PROLIFIC†ION

Let's Talk About...

2012-03-04T10:17:00.002-08:00

Question: Guess who got completely wasted on Friday?
Answer: Me.

To sum it up, I temporarily forgot - as I tend to do quite a lot unfortunately - that I am a 5foot4 female with a low alcohol tolerance and downed almost a litre of vodka in a ridiculously short amount of time. There is luckily little pictorial evidence that I have seen thus far but this exciting adventure ended up with me waking up at 8 the next day utterly confused, before remembering I hadn't even made it to the foam party.

(Observation: It's always foam/UV/paint parties I never make it to slash don't do well in. Seeing a pattern here. I shouldn't be allowed.)

So, after evaluating my life choices and writing up drinking rules for myself -

(NEW DRINKING RULES
1. No drinking on an empty stomach
2. NO downing drinks (no is underlined three times,)
3. < 1L of vodka please.
FAILURE TO KEEP THESE RULES ~~MAY~~ WILL (Joe told me to add this change,) RESULT IN SPENDING THE NEXT DAY WITH SELF-HATRED, ANNOYANCE AND SHAME.
THIS IS A WARNING.) -

Anyway, needless to say, I behaved myself on saturday night - skool dayz - and skool dayz should really get its own tag on here because I pretty much work at every one. It's always good fun, but the most exciting part was that magic Anson had come down to Warwick for a visit!

(Can I just pull a very typical Laura and go way back off topic and say ALSO, I lost my phone Friday but I called them and they had it so I picked it up earlier today and I am happy now.)

Stunning and aweing audiences everywhere. Pretty much gave a show and impressed the hell out of my hallmates at lunch earlier today. And also me. I was very impressed despite having seen him defy logic and real life so many times.

Few groups of people I knew milling around, so I was back to socialising self... and of course, there reached the point in the night where i thought fuck it about work and just got reduced to self-camming with people I know. I am such a shameless poser and it makes me sad.

This is like a weird deja vu because I have an almost identical photo from the first skool dayz we went to, which is a bit sad. :(

Took so long to find Megan because I was without phone. Typical girly yelling at each other in excitement when I finally located them at the end of the night.

Oh yeah - me and Jonno also worked Pop! I was desperately bored when I first got there, but after we showed up, we went up on stage and chilled with the DJ, who also got us all to do the macarena up on stage. Not sure what came over me that I agreed to that, to be honest...

Lucinda and Chris were only there for 10 minutes, hah. Should mention, we played the meme-face drinking game which is pretty much a death trap for girls. Especially after I'd made my new rules so I treaded carefully. I was in a nice bubbly state so that was all fine.

So, this week:

I don't know what I did on monday. Probably nothing special.
Or Tuesday.
Or Wednesday. Except for working at Pop! Oh yeah. I finally did the thing I'd been threatening to do since I first got to uni and managed to drop my keys. Luckily, Karl, (the dear,) handed them in and I went and was able to get into my room and all that.
I ordered 2 more dvds in class. I need to stop.
My chair broke. It now also tilts forwards instead of just side to side. I keep falling off because I sit with my feet up. I need to stop this two.
I'm running for exec on WarwickTV (Marketing.) I need to do a speech and read it out and answer questions. So far, I've written a few vague things and it's tomorrow. It's just like every past speech I've ever made.

I... haven't done too much. My productivity's slowed down a bit. Fun.'s new album has been my soundtrack this week. Why Am I The One is my favourite right at this time but that may change by the time the next song comes on.

I can't believe it's week 9 already. Mixed feelings about going home again. It's a different situation this time round - i'm not leaving behind as much (ya'll know what I mean,) and I'll get to see Lizzy and everyone and the 7s... but the thought of traveling is making me want to cry already. And packing. Jesus, note to self: do NOT bring back as much as you did last time. There is no way you need winter clothes.

And if the timing is right...

2012-02-26T13:15:00.004-08:00

Today, I braved, (I say braved, it really wasn't that hard,) the sunlight and stepped out of the confines of my dim room and into the fresh air outside. All degrees aside - it was like, 11 celcius - it was sunny, which was an excuse for all them English to get all excited over this new weather phenomenon so rarely seen.

I was sitting in my room slaving over my essay, which is really a lie. This essay isn't due for another 3 weeks and I went to the library to do a little research and reading and ended up writing a stupid amount and now I have to cut it down because I've exceeded word count and I'm not really close to finishing content wise and oh my god I'm such a nerd sometimes.

So, um.

Lucinda and Kathryn came in with a proposition - no, that's exactly what they said. In fact:

Lucinda: Laura, we have a proposition for you.
Me: Wat
Lucinda: We're going to make oreo cupcakes
Kathryn: Then have a picnic outside!
Me: It's quite picnic weather
Lucinda: Isn't it?

And thus, an impromptu Tesco trip where we bought picnic foods and didn't make oreo cupcakes after all.

I fucking LOVE breadsticks, I'll have you know.

I seem to spend 90% of my time talking about it, so I will ~~stop~~ keep up the tradition by saying: changed my hair yet again, but will be probably maybe kind of not sure dyeing it back to one colour(!) in march. WHAT COLOUR YOU ASK? Mixture of carmine-mahogany. As in, in the middle. I don't know, man. Brown with pink.

I kinda look like a corpse. Like weirdly washed out pale sigh bad lighting sh.

Didn't go out Friday - even though it's normally tradition!!! - because no one else really was. And I'm broke, by the way. Instead, stayed in, mixed cocktails & played the David Attenborough drinking game, which of course got to the point where everyone was just making up rules. ('No Laura, not every time there's more than one creature on the screen...')

Next week instead!

I've reached the point where I'm searching for things to say in a vain attempt to fill this entry with something decently interesting, but I'm drawing at quite a blank. Therefore, I will stop here and start writing up my babble on last night's oscars instead!

Oops I did it again.

2012-02-18T10:52:00.002-08:00

Title refers to

(1) The fact I wrote half a post then just left it and now it's just sitting there being silly.
(2) Britney's 2nd studio album.
(3) The whole plethora of my bad habits which I repeatedly partake in despite my own furious assertions to myself that I won't.
(4) Many other things, I'm sure, but I will cut short because I can no longer be bothered to think about this.

Well, apologies for my last dramatic post. I've been reading a lot lately, you see; devouring words like candy again has the effect of turning me into a wannabe psuedo-writer. Does this mean I'll be writing more fiction-type articles? Not really, I'm just trying to write better overall. (Including my essays. Definitely including my essays that I should really be doing right now but am not. Oh well.)
Speaking of which:

Found a cute lil' gem in my copy of Abundance of Katherines! Fellow nerdfighters, you do exist!

So, last night, (and the whole of yesterday really, but last night was the full celebration,) was Erika's birthday. I would work in chronological order so I'm actually going to go back and talk about the rest of the week first. I only mentioned last night here because of my overwhelming excitement to show my blog THE CAKE:

Looks better in real life. Still no idea how it tastes because we blew out the candles right before we left. When I say we, I mean Erika. I just meant that the rest of us partook in the activity via the watching/clapping/singing - (GEEZ, what a long winded explanation for something so simple!)

SO, worked Pop! not this week, but last. Went with the lovely Sophie and actually had a really good time - the music was good, the people were really friendly - and by really friendly I mean most let me take photos of them - and Sophie acted as my assistant. The costumes were most exciting that week - I knew it would be good when I saw the pokemon walking around.

Apart from that, I've had my reading week. I spent:

Monday) Sat in my room alone and... I'm not even sure what I did here, actually. Nothing productive, to be sure.

Tuesday) Spent valentine's day wandering around coventry. Meant to buy paper for my poster but after a series of fortunate events which means I bought myself a ridiculous amount of treats in the form of dvds and books, (happy valentine's day self! lots of love, self. I love me,) I was a little low on money and was lazy.

Wednesday) Went to (shock and horror here,) the learning grid with Lucinda. Wrote almost an entire essay which I had to scrap anyway because I'm a plonker and chose two really stupid scenes. I also sat in the learning grid on my phone and bought myself 4 more dvds and a book because I clearly have issues.

Thursday) Went shopping in Cov with Mikayla and Erika for birthday outfits. Was actually the loveliest day ever - I was given money by les parents, so I was able to buy a bunch of nice stuff, including a pair of shoes which I did not even wear yesterday and I'm glad because they're a tiny bit too big and really, really, high and the floor was ridiculously slippery. Had fried rice for lunch, then shopped 'til we'd gotten what we wanted and then we went to nandos where I, despite having just bought a relatively tight dress, stuffed my face regardless.

Friday) Spent the morning busy bakin' the CAKE, and also constructing a shoddy card because Tesco breaks my heart and doesn't stock A3 card. Spent most of the day faffing around and reading and then we finally got ready and headed out.

Was a really good night. I've been told not-so-great things about smack, but it exceeded my expectations by not being shit and actually being really fun. I don't, as usual, recall any of the music they played but I tell myself that's just because I don't know any of the music anyway, and not because I was overly drunk or - cough - distracted. In a series of strange events, I may have ended up watching first [Rec] then Horrible Bosses with Joe until around 7, (kindly keeping my next-door up, I may add...) and then I woke up again at 11 feeling (thank god for my alcohol breaking-down system or whatever it is,) fine and all fresh as per usual.

Some additional notes:

(1) Now it is a Saturday and I - I won't say I've wasted my whole day, but I haven't really done too much. I did, after all, get out of "bed" around 12 and faffed around cleaning my room and whatnot AS I DO. It feels like a Sunday. I cannot comprehend this day being a Saturday and I'm not sure why.

(2) I've dubbed myself too poor for vanilla vodka at the moment. Demoted to Tesco Value Vodka and bought juice to do mixers. Almost knocked myself out initially with a very strong screwdriver but I was pleasantly okay last night. Also got them cute little cans - a SoCo Lemonade and a Malibu coke and DAMN I am doing that again. Them cute little cans taste good.

(3) I should really be writing my essay now. I feel guilty. Okay, bye.

Dissolution & Honesty.

2012-02-07T14:29:00.000-08:00

This week has been a bizarre series of ups and downs. I shall, now, for once, be more open on my own blog. I've been a torrential downpour of open blabbering this week, and it's felt good to finally get some of it out of my system. So: if you dislike sentimentality or, for some reason, decide you do not want to read something that will probably significantly lower your opinion of me, kindly redirect to another webpage!

Let us examine what's occurred:
(1) the dissolution of a relationship (bad)
(2) my mental breakdown and (almost) return to a dark place (very bad)
(3) the calm after the storm and my eccentric swing to mania (good?)
(4) the first fall of snow (very good)

(1) I shall not go into details here as it is not purely my detail to go into and it wouldn't feel right. Speaking of not feeling right: it had not felt right for a while, and so, it finished. On a good note, I may add, although it later took a downward turn for the worst, (due to unfortunate timing and a bad build up of crazy-thoughts in my head.) No matter, all's right now.

Tuesday night, (last Tuesday night. one week ago, I may add,) I curled up in bed and unsure of how to feel, was unable to sleep. I watched Love Actually until I forced myself to go into bedtime for fear of my own sanity.

(2) Woke up to a Wednesday morning feeling like I'd been run over by the sadness and depression truck in my sleep. Refused to go in to my classes and sat around feeling sorry for myself instead. Got into several arguments and received some bad news. Went to work when I really didn't want to and drunk, faced a dramatic break down.

Scene, (picture it,): Girl, 18, very drunk, stands on cold sidewalk. A jacket hangs limply from her arms, which are by her sides. She bawls into the phone to a friend, something along the lines of please come get me. I can't be here. The friend arrives and the first thing she shrieks is that no one ever sees her like this but she can't stop it at the moment.

Thus, the metaphorical floodgates burst open and I found myself literally bawling at 1AM on campus whilst a very drunken Andrew tried his best, (and helped,) to console me. Because of his lack of memory, I now feel as if it is me and Drunk!Andrew's little secret.

Which is nice - I was able to massively vent - and I had not, I may add, cried like that in YEARS, so it was probably much needed - and I got a response and since he cannot remember anything, I can't really be judged for anything I'd said. (And only judged for being all panda!eyes, which he says, is the only thing he remembers.) We stayed up late as I poured my soul out and finally passed out from exhaustion in the safety of my own room.

Seems like a funny image to put in here at the moment, but this was pre-breakdown at Pop! with the lovely Lily. Ya'll know what I'm like with entries: I like to keep it so there's some sort of ratio.

(EDIT: just realised I'd posted Reasons To Smile last week, which does funnily enough, talk about a breakdown. What foresight...)

(3) This all sounds very melodramatic and traumatizing and a sympathy-call, but I'm only able to comment on this event like this as I now find it so funny. Thursday morning, I awoke feeling better than I'd had in a while - guess I really needed that breakdown after all - and just laughed at everything. Laughed because of how appallingly I'd behaved. Laughed at how I'd somehow turned into a girl who actually has huge breakdowns over silly things. Laughed at how my life had somehow turned into a parody - not even cut-out to be full-fledged, but a parody, - of a bad teen drama. Said my thanks to Andrew for being (almost literally,) a complete lifesaver. Scolded myself and picked myself up and vowed not to ever be so stupid again.

Following this, had a wonderful Thursday. Acquired L.A Noire & Bioshock - obsessed! - as a treat to myself and picked up my new phone. There was frost everywhere and the sun was shining and despite the fact that my face had puffed over like no other, I was in an inexplicably good mood.

Friday followed suit: I went to predrink with Becky and Megan etc. for Becky's birthday and ended up going to Kasbah, where I had a decent night, until alas, I lost everyone and ended up in... well, an uncomfortable situation. Let's say I'm still relieved I made it home alone okay.

(4) Come Saturday, following the bridesmaid dress fitting, came the first falling of snow. If you know me at all, you should be prepared for some photo spam, because I'm literally the biggest snow-whore you will meet. I went, as expected, absolutely ballistic.

Of course, once I was back on campus, I engaged in my first snowball fight with Jake and Ollie. I proved to be useless at even walking on snow, due to the amount of times I ~~strategically ducked~~ slipped over of my own accord. Due to my proclamation of my love of snow, I was also ambushed when I walked outside, tackled into the snow, and then had snowballs thrown into my room through my stupidly open window by my hoodlum hallmates.

Not that all of that was unexpected really.

After faffing around with my own indecisive head, finally decided I was going to Ministry of Sound after all. Surprised everyone by actually putting a coat on - didn't know you owned a coat! people had exclaimed - and keeping warm. Due to the Copper Rooms being shut, the event was moved to the terrace bar, and with no cabs available, (LIES AND SLANDER BY THE CAB COMPANY!) we trekked there. Not that it was bad in any way - with the snow, it was one of the lovelier experiences of my time here.

(Also: bore witness to the lamest chat up line in history. Whilst kneeling by the side of the frozen river poking it with a stick, had someone chuck a snowball right in front of me. Startled and wet from the splash, I asked, Why did you do that? To which the answer was, To break the ice! I was so unimpressed that I found it almost impressive.)

Working was, as always, (APART from maybe a crazy night recently where I ended up sobbing on the sidewalk COUGH,) fun. Because of the atmosphere of the terrace bar, hardworking photographer was able to chat away to people more easily whilst she wheedled them for photos and took far too many of herself and own friends.

Walked back after and had another hilarious tipsy chat with the hallmates. Ended up drunk-kitchening, (or pasta-partying, as me and Megan refer to it, although this time, no pasta was involved,) and just having a laugh. I'm beginning to live for and love these moments.

Final thoughts:
I'm coming down from my strange mania that had suddenly spurred on. This is not, I know, an abrupt crash down to the other side - note to self: refuse to let that happen - but a slow letdown to hopefully near-normal. I've had the most amazing last few days and been in a right state of euphoria and I've known, of course, that this euphoric feeling wouldn't be able to last too long. I am now merely content.

It would be, oh god, getting personal here!!!, stupid to say I'm not sad. And at this point I'm at, I'm feeling it it would be stupid not to admit that I'm sad. Far too much, I parade around with this silly charade and high pitched chirping I'm okay, I'm okay. Sometimes, I know I'm not okay, and that's okay. (And now the word okay is ceasing to look like a real word due to overuse...)

Decided to be a selfish bitch. Just for a week. Or two. Time to prioritize what makes me happy and to do what I feel like. If that means hermiting in my room and not wanting to socialise with anyone, then that's fine, if that's what I feel like. If, for some reason, I admit to the fact I actually need to be around other people, then that's fine as well. If, for some other ridiculous reason, I fall under a brief, sudden lapse, (this was just now,) of homesickness and suddenly want to talk to people back home, then I will damn well do that. I'm liking just being open.

I will unfortunately - and I do apologize profusely! - end this on a really sappy note. My mania/sadness swings shall probably be more frequent at the moment. I'm hurting a tiny bit and may actually choose to show it for once. I'm finding out, little by little, that expressing myself truthfully, in whatever medium - whether it be through talking or the words I write - just may be a good thing. I may, and I apologize profusely for this as well, go through and finish some of my sad!writings that I've got saved under drafts, because damn, maybe that's just what I need to do. Things are just changing - both my situation, and how I'm teaching myself to handle them, because maybe it's time I just learn how to fucking deal.

And With That;

2012-01-31T14:11:00.000-08:00

so it ends.

Reasons To Smile

2012-01-31T10:32:00.000-08:00

(I actually wrote this... quite a long time ago. I've been in a shitty mood all day and was checking my drafts on here when I came across it. How appropriate.) :)

For anyone who's ever felt shitty.

One of the givens of being a teenager is that you will undoubtedly have at least one "breakdown." In your head, a soft, acoustic soundtrack plays and you stare out the window with blurry tear-induced vision and you watch the rain fall, because of course it is raining. It's all very dramatic and, you think, definitely something out of a Neo-Realist drama. You are the tragic hero in the story of your life and everything is spinning out of your control. You question your existence and wonder why your life is so shitty and you will definitely think the phrase, 'It's not fair,' at least once.

Blame karma. Blame that you were born under an unlucky moon. Blame the boy who broke your heart, the girl who stole him from you, and the friends that didn't tell you. Blame your parents who don't understand. Blame the extra inches creeping around your waist and the increasing stack of 'to-write' essays. Blame first your broken laptop, and then blame the makers of the laptop. Blame everything but yourself. Get increasingly more upset as time passes; every small thing begins to annoy you and you think - no, you know, that you're never going to be happy again and you should just give up because everything sucks and did you mention that it's not fair?

