A very busy week and 12.5 hours of work!

I haven't blogged the past week, as it's been an extremely packed half-term, so I'll try and fill you in on everything I've been doing! On Monday I worked from 10.30 - 4.30, and we were extremely busy: the dishwasher had broken down, which was a nightmare, and we ended up having to ask my sister to come in and do some washing up for a few hours, as the four of us couldn't get everything done: at one point I was making food, taking it out and attempting to clear tables, not easy when you have lots of orders waiting! Still, I much prefer it to be like that: Wednesday I was in from 10 - 3.30, and it was so quiet, time really dragged. I worked again Friday, which was another hectic day (yay!) and ended up doing 9 - 5, so I was pretty tired. Then, yesterday (Saturday) was vey busy again - and I did 8.30 - 4.30, and was exhausted when I got home: I really enjoy working, but I'm used to doing five days of sitting around at school, and only one physical day, so I tend to get tired by the end of it. However, that wasn't nthe end of my day: the night before, the lady I babysit for had rung me and asked me to do three more dates - one of which was the Saturday night! So, I got home by 5, and went to bed for a bit (re-read a bit of Twilight; yes, I've succumbed again!) and then went to sleep for a little bit. At 7.45, I was babysitting, and I stayed there 'til 12.15: all in all, twelve and half hours work in a day! I slept in until eleven today, to make up for it =]

Babysitting didn't go as well as last time: boh the kids were in bed by nine, but by quarter past on of them was downstairs, feeling ill. I went back upstairs with her, hoping that she would fall to sleep, but she didn't. I tried everything I could think of: offering her drinks, reading to her, sitting with her, but she just kept asking me to ring her parents. After forty minutes, I didn't have a choice, and she was getting quite anxious. I didn't want to spoil their evening, but I had to ring -as it happened, they had no signal. So, I left a message, and had to tell her that I'd rung but there was no answer. So, I sat in her room and, finally, after half an hour she fell asleep. I sat outside her bedroom til midnight anyway, just in case something was wrong, and filled her parents in when they got home at quarter past, so luckily everything turned out alright. I also managed to get some homework done, and re-read the entirity of Twilight...I'm so addicted, it's worrying!

So, onto the rest of my week - the non-work related stuff. Monday night I stayed at J's, and we had a really nice night - her little brother and sister and very sweet, and after they'd gone to bed we stayed up playing silly games like boggle, which ended up being very funny. In the end, we didn't go to sleep until around 4.30 - and for once, her brother and sister didn't wake us up the next morning! After a lie-in until around 10.30, we got up and had a lazy morning around the house - mostly playing with the kids, and we both worked a little on my novel (more update on it's progress in a bit!) Then we spent the afternoon on the beach - it was the first sunny day for a while! - where the wind actually wasn't too cold, and we went looking in rock pools and played with a bat and ball. If you've seen Twilight, then I'm sure you can imagine J trying to recreate the baseball scene: she was doing the bowling, I was humming the muse song 'Supermassive Black Hole' that accompanies the scene in the film, whilst twirling the bat. Lots of laughing ensued! Later, we all cpollapsed on the sofa, exhausted from a late night and a busy day. J went up to the shop to buy something for dinner, and I ended up watching CBeebies (Mr Maker, Grandpa in My Pocket and Chuggington!) with her two year old brother asleep on top of me. I couldn't be bothered to find the remote to turn it off!

I got back home at around eight-ish, and then had to go shopping - I had fifteen friends coming round to celebrate my birthday the next day (although my birthday's not until next Friday!) and had to go buy the food. Then, I went off to bed, for an early night! After work Wednesday, I tidied up, prepared the food with mum (Pizza, pasta and garlic bread!) and then my friends started to arrive. We had a really good night - lots of food, including chocolate profiteroles and a delicious birthday cake made by my friend D, and ended up watching two films between 6.30 and 11: Wild Child (very little in the way of a plot, but we all have a thing for the gorgeous Alex Pettyfer!) and the Holiday (such a sweet film!). Then, once everyone had gone, three of my friends stayed over, and we chatted and watched What Happens In Vegas (possibly the funniest film I've ever seen) until around 2am. They all had to go pretty early the next day, so I had a free day - I went back to bed for a bit, started on an essay, read a little of Twilight, and work on the novel - I'm only a couple of hundred words of 60,000 now!! It was nice to have free day, although I did get quite a bit done. Then I finished the essay Friday night.

