watch it at the cinema again, but I would consider buying the DVD.

My overall verdict: ****
It lost a * because of the hype surrounding it, the predictable bits and the Pocahontas rip-off (I'm not sure whether anyone else would see that but I did and I'm standing by my decision), but all in all it was a great film and I would recommend it.

Although, I do know why they're calling it the best film in the world, because of the fact that it has got more money at the box office than Titanic. However, Titanic is more than 10 years old, and ticket prices were certainly lower then than they are now. Also, Avatar is in 3D, so that is obviously going to increase the money in the box office. To make a fair comparison, they need to look at the number of tickets sold not the money made.

Also, each film from the Lord of the Rings trilogy is the best film in the world, to be fair :)

xoxo

A Letter for my Love

2010-02-10T13:22:00.000Z

Dear Snow,
I am writing to you today to inform you of a few concerns I have about our relationship.

I know many people are jealous of us. We have the Lorelai Gilmore kind of friendship. In fact, if you were not frozen rain coming from many dubious places I would want you as my lover.

But as much as I do love you - and believe me, that is a lot - I have to ask you one simple question: why, oh why, my love, do you continuously taunt me with the days you choose to cast your fine flakes down to the humble earth below? I would not mind if you chose to stick on a Monday, or a Tuesday. A Thursday would be acceptable, too, and the weekend, well, fabulous! But on a Wednesday and on a Friday? Why do you do it, my darling? Those are the days I have my driving lessons, and I want to pass my driving test as quickly as possible, and beautiful blankets of white powdered snow lined the roads doesn't help me much.

I'm not blaming you solely. I am well aware that your cousin Ice plays some part in the cancellation of my driving lessons, but Ice and I do not get along. You and I, however... I thought we were friends. I thought you loved me as I love you? I presume I am mistaken.

I am including a photograph of what damage you caused after only falling for 30 seconds or less.

Please reply as soon as you can with your explanations and your evaluation of our relationship.

Yours,
Miss Jersey

P.S.: I cannot write 'Love' until I know why you are being like this.

Pretty things

2010-02-03T20:49:00.000Z

I love snow. Snow is so pretty! It's just snowed here again. It started five minutes into my driving lesson - cue another moaning session from my instructor, who then confused me with the weatherman, and told me not to let it stick! I don't think it'll stay overnight, but it has stuck. It's quite slippy as well.

I was carrying two fan heaters up from my grandparents', because mine exploded last night, and a woman walking towards me stepped onto the road, walked around the back of the car I was just walking past, and got back on the pavement once she'd past me. I was offended - I don't smell, I don't have any infectious diseases, so why would she need to cross? It's clear she's never met me - to know me is to love me!

Fan heater story: I was using it to warm up my ice-cube of a room last night during Gilmore Girls, despite the TV rant I had, and it started making funny noises like it had been before, but ten times louder, and then all of a sudden flames shot out of the top and front, real flames, blue and orange flames, and sparks shot onto the carpet. All I could do was stand there shrieking "Don't set my room on fire!" over and over again, because I couldn't turn it off as the switch was near the flames (it's not very big). So, after about thirty seconds, the flames went, and I turned it off and pulled the plug out. Then I opened my door and let all the cold air in because a nasty burning smell was in my room, and stood there by the door in case it spontaneously caught fire again.

Ugh.

Another fan heater rant: I hate intelligent technology, the stuff that seems to have a mind of its own. My grandparents' old fan heater is on a thermostat, and turns off after two minutes even on its highest temperature, which is no good for cold-blooded people like me. When you turn it off and on again it doesn't switch the heater back on. When you unplug it and replug it and turn it on, it doesn't switch the heater back on. It knows the room is at the right temperature, and unplugging it doesn't fool it. It's inteligent. It's scary. Technology shouldn't have a mind, or it'll take over the world! And anyway, just because the room is warm doesn't mean I am.

Ugh. Again.

Anyway, nicer topics now. Prom dresses! My Year Thirteen Leavers' Ball is in May, so I need a new dress. I spent an hour searching the internet, and I have narrowed my choices down to five very beautiful dresses that I'm going to try on. My mum wanted me to wear the dress I wore to my last Leavers' Ball in Year Eleven, or a summer dress I bought for my holiday to Jersey last year which is more beach party than black tie Leavers' Ball.

