The Friend Ship

Hayley tells me I make friends easily. I guess, to a certain extent, it's true. When meeting someone new I tend to give the person in question a couple of things about myself so that they can piece together who I am, I speak to them as if I've a;ways known them, I'm open (sometimes to the point of rudeness) but they always know where they are with me.

I'd personally say that, instead of making friends easily, I may acquaintances easily. I rarely ask anything from these people, and it's even rarer that I keep in contact with them after we've parted ways.

A few friends, that's how many I'd say I have in my life. Literally just four or five, the majority of my continued friendships are circumstantial, I don't know how they'd fair without that circumstance, nor do I want to know (by this I mean I'd prefer not to take them away from their circumstance (most of which is online gaming I'll admit)). The friends that stick around (such as Hayley and Ash) are treated like family, from joking to serious matters.

When I make a new friend I like to do it quickly, and tend to get to know them within a couple of hours of us meeting. "Getting to know them" here is a loose term meaning I get a feel for their character. Take Hayley for example, the first day we met we spent lunchtime together, finding that we have an incredible amount in common.

With all I've explained, it should be evident that ten minutes on the train just isn't enough time to get to know someone. I have little patience, it seems, for waiting when I'm alone. Whenever I have indicated that people have called me patient it's in a sense that I can put up with a lot of shit before becoming even mildly irritated (a skill that makes me a good monk).

The truth is that I loath waiting for anything with a passion. This could be the reason for my brutal honesty, I like to know where I stand and don't like to think I'm inflicting the same on other people. I will not lie to most people. As a consolation I have a tendency to ask inappropriate questions at times, but I don't take offence if they are not answered as long as I'm told they won't be.

With all this in mind I'm sat here hoping this Friend Ship will sail soon.

A List

Things I Will Miss About Uni:

1. The People.
Pretty self-explanatory. I've met a load of awesome people at uni. Purely through circumstance have we connected, and now we are parting ways. The likelihood of staying friends with most of them is quite slim (I'm not that great at communicating without the internet and something in common). Nevertheless, it has been fun guys, and who knows, my staying in touch skills may improve.

2. The Coffee.
This is pretty lame, but the hazelnut latte's that they do in the internet cafe at Uni are INSANE! I'll miss them a great deal. I'm going to have to get a coffee machine and learn to make my own. Otherwise my life will no longer be complete.

3. The Teachers.
Okay, so not all of them obviously. But most of them have taught me a great deal. I'll miss randomly wandering to Vanessa's office especially. I'll miss jokey moments that have been had with a lot of them. I'll miss their advice and their voices of experience. Yes, I'll even miss Andy's inappropriate comments.

4. Being Able to Casually Walk Into Winchester.
Some of my best moments in Uni were walking to those shops. Though I can still do it, the idea of me doing so when I should be in lecture will never be the same. I was a little rebellious in that respect, though not enough to hurt my marks.

5. Deadlines
This one sounds strange, I know, but I actually really like the deadlines. The reason is that I'm one of those super-organised people who does all the work like two weeks in advance, hands it in and then sits back and annoys everyone by telling them that they should've started already. I get a thrill out of hitting the deadline a week early and knowing I'm one of the few who did so.

6. Train Rides.
I love the train. I really do. I like the movement, I like standing, sitting down, looking out of the window. And meeting Hayley there to talk about random crap. I love the train.

7. Being Able To Go Barefoot All The Time
I'm well aware that I probably won't be able to do this when I am working. I will be expected to be normal and stuff. But at Uni it wasn't like that. I was allowed to go barefoot all the time and no one said anything (apart from occasional questions from teachers (just the normal questions)). Seriously, people were just all like "yeah, she's a creative writing student." It explained everything in one sentence. Although Hayley did spread the rumour that I was in a cult in the first year... but then I told people she was a lesbian (our little joke).


