Home with my wonderful, wonderful mum and incredibly happy about it!
I haven't even unpacked yet and I have already bought more clothes...
Saturday, 5 April 2014
Thursday, 3 April 2014
Temporary goodbyes
Today saw my last day of lectures before our four-week long Easter break. I am so, so ready to go home! I'll have to spend the month revising, because exams start two weeks after we return to Keele in May, but I still can't wait. I am ready to have more than a two day break from filthy kitchens, busy days of either constant company or unadulterated lonely existence in my room without any real in-between, fantastic lectures interspersed with awful ones, and the noise of nights out, whether I'm participating in them or not. I love it here, but I miss home, and everything that means. I am ready to go back to baths, bookcases, fireplaces, sofas, dining chairs instead of benches, televisions, and the companionship of my mother.
What I am not ready for but have had to face today is the temporary goodbyes that come with extended holidays. Today I said goodbye to my Thursday regulars: Ian, Danielle and Amanda, with whom I have spent almost every Thursday lunch time of this semester, and with whom I only have two weeks of time left before they go back to America for good. They are all off travelling this Easter, so will undoubtedly return as slightly different people, meaning that I just said a very real goodbye (for good) to my friends as they are now. I am currently struggling with two warring sides of myself: one is angry that I broke my rule of not befriending people that will have to leave before I am ready to say goodbye, and one is sad but accepting that good friendships and happy days are worth a little heartbreak.
I also just said my temporary goodbye to Becky, which made me a little sad. I'll see her after Easter as well, and will probably meet up with her in the summer, but she is studying abroad for semester one next year and so I'm going to have to learn how to get through bad literature seminars without her for a few months.
Apologies for being sentimental, and overly easily attached.
After all the goodbyes and talk of leaving today, I can't help thinking about how interconnected time and relationships are. Timing, length of time, whichever is relevant. What would happen if some friendships were given more time to develop? How would it develop? Would it end or flourish, or maybe even turn into something more?
Some of my friendships, e.g Cheryl and I, have endured and indeed flourished over the years, but others that began around the same time have crashed and burned and been lost completely. Others were cut short, others were obviously given too much time. But it is impossible, I think, to tell what would happen for each relationship. I expected to stay friends with a lot of people from high school, but I've now lost touch with the majority of them. At the same time, some have unexpectedly endured. What would my friendship with each of the Americans be like if we had another semester or year together? Sometimes there just isn't a fair amount of time given to us with the people that matter. We'd all be very different people if certain relationships were given more or less time to fulfill their potential. I wonder if what makes me sad about the Americans going so soon is actually all the lost potential.
Anywho, time to stop drizzling and start getting excited to go home! I'm so genuinely desperate to go that I'm not even daunted by the fact that I have to pack up my entire uni life and move out tomorrow! (33 week contracts, man -.-).
Plus it's only 8 days until I go to Cornwall with gorgeous George and wonderful mum <3 Oh to be by the sea!
I have rough plans to meet up with friends, and I cannot contain my excitement to finally be reunited with Cheryl after god knows how long!
See you soon, friends, we shan't be having any goodbyes here.
Tuesday, 1 April 2014
Week 10?!
Over a month after my last post, I am to be found sitting in the library opposite my brilliant (and recently self-declared 'educated hillbilly') friend Ian, totally failing to finish editing my short story. Why? Because editing creative work is a genuine never ending cycle of doubt, self-criticism, and the painful murdering of my so-called 'darlings'. Plus this piece is so damn political that I feel like I'm tiptoeing around my own characters.
It doesn't help that today saw the last seminar of my Fiction Through Practice module, so unless my seminar leader starts replying to my emails I am totally alone with this thing.
So while Ian jets off on his fantastical tour of Europe in our Easter holiday month, not only will I be undeniably jealous but I will be sludging my way through countless edits as well as my other final assessments.
I have one question about this. Where the heck has my first year at uni gone?
I know it's not quite over yet, but the speed with which I am being propelled through life right now is super crazy. I have made so many great friends, particularly this semester, and it totally sucks that I won't see them as often after this year. Lucky I will still get to live with a good portion of my closest friends next year, and I'll see some course-mates again in next year's modules, but there's no guarantee that we'll all be able to get together as often as we'd like. Two of my closest friends here - Elliot and Becky - are both jetting off to do a semester of studying abroad, and I genuinely have no idea how I'm going to get through semester one of year two without them. What's even worse is that it's entirely possible that I'll never see the Americans again, and that is not okay.
