Found on Flick #10

Solitary, originally uploaded by philputnam.

So, so beautiful.

Yesterday on my way home from university, it had rained all day and the hot sun made clouds of steam come billowing off the pavements.

There was a huge puddle across the road under the bridge, and as cars went through they caused waves that ebbed and flowed like tides against the tunnel's side.

Ben rolled up his trousers and walked through. I ran, splashing happily, and shouting BEN BEN BEN IT'S AN ADVENTURE as I went.

Good day.

In the immortal words of Will Smith

"The weather is hot and girls are dressing less." I'm not sold on the grammar of that, actually, but who am I to question the Fresh Prince?

I can't think straight, it's too hot! I've got a couple of posts drafted that are awaiting the time my brain decides to play ball again. The way this summer has been going (and going, and going), that may be some time!

Twitter seems to be full of people who can't sleep tonight. All complaining about being sticky and uncomfortable and restless. It's the first 'proper' summer we've had since, oh I don't know, 2006? How strange to think that my blog goes back that far! In fact, tomorrow is my FIVE YEAR blogaversary. Crazy. Every now and then I go through the archives and reread old posts. It's like catching up with a girl that I'm not any more. We exchange stories, me and 17-year-old me, and I try not to let her see that I'm laughing at her a little bit. I'm sure she's extending me the same courtesy.

As first posts go, it's not at all representative of myself at that age. It's entirely school-focused - and, well, Big Brother? Dear me. Now if you want to see a post that really does represent me, check this one out! Me, leaving my work till the last minute? Heaven forfend!

Me in 2004, aged 16. My semi-goth phase. Throttling the lovely Becky.

Anyway, I could waffle all night, since sleep is apparently not an option, but I'll spare you that. Instead, here's an awesome game called Doodle God, in which you have to combine four starting elements in new and interesting ways until you have created, among other things, milk, zombies, and assassins. As always, the link will be going on the left.

Today

Today I woke up. Today I bought a new skirt, from a charity shop: drapey and interesting, £2.99.
Today I went to the park and sat in the sun with friends.
Today I read some more of American Gods.
Today I had dinner and drank cider with friends, and played a Cardiff-based game of Monopoly that I lost and enjoyed.
Today, on my way home at midnight, I didn't so much as shiver. Barelegged and still warm in the middle of the night.

Summer days really do last longer. That's not nostalgia, that's the light. Today, there was so much light.

Big Al says dogs can't look up

Well, things are looking up for me! I'm feeling better, showing up at uni (if not actually enrolled yet), and turning 21 tomorrow. 21. That's properly grown-up! Fortunately that means nothing these days.

And, in addition, a bit of charity shop hunting has led to me listening to Hanson and B*Witched's albums from back in the day! AMAZING. It's even sunny and everything!

Oh, and I must remember to tell you why time flies when you're having fun. I worked it out! yeh! so remind me if I forget.

Today we have a VERY interesting thing: Fantastic Contraption! I've had so much fun with this the past couple of days. Give it a go. If a few of you are into it, I'll post up some amazing solutions!

Life, love, laughter and the lurgy

Well well well. Three holes in the ground.

It's been a fairly busy few days; I went up to Cardiff again. It felt like forever since we'd seen each other, so it was wonderful to be back in his arms. Unfortunately, he got ill a day or so in. A poorly tummy, so no close cuddles, and a split lip, so no kisses... but there are a million ways of telling someone you love them (here I reluctantly include tickle attacks *grumpy face*).

I travelled up on Thursday (having completed an essay a day early to do so - unprecedented!), met Gav with some sushi, and left him to work. He came home for a bit and went out for some music-related fun while I went for a walk around the lake while the sun set. It was absolutely beautiful! I've got some photos up on my Flickr (see the link on the left).





We went to the wedding of an old friend of his, which was great. I like his mates. We left the reception early because Gav was ill (I accidentally wandered off with Rem's camera in my bag, had to go back!), in fact I got pretty worried about him the next day. Y'see last time he had stomach cramps this bad it was when I was first getting to know him. It caused him absolute agony, so I was stressing out flapping my little hands and making high pitched noises and generally being of no use whatsoever! At least this time I could do something.

When we got back to Cardiff, I tried to help him out by going shopping and cleaning up a bit. We went round to Ben's on Monday, there was music and food and a gorgeous cat. I drank enough (not much, I never drink very much) to become fascinated with spinning a yellow badge... badges are ace. Can't think of many things more fun, except maybe balloons!

There was absolutely beautiful sunshine today, which made the parting a little easier. It's mad how reluctant I was to leave. The sooner I move to Cardiff the better!

