Things

- They have Jif, except it's called Cif. The bottle is exactly the same, otherwise.
- They light their pudding on fire, and that's totally normal
- They put alcohol in everything and drink with every meal (including breakfast. they put sherry on their cocoa pops)
- The roads here are mega stupidly narrow. There's a lot of countryside and I don't know what the big deal would have been to make the roads just a couple metres wider. We were driving along one day and my Uncle drove around this corner and a lady in a yellow car was there and she couldn't get past (because my Uncle's car is huge) and then it turned out that she didn't know how to reverse so my Uncle called her a stupid cow and reversed fifty metres for her. And she didn't even say thank you.
- People in Cornwall don't say "love" all the time.
- We went through a kissing gate the day before yesterday. Basically you go around this metal bit and onto the other side and then you have to kiss whoever's coming after you. It's seems like the kind of thing that you could use to take advantage of people.
- They have Cadbury's Roses but all of the colours and flavours are wrong. For example the green one is not peppermint, they don't have the silver and red ones and the long blue ones are coconut. I don't get it.
- Lunch is lunch but sometimes it's also dinner and sometimes dinner is tea and sometimes it isn't.
- Their supermarkets are different. The three main ones that I've seen so far are:

• Tesco's: this is a big store which has food, but also clothes and books and things. if the warehouse had a supermarket in it and less gardening, craft and homeware stuff in it it would be like tescos.
• Sainsbury's: I haven't actually been inside one yet but I asked Nana and she said it was like Tesco's.
• Lidl: this is a supermarket, except it's German. And everything is cheap and the interior is crap, and they have less range than Write Price but more than a 4Square.

As you can see I have some very important views on supermarkets in Cornwall.
- It's quite true that all the houses look the same. They're also all incredibly old. Like, yesterday we saw a house that was built in 1762. Woah. New Zealand wasn't even properly colonised at that time.
- You're allowed to take your stinky, wet dogs into a pub after having been to the beach. We went to a pub in Porthallow and there were 8 dogs in there (a golden retriever, an alsatian, two beagles, a couple of mutts and two big black labs that were crazy. One tried to put his mouth around my entire hand).
- They eat PORK PIE for breakfast on Christmas morning. Basically it's a pie with insides that look like dog food.

I might make some more observations but I'm very tired and this is all I have now.
I miss you all a lot and can't wait to see you guys again :) First though I must continue my escapades in this truly mad country.

Christmas

• 5 pairs of socks
• chocolate
• money
• a bag
• a sketchbook + graphite pencils
• a photo album ("for university")
• a big note book for uni notes
• bath products- the usual
• boots
• a dress
• a top
• 2 scarves
• gloves
• and a jewellery box

Mousehole & Christmas Lights

Nana, Papa, Uncle Andrew, Auntie Nay, cousins Jess (9) and Oliver (5) and I went to Mousehole tonight to see the Christmas lights. It really isn't anything like what we have in New Zealand.

First we drove around looking for a fish and chips shop that had tables we could sit at, but everywhere was either shut or didn't meet our requirements, so we went to the Meadery, which was built to be a cinema in 1905 and was coverted to a bar & restaurant in the 60s (see you can tell I read the history).
I had Meadery style chicken and chips, and they made us eat everything with our fingers. They don't give you cutlery at all. It was fun, actually.
And I had a pint of cider. Plus the rest of the bottle. It was really nice. I saved the bottle but then I left it in Andrew's car so oops. Auntie Nay was apparently quite surprised that I managed to drink half a litre and stay quite sober. Bahaha.

And then we drove to a carpark and got out to walk around the harbour. There were lights everywhere. They had a whale and a sea monster in the water and mice and birds and trees up on the hill, plus a huge sign that alternated between saying Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

It was freezing cold (I wore two jumpers and a coat, and gloves and my new jeans- which are unfortunately quite thin) but I'm still glad I went. Although I didn't really have a choice.

Christmas Eve tomorrow :D It has snuck up so fast!
I'm moving up to sleep here in the attic (which thankfully has heating!) so that Nay and Andrew can have my bed downstairs.
Tomorrow I'm supposed to go to midnight mass. I don't really want to because I'm not into going to church, but it was the church I was christened at and that means that I have to go. And Nay doesn't want to go on her own.

This has been longer than I intended, so I'm going to stop typing now and go to bed :D x

Um

Just sitting here scoffing some chocolate. Yup.

I have a lot of things that I could say right now. Um. Umumum. I don't know. I just feel very unfulfilled right now. Like I could be much happier. I want to do something meaningful. I want to... I actually really want to cry right now. I feel like I have tears welling up behind my eyes and they wont come out. It probably doesn't help that I've been listening to like the saddest song in my life ever. You know when you identify with a song and you feel like it was written for your situation? Ugh. Just. Jesus Christ.

I know this is not a very happy post but I'm allowed one of those every once in a while.

I wish I were back home. England is great but I miss New Zealand. I miss my people. All of you. So much. How am I going to survive at university? I'll be wanting to come back to Feilding every five minutes.

I have had way too much chocolate.

I just drew a reindeer wearing a santa hat and sunglasses.
And now he's smoking a cigarette.

Oh look it's 23:23.

I think it's time for bed now.

I Didn't MEAN To Buy Any More Books Today

But I did.
They're just so cheap *shrugs*

We did go to Waterstone's again. I just cannot keep away from that shop. I bought Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close, by Johnathan Safran Foer, and the new Richard Dawkins book for Tori, which is about evolution. I hope she likes it :/
I also bought a watch (only £7) and a CD- Snow Patrol's "Final Straw" for £5.

My Aunty Naomi also bought me some boots & a dress, and I gave her money to get me Misfits (still £10 and sadly still R18) so I'm glad I have that now!

We had to come home early because my poor little cousin Oliver is really sick. He's ony 5 and he had no idea what was going on. We think it's the flu :/

More Books & An Adventure

I went back to Truro :D More importantly, I went ALONE this time, which meant I was free to do whatever I pleased.

My first stop, of course, was Waterstone's. I bought 3 more books:

- Strata by Terry Pratchett
- The Colour of Magic by Terry Pratchett
- and On The Road by Jack Kerouac

We all know that I adore new books and reading :D

And then I kinda went... everywhere else. I had something like 4 hours before my bus arrived so I went into all the clothes stores and the music/movies store (called HMV) and then a couple more.

The bus, which should have taken me to Helston Tescos, instead dropped me off in downtown Penzance, due to a minor complication of route change caused by an accident on the Long Downs road. Yikes.
So I had to wait for an hour (after an hour & a 1/2 bus trip) for my Uncle Andrew to pick me at the train station. That was an adventure...
And it was freezing fucking cold.
It was 6.30pm when I got back to Nana's place, and 3.30 when I'd left Truro.

Today we're going to check out the place I'll be working at. Should be interesting :)

Yesterday, 15.12.10

Truro is pretty damn awesome. It's more like a proper town than any other place I've been to so far.
It was very very busy (what with Christmas being only 9 days away) and the pavement in the city centre isn't wide enough for more than two people to walk comfortably side by side.
We went to (in order, I think):
- This cute little market place where Nana bought me some new gloves (hobo gloves!). They're black and bright pink :D
- Marks and Spencers: department store. Didn't buy anything but saw a lot of clothes that I like
- Waterstone: A bookshop. This bookshop is amazing. Honestly, it's twenty times better than any Witchoulls or Borders or anything in New Zealand. It's bright and cheerful and there are just books everywhere. They don't really bother with stationary or toys, it's all just books. And they had this great deal where you get 3 books for the price of two, so I bought four (1. Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut, 2. One Day by David Nicholls, 3. Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and 4. a Keep Calm and Carry On quote book, for trying times.

After that we just kinda looked in some clothes shops (all too expensive, even with sales on) and then had lunch.
And today I'm staying inside because it's quite possible that I have caught a cold, which is exactly what I need :/

The Day So Far

Yesterday it was so, so overcast, and today the sky is blue and clear and there's sunshine. It's making me quite happy. I woke up reeaally early, at about 2am (went to bed at 6 last night) and sat up for two hours reading my new book- Eat Pray Love, by Elizabeth Gilbert. All the hype it's getting is well deserved, I think. It really is a fantastic book. At 4am I tried to sleep again, but only dozed.

This morning I got up and showered, and talked to Mum on the phone, and then came upstairs (to the attic, which is always freezing cold) to go on Facebook and whatnot for a minute, and I was sitting on the chair waiting for the computer to start up and I notice the sunshine coming through the skylight. It really made me feel a lot better about being up so early and having had so little sleep, because for the last few days it's been so grey and overcast. Everything looks depressing and kind of morbid, like the town in Sleepy Hollow.

