Thoughts on being a Ginger Thing

Shelving books and Fairy Cakes

Fri, 07 Aug 2009 21:53:52 GMT

Fancy posting something, but I can't think of anything to post. Annoying. At the Sister's at the mo, helping out at the shop techincally as "work experience" but really just voluteering a little. Not too bad, specially as I don't have to be in all day - can go in for a few hours in the afternoon and still have a lie-in in the morning. Mostly spend my time checking the books on offer and destickering them if need be - then reshelving them in the right places. Rather repetitive work but I kinda like that sort of monotonous thing.
Had one book come in that one of the actual workers pointed out to me - the Hummingbird Bakery cookbook. Some of the fairy cakes (or cupcakes as they call them) and large cakes looked so delicious I ended up making some fairy cakes the next day! Brother-in-law helped and we ended up making quite a large batch so he could take some into work for his colleagues! We used green icing and a variety of different sprinkles - they looked pretty good once we'd finished! Planning on making some more this weekend, hopefully can make severeal different colours of icing to mix it up a bit. Sister wants me to make some mango and raspberry rose cupcakes I saw in a community on here but I doubt that'll happen - plain vanilla fairy cakes is about my limit! Talked to Mum on the phone t'other day before we started and she was a little surprised to say the least to hear that I planned on baking. Not really my sort of thing usually.
Ah well, should be a good weekend - Brother-in-law has something planned for Saturday but refuses to say what...bit worried, but should be fun. Then Sunday can be spent making fairy cakes and studying kanji. Look at me being all proactive and whatnot.

Writer's Block: Investigations of a Female Nature

Thu, 23 Jul 2009 00:22:26 GMT

Who is your favorite lady detective from movies, books, or TV?

View 506 Answers

See now, I just had to answer this: Amelia Peabody Emerson. From the Amelia Peabody Emerson book series. First one is Crocodile on a Sandbank I think. Very good - very tongue in cheek. Don't ask me the author, I can't remember. I could of course google it, but myeh.
Bit of background to how I got into this series: my sister lives across the country - which, this being England, is only two hours away - and for the past four or five summers I've gone and stayed with her and my brother-in-law for two/three weeks, helped out in the bookshop my sister works in and generally just spent time with her since I barely see her outside of Christmas and Easter. A couple of years ago I was searching for something to read whilst there, which is too hard as they have a lot of books - not quite as many as our house, but still a substantial collection - and I came across this long series which had a vaguely egyptiany look to them. Finding the first one, I found this was because they were primarially set in - you guessed it - Egypt. A Victorian-Era Egypt. With a female archaeologist as the protaganist. Intriguing, no? Well they were, at least for me. So I started reading. Finished the book. Picked up the second. Before I knew it I was half way through the fifth book and about to go home. Sister says I can take a couple with me. I get home and promptly forget about them - I had also bought several books of my own whilst working in Sister's shop, so I think I can be forgiven. It wasn't until the next summer, when I was back at Sister's, that I remembered this series which I had loved reading. But of course when I remembered which book I was up to, I'd forgotten most of what I had read up to that point. So I had to start again. I had a bit longer to read this time, so I got further. But I still had to go home, and although I took a couple of the next books in the series with me again, within a week I had of course forgotten all about this series. Fast forward another year, and in a weeks time I'll be off to Sister's to stay for another three weeks. Wonder how far I'll get this time? Maybe I'll actually finish reading about Amelia Peabody Emerson's adventures in archaeology in Egypt in the late 19th-early 20th century? Or maybe I'll just start reading another of Sister's many books.
ps I googled it. Elizabeth Peters

