Have a meme

10 things you wish you could say to ten different people right now...
a) It saddens me you don't know how important you are.
b) I miss you - I wish we could go back to the way things were.
c) I love you to pieces and I just wish I could tell you that I miss you as much as you miss me.
d) I wish I knew you.
e) Why did you leave me here alone? I miss you so damn much it hurts to breathe.
f) Do you even care how annoying you are?
g) You're a parasite, social interaction is all you think about and if you arent the center of attention you go crazy.
h) I'm worried about you - I hope you're okay.
i)Meh.
j) I wish I knew the truth.

9 things about yourself...
a) I love sushi
b) Reading folklore is one of many my favourite forms of procrastination
c) When I was a kid, I wanted to be a vet.
d) Rather than actual pets, I had a variety of cyber pets growing up. My favourite was a dalmatian called chuff 64 who lived to 100.
e) My favourite Disney film is Mulan.
f) I can't ride a bike. (Though not for want of trying).
g) I can ride a horse.
h) I am a pescetarian - I don't eat meat, but will eat fish without complaint.
i) I like the smell of vanilla.

8 ways to win your heart...
a) Be polite. I like manners.
b) Don't use me.
c) Don't moan about every little thing. That seriously ticks me off.
d) Include me - don't forget about me just because I'm quiet.
e) Eat sushi with me :3
f) Don't treat me like I'm a loser. I know I'm a loser, don't have to be reminded XD
g) Don't be two faced. That REALLY PISSES ME OFF. If you have something to say, say it to my face, even if you think I won't like it.
h) Make me laugh

7 things that cross your mind a lot...
a) ..Hungry...
b) ...Tired...
c) Wonder when .... is coming out.
d) Christmas Time \o/
e) Random songs
f) fklhbddbh Am I going to...
g) Memories

6 things you do before falling asleep...
a) Listen to music
b) Get undressed and stuff
c) Check my emails
d) Reflect
e) Check my phone
f) Think about how tired I am.

5 people who mean a lot...
a) Mother
b) Father
c) Elle
d) Lucy
e) Laney


4 things you're wearing right now...
a) Pink sweater from expo
b) jeans
c) underwear
d) socks

3 songs that you listen to often (currently)...
a) Take on me, Aha
b) Whispers in the Dark, Skillet
c) Echoes, Veronica's Veil

2 things you want to do before you die...
a) Have something notable published
b) Feel I've accomplished something

1 confession...
a) I'm allergic to chilli

Fail in the Kitchen

A slightly humorous anecdote from our kitchen:

If ever there is a food related odour in the kitchen, that is ever so slightly repulsive, one of my flatmates always blames me. Be it burnt toast,egg - I get the glares. I could understand this notion,were it not for the fact that it is completely unfounded - I don't cook very much.

Anyway, yesterday I was in the kitchen and this particular flatmate came in. One of the others had been cooking with eggs and immediately this flatmate just glared at me. The only thing I could think of that she was likely to believe was to tell her I was allergic to eggs.

Forgetting of course, that I was holding my tea for that night, a packet of egg fried rice.

On Christmas Eve

It all started the week before Christmas Eve, a bracing, slippery December morning. The interval between heavy snow and pouring rain, in which breathing itself was an intake of chill.

Tying her scarf the way she always did, she was not unaffected by this change in atmosphere - after all, a cold or a flu virus is a most unattractive thing. But, as she stepped onto the luridly painted bus and reaching out to pay her fare, those kind of thoughts were immediately swept aside and replaced with ones of her destination.

There was a book store in town that up until the fifties had been a tea shop. In her youth, she had visited with her grandmother and been treated to cream tea and scones. Now that she herself was a grandmother, it was a great comfort to revisit and find it relatively unchanged. The young man who owned it upon her return had inserted labyrinthine bookshelves around her beloved tea shop, filled with masterpieces. His dream, he once told her over a cup of chamomile, was to be the next Tim Waterstone. She made it her business to visit the shop once every year to purchase Christmas presents for her friends and family - presents stained with the odour of tea leaves and fairy cakes.

