It's christmas time...

Well, thats the end of the first semester and what a semester it has been! It's really flown by, seems strange to think that just three months ago I was just starting the course.
It has been a busy few weeks with deadlines looming. This has meant I have spent an unhealthy amount of time in the library, it has become my second home. After a couple of weeks of stress and confusion though the term is finally over and essays are complete and handed in.
The last day of term yesterday was pretty cool. It snowed, so I got to watch the snowflakes falling whilst in my last critical thinking lecture, then walked home & turned into a snowman!
Got into my room, put the christmas music on loud & wrapped presents wearing my santa hat. Then it was time for christmas dinner with some friends which I ended up cooking. It was so nice!
Now I am home untill the 9th of January when I go back to try and survive the madness that is my uni life :D
So before I sign off I wold like to say thanks to everyone I've met in the past few months. Thankyou for making my second time at University really fun. I have loved every second of it and I cant wait to come back in the new year and see you all!
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you all <3

Paper napkins - first draft

Okay so this is the first draft for my creative writing portfolio piece..be warned, its pretty depressing...

Paper Napkins

“Lets have a talk” he said causally kissing her on the neck.

“Talk? What kind of talk?” she said turning over to look at him.

“A talk about where we are right now, what it is that we’re doing, where this is going”

“Okay”

“What do I mean to you?”

“You’re my best friend, my lover, I like what we have. Why how do you feel about me?” she asked looking deep into his eyes.

 She wanted him to know that even though she pretended to be okay with the causal relationship they were having, she wanted more. She wanted to be the first thing he thought about when he woke up and the last thing he thought about before he went to sleep. She wanted to be his everything.

He looked at her for a long time, trying to assess the situation. He knew she was starting to get more involved than he wanted her to be.

“You’re a distraction. You’re there for me when I’m bored.  It’s like when I have a paper napkin and tear it into little pieces, I have no strong emotional connection to it, but it keeps me entertained for a while. You’re like a paper napkin.”

“Oh, Okay. Well that’s what you are to me too. Just a distraction. Let’s get some sleep.”

She turned over so he couldn’t see her face. Not wanting him to see how much that comment had hurt her.

He quickly slipped into a deep sleep whilst she lay there staring at the wall, wondering why she was doing this to herself, why was she putting her heart on the line?

As the clock ticked over the hours she knew she couldn’t do this anymore.

Light started to filter in through the cheap curtains. She got up quietly, not wanting to wake him. Got dressed quickly and walked slowly over to the door, taking one last look back at the bed where he lay sleeping.

            He looked so peaceful, completely unaware of just how much that one simple, flippant remark had hurt her.

The rain was coming down in sheets forming puddles in the road, the sky a melancholy mixture of blacks and greys. She felt it fitted her mood. She walked quickly, stopping off to get some cigarettes before going home.

She walked into the kitchen, putting the kettle on, hanging her coat and bag up and giving the cat a tickle under the chin in one swift movement.

Carrying her mug of coffee into the living room her phone vibrated. Taking it out of her pocket she read the message. It was from him. A simple “Hey baby, woke up and you weren’t here. See you tonight?” No she thought, he wasn’t going to see her tonight, or any other night for that matter.

In a sudden flash of anger she slammed the mug down on the coffee table, chipping the bottom slightly. She ran to her bedroom and frantically grabbed everything he had ever given her, everything that bared even a slight resemblance to him. It was time to get rid of him, start again; anything that reminded her of him had to go.

After filling several bin bags she went out into the garden, emptying the bags into one big pile. It looked a lot now. So many memories. There was the cinema ticket stub from their first date; there was the photograph of them in London, their smiling happy faces staring out at her, mocking her.

 Taking out her lighter from her pocket she picked up the photograph and set fire to a corner of it. It felt good to watch his face burn. She tossed the burning photo onto the pile and watched as the mountain of memories started to slowly turn into a mountain of ash.

Walking back inside she took out her packet of cigarettes and lit one, angrily sucking on it. A small tear timidly tried to form, but was brushed away angrily. She wasn’t going to cry over him. She was stronger than that. She wouldn’t cry like a child over him. 

Needing some are she grabbed her coat and bag and strode out of the door, heading for the park. Entering the park she went straight to her favourite spot to sit and watch the world go by.

When she could no longer feel her hands or feet she decided to get a coffee. She started to wander towards her favourite coffee shop but saw a couple of her friends in there. She didn’t want to deal with friends right now. She didn’t want to pretend she was okay.

 After all hadn’t they warned her about him? They said he was allergic to commitment. Said he was no good for her. Said she deserved better. Well they were right and she couldn’t deal with the sympathetic murmurings right now. Turning around she walked to a small greasy spoon café, one where she knew would never bump into anyone she knew.

Ordering her coffee she sat down staring into space. When the coffee was brought over she accepted it gracefully. Getting up to get some sugar she saw the pile of paper napkins. Picking one up she returned to her table. She stared at it, and started to tear it into small pieces distractedly.

Then the tears came. Great splashing angry tears fell down her face. She didn’t care that she was making a scene. She couldn’t hold it in anymore. This is what she was, a cheap disposable paper napkin. That’s all he thought of her, she was something to mindlessly tear apart. Four months of happy memories torn apart by one stupid sentence.

The Missing Present

So it is nearly christmas, and I decided that for my Niece Isobelle's gift I would write her a story & make it into a book. :)

Here it is :)

It was a cold and windy Christmas eve night, and the snow was filling the windows, as Santa's elves worked hard wrapping Christmas presents for all the children.