At 9.30 Papa drove me down the road to the school that my Aunty Naomi (Mum's half sister) manages and works at. I was there until 12pm, helping out with little kids (all around 3-5 years old). We made pinecone robins and practised the nativity play, and had story time and sang songs. They all wanted to sit on my lap :D It was so cute. This one little girl, Sicily, suddenly came up to me and gave me the biggest hug, just out of the blue. And another, Katie, gave me a story to read to her and as I read about four other kids joined in and all tried to sit on me, listening to me read.
We had to come home at 12 because I had to have lunch (scrambled eggs on toast) and the rest of the day will be quite lazy. I'll probably watch a movie or something. I have to stay awake until at least 8 o clock tonight so that I can set my sleeping clock right. Falling asleep at 5 or 6 pm and waking again at 2, and then not going back to sleep is really screwing with my head.

Tomorrow we're going to Truro, a big sort of town which has a beautiful church, and on Thursday and Friday it's supposed to snow. On Saturday night we're going to the pub for a music quiz ('50s-'90s). We might go to St Ives at some point, too, and Naomi says we're be going ice skating later... I don't expect to be too good at it, which is fine because apparently she's quite unbalanced and holds onto the side the entire time.

Okay, time to go watch a movie.
Will write again in a day or two xx

Hello, Hello!

Jesus Christ England is cold right now. I probably should be wearing more clothes but bugger it, I'm sitting upstairs and my clothes are downstairs and it's tooo faaar.

Holy crap, the plane trip was so mega uber boring. 10 hours to LA airport and then 2 hours in transit, then another 9 hours on the plane to London (and then 5 hours in a car with Nana and Papa, travelling to Nancegollan, Cornwall). Do you have any idea how hard it is to sleep on a plane? It's BLOODY hard. Even with movies (watched 3- Tomorrow When The War Began, Salt and Heavenly Creatures- god that movie is disgusting) and books, I was bored out of my mind.

Complaining aside, it's lovely to finally be here. The house is quite warm (especially in the kitchen, where Nana is cooking dinner- at one fifteen?!), thankfully.

Anyway, I must go, because my aunt, uncle and cousins Jessica and Oliver are here. I'll write again later :)
x

Dec 9th, 2010

I'm in Auckland. I was up at 9 this morning, and took a nice walk around the neighbourhood with Ruby and Ella-Rose, my "cousins". At 11.30 my dad picked me up and we went to lunch, to a pub called Shakespeare, which was actually quite nice. We had a good chat and then some of his work mates stopped by and they started talking about insurance fraud and how New Zealand might become a republic (and how pointless that would be) and I kind of zoned out.

We're going to St Lukes at about 2.30 so I don't have a lot of time...

The bus trip was alright. We arrived at 7.20pm instead of 6.35pm, and the bus station was uber grotty, and I did end up sitting next to this slightly annoying old English woman, but other than that it was pretty sweet. I read an entire book (The Long Walk by Stephen King- about 340 pages), and other than that I didn't have a whole lot to do. I hate not having an iPod or MP3 player :(

My Aunty Sam, who I'm staying with, moved house in July and this is the first time I've been here. It must have cost them an absolute fortune. It's in Parnell (very nice neighbourhood) and the house is all white walls and big windows and carpeted stairs, and there's a good sized swimming pool out back. I'm glad I'm staying here and not at my dad's, which is kinda small and boring.

Um yeah we're leaving now so I'm gonna go.
:) xx

this is a blog post

My dad called before to figure out when we can meet in Auckland. When we'd finished talking, he ended the conversation with "cheers" and abruptly hung up.
I'm his daughter, not a work mate. I'm not my mum, either, with whom he has a strained relationship. I barely even had time to say goodbye.
It's put me in a bad mood all day, even though I feel like I should be acting happy and excited.

In other (better) news, my packing is all done. After all the fuss, it really didn't take that long. I have two carry on bags and two big bags, one of which will be full of presents for family.

Dec 5th '10

Today was pretty good

• Was up at 8am to go to my drama thing in Palmerston North.
• Performance was rad. I'm v. proud of my class and uber sad that I'll never be in a performance again. Also received my Helen O'Grady's t-shirt and said goodbye to my teacher, who is honestly a lovely person.
  
• Went to lunch at Moxies
• Drove to the Plaza.
  
• GOT A NEW PHONE. FINALLY. It's a pink Telecom XT. I don't have to buy top up cards for this one because it gets billed automatically to my mum's phone account. I get 300 txts a month for $6.00. Sweet as.
• Am now the proud owner of an owl necklace. Gold and silver and only $10.
• Went to various shops as Tori bought presents for people. Stood around in Bed Bath & Beyond as Mum admired the towels.
  
• Am home now. Will be off to charge my new phone soon :)

x

Just watch this video, please.

2nd-3rd December, 2010

WARNING: LONG POST.

Cleaning my room out takes some epic effort, guysers. I got home today at 4pmish and I was like okay I'd better do this thing because I don't want to leave it for too long. So I shoved a whole bunch of clothes into a bag (upsetting clouds of dust as I did so, because some of it was buried at the back of my closet) and dumped them in my mum's room for sorting. And then I cleared the top of my desk, which meant another rubbish bin bag (one of those huge green eco ones). So my room is slightly emptier.
I still have to clear out my desk drawers and pack for England, though. I have to make a list of all the things I want to take. Granted that wont be much. I'm only allowed 20kg of stuff on the bus to Auckland & the plane to London.

So yesterday was pretty cool. And so was this morning.
Arrived at James' house at around 11.30AM. Played cards. Drank a lot of fizzy. Listened to music. Jess taught some people how to play 500. It's an epicly fun game. We played for hours yesterday.

The best part, though, has to be Thursday night. We took a little walk down a trail at the back of James' house, which involved some ditch jumping (Keryn got a gumboot stuck in a mushy part. Good times :D). And then when that trail ended we climbed a fence and walked through a field of what I'm guessing is someone's crop. By the end of it the legs of my jeans were covered in yellow plant matter, which thankfully came off later when we walked through some long grass.
So, some more fence jumping led to a huge field, scattered with big old trees. James- of course- climbed right on up. We took some photos of us like that, gathered beneath this huge branch.
We soon realised the presence of a patch of stinging nettles. Luckily for me I had closed shoes and jeans, but Jess M wasn't so lucky :/

We moved on, down along some trees, through a gate and over a barbed wire fence, and finally into a little paddock, presided over by a very, very tall tree. Three horses- all quite tame- watched us as we explored, and ran when some tried to pull a large fallen branch from the tree.

We walked back a different way.
As soon as we arrived James' dad offered to take us to the glow worm cave, so I put my (now green and brown) shoes back on and hopped in the back of the ute.
I think that standing in the back of a ute with friends, with the air and the countryside streaming past, hanging on for dear life and shouting with joy is something that every Kiwi kid should do. It really was so great. Keryn, Ben, James, Cecile and I stood at the back of the cab and hung onto a bar as James' dad drove us down farm trails (and into the occasional pothole) to the glow worm caves. We swung from side to side as we drove through the night, finally arriving windswept and smiling.
We hopped out and climbed over yet another fence using two logs for support, and dove right into the trees. It was quite dark by then, so we had torches (bike lights, really), which we most certainly would have died without. The ground was covered in large rocks, therefore quite treacherous, and there were lots of branches that we had to climb over and under. I got a good scratch under the eye at one point, and more than once I slipped. Flaag slipped pretty bad at one point, too. She was walking behind me and I heard this cracking noise and a sliding and I turn and there's Jessica, sitting half on and half off of a fallen tree, feet through the undergrowth.
And then someone said "look at the lights!" and I realised that we were walking among the glowworms. Little dots of light- blue light- littered the walls, the rocks surrounding us. As we walked they became denser, as did the forest. More and more trees had fallen, and more rocks were there to be clambered over. By now my shoes- grey "sneakers"- were covered in green and brown, and there was an entire forest in my hair.

When we finally stopped walking (really we'd only be going for ten minutes) we'd reached a point where glowworms littered the walls like stars on a clear night. Keryn and James climbed upwards while the rest of us stayed on more solid ground, looking at the little things up close with our bike lights.
Eventually we walked back, and James' dad drove us to the house.

It really was amazing.
Monday-Friday of this week has been the best. I'm so glad I got to see at least most of my friends before I leave for Auckland on the 8th. I'm lucky to have such incredible people as friends. :)

This has been quite long. I hope it didn't put anyone off reading it :/ I don't think I'm back to writing as much I used to, back in February and stuff, when I wrote a blog post a day- or more!
Haha. I'd better go to bed. I have a drama production tomorrow... :)
<3 xx

I'm Trying To Say Whatever I Want Here

Yesterday was wonderful.