This year she stepped off the bus as usual, ready for a chat with the shop owner. Fumbling in her purse for a handful of change, she turned onto the high street, where she was met with an unexpected and unwelcome surprise. The shop door was barred and padlocked. The store window, usually decorated lavishly with hardbacks was decorated only by orange paint. In the centre was a single sheet of paper written on forlornly with what she identified as the shop keeper’s own hand. Moving closer to read it, she gasped as she saw the contents.

Due to several conversations with her grandchildren and studies of local newspapers, she knew quite well of the latest phenomena that was sweeping the nation. This so called ‘internet’. What she did not, however know was the reasoning behind it. The point of it. What possessed people to spend their lives staring at a screen and furthermore being content? If that was the new generation then she wondered for the world. It was the internet that had caused the closure of her favourite shop - though not personally. As the letter said, it was through internet book sales. She did not need to read the rest, only needed to go home.

Two days after this event occurred, her grandchildren visited bearing sweets from the supermarket. Her eldest granddaughter, more acute than the others, was the first to inquire as to her mood. Much soured by the knowledge her favourite place was gone, she was confused by her granddaughter’s reaction - upon hearing the story, the fifteen year old erupted into laughter and told her that there was quite an easy solution to the problem in the village library.

It was through desperation alone that she followed her granddaughter there - never in all of her years of buying presents had one arrived late. In the back of her mind, she debated the various scenarios that could take place in the library - perhaps a sale of some description?

As they arrived, her granddaughter immediately requested a computer and bewildered she followed. She knew now that this was something new and in the back of her mind a suspicious strand flew. Typing in her details, her granddaughter beamed and asked what it was that she was looking for, leaving the old woman to realise that she was trapped. Trapped between the solid rock of no presents and callous internet. Internet which had thrown her into this mess in the first place.

Sighing inwardly, she pulled a chair from the next table and flopped into the seat. There was nothing left she could do. Reciting the names of several books and absently gazing at the screen while her granddaughter swiftly typed the names into the machine. It was a marvellous thing, she could not help but think - filled with colour and movement from various screens as her granddaughter searched, appearing like some kind of Siren before her. Her mesmerisation, however, was drawn to a close as her granddaughter called to her. That only one name was coming up to sell the books she wanted. Rather than recite it, she showed the web page onscreen.

It was the website of her beloved tea store, established the same day as the young man took over. Although she did not understand at first, eventually she took in that it sold the same books from the shop, but cheaper and in brighter colours. The authors of such masterpieces would surely have turned in their grave to see their fine works bargained off like cheap meat - the same way that she turned in her chair to leave the library.

Perhaps it will come as no surprise to you that nobody got any presents that year.

Incomplete

Transparent, with no finger tips,
Man made you
Just to be
Dependent.
And so I wonder
When was I
Intoxicated
By this mechanical Eden?
Though scentless,
Shapeless,
Without a soul
And no door to walk inside,
I am sheltered
Within this paradise
Of artifice.

Concerning Milk

As I write this, I am wrapped up in a blanket and supping hot chocolate - fighting off flu.

Fresher's week has come and gone, leaving behind a legacy of nasty viruses. Two weeks into the term and classes are all ready looking empty.

I never realised how much I loved my bed until today.

Transistorised, and anodised

I had my first lesson of the second year today - Medieval and Renaissance Literature, i.e. Chaucer and the Canterbury Tales. When I read on the reading list that we were going to study him, I was neither worried nor excited. I studied the Wife of Bath in college, but gained little from it as the teacher I had was very much a joker. While I liked him as a person and found him entertaining, hardly anything he taught me sunk in,as he spent a great deal of his teaching time poking fun at the material. It was not at all fun going into an exam room knowing nothing but a handful of 'handy' anecdotes.

