I have actually been back from this holiday for almost a month, I just couldn’t be bothered to finish writing. Anyway, after getting a prompt, and wanting to write a couple of decent(ish) entries, I decided to pull my finger out and finish it. It’s quite long (and probably boring, sorry).

Monday

I had to get up at 4:45 AM Monday morning (as opposed to my usual time of 10-ish). We left our house at 6 AM an boarded our ferry at 7 AM.
I had a terrible stomach ache all morning and felt sick at first. But after we had breakfast in some café I felt OK, nausea-wise. My stomach was worse after eating though. Some guy in the cafe was crying, which was a bit weird.
After breakfast we went into the town centre (I’ve forgotten what the town was actually called). I almost bought a new mobile phone, but didn’t. I bought a CD though.

We arrived at our holiday park between 10:30 and 11 AM. We didn’t do much, just looked around at all the amenities and the views. In the arcade, there was a little machine dispensing bouncy balls (!), which my sister really wanted one of. As my dad twisted the little knob thing the fire alarm went off and we all had to vacate the buildings. We originally thought we’d set off some sort of shoplifting alarm (in an arcade!?).
We decided to go swimming a couple of hours later, and about a minute after we actually got in the pool we had to get out again because there was a bat flying about. Seriously, the longest any of us could have been in there was two minutes—my aunt hadn’t even gone in. After we’d got dressed the lifeguards were still flapping about trying to catch it with a net, and it had crapped in the pool!
We finally got into our caravan a while later. It was smaller than I thought it would be—although it was still a big one.

Tuesday

We went to a place called Blackgang Chine, which is almost like a theme park but it’s not really. You just kind of look at the things there, but there are a few activities thrown in such as a rollercoaster, a water slide and a maze. It’s quite a nice place to go to even if it’s not overly-exciting.
While we were there I broke my glasses. >_< I was in the toilets cleaning them (the glasses, not the toilets :p) when they broke clean in half. I couldn’t go around without them and we were too far from the holiday park to get my other pair (luckily I took both pairs on holiday) so my mum went into a shop and got tape to tape them back together. Everyone (my family) said they looked OK and that the tape ‘looked like a silver pattern’, which I didn’t really believe but it was better than nothing. I later saw in the toilets in a pub that you could definitely see that it was tape.
On the way back we went to the ‘Isle of Wight Pearl’, which is where you pick an oyster from this little pool and they open it up and you have the pearl that’s inside. They measure and value it, and give you a certificate of authentication. My mum, aunt and I all got one; my aunt’s was cream, 5.5mm and worth £17 ($34)—which is hilarious as the thing itself cost £16 =)), my mum’s was also cream, 7mm and worth &pound23, and mine was blue, 6.5mm and worth £48 ($96). Result! We all bought jewellery for them to go in. My mum and aunt bought a gold necklace clasp for theirs, and I bought a silver one for several reasons: a) I prefer silver to gold, b) it was cheaper—I’m not made of money dontcha know , and c) it was the prettiest thing there, and d) they only sold silver neck chains. Plus the darkness of the pearl looked nice in the silver clasp.
When we got back to the caravan I found I was sunburnt on my arms and half my forehead (one half was covered with my fringe).

Wednesday

Wednesday we went to Alum Bay. It’s a beach, which has The Needles on it (in it?). There are two ways of getting down to the actual beach: a chair lift or stairs. The last few times we went there (when I was 11 and younger), I went the stair way. This time my mum and I were going to go the stair way again, but my dad told both of us that the other wanted to go on the chair lift (the bastard). So we did, and we both shat ourselves. It was really high and they wobbled. Despite the fact my dad bought return tickets for us all, we (my mum and I) decided we’d go up the stairs to get back up. On the beach itself there was not much to do but sit or go on a boat out to the Needles. We did both. The boat ride was OK until we stopped to view the Needles and it really rocked which made me feel sick.
Then we went back up, my mum and I on the stairs, and everyone else on the ski lifts. We tried walking up them quickly to beat them up there but there’s so bloody many of them. We were so out of breath when we got to the top. Up there we ate then did what most people go to Alum Bay to do—fill a glass/plastic bottle with coloured sand. The sand at Alum Bay is several different colours, and in one shop you buy a container to fill with the sand in stripes or any other pattern you’re artistic enough to make. My mum did a plastic cat, my aunt did a potion-bottle shaped thing and I did a light bulb shaped bottle.

We got back in time to go swimming, but when my dad and sister went down to see if the pool was open yet, it was closed again because there was another bat in there. The lifeguards said we would have to wait at least 45 minutes, then they said even longer, because they were waiting for the bat nurse. (!) Eventually we got told that it was going to be open for 45 minutes. The pool wasn’t great, though we knew that. It’s quite small, but it has a slide.
A while after we finished swimming, we had a barbecue. Now, when I say barbecue, I mean we used a tiny, throwaway one, which we had on the grass outside our van while we sat inside eating. Our van was the first one into the main part of the camp (there was a big area where there were privately owned caravans and fields for tents) so every time a car went past people stared.

