Life's Just Like a Box a'Chocolates....Yuuummmmm.....

I Couldn't Resist...

2008-07-15T12:16:00.002+01:00

I just typed out the most pointless blog ever. And then decided to scrub it and start over. I'm out of the office and on my own with a nice laptop so really I'm just making conversation out of boredom.

It was my 23rd birthday a couple of weeks ago, I had a lovely day for my actual birthday (despite being at work - my colleagues bought me a watering can, and some mini gardening tools, and we went out for lunch) and in the evening I opened lots of presents and we all had some lovely cake that my wonderful fella made me. Then on thursday he took me out for dinner at TGI Fridays (where else?? Thank god though, he didn't tell them it was my birthday!). Then on Friday I treated myself to new hair and headed to my parents (via the garden centre with Gemma to pick up my new herb garden :D) More presents awaited me at home, and then preparations began for the party. The idea was to have a BBQ at my parents' new house, followed by a night out (ish). It had rained all week and the outlook for the weekend was rain, strong winds, thunder, lightning, hailstones, plagues of locusts, the lot. But as it turned out it was gorgeously sunny all day, with a 5 minute spell of rain about half way through the 'do. I even got to wear my maxi-dress without ruining it too much (ok so the hem is now green... and I somehow managed to snap both of the straps... but meh) So the party was great and in the end we didn't bother to go out, and just stayed in and played Ring of Fire instead. Good times.

So now my birthday's over all I have to look forward to now is my holiday in August - how excited am I right now!! I get paid twice before then as well which is sweet. In the mean time, work is pretty hard, lots and lots of massive projects going on and a lot for me to catch up on. People still assume I get the summer holidays off because it's a college - let me tell you, even the lecturers don't get time off in the summer!! No one does - just the lucky git kids. Wish I'd made the most of the summers when I was younger now.

That's about all there is to say at the moment. I should try and get on here more often cos then it would stop me blogging too much in one go and boring the hell outta everyone. Anyway back to work!

Britain's Got (a dog that has some) Talent

2008-05-28T15:44:00.003+01:00

I don't know what it is, but I don't like to see performing animals. There's something just a bit twisted about getting entertainment from watching an animal make a prat of itself.

I'm referring particularly to Britain's Got Talent's dancing dog, and its owner who has no human friends (the girl's mum said that. Her own mum!)

A few people I know have said that the dog obviously enjoys it blah blah and it wouldn't do it if it wasn't happy - but truth is, the dog gets treats for doing the right tricks, and it was given treats the whole time it was trained. It's the same as me going to work - I may not actually enjoy it, but my reward is I get paid.

I'm not gonna have a rant about this, and if people like doing it and the dogs/horses/whatever arent getting hurt then it's fine....

...but who'd have thought dancing animals would be one of my 'buttons'?! Very strange

Chicken Monkey Shoes?

2008-05-14T15:52:00.002+01:00

Since I'd not been on here for a while I thought it might be worth me checking my profile on here. That and I was horribly bored. So I went through all the sections, favourite books, favourite films, and so on, and come to the final question, which is a random question. The first question that I come across (as you can choose to get a new question if you don't like the one you get) is this;

You're going to the Moon! What have you forgotten to pack?

Well, I am one of those people that has to triple check everything and still feel like I've forgotten something. So chances are, I haven't forgotten anything for my Moon trip. I have noticed though that, particularly when going to stay at Simon's before I moved, I would forget pyjamas and knickers. Whether that was my subconcious doing it deliberatley, I don't know. Anyone else have this problem?? And this, fellas, is why your girlfriend starts to leave things at yours occasionally - it's not cos she's trying to get you to commit, it's cos she's sick of going commando the morning after!

Deciding that I didn't like that question much, I flicked through and had a look at some of the other random questions. If anyone can come up with a sensible/senseless answer for thesequestions, please let me know!

Q. OK, we know they don't need them, but don't you think some fish would like a bicycle?
A. The sensible part of me says 'well how would they ride them?', and the fantastical side of me says 'YES! What good exercise for them! Anything that will help the problem with fish obesity'.

Q. You've just inherited a manufacturing plant that specialises in plastics! What's the first thing you make?
A. A 'replacement man'

Q. You own a sweater that goes right down to your feet. What colour belt do you wear with it?
A. Ah, a question I can relate to! Depending on the colour of the sweater, it would probably be a wide red waist nipping belt. Perhaps even a waspie.

Q. Chicken Monkey Shoes?
A. ....Pardon? Is this some sort of password? Erm.... Liver...Parakeet...Volkswagon...

Q. You have to dig a hole to China. Where do you start?
A. Erm... China?

Honestly, if you're ever totally bored at work and have a blog, just go and keep clicking for a new question on your profile, it's whole minutes of enjoyment!

Quick Catch-Up...

2008-05-12T12:24:00.002+01:00

In case anyone's interested, I am still alive and actually for the first time in ages I can say that things seem to be looking up!

I got a new job on friday, as a HR Admin at Matthew Boulton College. Up until now I've been temping at Sutton College so it'll be nice to do something different. Right now all I'm doing is photocopying and filing... terribly annoying on so many levels (this is NOT what I went to uni to do!!) So that job starts next week, muchos looking forward to it!

I've got my holiday booked for this year too. Simon and I are off to Tunisia in August, and I've gone on a geeky rampage of organisation, from researching local restaurants and reviews of the hotel, to learning a smidgen of Arabic. It's all good fun, and if it all goes arse-up I can fall back on my French. It's going to be hot hot hot! I'm kinda struggling somewhat in the heat right now so god knows what I'll be like then! We're planning to go and visit the Sahara and camel ride and all sorts so it should be good fun.

I've started doing loads of exercise classes of late and have started to pick up badminton again. It's doing wonders for my body, just in time for summer haha! I also get a free gym membership with my new job, so that's a nice little bonus! Tomorrow me, Si and Liam are going to a class called circuit training, which from what we saw last week is kinda like a full on hour of going round, running, skipping, doing sit-ups and push-ups, jumping on trampettes and many other little mini-exercises that swap every minute. It was knackering me out just watching it! Will have to see how it goes...

Big shock - I'm not going to any festivals this year. The only one I would possibly go to is Reading cos the line-up looks ace, but I'm far too poor and it would be too close to our holiday!

That's all for now, maybe I'll do a full on blog one day soon!!

Pished

2007-10-26T20:25:00.000+01:00

It's been a while BUT I finally feel rwady and in the right frame of mind to write a blog. There will be mistakjes made, I know, but I#m drunk and cant hink of nothing beeter to do.

I've been at a work's conference thing. Basically means I get to go to a posh hotel and drink as much free champagne as they can supply me with. The idea of this is that we meet "contacts" to use at work and all that, wich I guess in a way i did. I listened to a boring guy talk about his Diversity team, another guy and his mate discussing Birmingham Uni, and a nice girl who was a solicitor. I also met a mad welsh man, but that's hardly a first. I didnt expect it to be as fun as it was. It started out quite nervy, cos we didnt know anyone. Eventually Tanya and me decided to go wanderung around to see if anyone would like to talk to us, and it seems when prompted iwth alcohol ppl will talk to anyone. Eventually when tanya left I was talking to Helen, the solicitor, about her job anf how her company runs a paralegal scheme (W.M. - that'll mean something to me when I'm sober!) Eventually we ran outta things to talk about and end up discussin why being single is better than being with someone you dont love. I replied smugly that being with someone you do love is way better by far than eithetr of the other two options, but she knew what i was talking about and didnt seem upset that she recetnly split with a guy who was no good for her and was now single. I gave her my card (I now have cards, yay!) and she said we shou7ld catch up at the next conference.

I drank a lot of champagne tonight, which is surprising cos i hgate the stuff. I had it mixed with orange juice, raspberry puree, peach stuff (something called a Bellini - one of the Bham uni guys thought it funny to call it a Panini, showing the low humour content of Bham Uni ppl.) (He was a nice guy though despiyte his rubbish jokes) I tolfd him I wasn't consid4ering doing my Masters at Bham cos it cost too much and I would prob end up back at Aston. He said he understood - i don't think i offended him.

I lefyt the conference about 7.45 and somehow managed to direct myself back to th4e bus stop on my own. I did have to walk past a load of shops thatr were still open and physically stop myself from going uin and making purchases I'd regret. I literally hovered in Primark's doorway, before forcing my feet to keep walking. that in itself has been a miracle, as my old shoes seem to have given up on me and like to slip on every shiney surface available. I almost broke my ankle this morning I swear.

Came back to my house, luckily the flatmate's on hols now so she cant see me in my drunken state. I've got a steak pie in the oven, pretty sure it's cooked by now so I'd bette go.

If this makes no sense tommorro I'll explain all! promise!

Your Voice, Like The Sound of Sirens to a House on Fire...

2007-08-22T18:01:00.000+01:00

At certain points in the past year I have considered myself to be somewhat unlucky. Actually no, let me rephrase that. I am lucky, I always have been, I am healthy, I'm well liked/loved, and I'm lucky enough to have been to uni and benefitted from all that went with that (whatever benefits they may be...) When I say I've been unlucky, what I really mean is it has seemed that this past year, nothing has been going my way. I'm talking about coming back from having a fantastic time in France, moving into our crappy house in Erdington, not being able to get a job for ages until Asda decided to let me handle their manky fruit n veg (not that Asda hasnt been without benefits, as I'll explain later), not being able to do my PGCE at Keele, the mess I made of the January exams and the stress put upon me in my finals, added to the inevitable break up with Dave, the shit I had to deal with at our house as a result, money troubles, and finally having to move back home - it's not that it hasnt been alright living back here, but due to distances and independance, I keep swearing to myself that I wont live at home again. So pretty much, the whole of my year at the age of 21 had been an abismal disappointment....

All of a sudden, I have a fantastic degree, a new job, a wonderful, supportive new boyfriend, a new flat coming up soon, and I'm going on holiday with my closest people and we're going to have a fantastic time (weather allowing!) I can't explain how I've been feeling this past week, it's just as if 4 years of stress, worry and disappointment have suddenly evaporated from my shoulders. Like it's all been worth it, in a round about way. It's catching too, it seems as though everyone around me has some reason to be happy, and this holiday is going to be a huge celebration of it all!

So about my job. Well I started out determined that I was somehow going to get into teaching before next year, and I went for a few interviews for teachng assistants, but to no avail. I took this as a positive sign to have a proper look at my life and what I wanted to do, and came to the conclusion that I had always wanted to be a teacher, and while this was nice in a way, it also made me realise that I'd never thought of much outside of teaching. It was just something I knew I was good at. So I started to look around job sites, at graduate jobs and so on, and somehow stumbled across recruitment. Sounded interesting, so I applied for a few. The first interview didn't go too well, but the second went really well and I came out feeling great, and then I was called back for a second interview and voila, I have a job! My actual job title is Trainee Recruitment Consultant, and I work in a small office in the Jewellery Quarter. I have my own desk and computer haha... but most importantly the pay is great and the incentives are phenomenal. So, shoe shopping a-plenty for me!

I have already decided though that once I get enough money - probably after my first month's pay - I'm going to purchase a motorbike. I've wanted a motorbike since I was about 14, but never had the money to get one, so that'll be my first big purchase, after my flat....

Gemma has decided she's fed up of living at home and wants a taste of independance. Therefore together, we are renting a flat in Birmingham, close to both our work places. We have a few places in mind that we're hoping to go and visit after our holiday, so hopefully by the end of september we'll have somewhere to move in to! It's all very exciting, I can't wait to have a double bed again! I've already been to Ikea and have picked out a theme for my room, so it's all looking good. Also, we're planning to have a themed fancy dress party when we do move in, so you'll be hearing more about that! (Unless I don't like you! :p)

I just realised I haven't written on here since me and Simon got together (surprisingly or not - you decide, I frankly don't care) We initially got together circa Download, after months of me crying on his shoulder and hiding out at his house while things blew over at the old house. It was inevitable, and I'm damn well glad. We're having a great time being together, all my friends love him and he doesn't try to stop me seeing them without him, we go out and do stuff and share things and talk about eeeeeverything which is just...nice. I do put on him a lot though sometimes, up until i got this job I had been really stressed out and snappy and of course, he caught most of that, but the fact that he never seems to mind that much is rather touching. He worries about me, but he realises also that he really doesnt need to. For sure, he is the best thing that's come out of my "Asda experience". Speaking of which, I'm leaving there in about a month, and am only doing saturdays at the moment for extra money, huzzah! Though I'll be sad to see my discount card go :( Anyway, yes I'm having a wonderful love n sex life, that's showing no sign of deflating anytime soon :oD

I'm supposed to be packing right now for our Devon trip, getting very excited! Somehow I have to fit almost my whole wardrobe in one tiny suitcase... god knows how! I'm struggling to pick between dresses and skirts mainly, I think i'm pretty much sorted on which three pairs of shoes I'm taking though. We (as in me, Gemma, Liam and Simon) are staying in a static caravan thing, with a spa nearby, lots of swimming pools and the beach a stone's throw away (I've always wondered why they say a stone's throw.... surely it's not an accurate measure, I mean I was never any good at shotput so my stone wouldnt go very far. And how heavy should said stone be??) On top of this, we're forecasted (fingers crossed) to have lovely weather all week, meaning I get to wear more of my lovely dresses that I bought in spring anticipating a baking summer! It's now august, and half of my wardobe haven't seen the light of day yet! All in all, this holiday is going to be the perfect end to the summer.

So all of a sudden I've gone from being a poor, miserable student, to a happy, invigorated, slightly-less-poor working person! I'm hoping that the karma stops here, and that all this good stuff is a result of all the bad stuff happening last year. I'm hoping there's no nasty come-back karma round the corner like.... the bank loses all my money *searches in vain for old bank statements*, or I suddenly get pregnant *buys 24 pack of condoms, takes 4 pills*, or all my friends decide to jet off to Brazil without me *buys emergency Brazil ticket*, or Aston Uni ring up and say "Haha! You bought our little joke about you getting a 2:1 - YOU FAILED!!" *believes this could be possible* There's probably something out there that's gonna rock the boat, good things just dont happen to people like me!

Then again, maybe I need to be more accepting and less pessimistic!

Alright, Alright Already!!

2007-07-27T11:48:00.000+01:00

I've been somewhat nagged to an extent to get something written here, and since it's been almost two months I thought I should probably make a start. I did actually write one very lengthy blog from just after Download festival (best. festival. EVER!) but I ran out of time and then other stuff happened and it's irrelevant now.

So just to say, I am still alive and feeling damn good about life at the moment! Everything's going so well for me, apart from the fact that i'm still at Asda, but that's a situation I'm looking to rectify as soon as possible.

Biggest point though - No more uni for me!! I somehow scraped a 2:1 and graduated last week. To say I was surprised at my degree result would be a massive understatement, I cried my eyes out and called everyone I could think of. And I also didn't realise the big difference a 2:1 would have when I'm looking for what to do in the future... none of it particularly relevant at this moment in time but nonetheless fantastic. More about that when the time comes.

Will write another more detailed post later this week after my first big interview!