So, my options:

I love the netting on the skirt of this one

The colour is so nice, and I like the bow

Again the colour, and the detailing on the bodice

This is the purple one in blue, I think, but the blue is much nicer than the purple

This dress, hopefully, if it looks good on me, is my Leavers' Ball dress. I just love everything about this one. The colour is gorgeous, I love the waterfall design on it, and the asymmetric skirt that shows the netting beneath! I think I'm in love :)

xoxo

Television

2010-02-02T15:06:00.000Z

I was having a thought just now about television.

It was spurred off by my dilemma. Tonight, I have two TV programmes to watch: The Hills and The Vampire Diaries. But, since they're on at the same time I don't know which one I can watch live and which one I can watch on the internet, simply because I don't want to miss The Hills but I also don't want people at school to spoil The Vampire Diaries for me.

So, basically, I have come to realise I have entirely too much TV to watch and not enough hours in the day. I need to cut back, but I don't know which one to stop watching. I also realise I sound like I have no social life, but most of these TV shows are on at 10pm, and I don't go out at 10pm. It's too cold.

Here is a little run down of what I watch: Being Human, Glee, Survivors, The Hills, The Vampire Diaries (as of tonight), Skins, Secret Diary and Roswell. I also watch Gilmore Girls when I feel like it, and half of a Veronica Mars a night. Now I really sound like I have no life. Oh, my gosh... I feel so... addicted! I must be. I must be addicted to TV. I actually think I have missed some things out. No, I haven't. Whatever I've not put down on the list, if anything, I, as of now, no longer watch.

Seriously. It's a joke. Good TV shows are like buses: you wait forever and then seven come along at once.

No more TV for me. I may give it up for Lent.

No. Can't do that. I'll die.

I need to go to TV rehab.

They try to make me go to rehab but I say "No, no, no..."

xoxo

AQA Biology Unit 4 25/1/10

2010-01-27T13:36:00.001Z

On Monday, I sat the AQA Biology Unit 4 exam. It was absolutely shocking! The entire exam paper was data handling questions, with only 1 question about something we'd learnt in our lessons. Six pages were covered in shrew questions, which didn't even make sense. AQA are obviously shrew lovers, since they had shrew questions on the Unit 2 resit on Tuesday 21. It's been all over the news, even on the BBC. Biology exam? No, Statistics. Possibly even: AQA Common Sense Unit 4.

The questions in the exam paper contradicted what was said on the specification, for example: "You will not be required to know tests of significance, such as Spearman's rank correlation or the chi-squared test, for theory examination purposes." Oh, really, AQA? Really? So, question 4(c) saying, "They used the Spearman's rank correlation test. The table shows their results. ... Use the data in the table to explain your answer", isn't using Spearman's rank.

There is a Facebook group with about 9500 members as of this moment which has so many pictures and comments about the exam. But the best thing is that it is on the news, and AQA is aware of how bloody stupid they were for doing an exam like that.

Facebook group link:
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?v=wall&gid=453647705494
BBC news article link:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/8480563.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/8482880.stm
BBC iPlayer link to Radio 5 Live show:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/console/b00q954m
(wind on to 1:15:00 and the discussion is on soon after that time)
(includes the comments on the show description "dodgy A-Level papers")

Thanks a lot AQA, you brightened up my day :)

xoxo

Joke about the hair tubes on the many many pages of shrew questions :)

All the pictures are from the Facebook group

Of snow, doctors and other assorted ramblings

2010-01-17T18:49:00.002Z

Of snow: England has had snow since the middle of December. Truthfully, the first deluge melted away in a combination of rain, sun and footprints by New Year's Eve. Boxing Day was the worst day because by then the snow had turned to pure ice. Putting one foot on it caused you to slither everywhere. It was an ice rink. Literally. If I had ice-skates I would have worn them. I had to walk to my auntie's house, up a hill, while my mother decided to run off and look out for herself, leaving me to cling to anything possible. In the end I just walked on people's gardens where the snow had not yet iced over. And don't even get me started on going to my grandparents' for tea! However, a very kind person had dug a little track from the road to the entrance to my grandparents' street, so that made the passing a little easier.

So, I was very appreciative of the fact that the snow had gone, so I wouldn't get snowballed at school on the first Monday back. However, come New Year's Day, it snowed again. About 2 - 3 inches. The December snow was about 5 - 6 inches. So, Monday comes and I walk to school on the road to avoid killing myself on the steep (steep in the snow at any rate) hill. No snowballs, yey for me! Then, I wake up Tuesday morning, go into the bathroom and think... hang on a minute, I'm sure the white outside is whiter than yesterday. So I open the freakishly huge bathroom window, and lo and behold, we have had an overnight blizzard. It was incredible. I measured it again with my trusty ruler - we had 9 inches by the house, and 5 on the roads. Gritters had not done much good. There was snow piled high on the trees, and the world looked so beautiful! Snow does that. My mum's car couldn't get out, so she didn't go to work, and naturally I didn't go to school. In fact, school was cancelled all week. People literally couldn't get anywhere.