Influences

Here's an idea I got from Dan and stole - an account of my influences. As writers, we are often asked to explain them and the opportunity to get them in writing is rare. So...here they are (you never know, it might surprise you):

I don't remember having a specific favourite book as a child - I loved reading and would engross myself in any book i could find. There are so many books and authors from then that have influenced me - Enid Blyton, Roald Dahl, E. B. White. In secondary school, i talked the librarian into letting me read Roald Dahl's Tales of the Unexpected - she believed a book of such macabre brilliance would affect an eleven year old. I believe she was right, for I was never quite the same.

I began to read Harry Potter, on the other hand, at around ten and loved the fantasy aspect of it. Fantasy stories carry a flame for me, as reality in my opinion is quite a boring thing. When i was about twelve, I read 'The Heartstone Odyssey', a story about an Indian dancer named Chandra, who sets out on a mission to find the heartstone for the talking mice who request it of her - a beautifully charming book that I read countless times over the course of my school career. The more I wrote as I grew up, the more I combined normality with something quite impossible. I don't remember at what age I decided I wanted to be a writer -wherever I went I carried a pen and paper and that has always been the consensus. Before I could write, I drew all the time.

Writing for a very long time offers advantages, such as the ability to rifle through scripts produced years before. I know for a fact that I have never really been frightened by the notion of violence, rather, curious of it - because one of my earliest stories involved an axe murderer. I used to be a great animal lover and would go to great lengths to involve a talking horse in the plot. Much of this is down to the fact that at the time I was writing, I was quite young and influenced by shows such as Starla and the Jewel Riders (I miss that show >:) and Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

When I was in my late teens, I heard for the first time 'Bring me to Life' by Evanescence - back then, it was the anthem to my life and moved me - the lyrics spoke out to me as if I was the only one who heard them.




Evanescence became and still are, one of my favourite bands, I fell in love with their mystical sound. 'Bring me to life' had reached out to me, and now each song spoke to me personally.



Evanescence was one of my first favourite bands and inpspired me to write poetry.

By this point, I was 14 and heavily into the 'mysterious', 'gothic' and 'horror'. I went to my local library, where the librarian recommended Edgar Allan Poe.



The copy of Poe our library had was very battered indeed. Anyway, upon inspection I learned that it contained 'The Raven', a verse I had heard about but never got around to reading. Once I did, I felt like I had skipped the enlightenment level all together. Within days I had scoured our library shelves for everything I could find.

After leaving school, I entered college and began to read the classics. In my first year, i studied 'Wuthering Heights' and 'Frankenstein' and loved them both. In the second, our teacher gave us a booklet with several stories to analyse inside it- one of which was 'The Company of Wolves' by Angela Carter.




Angela Carter has been very influential on my writing in recent years, a favourite author. Her writing is profoundly original, making use of magic realism and science fiction, writing the darker counter parts of Snow White, Beauty and the Beast, Little Red Riding Hood and Puss in Boots. Carter skillfully wove themes of gothicism, eroticism, feminism, violence, surrealism, myth and contemporary society into her work. Reading her work gave me high hopes for the careful tapestry I might someday be able to produce.

Up until this point, I haven't mentioned manga, mostly because it didn't enter my life until very late when compared with everything else I have mentioned so far. I didn't pick up a manga novel until I was 16 at least, and even then it was just to ask my friend why the heck it was backwards. Even so, manga and anime are very firm influences in my writing because they are, without a doubt, one of my favourite genres. Mangas such as Death Note and Immortal Rain reinforce what Poe and Carter's writing first defined.

Jumping on the bandwagon

From what I've read, a lot of people are writing about their new houses, so I thought I would jump on the proverbial band wagon. Only a little, since I'm not actually living in a house. Out of everyone I've spoken to, I'm the only person who has lived in a flat again, which I find odd, but *shrug*.

The people I am living with this year (all two of them) are all right I guess. Out of the two of them, I've only met one of them once. I like this arrangement. She's from Liverpool and is a third year. Other than the fact that she studies fashion and enjoys kareoke (¬¬), that's about all I know about her.