Making Procrastination an Art Form

2007-05-03T01:57:00.000+01:00

Can you believe it? The end of uni is nigh! All I have to do is finish this one crappy essay, do three crappy exams in the next two weeks and that's it. Over. For good. Wowza. I'll be out there, in the big wide world, not really sure of what I'm doing, going with the flow, without time restrictions. Awesome. And after the past few months I've just had, I've never been so glad to see the back of it. It raises so many questions about uni, like why they give you bugger all work in the first two years and then drop you right in the shit in the final year. And why they decide to give you a dissertation to hand in, and two other essays to hand in the very same week. And the most important question of all... was it all really worth it?
There are a lot of great things about uni - freedom, development of personal skills, getting pissed every night in your first year and watching yourself grow out of it by final year - but there are a lot of bad things too. Of course there's the usual "I now owe the loans company a fat wad of cash" problem, but I personally feel like I've been done over somewhat by uni, not only by their poor scheduling of essays and exams but just in the courses themselves. I'm not sure I've learnt that much in this final year, and in two of the essays I did this past month I had to actually teach myself most of the subject matter. Mainly thugh, what annoys me most about university essays and stuff is the lack of freedom of speech involved. Every essay I've ever written for uni has just been regurgitating other people's work, never have I had to use my own ideas or talk about my own opinions. It's just a concept that confuses me somewhat and leaves me feeling a little cold and robotic.

Another thing I've said goodbye to recently is my relationship with Dave, after almost three years. For many reasons, it just felt like the right thing to do, and I'll leave it at that for now. Point is I'm single (but not looking!) and trying to make myself happy with it at the moment, or at least I will once these essays are over with...

This summer looks set to be good fun, we've got Download coming up in June, and this year we've got a huge thriving community going on so it should be awesome, plus many many bands I'm dying to go and see are there too. Let's just hope there's slightly less heat and maybe more breeze this time round!
Also planned for this summer: Trip to Paris with Liam (shopping!), BBQs at various people's houses, holiday in Devon, my birthday, various other trips around the country if possible, moving back to my parents, job hunting and redecorating my brothers room! But mostly I'm going to be relaxing and enjoying my freetime.
I can already see where this summer is going to end up though - I'll end up working full time at Asda and not have much time to do anything else!

Oh yeah, on a side note, I didn't get in to Keele. I don't think the interviewer liked me, she asked me awkward dodgy questions, and generally I think she was fed up and decided to take on the first two people she interviewed. So I wont be heading off to Stoke anytime soon (if ever from how I feel about it now!)

So I'll leave it at that now, and carry on with my stupid damned piece of shit coursework, and dream about tonight when I can go get a yummy pizza.... Mmm Dominos....

2007-02-17T17:06:00.000Z

It's been a weird, roller-coaster, hold-my-rice-noodles style week. For once, I'm not the one getting mardy round here either - I just seem to be on the recieving end of every bugger else's misery. Actually that's not strictly true - I started the week off by having a whinge at Simon for being blonde (as in naive and stupid, not for actually being blonde, though he is and I guess I could have had a go at him for that...) And since then everyone has turned it round to being misery-arsed buggers and whining at me. That's karma for ya... anyway, the week's been up and down with good moods and bad moods and shit moods and ace moods and hyperactivity and depression and nonchalence and frustration and pleasure and pain.

On the plus side, I seem to be in the grip of some kind of mad courseworking fever, I've actually decided what topics I want to study and have begun researching, even though they aren't in for whole weeks yet! Somebody get me a cold compress!

On the minus side, I seem to be coming down with a cold. Great. It's quite annoying because i feel absolutely fine, but every so often, at the worst possible moment, I sneeze, and everything within a mile radius of me becomes drenched in snot. It's a nasty, mucousy cold that just keeps creeping up on me when I least expect it. So... maybe keep away from me for a while? I dunno. And I certainly suggest no one touches this keyboard... I remember Alex talking about his cheap keyboard that's survived pints of water and stuff, well look's like this one may have to try and survive the Great Snot Shower of 2007. Yes I know I'm disgusting, I'll stop talking about snot now.

On the plus side, my hair's looked pretty good this week. The rest of me has been shite, but as long as the hair's good then all is fine in the world. Due to my recent body-unhappiness, I decided to join the uni gym. Going to the gym last time didnt work very well, I know, and I lost no weight and I felt evermore miserable for it. Nonetheless, I'm hoping my newly-motivated self will make it to this gym more than once every fortnight. Planning to restart playing badminton soon too, and I'm trying to eat more healthy (so don't offer me chocolate or cake, or chocolate cake - I may have to hurt you with my evil death glare) My induction's on monday so we'll see what happens after that.

On the negative side, I'm pretty poor. And this is no good thing, since I have 5 birthdays to buy for in the next 2 and a half months, plus Download tickets to buy, and the usual food and stuff. Oh well. Will I ever be anything less than poor? Looks like I'm gonna be poor for the next couple of years regardless of what I do. Life truly is a bitch. And looks like Download's going to be our only holiday again this year. Please god let it rain at least once this time...

On the plus side, I have my interview at Keele. I can't remember if I mentioned this last time, or if this is new... But yeah it's on the 5th March - just after we get back from York visiting lovely Lolly (yyyaaaayyyyy!!). So within the next month, I should have some idea how the rest of the year's gonna shape up... scary stuff.

On the negative side... Ah sod it, you get the idea, the past few weeks have been ups and downs and all over the shops. Will blog again when things stabilise and answers are recovered: Will I get into Keele? How often will I go to the gym? Will I manage to complete Globalisation coursework by teh end of this week? Can i persuade Ross to join us at Download? Does Gary think I'm weird or is he just trying to suss me out?? Stay Tuned...

"He keeps ooooohing down my ear, Gem!!"

2007-01-23T13:51:00.000Z

It's that time of year again. Everyone's pissed off and thinking "shit, we only have a few months of uni left before we go spilling out into the real world and saturating the unemployed-with-degree market". Yup, it is that crappy. Shamefully, I had a cunning plan that would get me away from this post-uni misfortune, but due to lack of communication on pretty much everyone's part except mine, it doesn't seem to be working out. Kirsty from Keele uni called me last weekend;

"Hello Kim, we still haven't heard from your referee, thought you might want to give him a kick up the arse to sort it out..."
"Oh, right, sure, I'll get on it"
"Well thing is, there are only two places left on the course you want... so you better get going, sharpish."
"...oh..."

So not only am I fucked if the guy doesn't hurry up, I'm probably screwed for the interview anyway cos I'll manage to bugger it up somehow on the day. So my back up plan... meh, I haven't got much of a clue. I'll probably end up applying for next year instead, staying in Birmingham, getting some more teaching experience and working. I just don't really want it to come to that!

In other news, there's been a lot of social issues raising their ugly heads lately. People who hate my friends, people who are blaming me for their social inadequacies, people who hate him, who hates her, who despises her, who secretly has a crush on him, who doesn't know she exists. You know, the usual. But you know what, I don't hate anybody! But I'm not going to waste effort on people who are just going to do the whole two faced bitching thing. Hate each other all you like, but keep me the fuck out of it. And certainly don't go bitching to my boyfriend and filling his head with crap that isn't true. Luckily Dave has more sense than to listen to things like that anyway.

Today I'm venturing back to uni for the first time. Would have gone yesterday but I felt like crap and I've lost my timetable. Today it's Women and Power in Politics, so I can't really not go - it might actually help me get my dissertation started. Then I have a lovely 9am meeting tomorro where I get to listen to everyone else talking about how fantastically they're doing with their dissertations... much fun.

I had the most amazing two weeks off work, to do coursework and exams, so amazing in fact that I don't want to go back. I went back friday but decided I was too ill to do sunday and last night. For once it is genuine though - Dave had a throat infection and I reckon I caught it off him, and I'm still coughing my lungs out as I type this. Anyway, long and short is I'm gonna look for a new job, and even Simon and Patrick wont be able to persuade me to stay if I do find one.

Right, the George Foreman is calling me to come make some cheese toasties, so I bid thee farewell for now.

Stop! Blogthief!! A.K.A The 2006 Awards, a la Mezzbian.

2006-12-20T19:18:00.000Z

Ok so I'm gonna totally be a blogthief here and steal Mez's idea of having awards for this year. Even though the year is not over and I'm sure there's plenty more stuff to be done yet, now's as good a time as any. Might add a few things in as well, just to make mine special.

1) Drinking Buddy award: Laura (cos her uni mates aint hardcore enough), Simon (for shamelessly being my drunken singing buddy), Mez (cos if there's alcohol, he's there), Ross (aww, cmon, I couldnt NOT have him there...)

2) Newcomer(s) of the Year: Simon and Tammy - making ASDA bearable

3) High Point of the Year: So many - Laura and Claire coming to Paris to visit me, spending time with Dave in Paris before leaving, seeing Muse at the NEC, Subculture last saturday and all its sordid shenanigans.... lol.

4) Low Point of the Year: Eddies being burnt down, saying goodbye to Juliette in France, being poor generally and having to resort to stacking veg at ASDA....

5) Best Holiday: Ha, the only holidays I had this year were to Download and to York. Both were pretty damn great.

6) Anthem(s) for 2006: Tool - "H", MCR - "Welcome to the Black Parade", Metallica - "Fuel", to name but a few.

7) Biggest Regrets: Not having enough time or money to go visit Jules and Ed and many others during the summer.

8) Best Night Out: Either last saturday at Subbies, or that night in York when we danced like crazy fools to RATM and then sang Bohemian Rhapsody all the way home.

9) Worst Night Out: Definately that time in France when we ended up in a shitty dance club and then the others left Ed and I stranded until 5am when the metros re-opened.

10) Best Relationship: Well Dave obviously...

11) Worst Relationship: If you're counting friendships as relationships I can think of one.. nah we'll leave it.

12) First Gig of the Year: Errrmmm... Less Than Jake, in April, I think...

13) Last Gig of the Year: Tenacious D!!! :D

14) Best Gig of the Year: MUUUSSSEEEE!!!!! Or possibly Metallica @ Download....

15) Best Decision Made: To follow my instincts and make friends with the only sane person from the ASDA interview (hehe Si!), and also to not make friends with the weird chavvy girl with the scraped back hair and tonnes of makeup - good call, that one.

16) Hero of the Year: Well to be honest I think I've been pretty damn cool this year... lol, Dave kept me sane while I was in France. That's pretty heroic.

17) Villain of the Year: Kelly (see aforementioned chavvy girl), Phoebe (who left me and Ed stranded at aforementioned crappy French club), certain other two-faced bitches I dont wish to comment on.

18) Most Commonly Used Phrase: "Really? REALLY?!?", or "GODDAMNIT!" more recently.

19) Best Film: Tenacious D's POD, or Borat.

20) Best Album: Billy Talent II - Go listen to it now!!!

I've skipped half the things Mez put cos I didnt think they were that relevant, and I can think of too many Twats of the Year. Overall this year has been a weird mix of rubbish and absolute shite, with a few good bits thrown in. Let's hope next year is better, or at least, different :S

Merry Xmas Everyone (goddamnit I hate that song!!)

It's chriiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiisssssstttmmmaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaassssssssssssssss!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Youth is soooo wasted on the young!

2006-11-29T18:32:00.000Z

I've just found out that Dougal has put a link from his site to mine, so I figured I'd better actually write something on here... and it has been a while I suppose, I've just been too goddamn busy.

Busy doing fuck knows what, but busy all the same. Not at all busy doing my dissertation or reading the thousand or so books I'm supposed to for my courses, or writing the essays that are due in January (at last count, there were three of them to complete before first week back...) I have however been busy preparing for presentations, for every course. For some reason, within three weeks of every course they'd go "You need to do a presentation. It won't be marked, but if you dont do it you will fail." How does that work exactly? Sounds a bit unfair to me. Sounds also like a complete waste of time but hey, it is Aston after all. Luckily I've been put in groups with people who like to work hard and it's forced me to work harder with them so it's not all bad I spose. Other than uni and presentations, I've just been earning money (or trying to), xmas shopping, and catching up on sleep.

And of course, filling out my application for PGCE, let's not forget the stress and annoyance that cost me for a wee while. Took me a while to fill out the form, writing my personal statement was hell, and then my reference didn't arrive for nearly three weeks. It better be damn good now... Dave and Alex have already got interviews for early december. Dave's package of info came this morning and I've been itching to open it... Must resist. Here's hoping mine's not far behind now! Otherwise I'll have to work out some kind of plan B...

What's really annoying about this year is that it's so important and it feels like 50 times the amount of work from any previous year and yet all I want to do is go out and get drunk, go shopping, take a holiday, play badminton a few times a week, basically I feel like I want to relax and enjoy myself. But I can't and shouldn't really - it's a little late to be grasping onto the remaining dregs of my youth I suppose, I need to concentrate. Just, can't!

I've got myself some new drinking buddies in my work mates. A few times in the past couple of months I've been going out with them to Sutton for drinks or the cinema or shopping, etc etc. It's great because most of them are awesome ppl, but not so great in that a) I should be studying/working, and b) Dave now thinks I'm not spending enough time with him. To be fair, since he told me about this 'problem' we've spent more time together and are both getting uber-excited about xmas, but at the same time, I need my friends as well!

Speaking of work, our department has a new manager, who we affectionatley like to call the Bitch From Hell, because of her pleasant demeanour and her all-round jollyness. She's so far caused two colleagues to cry (and almost made me cry), three colleagues to seek work on other departments, and many others to dream/fantasize about cold-bloodedly murdering her with various vegetables (that may or may not be just me...) However, she can't be all that bad - she made Kelly cry (Kelly who still hates me for reasons unknown) after having a go at her about being a bitch to the new key colleagues. What's that famous phrase, "My enemy's enemy is my friend" or something like that? I think "friend" may be pushing it, but still. Bitch From Hell is making a lot of enemies just now, she's made enemies of the menfolk after telling them that women shouldn't be allowed to stack the potatoes due to it "hurting our breasts" (and I have to say I agree, to some extent) and that's why she always gets the men to do it. Managed to piss Simon off at least... still sorry about that Si!!

There is plenty of other stuff to talk about, but Dave's just come back from work so I'm off to make some food. ta ta for now!

Whut thu Bleep?!?!?!

2006-09-30T14:56:00.000+01:00

University life is upon us again!! Well, some of us. I finally got my timetable today, and it is the sweetest little thing ever. Well, I guess it could be better, as I do have a 9a.m. friday, which is prime post-Eddies recovery time, but hey, what ya gonna do? I have no more than three lectures on any given day, though I am in uni everyday. I have one lecture 9a.m. weds, and the rest of the day free, and all of thurs til 4 free. What's annoying me is that I didnt get one of the options I chose - I wanted to do women in Politics, as I think that would totally suit me and I'd prob have done pretty well in it. However, I dont have women in politics - what I do have is "culture and commitment in Inter-war europe". Riveting stuff that.

I should be at work right now. I've been in every day this week and to be fair I've quite enjoyed it (yes I am quite sad), but today they wanted me to help out on freezers, on their brand-spanking new department. An hour and a half of freezing cold grafting later, I complained to the manager that I was feeling ill - which is true, I'm feeling the on-set of tonsilitus, right on cue for the start of uni - so he told me to return to produce. Which I did; I said hello to Patrick, scowled at Kelly, hugged Simon, and left for home. To be honest, it wasnt neccessary for me to go home, I didn't feel that ill. I just really needed some time to myself to go home and laze around and... stuff. Write on my blog, obv!

There was so much more I wanted to write but I can't really be bothered to anymore. I'm starting to feel the full effect of living with a bunch of blokes - they can never organise themselves to do anything! Helen came online earlier - "Are you guys going to subbies tonight?" I said I knew nothing much about it but I'd find out and that subbies was probably likely. Apparently it was Ross who told Helen that we're Subs-ing. Shortly after, Ross ambles up "Mez wants to know what your plans are for tonight" "Well," I say, "You've told Helen we're going to Subbies, havent you, so I imagine that's the plan". Blank look. "Er no," he says, "I'm going to the guild tonight". Oh... right.... "So, uh, where's Mez going?" Ross shrugs his shoulders. Hmm, useful. "And who else is going out tonight?" Again with the shrugging. I've said this before but listen up cos I'm going to say it again - WHY CAN'T GUYS TALK TO EACH OTHER?????? We all frickin live together for feck's sake, and yet I'm the only one who knows what everyone else's plans are! Jeeeeze you men...

