Last post of the month!

Well this is the last day of March and as such the last post in March. I am posting this from inside the EvE in game browser which I think is rather awesome.

I really can't think of much that I can write about today, I had a bit of a rant about someone parking in my space at college yesterday but that's about all that's happened. Since Fanfest finished things have seemed less shiny and awesome than they did. Being away has shown me that this country is not a brilliant one, most Brits seem to be rude and angry most of the time while being in a rush to do everything. I think we need to slow down a bit and take a look around for once, it might do us some good.

So that's really all I've got to say. Happy April everyone.

I love knitting

Knitted Dumbledore anyone?

This is the point where I make myself sound like a massively strange old woman. But it’s true, I love knitting. I learned years and years ago during a summer with very little else to do, taught by my granny, and I’ve been addicted ever since. There are so many awesome and interesting things that you can do with knitting, I think it’s something that is slowly being forgotten as a craft and that’s a great shame. It’s not just making jumpers and scarves and hats, giving someone a hand knitted item can make them feel extra special, like you care even more because you went to that extra personal effort.

Dinosaur!!

A good example of this came at Christmas; I gave my Grandad a pair of socks that I had knit for him, he loves them not only because they’re an epic pair of socks, but because his mother used to make socks for him when he was a boy. Having a pair of handmade socks again brought back so many memories for him that a pair of shop bought socks would not have. Another time I made a dinosaur for a friends little girl (it was awesome) which was something that could never have been bought in any shop, again it was a little more personal than just buying something. I made a jumper for my sister at Christmas; it was totally unique and so much more awesome than anything shop bought. There is also the fact that knitting is a lot of fun, and it’s very useful. Everyone has those times in the winter where it’s just staring to get really cold and they find they have a hole in their gloves; I just make a new pair of gloves. It’s the same with knitting blankets; I will never be cold because I can knit.

 

I am now branching into knitting interesting and unusual things, having just come back from Iceland I have a couple of Icelandic knitting books to work through and in one of them is a pattern for knitting Pac man, the ghosts (from Pac man), and Space Invaders into a garment, how awesome is that?? Again I think it would be nearly impossible to find a Space invaders jumper in a shop, but because I can knit I can make one. It also gives me something to do while sitting watching TV, or during a long break at college, it stops me from snacking while I’m at home bored. Basically knitting is amazing, and if anyone wants to learn I will happily teach you because I think it’s a skill worth having. Let’s not let all the good things die out.

Woah Feather extensions!

So a while back I saw a video by Kandee Johnson (she’s a Youtbe makeup artist, check her out, she’s amazing) about these amazing feather hair extensions and I decided instantly that I really wanted some. Finding them in the UK proved to be massively difficult, then money got in the way and at the point where I had almost given up looking for them I found a lady willing to ship them to me from the states. Hurrah! They are a bit expensive on shipping but we solved that by Lexa (she’s a blogger too, check her out) also buying some and sharing my shipping costs.

We have been waiting for about a month and they finally arrived while I was in Iceland. Very exciting indeed. They were amazingly easy to fit, all you have to do is slip a small chunk of hair inside a special bead with a crotchet hook or similar, slip the top of the feathers into the bead and crimp with a pair of pliers. Tada! Instant hair awesomeness that does no damage at all. You can get them in all kinds of colours but I chose these ones because blue and purple match nearly all of my wardrobe. I will definitely be buying these again!

If anyone in the UK wants them comment me and I will link you to the lady who sold me mine. She has fairly limited stock so you may have to get in there quick but it’s so worth it! You can curl, straighten and wash them so there are no worries about different hair styles, and they last for up to 4 months! These are my new favourite hair product.

Fanfest!!

Gatwick AM

So, as a warning to you all, this will be LONG. Like, long post is long kind of long. I have just returned from a week in Iceland with my Papa and S’adler (a friend and fellow geek) and I plan on posting about my entire week in one. If you do not wish to read the whole thing here is a summary: It is cold in Iceland, there was snow on the ground and that was lots of fun. I met a great many interesting and unusual people, had a very good time and have missed rather a lot of sleep in the process. It was the best trip of my life.

Now for the extended version.



Tuesday.
Our flight was set to leave London Gatwick at 10am. So to make sure we got there on time and everything was smooth we got up at 5am and were out of the house by 6. This left me rather sleepy, but hey, I was going to Iceland so it was worth it. I also had getting on the plane to worry about. The flight was supposed to be at 10 so with check in and security and all that crap I shouldn’t have had much time to worry about the flight. Shouldn’t being the word here. The flight was delayed for nearly two hours, which means two hours of sitting in a terminal on an uncomfortable lounge chair waiting for the flight. I distracted myself by buying Absinthe for my friend John; you can’t buy the stuff in Iceland. That was about 15 minutes of not thinking about a flight, it didn’t really help. By the time we were walking down to the plane itself I was a terrible shade of grey and shaking just a little bit. Did I mention that I don’t like flying?



This bed was epic



The flight itself was not terrible. I was not comfortable with takeoff and landing but the bit in the air was alright. Three hours later we arrive in Iceland. It’s now 3.40 pm, it’s cold, it’s snowing and I’m hungry. Straight after check in we discover that our cards don’t work, so getting any more money out was impossible, thank goodness we all had ISK (Icelandic currency) already. Cards were swipe-able but you couldn’t draw money out. We managed, but it would have been easier if we could have gotten more money out through the week. Anyway, first stop after meeting some people (I say some, at this point it was only Jukio) at the hotel was getting food, there are seemingly hundreds of little cafés and restaurants all tucked away around Iceland but we went to one that was closest. Off to the Red Chilli! Best Ribs In The World Ever! They were seriously delicious and I could have eaten them all day. The Mojito was pretty good too. We then went to the pub, what else is there to do in a country full of snow. We met some more people through the evening at two different pubs, people had a drink and lots of laughter then eventually we started the walk back up to the hotel. This walk should have taken about half an hour but it was dark, snowing and we got a tad lost. 3am we finally stumble up the stairs to our hotel rooms and crash out, having been awake for 22 hours. That was the first day.

