Of foreboding and the city...

 Photo by me :)

I'm sure I was made for the city.

I can't remember if I've mentioned this before, but if it weren't for money issues I would've been a Londoner. And now I've been to Paris. I think it's safe to say I am in love with the place. I made a wish going under the bridge (the one where you're meant to fall in love), but I won't tell you what it was or it won't come tree ;). Then on the way back we went through London in a cab, and I remembered how much I love that too. As it is, for the next year I will be remaining in shit-village-in-the-middle-of-nowhere. Still, could be worse. It's safe, I guess. Unlike the next town I might add [see people-going-when-the-light-turns-green-even-if-there's-a-pedestrian-right-in-front-of-them.]

It's weird to think that I'll be moving out in just over a year. I kind of feel mentally ready for it, but at the same time I don't want to leave all my friends behind! The other thing is the unpredictable nature of the move. I don't know WHERE I'm actually moving to. But Thursday might go some way to deciding...
Thursday. Results day. FUUUUUUUCK.
(And they actually matter this time!)
I'm hoping to get an A in music and Bs in everything else, but I'll have to see. This also goes some way to determining what I drop this year. I know what I WANT it to be, but I'll have to see...

In the meantime, here's the music for today :)

Peace&Love

Of joy and wanderlust.

 Image from WeHeartIt.

Hmmm. Summer.
Well, it's great not being in school, but I haven't really been doing, well, anything in particular. Ok so I've been drawing stuff inspired by northern mythology and playing me ukelele but yeah. Also I read Wuthering Heights and it was SO GOOD. But not as good as generally socialising. Everyone seems to be away or booked up, and I am stuck in England, looking wistfully at pictures of the Nordic countries. One day...
On the plus side, I have a couple of mates to meet up with, and in mid August I will be spending a couple in days in the good old Pariiiis (where I've never actually been before and am very excited about.

Also, I just got the news that I passed my music theory this time round! On top of that, I got a merit. I am very pleased with this, and that's one less thing to worry about when university hunting.
I know I haven't been writing very faithfully on this lately, but now the exams are over and done with I should have more time as a distraction from the distinct lack of boyfriend as he too is off on holiday next week. It was our nine months today, how time flies...

Today's music is in spirit of the aforementioned book.

Peace&Love

Of ageing and updating.

I haven't been able to be on much lately. First, my internet went down, for nine days. But it's back now. And then I've just been doing other things.
In this time, I got hit by a car (it was going at like 10 miles an hour but I twisted my foot breaking my fall, nothing's broken but it hurts like fuck. Then I went to see the University of York and fell in love somewhat... it's one of the hardest ones on my current shortlist to get into, though. Hmm.... The day in question was also my seventeenth birthday! Raves ensued and I am now the proud owner of a whole bunch of CDs, a new birdcage necklace and a minature TARDIS, among other things. Thankee all!

And now there's the end of term blues. I mean, it's not like I particularly enjoy school of anything, but nearly everyone's away over the summer. And I'm stuck here in England the entire time, save a possible/probable weekend in Paris with the family, which should be awesomely awesome. And I'm already scared about results day. And Goggles is leaving. To be honest I don't blame her in the slightest. The only reason I'm still there is for the very few people who I care about and actually give a shit about me too, and the fact that I want to get decent marks so I can get into a good uni and just start all over again. I'm not much a fan of it other than that. But then people hae actually been horrible towards Goggles. I am simply ignored.

Nothing else has gone on really, so just today's music (Stratovarius) and a picture that made me smile.

Image from WeHeartIt.

Peace&Love

Of Eurovision raves and sexual innuendos

There are no words to describe how funny the Eurovision song contest was last night.
For this reason, I will first sum it up in quotes:
"Wow, she even looks like a volcano!"
"SHUT UP EVERYONE, THERE'S A FINN!"
"Can I smell your Woo-Woo, in the least sexual way intended?"
"And this is the problem with being an island."
And of course...
"STRIP ERIK STRIP!"
(Sorry Emma, couldn't find the moment on YouTube :P)

Basically, Smiffy, myself, Carmen, Goggles, Becky, Dan and Joel had a Eurovision based rave, and some of us marked the entrants out of twenty.The UK, of course, had a spectacularly shit entry, and we all actually went up in cheers when Belarus got the twelve points that put us into last place. Personal favourites were Moldova, Greece, Turkey, France, Bosnia&Herzegovina and Georgia. My boyfriend, who is fully aware of my obsession with Finnish music, will not stop taunting me about that fact that they didn't even make it to the final. Nearly all of Spain's points came from the random gatecrasher who jumped on stage. Armenia divided male and female opinions, let's just say ;). We all started doing aerobics to the French entry. I think I headbanged a bit too hard (the back of my neck really hurts!), but at least didn't have the earring-to-the-eye mishap that Georgie did.

I can't possible recal the hilariousness of the whole night, so here's Moldova for you. We were VERY distracted by the violinist.

Peace&Love

Of mashed up brains and acousitc guitars.

 Image from WeHeartIt.