"Doing some archeology, madam?" said the Viking to the Lady in Leopard-Print

2006-09-14T17:54:00.000+01:00

(Written, like, a week ago!!)
Last week myself, Ross and Rob left the sunny climes of Brummiegum for the distant Northern shores of York. Thinking of how erratic the weather had been here of late, and considering how far north York is, I packed plenty of jumpers and trousers so that I could comfortably brace the torrential downpours and blizzards. However, upon our arrival into York, though it was a bit late at night, it was lovely and warm. And the next day was sunny and lovely. And so was the next day. Oh well....

The purpose of our visit was to see Laura before we all had to go back to uni, and also cos of the fact that she visited me in Paris, so it was only fair she do the whole tour guide thing in York. It was also an opportunity to allow Laura to be "hardcore", since her York friends, kinda, arent. So we arrived at around 9p.m, ate pizza by 10pm, got pissed by 10:15pm. And so carried on until the wee hours of the next morning, catching up and generally having a good time. Next day we did a bit of sight-seeing, and we visited the highly amusing Viking Centre. It all started when we were waiting in the queue, and some dude dressed as a Viking, complete with huge, sharp-looking sword, began questioning us. He was quite rude really, because the first thing he said, to Laura (who was wearing a leopard-print top) was "Did you kill that yourself, madam?", whilst waving his sword maniacally in her face. Next he questioned Ross' degree, and asked what exactly he designed and stuff, just being pretty negative generally (though, at least he didnt call it "a degree in drawing and colouring-in" like I do.) Despite his rudeness though, we went in and had a look round. It was all good fun, all these mad people dressed as Vikings, but talking normally, much to Rob's disappointment. They took us round on this thing that was a bit like a ghost train but it was going through a viking village. Afterwards, there were loads of activities for kids, so being the children we are, we all had a go at writing our names in runes, drawing pics of vikings, and investigating random bits of stone and bone. This would have all been good innocent fun, had one of the Vikings not taken... shall we call it, a liking?.... to Laura. Every so often he'd just pop up behind her and ask what she was doing, in a loud, boomy voice. The second time it happened, i joked that he was really scaring her, hoping he'd go away, but oh no. At one point he scared her so much she jumped and ran away, so this viking turned to Rob and said, in a loud voice "Very jumpy isn't she, sir?". Rob kinda stood there. And stood there. And, finally turned back to the Viking and shouted "YES SIR, SHE IS!!" After that I think the Viking got scared and found someone else to scare the crap out of. At least this one didnt have a sword though....
The aforementioned Viking also pissed Rob off by telling him his drawing of a Viking was shite. "It's a good picture sir, except for one problem - Viking helmets did not have horns. It was made up by the Victorians to make them seem more evil" (there ya go kids, you've learnt something) Rob was, well, it's fair to say he was upset after this, and grumbled all the way home, and in to the next couple of days.
We also visited the Minister that day, which was nice and pretty, and we sat in the lovely gardens and chilled for a while. I forgot to mention that, before all our Viking adventures, Laura and I took Rob shopping, to buy him some less trampy clothes. By the time we'd finished he looked like a real man, rather than a drunk student. Hooray. Then at the end of the night we all went to a place which played a lot of Indie and had a jolly good time.

The next day we decided to go on the York Eye - it's a bit like the London Eye, except you can't see the Houses of Parliament, or a river, or Big Ben. What we could see was hills, and fields, and most of the town, and a cliff with a white horse on the side (which Claire says was natural but I don't believe her!) After that we did some more walking around town, investigating this, investigating that - general investigation. And then we walked on the city walls which (you guessed it) go all the way round the city. We were looking for some particular part to get off the wall so we could go to Bargain Booze (ah yes, classy kids, us), and so once we'd finished wandering the walls we went back to Laura's and, yep, you guessed right again, started drinking. Under normal circumstances, we wouldnt drink quite this much in the space of three days, but since hearing that Lol's uni friends were anti-hardcore, we felt like we had something to prove. The place we went that night was even better than the one before, it just wasnt as crowded. And they played RATM and other stuff like that. Made me miss Eddies.

Overall, our time in York went almost completely problem-free. No missed trains, no burly metro police, no sleazy freaks (except for one guy in one of the pubs we went to, who thought it was acceptable to grope my arse, not once but twice!! I swear I was drunk enough to consider slapping him.) Just a very nice, well-deserved holiday. What follows now is two weeks of rushing between Dordon and Polesworth and Birmingham and Asda, followed by Lolly coming back down for a week or something so more drinking and shopping I imagine!

Yay!!

PMT Etiquette

2006-09-12T19:40:00.001+01:00

I often wonder what men actually think periods and PMT are. It seems to me that men think that it's just a bit of blood, nothing to worry about and there most certainly isn't any additional pain, and if there is, we really shouldn't complain (because, of course, if the tables were turned, they wouldn't complain, would they?!) And as for PMT - well, it just means the wife's a bit mardy, right? No matter what time of the month, if the lady's feeling down it must must must be PMT. There can be no other explanation, can there?? Well gents, I hope you're listening, you may well actually learn something! This is the best advice I could ever give someone dealing with a PMT-ridden girl-pal, exclusively on this here website (because nobody else will listen to me)

Boyfriends:
1. We have stomach cramps. It's a fact. It has nothing to do with how much or how little we've eaten! And the more you deny how much pain we're in, the more we want to thump you in the stomach repeatedly to let you know.
2. Many of us also suffer from headaches. Don't repeatedly ask us if we've taken anything - of course we have, but it obviously didnt work. That goes for stomach aches too.
3. We get sore breasts - do not grope us.
4. We're sore generally - do not grope us. In fact, physically, leave us the fuck alone.
5. However, we are needy and emotional at this particular time more than ever, so for God's sake don't spend as much of your time as possible as far away as possible; now more than ever, we need love and care and attention. More than anything, attention!!
6. We can forgive you for the above if you happen to be in another country (or county even). We can't forgive you if we text you and you don't text back for a couple of days
7. WE NEED CHOCOLATE. NOW!!!!!
8. If I'm pissed off, it could quite possibly be because you have pissed me off. Not because I am premenstrual.
9. Additionaly, if an argument kicks off, do NOT put it down to PMT. These arguments will be our most honest and scathing, and though it might be hurtful, it's much better to get everything off our chests! Even you will agree to that, eventually....
10. And finally, a pearl of wisdom from my mum "You [men] should just accept that everything you do, and everything you say is wrong. Accept this, and you'll live happily in harmony with your woman." There you go.

It's important to note, by the way, that this is by no means aimed at Dave. He's guilty of a few of these things, but so is every other guy I've ever known. This was actually sparked by someone at work (see point 8) so don't think that this is a personal attack on anyone in particular! And it is meant in the most lighthearted of ways (though I'm only saying that cos I'm not premenstrual!)

Nonetheless, it's something we could all learn from. I honestly don't think guys understand enough, and since most guys say to me "I don't understand women, why do they have to be complex?" I just thought I'd give this particular subject a quick going over. Next time: Why women need to shop....

I'm Freeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!

2006-09-01T12:33:00.000+01:00

I've finished and handed in my coursework! Yippeeee! No more work for me for another, erm, month.... god this life is shite.

I also had a disciplinary hearing yesterday at work for something illegal I did at the weekend, but that's another story.

Aaaaaaaaaand, I finally got a locker key for work!! After being there for around 8 weeks now, they finally entrusted me with a sacred locker key. It was the happiest moment of my Asda career!!

So now I'm just down to my last four or five jobs that need doing. Then next week I'll be in York visiting the Lovely Lolly avec mes amis, and for two weeks after that I'll be back at Polesworth high doing all my crappy "observing" - it's going to be boring as hell I know already. And of course I get to face all the teachers who ever doubted me (anyone who knows me that well knows exactly who I'm talking about!!)

And so ends possibly the worst summer I've ever had. I hope you all enjoyed the two weeks of sunshine (and excrutiating heat) we had, cos it doesn't look like they'll be coming back now. From here onwards it looks like it's going to be rain, rain and more rain!! Hooray!!

Kim's Cheapass Studenty Hairdressing...thing..... I'll think of a better name, promise

2006-08-28T13:32:00.000+01:00

I've just discovered another possible career option for me. Due to me being still ridiculously poor, and due to my hair being very long and straight and just boring generally, I decided to get my old style back (the style I haven't had for the past two and a bit years after a severe accident with Edward Scissorhands) and cut it myself. I had planned to do this a few months back, in France, but chickened out every time. Well, I'd just like to say that I am a fantastic hairdresser. I look wonderful. Hurray!

So if you're in need of a trim or style and can't afford the £8 or whatever they charge at uni, call me, where I'll charge you the tidy sum of a JD and Coke and a tin of macaroni cheese, and leave you with hair worthy of a shampoo advert. I'll even throw in some friendly chat about the weather and your holidays, absolutely free!!!

Please note that I am also an experienced colourist, and have personally been using hair dyes for the past 11 years. I can style and colour your hair for the competitive sum of a bacon sandwich, a biro and a traffic cone.

Oh yes, typical student am I.

Same Old Ramble I'm Afraid. Complaints to the usual place.

2006-08-11T13:32:00.000+01:00

Believe it or not, I did actually post last week, but the site was being a big hairy homosexual and wouldn't put it up for some reason. Neither did it save it. Oh well.

I can't remember what it rambled on about, but I'm sure it wasn't that important. It was probably something along the lines of "Dave's gone to Devon, I've got the house to myself, I'm scared of being burgled but loving free use of stereo/computer/oven etc". But, Dave's back now, and things are all back to normal.

Dave has actually got more hours at work. Even though they've been telling him for the past year that his crappy saturdays are the only shifts available to him, the minute he handed his resignation in, suddenly hours were available for him. Lots of hours. Every day in fact. So that's a bit of a bonus on the financial front. Me, I'm still doing the same old stuff, only they've moved my tuesday night to a thursday morning, which is great for me. I get to work with Aaron n Cole that day, and they're both lovely and don't treat me like the new kid (mainly cos Aaron's new too, and Cole... well he's just lovely.) Both Cole and I were bemoaning the fact that even though we both have final year coming up, neither of us can afford to stop working at Asda, though we really need to. It's hard enough going back after a year off but with work and money sitches being an added pressure I can't see me working to my full potential - and it's kinda important this year!

I have had an idea for making a little extra money with little effort and it would prob only take me an hour, and I am seriously considering it. No, it's not prostitution (though not too far away, lol.....) I won't elaborate cos I'm not too sure about it, and some ppl would kinda think it weird... forget I mentioned it.

On the plus side again (this one just seems ot keep going up n down) Dave has got an assesment for a job at Toys R Us. Well, a thing to train him to be a manager anyway, or something like that. I really should concentrate more I guess. He's looking forward to that - he seems to think the job is mainly about playing with Lego. I wonder if such a job exists as a Lego tester, that'd suit him down to the ground. So he's got that to look forward to. Another thing we've got to look forward to is the Keele open day, which is next weekend. Only we've found out that it's not the right day for us. Oh well, we'll go look at the place and analyse the area (is it scummy like Brum? Is it full of KPs?? Are we likely to be robbed/killed/abducted if we live here? Y'know, the usual)

Seriously getting worried bout this whole teaching thing again though (sorry, negative point again...) I emailed the head of social sciences last week to ask about my experience, thinking my french placement would be more than sufficient, but better to be safe than sorry. Well, apparently my placement experience means bugger all. And I need to do ten days minimum at a school in an actual A-level social science class. So I did the most obvious thing - hit my old school's website to find their email addy. So I type out a nicely worded email to send off, and guess what - the email address doesn't work. Yeah, my old school's as organised as it always was when I was there... So I need to get on to them ASAP (which is hard considering they're not back at school til september) and I need them to give me a placement before october, when I'll be going back to uni. And I'll also have to convinve work that these ten days are going to be holiday well spent and useful. It's a tall order....

And of course that means no actual holiday for me this year. Not even a trip to the beach :( What a sad horrible life I have.

Gimme Fuel, Gimme Fire, Gimme that which I desire - OOOOH!!!

2006-07-27T21:19:00.000+01:00

Ok, so it's been a while. A long long while. But that just goes to show I've been busy, ok?!? Busier than I should be, considering it's the summer bloody holidays, but hey, why change the habit of my university lifetime?

Ever since first year I've said "I want to go away this summer, just go somewhere nice and get the hell away from Birmingham", but has it happened yet? No. And no, seven months in Paris does not count as a holiday, I was working there (sometimes)!

Quick re-cap of what's been going on then....

June 9th, 10th n 11th: DOWNLOAD!!! The closest thing to a holiday I've had this year, but to be honest, by the end of the weekend, I was slightly regretting it. Slightly. I did get to see Metallica and a large number of other bands I wanted to see, and I did see Axl Rose make a tit of himself, so it wasn't a total waste. It was just far far too hot, there was no cover, we were burned within hours of being there, camping was a disaster, the food was way too expensive, the toilets were, literally, shit, and all the usual crappy festival stuff. Musically, it rocked. Hurray!

June 29th (I think): Gemma's party chez elle. It was pretty good. We got a certain person beggin me and Gemma to wax his arse for him (no names of course...) and constantly going on about the male G-spot (he knows too much about the inside of a man's arse) and we had a few drinkng games, put the world tro rights, etc etc, all the usual.

July 1st: Woohoo!! My 21st birthday!! We also moved into our new house this day, only to find it was still be occupied - by not one, but two colonies of ants. Not good since we were putting food out and stuff, but we negotiated that if they came near our food, we would squish them with all the force we could muster, to which they kindly agreed to stay away for a while. Oh yeah, it was also the day that England got bummed out of the world cup, whether it was by Ronaldo or Rooney or the ref or Sven or God - I dont give a toss really. Point is, all our housemates plus Rob, Sandy, Ed, Jules, Mez and Tinsley came round and watched it and it was pants. So we cheered ourselves up with mass alcohol drinkage and Ring of Fire. The guy that invented that game is/was a genius. We headed off to Eddies (my first time in almost a year) and it was rocking and it was good. t was nice to see everyone again too, since I'd be too poor from this day on to see any of them.....

July up until now: Well, I was poor as fuck. So I was looking for a job. I got an interview for waterstones but they said no. And then I had to do a crappy interview for Asda, which I wasnt too fond of and didnt really want the job, so I pissed around in the group selection - but they still gave me a job. And as none of the other dozen or so jobs I applied for even sent me a "Thanks, but no thanks" letter, I had little choice but to settle.
The pay's pretty good, they've given me enough hours to keep me busy, and of course there's the incentive that after 12 weeks, they'll give me a nice shiny card that says "GIVE ME FREE STUFF!!!" - or at least, "Knock a tenner off that £100 shopping bill". I can see I'll be popular during food shopping trips this year....
They've put me on fruit and veg (or "Produce" as it's officially called) and I can honestly say it's the hardest job I've ever had. Even shovelling dog poo at the kennels when I was 14 wasn't this hard. And 2 weeksd into my new job I'm now screaming out for a day off, just to catch up on sleep and let my aching muscles relax. That is one good thing though - by the time I leave, I'll have a washboard stomach and muscles like Hercules.... well maybe not but we'll see.

What else...well Dave's still unemployed (I don't count Smiths as work because a) it's crap money, b) he only does 8 hours a week and c) he only turns up once a month) He's hoping to get a job that's going at my dad's place, but he hasnt heard anything back yet. It's only been three days though I guess... On a plus note there though, he has decided what he wants to do with his life. He wants to become a maths teacher. Yes, a maths teacher. The bane of most young people's lives. I think he'd be good at it though, he'd be one of those cool teachers who makes maths "fun". If that's possible. Ah, Mr Rose!! I was trying to explain to Dave one maths teacher at our school who was actually nice and made maths make sense to me for a year - so if anyone from Polesworth remembers Mr Rose.... there you go, that's what Dave'll be like.

