Sims 2 Obsession

Well, this week has been one of those Sims 2 obsession weeks.
In one week I have played the Sims enough to:

• Created a family
• Family had another baby
• Graduated 4 Uni students (2 daughters of the family and 2 neighbours)
• Married off the 2 daughters
• Each daughter had 1 daughter of their own
• Taught the granddaughters toddler stuff.
• Now one granddaughter is a child and the other is a child.
• 3 parents have topped their careers after building the necessary skills
• One of those is now going on to another career and another one will be soon - once their daughter has grown up a bit.

So there you go, lots of time spent on there. But it's not too bad seeing as once this burst of interest is gone I probably won't go on the Sims for a few months. I just have 1-2 week obsessions once in a while. Sometimes it's only about twice a year sort of frequency.

Oh dear, I'll probably get RSI. Not good.. *sigh*

I shall go now. Sleep is inevitable.

Working...

Yesterday I did a day of voluntary work at the bookshop where my mummy works :). I learnt what the Saturday girl does - followed her around (her last day - she's getting married in 2 weeks - day before Carol). I'm going to be the new Saturday girl :D, shall be starting probs next week - Andy (manager) said he'll be in touch this week.

Main things to do are turn things on in the morning (hot water etc.), clean (vacuum in morn, dust shelves during the day), serve customers (wanting their orders or just buying things), answering the phone (eek!), tidying stock, till stuff at the end of the day and then turning everything off.

So I officially shall have a job :). Shall hopefully use this fact to get my NI number. Useful stuff. Should really go and get a bank account too...

Oh yes, and I was rather surprised at the end when Andy said I could have a free CD for working during the day :), I chose Tim Hughes - Holding Nothing Back. It's a good CD, plus it has a song featuring Brooke Fraser which I was a bit surprised about, quite a good song :D.

Also got given a book that has a whole bunch of excerpts (one chapter each) from different books. Would now quite like to read Divided Loyalties, not sure who the author is but it'll be upstairs in the book :).

Yay!

And Carol's getting married in 2 weeks yesterday! I shall miss her lotsy when she moves out :(.

We're going to do some fun stuff on Tues/Wed since soon we won't have the time together to do stuff as much. Tues we're going to do a film and healthy stuff (fruit salad :D) night and then on Wed we're going to go see a film and go get food somewhere. Film is probs going to be HP and the Order of the Phoenix - I've seen it but I wouldn't mind seeing it again, it's also the only one Carol has a particular desire to see.

*boing*

[[You know that I'll be there for you in the end]]

Yesterday and Today

HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS SPOILER WARNING
I'll put a few general things first to give you the chance of deciding not to see the spoilers. :)
Went to town, got Kat's b-day prezzie (was her b-day yest).
Went and picnicked with Michelle, Anna and Zozo yest. Was good. Ate lots of strawberries. Talked about various stuff. Good fun :).
We were supposed to be going to see Shrek 3 straight after but it was sold out and Michelle (and Zozo?) couldn't make it to the later showing so me and Anna bought tickets for the later showing and the four of us we went to Debenhams and looked at clothes and stuff - Anna bought a blue skirt. Tried on fascinators/ridiculous hats and took photos, lol. Zozo looked stunning in most of them, she really suited them. Awesome.
Then Zozo went off to sit and chat with a friend of her husbands who we saw on our way to the cinema and Michelle went home and me and Anna went to Shrek 3. Was pretty good really, I'd seen clips of most of the best bits already but I still enjoyed it. Fave parts were the Snow White singing bit and Pinocchio's "I can't tell you where he's not..." etc speech to Prince Charming :P.

And now, onto Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.
Since I was out all day I didn't have much of a chance to read it so when I got home I read until about 2 in the morning and finished it. Was v. good. I wasn't shocked by anything (apart from perhaps Moody's death) but I was mildly surprised; I think the reason for this was that I had already thought up most of the possible elements and so when it turned out to be one of them I was just like 'Oh' rather than 'What? HOW?!'. Guessed vaguely that Snape loved Lily. Always lent more towards Snape being good because it would make the book more interesting, kept an open mind to him actually being bad after all but was right in the first place. Was sad at Fred's death but by that time there had been quite a few so it didn't have as much of an effect on me. Sad at Lupin and Tonk's deaths - especially as they had only just married and had a baby. Thought Neville was brilliant - showed his braveness/the reason he's a Gryffindor. Was proved wrong about the Horcrux thing - I disagreed with one of my friends (I think it was Matt) who thought Harry was a Horcrux but I thought that of course Voldemort couldn't have accidently made him one, how can you accidently rip out a piece of your soul? Didn't consider of course that the avada kedavra curse hit Voldemort in the vicinity of Harry in the first place. Glad that Harry got to see the Snape Lily relationship before/beginning at Hogwarts. Hermione - Ron bits were fantastic. Loved the bit at the end with the 19 years later thing.