You should smile. Smile because the moment will pass. It may be ten minutes or ten hours. It may be one tub of ice cream and a long nap later. It may be a year and girls' night outs and movies and plenty of you time. Eventually, things will start sucking less and less, until it is just maybe a vague embarrassing memory of that-time-you-lay-face-down-on-your-bed-because-Stephen-didn't-think-you-were-going-to-work-out.

Smile because you've come this far and done whatever much. It doesn't matter if you think you've messed everything up soooooooo bad and nothing will ever be okay again. Smile because you have the power to fix something; you will never have control over every aspect of the world, but there will always be an action you can take, even if it is just dragging your ass down to the mall to cheer yourself up. Smile because you can actually do something. Work those facial muscles and smile just because you bloody can.

Smile for everywhere you're going to go. You will go to your favourite places in your town. You will leave your town and travel the world. You will visit places you've only seen in pictures and pass by towns you've never even heard of. You will learn new things and customs. Smile for all the new food you will eat and you won't like all of it but that's okay.

Smile for everything to come. The classes you'll take, the people you'll meet. The arguments you'll get into. The people you'll fall in love with and the hours you'll spend entangled in each other's arms. The conversations that you'll never forget and the experiences you won't either.

Smile for all the experiences that did not, in fact, break you, but instead made you stronger.

900%

2012-01-29T05:18:00.000-08:00

To make up for the last few posts which were quite text-heavy, this one shall be a spam of photos because someone is far too in love with her fisheye lens.

Yesterday was Chris's birthday, so we celebrated in style by suiting up (so for me, putting on a blazer,) and drinking and ordering curries! ~~!

AWWH, with Jordan :)

All classy in my top hat.

With birthday boy.

Me and Lucinda went for a moonlit stroll. We actually just randomly ran outside. No wonder I always get colds..

The party was cut short when our resident warden came out and told us to clean everything up and stop because we need to sign a form or something for it to be a party, which was lame.

It was still really fun and I managed to take quite a bit over 300 photos because I got a little bit too overexcited. Lots of giggling and girly chats and casual banter. Pretty much lost out on a pound because I was too weak to carry home 2 bottles of sprite. Disappointing.

February Air

2012-01-28T09:10:00.000-08:00

FEBRUARY IS ALMOST UPON US! It seems as time just flies by when you're spending your nights debating philosophy and photo arrangement, or playing vodka pong and call of duty until your battered self-esteem can take no more of the confirmation that you're just awful.

Happy Chinese New Year (belated) to all those who celebrate (kinda rhymes...belate...celebrate...yes? no? okay, fine.) This was the first year I didn't get red packets which was heartbreaking devastating and my mind is failing to comprehend not suddenly having an increase in my funds this time of year... hence my ridiculous eBay and amazon shopping of the moment.

But I did pick up a new lens attachment:

I've wanted a fisheye for ages so I couldn't be happier. Bid on the official canon one but got into a bidding war, and after 10 minutes, I realised I wouldn't be able to handle another 4 days of it as I was already getting increasingly frustrated and wanted to slap my nemesis-bidee in the mouth very badly.

Last week has been good. Night out at Gatecrasher was good fun - although I spent a fair bit of it looking after others - and the whole week was.. same as usual really. I was mortified by my resident warden though - won't go into details, but the people who know what I'm talking about will know what I'm talking about and this is just here in case far in the future, I find it more funny than embarrassing.

Due to a dip in my funds as of late, (result of my ebay spree,) PLUS the fact that it's Chris's bday tonight, I foregoed going out last night in favour of having a chill night in. Beer pong - vodka pong for me cause i'm such a GIRL and I hate beer - and then plans were to watch the pokemon 2000 movie and play the pokemon drinking game which failed because I'd downloaded an awful copy, so we watched Gladiator - a poor choice because it's so damn long.

I made a wonderful omelette today and I'm just sharing that because I'm kitchen impaired and it was a glorious and momentus occasion and therefore should be marked down.

Will finish abruptly with a photo of the challenge I was faced with one morning when I was late to class:

Home (Double Identity)

2012-01-26T11:58:00.001-08:00

Home is an apartment overlooking the sea. The winds are stronger and it's colder but that's all fine by me. This home is a large room with an ocean view and a careful colour scheme: red, brown and cream. The wonky top shelf - please don't fall down - and the lamp I bang my head on constantly. Sliding closet doors, (the right one always gets stuck a little,) and the windy walk down to the front door. The gas station opposite and the park down the road.

Home is an urban landscape with skyscrapers by the dozen. The constant presence and motion of people and I wonder where they're all going and what they're doing here. The constant buzz of traffic as vehicles of varying sizes and styles head in all directions carrying all sorts of people. Home is the multitude of shops and the overwhelming bombardment of advertisements everywhere. Home is a consumerist capital and if you walk slowly you'll fall behind.

Home is sitting in coffee shops with your friends. Walking around the streets and grabbing each other in an effort to not get swept away in the people-sea. Laughing at people in clubs and shouting over loud music in attempts to have your gossip-conversation right now. Finding grass and sitting in it just because it's so rare and lying down and then it goes everywhere but you don't mind.

---------------

Home is green grass and blue - sometimes grey - skies. Large fields and trees and grass and all that picturesque imagery that comes to mind when you think of nature, you know? Walking on an empty sidewalk with no one all around and seeing your breath as you inhale, exhale. Finding everything closed on a sunday morning and the emptiness that's all around simultaneously eerie and relaxing.

Home is a box room at the end of a corridor which is cleaned once, twice, three times a day. Fairylights - the ones by the window always fall down - light it up once it gets dark and the only space on the walls are gaps between pictures. This home is a visual clash of colour but you got over it a long time ago . The overspilling closet and the guitar in the corner which is strummed occasionally but carefully in case the neighbours overhear. Newspaper covered branches tower over a laptop where you sit writing your thoughts down.

Home is deliberately falling asleep in film screenings and whispering through them with your friends as you sit in YOUR designated row (2nd from back, always.) Sitting on other people's beds after you've made them or fighting over a good spot for a film. Sitting on the floor of the corridor with a crowd that multiplies and grows as people leave and join. Dancing around the kitchen when it's crowded and trying desperately not to scald or be scalded with a hot saucepan. Talking about philosophy and life and things so inconsequential and unimportant that they stand out more in your mind and become important.

Home is the inside of your head. Your thoughts fly free and derailed and your opinions are your own. Your transatlantic dreams and hopes and aspirations and your future is all mapped out in the vaguest of ways. Your ideas and your writings and your work space and all your thoughts which are so articulated and elegant in your head but just so awkward when they leave that safety net. This home is with you wherever you go.

Today Was Sub-Zero

2012-01-14T03:41:00.000-08:00

Sigh, back to non-blogging.
Or at least being more shit at it although it's just been a week since my last blog to be fair. Halls are a deserted wasteland anytime before midday (and usually a fair bit after) on the weekends, so I've got some time to kill. Without further ado, whee, backtrack!

(a) Bringing the wii to uni was simultaneously best/worst idea ever. We've had intense mariokart races, with some of the highlights being:
- Sam (shit) losing to me (shit) then beating Jordan (good) and then losing to Dom (never played before)
- Toby throwing a minor tantrum upon being 1st and then crashing into the finishing post and being overtaken.
- Matt, usually one of the most chill people ever, getting increasingly frustrated and finally stating that he'd never felt such anger before.
- Me and Mikayla managing to get a whole 3 points between the two of us the first 3 races of a team races.
- And then us both driving straight into the water at the same time.

Forgot Marioparty, but it wouldn't have worked anyway. Going to try get it in the hopes that I'll be able to redeem myself somewhat after always performing abysmally on mariokart. I should never be allowed on the roads.

(b) Had my wallet stolen on Monday (my first night out.) Mama and Papa were not pleased at all and have only just started speaking to me without hostility after I gave them the news of my good work. Had to cancel bank cards and it's now a pain to get money out. And my beautiful new 18+ hkid is now gone. We were together for a beautiful two weeks.

(c) Despite that, had a really good night out last night. Almost everyone was there, saw a couple of the film friends, and had both Sophie and Nathan came out with us which was good. We had some lovely girly conversations which was nice and it was just nice and the word nice is beginning to start not looking like a word now because I've used it too much. Which is not nice.

(d) Official'd everything with the boy and I started girlfriend duties off very well by managing to spill cheese sauce on him 4 times and hijacking his HDMI cable so I can play my ps3 again, (when taking a break from the wii,) and here's a cute picture taken by mikayla of our backs whilst playing Akham City...

Apart from all that - first week has been un... was going to say uneventful, but it really wasn't. Back into the swing of things, back to lectures and waking up early JUST KIDDING I don't really sleep do I, and chilling with my hallmates and going to Tesco, although my money situation means I have to go all the way down to the bank to get money out which is lame and dumb.

Currently waiting for Portia, who you, blog, are pretty well acquainted with, to come and visit for the weekend! Heading out to the SU for an event tonight, and then probably just going to chill and show her fun uni days - although like I said, weekends are actually pretty quiet. Which is understandable after last night, I guess.

TRAVEL LIVEBLOG

2012-01-06T06:39:00.000-08:00

~~Breaking news~~ LIVEBLOGGING today from Heathrow Airport. After a 12 hour flight, incredibly quick immigration and baggage pickup procedure, Eurasian girl, 18, breaks down and succumbs to boredom, paying £7 for internet as she is doomed to wait another 2 hours.

(Talk about a first world problem,)

Okay - last few days prior to my departure went without any notable incident, HENCE lack of blog updates no-i-was-not-being-lazy-fuck-you. I did some shopping (I bought a ridiculous amount of pajamas and i'm not sure why??) and met up with Izzy and Ollie and I don't know who else because my dates are all muddled. I've just traveled back in time, bear with me.

So: plane ride was actually okay. I'd stayed up for 30 something hours so I was tired ~clever strategy~ and with my bigger seats and all the jackets I was carrying on my person (packed with a 'if it doesn't fit in the suitcase I'M WEARING IT' mentality,) meant I was able to sort of sleep - really more of a state of hypnogogia really but close enough. The films were okay but then again, I watched the Lion King so they were really more than okay. There was also a ton of room so the person next to me moved the row over and then I didn't have a seat in front of me so there was an absence of the usually-present-dickwad-who-puts-their-chair-as-far-back-as-they-can-the-whole-flight which was very, very welcome.

I did startle myself though. Due to lack of seat in front, tv and tray were stored in the cute handrests. When dinner came, I opened one and spent about 5 minutes trying to get my tray out. It had a push here button so I prodded it a bit and then finally smacked it and it flew up and surprised me. Even better, it was the tv...

Upon arrival, I knew I had time to kill, so I decided to take my time. Unfortunately, the universe likes to work against me because every time I try to take my time, I end up being ridiculously early. So then now I have a 3 hour wait for the coach! ... Then a 2 hour coach ride, then cab ride, before I'm finally back in my uni room WHICH NEEDS TO BE UNPACKED AND SORTED AND CLEANED. God damn it.

Went through duty free and picked up the cutest little absolut baby vodka set of 1 of each flavour <3 Shall definitely be put to good use. I would take a picture right now but that would probably just look really weird.

So, now I have an hour and a bit! I killed quite a bit of time blu-tacking the back of my photos (which I'd packed in my hand baggage for this purpose,) and I think now, I will make a list of possible things to do when waiting at Heathrow Airport (and then maybe do some of them.)

So:

Possible Things To Do When Waiting At Heathrow Airport
(1) Go to all two of the money exchange places. Exchange my $500. Count my money. (Not being sarcastic, I genuinely love doing this.)

(2) Go stand in front of the ben & jerry's machine and spend 5 minutes debating a flavour before finally choosing one. Proceed to eat it in about 40 seconds. (Will definitely do this one.)

(3) Drink the whole of the Baileys I bought duty free and just get drunk and hope time passes really quickly. (Being sarcastic, I will definitely not do this one... massive waste of alcohol.)

(4) Go buy food then eat it. (Will most likely do this one.)

Okay, so there's not that much. I was super bored earlier, and therefore why I actually paid money to use internet. Time is suddenly passing by faster! ~~!

On a last note before I... go... maybe do some of my list, traveling by yourself SUCKS for one reason... what the fuck do I do with my baggage!!! Not meant to leave my baggage unattended but I have quite a lot and what if I need to pee... sigh, hard life.

COMPULSORY: End of '11!

2011-12-30T22:14:00.000-08:00

(Okay WARNING this is actually really long. As in over 4300 words long. I can't even read through the whole thing myself without getting bored so if you actually do you probably deserve a prize or something contact me for more details~~~)

This HAS to be done. It's always done. Even before I had a blog I was doing this, so bear with me. Time to review and look back and ~reflect~ (God, I thought all the self-reflections and evaluations were over once I left high school...) on the year and myself and all that stuff.

In retrospect, 2011 was a really, really good year for me, as well as the one with the most change thus far. (Awful grammar gods accept the previous sentence as an offering...) I have, in this year, moved across the country, met new people, left my hometown behind ~~forever,~~ legally become an adult, taken my life-determining exams, somehow managed to pass them, and tried a whole range of new things, going from trying (and almost failing,) to take a bus in England, to strawberry bubble tea, (also known as my crack because it's the most beautiful thing ever and I would solely exist on it if possible.)

Let's do - and here's the warning that this may be a bit of a long-winded entry - a month by month recap. I'll try and keep it brief.

So it'll still be long.

(This will be even easier now that I keep a blog and can just flick through past entries like some kind of awful cheater because my memory is so shit!)

LAURA PROUDLY PRESENTS: DODGE & BURNS OF 2011

(Just shoot me now, I did just make a Photoshop joke.)

JANUARY

(1) I don't remember what I did for New Year's because I didn't blog about it. I think I just sat at home with a balloon in my room ...

Okay, I found a picture, that's apparently exactly what I did.

It's cause the 1st is my momma's birthday, and since she and my dad usually go out to a party, me and my sis set up a surprise for her when she came back, with balloons and cake and presents. Daughters of the year award.

(2) I don't remember too much of this month. It was quite cold. I walked up to the peak a lot. I remember I walked to the ~super amazing candy store~ and bought loads of candy to take pictures with - I was in my experimental photographer phase okay. Can't believe I'm writing this down as a 'highlight,' of 2011. Can't believe I even kept this in my memory jesus christ my life is so sad.

(3) Blogged about this one but I'd probably remember anyway because it was ridiculous: Skittles vodka night #1

PAISANO'S! Biggest pizzas ever. Still distinctly remember trying to navigate rush-hour MTR with this thing artistically balanced on our heads.

It was actually... a ridiculous amount of alcohol, now that I come to think of it. I have video footage of that night, but that's the closest anyone's going to get with hearing about it :)

FEBRUARY

(1) Cheung Chau trip. Now that I look back on this, it just seems so weird, because this was my first time meeting a lot of these people, and now, I'd spent half my summer with them and have seen them so much since.

I didn't stay overnight, but I remember most of our exploring and shopping. The school building with the faded paint, the church we joked about sending Aubin into. The oranges and bananas in the market and the apple that Megan bought.

The ferry ride back when it was Hong-Kong-Cold, (around 10 degrees,) and watching the shapes the lights made when I took pictures on long shutter.

(2) I remember going to the Flower Market, with all its inflatables and flowers and Chinese New Year glory. I went by myself and took my camera. I didn't buy anything but I looked at all the stalls full of stuff I'll never need. I went by myself, which was a first, as I usually go with Ali. I remember briefly that I had to pick something up, and just thought I'd continue on and go into the very crowded flower market. I probably got very frustrated with the crowd, but I don't remember that now.

(3) There was Chinese New Year, which is usually in February - although it's early 2012 and is late January, apparently. We went to Hollywood Plaza in Diamond Hill to have lunch with the relatives and I made my sister watch the Lion Dance for a bit because I knew it'd be the last one I'd see properly for a while.

We went to Lamma with all the father's rugby friends as we usually do. I took off by myself and took loads of photos and lost my ipod and then came home and edited my photos black and white so they would match my traumatized soul.

(4) February - and a lot of March - had me so preoccupied with my film. I remember stressing and writing angry Tumblr posts and literally almost pulling my hair out. Planning and storyboarding and sitting on the grass downstairs filming and staying up late - not that I don't do that anyway, - just editing and putting everything together.

MARCH

(1) Okay the big one here was when I went gallavanting off to England for my interview with Warwick - OH, THOSE MEMORIES, - which is amusing to me whenever I read the blog post, because I remember fretting and falling in love with the campus and wow, weird, I'm there now. In fact, half my blog posts this year contained some form of concerned or excited thought about uni, and how I was worried my expectations were too high and whatnot.

(2) We finally had our school's fashion show - I did the graphics and stuff remember - which was a pretty fun night. For me at least, since all my work was done so I just spent half the time backstage bothering the models and chilling with the photographers.

Here's the stage. WOW this brings back memories hehe.

(3) I got my offer from Warwick and spent ages faffing around that and planning out all combinations of my predicted grades to see if I'd be able to achieve it slash planning out how hard I'd have to work.

(4) Rugby 7s! Remember when I was a cat because yeah I was.

This year was okay... I skipped Saturday - took me a while to figure out why I couldn't remember Saturday - and went Sunday instead after Friday turned out disappointing. I dunno, not much to say - it's almost the same most years. I like fireworks.

(4) I think we had our last day of school here too? Sometime around here. We sat in the assembly hall and it was actually quite nice and chilled and we ate lots of food and everyone talked about how much they'd miss school and everyone except for me because I hated school and everyone and I still do and don't really miss them.

APRIL

(1) Man... I can't find anything here for April. April was pretty much study leave. I did some studying. I did a lot of not-studying.

(2) Speaking of which: I beat Final Fantasy XIII here SHUT UP, IT'S A SIGNIFICANT EVENT TO ME, and I ended up wandering around in a state of sadness for maybe two weeks because I didn't know what to do with my life after the depressing ending. If I had a dollar for every time I got too emotionally attached to fictional storylines, I would have enough money to get the psychiatric help I clearly need.

