BIRTHDAY FUN

Meet Teana the Teapot. Isn't she beautiful?

I have always said that I am an 80 year old in a 22 year old's body! This is my first ever teapot and I am very excited about my tea lurvin'!

I also received "Woof", a mini teapot and cup all-in-one job! I used it in bed this morning whilst watching Slumdog Millionaire that I got for my birthday also.

When I got home Monday night after V Festival I could finally get to open all my cards and presents! It was really hard not actually getting anything on your birthday but I coped. Just about! I opened the Amazon box that I had and gave the books I ordered to Rob, my brother, who proceeded to give me the money and then the books back (symbolic present giving!!lol) I got The Kite Runner, The Bookseller of Kabul (there is a theme running there), The Time Traveller's Wife (which I am reading at the moment) and Windsor Castle by Olwen Hedley which I need to use to swot up for work and my assessment at work so I can tour guide (this a long story and owed to another blog! Emotional trauma isn't in it!!)

I also got in addition to Slumdog Millionaire the DVD, The Young Victoria- I watched it last night with my mam and it made me go all squee and believe in love again... gawd I love historical romances... I feel a film post coming up on this film! And I also was given Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind- from where my blog's name really comes from. My copy has gone all grrr and doesn't work anymore- I was devastated!

My mam (I know it was my mam because my dad doesn't do gal's clothes!) gave me a wicked new outfit, cardigan and a cobalt blue V-neck top (which I tend to suit (yay big(ish) boobs!).

I also got some money to spend when I go into London with my mam on 12th Sept to see the musical Oliver! in the West End (this was my present to her for her 50th!)

Now... my friends... My friends from uni who I have only known for three years got me down to a tee. (Now this isn't about whether I got presents or not...) Hatty gave me a book of poetry, a bottle of wine, the prettiest shell bracelet ever and a Piglet car smelly thing. This is SOOOO me! I spend half my blog posting away about poetry and my wine drinking prowess which she has seen in action. I have also adopted a bit of a thing for buying air smelly things for my car- the latest one is a monkey smelling like bananas. I keep buying them everytime I see them. I am sure this is a new car owning thing but Hatty obviously got my obsession there!

SJ gave me a book token (again duh! how me!) Plus I always feel guilty about buying books when I should buy petrol or more sensible items or even save *gasps*. Plus this pair of earrings soooo me and dark and gothic :) She said it was a cop out present because she had to send it and had to buy practical things, but to me it just shows she knows me.

My two best friends both forgot it was my birthday and failed to text me or contact me in any way. Now I forgot SJ's birthday but I text her and then visited her to make up for it. It was at the time when I was dealing with work experience/unpaid leave issues as well as my Master's funding application was going through. She understood. Thankfully.

One of my-best-friends-who-forgot text me four days late with just "sorry I forgot, happy birthday!" Not even what did you do or did you have a good day! The other has since text me and we are meeting up tonight but no acknowledgement... I guess we drift apart and it is a silly thing to be all grrr about but I just thought as my supposed good friends they would take a bit more of an interest in my life. :(

I will get over it though I am sure in the end! I can't hold grudges- I have a memory of a sieve/goldfish/amnesiac etc!!

Other than that I had a wicked birthday! Thanks everyone (for a great weekend, a great post-birthday curry with the rents and post-post-birthday drink and dinner with workies :P Love ya Paddy ;>)

V Festival

1) The Music
What did I see? A lot, but I missed a lot too.... There is just no way you can see evrything! It is nigh on impossible! We saw James Morrison, Keane, The Killers, Lily Allen, Taylor Swift, Razorlight, The Wombats, The Enemy, Katy Perry, The Ting Tings, Ocean Colour Scene, Paolo Nutini, Starsailor, Bjorn again and the end of Elbow I think!!

My top five acts were:
1) The Killers
2) Lily Allen
3) The Ting Tings
4) The Script/Keane (becuase I do not want to miss either one out!! lol)
5) Bjorn Again (ABBA tribute band)

The Killers were fab! They played all their best songs and my voice was soooo unbelievably horse afterwards! We were drunk, my friend Hatty and Bradders were there with my cousin and brother! We were jumping around like loony toons (sp??) and singing the lines at each other!! AMAZING!! This was one of four bands I wanted to see and they did not disappoint!

