We're all going on a summer holiday...la la la...

To lovely, exotic and thrilling...Kent. Fun, fun, fun....*sarcasm*

No, I'm joking. The south east has been very nice so far, and I'm sure it will only get nicer.

Yesterday we set off from home and drove all the way down to Windsor, with only a few stops. Trust me, that is one hell of a long journey. But we got out eventually and had a wander around Windsor and Eton. We got to have a look at Eton College, which I now want to go to, even though we would have to sell our house and we could still only afford it for about three days. All the way up the main street towards the school, there are shops where you can buy top hats and tailcoats and all those fun things that are included in the Eton uniform. Also, on the walk up to the college, we saw someone who used to be in Coronation Street walking back down towards Windsor, where he's in a play with Michelle Collins. That was very exciting.

Then we went back to Windsor and went to Pizza Express, where we had to wait for over half an hour for a table. But it was worth it...even though the menu is pretty much the same at all the branches of Pizza Express, the food was particularly nice at this one. Then we hopped back in the car and zoom-zoomed (when we weren't getting lost) all the way to the Travelodge at Heathrow Terminal 5. Again, it was a very nice Travelodge and...yeah...it was good...

Today we had a huge breakfast at the Travelodge (during which time, I had to be fifteen because kids under 16 got a free breakfast) then drove down to Brighton. I love Brighton. With a passion. It was just awesome in every single way.

Now we're at this absolutely gorgeous cottage/house thing...I don't actually know where it is, but it's lovely. The couple who own it, James and Roy, are adorable and the whole atmosphere is just...comfortable. Like, sometimes you go somewhere and it takes a while to settle in. But here, me and my brother were running up and down the stairs, contemplating using the fire escape to get onto the roof, fighting over rooms and failing at golf on the Wii as if it was what we did every day at home. I actually quite enjoy family holidays, unlike most people my age. No one cares what you look like, you can act like a big kid and no one will judge you, and chances are that you won't see any of the people you come across again, so it doesn't matter how embarassing your family are.

Right, I'm off to experiment with the bath and shower facilities. I'm going to film a video at some point to show people the house and stuff.

Bye

<3

UK Nerdfighters - do your bit.

I know it's been a while since I've blogged and this post will probably be of little interest to some of you, but it needs to be said. Now, onto the important bit of the blog:

I am sending out a message to all UK Nerdfighters.

It has come to my attention that John Green's books are not widely stocked in UK bookshops. There used to be one copy of Alaska in my local Borders, but they don't even have that any more. Waterstones don't have anything. And don't even get me started on WHSmiths...worst bookshop ever. I know that John Green could be really really popular in the UK, if bookshops would give him a chance to be. And I think he totally deserves to be.

So if you are a nerdfighter and you live in the UK, or anywhere that you feel John Green should be more widely known than he is, why not write a letter to your nearest bookshop requesting that they add John Green's books to their stock?

If we can get just one more John Green into a bookshop and therefore make one more person's life a little more awesome, we can be pleased with ourselves. And think of it this way - this is the first step towards getting John Green himself to come to the UK...if that doesn't entice you, I don't know what will.

There's a Facebook group which you can join to show your support: http://www.facebook.com/home.php?ref=logo#/group.php?gid=109003938809&ref=nf

Tell your friends, blog/vlog/whatever it is you people do about it, join the Facebook group, spread the word! Let's make this campaign work and help decrease world suck!

...

And now we can commence the normal programming of rambling nonsense and vaguely amusing anecdotes that no one really cares about.

Bye

<3

Second to the right and straight on 'til morning

That's where I want to live. Growing up isn't fun. Growing up is stressful and confusing and I don't want to do it.

I am currently trying to narrow down my university choices and it is NOT EASY. There are too many universities to choose from and literally everywhere does English Literature, so that doesn't help at all.