Things I Won't Miss About Uni:

1. Slow Computers
For any of you who read my Tumblr page, you'll know that the Uni computers are dire. They take ages to log on (in the internet cafe especially), spend a load of time loading up IE automatically (as if anyone in their right mind would use IE), they then make you use microsoft office, and to top it all off half the people on them aren't even working. You also are required to change your password every 3 months as if they think you shout it out every time you type it in or something. Hate to tell you this IT support staff, but most of us know how to keep a password safe. Just saying.

2. Waiting Around For Two Hours Between Classes
This is pretty self-explanatory. I mean, you go in, and have to spend two hours waiting between classes. It's not really enough time to pop into Winchester to shop, and it's too much time for a simple lunch. It's even more annoying if all your friends aren't in the next class and decide to go home. You're left aimlessly browsing the internet for an hour and a half, spending ridiculous amounts of money on caffeine just to crash completely in your next lecture.

3. Emails
I swear that the majority of the Uni emails are complete trash. "Check your emails" is what all the teachers tell us, so we do, just to get a whole load of people spamming each other with emails about something that doesn't even concern us. And then you get some emails that are key to your Uni life, and they're the ones that look the most spammy and you want to avoid like the plague. Also, half the teachers don't even email back; they tell you to "email me if you have any questions/concerns/work you want me to look at" and then never reply. So freaking useful.

4. Survey
"How well did the module do what you thought it would?", "are you happy with what your learned?", "Were the resources given to you useful?". Yes seriously, every single module has a survey. Every single one. I don't even care! I don't care! I hate surveys! It's why I hang up when people cold-call and ask me to do one.

5. Applying For Student Finance
I hate the student finance system. Oh by the way, we need your parent's information. Oh by the way, we need you all to send your souls to us for analysis. Oh by the way, we can't give you any money because we haven't received this form. Oh yeah... now you owe us three spaceships and a hot air balloon. Also, can you complete this survey to tell us if we're working okay or not? You want to know what I think, student finance? >:(

Blog in Pictures: Day In The Life Of An Anteater.

Get out of bed nice and early.

Have some breakfast.

Do the washing.

Check Facebook.

Meet a friend for lunch at a fancy restaurant.

Call a meeting at work. 

Go for a walk in a forest.

 On the way back stop and feed the ducks.

Watch TV while eating dinner.

Go to bed.

So... Rapture.

For any of you who haven't been keeping up with the news/internet/world in general or have otherwise been in a coma of some sort, today is supposedly the beginning of the apocalypse. That's what Harold Camping thought anyway (let's not forget that he also predicted it would happen in 1994). 6pm local time, he said.

In Australia right now it's past 9pm. Nothing's happened. Of course, it's not like anyone expected it would. I mean the idea of anyone being able to predict the rapture is ridiculous in itself, especially when it says in the bible that only God knows the date of it. By predicting it with any certainty he's already disproved himself. He really should take more time with his bible, the way he's supposedly "calculated" it by taking numbers from the bible and stuff, for one, the book is meant to be accessible for everyone, that's the whole point of it: face it Harold, there are no secret messages, it's all in your head.

Despite the general scepticism that the idea has been met with, the internet seems to be using it to make a new meme. Indeed I expect there to be pictures of memes such as socially awkward penguin and things with captions like "predict the apocalypse, nothing happens". At least someone's getting some fun out of this, unlike all those Christians who think they're really going to be leaving the earth to meet Jesus. Imagine if you'd sold everything you owned for this day.

Still, having a party might have been nice, just to celebrate how we're still here and there isn't actually fire and brimstone raining down from the sky. No giant earthquakes yet either, and hopefully there won't be, but if it did happen I'd put it down to sheer coincidence anyway.

Let's face it though, Harold Camping probably isn't going to stop doing what he's doing, unless today is his personal rapture. We all have to die sometime after all. And if not? Well, third time's the charm Harold.