Oh, forgot as well that it was Ross' birthday this weekend just gone, so another party and all that. It was the usual - just the housemates and Gem n Dan this time; mass drinking; Dave making a cocktail and adding chilli, then offering it to our chavvy next door neighbours; said neighbours then throwing fruit at us (why we do not know); Going off to Subculture; it being shite then great then shite and then great - just all over the place really. They did play Fuel though - woo! followed by some Emo shite. Now! I had this argument with Mez the other day that I agreed not to call people emo cos... well I can't remember why, seems silly now I suppose. But it's undisputable that emo music is a big steaming pile of milky-white wank. Apologies, but fuck you (no, not you Mez...) It sucks. Anyway, had a laugh, got drunk, had to go to work at 9a.m. next day... s'all good.

So that brings us up to now. Dave is pissing off to Devon next week with the lads while i get stuck up here in the shitty hot weather, working my ass off for some money to go somewhere myself. If I ever have the time of course. What a shit summer this is turning out to be.

I went to the bank the other day to find out exactly how much of my overdraft I have left (yes that's right - what's left of my overdraft). The woman at the till said "Two sixty two." And it wasn't til i got outside that I promptly bricked myself that she meant £2.62 and not £262 like I thought. Thankfully I went back to the bank next day to check again and I was right. So big thank you to the lady at the bank who gave me the biggest scare of the past two weeks. And also for telling me the cheque I finally recieved from France (where they charged me a fortune to clean my flat after I left, even though I already cleaned it, theiving bastards!) would take 4 WEEKS to move into my account. What the fuck do they needs four bloody weeks to do?? Cretins, the lot of 'em.

And so ends another installment of my life snippets. I hope you've enjoyed it as much as I have (haha). Goodnight everybody.

A Major Vent

2006-05-17T20:08:00.000+01:00

I've tried to stay calm, I really have, but any minute now I'm just going to....... ooh here it comes.....

AAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I am going crazy. I am literally on the verge of breaking something just to, I don't know, make a point. Or maybe just so I can fix it - I sewed a hole in my trousers a couple of days ago and today I was so bored and fed up I decided to fix the necklace I'd chewed through and sew a hole in a nightdress of mine. Obviously I didn't exactly break them purposefully but you can see now how bored I was. And am.

It's at times like this that I wish I was drunk. Maybe at least then the boredom would be funny. And I could make my own entertainment - how do people manage to do that when they get drunk? I spose you need friends to do that. Well, my friends are out of reach. None of my closest friends are in Birmingham. In a way it's not a bad thing, cos I can leave this shit hole (which we'll discuss later) and go and visit them. Unfortunately I need money for that.

I desperately need a job, for money, for something to do, to relieve the boredom. To feel like something again! It sounds stupid but this is the first time since I was 16 (no, before that!) that I've actually been unemployed - and I'm just at a loss of what to do with myself. More than this, me and Dave are both poor and we have no food in the house, so we've gotta do something.... shit, have only just thought of that. Anyway, sans job I feel kinda... worthless, like a social reject. I really really need a job, otherwise I'm just going to sit here all summer, with no money to do anything, eating crap and getting fat and feeling sorry for myself.

Next on my whinging agenda - oh and by the way, I am looking for jobs, I've given out a fair few cvs now and I'm awaiting replies, so it's not like I'm mooching about whinging with no good reason - yes, next. I'm stuck in Birmingham. And that depresses me so fucking much. I used to laugh at Alex's blog when he would complain regularly about how crap Brum is, but I'm not laughing anymore, cos it's not bloody funny. I look out the window and I get depressed. Whenever I see a bus that's leading out of Brum I have an overwhelming urge to either throw myself under it or run after it and get it to stop (of course, it would prob stop if I threw myself under it). I think I've just come to realise that being a big city does not give it the excuse to just be one giant trash heap. London isn't that bad, neither is Paris - it's just Birmingham. It's so grey and overpopulated and full of complete idiots. I've got to get away from here. The sooner the better.

Ugh, coursework! Can you believe, I leave the uni for a year and the coursework still comes up and bites me on the arse. A little like tuition fees in that respect. I can't do it, it just requires so much work and arsed-ness that I'm just lacking in unfortunately. And the subject is boring. I had a meeting the other day and the lecturer asked if I'd given any consideration to a final year project! Like, hello?? I'm struggling with the one I've got thanks! And I also saw the head of MFL and had a long chat with her about France etc. She said she'd give me a reference for my PGCE and I should get on easily enough. But don't get me started on the future else I'll be here all night!

OK. Now I've vented on about half of the shit I'm bottling up; the rest is reserved for Gemma tomorrow (lucky old her). And we've made plans to actually do something this summer, which might involve her going wherever I'm going the end of June (if I go anywhere) Life, it seems, does indeed go on, no matter how much I bitch about it.

Yes, I am alive, and Yes, I am in the right country now...

2006-05-09T14:27:00.000+01:00

I'm baaack!!

Not that anyone really knows yet, I was supposed to tell some people so we could arrange get togethers and so on, but I haven't been bothered. Even my own mother was unsure which country I was in last time she called ("Where are ya?" "Err...Dave's." *sounds shocked* "Oh!") It's kinda fun in a way I suppose, I'm sort of invisible, I'm not in France but I'm not in England as far as anyone knows either. Ooh, I'm missing.
Suppose I'm not now though, if people end up reading this. OK, game's up, I'm hiding out at Dave's, so now you know.

Quick recap of the past couple of weeks then. I'd go into detail about Dave coming over but to be honest his blog on it is going to be miles bigger than mine, so just read his if you're interested. My last day at school was... disappointing I suppose. As I mentioned in my last blog, the vast majority of my kids were in exams, so I only had one class the last day. They were my best class though, and we had food and stuff n I got a couple of email addresses. I cried when the lesson finished (not in front of the kids though), and then cried when I got home, recieved bugger all sympathy from Dave. I then had to go back to school to collect some forms and hand my keys in. So I went to the deputy head.
"So, err, who do I give my keys to?"
"Oh, erm, I'll take them, but, erm, why?"
"...Pardon?"
"Your keys..."
"I'm leaving today, in fact, I'm leaving right now, this second...."
"Oh, no, I didn't know that, it's today..? Oh, well, thanks for all your work here....bye!"
Dunno why I bother.

Had a nice couple of days in France before we left, the weather suddenly got scorchingly hot so we took a few nice days out. The best day was when Dave and I met up with Tom and Juliette and had a picnic. It was a gorgeous place and the weather was brilliant (needless to say, my transparent skin was burned in minutes) Took some lovely photos there too. Then we went for a meal in St Michel, since it was my last time, and we sat outside. It was just.... lovely. It's what summer in Paris is all about I suppose - and I'm not going to be there for the main bit of summer. Boo!
Then after that I had to say goodbye to Tom n Jules. That was hard. I'm so useless at goodbyes, I never know what to say. So it was just big hugs and all the usual stuff, then we went our seperate ways. I at least had the dignity to wait til we turned the corner before I cried, though that was difficult. Which reminds me, I was supposed to email her at some point....

Next day I cleared out my room and we headed off to the airport. Our bags were unbearably heavy, and the weather that the day before had been so welcoming and fun, was now sweltering and sticky. We got to the airport, were told we might not be able to get on our flight due to it being overbooked (how can they let that happen?? Are they frickin stupid or what?) So we had to wait around in case there were any spare seats. I was fine about it, surprisingly, but Dave snapped at me a few times, and then had to apologise. Dunno where it became my fault, but that's men and moods for you. Eventually, we got on the plane, had a seat and everything, and got in to London. Missed our train. Snuck onto the next one, ticket-man didn't even check the time on our tickets. Eventualy got home at.... I don't remember. It was late, that's all.

So the next few days were spent sleeping off all that, recovering our achey backs and shoulders. And that's when I got ill. Obviously all the stress caught up with me and I was knocked out with cold and a bit of a cough. And general tiredness. So over this past weekend I've stayed as near to the bed as possible, with hot drinks and a bog roll up each nostril, munching on sudofeds.

Dave has abandoned me. OK, so he bought me Sims 2 as a kinda "welcome home" pressie, and he did take me shopping and bought me some clothes and a nice pair of shoes that even he liked, and he didn't complain once when I was snotting and sneezing all over him (I'm all better now by the way) But now he's upped and left me. He's got loads of exams this week and next week so he's been collaborating with his CS buddies and "revising" - which means, playing Pro Evo, eating take-away, watching Top Gear... pretty much anything except revision. And today he's gone with Alex to London to see QI being filmed I think. Before anyone asks, no I didn't want to go. I try to avoid London as much as possible.

Soooo I've been doing nothing but play Sims 2. I am a sad losery person, but I love love LOVE this game!! And I know I'm not alone, Laura's just as sad!! Maybe we should get together and form a Sad Losery Sim club or something. We could have matching t-shirts. And Dave's just as addicted, he's just a bit too busy for it at the moment. Inside though, he's thinking of names for our sims' kids and is picking out furniture (yep, he's made sims of me and him). Maybe any other sad losery sim addicts could leave me a comment, just so we know we're definately not alone....

I was going to end this blog with a complaint about a crappy book I just finished reading, but I can't be arsed. This is already too long and I'm getting Sims withdrawal symptoms *shakes*

Tata for now.

Haaaallelujah!!!

2006-04-26T11:31:00.000+01:00

One of my classes turned up!!! I couldn't possibly be more happy! The world is a better place to be in! Everything's groovy!

Nah, just kidding. Well, a class did turn up, prompted by Gwen, but it didnt make me feel much better. Especially as I found out afterwards that I'm only going to have one class on friday due to the rest being in exams. Luckily, it's my best class and the only class I wanted to say goodbye to properly. Ugh, just remembered I still have another class later, who have been confirmed to turn up. Bugger, I was kinda hoping they wouldn't.

So last night.... well it's less kind of last night and more yesterday afternoon, last night, early this morning, this morning, now. I have slept for about an hour. Stupidly, I decided it would be a groovy idea to stay at Juliette's and do an allnighter. I also decided it would be a good idea to have a few shots of whatever it was that the Hungarian was offering around. God knows what it was, but it burned like hell. And no, of course I didn't learn my lesson after the first shot. I had to have another just to be sure. So at around 2am this morning, after making completely sure we'd missed the last metro, Ed n I snuggled up with Juliette in her mega sized bed. I'm not sure if I slept or not. All I remember is having "Dead in Hollywood" stuck in my head. And I also remember Juliette waking up with cramp and scaring the crap out of us. And then elbowing me in the head. I vaguely remember getting up this morning (at 5.15am), attempting to stand up and then falling back down on top of Jules, who didn't even wake up. And steering Ed in the right direction of the metro (for a guy, his sense of direction sucks big time!!) I got home at around the time I'd normally be getting up to go to school. So I drank lots of nice sweet tea, drowned myself trying to get rid of last night's make up, and made my way to school. Just for the ignorant feckheads to not turn up.

Oh yeah, last night (this morning I mean!) was the last time I saw Ed, as he's leaving on friday and I'm not going to see him before then. It wasn't as sad as I thought it would be, he did crush me though cos he forgot which stop he was getting off at and I had to virtually push him off the train while he was hugging me. But it's all good. I'm sure I'll see him sometime in the future. He's invited me to go and see the Foo Fighters in Hyde park, but I'm not sure. It's £40 a ticket which is a lot considering Download is around the same time so I'll be saving for that. we'll have to see though.

Nothing else going on, except for some reason I seem to be two hours ahead of myself. I came into the staffroom, looked at the clock in the main room, the smoking room and the one on the computer and thought "Hmm, wonder why all the clocks here are two hours slow?" God knows. As far as I'm concerned, it's 4pm now and I should be at home in bed. Saying that, for as little sleep as I've had, I'm not that tired. Weird.

As ever, relieve my boredom and leave me a comment!!! My life is so sad that it currently revolves around people communicating with me in this way!

The End is Nigh!!!!

2006-04-25T13:20:00.000+01:00

I should have expected this really I suppose!! I've been in school for all of my classes so far today and neither of them have shown up yet. Ok, the older ones have an excuse - they're doing exams, that no one decided to tell me about, but the younger ones?? To be honest though, I think I was probably so horrible to them in the end, they probably decided not to bother any more. Or they think I've already gone home. Despite me explaining to them repeatedly that I would have one pointless week after the easter holiday. I hope at least some of my classes turn up this week else it will have been the most pointless week of my life!

I guess that's not entirely true. It's Juliette's birthday tomorrow, so we're celebrating tonight at hers; which as ever should be a lot of fun, especially if the Hungarian Lion King is there! Also Ed n I are going to the Musée D'Orsay one last time (or Ed's first time I should say) so I can say bye to Monet. Then Dave's coming on thursday, so we can have what might be our only kind of holiday this year. And then after friday I can just do whatever the hell I like in Paris, we can go shopping, visit some places I haven't been yet (not that I can think of anywhere) or just chill out and enjoy the pretty nice weather we're having at the moment. And of course, take a lot of photos, since I left my last lot on the bus and currently have no Paris photos at all.

My room is so lonely now that the vast majority of my stuff has gone home. In a way it feels a bit like a mental hospital - the walls, that used to be covered in posters, are now just white, medical white, glowing and headache-inducing. It's silent, maddeningly so, because my laptop's gone home and my iPod box thing that's supposed to let me play my iPod is on the blink (bloody typical). The only sound I can hear is the slamming of other people's doors and the dripping of the rain. Not that it's raining today. So in my cell I kinda sit. Alone. And stare at the walls. And rock back and forth.

Can you see now why I'm willing my kids to come to classes??

Other than this, I'm a bit of a mess, physically. I had my first "girly problem" for what seems like a couple of months (though I realise of course, that it must have happened once in the last month, otherwise...) and for some reason it hit me really hard. I've had stomach aches for the last 3 days, my skin feels like sandpaper, my whole body aches, and psychologically, all I want to do is shop, eat chocolate and sleep, in that order. In between having tantrums, and being as serene as a leaf floating on the wind. For the first time in a long, long, looooong time, I have PMT!!! I'm also suffering from spasmodic short-term memory loss. And all my nails are broken and I need a haircut and colour BADLY. Not having the best of weeks so far unfortunately.

Hmm I've just been asked if I'm on the internet, and the guy says I'm lucky, which means there is no more internet on any of the others, which means it might be dead here too.... Better check it out. And hope that my next class turn up. Later folks!!

P.S. Please leave me a comment, because if my kids don't turn up, I end up in the staff room on the internet, and really want something to read!!! This is why I blogged again today instead of leaving it a wee while!!! Please help the sanity of those less fortunate than yourselves. Thank you.

Guess where I am...?

2006-04-24T23:03:00.000+01:00

This could become something rather cool actually - where is the most obscure place you can blog from? teehee.

Anyway, I'm at heathrow airport, I've got 5minutes left to write something constructive (actually, scrap that, I'm going to give it some more money) Ok, now I have 9 minutes to tell you all about my crappy day so far!

As you all might or might not know, I'm on my merry way back to Ghey Pareee to finish up my school placement thingymajigga. Left Dave's at 11am this morning (which was way too early I feel - I'd had a really nice sleep last night and didnt want to wake up), got a scratty train to Watford (which, I was unaware at the time, is a bit of a shithole), got a smelly bus to Heathrow terminal 1, which got me here too early, so I checked in, went shopping and now I'm bored. I was hoping they'd have messenger, but alas it's not to be.

