A Recipe For Brilliant Friends

There are very few people i could spend almost 72 hours, without sleeping, with and still love afterwards. I think, when you've found someone you could do that with, then you have a proper best friend. I'm lucky - i have 2.

Best friends also have to:

- not care when you endlessly take the piss out of them.

- make you laugh so much that you think you're going to throw up your lungs.

- be willing to eat food that you've spat out.

- be thinking exactly the same thing as you so that when you break out into spontaneous dancing, you're both doing exactly the same thing. 

- never be too embarrassed to go out in public with you, especially when you're dressed like THAT:

I was sitting outside Bromley South station on Wednesday morning when i thought "i must actually be quite brave to go out wearing this". I was wearing this. 

I realised later that it was probably a mistake wearing such alarming tights. STOP STARING AT MY LEGS!! But my friend was wearing flowery leggings and bright pink DMs. People on the tube were looking at us.

The next day i wore black shorts, red tights, a white vest top and a blue shirt. 

The red tights got laddered so i took them off. 

My parents didn't say anything. 

So i decided to see how far it could go. i took the shirt off and just wore the shorts and vest top.

Still, nobody said anything. 

So i put the shirt back on, took off the vest top, did the top 3 shirt buttons up then rolled the rest of it up.

Nothing.

So i took my shoes off. 

Then walked out the house with my friend. Two minutes later i got too embarrassed so turned back and declared "You call yourself PARENTS??! i have just left the house wearing almost no clothes!! you're supposed to tell me off! you're supposed to CARE!? you have just let me leave the house looking like a complete slut!!"

Their response - "Oh." 

Nice to know that they take an interest in me. 

Anyway, i got sidetracked. 

-You need to have similar interests to your best friend. We like IKEA. 

So we went to IKEA. It was fun. I bought these beautiful things.

Any Swedish speaking people reading this? Does "påsk" mean Easter? 

-We went to the Natural History Museum on Wednesday. It's very important that your best friend will want to go to cool places like that with you and won't laugh at you for suggesting it.

-Possibly most importantly, you have to know some of the same people in order to laugh about them behind their back.

We made this playlist. 9N It's people in our class, we tried to use the best possible songs but for some of them we didn't have much choice. 

Finally, i have discovered something even better than facebook stalking - formspring stalking. This is the most irritating person in the world's formspring: http://www.formspring.me/IshabelP I will give a prize to the first person able to guess which of the questions i have asked her. 

Here's a video my other best friend made. She has this amazing talent of always taking dreadful photos of me. Anyway, enjoy. (you might remember those cakes from this blog)

Wednesday

We went to Wells, there's a market there on Wednesday.

After staying up most of Tuesday night, reading The Girl Who Kicked The Hornets' nest, i was tired and in a bad mood for most of the morning.

It started badly. The first thing i said as i got into the car was - "you do know the way, right?". My grandad laughed. "Of COURSE i know the way, i've been there hundreds of times before." Well, he didn't know the way. We got lost out on the levels. again. I saw a cat that had been shot.

But we finally got there, and Wells is a really nice place. It was the first time i've been there and it's not been raining.

Here it is, not raining -

As it had taken a ridiculously long time to get there, the first thing to do was have coffee. There we were, minding our own business, when an man decides to come and sit with us. This isn't normal. He then starts to talk to us about his knee surgery. Also, not normal. Then, he rolls his trouser leg up and starts showing us the scars from the operation. This is just weird. He ended his speech with. "Ok then. Goodbye.", got up and left the cafe. then a woman who worked there came over to us and said "don't mind him, he does that a lot." Oh.

Then we went to the market. It mostly sold food, and terrible slippers.

Next, we went to walk around the Cathedral and the gardens are various other places.

I was puzzled. There are normally ducks here. Where did they all go? Ducks don't just disappear. Do they?

Anyway, i bought a pencil. Not very interesting.

Then things got a bit strange. I was standing outside a shop, my grandmother had gone inside and my grandad was in the bank, when all of a sudden, i very posh woman grabbed my by the elbow and shoved me in the other direction. I was half asleep and for some reason, i was standing in front of a fat old man.

"smile" said the posh woman. and about a second later, a picture was taken. "You don't mind this being in the newspaper, do you? No? Good." I blinked, shocked. The fat man shook my hand and it was then that i noticed they were all wearing blue rosettes. Ugh. Great. Thankfully, my grandad came over to rescue me.

"Hell would have to freeze over before I, or any member of my family had any sort of association with the conservatives." Then he walked away, dragging me behind him.

Ow. I don't want my picture to be in any newspaper. Especially not with some Conservative MP.

Anyway, Wells was infuriating my Grandad too much so we went to Glastonbury for lunch.

This is Glastonbury.

It's full of odd people and shops.

This is where we had lunch, it's very nice. i had vegetable pie and chips and somehow managed to get vinegar in my eye.

There's a lot of homeless people in Glastonbury. Homeless hippies. One of them was carrying a bow and arrows. Surely that's unnecessary, and illegal?

There's also this bakery. They sell very very small Cornish pasties that for some completely incomprehensible reason, my grandparents love. I think they're probably what made me become vegetarian.

I also saw this book:

No they don't. This is a blatant lie.

Tuesday

Tuesday, it was decided that we'd go to Bath. There's a park&ride there.

It's quite a long journey to Bath from Bridgwater, about 46 miles. We saw a dead sheep.

