Thursday

Thursdays are unspectacular days. People like Wednesdays because it's the middle of the week, which is always exciting. People like Fridays because it's nearly the weekend. Thursdays are the days that get in the way. A bit boring and a bit pointless. Just like me. That's why they're my favourite day. I've always liked Thursdays, for as long as i can remember, and they're especially good if it rains.

It didn't rain last Thursday, it was sunny. The first properly warm day of the year. I didn't wear a coat and i didn't once lose the feeling in my arms. However, we didn't do anything interesting. So, instead of my normal *fascinating* accounts of my days out, here is a list of things that happened on Thursday:

1) I woke up too late. My Grandparents thought i'd died in my sleep.

2) We went to Sainsburys. It's difficult to go shopping in Bridgwater without bumping into someone who claims to be related to me/be a close friend of someone who is related to me. I met a man called Frank who goes to the same ear clinic as my Grandad.

3) I had hot chocolate in The Old Vicarage. It's a very very nice cafe. You'd like it:

Sometimes, they have a Cat Morning - they get some people from a local cat shelter to bring cats there, so you can sit with a nice cat on your lap whilst you drink coffee and eat your chocolate and Guinness cake.

4) We went to this cheese shop and bought this curiously named cheese -

(i have just learnt that "tasty" is somersetish for "strong")

5) We had lunch. I had to explain to my Grandparents that "Sea Salt and Balsamic Vinegar" flavoured crisps are the same as plain salt and vinegar and "Mature Cheddar Cheese and Red Onion" flavour are just cheese and onion. I don't think they believed me.

6) I went to the hairdressers with my Grandmother and read a picture book called something like "Spikey The Hedgehog". I found it quite immature.

7) I found a punctuation mistake on page 275 of The Girl Who Kicked The Hornets' Nest. It upset me.

8) I learnt that eating two raw cloves of garlic every day for 12 weeks apparently prevents you from catching a cold. I might have to try it.

9) Also, i learnt that (according to my Grandmother) French men have no problem WHATSOEVER with weeing in the middle of a street, in front of anyone who cares to watch. Well... we learn something new every day.

A Really Long Blog For A Really Long Year.

Happy New Year!!! Today, in 1801, The dwarf planet Ceres was discovered by Italian astronomer, Giuseppe Piazzi.

So, now it's 2010, i've started thinking about 2009. A lot of people i have spoken to have said that 2009 was definitely a bad year... i'm not sure, 12 months, 365 days, 8760 hours or 525600 minutes (unfortunately, i didn't have to look those numbers up or use a calculator, they're just a few of the many useless facts i have stored in my brain). Anyway, that's a long long time, especially if you're young like me, those 12 months are quite a high percentage of my life and i don't think that all of those 8760 hours can be bunched together and classed as good or bad.

Instead, i will tell you exactly what i thought of 2009 -

January and February and March.

i actually don't remember these. at all, luckily, back then i still kept a diary...
ok. i can't really read my writing but it seems that these months were boring, i went to a terrible PGL camp thing with school. I got two hamsters, Noel and Liam, who both died later in the year.
Oh, and i broke my toes.
And i can now pinpoint the exact point that i realised Twitter was great - Sunday 15th February, about 6 o'clock.
The last entry in my diary is about a suicide pact i had with my best friend.

April and May and June.

Errr... i don't remember these too well either, in fact, i'm just going to say that NOTHING of interest happened in these months.

July and August and September.

I dislocated my shoulder.
And i had exams.
And i got swine flu.
And i went to my Grandparents' house.
And i met lots of nice people from twitter.
And i made chocolate and Guinness cake.
And i had the most wonderful time with my family at the seaside.

October and November and December.

I met more lovely people from twitter.
I went on holiday and passed a SCUBA diving exam.
I was more depressed than i can ever remember being before.

Now, I think that sums up 2009 pretty well, but what about 2010?

I don't make new years resolutions, because i don't stick to them. Nobody does, really. Even the people who say they do are lying.

Instead, here is a list of some of things i would like to do in 2010:

1) Learn to play the piano well. So that when i say "i can play the piano" i won't feel like a complete liar.

2) Learn to like vegetables. and potatoes. so that i can go round to people's house for dinner without them wanting to murder me.

3) Make my handwriting readable.

4) Cry less.

5) Make at least 5 new friends.

6) Meet someone famous.

7) Follow 116 new people on twitter.

8) Meet some more of the people i talk to on twitter.

9) Spend less time on/thinking about twitter.

10) Brush my hair more often... like, at least once a week :-S

11) Smile at at least one random person each day.

12) Raise some money for charity.

13) Get a new hamster.

14) Spend less money on music.

15) Buy a new phone.

16) Read all of the books i got for Christmas.

17) Do my Latin homework. always... (although this one might have to start next week 'coz i *forgot* to take my Latin books home for Christmas)

18) Stop letting certain people be horrible to me.

19) Stop being so concerned about my ugly face.

