Woo!!! I am so popular!!!!
and I only started counting on 17th July, that's only 2 and a half months ago!!!
Thursday, September 30, 2004
Ok, high time I got on with some blogging
Here is a brief rundown of the past 3 weeks.
That was it. Those observant ones amongst you may realise that it was just a blank space. That is because I have been doing nothing.
I've mainly just been seeing Richard a lot, which of course is not really nothing, but I seriously doubt that any of you want to hear about what I've been getting up to with him. For those who are interested, I'm sure I can refer you to some websites that will give you a basic idea...
It was mine and Richard's one month anniversary last friday! He came round bearing avocados and I got him a lampshade (because lying on your back staring up at a bare bulb is not fun) and two Star Wars posters (to cover up his wallpaper). Richard has also shown me the sights of West Wickham but mainly we just hang around at each other's houses. I pop over after school and sit on his doorstep (braving the stares of all the little rood bois and OAPs who are the only occupants of WW) until he gets home and lets me in. Yesterday whilst I was on the doorstep this lovely woman came and asked me if I was locked out and if I'd like to come and sit in her house until someone got home, it was really kind of her.
A couple of weeks ago I went to 14 plus (church youth group) with Richard, which was fun. That was on Thursday and whilst I was there I got invited to parties on Friday and Saturday! Friday was Chris Greenhouse's leaving party which was brilliant! I made Richard drink wine and dance with me and we teased his friends all evening. Occassionally people would shout "Get a room!" at us, but I have no idea why that was. It finished really late so I slept on Richard's sofa then went home the next morning. We finally completed on the flat on Friday (did I mention that I've bought a flat?) so I went over there on Saturday and spent the day cleaning it in preparation for redecorating it. That evening Jess and Chris and Richard and I all went to Dave's party. I don't actually know Dave, but as I was leaving 14 plus Dave's mum invited me to the party, which was enough of an invitation for me. That party was also great. Richard, by now getting really into the whole drinking alcohol thing, drank both the Smirnoff Ice I'd got for him and most of the one I'd got for me as well. We took lots of pictures and videos with his camera and then, because I wanted to sleep in my own bed that night, we went home.
Last week was spent seeing Richard more and doing some really tricky maths questions that Oxford wanted me to do before I arrived. I finally finished them on Friday before Richard arrived and posted them to my new tutor. This week I've been studying some Open University maths modules that Oxford sent me. They're really interesting! I've mainly been looking at the one on Complex numbers so far (you know, numbers that are partly imaginary, like the solution to x^2 + 3 = 0) but I won't talk about them. I tried to explain it all to Richard and then, in penance, had to listen to the entire workings of x-wing and y-wing fighters and a rundown of the arguments in favour of both, so I have learnt my lesson. I am the only one who finds maths fascinating.
Last weekend I worked on the flat some more. I actually got to do some painting this time!
On Monday Richard and I failed to meet up with Baz for the unsuccessful sheep exchange and on Tuesday Sophie came over so that I could fail to give her the sheep. It was lots of fun, we drew up a big list of all the things I need to take with me for university and I teased Sophie about her irresistableness. On Wednesday I was on Richard's doorstep again and we discussed current affairs and exchanged opinions on them. Today is Thursday and I am going shopping with my dad for university equipment. On Friday I will commence my packing, which will continue over Saturday and Sunday, interupted only by a dinner party on Saturday and church on Sunday. Monday is last minute packing day, and when Richard gets his braces, and our final farewell. Tuesday I leave home, London, all my friends, my family, my beloved boyfriend, everything I've ever known, for a new life as a student in Oxford. Am I scared? Absolutely terrified doesn't even come close.
Sunday, September 19, 2004
the Dreamspace
Ok, so where was I?
