In the papers

Well I was in the papers yesterday, along with Helen and Dean and a group of other year 11s - we were singular and then they had a group photo. The photo of me wasn't bad which is nice. I was the only one they quoted (apart from Miss Pearson), which is a pity as Helen was far more sincere than I was, lol.
Apparently I'm doing Physics at Strodes but it's the first I heard of it, I thought I was doing Psychology, lol. Also they missed my Maths A*, but then they missed my English C so I suppose it's fair, but that one was because he rushed to another question so I didn't get to mention it (Not that I minded :P). I don't know if they missed/mistaked any other results/new subjects since I don't know what the others are doing. Oh yes, and in the group photo the caption congratulates Kelly, Rachel, Danny, Hayley and Ben, saying they are 'celebrating their results with head teacher Jackie Pearson', they completely missed Scott who's standing between Kelly and Rachel, lol. I was amused by the number of mistakes in one short article :P.
So yeah...
Yesterday I didn't even know I was in the papers til Carol told me one of her collegues had mentioned seeing me in it, so me and mum went out (this was at sort of 9pm-ish) to try and find it at one of the supermarkets. Sainsbury's was closed but we managed to find it at Tescos so that was good :). So yeah, enrollment today. Hope all goes well. No idea what I'm supposed to do, lol. Well Carol says they 'hold your hand' most of the way so I should be fine with that much guidance :P.
May all your endings be happy :) (Can you tell who's been watching too much Shrek 2?)

More results...

Saw Rachel today, swapped results. She got 7 A*s! (2 As and the rest Bs), hate her! lol.
Yeah... so didn't do much today, felt really knackered this morning for no apparent reason and so slept on and off for most of the morning. Felt a bit better at about 4-ish and so went into town to get the make up I wanted from Boots, came home and now it's 6... So yeah. Don't know why I feel so odd this week, I'm being all tired all the time and comfort eating biscuits... not a good habit. Lol, I make it sound like I'm pregnant. Probably PMS, or I'm being tested on by mice or something. (If you don't understand this then you need to read/watch The Hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy).
Enrollment tomorrow, hopefully all goes well and I can do the subjects I wanted.
So yeah... Hope everyone's enjoying the end of their holidays. College starts next week!

A Love Song

I'm strange
And you're strange
Don't want you to change
No way
Ah ha ha ah

Why can't I explain
Flying to the sun
Without a plane
When you're here
Ah ha ha ah

And don't you worry
'bout me babe
Cuz I'm right here
For you to say
Hope you know
You inspire me
You're a flower
And I'm a bee
I need you
Ah ha ha ah

All this
You do for free
Give me hope
And I can see
You're so true
Ah ha ha ah

And don't you
Worry bout me babe
Cuz I'm right there
For you to say...
-fade-

- Section of lyrics from ' You're so true' - Joseph Arthur

Results!

Well, haven't managed to blog since I got my results til now. I'm reasonably happy with them. 2 A*s (plus the Maths A* from last year), 2 As, 5 Bs and a C. Mum and Dad were saying that maybe I would have got more As if I spent less time on Art and maybe I should have... But I probably wouldn't have managed to get an A in Art if I'd done that... Yeah, anyway.
So yeah, results recieved, enrollment next week and school the week after! Holidays are going quick. Bit nervous about starting at College but I'm sure I'll cope.
Still have no idea what I want to do when I grow up though I am getting the the 'grown up' stage fairly quickly... pity; lol.
Things I'd love to do but will probably never go for: Website design, Some sort of experienced Art thing - for films type of thing, e.g. Weta Workshop type stuff -, Experienced Animation/Visual effects, Acting/Singing (This one is a pretty much definate 'will never do') and Fashion design (Ditto, because I'm not too inventive).
Yeah, a lot of them seem to be to do with Art, I really don't know... I think I might end up coming back to these sometime along the line but I don't think I can do them now as I'm not planning to do Art A-level *sigh*.
Well, what I'm probably going to do is go on to Uni and do Accounting. I've been advised towards this since Accountants are always needed and it pays well. Plus I think I probably would enjoy it.
I've figured out that I think I'm a bit more creative than imaginative, I can take something and rearrange it, add ideas inspired by previous memories and other things I've seen but I find it quite hard to have completely original imaginative ideas for things.
Perhaps that's why I'm not really going for the whole Art thing. If I didn't want to do so many subjects than maybe I would choose Art but hey, all is decided now. I mean, not really til enrollment but I am set against doing Art even if I would be interested in it...

