Saturday morning

Quickly, quickly, as it's brunch in 8 minutes, and I am sooooooo hungry..

Just to say hello... not a lot to tell anyone... tonnes of work and revision, that I haven't done. At the moment I'm working on a 'denial is the best policy' idea. It's going pretty well.

Hope everyone is well etc etc

Byee xx

update update update

This is an update

I love formals
I love you all

I don't like cream

Especially in jugfulls.

Enough said. xxx

Vicky

My Name is Vicky and I am nice! I have a very good friend who is fantastic called Emma!

Sorry its such a long one folks!

Well today has been very long, for some reason or other... possibly because I've done quite a lot...

This morning I went into Exeter (well, Sowton, which is an industrial estate just outside of Exeter) to get my camera exchanged, as it was broken... having been told to do so by the camera repair people affiliated with PC World, where the camera was bought. However, when I got to the store, I was told I was wrong and would have to go home and phone up the repair people again and go through lots of hassle to get my camera fixed. But, I was feeling a little under the weather this morning, and a little stressy, so I didn't take no for an answer, and basically told John (the PC World man) that he should phone up the people I spoke to because they had told me something different. He did this (he's bright, is John, knows not to mess with an irritable woman)... and after a while, admitted that PC World has not updated their policy thingy-majig and that I WAS RIGHT! Hurrah... so after a bit more hassle, and a quick re-route to Tesco's opposite for sustainance (in the shape of a doughnut) whilst waiting for my mum to come and sign the new direct debit agreement thingy, I am now the proud owner of a brand new Olympus camera! Yay!.... and it has 5 megapixels, instead of 4... so its even a bit of an upgrade! Wow.

After this, we drove into Exeter and went to a new 'Oriental fusion noodle bar', in which we shared a couple of massive bowls of noodle soup... which was yummy and very nice, especially as we very rarely ever eat out...

Then, my sister, brother (Adam, not Oscar) and I went to the cinema to see Scary Movie 4. If you look for real poignant, meaningful exchanges in a film, don't go and see this one. If you like a cheap laugh and a few grimaces, or Charlie Sheen, go ahead and see it. It was good crappy fun, and a nice excuse to spend time with my siblings! Afterwards we moseyed around the high street for a couple of hours, scouting for the best priced felt tip pens... (Bitz, £1)

Oh... and it was there that an awful thing happened... Tim you may want to look away now...
We were walking down the High St., which only buses are allowed to drive up and down. As we walked along, I spotted a pigeon in the middle of the road. Suddenly, I could no longer see pigeon, as a bus had gone over it!!! Luckily, the pigeon was between the wheels, not underneath them... all the same, we could hear flapping and see its wings being tossed and turned as the bus continued on above it... it was a horrible and sickening moment. Then suddenly, and to all our reliefs, the pigeon flew out from under the bus, and away up into the sky, seemingly completely unharmed. Phew. I do hope it is ok, and that it is not too traumatised by its near death experience. Tim you can look back now...

Anyway, that was the general outline of my day... the evening has been spent chatting with my family, and watching a film together (Hitch), which was nice.. now I'm going to go and process some photos! Wooo! Then tomorrow is my last full day at home...which is weird, I kind of don't want it to be, but then in many other ways am very glad it is! Odd, huh, but there you go, that is me! Love and all, don't go getting run over by any buses, and if you must do, make sure you can fly out from underneath afterwards! xxx

Tick-tock goes the clock and still I've done no work

Today I have been attempting to do some work.. boring, yucky statistics no less. But then first of all I thought I hadn't emailed myself the right data, and so redid my T-tests, no easy feat, only to find I did have them, they were just hiding. Then I was distracted by various family goings on. And MSN. In the end it hasn't been that productive a day. And we're heading back to Durham this weekend, I'm out tomorrow, and my Aunt (not the Aussie one) is coming to visit on Friday. Oh well. We can but try, and at least I can say I tried now. Just as I am trying to struggle through Robinson Crusoe, but it really must be the most boring book ever written. For real. And I have to read it for my English elective. Yuckety yuck.

I really ought to take the dogs for a walk, but I'm feeling incredibly lazy. Low in energy and under the weather generally actually, which I'm sure is probably lack of sleep, and I have (under mum's instruction) taken a multivitamin. Apparently that'll work wonders. We shall see. Maybe a swig of wine will help...

In other news, I have come to the realisation that there only a few instances in life when butter is acceptable...
1) On toasted hot cross bun/crumpet
2) On jacket potatoes
3) On Marmite toast (only marmite, occasionally honey, but generally not)
4) In the making of a cake, or something, or bread, if its needed... but I'm not sure this counts, as you can't tell that there is butter in them.