Wednesday.
The day started at 8am with a shower. Nobody prepared me for this. Water in Iceland is somehow heated via geothermal energy, and somehow that makes all hot water in Iceland smell and taste like sulphur. You might think this isn’t too bad, trust me it is; imagine if you will having a shower in liquid egg fart and you will be close to knowing how it smells. Thankfully the smell does not transfer to the person. After the week I had almost gotten used to it, but I don’t think it will ever seem normal to me. Breakfast was provided with the rooms so every morning we started the day the same way. Awake, shower then breakfast. We ended up getting quite friendly with some Norwegian Fanfest goers which made mornings marginally more interesting, they were fun people. Fanfest didn’t start till Thursday so we had some time on our hands to walk around Reykjavik town, it’s beautiful. 

Look, someone in Iceland smaller than me!



There are mountains and there was snow on the ground, lots of interesting artworks and buildings everywhere. I don’t think there is anywhere else in the world like it. After a day of walking about A LOT we went out for drinks, this is a common occurrence during Fanfest week. The Celtic Cross pub that night was REALLY busy, it’s not a big place and it was just packed full of people, it started out being really quite scary but ended up being a lot of fun and I finally got to meet Lac for the first time. Hooray! We eventually decided to taxi back to the hotel which got us there for 1.10am. Another long but very fun day.

Epic EvE banner



Deep Snow!!



Thursday.
Fanfest start day! We were up, showered, dressed and downstairs by 8am. I was even wearing makeup to mark the occasion. Once we got to the convention centre it was just a mass of meeting people and seeing things and socialising and watching lectures. So much happened in such a short space of time it was nearly impossible to keep up. The art lectures were my favourite; during Thursdays we watched one of the artists create a ship from audience ideas. It ended up looking pretty funky but I doubt it will ever make it into the game. Still, it was a lot of fun to be a part of. I then decided for some reason to go to a CSM discussion group, which was a mistake, I still don’t really know what the CSM is or does, and the whole thing was rather confusing. I will know to avoid that next time. It was then lunch time, so lunch was chocolate cake. I know I know it’s not healthy, but it was freaking delicious. There were more lectures and things going on with lots of socialising and much the same as Wednesday in terms of the evening, food and then out to drinks. About 2am I decided to go and dance around in the snow for a while with John, which was a lot of fun for me...John lives in Iceland so he’s used to snow. I eventually made it to bed about 3am, this was a mistake when I had to get up early the next morning but I don’t see snow very often and it took away my logic for a while. Day three was a success.

Friday.
Much the same as the other days in terms of breakfast and lectures and stuff, though I did meet two more people, Eli and Tommy, who proved to be brilliantly funny additions to the group. So, skipping that and onto the PvP tournament. As you are not all EvE players I will briefly explain, PvP is people in internet spaceships shooting other people in internet spaceships because it’s fun. Just deal with it. the tournament works on teams all shooting at each other till last team standing, these teams then all shoot each other again to see who will eventually get to being the last two teams alive. They then fight to the death. The winners get awesome prizes and everyone else still has fun, it’s just a really good laugh. Our team unfortunately suffered from an overview bug which led to Papa killing Jukio (also in our team) which is not exactly what you’re supposed to do. Needless to say we did not win, it was a laugh though. Then there was the chess-boxing. If you don’t know what chess boxing is you are in the same boat as I was, so watch the video -> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YaBWBmYfqVQ Chess boxing was both hilarious and slightly disappointing but it was all for the sake of charity which made it more entertaining somehow. Once again we ended up in a bar, it really is the best thing to do in Iceland of an evening, even if I don’t drink all that much. We went to an Irish bar which was very awesome, there was a guy singing with a guitar in the corner. He sang all songs that everyone knew so most of the pub drunkenly joined it. It was a laugh. Yet another 1:30am bed time, but another great day.



This man is very tall. I am very small.



Saturday.
Last Fanfest day...boooo! We spent the morning socialising, and I was interviewed for EvE TV. Yes, me, on TV, it’s a scary thought. The CCP team were interviewing people, specifically women, about why they started playing EvE and why it’s good for women as well as men. Being a woman I decided to join in and encourage other women to play, it is a brilliant game. After that it was time for food and then the Party at the Top of the World.

Vodka shot babes!

 This is the name for the final party where all the EvE geeks have a huge bash and get all drinking and lunacy out of their systems before they have to return to the mundane world of normality. It was a brilliant night full of dancing and music and laughter, watching some of the geeks dance was ever so funny. Yes Jack if you’re reading this, I’m talking about you. Roxor the EvE band played as well as ever, those guys seriously know how to make music. 4 hours of dancing later and I’m done for the night, far too sleepy to carry down to the pubs with everyone else. Papa and I take ourselves back to the hotel and to bed. 2:30 am, what a day.

Sunday.
Calm down day. We’re all knackered and unable to do anything productive. Some people were so hung over they couldn’t get out of bed before mid day. We spent the day just relaxing, sitting about, not doing much of anything but chatting. It was nice to just chill out, and it’s a good job we did because today (Monday) has been a killer of a day.