So, now it's Sunday, and I'm in bed with my laptop, watching Hollyoaks and eating chocolate :P I will start on the mountain of homework in a little while, but for now I cannot face getting out of bed - and as it's my last dsay of freedom before school, I don't feel overly guilty :P Best be off, lots to do, and if you've made it through this essay of a blog post without falling asleep, congratulations! =p

P.S: If you're reading this and aren't following/commenting on my posts, maybe say hi =] I'm interested to know if anyone other than the two I know about are actually reading this!

Keane & Roses

Sorry it's been a few days, I always go to look at who has updated their blogs, think 'I must update mine!' and then get distracted reading everyone else's! But I'm updating now.

The Keane concert I mentioned was absolutely amazing: they are the best band I've seen live, and they're so good I've seen them twice! Whilst I love their albums, I have to say they are at least ten times better live - not something you often find - and their albums are actually a slight come-down once you've seen them live. I wasn't too sure about their latest album, Perfect Symmetry, the first couple of times I listened to it, but after listening to it repeatedly, and hearing it live, I'm as hooked as I am on the rest! If Keane come anywhere near you, I would thoroughly recommend going: their shows are so energetic, lively, atmospheric and so good!! We were only 2 people away from the stage, so we got a great view - and some great pictures, which I'll put on here as soon as my friends get round to uploading them onto the computer!

It's been a pretty busy week, hence why I haven't blogged, and Keane was just the start. On the same day (Monday) as Keane, weather warnings actually effected us, and we had torrential rain - so bad we thought we might not get to the concert. The town where I live was flooded all over the place, but luckily we got through before the worst hit, and were back after it had finished. Snow, we don't get, but rain is always plentiful! Then I had a hair appointment on Wednesday, and after 2 1/2 hours (:O) I am now technically blonde :) very happy with the result. Homework's been occupying the rest of my time, although I did get round to seeing a film called 'The Pursuit of Happyness' which a friend of mine lent me. Very good film, although I did cry a couple of times! Now, thankfully, it's half-term - although the teachers have gotten very homework-happy, and have piled on the work. I'm also working 4 days of the holiday, staying at a friends tomorrow night, and having loads of friends round on Wednesday night to celebrate my birthday (it's not til the 27th, but it's so much easier to organise things in the holidays!) so it's gonna be a busy one!

I babysat Friday night, from 8 until 12.30, which went really well - the kids were really good, and there were no problems. Hopefully it'll lead to more work! Then, yesterday my mum, dad, sister and I went to the crematorium to leave a rose for my gran. We've done this every year since she died on Valentine's Day, 2000. It's still an emotional day, despite it being 9 years, as she was such a huge part of our lives when me and my sister were younger. We left a rose, along with a little card each from my mum, my sister and I. Mine read 'Always in our hearts and thoughts'. I still can't believe she's gone - and that it will be the first anniversary of my grandad's death next month. That's the really difficult one at the minute - I honestly cannot believe it was a year ago. It doesn't feel that long. So, not the most cheery Valentine's day, but that's what it means to us. It feels good to be able to write this stuff, as I don't really tell anyone - it's not the sort of thing that's easy to discuss, and I think a lot of people would think I was strange for still commemorating my gran's death, 9 years later.

Anyway, a friend of my sister's stayed last night, and we had a 'games night' (they've been having themed nights for weeks: Australian night, chili night, Irish night, shark night...they're crazy!) and I joined in, we ended up having quite a laugh. Now, I'm still in my pajamas (despite it being nearly 2!) and am enjoying probably the only lazy day I'll get this week. Still, I need the money for my America Trip fund! My novel-writing has been put on hold for the last few days, the same as my blog writing, but I'm hoping to get another chapter finished today! J (the friend who's editing it) is bugging me for the next chapter!