More mutterings on life and new fandoms

Sun, 19 Jul 2009 15:01:08 GMT

It would seem that that determination to update a bit more regularly kind of blew up in my face - or just petered out, whichever you want to choose. Anyway, decided that the bio on my profile should be updated since I haven't changed it in over a year and a half maybe even longer. And then I realised that since I was updating the profile, I could also actually post on my journal.
So...went away to Majorca with a friend from uni for a week not long after I got back from uni, then parents went to France for two weeks two days after I got back, so I hadn't really had a chance to spend any time with them in the four weeks after uni finished. But Mum and I went to visit a friend of mine in Sheffield who has just got out of hospital - her life has pretty much sucked continuously for the past two years what with a brain tumour that keeps reappearing - and then saw an old school friend of mums who also lives in Sheffield. Was a good day, specially cause I just got to spend time with mum, which can be quite hard to come by usually.
Anyways, Majorca was good, bloody hot but definitely worth the ridiculous sunburn I got on our first full day there! Occasionally, just occasionally, I do hate being a red head. My friend comes back with this lovely tan all over - I come back with bright pink shoulders and back. Not what I would call fair. Ah well, I accepted my hair colour a long time ago. Shall just have to live with it. Spent a lot of time on the beach, the water was so blue! I know people always come back from these sorts of places saying stuff like that, but I don't think I got just how true it is! Ah now I sound like a holiday brochure. Time to stop I think.
I probably already have too many fandoms that I dabble in - when I say dabble I mean I read fanfiction in them - so when I hear about a new series I really should know better than to watch it, just in case I get hooked. Unfortunately - or fortunately depending on your point of view - I didn't take my own advice this time and gave True Blood a chance. I'd heard about it in various places across the internet, and was wondering how dissimilar it was to Twilight. Very is the answer. I'm not gonna go round proclaiming it as the next best thing after sliced bread, but its pretty watchable, if only cause the accents make me laugh - Sucky indeed. Although I seem to be odd in my preference for Bill - maybe simply because Stephen Moyer is English and I swear I've seen him on British tv somewhere before, and I feel I should support the home team - over Eric. Also, a recycling vampire? Total lolz.
Shall leave it there I think, enough for today at least.

Exams and Post-exams drinking

Fri, 05 Jun 2009 17:53:32 GMT

So...I finished my exams today. I have basically finished my first year. Scary thought. I'm not entirely sure what I should be doing with my time - other than drinking of course - I mean, should I start packing? I've still got another week to go before I go home...although I plan to start packing before that, since Mum'd kill me if she showed up on the Sunday, and everything was still lying everywhere...
Eitherways, exams went well, pretty sure I've passed, though not sure by how much. Society was okay, first essay was better than the second since I could remember more of the information (though I did forget one of the politician's names and I still can't remember what it is now...) but I managed to write an essay so no worries.
Language went okay as well...vocab, kanji and conjugation sections were really easy thank god!! Was panicking over learning all the kanji last night, but they turned out to be fairly simple/easy ones! Grammar sections could have gone better, but there weren't any that I couldn't answer at all. Reading section was piss easy, and I managed to sneak a causative into the writing section!
People are gathering tonight for drinking and fun-times! Ring of fire is a certainty. I have never is a likelihood. Drunken laughter and hijinks are a possibility. Should be fun.

Avoiding Revision...

Mon, 25 May 2009 15:16:43 GMT

...by actually posting on lj. Shock. Hmm, been more than a year - abouts a year and a half as far as I can remember - since I last posted. Not good. Ah well. Nobody to complain about it really is there?
Well, finished sixth form, did okay in a levels, and managed to get into Manchester University to study Japanese - not Edinburgh, like I'd hoped, but just as good, if not better. Not as far from home here! It's nearly the end of my first year, and I can't believe I've only got three weeks left as a fresher - don't want it to end! Suppose it means I'm that much closer to going to Japan. Scary thought - in a year and three months I'll be getting ready to fly over there! Eek!
Revision is starting to get me down and I've only really just started! Japanese is definitely the easiest language I've ever studied, but it's still hard to remember all the different little phrases and expressions that we've been taught. I don't even remember learning half of these. Ah well, hopefully, after I'm done with all my notes I'll be better equipped to get them all learnt. I should probably get my society notes done as well...
Other than the fun of revision, life is pretty good at the moment - made a great group of friends, which I think was my biggest worry about coming to uni. Going to spain for a week just after we break up with one of mates I met here - definitely going to be a fun week! Plus, it's my birthday the weekend we break up so there'll hopefully be stuff happening that week!
Ah, I should probably get back to writing about tsumori desu and doko kani/doko nimo...

