Let's live like Jack and Sally.

In terms of my favourite time of year Halloween is definitely way up there with Christmas and birthdays and that triumphant end-of-exams sensation. There's nothing I love better than an excuse to dress up and eat cake and other people's chocolate. This year I will be in Venice on the 'big day', absorbing galleries and gondolas while wearing the oogie boogie out of my witches hat and/or vampire fangs. People may stare, but there's little that will stop me from donning my pumpkin costume and dancing around St. Mark's Square tomorrow night :) In the meantime I have avoided watching a single slasher film, baked a score of halloween cupcakes (complete with orange cases, green icing and gummy skulls) and bought a pumpkin. I have a thing for naming inanimate objects (cars, Christmas trees, etc.) This year's pumpkin is called Benjamin. Our flight leaves at early o'clock tomorrow morning, so in a minute or so I'm going to attempt to nap. When I wake up later though it's pumpkin carving/Nightmare Before Christmas watching time. I love pointless traditions. It's just a shame I don't have any bobbing apples.

♥borough.

On Thursday night I went to watch two hours of old transport footage in Trafalgar Square, followed by cocktails and chips at the Court (which had the best menu illustrations, ever :)) Flying pigs = pretty much the only reason I mention it.


The next day I trundled off to uni with my sleeping bag in tow and after four hours of lectures I set off on another weekend adventure. I arrived in Loughborough (which is where, by the way?) at twenty to eight and after some initial confusion Hannah met me at the station. We took a bus to the campus and spent the rest of the evening catching up, eating pizza and chocolate buttons and watching Skins and films about drag queens. Apparently, we lost a bet which involved five a.m. bedtimes and chinese takeaways, but it was well worth it :) On Saturday we went shopping in the town centre. I bought Alice in Wonderland in a charity shop, a Cadbury's cream egg milkshake (with baby marshmallows) and a jumper that wouldn't look out of place aboard the good ship Enterprise. We had another cozy evening in which we ate chili and watched the X Factor and Peep Show re-runs and One Tree Hill. Hannah did lots of artwork and I read a page or two during the adverts. My, that house is bleak. :) On Sunday we took full advantage of daylight saving time and had a lie-in, then we went to see Up in Loughborough's old-school cinema. It was a lovely little film, despite the background babble of the child-infested audience, and now I'd love one of these, please.


We bought crepes for the walk home again (monkey madness, indeed) and then proceeded to make far too much spaghetti for tea and watch more iplayer goodness before bed. :) Thank you for having me to stay, Hannah. It was lovely and I can't wait to see you again soon. ♥

Cold, so cold.

Oh hello winter, didn't see you there. I have a feeling the above statement might be true. Recently I've taken to wearing at least four tops, socks and slippers and carrying a hot water bottle wherever I go. I wish we weren't so set against paying the gas bill here at number eleven and switched the heating on every once in a while. On the plus side however, this means that earmuff and woolly jumper season will soon be upon us. Hooray :)

Birthday fun.

Starting on the twelfth I had a lovely busy week of birthday goodness. On Monday, after Victorians, I went to Cafe Crema with Katie and Ed, where we met up with other creative writing folk and ate tasty vegetarian food and cake. In reality it was Sarala's celebration, but I took the liberty of classing it as a joint-event. On Tuesday I went to the London Aquarium with Jenny, Gabby and Alice. We bought sushi beforehand, which in retrospect was a little cruel-minded, then spent several hours browsing the fish-tanks. My favourites were the shark-feeding and the terapins. :) In the evening I went to the pub-quiz with Jenny, where we came joint third. Probably thanks to our team's keen cocktail knowledge.


On Wednesday evening we went to Pizza Hut for a birthday meal. It took us a good fifteen minutes to decide which pizzas to order, but despite this and depressing subject matter I had a lovely time. Afterward, we went to Tescos to buy ice-cream (Carte dor caramel cinnamon absolutely-bad-for-you waffle crunch = ♥) and then we went home to watch True Blood. Alice gave me a birthday bottle of apple sourz after I failed to find a grown-up drink that I liked.