Things I would like to do sometime if my life allows:
1. Learn Chinese
2. Take an advanced Art course and do some sort of work in that area for a time
3. Learn more advanced HTML/XHTML/CSS etc. and make my own fantastic website from scratch
4. Go back to playing the piano/learn the stuff I've forgotten again and advance
5. Learn more to do with singing and music, possibly learn another musical instrument? - maybe violin, I did try it for a year but remember nothing now, or guitar...

So yeah, my career options are well and truly muddled.

Paper making

is very fun :D. Was making paper with Carol today. First you've got to leave the shredded paper to soak for a few hours then do various things like mash it and squeeesh it and then we used a food processor to mush it and then mix it with water, seive it out, squish it, put it on cloth carefully, and then decorate it! (We used glitter, some sequins, leaves, also some white tissue paper with stuff stamped on - fairies and hearts -, the with tissue paper sort of... dissolved, and left a lovely picture as if we'd stamped straight onto the wet mush - but with far better results) Now we've got to leave it to dry for... I dunno, I think we're leaving it overnight and then ironing it. Yeah...
Also today went to the craft shop, got a diamante type iron on thing that says 'Wicked' (but in a really styley font and stuff), so will probs iron that onto one of my t-shirts some time... Also have done a t-shirt yest which I wore today - cut out a stencil with a craft knife (Rather difficult...) and then fabric painted it on to the t-shirt, it says 'Maybe it's just Epistemophobia'. Fantabulous. Might wear it on Thurs to get my results, like it very muchly :).
So yeah, today good. Right now, life is pretty good ;).

I ate a pickle because I'm emo

Well today it's 'I ate a pickle because the voices told me to', but what the hey, either one's pretty good :P.
This is a rather amusing fwd I received on bebo, just thought I'd post it here ;).
(NB: I do not necessarily approve of all outcomes, I was simply amused by some of them and decided not to edit this - except for some spelling/punctuation mistakes etc.)

Month you were born in:
January - I married
Febuary - I danced with
March - I love
April - I stole from
May - I bitch smacked
June - I kissed
July - I killed
August - I lied to
September - I choked
October - I played with
November - I watched
December - I ate

Day (Number) you were born on:
1 - a spork
2 - myself
3 - my friends pants
4 - a football player
5 - a hobo
6 - p diddy
7 - a llama
8 - my dog
9 - my best friends boyfriend/girlfriend
10 - your mom
11 - a ruler
12 - an ipod
13 - my neighbor
14 - a sandwich
15 - a goat
16 - a pickle
17 - bigfoot
18 - a spoon
19 - a monkey
20 - a squirrel
21 - a ninja
22 - a fireman
23 - a noodle
24 - a gangster
25 - 1000 people
26 - a hockey player
27 - an alien
28 - a mexican
29 - my science teacher
30 - my true love
31 - my uncle

Colour of your shirt:
White - because I keep it gangsta
Black - because he took my taco
Pink - because I'm in love
Red - because the voices told me to
Blue - because I'm sexy and I do what I want
Green - because I hate myself
Purple - because I can
Gray - because thats how I roll
Yellow - because someone offered me 1,000,000 dollars
Orange - because I hate my family
Maroon - because I was drunk
Teal - cuz it was illegal
Brown - because I'm emo
Caramel - cuz Charlie told me too
Striped - cuz your mom said soblack
Pink - because I am kool like that
Other - because I was high
None - cuz I'm to kool for tv

And here are a few results my friends had and messaged me with:

Justin - I lied to a Mexican because he took my taco
Graham - I killed a pickle because I keep it gangsta
Carol - I lied to a ninja because I can

Whoops!

I accidently slept in and missed church today... I think it might have something to do with the fact that I was up for a lot longer yesterday than most days. We had to get up at 5/5.30ish to go and pick mum up from the airport. I was trying out my new shoes because they're really cool and Carol told me I should just wear them because otherwise I'll end up never really wearing them because I'm not used to them. So I did, but they're about 2 inch or so heels (and fantastic!) so I was trying to walk really fast in them (especially because we went to the wrong terminal first...) but it was alright in the end, mum still hadn't even come out from arrivals yet (we left home about the time her plane was supposed to arrive). Yeah. Well she had a good time. She told us about the fact that Kuching is getting all sorts of ash and dust and stuff blown over from Indonesia where they're burning down their trees. Also that Kuching hasn't had rain in a week and is having to have water rationed and sugar also rationed. But they had plenty of sugar because Kim Kim (My Auntie Mary, but I call her Kim Kim - sort of pronounced like a k but sort of like a g...) was given a really large amount of it by a friend. Mum also was telling us about these crabs they were given by a friend of her brother's. 9 crabs, and crabs must be kept alive until they're cooked because otherwise they're not fresh and she said one escaped and hid under the cupboard and mum went to put on her sandals before they went to grab it and it was sitting on her sandals so they nabbed it, lol. Seems a bit different from here...

