The Twiglet Zone

Intriguing question (well, intriguing to someone who is trying to avoid work):
Are Laz and Lucy in fact the same person?
Has anyone ever seen them in the same room together?
Does anyone else display the same bizarre behavioural patterns?
Discuss

Are any of you aware that High Wycombe has its very own, fairly hefty Wikipedia page?

Yes yes, I'm working.

I love this quote: 'Quite surprisingly for a town in "Leafy Buckinghamshire" Wycombe contains some considerably deprived areas.' Heh. On the other hand, Amersham Hill is supported by one of the largest retaining walls in Europe AND we are the only place IN THE WORLD that weighs its mayors. Ooh.

Happy 2007 everyone, hope you all had a good new year involving champagne, conga lines and compulsory nakedness. I know I did.

Can't believe we are already 7 years into the 21st century. What happened to all this futuristic space-age robotic malarkey we were promised? I am most disappointed.


1. What did you do in 2006 that you'd never done before?
Failed a driving test, passed a driving test, went travelling on my own, went skinny dipping, went cavern diving, went white water rafting, flew in a helicopter, completed a 5 hour hike (two, in fact), kept a strict budget for 8 months then blew every last cent of my spending money, went to university, moved out of my parents’ house, voluntarily drank beer.
2. Did you keep your new years' resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
Um, no. Quite tempted not to make any this year. I want to give blood at some point, but I’m not allowed to for another 5 months. That doesn’t really count as a resolution. Learn to juggle.
3. Did anyone close to you give birth?
Nikki Berg, but then I havn’t seen her in at least a year, and my second cousin Bethan, but I havn’t seen her in about 6.
4. Did anyone close to you die?
No.
5. What countries did you visit?
Czech Republic, Mexico, United States of America (twice :D).
6. What would you like to have in 2007 that you lacked in 2006?
A dance class to go to. I miss dancing.
7. What date from 2006 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
14th of May, when I started my trip.
8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
Saving up enough and getting everything organised to go travelling. And going on my own I suppose, everyone kept telling me I was very brave. And passing my driving test. Woot.
9. What was your biggest failure?
Getting a referral on one of my first units at uni. Oh shit.
10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
No. Did get stung on the boob by jellyfish larvae though. Lucky me.
11. What was the best thing you bought?
My holiday this summer.
12. Whose behaviour merited celebration?
Everyone. I’m feeling generous.
13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?
I don't really remember being angry at anyone this year.
14. Where did most of your money go?
15 weeks of shooting off around America.
15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?
This should be obvious by now.
16. What song will always remind you of 2006?
My summer didn’t have songs, it had playlists. Sweet Home Alabama for the Northern Trail tour and Crazy for Southern Sun.
17. Compared to this time last year, are you:
i. happier or sadder?
bout the same.
ii. thinner or fatter?
put on about a stone over the summer, but I’ve lost it all again walking everywhere in Bournemouth.
iii. richer or poorer?
Poorer – in student loan territory now.
18. What do you wish you'd done more of?
Wish I could’ve taken more time off work to go visit friends at uni.
19. What do you wish you'd done less of?
Nothing.
20. How will you be spending/did you spend Christmas?
At home with my family, my grandparents and, for the morning, my brother’s boyfriend. Apperntly the grandparents have accepted that the 2 year relationship means Jack probably isn’t just going through a phase.
21. How will you be spending/did you spend New Year's Eve?
Went up to Nottingham, murder capital of Britain to conga through the streets. Oh yeah.
22. Did you fall in love in 2006?
No, I am bitter and alone. Couples. Bah.
23. How many one-night stands?
Oh, millions, I’m a complete ho bag.
24. What was your favorite TV program?
Planet Earth.
25. Do you hate anyone now that you didn't hate this time last year?
Nope.
26. What was the best book you read?
The Master and Margarita.
27. What was your greatest musical discovery?
That Andy, Andy, Drew and Nick are not half bad. I’d only ever heard them playing drunk before.
28. What did you want and get?
Driving licence. Now, all I have to do is find a decent car with a full MOT lying in a ditch somewhere…
29. What are you looking forward to in 2007?
Might be going to the Red Sea for my 21st!
30. What was your favorite film of this year?
Uh…I can’t even remember what I’ve seen. Let’s say Borat. A fine example of classic cinematography.
31. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
20, went up to London to see Martha, started drinking cocktails at about 5pm cos I had to make sure I got the last train home.
32.What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
Mind-blowing sex on tap. Other than that it's been fairly satisfying.
33. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2006?
Sun-bleached hair and a tan. Well, compared to my usual vampiric look. And apparently I look like Lara Croft in my shorts and walking boots.
34. What kept you sane?
Havn’t had anything to drive me insane. What a boring year.
35. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?
Um. I can’t think of anyone. How strange.
36. What political issue stirred you the most?
Not sure it counts as political, but the Planet Earth footage of the polar bear swimming around trying to find some solid ice left.
37. Who did you miss?
No one. I was on my own for 3 and a half months and didn’t even miss my mother. I am a cold and heartless bitch.
38. Who was the best new person you met?
My new housemates, who are pretty top notch considering I didn’t have a house in September and had to grab the first thing that came along. Actually, they’re top notch anyway.
39. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2006:
Worrying is like a rocking chair – it gives you something to do, but it doesn’t get you anywhere.
40. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year:
Lord only knows what kind of poison I’m drinking, I can’t read the label. So I’ll just dance off my cares like Fred Astaire, up here on the table.

