A return to the blogging world?

Hello again,

I realise it has been almost a year since my last post, but I think I just lost the blogging bug, but now I'm considering a little blog revamp. This may slightly be down to procrastination, as I have my last assignment of the year in on Tuesday, as well as my final presentation of the year... and then of course comes exams.

I'm not sure if I am going to start a new blog completely, or continue with this one, just changing the name etc and the kind of things I write about (I mean, I'm not intending to ramble about every aspect of my life) but I will have a think about that. Any opinions would be great.

I'd like to blog about University, as my time here so far really has been great! I mean,  I have got to do so many things  I never expected to be doing and it has been brilliant, and I'd just like to share it really. For a start it would be a nice thing to send to my family to see what I have been up to.

Any thoughts?

My babes!!!

I love dan and amy lots and lots xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Post Exams

Right now my fellow IBers and I are feeling pretty chilled after finally finishing exams. It's been strange, but nice, just being able to do anything I want. Although I keep getting a feeling like I should be doing some work, even though there is none for me to do (not that I am complaining at all.) Now I have noticed that certain things have become a lot less interesting since finishing my exams, so I thought I would share... I'm nice like that. 

1. Facebook, home of procrastination. I have noticed I am spending a lot less time on Facebook than during exams. It was so easy just to sit there and scroll through everything and when revising, have VERY regular intervals which involving pressing F5 and seeing the same screen... unchanged.
   
   
2. Youtube. Watching every video posted by the people I subscribe to no longer seems interesting I just get bored quickly and don't feel the need to watch 'one last video.'
   
   
3. Sims 3. Towards the end of exams I was really looking forward to playing Sims, because I'm cool, and as I had a week in between 2 of my exams I did load it once or twice as a treat but now I just load it and then realise I don't want to play it any more. 
   
   
4. Twitter. Much like Facebook I would sit there and read through everything, annoy my friends with tweets, be an irritating person who retweets any pictures of cute cats (mainly my own from my sister's twitter) and then get accused of stalking from said sister, when actually I am just reading 17 hours worth of my twitter feed.
5. Daily Mail. Pretty much daily one of my friends would send me a link to some wacky story on the Daily Mail website which they found on a procrastination session. This would then result in me reading/looking at all of the pictures of all of the interesting news stories that the Daily Mail had to offer. I have now noticed a drop in the number of links I am being sent by friends. I wonder why?
6. Jeremy Kyle. During exams I would gently wake myself up with people arguing on the TV. What can I say... it made me feel better about my own life, was entertaining and it still meant I didn't have to get up until 9.25am. And if I didn't want to get up, I would simply delay my alarm for an hour and watch it on plus 1. I don't really feel the need/want to do this any more unless I happen to stumble across it and get drawn in by a juicy argument. 

Since finishing my exams and not spending so much time on the above, I have had more time to play with Lily and Ella (although I did this anyway), sleep, see friends and even go and see my Dad as I couldn't remember the last time I had seen him properly! It has all been very nice and relaxing so far and am very much looking forward to the rest of the time off, especially my school prom this Thursday. Exciting! It will be a strange experience for all... me... in a dress... and heels! Hopefully looking nice! *fingers crossed*

For those of you who are taking A-levels or just still taking exams... hang on in there and just keep on looking forward to the long holiday you get as a reward! 

Maisie and Lily ♥

So, this week for me has been a real mix of emotions. Firstly, excitement of getting our new kittens, Maisie and Lily on Easter Sunday. A day I have been looking forward to for ages! I was dying to snuggle with them and sing them (badly) to sleep by singing 'soft kitty warm kitty.'

Maisie and Lily (L-R)

When we got them home we had a crate set up for them to make their way in to in their own time. They are very small you see, so the crate was to give them that extra bit of safety while we are out and to give them a safe little retreat. So I sat there for most of the 7 hours while they slept and spooned each other, until Lily made the giant steps for kitty kind and walked out of the carrier. 

Maisie

Lily

 It took Maisie a little longer and a little bit more encouragement and a few nudges to eventually get her to come out of the carrier. This is when we started to notice differences between the two, Lily became playful at times as you would expect, but Maisie just seemed to be tired a lot of the time. We also noticed that Lily would follow where you hand went in front of her face, but Maisie did not. As you can imagine we started to become a little concerned at this point and so we'd keep an eye on her. 