Yeah... Probably more but to say but I don't remember as I was extremely tired. Will have to reread bits of it in the next week or so to make sure I actually get it - I think I managed to half-sleepingly miss some bits, e.g. I didn't realise Lupin was dead til he came back to 'life' with the resurrection stone. Bit stupid that. Also didn't notice when Nagini died.
Had a terrible headache after reading so much so quickly. I think my brain had taken in enough for one day.
I shall go now. Might reread the Snape memories bit. Did like that.

Ooh yeah! And loved Kreacher :). He's a sweetie really (lol).

Reminded of NZ trip

Well, I tidied my desk today. Took quite a long time. Discovered I actually have an absolutely enormous amount of pens and pencils. Exciting.
Found a piece of paper that I wrote when in NZ the second time - things I wanted to remember from the trip or just random happenings. Had a couple of quotes on it which I have added to the NZ post on radioactive quotations. I shall also put them on here. So here is what I wrote down on the 31/01/07, the 01/02/07 and the 02/02/07. I've literally put down what I wrote in note form so anything in italics is my explanations or comments on the thing.

31/01/07
Rasta lights
Um, yeah. In the town square thingy which we drove past these lights that were like fountains but they were in red, green and yellow etc. Jamacian type colours, hence the 'Rasta lights'. I think it was either Alex or Mark who made this comment...

"You've got a moustache on your tummy" - Samantha (to Alex)
Well, nuff said really. Lol.

Climbing the framy thing - park
Whoo! Climbed a huge red climbing frame/pyramid thing. It was made of metal poles and rope. It was a bit scary. And I was wearing jandals (flip flops). But I managed it :D. Pity I didn't get a photo of it.

Sold houses ads (?) lol.
Ok, not really sure what this was about. Possibly something about mum and dad looking at house ads and telling me about them but they were sold anyway so I didn't know why they were interested in them? I think it was actually something more interesting otherwise I probs wouldn't have put 'lol'. Hmm... ah well. Memory loss. It's life.

Grapefruit juice -David
Yeah, David made me fresh grapefruit juice 'cause I said I hadn't had it before and stuff. V. nice. :)

Met Danielle ------ = from Czech (Czecholslovakia - before)
Yeah, family friend from Czech. Nice lady. Yes she does have a last name but I'm not putting it on here.

Saw Richard/Maurine.
Relatives.

Saw Ruth --------.
Friend of Grandma's who stayed at ours when she was in the UK. Lovely lady. We went and had dinner with her and her daughter and son-in-law. Not this night but a later one I think...

Talked to Proctors - Met David/Dominic/Amorette (sp?)
Yeah, don't know how to spell the last name. Note: I met David before he made me the grapefruit juice, lol. David is my cousin Vicki's husband, Dominic and Amorette are (very small and..) my cousin Kim's children.

Van - "Still there" - Mark
Pursuit of Happiness
Yeah, we went to see the Pursuit of Happiness, I think that's where the 'still there' comment was from - when we came out of the cinema. Don't remember too well...

Sing song in van, lol.
Lots of fun singing in the van. Was good. Me being a bit too self-conscious didn't sing that loudly, lol. Chloe refused to participate :P.

Contemplating up a tree.
Oh yeah! Me and Chloe went to the park near the house and were wandering around, she ended up climbing this huge tree but then didn't want to get down because it was really hard to do so, so she just sat there and said she was 'contemplating up a tree'. Fun fun :).

01/02/07
Funeral - Walkers, touched lines.
Not really sure what this means... I know the funeral was that day but not sure about the other things.

Night -->
Zig-zag driving
Yes, David's zig-zagging down the street (note - this was fairly safe as it was late, down a road with no other cars and it was in a suburban type area). Was amusing :).