Never put butter in a sandwich. Never. There you go, my butter rules. I'm all hungry for toast and cakes and tea now (I know I didn't mention tea before, but it goes with the toast...)

Anyways, my sweets and pumpkins (see... food orientated terms of endearment) I shall talk to you all shortly, and see some of you very soon. How utterly thrilling, stay safe, love to all, xxx

Is the heart fonder? Should I make the break longer?

Well, after having been away for a while, courtesy of Easter trips to my Gran's house down in Buckinghamshire, I have now returned. I hope everyone's Easters have been good fun. Mine certainly was... though things were a bit tense on the Grandma side of things (weird, I never call her Grandma...) what with her being very irritable and not getting along with her carers, it was VERY good to catch up with my Aunt Lizzie and Uncle John, whom I have not seen for years because they live in Australia, or are forever travelling (they go to Cuba on Thursday... lucky ducks!.... my relatives are not ACTUALLY ducks by the way...I promise!). Anyway, it was really good to bond with them... even staying up until 5.30am on Saturday night/Sunday morning, just talking, reminiscing and opening up... it was very cool. So I've had a good Easter.

Since returning I have been on a very long dog walk, which was fantastic, and I have worried about the work I haven't done, because we are returning to Durham on Sunday, I'm leaving on Saturday (staying with Emma in Darlington, yay!) and I've done pretty much nothing. Oh dear. Oops indeed.

In other news, I can't type for toffee... its taken me ages to write this what with all the having to go back to correct mistakes, so I shall leave you now. Hope you are all well, and stay safe, love xxx

Four days without the internet... will I cope?

Hmmmn... today I have hardly been online at all (I only signed in at 10pm)... but now, there is no-one online, and I've just realised I won't have access to the internet until the end of next Monday! That is a veritable AGE away! Will I cope... we shall see... I am going to my Granny's house for Easter (she lives miles away down near London), and there is nothing to do there. And that is an understatement. It should be thrilling. Though it does mean I get to see my Auntie Lizzie who I haven't seen for a few years, as she lives a while away in Australia! That'll be good, and maybe I can use the opportunity to do some revision... we shall see.

In other news, I rather shockingly didn't get up until 3.30pm today. I know, right. In my defence, I did actually wake up at 1.30pm, and I didn't go to sleep until 5.30am... I was working until 4.30am, and then I read for a while... which is also what I did between 1.30 and 3.30. There you go.. fascinating stuff...

What else has been happening in this short day? When I came downstairs the house was bereft of people other than Adam, and then 'Daniel the Computer Man' turned up to install Mum's new work computer... he was a barrel of laughs... I particularly liked the bit where he was on the phone to his work colleague, shouting, then slammed the phone down and swore quite crudely. The 'F' word was involved. I know I swear, so I can't really complain, but its a bit much when you've only just got up (Adam felt the same, he got up at 3pm) and this man is a complete stranger.

I don't think anything else much interesting has happened today... on the work front (non-Uni stuff).. all is coming along quite well.. I've now processed nearly 2000 photos, and earnt nearly £300, so yay! It'll help with the dreaded overdraft anyway!

Now my dearies I must toodle off, I won't be posting in the next few days, so enjoy them and adieu! Love to all, stay safe and wear sunscreen! xxxxx

Pretty Fly For A White Guy... and Teddy Torturers...

Well this evening has been very interesting, in that I have recieved conformation, hard evidence for the fact that I, and my family... are utterly insane... There are two stories that prove this...
1) The first story involves me, my brother Adam and my Sister Kathy way back when... I was 6, Adam, 2, and Kathy, 8. The scene is our house in London, the kitchen. My mum and dad are having a party of some sorts at the weekend, the first guests arrive early afternoon. What are we doing? We are hanging our teddies... and I mean full scale, proper hanging... apparently we had tied string around the necks of our bears, and had hung them from the kitchen drawers, with stools underneath them to be kicked out when the time came. Oh dear... I don't remember such a disturbing, cruel event ever happening, but my Mum assures me that it did... how weird were we!
2) The second story involves my brother Adam, when he was about 10... he was at home alone, and, weirdly, decided that he was going to pretend to be a fly. Remember, he was completely alone in the house. He took up a piece of tubing, that was part of a swimming pool toy, and began sucking things up through it... hmmmn, odd in itself, but there's more... In the kitchen at the time were a pair of Antique French scales, which came with metal weights, ranging from 2Kg to 10g... Adam decided it would be a good idea to see if he could pick them up, as a fly, using the tube... and proceded to swallow the smallest of the weights! When recounting this story this evening, he simply said 'Like that time I ate one of mum's weights, when pretending to be a fly'. Weird. To the max.