On Friday, Sarah, Richard, Helen and I prepared a giant picnic of sausages, pasta, eggs, rice, meatballs and all kinds of other yummy food then packed it all in a picnic hamper with a picnic rug (we don't do things by halves in Dulwich) and mosied on down to the park. We sat in a lovely secluded glade and Sarah and Helen chatted whilst me and Richard were sickeningly couply. It was an absolutely gorgeous experience. Afterwards we went to the Dreamspace which was set up there for a couple of week. We removed our shoes, donned our colourcapes (an irridescent purple one for me, a red one for Richard) and entered the Dreamscape. It was fairly windy outside but the air in the Dreamspace was completely still and all you could hear was the quiet New-Age music. Richard and I wandered round into all the different colours whilst Sarah and Helen floated around pretending to be elves. It was amazing how the different colours made you feel different things (and you don't want to know what some of the colours did to Richard!!). I'm starting to gush about it now. I was quite prepared to laugh at it before, but it was really great, I wish we could have stayed longer.
Wednesday, September 15, 2004
Saturday, September 11, 2004
Recent Events (part five)
On thursday I was back in the library doing more sorting then on Friday it was time for the Dreamspace!
Some of you may well be wondering "What is a Dreamspace" and so here, just for you, is the publicity blurb:
"Maurice Agis' walk-trough [we think they may mean walk-through] sculptures are the result of exploring the relationship between physical space and human beings, through classical principles of art (line, plane, form, scale, colour) and physical phenomena (light, space, air, movement). They are evolving, non finite, ephemeral and public. Agis' visual language maintains continuity and relates all elements to the human presence. Agis has built twelve COLOURSPACE and four DREAMSPACE pieces -they have visited nineteen European cities, and over ninety-five thousand people have visited them-. Each piece has a specific configuration and consists of a certain number of units, identical in shape and size, and made of thin sheets of translucent PVC in red, green, blue, yellow and grey. These units, linked by their oval openings, are inflated by fans. A continuous air flow runs through the sculpture, supporting its structure and maintaining its shape. Natural light penetrates the surface and transmits colour to the internal space. A vast range of intensities, tones and reflections floods the space, the colours move and change throughout the day. Light is transformed into a concrete and abstract spatial reality that inspires a magical fascination in visitors. They walk in and move through the interior, wearing a colour cape and no shoes; they wander from one unit to another, from one colour to another; they move through the space, choosing the place to stop, sit or lay down; they contemplate the relationships produced and they become part of the art piece, interactive elements that are at the same time the object and the subject of the artwork. Agis extends the limits of artistic creation, brings art to people and opens urban spaces to aesthetic experience, to art."
However, I have now blogged so much today that my brain is starting to feel all fuzzy, so I shall leave this post unfinished and come back to tell you about what the Dreamspace actually is, and what we did there, tomorrow.
Recent Events (part 4)
On Tuesday 7th September I began my new job, as a librarian!
Yes, that's right, I am sorting out the Inner London Probabtion Service Library (where my mother works). It's very relaxing, I'm arranging it according to the Dewey decimal system and also into alphabetical order within that. It being a probabtion service library, it's rather full of books on crime and punishment, but occassionally I stop what I'm doing and read one of the more interesting books. I'm not getting paid for it, which is great as it means I can stop and take a break whenever I want to and do it all at my own pace. Whilst at the library on Tuesday I was informed by Baz that there was a dud trip to the zoo on Wednesday so, after confirming with Richard that it was ok for me to gatecrash this trip as well, I told the library people that I wouldn't be able to make Wednesday and started preparing for the zoo. For those of you who might wonder what such preparation entails, it involves repeated singing and humming of the following song:
Richard's taking me to the zoo tomorrow,
The zoo tomorrow,
Zoo tomorrow
Richard's taking me to the zoo tomorrow,
We're gonna stay all day
We're going to the zoo, zoo, zoo
How about you, you, you
You can come too, too too
We're going to the zoo, zoo, zoo
Wednesday arrived and I was there at Charing Cross at 10:35 (less late than last time!) where I was introduced to still more of the duds before we set off for the zoo. I sang all the way there, although it did get a little difficult to sing after a while, due to Richard's hand clamped over my mouth. We arrived at the zoo and paid the extortionate entry price of £13 (!!!!) before going to see the animals. Details of the animals we saw and pictures of the day can be found at Richard's blog, Baz's blog, Jon's blog, Dave's blog and other Dave's blog. A dud called Rob was also there, but he has no blog. We had lunch by the empty bear's enclosure where Richard accused me of being strange!! "And what were these baseless accusations founded on?", I hear you ask. It was the fact that, instead of purchasing rather revolting vegetarian sandwiches from a station shop, I had instead brought with me for lunch:
1 Avocado pear
1 small, recycled jam pot full of mayonaise
1 sharp knife (with which to cut the avocado)
1 teaspoon (with which to eat the avocado)
2 tangerines
Half a box of Jaffa cakes
1 recycled bottle of water
I see nothing strange about this which, according to Richard, simply makes me more strange. I think I am right in that I am normal and I am sure, dear readers, that you will agree with me. He also seemed to think it was strange that, instead of throwing the remains of the avocado and the orange peel in a bin, I took them home to recycle them on the compost heap. What, may I ask, is wrong with being environmentally aware???
