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! 

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!! 

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. 

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. 

Ella's New Tricks and a New Blog Layout

The first thing to notice are the changes to my blog. Basically, I felt like a bit of a change. So I sorted out a nice little banner for the top, using Photoshop and a little help from my brother to cut out the image of Ella and I. I'm pretty pleased with it, but it didn't fit in with the pinkness of the blog before so I thought I ought to change it. After all, I have had it like that since the beginning, so a change is quite nice! It now feels like a completely new blog. I tried to write a little sentence for the description but I couldn't really describe what my blog is, so I just left it! 

Now to the main bit of my blog. As you know, we got a puppy 2 weeks ago, so I thought I better update you on how she is getting on. 

She has settled in extremely well, and Zoe and I even taught her to sit on the second day of having her! Wow! Clever little pup. Then, within the first week Graham taught her 'paw' and then this trick:

Isn't that amazing? Well I think it is, considering she was only 8 weeks! We sent a link of the video to the breeders on facebook and they were amazed that she had managed to learnt that trick so quickly! Graham has also taught her to lay down, which is always helpful. We are now working on roll over, she seems to be thinking about it but isn't too sure. She did it for me yesterday, but it took a while.

Other than all the tricks she has been learning, she has been having good and bad days. She's been really good house training wise, absolutely brilliant! 

However, one thing we are working on is her getting aggressive, it's not nice. She ripped my favourite shorts, which I wasn't happy about. And also ripped Zoe's pj shorts, perhaps she just doesn't like shorts, haha! We have found a couple of good techniques... either putting her in her crate for a couple of minutes or everyone leaving the room. 

When she is put in her crate after being aggressive, she either rips the newspaper to shreds, knocks over her water and then we wait until she calms down, or she just goes to sleep. So it seems that she mainly gets aggressive when she is getting tired. Silly little puppy... just go to sleep. When we leave the room, she tends to bark fairly loudly for a bit, as it is as if she has been abandoned by her 'pack', and then she goes and finds something to chew on. 

We, well Graham, have had to make some adaptations to the house and garden too. A baby gate on the kitchen door, a little homemade wooden gate on the back door (for when we want the back door open but Ella inside), and a short trellis for the patio to stop her jumping off of it.

Today, she got a little aggressive, but calmed down quickly, which is always nice. Everyone went out this afternoon, so I stayed home to dog sit, as it was nearly dindins time. I took her outside for a run around but put her collar and lead on because the cat was out there too, and the lead takes up a lot of her attention so she wouldn't notice the cat. While I wasn't looking she got herself in a pickle with her lead, so I ran inside to get my camera...

'Help, I'm stuck'

 I made some icing for mum's cake so Ella decided to come and lay down by my feet, how sweet is that? It was probably just in case anything dropped...

'What you got cooking'

Last weekend, Mum and Graham went out and they bought Ella a little bed for during the day if she doesn't want to use her crate, or for if we want to let her come in the living room with us. She seems to like it, but is also equally happy in her crate.

Zzzzzz

Don't fancy the comfy vet bed then?

It is safe to say that we have all fallen totally in love with her, she is absolutely adorable... apart from when she is biting your bum and ripping shorts! Even James absolutely loves her, which is really nice, as he wasn't sure about having a dog at first. How cute, I'm so pleased that he loves her. 

Cuddles

If you come and visit us, I advise you to count fingers and toes first... ;)

Introducing Ella

So, yesterday was the day that I have been looking forward to for weeks - d-day (or e-day or p-day, whatever you want to call it!) As you can imagine I was extremely excited about the prospects of getting our puppy! I mean... who wouldn't be!

After sorting out the necessaries at the breeders' house we were given Ella, and she was officially ours... wow! We were told to expect her being sick, or tiddling in the car but she was very good and she didn't do any of that. She only had a little bit of a moan, but soon settled down and had a snooze in mum's arms! 

We did exactly as the breeders told us to do and took her straight into the back garden and waited for her to have a weewee (this took about an hour, as she was far too busy exploring and enjoying some of the longer pieces of grass, which have since been cut). During this time, she had her first encounter with the cat, although Ella seemed pretty oblivious to the whole thing! Although, the cat didn't seem very pleased and will still need time to adapt!