I am currently surrounded by a daunting mound of prospectuses that represent a miniscule proportion of the country's universities, a lot of maps of the UK with different coloured writing on them to indicate how far the different places are from Liverpool and how long it takes to get there according to Google Maps, and my laptop to research anything that needs researching. I don't actually know what I'm doing with all this stuff and the only thing keeping me sane is watching 'Lost in Austen' (the BBC show about a woman who goes through a door in her house and finds herself in Pride and Prejudice) which I have on DVD.

I really need to read Pride and Prejudice. I feel like that sentence should end with 'again', but honestly, I need to read it a first time before I can read it again. I have watched so many adaptations and read so many books that are based on the story, but I have never actually sat down and read the original. That is something I'll do this summer. Along with reading the stack of books I brought home from my mum's work and all the books I got for my birthday and 'The Time-Traveller's Wife' which I've been set for school. And I need to get a job. There's a lot that I need to do and the more time I spend writing this blog, the less time I have to do it in.

So now I will go and carry on drowning in universities.

Bye

<3

A tad over-dramatic, and probably meaningless to most people.

I don't know if anyone who reads this watches Torchwood or happened to catch any of the week's worth of episodes that were on earlier in the month. As I was in Berlin when they were aired, my parents recorded them for me and I have just finished watching them.

A piece of my soul has died. My heart may be very slightly broken and I doubt that I will ever smile again. One of my eyes is very much smaller than the other, and both are copiously bloodshot from crying. My head hurts and I ache in every corner of my body.

It was a traumatising experience. I think it might even be worse than the end of Torchwood Series 2 - it's definitely on a par with that. Although Russell T Davies is clearly a fantastic writer in order to illicit such a reaction from the audience (because I know for a fact that I am not the only one who sobbed their heart out over this series), sometimes I hate that man.

I think that if I watched it again any time soon, I might just have a nervous breakdown.

I don't want to give too much away because obviously if people haven't seen it and are planning on it, I don't want to wreck it. But, like the episode of Doctor Who 'Midnight' (the one on that spaceship where that woman's repeating what everyone's saying), it shows the human race in a situation that they don't understand and it shows just how far some people will go to save their own skins.

It was action-packed. It was moving. It was funny in parts. It was absolutely heart-breaking. I loved it.

But now, the only things I can rely on to get me through are Maltesers and Taylor Swift.

Hopefully a more upbeat blog soon. I think I'm going to spend tomorrow looking at uni stuff.

Bye

<3

I have had a nice day.

I have also decided that from now on I will refer to my friends simply by name without having to go "my friend whoever", because generally if I'm going to talk about them on my blog, chances are that they're my friends. So it just makes sense. And if it gets confusing because you don't actually know these people personally...well, just leave your questions in the comments.

It was Alex's birthday today, exactly a week after mine (that's how I remember it) and he had a barbeque and it was nice. Even though he didn't have any veggie burgers or anything because his dad, who has known me since forever, was convinced that I still ate fish. Even though Alex kept saying, "No she doesn't, Dad, she really doesn't", he insisted that I did. So I just ate bread and salad. It was fine. There were Doritos too. I coped.

And loads of people were there so we played volleyball over the washing line (which fortunately didn't have any clothes on it, because we weren't as good as we thought we would be at getting the ball over the line) and my wrists went really red from trying to do the proper volleyball technique rather than just slapping the ball. Both ways hurt though, because it was a really heavy ball. Then we played a weird version of Piggy In The Middle which involved 12 boys and 5 girls playing on teams. Basically, rather than one person being 'in the middle', there was one team in the middle. But it wasn't really in the middle, and basically ended up as an excuse for everyone to rugby tackle each other to get the ball back. And then we all gave up and sat on the grass and ate some more. By the way, Alex's garden is HUGE, which is why we were able to so all this. There'd be no way you could fit that many people in my garden, let alone do anything even vaguely exercise-y.

