So I built a desk :D with my BARE HANDS!!!

Yes, it was from flat pack put still. I built it! And it hasn’t fallen over yet! Success!

So I thought I’d share my top tips with you all, so you can build desks and shiz :D

1. Lots of TIME

It took me a grand total of 6 FREAKING HOURS to build my desk. To be fair, I’ve never done DIY before, not even at school. The closest thing I made was a guitar. And no, not an ACTUAL guitar. A piece of MDF, some paint and some strings. Hardly a piece of capentry genius.

2. Dad

Or someone who knows about DIY. This is especially necessary if you’re a DIY n00b comme yours truly. I don’t think my desk would still be upright if it wasn’t for Dad’s help :)

3. A good playlist

Especially good if its upbeat and varied. Mine included Chemical Brothers, Blink 182, Kings of Leon, The Bees, Britney Spears, Nirvana, Safetysuit, Deadmau5, Cameo, Tommy Sparks, KT Tunstall, Lostprophets, MGMT……

4. Coffee Break!

mmmmmm coffee

5. Don’t wear tights

They get caught in the woods/bolts/ripped by screws. Mine were looking mighty grunge by the end!

6. Know your Zelda

When hammering in a nail, listen. When the sound changes, you know its done. Much like Zelda. If you tap (smash) a wall with you sword and it makes a wierd noise, you know to bomb the baby!

7. Plasters

I cut my finger :(

8. A male

This is only really applicable if you’re female. Apparently (according to Dad) when women do DIY its a perfectly acceptable to make sexist jokes about how it will inevitably go wrong. ¬_¬

9. Skype

It’s always much more entertaining to sift through your stuff when you’ve got someone else who can share in the lols of the random stuff you find! Mine included lots of cables, random books, lots of lipstick and popcorn. (I LOVE popcorn)

10. Er……

For some reason I feel like this How To post would be even more of a sham if it didn’t go to 10. WHOOOOO! POST NUMBER 10!!!!!!

Here’s a pretty picture of my desk-of-awesomeness. BE AMAZED!

Went and saw Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader tonight. It’s by faaaaaar my favourite Narnia book (closely followed by Prince Caspian) but inside I was dreading this film. They BUTCHERED Prince Caspian and I’ve been sore about it ever since.

But, this film wasn’t so bad.

I guess.

I mean yes they skipped out the key scene between Lucy and the Albatross/Aslan. And yes whoever created the green mist effect from Lord of the Rings has recently seen an increase in royalties. And yes, they made Lucy and Edmund have a lot more faults and made them nearly succumb (great word) to temptation to a much greater extent then in the book.

Though they did the Dufflepuds well. King Caspian is rather fine. Repicheep is adorable as always. And Eustace is freaking hilarious. Kind of reminds me of a Winston I know. Genius.

But what really grinds my gears is the writers. I mean what must they be thinking?!

Are they really so far up their own egos that they think they can write better then C.S. Lewis?!?!!?

Why do these modern screen writers/adapters/arrogant mugs think that Classic novels are up-for-grabs?! Leave my much treasured stories alone!

Gah!

I’m awful at keeping diaries. I only ever to seem to write in them when something emotionally devastating happens, and everytime I look back, I don’t remember it being that drastic.

So.

I propose to use this blog as kind of a gap-yah-diary-thingy. That way I’ll have 1) a record, 2) something to write about, and 3) hopefully satisfy your craving for my witty anecdotes of my horrifically fascinating life.

I’ve got some catching up to do as it’s December and my gap yah kind of started in July, so forgive me if I go all Time-Lord on you and relive and reminisce about somethings that happened a while ago now.

But at least I will have forgotten the boring stuff!

And I shall instate a zero tolerance policy for written records of emotional devastation, ‘cause, lets be honest here, the only people who want that spread all over t’internet are the people who write it.

So I totally lost my beret again :(

I went a visited my bestest best friend at Uni (or nerd-ville seeing as she’s taking Chemistry)and left it in her box-of-a-room. I had a lovely time and there are so many ducks on campus, so she’ll never be sort of friends/attention/cupboard love.

It was sad to have to leave her, but I’ve been so mega busy that being lonely hasn’t really been a problem. Which explains the title. I haven’t been blogging as much as I intended when I started out this page-of-potential-genius.

But thats gonna change. Promise!

I’ve got some catching up to do, some exciting stuff has happened in the last few weeks, so watch this space!! :D

We spent so many happy times together. From the moment I laid eyes on you, I knew you were made for me. It was love at first sight.

We complimented each other so well, and were rarely separated. We went on holiday together, went out together, went to school together.

Then I lost you. How my heart ached for you, yearned for you. I felt like part of my being had been torn out, burnt out. They say time is a healer, but I never forgot you, never stopped missing you, never stopped loving you.

