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

Christmas and My Amazing Birthday

So it is now January, I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and I wish you all an awesome 2012! 

First of all I would like to say that I did actually solve the advent calendar problem, if I acted like a small child trying to open it rather then ripping into it, like come sort of crazed being, then I did actually have to break the tin foil. I just had to remember to be a child when opening it. That probably made absolutely no sense what so ever... but it works. 

You may or may not know that it was my 18th birthday on the 22nd and a couple of my friends, Dan, Amy and Maddy (mainly Dan), had been going on about my birthday surprise. Now I literally thought they were going to decorate the table at the meal or something but oh no... they can do SO much better than that!  At some point in the afternoon around 3pm I think, I was just in my room with my sister and I was checking out my new laptop, which by the way is gorgeous, and I realised I hadn't had lunch yet. I was literally just getting up to go and make some toast when I received a call from a very creppy Maddy, who had made it an unknown call to add to the creepyness, telling me that a package had been left outside my house and I was to get it, read the instructions and leave the house in approximately 5 minutes with Ella. 

Maddy then hung up before I could even say anything, but as you can imagine I was a little confused and so my facial expression was a mixture of :S and :O 

Anyway, I went to the door and there was a HUGE brown envelope (they had stuck lots of big ones together) with a little white envelope stuck to it with 'Instuctions' written on. Me being me was to excited and opened the big envelope first to find a Stephopoly (Steph monopoly) board. It was awesome, it had road names round my area and so I was confused what I had to do. Zoe, my sister, told me that I should probably have opened the instructions first, so I did that and basically I had to leave the house and follow the board round. I left the house with Ella and Zoe and started to walk down the road. My board told me to look out for a fellow blonde and the first thing I saw was a blonde haired girl at the bottom of the road and I immediately knew it was Katie. As we got closer I could see she was holding a balloon, something Ella had not seen before, and so there was a lot of barking and dragging and eventually Zoe ended up taking her home - too much excitement! 

She gave me a 'cheeky chance card' telling me to swap an item of clothing with her, Katie gave me a scarf and I forgot to even give her anything - fail. I then walked down an alley way to find pictures up of me on the fences and my friend Amy at the other end, who's chance card told me to pole dance on the next lamp post. I thought they were filming me so I only swung round it... soz. There was also something about giving someone a piggy back but I don't know where that fitted in. We then walked on to where the board told us and found my friend Dani, and later on Keely and then finally Tim. All had chance cards but I did not fancy begging the person on my left to squeeze my bum - Daniel you disturbed little boy. 

The board then led me back down my road and to my house, where I found a banner and balloons on the door and Happy Birthday music coming from my bedroom. I entered the room to find it decorated with more balloons and banners and Dan, Amy and Maddy having a little party in my room. We then hugged it out, because we are awesome like that and then they gave me lots of lovely cards and presents. 

Later on we went to Zizzi for my birthday meal, where we wore pirate party hats and threw table confetti at each other. Mature adults we are. At one point they all passed party poppers around the table without me knowing and then all at once popped them over me! After the meal the restaurant staff dimmed the lights and they all sang happy birthday to me while they brought out a cake Dan and Amy had made. Unfortunately I laughed and blew the candle out early... oops :( never mind. I was so stuffed from my meal I could not even have a small slice of cake, I had to leave it until the next day and it was DELICIOUS!!! 

After the meal we went into a pub and Imy bought me my first legal drink, a cider. And it was very nice too! After staying a while in the pub we went back to mine and then after a while everyone but Dani was gone and she traditionally always sleeps over for my birthday. 

It was, to say the least, the BEST birthday EVER! And I would just like to say a MAHOOSIVE, GIGANTIC thank you to the lovely Dan, Amy, Maddy, Imy, Dani, Amy, Katie, Keely and Tim for making it so awesome!! I do love you guys rather a lot!!! Also a huge thank you to all my family that came round in the morning to give me cards and presents, and well done all of those from keeping the secret - I had no idea what so ever!! 