So much has happened, and so many changes have taken place - even just since my last post on here.
I don't even know half of what's going on the real world because I can't watch the news and am trying to avoid the depression that would set in upon reading a newspaper. There's plenty of drama in the Keele bubble to keep me satisfied.
One thing that I am aware of, and which you all know really matters to me, is that same sex marriages are now legal here! If y'all aren't jumping for joy then you should be. Love is love, and the way that people show love shouldn't forcibly depend on the gender of their loved one.
On that happy note, I'm going to go and get some dinner, because 7.28pm in the library without food is not okay.
I will genuinely try super hard to remember to blog again properly later, but in case I forget: Stay cool, love who you love, and celebrate the awesomeness of life at every opportunity.
It doesn't help that today saw the last seminar of my Fiction Through Practice module, so unless my seminar leader starts replying to my emails I am totally alone with this thing.
So while Ian jets off on his fantastical tour of Europe in our Easter holiday month, not only will I be undeniably jealous but I will be sludging my way through countless edits as well as my other final assessments.
I have one question about this. Where the heck has my first year at uni gone?
I know it's not quite over yet, but the speed with which I am being propelled through life right now is super crazy. I have made so many great friends, particularly this semester, and it totally sucks that I won't see them as often after this year. Lucky I will still get to live with a good portion of my closest friends next year, and I'll see some course-mates again in next year's modules, but there's no guarantee that we'll all be able to get together as often as we'd like. Two of my closest friends here - Elliot and Becky - are both jetting off to do a semester of studying abroad, and I genuinely have no idea how I'm going to get through semester one of year two without them. What's even worse is that it's entirely possible that I'll never see the Americans again, and that is not okay.
So much has happened, and so many changes have taken place - even just since my last post on here.
I don't even know half of what's going on the real world because I can't watch the news and am trying to avoid the depression that would set in upon reading a newspaper. There's plenty of drama in the Keele bubble to keep me satisfied.
One thing that I am aware of, and which you all know really matters to me, is that same sex marriages are now legal here! If y'all aren't jumping for joy then you should be. Love is love, and the way that people show love shouldn't forcibly depend on the gender of their loved one.
On that happy note, I'm going to go and get some dinner, because 7.28pm in the library without food is not okay.
I will genuinely try super hard to remember to blog again properly later, but in case I forget: Stay cool, love who you love, and celebrate the awesomeness of life at every opportunity.
Sunday, 23 February 2014
More emotion.
Sorry for potentially turning you into the emotional wreck that I am today, but this is also important. And brilliantly put.
Hunting Season
This is what my next short fiction piece is about, I'll post it up when I've finished it and handed it in to my tutor.
Sunday, 9 February 2014
Writing
So in case y'all didn't know, I am currently at Keele University reading English with Creative Writing and I therefore do a lot of reading and writing.
Last semester for a 'Poetry through Practice' module, we were asked to write a poem per fortnight and submit them in a portfolio at the end of the module.
This semester, I have a 'Fiction through Practice' module that requires me to write 500 words of short fiction per week, leading up to a 2,500-3,000 word short story to be handed in at the end of the module.
A few of the people on my course have been putting their work up on their blogs, so I figure I might do the same, if that's alright with you guys?
I hope you enjoy it, and please feel free to comment on any of it - constructive criticism is just as good as praise people! :)
<3
N.B.
1. Reading list has been updated. Don't be disappointed in me! I know it's only another 4 or so crossed off, but I have also read: Moll Flanders, Cranford, Mrs Dalloway, (half of) The Hours, The Merchant of Venice, Oroonoko, The Measures Taken, The Island (Byron), The Island (from The Township Plays), Wuthering Heights (again -_-), and excessive amounts of poetry, all for my first semester at Uni. I finished The Tempest, which is the first play for this semester, last night. On top of all that, I have read The Mortal Instruments series up to about half way through book four, and I recently read and reviewed the manuscript of Moonfall by Vanessa Morton, which is being published soon-ish.
So please don't be disappointed in me for only crossing off another four from my reading list!! D:
2. Taking dictaphone notes from my Fiction seminar last week - seminar leader comments he keeps coming back to the idea of writing about someone who wakes up with their legs on fire.... Doubt any of us will be falling asleep in class any time soon...
