Got some bargains last night from Asda. It's surprising what you can find when you look.

- A polka dot top in my size for £5
- Beige cardigan with flower design on the front for £14
- Mahogany coloured tights for about £2.75
- A butterfly necklace for £3.50
- Set of hair grips for £2.50

Bargain!

That was after watching Lesbian Vampire Killers last night.
Was cool. Though the film did seem a little try hard in places.
But hey I have a Cineworld pass so not like I'm really paying for it. Ha.

Had a pretty decent past few days. Though I really think I will need to have maybe just one day off work soon, as it's getting rather tiring. Just one day to have some fun and be me, instead of a work slave. But hey it gives me money, so can't complain :)

Ok so new update! I'm on Twitter - and as you can see there is a new section to my profile. To the right is a 'Twitter' updates section where you can clearly see all of my latest twitters. To keep you posted with what I'm up to etc :)

I went shopping to Liverpool yesterday. With Gary being away for most of the weekend in Manchester, I decided to go out with my Mum and make a proper girly weekend of it. Now while I usually come away with bags and bags of shopping, I have to say that I really didn't find that much in terms of clothes that I'd want to actually buy let alone wear.

For example, a lot of the fashions at the moment I think are pretty hideous. PVC leggings...harem pants...'modern' jumpsuits (admittedly that last one does look a lot different to their 80's equivalent and I've seen some nice'ish ones). But a lot of it is just plain...urgh.

For example yesterday in Liverpool town centre I saw a girl walking around with just tights on and high heels?! You could see her arse through them, where was her skirt or trousers? I felt like saying you've only put half your clothes on. I hope that trend of wearing your undies over tights doesn't catch on - people like Lady Gaga may be able to get away with it because they're mad as a hatter but ordinary folk on the street should not do that sort of thing. IT LOOKS FOOLISH. &highly unclassy.

Anyhow, so me and my Mum literally went into all the clothes shops in Liverpool One and in total I figured we must've spent about 8 hours shopping! (I knew this anyway as my feet started to really hurt by 3 o'clock).

I didn't come away with that much, but I did get this little lot:


MAC cosmetics > Hello Kitty Tippy blusher, pink shadestick, prep and prime spf50 for the face and primer for the eyes.
The flower hair clip and heart shaped compact are from Accessorize

and


Pretty new black pumps with pink ribbons on! from M&S


I also bought a lot more MAC make-up on ebay yesterday evening, so kinda been spoiling myself a little. &I won a Betty Boop vanity case on there which I will no doubt show in a pic at some point :)

With it being my Mum's birthday next week (she's the big 6-0) I tried to find her something she'd really like. She said she was after a collection from L'Occitane but to try and get it off of QVC (which she's obsessed with). Either that or a ring from the same place. So I'm figuring it might be best to sort that out sometime during the week when I know for sure.

Other than that, we went for lunch at Yums which was a very nice chinese all you can eat buffet, which we enjoyed. I go there with Gary often as you can eat for pretty cheap, only about £5.99 per person.

In the evening we used some Lush products. I managed to pick up a face pack for 2 people from Lush - was only £10 and they gave you an 'Ultra bland' cleanser for your skin which was like a goopy face mask to remove impurities. This was then washed off using a linen towel which came as part of the pack, which you dipped in a bowl of hot water mixed with a toner tab - which is full of vitamins E and C. So that was very cleansing. We followed this with using a low fat moisturiser for the skin, we had different ones each but it was supposed to do the same trick - of moisturising the skin and prep it up for the face mask - which I had picked out especially.

I chose a face mask which was supposed to be very anti-oxidising, nourishing and refreshing for the skin. I can't remember the name of it now, but I know that I had to stick it in the fridge as soon as I got home from Liverpool. When you put it on the face you could smell the blueberries in it - and I even had a taste of it and it was pretty nice actually, haha. Like a very sweet, fruity yoghurt. The idea is you leave the face mask on for around 20 minutes then take off and you will be left with incredibly soft and beautiful skin afterwards.

I definitely noticed a difference after all of those treatments, my skin is still feeling really nice and smooth this morning, so it worked a treat :)

I managed to watch 'The Notorious Bettie Page' yesterday evening as well. It's a brilliant little film, just a biography of one of the most iconic 50's glamour models, but the actress who plays her is highly convincing. She lead a pretty interesting life by the looks of it, though in the end gave up the modelling to follow a Christian way of life. She never let anyone see her in later years once she'd lost her youthful looks because she believed that it would ruin the image people have of her. I can understand that in a way. She was a model who had a lot of success, in a little known manner, but in the end she just wanted to be left alone as she was older.

I never knew that she died in December last year. So only the other month. She was 85 and suffered a heart attack. Can't believe I only found that out 3 months later! :(

Anyways, that was Saturday in a nutshell.

Friday - I got paid. My manager told me I was doing a good job, woo! and I went out in the evening to Runcorn with my good friend Natasha. We went Wetherspoons and then the pub that she works at for a drink or two. It was really nice, I hadn't seen her in ages, so it was good to have a catch up :) though some guy there said I looked like an emo, lol. Which couldn't be further from the truth.

The taxi back to Widnes and home wasn't too nice - easily spent about £12 on that alone! ahah. Good times.

Today which is Sunday, I don't know what's happening.

All I know is that I want to rest as much as possible and later on see Gary when he comes home. I believe I'll be meeting him at the train station, so I'm looking forward to hearing all about Apoptygma Berzerk and his weekend in Manchester.

Bye for now.

The anniversary meal on Monday was lovely.
We went to Desii - an Indian restaurant specialising in the cuisine. It was really nice and made for a change compared to going to the Chinese.