After lunch, I dragged the rest of the duds over to the children's farm part of the zoo and had a fun time visiting the goats and pigs etc. I responsibly washed my hands after visiting the animals but did get rather damp in the process due to the high water pressure in the taps and the fact that the sinks were designed for people about half my height. This led Richard to make some oh so funny jokes about how I was only supposed to wash my hands which, obviously, led to him becoming rather damp as well.
After this we visited the pelicans and other birds and I became aquainted with some lovely statues, which you can see here. All through the day Richard kept telling me to move this way and that so he could take photos of me and I had no idea what he was doing until he showed me the picture later. In that one he was getting it looking like the bird was feeding me, and in this one, well, the less said about that....
Anyway, as we went through the bird house I started on a new song:
Why do bird suddenly appear,
Every time you are near?
Just like me,
they want to be
Close to you
Or at least, I sang it as best as I could with the aforementioned hand over my mouth. I don't know why Richard doesn't like my singing....
Then it was on to, past the kangaroos...
(Tie me kangaroo down, sport
Tie me kangaroo down...)
...to the reptile house. Where we saw, amongst other reptiles, a crocodile!
Oh you never smile at a crocodile,
No you can't get friendly with a crocodile,
Don't be taken in by his welcome grin,
He's just opening his mouth so he can fit you in
We didn't see any komodo dragons though, they were all hiding (or taking part in a plot to take over the world, depending on who you talk to).
After visiting the insects, the duds left the zoo leaving Richard and I behind. As we ambled along to Camden Town tube station wondering where they were, Rob phoned Richard. He, thinking that this was going to be someone telling us where they were, answered it, only to find that it was, in fact, someone yelling "cock" down the phone to him. (I should point out at this point that, all through the day, Rob had been phoning up all the dud's to yell "cock" when they answered, and Richard had now fallen victim to this.) Richard called the dud's back and assertained that they were also on their way to the tube station a little way ahead of us. At this point, Richard's phone rang again and, seeing that Baz was calling, I answered the phone in my very sweetest voice. The conversation went a little like this:
Me: Hello?
Baz: Ah, um, hello again
Other duds in background: muffled laughter, occassional shouts of "cock"
Baz: confused mutterings
Baz hangs up
It was all very amusing. After the zoo we went to Hamleys and spent a short time there before the rest of the duds went home. Richard and I went to Victoria station instead and had dinner (I had some yummy noodles from Singapore Sam's, they're are sooo nice) and Richard again told me that I was strange because I sang along to the background music (!!!). Who, may I ask, does not do that?
Anyway, after dinner, we went again to the Globe, this time to see Much Ado About Nothing which, I must say, is a much better play than Measure for Measure. I had another yummy cheese and chutney sandwich and we drove Richard home at the end of the evening.
Recent Events (part three)
Saturday the 4th of September I spent bemoaning my lack of school and having long phone conversations with Richard, which cheered me up considerably. On Sunday I had a wonderful day at home with my family clearing up the garden and pinching fruit from my neighbour's garden using ingenious methods.