Lily Allen was frickin' awesome! I mean exactly like the album and she sung "Fuck You"- a great song on her album as well as covering "Toxic" by Britney Spears and nailed that too! It was a complete Me moment :)

The Ting Tings- a new band that I have loved from day one and I knew their album off by heart and again they played exactly like their records- fabulous stuff! Really got the crowd going in the hot heat!

The Script were a real surprise. I wasn't that fussed but boy! They were great! They were a little drunk but having a ball on stage and it was contagious! Keane were my back up choice because Oasis failed to turn up. (A sore point- don't get me started). They were GREAT! They played my favourite song of theirs (and it is in my top ten favourite songs of all time too)- Bedshaped! It was birthday and it was the ideal gift (the only one I got on that day apart from shots of alcohol :P). They finished on a cover of "Under Pressure" by Queen which really pleased my brother who is a huge Queen fan and compensated for me dragging him to see them!

Now Bjorn Again is a little bit of an odd entry. They were just a watcher while we drunk beer and got warmed up or the bands we actually came to see but they were amazing and it was where this photo was taken! We were all up and dancing to the ABBA classics and it was just a real motivator for the day! A good kick off for my birthday! Plus it coincided with a little celebratory dance I had on sneaking in a bottle of vodka, lemonade and lime in (they weren't allowing any alcohol in!)

2) The Company
I went with my brother, my two cousins and all their friends and this was just an ideal group of people who all loved music and were a great laugh. Considering my brother and I only really knew most of the group from a couple of nights out in London we got on really well... especially since we were all living together so closely!!

From using plastic bottles as loo paper (yes, you did read that correctly) to severe drunken frolics of collapsing chairs, incomprehensible banter and bad singing we had a ball.


3) The Toilets

Eeewwww. Enough said I think. But I survived it just about!! They were gross though and definitely worse than I expected! It is the summary of the condition of man back in the Victorian slums for me with these out houses as iot were and a pile of tents/slums lol!! I did enjoy the camping part though and am considering adopting it as a method of holidaying in the future!

4) The Aftermath
WE ARE GOING AGAIN! The tickets are booked, so V Festival 2010 here we come! It is going to be immense!

Another side effect of this is (on the negative side) I have been left to do all the washing and tidying up. Grrrr.... And I still haven't been paid back by my brother. I am far too nice a debt collector... I need to employ someone else to do it for me!! lol

But what a weekend, and what an unusual birthday!! Great times!!

The World of the Victorian Naturalist

On pondering Old Fogey's comments on Christina Rossetti's poem in my previous blog, it come to mind of my friend's (Slarky) art work. For her degree, where she "only got a Desmond" as she put it (2:2)- outragous if you ask me!!- she did this piece on the "Victorian Naturalist". It is amazing, and I am duly posting it here.

This is what she says about it:

"THE WORLD OF THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST.

Using the 150th anniversary of the publication of Darwin’s The Origin of Species as a starting point, I wanted to visually explore the idea of the Victorian Naturalist and the paraphernalia associated with it, to show to what extent Victorian naturalists were harming the environments and species which they sought to learn about with their obsessive collecting for both acedemic and decorative purposes."

Old Fogey says that the poem instructs us what to do, but that Christina may not have followed it herself, which is entirely possible. However, I said that her sentiment in the poem is completely at odds with her time. The Victorians, as Slarky says, were harming the environments around them for knowledge and decoration. Even if Rossetti didn't always avoid squatting the odd fly or squashing the odd spider, she voiced an opinion little held and even less liked.

Check out her website here: http://www.charlotteslark.co.uk/index.html

POEMS FOR CHILDREN

OK, so we probably know that I like Christina Rossetti's poems A LOT. Like a lot, not as much as Emily Dickinson, but a lot right?

I was in a charity shop last week and bought a 1969 copy of Christina Rossetti's poetry "for young readers" called Doves and Pomegranates. It is a really nice book. It is the sort of book that I would have loved as a child. At primary school we were always having a poetry day or something so I had this one book of poetry and I always HAD to pick something out of this book as it was the only one I had. It served me well, but by year 6 it was a little immature and I had used all the good ones! This book I am going to keep for my kids (if I have any) and they can use this book to death too.