Instead of going by motorway, we went the longer way, in order to prevent me from throwing up all over the place. this meant driving through Cheddar Gorge, although i have walked and driven down this road many many times, i am always shocked by how tall and beautiful it is.

Have a look -

If you've never been to Cheddar, then you should go. There are loads of goats. I should have taken a picture of some, really, but i was too busy trying to have a conversation with one. They weren't interested. I have come to the conclusion that goats are just like sheep, only a bit smarter and more pointy.

So, Bath. I've been a few times, it is always infested with tourists and tour guides, here is my very own guide to Bath.

This is the cathedral, it's very big and has lots of windows.

These are the baths. Well, just the building they're in. I have been inside before but it's really not that exciting. I also think that "Aquae Sulis" is a better name for a town than "Bath". The Romans knew everything.

Speaking of Romans. (don't worry, this isn't a real one)

Ok. So if you're not into religion and ancient civilisations, what is there to do in Bath?

Well, there are lots of buskers, normally they're quite good but i wasn't really impressed, i suppose everything's a let down after you've seen a busker in a 1700's style velvet suit and hat playing a dulcimer.

And...

Hot chocolate (i didn't drink this so much as cover my face in it)

My favourite shop.

Jewel encrusted pigs.

Sweeties!

The oldest house in bath. This is where a person called Sally Lunn invented the Bath bun. There are always long ques out the door for an "original" Bath bun. They're not all that. In fact, they're one of the most pointless foodstuffs ever invented. Silly old Sally Lunn.

The Apple Store. here is my Grandad looking utterly baffled.

And stupid roads that want to kill you. I am exaggerating when i say i twisted my ankles about 7000 times. But i did do it a lot.

Hmm... what else? There were some rude french people but i don't think they're a permanent feature.

That's about it really.

Monday

Monday was a bank holiday. It was also raining.

I spent the morning listening to Emma Britton on BBC Somerset. Yeah... that's an interesting
radio show.

I feel that i should also let you know that although people have been making a lot of jokes about it, the people of somerset are taking the tax on cider VERY seriously. It seems it's all anyone wants to talk about and for some reason, they think ringing their local radio station and shouting is going to do anything.

After eating toast and tomato ketchup for lunch (which, and i know it's disgusting, is becoming one of the main parts of my diet), i decided that the whole day cannot be spent listening to a woman who likes to be called "Extra-Large Emma" insulting Easter bonnets made by 8 year old girls. I suggested going to the cinema. I was SHOCKED to discover that in the 6 years my grandparents have been living in this town, they haven't once been to the cinema. Odd. Anyway, i looked and found out which film was on. Yes, just the one film, maybe this is normal? I am embarrassed to admit that i am horribly unaware of how the world works outside of London. Is this normal? Anyway, it was Nanny McPhee. My Grandad refused to go. He's like that.

Shall i tell you what i thought? No? Well i'm going to anyway.

Firstly, the cinema. My grandmother and i both expected the cinema to be dirty, falling apart and full of chavs, much like the rest of the town. But it really wasn't, i'd go as far as saying it's the nicest cinema i've ever been to! It was outstandingly clean, nothing like the cinema near me which probably hasn't been cleaned in the last 4 years. And the seats were really comfy and there was loads of space so i could sit like a normal person rather than a pretzel. AND it was really cheap! only £4.50 for both of us. So, you know... if you're ever in Bridgwater on a rainy bank holiday - Scotts Cinema. It's next to the Bingo place.

Now, the film. I liked it! But, i'm not fussy with films. Every film i watch, i find exciting and fascinating and wonderful. I really should learn to be more cynical. It was fun and light hearted and pretty. There were some very silly childish bits but i think that's what i liked about it - i found them all really funny. So did my Grandmother, she was laughing a lot, possibly the most out of anyone there. She even got a bit tearful at the end. The thing i liked best about it were the animals, they were cute and funny, i've decided that i want a piglet, they're like orangutans, they have adorable wispy bits of hair and lovely smiley faces. and the can climb trees... i think.

A Thousand Splendid Suns

A few of my favourite things in the world include making people laugh and recommending something to people then finding out that they loved it as much as i did... whether it's music or a film or a book or food, i don't care it's just a great feeling!

Whilst i was on holiday last year, diving and whatnot, i read a book. It's not the the sort of book i'd normally read, some of you have probably read it because it claims to be "The Richard & Judy Number One Bestseller". It's called A Thousand Splendid Suns and it is horrible.

Ok, it's not horrible, it's beautiful, but in some ways it's like an episode of Casualty, in that everything that could possible go wrong for the poor characters, does go wrong.

I'm not really selling it to you am i?

It's by Khaled Hosseini - he wrote The Kite Runner.

It's one of the few books where i've cried whilst reading it. I told my dad to read it, he finished reading it today and although he didn't cry (i don't think he's ever cried - even when his mother died, he didn't cry) i could tell that he was sad.

It's not exactly a true story, but it's not exactly made up either... does that make sense?

The characters are made up but the other things that happen, did actually happen/are still happening.

It's about two women, Mariam and Laila who live in Afghanistan, they do lots of things... mostly it's about war and the Taliban and friendship and love and all that sort of stuff.

As you'll know from my previous attempts at reviewing things - i'm not very good at it.

Basically, i think you should read it. you can borrow my copy of it if you want... as long as you don't spill beer all over it (which is what happened last time i lent somebody a book).

Oh, and listen to my playlist: Saturday