Snugglies

After this, we spent another half an hour or so trying to get her to follow us indoors! Once indoors, she discovered the dining table and the small gaps under the chair... and how fun they are to crawl under!

Comfy?

Then, we sorted out some din dins!! Although, she was too preoccupied with the garden so we decided to just leave it for when she came back in... and she went straight to it when she came back in. However, in the time between us putting the dinner down and Ella eating it, this happened...

'Am I meant to eat this?'

'Ok, if you're sure...'

 It was amusing to say the least anyway, but we did stop her eating it as it obviously wasn't for her and we didn't want her getting ill or anything! While Ella was eating her dinner, Amy kept a clear distance and occasionally poked her head around the bottom of the stairs...

'What... the hell is THAT!!'

After having her dindins, Ella went a 'christened' the garden before laying down next to me on the grass for a little snooze! I realised it was going to rain and didn't fancy getting completely soaked so I tried getting her to follow me but she just kept laying down, bless her! So I picked her up and carried her inside, and she fell asleep in the process!

Zzzzzz

It was very cute, but I thought it would best to get her to go in her crate for the first time, and she soon settled down and snoozed some more... I think I wore her out when she was chasing me round the garden!

What a cutie!

And the rest of the day involved more running, more eating, more chewing on things and a couple more encounters with the cat, including a little bit of hissing (from Amy... not Ella of course), but again she didn't seem to care at all!

Then mum, Zoe and I had to leave to go and do our Moonlight Walk for Pilgrims Hospice, and we raised £370 for them, just so you know. :) So Graham had her on his own for the whole evening! He said that she settled down very well in her crate when it was bed time and only cried for a minute or so, which is pretty damn good!

Today, Zoe and I have taught her how to sit... wow! It's amazing how she picked it up so quickly! We have also had a trip to pets at home (in our arms of course, as she is yet to have her inoculations) to get her socialising with people and we needed a few bits and bobs anyway! She was most definitely a hit, everyone loved her... after all she is absolutely adorable!! And right now she is crashed out in her crate once again, after another little moan about being there but she was fine after a few minutes!!

So yeah, that's Ella! I'm pretty sure there will be some more updates very soon!

Apologies, Puppies and Penguins

Firstly, apologies for the lack of blogginess... it's been nearly 2 weeks!! :O It does seem that my usual irregular blogging pattern has become increasingly more irregular since BEDA! But basically, I have either forgotten about it due to something else I was doing, probably some crappy school stuff, or I was stressing over crappy school stuff... which is always nice. Stupid English.

Last blog you may remember me mentioning some exciting news, well I think I can mention it now, as I've been telling everyone at school anyway... WE'RE GETTING A PUPPY!! How exciting is that? Maybe not very exciting to you but I am pretty damn excited. We have spoken about it many times in the past, but I never really thought it would happen... but Zoe has managed to persuade everyone, so we're all now very excited!

We have been to see them for the past 3 weekends and they are soooo cute! I will post pictures another time, probably once we actually have her. Yes, we're getting a girl :) 

Names? Well... at the moment we are all liking Ella, so Ella it is for now. Everyone seems to like the name Maisy but we are getting a Golden Retriever and I just don't think it suits a bit dog, but maybe that's just me! Any suggestions are welcome in the comments...

I also just thought that I would share this link because I thought it was absolutely brilliant!!It just made me smile and have a little bit of a giggle about it!

It's Official!!!

What's official? You want to know? Well... I PASSED MY DRIVING TEST!!! Woooooo!!! I'm soooo pleased! I really wasn't sure this morning whether I would pass or not, but I did... that's all that matters! 

The last few nights I have been dreaming about driving and it has be driving (ha ha) me mad!! On Friday I dreamt that my sister's friend was driving my mum's car. She was texting at the same time, which made her go off road, run over a rabbit and crash the car. Nice. No one died though - all good! Saturday Night was incredibly annoying as it was stopping me sleeping, so it took me AGES to actually drift off and then I kept waking up throughout the night! Last night, it took me a while to drift off again but I don't think I woke up really! 

I'm glad it's over now because I have been getting really nervous about it - but it really wasn't that bad to be honest. My driving instructor advised me to have a good breakfast and preferably eat a banana, as it is supposed to calm nerves! I did both, and I actually think it works... honestly! 

I had an hour and a bit of driving before my test, which also helped to calm my nerves and clear up a few things too! Then we went to the test centre... dun dun daaaaah!! 

