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