Twinkle was in charge of ticking off the presents on the list, when he saw that one gift was missing!

“Oh no!” cried Twinkle, “One of the children’s gifts isn’t on the pile! Whatever shall we do?” 

The elves rushed around in a panic trying to find the missing child’s gift, but it was nowhere to be seen.

All of the Elves gathered round Twinkle, and tried to work out how to help.

One thought they would have time to make a new toy if they all worked together. One thought they could use a left over present from last year.

Twinkle sighed and slumped down onto his chair. “Santa is going to be so upset! We don’t have time to make a new toy, but we can’t leave a child without a present on Christmas morning." 

The Elves decided that even if Twinkle said there wasn’t time to make a new gift, then they should at least try. They thought a teddy bear would be the best toy to make and split up into little groups.

One started making the head, one making the body, one making the arms and legs and one making the clothes the bear would wear.

They worked hard and eventually the bear was finished. “hurrah” they cried “lets go show Twinkle what we have done!

They carried the bear into the next room where Twinkle was sitting drinking hot chocolate. “Twinkle, look! We made a new present, now the child will have a present to open on Christmas morning!”

“Oh! That’s wonderful, you are such lovely, helpful Elves!” said Twinkle excitedly. “Quick, we don’t have much time till Santa leaves, we need to get it wrapped up and on the sleigh!” 

So the Elves hurried off with the bear and get it all wrapped up and onto the sleigh, while Twinkle went to tell Santa all about them making a new bear.

Just as the Elves are putting the bear onto the sleigh, out comes Santa with Twinkle.

“Well I hear that you have all been good little Elves tonight, Twinkle has told me all about how you have helped save a child from waking up on Christmas morning without a present. “

“I have something to show you all though,” he continued. And with that, Santa lent into his sleigh and pulled out a gift, which had been hidden at the bottom of his sack.

Twinkle gasped, and shouted “But...That’s the missing present! Wherever did you find it Santa?”

With a jolly look on his face Santa replied, “It was here all along Twinkle. But this way you all learned the value of hard work, and of coming together. And in the end, coming together to make a child happy is what Christmas is all about.”

Haven't you ever heard of the green cross code?!

Well today was going okay, that is until I came out of my Early Modern Writing seminar, went to the zebra crossing to cross over to the library, looked both ways and there were no cars coming, so I started crossing, then BAM a car appears and clips my hip knocking me over, making me hit my head and hurt my wrist.

I always thought you were supposed to stop and wait for a pedestrian to cross before driving over the zebra crossing, clearly this driver doesn't believe in the green cross code...

So been to the doctors and had my wrist checked out, apparently its just a sprain and should be fine in a week or two which is good.

I am now going to take some pain killers, have a cup of tea and stay as far away from roads as is possible.
Tomorrow is Wednesday, my day off lectures, so I don't have to get up early YAY! However I do have to go find an evil fairy outfit for Devils Night on Thursday.

Over and out
<3

say whaaaaat?!

Well today was rather amusing. Got up and ready for my 10am lecture, met Chloe and went into the lecture, looked around and realised everyone had calculators out...so we were like hmm, don't think this is our lecture and walked out.

Then we met Maria who told us that our lecture was at 11am not 10am, so me and Chloe were rather confused as we were sure it was at 10am...so after arguing that it was at 10am on my timetable, got my timetable out and it was down at 11am on there. Bit of a failure really

So, seeing as we had an hour to kill we decided to get a cup of tea, which was good :)

After all the hassle that happened before the lecture, then the actual lecture was a bit of a let down.

Now i'm sat in the library reading Volpone in preparation for my lecture at 3

Toodles
<3

*insert witty title here*

So, I haven't been up to anything particularly exciting over the last few days, pretty much been reading Shakespeare and Jonson.

Oh, did go out on thursday night to an open mic night with Staffordshire Rock, Alternative, Metal Society (yes that's right, I am now a member of a society, I feel so studenty :D) Saw a band called No Redemption who have a lead singer with an amazing voice!

check them out here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sL83P9peVWI

What is up with the weather?! Its like 27 degrees and it's the first of October! I look forward to autumn because it means the bear hat and duffle coat combo can once again be rocked, but now the weather has decided I have to wear shorts and tshirts. I am not a happy bunny!

Byeeee
<3

First day of lectures

Today I had my first proper day at Uni.

11am I had my Introduction to English lecture. It was pretty funny at the start as the lecturer asked if everyone here was from English and Creative writing, and if they weren't then they should leave, and loads of people stood up and walked out, then another lecturer came in and said he had the room down on his timetable, so Barry (my lecturer) told him to go away as this was his room. 

It was pretty interesting actually :). We're studying Shakespeare's The Tempest. Just learnt some background information about England about the explorations and colonisation's that were going on. Looked at a lot of maps from back then, when the maps consisted of europe, africa, asia and the antipodes.

Then had a break where I went to the coffee shop and read the Tempest, felt like a proper english student haha :) 

Then at 3pm I had my Early Modern Writing lecture. Studying Volpone (said Vol-Pony) by Ben Jonson, who was apparently Shakespeare's mate :)

Its set in Venice and is pretty much Jonson's take on the situation in london in the 16th century. It's pretty interesting aswell :)

Have to read the first act of Valpone by 10am tomorrow though, as that's when my first seminar for Early Modern Writing is.

So I'm going to make some dinner and chill for a bit, then get started on reading that.

All in all it was a fun day. It's nice to be using my brain again.

I shall bid thee adieu 

<3