We had poppadoms with dipping sauces, onion bhajis and this pasty type thing with spicy stuff inside. Followed by the main course of chickpea curry,a vegetable madras and some other lovely veggie curry with lots of potatoes in it. Lovely.

It was fairly cheap as well for the both of us it only came to £27 and that included the drinks. I highly recommend.

Afterwards we went back to Gary's (took the car back as we drove to the restaurant beforehand). Then walked down to Wetherspoons for a few drinkies :) which was lovely.

I had a really nice time and our 3 year anniversary went spectacularly.

We exchanged pressies earlier in the evening before eating out and I got loads of good stuff - mostly totally unexpected!

When I arrived at Gary's, it only took a few minutes for Gary to come in and then I waited upstairs for him - and he came up and gave me a lovely surprise of pink wine, ferrero rocher in a heart shaped box and red roses :)

Awwwh. It was one of the most romantic moments of my life.

I'll never forget it.

Last night I created my own poetry website.

Elusive Cure

- to read all my poems, leave comments and read and sign my guestbook.

Many thanks.

I went to see The Watchmen this evening. I really enjoyed it and thought it was a cool film. I could understand maybe from the average joe's perspective why they'd think it was rubbish - but those types of people are usually just content with 'action - sex - action'. Which don't get me wrong, The Watchmen was full of, but the difference is that it actually had a series of stories within it - a back story. Heaven forbid. So yes, I could see why to some people that might be a bit confusing. Especially to those who haven't read the comic. I am one of them.

But I still thought it was amazing. &of course, it makes me want to read the comic. Even if that does sound like I'm jumping on the bandwagon.

This weekend has been just fantabulous. On Saturday I went to Liverpool with Gary and we went on a bit of a shopping spree. To say the least, I must've spent a good bit of wage, as I bought a coat from River Island for £75 which I've had my eye on for a while. It's a red mac with beautifully designed big silver buttons on the front and a belt which cinches you in a little at the waist. It looked so nice and cosy I just had to get it! Then of course, I ended up buying a very unusually pretty pearl necklace with a white flower on it and some headbands from Topshop. Then I got a pretty pink chiffony style dress from Primark, which was cheap but very, very nice. Not to mention the gorgeous vintage style green wedgey high heel type shoes that Gary bought me from Milano (as part of our anniversary pressies). I was rather spoilt.

We had lunch at Yums - an all you can eat chinese buffet on Bold Street. That was nice - we made sure to have our fill, though I think we both found out towards the end that we might've overestimated our plate size portions! haha.

In the evening we had to babysit for Gary's little sister which we didn't mind as it gave us time to chill out and chat and just relax after a hard day's shopping :p which was nice.

Today (which I realise is now the 9th - though forgive me for writing this in the wee small hours of the morning) is also a day of much celebration. For it is mine and Gary's 3 year anniversary of being together. So yes, we're going to have quite a bit to celebrate :] I feel so happy.

We've already bought our fair share of presents for each other - I know that Gary bought me a mp3 wireless player for my ipod which I can now use instead of his all the time. Haha. I also have a pretty white rose bracelet and those shoes I mentioned earlier. Fabulous.

We're going to celebrate our anniversary by going for a Chinese meal together. We were going to go to Zizzis in Liverpool One, but it turns out the offer we wanted to use there expired on Sunday. Which is annoying. So we had a rethink and decided to stay local, because we could get drunk in Widnes rather than have to stay completely sober and drive home all the way from Liverpoool. Ooh we are clever :]

So yeah, we'll be going the pub tomorrow evening and having a few. It'll be really, really nice to celebrate and relax with a beverage or two after a hard day's work, for a change.

Happiness doesn't even begin to describe the way I feel right now.

Finally, it's the weekend.

I'm looking forward to it a lot because any time off work needs to be enjoyed thoroughly :] even if it is only two days worth.

Today was another day of hard work. Many a time during the day I counted down the hours/minutes til I was free once more. I worked very hard and by the end of the day was glad to come home and be able to get ready to enjoy the weekend.

Tomorrow I will be hopefully having lots of fun with Winkles :) shopping, chilling, lovely stuff like that.

I'm hoping to be able to book some time off during the summer to be able to maybe go to a music festival - I can't decide between Download or Sonisphere. Maybe both if all goes to plan. But I can't say for sure on that one. Waiting for more acts to be announced, but Download has picked up if they're having Faith No More playing.

Anyways, it's Easter soon so I'll be getting some time off for that, a day or so.

I might as well be off now. I have things to be sorting out, so can't hang around.

Laters.

Now that I've figured out how to upload pics from my phone to computer (turns out I hadn't installed the software for the USB driver properly) this should make my life a little easier.

Last Saturday I went to see Metallica play in Sheffield. It was my second time seeing them and they were absolutely amazing. Pics of which are up on myspace and facebook. (I would upload them to here, but Blogger won't seem to let me, hmmmpff).

So, work's going ok. Project's carrying it's way forward, I've finished working on the job boards and I've got to review all of that with my manager. There's going to be some big changes in the office next week, one of them being that everyone is going to be moved around so that the office will become a lot more integrated, meaning that the colleague I sit with now, I will no longer be sat with come Monday. I guess I will get used to the changes, I'll have no other choice really and since it's gonna benefit the business, then who am I to complain.

Though nobody likes changes really, do they? We shall see how that one pans out.

I'm getting used to the routine of work now, as depressing as the reality is after having so many fun times (or what seemed it now) in school, college and university. It's crazy to think I'm finally working. Even my mum can't get used to it.