Monday.
Awake at 4am because we have to get a bus to the airport for a flight at 7. 4am to me is otherwise known as ungodly o’clock and needless to say I was not the most social person being woken up at that time of day. We had packed everything up Sunday night so all I had to do was get dressed and go, it was far too early for breakfast. We get to the airport and learn that our flight has once again been delayed by two hours, this means time sat awake when I could have still been in bed. When at just after 5am you are given this news, this is the face you will pull.  It’s not pretty is it? This is why I don’t do mornings. We had also used up all our ISK on Sunday so that we didn’t have to worry about taking it home, together we had enough left for three coffee’s and a bag of Haribo. That makes for a delicious but not very filling breakfast and it doesn’t keep you going all day.

At the point of getting on the plane I look like this. I was too sleepy to worry about the flight; in fact I think I spent nearly all of it asleep. I was awake for long enough to take some pictures from out of the window but that really was it. I slept most of the car ride home too. It’s now 11:12pm and I’m editing a blog rather than catching up on the week’s worth of sleep that I have missed, I have no idea why I do this to myself sometimes.

Over Iceland

In Clouds!

So that was my trip away. I hope you enjoy reading everything that I did during this week. If you didn’t...why are you still here? I’m going to crash out in bed now. Happy reading everyone.

Landing

I'm in iceland

So I'm borrowing a friends laptop so I can post from the middle of fanfest, it's so very awesome here I can't even describe it. So many people I've wanted to meet for years all in the same place. Much beer drinking and merriment is being had, and it's not going to stop any time soon.I've never been hugged by so many people. It's even fairly warm even though it's snowing. I haven't made a snow angel yet but I will and it will be awesome even if it'll leave me slightly cold for a while.

I will post a full picture blog once I get back, this is all for now. I am alive and in one of the most awesome places in the world. Missing all my college folk, see you all in a few days.

Will update again soon!

This is it

Well guys, this is the last post for a week. I'm off to Iceland and there's no way I'll have time to blog while I'm there.

You can expect a full photo account of my trip as soon as I get back to England.

Wish me luck!

Cycling

Today my wonderful boyfriend and I decided to go out cycling. This seemed like a great plan, it was sunny and mostly warm, I knew where we were planning on going. Everything was set. Then we decided to drop in on my Grandmother on the way there, not the best move. We told here where we were going and on gaining that knowledge she told us the route she thought it would be best for us to take. I’ve always been told to keep the idea in mind that Grandmothers will all their knowledge of the world generally know best. So we went the way she told us to go.

<- Grandma's route
    my route. ->

See the difference!? 

Two hours later we arrive at our destination, a trip that should only have taken 40 minutes. At this point I should mention that I am not the kind of person who does a lot of exercise. 20 sit ups in the morning is a struggle, so I was pretty knackered after 2 hours of fairly quick cycling in high gears. I was glad to sit down! The boyfriend is pretty fit, and as such didn’t suffer at all...darn him. We stayed and sat in the sun for about half an hour just enjoying the surroundings and then it was time for the trip back. After about 10 minutes the both of us are getting rather saddle sore, and then to top that off my damaged knee goes crack. It’s not been entirely right since I was hit by a car a few years back, but usually it doesn’t give me much trouble. Oh boy I should have thought about it before setting off. So we have to slow right down making the trip home a bit longer than it may have been (though I worked out a more sensible route so it was nowhere near 2 hours!)

We eventually get home, the both of us less that comfortable from being sat on bicycles for so long, and me finding it difficult to walk. I have no idea why we decided to do that to ourselves, it seemed like such a good idea at the time...



Snapshot of the day.
It's hard to get a good photo while the sun is in your eyes...



Nothing happened today...seriously.

I’m disappointed that I cannot make an interesting blog for those of you who actually read this. There have simply been no interesting events today. Like nothing. You already know that I’m going to Iceland so I can’t talk about that again. Damn.

There was one epic thing I guess. The amazing Katie McKee gave me a belated birthday present. I know right? I have awesome friends. Anyway it’s this hilariously mental drawing representing several things that go on amongst our group of friends including Kate as the sex change fairy turning Katie into Kevin (yes there’s a Katie, a Kate and me Kat, how confusing is that!) as well as a rather brilliantly traumatised llama with hat meeting my snail, you know the one, he eats his friends. So, I guess the first paragraph was wrong but I’m not going to edit it. I’m too lazy. Something awesome happened today, and it came from having amazing friends.

You guys make the world better and hugely more hilarious.

Bryan the Snail

Happy 5^th Birthday this month to my wonderful Bryan! Technically it was his birthday on the 3^rd but I’ve had a lot of things to post about. So it’s a bit late. Bryan, if you were wondering, is my African Land Snail. This is the part where everybody reading begins to think that I’m totally mad and switches off. Just hear me out.

We’ve always had cats and / or dogs and that was fine until one of my friends got a Land Snail; I hadn’t seen them since primary school and I had completely forgotten how awesome they are. They live for up to 30 years if you look after them right too, so they don’t die on you like hamsters tend to. We spent hours that day just looking at his snails wandering about eating bits of lettuce. It was so much fun! Eventually though, they made the mistake that many snail owners make, keeping more than one snail in a tank. Bad plan. African Land Snails have this amazing ability to not only get both snails pregnant, but then keep fertilised eggs for years just waiting to lay them. This means that while you may start with two snails you end up with about 200 in a very short space of time.  Lots of snails means snails for sale.