Our flat is on the ground floor, unpacking should have been a pleasant experience. But nooooooo.... The douchebags who lived here last year had, to all intents and purposes, trashed the place and the landlords had just painted over everything. Our hoover was broken, we had an iron (no ironing board), my bathroom to be was not clean and neither was the kitchen, the microwave was broken, the internet lead was missing - my mother, let me tell you was having palpitations. It took ages to clean everything, (and everything is clean now) - but the chaos wasn't over.

A couple of days later I was woken up by a car alarm at quarter to 6 in the morning and ended up with an awful headache. Because of the headache, I went to make myself a cup of tea to help myself get back to sleep, forgetting to lock my bedroom door on the way back from the kitchen.

Of course, on any other day, for anybody else, this would never have happened ¬¬.

A few hours later, the door to the flat was flung open and one of the rent collectors came storming in, thudding on everyone's doors. Apparently, someone in our flat hadn't paid all of their rent and they were coming to get it? And apparently they didn't know exactly which room it was, hence the THUD THUD THUD. Of course my bedroom door wasn't locked and of course they came right in DX.

I was only half asleep and all of a sudden they were there. My reaction went along the lines of 'huhWAAHHHH'

Anyway, as it turns out, they were after the room next to mine, which was empty anyway. Bloody typical. And it doesn't end there. Oh no.

On the day we unpacked, I noticed a new building behind our flats and went to check it out - my Dad thinking I was being retarded or lost or something, called me back. Anyway, these past few days I've been searching for a Council Tax exemption form and thinking that I was all of the above since the building I got it from before seemed to have disappeared. I must have seriously travelled all over campus looking for this stupid exemption form (seriously, things a student will do for money off). Anyway, in the end I checked at enquiries and got redirected back to my flat - remember that building I was told not to check out? Turns out that it's the new finance department - got my loan scanned as well while I was there.

You'd think my parents would apologise, though, for dragging me away when I could have made this discovery ago - wouldn't you? Apparently not. The first thing my mother said was: You stupid twonk.

I said 'I love the boy'

In blinded words
I spoke your name
Just like an
Abandoned child.
In the sand
I drew your face
And made it mine.
It isn’t real
It isn’t true
How could I ever
Acknowledge you?
He left me here
To dance and sing
That face I drew
It isn’t him
He found my porcelain
My soul
Shattered both
Made it so
That I should sit
Upon the sands
And trace my finger there.
Painting masterpieces
With a single broken
Finger nail
You came to me
On the shifting tides
I said
‘I love the boy’
Ever lasting?
Ever changing?
I know you are not mine.

Back

So summer is over and I am back. The new flat is bigger than the old one - the bedrooms are twice as big and everything seems the wrong way round. It was trashed when I got here, the ironing board was missing, the hoover was broken and the microwave didn't work; it was like the previous tenants had well and truly destroyed the place before they left and the landlord's answer was to paint over the mess. There was even a chunk missing from the wall in the kitchen, plastered over.

My flatmates seem okay - there are only two of them so far, both of them third year fashion students. It's odd, because they make absolutely no noise. I know this is probably tempting fate, but it's weirding me out. O_o

Haven't got my timetable yet, so I don't know what expect about anything. I've spent most of my time so far wrapped up in bed watching Ugly Betty and eating crisps. I hope my timetable isn't too bad, if it is, then I might actually cry.

Little Miss Muffet

Little miss muffet,
Frozen in habit
Alone on your throne
Like a lost little rabbit
Your coat is unruffled
Your hair is pristine
Your mother thinks that I
Am something unclean
Stroking your lips with
Honey nectar, I see
Smiling, you’ll call me
And say I am ‘Thief’
This spider, this spider
He held you too close
Run, run Miss Muffet
Tell them your woes.

Silent Sally Sue

Dusty doll upon my desk
My dear old Sally Sue
She hasn’t sang me lyrics yet -
Hummed a merry tune
And yet somehow, I know she would
If only I asked her to
Dusty friend upon my desk
My silent Sally Sue.