HURT NO LIVING THING

Hurt no living thing:
Ladybird, nor butterfly,
Nor moth with dusty wing,
Nor cricket chirping cheerily,
Nor grasshopper so light of leap,
Nor dancing gnat, nor beetle fat,
Nor harmless worms that creep.

> This was particularly apt as I was lying in the bath reading this poem when I noticed a spider *eugh!* scuttle in through the slightly ajar window and I was wondering whether to kill it, capture it and throw it out the window to certain death or to just let it go but watch it wearily.

I watched it wearily for ten minutes before I couldn't take it any longer and got out the bath. And the water was still warm and the book unfinished. What a very rude spider that still lives.

Book Review: A Thousand Splendid Suns, by Khaled Hosseini

A Thousand Splendid Suns is written by Afghan author Khaled Hosseini (followed his debut The Kite Runner which I haven’t read- but I have ordered from Amazon based on how magnificent this book is!)

The book has two main characters- Mariam and Laila. It is through these two women we get an insight of the female world of Afghanistan. Mariam, as an illegitimate child, had a fairly unhappy childhood and when her mother hangs herself her father and his wives marry her off at the age of 15 to Rasheed, a much older shoemaker from Kabul. After she miscarries a child, Rasheed becomes abusive towards Mariam. In contrast to Mariam, Laila has a fairly happy upbringing to begin with. Although her mother is a depressive and idolises her sons too much, Laila enjoys a great relationship with her dad, has a great friend Tariq (who becomes a constant reminder of the child casualties of war- he lost his leg as a young child to a mine) and is highly intelligent with a good education. After a series of striking but brutal plot forming events (including the death of Laila’s parents) Laila ends up marrying Rasheed and living with Mariam. The brutality and torment Rasheed puts the women through is horrific. He makes them burqas to hide their identities (it is one of the most soul destroying parts of the books when Laila mirrors Mariam’s words when they both admit to feeling safe behind the burqas.

(To show how this novel struck me was when I was at work a lady with really pretty eyes came in wearing a burqa and her husband was really rude and brushed past her, shouted at her and left her to deal with the kids it made me wonder... what is her life like? I only finished the book the night before but it made me wonder and it still does...)

Anyway, back to the point... Hosseini vividly describes what life is like for women in a society where they are valued only for their reproductive ability and home-making skills. The marriage of both Laila and Mariam to Rasheed just becomes daily torture and their home is a prison that they are charged with to keep by fear and physical recrimination if they fail.

What is particularly novel about Hosseini is how he depicts the two women and their burgeoning friendship. For a man he really nails the relationship between women on the head and also how females’ minds work. It is hard to write from another gender’s perspective and many women fail to write a good solid male character and men find it hard to write a convincing female character. However, Hosseini really wins this one. In fact I thought he was a woman until I read the author’s blog bit on the back cover. Just an aside here: The bit that finally made me, the hard old nut crack, was when Laila returns to the village and reads Mariam’s father’s letter that he left for her. Only the reader knows the significance of the videotape and it really wrenched at my heartstrings. Anyone who has read the book and not cry at that... well, heartless is what you are.

Anyways, I shan’t reveal too much more of the plot as I do not want to spoil it for you, but it is a real eye opener and a terrific story. Read it. This book has already made it into my top ten I think. Or at least the top ten books that opened my eyes. The last one I can remember doing so is The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood so I am going to make a few comparisons between the two (plus they have a similar story plot of a) an oppressive patriarchy, b) female protagonists, c) they conjure up a world that is recognisable in some manner but not really known of, and d) they have deep psychological, bloody and violent content within.

What Hosseini has got right about this book with I think Atwood failed in was making it seem real. I suppose that Hosseini had the added benefit that the war in Afghanistan is still raging. There is no conclusion in sight in the real Afghanistan, unlike in his book where he actually paints the reader a picture of how he would like Afghanistan to be. For all the brutality, evil and death there is that underlying buoyancy that makes the reader feel that something has to go right. (Believe me I had to keep going to find a good happy bit to finish reading on for the night otherwise I would have a nightmare!!) Atwood never intends for The Handmaid’s Tale to be happy or optimistic. When she concludes her story with the protagonist escaping the chauvinistic and sexist society she lives in (a futuristic look at where hardline feminism will end up- in a world dominated by men), so the reader thinks “Yay! It is all over!” Nope. The epilogue completely shatters that view. Like a hundred years later the tapes she made of her story are played back the reader sees the beginnings of oppressive patriarchy rearing its head again. Bam! That happy ending is over. We are doomed to repeat ourselves.