I wish I had a camera and camera skills, because I feel like I could have taken some amazing photos during our time out yesterday morning. We came back from Harry Potter and mooched around Keryn's house, and then someone mentioned going for a walk. Never mind how late it was. We wanted ice cream and we were going to get it.

So we walked down the middle of Keryn's road, carefree teens in a lamplit ghost town. The BP supplied the ice creams. We didn't turn around and go home. We carried on. If I had the words I would describe the stone patterns on the sidewalk, the eireeness of the public toilets, the strange feeling of eating a Fruju under the clock tower at midnight. We saw police cars, protecting us and watching us both.

We ended up at Manfield Park. We sat on the witch's hat, the metal and wood ride that spins and moves, up and down, around and around. I held on for dear life and watched the faces of my friends, the lights in the distance, the ground underneath me.

We walked across the feild. People of the night. All alone.

A children's playground. Grass and rubber. Shouts of laughter.

James climbing easily over a high, spiked fence. Jess and I on the tyre ride, waiting for it to slow down. Jordan sitting in the middle of the roundabout. Keryn lying on the ground.

Bohemian Rhapsody.

Que sera, sera,
Whatever will be, will be.

The skatepark.
I've never been there before.

The concrete and the bright lights and the metal bars. It was a while before I found my balance.

The Time Warp by the fence. Big buildings in the distance.

A Police car pulled up and even though I'd done nothing wrong I felt guilty. Are we allowed to be here at this time? We promised we'd be back home soon, and they left. How trusting. Imagine if we'd been out with bad intentions.

People watching television. Whole other lives.

Home again, we slept.

Alrigh'... lissen t' me

I don't know if it's fully sunk in that I'll be leaving the country entirely very, very soon. I have so much to do before I leave, I'm thinking more about that than the actual destination.
Just nine days left :o
I hope the plane doesn't crash and we all die in the ocean. And I hope they have good movies. And I hope I don't end up sitting next to someone weird.

Anyways. I'm going to miss all of you people when I go. Leaving home will be scary and exciting and I'll be pretty much alone )': and I'll probably wish I could be back home some of the time. I don't want to lose contact with anyone, because you guys are great friends, and I feel very lucky to have known you (god, it sounds like I'm writing a pre-death letter). When I get back from England on Feb 8th (I think it is) I'll want to say goodbye to whoever's still around (now it sounds like you're going to die) before I go.

Ahem. So, must dash. Gonna go check to see if James, Keryn, Jess and Jordan are still being boring sleepy people :)
x

The Plan So Far

1. Go see Harry Potter with Keryn, Jess, Chrissy, James, Cecile, Claire and Jordan on Monday
   
2. Go to James' on Dec 2nd-3rd
3. Go to sign out on Dec 6th
4. Take the bus to Auckland on Dec 8th
5. Catch the plane at 11.30PM on Dec 10th
   
6. Arrive at Heathrow airport on Dec 10th
   
7. Do awesome shit for eight weeks
8. Come home on Feb 8th, 2011
9. Drive to Wellington with Mum on Feb 22nd
10. Start Uni on Feb 28th

Fuck yeah organisation.

I had my last exam today too. It went okay, like all my others. I'm counting on some pretty high scores in Geo and English to make up for the likely terrible job I did in Classics and History D:

Can't wait to see Hp with y'all, and party some more before I leave <3>

TMYK.

I wonder if anyone knew: the guy who plays Moody in the Harry Potter films is the real life father of the guy who plays Bill. The More You Know.

Shitshitshit. I have two exams on Wednesday (Geography and Classical Studies). Am I ready for it? No. Maybe about half way. I made some posters yesterday and some flash cards today, but I still really need to revise heaps of other stuff.
I also have History on Friday, for which I need to memorise three essays, and a whole bunch of other shit. Why can't my exams be more spread out??
More to the point, why didn't I start my revising earlier??!

Keryn Inspired This.

I can never remember my dreams. On the odd occasion that I am aware of them they're gone as soon as I'm properly awake. Some of them are amazing dreams, too. There was one... it was out of this world, I'm telling you. It was a whole other universe. And when I try to remember the details a five foot deep metal gate crashes down and I can't get much further than "paradise". It's one word with so many possibilities. How cruel is it that I can't remember my own heaven?

And that's probably why I make my own dreams. I'm asleep and awake at once, and I'm the master of my fate. Anything could happen, but only if I say so. People say the oddest, most unlikely things.

Sometimes I lose control a little. My imagination gets away. Just this morning I was dozing- it was one of those nights. I felt like I hadn't slept a wink- and I imagined myself finding my phone. It was under my bed, silly me! And no messages. I'm unpopular even in my waking dreams.
So then for a little while I believed my fantasy. Where's my phone? Oh it's under my bed. I'll go get it. Why didn't the alarm go off at 6.40? Because it's not there.
Oh.

--

Yeah it's a Friday night and I'm bored. I could write my NaNo but it's fallen way by the wayside. I could study but let's be honest: that's not gonna happen. I could make a snack but OMG I'M NOT HUNGRY AT ALL >:( Even my room is clean.
Mum FINALLY went away. She's gone with Ellie and Irene to Featherston-ish (idk where it is) for a dog show. It took them FOREVER to leave. Now I have a quiet weekend ahead of me and some money to look forward to at the end of it, provided I don't trash the house.

Though taste in music is a personal thing, here is a list of what I have come to think of as my twenty favourite songs. Ever. (In no particular order)

a. Drops of Jupiter: Train
b. Drive: Incubus
c. Drumming Song: Florence + the Machine
d. The Difference: Matchbox Twenty
e. Everlong (acoustic): The Foo Fighters
f. Wicked Game: Stone Sour Live Lounge cover (orig. Chris Isaac)
g. Into The Fire: Thirteen Senses
h. Yellow Ledbetter: Pearl Jam
i. Sailed On: Landon Pigg
j. Eet: Regina Spektor
k. Everything's Not Lost: Coldplay
l. Sex and Candy: Macy Playground
m. Lifeboats: Snow Patrol
n. Hallelujah: Jeff Buckley
o. Black Hole Sun: Soundgarden
p. On The Radio: Regina Spektor
q. Ain't No Rest For The Wicked: Cage The Elephant
r. Samson: Regina Spektor
s. Better Man: Pearl Jam
t. Disease (acoustic): Matchbox Twenty

Thursday 11th - Friday 12th

I feel a little weird right now. It's strange to know that I'll never walk into Geography or History or Tourism or any of my other classes like I have for the past year. There are so many people that I'll never see again (and heaps that I hopefully will at some point). There are some people I definitely wont miss.

I'm actually freaking out a little bit too because I think I may have left my admission slip for exams in my locker at school, or possibly dropped it (WHICH WOULD NOT BE COOL). I had another moment like that today, too. We walked to McDonald's for brekkie and I dropped my eft-pos card on the way there, so we (Cecile, Jordan, Keryn and I) backtracked and finally found it just casually lying on the pavement.

Yesterday and today was pretty awesome. Ate way too much junk food and feel kinda dehydrated but the laughs and the craziness was great. We played much Guitar Hero and some Singstar (was mad that my voice had gone a little). Best Singstar moment has to be Jess and Jordan singing I Believe In A Thing Called Love. Good stuff.
It sucks that I missed out on the heart to heart convo that everyone had this morning (as in 3am onwards). I slept at 3.30amish and then woke at 5am, and then slept again until 8. If I'd had more V I would have been awake! :D

So I should be studying now but I got home and looked through the papers that I got to practice on for Classics and was like :O because I don't know nearly enough and then got all depressed and watched 8 episodes of Friends season six instead. Long sentence. Hurr.
Staring from tomorrow tho I am legitimately gonna study. It'll be a study fest. I'm not allowed on the PC anyway cause Mum's having people around for a meeting and they're gonna talk and eat all of the good food in the house, so yey.

That is all.

Hello Again

It's me.

In response to Josie's comment, NaNoWriMo (stands for National Novel Writing Month- ignore the National part; people all over the world do it) is a project where writers (or amateurs, whatever) attempt to write a 50,000 word novel in thirty days. The winners are anyone who manages to complete their novel on time. It's a huge undertaking for me cause I have exams and stuff, but oh well. I want to do it.
Because I'm awesome.

:D

NNWM

Doing NaNoWriMo right now. I have 6993 words, 13 pages, 13,853 letters.