On Thursday I met up with Taylor and Emily in New Cross and we went into central for a long-awaited shopping day. We ate lunch at Bodean's in Soho, which was barbecue perfection :) and visited the shops of Carnaby St. and Covent Garden. I bought some birthday presents in Magma and plenty of Cath Kidston for Vicki, then we finished off with tea (and hot chocolate. Must learn to like tea :)) and cupcakes at Primrose bakery. In the evening it was the W.I. Zine Workshop at the Amersham Arms. Being in the birthday spirit I made a birthday zine, tbc. Other zines included; kitschenette, Jordan and Peter and Barack Obama and Julia Roberts' baby.


Friday was my birthday proper, but with a day of lectures to contend with it didn't feel that way until later on. In creative writing we had Sainsbury's caterpillar cake and everybody sang happy birthday. I ate the face :) At ten past five, after the usual mad dash across London and Krispy Kremes doughnuts, I caught the train home. The journey was Bleak House filled and uneventful, up until the point when a car drove into a bridge outside Flint. The train was delayed and I worried that I would spend the remainder of my birthday aboard the cross-country Virgin Voyager Service, but eventually I made it home. We had a birthday tea (I am growing increasingly conscious that I am over-using the word 'birthday' in this post) and then I opened my presents. Oh, I got so many lovely things. Some favourites included: Listography book, Cath Kidston bag, cake tins, Sew book, East of India decorations and my homemade notice board.


On Saturday we went to Chester for the day, where we ate lunch at Frankie and Benny's and went shopping for fluffy slippers. In the evening I went for a meal at Romeo's with some friends. I got lots of wintry presents and a Monty Python noise-maker from Hannah (oh and a teabag, courtesy of Amber's dad) :) We finished the night in our usual fashion; Wetherspoons followed by a spot of car-park lurking and prolonged goodbyes. It was so nice to be back, one night only or otherwise.


On Sunday we went out for a family meal (number four and feeling chubby :)) at the Pen-y-Bryn. I had ham and eggs and chips followed by a much-anticipated butterscotch waffle. (It very much lived up to expectation). I spent the rest of the day lazing around and making the most of a house with central heating and a large bathtub. Finally finished watching Desperate Romantics around ten-ish, then went upstairs to pack my bags, bemoaning the painfully early morning ahead.

TA-DA.

Zwanzig.

to me. I'm twenty today. Oh wow, that's scary old :)
I've just been to the train station to buy tickets and to Sainsbury's to buy a chocolate caterpillar cake for creative writing later. I'm going home in five hours and counting and I can't wait!

Goodbye teens.

As of half seven tomorrow morning I will cease to be a teenager. Never again can I claim to be a teenage delinquent/dirt bag/mutant ninja turtle. I will be 'in my twenties'. This scares me very much.

Birthays gone by

13 - fancy dress, Gareth Gates hair, screeching lady & grim reapers :)
14 - films and party games and shizz
15 - '5th' birthday, pass the parcel, Disney quiz, trip to Mars, etc.
16 - '6th' birthday, tiaras, bouncy castle and party games
17 - Sea Life Centre and Singstar, London with Harry
18 - murder mystery party with the lit lot, Caernarfon Fun Centre
19 - balloons, party tea and a weekend in Cambridge

As you can probably tell from the list above I don't take growing old (or indeed growing up) very seriously. There seems to be a pattern developing: jelly and ice-cream, dressing up, paper streamers, cards with badges, oh, and denying the inevitable and pretending I am ten years younger than I actually am :) Except this year this theory doesn't work so well. A '10th' birthday party isn't so fun. I went swimming on my tenth birthday. I got stuck under a giant float and almost drowned. On second thoughts, why not. It beats lectures and hangovers.

ONLINE.

I eat my words. The doorbell rang this morning and there stood the mailman, clutching a little black box in his arms. Enter our lovely better-late-than-never INTERNET HUB. Of course my productivity is suffering as a result. My room was so very nearly tidy until all of ten minutes ago and the recycling was bagged up and ready to go. I even had a shopping list. But hey! it matters not, we are connected at last. And thanks to an earlier bout of industriousness the kitchen is looking sparkly clean at the very least.