Alas, I've treated myself quite a bit with the spends. I'm really getting into vintage style fashion, most of which looks absolutely fabulous. I love the elegance of it all, especially the 20's/30's and 40's styles. I managed to buy a pretty black and white dress with hearts on the blouse bit and a butterfly belt around the middle, which looks rather old school. Plus I've found a lovely skirt, lingerie set and a rather nice looking high waisted nautical pencil skirt with braces. Which I trust are gonna look fab.

Well, I know the lingerie set, dress and pretty black skirt with floral detail are looking rather splendid, since I got them this evening. Matalan have really got some nice stuff out there at the minute.

I bought myself a Cineworld card two weeks ago and have been going mad with it ever since - going the cinema lots and lots and lots. So far I've managed to see Friday the 13th, My Bloody Valentine 3D, Notorious BIG, Push, Slumdog Millionaire, Gran Torino and The Unborn. Classy. It's definitely been worth the money - for just £11.99 a month for a year and any film you want to see without the hassle of having your money with you when you go there.

I'll be watching The Watchmen tomorrow when it comes out over here. It's supposed to be pretty damn amazing (or so I hear), so I'm expecting to be left nothing less than impressed. :]

My eyes have been getting really sore lately. Not sure why but one of my contact lenses fell out this afternoon in work and it was really frustrating. I think my eyes are drying up from looking at a computer screen pretty much all day, leaving them all drained and a little red. Eeep.
So I made sure to buy myself some Optrex this afternoon, in the hope that some much needed eye drops would help my eyes feel a little more human.

They've sorta worked. But I'm wearing my glasses for a while until they recover. Or at least more often :]

Ordered my new phone last night. Not saying anymore on it until it arrives though and then hopefully I can have some evidence to show for it.

Still in a bit of a writing frenzy at present, it's ace :]
xxx

Rules: Once you've been tagged, you are supposed to write a note with 25 random things, facts, habits, or goals about you. At the end, choose 25 people to be tagged. You have to tag the person who tagged you. If I tagged you, it's because I want to know more about you.

To do this, go to “notes” under tabs on your profile page, paste these instructions in the body of the note, type your 25 random things, tag 25 people (in the right hand corner of the app) then click publish.


1) I am a firm believer in self fulfilment, self expression and doing whatever you feel necessary (without harming anyone or anything) to get your message across. I can testify to this sort of message because when I was 15 I laboriously sewed onto my school bag, ‘Jack off Jill’ in pink stitching. It was awesome. I didn’t care how controversial it seemed or what sort of rumours people made up about me after that, I loved that band. I had the PASSION to want to spread that message and that’s something that nobody can knock.

2) I love cats. One day I want to own my very own little Scottish fold kitty J

3) I work in an engineering recruitment consultancy. This is my first proper job and I’ve been given a lot of responsibility regarding the company website. I have control and access over the creative and editorial of it which is pretty cool. But I’m also doing other tasks such as right now I’m working on a nuclear energy project which could be presented to one of the head directors at this massive nuclear company in France if all goes to plan. Scary stuff.

4) The most wonderful people I’ve met in my life are my grandparents. Aside from my immediate family, my grandparents rocked because they really did look after me while I was growing up. They used to live right next door to me, up until my grandad passed away and I’d always skip through the little fence we had set up in our backyard to go and visit them.

My grandad had a massive collection of factual books, mainly on bird watching but there were some on international history, especially to do with the pyramids and Ancient Egypt. I would sit and read them for hours. I think they really helped me to look at writing and gain pleasure out of it.

5) I write poetry. I’ve been writing poems of various interests since the age of 11. I’ve been told I have somewhat of a talent for it by various people which has encouraged me. But mainly I just really enjoy writing as it’s so cathartic. I’m hoping to get more of my poems published and who knows, one day soon, my very own poetry book.

6) I miss college. It feels like ages ago now, but college was ace. Though at times I couldn’t wait to leave, I always had a laugh with my friends and amazingly in-depth discussions which was cool. It always helped having that time to wind down and socialise between lessons as well. Working can be very tiresome.

7) My music taste can be very eclectic. I don’t have a specific style so much anymore. When I was younger it was only GOTH GOTH ELECTRO. But if I like a song, I like a song. Basically, my music collection consists of anything and everything from Godlfesh to Girls Aloud.

8) I am a vegetarian. Meaning I haven’t consumed any animal or dairy product for a good while now. 2 years today to be precise. I feel much better for it, though I wouldn’t say it’s changed me as a person. I think it’s a really easy transition to make too. But I could never tell anyone to change their eating habits or force it on another person as I think that’s just guilt tripping. It has to be a personal decision.

9) I graduated last summer from University with a 2:1 degree in Journalism. Some people say that’s a weird subject to study but I remember it was nowhere near as easy as people who didn’t have to do it were making out. Not that I ever thought it would be.

10) I once got approached to be an ‘Evil Girl’. Which is kind of like a cheap British version of the Suicide Girls. I didn’t take up the offer as I don’t like the idea of strangers watching me naked in clubs/pictures on the internet.

11) When I was 14, I did my Duke of Edinburgh award. We had to do various challenges and I remember we had to write about our expedition. I didn’t expect that at the ceremony later that year, my writing would be published on the leaflets and being read by upwards of 200 + people. That was a nice surprise.

12) I love cooking. Nothing is more satisfying than coming up with a new recipe or making something look and taste even better than the picture in the cookery book. I like making loads, especially winter food like soups and hotpots.

13) One day I will have an akita-inu dog. The master of all dogs.

14) I have been in a relationship for 3 years and things have just got better and better. We’ve known each other since high school, from about the age of 14, when we’d exchange shy looks and give each other CD’s to listen to. We just didn’t know we both fancied each other, but were too scared to say so at the time. Thankfully we managed to sort that one out.