Last time I was here, it was really nice and easy to get around and I got here just in time to have a nice cuppa tea and a sit down before my flight turned up. Well this time I was 2 and a half hours early. Which gave me plenty of time to get lost around the place, and get royally hot n bothered and annoyed. I love travelling but I hate all this waiting around and horrible Americans and all the usual. Oh, and those people who are just starting off on a trip round the world. There's a woman on the next computer who has just had a phonecall, and she told the person as loudly as possible that she's on her way to LA, where she'll cross the country for a few weeks, before she jets off to Oz, and then to India some time in July. And doesnt she look smug about it. I'd give anything to be going somewhere else...

Oooh, 2 minutes left. So anyway, my day so far has been hot, frustrating, tiresome, annoying, frustrating again.... just ugh in general. But this is the last time!!! I dont have to do this again unless I really want to, which will be a pleasure instead of a chore!!! Hurray.

dave coming thursdasy, yyyaaayyyyy!!!!

A Boring Life in a Boring Town, with the same old crowd (whoooooaaa)

2006-04-22T15:39:00.000+01:00

Ooh, it's been a couple of weeks now, so I must have some really interesting stuff to write about, right?
Err... no. Sorry.
But that's the beauty of being home from my placement. From now until october (well, alright, from the beginning of may, til october) I'm free to do absolutely anything I like in the whole wide world. And if what I want to do is stay in bed most of the day and then get up and do feck all, that's what I'll do, dammit!!

So it all started about the 5th april, when I last wrote in fact. We left chez moi quite early and ended up getting to the ferry quite early, which was nice as it was sunny and nice n warm so we had a quick wander about (though there was nothing there really, except for loads of scratty chav kids with awful southern accents, they were ghastly, really they were) On the way to the ferry I fell asleep numerous times in the car, very unlike me, but then Dave and his mum weren't speaking to each other, so I got bored pretty quickly. Arrived in Basingstoke around 10 I think, but I was so knackered I could hardly open my eyes. Next day was thursday, so Dave and I trundled off to brummiegum, ready for the Less Than Jake gig (which you can read about on Dave's site so I don't have to bother writing about it). Next day was friday, and Dave and I did nothing all day except sleep (first lie-in for me in almost 2 weeks!) Saturday Dave was at work so I did his washing for him and made him some food for when he came home. Sunday saw my parental and siblingly unit, since it was the sibling's birthday. Bought him some clothes that he asked for - just to find out that his sense of style has changed and nowadays he's wearing bright yellow and stuff with huge chavvy logos on it. Sound a bit gay to you? Yeah, me too.
Monday I went back to good ol' Tamworth for lunchies in Spoons with Lolly. It were great, especially cos she gave me allll the gossip I've been missing out on, some of it highly shocking and so on. Did the usual, drinking doubles, spilling our guts, putting the world to rights (we're so good at it, we should rule the world, honestly!) Tuesday did nothing again. Considered doing some of my coursework, thought better of it. Wednesday I was off to Tamworth again, to go shopping with my mother in Nuneaton - henceforth to be known as Emo central - and bought myself some lovely things. Stayed at mummy's weds night, thursday printed off some half-arsed information for my project, until Dave came at 5 and we had fish n chips. Friday nothing. Saturday I went on a hunt for all Dave's cutlery and shit in the kitchen, as other people have nicked some of his stuff, fixed the handle on one of the kitchen cupboards, and then used that cupboard to create more room for Dave's (and my) stuff. Whilst doing this, I also did loads of washing up, put two loads of washing on, and cooked a spectacular meal (well, it was sausage n bean casserole - but Dave asked me to make it again the other day so it must have been good!) Am I wonderwoman or what? If anyone else's girlfriend is as good as me I want to know! I'm sure I do more than I should do without being married!!

Sunday, feck all. Monday, errmmm... Tuesday, decided that as I was having a meeting with my project superviser on wednesday, I really should do some work to actually show her. Bear in mind, I've had 6 months to do something, and up until this point had done precisely zero. I wrote out the skeleton of my methodology, and invented a questionnaire I was supposed to give my kids. Wednesday, bricked it about the meeting somewhat, since I had all of 3 pages to show. Got to the meeting, all's well n good, lasted about half hour. Then Dave n I went round town handing out a couple of my cvs. Out of the 15 I printed off, I now have 13 left. Nobody is taking on staff at the moment, apart from Lego shop and Debenhams, both of which are fine to me! I have to send one to waterstones to beg for a job, said the snooty woman behind the desk, so I might well do that too. Then we went to Asda so I could buy the kids some english sweeties, and so Dave could go round all the old easter eggs that are now being sold off for 20p (picked up a few bargains, I tell thee). Thursday, started reading "Memoirs of a Geisha", friday, carried on reading, today, finished Geisha this morning, put some washing on, avoided Dave's housemates, who seem to be pissed off I nicked a cupboard, even though it was only used for junk, tried to play sims but it kept dying on me, which brings me up to right this second. No idea what I'm going to do this afternoon; perhaps pack my bag for the trip back to france, make some plans n stuff.
Or, I could try and play sims again. Hmm, guess which one I'm leaning towards.

Going home....

2006-04-05T09:25:00.000+01:00

Hooray!! I'll be on my way home in less than 4 hours, even though it means driving for three hours in France en route to Calais. I can't wait!!!

It's been a little bit distressing though, having to pack up all my stuff. More so because Dave has been here for most of my packing time, and has been nagging me to pack, while he sits on his arse doing feck all but arguing with his mum. But the most distressing thing is that my room is now empty - absolutley, obliteratingly empty, and empty means lonely. Sounds silly but I'll miss my gorgeously big room with no one to share it with and all my own space.

Saying that though, Dave managed to break my shower the day he arrived, so it's probably best I leave before the flatmate starts nagging me.

Dave and I went for a meal last night, it was really nice, we went to a buffalo grill, which apparently you can't get in the UK, despite me thinking I've seen them somewhere before. Anyway, as we were waiting for our food (and me feeling smug for doing everything in French and Dave being proud of me for it, lol), Dave decided to look on the back of the placemat/menu sheet at the quiz and pictures put there for little kids. He wanted to see how much of it he could understand, so as we were both staring at it intently, trying to decipher a difficult lookin code, the waiter comes up with a packet of mini coloured pencils for us each so we can fill it in. Bless him, he must have known we were english.

We had a fairly nice weekend too. Dave and I went half way up the Eiffel tower, before getting bored of the queues and coming back down. We bought some nice souveniry things, I bought my mum a box of Lindt chocs in the shape of the Eiffel tower (a belated mother's day present, since my brother was useless and forgot to buy her the present we were giving her jointly), and also bought some pics and a poster for my new room, when I move in (another thing I'm looking forward to) We went back to the Sacre Coeur, was less harrassed than last time. Took some photos that were really nice as the sun was just going down. We were going to get a portrait of us drawn at the artist's square, but we were both a bit low on cash, and they were asking for 50euros each! So we said nah.

What else? Went to the Louvre, finally got to go on a bateau mouche (well actually it was a bateaubus, not quite the same, but oh well), walked through Tuileries again, possibly my fave part of Paris on nice days now, erm... ate lots of stuff. That's about it. Obviously didn't do the chicha and the shopping like the week before, but it was still good. Did however go to Clignancourt market with Dave, his mum, and Juliette, and saw some mini-chichas for about 20euros.... Interesting. But reasonably, how would I get it home???

Still have to buy my brother a birthday present before this weekend, Less than Jake gig tomorrow, much fun over the holidays.

Fridays - Ugh!

2006-03-31T11:35:00.000+01:00

I just had the most amazing class with one of my faves, Seconde A, because they're lovely and adorable. I did the class on dreams - even though I'd only sort of organised it five minutes before class. So I made it all up as I was going along. It went really well though, we talked about strange dreams we've had and we nominated a "doctor" to analyse the dreams. I even told them some of my own, even the one where I envisaged France as a stinking, mouldy ship, and England as an exotic desert island. I explained I was unhappy at the time and I do like France really. As ever they amazed me with their range of vocab and I left the lesson feeling happy, contented and reminding myself that it's lessons like this that make being a teacher worthwhile.

However, I have seconde C next, the lowest class in the school, something like 17 of them, they all hate me, they never listen to me. Actually they don't hate me, they just don't want to work for me. I can't think of a single thing we could do that they would cooperate with or remotely enjoy. I'm hoping they'll take a hint from last week and not turn up. Though I need them to turn up so I can tell them not to turn up next week!!

Dave and his mum arrive today, hurray!! A few problems going on though; firstly I haven't tidied my room, secondly I haven't started packing, thirdly, I haven't planned this weekend very well. Fourthly, I haven't exactly arranged for anywhere for the mother in law to stay, I asked the landfolks yesterday but they said they'd have to find out. So I need to leave after next lesson to find out. I also haven't rented a parking space yet, but that shouldn't be hard. I have had no time to myself since last thursday!! I'm so busy it's unfair. I still haven't done my CV, and I had an email today saying I need to have handed in a third of my coursework by May 31st (this is the coursework I've barely glanced at yet) All in all, life's a bit shitty. At least the sun's out though, though it's still a bit chilly. Just can't wait for Easter!!

Oh, and it's also my brother's birthday next week and I haven't got him anything. And I'm dying to go shopping for myself, I need shoes!!!! I've decided too that I'm going to play a game with 2C cos I can't be arsed to think of anything else for them.

Ah yeah, and I watched Fawlty Towers with my premiere S - they didn't get it. Actually, no, I think they got it, but they didn't find it funny. They were like laughing too loud, being sarcastic, and just chatting all the way through. I tried though, I really did! The only bit they laughed at was Basil's impression of Hitler. They totally missed out on the one-liners, and they didn't laugh at the moose bit. Damn them. It made me feel silly cos I thought it was hilarious, and I hoped they didn't think all English comedy is like that - but then why shouldn't it be?? It's great! They have no sense of humour...

I hate fridays.

"I speak Eengleesh, I learn it from a book"

2006-03-29T11:49:00.000+01:00

I just thought I'd get some stuff written down now before I get way to busy, and eventually sod off home for easter. Dave and his mum arrive in about 2 days and I haven't even considered packing yet. I just look at all my stuff and go "nah". I can't decide what I'm going to need in the final week, so packing stuff is just not useful. However if I don't make a start now I won't have time before I leave. Especially as I've been given an extra class the end of next weds, and we were supposed to be making our way home then.... Oh well. Shouldn't set us back by much.

I'm about to go into my 1S class with Fawlty Towers. I have no idea how it's going to go down. Personally I love it, and there are subtitles so they should be able to understand it. But French humour is... a different animal altogether. My biggest fear is that I'm going to laugh so hard I cry (like I did when I watched it yesterday) and they're just going to sit there straightfaced and not get it at all. And think I'm rather silly. It's the episode about the Germans, so hopefully we can all have a laugh at their expense. It's the classic one too where Basil's supposed to be putting the moose's head up, and at one point he leaves Manuel cleaning the desk, and he's hidden behind the moose head and starts talking to the major "Hhello, hhow are you today? I speak Eenglish, I learn it from a book" I nearly wet myself.

I realy hope they get it! Anyway, I'm thinking I'll prob get round to writing another entry before I go home so all in all - ths was pointless. Oh well!!!!

"It's all about the bollocks, innit?"

2006-03-27T14:23:00.000+01:00

So Laura and her friend came to stay this weekend, and I swear I have never had a better time over here, we had an incredible time. It had seemed somewhat unlikely at the beginning as we basically wanted to do the whole of Paris in three days, but we managed it alright!!
They arrived on friday, making my decision to skip most of school that day easy. Met up with them in the afternoon, it pissed it down, a little bit frustrating at the time as it had been sunny up until then. Still, we went out in the eve, met Ed n Jules for a meal in St Michel (where else?) and then onto The Gentleman, a nice Irish/English themed pub that has happy hour between 2pm and 10pm. Awesome! Met a few of my other folks, James (mutton chops from now on), Emma and a couple of others I don't know so well. Had a nice night. Laura snogged a French bloke (I expected no less from her, lol) and we decided then that it was time to leave. Unfortunately we'd left it slightly too late. And when we arrived at St Michel metro station, I, in my semi-drunken state, didn't recognise it much and I have to admit, I took a wild guess at which train we should get. And when a double decker train turned up I still didnt think any different of it. It wasn't til we got on and these two blokes with a bottle of champagne started chatting us up that we realised we were very wrong with our choice. We ended up at Gare Austerlitz, and there were no trains back. However, we were still laughing, even when we raced out of the station to grab the nearest taxi. The taxi driver was rubbish, and unlike usual French drivers, decided to stop at every red light, and we eventually got to Chatelet at 1am, raced across the station, which is huge ("LEFT!" "RIGHT!") and had missed our train by 15mins.
"Bollocks."
Luckily there was still a train going in kind of the right direction, so we got that one as far as Nanterre, and when we left there we found another train to Rueil Malmaison (four or five stops from St Germain, my place) and we thought if it stops there, it must have to carry on afterwards to St Germain, the terminus. We realised we were wrong again when they kicked us out and pulled the shutters down. So there we were, nearly 2am now, stranded in Rueil Malmaison.
"Bugger."
After waiting about 45mins, we eventually got a taxi back to St Germain. And then had to walk home. I forgot to mention that when we were at Austerlitz, Claire decided she needed a wee, and still did by the time we were walking home. She pissed on Paris.
Next day we went shopping, I spent money (but I have made my summer, if we ever have one!!) and then it pissed it down again so we went to Notre Dame to shelter and take some photos and discuss religion and all that (why do they need such huge decorative churches if they're not supposed to worship false idols and material possessions eh???) And then we chciha'd and had a quite early night, because the next day we were doing a lot of stuff.
Yesterday we started at st Germain market, then went to Arc de Triomphe, where we stared at the naked statues and as always pondered the significance of them having small penises but huge testicles (hence the "It's all about the bollocks") Then we marched down the Champs Elysees, did Sephora and Disney shop, and then took to metro to Louvre, did some photos of the pyramids and all that and then went for a glorious walk in the Tuileries, because now it was gorgeouly sunny and warm (and typically we'd all got big coats, gloves, scarves, brollys...) We sat for a while by a nice fountain, and then decided to jump all over some of the various statues dotted around for photos.
Next up we crossed to river to Musee D'Orsay, more photos, and then walked towards Invalides and got on another metro. And on to the Eiffel Tower! We bought tickets to just walk up the whole way (after Laura's comment that "it's not as big as I thought it would be") We walked as far as the third floor and luckily they wouldnt let people walk any further and we had to get the lift. Shame! My legs are aching today though I tell thee. As ever, amazing view from up there, and it was nice too to be able to just name stuff as I see it rather than look at the toursity board things (after all, I am no tourist!) Couldn't see chez moi though, which was a pity.
We spent about four hours going up and down there, and then decided to jump back on the metro as Lolly and Claire wanted to see the Moulin Rouge. I warned them that, of course, it is in the middle of the red light district, so prepare to be shocked, so when we arrived at Pigalle I imagined they would be ok. Wrong! Got out of the station and it's like "SEX SEX SEX" everywhere you look. The subtelest shop I saw was called "Supermarche Erotique" which I thought was quite cool actually. But the other two actually looked petrified the whole time we were there. Found the Moulin Rouge, took a few photos (though they refused to do can-can like poses!) and then shiftied up the road, trying not to look at any shops, til we got to Montmartre and the Sacre Couer. By now the weather was lovely, if a little bit sticky, so we decided to chill out at the bottom of the hill. I had just finished warning Laura about the men there who offer to make you string bracelets and then charge you 15euros for them (no doubt some stupid american would pay that and so they think any stupid toursit will) when we sat on a bench, and a guy came and sat next to me, and was like "Where you from? Give me your hand, I make you bracelet..." He'd got no further than that when I jumped up.
"NO! NO! Definately NOT! FUCK OFF!!!"
(Alright! I over-reacted slightly!!)
I grabbed Laura's wrist and we just ran up the hill giggling like mad. Well, that's one way to get up the hill quickly! So we sat back down, feeling we were a safe distance from the bracelet guys, when we were chatted up again by two other guys. Uurggghhhhh!!! I actually got into an argument with one of them, which ended up with him shouting "Suck maaii deeeeeck" at me, and me asking if he actually even has one. The other guy just came and stood in front of us staring and saying hello every so often. So off we went again. Eventually we had a very nice time looking at the sacre couer and going round the artists square, and had the traditional crepe (and got chatted up by the seller, though he obv didnt think we were "beyuteeefool" enough to give us free crepes) And that was it! We'd actually done everything we wanted to do in Paris. It was great. An amazing weekend was had by all. And I've got it all to look forward to again next weekend when Dave and his mom come over.
Though obviously we'll give the red light district a miss this time! And I'll try not to argue with any French guys. And I'll try not to eat as many crepes. And I don't think we'll be going for a chicha....