Me and Mark: Win as mafia and civilians!
Mafia
Yeah, mafia is an awesome game, I got to be the mafia several times and me and Mark won both as the mafia and as the last civilians in different rounds :P.

Kim jokes.
Not sure?

Singing in the van
Ditto to before

Books at the beginning:
Note: David picked books for us from the shelf - whichever he decided were appropriate, then we were told to read some of it and tell them what we thought or something about it - Time filler.
Titles:
Me: Don't be sad. God cares. (- Venus flytrap)
Yes, I read out a section about a venus flytrap, lol.
Carol: The confident woman
Lol, this turned out to mainly be able submitting to your husband and stuff :P.
David: Betrayed
Lol.
Mark: If I perish, I perish
Kim: The spirit filled woman
Ben: How to help a friend
Vicki: Love yourself
Alex: Now I am six
Brilliant :P.
Ryan: Don't feed the ponies
Chloe: A teenager is many people

Was a very fun night I must say.

02/02/07
Mischievous lurker :P - "I was wrong, it's not sadness, it's mischief, if there was a book called 'mischievous' I would have given it to you" - David
Mwahahahahaha. I mean.. I'm fine. Not mischievous at all... *innocent face*

Picking money out of the fountain! - Debs/Sammy
Yeah, I think they were made to put it back though, lol.

Subway.
Went to subway. Spent lots of money. Yummy.

Caravan drumming.
Oh yeah! I'd forgotten about that... I was surprised when I was sitting reading in the caravan and then I heard a sound like heavy rain, when I looked down the end of the caravan I could see hand shadows where someone was drumming on the window. Looked outside and it was Mark and Vicki who'd just arrived. Lol, they did it to Clo too.

Swimming - whirlpool - diving for rings - synchopated swimming - Debs, Vicky, Alex + Mark.
We went swimming in the pool of the people whose house Kim and family had been staying in. Swam, made a weak whirlpool, dove for rings, Debs/Vicki/Alex/Mark did synchopated swimming which I recorded. Was good.

Alex leg out window - van/Climbed out the window.
Not sure why I wrote this down but yeah. Alex did infact stick his leg out the van window while we were driving along the road and later climbed out of the window and ran down the street, lol.

Sammy passed out window.
Alex passed Samantha out the window to someone - probs Mark or David?

Watching family videos.
Oh dear... me as a small child. But other people as small children as well! Lol.
Goody-goody gumdrop icecrea,
One of the best ice cream flavours in the world. Nuff said.

Grandma pouring into grave.
Grandma's ashes. Not putting the urn in with it.
- Environmentally friendly - Carol
Implication that that's the sort of thing grandma would do.
- "Nah, she'd like, take it home and use it for something" - Mark
Talking about what grandma would do with the urn.
- Put in: Rosemary, Glasses, Crossword, 2 roses, Quince + ... ?
Yes, a few things we put in with the ashes.
-Shovelled

Note: We were not being disrespectful - we're celebrating her life and what she was like. We know she's now gone to a better place in heaven and so it's not quite as sad because she is somewhere which is amazing.

Sorted stuff:
Vicki/I dispute over necklace :(
Yeah, Vicki got it in the end - was a pearl necklace that was lovely and reminded me of grandma. I was terribly disappointed when I didn't get it because it was the only thing I really wanted while Vicki had other things which she really wanted. I have no hard feelings towards her because that would be silly, she's an amazing person and it's only a possession anyway.
Mark - Amazing orange peeler
I want one! Lol, I remember having these when I was little. He made a very cool spiral skin of an orange which he removed - ate the orange - but could still hold the peel like a whole orange. Awesome.
Me - Walking stick/Red earrings (Trademark grandma thing - red clip on earrings)/Mug (Which I gave her when I was little and she still had!)/Mirror/Heidi/Butterfly magnets/Magnifying glass.
Things I got that day.

NB: Sunburnt.
Yeah, had really bad tan lines and was rather burnt on my back. Luckily it wasn't that painful. However I do still have the tan lines. What can I say? Hole in the ozone layer.

So yeah. Here is stuff.