Advent Calendars

I think we all know by now that Christmas really is on it's way. The Christmas coca-cola advert is on show, advent calendars are in use, Christmas songs are on the radio and I don't know about you but I have recieved a Christmas card. 

I think I may have mentioned this last Christmas, but this year I decided I would eat my advent calendar backwards 24-1 instead this year so I could could down the days until Christmas, just to have a change. Well I have started to do this (btw there is no big chocolate in the whole thing so that didn't matter) and apparently on the first day of December it was 'one sleep to go' haha! And now it seems Christmas is getting further away, and my advent calendar this morning told me it was 4 sleeps to go. 

Now I know the term 'sleeps' is all cutesy but seriously... once your in your teens it isn't cute - it just makes you sound like a baby. There is nothing wrong with counting in days, although there is always the debate whether you should count the day you are currently on and whether you should count the day you are counting down to. But, that is besides the point. Basically, don't use the term 'sleeps' it is just horrible... let that be your lesson of today. 

Also, I don't know if it is just me but I used to remember getting my advent calendar and loving the sound it made. The sound was due to the foil but this year the tin foil seems to have changed and it isn't as crackly as it used to be. Also part of the fun as a child used to be ripping the tinfoil. It never used to stay in one bit, but that was part of the fun. The ones 'nowadays' (geez that makes me feel old) seem to be so easy and come off in one bit. And for me, it had kind of taken away part of the attraction of advent calendars. I mean, I love them and everything and I wouldn't not want one but they have seriously changed. 

Anyway, those are just some of the things I had noticed and thought I would share, don't know if anyone else feels the same but still. Hope you're all enjoying December so far. Can't wait to get some snooooow!!! *fingers crossed*

How Life Changes When You Get a Dog

Just a little list I came up with about how your life changes when you get a dog:

• You find yourself casually talking to them as if they are people, it's like cats really. You just say random stuff to them when you're not with anyone. It's great for when the house is empty, although when my sister hears me she thinks it's wierd. You can tell them anything, they won't understand a single word but they'll look at you as if they're listening... sometimes. 

• You find yourself with mysterious stratches on your arms and legs, then remember it was from the dog jumping up or getting angry. Although that stage fizzles out. Thank God!

• You find yourself ironically shouting 'quiet' at them when they are barking. I find that funny every time! Although I doubt this will be any different if you have children. 

• You end up not being able to walk anywhere without people wanting to see the dog. It's cute because the dog loves it as much as the person. 

• You find yourself having to apologise to people after your dog jumps up at them. Most don't mind but you get the occasional 'you will be, I hate dogs.' Ok, I've only got one of those. Most people don't mind at all. They generally say hello. 

• You will talk in funny high pitch voices when talking to them. You'll sound ridiculous but you won't care but you can take the mick out of each other for it. 

• You will find that all of your friends will want to be the first to see the puppy when you get it and you'll just end up having lots of visitors within the first few weeks. 

• You might find a shrub or 2 looking a little sorry for themselves in the garden. 

Its great having a dog, I'm sure there are more things I could write here too, but I'll leave it there! I hope you liked it, thanks for reading! 

Wow, I haven't written in ages!

So, I've been busy trying to find university courses, doing school work, procrastinating and other things and so have either forgotten or just not had inspiration write a blog! Sorry. 

I'll just do a little summary of things I have been doing:

• I found the university that I REALLY want to go to, I love it! It's really nice and small, cosy, everyone knows each other. It's just generally lovely and the courses there sound really good too. So yeah, I'm really hoping to go there now. 

• I made a cake shaped like a banana... but tastes like chocolate. If you read my blogs from aaaaages ago you'd probably get the Colin reference - it was for Dan's 18th! It was pretty good! Nice and tasty too. Well I was pleased with it anyway, as was Dan and everyone else who ate it. 