Then the people I knew well went on to a different party and all Alex's mates from the brass band he plays with turned up and it all got a little awkward for me because I didn't know these people very well. Also, it was getting colder and my shoes were in a bush somewhere. But I stayed curled up on a plastic garden chair and tried to make conversation with people who were a few years older than me and obviously thought themselves way superior. Especially when one of them turned to me and went "Do you play an instrument?" It is a well-known fact that brass players hate string players. Oh, and woodwind players hate string players. And string players just hate everyone. So when I went, "Yeah...violin and viola" they all took it as an opportunity to start mocking string instruments. But I sat it out for a little longer because there was the promise of cake if I waited long enough. And then I had cake. And then I went home.

That last paragraph might seem to put a bit of a downer on the day, but even that bit was alright. And the bit before was awesome. And then I got to eat pizza and watch Eight Out Of Ten Cats, which is always good. And now I'm tired and need to get up in the morning to watch the last two episodes of Torchwood before going to see Harry Potter again.

Oh, and that video finally uploaded which made me happy.

Bye

<3

I really need a job.

Seriously, if I don't get one soon, I am in grave danger of spending all summer sitting in my room on my laptop, writing meaningless blog posts and refreshing Facebook every two minutes.

Also, the time that I don't spend wrestling with a dodgy Internet connection, I'll end up going out with my friends. Which is a good thing, obviously. I'm not a recluse. Except going out with my friends generally means spending money. Money for food, money for transport. More money than I have at my disposal.

So I need a job. I've sent out a stack of letters to everywhere and anywhere, but hardly any shops are taking on staff at the moment. I still have some letters to send, but I've run out of envelopes (note to self: buy more envelopes). I also need to ring a man about front of house work at a local theatre. I rang him once and he said he'd get back to me and then never did. I don't want it to seem like I'm harassing him...but, as I've said, I really need a job.

Aaah so there you have it. Rant over.

I've watched the first three episodes of Torchwood that I missed while I was away. It's awesome. I'm going to watch the next two tomorrow.

YouTube is being stupid and won't let me upload the new video I made yesterday. I was trying all evening yesterday and all morning today...I refuse to give up.

Okie dokie...I'm going to get some lunch now.

Bye

<3

Recommendation Blog Number One

Okay, I really should go to bed because my back hurts. But no...I have decided to give you lovely people a recommendation. So here we go...fun times.

'What I Saw And How I Lied' by Judy Blundell

I bought this book just because it was on a '3 for 2' offer and it looked quite good. It's set in post-WW2 America, which I thought was fascinating. I've always been interesting by the Second World War and specifically the lives of ordinary people. However, I think this is the first thing I've read about that period which was set in America, which made it particularly interesting to me.

This book tells the story of Evie, a teenager living with her mother, who she adores, and stepfather, Joe, who has just returned from the war. When Joe suggests an impromptu holiday to Florida, Evie doesn't suspect that anything could be wrong. But when irresistibly handsome Peter Coleridge, a young ex-GI who served with Joe, appears in her life, she finds herself falling for him despite the shroud of secrecy that surrounds him. But when a terrible tragedy comes to pass, Evie must choose who to betray - her parents or the man she loves.

As I'm a bit of a sucker for romance (except those crappy Mills and Boon books...they are awful) and especially for forbidden love, I loved that aspect of the book. Also, a dashingly mature soldier is never a bad thing. But apart from that, I loved the mystery of the story. I'm not really into that kind of thing, but it kept me interested until the end. And...yeah. I'm really bad at this whole review-type thing.

To cut what could turn into a really long and rambly blog short, it's a good book. You should read it. If you don't believe me, let me put in perspective. I read pretty quick and finished this in a day. My friend is a pretty slow reader (it took her two weeks to get to chapter two of 'The Host' by Stephenie Meyer') and she read this book in a matter of days. My copy is currently being passed from person to person within my group of friends because it's awesome. And I hope anyone who goes and reads it because of this blog loves it just as much as I do.

Bye

<3