Whisky-related publishing and another chapter

An odd title, I know, but all will be revealed in this blog post! =] I've had a nice weekend: spent Friday night reading (another Meg Cabot, called 'She Went All The Way' - another romance, but I'm a sucker for them!) and then worked on Saturday. We were surprisingly busy, but I prefer it that way - at least the time goes faster! Plus, all the extra money I can get to go into my America fund helps! I then had a friend of mine (J) who is the one who edits chapters of my novel for me. J was quite down, as a big walking event she's meant to be doing has been cancelled because of the snow (we don't have a lot, but on the moors where she was meant to be walking, it was pretty heavy) so I invited her round to stay the night. We had profiteroles and Ben N Jerry's ice cream (cookie dough, my favourite!) and had a real laugh. We worked on my novel again, and I ended up getting another chapter done, which she then edited. My word count's rising steadily, reaching 55,000 now.

The whisky related publishing ties in with this: I bought a copy of the 'Writers' and Artists' Year Book 2009' from Amazon, as it has a lot of good advice for people who are writing books, and has the addresses and requirements for loads and loads of publishers. I don't know what's going to happen with this book, but when (I refuse to say if!) I finish it, I think I'd like to attempt to have it published, after all the hard work I've put into it. Anyway, I was reading through all these publishers, marking off the publishers who are looking for fiction, teen fiction etc., and I kept finding publishers with very odd and restricted requirements - one of them being 'whisky-related fiction and non-fiction.' (!) what an odd type of manuscript to request! That got me and J laughing, and we didn't stop for most of the evening, which was nice. We took her home at around eleven this morning, after a nice lie-in, as we both have homework to be getting on with - although as you can see, I'm not doing much now! I'm hoping my dad's going to put some shelves up for me today, as my books are piling up by the side of bookshelf, and it's getting a bit ridiculous now! Perhaps I read too much...I do just keep buying them, and I seem to run out of room very quickly!

As usual, I've got a couple of books that I'm waiting to read - one of them is 'Ransom My Heart', a historical romance by Meg Cabot (yes, I accept it, I have a problem!) and another is called The Luxe, which looks good. I also have another couple on order, so I need to be trying to focus on my homework rather than reading all the time! Today I have a lot of dull history notes to make, so I'm going to get them done before I start reading again. Tomorrow I'm off to see the band Keane, which I'm very excited about, so I need to get all my homework that's due Tuesday done today too, as I'll be out late tomorrow!

I've got one more week at school, then it's February half term, which I'm looking forward to. I'm not working next Saturday, as it's the anniversary of my gran's death, and I like to visit the crematorium and leave flowers each year. I have, however, got my first babysitting job on Friday the 13th - good job I'm not suspicious! Then during half-term I'm working most days, and I'm having a movie-night with all my friends coming round to watch DVDs to celebrate my birthday. My birthday's not until the 27th, but it's much easier to get everyone together during the half term than it is during term time.

Well, I guess I'd better get moving, and get something done! =]

Snow: What a let down!

I think where I live must be the only place in England (and most of the UK!) which has not had any serious snow this week. Woke up this morning to find some snow, but it wasn't long before it was gone, and it was nowhere near enough to even consider getting a day off school - and when snow began to fall later, it didn't settle. I think I will have to accept that there won't be a weather-related day off school for me!


I've just got back from a friend's house, and she has a lovely little brother and sister, who are so sweet - we had a real laugh, and got some homework done too, which is always good: I have finished hnomework for this eveing, so have spent half an hour on my book, then read for a little bit (my latest is 'She went all the way' by Meg Cabot - although only a chapter in!) and then thought I'd update on here. I'm planning on an early night as well!


Sunday night I was extremely annoyed; I went to bed at ten, turned my TV, laptop and light off and and tried to go to sleep at around quarter to eleven. By three in trhe morning I was still lying there, not sleeping - I really hate it when that happens! So, having finally fallen asleep some time after three, I was pretty tired the next day. Luckily, last night's sleep was better! Still, I'm a little tired, so I will try to get to bed early.


I now have another job, which I'm very happy about - babysitting for a local woman, both for her kids and for those who come and stay at the holiday homes she has surrounding her house. It's going to be greta, both for experience with kids (and I love babysitting, which is an added bonus!) which will look good on my CV, and the money towards my trip to America. Have I mentioned that? Not sure I have: next February, I'm off to New York and Washington DC for a week with the school - so now I'm saving up so that I can afford the trip! At the minute, I'm working quite a bit, but I enjoy it all, so I have nothing to complain about =]


A little update on the novel: over 50,000 words now, and 150 pages!! Glad you like the sound of the blurb, Molly. I'm going to write some more tonight I think - I'm emailing it off chapter by chapter to my friend who's going through and editing it. She's enjoying it, which gives some hope that it's ok!


