Christmas Day :)

Chirstmas :)

Mulled wine with mum, carols at the abbey with friends, and look how beautiful it is... what a wonderful time of year :-)

being a little bit of a saddo!

Just got a little bit too excited about buying some 'teachers' stickers (& a 'Good Work' stamp & 40 [yes, 40!] 'i love reading' bookmarks) -- ut-oh, I'm becoming SAD!
managed to make myself only spend £10 though, which was HARD cus i could have spent about £100!

(for want of a better place to put this: order number 923879)

The holidays are coming...

Seasons Greetings and merriness :-)

There's lots of singing and making of Christmas things at school, getting fully into the festive spirit.. Mum came to fulfill our Bath Christmas Market Tradition again this year and we had a fabulous time...
1st mulled wine of the season,
1st mince pies of the season,
Shopped til we dropped,
Gluewine,
Dinner out at ASK,
movie in our flat :)

Tonight Tim & I lit our advent candle, also a 1st :-)
how can you not feel positive with so many exciting firsts?! :)

now I look forward to heading back to Spindlewood and going on a frosty walk with the dog around the field...

miss you family xox

tuesday - bluesday

My first ever real lesson (today) did not go 100% well...this is, of course, to be very much expected. It's still hard to get over though. Why is it I expect myself to somehow be perfect and then when things aren't get upset and think 'maybe this isn't for me'..?! I need to step back and think that first times can be tough. Soon I'll be able to look back and laugh I'm sure... This whole teaching lark takes time to perfect. (or even get good at, let alone perfect!) But for now..I'm worrying I'll never get the hang of all this. ... .

However, a bit of positivity: shown above are some photos of the interactive display I designed and created with the help of my partner BS-T Matt :) team work is great, & 2 heads are always better than one!

i heart birthdays!

How superly fantastic to be made to feel so special and loved by so many people.
I had the most wonderful weekend which has stretched on and on - from a girl in my tutor group giving me cupcakes on friday to receiving a present from Amy in the post today (tuesday) and everything in between - going out on friday, shopping on saturday, seeing family & opening presents and cards all day on sunday, having a girly SATC night in on monday with wine and a beautiful new hand bag - and it's still not ending - Tim has got me tickets to the ballet in Nov, very exciting!

thank you to everyone for their kindness.

tonight I shall relax with a little help from my 'pamper hamper' ~ love you little sis

I wish everyone could feel as loved as me everyday

xox

15.10.09

23 years of age

As I approach the grand old age of 23 I can't help but reflect and wonder; I hope that I'm achieving some worth while things - I think teaching should help me do this and maybe even realise my tentative dream of moving abroad...
I think my only resolutions surrounding my 'new' age this year are to do with my chosen profession - I am so desperate, not only to pass the teaching degree, but to be a positive, caring, helpful teacher - and I also would love to find a lovely primary school in Portsmouth!
also, of course, be a good friend, girl friend, sister and daughter...

New Friends!

What fun to make new friends, and let's hope they're friends for life! :)

I love Soph, Amy & Jen!
we went out last night and had lots of fun :) friendships are going to help me through the PGCE...

construct a charade

wow, I have been a busy bee, and what fun i've been having! i have just finsihed my third day at Goudhurst Primary, and it was another lovely day! GUSH GUSH GUSH! haha

the note making at the end of the day is a little more difficult,and i'm not looking forward to having to constantly write plans and evaluations and notes, but i'll get through it all!

still not convinced that i'm grown up enough to be a real teacher, so i'll have to pretend for the time being!

may be it'll all be differend in the older classes? i'm looking forward to moving upwards through te school and getting a feel for the older children :)

...went for a walk to blow the cobwebs away, it was just lovely to be in the fresh air..mum& sally scrumped some apples for us and we munched them as we walked! :)

listen loud

Sufjan Stevens - the latest sound i'm playing on repeat in my car :)

Especially: To Be Alone With You, and For The Widows in Paradise

...Turn it on and turn it up...

despondent

Nearly time to move out of Spindlewood again and start the next phase of my life...
I feel like there's lots to do, but I can't quite make myself get on with it all. What's wrong with me?! Will I ever be ready to grow up and get on with everything?! Sometimes all I want to do is sit in bed and read, or stare out of the window and watch the clouds go floating by~

London life

...