Monday was much the same, Lily became more playful and Maisie was a little unresponsive and tired. We would have taken her to the vets this day, had it not been for the bank holiday. But we phoned the vets first thing they opened on Tuesday and took both Maisie and Lily down for an appointment. 

The vet checked Lily and said she was fine and after giving Maisie a check he said that she was very dehydrated and that they would have to keep her over night and get fluids in to her and so we did that and took Lily back home. 

The vets tried to inject Maisie with fluids but it didn't work so they had to put her on a drip. She was apparently making the nurses laugh because she was still trying to move around with the big bandage on. She went home with a nurse over night, but she was not very improved by Wednesday so they took some bloods. The bloods showed that she was severely anaemic, meaning she would have to have a blood transfusion. In the afternoon there was a call from the vet, asking to speak to my mum, much like they did that morning when they had phoned with an update. However, in the morning after they had spoken to my mum, she phoned me to give me an update. In the afternoon this didn't happen and so I was dreading my mum coming back home after work as I sort of knew what to expect. 

I had been upstairs all day looking after Lily and when mum came upstairs and opened the door I only had to look at her face to know. 'Is she gone?' I said, and mum nodded and said 'I'm so sorry' in a very blubbery voice. As you can imagine, I was then instantly in tears with memories of the similar situation of Amy flooding back. 

Again, this really showed me how close you can get to animals, even in such a short time, you become so attached and they really are a part of the family. Thankfully we still have Ella and Lily and so it gave us something to focus on and lightens the blow to a certain extent, if that makes sense. 

Lily really has been fantastic, she has such a character. So playful and affectionate it is lovely and she is also absolutely beautiful, as was Maisie. It really is a shame, as I was so looking forward to them growing up together, it just seems unfair that Maisie was taken so soon! Just 57 days old, it just doesn't seem fair at all! However, the unfortunate fact is that this really is just what life is like, however unfair it may seem.

The IB Alphabet

It is safe to say that my friends and I are currently going through the IB blues due the the endless amount of coursework we are currently getting thrown at us and the impending doom of the upcoming exams in May! So this was created  for a bit of fun while on Skype with Katie, Laura, Amy and Annie. We may have to ask if this counts for CAS...


Addiction to caffeine *cough* Katie *cough*

Binging while 'working'

Copious amounts of crying

Does that count for CAS?

Easy has no relationship with the IB

Failure isn't an option

Grammatical errors

How do you know we know you know?

IB, why do you do this to me? (Laura's rhyme)

Just the threat of another year of IB makes you want to succeed

Kill me now...

Lack of sleep

Moan, moan, moan

Never ending flow of work

Oh ok, now you tell us there is a piece of coursework...

Procrastination... blog writing *ahem*

Question everything... thanks TOK

Rereading your extended essay several times = death

Say goodbye to most of your social life

This work ACTUALLY has to be completed

Universities like us... hopefully

Visual arts has destroyed Annie's soul

We take 6 subjects, how many do you take?

Xmas holidays - yeah right, you're revising for mocks!

You probably shouldn't leave thing until the last minute... but you will!

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Versatile Blogger Award

Versatile Blogger Award

Recently I have been awarded the Versatile Blogger Award from the lovely Beth from http://bethht.blogspot.com/, who mainly blogs about all things to do with make-up, but also posts a few different things now and again about music or some pictures. So thanks to Beth for this and obviously you should go and check her blog out and say hi, because it is just a generally lovely blog, and Beth is a lovely person too

As part of the award, I have to tell you 7 facts about myself, so here it goes:

1. I love the song 'Moves Like Jagger by Maroon 5 - it is right up at the top of my top played songs on iTunes. Such a good song! 

2. I am quite possibly one of the very few people of my age group who does NOT watch The Only Way is Essex, because it sounds awful. Although I do enjoy talking like them to my friends, just for fun. 