Bollocks

Oh I forgot that I blocked this blog. I think I might un block it.

No one is on here anymore though.

Forever Alone.

Haha.

Um.

Yeah. So I don't know. I used to be able to open this up and just tap away at the keys for ages, and now I sit for a little while and sort of just look at the screen, and then close the tab and do something else.

And do you really think I'm a bitch? That worries me a little. Not a lot, though.

I actually want to say quite a few things, just not to people that I know. I'm not totally sure why. It's not even like bad stuff or really weird stuff, it's just that I kind of don't trust myself with my words right now. I don't know how to say things to you people.
Or I do.

Shut up.

Hello again.

So. Here's the deal:

1. Apply for Vic ✓
2. Apply for halls ✓
3. Send confidential reference ✓
4. Send $75 accomm. app fee ✓
5. Recieve contract for hall ✓
6. Send contract + bond back
7. Apply for student loan (1/2 done)
   
8. Raise money D:

Things should just be easier :P

School tomorrow

Fuck. Should I bother with my homework?

Friday, October 8

The holidays are almost over. What have I done in the last two weeks? Watched movies, slept, computed... that's pretty much it.
I hate this blog.

I don't want to do it anymore. Sort of. We know what website I think is so much better. Since you all hate it when I talk about it though I'm actually going to adhere to the rules and go fully fight club.

Mum is really angry at me today. I don't know why. She called me a bitch before she went to Wanganui, and when I wouldn't talk to her she said "I could die on the road and the last time we would have spoken would have been in a fight". I can't wait to go to Wellington, and to be away from my family. I know it'll still be hard, but it'll be a relief too.

I started my application today. I have to figure out my courses (which I have done) and then do my own timetable (which I have also done) and then fill in some other detaily bits. Hopefully my halls of residence thingy will get here in a week or so, too. I want everything to come together, so bad. I wish it could be as easy as possible.

I feel so tired. It's my own fault, I know. I just want this year to be over. As years go it hasn't been the worst, but it hasn't been the best, either. I don't know if I can pick a best year. They've all merged into a blob of badness and mediocrity, with small pieces of happiness sewn in.

Life isn't fair.

I Almost Told You Guys Something, And Then Didn't.

I was going to make a confession but decided it was a bad idea. I don't think you guys would understand what it's all about, except maybe for Chrissy and Isaac, because I think they'd be more likely to know about this kind of thing. That doesn't mean I think they'd approve, though.

xx

In Which Rosie Rants About The Internet

Only nine posts away from 200.

Spent the last five days in a pattern. Get up at 2pm, computer till 4am/5am, sleep. Eat at intervals, maybe read a little. Spending my waking hours on Facebook, Tumblr and writing my Remus/Lily fanfiction (Harry Potter, for the uneducated who don't know). I've also watched a few movies, such as 21, The Skeleton Key (unexpectedly good), Untraceable, The Commitments, Vicky Christina Barcelona and The Pursuit of Happiness (which is so so sad).

And I don't even care. This is a little bit ideal for me, right now. You may think it's sad that I spend so much time online, but to be honest, I feel genuinely at peace on here. Of course I do when I'm with my friends or out and about, but this is fun too.

I know that some of you are a little... skeptical toward Tumblr. Let's just forget for a moment that Tumblr is fight club ("the first rule of Tumblr is that you don't talk about Tumblr" (YES, it's an adaptation of a well known saying from a popular movie) because as we all know some rules don't matter all that much, so I can tell you what it's like.

Think of Facebook. They're all people that you know IRL. Most of them type English lyk dis. You always feel a certain disappointment in humanity when on there. Now think of YouTube. Every single video has a bunch of idiots arguing over things that usually don't even have anything to do with the video. And now think of Blogger. If your friends find out about it (and they are, in most cases the only people who follow you) then you find yourself holding back from saying some things.

This is what the Tumblr COMMUNITY (because that's what it IS) is like:
- Everyone I have met on there actually has some degree of intelligence. Of course, I don't know them (only four people that I know IRL follow me there) but I can be pretty sure that they have an IQ of at least 100.
- The creativity is astounding, and it doesn't come with the angst and bullshit that you find on Deviantart. I follow several people who make beautiful graphics (and yes, ALL of them are Harry Potter fans), who are genuinely nice people.
- The memes are actually funny.
- The system is great. Make a profile > reblog some things > get followers > follow them back > reblog their stuff > find a style > share opinions > become Tumblr buddies. It's so friendly, is what I'm trying to say. Granted, there are douche bags that use the ask box function to abuse people in anonymous form, but you don't have to listen to them, and they're really the only kind of "trolls", whereas you can find all manner of idiots on Facebook and Tumblr. Ignorant jerks, 13 year old WoWers, 30+y/os with no real life, angsty emos, etc.

Crap, I sound a little frantic to prove something. I take it all back.
No more. From now on it's Fight Club.

And So It Goes

The holidays just started and already I've completely fucked up my sleeping pattern. On Monday I stayed up until 4AM and on Tuesday I stayed up until 5AM. On Tuesday morning I woke up again at 9 to the sound of some idiot trimming bushes in our gardern, or some shit like that. And then I slept in until 2PM. Which means that if I were to go to bed at 11.30 like I usually do, I would only be awake for 9 hours, and that means that I have to stay up until 2-4AM to compensate for the hours I would have missed.
And so it goes.

Another Late Night (Beware of Drivel).

People don't comment on my blog posts anymore. Does that mean that no one reads this? Perhaps that means I can say whatever I want now. I'd quite like to be able to do that. I have quite a lot of useless crap in my brain that I usually wouldn't share, because it's either too inane or too weird.

So it's 12.34AM. I just finished watching Ice Age 3 (god that movie is funny), and now I'm sitting here with a 500mL can of V, re-blogging like crazy on Tumblr and downloading music and waiting for something to happen on Facebook. I don't think anyone I want to talk to is online at the moment.

Tonight's playlist:

• If It Means A Lot To You: A Day To Remember
• Rocket: Goldfrapp
• Alive: Pearl Jam
• Yellow Ledbetter: Pearl Jam
• On Melancholy Hill: Gorillaz
• Blinding: Florence + the Machine
• 1979: Smashing Pumpkins
• Luv: Travis
  

Yup.

Now talking to Lizzy on MSN. Found out that both her sisters are getting married, that she's doing a year of aid work around Egypt and Africa and that she's gonna go diving in the Red Sea. Sometimes it's good to not talk to someone for ages, cause then you can have a long convo about stuff. She's good at alleviating my worries about Uni, too, which is good, because I'm all stressed and shaky at the moment (party due to half a litre of V).


1.40 AM, Tuesday.

Still talking to Lizzy. I'm having fun. I'm not tired at all.

Downloaded these 4 songs:

• You Make My Dreams Come True: Halls and Oates
• Freestylers: Push Up
• Rich Girls: The Virgins
• Shut Up And Let Me Go: The Ting Tings

Some songs I haven't heard for a while..

2.43AM

Still not tired, still talking to Lizzy. Now we're onto the awesomeness of Year 11 English class (with Mr Byrne), having already covered boys, how late it is, boys again, plans after school, illegal drinking, weddings... um, dreams, group gossip and... oh, school grades. Man, it's nearly 3AM. Haven't been on the internet this late for ages.
Tori is playing Hurt (Cash) on the PC. It's so sad. The video is sad too.

God. What drivel. No wonder

It is 3.04AM, after all.

3.20AM. Thinking of posting this and saying goodbye to Lizzy. Convo died down a little. Problem: not tired enough. Should I have had 500mL of V at midnight? Probably not. Uh oh. Yawning. Oh noooooees.

3.36AM Said goodbye, did last minute checks of everything. Going now.

<3>

Pictures from the Past

Lots of pictures from my childhood. Go away if you don't care.
NB. These photos are not in chronological order.

Starting with a picture from 1996, when I was three and a half.

This is from earlier times. Me and my best friend of the time, Jacob Meagher. I haven't seen him for six years or something crazy like that.

Tori, Me, Mum and Dad, October 1996.

This is Tori, me and two of our best friends from the nineties and early 2000s. Their names are Anna (Ah-nah) and Sophie, and they're from Holland. I haven't seen them since we left Auckland. This was taken at their house, around 2001.

This is my mum and dad at my mum's 32nd birthday, October 11th, 1996.

This is the ballet photo I was talking about before.

Me, Ellie and Tori, 2001. Ellie's first birthday.

A year later from above: From 2002, the year my parents split up and we moved to Sanson. Ellie (age two), Chloe, Me, Anna and a girl whose name I think is Alicia.

Me, Tori, Jacob & Jacob's sister Ruby. Anything not related to this is irrelephant.