20) Write at least 1 blog a week.

I'd really really appreciate your help with these... well, those that you can help with. Just, remind me about them, ok? Because i'm going to be really pissed off when it gets to 2011 and i've not done ANYTHING...

Experiment

Last night, as i sat, thinking about how hungry i was and making yet another hopeless attempt to tidy my desk, i found A Candy Cane! I bought this candy cane from a Victorian town i went to in Ironbridge.

That was when i thought this "What are Candy Canes actually made from?". As you may know, no thought can go through my head without being put directly onto twitter, (honestly, i'm thinking about inventing some sort of hat that just automatically tweets every thought i have, it would save A LOT of time).

Here are the answers i got from twitter:

Candy.
Sugar.
The same sort of stuff as boiled sweets.
Sugar
Flavourings
Sugar
Colourings
MORE SUGAR.

My next thought was "hmm... i wonder what would happen if i ate a whole Candy Cane before going to bed.".

I'm sure lots of people have thought this before. I'm not too sure how many of those people have actually gone ahead and done it.

I did.

And i did it IN THE NAME OF SCIENCE. I did it so you don't have to. I did it because i am silly.

Here is some background info, previously that day i had eaten, a slice of toast, a mince pie, a jelly snake.

Here is what happened:

I went a bit hyper.

I listened to Snow Patrol (i know, odd)

I didn't sleep for quite a while.

I drew a picture of a Bunsen Burner.

IT TURNED MY SPIT PINK. There is proof of this - the fact that i dribble when i'm asleep and this morning, my pillow and my teddy's head are slightly pink. That was a bit weird.

So, although i wouldn't recommend it, eating a Candy Cane before you go to sleep doesn't do anything too exciting.

That is all.

Egg

I have decided that i'm not going to be an engineer.

To be honest, i decided this years and years ago - i didn't really need to spend two days this week at the Bromley Education Development Centre doing engineering workshops and being talked at by engineers to know this. But whatever - i missed two days of school!

So, we go to this place and sit in a room... we sit, and sit, and sit. The person's car who is supposed to be talking to us, has broken down. I might have been the only person who found this funny, because the type that like engineering don't have a sense of humour. at all. ever.

You might be wondering why i was there when only 10 people from my year went, the other nine being freaks who do extra studying at lunchtime, who go to a maths club at the weekend and who ALWAYS seem to have a bad foot when it comes to PE lessons, oh and my friend Erica (but she was just there for moral support and moaned constantly - because that's what she does).

Well, i will tell you - i didn't want to go!!!! really, honestly i didn't, i am pathetic at engineering (or so i thought...) and i have got consistent 'C's and 'D's in my DT projects since year 7. The thing is, our head of year is a very very nice teacher called Miss Benson who, for some very odd reason seems to volunteer me for everything.

Anyway, where was i? oh yes, sitting in this room. Then after about an hour, this lady comes in. She is wearing what can only be described as a small dead dog, draped around her neck and she seemed genuinely cross with us for being there. After shouting at us about fire escapes for a bit, she gave us sheets of paper with tasks on and left us to get on with it.

Now, i'm going to tell the truth here - i had a lot of fun from here onwards. Our first task was to design an airbag for a car using sandwich bags, elastic bands and paper.

It didn't work but it LOOKED like it would work... and that's what people care about... right? i mean, the airbags in your car, do you KNOW that they work? They look like they would work, so you trust them, you'll probably never use them and until you actually have to, you'll go along perfectly happily putting your life into the hands of something that LOOKS like it would work.

I explained my theory to one of the proper engineer people there. He didn't get it. He just kept asking

"But what about after they've crashed and the airbag didn't work - they'll sue you". My answer was simple:

"No they won't - they'll be dead."

He told me that maybe engineering wasn't the right career choice for me. Then walked away.

Our second task was to create a little house for an egg. Not just any house - one that would protect it when it was dropped from 10 feet. To make this we had, elastic bands, those little bits of polystyrene you get in boxes, 1 piece of card, some newspaper and glue.
This is where the humourless geeks proved themselves to be rubbish at being geeks. They sat, staring blankly at eachother, occasionally saying things like "shall we make a box?".

This was when my first stroke of genius came to me.

Triangles.

Right?

So if i made a triangular based pyramid and put the egg in them padded the corners with newspaper, the egg would be held securely. Then, when we dropped it, if we could get it to land on the tip of the pyramid - the force will go through, the point, up the sides and barely touch the egg at all!

After making this, i stared at the left over material and began thinking about those multi-layered composite material thingies - you know, the ones that really fast cars are made out of?

So i stuck all of these leftover bit together to make like a little puffer-coat for the pyramid.

This involved using a hot glue gun. which made me happy.

Do you know how bad burning polystyrene smells?

Anyway, so we dropped it from 4ft, then 6, then 8 then 10 and the egg survived all of them!! This meant that we won!!!

We Won!

WE WON!!!

apparently it wasn't a competition, but still... WE WON!!