Happy Birthday Dear Bloo-oog....

2006-03-21T13:57:00.000Z

Oh yeah, and I've just noticed that my blog has been "alive" (though on and off) for a year and one day. Happy Birthday Bloggy!!

I've also noticed that I've done something to fuck up my front page though God knows what or how!!!! Grrr bloddy computers!!!!!!!

Computers - They're stupid anyway, but FRENCH computers....

2006-03-21T13:22:00.000Z

Gah! I wish I wasn't so damned computer illiterate. But then that's the whole point of me going out with someone who is computer literate - it means I don't have to be. But of course, he's over there, and I'm over here and... what's a girl to do?

Leave it until she sees said literate person, that's what.

I wanted to add some links to this site, but I haven't the foggiest clue how to go about it. (All my CS friends are prob now going "is that it? What a loser" but you forget easily, I'm illiterate on computers!) And to make matters worse, whenever I connect to blogger over here, it gives me all instructions in French. As if it's not hard enough that on a french keyboard, most of the letters are in the wrong place. Now my French is good (well, better than it was) and I'm thinking I can understand what it's yakking at me about but to be honest - I haven't a clue. I can see the words but the meaning escapes me. It says do this that and the other, and then shows me a page full of script that could well be in Urdu for all I understand of it. It does tell me I have to do some typing on this script somewhere. Less usefully, it doesn't tell me where exactly, and it doesn't tell me where I can find this magical page of script. I realise here of course I might be unjustly blaming the french for my own stupidity, but then it's worked for the past 6 months, why should I stop now? Any advice on how to work a computer will be gratefully recieved...

Exciting things happening today at my school! As I arrived bright and early at 8am this morn, I noticed a load of lads standing outside and not letting the kids with bikes through the gates, but thought nothing of it. Went and had a play on the computer, look out the window and about a third of the whole school are standing outside, blockading the school gates (now, French people blockading and going on strike?? God Lord, it's virtually unheard of!) It's all to do with some law the ever-ridiculous government is trying to push - something about giving kids who leave school a job to keep unemployment down, however in this job they end up with no rights and can't join unions etc etc and after 2 years the employer can fire them without warning, because the kid was only there as part of the scheme or something. I don't really get it and I might have got it wrong, but that's how it sounds to me. So kids all over Paris (and I assume France generally) have been doing demos and stuff. And our kids chose today, outside the school. They made a poor choice - last week we had glorious sunshine and nice hot weather, and today? Pissing it down and there's some heavy freezing cold fog going on, haha. But they were getting pretty violent before lunch, and when I went home I hoped that by the afternoon there might have been enough damage to close the school or something, maybe a couple of small bonfires, some windows smashed, something like that. But alas it wasn't to be. After lunch, they must have decided it was boring and too cold, and that lessons were infinately better than freezing to death. Knowing my kids though, it's more likely they just ran out of fags.
And of course, I condone violence as part of the protesting, it's supposed to be peaceful and just standing up to the government (not that they listen of course) - but this is my school we're talking about, non-violence is not an option. Just ask some of the litter-bins they kicked over outside the school. The mean buggers!

I gotta love my kids though, they love to think they're the dogs bollocks. They seem to forget that teachers were young once and know pretty much everything that they're thinking, having experienced it themselves. They also seem to forget that I'm only 4 years older than some of them! They really do make me feel ancient sometimes!

I only have 58 more years to live, aarrrggghhh!!!

2006-03-17T13:29:00.000Z

I have just found out that apparently, I'm going to die on Friday, 12th September, 2064. And worryingly I've done it a couple of times and it still comes up with the same answer. I don't know why but for soem reason Sept 12th is a significant date for me, I don't know why though, I can't remember what happens that day. Well, now I know I suppose...

www.deathclock.com if you're morbidly curious yourself. And don't select "sadistic" as your mode, it decreases your life expectancy by about 45years! The damn thing was telling me I was going to die in ten years time (though spookily still on the 12th sept...) It evens tells me how many seconds I've got left, lol. And to think I'm wasting my precious seconds on these inconsiderate bastards at my school (ok, it's only one or two classes, but still!)

I'm still having my massive rethink of life in general, I still don't know for sure if I want to go inot teaching still. Some days I have a really nice time teaching here, and other days it really does feel like a huge waste of time and energy for little gain. I've been reading Alex's progress on finding somewhere to do his PGCE and it really doesnt sound all that promising. Especially as for the course I want to do, I've found, there are only 4 universitys in the country that do it. One is in London (too expensive), another in Manchester (er...), another in Leicester (shithole), and the other... somewhere near Stoke I think. Gah. But fuck knows what I'll do instead. I feel like if I don't go inot teaching, this year in France will have been a waste. OK so I've learnt a few life skills, my french has improved tenfold, and I've really learnt what it's like to be alone. Is that really going to help me anywhere? Not unless I choose to come back and do this again...

Interesting thought actually. I had a dream last night that Dave cold heartedly sent me an email saying we were finished cos he'd fallen in love with someone else (I know who but I'm not going to say) and he never wanted to see me again etc. After the intitial shock, I decided that the best thing for me to do would be to stay in France for another year. (During all this, my ex was trapped in the lift, dressed as a clown, and was screaming abuse at me. Such is life.) It made me think, when I woke up, that in all honesty, Dave really is the only reason I'm going home. I couldn't give a toss about uni really, my family are used to me never being around, my friends would survive (maybe, lol), and this whole thing has come about because of Ed. He wants to stay another year in France, because now that me and he and Juliette have 'found each other', we're really starting to enjoy ourselves. And it all seems too late cos we only have 4 weeks left now. We've been doing some serious bonding over chicha in past weeks, getting some seriously heavy shit off our chests, some happy, some sad, some just damn frustrating. Apart from Dave, at the moment those two feel like the only people I can be truly, brutally honest with.

Speaking of Dave and honesty, over the weekend he told me about something I wasn't sure how to feel about and for probably the first time ever, I was absolutely and completely honest with him, and I told him everything that I was thinking. That's not to say I've lied to him before, I'm just one of those people who doesn't want to share every single little detail of my problems, there are always parts that I want to keep bottled up. But actually saying everything that popped inot my mind was quite refreshing and I felt a lot better afterwards. Perhaps this is one of the life skills I've learnt over here. I'll have learnt it from chicha no doubt.

Damn, lesson now, perhaps I'll add anything I remember later...

Brainfart of the Unpissoffable

2006-03-08T13:09:00.000Z

Ugh, what an awful week! I don't know what exactly is so awful about it but I just know that it's not been one of my better weeks. And it's still only wednesday. I feel really weird and a little bit ill and sort of apprehensive about... fuck knows what. Maybe, just maybe, it's because nothing particularly awful has happened this week - and I'm probably expecting something awful to happen sometime soon. I'm just paranoid. Everything's fine.

Had a really nice day shopping on monday. I was looking for birthday presents for Dave, but also relishing the fact that I'd be getting out of the flat and visiting some of my favourite places. A few days before I'd been having a huge self-improvement drive and had ended up really making the effort to look good for this shopping trip. So I did my hair and make up, put on some nice simple clothes, and off I went, thinking I actually look half decent for a change.
Turns out that I'm looking better than half decent. In fact, men seem to be openly staring at me from the time I get on the train to the time I get on the bus home again (any girls that's ever been to Paris will know this is no new phenomenon among the leery beggary types of guys you see - but this weren't leery beggary types, they were normal guys!!!) Everywhere I went people were noticing me, shop assistants were following me round, offering me help and advice etc, a group of builders shouted mignon and whistled at me (apparently builder's etiquette is international!), and so on and so forth. It was quite nice, though I was obviously on full concentration-on-shopping mode (except in Sephora, when I was in full-on 'could I really justify spending 30euros on Clinique eyecream?' mode) So there I am, feeling wonderful, looking good, when oh no! One of those leery beggary fuckers is trying to chat me up. And somehow, he can tell I'm English. I hate it when that happens!!!! Do I have a huge sign over my head saying "ENGLISH - CHAT ME UP NOW!!"?? And I hate these horrible guys, they always follow you and I have to wonder what exactly makes them do it? Why the hell do they think they could ever have a chance with women?? Ugh. But anyway, back to the original point, this is what kicked off my paranoia. I suddenly realised that everyone must know I'm English and they must be thinking about how much cash I have on me, and, funniest of all, how many rude and disgusting words can they say in French and get away with (because, of course, they don't know I understand everything, stupid fuckers) So it put a pretty nasty edge on what had been a really nice day, but I got Dave's presents so it's all good.

My classes are getting more and more boring as the weeks draw on. The kids don't mind, it means they get to play games or read the english magazines, but it's mind-numbingly dull for me, cos I just sit there and supervise. But apart from being dull, I don't care. I had a class today who tried their very hardest, bless them, to piss me off. And I just let it all flow over me, there are no students here, I'm in my happy-but-a-little-bit-paranoid place. Thus I'm unpissoffable. Though I am slightly peeved now - I decided the best way to clear out all the meaningless crap in my mind is to go and have a chicha with Juliette, and we planned to meet at five, but it's just been announced that my help is needed with a class at three. Gah!! I also have to come in on a monday soon and go to a meeting I know very little about, and can't possibly be any help with. Oh well, only four weeks left at the school, hurray! And then I'll probably miss it like crazy and wish I could have stayed a little longer. On second thoughts.... maybe not.

"Friendship is rare..."

2006-02-01T10:33:00.000Z

Every so often, one meets someone who they know is likely to be a friend for at least a long long time. One also meets people who you are awfully aware you would never get on with, but you put up with them for the sake of other friendships. But that never works, no matter how much you try. And being so far from home and my proper friends, I'm finding a few people who I'm trying to be friends with "for the sake of it", because otherwise I'd be lonely and would probably have gone home a long time ago. And it's now proving to not be working.

There is a girl here who I knew straight away I would never be friends with in the "real" world i.e. back in England, under normal circumstances, but she is a close friend with another girl here who I do like, so This Girl (we shall call her that) is unavoidable. And I'm fairly certain she feels the same about me - I'm not the kind of person she would normally speak to, but I'm close to her friend. And we both accepted this as fine for now, and we both got on, until friday...

I won't tell you about the kerfuffle beforehand, but the long and short is we ended up in a shitty dance club, as far away from St Germain as you can imagine, so I realised we had missed the last metro home so were stuck here until 5.30am, when the metros started again. So I tried really hard to enjoy myself, but it just wasnt working. This Girl came and sat next to me and looked at me and was like "you're not enjoying this are you, blah blah", so I had to admit, no, this is shit. And then she stared at me, looked me up and down (I was just dressed in jeans and a normal tee shirt because we were supposed to be going to a rock club!) and said "we're going for very different looks, you and I, aren't we?" and then she brushed a piece of my hair behind my ear (one of the most condescending moves you can make on a girl, for you men out there who can't read body language!) and then she said "well you're just so much more 'rock chick' than me" which, roughly translated means "you look like shit, whereas I'm great." I didn't say anything cos I hadn't a clue what she meant and then, as an afterthought, she said "You look good though, you've got great boobs." Translation: you look like shit but your boobs are your redeeming factors. Well... Thanks.

It was at this point that I realised This Girl had given up trying to get along with me because she thought she was better. She didn't want me to feel equal to her anymore, she wanted to make sure I felt lower than her. And because I was confused and a little drunk, that's how she made me feel. And then, cos I obviously looked more depressed after all this, she was like "are you missing your boyfriend?" and she said it in that way like 'aw, you poor little lonely person, can't live without your stability back home'. As a matter of fact Dave hadn't really crossed my mind the whole time we were there; my mind was too full of "GET ME THE FUCK OUT OF HERE!!!!"

So, to summarise: It is near impossible to get along with people who are so different to you, unless you never address your differences. This Girl addressed our differences, and the gap between us went from just that mutual friend between us to what looked like the whole world between us. She basically said I was a different species, and that's how she made me feel (worsened by the alcohol, though to give her credit, she made me sober up sharpish)

To make it worse, at around 2am she decided that she was taking our mutual friend home "cos she's ill" read: drunk, but not paraletic, but both of them are sick of the club so they're leaving. So I was left with Ed at this shitty club until 5.30. We were both very angry about it I think, but it did mean that Ed and I talked a lot about a lot of stuff. This Girl had also said stuff to him that night that he wasn't happy about. And so Ed is one of the other people I said at the beginning; one of those who might be a friend for a long time. If we stay in touch after france of course. Which I hope we do.

Anyway, it's just made me think about my freinds a lot recently, Gemma sent me a huge package last week with sweets and photos and drawings and magazines in it - now there's a true friend, someone who knows your needs even when you're in another country! And Laura wrote to me too, I've missed her, I'm hoping she'll come and visit sometime. And then, completely out of the blue, Jamie called! That was really nice, I've missed him too. And Ross, who text me at the weekend. Hurray for our new house :-)

Moral of the story, kids; When you get a good friend, hold onto them. You'll regret it if you lose them. And for the other friends - don't let anyone think they are better than you just because you're "different" - at the end of the day they'll be the ones lonely and unhappy. Yeah!

Leave you with my favourite line from "Friendship" by Tenacious D;

"Oh shit there's a bear,
Could you hand me that shot gun buddy,
Also that chair.
We're fighting a bear,
Now your life's in great danger,
And you don't even care."

It's not exactly relevant, but it makes me laugh!

Bleedin' Nora

2006-01-24T14:32:00.000Z

Ok, as ever, it's been a while... and I don't really have much to say... I'm still in France, for anyone who hasn't noticed. And it's dragging me down more and more. It's not so bad just now because I've got back into the routine of school and my sleeping patterns have picked up again (by this time next week I'll be mid-afternoon kipping again like last term) I struggled the first couple of weeks, being back. It just seemed so much more difficult coming back from xmas than it did from toussaints. And so much more lonely. Though I'm all good today, the weekends are becoming really long and tedious. There's nothing to do that doesn't involve spending money or being caught up in horrible crowds of people. Besides which, all I actually want to do is stay in bed and eat chocolate.

Tonight I'm going for a nice meal in St Michel cos Ed's back, yay! And I need to grill Emmabob about the "fit French guy" she met. I can finish my camera film too, I may go and take some night time snaps of the Louvre. I think it might be the only thing in Paris/ St Germain I haven't taken a photo of yet.

I'm looking forward to going back to England for good, for many reasons. Dave has found us a new house so there's all the exciting moving in stuff as usual (I love moving house!!) and I have to find myself a new job (thanks there to Hustler for never paying it's staff and ending up going into liquidisation meaning I have no job to return to!!) I'm not looking forward to finding a new job cos I know it'll be hard to start with. But I can't imagine going all summer with feck all to do. Plus I want to learn to drive this year, so I'm going to need as much money as possible. Hopefully I'll have a nice tidy sum when I leave here, what with getting deposits back and things like this (plus money from the CAF if they ever get off their fat frog-munching arses and do something about it!) (And I'm not being racist calling them frog-munchers, I'm allowed cos I had this convo with a kid today and I'm seriously pissed off with these people so I can call them whatever I like!!!) Another reason I'll be glad to be abck in England - get away from France's bureacracy. That's a minor issue though.

