Daydreaming

I just managed to write 1,000 words of my new novel in the last half hour, so I'm feeling pretty accomplished. Of course, immersing yourself in a world that doesn't exist tends to have adverse effects on one's relationship with reality... and mine's always been dodgy anyway. What I'm getting at, I suppose, is that I'm feeling smooshy and daydreamy.

I've discovered that Yurima goes very well with this novel... or at least with the first chapter of it, anyway. And listening to his music has always made me inclined to daydream anyway. I'm now watching the video for Taylor Swift's new song, Mine, I'm adding the link just because I like it so much. It's not my favourite song of hers, or my favourite of her music videos, but it kind of goes with my mood, somehow. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XPBwXKgDTdE&ob=av2e I'm a geek, I know. Is it possible to be a princess and a geek at the same time? I hope so.

I'm trying to chill a little before Bright Sparks this evening. This is the 5-11s group at my church that I help out with. It's so much fun, but exhausting! This is the first one since the summer holidays, so I'm excited to see what God has been doing in these kids' lives since Holiday Club... and if they can still remember the memory verse... I can! I think... "Nothing is as wonderful as knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. I have given up everything else and count it all as rubbish. All I want is Christ!" Philippians 3:8. Yes, I can remember it, then. And it's holding me in good stead too. What a great verse to constantly remind myself of! Whenever I get stressed out or sad or lonely or... dare I say it... obsessing over my hair, I have to remind myself that NOTHING is as wonderful as knowing Jesus! Hooray! :) Hmm... this is more of a diary than a blog.

Er... steering back into the realms of blog-ness... so, started lectures again. I'm really enjoying everything so far, and love getting back into studying. I think I'd been away from it too long: over the summer, I was re-reading some of the Twilight books, and in my head I was planning essays on them! How super-geeky! One of my seminar leaders was going on about Twilight, actually, and saying how we shouldn't completely dismiss Stephenie Meyer as rubbish because, although her writing is pretty atrocious, she has somehow managed to single handedly create a Gothic revival in literature, and spawn a whole new breed of vampires... albeit, sparkly ones.

I do like sparkly things, though. I might use some sparkly nail varnish... that would be nice. So... daydreamy mood is running out as I'm thinking about how hungry I am. So I guess this is a short blog, and a pretty stupid one, I'm not sure it really has a point. But does something need to have a point?

The Noisy Blog

I'm eating my breakfast, and my housemates are either at work, sleeping or travelling, so I thought it was high time I wrote a new blog to keep me entertained, whilst trying not to get porridge on my laptop. (Porridge with chocolate spread mixed in, if you're wondering, I usually add raisins too, but I forgot this morning... I don't know why.)

I thought I would make a list of my favourite sounds. I don't know why that, either. It might be useful for my writing one day, but otherwise it's just quite nice to dwell on things that I like. So hooray :)

1. The ping of the microwave, because it means that food is ready

2. The noise my dog makes when he's chasing something in his dream, it makes me laugh

3. The sound of my fingers tapping quickly at my keyboard; it means that I'm either doing some really good writing, doing a great essay or, most likely, writing something completely unimportant but totally exciting on Facebook.

4. The sound of someone knocking on the door when you don't expect it; it either means the postman has a parcel for one of us (hopefully food or films) or you have a surprise visitor. I love this.

5. The sound of rain on the roof of the conservatory at my parents' house. It's just amazing. Especially if I'm snuggled up on the sofa in there with a blanket and a book.

6. The sound of slamming shut a really good book. I just like it.

7. My alarm when it goes off on a day when something really exciting is happening.

8. The noise it makes when you push the lid onto the box of a board game too quickly.

9. The slap of flip flops on the pavement in summer.

10. The noise it makes when you pull a suction pad off of tile... I think that has to be the best noise ever. I'm 21 and I still haven't gotten over how fantastic it is.

Also, note to self: If you run out of milk, go to the shop and buy some more. Porridge made with water is not very nice.

Party!

So, suddenly, after what felt like (and for my Mum actually was) months of preparation, my birthday party is over. I had an amazing evening (well, weekend, actually!) and I feel totally overwhelmed by the love people have shown me. I suppose I will tackle this somewhat chronologically for fear of a snowball of information and emotion.

Beccy was the first to arrive at my house, in true party-loving fashion, more than 24 hours before the party started! I'm going to miss that fabulous lady, as she has now officially moved out of number thirty-seven, and Norwich altogether. We had a catch up, ate too many fajitas, and went to the cinema. We saw Scott Pilgrim vs the World. If you haven't seen it, then do! It was amazingly weird... or maybe weirdly amazing... or maybe both. I can't stop quoting, "I said lesbians, didn't I..." and "You were bi-curious? Well I'm bi-furious!" these are the only two same-sex-attraction references in the film, I don't know why these are the things I remembered most!