The Cold Mind

I have a thing about watching crime drama. I'm talking the gritty kind (not that there are many others I guess). I like those kinds of crime that make you unable to sleep well at night, and I like watching them in the evening, before I head to sleep.

I guess you could argue that it's the same thing as those who watch horror movies at night, though I can't actually do that, the tension gets to me too much. I prefer the cool chill that comes from guessing at the killer before the policemen get it, seeing them step into the killers trap and barely miss escaping.

I have a particular fondness for crime dramas about serial killers. I love Wire in the Blood for instance, which has the ability to make one's flesh crawl at times. The killers are even worse, their voices, their actions, you see everything, and even though they're not actually killers, they look like psychopaths.

Tony Hill, the main character and the psycho-analyst, brings a hell of a lot of crazy into the storylines. Not really surprising since he attempts to step into the mind of the villains, difficult not to be slightly damaged methinks. I'd love to be able to step into the head of someone that damaged, though I'm not sure how likely I'd be to survive with a good mindset afterwards.

That's it on crime dramas for now.

In other news, I've started a new writing project which you can read about here. It should be fun.

The Last Hurdle

There are less than three weeks until I finish my degree, then only time will tell what happens. I've got less that 10,000 words to go until I get there and I can't quite believe it. So close to the finish now. I can feel the achievement start to (slightly prematurely) bloom.

My plans for the summer, though full of fun, are also (hopefully) full of structure. For instance, I plan to write for an hour a day (or at least sit in front of a screen with a page open). I plan to start carrying a notebook with me to jot down stuff I see. I plan to start exercising. I plan to always be reading, And I plan to take a hell of a lot of pictures. 

At the beginning of June my parents go away for a week. It'll be fun to have the house to myself, and have the freedom to have friends come over whenever (not that I can't now, but it feels easier when there are no parents to convince (I am in their house after all)). Still, with my parents going away before I officially finish Uni, I need all my work in early which could be a challenge to say the least. Next in is the presentation of the exhibit idea which is in next week, but almost complete. 

I feel like this degree, though worth the money and effort, has made my passion for writing diminish, but this summer I am determined to get it back. I'm sure that a bit of Malta's culture and sun is just what I need. 

A Place to Write of

Today I was in a lecture and my teacher suggested the idea of starting a separate blog for writing. A novel thought. I've always thought that I shouldn't be greedy. One should be my quota for blogs. But with this one getting more and more pages added, and overflowing, I thought maybe that wouldn't be such a bad idea after all. With this ever-increasing technological obsession flowing through my entire generation, perhaps having more than one blog could even be called fashionable?

Those of you who have been following me a long time may remember my old blog - Literally Delicious. It was originally a project for an assignment in my second year and while it was out for marking this blog was born in it's place so that I could continue blogging. It was a sad thing when I realised that I preferred this blog. I didn't go back to the blog I had before and, instead deleted it.

You guessed it! It's back! I remade it, brand-spanking-new (Visit it!)! In it I will provide information about my writing experience in far more detail than anything I have ever written here on the subject of writing. This may be in the form of a word count. Maybe I'll tell you where the inspiration for a story came from. Perhaps it'll just be the kind of thing I'm writing, or the time I've taken writing, or how hard it was forcing the words onto a blank page. Whatever it is, there will always be writing going on somewhere in my life. And don't worry, I'll update it whenever something fairly significant happens in my writing life.

Meanwhile, what was once the origami page has become the Arts and Crafts page, with more than just origami now. I guess that page has become a sample of the other crafts I'm interested in. I have a tendency to become obsessed with a craft, do a lot of it and then move on. They do come back around, though the chopping and changing does mean that I can't really reliably make money off them. The only "craft" that sticks around is writing.

Writing is what I'd call a passion, while other crafts are just hobbies (I do have a lot of hobbies).

On a completely unrelated note: What is it with people still dropping out of Uni. We're what? A month away from finishing? Where's the sense in throwing away almost three years for a single month just because you can't be bothered any more? Come on guys! Man up!