Anyway, yeah. So yesterday was quite eventful. Went to Wimbledon in the afternoon and went shopping - I tried out lots of jeans and found a pair that were v. comfy, and I got them, also Dad got me a really cool hat. There was one particular one I wanted but in the end we couldn't get it so I ended up getting a black, suede-type hat, I really like it :).

Me in my hat -->

And Carol ended up getting a cool hat too, which I actually half own, because we went into a shop to get a hat for me and came out with one for her (it was the second Accessorize where we got my hat) and Dad and Carol were going 'You can wear it too' and stuff. Yeah.

Haven't done that much recently... did a bit of baking, made a pink pavlova with a blue swirl on the top and a pretty summer fruits cheesecake on Friday.

<-- Blue Swirly Pav

And Cheesecake -->

Will be making a cake for Carol's birthday (monday - tomorrow) and will be setting up a treasure hunt for her late tonight so she has to get to the end to find her prezzie :P. So gonna spend the morning with her ("In the morning, I'm making waffles" - really, I actually am :D) and then she's buggering off to Sparkle's for the rest of the day.

So yeah, bit nervous about my results on Thurs, but still looking forward to them. Seems a bit strange, next thurs - results, thurs after - enrollment, thurs after - start of school. It's so close! Well hopefully all will go well. Must go now, lots to do.

Today's thrills...

Today was pretty cool, took the train up to the place where I'll be going to college. Of course I didn't go to see the college, I went to go to the library lol. So yeah, got out 8 books, some rather interesting ones - 'How to be an irresistable woman', lol not how it sounds, more about making good first impressions and stuff lol, some stuff on careers, some random teen books and an art book - about techniques with coloured pencil. Then I went to a cool little art shop at the end of the high street, and then to this shop I don't remember the name of that had crap stuff like 'fate' and 'palmistry' type stuff but also has some really cool pretty cards, little bits and bobs with cool quotes on them, some nice clothes, some jewellery and yeah... stuff. Then I went on a charity shop crawl, ended up buying this really cool little chinese patterned bag, black with gold and black embroidered pattern, £2.50, I also bought the Dido CD, 'No Angel', £1.99, a book for Carol 0.75p, necklace, £1.00 (which I think I might end up giving to Carol), BFG DVD, 0.49p and I think that's it... Yeah. Then I just had enough money to pay for the train (which I had forgotten about by this point). So yeah. Had various sixpence none the richer songs stuck in my head, I kept singing them under my breath and got a few strange looks from random people down the high street, lol. All in all not too bad a day. Then came back, went, did Barbara's books with Carol (accounting for my aunt's company), now am back home finding food and about to go and talk to Carol while she stews apples in the kitchen. Yeah, I'm being called now, I've got to go, lol. Happy Holidays! (wow that's so cheesy...)

Radioactive Quotations

Just a quick note, I've made a new blog to take all my quotes down on - Radioactive Quotations, so if you want to check out the quotes, that's where to go.

On a different note, just bought the Chronicles of Narnia on DVD (the new one) and so that's my evening planned, lol. Yeah, just got to go quickly add a couple of quotes to my new blog and then I can begin to watch it :D.
Ciao!

I'm back

But not like Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Back from Wales, where I've been since Tues, til Fri.
Trip was pretty good, reminded me of NZ, houses with actual colour, contrasting too sometimes, it was amazing! lol.
Went shopping in little towns - Cardigan and Newcastle Emblem (Name? I think that was it anyway...)
Bought 2 tops - a see through black mesh over neon (ish) blue mesh with a black heart long sleeved top (to be worn over a black tank top) and a purple gypsy type top, also to be worn over a black tank top. Both very nice. Also bought some really lovely earrings from this fantastic shop with bits and bobs - various amazing cool jewellery, lovely painted cards, various things like woodworks, little statues and stuff.
Also went to see a choc factory. Bit juvenile I think, it was the sort of thing that me and Carol already knew, if I'd seen it when I was a bit younger I think I would have enjoyed it more than now.

Bought Tannya a plate with a really cool badger scene on it. Bought Kat a little fairy model thing and bought Dan 'dragon droppings', aka jelly beans.

I don't really remember what else we did... not that much. We had been planning to go horse riding or bike riding or something like that but then we couldn't find a good place for beginner bike riders (e.g. any flat reasonably long road - very hilly, oh so NZ) and Carol didn't really want to horse ride. Plus of course I ended up falling over a couple of times and getting a bit scuffed up... which leads me to...