Natasha Walter (hardline feminist too by the sounds of her) of the Guardian notes that Hosseini is particularly skilled in telling a story that seems unbearable but his direct tone and “the sense that you are moving to a redemptive ending” makes it “slip down easily”. I agree with her on this point, but she soon turns on this “sense (of)...moving to a redemptive ending” and says that Hosseini’s desire to believe in the deliverance of Afghanistan means that “the ending verges on the schmaltzy”. She continues to write that “Hosseini's understandable longing for a beautiful return to life for the oppressed people of Afghanistan has made for an ending that is just a little flimsy”.

I disagree with her here. This book has been more than a story in some ways. Hosseini has given us a history lesson, a real, down to earth, based on people, society and life in Afghanistan, a country that the West has little or no understanding of. I will hold my hands up and agree that I knew next to nothing. This book has educated but it hasn’t been rammed down our throats. It is just fact, story, fact, story. The combination of both working well and the ending- well, the book was published in 2007 and there is still no end to the story now in 2009. He ends it with that sense of prevailing optimism that has been present throughout the book and he ends with his own idealised version of his home country. He has transcended the real world and has given us his view of what Afghanistan should be, or perhaps more accurately, what it could be. The ending is a statement of one Afghan’s dream for his country. Schmaltzy? Flimsy? I don’t think so.

So at the end of the book I was shook up, battered and bruised (figuratively speaking) myself. Sleepless nights from either reading what happened next so gripped to the story or not being able to sleep for having finished on a particularly harrowing part... my oh my... what a novel.

The Humorous and True Story of Beryl the Breakdown

Beryl is my car. I love my car and I keep her clean and well stocked with sweets and cool tunes. I give friends lift in her, I pop to the shops for Mam in her and I like driving myself to work. I make her go fast and I make her go slow, I take her round corners in fourth gear (okay, okay so maybe that wasn't a great idea) and I forget to take my handbrake off on hill starts... but otherwise she is a very well looked after lil automobile and leads a happy existence.

However.

One Thursday night whilst travelling to a pub in Iver with travelling companion JR, the rain lashed down and the windscreen wipers whooshed back and forth in a blur. We were traversing down some windy rural roads when Beryl hits some pretty big puddles and I think "ARGH". But she lives. An hour later on winding our way to another pub following some other school mates, Beryl dies on a corner of a road in a place with fields all around with no lights.

JR, who I promised a lift to had to go out in said lashing rain and heave/push/ stagger against/ generally curse at the car to get into a pub car park. On sitting back in the car again, drenched and less than amused. Well, OK, this is JR. He was cool about it and more worried about the car. We thought it may have been the puddles and all. Sean came out and we tried "roll starting it". To be honest they could have done with a better and more experienced driver and some street lights to help the matter. (I didn't know what a roll start was.) This was interesting, After pushing it up the inclining car park and letting me roll whilst I pump the accelerator and do various things with the keys and clutch only to fail and repeat pushing her back up the car park again to let me go and do it all again when she failed again (!!). Needless to say it failed. AGAIN. About an hour later, drenched, fed up and in need of a pint we left car in pub car park and proceeded to pub. Good night was had by all.

On returning to car with Daddy the next day, would Beryl start?

Nope.

Thankfully Iver MOT place was ten minutes drive from there and we dropped keys off with the strict instructions to fix it. They have. It was the foot pump (?) and it wasn't injecting petrol to the engine blah de blah it wasn't the huge puddles I drove through blah de blah gobbledygook etc etc...
£207 later she is at home and well. On the plus side though, they did fix my central locking system for which I am eternally grateful. One button and I can get everyone in the car!! yay!

What a palaver!

Spendaholic

Okay, I think I may have to admit that I am a spendaholic.

Sigh.

I am again facing the prospect of my overdraft. Yes. It was pay day only 11 days ago. Grrrrr. However in that time I have had to pay for car repairs (yes, my car is two months in my possession). On the other hand, I think the inner tubes for my bike, the four books I bought off Amazon and two new CDs were not as necessary. Damn! lol yet I know I will do it again next month!! But next month I will be going down to two days a week *argh* so money troubles really start for real!!