Paris etc

I flew!
From above, France is much neater than England. Going up and coming down was exciting; inbetween that, it felt like my head was being squeezed through a cardboard tube, so I fell asleep.

The apartment was LOVELY. Very small, but very nice, and with a beautiful view! We spent a lot of time in there watching films.

We also walked about a lot, visiting various tourist attractions. We went up the Eiffel Tower more or less on a whim, resulting in two very chilly silly billies. We also saw the Arc de Triumph, the pillar at the Bastille, etc etc.

Films we saw:
The Devil Wears Prada (rubbish, read the book instead) **
Be Kind Rewind (good, nothing special) ***
Juno (very happy; yay!) ****
Chocolat (love it) ****
Silence of the Lambs (classic, pretty enjoyable, plus we got a story about it from the man in the video shop) ****
Black Sheep (possibly the funniest zombie sheep film of the year, enjoyable) ***
Have I forgotten any, Gav?

We ate mostly bread and cheese. 75% healthy, very good.

The journey back took sooo long, I began to get really edgy about going home. Another 3 or more hour journey would have killed me, and I was so tired already from getting up at 6.30am that I started to get all teary. Stupid female hormones, I swear I'm logical really. So Gav, bless him with many blessings, took pity on me and took me in for the night. It was SO good to have a bit of a rest before starting the journey home.

So now I'm with my family, yay! And also boo! Because much as I love them, my health rating has plummeted to 25%. Accursed easter eggs. Mm, if only I could say no...

It's been so wonderful, wandering around my beloved island listening to birds singing and enjoying the sunshine and making friends with the random kitties I find. I'm trying to catch up with whoever's still around, which sadly isn't many of them, but yay! for that.

Photos of my Paris trip are available here (flickr) and here (facebook).

In honour of how beautifully sunny it's been lately, I've bought a dress! Lookit!



And cool new shoes, lookit lookit!



I'll answer your wonderful questions in another post.

Various stuff and things!

Mouse #5 is a fast little blighter. Dark brown fur, and apparently uninterested in the food on the traps. I'm thinking of investing in a) an anvil or b) some black paint; (fake mouseholes of course! It'll run into the wall and concuss itself!) but I can't work out if the ACME website do deliveries.

There's been actual genuine sunshine today! I ventured, bleary-eyed, into the big wide world in less than a jumper for the first time in what feels like forever. I bought ice-lollies for all my housemates to celebrate the occasion.

"Some women wear foundation... other wear a sensation!" Adverts SUCK. I mean seriously. I dreamed a better advert last night. It involves an incredibly long twisty straw, and two colours of slushy liquid, carefully alternated to spell the company name when it's all been sucked through the contraption. Genius.

And, to complete the quartet of things that very few people are interested in, I'm currently watching Forrest Gump. Yay!

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

Not boobs.

Well, a bunch of strangers requested that I blog about boobs, so...

No.

Ah, sorry, did I disappoint you? But don't worry, I'm going to blog about something BETTER than boobs. Seriously. No kidding. Here follows a list if such things.

1) Ice cream.
It's been so long since I had Ben and Jerry's (indisputably the best ice cream ever conceived by man). Cookies and cream, phish phood (sp?), and above all, Dublin mudslide... I love the Irish cream in that. Leading me to number two good thing...

2) Baileys.
The only alcoholic drink that I actually like. It tastes like happy!

3) Lost.
Yes, I am addicted, but tragically I am several episodes behind everyone else. Steven, if you read this, I AM MOST DISPLEASED. I needs the Lost.

4) Music.
Into Nina Simone at the moment, she is an absolute legend!

5) Being funny.
I LOVE being funny. I don't know how often it happens, but when it does, it makes me feel good that I can make people laugh... sadly, I don't think I've found a medium that communicates my particular sense of humour. Video certainly doesn't. (Oh, on that note, I may not be making many more YouTube vids, and almost certainly no vlogs.) Writing? Well, I seriously hope I can be funny. Let me know.

6) Poetry. VASTLY better then breasts. I mean seriously, have you read the Raven? Sheer genius. I also recommend blue peace incantation, Salome and "Hole in the floor". Plus, of course, anything I've written. ;) (re-plugs http://creativesplurges.blogspot.com/)

7) Sunshine.
Not only a beautiful thing, which makes people happy (and tanned), but also the source of all life (indirectly, of course). And, to top it all, you can call people it and it makes them smile, so they actually become a little more sunshiney. Which is really rather special.




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LINKS to the poems I recommended

The Raven
Blue Peace Incantation
Salome (about 3/4 of the way down)
Hole In The Floor