Injuries
So far in the last two weeks I've managed to obtain several injuries. 2 bad bruises, one above my left knee, one below my right knee. Plus other much more superficial bruises on my lower back. These bruises were caused by me getting stuck upside down in a kayak underwater and trying to get out. Then in Wales I fell over outside Morrisons due to what Dad described as a 'very badly designed path', basically it was like a normal path except in the middle was a small v shapped gap, slightly separating the path into two. I didn't see this as I couldn't see past the shopping bag and was talking to Carol and therefore tripped, twisted my left ankle and got a large graze on my right knee which started bleeding a bit, which I found rather annoying. Later on I did the same thing again but when we were just walking around. This one was a bit worse, the path dipped a bit and stuff so I tripped again, got another graze but on my left knee this time with larger holes gushing blood. Fun fun fun. Also I sprained my right ankle. So much for me no longer being accident prone. Back in NZ I used to twist my ankles all the time and get injured fairly regularly. But I haven't really injured myself much at all in the last 4 years so it was a bit odd. Also I hurt my left wrist, Dad thinks it must be a torn ligament - due to the fact that we now know it's not a break - went to the hospital for an x-ray this morning. 2 hours and them forgetting me once before I got out with the wonderful deduction very nicely put: 'It's not broken. *Insert name of next patient*!' So yeah, not a good week for injuries.

But overall Wales was good.

Sixpence none the richer
Fantastic band. I've been listening to Carol's CD album 'Sixpence none the richer' (I know, very inventive name for the album) and have found it is great! I've always loved 'Kiss Me' but never really listened to the other stuff they've done til now. Now totally loving it. Pity it's on cassette, it means I have to get out the tape player to actually play it rather than ripping it to the computer.
Fave songs on the album: Easy to Ignore, The Lines of My Earth and Kiss Me.

Anyway, gotta go now, just seen the time. Time to sleep now (Or at least get reading til a time more suited for sleeping).
Goodnight.

Phases

Hmm... just randomly thinking about various phases I've been through in my life... Thought I'd list them on here because... well why not.

• Frumpy phase: This was between the ages of about 7 and 11 when I became too old to look cute in any peculiar outfit but was still young enough to wear what mummy told me to. This was a time of lots of comfort, though lacking any style (well apart from 'frumpy) - the sweater material tracksuit trousers and an oversized t-shirt, probably previously belonging to a parent or simply bought for me to 'grow in to' was my main look in these years, of course paired with my various choices of footwear, generally sandals (I didn't like jandals - flip flops for you English people) of some sort, or jellies.
• Black phase: This was when I got to England and went 'oh my goodness, people here buy their own clothes and are supposed to pay attention to fashion!' *gasp, shock horror* and therefore went into an 'I look really fat' mode also, which therefore meant that I looked for clothes to suit my feelings. I'd been told I look nice in black (probably because it's vaguely slimming) and therefore decided that my closet should be black, and bought clothes accordingly. My black phase lasted about a year or two or possibly a bit more before I went 'ooh look pretty colours!' which is the stage I'm at now. Black is a good base but all black and you either stand out really badly as a good person to pick on, or you fade into the wall and are ignored, either way, colour's better :).
• Pea phase: Yes, it was strange. At the age of about 10 I decided that I loved peas and so ate accordingly. Frozen peas, boiled peas but preferably not in between (though I'd eat them anyway), my mother was all too happy to be buying me lots of bags of frozen peas rather than me wanting loads of chocolate or something so it wasn't a bad phase as phases go. So that lasted roughly two or so weeks.
• Strange hair clip thing phase: Yes, for at least two years I had this strange habit of doing my hair by taking a mini claw clip (royal blue in colour - plastic) and clipping it on one side of the front of my hair. There are many pictures, I'm sure, of me with my strange hairdo. Also occasionally did it with 2 clips on either side of my hair. Luckily at this time I had no fringe or I'm sure I would have looked a lot more like a... hmm... eclectic? person.
• Shy and quiet phase: Well, I suppose this is simply a habit rather than a phase but I'll put it here anyway. I'm growing out of it, I'll probably do it at the beginning of college but since I'll know quite a few people it might be alright. I mean I would never have dreamt about hanging around with some of the people I do now back when I was 11. It would be too freaky a thought, my friends weren't that outgoing (but then how many docile 10 year olds are? - I say docile because I know there are many outgoing 10 year olds over here but when I was at my christian school we weren't half as... rowdy and boistrous as some kids are over here). And I never would have thought of going out late at night and waving and shouting to random old guys on boats going past or blowing the party squawker things randomly walking round town, so yeah.

Hmm... can't think of any more. I'll leave it there.

