Romance and mystery

I have a red rose and chocolates. If that's not stereotypical material love I don't know what is! I was incapable of sustaining conversation for ten minutes, and of finishing a sentence for five. It's perfect, absolutely beautiful, and easily the most romantic thing anyone's ever done for me. <3

Some of you may remember that in the summer of '06 I became absolutely obsessed with an Alternate Reality Game known as the Lost Experience. Like, full-on obsessed. Even just now when my mum asked me what happened to Rachel Blake, I launched a full-on rant about how nobody knows, and Hanso is everywhere, and so forth. It blurred the lines between fiction and reality which was BRILLIANT. I was properly distraught when I found out there would be no sequel, it was completely inconclusive.

BUT.

All is not lost, if you'll pardon the pun; J. J. Abrams has a new project in the works, but nobody knows what... I've diving down the rabbit hole as we speak. If I don't make it back, just know that... I love you...

iBalls

Following the success of the iPhone and iPod, and on hearing that there may be an iCar in the works, I thought I'd brainstorm a few ideas for Apple's next project. You can thank me later, Steve.

The iBall - an eye transplant that can display your email on your eye - blink activated. Comes with thermal imaging display option. Plays music.

iKnow - brain implant with access to Google, Wikipedia, and a live news feed. Guaranteed pub quiz winner. Plays music.

iDo - a stylish white wedding ring with a small "diamond" display screen. Can be used to store important events in the calender, such as making dinner, ironing shirts, putting up shelves etc. Also available in pink and blue. Plays music.

And finally, the new iWant. Not sure what it does, but it's gonna be the next big thing and number one on every Christmas wishlist. Has lots of buttons. Plays music.

Oh, and Interesting Thing of the Day: Make your own superhero!

Evil Genius

I have had a revelation. Evil Geniuses, your generic bad-guy-bosses, are being paid by the hour. That's why they seem so colossally stupid! That's why:
They take so long to capture the hero, and once they do
They like to explain their plan first
They put them in a prolonged and easily-escapable situation
They mess around with exposition.

Can you imagine what would happen if they were paid for results? They'd shoot the hero straight away. Films would never make it past ten minutes long, and the entire movie culture would die. This is why I have decided that they're being paid by none other than Hollywood studio executives.

Suddenly it all falls into place...

Interesting thing of the day: A set-up worthy of the Evillest of Geniuses.

Meet the parents

It's an uncanny truth that whenever I meet up with my boy, we have at least one day of brilliant sunshine (which is no small thing, in a summer this relentlessly dismal.) Granted, we met in summer which doubtless carries an advantage, but it's nevertheless gratifying to remember all the moments we've spent together on warm days under blue skies. I'm pretty sure I photosynthesise too, so it feels very Right.

Every time I stand at a train station looking out for him, I get hideously nervous for a few seconds. When I spot him I tend to be glad to see him, terrified, and thoroughly knackered and bored of travelling - and this manifests itself in me walking hesitantly towards him with an awkward smile on my face. Every time. And every time, it's not until the mercifully immediate First Hug that the tension dissipates; then I'm just there, in his arms, almost oblivious to the busy surroundings.

Yes, it's going to be a soppy post. I'm in love, deal with it.

(At this point the author pauses, fingers motionless over the keyboard, as she tries to deal with the significance of what she just wrote. It's all too much for her poor little mind, so she thinks about ponies until it goes away.)

I went on Friday and met his parents, who are thoroughly lovely, and watched the Blues Brothers on the sofa with him. Never seen it before, it was good!

Best quote:
ELWOOD - It's 106 miles to Chicago, we got a full tank of gas, half a pack of cigarettes, it's dark, and we're wearing sunglasses.
JAKE - Hit it!

On Saturday we went to Hull to attend his friend's album launch, which was obviously very important since Girlfriend Approval Papers were required, but I passed apparently so that's alright. ;) They had kitties! Who were all fluffy! It was a bit of a trek away but we managed alright, despite train delays and cock-ups. (I'm thinking of making a little wax train that I can stick needles in whenever there's a problem, but I know it would only take three trips before the thing would be so full of holes you could use it as a Matrix sequel.) But we made it back to Birmingham in the end for a proper family meal, which was properly fun. Always good to see your Significant Other with his family, isn't it. This time it was anyway.

After that, we went to the pub to see some of his boys! I got talking to one of them about God, who may have forgotten most of it. Luckily. I mean it's not really pub talk is it. Still, it was great getting to know the lads a bit, I did pretty well at being friendly but totally failed at the knowing stuff. They were talking about music and techie stuff, so I just stood there smiling vacantly and trying not to feel like a bimbo! (See? I would NEVER have used that word about myself before my hair turned blonde. It's affecting my self-image.)

Monday I came home, travelling went very well despite another train delay at the start.