Sun, 20 Jan 2008 17:28:37 GMT

Huh....eight weeks...I'm tempted to leave it til next week just so's its nine weeks and a new record. Buuuuut...I can't be arsed so here it is!
Erm, of course this only works if I have something to say. Well its January which means some of us have exams - both resits and new modules! - don't you just love upper sixth? I really shouldn't complain though, I've only got two (one french resit and a new chemistry module) whereas my friend Lesley has had eight overall. Poor girl. Well, at least I've got the French out of the way though, and it didn't go as badly as it could have; I can't decide if it went better than in the summer or not. I don't think it went worse though; I suppose I should be grateful I didn't come out this time going 'Oh crap...'. Bleh, I hate French essays, I can never decide if my grammar is right, or if I'm just ignoring all the really stupid mistakes like putting 'à les' or 'de le', cause I have been known to do this, like a complete idiot. (Not that people who do this are all idiots, I completely understand if you've been learning the language for less than a year, but I've been learning it for seven!!)
Anyways, that exams over and there's no point in getting worked up and stressy over it until March, when I get my results. Of course, that doesn't mean that I can't stress over Chemistry, which I have in approximately...ooo...ten days. We've been doing past papers in lessons since way before Christmas, and I'm lucky that we have such an awesome teacher, unfortunately all the brilliant teaching in the world will not help if I can't get the stupid delocalisation of electrons in the Benzene ring thing to fit in my head right.
...
Anyway....
I was tempted to have a bit of a fandom rant, but I really can't work up the energy, so maybe tomorrow, or next week (pff yeah, that's gonna happen)...But I think I might go update my profile a bit...I have a feeling that my favourites is sadly empty...
Oh and I'm really sad - I'm listening to High School Musical...bleh now I hate myself even more...

Thu, 22 Nov 2007 20:11:36 GMT

Ok...so it would seem that I haven't posted anything in quite a while...and by that I mean nearly a month! Oh dear...
So, where to begin? Well that job I mentioned? Still got it, even though I already want to quit. Badly. God, I mean, I know it's money and everything, which I kinda badly need right now due to the impending major holiday and the multitudes of presents I have to buy for friends and family, but God damn it, its got to the point where I'm dreading going to work, and I nearly cried last weekend when I got a phone call like an hour before I had to be in, telling me I didn't. Have to be in. These were tears of joy and relief understand. So yeah, work = no love.
Hmmm...what else...well I kinda know what I want to write about now, but I have no idea how to bring it up. Well, if I'm gonna do this, I may as well do it the clichéd way: there's this guy. Name of Robin, and while he won't be winning any Brad Pitt look-a-like contests any time soon, he's so - I don't want to say 'nice' cause that's like the kiss-of-death nowadays isn't it? But its the closest I can think of at the moment so lets just leave it like that for now. We get on really well, and he's becoming so easy to talk to, it's kinda scary.
So here's the problem: he has no idea. Not a one. And I have no clue what to do next. I can't ask him out myself cause a) he broke up with his first serious girlfriend of about a year and a half, like a month ago and b) the moment I start to even think about how I would go about it, my heart starts beating so hard I swear it's gonna come right out of my chest and land on the keyboard in front of me.
And I really don't see him ever asking me out, not only because of reason a above, but also cause, even if he did like me like that, I don't think he realises that I like him like that too.
God I feel like a year 7.
So maybe I should move onto less depressing topics...like..well, ok it would seem that my life is of the depressing variety at the moment. Crappy job, lack of love life, two exams (one resit and one new module) coming up in January, soon to be desparate need to buy presents for peoples, and a whole butload of other crap...
Oh fun...
Well I suppose there is one slight happy bit in the whole crap of I-like-boy-who doesn't-like-me thing - I still get this tingly thing in my chest whenever I know I'm gonna see him, and I'm still really happy whenever I am around him.
God, I'm such a sap.

Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary...

Tue, 23 Oct 2007 13:02:31 GMT

I am cynical. I decided this last night, as I was laying in bed, tring to get to sleep. I am deeply cynical about the behaviour of most other people. I'm constantly watching to find an alternative reason for how they act, or what they say. I'm always on guard for a hidden meaning in whatever anyone says to me; I tend to take offence quite easily as I can see insults in anything.
And yet, I'm still a romantic. I still believe in True Love, and even if I don't think we all have just that one person out there in the world somewhere, who is our perfect partner, our other half, I do believe that two people can belong together.
So once I realised this about myself - that I am, indeed a complete contradiction, blending cynicism and romanticism - I started to realise my personality contains several other contradictions. I'm a mixture of vanity and low self-esteem. I can flicker between optimism and pessimism several times a day. And I can change from being bright and happy, to being a right moody sod in the blink of an eye.
This is quite worrying, and I'm wondering if I should go see my doctor and ask about possible medications...maybe I'm bi-polar....

Anyways...onto slightly less depressing and pointless topic - I have a job! Started it about three weeks ago, and its only one of those part time, waitress jobbies, but its a job and it means money (even if it is a really crap, £3.40 an hour cause I'm only 17...bastards). First night was a bit trying, cause I thought it would be training - you know, a couple of hours of being shown where everything is, and what I would be doing. Five hours later, I'm going home with really sore feet and a headache cause of all the smoke and heat in the kitchen...