Yesterday

Well yesterday we celebrated Tannya's birthday down at the river, it was lots of fun. Went round town quite a bit going to buy food at McDonalds and going to Waitrose to get sweets and a cake for her. Running round blowing squawkers (annoying people) and also blowing bubbles (bubble liquid and squawkers provided by moi - bubbles made up for annoying loud hoots). Yelling hello to random people on boats. Watching people in the park get annoyed at us for making loud noises. Playing spin the bottle (for a very short time, quite a few of us didn't sit in - including me), rather amused by the two policeman walking round who came over when they heard Sam (I think, maybe Rosie?) ask Curt if he was a virgin, to come see what we were doing, and to hear the answer to Sam's question :P (Yes, if you really want to know) and also were asked (a little later) if they wanted to join in - by Curt. So yeah, all in all it wasn't too bad a night, very much enjoyed by me so HAPPY BIRTHDAY TANNYA! (Sorry Dan stole the cake, though it did give you an excuse to tackle him when Carly had stolen the cake back).

Today

Today was quite good really, really miserable to start with but a very good ending I think.
I went kayaking with my family down on (or in my case in...) the Basingstoke canal. Yes, I hold the record as the first person to capsize. How embarrassing. Well actually it wasn't that embarrassing, more uncomfortable and a bit scary. It can get that way when you're stuck in a kayak upside down in a scummy river. I couldn't get out of it and had to sort of shove my head above water a few times for breath while I unwedged myself from the boat. The lifejacket certainly didn't help as it tried to push me back into the kayak! So, soaked, a bit shaken, and trying to stand in a scummy river on basically a lot of soft mud and moss (mainly large amounts of moss) was not comfortable at all. In the end I joined Dad in the double kayak which was much better. It was only a bit later when I realised I'd lost my glasses (the ones Curt gave me) when I capsized in the river. That got me a bit pissed off but hey, what's capsizing for if not pissing you off or drowning you. One or the other, or both. When I started to go under it was the sort of 'oh no not again' feeling. Last time I kayaked was about 6 years ago in New Zealand at El Rancho on a school trip. I capsized that time too. Though on second thoughts that may have had something to do with the guy who kept bumping into me (yes it was actually accidental, he couldn't really handle a kayak...), but that's not the point. Unluckily it was a shallow river. Therefore I was trying to duck out under the boat but kept getting stuck. Must be a special talent. Eventually I got out of that one and went back to my cabin but hey there you go. Back to today... a bit later we thought we'd lost Carol and I was really worried, we thought she was right behind us but it turned out she'd stopped far behind and we had to paddle for quite a while before we saw her again and I was reasonably freaked out by then. Then I stayed in the front of the double kayak and had Carol behind me telling me what to do (I had Dad telling me what to do before). Unfortunately neither of them go at the same pace as me or tilt when I do etc. so I was still all nyer. A bit later we got out and Carol was going to walk back while me and Dad went down the river a bit more, I got in the back of the kayak without my lifejacket (well with it, but with it behind me making me a little more comfortable) and went down the river with Dad. It was so much better and I really enjoyed it. I think it was just the fact that I got to do it properly on my own, in a kayak far more steady than the singles (because they're far shorter -obv.- and also a bit narrower) and also because I wasn't wearing the lifejacket, which was basically not helping when I fell in the water and was also rising into my face when I sat in the kayak and therefore reducing my breathing. But yeah, in the end it was fantastic, and well... I'd like to go boating again, but kayaking only if I was in a nice and wide (as wide as the double one) kayak that's reasonably steady, which of course you can't ensure. But other kinds of boating could be good.

After that kayaking we went down to a shopping mall and wandered round a little, Dad offered to buy me more sunglasses but I said no thanks (I think it'd have probably made me more depressed, not being able to find ones I liked - I will have a look sometime but I thought it would be better if I left it a bit) but we did go to Hotel Chocolat. Hotel Chocolat is the most amazing, imaginitive, gorgeous, delicious, lovely (and most expensive) chocolate company I've ever seen. Carol gets a taster pack that she orders every few months or so (when she wants it) of about 15 different types of chocolate, and two each to try and rate. That's where we heard of Hotel Chocolat from. So today we bought a lot of chocolate. We bought 6 things which cost 12 pounds all together, plus whatever Dad bought. It was a £2.50 each or buy 3 or more for £2 each. Between me and Carol we got Strawberry and Cream swiss white chocolate mini slabs (two in a pack), Swiss white chocolate mini slabs (2), 'Low sugar Dizzy' praline chocolates (6 in a pack - I chose these but then found them rather disgusting, they didn't say they were dark chocolate praline, I love praline but I despise dark chocolate and therefore found them gross), Caramel buttons (I tried these when they came in one of Carol's taster packs, they're like a large really nice caramel chocolate, all crammed into a little chocolate button, rather unexpectedly amazing), Zebra sweets (6 - Carol chose these so I'm not sure what they are exactly, I tried a bit, I think they're white chocolate and quatro filling with milk chocolate and biscuit on the top), and Belgian milk chocolate mini slabs (2). So yes, quite a bit of chocolate, a reasonable quantity but outstanding quality. So yeah, after that we had pizza for dinner at Pizza Hut, 2 large pizzas and potato wedges between the three of us. I chose the meat feast with added mushrooms and stuffed crust and Carol chose italian base with lots of specially chosen veges and some chicken. We failed to remember how large and filling 'large' was. Therefore we brought, in all, about one pizza back - sort of half of each pizza-. Well that's breakfast for tomorrow sorted, lol.