I couldn’t wait to run home and ask my mum if I could have one when I found out that there were lots of babies. The friend only lives down the road so it was easy to pop back and ask, once mum said yes I ran back and picked up little Bryan. At the time he was about the size of a 5 pence piece and he came home with me in a coffee jar...much to the surprise of my mother who had not entirely expected me to bring a snail home that second. We managed though with a bit of peat and an old gerbil tank Bryan had his first home. Hours passed with me sitting watching him, we quickly got him a bath which he seemed to love, and a rock to sit on and view his lands. When it got to being summer I was able to take him out for walks in the garden, something we still enjoy doing together. He’s the most responsive animal I’ve ever owned, he knows his name and he recognises my voice as well as pulling some of the best faces if I give him food that he doesn’t like. Snails don’t have noses like we do, but he can still turn his up! He has now grown out of his first tank, and his first two water bowls. They grow up so fast.

He brought in a slug as a companion during the summer, we called her Arion and they lived together quite well in Bryan’s tank for a time. They ate lettuce and apples together and took strolls along the glass walls after brunch. I think Bryan must have gotten bored of Arion because I found her skin going slightly mouldy in the tank one morning. No innards, just skin. That song about eating worms, I’m sure Bryan has heard that song. He seems a bit lonely now but it’s really his fault for eating his companion. I guess he’ll bring another one in next time he goes out into the garden. Fatten them up for a while then have a good supper. It does seem a shame for him to eat his friends though, won’t make him all that popular.

So Happy Birthday Bryan, the most interesting and enjoyable pet I’ve ever owned. Here’s to hopefully lots more years together!

Iceland Iceland Iceland!

For about a year I’ve been planning to take a trip to Iceland for the EvE Online Fanfest. I know, I’m a nerd, live with it. Excitement has slowly been building and I think I’m finally ready to explode because I fly out on Monday! I have nearly everything packed now, still on the list are: my roll neck jumper, three pairs of pants, one pair of socks, 5 t-shirts and my hairbrush. This is going to be the best holiday ever. It’s going to be that awesome and packed with stuff that I’m not even taking my knitting!

I’m going with Papa and a good family friend, to meet up with a load of people I’ve been friends with for about five years that I’ve been in game. Time spent having fun with them, mixed with sightseeing, glacier walking and maybe even some time relaxing. I’m missing a week of college, but I can catch up. It’s worth missing it for this opportunity; I doubt I’ll ever be able to do it again so I’m not worried about missing some college. It’s just going to be the best trip ever.

One of my biggest worries is that it’s going to be bloody cold. I’m not talking a little but nippy like an English winter, I’m talking cold as in -15C with a meter of snow on the ground if we’re not lucky with the weather. I have the correct clothing for this, including leg warmers and knitted fluffy mittens, but I do feel the cold quite a lot. Especially in my feet. I get really cold feet. Hopefully the massively awesome thermal socks I’ve got will keep me toasty; they’re the fluffiest things I’ve ever seen. All in all I’m packed and very excited.

I do have one issue with the whole thing though. Getting on a plane. This to most people seems totally stupid, especially when you consider that I was in planes a few times as a child. Unfortunately I now watch the discovery channel and know lots of things that can go horribly wrong on a plane. Problems with engines and jets and wings and oxygen levels, so much can go wrong. Not to mention that it’s essentially a massively heavy chunk of metal that should not really be able to lift itself hundreds of meters into the air. Aeroplanes make gravity their bitch; this is not something that I like the idea of. Gravity doesn’t like being told that it’s wrong. I think the plan of action is something along the lines of Papa grabbing one arm, our friend grabbing the other, and they will carry me mid flow of panic onto the plane and into my seat. I’m just praying that I’m not near a window...that would be bad.

5 days and counting. I can’t wait.

Blood tests

So I’m anaemic...joy. I went to give blood and was turned down on the basis that my blood didn’t even attempt to sink in the test tube of blue gloop, it just sat there...floating. so they sent me away. This was all fine until it was decided that I really should have a blood test to see what on earth has caused this onset of anaemia. I’m not really the kind of person who would normally be anaemic, I eat a lot of red meat and I’m very partial to my leafy greens but for some reason my blood just isn’t doing what blood should do. So to the doctors we went to be stabbed.

I give blood as regularly as I can so needles don’t really bother me that much anymore, I just let them get on with it, and the doctor was actually really good until it came to pulling the needle out. Oh dear god, ouch. Normally they pull it out fairly slowly so that it’s in the same direction that it went in, no trouble, no bruising, no pain, no problem. Not this doctor, she pulled it out horribly fast and nipped the skin a little bit. It’s swollen up quite a lot and it’s bruising, I can feel it. This has led me to do two things, 1. Keep my arm bent because straightening it out is painful and 2. Sit with a Callipo wrapped in a tea towel on the bit where she took blood from to stop it aching. I look like a total pillock.

I think the only thing to do is eat some custard while watching Jeremy Kyle, that always makes for a mood lifting moment. Then it will be onto English coursework and RS catch-up. I swear I do far too much! At least I don’t have to work tonight, that will give me more time to get things done. I’ve got to finish my packing for holiday yet! Busy busy busy.

My tongue still hurts too. Bleh, this had better clear up by Monday, don’t want to be ill for Iceland!

Mouth ulcer I hate you

So I have an ulcer, I know I know it’s a silly thing to be complaining about under normal circumstances. But this is no normal ulcer, oh no, this is the super beast of all ulcers. It’s about half an inch long, and it’s on my tongue. Yes, my tongue. Manning up hasn’t been effective, so now I’m just complaining.