Like I said, my family is crazy, and that's without even talking about my dad...

Otherwise today has been okay... done a bit of work, played Simpson's monopoly and been chatting with the family.

Finally, Happy Birthday Timbopolous! I hope the next year brings you all that you want it to!

Love to all, stay safe, xxx

P.S. Please, no-one tell the men in orange coats where I live...

Goodbye Ruby Tuesday! Hello Chief Randy Person...

Who was Ruby Tuesday, and what did she do. If you want to know who Chief Randy Person is, go here...http://www.ci.xenia.oh.us/police/default.htm yes, he actually exists!

My day today has been seemingly uneventful. I managed to get my ass off the computer, into the conservatory, and reading some anthropology lecture notes (my eyes did the reading though, not my ass).. it worked for a little while, but errrr not as successful as I'd hoped. Oh well, we can but try, and trying I have done now. Guilt free and glorious!

In other news, I've spent a lot of time helping my Mum work out how to batch process files in Photoshop CS2, so that they are 'web ready', lots and lots of fun. Also been entertaining my sister and her friend.

Sadly, a walk looks unlikely today due to some very crappy weather, and I'm feeling quite cold... despite the fact that we got the Aga fixed! Yay! Yay, yay, yay, yay, yay!

That's enough for now, love etc xxx

OOPS!

I logged on today, only to realise that I never posted yesterday!!! I am SO sorry everyone, or at least I am sorry for myself, as I didn't want to miss a day, and all yesterday I was like 'Shall I go blog now' and thought 'No, I'll do it later'. Apparently later never happened!!!

Yesterday was a really good Sunday (as Sundays go), spent the day doing some work, talking to my Mum, playing with Oscar and cooking Tea... in the evening we settled down in front of Pride and Prejudice.... Matthew Macfadyen as Mr Darcy... very moody, but very nice! Still, doesn't quite match up to Colin Firth and his wet shirt...

Today looks to be quite an exciting day, as we are going en famille to the cinema to see Ice Age 2, which, sadly, I am really looking forward to! Also, Oscar's dad is coming to pick him up to take him for the holidays, which, although I love Oscar dearly, will mean a bit more freedom etc, as dont have to think about bedtimes, and children's food, and endless games of 'build a traintrack' and 'make a den'! Hmmn, now I think about it I'm gonna miss that actually! And being woken up by him each morning with a kiss on the cheek... which though tiring, as Tim pointed out, is rather cute...

I've just realised I've written another long blog... Sorry! I do apologise, though TO BE FAIR, I didn't say you HAD to read all the way to the bottom.

Thought for the day (stealing Tim's thing for a minute here): Appreciate your siblings, for of all the people in the world, they will know you best, as you have known them since they/you were born...grown up with them...and although they can be terrible enemies, they can be the best allies.

Love etc, stay safe all xxx

A fond farewell...

Well, today a VERY exciting thing happened...


I had my hair cut! Now to the ordinary person, this may not sound so extraordinary... but for those of you who don't know me, my hair was (WAS!) very, very long (over half way down my back)... and I hadn't been to the hairdresser's for at least 2 years. So you can imagine it was quite an ordeal, hence I've been putting off going. To cut a long story short (pun not intended), my hair is now just below shoulder length, though shorter round the face, and with shorter layers in... my head feels very light! I am happy, though, with the result, as I had really begun to dislike my hair in recent weeks.

I also rewarded myself (I don't know what for) with some retail therapy today, buying a couple of vest tops, a skirt and the new Pride and Prejudice film on DVD. Fabulous.

All in all it's been a very, very nice day! Though I didn't get to walk the dogs, which was strange, as I've done that pretty much daily since I got back.. however, I'm sure trekking up and down Exeter High St. has given me the same amount of excercise, I just feel sorry for the dogs... there is always tomorrow though...

Enough for now, love and all, stay safe sweeties! xxx

Bonjour

Due to a number of complaints about the excessive length of my blog, I shall keep this as short as possible. That, and I have nothing much to say.
Sorry to all who I bore with my extensive babbling.
Haven't done a lot today... wasted a lot of time on ebay... grrrr, I wish I'd never been introduced! It seriously is a black hole for time. Anyway, I'll leave you all to it, bye bye x

Live, Love, Laugh, Liquor.