15) I drink too much tea. Tea is genuinely amazing and I love all its varieties. Herbal or caffeine infused.

16) I’ve always felt out of place in modern society. I have been told I am not of this era. A few people have told me I don’t sort of ‘fit in’ with the times. Not that I dress old fashioned, but I do have morals and standards, which is rare where I come from.

17) I have two brothers. There’s a 12 and 15 year age gap between me and them.

18) My favourite poet is Anne Sexton.

19) I am addicted to Sudoku.

20) My beliefs have changed. I’ve become a lot more logical and as a result, I’d say my believings lean more towards the atheist side.

21) When I was 15, I used to wear only black clothes and paint my face white. I went through a phase (of about 2 years) of looking remarkably like Morticia.

22) I have my ear cartilage pierced. I’m still undecided about whether to get a tattoo or not.

23) Every Sunday, me, Gazy and Hazy go out in the car and drive somewhere to cause chaos, have a laugh and deep discussions about everything from politics to some of the weirdest stuff you’ve ever heard

24) I love Japanese things. Something about the culture is so charming yet kooky, it’s great. I’d love to go there someday soon.

25) I am like a child at heart. I can get easily excited and be pretty eager, which I’ve been told is cute.

Ok, so while I've been settling into the routine of working life (I am now adept at waking up v early and dragging myself out of bed) and I haven't been late once - except for yesterday when the heavy snow and the build up of traffic over Runcorn bridge ensured that I would be a little late, it was no more than five minutes or so. I feel it only right I should tell you a little about the work I have been doing.

I've been given the gargantuan responsibility of my own research project. I already have responsibility for accessing/editing the company's website content. One of my other tasks is to come up with new concepts for the website, with the help of my manager. Basically, we're looking to expand on the nuclear pages/content because that's where most of the new energy is being invested into, in this country. What with the British government giving the go ahead for a new lot of nuclear power stations to be built across the UK.

So my project is gonna involve a lot of research into the sector and come up with, kinda like I did in my degree, a thesis of sorts. Which will be presented to the head of the company. In turn, it could be shown to the Head of a massive company we work with and recruit for, who will probably take my ideas into consideration and implement them in due course.

This is probably one of the biggest tasks in my life that I've been given responsibility for. I have around a month to do it, but thankfully I have my degree to help me along here. If I hadn't of done a dissertation, no doubt I would be struggling by now! I shall have to draw on my previous experiences and carry out the same sorta tasks here. It's exciting stuff though, to be given such a task and in a way, I do feel honoured.

Other than work, I have been spending excessive amounts of time searching for sushi rice and nori seaweed! Yes, unbelievably I've scoured Morrisons, Asda, Tesco and even Holland and Barrett and a Tesco Metro over the past 3 days, until I gave up and just ordered them online. I was hoping to make sushi, but only managing to get the wasabi paste and rolling mat, I kinda drew a blank. At least I have been able to order them online. But it was only a few months ago you could buy them in Morrisons or Asda, so I don't know what's happened there :/

I figure sushi will make a nice change to just having sandwiches every lunch time :)

I've had no severe problems with the snow we've been having. Though I haven't been able to enjoy it because I've been inside all day, I did see it falling outside the window and when I left work yesterday, I had to clear off all the snow from the car as it was like thick white icing on a cake. Pretty though.

I have no immediate plans, but I think on Thursday evening I'll be going to the Comedy Club in Liverpool, which should be pretty cool. Haven't been since my 21st birthday, which feels like eons ago now! ahh *sigh*.

Ooh I picked up a game the other day for my Nintendo DS called 'My Japanese Coach' which will basically teach you the language and how to speak it! Looks pretty cool. I've always wanted to learn Japanese, so I guess now I have the chance, once I get the opportunity to use it often enough.

That's about it for now. I'm hoping to start coming back and posting some more exciting news soon. I'll try to keep some more regular updates, as and when.

But for now, I must rush, gotta go make me some din dins :]
xxx

So I just want to say Happy 2009! and sorry I haven't updated in a while, it's been a hectic few weeks.

But to summarise, I've started my job - it's hard work as I'm doing full time work now (40 hours a week) but I got paid for the first time last week, I got an advance and that first pay day was very nice indeed - I've even managed to buy myself a new laptop with the money, which is splendid.

Speaking of which, I've got it right now - a Dell Studio 17 :D it's lovely. Can't get used to its shininess and all the different features are amazing. Down the right hand side there is even a pane which tells you updated news stories, the weather and temperature of your location and a clock! I'm just not used to it all...it's soo fast as well, it's brilliant! hehehe.

I love all the different features, it's cool.

Now I'm working I'm keeping busy and I'm not going on personal websites during work time as I've heard they can monitor and track what you're doing (but they say they don't), clearly it is better to err on the side of caution and just get on with work. Which is what I do.

After the realisation that I am start to work shortly - I get an email (only received it today) telling me that the start date has been put forward after some discussion, so I will now be starting work on the 12th of January, which is exciting.

Though it gives me less time to celebrate my birthday :(

Ah well. In other news, I went to see Chubby Brown at the Manchester Apollo last night. He was rude, crude and very very dirty but in my opinion, he gets an unfair rap from the media. Sure his act was foul in parts but he's also very funny and I give anyone kudos who can stand up on stage for an hour and a half and perform a stand up comedy act. It's tough as hell. It takes a lot of guts and you have to really be on the ball, as comedy is basically thinking ahead to the next joke all the time. So yes, he was good :) but, whilst some of the jokes were not to my cup of tea I can still appreciate a comic like him for the work he has done and for making people laugh [even if it does come across as terribly right wing, sexist and fascist] there is still room and always should be room for freedom of thoughts and speech, even if the majority disagree.