I'm off to see Twilight again tomorrow - there's a whole group of us going, and most of us are seeing it for the second time, so I'm looking forward to that. I'm also going to see the band Keane on Monday, which I'm very excited about! So it's a busy week coming up, with homework and then a babysitting job coming up! I'm also planning what I'm going to do for my birthday: it's my seventeenth on the twenty-seventh of Feb, so I think I'm going to do something to celebrate during February half-term. Now, I think I'll try and finish another chapter of the novel... =]

A little break...

After devoting my entire evening to writing an essay on Much Ado About Nothing, and then analysing a Tennyson poem called 'Mariana', I decided on having a (I think it's well deserved!) break, to write a blog post, as it's been a few days since I've done one.

After the comments left on my last blog post (I love reading your comments, and now your blogs, Molly and Jessica!) I thought I'd tell you a little bit about my novel. Basically, I've been working on it on and off for the last couple of years, and I guess it's sort of a romance novel - romance is key, but there's also a lot more too it. It's called 'Family Portrait' I've actually written the blurb, so I thought I'd post it here, so it can give you an idea of what it's about!

Two very different families are about to collide, and no-one knows what the consequences are going to be. Mary-Ann Mendora has a past shrouded in mystery, and she couldn’t be less suited to the sweet, squeaky-clean Ella Kingsley and her family if she tried. As she tries to make the best of her new life, will her past return to haunt her, and ruin the life she’s beginning to build? And will she find out that the Kingsleys aren’t all quite as squeaky-clean as they appear? One thing’s for sure – the Mendoras’ and Kingsleys’ lives will never be quite the same again…

It's now up to 40,000 words, which I'm very happy with - although I'm worried about how long it's going to take me to finish, I'm less than a quarter of the way through all the things I want to happen! Never mind, I enjoy doing it. :) I hope that it won't be a pointless endeavour, but as I do enjoy it so much, I guess I wouldn't be too worried if only me and a few friends ever read it! My ideas come from all over the place: some of it's inspired by things I've 'roleplayed' on roleplay game sites - you may not have ever come across these, they're usually related to some sort of book or movie franchise, and you play different characters in their world. It's great for writing and imagination practice, and I used to do it quite a lot - now I find I just don't have the time! Other ideas come from my friends and me: scenes where the main character is with her friends tend to mirror things that happen when I'm with mine! I really love writing, always have done, and I've found I still love it now - even though I'm having to write quite a lot in school now, with English Lit and Lang - my only problem is not having enough time!

I have a very odd playlist on Youtube entitled 'Writing Music' - and I find that I have an extremely strange mix of music that I like to play whilst I'm writing. Most of it is songs, but there are a couple of pieces which are just piano pieces. One I have to recommend is 'River Flows in You' by Yiruma. I don't often listen to piano pieces repeatedly, but this is one I listen to daily, and it almost makes me cry every time I do, it's so beautiful. I'd really recommend listening to it!

Jessica - I'm really not too sure what I want to do at Uni yet: I think I want to do English Language/Lingustics, but it could all change! I'm not planning on doing creative writing at the minute, but like I said, who knows! I've been looking into Salford Uni, as it seems to have really good English courses, and also on the advice of teachers, I'm possibly going to apply to Oxford or Cambridge.

Molly - I'm glad you enjoyed the Virgin Suicides - I was really surprised that I did, but glad I'd read it! Middlesex is good: it's stranger than The Virgin Suicides (if you can believe that!), and although I'm not enjoying it as much as I did The Virgin Suicides, I am enjoying it. You'll have to let me know what you think!