• I also made a cake that looks like the YouTube logo for my YouTube freak of a friend, Maddy. I also made her a massive card and got lots of people to write messages and we made her a video with birthday messages etc too. Needless to say she loved it all! What made it even better was that I got one of her favourite YouTubers to record a little birthday message for me to put on there too! 
• At the end of term, practically everyone was ill. Everyone was passing on colds and sore throats. I think I was one of the first to have it but man did my throat hurt! Never had one so bad. Although, honey tea saved the day! It is literally liquid magic - cures any sinus type stuff - remember that one! Probably the most useful thing I'll ever say. 

• I've been looking after my 'little' pupsicle. Yes, that cute thing that I wrote about back in July... or June... I can't remember! Yeah well now it looks like Ella has eaten the 'little' pupsicle we once had! But nevertheless... I love her! She's the best thing ever - even when she does bite my bum! 

• Ok, this one may sound a bit geeky. But... my brother let me play Minecraft and I've gotten in to it quite a bit, it is really good! At first the sound of the zombies and the spiders freaked me out so much so I put it on peaceful but now I have manned up and play it on easy atm... I'm working myself up! Only thing it... I HATE creepers... they blew me up when I was on my way home and I lost all my good stuff! Sucks! I want to get myself some wolves but I haven't been able to find them since I started one of my games but at that point I had no bones :/ ah well! I don't know anyone who plays it... I'm sure some do but I just don't know about them! 

Here are the pictures of the 2 cakes I said about:

Thanks for reading! 

Art Courses

This afternoon after school, my sister and I were sitting at the kitchen table doing our homework. Zoe was doing some of her artwork and it made me think back to when I was doing my GCSE art 2 years ago and how I never really wanted to draw or paint the things they told me to. Yes, it was nice to have the guidance of what to do I suppose, otherwise I would have really been stuck. But then, I am not really an artist, I'm just thinking about the 'true artists' that were among those in my class. 

In my opinion I think that having a set structure for a subject in art actually restricts the 'true artists' from being able to work to the best of their abilities because art is something that is personal. Therefore, by giving a structure to something personal, this takes away a lot of the meaning and personality from the work. Perhaps one person is particularly good at drawing portraits and another at cartoon type things and therefore they might not be able to do well with the set topics they are given. For example, we had an African art topic where we studied patterns, masks, animals etc, but I think there were some people in the class that did struggle with this even though they really were good at art, but their OWN type of art. 

Perhaps what I am trying to say is the current structure for creative subjects does not give students the real ability to shine, which I think is a real shame. Zoe is doing well at art, I love the things she does and everything but she's rarely completely pleased with what she has done because she is such a perfectionist when it comes to art. I think she'd probably be happier if she was given a little more freedom to do what she wants, and not be limited to a topic that she may not like. 

Online Shopping

The other day I logged on to facebook to find that I have been invited to Maddy's 18th birthday party, in which she clearly specified that dresses and suits must be worn. I obviously accepted but the thought of having to actually wear a dress kills me! Yes, I have worn them before at recent weddings etc but that was hard enough to find a dress that I actually liked and looked nice in. 

Even though this party is a month away, I thought it would be best to go and do a bit of online shopping to see if there was anything I liked the look of and I noticed a trend throughout the websites I looked at - the clothes models. They were all the 'perfect' size and therefore the pictures of the models in clothes are completely useless for anyone who is not the 'perfect' size as they have less of an idea whether the clothing would look any good on a slightly bigger person. Now I won't deny that I am not the 'perfect' size and I found it incredibly annoying because it means that I can't exactly shop online, as I am likely to be sending everything I buy back because the models give me no idea what so ever how it would look on a person a different size to the models.

I have no idea whether I am the only person that this annoys but it would be nice if there were a couple of different models for each bit of clothing, or at least a range of models used throughout the site, so that it would give people of different sizes a better idea of how it might look. But I suppose until they change I will go in store or deal with having to send everything back when it doesn't fit me... yeah I'll shop in store thanks! 