After signing the little thing I needed to, I answered my 2 show me/tell me questions and then got in the car... show time!! Eeek! 

Overall, the drive was pretty good! I nearly did make a major booboo but managed to sort it out just in time, phew!!!! I had to do reverse left on a wide bend for my manoeuvre, which went well. We had practised that just before the test so that was good! I also had to do the emergency stop... now this, I was nervous about because I had pressed the wrong pedal first twice before and I so desperately wanted to get it right! Thank God I did!!! We then went back to the test centre and he told me I had passed, with 6 minors, and gave me the test sheet and my certificate. He then told me where I went wrong. I knew where they were but I didn't care too much because I had passed and I was far too preoccupied with thinking about that! 

The examiner was nice, so that was good. He was a little too chatty for my liking though, as I was really trying to concentrate! But I suppose that is better than sitting in complete silence, because that would be so nerve racking! He was telling me weird stuff, like his daughter dressing up as a dinosaur for her children... and also about a so-called paedophile that we saw while driving! Weird! 

Once I got home I really didn't feel any rush to get back to school so I got the phone and called a few people... only one of which answered (my Mum). She knew I would be phoning and answered the phone with a very questioning 'hello?' rather than 'hello this is Karina talking from blah blah blah' whatever she says. 

I decided to answer with a very quiet, sad sounding, 'hello' to which my mum replied 'are you ok?' and I said 'err yeah... I PASSED' and then of course she said something like 'aaah yaaay well done, I'm so proud of you' and all that jazz!! After I finished my chat with her and failed to get hold of anyone else I phoned, I got a phone call from a friend of mine, Moritz, congratulating me, which was lovely! 

I then wrote a text and then sent it to a fairly big group of people and of course posted the news on facebook! Then I fed the cat and went to get the bus. When I got into town I was thirsty so I wasted more time in going to Tesco to buy a drink. I got into school at 11.30am in the end, which was about the time I thought I would get there anyway!

Most people had already heard that I had passed my test by the time I got to school, so there was no need for me to shout it out, I wouldn't have anyway! Mel said 'OMG Steph you passed your test, well done!' and I said 'how do you know' and she said '... you posted it on facebook' - I had completely forgotten!!

After lunch the day was a bit crap... did my maths test (hard) and then had an after school French exam which was just ridiculously hard!!!  Anyway... I don't care, I passed my frikin driving test and I'm so so so so pleased!!!!

Driving Fun

I know I still don't have to blog every day, but I still found myself at different points during the day thinking about what I would blog about. I then reminded myself that I didn't actually have to blog because BEDA has finished and I'm not going to turn it in to BEDM because it doesn't have the same ring to it, and I'm not going to change it because that would be silly! 

As you probably know, I am learning to drive. Well, it is my brother's birthday tomorrow and sometime this week he wanted to go and see my dad because we haven't seen him in a while and at the moment my Dad doesn't have a car because of some idiots! Anyway, my mum asked my brother if he would like to go on her insurance for the week, as a little extra for his birthday? He obviously said yes and mum rang up the insurance company and it turned out that it would cheaper if I was also on the insurance... weird! You'd think it would be the other way around, especially as I am still a learner! 

So from today, until next Sunday, I am insured on my mum's car! This afternoon we went out to Tesco garage and bought some L-plates and then we pulled up in the car park and swapped places and mum put the L-plates on! Exciting stuff driving a car... with sole responsibility of the pedals!

After taking a few minutes to get used to the car, we were on our way... yay! However, once we got onto a 60mph road I saw the front L-plate fly back over the windscreen and over the back of the car... oh dear! We were near Sainsbury's at that point so we went in the garage there but they don't sell them! Back to Tesco we go... 

On the way there I looked out for the L-plate (mum was driving at that point) but there was no sign of it! After getting another L-plate, I jumped back in the driving seat! My mum is a pretty good instructor... very calm but she has always found decision making difficult in many circumstances, so it was quite funny when I asked her where she wanted me to go at the round about, because she said 'ooh, errr, I don't know!' 