On Monday I went round to Richard's house where I was introduced to his previous girlfriend, his PS2. Chris cooked us a delightful lunch and Richard's dad cooked us an equally delightful dinner. I also got to meet Richard's little friend Ed. More photos were taken, which I shall now show to you privileged people! As you can see, we were in a very arty, black and white mood on this occassion.
Recent Events (continued)
On Friday 3rd September, Helen came over in her free afternoon and together we cooked up the delightful mushroom pasta dish that Richard previously described on his blog. This is, in fact, the second time we have cooked it and I feel that now would be a good time to show you the photos of us cooking from last time.
We then wandered on down to Dulwich Park where we began planning the events of the next friday, which I will come to blog about in due course.
The ingredients. May I point out at this stage that we didn't actually have the recipe, only the list of ingredients and what cooking instructions we could pick up from Richard's blog.
Recent Events
I returned from Wales on Monday 30th August and have been hopelessly bad at blogging since then, leading me to get very behind on recent events. So for your enjoyment, dear readers, here is an account of my activities from then until the present day.
On Tuesday 31st August Richard came round. This was actually the first time we'd ever seen each other whilst being a couple as during the whole of the times we've been going out before, I've been in a different country. We went to the post office where I collected a letter for my sister and, on our way home, I showed Richard the sights of Dulwich and demonstrated why I never want to live there. I would tell you more about our day, but we spent the whole time being so sickeningly coupley that I'm sure you don't want to hear about it.
On Wednesday I did nothing and by the evening was thoroughly bored. I was really not looking forward to Thursday when Helen would go back to school and I would be at home alone all day so when Baz mentioned an upcoming dud trip to London the next day during which he would be beating up Richard, I immediately (under the guize of protecting Richard from the violence of Baz) invited myself along.
The next morning I turned up at Charing Cross (slightly late, I still haven't got the hang of showing up on time yet) to meet the rest of the duds and set out to explore London. This has already been written about extensively by those duds present (click here for Baz's account, Richard's account, Jon's account, and Dave's account) so I shall keep my tale brief. We wandered round for a bit through many different countries and watched a bloke on a large unicycle before finding a Pret a Manger for lunch. I had terrible trouble deciding between Vegetarian sushi and an Avocado wrap so eventually I went for both and ate half for lunch and munched happily on the remainder for the rest of the day. Normally I wouldn't be so extravagant with meals but I had, unfortunately, forgotten to bring any money with me for lunch so Richard, being the excellant boyfriend that he is, paid for me (and bought me a toblerone later, isn't he great!).
After lunch (and going in the wrong direction a few times due to a slight lack of a map) we arrived at the Monument and proceed to climb it. I was given the impression before we went in that there would be a lift to take us to the top so I was rather surprised that, having paid my £2 to the lady at the ticket barrier, I was confronted with a spiral staircase and no lift in sight. None the less, I set out for the top and soon overtook Richard and Baz to arrive, 311 steps later, at the viewing platform feeling as if my lungs were about to collapse at any moment. After 5 minutes leaning against the wall occasionally downing bottles of water, I felt able to move again and admired the view across London. I also had great fun teasing my vertigo suffering boyfriend by sticking my feet out through the railings and waving them around over 202 feet drop. I got Richard and Baz to give me a leg up as well so that I could stick my head through the railings at the top and get a better view.
After 45 minutes studying the graffitti and the view we descended the steps with both Richard and I counting them on the way down. We arrived at the bottom a little while after everyone else having stopped a couple of time to *ahem* compare numbers. I do feel compelled to mention that I had to correct Richard's counting a few times on the way down and that, despite my best efforts, whilst I counted the correct number of steps, he was 15 steps out. Not that that would have anything to do with the U he got in his maths GCSE, of course.