Donkey/Carrot.

Our internet deadline has been pushed back yet again so here I am, in the library once more. I've had a nice busy week: I went to the pub quiz on Tuesday with Gabby and Jenny and we came joint fifth, yay. On Wednesday evening Gabby, Alice and I went to Ikea in Sam's little deathmobile. It took forty-five minutes to get to Greenwich in the rainy, after-work rush and then another hour or so to get to Lakeside, but we arrived eventually. We drove with the windows down so that the windscreen didn't steam up, Sam was a picture of roadrage and we played with the settings on the sat nav until we got there. The trip was a little unsuccessful on my own part (I bought washing up brushes) but we bought a lamp and a bookcase for the living room and KFC on the way home. Aaand yesterday I went to see Dorian Grey at last and took a trip to Topshop where it was not Student Night after all. But that didn't stop me buying things, oops.

Goodnight library. Cheesy chips time :)

Wild Things.

On Friday, after a busy day of lectures, I jumped aboard the 436 and went to Lewisham in search of last minute fancy dress supplies. In Rolls and Rems I bought a meter of fleecy white felt and some thread and in the Works I acquired card, paintbrushes and gold paint for the making of crowns. Back at the house I set about constructing a costume and speed sewing in the kitchen I made a makeshift wolf hat and a golden crown (the clumsy needlework puts my W.I. membership to shame, but considering it was a one hour job I'm rather proud). Later, in New Cross I walked up and down Jerningham Rd more times than I care to count, looking for Emily and Taylor. My hat attracted several drunken compliments, so it was almost worth it. Eventually we overcame our communication difficulties and I met them at the bottom of the road. The wild rumpus was in full flow when we arrived, the rooms of the small house overflowing with paper mache fox hats and Max crowns and fluffy onesies. Taylor's homemade wild thing outfit caused quite a stir and we had a balloon fight in the kitchen; Emily patrolled the garden and reprimanded those who attempted to urinate on the Christmas tree; Emily accosted Josh Baines on several separate occasions ("I added you on Facebook Josh Baines, but you've never spoken to me") and bad-mannered drunkards threw bread buns around in Aliya's bedroom. By the time we got back to Vesta Road it was nearly four o'clock.


(Taylor tried on all the hats, these are a couple of examples)

In the morning proper we sat in the kitchen for a couple of hours reminding Emily and enlightening her housemates as to the nights' goings on. On the way down the hill I realised I'd lost my oyster card, so rather than contemplating the walk home I hid away in the library for a couple of hours (incidentally, I've seen more of the library this past week than all the weeks of last year put together). On the way home I paid a visit to the Amersham Arms, where I browsed among the jumble and purchased a teacup and saucer and a slice of the most delicious tea-loaf ever. Home = cold. The house is perfect; we have a park, we have FISH (who, by the way, I'll have to introduce you to at some point), but dammit I wish we could turn the central heating on every once in a while. I am living under a bundle of blankets and hot water bottles at the moment. In lieu of the late night I had a particularly lazy evening. I made soup, changed into my warmest clothes and then ventured out to Tescos where I splurged on chocolate and popcorn. Then, Alice and I watched American Psycho and intense Channel 5 dramas and Monty Python until bedtime.

This morning I slept in, read some of my book (the Pianist, not Bleak House as it should be) and made plans with Jenny for the day. We walked to New Cross (must. buy. oyster card. soon.) and went to 'A Little Bazaar' at the Amersham. Jenny left early and I bought two brooches: one a sheep, one a house :) Now, I'm off to Central to re-find Jenny and her friend Alex and drinks!

"Let the wild rumpus start!"

Tomorrow night I will be donning my wolf suit, boarding my private boat and sailing off through night and day and in and out of weeks and almost over a year to the place where the wild things are, where I will most certainly make mischief of one kind and another. Or in other words, Where the Wild Things Are party at Maisie's house.

Sixteen days until my birthday, sixteen days until the wild things film is released. I cannot wait. Let the onesies and wild times commence. Or I'LL EAT YOU UP.