Dusty doll upon my desk
My faithful Sally Sue
Her lips are sealed together
By some sort of splendid glue
Forever in the likeness
Of a girl of twenty two
That dusty friend upon my desk
My silent Sally Sue.

Dusty doll upon my desk
I named her Sally Sue
She doesn’t tell me stories
Of a world I never knew
And yet I often wonder
Where might they take me to?
The one with all the answers
Is my silent Sally Sue

Another Meme, folks

Mainly because I have nothing interesting to talk about.

1. Name: Sayiu :P
2. Birthday: 18/ 04/ 89
3. Where do you live: In your consciousness. Also Whitters
4: What are you studying/What are you working as: I study Creative Writing/ English. I've never had a job (for many reasons)
5. What makes you happy: *Shrugs* Food and anime, in any order.
6. What are you listening to now/have listened to last: Errrr.... I think it was 'Before the Dawn' By Evanescence (Very beautiful song BTW)
7. What is particularly good/bad about my blog: Good-wise, it contains most of my writing. Bad wise, it can occasionally be very candid, more than it is meant to be.
8. An interesting fact about you: Other than the fact I have never been in employment? Err...I used to play the bass guitar.
9. Are you in love/have a crush at the moment: Maybe
10. Favorite place to be: Whitters Wood
11. Favorite lyric: I have so many, among my favourites are:

I've been looking in a mirror for so long
That I've come to believe my soul's on the other side.
All the little pieces falling, shatter
Shards of me too sharp to put back together;
Too small to matter,
But big enough to cut me into so many little pieces
If I try to touch her

'Breathe no more' by Evanescence

We used to swim the same moonlight waters
Oceans away from the wakeful day
My fall will be for you
My love will be in you
If you be the one to cut me
I will bleed forever

Scent of the sea before the waking of the world
Brings me to thee
Into the blue memory

My fall will be for you
My love will be in you
If you be the one to cut me
I will bleed forever

'Ghost love score' By Nightwish

Is it true what they say,
Are we too blind to find a way?
Fear of the unknown cloud our hearts today.
Come into my world,
See through my eyes.
Try to understand,
Don't want to lose what we have

We've been dreaming
But who can deny,
It's the best way of living
Between the truth and the lies

See who I am,
Break through the surface.
Reach for my hand,
Let's show them that we can
Free our minds and find a way.
The world is in our hands,
This is not the end.

'See who I am' by Within Temptation

12. Best time of the year: Halloween
13. Weirdest food you like: People always look at me funny when I say I like sushi o_o

RECOMMEND
1. A film: Pan's Labyrinth ^^b
2. A book: The Immortal Rain Manga XD
3. A song: Ghost Love Score by nightwish
Ghost Love Score - Nightwish

4: A band: Within Temptation, Ikimono Gakari, Evanescence and Nightwish. That was Four, I know, but I couldn't choose.

Random meme

HAVE YOU EVER---------
* Ever been so drunk you blacked out:

No

* Put a body part on fire for amusement:

Toenails :D DANCE DANCE

* Been in a car accident:

Almost D8

* Been hurt emotionally:

Is there anyone who hasn't?

* Had an imaginary friend:

XDDDDDDDD, His name was Buster ^^

* Cried during a movie:

Nope

* Had a crush on a teacher:

D8 No

* Ever thought an animated character was hot?:

I'm an anime fan, it goes without saying

* Had a New Kids On the Block tape:

Nope

* Been on stage:

Yup, singing and dancing [Bet that's a shocker]

* Cut your hair:

What, myself????

-----------------FAVORITES-------------
* Shampoo:

Dove moisturising shampoo

* Color:
Depends on the mood.

* Day/Night:

Depends on the mood.