However, books keep me entertained = not going out = not spending money = cheaper in the long run???

*coughVFESTcough* Yeah... that is another hole in the bank... and I almost bought new tap shoes today *why oh why!* I think it was spending time with my fellow spendaholic friend who, despite now working, still has a monthly subsidy from her rents, her car was bought for her and her insurance is being paid for her too...

Anyhow... wails of woe of wads of £$£$£$£$ have thus ended....

Piercings/Tattoos

LEO VIRGO

Now I have a clamouring to get a tattoo done... Well, it isn't so recent and I even know what I want and where... I want there above star signs tattoo'd on my wrists (little finger side).

HOWEVER.

My Mam will actually kill me and bury me in the back yard if I got one. So. Really it is not an option.

Therefore... shall I get my ears pierced again? I have just been paid, I am not affluently rich but there is dough to play around with rather than save it??? Hmmmm... I shall investigate tomorrow methinks...

I want second holes on my lobe and a single piercing through the middle of the lip of my left ear...

Anyhow... I am born on the cusp meaning that I am both Leo and Virgo... I think that I am very much both of these star signs although they are definitely very different. I think this is where I often run into trouble when knowing what to do or who I am.

Here is the "synopsis" of being a Leo:

Characteristics:
Leo’s may have strength and courage like a Lion, but they can also have egos too, and like to take control. Their protectiveness can also come across as being bossy and interfering. On the positive side, a Leo can be generous and protective to those around them. They also have an optimistic, enthusiastic, outlook on life. One of their most important leadership qualities is good organisation.

Leo people are grand, confident and generous, although you tend to be egocentric and can be somewhat overbearing. Glamorous Leo enjoys a thoroughgoing love of life and all its pleasures. As the Sun bestows light and life without favour, the benefactor of every living thing on this earth, so you, genial host and natural entertainer, get inordinate pleasure from helping others enjoy life as much as you do. Though full of ambition and enthusiasm, Leo has to admit to a lazy streak and, given the opportunity, will take the easy way out, especially when a situation offers little fun or glory. This is something lazy, luxurious Leo needs to watch.

Determined Leo, a fixed sign, can be rather stubborn and resistant to imposed changes. In many ways this is a plus, for it gives you the stamina to accomplish things in life, due to your tenacity. You can stick with projects when other more easily distracted souls lose concentration or interest. This stubbornness, which you prefer to think of as consistency and determination, is, however, dictated more often than not by your ego.

It is easy for pleasure-loving Leo to become addicted to rich food, and as the cat gets older you find yourself putting on weight. Your gregarious nature makes it hard to enjoy or stick to boring, solitary physical fitness routines. Dancing, swimming, and tennis are your favourites, though you are quite keen on sports of all kinds.

Compatibility:
Leo’s don’t always like to share the spotlight, and are also very competitive so get on best with star signs that won’t overshadow them. A Leo will generally be compatible with other Fire signs (Aries and Sagittarius) and Air signs (Gemini, Libra, and Aquarius).Although Air and Fire signs seek it for different reason, both find common ground in their love of freedom.

Symbol: The Lion
“They swagger about displaying the fruits of luxury- but the sentiments of their honest hearts are without guile.” (Manilius, 1st Century)
Throughout history the Lion has been known as the king of the jungle, and revered for its strength and courage. Similar qualities are seen in a Leo, who also enjoys leadership and being the centre of attention.

Element: Fire
Those born under Leo are associated with Fire, and thus a fiery personality. It can also indicate creativity, and a great enthusiasm for life. Although on the flip side, fire signs can easily burn out of control.

Here is the "synopsis" of being a Virgo:

Characteristics:
A Virgo likes routine, which enables them to be practical and industrious workers. They are also very good at absorbing information. On a personal level, Virgo’s are at their happiest when looking out for other people. Virgo’s can also be mistaken for introverts, as they are very shy and modest, partly due to an awareness of their own short-comings. Although modesty is a known aphrodisiac, few Virgo’s will react to any love interest without some self doubt. The negative side to their character can also find them too conservative, and weighed down by the details of a project. Disappointment, however, can harden you into a cynic and a skeptic. Virgo consequently becomes quite critical with self as well as circumstances, due to the effect of such disappointments on a sensitive and discriminating nature.