I think that's all for now. I'm a very nostaligic person so I hope you'll forgive me for this post. I'm going to bed now. It's ten to one.

Late Night

Bit of reminiscing in this one. Go away if you think you might get bored.

23:26PM

I'm not really that tired.

Oh, so my new blog title is from a song by Florence + the Machine called I'm Not Calling You A Liar. Been listening to it a lot.

I'm not sure why I started this post, actually. Lately I just have less and less to say about things. I don't know how I managed to write a post a day only a few months ago. I think I used up all my material at once.

23:58PM

I'm uploading a bunch of photos from when I was a kid (1996, when I was 3 and a half). There's a heap of photos of my mum & dad, looking all happy. Even back then my dad was 47. Mum was 32.

00:16AM

Oh my god, I just found photos from one of my old ballet performances. I remember that day pretty well. I think it was when I was eight or nine.

00:28AM

I'm going to make a post after this one of some of the photos I scanned. You know, just because I'm bored.

Nostalgia II

Damnit, I thought I was done having these chats with you! Like talking about it will make it all go away. If that were possible, I would have been talking MADLY about the past year.

Ah well, you got your history.

I really feel like I should be doing something productive. I was watching Friends (s4) and I though" maybe after this episode I'll get up and tidy the kitchen, and then I'll come back and tidy my room or something", and somehow I ended up on here.
It's stupid. I haven't been blogging much, even though I usually blog quite a lot when I'm having a bad day, which has been true for the last week. Today got a little better when I got my report, which was really good, and then I finished a whole bunch of internals that were due.

Oh, plus I just found the ball photo for me, Leone, Stu and Michael. Of course Leone looks great and I look like this unsymmetrical freak. There's absolutely no way I'm uploading it to Facebook. It's so unfair. Everyone else looks fantastic, and the ONE photo that I get looks terrible. Really really FML.

I don't know what to say now. I think I'm gonna go tidy my room after all :(

Since Friday...

I have had the worst last five days. Last weekend was the crappiest yet (in memory), and today wasn't much better.

Reasons why Friday-Tuesday have sucked so far:

- First, have you SEEN the weather out there? Rain and wind and cold are always bound to make me cranky.

- We have NO food. I'm actually not kidding. All there is to eat is potatoes, pasta sauce, rice, slow cooker mixes and vegetables like broccoli and things, because Mum hasn't been shopping for ages (and by this I mean shopping with me, because when I go I always manage to con some nice food into the shopping trolley).

- Dad visited and it was utter crap. I know it's sad, but I wish he wouldn't visit. It upsets my happy weekend routine of doing nothing too much.

- Somehow caught another cold.

- Today sucked because somehow my sister unearthed a private piece of info about me and shared it with her friends. Definitely something I do not need right now.

- I'm seriously stressing about all the internals and things that are due this week- a total of four.

I think that's everything.

Sorry that my first post in quite a while is so depressing, but I don't really have anything happy to write about.

Hey, guys.

Ugh.

Edit: My contact lense are killing me, I have too much homework, my room is a bombsite again, it's already nearly 6 o'clock, our internet is pretty much dead and my dad is visiting on Friday. That would have been cool three years ago, but now it's likely to be awkward. So ugh.

My Afternoon

Spent like an hour tidying my room. Mum hired a cleaner lady to come and clean every Monday, and she told me to tidy my room so that the cleaner lady could clean it. Ha.

I used a huge green economy sized rubbish bag and filled it almost the brim with paper and other junk from my desk and wardrobe. I re-organised my desk and bookcase. I put all my clothes away.
I don't clean often, but when I do, I really do.

We went to the Warehouse after school today and yesterday. Yesterday Mum bought me shoes for the ball. And today:

- 4 DVDs:
* Defiance
* M.I.1 & M.I.2
* The Hangover
- A pair of shoes
- A foundation brush

And I almost got this massive fluffy pillow, only I realised it was almost $40, more than than the DVDs together, and had to put it back.

Ho hum. Ball tomorrow. Kinda excited, kinda not.

Right, I'm gonna go. Got some movies to watch :D

Hm.

I'm having mixed feelings about the ball. On the one hand, I think it might be fun, and on the other I'm thinking it'll be boring as shit. I have to go now, though. Ugh.

Pent Up Weirdness

Does anyone even go on here anymore? Apart from Rachel and I, I mean. It's like, seriously deserted. I haven't been writing as often because of this.

You know, tomorrow will be the first assembly I've been to for like eight weeks. Interesting right?

Down to some serious shit, now. As you all know (I assume), there has been some major weather going on today. We were driving home in the car today after school, going along one of the roads between Sanson and Feilding, and we turn a corner, go up a hill and there! there's this huuuuge puddle in the road. It's like

fencegrass puddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddle grassfence.

The grass in the ditches is waving a bit, and the ditches are full of muddy water flowing into the next paddock, which is pretty damn wet already. There's actually no road there. It's just water.
No, there is a road. It's under the water and invisible, is what I meant to say.

So we drive up slowly and there's this guy in an army uniform and a little light-blue car on the road, and Mum pulls up and rolls down the window and he's like

"so my wife drove the car through the puddle and now the car is full of water and my boots are wet and the electrics are wet too, and I have to wait here so my mate can pick me up and we can figure out what to do with the car that my stupid wife flooded"

He didn't actually say that.
But it was close enough.

And Mum's like no way nuh uh I'm not driving through that, and she backs up the car about to turn around, and then this hard ass mother fucker in a blue truck drives right up and right on through the puddle, not stopping at all, just cruising on through. And then he's gone and the puddle (sea, lake, river) is all lapping at the sides of the fence, and Mum's like "was his car higher than ours?" and of course we say no.

And then the douche with the wet boots say "derp I just realised that your car is diesel and the electrics will be sweet as, so you can go now". His buddy drives up in a green truck and Mum goes through the puddle. And then we're all safe and dry as can be on the other side.

The farm is flooded too. There's no visible creek because it's basically a river now, and there are enormous puddles everywhere. The sheep got kinda stranded and Mum spent all afternoon wading around trying to save them, and she said that if it rains tomorrow like it did today, they could die.

I love floods. If only it didn't have to rain/I had an umbrella :)

xx

just sent in my halls of residence application for vuw. how unnerving :O next i have to send in the $75 hall application fee, and finally my reference thing.

things are finally starting to move forward.

hello

friday:

- yesterday was the wellington university open day. i was out of bed at 4.40am, at school by 20 to 6, and in wellington by around 8.30. it was a great day. i spent most of it completely alone, wandering the university, talking to students and representatives of subjects, picking up pamphlets and, lastly, taking a tour of one of the hostels (weir house, the best, most sought after of all).

- i also went to two subject information sessions; one for history/philosophy, one for classical studies. the speakers were very enthusiastic and it made me feel like i could leave home now and just get into it, because it sounds wonderful.

saturday/today:

- today nadia and i took a trip into palmerston north to see a movie and do some shopping. it was a great day. i hadn't been to a movie in ages dues to plans falling through and because of an annoyingly generalish lack of interest. thankfully, nadia appreciates the cinemas as much as i do.

- we arrived at 12amish and booked tickets for the karate kid screening at 1.45, then spent a little while looking around the plaza. we went to valleygirl, where we bought identical top things for $10. i also bought a singlet for another $10. everything there is very cheap.

- also bought atonement, a novel by ian mcewan.

- the karate kid was epic. it was funny, but also sad (i teared up a little... alright, fine, i had tears full out running down my cheeks. jackie chan's reminiscing scene was seriously ). i want to see it again.

- after this we went to the new ice cream place in downtown, where i had a kiddie cone of feijoa ice cream. it was delicious.

so that was my day.

i am forgoing caps in this post because i feel very calm at the moment and i think that the lack of caps emphasises this.

i hope you all have a lovely sunday, see you guys on monday (first day back at school! yeah!) xx

Madness!

Yeah, so, ignore that last post, please. Silly me :P

I am on a Harry Potter high right now. Over the last couple of weeks I:
- read books 1-4
- watched movies 5 and 6 (while reading the above, not after)
- read book 7
- read books 5 and 6 (because the movies simply don't show enough)

And now I am reading number 7 again.

I am doing this instead of studying, of course. My History exam is tomorrow, and then on Friday I'm off to Wellington for the Victoria University trip. Getting up at like 4am is going to be sweeeet.

Sometimes I Think, Sometimes I Don't

I feel like such a mean person :( Somebody asked me if I would go to the ball with him and I said no. Ugh, and then he tried to convince me that he's really nice and that I should go simply because of this. It's true, he's not a bad guy or anything, I just don't want to go, because the person I would want to go with is not here. Instead, he's halfway around the world and he's probably forgotten all about me, what with all the gorgeous American girls.