Also as a surprise, Ricky Hatton was in the crowd - he was sat like 2 rows in front of me and Gary.

But it was on the way home - well just as we'd reached Gary's house and had just parked up, that I was getting my bag out of the car and was stood on the road...when a car came hurtling around the corner, saw that I was in the road and actually started SPEEDING UP - FFS. I was so scared I just ran to the pavement to get out the way and the car door was still open - but the car kept going full speed at it! Thankfully it never got hit. But still - it's the principle.

The sad thing is that the chavs inside that car no doubt thought that was hilarious. But what if it had been a little old lady? or someone equally as vulnerable? would they speed up then? idiots. As they turned the car around they nearly ran Gary over as well as they were parking up right behind our car. Then they got out and started shouting abuse at us. >.< it was sooo infuriating and upsetting, I can't tell you.

Even when we got in, I found it difficult to calm down because of the worry that they might do something to our car. Grrrr. Scum like that deserve to be put down.
Those teenage boy chav idiots sure know how to ruin a good evening. Bastards.

Well I never thought it would happen, but I knew it would eventually.
I heard back about that job I applied for - and I got it! :D
I'm so happy and ecstatic about it I'm not sure what to do with myself as I now have all this energy and I'm like wanting to tell everyone but so far I've only told about 3 people.
I should be receiving my contract in the post either tomorrow or this weekend. Which is exciting. I'm sooo glad I don't have to carry on looking for more jobs now as the whole 'sign on this line' process was really beginning to get me down after 6 months of searching. I've been told I don't have to start until late January either the week starting the 19th or the 26th. So I'll have plenty of time to celebrate Christmas, New Years and my 22nd birthday :) good times.

More details on that as they arrive :p

So today I don't know what to do with myself really. I want to help set up the Christmas tree but I've been told my Mum will do it personally, later on. What else? Could be going to see Chubby Brown tonight which would be cool. I don't know 100% if that'll be the case however.

Sorry too excited to do much else now.

*DANCES OFF* YAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY :D :D :D

xxxx

Heylo. Ok so I've been trying to get into the festive spirit with Christmas only a week away. I'm feeling very very excited :) and I know it's gonna be really fun and amazing.

This past week has been fairly hectic I'd say. Well, last week felt like it was. A lot has happened.

After that dreadful Monday, I spent Tuesday and Wednesday preparing myself for a job interview I had on Thursday morning.

Oh I got my hair cut pretty short on Wednesday :) it's now a mid lenth bob with a fringe and I'm really digging it I must say XD

On the day of the job interview I had to do a little presentation on why I wanted the role and what steps I would implement etc etc - and I felt as if all was going well - and I got told at the end I would hear back 'some time early next week' probably Monday. I left feeling relieved. &wanting to enjoy the weekend.

So last weekend was great :) I went to a GPW show (wrestling for those who don't know) on Friday night with Gary and Griff in Wigan. &whilst it was quite a drive, the actual show was pretty good. It was all fairly amateur for sure, but I had a good time and the place was fairly packed considering it was just an average sized social room (Monaco Ballroom). Had some trouble with the SatNav on the way home - it seemed to be taking us to Widnes via Bootle, lol. Finally realised in the end that the sensor wasn't up so couldn't pick up the signal, haha. We're such dumdums :p

I went to another wrestling show on Saturday night in Doncaster. I ended up driving 93 miles to this place called Edlington to watch some guys wrestle :p

We got there before 7pm and then we went into this small venue called 'The Granby' which was where the 1PW show was set. It was decent enough though the crowds were a great reminder of where we were. Yes, inbred doesn't even come into it. There were people there with mullets and anoraks on, ffs :s it was just like being involved in a timewarp back to the 80's. *shudders*.

After the show which was ok at best, we drove to Sheffield to meet up with a mate and stay for his house party :) that was fun. Though being fairly tired, me and Gary only had a few drinks and then we ordered pizza and our injection of cheesy sauce and chips :D mmm. Then ended up falling asleep in the back of the car for around an hour, lol. When we went back in and it was around 3.30am or so and whilst there was some weird hippy guy pretending he was a DJ in Davey's bedroom and some girl dancing for a good while, me and Gary finally got to sleep...eventually.

The next day (Sunday) was spent chilling out, then finally going into town and doing a bit of Christmas shopping. Yay. I saw an old friend in the morning as I was queuing up to use the bathroom. Rob who I knew from halls. Other than that...spent the day shopping as I say and ended up buying my Dad a christmas present :). Ended up going home via the Snakes Pass which was a little scary for me in the dark, but I didn't mind. It's all good experience.

Monday - some new cupboards arrived for me :D so me and my parents spent most of the day rearranging my bedroom. We've replaced the blue cupboard I had and put in the spare room, which is now being used for towels. My new desk is really nice as it doubles as a desk/cupboard and it's opened up a lot of space. My bed has also been rearranged so it's facing the desk rather than the door/wall as it was previously. It looks a lot better and gives the illusion of a lot of space. It's nice.

I even have my own little bookshelf and a nice throw over the head of my bed to 'break up' the part between the computer and where my bed begins. I really want to sort out my brothers' academic books as they're really clogging up the top and bottom of my wardrobes. If I could just get rid of them, I'd be happy with it to be honest as it'd look a lot less cluttered. I'm glad my room has been rearranged now as it's looking a lot better and no doubt will save me from being mithered to go and 'tidy my room'. If my room is already very nice then they'll have to find something else to moan about :p haha.