My music exam is tomorrow.
...
If I hear another tonic pedal note, I think I'm going to have a break down.
Still, I can't really complain. This is the subject I've chosen to do after all, possibly for a long, long time after I leave school, if I decide to do a Masters degree. This is how I made my bed, I swear to God I'll lie in it!
Still, not a big revision fan. Who is? Today has consisted of attempting to digest my music anthology, and Van Morrison on repeat before I literally had to dash to the toilet so Mum didn't notice me blasting my ears out with ANYTHING ELSE. There are some music pieces I like. Van Morrison is not one of them.
I miss GCSE revision. Then it was like, revise for half an hour and then watch Poirot. Not any more!
Still, this time tomorrow, it'll all be over. And on Saturday it's time for a Eurovision fest. Apparently Finland got knocked out in the semi finals, so now I will be supporting France. Because I can. Because, let's face it, our entry is shite.

Sometimes I think my life would be so much more eventful if JD from Scrubs was narrating it. Or if not, if some guy with an acoustic guitar followed me around everywhere and sang the soundtrack to my life. AND I'D WANT HIM TO SOUND LIKE THIS:

Peace&Love

Of universities and the city.

I went up to London with George yesterday. Forgot Mum's camera of course, so here are my crappy phone pictures:

I was meant to live here. Seriously. Apparently I would've been if my family had been able to afford it.

Today, on the other hand, was spent ordering uni prospectuses, noting down open days etcetra etcetra. I ordered about twelve, but I have two uni's that I love (York and Nottingham) and one where I love the course but not so much the rest of the place (City of London. The trouble is, I'm constantly worrying that I'm aiming too high. York and Nottingham both have pretty much everything I'm looking for - courses with varying modules so you can get an all round view of the subject (music) while still focussing on certain areas, study abroad oppurtunities to places I' really interested in (Finland and Japan respectively), and they're in good locations. Plus they're quite far from where I live, and while I love my family, I don't particularly fancy living with them and commuting up to London every day. Which would be what would happen.

However, I need two As and a B for York, and one A and two Bs for Nottingham, and I don't know if I can manage it. Then there's the trouble of what subjects to take next year: I love English and I fucking HATE media studies, but should I take the one I like more, or suffer for a year if I'd be more likely to get into a decent uni? Ugh, this is such a mission! Help! At least I know the exact course I want to take...

Also, my thoughts go out to everyone in Poland following the plane crash that killed many important members of their government, including the president. May they all rest in peace.

Today's music is a Florence & The Machine demo. I like it way more than the final version!


Peace&Love

Of a newly revised bucket list.

- Study music at university.
- Tour Europe by train and visit every capital city.
- Learn to walk in slip on shoes.
- Join some kind of group of political activists.
- Join a band.
- See the Northern Lights.
- Read all the works of Shakespeare.
- Go scuba diving.
- Meet Tuomas Holopainen.
- Dye my hair some insane colour.

I'm sitting here surrounded by stray paper, a vegetarian cookbook and my beloved iPod. And it's bloody freezing.

Spring is finally upon us. I hate spring, basically due to the weather (I'm British, all I do is complain about the weather!). It's mild and rainy, the inbetween season. And I like extremes. Still, it's a time for new beginnings. I think I'm going to fiddle around with the colourscheme on this thing.

Easter holidays - a bittersweet feeling. On one hand it's great to be off school and to be able to go out and do all kinds of crazy things with my friends and boyfriend, but on the downside I will be spending nearly all of it working. A/S level exams are painfully close.

We didn't make the media deadline, which sucks. I don't want it to sound like I'm blaming someone else for my own mistakes, but to be honest, the teachers were the ones who never gave us any equimpment with which to do the aforementioned coursework, and thus it is ALL THEIR FAULT. Ah well... we're nearly done, so we'll be getting it in as soon as humanly possible.

Today's music is Leverage. Because the vocals from 3.34 to 3.45 made my heart skip a beat.


Peace & Love

Of callings in life and boredem.

I get bored way too easily. That's my revalation for the day.
  Yesterday I learned a couple of things that are pretty important: Trust your instincts no matter what anyone else says, and being a signpost is the shittiest job ever.
  Oh, and I need to be more assertive.
  Emi and Carmen filmed some of their media project yesterday (after a casting disaster) and I somehow ended up standing next to Hayley holding up a sign saying "KEEP OUT, FILMING." Of course I was completely ignored by everyone, due to just standing there holding up this folorn piece of paper, while Hayley argued with the people who refused to go away.
   I was talking to my singing teacher last night, and she was asking me about university. I know that I want to study music, and I'd also like to study abroad for a little. York used to run a study abroad programme to the continent, but it's since disappeared from their website. My teacher was telling me which countries were good and bad if you were thinking purely from a musical perspective, and I happened to ask her what she knew about the Sibelius Academy, which was one of the links on the programme. She turned to me and exclaimed "Oh, Finland's a great country for music, especially for singing!" My face went like this: :D
   So yeah. I had a plan. Now I have a reason.
Peace & Love

Of music nerdery and insatiable wanderlust

Yesterday, I heard about a documentary film made for some Australian film festival, called "4". All it is is four different violinists in four different parts of the world, each showing an insight into life there in four different seasons, and each of them is playing a movement of Vivaldi's four seasons. Spring is set in Japan, summer in Australia, autumn in the United States and winter in Finland.