(3) I think I also replayed all of the Ace Attorney series which probably didn't help even more. I remember being quite depressed in April and this is probably why.

MAY

(1) I had my exams!! This was a dark and depressing time in my life (year,) because I realised that if I mucked up I was mucking up the rest of my life etc. That fact still didn't help me study, perhaps due to the fact I have the attention span of a ferret on meth and had just spent a whole month doing nothing in particular and therefore had become accustomed to that.

(2) This isn't too significant but man I love these photos. Lizzy's mom's bday dinner at Dharma Den when we decided to be all cute and hippie-ish but not really.

(3) We had our dinnerdance - like prom - and I'm not really even going to bother updating on that because blah blah it was mediocre kinda fun after never have to see these people again a great celebration and so on.

JUNE

(1) June was an exciting month full of many trips!! Technically schools were out yet so we had the nice freedom of being free whilst other people weren't. First up, went to the happiest place on Earth on the ugliest day on Earth!

It actually got really nice and ugh I just remember this being such a perfect day!! It was busy-ish and hot but we danced around and the lines weren't long (Space Mountain 4 times, was it?) and how we fangirled over Tarzan in the Golden Mickeys and sang along to the Lion King...

(2) We "camped," (appropriately enclosed within quotation marks because we slept inside due to threat of rain,) at Allira's house way out in Sai Kung. This was with a crowd I didn't know massively well, but it was still freaking brilliant. We went on a midnight excursion up the mountain, (and consequently lost the drunk bunch,) light painted, scared ourselves, fought over sleeping arrangements, (remember when Hamish slept in the dog bed because I do,) went for swims, and had dance-offs in her backyard.

(3) Macau (Trip 1, because there were 2 this summer,) with our Friendly Neighbourhood Magician Anson, Roman, Esme, and Tom. I'd met Roman once before - at Allira's - and we'd both never met Tom - who we ended up sharing our room with in a bizarre turn of events. Free (upgraded to suite~) rooms and late night wanderings. We braved the casinos, the streets, and room service at 4 in the morning whilst watching a documentary about sharks.

(4) Went to visit a waterfall! We clambered up a mountain - okay fine, it took like 10 minutes, - and then went over rocks and marveled at the view, and then spent the rest of the hot day chilling in the cool water. We also had rainbow cake. And I should probably mention the alcohol, ruining the idea of an innocent waterfall trip but um it was just beers and Lian made a can explode by throwing it at the waterfall.

JULY

(1) RESULTS. July 6th, I'll always remember that day because it was the most terrifying day of my life thus far. I was actually sick from about July 2nd onwards because I'd anxiety'd myself into getting ill. Bed rest for nervousness, that was a bit depressing. I also planned out my entire day so I wouldn't be sitting at home just waiting, and it turned out I had to because the results were an hour late because the server crashed. When they came out and I was both happy (UNIVERSITY, YAY!) and disappointed (Could've done better,) and then we all went out and celebrated although some people were probably drowning their sorrows, which was a bit of a buzzkill.

(2) Went to Thailand with the family which was nice at first, but then got boring after a while. I've realised, as I tend to get bored after a while in every place I go to, that it's really just me and my shitty attention span. There were loads of beaches - which inspired my quite well read Why I Hate The Beach article.

Wandered the night markets on the streets half the night, waved at the Ladyboys, ate at seafood restaurants on piers, bought fairylights - god, the obsession started here I see - and learned to rap Nicki Minaj songs with my sister whenever the internet went down.

Ran around a massive, gorgeous golf course we were staying on. Took pictures in the grass and ran from golf carts. Almost drowned in the pool from laughing too hard and almost killed each other fighting over the laptop charger.

I wrote a lot of articles.

(2) Watched the final Harry Potter - okay, this series has been with me for a decade of my life so FUCK YOU if you're judging me for including this... don't have much to say on the subject that I haven't already said. Such a good viewing experience. Shall never forget that cinema, NOR the hour we spent looking for our parents who seemed to have forgotten the important part about letting your kids know where you are in a foreign country.

(3) Went to Vietnam. Still can't believe I survived it because crossing the road is the scariest thing ever. When I say 'When I was in 'nam,' as a reference, I mean it, because I was quite convinced I was going to die on those roads.

This isn't even Vietnam, it's Bangkok, where we went afterwards (because of the flight from Bangkok to Hong Kong to get home,) but I don't need to write about Bangkok by itself because i'm too lazy to press enter and write (4) so I'll just say: complained when mom and sister took me shopping and went on the skytrain and ate food and lay on the floor in our hotel room and whined.

AUGUST

(Dear god, I wrote 15 blog entries in August. How or why?)

(1) Went out loads this month... they've all sort of collapsed into one big night though, and I can't really separate them all - this is not, I swear, a side effect of drinking too much. It's actually just my shit memory when it comes to chronological separation... - we went all around Lan Kwai and Wan Chai and practically lived in Carnegies.

(2) Esme's birthday! Of course I remember this - I'd spent almost 15 hours making her birthday book, I better freaking remember. We went paint balling and I was able to throw in some Metal Gear Solid and do a few tuck and rolls, because I'm clearly just a really cool person...

We went to have the most amazing Mexican food ever at Coyote's - I had cheese quesadillas, BAM, they were that good that I still remember... I mean the fact that I have the same thing everytime clearly isn't a factor here - and then went out. I remember - okay, no I don't, but it says so in my entry on this and that's jogged my memory - being rejected from Carnegies and then sulking but I still stayed out blah blah.

(3) Photoshoot with Sav!!! This was an adorable day because we went and bought props for our photoshoot and FRUIT. And then we turned the fruit into fruit salad and watched half of A Bug's Life...

(4) Dear English Friend Portia came to visit this little hellhole I call home, (I'm kidding... that was affectionate... sort of.) She loved it and we got to play tourist which was really fun. This place really is like no other place on Earth, so I do have this strange sense of hometown glory when it comes to showing people around.

Especially when you see shit like this all the time. ~hourly hotels oOoOOoo~

We went out a few times - most notable is the very first night when Portia, although warned about the strength of the drinks here, had a bit too much of the lovely $10 vodka at carnegies. I remember being tipsy and sassing off some guy who was trying to chat her up who then high fived me because at least I was being bitchy in a witty way. Strange nights. We went visiting all sorts of places and did all sorts of things and met all sorts of people (well no, I just introduced her to my friends but I liked the syntactic parallelism I had going on there,) and I would write way too much here about her trip if I didn't stop, so I'll stop now.

(5) Lizzy's last day with us!! Man this was sad. But cute. We took adorable photos and watched Hairspray and danced the chicken dance and just talked and sat on her bed and rewrote 'shots,' (yes, the one by LMFAO,) into CATS, (as you do...)

AWWWWWWWW.

SEPTEMBER

(1) I barely remember September because I all I remember from it is moping around wanting to go to Uni already... I spent a lot of time inside (lol what's new,) and drew a lot. MAN, I MISS DRAWING EVERYDAY. New Year's Resolution is to start again!

(2) Chilled on the peak lots... (bit near my house where i go lots because there's Froyo - or there WAS. R.I.P

(3) Macau Trip 2!!! This one consisted of Esme winning 900 FREAKING DOLLARS FROM 20, surprise limo rides at 3 in the morning, visiting all sorts of clubs and casinos - hey did you guys know that the playboy club is actually really boring - eating in a chinese restaurant in the middle of a casino cause we were just hungry, and lying in the suite listening to Megan sing the song from An American Tail, (yes, the cute animated film about mice.)

(4) My Cute Leaving Gathering! We had Mariokart tournaments and then played football in the dark - SCORED 3 GOALS YEAH STILL HAD IT - and then the most amazing game of 40-40 home where I performed a ninja maneuver by hiding in a bush and then darting out to reach base. I also got scratches and dirt everywhere. Aidan came in useful because he was in charge of the BBQ - remember how everyone laughed when I said I was having a bbq just because i'm vegetarian god guys I wouldn't deprive ya'll of your meat... that would've been mean.. - and it was just such a lovely chill night.

(5) DISNEYLAND! The final visit. Everything was up for Halloween - Disneyland haunted houses are SCARY man, - and it wasn't so crowded and it was adorable and just nice. The Lion King show wasn't as good but we went on Space Mountain and took photos on that so that made up for it. AND THEN WE STAYED FOR THE FIREWORKS.

Okay I'm going to write a future blog post SOLELY on how much I adore fireworks. I WOULD, right? Fairylights queen and a magpie to anything light and glittery and shiny - the Disneyland ones are just so pretty with all the colours and lights and SIGH. Best things ever.

OCTOBER

(1) Going to uni! okay this was like the highlight of my life not just my year. Left my poor mother crying as I got into the cab and we went to the airport and I called Esme before I got on the plane. I was jittery and spent the entire plane ride considering every scenario. Spent a few days buying loads of stuff - and consequently spending loads of money - for uni and then I finally moved in and decorated my room.

(2) Met all my lovely hallmates and went to my first event at the SU - the fresher's party. I lost everyone because I'm useless, but I found a guy in another block in my accommodation and he escorted me back because he didn't know the way and I am obviously a fragile and delicate little flower who must not wander the streets alone at night in England.

(3) Met my coursemates!! It's weird to look back on this now, because there are roughly 40 of us, so it's a small course and a lot of us are quite close. I remember how I found Josh wandering around - I'd met him on the Saturday when we VERY coolly went 'HEY YOU'RE MY FRIEND ON FACEBOOK~' - and we managed to both - lately, may I add - find our first introductory lecture together. I remember having to have our photos taken and matching names to faces when we were forced to line up against a wall and have our photos taken like some weird mug shot.

(3) Skittles Vodka Night... ha... first super drunk uni night. (And probably the worst as well, ~being a good girl now~) this was for the paint party. Which I stayed 10 minutes for. This was eventful because we had a lecture the next day too and I was still fairly drunk. At least I crossed off 'turn up drunk to a lecture' off my uni list VERY early on (the third day, hah.)

(4) I made over 100 jello shots. Attended a fair few more student u events - this was before they said I wasn't allowed in, heh - and had loads of chill nights ~bonding~ with my lovely hallmates. Got quite close with a lot of them and just had a really nice chill time.

NOVEMBER

(1) I got a job, so was officially allowed back in the student U ~sneaky, huh.~ Did a few shifts and actually had a lot of fun. Met my colleagues who were - and still are - lovely people. Got to attend events I otherwise wouldn't be able to.

(2) Went to London, for the first time since I was 9. Stayed with my Aunt and caught up with my cousins which was really nice. Did all the tourist-y things. Had my first bubble tea in a long time and it was so beautiful that it made my eyes water.

(3) Started watching a lot of Horror films and making a lot of forts. This is significant because I now consider myself almost a professional in the art of fort building. I'd also collected about 6 sets of fairylights at this point - current count is at 8!!! - and generally it just started the whole trend of watching 1, or 2 films a night, which is lovely because I'm a film geek. (No way!)

DECEMBER

(1) My 18th birthday hahahah... I still stand by the fact that I did not pass out. I was in my bed. I fell asleep. Plus I woke up again so technically it was a powernap! I spent my actual birthday making Friendly Robot Companion and baking thank you cookies cause I'm damn considerate and grateful.

(2) Got my housing sorted! Well, due to the change of events, I actually didn't. I sat there and nodded my head and sometimes I spoke and then I signed a sheet of paper and then I paid. My housing arrangements had changed quite a bit so I just went with the flow, but it did take quite a big ~burden~ off my shoulders because now I do not have to worry about having to live in a cardboard box next year! (Although it would be a very nice cardboard box.)

(3) Our winter ball! This was a cute night and I took many cute photos. FIRST LEGAL NIGHT IN THE SU, WADDUP. Most people went as well, which was a nice change and we all just chilled and it was my last night out with everyone and it was just really fun, because I also saw my film people and Megan so it was like a lovely catch up, even as me and Sophie stood in the corner and frantically had a serious discussion concerning dramatic updates in both our lives.

With my bff Jordan who I miss dearly!!!

(4) And then I flew back home via the Journey From Hell. It feels weird writing about this in the past although it was in the past it's just because I'm still here. I went to Clockenflap and then I went out and went to New York Fries. Apart from that, I did not do much.

(5) Christmas!!! Most exciting because I got Arkham City - which I can't PLAY YET as my ps3 is in England!!! - and Skyward Sword - which I haven't played much because my TV broke and my dad likes to hog the one outside... It was just nice even though I had to go to lunch and go on a long journey to find Skyward Sword. I also got permission from my sister to bring the wii to uni - although I was planning to anyway - but it's nice to know i don't have to be sneaky and rude about it. This is a big deal for me, okay? I have big plans for next year.

(6) Made a campfire on the beach!!! If you know me in real life, you probably know that I really want to go to Alaska and have a campfire there. However, due to restrictions - like money - we decided to do a tester one on the beach in the day, before our cute one at night. Very successful! Me and Izzy also made Horchata - Mexican Rice Milk Drink - FINALLY, as we'd been planning to make it for like 2 years and just never got round to it.

So, that brings us pretty much to about here. Ya'll will notice my uni highlights are quite sparse and few and not detailed - the whole last 3 months were really a highlight and I've just been so happy. (Rather uncharacteristically so, actually. I hope this lasts...) And of course, I've written quite a bit, even if it's over the last few days and I'm getting fed up already AS I ALWAYS DO, SIGH.

This doesn't even really cover the highlights because there were a lot of highlights. 2011 has been a good year, one full of change and trying new things and meeting new people and breaking off bad friendships and going to new places and just coming to terms with a lot of things. I really liked this year, it gives me high hopes for next one.

Wanted to post this - BY THE WAY, PROPS TO YOU IF YOU READ THROUGH ALL THIS JUMBLE, HA - actually before New Year's Eve so I could do ANOTHER New Year's Eve post, which will typically be a ~sentimental deep meaningful~ thing, so because I'm me, it'll just be me trying really hard to be funny and trying to come across like I have something important to say.

The Saga Of How I Acquired Skyward Sword

2011-12-25T22:53:00.000-08:00

YAY, CHRISTMAS POST. I love Christmas posts. Here I would insert a photo of my present stash this year, but I'm too lazy to take one...

(imagine: image - Sweaters, t-shirts, arkham city, skyward sword, a pokéball, dvds - including Spirited Away & Howl's Moving Castle 2-Disc Editions - books, etc. etc.)

guys guys I got a pokéball guys i'm a pokémon trainer now yay 2012!!!

I actually have another post I'm half working on, which is, of course, the New Year's End-Of-The-Year post so that'll be a long one. Yay, self reflection!!!

But for now, since my life is 90% occupied by my recent purchase of Skyward Sword, I'm afraid this entry is going to get very nerdy very quickly, so take your leave or hold on tight..

MY BABY. I know it's upside down, I was too excited to notice or really care.

QUESTION: Why aren't you playing Skyward Sword now, Laura?!

ANSWER: My dad is hogging the big TV outside!!! :( He took my (smaller,) room TV and gave it to our helper because hers broke so now I have to deal with his TV hogging on public holidays and sundays. Talk about a first world problem!!

It's okay, not long now, because I officially have permission to bring my wii to uni! It involved some groveling in public before my sister - "Oh my god you're so embarrassing, stop!" - acquiesced.

And behold, below lies the Saga Of How I Acquired Skyward Sword.

So, let's rewind to yesterday morning - oh god, this is getting dramatic!!! - when I noticed the presents dwindling under the tree and a lack of game-box-shaped presents. I already had Arkham City and my DVDS open, and thus, Skyward Sword was not my presence. Let me try and justify my seemingly spoiled brat mentality: I'd gone and bought the wii motionplus the day before. And therefore, without the game it was meant for, it would just be a waste of money, no?

So, when momma explains that they only had the Japanese version in HMV, I quickly come up with a plan to depart straight from Christmas lunch and head to buy Skyward Sword.

My mission, however, was foiled as I struggled upstream through waves of people - JESUS CHRIST, DO PEOPLE HAVE NOTHING BETTER TO DO ON CHRISTMAS THAN TO WANDER AROUND CAUSEWAY BAY WITH THE SOLE INTENTION OF GETTING IN MY WAY (Ignoring the fact I was wandering around Causeway Bay. I had a purpose okay. An important purpose.) Upon arriving at the ~computer center~ (checkpoint reached,) I found that they didn't have any in stock. In. All. Of. The. Stores.

Disheartened yet determined, I fought my way back to the MTR station. There I stood, as I prepared myself for another great challenge. I decided that I was as well-equipped as I'd ever be and stepped down into the throng of rushing people. (This dungeon is dangerous! I sense the aura of many strong enemies down there, such as the Slow-Dawdler, the Massive-Bag-Carrier, and the Pushy-Bitch.) I was, I'd decided in that moment when I realised I would not be able to find what I was searching for in the Causeway Bay computer center, going to have to head to Golden Arcade, (objective updated!)

And that is how I ended up in Kowloon side, in a densely populated area, on a public holiday. To say Golden Arcade was busy would be a euphemism; I was literally being swamped by people buying wiis and psps and whatnot - really? Christmas presents are supposed to be bought before, guys, - in a small, cramped area with dozens of stalls everywhere. Despite that, I had high hopes, because there are literally at least 20 stalls all in a condensed area. Surely, one of them must have Skyward Sword in stock!

I already had the +1 ADVNTGE of being female in the midst of millions of guys so it was easy to get served - although that just might've been my increasing frustration enabling me to just shove my way past people and demand attention, - but after 10 stalls or so, it was looking like a group of awful people had come and swept Hong Kong of all english Skyward Sword copies. As I approached each stall with hope and enquired, I was met with a "No, sorry," or "Sold out, sorry. We'll have them tomorrow."

As I was just about to give up, I swore I saw I light shining down on one stall. "One last one," I thought to myself. I went up and asked, expecting the same answer. When I was met with a "Oh, English one yeah?" and a pointed finger, I may have snatched the game up and clutched it to my chest, hearing a chorus of angels somewhere singing. "YES," I'd gasped, before literally flinging money at the clerk and departing Golden Arcade with a newfound love for living.

And that brings me to last night. Now to really boost my cool levels, I'm going to do a brief summary of my thoughts so far. I'm not too far in, I've just reached Skyview Temple - well, I've gone in, opened a few doors and then decided to head back up to the sky and pick up more heart potion, which is where I am currently - but here are my first impressions. (Minor spoilers.)

