Saturday, August 05, 2006

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...

2 comments:

ski said...

ooh, I've been to Poole before- Poole Pottery, I used to go there when I was ickle

Hazelnut said...

coolies