Ulcers on the tongue are about the worst thing out, because they don’t just ache a bit like the normal ones on your lip. They’re horribly painful no matter what you’re trying to do. You want to have a drink of water? No, the ulcer won’t be having that, it makes it too painful to swallow anything properly so all that ends up happening is you manage to swallow half a mouthful while dribbling the other half down your front. Yea, cause that’s so very attractive. The ulcer doesn’t stop there, while making you look like some dribbling buffoon it also sends a shooting pain straight up through your mouth into your skull, that’s not fun. As well as making you look stupid it will then proceed to make your tongue swell up just a little bit so that you can’t talk properly, and while you’re talking it will do that shooting skull pain thing again. The ulcer hates you, and it wants you to be miserable.

I’m sure the ulcer was sent from some hellish place to cause us unnecessary pain while making us look like idiots. It’s like, the great creator was bored one day and decided to spice humanity up a bit with weird and wonderful painful things that wouldn’t go the hell away! I have tried everything to get rid of this thing. Bonjela, nothing, ice, nope the ulcer is resistant to ice, cold milk was just painful to drink and came with added dribbling, I even tried some special local anaesthetic denture sore gel which proceeded to make the entire side of my face and tongue numb but didn’t touch the ulcer at all. So I am doomed to wait it out, to have to eat everything horribly slowly and in tiny pieces, even soup.

Mouth ulcer, I hate you.

Friends are for sharing feelings with

Something I have always said to my friends when they have a problem that they don’t think is important enough for anyone to care about is: If it matters to you, then it matters. I don’t know where I first heard this but it really stuck in my head, and now it’s a phrase that I don’t seem to go a week without saying.

For some reason a lot of my friends like to talk to me when they’re having issues. I don’t really understand why they pick me, because my advice is usually along the lines of ‘I’ll hold them you hit them’ or ‘kick him’ or something generally not helpful at all. Yet still they come. I think trying to give advice is one of the hardest things I’ve ever done, what happens if it all goes to pot, you give really bad advice, someone follows it and ends up hurt because of it? What do you do in that situation? Maybe that’s why I’ve never given serious advice in my life; there’s just too much pressure to get it right.

Thankfully, I think a lot of the time people don’t really want their problems solved. It seems to me that they want someone to talk to, to be able to chat it all through with, someone who will make them laugh about it all in the end. Eventually just by talking people come to their own solutions. Maybe I should just tell them that next time?

As a general rule, if my friends are happy I’m happy. That will have to do for now.

Gun Shop, shooting and Bike training

Papa and I went to the gun shop this morning; we go there quite a lot because the people are awesome and friendly. The guy who runs the shop has two of the most amazing dogs I've ever seen; they're Bavarian Mountain Hounds who are such characters. They're a lot of fun to be around and nothing is ever the same when they're in the shop. Today I took them in some treats because I like giving dogs treats, especially pig’s ears which dogs seem to totally love. I have no idea WHY dogs love them, they've still got hair on them and they're dried and they look icky, but hey dogs seem to like them.

So we arrive at the shop and the second I was in the door they knew that I had something that they might like, these dogs are trained for tracking so they can smell food a long way off...a really long way off. There was no way I was going to be able to keep the ears from her. Now, years ago we had a collie dog who would take maybe an hour eating a large pigs ear, she had a pretty strong jaw so I guessed that the Bavarians would take about the same amount of time. Boy was I wrong about that one. I would guess that they were munching on the ears for a total of about 20 minutes and then they were back with me looking for more. I almost felt a bit mean not having any more ears for them! I will certainly take some more back with me next time I go, at 30p a time it’s not like it’s a hugely expensive thing for them to enjoy eating.

We’ve booked in to go down to the range tomorrow, scope in my little rifle. I won’t be able to shoot because the law is in the process of changing and because I don’t currently have a firearms licence which is a shame but that’s the way life goes. It should be a really interesting experience anyway because ranges are a place where I’ve never really been. It will also be quite fun to see how my baby actually goes, I’m expecting noise but not as much as the revolver! I don’t think the whole experience will be surprising, but it will be interesting. The sooner I get my licence the better as far as I can see it, especially if they’re thinking about changing the law soon. When I get money I will definitely do it...after my bike test. Got to get that done first.

Later today I’ll be off to my first assessment for my full bike licence (I know I know, it’s taken me long enough), I’m not sure how many lessons I’ll need but I do know that I’ve picked up a few bad habits...maybe more than a few. I’ll have to keep you all updated as to how that goes. I’ve told myself I want to have passed by the end of April, which should be achievable. It’s now time to go and clean the breaks on my bike so that she’s not all squeaky for this afternoon, THAT would just be embarrassing. Then I will head out and be scrutinised, just a touch nervous. I don’t know what tonight’s plan is, cooking and relaxing with Papa I guess, I love my weekends here.
 

A day of good things

Today has been a good day. That’s not really enough, today has been AWESOME. It started with a traffic free ride to college, sunny morning, everything is bright and wonderful and happy. It almost felt like a fairytale. Ok, that’s an exaggeration but it was a good ride to college. Then, I find out that I not only passed my Jan exams, but I passed them with A’s! Oh Yea!! So that was a very awesome start to the day. I found out that my English Coursework needs a bit of work but that’s alright, we can do that no problem.

Then I had tutor where I spent nearly an hour just laughing with my friends, it’s the nicest thing to just laugh and laugh. There is a large amount of freedom that laughing can bring, I find that even a really terrible day can be made better by laughing. Psychology wasn’t much to talk about, though it was an enjoyable lesson. I then had another awesome ride, this time going home. Got to love the spring.