Please, please, PLEASE, don't ask me who asked me, because all that will happen is that I will get very mad and resent the fact that you were born.
I'm kidding, I'm not that mean, but I sure wont be happy.

So I've been thinking about tattoos again, and something that struck me is this:

"The Greek word for “return” is nostos. Algos means “suffering.” So nostalgia is the suffering caused by an unappeased yearning to return."

Nostos Algos. I kinda like it. I'm often hit with bouts of nostalgia. In my mind, my childhood was wonderful. Before my parents divorced and my dad left when I was eight, it really did feel like everything was perfect. We had a beautiful house (number one, Hugh Green Drive, Albany, Auckland), I went to a great school and had so many friends, I had an adorable youngest sister (Ellie, before she turned into a psycho) and another older younger sister (Tori, before she grew up a little more and formed opinions) who I could put up with a lot easier. I don't remember my parents fighting. We went on vacation (England, Fiji, Arizona), and I lived closer to my relatives.
Back to the tattoo, though. I just need an image to go with it. What represents nostalgia? I suppose clocks do, but I don't really like clocks, they make annoying noises. Clouds? Clouds passing?
To be honest I want a bird. A nostalgic bird. Birds fly. Back in time? A bird in a whirl of time?

In a tophat. Hehe.


The sky is darkening like a stain,
Something is going to fall like rain
And it won't be flowers.

Keep Reading, It Gets Interestinger

I have my first exam tomorrow. Classical Studies.

But to the point:

It's really not that hard to organise a camping trip.

Step 1. Decide on a place. Easy.
Step 2. Book it.
Step 3. Tell parents, get them to buy you food, organise transport.
Step 4. Pack.
Step 5. Go.

All I ask for is a few days away from home in a new place (Kawhatau Base, obviously. It's awesome up there). We only have a small amount of time before the end of the year, and unless we're able to get everyone together in mid-Feb (unlikely), we wont be going anywhere. Camping is much better than farting around at someone's house, watching movies and sitting glued to their computer screens. At camp we can go for nature walks (I don't CARE about how lame that might sound), play cards, tell stories in the dark, light fires at night, swim, play games (silly outdoor kid games like last time) and cook yummy outdoor dinners. Of course, you can do some of that stuff in town, but it's not the same. When you're done you'll always have something else fun to do. It's a chance to get away from people in general and just hang out, uninterrupted, with your best buds for a while. Not to mention all the awesome camp memories (I mean, come on: don't you remember how awesome didymo was?).
But if you'd rather dress up like stupid kids, fine with me. Fucking fine. The clothes we have are perfectly alright, we don't have to wear sheets.

If you haven't guessed, I'm not really one for dressing up parties. I'd rather be out.

I don't even know if you guys know what I'm talking about. You probably don't get it, why I'd rather camp. Comment if you get it. If you don't, shut your mouth, I'm not trying to start an argument.



Hahaha.



Here is a cock penis, for teh lulz.

I'm Sort Of Back

Oooh looky looky, a new blog post! How long has it been? A while. I'll officially be computerally active once again on Wednesday, when our internet usage count rolls over.
Here are some things on my mind right now:

- Camp. I'll be going to England pretty much right after exams have finished at the beginning of December, and I wont be back until early Feb, approx one month before I leave for wherever I end up going. I'm guessing that by then most people will have gone- those who are in Year 13, anyway (and we all know that the usual camp organisers are those of us in Yr 13. I mean, we went to get food for last time and got all the money together and things...). I wanted to go to Kawhatau base again, like I did for a tramping trip in Y10, but apparently the water supply would be an issue.

- Uni. Open day on the 27th. Looking forward to it. Although, I will have to be on the bus at 6AM, and I'm not sure at this point whether I'll have company (PLEASE come, Rachel!). Just a warning, though- I'm not very talkative at 6 in the morning (just ask Hannah J, who I ride to school with every morning), but I think that the day would overall be pretty fun.

- Exams. But who isn't thinking about that?

That's all. I know, it was wonderfully inviting (and full of pizzazz).

Adios :)

Don't Read This, It's Boring

La dee da. Home almost alone. It's so awesome. I'm not being told off every 5 seconds. No one's told me to do anything.
Was up by 7.30 this morning, at work by 8, off work at 12. After that there was nothing to do, so I watched some TV and had lunch. It's also raining, which I love when I'm inside.
Tomorrow I don't have to get up until 10, and mum wont be home until 8PM. So anyway, I'm going to go and read some more Harry Potter (The Goblet of Fire), and maaaybe do some homework. But probably not.
See. Told you it was boring. Have this:

P.S. JOIN TUMBLR, AND FOLLOW ME. I ONLY HAVE SIX FOLLOWERS.

We're All Islands

You know that saying, "Every man is an island"? Well so are girls, cause I sure feel like an island right now.

So anyway, I'm having a bit of a writer's block. Must write. Can't. Gah. I don't really care anymore about what people think of my writing (I'm not sure what to think, myself. I've had good critique and bad), I just do it for me. Right now I'm having a complete mental blank. It's been going for a while now.
Hm. Maybe I can break it by drawing something awesome.
So, just a few points about things:

- I'm coping pretty well, all things considering. I'm a bit embarrased about my earlier posts about how I wont cope with school. There are two empty seats next to me in Geography and History, but I suppose that absense doesn't always make the heart grow fonder.
- Donated bloooood, y'all! (For the second time.) If you ever nearly die and get my internal fluids inside you, and they save your life, I expect an extravaggant cash prize. Seriously, go for my blood, though, it's of A+ quality.
- Passed a Geo test worth credits, which is a first. Literally.
- Found out that Uni hall applications are judged on YEAR TWELVE GRADES. It was by far my worst year. If I'd known then how important it was, I'd've tried harder (or quit Economics).
- Am looking after the house this weekend. Tori and I are at home alone all Saturday and part of Sunday, which means that lots of baking will go down.

That's all, folks.

P.S. Listen to Islands, by The XX. And watch the music video (all the way through).

And Oh! How It Rained!

It rained today. Oh, did it ever. Of all the weatherly things, rain and wind are my least favourite. If there were a line titled "the line on top of which are the things that I like most", rain and wind would be miles beneath, in the murky depths of blatant rejection.
Sometimes something happens which cancels out the rain and wind, such as a good test result or a funny joke, and thankfully one such thing happened today. Jessica W and Jessica M and I were having a conversation. Here is how it happened (more or less):

(we were on the subject of having Maori blood in our veins and how thankful we are that for most of us, it isn't so)
Me (to Jessica W.): Do you have any Maori in you?
Jessica W.: My mum and my dad are Maori.
Jessica M.: Yeah, but your mum is from Britain, and your last name is White!

Oh, and not only that, but Jessica M today instructed a mentally challenged boy on how to correctly use a door handle. I don't remember how it went, but it was funny.

Things like this don't happen enough. We have to strengthen our funny bones and utilise them more often. Too often are we plagued by awkward silences, stuck in a deadly mire of imagination-gone-to-die.

Haha, I'm only kidding. Silence isn't all bad. If I were old, I might even argue that it is golden. I just enjoy sounding like one of those overly inspirational speakers that Hollywood movies are all to fond of. You guys are awesome.

Warning: Long and Weird (But Wonderful).

I asked Jess (on Tumblr) who would win in a fight, a rooster or a beaver. She said:

That does take some contemplation (which I just had real issues spelling). I must warn you now that I like beavers quite a lot, so I am probably biased.

Mmkay, so a rooster has very spindly legs, and probably isn’t overly strong. Certainly not as strong as a beaver. I mean, they’re quite…stocky looking. Plus, beavers have those big teeth. I think that a rooster, which I imagine would be faster/more agile than a beaver, would be more inclined to run away if it got into a fight with a beaver, and the beaver probably wouldn’t be able to catch it. However, that’s not a win, more of a default.

In saying that, roosters have a fighting history - cock fighting, that is - so maybe because of that they’d be less chicken than one would assume. Haha.

I think that if they were forced into close combat, then the beaver would try to use its weight and larger mass to its advantage, and the rooster would try and be more ninja, using its agility. But I think in the end, it would be the beaver coming out on top. Just because one bite from those sharp teeth to that scrawny neck would end that rooster.And the rooster might get disqulified, for fighting ‘fowl’! AHAHA! Lordy, am I funny or what?

Yeah, sorry about that.