So, now you are asking , why doesn't she want to be an engineer, she's obviously BRILLIANT?

Well, did you know that only 5% of all of the engineers in the world are women?

Did you know that only 15% of all the engineering students in the world are female?

AND, if the amount of female engineers keeps increasing at the rate that it is at the moment, it would take 290 years for the amount of female and male engineers to be equal?

That's not why i don't want to be one though...

I just think it would be really really boring.

Grrrr.

Do you know what's annoying me right now?

This woman who is getting all cross about the prime minister spelling her son's name wrong.

I spell things wrongly all the time - i don't do it specifically to be offensive, i don't even think it is particularly offensive, is it?

Surely she should be grateful that he wrote her a letter anyway?

Maybe he's just not very good with his spellings?
Maybe the person who told him the person's name had really bad handwriting?
Maybe he was writing it with a Scottish accent?

Has anyone considered these things? NO.

I just think that it's annoying, she would probably have never had mentioned it if it weren't for the fact she knew that newspapers would pay her for it.

My Enlgish teacher last year spelt "Stephanie" four different ways on my school report! i didn't think she did it to be offensive to me.

My piano teacher has called me "Charlotte" for the last year, i don't find it rude, i barely even mention it anymore.

A boy called David The Knob called me "Sarah" for the whole week i was Scuba diving with him... then again, i did call him David The Knob...

*deep breath*. oh well, just so long as it's not still in the news tomorrow...

Can You Beat My Day?

So. I haven't written a blog for ages. This is because everything has been rubbish. But now it's getting less rubbish, my day today was one of those good days, not an amazing one. Not a day that i will just remember forever just quite an enjoyable one. Except for the bad bits, they weren't enjoyable. They were bad.

Here is what happened to me today, not everything that happened to me today, that would be a very boring blog, just some of the stuff:

1. I discovered that i know a shocking (and slightly worrying) amount about The tropic of cancer and the tropic of Capricorn. I don't remember learning any of this stuff, i think it was just pre-programmed into my brain. I think it might be a sign.
2. I drew a diagram showing the tropic of cancer and the tropic of Capricorn with the sun and the moon and some other stuff. My friends decided that it was so good, our teacher should pin it on the wall, they then nagged him until he did.
3. I argued with my IT teacher about my grade on a piece of coursework, she then put it DOWN a grade because i was "arrogant and argumentative".
4. I wrote an essay that was "genuinely impressive". if you don't know my English teacher then you won't appreciate how big that compliment is.
5. I got my hand stuck in a grand piano and had to be rescued by Dr Parsons. He laughed at me. It was VERY FUNNY but it hurt quite a lot.
6. I fell over in assembly. Not just IN assembly but standing at the front, collecting some trophy thing. Again, people laughed.
7. I was Macbeth. Not the whole play, just the character.
8. I cut my hand in chemistry. Mr Mathews put not 1, not two but THREE plasters on it!
9. A really old lady swore at me.
10. My piano teacher did an impression of what an elephant would look like if it sneezed.
11. I ate a slice of pizza upside down.
12. I discovered a new insult - called my father it and he was so impressed by it that he forgot to be cross with me.

Oasis 'n' Stuff

If you've seen the news, you'll know that Noel Gallagher has left Oasis.

Oh Well.

I don't particularly like Oasis. I don't particularly dislike them. That is all i can say about them.

I am definitely not a crazy fan...

However, i have a hamster called Noel. Who used to have a brother called Liam (who was eaten, earlier this year, by one of my mother's evil cats)

I bet you thought i named them after the Gallagher brothers, didn't you?

Well, you're wrong.

Nope, little Noel is named after Noel Fielding - who is excellent. And VERY short! did you know that? - he's really really tiny! Anyhoo, Liam (who was a bit horrible) was named after Liam Gallagher. No, not THAT Liam Gallagher, Liam Gallagher from Shameless (that was my favourite TV program at the time).

The whole Gallagher brother thing was an (almost) unintentional mistake. Honest!

Failure

"I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that don't work"

More calendar wisdom.

I promise you that i have found way more than 10,000 ways that don't work for changing blog templates. Silly Blogger. It's still not how i really wanted it but it will have to do.

I made a header and everything - impressed? no? well you wouldn't be would you!

So, what do you think? don't say you liked it how it was before because i have no intention of undoing all of my hard work. 1 whole hour i spent, swearing at this computer and threatening to smash things. All for you. Yes, you.

I decided to change it a bit after i learnt that there are actually a few of you who read this... well, at least more than 4. *Hello*.

And for reading my blog, i will reward you with VERY INTERESTING FACTS:

Did you know that today in 1949, English author Martin Amis was born?

Bet you didn't know that!

Actually...

Do you know who he is?

I don't.

Normally i'd google him but today is one of those days that google changes to have a silly picture instead of the "Google" bit and that really freaks me out.

Sooo... opinions on new blog layout and information about Martin Amis, please.