The planet Mercury, governing our intellect and communicative faculties, rules Virgo, where tradition also places the house of its exaltation, so Virgins have a truly intellectual, critical and analytical approach to life. Communication is important and you love books and writing.

A critical eye for detail, combined with your ceaseless pursuit of perfection, endows you with an irresistible urge to improve everything and everyone (whether they need it or not!). Although you often have altruistic motives in helping others, you do have a teensy tendency to act the martyr when your offerings are ignored. It is not unheard of for you to use guilt as a weapon. Helping others to improve is one thing, my dears, but pushing them toward goals of perfection they cannot hope to accomplish is quite destructive, as well as impossible.

Health-conscious Virgo makes an effort to stay physically fit and you don't mind repetitive health routines.You enjoy tennis, racquetball, swimming, sailing, fishing, and biking, even though athletically you are not overly competitive. It's just that you always seek to perfect whatever skills you may have, primarily for the sake of doing a thing well.

You are also subject to black moods and despondency from time to time, which can adversely affect others in your vicinity.

Compatibility:
For centuries the zodiac elements have been used to describe basic personality traits in human nature, and this can be quite accurate in predicting which star signs will be most compatible. Virgo’s are known for their dependable natures and it’s this trait they look for in others. They will find this in the other earth signs, (Taurus and Capricorn). The water signs of Pisces, Scorpio, and Cancer are also compatible with earth signs. The nature of earth signs means they are often ‘guiding’ water signs towards achieving their goals, while in turn, water signs can help mould or release emotions in an earth sign.

Symbol: The Virgin
“She has a tongue which charms, a mastery of words, and not so much wealth as the impulse to investigate the causes and effects of things.” (Manilius, 1st Century)
The true origins of the name are unknown, but Virgo has most often been associated with the symbol of a virgin, or specifically the Virgin Mary. As the sixth sign of the zodiac, Virgo is known not only as the god of fertility, but of agriculture too, as its sign falls in harvest time.

Element: Earth
Linking a star sign to an element occurs mainly in Western astrology, with Virgo being an Earth sign. Earth is also a strong indicator of stability and grounding in a star sign. Another buzzword associated with Earth signs is ‘physical’, which refers to their nature and a need for physical security. They share a need for security with water signs, but these signs seek it on an emotional level.

Well, I think summarises me quite nicely....

As someone said to me at work the other day after discussing horoscopes... that each star sign must have like a billion people of that same sign and that we can't all be like that... hmmm I wonder whether people are all that different inherently... We have all got to get along for a reason, right?

So it is August eh?

Where has time gone????? It is now August!! That means it is 1 month and twenty days till I start my Master of Arts degree in History, 22 days to my birthday, 21 days to V Music Festival...

They seem to have been deadlines way ahead in the future and actually it isn't. Startling stuff huh?

Anyhow, updates of my life so far...

Two "Leaving Do's".

Now I do not adapt well to change it must be said, but two proper full on characters of the castle have left and it is sad. Pete and Johnny D were legends and the castle is most definitely quieter (I feel I have gone deaf!!) Anyways apart from the ansgt at them leaving, their leaving do's were fab! I really enjoyed having a good booze up with the students and fellow work mateys after work resulting in two people gettigng ridiculously drunk on whiskey shots *shakes head* and then who gets lumbered sitting in the middle of the inevitable puke twins? MOI! haha!! It was Olly with his dry wretching and bellowing belches- he is tiny!! Where did it come from!? It was a good night and oodles of food to go round!!
Johhny D's leaving do was a night filled with dramas!! One had a fit before getting to the restaurant and then there was an argument over the bill!! GAR! However, all was well in the end. It was certainly a do to remember.

BOOKS.

I am reading again. Four books this week. Okay, none of noteable worth most would say, but they were complete escapism. There was one about horse racing and love (okay all my books are romances!!), one about illegitmate child and unmarried mam/farming people post-World War Two in Yorkshire, one about a woman who has a car crash, loses her family, fiance and use of her legs and then falls unsuspectingly in love with a man who was in the other car... and the last one was an Erica James novel- God! I love this woman! Complete holiday reading!! A widowed woman facing up to her husband's death, finds new love etc.... blah de blah! You know the rest!!

DRIVING!