A while ago, with my instructor, he asked me to do the emergency stop and I had mental block and put the clutch pedal down first and immediately knew it was wrong - so annoying! We did a mock test the other day and I had to do the emergency stop. In my mind I was saying 'break first, break first, break first' but I think I may have slipped when doing the break pedal, meaning that I hit the clutch first. But I was quick to put my break on so we still stopped very quickly! It was either that, or I put them both at the same time, but the clutch slightly before! I knew as soon as I did it and said 'AH CRAP' and my instructor said 'don't worry about it, just concentrate on the last bit'... so I did but I was SO annoyed with myself!

I was trying so hard to get it right and I didn't! Honestly, I can't tell you how annoyed I was and it did affect the rest of the drive, even though I know I shouldn't have let it! 

I told my mum before we went out driving that before the emergency stop she has to look around and check it's all clear but I said I wasn't being rude but I didn't want to do an emergency stop! But we were driving along a road and my mum said 'go on Steph, do an emergency stop' and I said 'err no' and she said 'go on, just do it, it's fine!'... so I did! And I got it right and it was fine... yay! So it wasn't as bad as I thought!

It was amusing and I really enjoyed it! Thank you Mum! Hopefully we will go out again sometime again this week! Maybe I'll persuade her to take me tomorrow for an hour or so or something! It also means that once I have passed my test that I could go on my mum's insurance occasionally if I need/want to and it wouldn't cost too much!

Quack!

For Easter, Joely got me a white chocolate duck, and a little chocolate egg which has a marshmallow chick inside! They are/were the cutest things ever! I say are/were because I have eaten the egg... but not the duck! 

At first, I didn't want to crack the egg, but curiosity got the better of me and I cracked the top of the egg off... the chick was upside down so I had to eat a little more of the egg so I could see it properly. Here is what it looked like... 

How cute is that? The chick had a smudged eye and a dirty nose, but who cares... it's cute! I can't remember when Zoe ate her chick but it was before me... and she said it was delicious! This chick did look so yummy so I bit it's bum (sorry chick) and she was right - it tasted so good - so I slowly ate the rest of the chick, making it last as long as possible... didn't last long really!

Just now, Zoe asked if I wanted to see her finger puppet, I said yes, and she takes her hand out from behind her back and I see a little chocolate duck's head wobbling about!!! MURDER... well not really, but still! Apparently, the duck is also delicious! 

I just took mine out of the packet and smelt it... mmm!! Smells yummy! Now it is sitting on my desk looking at me as I am writing this, knowing that I am thinking about breaking into it - just a little bit - but it is just too damn cute to break! All of that hard work that... the machine... put in to making it, and I have already eaten it's child. 

Joely says that it's okay because it doesn't have feelings! But it's too cute... I can't kill it! Ok, not yet! Soon it will be gone, I'm not going to let it go bad am I? I don't want an ugly, out of date, ducking on my desk now, do I?

I warn the duck to sleep with one eye open... or he may have a pain in his arse when he wakes up ;)

First Day Back

Yesterday I blogged about going back to school today. Today I realised that despite not really knowing how much I slept last night, as I struggled to get to sleep and didn't feel like I had been asleep when I woke up, my day reaaally wasn't THAT bad! 

It was actually quite relaxed! I got up on time so I didn't need to rush (for once), I had a free this morning with Dan where we actually did some of our English essays, and tech was relaxed as usual... although we had to watch a DVD and all of the people's voices were incredibly irritating and I wasn't comfortable on my stool. But then I suppose, what do I expect when I am on a stool!

Psychology was a drag though, it seemed to be never ending and I was hungry!!! But I suppose one lesson out of the 2 had to be a drag! After school was pretty good too! My grandparents were in town so I met them for a nice hot chocolate (yum) and then the gave me a lift home too! Lovely... no bus for me :) 

We had to do a few diversions, due to traffic and a car accident, but it was better than sitting in queues of traffic! 

I got home to find that there was a new addition to the family - a dog. Not a real dog, that we want, but an ornamental dog, who now sits on our stairs. It actually looks like it has always belonged there! I also noticed that Zoe was sitting at the table reading a book about dogs, typical! She is not planning our future dog having puppies and my mum said 'we don't even have the dog yet and you are planning it's sex life' - obviously that made me laugh!

I then worked hard on my English essay until it was done, with very few distractions... makes a change! Pretty proud of myself, and now I have no need to worry about getting my essay done! Which is lucky... as it is in for tomorrow!