Crap..I've got to go...hmm I'll come post more on this later...

Sat, 06 Oct 2007 14:08:46 GMT

Damn....i really should update this again...but since life has been a bit here and there for the past few weeks, I've only just realised that I haven't updated in nearly two months! *gasp*

Am back at school now, and getting back into the swing of things...this year has actually been kinda weird so far, cause my friend Jenny and I have been spending our free periods in the library. And actually doing work I mean. Last year we mostly went and sat in the old school house (which is like the original bit of the school that was used it opened way back when - 1920 or something) which had radiators we could put our feet on, and no teachers ever came and checked what we were doing. Therefore we could sit there drinking hot chocolate from bakers oven (in the winter) and bitching about whatever (or alternatively sitting there with our books out, so we felt we were actually doing something, not our fault we got sidetracked all the time =P )
So where was I? Oh yeah, this year we couldnt be bothered to walk to the end of the sixth form garden to the house, so we've resorted to going to the library. And since the librarian (who was actually in hospital for the first three weeks of term) is back and as bitchy as ever, we can't talk. So we work. It's a new and interesting sensation to not have homework to do the night before it's due in. Apart from French of course, but thats a tradition now to do it in the morning when i have the lesson that afternoon. This means I often find myself at a loose end in the evenings...and I have no idea where this is going...
Hmmm....I feel a bit of a bill with like one friend on here...maybe I should go friend more people. Trouble is I'm actually kinda shy about stuff like that, and I don't like to think I'm opposing on someone by asking if I can friend them. Is it acceptable lj etiquette to just ask someone out of the blue if you can friend someone? Or is there some sort of process to go through before it's considered polite...also, while I'm asking (not that anyone is likely to answer, but hey its worth a shot) if i want to nab an icon from a community or some such, how do i credit? and do i just save the picture to my computer, then add it to my images later?

Well now, I think I'll go search for friends...does that make me sound like a sociopath or something?

Schnerfulgrargh

Tue, 14 Aug 2007 10:14:53 GMT

Ok, don't know why, but I'm feeling a bit...schnerfulgrargh...you know? Not entirely with it, and like...well I'm not sure...it's been a weird day...well no it hasn't, it's been a perfectly ordinary, boring day, but I feel really...restless? Yeah that sounds about right.
I have no idea why I'm doing this, I just feel like writing. Well I think I'm mostly nervous about results day on thursday (thank god I'm not in upper sixth, I would actually be peeing myself - I'm really not looking forward to next year!) but also, I'm going to stay with my sister in Coventry at the weekend, which I'm really looking forward to..I really have no idea where this is going to....
Ok so now I'm just gonna get pissed off with not only youtube for not loading, but my computer as well, for being really, really, REALLY slow. Goddamn thing, work already! Alright, fine, don't then! I'll just plug my mp3 in, instead! Arse.
Anyways, on a happier note, I did finally get those three manga I've been wanting for ages - Matthew's mate went into nottingham t'other day and got them for me (ain't he a sweety!). So yeah, I kinda stayed up late last night reading vol. 4 of Tsubasa! Yay! I'll finish vol. 6 later today, but I have a friend coming round so it'll have to be this evening...don't mind really, I get to hang out with Jenny, with whom I get incredibly hyper (no seriously, we do get a bit stupid, especially if we have too much sugar/chocolate/ice cream (Yes I'm aware that sugar is in both of those other things but you know..))
And now I can't think of anything else to say, so I'll go....Bye!

Well Hello

Sat, 11 Aug 2007 11:21:55 GMT

Huh...well I've finally pushed myself into actually starting one of these...and now i have no idea what to write...
This is rather an odd occurrence, since I'm what is often called a "Chatterbox". Seriously. I don't shut up until forced to. Well, I suppose the first thing to do would be to say a little something about myself. My names Carys and I live in one of the most unacknowledged parts of the UK, Lincolnshire. Not hard to understand WHY its unacknowledged, since there is little here besides the castle and cathedral up on the hill in Lincoln...and that's it...I made my obligatory visit to each when i was little and i don't think I've been back since...
Ok, so some other stuff about me is that I'm 17 and about to go into year 13/Upper Sixth Form/my last year of high school; I'm also panicking slightly, cause i get my AS results on thursday =S this is kinda worrying cause i really have no idea what I've got and i need good grades to be able to do what i want at uni (Japanese by the by, hopefully at Edinburgh).
I'm not really sure what else to say...if anybody out there does actually read this (ha!) send us a comment! Make me feel wanted =D
Ok, I'm done.