Had about an hour at home, just enough time to make delicious courgette and potato soup and play some piano. Then back to college for Belly Dancing! It was the most amazing thing ever. I am usually un-coordinated and falling all over my feet when I’m just walking around but somehow I managed to be slightly good at belly dancing. It’s a lot of hip and bum movements which are much easier to grasp than masses of fancy footwork, and for only three pounds a time for an hour and a half it’s good value for money as well! Combination of fun, low cost and calorie burning, nothing I can see that’s wrong with that at all.

This has been a good day, I want more days like this.

Places where cat’s like to sleep.

I have two cats, and something that I have noticed (as I’m sure call cat owners do) is that they like to sleep in really strange places. We all know that cats like being in boxes, or that pile of freshly washed and ironed laundry or on any paperwork that you happen to be doing but mine seem to like sleeping in even stranger strange places.



In the folds of a duvet



The cat who is worst for this is the youngest, she is adorable, which makes it much harder to be annoyed at when she sleeps in stupid places. At the moment she seems to have taken to sleeping on me while I too am trying to sleep. Imagine this if you will, you are alone in your house, it’s dark and very quiet, you are just drifting off to sleep and BAM you’ve been landed on by some unknown object that smells ever so slightly of biscuits and fabric softener. While awake it is obvious that this thing landing on you claws first is your cat but while half asleep it can be both confusing and scary. Once the initial shock is over I tend to pat my cat on the head and try to drift back to sleep. My darling cat has other ideas.

This is the point where she starts to get comfortable. If you do not own a cat you may not be familiar with this ‘comfy’ ritual, it goes something along these lines:
Step 1. Stick your claws as far into the comfy thing as possible in order to pull it about a bit. (When that comfy thing is your skin, it get’s rather painful.)
Step 2. Walk about in small circles on the comfy thing while sticking your claws into it repeatedly.
Step 3. Meow at the comfy thing. (I would assume that she does this to see if I’m awake but she does it to the sofa too)
Step 4. Lay down for a moment.
Step 5. Stand up and start Step 2 again.
Step 6. Lay down in a different position to the one in Step 4.
Step 7. Repeat ALL STEPS more than once.
Step 8. Fall asleep.

Not only does my dear cat do this to me every night, she does it no matter how I am laying. If I am lying on my side she will try and get comfy laying on my arm and shoulder. I don’t know why she thinks this is a good place to sleep because it gives me a dead arm, but she seems to like it. I might then decide that I want to sleep on my front, which causes two issues. The first is trying to persuade the cat to actually move, but worse than that is going through all the trouble of having her get comfortable again. Any time I want to change my sleeping position we go through this. Needless to say I have gotten used to not moving at all during the night.



On a Hairdryer



She doesn’t only sleep in awkward places at night though, oh no. I’m certain that she spends her time while I’m at college figuring out the very worst places to sleep so that she can be in them when I get home. Some frequent examples include, in my doorway where it is dark so 9 times out of 10 I trip over her, which in turn makes her stick her claws into me. In front of the dishwasher, but only while I’m trying to put dishes in, she will move once I’ve finished working around her and have walked away. In the laundry basket underneath the clothes so that when I take things out to put them in for wash she leaps out of the basket scares the crap out of me. On the piano stool when I want to start playing, then while I’m playing insisting that she sleeps ON the piano itself. In the washing machine, (only once though) she made a terrible noise when I threw a load of dirty socks at her. Last, but possibly most annoying, on my boyfriends feet, no matter where he is; if he is sitting down or even if he stands up for too long, she wants to be on his feet. There are more, I could go on for hours.

I’m sure all cats do this. There are always funny pictures of cats sleeping in strange places on the web. I just happen to think mine is the most awkward most of the time. If you, you who are reading this, are a cat owner I’m sure you’ll feel the same about your cat.

Making a king size bed...alone

I have a king size bed. This in itself is not a bad thing, I love my bed so darn much, it’s the single most comfy thing on the planet, ever. The trouble comes when I have to change said monster. So far I have managed to avoid doing this horrible thing on my own, mostly because there is always someone about to give me a hand, be it my mother, my stepfather or my boyfriend. I have now reminded myself why this is a job that I never do alone.

Today, I changed the duvet cover on my own. This is largely due to the fact that yesterday my cat puked on it, it smelled like cat food, that’s nasty. I took the duvet cover off yesterday but there was nobody in the house to help me put a new one on, and I’m lazy, so I spent the night duvetless. I am infinitely glad for the number of blankets we have in this house, there are so many I managed to nest in them and stay comfy and warm. Today came around, there is still nobody in the house to help me put on a new duvet cover, I don’t want to spend another night without my duvet.

The process of changing a duvet cover is normally an easy one, because the thing is not a lot bigger than you. My duvet is twice the size of a single. With two people, it’s easy, how hard could it be with one? My first issue was getting the cover inside out, so that I could peel it onto the duvet from the corners like a backwards banana; I had forgotten however that the two corners of the duvet are a VERY long way apart. Once I had finally wrestled my way up to the corners I realised that the duvet itself was still in a screwed up lump on the floor, not laid out on the bed like it should have been...crap. So, I take my arms out of the duvet cover, pick up the duvet from the floor and put it on the bed, then go through all the trouble of getting my arms back into those awful corners. I am already sick of this job.