I like the starting place. I like skyloft. It feels completely new from any other Zelda game which is nice and all innovative, y'know? Like Twilight Princess just felt so much like OoT - not that there's anything wrong with that, both are amazing games I mean - but it was just so exciting to explore and talk to everyone.

Zelda is so cute ah I love her.

Okay, it took me a while to figure out how to properly fly the loftwing because I'd forgotten I was on a wii. As in, there are motion sensors. I was confused until I realised, Oh, I have to lift the wiimote. Oops.

I was enjoying the peace and quiet without Navi following me around until I met the second coming. I really, like the sound of Fi's voice, but jesus christ, way to tell me things that are just really, really obvious.

85% chance! 85% chance! WHY IS IT ALWAYS 85 SHUT UP SHH I KNOW.

My shield keeps breaking because I keep getting overexcited with Octoroks and using shield bashes to kill them. Nothing is more satisfying, except perhaps slingshotting Bokoblins as they're trying to walk tightropes over to you.

I want a kikwi so bad, they're so adorable ugh. I was actually squeeing at the screen. I clearly need to get a life.

I've really missed Zelda temples. I love the temple as opposed to a normal dungeon. I know they're essentially the same but they're so pretty. I know the graphics are wii and obviously not top-notch in comparison to other consoles, but man, it's still prettyish and I'd still love to live in Skyloft. Just saying.

I got a little too excited when performing a fatal blow and almost actually created a real fatal blow when the nunchuck flew out my hand and hit the window. Oops, that wouldn't have been too easy to explain. "I WAS PERFORMING A FATAL BLOW OKAY MOM? IT WAS REALLY FATAL."

Okay, I think it's about time to go and see if I can push in and grab the TV and play another few hours before I have to head out. Sigh, promised Ali and James I'd go out for his birthday although I really - my fault, - can't afford it. I'll just have to watch what I spend really carefully. And of course, that cuts into my Zelda time. I suppose I could always drink little, leave early, and then I can technically play Skyward Sword interruption-free all night! I should really go for a run too, but with the manic dancing around I do when playing wii games, it's probably more than sufficient exercise...

Homesick.

2011-12-22T04:37:00.000-08:00

home·sick
[hohm-sik] Show IPA
adjective
sad or depressed from a longing for home or family while awayfrom them for a long time.

- Dictionary.com

The word 'homesick,' really seems to imply more that you're sick of home. Which I am.

"Home," is a dumb word because I throw it around so much. "Oh yeah, I'm going home for Christmas." "I'll be home in April." "Back home..." But really, home is transcendent. Home - (God, the word looks so funny now. Reaching the point where you type/say a word too much and it starts to seem like to should not exist.) - is wherever I want it to be, and in my case, I'm far too detached from this place to really consider it home.

Oh no, I really should - I grew up here. My family live here. I've lived here. Half my material possessions in the world are here, as is my dog. Despite all this, my irrational hatred for this city has just meant that I've never felt really that happy or comfortable here.

Home, for me, has become a small room in the corner of a building, decked in fairylights and with curtains that don't match the bedsheets. Home has become an entirely new place - it's no wonder that someone like me, who has felt such detachment from the-place-I-grew-up-in, would latch onto wherever I go next. And I've decided that my own definition of home is the place where - boom, clichés galore - I'm happy/where the heart is blah blah etc. I swear the last 3 months were the happiest I've ever been.

Knowing me, I'll be sick of the UK soon, and will latch, like a leech, onto a new 'host.' (Okay, taking this parasite simile a little far now.) So that'll be wherever it takes me, I guess.

Tuesday

2011-12-20T11:20:00.001-08:00

Lights are blasting and music is pumping but the place is bare and it's a bit depressing.
Your crowd is all milling around awkwardly, so you pull up a chair and join people-you-know and people-you-don't-know at a table in a corner. Your friend turns to you and says:

Do you want a drink?,

and in reply, you make strange hand motions because you're too lazy to even try and talk over the music.
Strange hand motions are being met with a questioning glance so you shout that:

your money is upstairs and you're too lazy to get it.

'Tuesdays here,' is a phrase floating around and it jilts you out of your present state back to the summertime when it was roughly 5 degrees hotter. Swap and minus, plus a few people and you've pretty much got the exact same scenario.

Tuesdays are the nights we always end up talking about when planning a week.
Tuesdays are the nights where someone always gets inexplicably - actually no, it's explicable - drunk.
Tuesdays really deserve their own label on this blog.

It's really disorientating returning to the same spot you haunted so frequently only a few months ago when things were completely different. The place is the same. Well, no: there's a tree above the entranceway, and um, maybe there are a few new faces out and some of the posters don't look familiar? But really - it hits you and it's such a strange sensation.

You're noticing the missing bits: Lizzy is meant to be beside you, and when they start playing 'Hey Soul Sister,' you look around wildly as if just having the song playing will magically ping her back, but it doesn't happen. The bar slut is too, absent, and whilst you don't miss her quite as much, it's sad not seeing her familiar head - and occasionally, inappropriate bits hanging out - on the bar.

SO, what's been new with me lately?

Photo from... drumroll please... TUESDAY. I had to do a bit of choosing to find a photo that wasn't awful. NOT DRUNK, JUST UNPHOTOGENIC!!!

I've decided, for the sake of this entry, to just be a shit human being and update in non-chronological order, just starting with whatever the hell I feel like.

(1) So, finally went back to Carnegies for $10 Tuesday. Got a high-five from the bouncer and we exchanged Yay!s when he noticed my birthday had just passed and that I was actually allowed in. As above describes, we just chilled around for a bit, and it got ridiculously busy in the space of - not even a song, a verse of a song, when the music suddenly changed to the upbeat mainstream stuff they usually play. Even though i'm so ~unconventional (ooh)~ with my music, I do know most of the playlist because it's just the standard stuff, and I must say it's nice to actually know music, and not just hear the sound of robots throwing up (dubstep.)

There were a few awfully awkward moments during that night, but I think most of them were saved slash so awkward that they were simultaneously hilarious and will hopefully just become another 'funny story,' for my 'funny stories that I can just pull out and tell to seem funny.' bank. I also saw Mikayla - who is in my halls back at uni - for a bit. Well, I spoke to her for a bit; spotted her dancing on the bar and when I tried to wave, almost hit someone so I stopped waving. So bizarre seeing a uni person here - my whole World spun and I thought I was back in UK and then it stopped and I realised where I was and everything just got incredibly confusing.

(2) Last Thursday - You'll noticed I just skipped the entire weekend and Monday. This is because I just did not do anything worth noting. Not that anything I do report on is worth noting, it's just that these particular events were so boring, that even I won't want to read back on them in the future - I had a lovely night out with the girls! We had a nice catch up session (also see: us all drunkenly dragging information out of each other,) and got a lot of free drinks from some loaded randomer who invited us to his table. Couldn't possibly turn down fancy champagne and wine, knowing that it'll probably be the most expensive thing I will ever drink.

"Something fruity!" We asked the bartender. Good thing I don't know what the fuck these were, cause if I did, I'd be in danger of drinking them literally all the time.

(3) Today, - well, yesterday, 'cus it's 2 in the morning now, - we had Christmas dinner! Early Christmas dinner, rather. I managed to somehow go from 'Kitchen disabled,' to 'Domestic Goddess' and actually - if I do say so myself BAM MINUS MODESTY POINTS - produced some edible, rather nice cupcakes:

The night was full of amazing food - just woken up from my food coma (not literally,) - and full of much laughter as we ended up just telling ridiculous stories and watching the stupidest, most hilarious videos online. We've also planned to learn the most ridiculously amazing dance to 12 Days Of Christmas, which we are planning to suddenly bust out in during a ridiculous spontaneous flash mob in the middle of Carnegies tomorrow for santathon!

I've gone back to what appears to be exclusively blogging about being out. I still vouch that I'm not an alcoholic. My days are just filled with otherwise relatively mundane activities. My friends are a bunch of night owls! I mean, I could blog about how today I tested myself against fairylights by walking down Ap Liu street and trying to walk past the light shops. I mean, I did succeed in that I didn't buy anything, but that was probably just my lack of money speaking. I did stand and stare at the lights in every. single. store, like some kind of weird socially awkward magpie who is attracted to glowing things, but does not even dare to enquire about the price. See, I'm even boring myself already. (As well as giving future!me a negative impression of past - or is it current? - me.) And now I've reached the point of just questioning and second-guessing myself, so I guess it's time for bed!

We are not, we are not shining stars!

2011-12-14T04:09:00.000-08:00

Um, no, I'm not blogging again because I feel bad and am trying to make up for how rubbish I've been lately. I just, as I promised, don't have that much to do. Not everyone is back yet, and I've just reverted back to my lazy I-don't-want-to-leave-the-house ways. I guess it's because now I have to travel MORE than down-the-hall-and/or-up-the-stairs to see people...

So. Let's have ruminations on what it's like being back "home" after being away for around two months.

I kinda feel like Ariel. Hong Kong is the ocean. Like... weirdest analogy ever, maybe, but I feel like her in The Little Mermaid 2, when she gets turned (SPOILER ALERT!!! Just in case...) back into a mermaid and goes back to the sea to rescue Melody (I haven't even watched this recently, I'm just this sad.) She's technically a mermaid again... but she's actually a human. But she's not even a human.. she's ACTUALLY a mermaid. And she goes back and I'm sure, putting aside the fact she was on a rescue mission and must've been like, super worried and everything, she must've felt how I feel: like a fish... back in water?

For a start, I was greeted with blue skies and high temperatures and a flock of mosquitos who aren't even supposed to be here now because it's winter. Parents who waved as they greeted me at the terminal gate. My sister's brownies that she baked for school but decided to keep because they tasted too nice. My friends who I sort of surprised when I turned up to Clockenflap after all my whining that I wasn't because it turns out I was bothered after all.

Instead, I whined. I missed dull England weather and the lack of insects. Seeing my halls nutcases wandering around and being accosted and joining in random corridor congregations.

It feels strange. I feel like I've never left, but at the same time, I feel so out-of-place here. I wasn't lying when I said I missed the people, not the place. It's been nice seeing the people. I couldn't give less of a shit about the place.

Speaking of the people: saw them again, (some of them, anyway,) at Clockenflap. What, you may ask, is this strange foreign-sounding-word and why did you go? Clockenflap is actually Hong Kong's music festival thing on the West Kowloon waterfront. This was the first time I'd gone, despite my tiredness, as it was free and I found out that my ticket did still work after all.

I did have a drink at 3 in the afternoon. It was refreshingly delicious and disgustingly strong. My tolerance has decreased so much, it's ridiculous. This does not spell out great times for me.

So nice seeing Izzy again. She was the first person I met on the platform of the MTR. We spotted each other just as the train doors were closing, and in a dramatic movie-esque sequence, ran at each other and embraced and squealed that way girls do. The train doors then magically opened and let us on after it saw the strength of our love.

I didn't even stay long for Clockenflap as I was being all lame and tired. Jet lag hasn't hit that much, I'd just woken up ridiculously early after a stupid amount of sleep. After, however, my appalling uni sleep schedule, anything is better really - 2 hours a night can't really be too good for you.

Totally I cemented the idea of "finally being home," by visiting my beloved New York Fries. Cheesy fries with spring onion and tomatoes? Yes please! This exciting excursion was made more exciting as I attended with Izzy, but this elation was slightly, (okay, very,) diminished by the discovery that my very favourite Frozen Yogurt (for all my Brit friends who constantly mock my 'Americanisms': YOW-GURT. Get over it.) place had actually closed down. I'm guessing they lost the majority of their business after I'd left. I wept internally and then sucked it up and got an ice cream.

Me and Izzy make each other ridiculously hyper. As in, rolling around on the grass actually trying not to cry of laughter whilst people stare at the strange spectacle unravelling in front of them.

"I AM A BUSHBABY!!!"

We also found trees and climbed. And, if anyone remembers from this post (GOD that was long ago!) how me and Izzy found an abandoned construction frame that was later dissembled... it has been returned to us! Upon my walk home, I stumbled upon a construction frame in the exact same spot. The angels such a chorus as the sunlight shone down on this discovery. "CLIMB US NOW!" It exclaimed. "Later." I whispered, whilst informing Izzy of my discovery. We will be definitely taking another trip there.

I'm still unsure of what I'm going to do for a month. I have quite a bit planned: Christmas dinners and sleepovers and forts and Burton films and campfires and Disneyland, but a month just seems like a really, really long time. I mean - I've only been at uni for two months and now I'm away for one. I already miss people and my room - why is it I keep coming up with cool room ideas now?! - and just the little things, far more than I've missed Hong Kong aka my hometown for 17 years. I don't know, I just feel more at home in uni.

I was considering asking to not come back for Easter, but that'd mean I wouldn't get to see my dog for ages, and nothing is worth that. I'd bare the pain of a thousand mosquitos for my dog, just saying.

Back to the 852

2011-12-10T16:31:00.000-08:00

Oops I did it again ~ Failed to update. It's okay though, I'm back home. As in not at uni. As in I don't have anything to do anymore and can do low priority things such as update my blog... just kidding.

So, because I'm great at engaging my audience, I'm just going to start with the boring stuff and get that out the way and -

OH YEAH I FORGOT TO MENTION, it was my birthday last week :)

Whilst the night itself was a bit (literally) messy, my actual birthday may have consisted of me watching alien documentaries and constructing a robot out of an empty cardboard box, (just because I could.)

Me and friendly robot companion thanking everyone for birthday wishes. And for looking after me (cleaning up my room - not that I did anything other than fall asleep.)

So NOW let's bash through the boring bits:

Essays all done. Shittily, but slowly done. I had to take out my internet and then sit upstairs in Joe's room because my room was too cold. (Had to keep my windows open to air my room out.) Handed it in yesterday after putting it off for ages. Broke about 4 people's printers trying to print off my bloody cover page. "My printer's never not worked before -" Well, it clearly hadn't met me.

In some exciting news, I have a house next year! Well, I mean that I know where I'm living next year. Plan A was originally to live with Megan and the girls, but after my sudden hanging-out-lots with middle floor, it turned out they needed another person and well - it meant far less work for me as the houses were chosen and found, and all I had to do was sign stuff and pay. (Note to self: pay.) So excited for house decorating and entertainment. Getting a new TV soon, I'm pretty sure, since I may have broken my old one by tripping over it. ~Classy and elegant as ever.~

After we'd sorted out the deposits, I actually meandered off on my own to find something to wear for the christmas ball - my first legal visit to the student union, ha! And because it's a relatively "formal-esque" event, I had to like, dress up ish and stuff, you know? (I did get exclamations along the lines of "wow you actually made a vague effort," because I really usually just don't.)

Pre-drinking was particularly exciting as I went to tesco and got my first legal drinks. I was able to actually bring out an ID and use it and it was really really exciting.

Christmas ball - there were reindeer. Legit reindeer. Unfortunately, I was far too cold to actually get too excited over them. There was also actually an ice skating rink. The night itself was pretty good, from what I remember - not that I had ridiculous amounts to drink, (I left that to uh, other people,) but it all just seems to blur a bit into the following: cameras flashing, my camera highjacked, sambuca shots, chilling in the foyer bit of the guys's bathroom, climbing the gate (in heels) because we were too lazy to walk around it, christmas songs, reunions with people, and seeing people you wouldn't expect to me drunk off their faces. I had a few serious discussions which may lead to some news next year but I won't say anything yet which makes this probably the most annoying sentence I've ever typed, sorry.

With my nutcases hallmates who I already miss dearly. I can't just storm into Jordan's room and sit on his bed being annoying when I want to procrastinate! Nor are there any corridor parties and room raves...

This one made profile picture even if it is blurry. Me and my bff Jordan are too precious.

FILM FRIENDS! ~~ ! The lovely Sophie (my Ginger Peachy Sal Paradise,) and the Serial Drapist also known as Tom. Sometimes.

The lovely Lucinda who gave me such a nice goodbye and told me I wasn't allowed to leave. I shall really miss my giggling-tipsy buddy, from the very first night where we both ended up peeing ourselves over 'Fucking Alex' (not literally...) I have lots of letters to send.

:)

♡♡♡

So, traveling:

Packed up (very messily,) handed in my library books and my essays.
Did my goodbye rounds.
Had my hallmates very kindly try to tape up Stupid Broken Suitcase.
Cabbed to the railway place.
Waited at a dingy freezing bus station by myself in the dark for half an hour. I curled up into a ball of sadness and on a scale of 1-fun, it really wasn't.
Had some kerfuffle with my ticket. It was a bit of a hassle - I say that, but I didn't do anything, I stood there and looked sad whilst they ran around sorting it out.
Was worth it though because I got upgraded to premium economy and the inflight entertainment was amazing - including 6 Game of Thrones episodes :)

Finally made it back last night. Put up all the new printed photos which had arrived, which made me a bit nostalgic and lame already. Was very disorientated when I woke up at 5 this morning and have decided to get bubble tea and garlic noodles, as well as maybe go to Clockenflap after all as my ticket actually hadn't been removed from the system despite threats. Who knows! Plenty-ish to do...

I will not stop screaming.

2011-11-30T06:35:00.000-08:00

I went and did it again. Wrote half a post and left it. By this point, it's just all irrelevant so I'm not going to bother finishing and just post it. And then do a proper post in a bit. (As in, hopefully in the next day or so because I'm turning out to be really shit at this.

I have somehow, unexplainedly, turned into a horror movie freak.

I've been obsessed with them for a long time. I'd read the wikipedia synopsis and lurk imdb. I'd dream of a day and a world in which I'd be able to watch one without already ruining my already-shit sleeping habits.

Yet, for the last 4 nights, we have been watching horror films. And proper horror films too. We have tackled the big-name, well-known scarers from the safety of my fort - still in development, it gets a little comfier everyday I think.

It all started with School Dayz...
A monthly event where 90s music is played and -

Fort of safety had to be constructed after everyone left. I fell asleep in there.