Thank you Alice for helping us record this! :)

this is me

oh how i ache from my gym session this morning! (I'm going to feel EVEN worse 2mro, if that's possible!) still, what a good hobby to have taken up, even if i do only partake in one session a week, that's better than the nothing i was doing before!
I'm still enjoying the summer holidays, Amy has been staying with us which has been lovely - caught up with manda and sophie too, so bonus! Had one sunny day this week, so sat by the pool- bliss! and went to watch 'Carrie's War' yesterday at the apollo, six of us went and nearly got lost on the underground, it was a really fun day out!
Reading 'Man or Mango?' Which is a VERY odd book about an obsessive compulsive and is therefore mostly filled with lists...incredibly random!
joined 'book crossing' which I've tried to encourage others to join, probably unsuccessfully, but my inner book geek loves it! So far I have only released two books into 'the wild' as I can't really convince myself to part with ones that I really love, but we'll see, if they're successfully found then that'll be great. And, until then I'm going to continue to release books I don't care so much about in order to prove to myself that this can work..... ?!
next - I'm off to make a cup of tea and a plum cake!

love a good giggle with a girl friend!

this is really me...

Listening to (or obsessed by): Acceptance 'So Contagious'

Reading - about to attempt a Jodi Picoult, last chance before I give her up forever (!) also reading 'Sophie's World' (it's perhaps a little too philosophical for me, so i have to read it in short bursts!) and want to start Coetzee's 'Disgrace'.

Thinking about how I very much want to be planning another trip away... I'm thinking road trip! :-)

xox

this is me

Just finished reading 'The Easter Parade' by Richard Yates, author of 'Revolutionary Road'. I really enjoyed and recommend it. Set over four decades in suburban America it is a story about two sisters and the things they leave unsaid and un-done in their lives. I found it really sad as it portrayed, for me, the concept of life as not only ephemeral, but also as an entity which can elude a person if they are not careful...or if they are perhaps too careful trying to be something they are not.

I feel a bit melancholy this evening, and I'm not sure why. It's mum's birthday and we have had a lovely evening at Simply Italian in Rye, but I can't help but feel that perhaps something has made mum feel a little bit sad.. another year has passed her by? something she would have liked to have been given but wasn't? the feeling that perhaps another friend (Karen) has become distanced from her <& has in fact gone from being an OTT friend, to one who only leaves a facebook message - sad times.>? who knows? she'll never say. There are always going to be things you'll never know about your parents, and it probably should be that way, but still...

family holiday

The Lake District
- lots of walks
- lots of fun
- even more sheep!

the end of my degree

~remember how it feels! a 2:1!
So pleased with myself :-) it's just what I wanted! :) It's nice to achieve something you think you deserve, because even though you think you do, in your heart of hearts you can never quite be sure that you have done as well as you think you have.

so...big, goofy, happy (self-satisfied?!) grin!

Also, what a way to round off a fantastic three years!

in order to remember...

ahh the summer :)
what a lovely time I've had already! Having not blogged for a very long time, I thought it best to put down some memories of what has happened in the past few weeks...
~a lovely holiday to Mallorca with Alice and Tim, then back to Bath again for Charlotte's 21st and some cleaning and moving out. How strange it was to really say goodbye as housemates for the last time..
Then back to Kent, for Matthew's 21st, Mum and Dad went to Venice to celebrate their 25th wedding anniversary and I was left in charge, and what a responsibility that is!! Luckily the weather has been beautiful (a heat wave in fact!) at 30 degrees every day I spent my time in or by the pool, which was very self indulgent and lazy, how nice! I've caught up with some friends: London with Lauren, pool with Fi and pub (the George) with Cara, Lauren and Kat and (the white horse) with Fi and Clare and been to a wedding (finally!) Hannah (Whitewood) looked absolutely gorgeous& the service was lovely, even Cara was reduced to tears! I have finally finished my American scrapbook and I'm proud of how it looks! (It's not as good as Alice's, but it's good enough for me!!)
Tomorrow I'm off to London with the family, forecast says rain, but I'm hoping otherwise...! Other plans this week include a trip to the theatre and a visit from Vana and housemates are coming to stay!

keeping busy without overcrowding my life :)

The Summer Ball

Here we all are at the 3rd year pre-drinks before the summer ball.

Everyone looked absolutely lovely, and no one was wearing the same dress as me! :-)

~ Lots of fun! ~

summer fun...

Picnics at the royal crescent with sushi! yums :-)
....and lots of sunshine!
<--- another new dress! I've had a really nice day:
~sunbathing,picnic,sunbathing,out to Jamie Oliver's restaurant in the evening, cup of tea at new friend Debbie's house, Jonathon Creek with the girls at home.
Love girls and girly fun!

sunshine

Southern Sunrise, ~ Sylvia Plath

Colour of lemon, mango, peach,
These storybook villas
Still dream behind
Shutters, their balconies
Fine as hand -
Made lace, or a leaf-and-flower pen sketch.