There... I can do alliteration too, till the cows come home and beyond. I am sure I had an awful lot to write about today, but I just cannot, for all the life in me, remember what. Oh well, I shall just have to bore you with more of my incessant babble. Sorry guys! I overslept this morning, which was a bit annoying, as I lost a whole hours potential working time! Also, when I did get up, at 10.30, and had a shower, I discovered that our shower knob is broken... you can turn it on okay, but once its on (and at an almost unbearably scalding temperature) you can't turn it off, the knob just comes off. Oh dear. Then I discovered the pliers... yes people, I had to use pliers to turn off the shower. Seriously, what with no Aga, no water between the hours of 9 and 4, and no working shower, I begin to worry about the state of my house. The car too, has to go to the Garage tomorrow as it's broken. Its not good, people, not good at all!

I went for a lovely walk today. I know I go for a walk everyday, but today was special... I went unusually late, and went a different route to normal. This really paid off, as on my way I got to see a beautiful late evening golden sun, deer, and buzzards. Fantastic! Sometimes I really love living in the countryside.

I'm sure I had some interesting and poignant thoughts to discuss in todays blog, but sadly my memory fails me... It's strange that... it always used to be long term memory I had the problem with, whole chunks of my childhood missing... but then I probably just didn't want to remember them. As I grow older, I remember more of my history, but less of my immediate past...

Strange. But then that's exactly what I am.

That's enough for today, bye bye my dears, stay safe, love to one and all, xxx

I've got a brand new pair of rollerskates... you've got a brand new key...

Hello people, animals and aliens... well today started off well on the work front... I was up at 9.30, and after breakfasting and tidying and general greeting of the day, I got down to work by about 10.30... not revision, mind, but work all the same. This lasted well, until about 1.30 when my mum arrived back, and my sister finished the film she was watching. I stopped work and we had lunch together, which was nice... at about 3.30 maybe I got back on the computer to do some more work, sadly though, by that time, MSN had found me, and I didn't get much done! Then my brothers came home from school, and it's all been downhill from there on the work front. Has been a good evening though, family-wise... though we had a rather morbid discussion over tea about what songs we would want to be played at our funerals... I still can't decide! Anyway, I just thought I'd do this quickly, I'm about to go and read my little brother a story and put him to bed (very late, I know!).

Just one quick, teensy weensy thought... What is the first thing you think about when you wake up in the morning? Most likely it will be one of the following;
a) What you have to do that day
b) I wish I was still asleep, or some other such complaint
c) An anxiety/worry in your life
How often do we wake up and think... wow! I'm alive... and the sun has risen for another day. I am so lucky! Because no matter how big or small my problems... I am alive, and I have the capacity to feel, to love, to laugh, to cry, to smile, to be moved, and to move other people.

Isn't that great? Shouldn't we be thankful?

Hope you're all safe and well, love etc xxx

Tuesday beckons...

Today I fully intended to get up early, and continue with my work. It almost worked. Almost. I was actually awake at 8am, when my mum came in looking for some school trousers for Oscar. Aha! I thought... I'll sleep for another 90 minutes or so, then I shall get up and be saintly and studious. Alas, dear readers, 'twas not to be for, despite my having set my alarm clock... I promptly fell asleep and did not wake up again until 10.30! This, however, I still considered to be early enough, so I lugged myself out of bed and into the shower. Then I went back to bed with a book.. supposedly just for a few minutes... well a few turned into ten, which turned into an hour. Consequently, I wasn't properly up until 11.30, and all my hopes and dreams of an early arisal were quashed. I did get some work done, though... so I guess its okay. Anyway, this was just a little post to say 'Hi', and I hope you are all well...

Wish me luck, I am about to be taught the finer points of using Adobe Photoshop CS2... it sounds like a lot of...err.. fun! After that I shall commence the usual dog walk/kitchen cleaning affair...

Oh no... wait! I just remembered... I can't wash up in the kitchen as dun, dun, dun.. we have NO water... apparently South West Water are doing work down the road, and so we don't have water today... until this evening. And there is a distinct possibility that this will be the case for the next two weeks. Yay! Remind me to fill the kettle with water before I go to bed... Hmmmn.. reminds me of Legionairre's all over again! Remember those wondrous times? Oh, thats why there's a picture of water droplets, in case you were wondering...

Bye bye my dears, stay safe xxx

Is it really Monday?

Well today I found my halo, gave it a bit of a polish, got up early and did lots of work! Hurrah! And no, I'm not ill... technically I am only catching up on the work that should have been done WEEKS ago... Oh well, better late than never, ey? What else did I do today... the usual, walked dogs, cleaned house, watered plants, cooked tea etc.