Obviously, the next day the South got some snow, a measly few inches, and they panicked. Up North, we are a hardy people. We do not let a little bit of snow faze us. No, sir. But the Southerners... well, let's just leave it at "sheltered folk". The town where I live was on the news every day because the Mountain Rescue had to help the ambulances etc. It was amazing to see my town on the news; it's never on the news. Sadly, it was still a very Southern-dominated news programme, with one report saying the coldest temperature in England was -17 in Oxfordshire, when actually it was -17.6 in Cheshire. The North-South divide is very hurtful. -pulls hurt face- But I'll get over it.

Meanwhile, after this original snowfall, it proceeded to snow a further 3 inches, meaning we now had a foot of snow. I got into a one-sided competition with my father to see who had the most snow (I won... his village only had 6 inches). That's what comes from living in the hills.

On Monday, I had to venture into school at lunchtime, praying I wouldn't get hit by snowballs, but unfortunately the gods of snow don't appear to like me and I walked through the middle of a snowball fight and was hit by a snowball. Then, a very strange Year Twelve said "take it like a man" and another said "hit her again". To which I said, "no, don't hit me again". But the first comment made me laugh quite a lot, and provoked the same reaction in the other people to whom I told my tale.

After that, the snowball stories aren't that interesting, except that on Thursday one of my Biology friends and I decided to sneak out of the media classroom instead of walking through a particularly vicious snowball massacre being conducted by the Year Nines. It was very funny, peering out of the doors to see if the coast was clear.

But as I write this today, the snow had melted away. It had actually nearly gone yesterday, due to the rain overnight, but today it has shrunk by half. Which is good. I can wear my Uggs again!

Of doctors: Not the medical version, but the television version, the fabulous Doctor Who. The two-parter, The End of Time, finished on New Year's Day, with the death of the current Doctor, David Tennant, and the arrival of the new one, Matt Smith. I am not ashamed to say that I cried. I was crying for the last fifteen minutes, before he'd even died. He went to say goodbye to all his friends that he had met over the series', and it was so sad. And then, just before regeneration, he said "I don't want to go" and I'm sure I'm not alone in saying this, but I sobbed back "I don't want you to go." All I have to say is, Matt Smith, you've got a hell of a lot to live up to. Get a haircut and change your face. There now, that's not so rude, is it?

Of exams: Exams... the dreaded word. I have three exams this January. One Biology re-sit, one Chemistry re-sit and one Biology module. My re-sits are all AS modules, so they should be relatively (or should that be comparatively) easier, but my Biology module is an A2, so that should provide me with a lot of stress, especially the nitrogen cycle. Who makes these exams? I want to hit them. Grrr.

xoxo

The Tenth Doctor - goodbye, I'll miss you!

The amazing foot long icicle outside my bedroom window

Goodbye 2009, Hello 2010

2010-01-01T20:42:00.000Z

Well, it's time to bid adieu to the old year and say bienvenue to the new year, and the new decade.

Gosh, so many things have happened this past decade. Sad things: the London bombings, the invasion of Iraq, the death of the Queen Mother, the death of Michael Jackson.

But, there have been so many good things, too: England winning the Rugby World Cup and the Ashes, England entering the Football World Cup thanks to David Beckham's amazing goal, London winning the bid to host the 2012 Olympic Games, Manchester hosting the Commonwealth Games, Doctor Who returning, the Queen's Golden Jubilee... Rafael Nadal winning Wimbledon(!)

And, just think, in the year 2000, no-one had heard of Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint and Emma Watson!

Yes, 2009 has been a bad year, with everything seeming to go wrong and the smallest things making a big impact on my life, but new decade, new hopes. Still, despite everything, I feel sad, nostalgic. I even felt nostalgic when we were still in 2009! But, then again, how can I not? This past decade has been the first one I lived through. I have seen so many things change, both in my own life and in the world as a whole, and they have all affected me in some way, big or small. Everything I hold dear to me has been altered, someway, somehow, in the Noughties. But, everything has changed me for the better, I hope! So, of course I miss them. My formative years were spent there; they feel like home.

But, I am glad for the new year; the chance to change things for the better some more.

xoxo

WELCOME TO 2010. HAPPY NEW YEAR!