Home on the 4th feb, yayums!! Supposed to be flying, thought I haven't had any confirmation yet, so knowing my luck it's not properly booked and I'll be stuck at Orly at 7.30am. Still, anything beats the eurostar. Lots of plans if I do make it back. Mez's b'day at Subculture, meeting up with gemma a few times, visiting me mam etc etc. Spending more time with Dave, yada yada, the usual. Eating as much chocolate and bacon sandwiches as I like.

Just generally reminding myself that I am still English, honest!!!

Ok, so I'm a Little Depressed again....

2005-10-18T23:26:00.000+01:00

...but it's not like I don't have good reason! I've spent the whole weekend just locked in my room with nothing to do, craving England among other things, being just downright pissed off.

I was going to meet up with some other assistants, but after friday night's shenanigans they were cream crackered (bunch a' lightweights...) so they just slept the whole weekend, which was my plan, except I'm having some serious trouble sleeping. I'm waking up every 2 hours, and at 5 or 6 a.m. I wake up and can't get back to sleep. And that in itself is depressing. So I'm up early with feck all to do. And the day just drags on and I still have nothing to do. The shops are closed on sunday and monday so I have nothing to do. I am alone and I am trapped in my own room. So I'm very very depressed in that sense.

In slightly lighter news, I've discovered it is literally impossible to find a good bacon sandwich in France. I woke up on saturday with a hell of a craving for a bacon sandwich, tried to ignore it but it wouldn't go away, come lunchtime I still had this craving so i forced myself to go to the supermarket, just to prove to the craving that it was not possible to get a bacon sandwich in France, yet my craving persists. Here's a brief dialogue of the conversation I had with my craving;

Kim: Right, here we are, meat section, and oh look, no bacon. Happy?
Craving: No! What's that there?
[Kim picks up something resembling really crap bacon]
Craving: See! That's bacon.
Kim: No, Craving, that's an inch thick, and consists of 90% fat and 10% pork. It's more like a pork chop. It won't work.
Craving: Oh yes it will! Look at it, it even says on it. Jaaam-bonnn, that's french for bacon isn't it? [Craving tosses pork-bacon-fat-mess into basket]
Craving: Right, where's the brown sauce?
Kim: Brown sauce does not exist in France, I've said this before.
Craving: I bet we'll find some. I'm determined we will have our bacon sandwich.
[Kim and Craving continue round supermarket]
Kim: [wearily] Do you want egg on your bacon sandwich too?
Craving: No, just bacon and brown sauce will be fine.
[Standing in the sauce aisle]
Kim: Right. [looks around] I don't see any brown sauce.
Craving: [looking perhaps defeated] No... Hey, they have BBQ sauce, that'll work. Now for some bread.
[Craving drags Kim to bread section]
Kim: This is fresh bread, it won't be like the packaged stuff we normally have. It'll be too crusty.
Craving: [Annoyed] I DON'T CARE!!! Damn your pessimism.

So we bought ourselves some crap bacon, some bbq sauce and some crusty bread. And we attempted to make ourselves a bacon sandwich. What we end up with is a fatty pork sandwich with bbq sauce, on bread that should accompany the meal, not be part of the centrepiece. A lesson well learned - I will not listen to my craving again. And I shall be packing my suitcases full of bacon and brown sauce when I go back! As well as tea, hobnobs, marmite, ribena, chocolate digestives, cadbury's Fruit n Nut....

Bonjour!!

2005-10-09T07:03:00.000+01:00

Well well well. The last time I wrote in this thing was May. A lot's happened since then methinks!!
For example, I live in France now, in a nice quiet little town outside Paris called St Germain en Laye. Well I say "live", I'm not moving into my own place till monday. I'm currently crashing at a teacher's place, and will be moving into a flat near my school. I'm going to be sharing with 2 French girls I think, I only met one the other day and she seemed nice. It's costing something like 560 euros, which is slightly more than I wanted but it is nice and very convenient. And all bills are included. And it's furnished, which is rare for flats in France apparently.

So other than that, everything's cool. I start properly at my school on tuesday - so far I've just been observing and getting used to who's who etc. Some of my classes are quite bad but hopefully my charm will win them over and they'll be nice to me instead of eating me alive like I currently think they will... Plus I've already heard some horror stories from some of the other assistants in my region so I can't really say I'm looking forward to it exactly!

What else? Got myself a bank account and a new phone today, if you want my number leave us a comment, though i think most people should have had an email from me earlier. Ermmm.... to be honest nothing much else has happened here.

I'm coming home on the 22nd, yeah!!! So anyone in the Birmingham region, be prepared for a huge Eddie's night! God I've missed real music. There is a radio station here (Called Oui FM - lol!!) and they play similar stuff to Kerrang's daytime stuff - so the only music I've heard recently has been that shit new Oasis song that I hated when I was in England, Kaiser Chiefs, Gorillaz and that new Franz Ferdinand song ("well do ya, do ya do ya wanna..." etc) That can really grate after the fiftieth time. But anyway, having heard some real French music, I'm grateful for anything remotely British. Even if it is the same shite over and over again.

I'm hoping to update this thing every so often, I was just reading some of the earlier stuff on this site (eg. the fat naked woman at the gym) and it's quite funny now looking back. I wonder how long it'll last...

Quick Notice...

2005-05-24T03:57:00.000+01:00

Just thought I'd take time out from my annoyingly busy and shite exam revision (Marx, Durkheim and Weber suck big floppy donkey dick!!) to let you all know that you can comment on my blog now because I've made it so that anyone can comment, not just blogger users. So yay!

Jamie's already commented on my list and has made me realise I missed a whole lot of great songs from my list. Got any others I really shouldnt have left out but did? Let me know!

Tah tah for now xx

P.S. I think the green is quite fetching too, better than my old pink one anyway!

The hills are alive, with the sound of Indie....

2005-05-21T07:59:00.000+01:00

If you had to make a CD of the 10 greatest rock songs of all time, what would you put on it?

Something I've been thinking of for a while, while I've been trying to make a CD to put on at work ("It can't have swearing in it, it can't be too heavy, it can't be too dancey, it can't be...." the list is almost endless) I began to think of CDs to make for myself. I often find with compilations I make myself that, after a while, I get royally bored of them and want new stuff. And that led me to ponder on the greatest CD in the world, and what would be on it. Well, here goes...

My personal top ten greatest rock songs of all time:
10. Blink 182 - What's My Age Again?:- I wanted to put a Blink song in cos I think they are/were classic as a band. I almost put "All The Small Things" cos it has the classic formula. But then I remembered the video for this, that will be remembered!
9. My Chemical Romance - I'm Not Okay:- I wasn't sure whether to put this here or not cos it's so new. But it has everything neccesary to make it a classic. The great guitar riff, the angsty lyrics, the very beauty of the "I'm not o-fucking-kay!" One to scream out, a classic for me definately.
8. The Who - My Generation:- It's just one of those songs where you know all the words, despite it being some thirty years before your time. Another good one to air-guitar to. A very memorable song.
7. Lostprophets - Fake Sound of Progress:- I can see so many people disagreeing with this one! But I don't give a shit. It's a great song to jump around to, the music is awesome and of unquestionable classic standard. No one will persuade me otherwise!!
6. System of a Down - Chop Suey:- It was the first SOAD song I heard and it converted me away from pop-shite. That was some four years ago, and I still love them. So it deserves a place here.
5. Undertones - Teenage Kicks:- Nice and easy to play, lyrics about teen lust. It's so cute! But classic cos everyone knows it, it's catchy and it still gets played all the time. Every unsigned band covers it. Ok, well, most do.
4. Greenday - Basket Case:- Pick a Greenday song. Any. It will be great. It was hard choosing between Basket Case and American Idiot, both are awesome. But I decided that since Basket Case was the first Greenday song I heard, it would be my choice for this. No other reason than that.
3. Guns n Roses - Sweet Child of Mine:- A somewhat inevitable choice. You can't escape it. Everyone recognises it within three seconds. Even chavs. And I suppose it is great. Unfortunately for me, ze German played it too much last year and i grew to hate it. I like it again now though.
2. Queen - Bohemian Rhapsody:- Hard choice. Couldn't decide between this and "sweet child..." But given the time it was written, and the nonsensical words I think it's well placed. My dad would agree anyway!
1. Red Hot Chili Peppers - Californication:- It's awesome. And you can never hear it too may times. And the guitars are great and I love the bass and the lyrics are great. What more do you want??

That was actually quite hard to do! I thought of loads of songs that I considered worthy of the list but then found better ones. So here are a few that didn't quite make it:

No Doubt - Just a girl
Rage against the machine - Killing in the name
Rammstein - Sonne
Stereophonics - Bartender and the Thief.
ACDC - Back in Black
...and many more I can't remember now.

You see, the problem with the music industry today is that you don't get many good songs in the charts, let alone any classics. I read today that that Crazy Frog stupid fucking ringtone thing is going to make number one. What does that say about the british music charts?? That it's only chavs that buy the music for it, that's what. The top ten in the charts at the moment is crammed full of repetitive dance music, r n b shite that all sounds the same, and poncy girl and boy bands, covering old songs. What ever happened to real music? "Music" now is full of novelty and repetition.And each week more of the same "musicians" release a "song"... and then disappear.

Thank fuck for the thriving rock industry. But if only we could stop cloning our bands, creating bands who are all copying each other like razorlight and the Killers and "indie" like that (not that I have a problem with them, some of their stuff is fine...), maybe we could do something to make people realise that there is more to music than dance and R n B (i.e. Shite). We need more new music, we need more variety, only then can classics evolve.

By the way, anyone else loving SOAD's new song?? Come on Download!!!

Feel free to comment!

What I've Learned In The Past Year (Beware: Very Soppy!)

2005-05-13T07:38:00.000+01:00

Ok so me and Dave have been together a year and a day now. So a lot of stuff has happened right?? Hell yeah. So what have I learned??

1. That I'm actually a lot more independant than I thought - like the fact that i consider myself able to go and live in france for 7 months, and that I'm a lot more confident than I was this time last year.
2. That it's still nice to have someone to depend on when times are hard. Or when I need a cuddle.
3. That living with someone so soon in a relationship is not neccessarily a bad thing...
4....but that individual space is needed sometimes. Just to remind myself that i can be alone.
5. What a luxury sex in the afternoon is.
6. That we can be just as comfortable going out somewhere together as we can be reading the papers, being silent, doing nothing in particular.
7. How weird it feels to be the only stable couple in our house - feels like we're the mom and dad. Except we act like the kids.
8. That even though I trust him, I will always be edgy about his relationship with a certain friend of mine. Even though I know there's nothing there.
9. That no matter how bad a mood I'm in, he'll still be able to make me laugh/do soppy things (like buying me a giant Eeyore!) to cheer me up.
10. That there's nothing more soothing than watching him sleep - even if he is snoring and drooling (He'll tell me off now for saying that - and implying that I'm some crazed stalker who watches him sleep!)

There are a lot more than ten things i've learned but some are a lot more soppy and a lot more personal so I don't think you wanna go there! I'm glad we made it this far, we sorta struggled through the arguing-all-the-time phase (not that dave will have noticed it even happened!) and we're back in the comfy zone. This year's gonna be a bit trickier though, but I'm hoping we'll be fine.

I was looking at our notice board (cos we have a board in our room and on it's all the tickets and stuff for places we've been and stuff like that) and there is so much stuff on it now! London underground tickets, tickets from Lion King and We Will Rock You, gig tickets from Greenday, Ash, Inme, Rammstein, Velvet Revolver, Avenged Sevenfold, England tickets, science museum stuff, Natural history museum stuff, London zoo stuff, Sea life centre stuff, London aquarium stuff, a beer mat from the Cavern, a slipper from our hotel, there must be more stuff but you can just get a idea of what we've been doing as a couple for the past year. And yesterday for our anniversary we went to West Midlands safari park which was really really good and I got to touch a giraffe, yay me! it was so cute and it came looking for food, sticking it's head in my window. It didnt find any food so it drooled all over Dave's mirror instead. But it was lovely. This huge lion walked right in front of our car too which was pretty awesome. Got some really good photos that i'll try and put up on here some time.

Today we were supposed to be going to the doctors because dave's had bad headaches for the past week or so. But useless doctors couldnt give him an appointment till monday so we went to a nice restauraunt by the canal for lunch instead. I had chicken and mushroom thai spicy noodles and I swear it was the most amazing thing I've tasted in a while. And then Dave made me drink half a bottle of wine cos he had a headache again and couldnt drink anymore (grrr!) We planned to go home then but instead thought "I know, lets got to the Sealife Centre!" So we did. And it was great. They've got two huge turtles there and they are so amazing and graceful and it just makes you stop and wonder at the beauty of animals and wonder how some fuckers could kill something as pure and innocent as a turtle. And then you wonder, wouldn't it be great to be a turtle in a sea life centre? No one trying to kill you, get fed every day without having to catch it yourself, no stress, get people to come and gawp at you and say how amazing you are....yeah, that'd suit the narcissist in me.

Oh to be a turtle....

What's that? You're going to see Rammstein again...?

2005-05-01T04:45:00.000+01:00

Yes indeedy I am!!
Hell fucking yeah. After our road trip to see them in Nottingham in february, and witnessing the awesomeness that was a Rammstein performance, we literally leapt at the chance to see them again. Especially as they will be playing at the NEC, so we won't have to drive home for an hour and half afterwards (at 115 mph, in the pitch black, nipping into tescos for sweeties...)
So there we go, adding another event to my seemingly never-ending schedule. I can't fucking wait :D

Come on Summer! We're getting bored waiting...

2005-04-21T06:11:00.000+01:00

Bored.
Bored.
Fucking Bored.
And pissed off. Many millions of reasons why, but I wouldn't want to be called a feminist or someone who likes to rant again, so I'll just talk about the main few. Or I could just say fuck it and talk about them anyway. Nah, I'm not that annoyed I suppose. Just Dave's in a grumble cos I told him not to annoy Mez so much, and apparently I'm taking his side, blah blah blah. I'll just let him get on with it and talk to me when he's ready and not so grumbly.

I suppose everyone's a bit fucked off at the moment though really. Summer is coming and we can all see it just in the distance, can smell the freshly cut grass and the sea and icecream - but need to get through coursework and exams first. And because Dave and Mez etc have had problems with their course over the year they're struggling with the courseworks. They'll be fine though, this time next week they'll be getting ready for paintballing. I have to do one piece of coursework for next friday and contribute my bit to the group project as well, shouldnt take me long once I get stuck in and just do it...

Astonbury is tomorrow night! Hope everyone will be there! 6 Degrees are playing as well as Final Redemption, woo. And there will be cheap beer cos it's in the guild, and I havent been there for a very long time - hope it hasnt become all chavi-fied like most of Tamworth's old bars have.

Oh yeah, I went home last week, was supposed to be just for lunch with Toby and Charlie, but it all went a bit Pete Tong, and to cut a long story short i ended up staying in tamworth till half ten then had to be rushed to the train station to see if i could get a train and had this morbid fear of being stuck in tamworth (which is weird really - If I'd been stuck, I could have gone to my mom's!) Then got another fear of being attacked on the near-empty train, and then being attacked in the middle of Birmingham. But i made it home safe enough. I shouldnt have stayed really, I should have gone home in the afternoon as planned. It's crazy what peer pressure does to you.