But, I think that we have neglected the real question here. Why would a beaver and a rooster be fighting in the first place? Did the beaver covet the rooster’s hens? Did the rooster enroach on the beaver’s dam? Or did the beaver just get pissed off at the rooster’s insistence at having sex very early in the morning, leading to loud orgasmic noises before sun-up? (Yes, that is the real reason that cocks crow in the morning).

So, this has been another episode of “Cap’n Hans Lee O’Flanaghan, Sr. (Esq.) Dribbles On About Silly Things”. Tune in next time, for more dribbling on about silly things.In the name of science.

And then Jess asked: Why would a beaver and a rooster get into a fight? Huh?

And I said: Oh, well I see you don’t know.

You see, back in the early 1580s, when the first roosters arrived in Canada, there was a bloody feud involving the two species. It went on unnoticed by humans- except perhaps by the odd observant person who realised that beavers sometimes included bones in the building of their dams- for almost 75 years. To this day, we are not quite sure of the reason. Some argue a turf-war, others an inter-species abomination sparked from a Romeo&Juliet type fandango.
In May of 1656 a treaty was signed, in which both parties agreed to a ceasefire, provided that none of either party crossed the boundary line. This line was situated in the southern Canadian territory Manitoba, slightly to the east of Winnipeg.

Just ten years later the Rooster King, Crowing-Cloud, issued private orders to his SS division for a terrorist attack on the nearby beaver barracks in Edmonton, Alberta, where the Beaver King and his Queen (Sotchi Sotchi and Sachi Sotchi Sotchi) temporarily resided. His reason: the young son of the Beaver King and Queen had crept under cover of darkness into Manitoba the night before and plundered the best branches of his home tree.

The attack proceeded smoothly at first, killing Satchi Satchi and his wife in a swift, merciless battle. The SS failed, however, to capture their son, a quick witted fellow by the name of Henry. During his escape to the north of Albert, Henry gathered an army. What followed was a slaughter. He marched through Saskatchewan and back through Manitoba to Ontario and Quebec, deep into rooster territory. Almost the whole population of roosters was killed in the genocide, including Crowing-Cloud and his closest friend and Uncle, Fire-Tail.

Hundreds of years later, Canadian beavers are still on the hunt for stray roosters, and attack them whenever possible.

We know of this now mainly because of the beaver burial grounds in Southern Quebec, where thousands of rooster corpses were hidden in the dense forests. The bones show obvious beaver bites and scratches. The extra information comes from “dam-art”, drawings made by scribes in the ancient homes of long-gone beaver generations.

Are we weird or what? :3

The Road

Please, just read this:

Well, I think we're about two hundred miles from the coast. As the crow flies.
As the crow flies.
Yes. It means going in a straight line.
Are we going to get there soon?
Not real soon. Pretty soon. We're not going as the crow flies.
Because crows don't have to follow roads?
Yes.
They can go wherever they want.
Yes.
Do you think there might be crows somewhere?
I don't know.
But what do you think?
I think it's unlikely.
Could they fly to Mars or someplace?
No. They couldnt.
Because it's too far?
Yes.
Even if they wanted to.
Even if they wanted to.
What if they tried and they just got half way or something and then they were too tired. Would they fall back down?
Well. They couldn't get half way because they'd be in space and there's not any air in space so they wouldnt be able to fly and besides it would be too cold and they'd freeze to death.
Oh.
Anyway they wouldnt know where Mars was.
Do we know where Mars is?
Sort of.
If we had a spaceship could we go there?
Well. If you had a really good spaceship and you had people to help you I suppose you could.
Would there be any food and stuff there?
No. There's nothing there.
Oh.

They sat for a long time. They sat on their folded blankets and watched the road in both directions. No wind. Nothing. After a while the boy said: There's not any crows. Are there?
No.
Just in books.
Yes. Just in books.
I didn't think so.

-Cormac McCarthy.

And that's exactly as it is in the book. No speech marks, and no apostrophes in places. It's an amazing book. Won the Pulitzer Prize. I love it.

Anyway. Today has been pretty good. I slept for ages last night and therefore wasn't so tired today. Got up at 11AM, did some chores, checked my mail. Then we had lunch, which was bread rolls with cold meats (beef and ham and stuff) and tomato and cucumber and things. And then we played Monopoly, Tori and Ellie and I. It was a very, very good game. You know those games where everything just quickly goes to shit? When one person has all the money and all the best streets and you're like fffff. Well, I had the browns, light blues, pink and reds and hotels on everything, and Ellie had the yellows and dark blues and Tori had everything else, and it took something like 3 hours and even then we just had to quit because it was dinner soon.
And for dinner we had lamb patties with pita bread and couscous, and now I'm on here.

And tomorrow we're going to play Scrabble :D

xx

And Suddenly

Ohhhh noooo. I just realized that applications for the Victoria University Halls of Residence open on August 1st, which is on SUNDAY. WHAT am I going to DO? I don't have level three yet and so the highest form of education I can put on there in Level 2 and that was my crappiest year.
Sooo once again I am perving around the website of VUW, trying to see if I missed out on any info the first ten thousand million times.

Alrighty. Anything else? Well, it's Friday. That's always fun. This morning I woke up so incredibly warm and cosy and almost couldn't get out of bed. I hope to recapture that tomorrow. I'm looking forward to a nice long sleep in and maybe a bit of reading. Currently I'm reading The Road, by Cormac McCarthy. It's weeeird. There's an apocalypse, but at this point (130 pages in) I still don't know the characters' names, how the apocalypse happened or what they did to avoid it. Frustrating, indeed.

Wore my dress thing again today. Should have known better than to wear a short skirt with a shoulder bag, cause when I walked the bag hitched the skirt up a little at a time and it made me very paranoid. Not fun.

Know what else isn't fun? My mum telling Tori that looking at me is scary enough to cure hiccups. FML, and thanks, Mum. I love you too.

Things That Have Happened Lately

This'll be another short one. Just a list. I can't write incredibly interesting shit on my blog so I'm probably going to keep it short from now on, unless there's a huge emergency that demands longness.

- My card declined at the cafe, which was a hilarious event for everyone.

- The movie that I bought on iTunes (Zombieland) fucked up and so I am watching it now, on Megavideo, for free.

- I figured out that getting into University might not be as hard as I thought it would be. A huge weight has been lifted.

- I have half decided for myself, half been pressured into going to the senior ball this year. When I told my Mum she said that she is going to take me shopping and she is going to pay for everything. I'm just a little bit worried about her taste vs. mine.

- It was sunny today, and then it was not. The weather should make up its mind. I was enjoying the sun and then all of a sudden it was hailing and windy.

- I'm running out of things to say. See y'all tomorrow (it's Friiiidaaay!).

Ma Jour Ennuyeux

- signed up to donate blood next Tuesday at 11AM. I did this last year and it was cool, apart from when they had to test my hemoglobin count, which hurt more than the actual needle.

- discovered new song: Tighten Up, by The Black Keys. Go listen.

- went to drama and got lots of praise, so woo me.

And that's all. Apparently my long posts are boring, so I'm leaving it here for today :)

(No comments on yesterday's post? I'm disappointed.)

I Also Write Like...

Please be aware: this entry consists of a lot of showing off and many excerpts from things I've written over the last year or so. You were warned.

I'm sorry, but I can't help getting a little big headed about this. I went back, and it said I write like Charles Dickens. I've never read anything by him, but from what I hear he's pretty good. This is the passage:

"I did not know I could hate so fiercely. How dare the birds sing! Everything is in shades of grey, the sky, the grass, my dead sister’s pretty dress.
I let my tears fall, for this, I am the emotional kind. I water the grass, keeping my eyes on the ground. I try to drown out the words that are sending my sister into the earth. I want to run up to her coffin and climb in beside her. I do not care what they would think. Perhaps my parents would let me go; there is nothing they love in me.
What will they do with her piano? Will they keep it as a memory of their beloved Anabelle? Or will they choose to rid of it now she is gone, now the thought of her causes them so much pain."

Oh no. Stephen King again. It must be wrong. He's awesome. I'm not.

Ah, Charles Dickens again!

"The door burst in, crippling under the pressure of the men beating at it from the outside. Heavy footsteps pounded down the hall as Alina, Ilya and Nicolai escaped out of the back door. Outside, the snow was still falling. The houses stood silently with black windows and white-coated rooves; every so often there was a plop as the snow dropped off into the sea of white waiting below. The dirt road was muddy and covered in puddles, and dimly lit by the light coming from Alina's house. The night was still. They stood near the fence, back to the wall, guns poised in their hands, scared out of their minds."