I do have a little story to tell you all... this is about some very hardy goldfish... About 9 or 10 years ago, my mum and Mark (my (now ex) stepfather) went to a ball... on the tables there, as decoration, were (live) goldfish (I know). Anyway, feeling sorry for them, Mum and Mark rescued four of these goldfish and brought them back to our house in London. There the goldfish remained happy, until we moved house in 1997. Then, they were transported on the 4 1/2 hour journey from London to Devon... in an old orange squash bottle. Miraculously they survived. Even more miraculously, despite periods of definite neglect in terms of tank cleanliness... they lasted out the course at Kettlehouse (our first home in Devon). When we built on in 2000, a lake was built in the garden (goodness knows why... the diggerman just decided it would be fun one afternoon, I think.. that's Devon for you). Anyway, a while after this (huge) lake had been built, we decided to release the goldfish in it. Now until today, we had never thought those four little goldfish (Luke, Mary, John and Angelica) could possibly survived... then my Mum goes to visit the people who now live in our house, as Oscar had been there, playing with their daughter. The current owners inform her, not only have the goldfish survived... they have multiplied! There are now 13 goldfish! If that isn't an amazing story of survival, I don't know what is!

Sorry to bore you all with that folks! Hope you're all well, stay safe, love etc xxx

Salute, mea columba!

Check out that latin there... you see, I DO have class! For those of you who really want to know, it translates as 'Greetings, my dove!' (apparently a common Roman term of endearment). Anyway, I hope your Sundays are treating you with laziness, good food and little or no work. I haven't done any work today at all... but I have been helping my mum sort out a technical problem involving her camera and her computer and Adobe Photoshop. Tis all sorted now though, so worry not! I also helped cook the Sunday lunch (roast chicken, yum yum) and spent a large part of the morning attempting to sleep whilst Oscar (the 5yr old brother) amazingly noisily moved round all the furniture in our (grimace) shared bedroom (I know, I'm 19 and sharing with a 5yr old!), whilst trying to locate his toy dog, Toby. Its okay... after a few hours (between 7am and 9am ish) I managed to decipher, from all his shouting to my mother (who was in bed in her room), that he was looking for Toby. I knew exactly where Toby was, as Osc had asked me the night before to look after him for the night... so he was snuggled up at the foot of my bed! Hrmmm. Not the best start to the day, but oh well!

In other news, as some of you may already have been told... I found out that I am, in fact, royalty. FACT. This was not an easy discovery to cope with, but I have quite well I feel. I found out very randomly... I just happened to be given a crown by Oscar that he had made, and when I put it on it just felt so right, I knew I must be royalty! That, and we all know I have all the qualities of royalty... so there you go! I'm not yet 100% sure of my title yet though. It'll come I'm sure... maybe I will get a letter, like Harry Potter did about his being a wizard? I think it's a possibility.

Yes. I am bored.

Gotta go put Osc to bed now, so I'll catch up with y'all laters, stay safe, love you! xxx

April Fool! No really, I am.

Well. Yesterday was the very first day that I have ever missed posting on my blog, and I am very, very sorry. I fully intended to post... but my evening did not go exactly to plan. I won't rant, and I won't dwell, however... and thank you to those of you for your kindness last night. All has returned to (relative) normality here, home on the range, and so, for now... I am ok once more. Enough said.

Want another installment on my mother's insanity (I won't go into last night, I shall stick to the amusing stories...) I believe I told you all of her impulse, drunken buy of a ukelele off ebay the other day. Well, it seems the sudden musical enthusiasm does not stop there. This morning she and my two brothers headed off into Exeter, supposedly to run errands, and to leave Adam in town with friends. However, one of these errands was to go to the Music Shop, and get a violin (owned by Adam, though I think it shall be passed on to Oscar) fixed. It just so happens that today the Music Shop in question was having a closing down sale. My mother saw this as an opportunity (no doubt with some help from my brothers) to stock up on musical instruments... a mini-acoustic guitar for Oscar, an electric mandolin and an electric guitar (Fender) with Amp, no less. Madness. Madness. Madness.

My house is now filled with the delightful sounds of a badly played electric guitar (to be fair to Adam, he can play a few chords, having taken recent interest in our acoustic guitar), my little brother is playing some awful game on the internet. My mother? She has driven off down the road to take photos of primroses. Yes, my family is utterly, inexplicably and completely insane. I begin to feel like the only sane one here, and we all know what a joke that is.

Anyway, my lovelies, I think that will be all for now.. I am terribly sorry to have missed a post, but believe me, there were mitigating circumstances.

I will catch up with y'all later, stay safe, love you all, xxx