Anyway I've been waiting all week to hear back on that job I applied for...and have heard nothing, so I'm presuming I haven't got it, which sucks :( but hey, guess it wasn't meant to be. I'm just trying to keep positive through it all as something is bound to come up eventually.

Over and out.

Haha so much happened yesterday it was almost surreal.

Ok, I got invited to this 'Alumni Academy' day which took place yesterday. Some lady invited me on Tuesday via phone call, explaining to me that it was for graduates and the intention was to try and place them into relevant sales/marketing placements, if they passed a series of exercises and got involved in debates.

So I went along yesterday. I had to be up fairly early (7am) in order to get myself back home, showered and prepared. I had to wear a business suit, which looked smart but admittedly, wasn't all that comfortable.I took the train at around 10am to get to Manchester Oxford Road. All was well I was thinking, until on the second leg of the journey, I got accused by the train conductor of trying to 'have him off' by not purchasing my ticket straight away and asking for a return from Manchester Oxford Road to Heald Green (the place where the academy was). He asked me,'So how did you get through the barrier at Oxford Road?' and asked me where I had actually come from.

It wasn't my intention to do anything 'illegal' as he was claiming, but to just buy my ticket from Oxford Road-Widnes on the way back home.

For starters, I couldn't get a ticket at Widnes station because there was some guy in the queue faffing about and taking ageees discussing with the station controller - by which point I was losing the will to live and probably would've missed my train. Then on the train the conductors walked right past and just completely ignored me - they seemed to have some new girl who didn't know what she was doing at all. So by the time I got to Manchester I just thought 'fuck it I'll just buy it on the train here'. Didn't realise that was such a crime.

Also I didn't know that you could buy a ticket like an 'all in one' direct. That sounds kinda odd, but last time I had to switch trains I could only purchase a ticket from said station to [insert destination] on the route, so I was under the assumption it was still like that.

Anyway I arrived at Heald Green by 11am. It's on the route to Manchester Airport, so it's like the station stop before that one. I had already ate a sandwich on the way down there and by the time I got off the train I realised I was walking with a few people of similar age to my own who had business suits on themselves. So we all started to have a chat and before long we were at the Academy which was based at the Manchester International Office Centre which was this big building next to a load of other officey type places. We went in there and we had to wait for the good part of an hour before being called up.

There was at least 20 different graduates there. All very different. All dressed in business suits. Most were men. I was one of only four girls there. We received name badges and were led into a business meeting type room.

The next couple of hours went fast, but in that time we got a basic grounding of the day, did an 'ice breaker' exercise where we had to present our 'neighbour' to the rest of the class. &then we received a sales training course, which included performing an exercise where we had to pretend we were a sales training company and were selling our services to some IT company who were looking to employ people.

Then finally we had to get involved in a 'constructed' debate - my group's was about capital punishment but some girl in our group argued 'for' capital punishment rather than against which was a lot bloody harder. The other group had to argue for and against the congestion charge. Whilst I got involved, I didn't feel as though I contributed enough on the actual day because the people there just seemed to be talking utter bullshit - it was definitely a matter of manner over content. Plus I fall under the pressure of having to think directly on my feet, I'd rather prepare for a bit longer than 5 minutes to be honest.

Didn't help much that they didn't have any breaks whatsoever either. I bloody well needed the toilet too, but you only got 5 minutes to prepare for these massive exercises and then it was straight back in the room. I knew I wouldn't pass by the time the debates rolled around. The way they announced who had passed this free sales training course was by calling out a list of people's names and taking them out of the room. I knew by the point where he said 'You can leave your stuff as you'll be coming back' that those people had gone through.

But quite a lot of people's names didn't get called. Mine was one. But there were at least 10 people or so who didn't get called. We got told we could then leave. I was kinda excited to be honest by this point as I was about ready to burst. I ended up going to the pub with one of the guys I'd previously met on the way down there called Blake. We also met a fellow rejectee and had a drink with him. I had a white wine spritzer and we just had a chat about why we never passed. One of the main reasons I believe was that we had journalism/humanities degrees. Like nearly all the people who got through had engineering or technical degrees. So the potential 'vacancies' must be in those sectors. As one of the girls who sat in on the process specifically asked if anyone had an engineering or technical degree as some of the recruiters were being very specific with that detail. So there you go.

I was used to basically meet a requirement, which was to 'fill' a place. I suspect the people there who arrange these days have to find so many graduates from different disciplines interested in that sort of area and it gets rather tricky so they just try and find anyone. Whilst I do feel that the day was somewhat of a waste, it was learning experience - that was my first graduate assesment day I've ever been to. Admittedly, it was a bit weird though.

It wasn't a waste in many ways however. I talked to a few of the people who succeeded on the day and they said that there probably isn't any vacancies anyway and that all of the people who got through probably won't get jobs. &also, one of the guys who was about 26, was being offered a starting salary for one vacancy of £14K, but he's currently on a lot more than that with his present job- so that wouldn't be very worthwhile.

I got the train home with a bunch of them and I talked to one guy who told me a load of names for different companies I should try and that sort of thing. So it was really helpful in those ways.

By the time I got to Manchester Piccadilly though - there was no train back home to Widnes :( so I ended up having to go to Warrington. Then wait there for another train which stopped at Widnes. Waiting on the platform however, some guy who looked rather unkempt and unclean asked me if he didn't mind me smoking (no, but it's now illegal to smoke at a train station). I said I didn't. Then he started telling me how he'd never been on a train before and how he was going to visit his mum for the first time in 10 years :/ I didn't really know what to say. He was rambling a little but he was like 'Will you keep me company on the train?' and when we were on there he was like 'What do I do - how does it work?' and I ended up having to tell him where he'd have to get off when he got to Lime St and then take another train from there which would hopefully take him to Ellesmere Port. Apparently he was from somewhere called Ashton, not far from Wigan and he'd been travelling all day.