Next plans

Well on Monday we're going to the beach down at Pool (somewhere near Portsmouth apparently). So that should be fun. Then on Tuesday we're going to Wales for a few days, to do various stuff including visiting a chocolate factory, possibly also doing stuff like swimming, horse riding and anything else interesting we can find. Back on Friday, possibly staying somewhere on the way back Friday night. Then it's all back the usual non-holiday-holidayness, e.g. lazing and doing pretty much zilch except the usual things like cleaning, tidying and doing the washing.

So yes, now I shall go. Wow... I seem to write loads more than I used to on here. I suppose it's because of my brain being to full of junk due to no school and so much free time to write it down in. So yes, I'll go now...

A few things...

Firstly, I was thinking recently (yes I know it's an odd thing to think about) about the songs little kids tease each other with. I remember me and one of my friends being sung about:

Hazel and ____ (removed for security reasons :P) sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G,
First comes love, then comes marriage, then comes a baby in a baby carriage.

And I was thinking, wouldn't it be great it that was really what happened in relationships. Not necessarily kissing in a tree lol but First comes love would be nice, there are so many relationships when it's more First comes lust or First comes a vague inkling of perhaps they're ok and though starting out in a relationship like that is alright for some people, continuing like that for a long time just doesn't really work. And of course then comes marriage, wouldn't that be nice, if people actually got married to people they fell in love with and didn't get married to people they weren't really in love with or gave in to cohabitation with the ones they love instead of marrying them. And of course the baby bit depends on the people and their aspirations but yeah.

Ok, now I've finished talking about that I'll try to remember what I actually meant to blog about...
Oh yeah, I actually dyed my hair again, yesterday, with more purple dye. I think this is as purple as I'll get it without lightening my hair or something beforehand. It's not too bad, looks darker than my norm brunette.
I bought a pretty necklace yesterday too... actually no it was the day before, same diff. It's got a red circle of shell like stuff, a bit of white shell and some of the rust coloured chain hanging down, it's really nice :).
Also yesterday I told Carol I was reading Harry Potter and the art of hiding vegetables. I didn't quite mean it that way, I meant 'Harry Potter' and 'The Art of Hiding Vegetables' rather than 'Harry Potter and the art of hiding vegetables' lol... Yes, bit odd. Carol says I should write 'Harry Potter and the art of hiding vegetables' and make it by Molly Weasley or something and create spells to hide vegetables in self stirring cauldrons lol. I think I'll decline from this honour I think seeing as I'm not particularly good at writing... well anything lol.
I made apple crumble just now :D.
Today I'm going down to the river bout 5 - 5.30 ish to celebrate Tannya's birthday, not sure who else is going but it'll probably be a fair number of us. Wow, I just said 'fair' how strange, generally I wouldn't have said that sentence... Yeah, Anyway... Oh yes and I've bought two bottles of bubble mixture and eight 'squawkers flutes' which are basically those things that make loud horn noises but have sparkly streamery things coming off the end. I may or may or not bring them today...
The people who were staying with us left this morning.
I GET MY BED BACK :D.
Unfortunately it means I actually have to clear my stuff out of Carol's room *sigh*.

I was just listening to 'Joy' by the Newsboys which is a fantastic song. Also am now listening to 'Praises' by the Newsboys both songs are really good... Newsboys are quite a cool christian band, they've written all kinds of great songs including the songs that are about normal-ish 'christian' things and others that are about... other things, lol but with sort of underlying messages, some anyway, others are simply totally nuts, for example: 'Breakfast'

Hold the milk put back the sugar, they are powerless to console, we gather here to sprinkle ashes, from our late friend cereal bowl

...

When the toast has burned and all the milk has turned and Captain Crunch is waving farewell, let the big one find you let the song reming you that they don't serve breakfast in hell.