P.s. A congratulations for Imy, who actually managed to give up facebook for lent! I wasn't really sure whether she would be able to do it but she did... so well done!

Happy Easter

This morning I did set my alarm for 10, as usual in the holidays, but I fell back to sleep again and wasn't woken until 12:10 by Zoe and Beth! Ooops...

After I had scrambled egg on toast and a yoghurt for 'brunch', Graham got all 3 of us to sit in my room while he hid all of the clues for the Easter egg hunt! And then we began...

He was right that it would be harder this year, and we did need some help with a few of the clues! He did anagrams, word searches, riddles and even put a clue on twitter, which was really funny! At the end of the hunt we found the eggs in the tumble dryer!

Mum and Graham went out for a walk so Zoe, Beth and I decided to make more Easter eggs hunts. They went of and started making one for me and I made one for them! I made them 14 clues and by that time they had done 3... and watched a film!

I did them a variety of clues too, including a puzzle, anagrams, mirror image, rhymes and wrote the blog post which is below (if you're wondering... it was inside a stuffed dog that has a zippy pocket) and I had them going that it was nearly the end as I wrote last one and various other stuff about it being the final clue. Fooled them :) I hid Zoe's egg in the oven and Beth's creme eggs in the cupboard next to the oven!

A little while later it was time for my Easter egg hunt, which consisted of 4 clues - haha! The first one was a quote from Celebrity Juice which said 'If I don't see you for a week, I'll see you through the ______' (answer is window).

On the bathroom mirror the clue said something like: it's hot and produces steam' - it was the kettle.

Underneath the kettle there was a clue, which said 'Where do you check for news and look at 'walls'?' - The answer was facebook so I went online to check for my clue and I found this:

Do the following! Write this out; Then follow from door:
3F + turn LEFT + 14F + 90*L + 9F + 90*R + 2 F + 90* R + 5F + 90*R + 2F + 90* L + 5F + 90*R + 14F + 90*R + 11F + 90*L + 5F + 90* L + 10F + 90*R + 1F + 90* L + 2F + 180* + 2F + 90*R + 1F + 90*L + 9F + 90*L + 8F + 90*R + Look around!

It was pay back for me messing them around with telling them it was the last one! I did one of these clues for them, but not this long, and I wasn't as mean! This route took me out of my bedroom door, upstairs, downstairs, outside, then back inside! Despite the fact that they had got L and R mixed up twice I did find the egg in the kitchen under the table in the end!

It was good fun, although like the child I am I would love to just search for chocolate eggs all day! But I don't think anyone will want to make any more clues haha!! They are all clued out, clueless!

Happy Easter everyone!!

Another GREAT Day!

Today turned out to be another great day! It started off with a nice pain au chocolate and a drink in a cafe with a friend, Moritz, who had come over from Germany for a little holiday! It was lovely, the breakfast was lovely, we had a really nice chat and then after we went to the beach and sat and played games involving throwing stones at rock towers! It sounds a bit stupid, but the simple things are sometimes the best!

After I saw Moritz I went home and it was just really nice sitting at the patio table in the sun! I even did some of my biology poster too! At least I could be outside and still do it. It was such a lovely day I wasn't going to waste it inside! 

After a while Zoe and he friend, Beth, came home and we sat in the garden just chatting about random things, such as Beth having a cod eye! ;)

And then this evening there was of course Britain's Got Talent, which I watched along with a nice bowl of popcorn and hot chocolate BUT Zoe and Beth came in my room to get the airbed and Zoe was chucking cushions at the back of my head, so I ignored her! Then... she goes and throws a quilt at me which goes over my head and into my bowl of popcorn, which STILL had stuff in! This obviously caused my popcorn to fly in various direction over the room... :( she said 'I knew that's what would happen, that's why I did it!' - Oe!! You meany... what a bitch ;) only joking... love you really! It is quite funny thinking about it now! 

Anyway, this is a list of a few of my favourites from Britain's Got Talent (click the names for links to YouTube):

• Ted and Grace - So cute, the girl was a good singer too but the Grandad just made me laugh, he was adorable! 

• Les Gibson, who impersonated Ant and Dec - So funny because his Dec impression was soooo gay! Doesn't beat Paul Burling from last year though though!

• Pip and her little dog! - This one, aww!! The woman was such a good singer. At first I thought the dog would dance but then it started singing along too, which was soooooo cute! Loved it! 