Tilting with the winds,
On arrowy stems,
Pineapple-barked,
A green crescent of palms
Sends up its forked
Firework of fronds.

A quartz-clear dawn
Inch by bright inch
Gilds all our Avenue,
And out of the blue drench
Of Angels' Bay
Rises the round red watermelon sun.

summer fun

new additions to my summer wardrobe! -->

summer fun ~ it's so great!
the time for our girly fun is running out, so as a result we are cramming in all the fun we can :)
I have been shopping (twice) bought a dress, been out for lunch and cocktails, watched 'The Importance of Being Earnest' at the theater, watched 'Bride Wars', made fajitas and drunk rose cider, been to the pub, eaten sweeties, played on the Wii, sunbathed, been out for dinner... and this is just the beginning :) more funtimes to come...BBQs and picnics and dancing and drinks and a trip to Cardiff (yay for my first time to wales!) and the ball and cocktails....and of course reading in the sunshine!

which dress?!

these pictures are fairly awful. but i can't decide! help!

tim and me

I've managed to coerce Tim into coming to stay and keep me company through the essay hell.. It's fine because it means that he can do revision as well, so we're even!
These pictures are a mini panorama of my 'messy' room... & Tim enjoying my co-op hat -- which he is still wearing, even though the joke is over! haha :)

this is me... charlotte & my new plant...

my new plant 'Lily'

It's nice to have an essay buddy to keep me company!

(even if we have now started to make the same random noises!)

the hills...

The Hills seems to be taking over our lives at the moment... but that's fine! i just love looking at all their outfits! :-)

three girls dress up on a whim!

here we are armed with our red wine!

i like a good old spontaneous activity! :) we decided to head to moles to listen to some bands just for something new, it was fun!

a reflection on May day

A journal as an experiment in consciousness. An attempt to record not just the external world, and not just the vagrant, fugitive, ephemeral 'thoughts' that brush against us like gnats, but the refractory and inviolable authenticity of daily life: daily-ness, day-ness, day-lightness, the day's eye of experience.

--Joyce Carol Oates

Perhaps my blog should incorporate more of these things?! Perhaps it should become more of an intellectual reflection of life?!
Perhaps!

ps- inviolable = secure from assault/violence
pps - reflection: absorption, brainwork, cerebration, cogitation, consideration, contemplation, deliberation, idea, imagination, impression, meditation, musing, observation, opinion, pensiveness, pondering, rumination, speculation

'Larry's Party'

'I Love novels because novels are not just about what people do, but about what people think.'
- Carol Shields

Larry's Party is a novel which I have really enjoyed. Shields is writing from the point of view of a man, partly in response to being called a feminist, partly as a means to do the unexpected: tell the tale of an ordinary man. The structure of the novel, which shifts through period's in Larry's life, mimics the Larry's masculine, convoluted thought processes. The reader is constantly a step behind Larry's actions (which are told after the fact) until the final chapter when we are finally able to join the action, this maintains a sense of emotional distance from the protagonist.
Read it!

carnage

Charlotte and I at Carnage

Carnage - not necessarily a concept I believe in... I was worried I wouldn't be able to keep up with the drinking, but it was fine! haha

american holiday photos

this is me in universal studios

us all having dinner at 'millhouse steak'

Tim and I in the blue ridge state park

american holiday

welcome to my world Daisy duck!

American holiday :-) --another thing ticked off my list from my first blog!
what a lucky girl I am to be taken to one of my favourite places! Despite some irritations (!) Tim and I did have a lovely time, and the weather was mostly lovely :)
It was really nice to catch up with Matt & to meet Vanna.
My favourite places were Charleston and going to the beach in Florida :)
we ate out all the time (no good for the waist line!) and when Easter came I enjoyed some much missed wine!!
there was another picture on here, but I seem to have deleted it, and now can't get it back...fool, it showed the 5 of us enjoying dinner.

I.O.U...

I.O.U. One Galaxy

stars are out tonight
and you're the brightest one shining in my sky.
it's like every wish I ever made came true.
the day I woke up lying next to you.

will you be my best friend
if I offer you my heart?
'cause it's already yours.
we could hang out every night
and watch the sun go down.
as long as we could watch it rise again.

gave me a valentine.
it's these little things that stand the test of time.
I've saved the tickets from the shows that we've been to.
and a thousand other memories of you.

will you be my best friend
if I offer you my heart?
'cause it's already yours.

gave you this i.o.u. today.
it said good for one galaxy.
once I build my rocket to the stars.
we'll fly away just you and me.