I really like the idea of this, since it ties in my music obsession with my massive desiresee things in the world, to not to mention my interest in the countries of Japan and Finland.Unfortunately, said film seems to be nigh impossible to get hold of. Still, I found a littleYouTube. bit of it on

Peace & Love

Of A level exams and chocolatey missions

I had my first A/S exam today. Critical Thinking. What a bloody nightmare. It's a silly subject, but by Tuesday it'll ALL BE OVER! And I am so glad I did some revision even though both of our teachers and the textbook told me not to bother.

On the plus side, I found some new ambitions in life:

.Get a batchelor of arts degree in music.

.Assist Georgie and The Smithster with running their Californian bar.

.Introduce Finland to the concept of "Hole In The Wall."

Today we went on an epic chocolately mission. Upon discovering a box of chocolates in her and Natalie's locker, Jess thought "Ooh, a secret santa present!" since they're still coming in. So we ate some, and then Hayley dropped the bombshell - what if they were for Natalie? So she texted Natalie, and it emerged that they weren't hers, but Steph had been keeping them in the locker.

We panicked, and went down to the local shop to buy Steph some replacement chocolate. We managed to find the exact ones that were missing. Hayley slipped over in the snow in the process.

We got back to school, where we refilled the box of chocolates. Hayley gave it to Steph, and said "We're really sorry, Jess though these were for her so we ate some, but we've replaced all of them!"

Steph goes "Oh don't worry, they were a present for Jess anyway!"

Peace & Love

Of grinding halts and Nordic laughter

 I bloody love snow. The result is that this is the fourth day of a five day weekend.

Saying that, if I can't get in on Monday, I will have to do my critical thinking exam in June. Which means even more lessons.

I will walk if I have to.

(I don't know how realistic this is considering I live miles away from school).

Apparently France and Spain have freezing weather too. I think the whole of Europe may have moved slightly closer to the Arctic circle. Or not.  This weather makes me feel so English. One of those insanely British ways of life is that when we get a bit of snow, everything comes to a grinding halt. And now we're also running out of grit. Fantastic. All the Nordic countries are probably LAUGHING THEIR ARSES OFF. That said, we were actually colder than Finland yesterday. That's some achievment!

Speaking of Finland, today I learned that the Finnish phrase "Mitä tämä paska on?" means "What is this crap?"

I think this information will be invaluable.

Music is Brother Firetribe. I like listening to this in the mornings, it puts me in a good mood.

Peace & Love

Of hopes and dreams

I was talking about this with George, so I decided to make a bucket list.

.Go scuba diving

I love the sea and I've always wanted to try this, but I've never managed it. I go snorkeling on holiday but I'd love to be able to dive down and see all the fish and such.

.Get a band started up

Kind of done this. Myself and Emi had a band practice today, and will hopefully be doing the same every week. We'll find the rest of the members eventually!

.Go To Japan

Done this. I went there about a year ago and it was incredible. I'd love to see my host sister again, and all the people there were just so much nicer that here. I'm almost definite that I'll always be living in England, but if the BNP came into power or something, Japan would be my second choice!

.Go to Lapland and see the Northern Lights

I've had a bit of a thing with the Northern Lights ever since I read the Phillip Pullman book, uh, Northern Lights. Lapland (I've only seen pictures of Finnish Lapland but I'd like to see Swedish Lapland too) seems to be one of the most beautiful places on earth. And I'd like to see Father Christmas.

.Meet Tuomas Holopainen

Nightwish's keyboard player/main man. A bit of a personal hero of mine. I'd just like to see him long enough to say hi or something. I'm not a weird obsessive fangirl, but I do have a massive respect for the guy due to his massive composing skillage.

.Make sure that people know I'm there for them

Sometimes I worry that people don't know this, and I hope some day I'll be able to make it clear.

.Read ALL of Shakespeare's plays

I used to hate this kind of thing, but I love Shakespeare right now. So far I've read Romeo & Juliet, Macbeth, Twelfth Night and half of The Merchant Of Venice, all for English Lit. This could take a while.

.Be able to at least make myself understood in a foreign language

I'm not exactly a genius at languages so I don't know whether this will ever be achieved, but I'm in my sixth year of studying Japanese now. I'm also attempting to teach myself Finnish.

.Go to a music festival

Done this. I went to Love Music Hate Racism back in '08, the second time I saw a Damon Albarn related project live. I wasn't really sure what was going on when I went but I left with a totally different view of politics! I'd like to go to Glastonbury or Download or something one day.

.Hurl an onion bhaji at Nick Griffin

I'm pretty sure he's been egged before, but due to his racist views an onion bhaji would just be immense. Plus they're quite tasty.

Peace & Love