• Edward Reid - I just thought that it was so original and I loved it! At first I didn't realise he was singing nursery rhymes. It did take me a minute to realise. Very clever!

• The matrix bodypoping dude - if you watched it then you know the one I'm on about! The Romanian guy! He was so original and he was basically crying at the end so I could see how much it meant to him! Bless!

Good Friday... yes it was!

I had a very unexpected lovely day today, as I wasn't really expecting to do very much! I woke up this morning and went into the kitchen to have my breakfast, and I saw that Graham was making some sandwiches... nothing really clicked at this point as I had just woken up! 

Then I saw him packing it into a cool bag and putting an ice pack in... I was then a little confused where he/we were going! I went into my sister's room and curled up in her bed (I was a bit cold) and asked her if we were going out... apparently we were going to a place with a castle and field! Thanks Zoe, very specific! 

I went and got dressed and Zoe moaned that they always end up waiting for me... when it fact it is because they don't tell me that we are going out until we are literally just going out! Anyway, there was no need for me to get dressed at that point as my mum had fallen back to sleep so we didn't go fro at least another hour! 

Once she was up and ready we all got into the car and we ended up in a place called White Horse Wood Country Park, which is somewhere near/inn Detling. We then went and sat at a bend, while we ate our lunch... of course I was the last person sitting there eating - as always! 

And here is a nice picture of my mum that Zoe took, with me looking special as ever!

After this we dumped our stuff in the car and went for a very short walk to the ruins of Thurnham Castle, where there was a big stone wall, some sheep, a big hill and some silly middle aged men with toy helicopters (complete with a helipad) who were constantly crashing into a bush when they could have used the massive field near the car park where they came from! Silly people! 

We went up the big hill to see if there were more ruins... there weren't but the views were quite nice!

 We were expecting there to be more ruins but... I suppose they are called ruins so there isn't going to be much of them! We then went round the other path way to find the iron age settlement, or something like that... there wasn't really anything much to be honest! But it didn't matter because it was a nice walk and it was sunny! 

After that we went to a pub in Chilham to have something to drink, which was lovely and then we went back home to the beach and sat there eating an ice cream! Lovely! And I got to dip my toes in the sea for the first time this year - such a good feeling!

Mum and Graham have now gone out to see their friends and Zoe has gone to her friend's house. James and Joely were going to go out to see my Nan and Grandad to give them something so I decided to go with them rather than being left all alone at home! It was really nice going there and it ended the day quite nicely!

So yes, it was a very good Friday! Thanks Jesus!

Easter

Before I start this, I would just like to say that I am fully aware that I am 17 years old but in NO way does that mean that I am any less childish than I was as a 6 year old. Now I shall begin... 

Personally, I am really looking forward to Sunday because it is EASTER SUNDAY! I'm not excited for the 'proper' reason that Jesus was resurrected on that day. I'm aware but I find that Easter egg hunts are FAR more exciting and so yummy too! 

Every Easter my mum and step dad make my sister and I an Easter egg hunt (my brother isn't too bothered, as long as he gets a chocolate egg), complete with clues with codes, rhymes, mirror stuff and whatever else they can think of! This year Graham is planning to make it extra difficult, as he thinks that they are too easy! So if he does manage to make it really difficult then this hunt could be extra good! He did joke that he would go for a 10 mile drive with the eggs, so we'd have to hurry before someone else gets there first! 

This is a little bit strange but... I think I'm going backwards! Now walking, I can do that fine forwards... I mean in life! I think I am getting more and more childish... as I grow up! Surely it should be the other way around. 

What I mean is, I don't remember ever owning a Where's Wally book when I was younger... but now I do, and I love it! Also, I don't think that as a young child I ever had an Easter egg hunt, now in the last 3 or 4 years we have asked for them...

I don't think it is a bad thing though, I absolutely love being a kid, it's more interesting and exciting than actually having to grow up! I don't plan to for a long while! My Dad is 40 something and still hasn't grown up in the slightest!!

The London Marathon

Yesterday was the big day that hundreds of people have been building up to for months and months, so I thought that I would watch it on TV... mostly so I could compare it to actually being there last year.

On Saturday, I asked my step dad what time it started and he said '8 something'... I chocked! Ok, well not literally but I said 'IN THE MORNING?' in a very surprised sounding voice, which was laughed at by the others who were at the table. 