Right, I'm off to do a bit more writing of my novel; thanks for the comments, I really do love reading them! =]

Birthdays and a little more writing

Time seems to pass so fast - I didn't even notice it's been a good couple of weeks since I last posted on here! It's mostly been school work taking up my time, as usual, but I've also been really getting into writing my novel - I get a bit obsessed when I get into something, and so I;ve been spending a lot of time on it! I've just finished chapter eleven, and am emailing it to a friend of mine every couple of chapters. I find this a little scary; whilst I like my story, someone else is an entirely different matter! But I figured it ought to be read! Both she and I are quite picky about spelling, punctuation and grammar, but I find I don't notice it so much with my own work, so it's really great having her read through it: she finds a lot more mistakes than I can when I read it! I'm now up to 35,000 words (I use microsoft word's word counter regularly!) which is over 100 A5 pages! I'm quite pleased I've stuck with it: it's surprising how much you can write when you set your mind to it! Molly, I used to write short stories all the time too - I loved doing them. Contrasting you, I have probably been using my creativity more since I started Sixth Form - but that's because I chose to English Lit and Language, and dropped all science-y and maths subjects!

After Molly's comment, I figured I'd tell you a little about my family, as I'll probably refer to them at some point or another on here! I have a sister, who's 15 - we don't get on too well a lot of the time, and she does my head in, but I'm pretty sure that's standard for many sisters! I have a half-brother too, who's 26, but he moved away recently so I don't get to see him too much at the minute. I live with my mum and sister, but my dad lives in the same town. That's all the family I really have where I live: the majority of my family live in Germany, so I don't know them all too well!

It was my friend's little sister's birthday last week, and I couldn't believe that she was turning six: I remember the day she was born! I'm really close to their whole family, and so was invited round for a family evening on her birthday. It was really nice, and she loved her birthday present - a cute tartan check dress and a necklace - and wrote me a very sweet thank-you card! She also said that I was one of her best friends; she's so sweet, and always has to speak to me on the phone when I ring my friend!

I'm going to get back to writing my novel now, as I'm enjoying it so much at the minute: the homework's all done for this evening, so I have some free time to be creative before an early night - which hopefully won't be disturbed with gales of wind and loud rain and hail as it was last night!

Finally a balance!

It seems that, for now, I have figured the secret to success at A-Level - organisation. Unfortunately it's not something I'm great at, but over the last week I've managed to stay organised and focused, and have found I can cope with my homework - which is great, as the teacher's are piling more on than ever. I'm glad I don't have exams this week, as all my friends do - not sure I could cope with revision on top of it all!

I watched the film of 'The Virgin Suicides' on Friday night, and was really impressed by it - I wasn't sure if they could make a good film out of such an odd but amazing book, but it really worked: Molly, you really should take a look at the book! In reply to your comment, I've heard of most of the books you've mentioned, but never read any of them - my sister's always reading Jodie Picoult, and they never appealed to me - but then I said exactly the same about Twilight when she was reading them, and I certainly don't agree with that anymore! On that note, I'!ve given in once more, and am rereading the Twilight books again - I finished the first one again this afternoon. They really are the most romantic books I've ever read!

I've just finished reading a very dull chapter on Russian Collectivisation (for school - I wouldn't recommend it as a bit of light reading!) and so thought I'd come and post on here, as a bit of a break before I pick up whatever book I decide to read tonight, and because I haven't posted on here for a few days! This organisation thing is great (while it lasts!) - I have much more time for reading, and for writing the novel I'm attempting to write, which has reached 30,000 words!!

Other than that, there's not all that much new going on at the minute; I'm looking forward to next month, when I turn seventeen, and will be able to have driving lessons! I was thinking today - for some reason, I was wondering around thinking deeply! - about how I look forward to things. People always say that school is the best time of your life - something I really cannot believe is true (especially not when my parents, who'd both dropped out of school by the time they were 16 tell me it is!) - but I am certainly guilty of wishing it away. I'm always waiting for the next weekend, the next school holiday, and ultimately the end of sixth form. I'm thinking I should perhaps be enjoying what's going on at the minute, rather than always waiting for what's going to come next...it's hard when the current events are just school and homework!

I have work experience tomorrow, which I'm looking forward to as usual - I work with all ages, as it's a very small school (only 47 pupils!) and so I switch between classes, which is nice. I really don't know what age group I'd like to work with - it seems to change depending on which ones I'm with! I love the little ones, but I think I'd be worried I would 'baby' them too much - but we'll see how it all turns out, I guess I don't need any firm decisions yet!

Well, I'm off to read some more - and enjoy the results of me being organised while it lasts! - but I'll post again soon. By the way, really great you've got a blog Molly - love reading other people's blogs!