Summer Goals and Back to School

Sooo, Monday was the day that I have been trying to forget about, back to school! How depressing. After such a lovely summer holidays I had to go back to school for another year. The only good thing about it was that I got to see all of my friends together again. And literally that was the only good thing. I won't go into it because it will bore you so instead I will just run through my summer goals and see what I actually did because I had forgotten what they were:

• Go to the beach, but that goes without saying really. Hopefully the weather won't stop that one! - DONE, went a few times with friends/family and it was great... even took the pooch too.

•  Finish Breaking Dawn as I haven't had time to read it. NOT DONE - to be honest I was more interested in Harry Potter.

• Read AT LEAST one Harry Potter book. I know, it is shameful that I haven't read any!! - Oh yes, most definitely done. I loved the first one, managed to read it in 2 days and have recently started on the second.

•  Have a boardgames day, not had one for ages. DONE and it was great fun.

•  Finally make Jack his muffins, which I said I would do for his birthday... in March. Wow, that's bad. Sorry Jack if you're reading this. NOT DONE, but I'm planning to make them this month... hopefully.

• Do my extended essay experiment and actually make it work! DONE... finally.

•  Complete more of the A part of CAS. DONE, I went cycling a few times and also went geocaching ( it's like a treasure hunt, google it if you're interested.)

•  Go and see the next Harry Potter - Hopefully on Wednesday.  DONE, I saw it on the wednesday with friends in 2D and then again quite late in the holidays but in 3D, was great in both cases! Such a good film.

•  And to go with that last one, watch all the other ones too, just to reminisce.  DONE and loved it.

•  Try and write some/ all of my personal statement. DONE

•  Find some more good university courses I want to take.  DONEish, but still need to find more.

•  See my friends. Especially those I haven't seen in ages. (Imy, Dani etc) DONE, and loved seeing them too!

 Well, lets see... I did 10 out of 12 things! Now I think that is pretty good! I'm pretty pleased with that! 

Honeycomb

Personally, I have never really though about honeycomb as something I could ever make, it never really crossed my mind. However, when I saw 2 people on my Facebook say that they had made honeycomb I thought I would give it a go to see how it went. 

When I found the recipe on Google I was really surprised at how easy is sounded, as I hadn't expected it to be that hard. 

The recipe I found only needed golden syrup, sugar, bicarbonate of soda and some water to test when it was ready. I made sure I had all of this and then set about making my honeycomb. I will post a link at the bottom of this post in case you want to try it yourself.

In the recipe it says you need a greased 10cm square tin and I was thinking... err no thanks I think I will line it with greaseproof paper, this could get messy! You start off by making a syrup and then take it off the heat and add bicarbonate of soda, which makes the mixture expand A LOT. Now luckily I had plenty of excess paper sticking out of the tray, as the mixture continued to expand when I poured it in. Note to self: next time use a bigger tin. 

Now this is the end product, it tasted scrumdiddles!

After a day or 2 they start to go a bit sticky, and therefore a bit difficult to eat so next time I am going to cover them in chocolate so we can have our very own crunchy bars!! Yummy!

I have been thinking for a while about starting a cookery channel on YouTube as I do quite a lot of cooking at home but I'm not sure yet, and besides I would need to get a video camera first. Let me know what you think. Either in the comment section or if you know me... on Facebook or something. 

If you want to make honeycomb then click here for the recipe. 

My Extended Essay Hates Me...

Anybody who is doing/ has done the IB will understand how frustrating this is. I am currently doing my extended essay on food technology, specifically genetically modified foods. Because it is a food technology I have to do an experiment. For me, this involves making 2 batches of cakes, one containing lecithin powder. 

Now to start of with back in June/July I did my experiment 3 times using a different flour, later finding out that I would never have got the right results because it was the WRONG flour!! I then only found 2 companies which sell the right flour so had to contact them, but they could not send me it before the end of term... this was when the deadline was. 

