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 :)