Here comes my next mistake, I am sitting on the duvet and the duvet cover, in the middle of my bed. I don’t know why I didn’t realise this, but somehow I simply didn’t notice and tried to stand up while holding onto the corners of the duvet now inside the cover. As you can more than likely imagine, I sat down again...rather abruptly. A quick reposition and I am stood up, hurrah! Now we shake the duvet. Then drop the duvet...we are not happy at this point. I decide to wriggle the rest of the duvet cover down while the duvet is lying on the bed; that actually worked fairly well. So I FINALLY get to the point where I think I can button it up, it’s an exciting moment. Why did I think that part would be easy? The buttons seem to be too large for the button holes so the buttons won’t do up and I finally get them to a point where they’re done up and there is button spare somehow. WHY DUVET...WHY?? It’s not my day. By now, as you may be able to imagine, I hate both the bed for being so big, and the huge pain the arse that is my duvet. Un-button, then re button. Next step.

I get to the point of shaking the duvet, it’s an important step right? WRONG! I shake the duvet, lay it flat, look at the top and die a little bit inside. The top corners of the duvet are no longer in the corners of the duvet cover. This means that I have to climb inside the cover and put the corners back where they belong...great, just great. At this point I should mention that my duvet is white, my duvet cover is also white, being inside that is like being inside a marshmallow only the marshmallow is evil and mocking you. 10 minutes later the corners are somewhere close to where they should be and I’ve given up. It will do. This task has completely defeated me. The only thing left to do is button up once more, splat onto the bed and hope that I never EVER have to do that alone again.

The Size 10 Dress

So, people who know me know that I’m not a dress person. I’m really not. I’m a ‘ride my motorbike and wear big boots’ person, comfort over fashion. Then I got the bright idea that I would join a few friends at a dance, not just any dance oh no, a black tie dance. It seemed like a great idea, it really did, but then I remember that I would need a dress. Well crap, I don’t own any dresses other than my prom dress. I really can’t wear that one. Here we have a dilemma.

First thought proved to be the best one, Ebay. I don’t use it often, but it really was the best place for me to look for a couple of reasons. One: I hate shopping. Some guys claim to dislike shopping with their girlfriends but they’ll go along and pretend to complain but really they’re having almost a good time because their girlfriend feels good and they makes them happy. I am not like that. I REALLY hate shopping, like a lot. If I could manage it I would never set foot outside the house let alone go walking about streets full of people looking at clothes that I don’t want in sizes that won’t ever fit. Solution: Internet. Reason number two: I don’t like fashion. It’s something I’ve never understood, and none of the ‘fashionable clothes’ look even remotely good on me. So fashion is something that has generally always angered me. This also points me towards internet shopping because I can buy things that I actually want. So we are back to Ebay.

Dress dress dress

It took a little while of looking, but I found the dress. It’s pretty much perfect and it’s not too expensive. Wonderful. I go through all the rubbish that comes with ordering this address and then it’s just a case of waiting for the thing to arrive. That was when issue number one presented itself. The packaging for the dress was TINY, which got me suspicious I have to admit. It was supposed to be a fairly substantial dress so at this point I was starting to worry. I opened it and there was more dress than I expected, but not nearly enough dress. They had only gone and sent me a dress size smaller than the one I ordered. Isn’t that great. For the hell of it I tried it on, ever feel the need to make yourself feel really fat? Try putting on and doing up a dress that’s a size too small for you! There was no way it was happening, which gave me the second issue, having to send this dress back for one that would actually do up. It was at that moment that I had a brain wave.

I own a corset. It’s a pretty good one too, full steel boning that takes my waist in by about 3 inches (it would be 4 inches but I like both breathing and my ribs). With a little help from Mother and A LOT of breathing in the corset was in place. Trying the dress on take two. I wasn’t convinced that it would do up even with the smaller waist but it was worth trying, and the thing must have known that I doubted it because it went and did up first time. Hurrah! This solves problems one and two in one easy fix, with the added bonus of feeling extra skinny even after a large amount of chocolate ice-cream.

I believe the moral here should be ‘try before you buy’ but I rather prefer, if at first it doesn’t fit and you’re too lazy to send it back, corset to the rescue.

Wheee Shooting!

So, the plan for today was that I was going to go shooting at the Bristol Shooting Club with Papa and Adam to start my training and get me introduced to the world of shooting nice and gently. I should have expected something unusual to happen really, this is my family.



Remington baby!



I should really explain, my Pa is a bit of a Black Powder enthusiast; he does historical firearms demonstrations and all sorts of interesting stuff like that, so he has rather a few unusual guns. He decided this morning that he wanted to give his Remington Revolver a go, because he’d never fired it live before. (If you don’t know what the revolver in question is I would recommend a quick Google, but basically it’s the updated and improved version of the Colt 45, look at the picture.)That was fine by me, until he loaded it and put it into MY hands. I was expecting a .22 rifle on a bipod which would have been nice and gentle, Papa had other ideas. Apparently breaking me in with something bigger will make me far more comfortable with the smaller things...it would have been a good excuse if he hadn’t had the wicked grin on his face.

It was actually less awful than I expected, I think I may have even hit the target. The experience as a whole though was pretty scary. I had to stop after three rounds because I was shaking too much to actually hold the pistol up straight. That’s not good when you get six rounds. Ha! I think Papa was right though, if I had started really small I might have doubted my ability with the bigger stuff. It was quite fun!

As it happens I’m not a bad shot with the .22 either, I mean ok I had some help from the Bipod and the fancy scope, but it was still me shooting. It was me shooting a group of 20 inside an inch. (Not perfect but pretty darn good for  a first time with someone else’s rifle) Very much looking forward to next time we go to the range, hopefully with exploding targets in my pocket! Teehee....