Another Stupid Summary

2011-11-17T17:19:00.000-08:00

Have you ever:

Been tipped out of a chair you were comfortably reclining on in such a way that a bruised formed on your ass?
Had your only controller stolen and placed in the ceiling tiles that are out of reach?
Had sugar poured in your hair?
Had cutlery (and a baking tray) thrown at you?
Been locked out of your room multiple times whilst the culprits played games on your ps3?

If you have, you may be living my life!

Whilst all this sounds a bit abusive, this is the level we have reached here. After the first month, 'fresher's friendliness' wears off and we all learn each other's quirks and odd traits and annoying traits and, particularly relevant here, a love of pranking.

I have, unfortunately, turned into one of those god-awful people, haven't I? Each entry contains a sentence that goes along the lines of ooooh I'm being shit at blogging I'll blog more I promise!!! Then, the time that passes between each blog entry grows steadily larger and larger and the entries shorter... but I shall not let that happen and write quite a long one instead. Yay!

So, I've been at uni for over a month now. Almost two, as we're nearing December territor- okay fine, we're not, but less than two weeks. I am keeping track because yes, it is my birthday in December and I'll finally be able to buy 18 games without fear of being rejected. Which was, of course, obviously my main priority these last few years.

Updates are usual: the amount of essays I have to do is building up, but of course I have not done any of them. You see, I like to leave essays to the last minute because I find the adrenaline rush of panic exciting! What a great motivator! (Brilliant excuse for being incredibly lazy, right?)

I've worked a few - one - more shift and have one coming up this Saturday. Ventured to the gym as I felt my laziness was really pushing its limits. Turned my One-Screening Thursday into a No-Classes Thursday. Got a lot of practice and beat a lot of people at Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe. Played a fair bit of Skyrim, (but not really as much as I'd have liked, to be honest.)

Set up a cinema in Knightcote: the friendly community cinema in the common room, featuring either Toby's iMac or Joe's monitor, showing whichever movie people, (or me, because I provide the movies,) feel like. Screening classics such as the amazing and underrated How To Train Your Dragon, The Dark Knight & Jumanji, it's almost become a nightly screening..

Except tonight when it fell through and we ended up "watching*" Bridesmaids in my room. Bought more fairylights so my room is cuter and Christmas-y now check it out check it out:

*Watching = Half watching with Chris and Lucinda on our 'girly night in.' Hear some faffing around outside my door and go to answer it when someone violently locks. Find they tried the 'Tie two doors together so neither can get out,' trick. Realise they forgot whose room it was, (aka the girl with about 50 craft knives of varying sizes,) have my room broken into, my controller stolen, and had to embark on a wild goose chase to get it back. On a separate note, I'm currently not speaking to some of the people in my hall...

I'm not too sure why I have this picture on my phone. We were playing Game Of Life after we finished our Star Wars jigsaw, (I know - what raves we have here on Friday afternoons,) and um I won. I won at the Game of Life so i'm obviously going places.

The tradition of messing up people's doors - Joe got the contents of his kitchen cupboard taped to his, Sophie had a ton of alcohol bottles and photos put on hers - Rachel got an entire game of Monopoly to kindly welcome her back!

Now that I'm doing a kind of recap-summary, I'm not really too sure what I've been doing with my time. Wasting a lot of it, for sure, and spending far too much money, for sure, and being an immature idiot, for sure. Still don't know why I don't seem to manage to do any work in comparison to my coursemates who are panicking about essays now. Um, it's not the 24-hours-to-submission bracket now, YOU'RE NOT SUPPOSED TO PANIC!

Pretty sure I took doodling to a whole new level in Theatre though. Casually sitting at the back drawing in charcoal. I like charcoal.

My very first charcoal drawing WOULD be a zombie.

Been doing some art I guess. Bits and pieces. Most of my artistic effort appears to be going into decorating and maintaining my room, which just makes me insanely happy. I'm even thinking about how my room is going to look next year which is actually a really funny story because I actually don't know where I'm living next year... got some ideas... probably taking up with Megan & Sarah because I'm not sure how good I'd be in a bigger house and I get a long like, ironically, a house on fire with those two. I've only been here 2 months and I'm already thinking how I'll miss my nutcase hallmates! Even the little things. Like tonight, for example. I'll forgive them eventually.

Signing off with a picture i did this afternoon. And tomorrow is No-Class Thursday and whilst the temptation to do absolutely nothing is very strong again, I'm thinking of maybe going to the gym and being all active and stuff?

And for a final summing up, here is a list of just random things:

Jordan moved down to the East Side™ of the corridor. He and Sam now play the Cantina Band song on a loop simultaneously and it's all everyone has stuck in their head.
The preferred and most efficient way of moving, we have deduced, is skipping. We see lots of skipping.
Washing up is still the shittiest thing ever.
People will always make assumptions if you've spent all evening lying in someone's bed with them and exit the room looking disheveled even if all you did was watch films.
People are still very, very messy. No matter how many beds you make and rooms you assist in cleaning.
I really, really like avocados now.
The best way to get out of bed, is to set your phone half an hour earlier, hit snooze, then throw your phone/alarm across the room. Ta da! You've now been awoken and next time it rings, you'll have to go and physically get out of bed. It's cruel, but effective. P.S. Having a promising hot drink helps.

Helpful advice brought to you from Laura.

Mid-Week Ruminations

2011-11-08T14:50:00.001-08:00

Or, almost mid-week. It's Tuesday, but almost 11pm. Close enough.
This would ideally be a post artistically scattered with beautiful photos but since I have neither photoshop or the motivation at this second, there is a lack of beautiful photos to artistically scatter.

So, leading back: Friday before my departure was a chilled drinking night at Knightcote which basically meant the same-but-new rubbish we usually get up to. I witnessed a breakdown over the death of Mufasa, (no names,) was victim of several tickle attacks now that my hallmates have discovered how ridiculously ticklish I am, found out where these hidden tunnels are, and have taken part in one of the more difficult games of 21 - Star Wars quote on 16, meaningful life story on 6, and someone in the block you don't like on 14. Can we say i n c r i m i n a t i n g?

So Saturday morning, I, clad in a cardigan to cover my bruise-covered arms from where I'd been restrained and tickled, packed up my bags - JUST KIDDING, my guitar case because I didn't have a smaller bag. Traveling indie-musician-hipster style! - and headed down to my Aunt-Who's-Near-London's.

Some thoughts on the railway/train stations in England, (in somewhat chronological order,):

What the fuck is this ticket machine?
Seriously where am I going?
Why are the prices so different?
NO ew I'm not paying that gross. How do I cancel?!
SHIT these trains are loud.
Hahahahahahha I'm like sitting alone on a bench on a platform and it's outside hahahahha look at me.
I'm like Chihiro from Spirited Away when she waits for the train!
Except I'm not because their train was slightly submerged in water.
The names of places here are so funny oh my god.
No don't sit next to me oh my god stop it anti-social teenager alert!
PLATFORM 9! AND 10!
Don't run into any walls here. That's way too lame even for you.
What the fuck, why are all the staircases on the underground like bloody wind tunnels?
Oh cool, I'm in a skirt. Convenient!
Why is this train so small I feel like a hobbit!!!
Except I'm not because hobbits don't feel small in their own homes or anything...
I feel like a human in a hobbit-sized train!
Where am I going oh my god.
How do I see where i'm going.
OH GOD I'LL HAVE TO ASK FOR DIRECTIONS.

I didn't have to ask for directions though. (Thank god. I hate that.)
Made it to Camden Town where I wandered up and down and although I am stingy, managed to spend money on I-Don't-Know-What-Exactly, (this shit always happens,) and met up with........Megan. (As in, the girl who's at Warwick with me, cause that's how we do it.)

Met up again today and went to Chinatown. Bought tapioca and big straws which can only mean one thing: guess who's making bubble tea back at Warwick?! (If your guess wasn't me, it was wrong.)

So, this was meant to be a quick update-ish thing which it kind of is. Having a chill day tomorrow. Which will probably equate to spending too much time on the internet again. BUT IT'LL BE OKAY, BECAUSE SKYRIM IS OUT ON FRIDAY. I assure everyone that productivity levels will be severely lowered from then on. Ads and displays all over London getting me so psyched!

Take Me To London, (Tell Me Something I Don't Know)

2011-11-04T03:54:00.000-07:00

Bam, 10 points for the Fratellis title reference!

So, um, managed to miss my first lecture today. As in, this has been the first time I have missed it. I suppose I now fit in with my reputation of being ~one of the bad kids who sit at the back~ (That's a joke we all make, by the way. We're not bad kids.) I somehow thought it'd be an okay idea to sleep at 5 - dumb, dumb, sleeping cut-off time is 4.30 latest! - and then I also managed to forget to properly set my alarm. So, I woke up 9.10. I considered attempting to make my then-10-minutes-in 9.00 lecture, but after visions of myself awkwardly creeping in through the back looking like a mess with all heads turning to look at me, I decided to just get up and do the reading. (Consequently, I've decided to blog instead. I haven't done the reading.)

Why, you may ask, did I sleep at 5? I usually sleep late doing absolutely nothing productive, but I had to extend my time of non-production, as I only got in around 2.00 - that's right, first work shift!

Oh look, here's me not-working by being in a photo. Forgot who even took this, to be honest.

So, work consisted of standing around eating candy for the first hour, when no one was there. We then had the grand tour - which was quite insane. There are a lot of secret staircases and doors and storage rooms with codes which I now have. Once we'd finished Le Grand Tour, we headed back and it had picked up a little, with the people there including some of my lovely hallmates.

So, my night was me being paid to slide up to people and cutely (I tried,) asking "HI, would you like your photo taken? I'm not being creepy, i'm WORKING." (That was legitimately my introduction line. Um, need to let everyone know I'm working!!!) And all the people were really very nice and good about it, which obviously made me happy as it gave me things to do. The music was actually ~indie and alternative~ so that was obviously right up my street. I went back with my hallmates and edited and sorted the photos before dropping them into the drop box, where they'll hopefully be uploaded soon.

Speaking of jobs; in a strange turn of events, it now appears that I, the once perpetually unemployed, now have two jobs! Whilst the logistics aren't set, it appears that I've been pulled up as an art director for a new company Lizzy's mom is involved in. Art direction will involve illustrating and photoshoots, so that's pretty much enough to get me completely 100% excited.

Asides from that, next week is "reading week," for some people, also kind of a half-term but not really, y'know? I'm going to be seeing my Aunt Jane and cousins (FUCK YEAH NO-LIMITS INTERNET. TORRENT TIME, WOO!) who are a bit outside of London, so that means LONDON PARTY TIME LOLJK STILL UNDERAGE. But no, London daytime explorations shall be enough - I haven't been there properly (as in, not just the airport,) since I was 9. And I've been given money. Ridiculously good mood.

Since I've last updated; celebrated Tom's birthday in style. We didn't have candles so the birthday boy had to blow out the birthday hob, which was one of the best suggestions ever.

I also, after much distraction:

(Procrastinated by drawing myself procrastinating. Pretty impressive.)

Finished my crit essay which is due today! Well no, Monday but um, not going to be here. I started it at 5.30 and promised myself ice cream if i was done - including choosing a shot, taking notes, then writing it - by 7. I finished at a quarter to; ice cream really is the best motivator.

I also found my keys, which I'd left in someone elses' room. Main problem was getting into the main building; i had to pathetically cat-scratch on the door to be let in. I need to start locking my door all the time; that way, maybe I'd have noticed I didn't have my keys on me at night, instead of morning, where I was lucky enough to even spot Ollie going up the stairs. ("I THINK YOU HAVE MY KEYS.")

Now, I just have to figure out how to pretend I was there for both this morning's lecture and screening - I've skipped the second screening twice quite a few times, so that's fine - and seamlessly interweave myself with people as they go into the drama seminar. Yay, I'll be early today then!

Employment

2011-11-01T16:12:00.001-07:00

You are now reading the words of someone who is actually employed.

Well, I've done bits and pieces of work before; mostly freelance type stuff doing graphics and odd jobs (doesn't that sound shifty,) but nothing all official and proper with forms that I've had to fill out and all that!

So, since I'm turning into someone who's completely shit at updating, (I WILL CHANGE, I PROMISE,) I'm going to bullet-point this just to catch up to now, and then revert back to my old pretentious blogging ways.

I'm not allowed in the Student U anymore. This underage loser has been cast out and for Halloween, I went as Cinderella as I wasn't actually allowed to go to the ball. I sat in my room and watched horror movies by myself until my sweetheart flatmates came home and banged on my windows to scare me as I was struggling through The Grudge.
I've been doing less drunken-ness and more drunk-looking-after. Drunk people are either hopelessly annoying or infuriatingly hilarious. So far, mine have been the latter. I've been shouted at for cutting cheese wrong, had to put someone to bed, help them up stairs... and collected a shitton of amazing blackmail-worthy quotes.
So, my job, (way to get sidetracked, mhm?): I'm now a photographer for the Student U. Yes, the one that won't let me in. Meaning they're letting me in. Which is fine technically, as I can't drink when I work anyway - this is where I say I want to introduce post-drinking to England culture... and my own culture - and I can take photos. So, I'm essentially getting paid for doing what I normally do. The hours aren't long but it's still money. And like I said, I take photos all the time anyway. Or I would, if I were allowed in.
According to all the promises that have been made to me, my 18th birthday, (December 4th,) is going to be ridiculous. I'm apparently going to be hammered. I say to that: good luck bitches. (loljk it's not that hard.)
Money situation is quite dire. I keep spending money on useless shit. I don't even know how, I can't stop buying things i don't need. And I keep printing stuff to stick on my walls. I'm obsessed with room-decorating, and to my credit, I've gotten so many compliments that I fear I've now set it up for myself: my room must have something new everytime someone comes in, or I've gone and ruined my streak. I don't work. I just decorate my room.

I hadn't actually put a photo of my room up. Here is a cute virtual tour. My Game Of Thrones house posters which used up all my ink! My post-it notes - every time someone comes in my room, they can leave me a post-it - next to my pretentious self-painted paintings and art all over my room. Fairylights! (I never turn my light on at night. I live in the semi-darkness with my fairylights on. I love it. It's ~atmospheric~ and ~mood-lighting~ and I can continue being all artsy on my lonesome. (Running gag: I'm one of the few arts students here. I'm surrounded by maths and physics. I'm used to being quite academically smart, but now I'm just not.)

Oh, and today I added more:

Pac-men on my ceiling! Took ages and I wasn't even sure that they would work. They did. Thank god! Also threw in a Toon!Link because I felt my room wasn't geeky enough and therefore didn't reflect me.

(You wouldn't believe how many people I've bonded with over video games here.)
Classes are going well. My whole TOMI (Theories of a moving image,) class is obsessed with our lecturer who is the most adorable human in the history of humans. I've officially finished my first essay, with some assistance:

My self motivation is so pathetic that I actually feel the need to do this kind of stuff.
Unfortunately, although I adore my classes and especially the seminars, I can't say the same for some of the screenings. Um, I don't need to watch a film twice in two days. That's too much.
We have taken up residence in the back - or 2nd from back - row. The classic naughty kids at the back. For example, the following is pictorial evidence from today:

I alternated between doodling and throwing candy, (or 'sweets.' I've been berated so much for saying candy FUCK OFF I'LL SAY WHAT I WANT,) for Jack to catch in his mouth, (success rate: 95%)

We watched Griffith's 'The Birth of a Nation,' aka Most-Racist-Film-On-Earth. We played a smarties game. Everytime something racist happened on screen you had to have a smartie. The game went well SPOILER ALERT we ran out of smarties.
I've been feeling almightily creative - as you can see from my intense room decorating obsession. Like in my last cheat-of-a-short post, I went to the music room again today and although I was very intimidated by the insanely good person in the room next door - fucking non-sound-proof rooms, god, - I still did a few covers and bits and pieces. For some ridiculous reason, I felt brave enough to upload them as well. My channel is here. I will regret this probably. I'm awfully shy about performing.
What else... Oh, I've dyed my hair. Again. Pink, again. It's brighter! Except in photos where it doesn't show up too well and just looks read. Yay for photobooth!
Went for most insane buffet. All you can eat Asian buffet. I don't need to eat for a week, (I've had very little and for good reason.)
I've ordered a tripod so I'm going to start filming my Kitchen Mocku-Documentary soon. I'll elaborate more on that in its own post. It's that special.
You can tell I'm getting bored or tired because the paragraphs are getting short and lazy. I still have a fair bit to do. It's my friend's birthday today, so, because he's scared of geese, I drew him a goose. It was a nice goose who loved him and just wanted to be friends. It didn't fit in my bag so I had to walk to campus holding it, and it made a desperate bid for freedom whilst I was waiting for the traffic light; I successfully restrained Nice Goose, but after a dash onto the road where I was almost killed. For a paper goose.

That aside, I still have to do the reading for tomorrow. I could've started two hours ago, true, but um, I need to sit on the computer and tweet and admire my pac-men and write a blog post!!! Very important to update people on my life. I'm going to have a shower in a second - new shampoo and conditioner!!! This excites me far more than it should. I'm thinking next article is going to be 'Things that shouldn't excite me that much but just do, - and then do the reading and my summaries. I've already skipped sleep last night, (I skipped last Monday too. What's with me not sleeping on Mondays...) so I'm planning to do the work and get some sleep, before setting off early tomorrow to go to the coffee machine - don't have to interact with people!!! Yay!!! - because I've already established that as a routine. Fuck, that's where all my money's gone.

Discovery!

2011-10-26T15:34:00.000-07:00

I don't share a room. That's good. I wouldn't be able to handle it.

That said, despite having a single room, I've had to get used to neighbours and - you guessed it - thin walls. No, not them. I'm the one who makes all the noise. And i've become very conscious of it.

Today I ventured to the music center and found - practice rooms. Acoustics were shit and they weren't very soundproof at all. But I managed to record Izzy's birthday video which was a mash-up of our two "songs." Because I love you all, I'll share it with just you guys because i'm so self-conscious since I can't sing. Or play piano.

Like i said. Acoustics suck. Turn your volume DOWN. Opening might kill your speakers. Not a joke.