Yay! I am beginning to love the driving. Apart from a small scuff/prang/crash with a jeep which the rental do not know about, all is good!! I can park on our driveway now with speed, grace and ease!! No mean feat I will tell ya with four cars on the drive!

MANAGEMENT SUCK!

One minor falling out with one manager and he is STILL ignoring me slash giving me evils. Men. They are such children. He is a bit of a tit at times, though a pretty fair and cool manager. And I was rather waspish- I told him to start acting like a manager *ouch*. I blame my father for this trait and my mother for speaking whatever I think coming uncontrollably out of my mouth (and also for my temper).
However, epic backfire on this though from my point of view- I am no longer to wear my trousers (not uniform issue) so I have to wear my skirt regardless of weather. I though yesterday was going to be cool and windy (so said mr. weatherman with his 14-16 degrees!!) so I prepared myself with the most ridiculously thick tights imaginable (Laura Batty would have been proud) and nobly stood in the same post where the argument first took place. The bloody British weather decided to be sunny so was consequently baked by 2 o'clock (20 degrees at least!) and the stupid manager wasn't even in!! Grrrrr... I also have sinking feeling that ticket staff have been told of rebuttal and there is definitely some frostiness on their part. *yikes like I care* Well obviously I do, 'cos I am blogging about it but you know... I will get over it.

SILENT DISCO.

This is the best concept ever! It was a really good night. We went to "Sceince Museum Lates" In London. It was slightly marred by my brother getting a little odd towards the end of the evening and not wanting to join in with some murmuring protestations that he had swine flu, to which I laughed and said "Sure, but you still feel well enough to go and buy yourself another beer". (And lo and behold, no swine flu has appeared since...) There was some heartbreak though for one guy- unrequited love-poor thing. Also because we a large group there was issues deciding what we should do. For future reference ('cos yes, we are going back!) we will know what to do- divide and conquer as they say! All that said I did have a really good night out and it was fairly cheap too with 2 4 1 burgers at Gourmet Burger Kitchen, a Young Persons Railway Travelcard, and free entry into the event = EPIC WIN! I especially enjoyed the Michael Jackson dance competition! It was just cool to hang with the young wardens.

ITALY.

I am definitely planning on a solo trip to Italy when I have found out the dates of my university course. I have been really wanting to do this for ages and so I bloody well am! I just need to decide a course of action. I want to see it all, but I may just have to stick to one city for the time being!!
I have been wanting to travel so much! There are so many places to see and to experience, but I just do not have the balls to do it! But Italy has really been nagging at me for the last two years. Spurred on my a friend who has just toured Italy and then southern Europe over two and a half weeks I think I will do it myself.
Any suggestions of what to do, where to go are gratefully accepted!!

DAD'S BIRTHDAY.

It was my Dad's 49th Birthday yesterday. It was good. We had Chinese, drunk copious amounts of wine, ate The Extremely Chocolatey Colin the Caterpillar from Marks and Spencer with make sift candles because Mam had misplaced our 'Candle Box' where keep decorations from cakes spanning twenty years!! We still have the ballerinas from my birthday cake I had when I was 5. My Mam had made me a stage! It was pretty fab!! I am still impressed by it now!! And a castle, a teddy bear, trains, football pitches... she was pretty damn good!!
My Dad is notoriously hard to buy for. So he got a bery cool pair of new jeans from me, a cool pair of new Nike trainers from Mam, some Roos Kemp DVDS from Rob (long story to be dictated in a new post!!), gardening stuffs like kneeling pad, a brand spanking new and very hot trowel, items for his 'shed patio' where he will duly hide out forever with a cider and his fishing gear... He also does most of the cooking in this household so a Best of British Cookbook and a mortatr and pestle to knock up his sauces and ground up his new herb garden he was given too.
All in all I hope to think he had a good birthday. In contrast to Mam's 50th it was definitely quieter and snaller in scale so I hope he didn't feel too hard done by.

Signing Off...

It is my one weekend off of three weeks so I am going to enjoy it. I had a long lie in this morning to catch up on all the partying of the last week and a bit, a good old long soak in the bathtub- that was great, texted people... still need to text others... I am just chilling really and being lazy... Next week it is dissertation research preliminaries and a lot of exercise... I am thinking Swimming Friday morning and a nice long walk round Black Park...

Ciao For Now XX