Saturday during the day was a whirl of organza and cupcake icing. I want to say a massive thanks to Matthew, who was amazing at decorating everything in sight! Then came the time to go to the hairdressers' and they curled, and sprayed my hair until I looked like a princess, but felt like a cheese grater. Somehow I managed it that most of my friends would arrive at the station during the period I was being primped, so friends and family did relays to train station to pick them all up, while I sat still and painted my nails and such!

After loads of jacket potatoes and chilli and even more makeup, we managed to get to the party venue without TOO many fights for mirrors. And from there the night went in a flash--a sparkly, disco-ball flash. Tons of balloons, millions of cupcakes, a great band and sooo many friends and family made it a truly amazing evening.

I wore some astounding shoes from Kurt Geiger, which are the nicest shoes I've ever worn. Of course, they are one of the most painful pairs also, and combined with the loads of dancing we did, I was in a considerable amount of agony by the time we got into the house, but I didn't give in. I danced with old friends, new friends, and friends that will always be my friends. Those I know so well I think they're a part of me, and those who I'm just starting to get to know.

Sadly, no knight in shining armour on a white horse came to sweep me off my feet, but I felt like a princess in every other way, and every single lady there looked like one too! I reiterate my astonishment at the effort everybody put into everything, from the food and decorations, to dressing up the part--if any of you do read this, then thank you!

Preparations and Transitions

At present I am in the midst of preparations for my birthday party, which is on Saturday... in two days' time. I think I'm in the calm before the storm... although hopefully it will be a fun storm! It's my 21st birthday on the 13th, but I'm having my party on the 4th so that it's not crazy immediately before we all go back to uni.

OK, this is a really boring blog. I felt the need to do so though, perhaps as a way to purge, or maybe just to kill some time.

I've been tidying out my room in order to make room for as many camp beds as possible and I came across a few things that I found interesting, and wasted some time with. First of all I came across the novel that I wrote between the ages of 12-14. I do feel proud of it, because it is a full-length young adult novel, printed out and arranged nicely in a folder, complete with title page and illustrations of characters. It's called 'Forbidden', about a 17-year-old girl vampire, who falls in love with a human boy, despite their love being forbidden. I finished writing this in 2004, so I hold Stephanie Meyer a little in contempt for 'stealing' my idea.

However, I decided to read it, thinking it would be an enjoyable few hours of reminiscing. I couldn't get past the fourth page. This is the phrase that I found so painful that I had to stop reading, "I look into your eyes and I feel like time is frozen and I can let this moment last forever; only it won't last forever, can't lost forever, nothing can last forever, except my undying love for you!" What makes this worse is that the grammar is almost as painful as the cringeworthy sentiment. And yet, it does show how much my writing has improved in the last six years.

I also came across my leavers' book, from when I left sixth form at the age of 18. I went to that school for five years, and most of the comments are people saying 'I didn't really know you,' or words to that effect. Sometimes these were from people I thought I knew quite well. Some of the people didn't actually seem to know who I was. It's all very Mean Girls. Some of the nicest things in there were written by my English teachers, which I think says a lot! One of them even gave me her home phone number! They all seemed to know that I was soon to have a book published, though, and everyone wrote how successful I would be as a writer... so we'll see!

My first boyfriend, Charlie, wrote in it that in ten years he would want my autograph, as I'd be rich and famous... I recently learned that he's actually in the process of filming a, well, a film, like an actual cinema film, and that he has another lined up soon. So, actually, I think he could well be very famous very soon... maybe I can exchange autographs with him? I bet I know which would be worth more money! Maybe I could sell the story of our first kiss to some trashy magazine, though, and pay the rent that I can't pay with a writer's living.

It's strange reading through that book and hearing everyone's wishes for a good time at uni. They all told me to "have fun at uni!" and I disregarded that, pretty sure that it would be three years of grinning and bearing it. I was soooo in love (phrase of the era) with my boyfriend of 2 years, Matt, and I couldn't bear to leave him. I almost didn't go, in fact. Those fears kind of come through when I think about my reactions to everyone's good wishes. How odd, when I compare that to how I feel now.

I'm just about to step into my third, and final, year at uni. And I can't bare to leave! Matt and I broke up before I even went to uni, we didn't even last it through the summer. At the time it felt like the worst thing in the world, and now I see that it was probably the best. I've made so many amazing friends at uni, more than I could possibly have even hoped for, and I know that when I come to leave, none of them will write "I didn't really know you".

So it's been a week of transitions really, trying to transition into thinking of myself as a 21-year-old, i.e. someone who is DEFINITELY an adult (even if a somewhat reluctant one), of trying to get my head around what on earth I'm going to do when I finish uni, how I've changed and (hopefully) improved as a writer, and remembering the strange transition from school to university.

For old time's sake, I'm adding a photo of my leavers' ball from sixth form, just over two years ago.