5 Main (Notable) Differences Between Now and Not-Now

2011-10-19T08:14:00.001-07:00

Very vague title. Not-now refers to anytime that is not now. 'Now,' as in not exactly-this-moment, but this period of time. Yes, all my article-type things of the moment all concern university. it's a big change - girl in the city plopped down in the middle of the countryside; it's very Mike, Lu & Og (anyone?) -esque except I'm not on an Island and they didn't appear to do anything except for throw coconuts at each other, and I kinda had a choice in my coming here to be honest. It's not really very Mike, Lu & Og is it?

(1) The lack of common everyday household objects.
When you do your own grocery shopping for the first time, you will of course, forget things. You will go out and buy those things and forget more things and inevitably this just builds up in a big ball of forgotten things and you'll never fully be complete. Restocking things is a pain in the ass too. Lemme just grab a tiss- fuck.

You will remember that pack of hair pins or your apple juice just as you're halfway back from the supermarket and you will pause. You will hover on the spot as you face a metaphorical fork in the road; do you shamefully turn back and face the humiliation as you meekly slide over your box of pads or condoms or contagious foot fungus cream* - it's always the awkward thing, isn't it? "Can't forget those, can we now?" Winks the cashier and you want to crawl in a hole and die. Or, do you just say, Fuck it, and continue on knowing very well that you'll be hating yourself later. Or making your friends hate you as you scrounge off them yet again.

(*Just an example that I used in trying to be funny. I swear I don't have contagious foot fungus. Ew.)

(2) Leaves. And walking on grass in general.
We don't get the cute Autumn leaves in Hong Kong. And even if we do, they are promptly swept away by the many road cleaners or they fall on the grass which we don't walk on. If, in the urban jungle that is Hong Kong, there is nice grass, it will be decoratively accompanied by a "Please Do Not Walk On The Grass" sign.

Walking over grass still feels funny. Why, I ponder, are there none of them cute little fences that discourage you from mingling with nature here? Why is it so soft and dense and not yellow and um, I can't even see the Earth. Like, as in soil. Not the world. I clearly think far too much about grass.

(3) Transport.
I haven't been missing "home" too much, (asides from my one desperate 'FUCK I NEED A 7-11 SO BAD RIGHT NOW,) but I'm really missing the convenience. My first trip to Leamington, I dared to step on a proper England bus, and the following exchange took place:

Me: Hi. How do I um, pay?
Driver: Where are you going? Me: (wtf why is he asking where I'm going?) Um, Leamington.
Driver: Single or return?
Me: Um, no.
Driver: What?
Me: What?
Driver: Are you coming back?
Me: I hope so.
Driver: Do you want a return then?
Me: Um...nah it's okay.
Driver: ... okay. That'll be £2.10, just grab a ticket.
Me: oh my god a ticket.

Whilst it looks lengthy, I assure you it was less than a minute of one of the most awkward exchanges i'd ever had. Thank god.
The simple dump-your-money-in approach is way more down my street. Plus the flagging down mini-buses when you see one, (and when they can stop.) There are, luckily, a lot more buses than I'd thought, although not as frequent. I haven't even ventured into, or looked at, a train station.

(4) Self-Checkouts.
My actual favourite thing about this Country. Not going to lie; everytime I walk past them, I cannot stop a fond smile creeping across my face as I glance at the machines that I consider to be amongst my dearest of friends here. They allow me to avoid human interaction when doing my shopping. Real live friends don't do that.

For someone who just occasionally falls into a mood where I don't want to talk to anyone, these are a blessing. I don't have to awkwardly fumble around with money or accidentally attempt to pay with other currencies. I don't have to be judged by my weird-ass shopping lists. (This is someone who had a post-it shopping list consisting solely of 'Pliers' and 'Ice Cream.')

I could go on forever about how lovely they are. I'll spare you; I won't.

(5) "You alright?"
Apparently, "You alright?" (Or "yalright/alright/alrigh" etc.) is just a greeting in England. I hear it everyday. I smile and sometimes I say, "Yeah, you?" for reciprocity's sake. There was once, however, a time when I was not as suave and well-versed in English greetings. The very first time someone casually said that, (here I mean, not in general,) I stared at them with a look of pure confusion on my face - says they - and said something along the lines of, "Um yeah. Why, should I not be?"

Cause, for me, inquiring on someone's well-being - whilst polite - in this particular way, just sounded bizarre. I'm used to "How are you?s," and as a casual conversation starter. I'm making way too big a deal of these two words, I know. It still catches me off a little though.

Now on Twitter +++

2011-10-18T05:16:00.000-07:00

If, for some reason, anyone cares to find out more about my life which I already blog extensively about here, you can read up on my little ~anecdotes~ and rare thoughts here.

Warning: I overtweet.

The First Week Of College To-Do Checklist (For Girls)*

2011-10-16T16:43:00.000-07:00

*May vary.

The Big Things.

1) Move in. Pile up your boxes and bags and suitcases and your bits and pieces into the car. Drive x many miles until you finally arrive. Be anxious or excited or a bit of both and maybe you don’t want to go anymore or maybe you’re incredibly eager. Your parents anxiously hover around in your room, they check: the bed/ storage space/ will you be warm enough/ will you be cool enough/ how far are you from the kitchen/ how far are you from the laundry room.

You say to them: yes I’ll be careful/ I’ll go introduce myself to others in a bit/ No don’t go knock on next door please/I will remember to lock my door/ No seriously don’t go next door. Maybe you want some time to yourself to unpack anyway, but the minute you go you’ll probably feel bad. Until you get a text saying ‘Met the girl next door – go say hi!’

2) Meet people. University students all moving in are probably some of the friendliest people I’ve come across – not specifically, but generally. Everyone is in the same situation and thus you all just want to make friends – anyone and anything will suffice when you know no one and are in unfamiliar territory. Even I, a self-proclaimed people-hater, find myself friendly and trying to meet as many people as possible.

You collect names and numbers like crack to give yourself a ton of options because you don’t know who you’re going to be good friends with. Go everywhere with different people all the time and tag along and turn up randomly at other people’s gatherings – but that’s okay, it’s just more people to add to your First Week Social Web.

Alternatives: Stay in your room and refuse to meet people, come out once and never be seen again, (there’s one in every hall.)

3) Go Party. University is prime time for crazy partying because LOL at Higher Level education, um, we can binge drink and study at the same time by this point okay? No, that was a joke. But Fresher’s Week or Fortnight or Forever is again, a time to party. Why? Perhaps it’s just to fill the quota of a “college student,” or, referring to (2) an easier way to meet people.

Pre-drink in fun kitchen and room and common room parties. Maybe you won’t even end up leaving the kitchen. Be drunk by the time you’re lining up to get in and then suddenly, oops, 9AM lecture WHAT’S UP!

Optional: Pass out, get into a fight, sleep with someone, be too drunk to go back to your own room and have to do a walk of shame, post-drink back at your halls.

4) Have a cute in-night. Once you get sick of partying – or are just not up to it anymore, - you will have a cute night staying in. You will round up some of your friends and have a cute movie night. One of you will cook a meal and you will sit in a room and have a nice sleepover. You will watch a sweet movie and just have a nice time. You will feel adorable and twee and your perfect night shall not even be ruined by the drunkards stumbling around outside throwing up in their bins.

5) Join clubs or societies. Universities always have loads of societies and clubs, from the most common everyday clubs, such as the standard sports ones, or the Food society, to the obscure ones such as the Glass Juggling Society or the Cow Appreciation Society. You will be overloaded with enough flyers to paper your modestly-sized room and accidentally find yourself promising yourself to every single society because you’re just too nice to say no, and then you find yourself juggling glass every Thursday – hey, at least you now have a cool trick to show your friends back home.

6) Have your first lectures and seminars. You will be late. Hey – we all get lost, it’s cool. You will open the squeaky door and peer in and faces like sunflowers will turn to stare at you. You will ‘excuse me’ and ‘sorry’ your way down an aisle because of course, the only available seat is at the front. At the end of the aisle.

Maybe they’ll be vastly different than what you’re used to. Maybe you’ll show up hungover (likely) or still drunk (also likely) in freshers’s week. Maybe you will have so much work already that you already want to drop out. Maybe you’ll adore them and your coursemates and you’ll never want to leave the lecture hall or let go of your coursemates because you’re all so passionate about what you’ve chosen to study, aren’t you?

The Little Things.

(7) Eat ice cream in your room. Alone. Maybe it’s whilst you’re doing homework or whilst you’re lonely and sad and drunk. Maybe you just fucking want some good ice cream because um, Tesco brand value ice cream is a pretty good deal and it tastes good. Maybe you will even find a friend and you can eat your ice cream alone together. Ice cream is so a staple college student food, get over it.

(8) Run out of _______. It will happen. You will be overcome with an intense craving for cereal. You will go to the kitchen and pour out a generous amount of your mouth-watering grainfood-brand of choice. You will open the fridge and – wait. What the fuck. There’s no milk left? Shit.

(9) Fall In Love With Everyone. So many new people. Depending on where you came from and where you now are, you may fall in love with every attractive stranger you see and then you’ll map out various scenarios where you ~casually~ bump into each other and – then you realize you’re a creep and you never actually see them again.

(10) Have an intense congregation in the corridor. If you are staying in halls, there will be nights where you all curl up on the floor taking up room and talk deep meaningful shit. You may all end up throwing shoes at each other and having intense battles with the ‘Caution wet floor sign.’ Either way, it’s all part of the college experience in the first week and you will no doubtedly have many more fun nights like these for the rest of your time there.

Manic Pixie Dreamgirls.

2011-10-16T13:35:00.001-07:00

Today has been a whirlwind of a day.

So, backstory: a few weeks prior to my move down to England, I'd gotten in contact with a model concerning doing some test shoots and fun for our portfolios and whatnot. Skip forwards to Wednesday, when I actually met her, and then skip again to today, when we had our shoot. I'm surprising myself here in saying that we actually went through with it; I am notorious for being absolutely awful with making plans and then following through with them.

Fresher's flu has fallen upon the University of Warwick; I was quite early in getting ill. For a recluse who generally does not go out too much, almost-every-night must have taken a toll on me and I fell victim to the bout of bloody fresher's cough going around. I'd also lost my voice which has been brilliant in my first two weeks here, because every introduction I make seems to go, "Hi, I'm Laura and I've lost my voice I don't usually sound like a troll I swear," because um, I really would not want people to think I usually sound like a troll.

There's something about being sick which makes it perfectly acceptable to curl up in bed watching Anastasia as your double-dose of sleeping pills knock you out and enable you to sleep for 10 hours.

Therefore, I've spent the last two nights chilling out. Played an intense game of risk last night after the world's most vulgar game of scrabble - how many points for 'whore,' anyone? - and then came in late and collapsed into bed after a shower - which is, for further referencing, a pain when you share. My room's the other side of the hall from the bathrooms. Trudging past the common room in a shirt and towel clutching things isn't a cute look.

Other than that, fresher's fortnight is officially over. I've gone out quite a bit and met a lot of people. A lot of their names I can't remember or get mixed up but hey, there are tons of us here. There have been a few wary moments when I've introduced myself and gotten a "Oh, you're Laura Grant!," and considering my questionable behaviour the last few days - good and bad, considering that my skittles vodkas were being talked about at another residence half an hour away - is a little worrying.

Hall wars! We hall-crawled and drank ourselves a bit stupid - whole bottle of vodka to myself here (which I did share) - before going to get even more drunk at the bar. With Alex, Sam, and some guy whose name I don't know. (This has happened so many times. So many photos with unidentified humans!)

Film crew (y)

With the lovely Lily and Rachel. We drew whiskers on in sharpie without thinking of morning consequences. Luckily the sharpie came off our faces because it sure as hell didn't come off my arm.

Our freshers's party, Moulin Rouge themed, started off on a bit of a drunk note because we found a drinking game. One of the rules was "A shot everytime a girl lifts her skirt." Needless to say, we were out of alcohol and pretty tipsy 15 minutes in.

Student U all nice and done up. Speaking of which: made up of several restaurants, some of which i've been to - The bread oven does the best baguettes ever and I had a mint hot chocolate at the tea shop so um yay - a few pubs, (okay fine, it's one.) and a club. The club's gotten a bit boring-ish already but they let me in, even if they have to give me a little underage speech every single time.

Asides from that, doing a lot of chilling and reading who am I kidding I barely read anything. Been cooking loads of pasta just because I've started to get a bit arrogant about it. Joined the warwick tv society and am already fangirling and trying to network into doing a lot; projects lined up left right and center if I had my way.

So: today, woke up at 7 and "went back to sleep for a few minutes." Woke up again at 8.30. Cue insane panicking and changing very quickly into a top and leggings and running outside to realise my leggings were actually see-through and therefore tights. Threw shorts on top and dashed out. Wet hair and a 20 minute walk then 20 minute bus wait means I'm certain icicles have grown in my brain because I feel like I have permanent brain freeze and it really is no fucking fun.

Was a bit wary on the shoot because I am a complete amateur. Luckily, the two models and the makeup artist were all lovely and I'm really happy with what we got:

(Cue picspam!)

^ my favourite shot. I've wanted to do one like that for so long!

It's funny how when you don't have constant access to loads of food, you get really strong, weird cravings for certain things. For instance, I really, really, really fancy some chocolate right now. Anything sweet. Just so bad. But today is of course, the one day Tesco is closed and I don't have anything. I almost bought a bag of cookies earlier today (which makes me very, very sad now,) but I was craving savoury foods like no other, which led to me trailing around Tesco in Leamington looking very sad. When I finally found a prawn sandwich, I was so overcome with the sudden surge of desire to consume it. I snatched it up like a lone vulture and celebrated my victory by rounding it off with a Mars Bar beverage which was, along with the Galaxy and Milky Way ones, perhaps the coolest thing I'd ever seen. Talk about literal chocolate milk.

Tonight shall probably be chilling. I overheard people saying (lol eavesdropping oooh~~) that everyone was in the upstairs kitchen so if i'm feeling social (probably not,) I may go up and see what's happening. Other than that, I am going to praise your higher being of choice that my classes don't start 'til 3pm tomorrow and probably celebrate that with another night curled up in bed with a good film.

Shit, I'm craving mexican food now. Quesadilla and nacho night tomorrow? I do think so.

Pasta Parties

2011-10-08T02:00:00.000-07:00

Yes - I have not updated in a while, and I could provide a plethora of excuses, but the only valid one would be "I'm incredibly lazy." It's been a week since I've moved in and ~~~settled in~~~ at uni. General thoughts: I love it/ Fuck I miss my bathroom/ Why is this class so early / Why are all the people here crazy in a good way.

So, just for shits and giggles, general recap of the week:

Meeting/move in day where you just meet people. We all definitely fulfilled the quota of 'social prostitutes' and just went around being nice and cute shit like that. We went down to the welcome party and, for half the people I met that night, I have literally never seen them again.
Paint party is a funny story. Someone was very excited about this concept and this someone also made skittles vodka. This person got too drunk off said skittles vodka and only spent 10 minutes in the party before leaving for no apparent reason. This someone didn't even make it back to Westwood's Halls and had to ~walk of shame~ back in the morning.

My gorgeous babies. I was literally so proud. I took photos on my phone and showed everyone because I usually mess everything up, but these were actually okay. Look at me being all accomplished.
PJ party was fun. This time I brought my camera and went with Megan and her halls people and whoever else just turned up, which was fun. Bumped into all sorts and stayed back at Megan's, only to hear that I missed a massive hall party back at my place. Typical.

Because, um, hello, cam-whoring with Megan is cool no matter what country you're in.

The night took a surreal turn for the - better? I should say? - when we ended up in some guy we do not know's kitchen at Bluebell (Okay fine, Megan knows him but it's more dramatic if I phrase it like this because I didn't know him,) eating pasta that he'd cooked for us. He then went to bed. So we, none of us even Bluebell-ers, just sat in a Bluebell kitchen and ate pasta. Okay.
Me and a couple of others decided that after the, success, of skittles vodka, that it was time for Jello Shots. Word spread and we ended up inviting so many people, so we ended up making so many jello shots and stacked them in the fridge.

The night turned downright strange after Becky, Sarah and Megan left, (holding a bowl of un-set Jelly mix because we didn't have enough fridge space.) I went upstairs with some of the extra vodka we had left over to one of the guys' rooms (dubbed the party room already,) and we just chilled there. Events included:
Joe jumping too high on the bed and hitting his head. So we fixed it.
Rapping along to Superbass whilst dancing like idiots on said bed once he'd recovered.
Going on his unattended computer and uploading emo poetry and adding random people.
Plenty of mad scuffles concerning us overstaying our welcome in his room.
Visits from more people who'd arrived.
Party moved into another room and they played poker whilst me and Lucinda just took photos and bothered Chris(topher Robin)
Invaded Chris's room and stuck post-it notes everywhere for shits and giggles.
Asked him if we could paint his nails and do his make-up and happily did so when he surprisingly agreed.
Knocked on Joe's door a hundred times trying to wake him up to get him out - because he'd woken Lucinda up - to no avail.
Went downstairs after everyone had gone to bed to find a random group of people sitting in our common room. I had never seen them before but because I'm friendly and shit I introduced myself and they were a different hall miles away. We chilled in the kitchen and just chatted and then they left and it was all so bizarre.

First break we've had from lectures, - which are fantastic so far, by the way, - and the whole place is literally silent. It's 10.40am and it's incredbily eerie. Plans for today include chilling in the afternoon and using the jello shots chilling in the fridge right now tonight.

And i should probably finish that uni article I've been writing since I got here.

An Open Letter To The Things I'm Leaving Behind

2011-09-24T10:03:00.001-07:00

(Three more days 'til I'm gone.)

To Hong Kong: fuck your people. No, that’s mean – fuck the amount of people. Fuck how busy it gets. I mean, Christ, it shouldn’t take me, during rush hour, one damn hour to get somewhere that usually takes 10 minutes! I hate your stupid pollution and how it fogs my lungs and stops me from running and then I feel lazy and bad about myself. Don’t make me feel bad about myself because I’m good at that already

I hate how hot it gets. Everyone knows I hate how hot it gets because I complain about it at least once a day, and I hate that I do. I hate that I complain about how hot it gets but I just can’t stop doing it. It’s like some god-awful addiction and I hate it. I hate humidity and sweating and how greasy my hair gets. Fuck the equator and fuck tropical weather.

