UPDATE: I am still alive.

Song of the day

The Only Exception by Paramore

What I'm reading right now

Abandon by Meg Cabot. I totally love the UK cover of this book, but I hate the fact that the main character is called Pierce. It's not even a fantasy novel, so the name just doesn't fit in my opinion. But I do love Meg Cabot. The 'Princess Diaries' series was AMAZING!

Abandon by Meg Cabot, UK Cover

Critique forum

This is the first time I've ever submitted any of my work to a forum. I guess I was always scared that people would hate my book, but whatever. A writer has gotta have thick-skin, right? Like a snake. Snakes have thick skin, don't they? I know they have cold blood, like vampires. Wait - I don't even know if vampires have blood.

Damon's like, "pffft, you should know that we OBVIOUSLY have blood". I love Vampire Diaries. I can't wait for the next season.

Daily Bimbo Moment

"Salmonella? Is that a type of pasta?"

How I Spent My Saturday Evening

16:01
I started to write this blog post. I'm getting changed to go out - we're going to go see the Olympic Torch. It's in Manchester today. I've already seen one of the torches, because this guy who goes to my school brought one in, but my dad really wants to go. Listening to music is getting me in the mood for the whole thing.

16:40
I've FINALLY decided what I'm gonna wear, after about a dozen outfit changes. I might go downstairs and play on the piano for a while before we go out.

20:01

We just got back. We didn't stay in Town all that time. We saw the Torch and then went bowling, which I lost with an amazing score of 64. I don't know what happened! It was very humiliating.

I'm gonna tell you about the Torch.

First, let me share a very important life lesson. Never wear heels when you're going to be walking for more than a minute. It KILLS. My feet hurt so much. I told my dad that he should become a woman for the day and wear heels just so he knows how it feels. But, then again, I'm not really sure I want him to follow my advice - seeing your dad as a drag queen would be just a leeeetle weird, don't you think?

Okay, so the torch.

We got to the place where the guy was gonna run with the torch. A load of vans paraded past us - there was a lot of product placement going on, as you can see in the pic below.

Then we had to wait for a few minutes. A load of policemen on motorbikes came riding past (hey, did you know that the police have twitter? I saw it on a car), then we finally got a look at the torch. The guy stopped right next to us. Perfect photo op, right?

We then walked further down the road, where the crowds were a lot bigger. There was a platform that the guy went on to. He was met by another guy - Lee something-or-other. He's apparently big in Japan. So the torches kissed and passed on the flame. Sorry for the awful pic, the red thing was in the way. The picture would have been even worse if my dad hadn't moved the barrier and went into the VIP section. This woman gave us the evils when we were trying to squeeze in, but whatever. We got a better view than her - who's laughing now, mean woman?

And that's how I spent my Saturday evening. How did you spend yours? Tell me in the comments.

Social Experiment Number 8

The question is: What's your favourite music genre?

A: I suppose I would say classic
B: Indie slash rock
C: I don't really have one
D: A bit of everything, just not heavy metal
E: Heavy metal
F: Do you even have to ask?! Pop. Like, chart. Or country rock. Like, soft rock
G: Folk slash Indie
H: Alternative
I: Um, I guess it's kind of like rock or pop. It's pretty varied actually. I don't really stick to one one genre
J: No, just normal. Casual. You know what I mean

(*For the record, I have NO IDEA what person J means by 'casual' music*)

I don't really have a favourite music genre. I like pretty much anything, apart from screamy music. How about you? Tell me your fave genre in the comments! I'll leave you to enjoy this random gif. The face actually kind of scares me...

Song of the day

Landslide by Fleetwood Mac

I didn't know until today...

That part of Captain America was filmed in Manchester. On the radio, they were talking about how part of Sesame Street is going to be filmed in Manchester, and one of the radio people (I don't know what the actual name for a radio person is) mentioned how they filmed some of Captain America here. I'm so proud! I'm also very surprised that this is the first I've heard of it, since some of my friends (who I collectively call The Quad People, since the school quad was our hang out place before exams) are major comic book addicts.

Song of the day

Here I Go Again by Whitesnake

My Favourite TV Programmes Right Now

Recently, I've been watching a lot of TV and a LOT of TV catchup online. Here's a list of my favourite programmes right now:

1. Pretty Little Liars - the programme has just returned from hiatus for Season 3, and after watching episode 1, I'm sure this season will be amazing. I can't wait! I hope there'll be lots of Hanna-Caleb and Spencer-Toby moments. I'm kind of getting sick of the whole Aria-Ezra thing though.