I decided that I would get up at 9:30am so that I could watch the most part of it, so I set my alarm. I woke up at 11:30am, not remembering my alarm going off at all, and promptly got my breakfast and then sat at my desk, watching the marathon as I ate. 

I was up in time to see the winners of the elite races, so that was pretty good! There was one point where the people in 2nd and 3rd place were on the straight to the finish, battling to get 2nd place. I could see the 3rd place runner creeping up on the 2nd place runner, carefully watching him to decide when to make his move. He timed it perfectly and the 2nd place runner unfortunately didn't react quick enough and did finish 3rd. While watching that point, I could imagine EXACTLY what my mum would be doing. She was in the living room and I was imagining her cheering on the people and shouting at the TV, like she does with most sporting events (mostly running). I asked my sister later on... I was right!

I remember last year, I was just round the corner from the 385 yard bridge and all of the elites were still running strong at that point... wow! It's just incredible that they can actually run that far and still be running well! I know I'd be struggling at that point... but I'm not an elite so I guess it's different! 

I don't know whether the wheelchair racers were before I woke up but I don't remember seeing any what so ever! I remember them last year whizzing past us, so it was sometimes hard to get a picture! I think this picture shows their speed quite well... 

My favourite part of the marathon is seeing the wacky costumes that the general public come dressed in! Last year there were so many supermen, banana men, batmen, any super heroes really! There are a few costumes that particularly stick in my mind from last year, like the couple who had just got married, the fairy which I have an awesome picture of (see below) and Richard Branson's butterfly costume. 

I found some pictures of them: 

Just married

Awesome fairy - my favourite

Richard Branson Butterfly

There aren't many costumes that I particularly remember from this year, as the coverage on TV didn't really show that many of them really. so nothing particularly stands out other than a man with a washing machine on his back (ouch), a group that had a tea party, a man dressed as a woman and a man carrying a tiger. 

We didn't see many celebrities because we only waiting until we saw my mum's boss' son, Simon (the one in blue), who was running in memory of his mum and then we left after that as we had been there a good 3 or 4 hours I think!

Watching it on TV is so different from actually being there and experiencing the atmosphere of the real thing! It was more of a memorable experience actually watching it and I enjoyed cheering on everyone and giving them a bit of support in there last few hundred yards of the course! It was great to see people helping out each other too. Those who fell down, hit the wall, or just generally struggled were picked up and helped to the end by fellow runners, which was really good to see!

What don't I miss about being there? Well, I DEFINITELY don't miss the irritating man who was behind me for ages, almost leaning on me, pushing me against the barrier! Get there earlier, don't invade my personal space! And various other invasions of my personal space through out the day, but I guess that's always going to happen around crowds! 

I go on about the atmosphere of the experience, but I suppose nothing compares to actually running the marathon, how incredible would that be! My mum wants to do it one year as she is a very keen runner... just not THAT keen yet! I've thought about maybe doing it in the future as I think it would be an amazing thing to do but I just can't imagine myself running for that distance... I might actually die! Maybe in 2 or 3 years I'll enter or something!

Mrs Brown's Boys

I hadn't even heard of it, until my brother mentioned it while I was in his room having a general chit chat earlier. Apparently, it had been on BBC1 every Monday night for 6 weeks... and I had no idea! 

James found it on the internet and put it on for me and Joely (his girlfriend) to watch while he... attended to other business. And I LOVE it!! It's really funny, there is at least a laugh a minute. It is a complete laugh from the first few seconds of the series.

Plus Mrs Brown really reminds me of my mum, not because it is a man in a dress... I was actually referring to the similarity in their sense of humours. 

It's mainly because my mum has a bit of a reputation within our house hold for turning anything into some kind of innuendo, which is amusing (most of the time), and Mrs Brown is always turning things into something sexual, which is hilarious! 

My favourite bit of what I saw today has got to be when the doctor came to check on the granddad, was trying to take his temperature but granddad wouldn't keep the thermometer in his mouth so he needed a rectal examination. Mrs Brown and the Doctor went to get a drink from the kitchen and the daughter came down to find the granddad in the middle of the living room with his bum out, so she pulled up his trousers and told him to sit down. Granddad was shaking his head and saying no but she sat him down anyway, and obviously he screamed. 