Luckily, I was given an extension until September. Now, I have literally just been making my cakes and yet again I have faced problems. I had put all the ingredients into the bowls, I whisked the first batch containing no lecithin powder... that was fine. I go to whisk the batch containing lecithin and BOOM my whisk dies. It didn't literally explode but it did die. Graham said the motor has gone and it even made that horrible smell that electrical objects make when the motor dies. 

I swear my extended essay just hates me, it is fate that I'm going to fail it!! Well, I hope not!! 

Luckily, James was at Joely's at the time so my sister rang him and in 20 minutes or so he was back home with Joely's electric whisk!! Thank you Joely! 

Hopefully they will turn out well this time and actually give me good results!! Fingers crossed. But I guess the feeling is mutual... I hate my extended essay as much as it hates me... probably more! 

Summer Holidays So Far

This holiday has already got off to quite a good start, I have been out, seen friends and just generally had a good time... even on the days when I am inside because I have my pooch! So I am just going to 'summer'ise... yeah I know it's terrible but I genuinely accidently wrote that when meaning to write summarize.

Thursday 28th July - Imogen came over, to meet Ella and see me of course. She loved Ella... even though Ella later attacked her (playfully of course, she wouldn't mean harm - honest.) Also, because we both love boardgames we played monopoly a couple of times. The first game I won by more than 6500 monopoly dollars and the next game Imogen won by an amount similar to what I won by. They were good games. We also played scrabble, it was pretty crap game, we had rubbish letters and so nothing decent got put down. I had a ton of vowels and Imy ran out of them... wonder where they went. Well, Imy won that too. I think we also played downfall, but I don't remember who won those games. We had a great day, well I know I did anyway...

Friday 29th July - BBQ at the beach. Now this day was not the best weather, a little cloudy, but it was still nice to meet up with people and the BBQ wasn't all that bad. We bought lots of food from Iceland, including burgers, skewers, burger buns, fizzy drink and pink and whites. (I had already bought the sausages and people had already got the BBQs.) I was even smart enough to bring some tongs with me... it would have been a little more challenging if I had not remembered! The food was good, I did now touch the burgers because they looked like circles of ice cream and just complete crap. I think only a couple of people had any. Alex mainly... he took the remains home. There was also a little dog that came on to the beach, no owner about, and it found a string of sausages (not left by us) and it was pretty funny watching this little dog and the big string of sausages walk around the beach. After this, Maddy, Lauren, Dan and Amy asked to come and meet Ella. I had got the train, they got the bus so I told them where to get off and Dan used his phone satnav to get to my house. It worked well and they all loved Ella... of course! 

Tuesday 2nd August - Pottermore. This is the day I got my pottermore account. I got the right answer of the question, after failing the day before, and was sent to a guardian website. Meanwhile, Tim had already found it so he was telling me where it was and thinking I was thick when I couldn't see it because apparently I couldn't miss it. I was getting so annoyed because I couldn't see it. Then I realised that my adblock might be blocking the quill, so I paused it, refreshed and... what do you know... there is the quill!!! So irritating. I registered but I still don't have much of a clue what Pottermore is so I shall have to wait for my welcome email. Kinda excited! If anyone knows what Pottermore might be... let me know!! 

Wednesday 3rd August - BEACH! I had heard the day before that the weather would be good, so I had already decided I would go to the beach. But I had nobody to go with because my sister kept abandoning me for her friends. I didn't think anyone was free but then Tim decided he would change the week that he had planned to do his extended essay so I invited him over to see Ella and go to the beach. My sister and her friend Emily also came along and we took the dingy too... it was great fun. We used the oars as bats and played some sort of ball game with a tennis ball. Although... I later broke the oars... oops! Never mind... they are fixable! And to top it off we had toffee and butterscotch ice cream, which was SO nice! Yummy!