Weird.

Obviously freaked out a little and trying to keep calm by this point, he got a phone call from his Mum who wouldn't believe he was on a train so he was like 'Look Mum, I've got this lady friend, go on speak into the phone...' Errr 'Say hello?'
'Hello' I said, then that was that. Lol.
I couldn't get over how a 31 year old was acting more like he was 10. I was glad to get off the train and finally get home. It was great to get back and relax.

While yesterday was sure interesting, I think I'll be sticking to proper job interviews and avoiding those 'graduate days' from now on. Urgh.

Not sure what I'll be doing today, but I know that tonight I'm going to see Slipknot with Gary and his sister Katy. Should be interesting as Machine Head and Children of Bodom are also playing XD

xx

I received a letter today. I thought it was strange because I normally never get mail. Anyway it turns out after I open it, to be one of the application forms I filled in around 2 months ago. Apparently I hadn't put enough postage on it or something and was 6p under - so they'd returned it to me. Bloody annoying. So there was me thinking all along that the people I had applied to a job to weren't interested - when they had probably never even received my application form at all! grrrr.

It's most worrying because it contains loads of my information and I even included a picture of me which sounds strange, but they actually requested I do that on the application form. So anyone could potentially steal all of my personal information or even worse, set up a false identity using my details. What I want to know is - why'd it take 2 months to return it to me, if it failed to send? Infact, why bother sending it back at all. Bastards. I am SOOO angry. &I know you might say it's my fault, but honest to god I spent all day working on that application form in October and thought that one stamp would be enough because it wasn't even that heavy, just a few pieces of paper. Bastards. Aaaaarggghhh.


Anyway *calm* I'm ok now. Been busy buying Christmas presents today, so am expecting to be fairly broke v v shortly. But I figure I'd have to buy these pressies sooner or later so may as well get them now :) rather than end up in a blind panic in the last couple of days.

Still enjoying chocolatey adventness as well. Today I got an angel, I believe. Yerse.

Been pretty busy lately as I've been looking after Gary. He's not been feeling too well lately, so I've spent the past two days at his house looking after him and keeping him company until he makes a full recovery.

With Christmas looming ever nearer I also need to start sorting out my gift list for everyone and really take a good look at what I've already bought and go through what I need to buy - because I think there might be quite a lot somehow! hah. I don't mind though because it means I'll stay on top of it and get everything sorted early(ish) considering it's the 4th of December already...

My advent calendar has been suitably weird this year. I managed to purchase a Disney one on Monday and so far the first day was ok because it provided me with a christmas tree behind December 1st, but then I started getting...a mushroom?? and today's looked like a mince pie (slightly more reasonable) but it could've been a small christmas present for all I know *sigh*. I dunno, it just feels like standards are slipping.

I'm loving Coronation Street as always I am ADDICTED to that, hehhee. Though some of the stories seem a little far fetched (though me and my Mum completely saw the Becky and Steve love story that's blossomed in the past week or so). People in soaps are never happy though are they - I guess that's the point. Kinda makes me glad to live in the real world.

I never update this. Maybe I should more. But life seems so frantic these days.
Which sounds crazy as it's not like I'm spending all day doing something I hate, I still have all the time in the world. For now.

Ok so Christmas is coming up shortly and here's my current situation:

- I'm constantly in a state of flux. Riding the rollercoaster of emotions career wise. I have not had much luck to be honest, despite all my best efforts and constant searching I am still out of work :( and looking for my first opportunity.

- But I remain hopeful that the opportunity I long for is just around the corner.

- I'm doing whatever I want to which is cool, but pretty odd. After spending such a long time having to do various assignments and so forth, and now being degree qualified I'm expected to know which direction to take my life and you think by this point you'd be well equipped for it - but truth is, that's just not the case at all. Infact it feels even more confusing. As a result I guess I'm just taking any opportunity that comes my way which sounds half decent.

- But in that time many good things have happened and I've really developed as a person which I see as a positive result.

- Plus I'm in a fantastic relationship in which we both share and look after one another which has been a real blessing. I've never known anything like it before. We've also shared many experiences, both over these past few months and prior to that when I was still in Sheffield and didn't get to see him as much as I would've liked. All that is over now and we've really, really become a lot closer.

Right now I'm wondering how the hell I'm going to get everything sorted before Christmas with only 23 days to go?! arggh. Where has time gone at all...

Ahh. So much has ocurred since my last post. Once again sorry for my infrequency but I do not frequent the internet like I used to :) hehe. Ok, for a start I have FINISHED UNIVERSITY :D as of the 12th of June. Since then I have moved home and so I no longer live in Sheffield.

Now I am home, sorting my life out. Which could go one of two ways. Really really good - and I get employed, have a fantastic job and start my new life. Or really rather bad - and I wait around and never get past the interview stage for a job before being rejected :( so yeah. I hope it's the former.

I went to see My Bloody Valentine at the Manchester Apollo on Saturday night - was so COMPLETELY awesome. &I got to see them with Garywinks which is all that matters.

Since then I have just been resting. Sorted out my cd collection which was utterly fascinating. That took a while though because I had to find all of my cd's and place them in their respective cases - I must've completely messed them all up and put them into plastic wallets for when I went away to University, believing it was easier. However I now have no cd cases whatsoever, which is somewhat puzzling. Oh well. Althugh I maanaged to get rid of a pile of junk which was cluttering up my bedroom (old notebooks, Uni work etc)- which doesn't really matter now that I know I've got a 2.1. Yup :D I'm pleased with that.