On a different note. People will not have had the last Harry Potter book for an hour. That's a long while. Fast readers could finish it soon - or at least in an hour or so. Dad said he'll go out and buy it in the morning. I really want to read it before my friends tell me what happens - I don't mind not reading it today but I don't want to be told about it beforehand. I'm going into town later today so I'll probably [over]hear about it anyway. Oh dear.
Picnic and Shrek 3 today.
Better go get some sleep.

Oh yeah, me and Carol had an adventure today - one supermarket, then tried getting to the other one (to get raspberries for tomorrow - well it's today now), ended up getting lost, went home, dropped off frozen food, went to the other supermarket - got raspberries, went on our way home, took wrong turning, ended up at the first supermarket again (turning around), finally made it home at about half 11. Fun fun. Talked a lot. Was good.

Ooh! Just did an iron on thing which says 'Wicked' in a cool font, on a £2 purple tank top I got from Tesco. Cool beans.
Must go now. All the love. x

Imogen Heap

Dan has now introduced me to a fantastic singer called Imogen Heap, found that I actually already know a couple of her songs. V. cool. Also loving Michael Bublé - don't know if I mentioned before. Fave song of Michael Bublé has got to be 'Everything'.

Heh, Dan and me, 'our' songs. Tis goodly. There are now about 3 songs which are 'ours' I believe.
1. Sway (back to our dancemat days :P)
2. Catch You - Sophie Ellis Bextor
3. Headlock - Imogen Heap

Mmm, music :)

Now some more music on player :D.

On other notes, watched Titanic today. V. good film. Made me cry. Hadn't seen it for aaaaages. Had to fiddle with the TV to make it work (this consisted of me pulling wires out and shoving them in other ports to see what happened - but it did work! Clever Hazel :D).

College is now officially over.
My sister is getting married soon.
I need a job.
I really need to tidy my room.
I also need to tidy/bag/remove things on my desk so that mum and dad can put their new cabinet thingy (arriving in our shipment from NZ on Mon) there.

Yeah.
Life.

Quiz stolen from Carol who stole it from someone else...

WHAT WERE YOU DOING TEN YEARS AGO?

Hmm... probably playing with my barbies, watching smurfs, playing 'bang bang' or 'go home stay home' and drawing pretty pictures.

SONGS TO WHICH YOU KNOW ALL THE LYRICS:

Well, too many to name here really. I like being able to learn songs quickly, tis fun :). Good songs melikes = Songs from Avril Lavigne's album Under my Skin, songs from Albertime - Brook Fraser, TobyMac songs from Portable Sounds, Dido songs from No Angel, Ginny Owen songs from Beautiful. Know most of the words of those songs... Obviously there are a lot more but you'd get bored.

FIVE THINGS YOU WOULD DO IF YOU WERE A MILLIONAIRE:

Do sensible stuff like investing, saving money for Uni (mine and Carol's), giving money to my parents, giving money to charity/deciding to sponser a child.
Then after the sensible stuff... Shopping spree with Carol :P, buy the Full House whole set of DVDs for every series, lol, buy interesting books, go and do various sessions of stuff (e.g. photography, scrapbooking, craft, art etc.). Visit NZ Unis to see if I'd really want to go to them.

FIVE BAD HABITS:

Shyness. Shyness. Shyness. Shyness. Shyness.
Um... Inability to speak to most people (or at least people I don't really know at all). Obsessing. Slouching. Being clingy (sometimes). Being overly self conscious and being upset because of it.

FIVE THINGS YOU LIKE DOING:

Watching DVDs/Films/TV. Reading Tamora Pierce/Terry Pratchett/Other amazing authors' books. Taking photos. Listening to music. Playing the piano.

FIVE THINGS YOU’LL NEVER WEAR AGAIN:

Those awesome sunflower leggings I had when I was about 8! They're really not stylish. And they were leggings. Seriously. But they suited me pretty well back then :P, you have to admit they were rather awe-inspiring. Um, other... huge gold hoop earrings; not sure if they count as I wouldn't ever wear them in the first place... though I do still like huge hoop earrings, just not gold ones. Frilly dresses; I used to have loads which I wore to church and stuff, and they were absolutely gorgeous on my little 4-11 year old self but certainly not on anyone much older than that. Well, that's three, now for a fourth... Shiny lilac miniskirt I used to own. I didn't wear it much but I did own it. And lastly, I would have to say those slouchy jogging bottom things. I used to own several pairs and wore them everywhere. I had no style at all. They are very unflattering and just... *shudder*. I would only wear them if I needed something to wear when ill and cold and only in the knowledge that no one but my family would see me in them.