Two quick clips of lyrics from 'Breakfast', my internet's being screwy so I can't look up the rest of it. I probably won't even be able to post this for a while, might end up posting it tomorrow *sigh*, annoying internet.

I think my favourite Newsboys song is 'Entertaining Angels', not sure why, it reminds me of home I suppose but I'm not really sure why... We listened to it a bit back home, or rather Carol listened to it in her room next to mine...

*Goes to get some apple crumble and switch the modem on and off in the hope it might fix the internet problem*

Hello, I'm back now. I think I need to go to the library today. I've finished the 'Immortals' quartet that I got out and read from the library, I've read it before but Tamora Pierce's fantasy books are so fantastic that they have to be re-read. I also re-read the 'Song of the Lioness' quartet and the 'Protector of the Small' quartet. But that was last week.

This week I read the 'Immortals' quartet (I really want to do some drawings of Kitten sometimes - aka Skysong, she's a baby dragon left in the care of Daine the wild mage who is only about 14 and discovers her magic in the first book, her wild magic is with animals so she can speak to them and heal them and stuff).

I began 'The Art of Hiding Vegetables' which is quite an interesting book in itself, all about... guess what... how to hide vegetables! shocking isn't it, I never would have guessed. Stuff like using baby food if your children are aversed to lumps in their food, use the right colours, e.g. no brocolli in the mashed potato, instead use parsnips or something of the sort, also to make it more interesting mash in carrots to make it orange, add bits to things they eat, e.g. pizza, also call your creations interesting names as children will be more interested in eating something like Fairy's special homemade pie than steak and kidney pie, or whatever. So yeah, I've learnt some rather interesting things, not that I'm planning to have kids to feed in the next couple of years lol. But still quite interesting.

Um... what else have I read this week. Well today I read 'Bindy's world', which wasn't too bad but rather cringeworthy in parts.

Also read 'Harry Potter and the Philosophers stone' yesterday (this is where the 'Harry Potter' part of Harry Potter and the art of hiding vegetables came from). Might go look for some more Harry Potters' to read at the library. And last night I stayed up reading 'The Looking Glass Wars', absolutely amazing, wonderfully creative book, I've read it before but felt like reading it again.

So yeah, that's the books I've read in the last few days.

Since I have nothing better to do I think I'll tell a little bit about Tamora Pierce's books in order to encourage people to read her books as she is totally my favourite author. Though I must say that Christopher Paolini's Inheritance triliogy is also excellent but the third book isn't out yet and Tamora Pierce has a bit more diversity as she's got more books. So yeah anyway...

In chronilogical order, the quartets about Tortall, the Yamani Islands, Scanran and Carthaki are 'Song of the Lioness', 'Immortals' and then 'Protector of the Small'. As a taster I will give a brief but very understating version of each quartet (keep in mind this is 4 books I'm describing and therefore I cannot do them any justice at all).

Song of the Lioness is about a girl called Alanna who has a twin called Thom. They are identical, purple eyes, red hair and 'the Gift' (This is the usual magic that people will have or not have, very often if people do not have the gift then they will not have any magic at all). Alanna is to be sent to the convent to be taught how to be a lady while Thom is to be sent to learn to be a knight; however Thom want's to be a sorceror and Alanna is a more feisty one who loves the stuff that is more to do with 'knight' sort of stuff so Alanna has the idea that they switch places. The sisters at the convent not only teach the girls to be 'ladies' but also teach those who wish to excel in magic how to do so. So they switch places, Alanna has to disguise herself as a boy for 7 years (from the age of 11 to 18) which she finds very difficult but manages, she goes by the name of 'Alan' and she does of course trust some people with her secret, one of her closest friends is Prince Jonathan who finds out her secret when they are fighting demons in the Black City, a good friend - George Cooper, also known as the Rogue who is the 'king of thieves' as it were, also knows because she had to go to him when she was in need of a healing woman when she... 'became a woman' and was a bit confused as she had never really been taught what happens to girls at puberty seeing as she was supposed to be a boy. The healing woman he took her to of course knows, it is his own mother Eleni. But of course being the ones that they are they don't tell anyone. And lastly Coram knows, he is the man who took her to learn to be a knight though she had to trick him at first by hiding under her cloak and saying little on the way there until he decided that he would let her become a knight (he basically raised the twins and therefore could easily tell them apart). So there's a lot of interesting stuff, in the... second book? I think it's the second, she earns her shield by going through the Chamber of Ordeal (An unworldly chamber with it's own 'mind', it cannot be controlled by anyone and decides who is worthy and who is not to become a knight. She is discovered as a woman by everyone and she kills her worst enemy - Duke Roger, a relation of Jonathan, uncle I think..., and yeah. Then she goes on in the third book on her adventures, become a Bazhir (people of desert tribes) and becomes their magic person, don't remember what it's called but yeah. Stuff happens, Jon proposes, she ends up saying no, more stuff happens, succends in getting the Dominion Jewel (to give to Jon who has now become King, gives him power over all sorts of things including the actual land they live on), and at the end agrees to marry George who loved her all along (and she did know it, it wasn't one of those typical 'I love you but just can't show it' things). And I can't be bothered to write anymore so you have to read it for yourself.