I was in stitches at that point, as was Joely. I just thought that was so funny, and who ever wrote that is an absolute genius!

If you didn't see it, then I advise that you go and watch it or something because it is just so funny! I've only watched part of the first episode but I fully intend to watch the rest of them. I can't wait to watch more of it because it is just so funny! Anyone with a similar sense of humour will love it!

Another Traumatic Experience

Today's traumatic experience is to do with my little sister, Zoe. about 20 or 30 minutes ago she had just deflated her blow up bed in my room (she likes to sleep in my room, we're cool like that) and she realised she needed a shower. 

She went to open the door, but it didn't open. She pulled the door handle again, but it didn't open. She looked at me and repeated a few times 'it won't open, it's stuck' and she literally looked like she was going to crap her pants. I told her to relax and again she repeated that it was stuck, with the same wide-eyed expression on her face. 

I got up out of my chair, still telling her to relax and I gave the door a tug, and it opened. Zoe left the room immediately and closed the door. I checked it again, and it was fine. She told me that I needed a new door handle. Of course I knew that and we do have one, but it hasn't be replaced yet. 

The reason why so panicked so much about my door was because a couple of years ago she was in the living room watching television (most likely neighbours), and she went to go out, but the door was jammed. She kept pushing and pulling at the door but it didn't help at all. At this point my nan and I were wondering what was going on so we went to open the door, but it wouldn't budge. At some point Zoe must have told us she was stuck in there (probably a few times) and then started to cry. She doesn't like enclosed spaces, let alone being stuck in one room. 

James tried to open the door, but again it wouldn't move so we rang our step dad so he could come home and get her out. I think he got home very shortly after the phone call. While we waited for Graham to come and rescue her, I think my Nan and I stood at the living room window that goes out into the garden so we could speak to her. Graham did end up taking the door handle off as the spring had broken (which is what is happening to mine). 

We thought it was quite ironic that Zoe wanted to get out of the living room because she loves TV, she's out little tele addict. She's basically our walking TV guide, although she only tells us about the programmes that she is interested in, so I guess she is a fairly limited TV guide. 

I told Zoe that I was going to write this and she told me that she ought to have her own label. I told her that it would be greedy, and she comes under family anyway! Ok, well my mum has her own label, but she's special! Zoe isn't the only one who has asked for their own label... you know who you are...

Note: I have decided to give Zoe her own tag, as she does feature a lot on my blogs, as she's often in with some of the funny stuff I have written about. She'll be happy now! 

Sometimes I Can Be So... Silly

I was out shopping today with my grandparents and my sister and we had to do an exchange with something my mum had bought the other day. While at the till, I was messing around with all the stuff on and around it... as you do. Among other things there were rings. So what did I do? Can you guess?

Yes, of course I put the ring on. And what did I do next? 

CORRECT, I got it stuck... and it hurt! I never really think about these things before I jump in and do it really... oops! Wrong move! I was tugging and tugging at this big black ring, but it was firmly stuck on my finger. At this point I was getting just giggling, and panicking at the same time, making my face go increasingly more red... and I could feel it. 

After a minute or so tugging on the ring my nan told me to relax and then it would come of easier. I left it for about 10 seconds or so and then started to twist and pull. I could feel it starting to budge so I tugged on it again. Finally, it was off... I was free! I think I am going to be more careful when trying on rings now. As much as it was funny... my finger did hurt, and plus, it was fairly embarrassing (even though barely anyone saw).

Writing this also reminded me of another jewellery related incident in involving my sister, Zoe. We were out shopping with our mum and in 2 different shops I put a necklace on Zoe, just for fun. In the second shop (either H&M or River Island, but what does that matter) the necklace got stuck. Obviously, Zoe had a bit of a panic... but it did come off.

I don't think me and jewellery have a very good relationship. It just likes to get stuck on me... or other people that I put the jewellery on. Perhaps this is a sign that I should never ever work in a jewellers. I would be a nightmare. I'd have people going in and out of A&E every day getting rings cut off their fingers or something. Either that, or the local shops would love me as I'd be buying kilos and kilos of butter to help get all the rings off of people. Although, eventually the word would get around and nobody would come to my shop and I'd only get the one off customers, mostly from naive tourist who have no idea of their fate once they enter my shop