(Ataris)

a little something tim made for me and i want to keep :)

I thought it would be a good idea to have this on here as a way of keeping this memory. ? .

summer time BBQs

BBQs in the summer with friends are fun! :)

housemates

As with most things, there are things I will miss and things I won't. It has been a fab three years and I am sad to be at the end of it all. I think we must know each other as well as we know any of our older friends. It's going to be sad to say goodbye to this chapter of our lives, yet exciting to move forward to the next.
What are our dreams? What are our aspirations? None of us are 100% sure, but I think that there is something a little exciting in the unknown...

circumambulate

A new and interesting word:

circumambulate

-to walk around-

I read this on the first page of Charlotte's copy of Moby Dick and liked it! :-) It has a ring to it, it's a 'long' word and it rolls off the tongue nicely :) it has a feeling of motion in the saying of it...

call the midwife

At the moment I am reading "Call the Midwife" by Jennifer Worth, it's a really interesting non-fiction book about the life of a midwife in the East End of London in the 50s (this, quite clearly has nothing to do with my uni courses...but I don't care! I picked it up in the tiny Moorland Rd library. i love libraries.)
The book is really interesting, and a little squeemy making...
An interesting fact:
p.5
"The Pill was introduced in the early 1960s and modern woman was born. Women were no longer going to be tied to the cycle of endless babies: they were going to be themselves. ... In the 1950s we [I presume she means the midwives in the East End area here] had 80-100 deliveries a month on our books. In 1963 the number had dropped to four or five a month. Now that is some social change!"

crazy statistic. no wonder we have an aging population!

we love girly days!

Today was a milly and becca day! we had our riding, which was successful -- cantering in the school, we're getting there! (slowly....but it will happen!) (maybe? one day?!) (at least we are trying!)

when we were clean again, we headed to Spoons for beer and a burger (yum!) and then to see 'Confessions of a Shopaholic' -- in premier seats, thank you very much tim! :) The film was just the right amount of tack and loveliness to end the day on! fantastic! and we left the cinema with a resounding - WE LOVE SHOPPING! hehe, even if the message was don't do it! Luckily we are both far too scared to max out credit cards!!

a visit from tim

It was lovely to see tim again this weekend, he came for what felt like a flying visit :) we had a really relaxing time.. on sunday eve, having watched Gary run the bath 1/2 marathon we went to see 'Watchmen' a film based on the graphic novel, I really enjoyed it - I think the director (Zach Snyder also, Sin City and 300) is very clever and portrayed a version of the Anti-American dream very darkly. The sound track was also fantastic.

a bed time fairy tale

"One evening a little girl named Dinah Price kissed her mum and dad goodnight, clibed the stairs, went into her room - and found three bears in her bed. These bears were a father bear, a mother bear and a baby bear. They were lying side by side, with the baby bear in the middle. They appeared to be sleeping"
---Ten in a Bed by Allen Ahlberg & Andre Amstutz

"Fairy Tales for children are universal, ageless, therapeutic, miraculous and beautiful"
---Fairy Tales and The Art of Subversion by Jack Zipes

I am about to re-read 'Ten in a Bed' as part of an investigation into the re-telling of fairy tales for my children's literature module. I used to love this book and it is very well thumbed, I hope I enjoy it as much now! Well...we shall see!

call me a snob

"The mole had been working very hard all the morning, spring-cleaning his little home. First with brooms, then with dusters; then on ladders and steps and chairs, with a brush and a pail of whitewash; til he had dust in his throat and eyes, and splashes of white-wash all over his black fur, and an aching back and very weary arms. Spring was in the air above ans in the earth below......"
- from The Wind in The Willows, by Kenneth Grahame

We looked at 'T.W in the W' today in my children's literature module. It seemed that everyone wanted to slate it, but I think that they were slightly mis-judging the exercise of considering a classic text in that they chose not to understand the themes of friendship and adventure that it comprises of. Instead someone said to me 'but it's not as good as harry potter', to which my argument was that we should wait and see if H.P stands the test of time as TWITW has. Grahame's use of vocabulary may be 'flowery' and archaic, but as our lecturer said, it is good to read outside of our comfort zone every once in a while in order to either progress in our reading, or to understand the past. Whilst the novel may seem out dated to some, and in some cases it is, it's themes and underlying morals have the same significance as they did 1oo years ago, and it should not be written off as a 'boring' or 'irrelevant' story. Non literature students bore me in their criticisms, call me a snob, but simply saying you did not like something is not criticism, it is laziness. AGH to uncultured people who believe harry potter to be the only decent book available.

i love romantic costume dramas!