I seriously want to know how accurate this is, because though I've had some critique I've never had someone tell me that I'm terrible. I want your HONEST opinion about these excerpts and the pieces from yesterday. If you want the whole thing I'll give you a link. Most of them are quite short.

Oooh, Kurt Vonnegut. I hear he's good:

"Alina laid still, her life bleeding into the snow. Ilya stood with his arms hanging uselessly at his sides. Nicolai knelt softly onto the ground next to her, and took her hand. He didn't say anything. He didn't need to. The sky, black above them, glittered with stars. The snow continued to fall. The last thing Alina heard was the soft rush as the flakes hit the ground, and the last thing she saw was Nicolai's face, pale and streaked with tears in the moonlight."

Ha. I just ruined THAT story for you.

Oho, Neil Gaiman! Now, I know he's good, so this must be false, because this is something I wrote in December 09. Everything I wrote back then was a little lackluster.

"My hand paused on the dish I'd been about to lift, while hers fiddled, unworried, with a newly sharpened red pencil. She put the pencil to paper and drew a tree trunk, with thick branches sticking awkwardly from the sides and twigs further extending the crimson limbs. She then picked up the light blue and, with her forehead almost touching the paper, drew individual leaves, one by one."

That's enough. I've exhausted my supply of literature and no doubt you lot are bored, that's if you haven't stopped reading already.

Remember. I want critique. I think I've fixed the comment thing.

xx

About A Car

Helloooo.
I am on here to talk about a car. My Uncle Walt just arrived in this:


Now, I'm no car person, but this (1971 Vauxhall Viva) is awesome. What's more is that it only cost him $500, and it's only a few months away from become a Classic car.
I'm not sure what this car says about me. Someone tell me if it's weird to like it.

Also Blogger isn't showing the links for comments on my last post, and this one too. I don't know why, and it's really annoying me >:(

Anyway. I'd better go.
I have to go and find a worthy substitute for peanut butter, and something tells me that my search will be useless.

xx

I Write Like...

If you want to find out who you write like, here is a link.

Here are my people:

Stephen King: okay. That's awesome.

"His watch says that thirteen minutes have passed since he stepped out of the taxi, and he is still walking alone down Lucy's road. The dark has intensified, it seems, since he started out, and so, he realizes, has the pain in his head. All of a sudden there are drums beating, and his arm is hurting. There are fireworks crackling inside his eyes, whistling like kettles at the boil, screaming into the sky to explode magnificently in a dazzling burst of short lived fire. There are sirens; shrill screams in the night air. His head hurts, and his arm hurts, and suddenly he is lying on the pavement, and it is so, so cold through the thinness of his hospital gown."

Chuck Palahnuik: (he wrote Fight Club).

" I think I'm getting better, Lucy. I feel so young, so healthy. How do I look?
His hair is almost all gone and his skin is red and sore but she says he looks wonderful.
Good enough to get a pretty girl to go out with me?
Of course.
How about it, then? I know a fantastic place downtown. See if you can get the night off and we'll go and have some fun. What do you say?
I can't do that, Mr. Simpson, I-
It's David, godammit! He shouts, and swings his legs over to the side. He pulls the covers to the side, and his gown slips up to show a sickly length of thigh.
I'm better now, Lucy, I promise. You can leave your husband and we can go out to dinner. That would be nice, wouldn't it?
Lucy calls out for help."

Also J.D. Salinger (yeugh), Margaret Atwood (unlikely) and (using a piece of my last blog post) Stephen King again.

It's probably inaccurate, but awesome all the same :D

Sadurday 24th

Feeling better today. Not by much, but better. Woke up at 9, finished Watership Down (80 or so pages), had breakfast. The rest of the day passed in pure, mindless mindlessness. I don't remember much. Just shows that I didn't do anything.
Oh, I did finish all my homework though. Feels good not to have to worry about it.

I still feel like crap, actually. I'm tired, and the very first thing that Mum said to me this morning, besides hello, was "holy crap, you look terrible". She's always telling me I'm too pale and how black it is under my eyes. So fucking what? Is that somehow her problem? Like she doesn't go on at me for enough already.

I'm watching Misfits again. Episode five, season one. It's really, really funny. There's this Welsh guy in it and he say the funniest shit. It's sort of like Skins meets Heroes, because it's a British teen drama, only there are superpowers involved. At least they don't all crap on about saving the world and destiny and stuff, because that did get a bit old in Heroes.

I'd better go. I don't have anything else to say.
I wish you lot would blog more. It's getting a bit lonely here. Dust bunnies and all that.

x

The Real Post

I was so angry earlier, and I was all set to get on Blogger and rant and rave about life and how much it sucks, and then I calmed down and I couldn't begin typing, so I closed the tab, left, and went to watch The Matrix.
And now... I'm angry again.

When I first got angry it was because of something which totally ruined my day. It was ANOTHER FUCKING comment that FUCKED me off SO fucking much. Mum called me in to dry the dishes (our dishwasher is broken) and while I was doing that, totally silent, I worked myself into a seething internal rage. After each fork or spoon I dried I slammed it as aggresively as I could into the drawer without getting in trouble. Mum had no idea that anything was wrong as she was immersed in making dinner. When I was done I went to my room, sat on the floor and quitely cried for ten or so minutes. I promised myself that I wouldn't open my eyes until I felt ready to smile and be merry and try not to slam things shut, and the thought that made me finally open them, scarily, was 'everyone in this house is going to die someday'. I didn't think this in the sense that I was going to go on a murderous rampage and kill everyone, but in the way that one day they wont be here to make me feel like such complete and utter crap almost every day.

After this I quietened down, ate dinner, watched Glee. And then I came back out into the office (where our two computer are) to check my mail. Tori's things from 2 hours earlier (Facebook, deviantART, Limewire) were open and so I closed them, knowing fully well that she'd be back out to shout at me. Sure enough she appeared less than five minutes later, demanding that I get off. She unplugged the modem and refused to leave, so I gave up the computer. We had a little argument about the fact that I'd closed her stuff, and when she finally got off ten minutes later she closed my things.
The difference here is that all of Tori's things were easily re-obtainable. Facebook isn't going to disappear because I closed a window. I, however, was loading an episode of Misfits which at that point was pretty well done.

So fuck that. My family sucks and I hate everything. I don't care if what I did earlier was immature or whatever, I still feel like a fucking third wheel. Thank God I still have... my, my, um... never mind. My nothing. At. Fucking. All.

No. I'm not OK.

I Hate Everyone

Some stupid chick in the checkout line
Was paying for beer with nickels and dimes
And some old man who clipped coupons
Had argued whenever they wouldn't take one
All I wanted to was buy some cigarettes
But I couldn't take it anymore so I left

I hate everyone
I hate everyone
I hate everyone
I hate everyone

All the people on the street, I hate you all
And the people that I meet, I hate you all
And the people that I know, I hate you all
And the people that I don't, I hate you all
Oh, I hate you all

Some fucking asshole just cut me off
And gave me the finger when I fucking honked
Then he proceeded to put on the brakes
He slammed on the brakes, but I made a mistake
When I climbed out of my van he was waiting
But he was six three and two hundred pounds of Satan

I hate everyone
I hate everyone
I hate everyone
I hate everyone

- Get Set Go I Hate Everyone

The Poem In Full ("The Two", or "The Witnesses", by W.H. Auden).

You are the town and we are the clock.
We are the guardians of the gate in the rock.
The Two.
On your left and on your right
In the day and in the night,
We are watching you.

Wiser not to ask just what has occurred
To them who disobeyed our word;
To those
We were the whirlpool, we were the reef,
We were the formal nightmare, grief
And the unlucky rose.

Climb up the crane , learn the sailor's words
When the ships from the islands laden with birds
Come in.
Tell your stories of fishing and other men's wives:
The expansive moments of constricted lives
In the lighted inn.

But do not imagine we do not know
Nor that what you hide with such care won't show
At a glance.
Nothing is done, nothing is said,
But don't make the mistake of believing us dead:
I shouldn't dance.

We're afraid in that case you'll have a fall.
We've been watching you over the garden wall
For hours.
The sky is darkening like a stain,
Something is going to fall like rain
And it won't be flowers.

When the green field comes off like a lid
Revealing what was much better hid:
Unpleasant.
And look, behind you without a sound
The woods have come up and are standing round
In deadly crescent.

The bolt is sliding in its groove,
Outside the window is the black remov-
ers' van.
And now with sudden swift emergence
Come the woman in dark glasses and humpbacked surgeons
And the scissors man.

This might happen any day
So be careful what you say
Or do.
Be clean, be tidy, oil the lock,
Trim the garden, wind the clock,
Remember the Two.