FIVE FAVORITE TOYS:

Hannah (my favourite doll), Rosie (a doll I had that sung 'ring around the rosie' when you held her hands), Barbies, Barbie doll house, Polly pockets (the originals). Yes, I was a typical girly girl.

Can I help you?

Well, today I went into college to help out with the year 11 introduction day...
Had to wear a t-shirt with the college name on the back and on the front it had 'Can I help you?' stretched across the chest. Not sure they really considered the implications of these t-shirts, lol, though I admit they were fairly amusing and if you're going to have to wear a t-shirt like that you may as well be entertaining.

In other news, need to go on a diet, in other other news, went swimming, was fun, very self conscious though, discovered a new stomach muscle workout - try and swim from one end of the pool to the other half floating on a flutterboard; means my muscles hurt a bit now but oh well. Made lots of faces at Sparkle today, also poked him and Carol quite a bit. Good times.

Had to do some Computing work *sigh*. Annoying. Now I'm really hoping for a good grade in Psych because it means I can continue that instead of the computing. Please, please, please.
Results come out 5 days after Carol's wedding.

Gotta go now, listened to good music recently. Realised I need to do more exercise and eat more healthily (due to a possibility of health problems rather than because I'm one of those skinny girls who pretend they need to lose weight to get attention or because they're insecure when they are in fact medically underweight).

Darn those girls. Especially when they say things like that around girls who are medically overweight. 'I'm fat' from a slim young lady doesn't exactly boost the confidence of the not-so-slim young lady. *sigh* I hate my metabolism.

Anyway, as I was saying, good music, enjoy life, go for a swim, read some fantastic books and don't watch youtube incest shippers videos! (Don't worry, nothing too terrible like films actually including incest, just weird twisted Pevensie shippers I discovered today *shudder*, the Peter/Hermione ones were much better, lol.) I am on the quest to discover some people fantastic at matching scenes so the colours and tones (or just tones in monochrome) match well and make it look really good. And chronologically if it's a slash within a film. I've seen some Hermione/Draco ones that are pretty good matches. And once (I don't know where) I found a really cool Ron/Hermione one with a song about colours fading when they're not around and the person had made the colours actually fade. It was awesome. And one where Ron and Harry had died but Hermione kept seeing them everywhere, and then it turned out she was dead too - that was good because the person managed to fade people out of pictures, I don't understand how.
I really need to get out more.
But you have to admit there are some really great ones out there.
Byebye.

Oh, last minute addition. Me and Sparkle got called pikeys today by chav-looking people, it was v. amusing seeing as we're almost the most opposite thing you could get to pikeys. We agreed on the way out that if they were still there and repeated the 'pikey' comment Sparkle could retort with 'halibut'. Even more previously we were discussing 'University Student' etc. but decided that may make them think we think they're university students or something, lol. Well, thanks to the chavs as they gave us something to entertain us for a short while.
Laughed lots today. Was goodly.
Sleep.
Darn, it's now 12.20 (though this will be posted as earlier).
End of.

Music and Lyrics songs

I was reminded today of how much I love the songs from the film 'Music & Lyrics'. 'Way back into love' is really sweet (I love the version when Drew -Sophie- and Hugh -Alex- are singing the demo, this is the one I've put on this blog). Also I think 'Don't write me off' is ingenius and extremely amusing. Hence, I've put the song on this page (see sidebar) and shall put the lyrics right here:

Don't write me off - Music & Lyrics

It’s never been easy for me

To find words to go along, with a melody

But this time there’s actually something, on my mind

So please forgive these few brief awkward lines

Since I’ve met you, my whole life has changed

It’s not just my furniture, you’ve rearranged

I was living in the past, but somehow you’ve brought me back

And I haven’t felt like this since before Frankie said relax

And while I know, based on my track record

I might not seem like the safest bet

All I’m asking you, is don’t write me off, just yet

For years I’ve been telling myself, the same old story

That I’m happy to live off my so called, former glories

But you’ve given me a reason, to take another chance

Now I need you, despite the fact, that you’ve killed all my plants

And though I know, I’ve already blown more chances

Than anyone should ever get

All I’m asking you, is don’t write me off, just yet

Don’t write me off just yet