What would it be like to have people control (or at least, try and control) your life? We just went to see The Young Victoria, which was fantastic... as a young woman her mother insisted she had someone to hold her hand as she walked down the stairs, servants tasted her food before she did and she was even prevented from reading certain books. So she was incredibly rich and was heir to the throne, but all that for a loss of one's identity and independence? no thank you!
The story of her love for Prince Albert was beautifully romantic and made me teary - wonderful! Blunt portrayed her very well as a feisty young woman who just wanted control over her own life and the right to make her own decisions. The film sheds new light onto a queen who everyone thinks of as sour faced and straight laced.

***

On another note, my riding lesson today went well :) we went for a canter in a field, and I actually managed to be the least panic-y out of all three of us! I think I did well, and I'm looking forward to giving it another go :)
Tim's response to me asking what would he do if I died was perhaps the most romantic thing he's ever said to me, and I'm only writing it on here in an effort not to forget it.. "I would die too".
:)

a representation of life in two new movies

thumbs up to both of them :)

tim and me

I love my tim :)
we had a lovely weekend in Portsmouth :) the weather was perfect on saturday so we went for a wander to the sea front and it was lovely, sunny, warm, good view, love a stroll by the sea :) after we shared some nachos and had a (non-alcoholic!!) cocktail...yum all round!
anti-flag and rise against were really good!tim especially enjoyed a little mosh,hehe :)
So excited for our trip to america, although it's all getting a little complicated what with easter being right in the middle of it all!! we posted Lynn&John a little itinerary, I love our similar-ness when it comes to anal preparation and over-excitedness! :-) we planned our journey on a map and wrote it into a diary :-D
very funny!

French women don't get fat. ?. (4)

Thursday
not the most fantastic day...started out well, ended not so great!

-bowl of yogurt with bananas and blueberries
-egg mayo wrap, bag hula hoops
-apple and cheese
-lots of mint choc aero
-pasta (brown) with tomato and olive sauce
-handful of popcorn

i should really give up junk food. oh well.

no introduction needed :)

French women don't get fat. ?. (3)

Wednesday

-1 slice toast (eaten when I got in at 1)

-egg-mayo wrap with salad, small choc bar
-satsuma & grapes
-pasta (brown) with tomato sauce & roast veg
-too much chocolate (snacks for Brit Awards)

Devastated that Girls Aloud won an award over Cold Play, where's the logic or justice? to reward a group of pretty girls (this is all they are in my humble opinion - manufactured, pretty girls) where is the raw vocal talent needed to sound good??????
On the upside --- Iron Maiden won one for live music, excellent, wish they could have performed at the awards!

French women don't get fat. ?. (2)

Tuesday

-toast (brown) with peanut butter
-natural yogurt with blueberries and a banana
-chicken and cheese wrap with salad
-2 choc box chocolates
-packet of hula hoops
-2 slices of (brown) toast with baked beans

going out. so copious calories will be added to this through drinks...... hmm!
At least I have been on a good horse ride today and I shall be doing some dancing this evening!

French women don't get fat. ?.

According to my book French Women Don't Get Fat, keeping a food diary is a good way to understand your eating habits...
Monday
- Grapes, 2 slices of (brown) toast with peanut butter
- Starbucks caramel coffee frappaccino (I think this counts as food - calorie count way high!)
- chicken, salad & cheese wrap, 5 hula-hoops (seriously couldn't manage more?!!), square flapjack, mini square of ginger bread
-toast (1 slice, white)
- apple, 2 chocolates (from selection box), another small square of ginger cake
- can of strongbow (again, think this counts as food because of calorie count!)

so far -- eating habits some what confused? If I manage to do this for a few more days, I think that it will be confirmed is that I have and erratic way of consuming food. Is this normal??!
what would be good is probably a gym session........?
After the food diary, her suggestion is a week of starvation, and only soup. No. Thanks - capital N, capital T!
also, must stop biting nails, it's disgusting and dirty, and ugly. Ahh, there's nothing like loving yourself!

The curious case of Benjamin Button

A second Valentines!
I love, love, loved Benjamin Button; Pitt and Blanchett were extremely good and I really enjoyed the story: that of a child who is born as an old man and gradually ages backwards. I would like (when I have time...?) to read the F.Scott Fitzgerald novel.
Afterwards Tim took me to Mai Thai, which was delicious and finally we went for a night cap :) baileys, yum!

Valentines Day

VALENTINES DAY :)

Tim arrived on friday night to see me for Valentines ('._.') on Saturday he took me for lunch, we wandered around town and then he took me to the cinema to see a (very) girly film --He's just not that into you is funny and sad and deals with the challenges of reading (and mis-reading) human behaviour.
T spoiled me :) it was lovely and it's so nice to have the company especially when I wake up in the morning! :)