This Deadbeat Summer

Apologising here for this shall be a very, very, jumbled post. There are writings from several different times and I just think I'm going to make it easy for all and post one entry instead of like a million.

A month 28 days  NOW IT'S 21 DAYS 'til I touchdown at Heathrow, then a few more hours until I'm back in the slightly familiar, but less familiar territory of Leamington Spa.

Not going to lie, this summer is dragging on even longer than the last, which I thought was the longest thing ever. It had reached the point where I was forcing myself so hard just to do something and dragging myself around like some sad zombie. Lately, I've been waking up, going to work, coming back and just sleeping and watching films until I have to go out for the night. And if I don't have to go out for the night, I just continue doing nothing. Time-passing is a really boring activity.

A few notes and distinctions that I have made concerning this time last year:

August 20th was the date Portia left last year - no, I am not freakishly obsessive about her, it's just I checked the last blog entry, - whilst Lucinda, my summer visitor for 2k12, hasn't even arrived yet, and won't until the 24th. It'll be nice showing her around again and showing her this metropolitan hell hole I call home. Like Portia, I don't know how well she'll be equipped to the heat (I've lived here 17 years and struggle to not melt into a pathetic puddle on the sidewalk)

Last year, I was excited to leave to leave this behind and start 'afresh' as it were, on almost the other side of the world. I wanted to meet new people and see new places and live independently and I was determined to have a really, really good year.

As a result of that (a.k.a, I did,) now I want to go back to that. I've left behind the familiar places, the feeling of living independently - the amount of times I leave the house without saying anything just because I'm used to it is ridiculous - and the people.

It's now this really strange thing - my friends don't live a few doors down, or a short walk away from me. It's also a different group of friends - I love them just as much, but there are those moments when something striking reminds me of someone and I want to tell them or show them, and then remember they're not actually physically present with me, or even in close proximity.

I suppose it is really a case of I miss there when I'm here and here when I'm there.

Now, time to update on a few work tales. I've been working every day so I've got quite a few stories. Children are funny ones, aren't they? Chinese children even more so perhaps - some of these kids do lessons a few hours a day with ME; can't imagine what their other extracurriculars are. Anyway, here some some of the high/low lights:

I've had to sing the ABC's about three hundred million times because the youngest class of 2 year olds - who can barely speak chinese let alone english -  insist I join in every time they sing and they sing it a lot.

I have met the devil. He currently walks the earth in the form of a 4 year old girl who wears frilly dresses and pigtails. I may have kind of under my breath called her a bitch after she made one of the sweetest little boys cry.

I'm losing my voice from playing this stupid game called monster where I have to stomp around and roar at the kids and they think it's the most fun thing ever when it's really not.

Okay, NOW let's see what I've been up to on the front of socialising... apart from work, I'm barely doing much. I usually come home after work and just lie in bed watching a film because I'm so drained by the journey. I've never had to change 3 times on the underground before, urgh. #firstworldtransportproblems. I'm also broke at the moment so going out for meals and stuff just makes me feel bad about spending my parents' money so recently I've literally just been staying at home playing the ukulele at obnoxious hours.

Chris' belated BY 2 YEARS 18th birthday junk on Sunday. Brilliant, except it was 4 days ago and everyone is still burnt and peeling, (thank god for exfoliating) and I think i'm still TIRED from it. Spent the day on a boat in the ocean with drinks and loads of food and good company, even if half of them were hungover.

Went out as well last night from Mikayla & Nicole - from uni - and found basically my entire school in Skitz. Ladies night is free drinks so I stayed there and caught up with the year above, my year, and the year below which was weird. I basically knew the entire room. I hadn't really seen any of them so it was quite nice I suppose.

Finally, Lucinda gets here tomorrow (!!!) for 10 days. Should be fun. Her first time in Asia so it's gonna be such a crazy culture difference. So excited for her, and for me, for all the cute stuff I'm dragging her around and making her do. I should be getting paid for work as well so I'll finally have money. I'm already looking forward to spending it in the two weeks after Lucinda goes whilst I mope around waiting to leave. 

On A Boat

Update concerns the weekend's night junk party. For my international readers, (lol) a junk party is when you hire out a several story boat and drive far out to sea where the water is less shitty and polluted. You can jump off the top (i.e. shove each other off) and there's usually loads of food and alcohol of course and you may hire a speedboat and wakeboard and banana boat and enjoy fun sea activities as such.

Because the climate was still being a complete asshole, Esme & Megan hired out the junk for the night time instead and we drove round the harbour against the pretty lit up skyline and consumed both cake and for some, copious amounts of alcohol. I am pleased to inform that I was not the first to fall over.

 

oh YEAH we went to the beach on Friday aka Esme's real birthday. ~afterthought~

I reckon my pretty skyline photos would have turned out a lot nice if I had been sober with a tripod & stabilizer instead of tipsily stumbling around on a swaying boat. (Okay, I half stole that line from Joe, here's your credit.)

Cooler box 1/4 of our alcohol stash, which we managed to deplete. No one was actually really drunk - or at least, drunk enough to fall off the boat - so that was really impressive actually. High five for our group.

Paisano's does really big pizzas jesus, even between all of us we couldn't finish them and I was full after oNE SLICE like some kind of huge disappointment.

Lale. I won't really try to explain the inside joke of Lale because no one will just ever get it and it ends up being me, Esme & Lian just laughing ridiculously so there you have it.

Beautiful skyline ruined (or enhanced?!) by the best diva face I have ever seen on almost anyone, let alone Genie. "uh, you fucking what?"

Lazorzzz.

Me with mah main girl who also bought me fairylights. I need to just marry her already. We half drunkenly star gazed and argued about whether a star/satellite was a star or a satellite. We did manage to identify all the planes though, wow us.

Penelope was the best birthday gift one could wish for. Esme wished for a pony. She got a pink unicorn. Penelope also makes clopping and whinnying sounds, just sayin'

Burday gurlz.

Most amazing cake HAND MADE by Megan. She bigged this one up to me on Friday and it did not disappoint at all.

Drunk slut passed out in the corner already.

Arrived back on the pier and got a call asking if I could cover in work so I agreed and headed home "to get an early night," but of course I didn't and stayed up 'til 5 making the most amazing to do list with boyfriend for when i'm back in england. (Sept 14th yeeeeah!)

Meanwhile, Lucinda has officially booked her flight for here in SEVENTEEN DAYS or maybe sixteen, I don't know, too lazy to count, and Lucas has booked his for December. So many of my favourites coming to visit! 

I will end this relatively short update by saying that whilst new guitar shopping (white or baby blue???) I've spotted the most adorable instrument on Earth. A pink ukulele with a smiley face painted on it. I'm buying it next time I'm there.

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

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

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.