I hate a lot of stuff here. I hate how you can’t buy coloured hair dye, and I hate how there aren’t any hypermarkets because, um, Walmart is really fun. I hate how it doesn’t snow. And yeah, those dumb traffic lights that are always, always red whenever I’m in a hurry to get home? Yeah, you. Fuck you. I hate you the most.

I hate how I always complain about this place. I hate how I kind of have some hometown pride. I’ve hated growing up here and I hate that I kind of didn’t sometimes. I sometimes feel robbed of a proper sandbox-and-street-baseball childhood, and sometimes I’m glad I had my own warped one with my weird-ass games and early introduction to video games a la pokémon.

Even though I will miss aspects: the transport, (LOLJK, no matter where I’ve lived it’s been annoying with transport. INCONVIENIENCE WHAT’S UP,) some local food, (I still haven’t tried everything because I’m unadventurous and unashamed to say that. Um, hello, I will so be careful with what I put in my mouth, okay?) and the busy night life, (which is kind of nice when I’m not feeling reclusive which is rarely ever,) I’ve always been adamant that the things I love most about this place are the people here and the experiences I’ve had. You could’ve taken the girl out of the city and she would’ve been fine if she’d still done the same stuff and seen the same things. Which she wouldn’t have. So I guess I’m just being an ungrateful brat. I’m glad for my experiences here and opportunities.

Hong Kong wasn’t so bad I guess. I’m glad I’m leaving. I’m glad I get to experience a brand new place and get to be in a completely different atmosphere. I’m still somewhat resentful of some of the things I’ve been exposed to here or the lack of exposure I’ve gained from living here, but that’s okay. Hong Kong gave me good experiences and cool stories to tell. I’ve had enough, but it hasn’t completely sucked, which is, I guess, as good as it will ever get.

To my friends: I am, by nature, incredibly reclusive. Those of you close enough to me will know this, and know this well – I fall into fits of the sullens and will not want to leave my room and see people and if I do happen to see people regardless, I will be in my own world and unresponsive. In short – I am an obstinate brat, and now that I read this, a pretty shitty friend. Despite the fact that I find most people stupid and annoying, I actually have managed to find some that do not fit the stereotype that I have imposed and believed in my whole life, (i.e. that people are stupid and annoying.)

“Friends” is used quite loosely I guess. I have, at this point, 594 facebook “friends,” and by definition, a lot of them are not my “friends” at all. Therefore, I will revise this section, “To my friends,” to “To my favourite people.” Who is in this group of my favourite people is very subjective – to both me and you. Maybe I don’t know you that well but, as creepy as it sounds, I may find your presence enjoyable and you may be one of my favourites. Or maybe you know very well that you are. Or maybe you think you are but I actually hate you.

So, to my favourite people, (my actual favourite people according to me, not the ones who think they are but aren’t. Isn’t this an ambiguous ‘Open letter!’,) thank you for, uh, sticking around I guess. Putting up with the awkwardness that I usually manage to cast on a group, the idiotic comments I can make, and just my presence in general. It’s been real cool chilling with you, (probably,) and I’m sure we’ve had some great times, (again, depending on who you are.) Thanks for making me laugh, (you probably have, even if you’re someone I hate because sometimes I find everything funny,) and thanks for nice conversations. Maybe we have cute photos together. You might be on my wall. It’s not creepy, it’s nice, I swear.

In all reality though – here goes me trying ~sentimentality~ ooh – this is me trying to say that I might miss some of you. And this is a serious confession right here guys, because a lot of the time I find being around people so tiring because my natural state is just hermit. Lately, I’ve found myself actually wanting to go do things more and, god forbid, socialize, because it’s gone from occasionally being a chore, (I sound like such a nice, fun, person right now,) to just not. Look guys! You made the people-hater like people!

Maybe I don’t see you too often, and when I do, it’s such a nice moment and we always say – We need to meet up more! – but we just don’t. We should, but we don’t, and that can be okay, because it’s never awkward and it’s always just nice. Maybe I see you whenever I can, even though it’s not often, and that’s just nice too, because it makes those moments special and we, (I hope it’s reciprocal,) look forward to them. Maybe I see you all the fucking time and it’s just going to be weird when I don’t – you know who you are – and well, I’m going to miss that, but it’ll be kind of nice that our reunions will be like none other.

I know I may come across as either clingy or aloof, (god, the contradiction there,) and I’m stubborn and awkward as hell, but I will admit that I pretty much kick ass at keeping in contact, so I guess it’s I will if you will.

To The Little Things: I never, ever think about you. You are waiting in the freezing cold in the winter for your school bus and just knowing that you are going to die of hypothermia. You are accidentally stepping on your dog’s squeaky toys at 2 in the morning whilst getting a drink. You are running up bloody Barker road – yes, that bit, - and just hating your life and everything. You are slipping on your sister’s rug and struggling to regain balance for dear life, the shadows the leaves of your plant cast on the ceiling, your wonky top shelf, the thoughts that keep you up at night. You are the Things We Never Know We Have Until They’re Gone. You are the basis for random nostalgias as I will no doubt see little reminders of you and think to myself, “Hey, that reminds me of home!” You have annoyed or pleased me and either way, have affected me, and you warrant a mention in my open goodbye letter: thanks for existing, I guess.

Action!

2011-09-19T20:26:00.000-07:00

Been going a little nuts with photoshop experimenting lately. Finally got round to getting myself a modelmayhem account and have been setting up castings and whatnot for England. Figured it's about time I do something about a portfolio just for fun.

The uni countdown is officially in the single digits; 8 days to be exact! Very excited. This is really just a short post because I've made and uploaded some actions for you, whoever you is. To load an action, save it (duh,) open up the actions palette, click to the arrow and select load action. Then click play to play it through.

Following actions are included:

Click here to download. Enjoy!

When In Macau

2011-09-17T02:57:00.000-07:00

My first Macau post. And here's a video I guess.

When in Macau, you arrive at your fancy hotel and get ready to head straight back out. You don't have to pay for your suite and the sleeping arrangements aren't sorted, so you just chuck your things everywhere and change. Write the boys's suite number on a notepad next to the phone and your own on your wrist because you damn well will forget. The girls, in Macau, will stagger around in their highest and most uncomfortable heels as they stuff flats and flip-flops into whatever bags people are bringing that night. The boys, in Macau, will be suited up and ready to go and will knock on the door and wait for not-too-long, because everyone is hungry as hell.

When in Macau, you will eat at the food court because you can. You may all be refined adults, but one of you will buy a sippy cup and the rest of you will marvel at the way the holographic images change as you move it. You shall eat your pizzas and paninis and noodles and then set off to explore the Venetian because it is a freaking massive hotel, complete with indoor canals and gondolas and shops, in an attempt to mimic - fittingly enough, - Venice.

When in Macau, you head to the first club at around 10.30 and it's really empty. Buy tickets to enter. Stumble across the realisation - by Esme - that Club Lotus is where The Rocky Horror Picture Show would take place if it was updated to 2011. In Macau, you all get slightly freaked out. In Macau, Barry The Sippy Cup turns into Barry The Alcohol Sippy Cup.

When in Macau, you have to go to the casinos - because that's what Macau is known for. When in the Venetian, you have to go to the casinos because that's the only damn way you can get anywhere. One of you decides to put in $20 at slots once and comes out with $908 and you all scream and jump around. You decide to try your luck yourself, putting aside the knowledge that fate hates you in a blind optimism that you may too, win something, but of course you don't.

When in Macau, you try all sorts of new drinks. You discover one that you really like - maybe it's a Bellini Martini from Bellini Lounge, or maybe it's a freaking expresso cream and chocolate syrup Bailey's drink. It's not that crowded but you dance anyway as you wait for other members of your party to show up.

When in Macau, you may decide to lie on the bed with your best friend and take arm's length self photos whilst the others drink tequila. You may all go to the Hard Rock Hotel but not go in because you all cannot bear to pay $400 for club entry. In Macau, you may all go to the Playboy Club and find it boring because it's closing anyway. You may run into a small spot of bother which is redeemed and forgotten straight after.

When in Macau, if a limousine pulls up as you're waiting for cabs, you should go and ask the driver if he can drive you all to your hotel. Get a discount on the price and there you have it: a spur-of-the-moment limo rental. In your limo, in Macau, turn the music up and take photos and all feel incredibly pleased with yourselves. In your limo, in Macau, know that you shall probably never be satisfied with (1) any transport, and (2) another club ever again, after your dubbed 'Club-on-wheels,' managed to succeed in making you all completely giddy and for damn good reason.

When in Macau, you may plan to go back to the first club - which opens until 6AM - after you leave your beloved limo. In Macau, however, you may find yourselves victims to your appetites and instead embark on a quest to find food. Food is found in the form of a chinese restauraunt in the middle of a casino. Because you are all hungry and tired, you take it and eat, creating one of, perhaps, the most surreal moments you have ever lived through thus far. If you are a girl, you have complained about your feet hurting several times, and may have changed into alternate shoes.

When in Macau, your plan to go back to the first club after your meal may fall through as you realise you'd all rather go to bed. Despite tiredness however, you do not sleep for at least another hour because you must shower and one of you starts singing obscure songs and you all fall into deliriousness and giggle your heads off whilst watching Cartoon Network. When in Macau, you all sleep for five hours before you must be up again.

When in Macau, a starbucks morning coffee run is necessary because you have all had about four hours sleep. You shuffle around the hotel looking for the right exit and board the bus as you talk about the fact that last night seemed like a surreal dream. You look through all the photos you took last night and laugh your heads off at some of the funnier ones. In Macau, it's pretty fun.

How To Be Quirky (Photo Post)

2011-09-15T07:39:00.000-07:00

Step 1: Find a friend. Find a cute friend who has similar taste in music and everything else and you end up accidentally dressing pretty much the same - it's cute, okay! It looks good in photos. And the music is important because you will have to sing songs when you stroll down the woodland-esque path back home, and it would be better if you both knew the same ones. Same taste in food would be good as well, but I've yet to find someone who does not really have the same taste as me because everybody pretty much just fucking loves food. For this step, I selected Izzy.

Step 2) Acquire a cute idea. It has to be childish because it's ironic and cute - you are not children, yet playing with child things and it means you are free spirits and children at heart and just downright adorable. Kittens and bubbles and balloons all work. We looked for bubbles but they didn't have any normal ones so we settled for balloons.

Step 3) Find pretty locations. As long as they're aesthetically pleasing, it really does not matter that it is 33 degrees and that your legs are covered in mosquito bites! They don't show up on camera. (Okay, yes they do.) Chill there and feel like you're in a movie until you have to accept that it really just is too hot and that aircon is the greatest creation ever. If you have quirky accessories that's also a bonus! Heart-shaped glasses bring back an element of childishness and therefore are definitely an A+, and I'm just emotionally attached to my circle shades.

Step 4) You must create a playlist that includes lots of music like Eisley and The Hush Sound and Foster The People. Occasionally jam out, and you may even take a lyric or song names to use as captions for the photos you upload to your flickr. You can even get out guitars and ukuleles and play a bit because you, as creative individuals, are talented as hell.

Step 5) Amble around and climb bamboo construction sites because "you've just always wanted to," and then fear because "It's actually quite a long way down." Sadly mourn when the construction area is dismantled the same day, (coincidence?) and then just forget about it.

Step 6) Upload your photos and deflate the balloons because you keep tripping over them and to be honest, you hate balloons popping. Write a short summary of your very cool day disguised as a satirical guide on "How To Be Quirky," and hope people don't take you seriously.

Sometime Around Midnight

2011-09-12T05:29:00.000-07:00

Tonight is Mid-Autumn festival, which, for the expat/international school kids, is thinly used as a disguise for getting-trashed-on-the-beach-because-711-doesn't-card-tonight. Glowsticks and lanterns galore, overcrowded beaches, and seeing kids three, four years below me at school getting wasted. Sounds like my ideal night! (Really though, no sarcasm for glowsticks, I love them.)

So I'm spending mine with my computer and sketchbook and maybe a movie.

Socialising has hit an all time low after I'd hit my peak earlier this summer. Most people are going/gone and although I should really go to that dinner, I'm not. (I might actually. I'm already late and undressed and sitting at home blogging but I just may as well if I can be bothered in a minute.)

Anyway, this is just my quick mid-week (it's not mid-week but I just said that,) and some of my latest doodles and shit. I guess I'll put a proper article-thing up soon, writing a few simultaneously, (as usual,) and can't seem to finish just one of them, (as usual.)

Goodbye Nights

2011-09-08T04:38:00.000-07:00

FINALLY getting around to rewriting this. Writing something that you've pretty much already written is the dumbest thing ever, which is why I've put this off for so long. And now of course, I've forgotten all the original content and what I've even done since Lizzy's left. Not much; stayed at home and read A Song Of Ice & Fire and watched Jersey Shore, (oh! The contrast!) and did some art bits and pieces. I can be the biggest hermit ~~sometimes~~ most of the time.

Now forgive me in advance for perhaps the most boring piece of information ever that I am going to divulge: I wanted a hat for a while and I got one and new sunglasses that really don't match anything but I love all the same.

Everyone hates me with a middle parting except me, but I hate it in pictures because it looks really dumb. Mirror or photos: one of you is lying.

My computer had been broken last week so I picked up a hobby I used to partake in a lot: drawing creepy, random doodles of dead things and the like. I actually finished a few pieces, but staying true to myself, the ratio to unfinished to finished is still at around 4:1.

Went out a few times, and whilst they were fun, nothing special. (Except the most recent Tuesday, but I refuse to blog about it because I really don't remember anything and I don't really want to. Self defense mechanism amnesia, oh god.) Pretty sure I'd hit my peak with partying earlier in the summer and I've reverted back to being my own boring homebody self, which I like. PARTY WITH THE PS3, WHAT'S UP.

This night was worth it though because Aidan wore a kilt.

Vanity closeups because I did my hair different for once in my life, and ugh what's up with my parting. I also wore something I hadn't worn before. I hate shopping so I don't go a lot, and when I do, I refer to it as purposeful shopping; I know what I want and I just go and get it. As if I'll be fucked to actually try it on and stuff. If it doesn't fit, tough luck, I suck.

As for now, just waiting for everyone to leave, before I resume complaining about how long I'm still here for. (Just kidding! I never stopped complaining!) Actually got permission to do a Cute Goodbye Gathering so that'll be the weekend before I leave. God, this summer has dragged on for so long, these 'What-I-Did-Today/This Week/This Month' posts are getting so repetitive and boring. I need to write more Angsty Teen Thoughtz™ articles.

Golden (Goodbyes)

2011-08-27T11:03:00.000-07:00

We are golden because we're alive,
We are nothing without our goodbyes,
Illuminate our own way from inside,
We shine so bright, we shine so bright.

- Golden, Farewell Fighter

They say you're always more creative when you're emotional as you put yourself into your work. I have just literally ~~cried my soul out~~ shed a few tears, my first in quite a long time. I have just said my final in real life goodbye to Lizzy. She's heading off to Beijing, and invited me and Esme - as together, we make up the simplets - round to her house for crepes, movies, and cheese plates. Camera, as promised, was brought along and promptly used and abused, as I'd also promised.

Esme came over earlier and we recorded a cute song we'd written for Liz, as well as a B-Side which was a story about a Gorilla & The Whale, (which is freaking adorable, to be completely honest.) We then went to Lizzy's, took adorable photos, had amazing crepes - salty crepes, then cheese plate, then sweet crepes omg crepes - watched Hairspray, then sat in her room and talked. And talked and talked. Talked so much I'd missed my chance to get the last bus home.

It's... really only just registered with me. All this people leaving business. And soon enough, it's going to be me? I'd always pictured my departure as me skipping through the airport with my suitcases, ready to finally get out of this place, ready for new adventures. But after tonight, not so sure. Sure, I'll miss this place...eventually. I'll miss some people here. I'll miss my family. I'll miss some aspects of this place, but whether my excitement will override my separation sadness, we'll have to see... I'm sure I'll blog about it either way, (I sure have been good with blogging recently!)

And whilst we're here, I'll through in two 'outfits,' if they can be named that. I always think to myself, "Ooh, I want to try look somewhat decent today," and forget about the fact that it's really not easy with the stifling heat and humidity here.

Didn't really wear that hat. I was joking. It was raining and I wanted to find one but that was the only hat I could find in my house... Top: ??? Shorts: Forever 21, I think?

Lizzy's last night out. Top: Again, god knows where. Shorts I think are forever 21 as well. Hair detail, yay! Necklaces from I Don't Know. I'm not very good at this.

Take Me Home

2011-08-26T22:45:00.000-07:00

Yet another blog post about another day in my life during summer. This summer seems like it's gone on forever, which technically it has, as it's been from May 23rd and will continue 'til October 4th. (Okay, I know that's not technically forever shut up.) Lizzy leaves Monday. Last hangout today. The camera is charging and ready for some use and abuse and I'm fully planning on bringing makeup remover tonight because I know I will weep.

Asides from my upcoming sadness, usual madness over this week: I had a few days of recluse-ness (which, as a hermit, I need,) $10 vodka tuesday, where I was very well behaved, dyed my hair again, took photos with my phone because I finally found the cable again so I'll use them for convenience whaddup.

Extensive colour editing = you can't even see the colour of my hair. I really thought this one through.

Missed a lamma trip for a family dinner. I hate shopping with my sister and my mom so I sat in pacific coffee company like some hipster. Ate too much, I need to run properly again. Unrelated story, but on Tuesday, I think we met the most violent dancers in the world. It was full on foot-stomping-punching-arms brawl moves dancing. They looked like they were doing a tribal dance to summon the rain gods, and if they were I think it worked because I got caught in the rain during my run and was soaked to the bone, even after I'd stuffed my iPod in every girl's ~special shelf~ aka my bra. The iPod nearly died but revived itself like a fucking fighter. I shed a tear of pride.

Looks gross but this is my SHIT. Vanilla snowflake chillino yes please!

Market street where the sister and mother went shopping, because my sister is a shopaholic and has to compulsively spend money all the time.

This is just the street outside the police club, where we at. I fully used my sister's iPhone to check into "some randomass chinese restaurant in the middle of nowhere." I don't see too much point with 'checking in,' other than to boast about where you are and who you're with and make other people feel left out, but I think that I may start using it if I have something witty to say.