Last semester for a 'Poetry through Practice' module, we were asked to write a poem per fortnight and submit them in a portfolio at the end of the module.
This semester, I have a 'Fiction through Practice' module that requires me to write 500 words of short fiction per week, leading up to a 2,500-3,000 word short story to be handed in at the end of the module.
A few of the people on my course have been putting their work up on their blogs, so I figure I might do the same, if that's alright with you guys?
I hope you enjoy it, and please feel free to comment on any of it - constructive criticism is just as good as praise people! :)
<3
N.B.
1. Reading list has been updated. Don't be disappointed in me! I know it's only another 4 or so crossed off, but I have also read: Moll Flanders, Cranford, Mrs Dalloway, (half of) The Hours, The Merchant of Venice, Oroonoko, The Measures Taken, The Island (Byron), The Island (from The Township Plays), Wuthering Heights (again -_-), and excessive amounts of poetry, all for my first semester at Uni. I finished The Tempest, which is the first play for this semester, last night. On top of all that, I have read The Mortal Instruments series up to about half way through book four, and I recently read and reviewed the manuscript of Moonfall by Vanessa Morton, which is being published soon-ish.
So please don't be disappointed in me for only crossing off another four from my reading list!! D:
2. Taking dictaphone notes from my Fiction seminar last week - seminar leader comments he keeps coming back to the idea of writing about someone who wakes up with their legs on fire.... Doubt any of us will be falling asleep in class any time soon...
Wednesday, 5 February 2014
'Neck nominations'
This is how my wonderful university is responding to the 'neck nomination' craze, and I think it's brilliant!
I have helped my friend Elliot do his good deed today, and I am challenging all of my gorgeous followers to have a go at this if you get nominated for a 'neck nomination'.
Spread the love :)
The Famous Brother
Unpublished post from yonks ago:
There is something very disconcerting in reading an article about one's own brother.
For that moment, the interviewer is not only with him while I am not, but they are then more informed about his current life than I am.
When I was born, my brother was 14 years old and already a budding chef. Almost 18 years later, he is the Executive Pastry Chef et Le Bernardin in New York. Not only that, but he was recently named one of the top pastry chefs in New York. Pretty darn cool, right?
I am so, so proud of him, and so very happy for him. He truly deserves to be recognised for the hard work that he has consistently put in to every aspect of his work. But... he's my brother. And despite the many articles and interviews with him(I have officially lost count), I am still disconcerted by the way they write about the man who used to read me stories and sit me up on a chair next to him as he made his class-A meringues.
The articles are filled with delicious and beautifully presented dishes, which - despite direct experience of Laurie's creations during my childhood - continually astonish mum and I every time we see them. Not that we doubt him, but seriously, have you seen this stuff?! How does a human being do anything this cool?
There is something very disconcerting in reading an article about one's own brother.
For that moment, the interviewer is not only with him while I am not, but they are then more informed about his current life than I am.
When I was born, my brother was 14 years old and already a budding chef. Almost 18 years later, he is the Executive Pastry Chef et Le Bernardin in New York. Not only that, but he was recently named one of the top pastry chefs in New York. Pretty darn cool, right?
I am so, so proud of him, and so very happy for him. He truly deserves to be recognised for the hard work that he has consistently put in to every aspect of his work. But... he's my brother. And despite the many articles and interviews with him(I have officially lost count), I am still disconcerted by the way they write about the man who used to read me stories and sit me up on a chair next to him as he made his class-A meringues.
The articles are filled with delicious and beautifully presented dishes, which - despite direct experience of Laurie's creations during my childhood - continually astonish mum and I every time we see them. Not that we doubt him, but seriously, have you seen this stuff?! How does a human being do anything this cool?
But this is Laurie we are talking about. And he is the king of cool. The rest of our family are just weirdos.
Oh balderdash.
I really am shit at this blogging deal, aren't I?
Well, fuckledoodledoo to me.
Sorry.
Sincerest apologies for all my mega-failings.
I hope y'all are enjoying life.
I will try to remember to blog soon.
Honest.
Well, fuckledoodledoo to me.
Sorry.
Sincerest apologies for all my mega-failings.
I hope y'all are enjoying life.
I will try to remember to blog soon.
Honest.
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