Then that magic day, it feels like a dream, a miracle. I found you.

Oh my purple beret, the hat of my dreams. We shall never have to be without one another again. I shall never ever lose you again.

Life Left To Go- Safetysuit

I first heard this band on an episode of Kyle XY, it played “Anywhere But Here”.

Everything was dim, unclear and I was surrounded by the sound of my own thoughts, but that song managed to creep in and placed all my thoughts into a co-herent song. It was a turning point for me.

The album is a “healing album”. There is a song for every emotion when you’re coming back from something that knocked-you-for-six.

 - Find A Way and What If: beautiful build, devoted and committed lyrics

 - Stay and Something I Said: you know when you’re just so confused at what happened, but know exactly how you feel?

 - Anywhere But Here: “And when I’m not with you, I know it’s true, that I’d rather be anywhere but here without you”

 - Down: defiance melodically personified in lyrics and harmony

 - Annie: such a cute song! “you are the one sight my eyes never tire of”

 - and finally Life Left To Go: a beautifully healing song that sees through the pain to the happiness on the other side “I just hope I can find you, And tell you that I know you’ll smile again”

I can’t recommend this album enough, its gorgeous and poignant from start to finish. It’s uplifting and understanding. The lyricist recognises all emotions that you go though after something beautiful falls apart, but reminds you that “there’s more life left to go”, and “you’ll smile again”.

In a golden kingdom, on a glorious sunny day, a beautiful damsel is in distress.

She is confronted by a mighty opponent. Unknowingly she fed it with scraps, with things stored for the winter, with things better placed in cupboards and drawers. This great beast dwelled under her sleeping quarters until it grew so monstrous that it desired escape as to bring about destruction upon the world. The damsel had managed to control it, but never defeat it.

And now she must face it. Like many things in life, a problem left unsolved only grows into a greater issue.

She gathers her courage, and heads into battle. With the blessing (insistence) of her parents she is determined and resolved.

The monstrous mess under her bed will be organised, tidied, thrown away, sorted into a charity pile, and defeated!

I’ve got the travelling bug.

You’d think that being in Canada for the whole of July might have killed it. Nope. It merely contented it for a while.

And now it’s back with a vengence.

I want to make a list, pack my suitcase, get on a plane and arrive somewhere new. I want to see the world, experience new things, see old things that will be new to me.

There’s something magical about planes. Setting off in one place, arriving in another. They’re like a fantastic magic trick.

Paris, Venice, Skagen, Las Vegas, Delos, Hawaii, Winnipeg, Jamaica, Nashik, Sydney, Tanzania, Schwerin, Rio de Janeiro, New York, Lexington, Ibiza, New Orleans, Salzburg, San Jose, Iceland, The Great Ocean Road, Jerusalem, Cairo, Angkor, Rome, Essaouira, Athens.

They’re calling my name.

I had one of those “oh haven’t you grown” moments today. The patronising tone, looked down at, complete cliche.

However, I was not the one being patronised. I was the one who spoke that unoriginal phrase.

To be fair. It was to a kid that I hadn’t see since she was 4, and is now 10. But still.

Am I really that old? I’m only 18. I have been told that I am “mature for my years”, but then again, I have tendencies to moments of complete and utter silliness.

How old do you have to be before those phrases become common stock? When all that comes out of my mouth is a collaboration of cliches that generations have painstakingly bestowed upon their descendants? Or is it based more on the age gap between the cliche-giver and the cliche-receiver?

For one of my old friends (old! argh!) saying a cliche is a cardinal sin, and has to be resolved by pressing upon me the gravity of the crime I just commited by repeating the cliche several times in varying voices of mock and disdain.

I think they may just be right. Exaggerating a little. But right in a way.

Blessed are those who keep in mind that blessings may be in disguise, for they will always see the silver lining.

This last month or so I’ve been trying to see the positive in every situation. I used to say that I was a pretty optimistic person, and I’ve been trying to get back to having that natural attitude.

It’s hard to stay positive sometimes in life, you go through things that knock you for six and then some, and I guess its only natural to lose some optimism. This last year I have been to end of me and back again. But recently I’ve decided to make the choice to stay optimistic and see the positives.

And I’ve found that it’s not that hard. I did struggle to see the short term positives (honestly I couldn’t see any, and perhaps that true for most situations), but long term, I see so many blessings as a result of what I thought was a misfortune. It doesn’t lessen the pain, or make it any less significant. But it’s no longer a negative defining feature of who I am.

It takes effort, determination, and a little bit of a dreamer’s spirit to chose to see the positive, whilst acknowledging the hardship. But I truly believe life is lighter this way.