I have laundry to do now, and dishes. Rather less exciting.

Playing the Piano

No this isn't mine...I wish it was

Sometimes I get asked why I play the piano. I’m never know how to answer this question because I’m not really sure myself. Yes I get a lot of enjoyment out of it but I don’t suppose that’s the only reason. I know it isn’t the reason I started playing. I guess to know why I play now I have to know why I started, but I didn’t choose to start, that was decided for me and I just carried it on. I don’t remember a time now when I didn’t play. That in itself is a bit scary. Sometimes I think that I’m playing these days because I always have and it seems more normal to play than it does to not play, but then I remember all the fun times I’ve had sat at my piano I know that there is more. I just can’t pinpoint it. I like writing music, I’m not very good at it and nothing I’ve ever written has been worth playing ever again, but I like doing it. Perhaps at some point I’ll actually get good.

There is a lot of satisfaction in spending hours sat at my piano; working away at a piece of music I think is far above my playing talent. I work and you work and somehow it all just comes together and I can play it, when I never thought I’d be able to. Sometimes it even sounds pretty. I don’t suppose my neighbours appreciate it so much, hearing the same line from the same piece over and over again, interjected with swearing and shouting at the composer for making everything so darn fiddly. I should really ask them sometime. But, when I finally get it right, I mean really right, it’s like nothing else. It makes me feel kinda special, because I can do things, even when they’re hard. The neighbours might even appreciate listening to my playing once it sounds good.

So, if anyone reading this has ever wanted to know why I play so much, I guess that’s the best reason I can come up with. It takes me away from the world a little bit and lets my mind be totally free, riding on the wind with the music I’m making, bringing momentary peace to a rather jumbled world.

Having a little rant.

This is how I feel right now

Now, I don’t like to rant often...who am I kidding, I love ranting, but I don’t like being annoyed enough to the point where I need to rant. The day has now brought me to that point.

It has struck me in recent weeks that people are, in essence, narcissistic idiots. I guess I’ve known this for some time but it’s not really been in the forefront of my mind. Now it very much is. Recent events have got me thinking about this issue more and more and I’ve decided that, as a general rule, human beings are not good at being around other human beings, in fact I don’t think we like it that much at all. Anyone who says ‘humans are social animals’ clearly doesn’t know the people I know. When that is combined with the fact that humans like to think that they are important, (even when in my opinion none of us are that important in the grand scheme of things), it tends to make for a mess in the end. A big mess.

What I don’t understand is why we seem to have this desire to screw each other over. Hobbs would say that it’s because humanity is a fundamentally selfish race and I am more and more inclined to believe him. I don’t think we really care about other people as much as we think we do. We all have friends and people who we love like our families, but if we were given the opportunity to screw someone we claim to care about over to benefit ourselves most of us would consider it, you over there saying that you wouldn’t think about it...you’re a liar. That surprisingly doesn’t bother me as much as it possibly should, I know that I have thought about doing things I shouldn’t do on more than one occasion, what bothers me is when people act on it. When somebody actively goes out of their way to screw somebody over. Why? Why would you want to do this? Surely moral high ground is so much better, or at least knowing that you’re smart enough not to do something that will make you look like an idiot? So, if that’s the seemingly sensible thing to do, why do people not do it?

I have an idea on answering these questions. In terms of why people want to screw people over, I think it’s often because they are insecure. My theory is that people who are insecure need to upset someone else to make themselves feel better because something in their lives sucks so much that they want to make someone else feel as bad as they do. I know a lot of people share this theory; it’s one that makes the most logical sense even if it is a pretty daft way to think. Surely you will just feel worse in the long run for trying to ruin someone’s day? Going further than that and trying to ruin the rest of their adult life, that’s where I think the person gets really pathetic. Think about it people, heck even talk about it, don’t actually set about doing it. That makes you a fool.

I do, however, have another theory which is a little less widely accepted...it may be purely in my head, but I’m sure other people will agree. This theory is that people are idiots; people have nothing else to do and find it fun, that makes them b-tards in my book. I mean, saying something a little rude would be almost alright; I don’t think there is a single person in the world who has never said anything bad about someone. Perhaps babies, but tiny humans don’t count as proper people, and as such don’t come into this. I simply don’t personally see the appeal of being a bitch but I guess some people just like to ruin a day. On the note of having the moral high ground I simply believe that these particular people don’t care, they want to frustrate others and don’t mind looking like a fool in the process. To be honest I think that makes them look even more stupid than they did to begin with!

Bleh, now that’s out of my head a little bit I can carry on with a day of avoiding stupid people. Thank Goddess it’s a weekend.

Days when I do not feel like writing

Sometimes I get those days where I do not feel like writing, and something inside me often says that really these are the days in which I should write. There are times, I think for us all, when we just need to think. Generally speaking (for me at least) this need comes at the most awkward and useless at times; that is, it usually presents itself when I am nowhere near a computer. Sometimes this can be cured by the simple use of pen and paper, though that usually leaves grammatically terrible illegible results.

I believe that everybody should write down everything, for several reasons. First, because I am very nosey and want to know about what people are thinking, but second because it’s often much easier to figure out what on earth your brain is trying to tell you if you write it all down. That way, at least in my case, you don’t forget all about what it was that you were trying to think about. The joys of being a scatter brain.

So to everyone who is reading this (I doubt there are many of you) I advise writing. Even on days when you don’t feel like it. Who knows what might happen.