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.

Oh lucky me!

Gav emailed me the other day asking if I wanted to go in for a raffle to win some rugby tickets. I said yes, and we won! Hooray! That means that I'm gonna see Wales play the All-Blacks at the Millennium Stadium on Saturday. This is very exciting because it's going to be the first time I've willingly witnessed a sporting event live - or seen rugby live for that matter.

Every now and then I slip back into my island-girl mindset and I'm amazed by the things I have access to that I just didn't growing up. Electricity, healthcare... no, I jest; the Isle of Wight isn't as backwards as everybody thinks, it's just smaller and safer. But there are things I didn't discover until fairly late in my youth.


A few years ago, my aunt got me a pizza with a yummy sauce instead of tomato paste for the base. I made a mental note that when I moved away from home, I'd search for this pizza, because it was most probably the best I'd ever had! Y'see we didn't have Dominoes. Nope, not even one, not on the whole island. Or a Burger King, although this was no great loss to me as I'm a McDonald's gal.

We didn't have rugby, for some reason,and we didn't have silent discos. We didn't have - (snicker) - Organised Football Violence. I only discovered the existence of this utterly bizarre concept in the past couple of days. I don't think I've laughed so hard in ages!

Here's the idea. Some people, right, get into groups based on what football team they support. And, they, like, meet up with other opposing teams. And they fight! They fight each other! Organisedly! They wear special clothes that sound like they make them look like post-apocalyptic gangs! And they fight! Ok, explaining it to you it probably doesn't sound that funny, but I was creasing up. Apparently it's surprising that I've never heard of this phenomenon before.

Anyway, other good things that happened today include buying something very nice and meeting a snake. Fell asleep during Lost round Dan's, so I should get a reasonably early night in order to *gulp* face tomorrow...

Love! x

Oh! And an interesting thing: this man can do things with a sheet of A4 that I couldn't have dreamed of. Truly incredible art.

Every journey starts with a single blog post about how you intend to take a step

Few things are as painful as the horrible realisation of your true self. All the little personality flaws, all the foibles that your closest friends and family know only too well (and like you too much to point out). In fact the only thing I can think of right now that is MORE horrible than that, is when you have to do something about it.

So here, in the privacy of my own public blog, I've decided to confess to a few of my faults with the express intention of weeding them out of my personality.

ONE.
If there is no drama in my life, I will create some. I'm nowhere near as bad as I used to be, with my weekly breakdowns at Soul Cafe where people would need to reassure me about all aspects of my body and personality, but I'm still pretty bad. Take Gavin for example. Occasionally - up to and including this weekend - I'll continue crying at him because it takes a lot more effort to calm down and be rational about things. This is clearly unacceptable.

TWO.
When I say I'll do something, I mean I may or may not and it certainly won't be soon. Despite my many layers of organisation - both an online and physical diary, phone reminders, www.rememberthemilk.com etc. - I still find ways of postponing pretty much everything. This comes down to poor time management; something that I will have to keep very tightly in check when university starts again. If it starts again. Oh God.

THREE.
I must, must, MUST work myself back into sensible sleeping habits. I've seen the wrong side of dawn far too many times in the past week, now being a prime example. If I am to have any hope of catching a worm, ever, I must stop relying on the blackout blind to provide me with an artificial night.

So! You may all bear witness to this pledge to better myself. I shall start tomorrow with a reasonable rising time (i.e. actually in the morning), a healthy breakfast, and a tidying spree.

Why can't I improve myself in a montage? Montages are easy. Rocky got a damn montage.