Thursday 4th August - Boardgames Day! Now this really was a great day, so fun! Imy hosting the day this time, so me, Tim, Julian, Jess and Jack all got the train over to hers... although Tim missed it - stupid boy ;)

We played all sorts of games, uno (which Imy said she would win... but didn't haha), cluedo mysteries, scrabble and of course... Articulate. Probably one of the best games ever!! I will definitely get that game for myself at some point! It's basically pictionary but speaking instead of drawing, and you only have 30 seconds for your team mates to guess as many as possible. Everyone gets so excited. The other team (Tim, Imy and Julian) got to the end and they had to do one nature question... the answer was trout. Tim was the speak and jsut told them to name lots of fish. They were naming cod, mackrel etc and Tim said 'bigger fish, bigger fish' and Imy shouted 'SHARK' and Tim was getting so frustrated, it was so funny. Meanwhile, Jess, Jack and I were staring at the timer waiting for the last drop of sand to go through and cheered when it did. So funny. They still ended up winning though. We played another game after that and Jess, Tim and I won. 

Harry Potter

As one of my summer goals was the read AT LEAST one Harry Potter book, I took Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone from the bookcase upstairs on Monday right after I wrote my blog. However, I didn't get to start it until Tuesday evening due to school. And even then I was too tired so only managed a few chapters. I took it with me on Wednesday when I went to see Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows part 2 - which was amazing by the way, a lot of action in it and even funny in places - so I could read it on the bus, as I would have nobody to sit with. 

By midnight on Thursday I had read 99 pages. And I am not pretty proud of myself that I have finished the last 124 pages today!! And I'm really not much of a reader. Ask anyone I know and they will agree! 

I'm kind of annoyed with myself that I haven't read this amazing books before, they really are great. Ok, well I tried once before the read but I got bored by the first page, I had a low attention span! It could also be partly down to the fact that I was convinced that reading was bad for your eyes. My excuse for not reading being this because all librarians and a lot of English teachers have glasses because they read too much. At the time I felt my excuse was pretty good and now I just think it is funny. I know I was being stereotypical but never mind, it's funny! 

I have now got Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets off of the bookcase from upstairs and will start it in a while! I will let you know how this one goes. 

I shall leave you with a few of my favourite quotes from the latest film:

• 'Not my daughter, you bitch!'
• 'Yeah, you and whose army?'
• 'That's my girlfriend you numpties!
• 'I've always wanted to use that spell'

Just a Few Goals For the Summer

I break up from school in a few days so thought I would make a quick list of things I want to do over the summer:

• Go to the beach, but that goes without saying really. Hopefully the weather won't stop that one!

•  Finish Breaking Dawn as I haven't had time to read it.  

• Read AT LEAST one Harry Potter book. I know, it is shameful that I haven't read any!! 

•  Have a boardgames day, not had one for ages.  

•  Finally make Jack his muffins, which I said I would do for his birthday... in March. Wow, that's bad. Sorry Jack if you're reading this.  

• Do my extended essay experiment and actually make it work!  

•  Complete more of the A part of CAS.  

•  Go and see the next Harry Potter - Hopefully on Wednesday.  

•  And to go with that last one, watch all the other ones too, just to reminisce. 

•  Try and write some/ all of my personal statement.  

•  Find some more good university courses I want to take. 

•  See my friends. Especially those I haven't seen in ages. (Imy, Dani etc)

 I think that should keep me busy. 

'Help I'm stuck, gimme a push'

After repeatedly pulling the cat flap, barking at it, sticking her head in etc, Ella finally managed to get through!! I knew we had a Houdini dog, she has already managed get from the trellised patio into the grassy area, and we have no idea how.

My mum texted me around lunch time to tell me that Ella had got out through the cat flap, and sent me a picture at evidence. Apparently, she then did it another 2 times, so Zoe got a video (which I will upload at another point)

When I got home I took her outside etc and then took her back in and gave her a toy. When Zoe came in she was very eager to go outside, so decided she would take the cat flap route. She stopped while going thought the gap, with her little back legs trying to get in. She got stuck... so I obviously just took my phone out and took her picture because she looked so funny!!

I told her that she wasn't a cat, but she wasn't having any of it. Then Zoe gave her a little nudge in the backside so I could gently let her out the other side. It was very funny to say the least.