Just came back from an extended family Christmas dinner, which was...fun. Was going ok until the obligatory trip to the nursing home to visit Grandma, where we arrived to the tune of 'Oh good, the carol singers are here'. God knows where they got the idea, but the care workers had somehow got it into their heads that we had come to give the old biddies a concert and they'd gathered them all around a piano to listen to us. And then they abandoned us with them. I seriously think they were terrified. One of the white afro brigade slipped off her chair unnoticed and started shouting about how poor we were and the token moaning guy tried to hide inside his jumper. Or strip. Not sure.

My throat is killing me now - I'm sure I sounded like a little boy whose voice was breaking throughout, but I'm fairly sure I got drowned out. Luckily most of the olds were either asleep or too sedated to notice anything, including us singing O Little Town of Bethlehem to the tune of Hark The Herald Angels Sing. It actually works surprisingly well until you get to the last line and realise you've run out of words to fit the music.

My parents have bought an ass car.

Dad came to pick me up from Bournemouth last night and in my hazy state (through illness and sleep deprivation, not alcohol, sadly) I didn't notice that the Renault Scenic had died a tragic death until I dragged my suitcase around to the shapely behind of a Megane. I had that stupid ass shaking song in my head the whole way back.

Home is weird. I can't remember where anything is. I just spent 5 minutes looking for a teatowel.

Wheeee! I'm in New York! Again! I love this city!

Admittedly I havn't actually done any sightseeing again, and aside from one compulsory museum all I've done so far is shop, but hey, that's not a bad thing is it. I don't know why New York turns me into such a shopaholic. There's no way I'd spend this much at home. I went into the sock shop in Macy's yesterday intending to buy one pair and came out with six. Oops. Most of my shopping has been christmas presents though, so that's ok.

We're off to see the Radio City Christmas Spectacular starring the Rockettes, AKA an hour and a half of supreme cheesy campitude. Oh yes, it will be marvellous. We are then going to meet the costume supervisor on Wicked, and rounding off the day with a trip to Toys R Us. I wish I had a proper excuse for this, like a young sibling or cousin, but sadly it's just because I want to see the giant T-Rex. Yes, I am 20 years old.

Meh, can't think of anything else to say and have to go navigate the subway in heels soon which should be fun. Ta ta chucks.

Unit one deadline and unit two presentation over! Yay! Went off to celebrate yesterday by paying some guy to abuse my tender untouched flesh (I got my nose pierced, I didn't hire a gigolo...although given the extreme hotness of the piercist that may not have been such a bad idea.) I'm currently playing the see how long it takes my housemates to notice game. Steve clicked in about 30 seconds but none of the other guys have said anything (and Sarah has disappeared off the face of the planet again). I'll give them another couple of days.

Finally got back into normal sleeping patterns after heading back into all-nighter territory for the end of unit one, though I did have to get up at half FIVE this morning to go to London. Ugh. Better be worth it. I am expecting a very good week after the acres of shite last week. Oh yeah, never got round to saying on Monday - went in for the film presentation and they lost our film. Not only was it not sent to the judges, but when they said they'd play it anyway they found the tape was blank. All that work and voluntary sleep deprivation for nothing. Damn. Oh well, our film students didn't stop arguing with each other till about two thirds in, so it was bollocks compared to everyone else.

Will get my photos sorted later and bore you all with tales of my weekend in Bristol. I am sure you're on the edge of your seats.

Less then a month til Christmas!