Ok, very very brief. Immortals. Daine has wild magic, she can talk to, call, command (if needed but since their her friends only does this in dire situations e.g. to stop her friends being killed) animals. First book, discovers her magic through Numair and Onua, Numair is one of the most powerful mages in the world, Onua is the woman who takes the horses back and forth from and to the palace and wherever, for newly training knights and stuff. Daine's lost her family in a bandit raid, they killed her family and burned her home. Daine ran wild with the wolves and lost her identity for a while but got it back and her only family is Cloud, her horse. Cloud's wonderful and although she was scared of the wolves she stayed with Daine throughout and knows Daine best. Daine becomes student to Numair. She learns all sorts of things including how to heal with her power. Meets a dragon going to attack them because she's been told that they were the ones who took her from the divine realms (where immortals are generally dwelling) and killed the baby she was going to heal. Daine put her hands on the stomach of the dragon when she needed to stop it and talk and discovers her power being sucked from her to heal the baby dragon which is a bit scary seeing as if too much is extracted Daine herself might die, but in the end she doesn't die just needs an awful lot of care and sleep, the mother dragon gets killed by the raiders who told her that it was the others who brought her through when really it was them and stuff but she does manage to help before she dies it's just a large problem that they have liquid fire, though Daine tries to stop her the mother still decided to die fighting, however at the end of that book Daine finds Skysong (aka Kitten - nicknamed - the baby dragon) and begins to care for her, she can't communicate with her as Kitten is too young to communicate through the mind to Daine. Lots of stuff happens, Daine succeeds in saving lots of lives, human and animal, meets lots of immortals, they succeed in winning the Immortals War, she falls in love with Numair, aren't they a nice couple, oh yes, one crucial detail I remember I left out, they can both shapeshift, she learns how, Numair already learnt etc. Yeah, can't be bothered to describe anymore.

Protector of the Small. Keladry. Discriminated against - first girl to ever be allowed (actually openly known as a girl) to learn to be a knight. Makes enemies. Makes friends. Fights her fear of heights. Becomes a leader - quite naturally. Gets her knighthood. Runs a refugee fort. Fights metal giants created by a sourceror. Goes away for one day and her fort is overcome and the people taken (Children to power the machines - they're killed then their souls are used through magic to control the deadly metal giants). She goes after them. Rescues them. Becomes 'Protector of the Small' as predicted by small girl in a village who is a seer. Protects the small :P. Kills the evil sourceror and his 'dog' Stenmunn (leading man, goes to actually get the children to power the machines). Falls in love with Cleon. Oh no, sorry not meant to be, he has to marry to benifit his family. Sad goodbye. Vaguely happy ending, she will go and rock the world! :D. Oh yeah, she's lived with the Yamani and stuff so that whole side of her is very interesting.

Tortall is basically where a lot of this happens. Carthak is where a lot of the stuff in Immortals happens (Carthak is an enemy of Tortall but pretends to be trying to make peace for a time). The Yamani Islands join in the fight with Tortall in Immortals. The Yamani Islands are connecting with Tortall in Protector of the Small through a royal wedding - a yamani royal, Shinkonami, previous friend of Keladry (Though she never knew she was a royal) and Roald, son of Jonathan and Thayet (the one he ends up marrying at the end of Song of the Lioness - with Alanna's blessings as she knew Jon and her would never really work). And Scanrans never really come into the story, they're just known as more opposition, like the Carthaki.

So yeah, I'm sure I've left out plenty of crucial details. Just read the books, don't bother reading this, mine probably doesn't even make sense lol.

More Tamora Pierce is the Circle of Magic quartet - Four mages who don't know they're mages. They learn. They become friends. Stuff happens.

And the Circle of Magic Opens quartet. Four mages going out into the big wide world. Find their own students by accident who don't know they're mages. More stuff happens.

The End.

So yeah. Can't be bothered to type more seeing as I think my hands are going to fall off or at the least I'll get RSI. I'll get off the computer now...

May your days be joyous with many a happy occasion and may your vineyards be fruitful :)