The entire weekend was suffused with general huglyness and cuddletivity, and I can honestly say that I have never been so completely comfortable with someone as I am with him.

It's all looking good, guys! And although I did get a bit mournful in the car on the way to the station, I'm not feeling too lonely. It won't be long before I talk to him again. So... yay, and stuff.

This has been the smuggest post in history, hasn't it... I am sorry, people. But those of you who know me well know that this doesn't happen often (i.e. EVER) to me, and is thus a deal of the big kind.

Ok, ok, blatant gloating time is over. Love to y'all. x

Overthinking

So much paperwork, so little motivation. I'm just waiting for one thing, then I can get it all done. Hopefully.

Interesting thing of the day: spoof signs. Made me chuckle :)

Sometimes I say to people that if I were anyone else, I'd be jealous of me. I have a pretty awesome life. And occasionally I think about whether I might in fact be a bitter mid-40s businesswoman in the future who just paid people to invent the technology to write herself this childhood. And I'm just living that. And other times I wonder if maybe I think too much, and should just get on with it and stop being so introspective... meh. Such is life!

How are you, my beloved readership?

Reverse graffiti

What a day. Started out very well, with me actually managing to cheer someone up (gold star!), and swiftly degenerated into Issues in the afternoon. An old friend of mine got married this morning and very few people had any clue it was happening. Anyway!

Today's interesting thing: Reverse graffiti! Like writing 'clean me' on a dirty window, dust tagging is an awesome way of sending a message without a spray can. Here are some examples: car art and advertising. Yes it's graffiti, but is it vandalism? And how the heck do you prosecute someone for cleaning stuff?

My favourite reverse-graffiti story (nabbed from here):
"Brazilian Alexandre Orion turned one of Sao Paolo’s transport tunnels into a stunning mural last summer....

The authorities were certainly miffed but could find nothing to charge him with. They had no other recourse but to clean the tunnel — but only the parts Alexandre had already cleaned. The artist merely continued his campaign on the other side of traffic. The utterly flummoxed city officials then decided to take drastic action. Not only did they clean the entire tunnel but also every other tunnel in Sao Paulo."

Nice one X)

Good intentions

I'm not entirely sure why, but as I write this I'm half-watching one of those dire programmes where they put a group of gorgeous 20-somethings on an island to form couples and learn basic social skills.

Television really doesn't engage me any more. If I want to watch something, guaranteed you can find it online... semi-legally... so the only reason I actually turned it on was so that if there was a global disaster I wouldn't be the last to know. Seriously, it was just in case somewhere got bombed. Is that paranoia or a perfectly reasonable possibility?

Oh my GOSH I know what I should do, I should watch the Matrix! We've bought the 3rd one, Revolution, which I never did make sense of at the cinema. On the other hand if I want to work it out that's like 6 hours of it. Hahaha.

It's been one of those days so far, I'm so full of good intentions and so unable to do anything. I've got paperwork to do and phone calls to make but none of it's working enough for me to get something DONE. How annoying.

Never mind! Grin and bear it, at least I've got this weekend to look forward to...

Weeks

The problem with doing lots and wanting to write about it all is that I will never, NEVER write about it all. So instead here's a brief summary.

Three weeks ago: I spent the weekend with Gav in Cardiff. It was AMAZING. See my Flickr page if you want to see photos, there's a link on the left somewhere. Had a truly wonderful time. YAY.

Two weeks ago: Had a family reunion thing, we do that every year, it was great to see everyone again. Was especially nice to talk to Sarah, who's officially starting her own salon now which is awesome, and Ran whose sense of humour is exactly like Eddie Izzard (which is a Good Thing in my book).

Last week: Soul Survivor, it was good.

This week: PAPERWORK, forms forms forms X( I HATE it...

So, I've got the updates out of the way, now with any luck I can get on with blogging slightly more frequently!

The end of something...

So the gap year is over. To recap for anyone new, I've been doing a year of youth work for a Christian charity on the Isle of Wight... and that's over now.

Now technically it's not entirely the end, there's still Soul Survivor to go yet (and to be honest I'm pretty sure they'll rope me into stuff whenever I'm around!), but officially, this is it. So I'm moving out of my host family's home. I'm all packed and ready to go tomorrow... basically, this is me:


I know. Whimper.

Luckily though, my impeccable sense of timing has kicked in again. I remember when I left school, some people weren't ready to leave and some had reached their limit months ago... I was just getting fed up of school when it ended. And again, I'm just starting to feel that it's time to move on, and it is! How convenient.

So I'm sat on my bed listening to REM and trying not to be too emo about it all, because as much as I'm going to miss everyone and everything from this year (and I really, really am!), it is time to move on. I know. How wisdomous am I.

If anyone who's known me at all during the past year finds their way to this post, I want to thank you so much for making this experience so incredible. I honestly feel very blessed by the people I've been surrounded with and supported by. So thanks.