Gah. Only 6 days til unit deadline. Yes, Ok, I'm well aware most of you are in third year and therefore have much bigger fish to fry, but sod it I'm allowed to be stressed. I've been here a mere month and a half and have already fallen into bad habits of leaving everything til the last minute. To be fair though, this unit is boring as hell, just endless samples and 'fundamental skills'. Currently spending my evening drawing hands. Yay.

In other news, I did manage to survive the film challenge, which was hellish for the first half, but fantastic for the second half. Didn't have much to do in the way of costume (lucky, since all I had to go on was my wardrobe for an actress who was thankfully the same size as me) and all the costume changes got cut out by the end anyway, but for the last bit of filming I took over some of the directing - we forcibly put the director to bed at this point since he was sitting in the hallway banging his head against the wall - and I did quite a bit of the editing too, which I discovered I really love. Editing is so fun! Why am I doing costume? Was a lot more sane at the end of it than when I did an all-nighter for Alevel textiles, my half hour powernap after breakfast was beautiful and meant I didn't feel tired at the end of it at all. Did stay in bed til 2 on Sunday though. I think the finished films are going online on Monday if anyone is interested to see the monstrosity we created.

Other than that my week has been...fairly uneventful. Juggling still great fun, can't wait for Britol this weekend, bit nervous about Tristan driving us all back the next day though. Started life drawing on Tuesday, not bad, but did of course get the obligatory old fat man to draw, which is always fun, especially when you notice the little details like 'oh my god, his butt is actually draping over the edge of that stool'

I would like to take this moment to remind myself that I do actually like my housemates, despite the fact that they all went out without me on thursday, came back and woke me up at 4 and (this is the highlight) managed to lock me out. Ugh. We had our locks changed unexpectedly on Thursday morning and I was working late and got a text saying 'we're all going out, we've left the back door unlocked and your new key is on the coffee table'. Yes, they thoughtfully had left the back door unlocked, yes, my new key was sitting neat and tidy on the coffee table, unfortunately, the back gate was locked and I had forgotten my trusty ladder so I couldn't actually get to the back door. Hmm. Ah well, I will just close my eyes and imagine I'm living with a group of tasty male strippers, as Laz and Alix seem to believe.

I havn't bothered to update in four months. Did anyone actually notice that? I'll pretend nothing happened.

So...as you all know from my regular updates, I've been at uni just over a month, I have no money left from America, I have no job, my parents buggered off to Australia as soon as they got rid of me,my father has been quad-biking, my mother has been shark diving, and I am not jealous in the slightest.

Unit 1 almost over, only 2 weeks till the deadline ( when the hell did that happen? I only just started here!), but I should be ok to gt it finished in time, then we get to finally start some proper designing :D Am going to celebrate by hoovering my floor for the first time since I moved in. Oh yes, it will be a momentous occasion.

Told myself I would join silly amounts of clubs and societies once I started uni, but so far I've been kinda lazy and only been to one synchro session (to be fair I did get hit with freshers flu straight afterwards), and signed up for juggling last week. Thankfully, there is no need for me to have any handeye coordination skills whatsoever as i have completely bypassed the juggling balls and decided I am to become a master of poi instead. Believe me, this is a good thing. So long as the strings don't break and no one walks too close to me the only person I can injure is myself. And hey, even if i suck at it, they don't object to me coming up to the Bristol convention on the 25th for the sole purpose of getting hammered in unfamiliar environments. Anyone up in Bristol fancy meeting me?



Yes I mean you.



I'm trying to work out at te moment whether I'm excited or a little bit scared about what I've signed up for tonight. I have to trek back into uni later this evening for the 24 hour film challenge, sadly not, as my housemates thought, 24 hours of watching films, where no one will notice if you fall asleep, but a challenge to be put into a group of complete strangers, receive a mystery brief and produce a film in 24 hours. Including today's full day in the studios that makes an awake time of 42 hours. 31 to go. It seemed like a good idea at the time.

I will report back on Monday if I survive.

hey all, just sitting in the hotel in san francisco (hotel! proper bed! hot shower! tv!) San Fran is lovely, don't wanna leave, but we're off to Yosemite NP in about 20 minutes.
Trek America is so much fun, despite camping with no pillow, all the people I'm travelling with are so much fun. Went to my first baseball game yesterday, which I didn't really get, and I think the team I was supporting lost, but it was still great, plus we had a barbecue in the parking lot for added glamour.
Ok, off to burn of the horrendous amounts of food I've been eating with a good hike now