Just the getting a job part I feel will be difficult. I am broke though so will probably have to settle for benefits if I don't get one soon. It's highly likely I suppose. Though I shall just keep on trying and trying until I do. Who knows, it could get pretty interesting.

Oh, me and Gary want to see Stephen King's 'Misery' at the Royal Court Theatre in Liverpool. Probably come Friday or Saturday we will.

I'm starting to panic a bit less since I've started laying stuff out. As a team it's great and we're speeding through - it feels like we're well ahead of everyone else on our mag stuff (though I doubt it somehow). Between us we've done 10 pages between the five of us, which makes us a third of the way through the whole thing.

It might mean a few days stuck in the newsroom until it's complete but I can only imagine it'll be worth it, to have it out of the way nice and early. Most of the small pages are already done and today I finished off my '5 finest spas' piece. Tomorrow I'm working on fashion and my Mother of the Bride piece, in a desperate attempt to get some things laid onto Quark and out of the way. I also have to see Liz tomorrow about my features articles as I need to get them checked as the person I sent them to originally for feedback off, hasn't even got back in touch...and it's been a week and a half already. Grrrr. The deadline for these articles is next Tuesday and I don't have the time to faff about as I have to give one of them for my friend Kirstie to edit - if I don't soon, it'll be too late. So I have to get feedback off my tutor then make appropriate changes and check and recheck before I feel happy that I want to use it for assessment before I can send it to Kirstie to edit for her work as it has to be the original copy. Phew. That's a lot, I know.

But then it's all just laying stuff out after that so I will feel a bit better then. I'm working on my dissertation this weekend which I can't say I'm ecstatic about, but at least it gives me something to do as I might be pretty lonely up here. Unfortunately I have to stay here and do work as I want to get it all out of the way so I can have it checked by my tutor and then signed off and bound (which takes a week itself!) arrggh. Too much work I think.

I had a brilliant weekend just gone though, spent it at home in Widnes with Gary. Loads of little parcels from ebay had arrived for me which was great and I basically just spend a couple of days just chilling with Gary. I went to the new Doghouse in Runcorn on the Saturday night which was ok although not all that exciting. And on the Sunday (18th), I went with Gary and Hazy on an adventure once more to Penketh on our little trek halfway to Warrington and back. Was fun.

I chilled on Monday, ended up shopping *blushes* I know, I know - I have a bad habit of buying stuff and I probably should just stop. But it's kinda hard...

I came back to Sheffield on Tuesday morning. Wrote up my 'other' article all day. Developed a massive headache which wouldn't seem to go away all evening and most of today, in all honesty. &then today, I had my LAST EVER SEMINAR. In political communication. Which is exciting, but also pretty nerve wrecking as it now means I have to start revising, which let's face it, isn't going to happen until I get all of this coursework handed in.

I went for a stone baked pizza at lunch with Kirstie and Lou to a place called Rise, which is on West Street and does a meal deal for £5.50 for a 12" pizza and a drink. Although I just had a 6" (which I ended up regretting, believe me when my mates got the most delicious looking and big pizzas, grrrr). That was a nice change anyway.

Tomorrow I have my LAST EVER LECTURE. Gulp.

Then it's bye bye slacking.

Hello work.

For 3 weeks.


-

Can't quite believe I haven't updated in here since February! Seems so long ago. And so many things have happened since then I wouldn't quite know where to start. But I am back (ish). I have a lot of work to do as I'm still at Uni for a good 4 weeks yet - and these next few weeks will not be easy, believe me. I have to focus. But after that I will have finished University FOREVER. Scary stuff.

I'm thinking about the future and everything in it. I had a really great Easter although it was filled with work :( and then I came back in early April and have been working ever since. On dissertation. On magazine.

To wittle it down to a fine point, here are my deadlines:

May 22nd - Magazine feature articles have to be submitted for assessment. This includes 3 magazine articles of varying lengths, PLUS one that's NOT for the magazine, a brief commissioning someone to write for the magazine and an edited piece of someone else's work from my group

June 5th - Magazine has to be submitted in its entirety

June 6th - Dissertation deadline

June 12th - Political communication exam (3 hours)

and then I'm FREE!! :D yayyyy. I seriously can not wait. One month today I will be FREE FOREVER. AARRGH. The excitement is just too much.

I had my NCTJ News Writing Exam today and it was pretty heavy going. First question was ok but the other three questions I'm not sure about. At least I'm not sure about question 3 as I had no real idea what it was getting at. I've been told the exam is very cut throat - I mean it's soo easy to fail that Liz Nice (one of the lecturers) said that most of us could end up resitting it. Which would be a bit upsetting considering we've spent about £37 just to take it! I soo hope I've passed. It means you get a preliminary certificate which employers like the look of and it means you can get more training and take more qualifications before becoming fully fledged I guess. And even though I've been put off by journalism, I do feel that I've got everything else - so the certificate would be a nice additional item to show off at the end of the day. &that sort of thing looks impressive to employers anyway as it shows commitment and dedication. Yep.

So fingers crossed.

In other news, I got my hair cut the other day. I had it reshaped and I now have a side fringe which is really very cute and I have layers sorta feathered around my face which I love. <3333 I got it done especially for when Gary came up to visit me. We had a great weekend - I made him chocolate cornflake nests and he got me a surprise - a Hello Kitty necklace ^-^ how cutee. So yes, we had a great time - went shopping, there was gorgeous weather all weekend too so we got to go out and my housemates had get togethers/bbq's on Saturday and Sunday. Was nice. And everything is feeling pretty amazing right now, although I know it will only get better.

- A