We're going to Download! On the sunday, anyway. Dave decided that he'd get a day ticket cos we couldnt really afford the weekend, plus sunday's the only day the good bands are on (other than Inme, who I'd loved to have seen again but they're on another day, sob! Worse still, My Chemical Romance on the friday! But they've just been announced for reading, so yay!!) So it'll be SOAD, Slipknot, Slayer, Nightwish, Papa Roach and a few others that Dave wants to see. Gemma and Dan are coming too so it'll be another nice little summer road trip.

It's looking like a good year for gigs and stuff for my house. We did Greenday and Velvet Revolver in Jan, then Rammstein (the mother of all gigs!) in feb, Avenged Sevenfold on 26th May, Download in June, Reading in August, no doubt there'll be more before the year is out. I'm so looking forward to summer, even though I know I'm going to be working most of it. It'll be a nice homely gap before I bugger off and start 7 months of a newish life. And then come back and be normal again. For another year anyway.

There was a lot of stuff i wanted to talk about but I've forgotten most of it. I'm a little shocked at finding the Conservative Manifesto of 1979 - Maggie Thatcher's if you don't know - and that means I can once again base my coursework on two websites alone. But I won't, I'm quite intersted in this coursework so I'll put some sort of effort into it. Thats all for now though!

2005-04-11T02:42:00.000+01:00

I got an email from the British Council, who I applied for a placement abroad through, and they told me I am officially going to France now. Whoopdefuckingdoo! They don't know where or when but they are sending me to teach the little froggy darlings some proper English. I've been thinking about picking up a strong Brummie accent to teach them, but I'm shite at accents. My own is a mixture of Lancashire, posh Southern, Welsh and Brummie. I get told at work that I talk posh - cos I don't talk Brummie. Anywho, digressing slightly. I'm off to France, and I'm all internally mixed up with feelings of achievement and excitement and fear and panic and mild nausea at the idea of fending for myself in a foreign country. Good news is that if me and Helen end up in the same region, no matter how far apart our schools are, we'll try and move in together. Not sure how I feel about that, I guess it's quite relieving that I'll know someone else there and it'll be one of my closest friends, I'm just not sure about the livng together thing. She's lived with girls and I don't like living with girls really. She's all girlified from being in close proximity with girly girls in her house (mentions no names for anyone who knows them!!) which either means she'll be super clean and tidy and put me to shame, or she'll be too busy being girly to care about the house. Maybe I'm wrong and I'm totally missing out on something here. I've never lived with her so I don't know. We'll see.

I was surprised the other day to find myself being slagged off on someone else's blog! Someone who doesn't know me at all and has judged me by a blog I made the first day, in a fit of anger. As far as I knew, only Mez had read that blog, especially as I deleted it less than 12 hours later, realising my mistake; obviously I was wrong. Oh well. What a fucking shame that this person now has found it neccessary to have a huge moaning bitch about me. If I'm honest, it initially really upset me that someone I barely know can be so offensive when they have obviously missed the whole point of my post. And then I thought "Fuck it, he obviously had no one else to bitch about at the time." Oh yeah, and I was called a feminist, which pisses me off. Just cos I got angry about something and decided to speak out against it, I'm suddenly a fucking feminist?? Hello?? You want to get yourself a dictionary, mate. I wasn't even talking about men, I was talking about something that had annoyed me. I realised it wasn't the sort of thing I should have in my blog and was frustrated at my own negativity so i deleted it. So GET THE FUCK OVER YOURSELF.

And that's all I have to say on that subject.

Went home last thursday and arranged my termly get-together with people who i won't see for another few months. Only my closest friends turned up as usual, which bugged me a little but I've given up caring. Next term, someone else can organise it. Some people, like Gemma, had genuine reasons for not coming; others had no reason than they couldnt be arsed. Like "I'm stuck in Birmingham" or "My car is broken". Have you heard of the bus? Best of all, the people who were "stuck in birmingham" then came to Wetherspoons at the meeting time - to meet another group of friends. That kinda offended me, especially as they had approached me a few weeks earlier and asked when we were meeting up. But i'm not the type to hold stuff against people. They're not that important, when i go to France they're not the people I'll be writing to. The ones that turned up are. I got a text off Laura the next day saying how appreciated it really was and that cheered me up a lot cos she didn't have to say that. She's just lovely like that.

My dog is homophobic. It's official. A while ago my mom's gay friend Lee came to the house and was introduced to Chandler (the dog). Usually, he is one of those dogs that likes to smother you the minute he sees you - Dave will vouch for that. But when he saw Lee he was somewhat confused - he ran up to him as usual, and then stopped, growled and then barked and ran off. He was the only guy he's ever done that to. Until the other day... My friend Toby came to stay at my house after we'd been out and the same thing happened! And Toby is bisexual. There must be an in-built sense, a kind of "something's not right here..." thing. Told a friend at work and she said she knew someone who's dog is racist and doesn't like black people. Asians, Chinese, anyone else is fine, but not black people. Weird or what. That's why cats are so much better than dogs.

The Gym, Curry and Sweaty Cockney Munchkins.

2005-04-06T01:15:00.000+01:00

Yikes, leaving huge gaps in entries already! Oh well, I never promised I'd keep it up to date. Have honestly been too busy this week and last week. Am supposed to be doing coursework at the moment but I found out earlier that it's not gotta be in till 29th April, and I know that's not far off but it still takes shit loads of pressure off! So instead I went to the gym and wrote the questionnaire for my other piece of coursework. So I'm not wasting my time like Dave probably is right now, playing some silly game or other. Not doing a bit of housework or coursework. Oh well, I'm not at home so I dont give too much of a shit.

So what's happened? Well last week we went to Basingstoke to see Dave's mommy n daddy, stayed for a few days and then spontaneously went to London. I wouldn't have minded, but it's London and I'm not the biggest fan of it. Or should I say, I'm not the biggest fan of the underground. In fact it's fair to say I despise it. Horrible loud noisy scummy dirty trains, no air conditioning, lots of smelly Londoners, hopping on and off from one station to the next, the millions of steps back up to the normal ground level (where things are supposed to be!), the stupid machines to get you in and out, ridiculous escalators where you can only stand on the right in case some fat hairy sweaty cockney munchkin (or cock munch as I just managed to read back to myself) with a briefcase comes whooshing up the left hand side cos he's busy, so so busy, he can't be seen waiting in a queue half way up the escalator. The whole thing makes me feel physically sick. Makes me grateful to actually get out into London's lovely fresh inner city air. At least in the streets you dont have to stick to one side of the path - oh no, if you want you can weave all over the place, especially if you're a tourist and you see an interesting piece of pigeon poo and have to cross in front of everyone walking behind you to take photos of it. Sorry, it sounds all very critical of me I know and there are lots of things I like about London. The National History museum for example, and the theatre and Our Hotel - and all things considered, it could be worse, you could be living in Birmingham I suppose.
And I don't have anything against Londoners either, they just seem a lot more twattish in their own city than anywhere else.

What else did I do last week? I went to a house party at one of my work mates, Meena's. It was pretty cool actually. The (One-Who-Likes-To-Think-She's) Boss turned up with her husband, treated him like shit all night, got pissed as a fart and left. And then the party started. And there was food and drink and drunken shennanigans and illegal stuff, your usual house party I guess. And I ended up taking a doggie bag (or bowl even) of yummy super-spicy curry home. What more could you want?
Well, to have the next day off work would've been good, but then i spent the whole day dressing the maniquins up so I'm not complaining.

That pretty much brings us up to today. I've been to the gym twice this week already, and it's only tueday! counted up and I've been 11 times since we joined now. Could have gone more I think, but at least I've been at all. Am quite enjoying it at the moment for a change. I think it's mainly cos if I wasn't at the gym, I'd be at home tidying up. And I'm royally not in the mood for that. I want to paint our bookcase, so I might do that later this week or in a few weeks time.

Thign that's annoying me about the gym though at the moment is the changing rooms. Now, I'm not a prude, but when it come sto taking a shower among strangers I tend to keep myself covered up as much as possible. I'll happily walk about in my underwear (depending if it's matching or not) but anything less is a no-no! So imagine my horror when I step out of the shower yesterday and find some hippo of a woman has got the locker next to mine and is getting changed. Actually no, she's not getting changed, she's sitting on the bench completely naked, faffing in her bag for something! What makes it worse is that this women is at least a metre and a half across the arse, has no intention of covering up and, most terribly of all, is sitting dead opposite my locker with her legs wide open! So when I go to open my locker I get more than an eyeful of this fat beastly women's... well, everything!! So I kept my distance for a while, feeling already traumatised, pretending to be using the body lotion stuff. But she sits there for another 20 mins, completely naked, in front of my locker. If anyone else has had an awful experience like this I'd like to know, I think we should campaign against fat people at the gym (well... maybe not fat people, just naked fat people) Or maybe just naked people at all. The other bad thing about the showers at the gym is the people who have obviously just got some stupid complex about themselves, who have perfect bodies but still slave for hours in the gym. Two of them will get together, naked after the shower and go "Oooh look at this roll of flab" (pinches invisible fold of skin) "Told you I shouldn't have had that extra slice of cucumber for lunch! Now I'm going to have to do 300 sit ups to get rid of it!" It's a huge irony in itself. I joined the gym to shift some flab and try and make myself look (what I thought in my mind as) "normal" - and what I find now is that compared to everyone else there, compared to Mrs. Naked Flabby and Miss Delusional, I am normal!

What a pleasant note to end on...

P-A-R-T-Y!!

2005-03-27T09:58:00.000+01:00

I've just come back from an AWESOME party. So I thought I'd better type my blog now while the memory's fresh (and the alcohol is still in my system.) please bear in mind that I am on my mom's extrememly noisy keyboard so any typing errors are down to me trying to type gently and quietly...

Well it was Laura French's 18th Birthday party. Laura is a beautiful, sunshiney, intelligent person and she invited me, so i went. Dave didn't but it's just as well cos he wouldn't have enjoyed it; it was too much like a huge high school reunion, and I wouldn't have liked him being left out of it. I had heard through the grapevine that my ex, Nick, was likely to turn up so i went looking my absolute sparklingest, basically cos I'm a harsh cow and I wanted to make him feel bad.

As it happened he didn't turn up - and I'm glad cos Id probably have got moody and upset about it. or I'd have ignored him the whole time and created a bad atmosphere. But everyone else turned up - people I haven't seen for the past two years who have exclaimed how great I'm looking and "hasn't everyone changed since school??" YOU CAN SAY THAT AGAIN!!!

Most of the people I haven't spoken to for the past few years are now gay. Or bisexual. Example, Toby. Ok, bad example cos he's never really been as innocent as most people thought, but he is looking so good nowadays! And as he explained, revenge is a dish best served cold (his ex cheated on him so he leaked to the police that she dealt coke, even though she didn't. but what a revenge!!) I've missed him a lot really, I'm hoping he's coming for a drink with us in a couple of weeks. He reminded me of something I'd said a few years back when I was with my ex ex Ross about liking him but not enough to leave Ross; I'm not too sure of the truth really. I just remember we were very close back then, me, him and Charlie.

Charlie hasn't changed that much. If anything, she seems more mellow. Last time I spoke to her properly was last summer, when uni was all sex drugs and rock n roll (yes I vaguely remember that time too). Since then things have calmed down. Either that or there's shit loads she's not telling me. She did tell me a lot of gossip about the other people though. She told me Laura Hand was insanely jealous of me cos Charlie chose to kiss me instead of Laura at Gemma's party. Ha! She also told me the truth behind the story that Mr. Tinsley only gave me half the story to! i.e. Ami Claire, Tinsley?? if you feel like telling me the truth any time soon, feel free...

I made up with Rob. Well, I kinda went up to him and asked if we were still friends and he thought we'd sorted it out last summer - but I haven't spoken to him for ages so I thought he was still mad at me. We both shrieked and hugged and said all our "I missed you"s and stuff and now we're good pals again, which is great cos if we'd fallen out forever it would have been a huge shame. Didn't really ask him what he'd been up to; Sandy filled in most of the gaps for me. Nothing too interesting.

Huge shock of the night: Buzz (or Mark Burrows) is a changed man! A vastly changed man! An unrecognisable man! He looks absolutely amazing now from what i remember of him (going back some three years now!) He's got great hair! He doesnt wear his glasses any more! He has awesome clothes! He looks so confident and good spirited! He's bisexual - did NOT see that one coming! Charlie divulged how he'd been thrown from the closet - and I won't divulge, as i'm quite shocked by it frankly! He reminded me that I was the first girl he ever kissed (not that I knew that and could barely remember it!) and began telling me what was going on but we're gonna have a proper catch-up when we go out in a few weeks. But i really did not recognise him for ages until we went over to talk to some other people we hadnt seen.

Like Chris Davies, who I didn't recognise (and is now not the biggest fan of Nick - like most people who were there) He's still jobless and stuff, bless him. There was also Matt Allsopp (after I've liked him for so many years during high school and having me and Helen drooling over him and Nigel, i've suddenly gone off him. Kind of.) Saw Steve Wakefield too, saying he goes to Birmingham uni I never see him! So it was nice to see him tonight.

There was a mass number and email address swapping as the night came to a close and I think quite a lot of people are coming out for a drink with us in a few weeks which is good cos it was hard to catch up at the party; there were just too many people to talk to and not enough time to do it in. nywho, the alcohol is wearing off now, even though I can still taste the tia maria that Rob bought me, mixed with the smirnoff Ice Sandy bought me. How'd I manage that one?? I'm so glad we're one big happy family again though, just me, Rob, Charlie, Sandy and Gemz. It's allllll good!

2005-03-21T05:00:00.000Z

Ok, I've already done what I promised myself I wouldn't do and have censored myself, at the request of one Mez Merrix. So that means this blog gets off to a fresh new start, maybe a bit less contraversial and a bit more upbeat. Let's see how long it lasts!

So Uni's finished for easter, yay!! Now all i have to do is 2 pieces of coursework, a lot of revision and somehow find time, energy and motivation to go and earn some money. Not that they're eager to give me hours. I wish I didn't need the money that bad but i really really do. My loan will take my bank balance up to £0 so at least I wont be totally screwed for money by then. Anyway, Easter!! Best time of the year! Eat lots of chocolate eggs! Easter Sunday off work! Fluffy bunnies! Time off Uni and school! Loan comes in at some point! What could be better? Oh to make it better actually, it's nice and sunny!

Friday was a gorgeous day. The sun was out and people overreacted and stripped down to shorts and skirts and strappy tops and the icecream man probably made a lot of money and we bought a football and went to the park and planned to have a barbecue. You'd have thought we only had the sun one day a year how we were all acting. It was nice though. We talked about taking some trips to the beach during next term. that turned into an argument about which beach we should go to. Dave and Ross say Bournemouth, but Teddy says it's too far and wants to go to Skegness instead. I think Teddy's allergic to going more than 40 miles away from his family, that's why he goes home all the time. It's like the whole Reading/Leeds festival thing - he wants to go to Leeds cos it's nearer (how he's worked that out I dont know) I don't care though cos I'm going to READING!!!!

This summer is going to be awesome. It's going to be awesomely difficult too as I'll have to find somewhere to live in France, and sort myself out in that respect, but way before that we've got oodles of time to chill out and do stuff as a group before some people leave the house. Like going to the beach, and Reading, and prob a few more road trips to Basingstoke. Might even go on holiday, depending on the money situation, but to be honest I can't see me having much money till I get to france and anything I do get I'll have to save up to take to France with me, transport for my bass and my clothes mainly. And by the end of summer I'll be really sad cos a lot of people I wont see for a year like Teddy and Ross and a few others, and obviously I'll miss Dave (but will love my independance and not having to clean up after him!)

Well that's about all I can be arsed to write for now. Bye!