Loose Ends

I love Ikea, it's so full of wonderful objects to better my room. Cushions, for instance, you can get them for something like £2, serious bargain considering you'd usually pay around £6. I have four such cushions waiting to be covered. Only one problem, the sewing machine seems to be a bit mucked up. I'll spend some time looking for the cause probably Tuesday. Too much of that, though, and I'll get a bit annoyed.

I've discovered recently (on a completely unrelated note) that I don't understand people who get up late morning to early afternoon. I used to be one of them myself (or pose as one) and, honestly, it just made me feel crap, tired, headachey and generally miserable. There's something so invigorating about being up first thing in the morning, smelling the cool air just as the sun is rising. But I guess those who do the in-bed-until-late-morning/early-afternoon thing don't get how I work either.

Post FYP madness is almost completely calm. My mind is focused on the tasks ahead of my finishing Uni now. Those loose ends to tie up. It feels like a storyline where the crescendo has just been reached. The moment that our hero has been leading up to for the last three years has finally passed, she's succeeded at being in the right place at the right time. Now all that's left are those sub-stories, the secondary romances - will they? won't they? - the dead need burying; the army needs disbanding; life returning to normal. No more turmoil, just restoration of normality. That's what my next assignments feel like, the loose ends.

I'd forgotten how much letting someone else read my work actually inspires me to write. Perhaps when I'm done with these other assignments I can get back to writing the new version of Just Out of Reach. From the two people who have read the creative piece I submitted as my FYP, I have heard that it has an addictive quality: a great sign. It makes me wonder if this piece can get me a first... seriously, that'd be great.

My eyes are now firmly set on Malta this summer. I'm looking forward to what could be seen as a trial run for living with Ash (as it looks like Mark may be living with him when he moves over here. In turn that means I'll be spending a lot of time there too, though probably not living there for some months). The sun, the sea, even the dust are all things I miss about Malta. I also miss the carefree feeling that I feel when I'm there, and after this year I'll need that. I'm looking forward to Sicily too, but that's another story.

In other news: with the purchase of origami paper yesterday, came the exploration of certain folding artistic stuffs (seen in the Origami Treasures page) and I now have a whole collection of dragons. It's fun and I've memorised several patterns so that I don't need to look them up. I've been thinking of a use for them, and believe I've come up with something... but that's for me to know.

Anyway, it's getting late and I should be heading to sleep to get up bright and early. Later readers.

FYP Madness

With the deadline drawing oh-so-near my Final Year Project (or FYP) has been taking up so much time. Since Mark went back to Malta I feel like I've been working on it non-stop. It's true that I had little or no actual writing to do, but as this piece of work could make or break my degree I wanted to make sure it was spotless. I say "was" because it's now printing downstairs. The work isn't over though, oh no, there's still much to be done, mainly with a highlighter and some numbering.

Even though it's not quite over, I can feel my eyes already starting to turn to summer and the joys of Malta once again. I long to feel that sun, the ocean around me, and the company of that Mark that I love on a more permanent basis.

To be honest, when I look back at that time, almost a year ago now, I would never have imagined that it would go so fast. This last year has probably been the best so far, in my education, probably even my life, and certainly since I became a teenager.

The possibility of moving out in a year or two is also one of those that I am coming to really look forward to. I've enjoyed hanging on to my childhood, it's true, but my time at home is becoming tiresome, there are moments in this family home when I long not to be living here. I love my parents, but sometimes I don't agree with the way they deal with my brother, or even each other.

Easter, certainly, taught me that, though me and Mark are both tidy people we cannot be contained within one room and be content. The smallest things annoy me such as the movement of cushions or the appearance of items on my shelves. It seems that with this room I'm more territorial than I first thought.

On the plus side, Mark seems to quite like House, which I see as a key advantage for him. He's also hooked on Dr Who. I think he'll fit in just fine over here.