* Summer/Winter:

Winter, though not when it's slippy ¬¬

* Lace or satin:

Satin, lace is itchy DX

* Cartoon Characters:

L, Tamaki, kyouya, Kaiba, [blathers on for hours with other random anime chars]

* Food:

pizza, sushi, ice cream, chocolate, cheesecake, berries[blathers on again]

* Fave Movie:

Spirited Away

* Fave Ice Cream:

Bohemian Raspberry

* Fave Subject:

Creative Writing and Dream Study

* Fave Drink:

Cola prolly


------------------RIGHT NOW------------
* Wearing:

Clothes

* Eating:

Megabytes

* Drinking:

I wish

* Thinking about:

What i'm going to be doing later

* Listening to:

Librarians

* Talking to:

Myself

* Watching:

A computer screen

---------IN THE LAST 24 HRS--------
* Cried:

Me? you lieeeeeeee

* Worn a skirt:

For bed maybe

* Met someone new:

In Whitters?

* Cleaned your room:

AHAHAHAHAHAHA, now i know you're lying.

* Done laundry:

Mother did. She believes my skills outshine hers.

* Drove a car:

I have a bus pass, there's not much point.


----DO YOU BELIEVE IN------
* Yourself:

Of course, perception is reality.

* Friends:

What a loaded question O.O

* Santa Claus:

Nope.

* Destiny/Fate:

Yup.

* Angels:

Nope.

* Ghosts:

My Daddy has seen one *nod nod*

* UFO's:

Nope
------LOVE----------
* Bf/gf:

Not at the moment, had one last year though

* Ever been in love:

Yarrr, some say too easily.

* Cheated on anyone:

O.O I'd never do that. [had it done on me ¬¬]

* Ever done a "drunken stupid mistake":

Can't get drunk.

* Ever had a lesbian/gay experience:

Define experience

-----TELL THE TRUTH!!-----------
Would you ever:
* Pay for sex:

No

* Strip for money:

I have standards

* Play strip poker:

If i knew the rules

* Work in McDonalds:

No

* Lie:

Everybody lies.

* Bitch about someone:

Everybody bitches. I'm human.

* What's the best feeling in the world:

Ignorance

Coffee shop, where art thou?

I received some wonderful news recently that made me jump for joy - Starbucks, the megalomaniac coffee chain is finally disappearing from our high streets. I cannot express how happy this made me - particularly since McDonalds is taking their customers.

It goes without saying that coffee shops are so far reachingly middle class nowadays. As a hot chocolate fan myself, yes, I am more than a little biased on this matter, but it's always baffled me why even our smallest towns need more than one in a short radius.

My local town is a historic one, with a medieval market and lots of shops where my Dad went when he was a school boy. There's a miniature sweet shop on the corner, where we used to call on our journeys to and from college. There was only one shop we never explored - the one coffee shop in town, which day in, day out, was filled with what we called disapprovings, sipping their coffee.

All of a sudden, the historic shops began to disappear - a music shop that had survived since the 50s, in which my Dad bought his first CDs, disappeared in favour of a Costa Coffee - just three shops up from the 'disapprovings'. A couple of months later, they demolished the pizza hut in favour of another one. The final blow came at the end of my college year when a book shop fell victim to the foul stench of coffee.

There was a book shop in town - the kind where you can be lost for hours in winding bookshelves, in the midst of titles you have never seen before and will never seen again. It seems odd to me they reduced this shop to a meagre coffee shop; particularly since it had a tea shop on the premises in the first place.

Coffee shops have always been of great confusion to me, possibly because my folks live on the stuff and so biased I may be, but I can't help but confess that the news of Starbucks' imminent decline brought a very large smile to my face.

It's a Weird World

It's a strange world we live in.

In a bid to persuade my father to cut out the coupons for the classic costume drama DVDs free this past few weeks, there's been a lot of newspapers lying around. And since they were lying around, of course I had to read them.

I am disgusted by so called 'feminists' all but legalising murder, at the expense of the percentage of women genuinely abused. They paint a queer picture of women - victims, of evil men, who seek to use and abuse us. These women, though true in their original intentions are NOT feminists. Truth be told, they are the bottom of the feminist barrel. What kind of feminist would paint woman as inferior to men, when the point of the movement was to prove otherwise?