3. I do a good alpaca/llama/person from the grinch impression involving a couple of mint imperials. 

4. I'm currently doing the IB, and it is possibly going to kill me in one way or another! 

5. The geek within me loves a bit of Minecraft every so often, I will admit that! 

6. Even though I am 18, I still love a glass of milk and a couple of biscuits in the evening. ESPECIALLY if the biscuits are malted milks! Mmmmmm

7. I do rather love to bake cakes! Especially when they are all special like the ones I have done recently. I will have to post pictures here soon!

And finally I must pass the award on to some other bloggers who deserve it:

Alice (http://alicepyne.blogspot.com/) - Lovely blog and seems like a lovely person, inspirational too. 

Maddy (http://www.youtube.com/user/thevoiceofmanyfaces/featured) - Not strictly a blog, but still awesome! She can sing too you know!

Joely (http://blogofanutterwholovespeanutbutter.blogspot.com) - A lovely little 'life blog.'

Annie (http://annielosesattetris.blogspot.com) - She hasn't posted in 6 months but her blog is still lovely with all it's 9 posts. Quality, not quantity remember! And Annie if you read this - get back blogging! Maybe after IB though

Tim (http://lifeinsimlish.blogspot.com/) - If you like Sims then you might like this, although I'm not sure if he is going to post again which is a shame. 

Doing this has made me realise I need to find more blogs to follow because most of the ones I follow haven't blogged in a while. I shall be on the lookout for more blogs to follow!

Thanks for reading :)

My Beautiful Cat, Amy, Rest In Peace Baby

At Tuesday lunch time I arrived home from school to find my Mum, Stepdad and Sister in the hallway in tears. I can't explain to you the devastation that was on their faces, but instantly I knew something bad had happened! Zoe was stood there with her hand over her mouth as she looked at me, her eyes moved to the floor next to me, naturally I followed them. I looked to find my beautiful cat, Amy, in a crate on the floor - she looked as though she was asleep, but I obviously knew that she wasn't.

Either my Mum or Zoe, I can't remember who, told me she had been hit by a car and then the tears instantly rolled down my face and I began wailing as if I were a baby, and this continued for most of the rest of the day, until I eventually ran out of tears. It was honestly such a shock, something I never ever dreamt of happening - she was only 6, it isn't something you'd expect to happen to your cat... especially at such a young age!

Amy honestly meant to world to me, she was the most amazing, wonderful, beautiful and special cat in the world. She'd never fail to make me smile. I love how she'd willing explore everything she could, whether it be our drawers, cupboards, my desk or even the inside of Ella's crate. It was adorable and I loved it! I love, and already miss, the game she played on my door - I named it scratch and run... it is pretty self explanatory! It was annoying at times but it also made me smile and laugh too. I love the way she galloped with style down the garden path instead of walking and with that 'sexy bum' that she had (according to mum) she would elegantly swish her tail back and forth. I miss sitting at my desk and then Amy jumping up on to my lap, curling up and going to sleep. I miss her scratching on my door to be let in and then curling up on my bed, chair or floor and sleeping for hours on end! There are so many more happy memories that we will remember forever!

And even on Tuesday morning she made me laugh. I was just about to leave for school when I realised I hadn't opened my curtains. I stumbled over in the dark and threw them open, only to find Amy happily sat on the windowsill watching out of the window. I gave her a little stroke, said goodbye and left for school. 

I found the last photo taken of her, it was just last week I had made myself a hot chocolate and Amy made her presence known next to me on the table. I wanted to take a picture of my hot chocolate as it looked so delicious and while I was doing so with my webcam Amy sneaked into the frame of the photo attempting to get a little of the squirty cream, so so typical. 

I must thank the people across the road who found her, layed her so gracefully on a bed of newspaper in the crate and then came and found us to give her to us. She looked just as though she was sleeping and I think that helped to eased the pain a little for us, she looked truly peaceful. 

I cannot describe how much I miss her, she was honestly one of the family and she has made us all very happy throughout her life. I remember when we first got her I was greeted at the door by Graham with Amy sat in a single palm, oh so adorable with her oversized eyes and ears! 

♥ Amy, my beautiful cat, rest in peace, we will miss you ♥

29th March 2005 - 10th January 2012