We then headed to Trafalgar Square where I, being somewhat short of stature, needed Baz's help to get up onto the lion where we sat and posed for all the various strangers who took pictures of us. Then the rest of the duds went back to Charing Cross and back to the various parts of the middle of nowhere where they all live. Richard and I went on to Reagent's park where we sat under a tree for a couple of hours until it was time for us to head to the Globe to see Measure for Measure. I had been informed that this trip was just to be Richard, myself, and my mother, so it was somewhat of a shock to arrive to find not only my mother, but both my sisters and my mother's friend standing outside the theatre, causing Richard to have some mild heart palpitations. The play was good, but not one of Shakespeare's best, it had several inconsistancies in characterisation. The Globe sells really yummy cheese and chutney sandwiches though. Afterwards we took Richard home to the middle of nowhere.
Tuesday, September 07, 2004
Finally, the last installment of the Shepton Mallet Saga
So where was I? Oh yes
Day 4 - Results day
After 6 hours travelling (by taxi, coach, tube, car and foot) I finally arrived at school an hour and a half after my predicted ETA. Everyone had already been and gone apart from my beloved Sophie who waited and waited, keeping the school updated on my progress ("She's in Bristol... Victoria... Brixton... Just around the corner"). Anyway, I arrived and walked into the school office to be met by grinning teachers and the school photographer who, if I didn't mind, was going to take a picture of me with my results. At this point I gathered that I had probably done fairly well and I opened my results to see that I had, in fact, done as follows:
Biology - A
Chemistry - A
Physics - A
Maths - A
Politics - A
Which was fine with me. It was what I expected to get and would have to have done really badly not to get so my results weren't about whether I'd done well or badly, they were just whether I'd completely failed or done ok. I was pleased with my physics results, not terribly happy about my politics ones and I probably could have done a bit better in all my subjects. I think the photographer was a little dissappointed at my lack of crying and screaming, the only comment I actually made about my results was "oh rats! I got a B in one of my biology modules". It's all over now though, I am in to Oxford and very pleased about it.
After the results we took Sophie back to my house where we had Sarah and Sarah over for some celebratory pizza and ice cream and I phoned up everyone to compare results, then it was back to Shepton Mallet.
6 hours later I finally got back and was met by Richard, to whom I communicated the good news, before going for a celebratory cup of hot chocolate at his parents' tent (Thank you Ian and Jane) and then bed. Oh what a wild life I lead!
Day 5 - Friday
Today I was pursuaded to go to the last 10 minutes of a Tim Hughes seminar before having a nice chat about sex and masturbation in one of the cafes.
That evening (after an emotional last service) we all went and boogied in chasers then stayed up really late in the chillout tent until I was carried to bed by Mark and Chris Greenhouse (awww).
On saturday we packed up and went home and I'VE DONE IT!!!!! I'VE FINALLY FINISHED SOUL SURVIVOR!!!!!!!
The next week I started going out with Richard again (on Tuesday 24th August), then went to Wales for a week and used up all my credit calling Richard and now I can start on the events of the past week.
Friday, September 03, 2004
Soul Survivor (continued)
So, to resume with my tale of Shepton Mallet....
Day 3 - wednesday
I remained good to my promise and today marched Richard down to the marketplace where I bought him his very own hoodie! It was a rather fetching khaki Delirious number and he looks dashing in it! You can see him here and here in pictures that I've stolen from Megatrobe's blog. Sorry about that Jon, do you mind?
That evening we had a service in which the holy spirit was called down and so there were people crying and screaming and being slain in the spirit and I found it all a little frightening. There was this boy lying on the ground next to me and me, being the tender hearted person I am, tapped him on the shoulder and said "are you alright?"
And that was how I met Bunny-ears Josh (so named because he wore a set of bunny ears, bet you couldn't see that one coming!). Anyway, we sat talking to each other for the rest of the evening, and I behaved stupidly and was very mean to Richard (which I am deeply sorry for). At the end of the evening he kissed me and it was horrible! so I got rid of him as quickly as I could and went to find Richard.
I grovelled profusely and Richard and I spent the next couple of hours *ahem* talking until I realised that it was now gone 2am and I had to get up at 6 to go back to London and get my results. I crawled into my tent but couldn't sleep due to the freezing temperatures and nerves. I probably dropped off about half 3 then was woken up at 6 by my alarm and stumbled out of my tent to...
Day 4 - thursday
Results day! Da Da Daaaaa..... to be continued.
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