With my adorable new friend Janine omg. Edited post to slot this in because I hadn't taken any photos that night and she'd just uploaded these. Success! I don't look like a complete mountain troll in a photo that someone else took of me!

By the time I'd gotten down to Lan Kwai, Lizzy was wasted (edit: not wasted and just tired as hell apparently. She'd peaked much earlier in the day on Lamma) and they soon disappeared off to Wanchai. I stayed and hung out with people in the year below and met a few people. I was surprisingly well-behaved again, which I think I may prefer. In fact, I've talked about it a lot, let's make a List Of The Stages Of Drunkenness.

Stages Of Drunkenness

2011-08-26T22:43:00.000-07:00

(1) Sober. You've had maybe one drink. Two, if your tolerance is okay. You feel perfectly normal. You are communicating in coherent sentences, and everyone can understand you.

Stop drinking here: You may go home or stay a while longer in this state. Your standard self-awareness means you don't embarrass yourself. You wake up perfectly fine the next morning.

Continue drinking: go to (2)

(2) Slightly Tipsy. You begin to slowly adopt lite-characteristics of the type of drunk you are. Did the music get louder??! Everything just got a little bit more exciting!! You are still understandable, just a bit EXCITED, and there is a bubbly feeling in your stomach, isn't it lovely?!

Stop drinking here: Dance, dance, dance, talk, shout, laugh. Sober up towards the end. Go home giggling and wake up feeling fine.

Continue drinking: go to (3)

(3) Tipsy. The bubbly feeling is rising and so is the intensity of your dance moves. You're not sure if your friends know how much you love them, so you should go tell every single one of them right now!! And hey - there's that guy in one of your classes you never speak to, maybe you should start by bounding up to him right now and saying hello, then talking a mile a minute. You'll surely be fast friends, OMG!

Stop drinking here: Be a ball of energy the whole night. Wake up fine. Maybe woozy, depending on the severity of your hangovers. You got home all by yourself but woke up your younger brother because you thought it'd be funny (it's not.) Oh shit, now that guy in your class has befriended you on Facebook. He thinks you'refriends now!

Continue drinking: go to (4)

(4) Drunk. Can't focus on one thIng??? You - where are your frends? Ugh, who cares, their dicks anyway. (Author Note: Intentional misuse of their.) Find some new randomzZ and dance with them and make friends yeah friends... Hey, they're pretty cute HIT ON THEM, get their number. Use your chaAaAarm. Your type of drunk may seriously come into play here. You are a freaking LEGEND and you should high-five yourself. DON'T WANT TO GO HOME YETTT??.$

Stop drinking here: Ignore those dicks telling you to go home because you're really drunk. You're having too much fun! Finally get shoved in a cab and go home. Talk to the cab driver the whole way, because you're "making conversation" because you're just sofucking friendly. Wake up in the morning feeling a bit woozy and maybe fairly embarrassed. Oh, is this a text from that person yesterday? Reply. Stalk their Facebook and oh my god they're fucking ugly.

Continue drinking: go to (5)

(5) Wasted. YEAAAA THIS IS THE BEST NIGHT EVA!!!!!!!1 SO TIRED BUT I DON'T WANNA STOP KEEP ON GOIN I FEEL SO WARM MAYBE I SHOULD TAKE SEVERAL ARTICLES OF CLOTHING OFF??

Stop drinking here: Wake up in the morning with no recollection of how you got home or into bed even. If you were in bed. Maybe you passed out on the doorstep, or on the bathroom floor. What the fuck, you swear you had another $100 in your wallet? And where the fuck are your pants?

Continue drinking: go to (6)

(6) Fucked Off Your Face. jgJFISYHSF??323@#&^!^ ^#@(&!$ &(!%$^^^ !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Stop drinking here: Wake up and you feel like shit but you don't remember anything.You might wake up still drunk. Go back to bed and stay there the whole day. Wear dark sunglasses if you have to leave the house. Tell everyone you have the hangover from hell.

Continue drinking: go to hospital.

Things I Do At Night

2011-08-24T12:23:00.000-07:00

(1) Hold solo concerts to a missing audience. Let’s get the first fact straight: I really cannot sing. I can warble my way through a tune and hit chords on a guitar. My strumming isn’t too bad. But something about the cover of darkness and the quiet sleepiness of post-2AM deludes my brain into thinking that I am the next female Conor Oberst. Quietly strumming minor chords and singing in that raspy-whisper-so-I-don’t-wake-my-parents-but-ooh-it-sounds-so-indie-esque whilst sitting in a half-lit room? What a fine example of the tragically creative young teenager, who obviously cannot hold in all her talent for a time where there is far less risk of waking up parents slash neighbours slash siblings.

(2) Draw or Paint Strange Things. Those who are attentive should already be noticing a pattern here. Most of my night time activities do seem to revolve around more creative hobbies. I used to be pretty big on drawing and painting a few years back, but lost that as my pile of schoolwork grew so big that it covered all light from my windows and left me fumbling in the dark unable to mix colours. (A gross exaggeration if there ever was one.) Sometimes, however, I will be overcome with a strong desire to doodle a zombie eating a brain popsicle, or maybe a cat riding a jellyfish. These sometimes also happen to usually be just as I am about to fall asleep, so I have to make the choice between nurturing my creativity right at that moment, or falling asleep with my head full of strange and brilliant ideas that I will forget in the morning. I will then hate my past self.

(3) Make Myself Really Hungry. I am pretty much kitchen impaired. I used to not be allowed in the kitchen when meals were being prepared because my mom was pretty much afraid that if I so much glanced at the food, my terrible cooking skills would leak out and contaminate that night’s lasagna. Despite that, I have also harbored quite a strong secret desire to be really good at cooking; to be able to whip up the most amazing, impressive meals, sending all my friends and family into admiration flurries. Unfortunately, this desire is facing a long battle between my laziness, which has triumphed over many other desires and plans. Therefore, instead of going into the kitchen and ~~burning it down~~ making a huge mess that would no doubt result in failure, I look up recipes and food and sit there and just think about making them, with the childish logic that if I somehow look up enough reviews and recipes for Red Velvet cake, I will one day suddenly be able to bake one worthy of the Gods of Mount Olympus themselves. In the meantime, however, I just make myself really hungry.

(4) Rediscover My iTunes Library. This is maybe the one nightly activity I do that I really adore myself for the next morning. I’ve gone through 3 – or maybe 4? – iPods, not including disc crashs and generally loss of music. Because I have filled my computer up to the brim with utter rubbish, I used to never backup my music properly, deleting tons once it had been dragged to my iPod, meaning I lost tons of songs every time. As my library is quite extensive, I have never fully recovered from each loss; there are always songs you forget to sync on or rip or download or you’ve lost that CD or someone’s borrowed it etc. Luckily, I sometimes randomly just go through my playlists and music, either (re)downloading or just listening to old songs. Picture the scene: girl, 17, playing mood music on her computer, dark outside, dark inside, fairylights and small bedside light on. Rainymood.com if she’s feeling particularly meaningful that night. Pretty intense stuff. And you know that feeling you get when you rediscover an old song you used to adore and it sounds just as good? Yeah, I think I’m addicted to that feeling.

(5) Think. Sometimes I write. If we are going to use silly bird metaphors in describing and categorizing the different sleeping patterns of people, I would definitely be a ‘night owl.’ I stay up late because I love the cover of darkness and the fact that everyone else in the household is asleep, making it essentially my place and time and anything else I want it to be. Talking aloud feels weird after a while and your eyes adjust to the half-light and there’s almost a small degree of surrealism. Suddenly, I am undisturbed and alone with my thoughts, and with this prompt, they run wild. Linked in with the fact I always feel most inspired and creative at night, this is obviously the best time to write; the world is suddenly concentrated on my screen and my fingers and the words in my mind and my ideas are just so alive because everyone else is asleep. A lot of the time, these ideas are nonsensical and will stay in my drafts folder until I feel like deleting them. A lot of the time, these ideas will be edited and improved and posted, making up a large majority of content here. A lot of the time, they will just be posted because I am full of raw creativity and talent god damn it.

P.S. It’s night time now.

8 Songs I'm Listening To A Lot Right Now

2011-08-24T04:23:00.000-07:00

In all honesty, I don't even know what has compelled me to write this post. Oh wait! Could it be my like for sharing music with people - referred to as "Laura is forcing me to listen to her music" by said people - and my general boredom with life?

Anyway, here are 8 songs that I really, really like right now. They're not particularly "summer" songs per say, but I guess they are my Songs For August, handpicked out of my "recently played" playlist on iTunes. Download link at the bottom if you want, enjoy!

(1) Foster The People - Helena Beat.

They exploded in popularity recently, most notoriously for 'Pumped Up Kicks,' but god, I love this song. Sing along at the top of my lungs to the chorus every time deal with it won't stop etc.

(2) O.A.R - Love & Memories

Apparently like everyone else, according to the comments of this particular video embed, me and Portia discovered this through watching She's The Man at three in the morning. You know a song's good when you pause a film to google search lyrics.

(3) Jack's Mannequin - Doris Day

I will never stop loving Jack's Mannequin. Such an adorable, 'summery' song. Note to self: 'summery' isn't really an adjective. Perhaps you should stop using it as such.

(4) The Airborne Toxic Event - Gasoline

Recently started listening to TATE again. Am glad I made this decision. Chorus has my favourite melody ever. The word 'gasoline' seems really cool now.

(5) The Fratellis - For The Girl

In love with not only The Fratellis, but the chorus of this song too. I get the "la la la la la la la la la," (Count them. I did sing that out loud to get the number of 'la's right,) bit stuck in my head for days and I don't even care because it makes me so happy.

(6) Golden - Farewell Fighter

Why am I so addicted to the intro in this? And the outro (ESPECIALLY!!!). And the in-between. This is just pretty. Maybe I'll listen to some of their other songs sometime, if I can move past this one, (probably not.)

(7) The Hoosiers - Worried About Ray

I love his voice. And this song. I'm running out of this to say. (If you cannot already tell.)

(8) The Format - Sore Thumb

Just for the "YOUR SORE THUMB," bit because the tune just makes me happy and I feel really deep and meaningful for a few seconds.

Download .Zip!

University Packing List (Decor is fun.)

2011-08-22T20:48:00.000-07:00

My Internet has been acting up to no end recently, so in the times when it is too slow for me to bear, I've taken to writing lists and lists, (nothing new,) of things I'm packing and planning to bring to uni. My best friend Lizzy leaves at the end of this week, so her packing has gotten me packing. We plan to have our last hangout on Saturday night watching Disney movies, eating cheese, and crying so hard our tears will flood hong kong. (loljk they would just evaporate in this heat anyway.)

One of my lists was "Decorations for Uni room," because I'm a sucker for personalizing and making things I own pretty: naturally, my own room will be the biggest victim of this.

Lately, I have become obsessed with decorative jars. I found this project on Designsponge and having seen the collections of cute jars available for cheap at Japanhome, have decided to attempt this. Even if this doesn't work, (probably, as even if I use candles, I suck at DIY,) I can use jars to store my ridiculous stationary collection and other things.

I have also, this summer, been slowly polaroid-ing photos on photoshop, because I ~~am a great dirty cheat~~ don't actually own a polaroid camera. Instead, I edit photos onto polaroids and get them printed as such, which works out well for me, as it means I can stalk myself back into 2009 on Facebook and choose photos which have attached to them fond memories, (aka photos I don't look hideous in.) I know it's such a cliché thing to have loads of photos up but I really love it, not just for the ooh-look-how-many-friends-and-fun-times-I-have showing off factor, but because It'll be a nice reminder of home and oh-my-god-I'm-becoming-nostalgic-already.

I've got a few sets of fairylights that will be coming with me, just to cement my room as a hipster-tumblr-room, (caught. I do actually spend so long lurking the decor tag on there.) So whilst those are sorted, all that I have to do is go down to Happy Valley and get my "polaroids" developed and buy jars to paint and decorate. I can't believe I still have over a month, that's so long. (My dad has said we'll probably book a flight for the 30th as he can't get work leave. Move-in day is 1st October. I foresee a few hectic days.)

And now my best friend is leaving and me and Es are planning the most amazing week as her last week. I guess a month seems like a super long time, but it might go by really fast as it's going to be my last month "home." Or maybe not, as, you know, whenever you look forward to something, time seems to just creep. And I'll have finished Game of Thrones by tomorrow - if the rest of the episodes download - so I don't even have anything to watch. Fuck.

Tickets & Passports (Day To Night)

2011-08-21T04:05:00.000-07:00

Tickets & Passports (Day To Night) from Laura Grant on Vimeo.

Love and Memories

2011-08-20T11:34:00.001-07:00

Have you ever discovered a really, really good song? And then you download it, put it on your iPod, play it all day, get it stuck in your head forever, sing lyrics at seemingly-nonsensical times, and put lyrics from this song down as - say, for example, - a blog title? No? Me neither.

Portia has departed back to the hometown today, full of (hopefully,) memories of an insane trip, plenty of eventful stories, - none of which present me or my friends as particularly sane - quite a large collection of new material possessions, and a tiredness that may or may not have to do with the fact we stayed up until four AM watching videos of Ellen on Youtube and sending ourselves into hysterics.

We pretty much tailored today, her last day, around ensuring that her very last proper meal in Hong Kong with me was at New York Fries, marking this our third visit this week. New York Fries can be summed up as Mount-Olympus-God-Worthy French Fries doused in cheese and sour cream and tomatoes, topped with pure happiness.

This week went by pretty fast - for Portia at least. We had an eventful few nights out, one of which ended with Portia, Esme, Sel and Lizzy getting food poisoning from kebabs. White-faced and cold-sweating, Portia was dragged and blindly navigated from Tsim Tsa Tsui back to my house because I was afraid she was getting delirious. At this time, both of us were unsure of what she had, (pretty sure she was unsure of anything at that time. She now states that the verb to best describe how she felt is "melting,") but we assumed it was flu. After exiting Space Wheel at Ocean Park, I came to find that Esme and Portia had figured out that it was the kebabs and had additionally bonded over their food poisoning.

After showing Portia a few of my stop motions, we decided to do one of her trip, and decided to start with that very night. Because I am paranoid - and as you shall see, for good fucking reason, - I brought my family's small camera and my big memory card as a spare, (dumb, dumb, dumb.) Took enough photos of us and myself that made me want to cry as I looked at them in the morning and sarcastically wondered aloud how I could ever be single.

Lian and Bryce were there too, and I don't know what it is about Lan Kwai, but every time I'm there, I just end up really, really tired. I need the feeling of security to sleep, so I'm not a person who can just pass out and damn the consequences. Instead, I like to keep my friend's night fun by whining and complaining that I am exhausted every three seconds and threatening to fall asleep, (but not actually doing it.) That was, of course, sarcasm, as it is no fun and I always win the award for Most Annoying Human Being Ever when I get into moods like that. Went home and literally passed out once I'd reached my bed and woke up feeling like shit for the first time ever - but, I blame my Dad for the bad margaritas he gave us at 7.30 that night during a family dinner party, because I stay forever classy by downing tequila at family dinners in front of the kids.

Tuesday Night was of course - oh GOD! says the crowd - $10 Tuesday and Lizzy's first night back - oh GOD! x2 says the crowd - so anyone who knows me or my friends at all, can imagine how that night went. To be fair, I was not that bad myself. According to Esme, I was not bad in terms of drunkness - tipsy was as far as it got really - but in behaviour, I switched into straight up bitch mode and just messed around with people all night. Whilst I may be a questionably bad person whilst intoxicated, the rest of my friends were so trashed that they really inspired me to write this post. Esme, (Mother Drunk,) took it upon herself to make everyone eat kebabs, (food poison,) and bought loaves of bread from 7-11, which she literally put in our mouths and ordered us to "Chew, then swallow." Me and Portia were home by 2am, which is the earliest I've ever been home after a night out. Tipsy me then enjoyed a grilled cheese sandwich and water and woke up feeling perfect, to all my sick friend's annoyances perhaps.

Yesterday we headed to Ocean Park. We'd assumed we'd be out that night and therefore decided to meet at 12pm to go into the park, which may be Number #1 on the list of Really Dumb Decisions You Should Not Make. Bastard sun took this grand opportunity to punish me for all the times I've hidden indoors this summer and shone with full vigour, tinging my skin red and making us all so grumpy, irritable and hot that we lined up in a ride for 40 minutes just because it was a water ride. (And it was new. New things are cool.)

I am usually a massive wimp when it comes to rides and I'd stated early in the day that I would not go on the new ride, so of course, I find myself in line for it later. After an awful 20 minute wait - awful due to me scaring the shit out of myself, not the waiting time, which isn't bad for Ocean Park - I find myself strapped in, chanting "I'm going to die on this ride, I'm going to die on this ride," for all to hear. The screaming started as soon as the floor moved away and ended as soon as I realised that I was not even scared, at which point, it turned into insane cackles that may have slightly worried Chris and Ollie.

With the adrenaline rush that came after me jumping around and slapping myself in line for 20 minutes, we of course, went on the other ride I swore I wasn't going on and went on it - the turbo drop. A relatively small one, but usually not my favourite regardless - although it may be now, after I went on with Ollie, who is afraid of heights, and Esme. After being strapped in, Esme glanced up and decided no, she did not want to go on this ride after all, and tried to get off. Upon finding herself trapped, panic arose, although Ollie reassured her that the guy would come around again and she could ask to get off. Straight after this, the ride started going up, and Esme's acceptance of her fate was summed up with her "Okay. Nevermind then."

The entire panic - no, the entire day, including all the heat and waits, were worth it to hear the scream that came out of Ollie's mouth. Chris, Lizzy and Portia later said they thought it was me or Esme, (I shouted "WHAT'S UP BITCHES!" but they apparently did not hear,) as it was er, a relatively high-pitched scream.

So now all I'm left with is an empty room, and a lot of videos to print-screen and stop-motion, (my fingers can barely contain their excitement already!) A ton of new songs, and a full stomach, (I've forgotten what hunger feels like, to be honest.) I've been talking aloud to myself more than usual in compensation for the silence in my room and the lack of another person's voice, but can rest assured that I can have intense lone karaoke sessions with iTunes again. Will I be the most hated dorm-mate-thing in university? Maybe.