2. The Glee Project - recently, I've turned into a MAJOR gleek. I just love Glee, so when I heard about The Glee Project, I was catching up quicker than you could throw a slushy at someone (hmm, maybe that's a leeeeeetle exaggeration, but who cares, right?). I totally loved the winners of Season 1, and am loving Season 2 so far.

3. The Big Bang Theory - oh, Sheldon. How I adore your geekiness.

That's all I can think of at this moment in time. What are your fave programmes? Tell me in the comments! I'll leave you to watch this gif of Brittany:)

A Very Jubilee Weekend

I know, the title doesn't even make sense, but I couldn't think of any jubilee-related puns to use.

Can I just start by saying congrats to Her Majesty? 60 years is a long, long time. In fact, it's four times the length of time I have spent on this Earth. It's weird when I put it that way...

Yesterday, we went to London. We being me, my dad and my sisters. We had a couple of aims:

1) Visit our family
2) See the flotilla

Unfortunately, only one of these aims was fulfilled - the first one. We were a couple of streets away from the Thames, but the police weren't letting any more people through. We were amongst the millions that were turned away. It was very disappointing.

Today, we went to some street parties in Town. I didn't really like them, to be honest. The music was good, but there was nothing to do apart from getting utterly gazebo-ed (tell me in the comments if you understood the Michael McIntyre reference!), and that wasn't what we wanted to do. So we just left.

Here in Manchester, I love the whole proud-to-be-British vibe. Buntings (for some reason, I find that word hilarious) are hung around everywhere, union jacks constantly in your line of vision. It's really... uplifting.

What about you? How was your jubilee weekend? Would you say you're a monarchist or just someone who is grateful for the four-day holiday? Tell me in the comments.

Song of the day

I have two today:

New Radicals - You Get What You Give
And
Keane - Somewhere Only We Know

Quote of the day

"One man's trash is another man's treasure"

I just learnt...

I just learnt how to play My Heart Will Go On on the recorder! I've not played the recorder since Year 4. YouTube tutorials are amazing:)

My Eurovision Predictions

I'm gonna get my psychic intuition on right now, even though my skills are practically non-existent. I've not heard any of the songs apart from Englebert Humperdinck's (hehe, that just reminds me of when we watched Hansel and Gretel in German a few years ago!). I think Russia is gonna come first, Lithuania is gonna come second. UK... hmm, I think we're gonna come 17th. I've got faith in you Englebert!

If I get any of the aforementioned things right, I'll be dancing like Napoleon Dynamite in this gif below. I'll leave you to enjoy:)

Song of the day

I totally LOVE Glee's rendition of Defying Gravity. It sounds so beautiful!

Social Experiment Number 7

I'm really sorry that I've not posted anything in over a week. My exams started on Monday, bleh. Anyway.

The question was, "Are you superstitious?". Here are the responses:

A: I'd like to think I'm not, but if I had to say one thing I was suspicious of, then I'd say black cats.
B: Hmm. Ya blad.
C: No. Wait. I kind of am but I'm kind of not. I believe in Karma.
D: No.
E: How can you not be? Those black pussycats are well dodge.
F: No, not at all. I do do the eyelash and the 11:11 thing though.
G: I'm not really, but same with the 11:11.
H: What does that mean? [Aw, that was my five year old sister. She's so cute!]
I: Sometimes, yeah.

Hmm, this is a hard one for me. I'm the same as person F and G - I always make a wish when it's 11:11, I don't know why. I don't walk under ladders, but that's because I'm scared they might fall on me. I don't think breaking a mirror gives you seven years bad luck. So, in conclusion, I'm a little superstitious.

How about you? On a scale of 1-10, how superstitious are you and why? Tell me in the comments!:)

On a completely unrelated note, look at the picture below. Imagine having that as your keyboard. Would you rather eat the keys and not have a keyboard or resist the temptation and type on chocolate?

I almost set the kitchen on fire

More evidence of my culinary ineptness. I was just turning the hob on, and I accidentally turned the wrong dial. I turned it off straight away, but the fire caught on to a paper bag, which spread and burnt the poppadom that was inside. Then the bread caught on fire. My mother then came running in, just as I ran to the sink, filled up a glass and poured water on the fire. It was so scary. I'm not even joking.

Quote of the day

"If all my friends jumped off a bridge, I wouldn't jump with them - I'd be at the bottom to catch them when they fall"