And otherwise, in our society, is so often the solemn truth. Though men are usually envisioned the violent sex, it is women nowadays who commit violent crimes. I read recently of a young woman, jailed for several years, who held down a woman her own age while her [male] friends sexually abused her. I'll never forget the time my aunt [several times beaten by her drunken husband] admitted to threatening to stab him whenever he was too violent.

My views on the matter are thus - one sex should never be greater than the other. We were created equal, and that is how we were intended to remain. All this talk of a female entirely cabinet is folly, it always was going to be - the point of the cabinet was to have a range of views from different stations (or at least it was supposed to be). A female entirely cabinet, though romantic, is completely irrational and unfounded. Women in modern day society ARE more violent than they were before, through alcohol and the 'ladette' culture.

It is true that women are becoming more boyish - to the point where it is affecting our personal lives. Now we women have the right to work alongside men, we have laid aside our femininity for the sake of a [lesser] wage. While we become more and more masculine, pushing off having children, getting married later and later in our lives, the higher ups have the brainwave to bring out cosmetics and [?] tights for men.

Am I the only one thinking huh?

Declined??? WTF

Has everybody else received their reading list? I checked mine recently and was depressed (on an economic level) to see how many books were on it, mostly books I've never even heard of (which isn't so rare, since most of the books I read are pretty well known). Anyway, I scoured Amazon shortly after, picking up every book I find (in the end I got all of them, minus 2-3, for about 30£). I even managed to get a copy of the Great Gatsby for 1p, which I thought was some pretty darn good shopping.

Anyway, I got an email through this morning saying that all payments have been DECLINED, much to my utter gobsmackification. At first I was just confused, but about ten minutes later I realised why. The card I registered on Amazon is about four months expired and I needed to register the new one. It's all sorted now, thank goodness, I think I'd cry if after all the time I'd spent comparing sites was wasted.

Speaking of shopping, I went to Tesco with my Dad this morning and was taken aback by just how meticulously organised our list making skills have become. We started making lists in the back when, when my mother came shopping with us and got so distracted the offers on show that she forgot what we were supposed to be buying. Now our lists have numbered items, in the order we'll find them on the shelves o_0. I wasn't sure whether to think it was amazing or extremely sad.

Reading meme

I've been reading a lot this summer (Has anyone read The Memory Keeper's Daughter? - my mother and I have been arguing over it all week) - hence why this meme seems all the more poignant. Basically, bolden the ones you've read, underline the ones you love, italicise the ones you want to read.

1. Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen (Read it for English, I didn't like it that much though ¬¬)
2. The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
3. Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
4. Harry Potter series - JK Rowling
5. To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
6. The Bible
7. Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
8. Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell (We are the Deeeeeeead)
9. His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
10. Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
11. Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
12. Tess of the D'Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
13. Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14. Complete Works of Shakespeare (I've read some of them)
15. Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16. The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
17. Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks
18. Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
19. The Time Traveller's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
20. Middlemarch - George Eliot
21. Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
22. The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
23. Bleak House - Charles Dickens
24. War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy (A friend at home has read it three times, it's always intrigued me)
25. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
26. Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
27. Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28. Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
29. Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
30. The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
31. Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
32. David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
33. Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis (WHY THE HELL DIDN'T THEY START THE FILMS AT THE BEGINNING WITH THE GUINEA PIGS AND THE POOLS AND THE MAGIC RINGS?)
34. Emma - Jane Austen
35. Persuasion - Jane Austen
36. The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis (Why is the Lion, the Witch and the Wrdrobe lower on the list than the complete works?)
37. The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
38. Captain Corelli's Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres (I've met the author and seen the film - twas rubbish - havent read the book though)
39. Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
40. Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne
41. Animal Farm - George Orwell (Four legs good, Two legs baad)
42. The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
43. One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44. A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving
45. The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46. Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
47. Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
48. The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood
49. Lord of the Flies - William Golding
50. Atonement - Ian McEwan
51. Life of Pi - Yann Martel
52. Dune - Frank Herbert
53. Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54. Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
55. A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56. The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57. A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens (I was ten, it made me cry)
58. Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
59. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
60. Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61. Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
62. Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63. The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64. The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
65. Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
66. On The Road - Jack Kerouac
67. Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68. Bridget Jones' Diary - Helen Fielding
69. Midnight's Children - Salman Rushdie
70. Moby Dick - Herman Melville
71. Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
72. Dracula - Bram Stoker
73. The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
74. Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
75. Ulysses - James Joyce
76. The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
77. Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78. Germinal - Emile Zola
79. Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
80. Possession - AS Byatt
81. A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
82. Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83. The Color Purple - Alice Walker
84. The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro (lol we all end up the Remains of the day)
85. Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
86. A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87. Charlotte's Web - EB White OMFG I loved this when i was little - had to skip the first chapter though :'<
88. The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
89. Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90. The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
91. Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad (aDidn't read it when I was supposed to, now i think it's pretty good)
92. The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93. The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94. Watership Down - Richard Adams
95. A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96. A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97. The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98. Hamlet - William Shakespeare
99. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
100. Les Miserables - Victor Hugo

36/100 \o/ I'm better read than I thought ^^

D8 BuT tEh RaBbIt!

Let it be known, that I now believe in the power of the lucky rabbits foot. On the way here, my Dad almost flattened one, and it miraculously survived! Thinking about it, most of the wildlife in Whitters seems to be quite lacking in brain power at the moment. It was only yesterday that my mother was telling about the pheasant that ambushed her while she was trimming the grass in our garden. Flew up into her face, all because it was frightened to death of the carrier bag she uses to scare off the wood pigeons. ¬¬. We're not even sure why it was there; in Whitters, the pheasants live on the side of the village. I can't help but think it was lost. Mother asked grandad - he was a farmer in his youth - and he says they're probably roosting. So great - more pheasants, on completely the wrong side of Whitters, smack in the middle of Fox territory ^^b.

It's not only the pheasants that ambushed my mother of late. You all have them, don't you? Weird neighbours; the kind you see on Escape to the country, who're dead set on retiring to the midlands and setting up a vegetable patch? Enter Chicken George. For years he's been stealing land, getting rid of the horses at the top of our garden and of late we wondered why. Well, it all became clear when i was summoned awake on Sunday morning by my mother's screams. Peeking through my mum and Dad's window, I was much amused to spot four and twenty chickens flapping round the garden - my mum flapping with them, spade in hand, yelling 'GAREEEEEEE'. It was like chicken run - only funnier.

Seems Chicken George moved to the midlands and stole all that land - for a chicken coop.

I remember (Reflections of the First Year)

It's been a crazy year, what with adjustments and workload, I suppose the best way to fully conclude is the same way I did here. So here goes...

I remember the box of food in our front room expanding in size and worrying what would happen if I didn't get in.

I remember being ectastic I was accepted for all the wrong reasons.

I remember cooking my first meal and proudly phoning my mother to tell her all about it.

I remember spending all or at least most of my time on a cushion chair in Pizza Hut.

I remember being worried my Chii ears wouldn't arrive.

I remember standing in my kitchen with Laney, putting onions on cocktail sticks.

I remember one of the first creative writing classes and the flush of despair (zetsubou shitaaaaa) when I didnt have any important objects to put on the table.

I remember having my picture taken for the Derbyshire times to celebrate my achievement and having my hair blown all over the shant ¬_¬

I remember the first (and prolly only) time I visited Mosh.

I remember visiting my friends at Christmas and wondering if I had changed as much as they had.

I remember my Carley rage.

I remember the first time I visited the oriental supermarket.

I remember my first taste of Pocky.

I remember the first assignment I did and how worried I was that it would fail.

I remember the first assignment party.

I remember there being sheep.

I remember being a psychic over animal transformation.