Thursday

On Thursday we went to Robin Hill. I remembered Robin Hill from over ten years ago and remembered it as boring. It wasn’t though. It was mainly walking and looking at the scenery but there was also a couple of theme park rides. There was one of those pirate ship things that swing that my dad and uncle went on, which was funny as they were the only adults on there without a child. We watched a falconry display which was pretty good, but the birds swooped low over the audience and we had to duck so they didn’t fly into our heads.
The best part was a ride-type thing which is called ‘Toboggan Run’. You sit on this dish thing with a brake sticking out, to go around a giant silver slide. You have to hold on to the brake or you will fall off. I went on with my sister—you can go on with another person if one is a child (although she’s almost the same height as me and doesn’t really look like a child). She sat in front and controlled the brake. At the beginning you’re pulled up a hill. It’s quite high and I’m shit-scared of heights. To top it off, my sister was sat between my legs and I had to really clench my muscles to keep on the dish, and use all the strength in my back to stop myself from falling backwards off the bloody thing. It went up slowly too which a) prolonged the pain in my legs and back, and b) made the ‘OMG this goes really high’ feeling intensify. I had to hold on to the brake to prevent myself falling (in addition to holding myself up with my legs and back) which, when you pull on it, slows you down, and when you push it, makes you go faster. So my holding onto it was slowing us down even more. We reached the top and finally: WHOOSH! We went down/around much more quickly. There were signs everywhere to tell you to slow down, and at every bend (there were a lot) we had to lean to that side so we didn’t hurt ourselves. It was fun though, despite the fear of flying off into a surounding woodland area. I screamed a lot, which was mainly to make my sister laugh, which it did.

Friday

We came home on the Friday. Our ferry didn’t leave until 3 PM so we had time to kill. We went to a ‘proper’ beach first, for my uncle’s sake. It wasn’t that exciting but there were a few cute shops along the coast. Then we went ice skating. Well, when I say ‘we’, my dad, aunt and uncle didn’t go because of injuries and just not wanting to. The problem was though, I could not get my skates on properly. No matter how I tied them up either my feet or my ankles/calves hurt, a lot. I went ice skating a few times with friends a few years ago and never had any problem, but this time I did. I must have managed to get around the rink about three times before eventually giving up. I was really pissed off because I really like ice skating.
Finally we had to get on our ferry to come home. It was a good holiday (so hot :o) but it was nice to get back to our pets. Aw.

Phoebe’s (my cat—in the header ) daughter Pandora gave birth to her kittens last week. She had two: one black and one black and white. They’re both girls, I think. I really want one but a) my dad said no, and b) they’re both spoken for.

It was Phoebe’s birthday on Monday, she was two. I can’t believe it’s been almost a whole two years since we got her.

Talking of birthdays, it’s my dad’s tomorrow. I didn’t know what to get him for a present so I’m taking him out for a meal (and my mum and sister).
My sister is currently in Paris on a school trip, she gets back tomorrow morning and my parents have to pick her up at 4am.
Next week my other sister (and my nephew and brother-in-law) is coming to stay with us from Tuesday until Sunday, then n Sunday my aunt and uncle are coming down to stay with us overnight because we’re going on holiday together the next day.

I’m serious, what is the point of them? ‘To hold your toothbrush’, you might be thinking. But who has a toothbrush that thin? I was brushing my teeth a few minutes ago and noticed there was a new holder. My mum had placed my sister’s toothbrush and my old one in it and both were miles too wide to actually fit. About half a cm of each one were in the holes and they were just balancing on the rims awkwardly. BTW, the reason my old brush was in there is I have a new one and leave it in my room, and I haven’t thrown the old one out yet.
And why were my parents’ toothbrushes not in the new holder? Because they’re electric, and wouldn’t fit in a million years. There is also another holder in there, which was bought to match the bathroom when the new suite was fitted (about five years ago), and it has never been used, it’s just there.
So, now toothbrushes are either a) electric, or b) wider than a pencil, why are holders for them still being bought or even made?

I forgot to mention last month that I ‘won’ Script Frenzy. I completed it with 177 pages, woo! Here’s my little award :

Hehe, yay. It was fun, but I preferred NaNoWriMo.

On the subject of yayness, I passed an assessment at college, with distinction. Woot!

Regina

OK, so I found someone using a set of my smilies on their site. But there was no credit. Not a big deal, of course, I would simply ask politely for credit, which I did.
The person in question, however, is an infamous troublemaker in the whole ‘website world’. I don’t like this person, never have. There was one point I felt sorry for her, but that pity vanished quickly when I realised what a nasty piece of work she is. But still, I don’t have a problem with her using a resource I distribute freely on my site.
Knowing that she was likely to delete or edit the comment I left asking for credit, I print screened it:

That is a cropped version of the screenshot. The full version has this person’s site on it. I’m not going to post that now, however, I will be calling her out on it.

Call her out on what? Well, I’ll tell you. I visited her site yesterday to see if a) she had credited, and b) if she had deleted my comment. The answer to a is no, and the answer to b is yes. But what I hadn’t banked on was c. C is a whole paragraph in her blog dedicated to me. This paragraph which I won’t quote, but will merely sum up, says this:

• I asked for credit in a nasty way
• I said she could not use anything from my site
• I should have been nice about it
• I am ugly and look like an ‘old lady’
• I will get credit but not a link back because I was ‘nasty’
• She will credit me when she wants to
• Next time I should be nice and not a total *insert several swear words*
• I should not worry about credit but instead concentrate on the forum I “run” that “lets 11-year-olds talk about giving head and ass fucking”

What. The. Fuck.

At first I thought she was talking about someone else, that coincidentally someone else had asked for credit for their smilies. This was mainly due to the fact she said they were ‘cloud’ smilies, when mine are ghost. It was only when I got to the forum bit I realised she was talking about me.
What I don’t get is why the hell she lied. Seriously, I am completely and utterly baffled as to why she would do it and what she could possibly gain from it.
OK, so obviously she dislikes me because I am a super moderator at a certain forum (I do not ‘run’ it), but there really is no need for her to lie or insult me. She clearly has severe mental health issues, though that was obvious already, but seriously. She really does thrive on all the dramuh she creates. She really must love it, despite constantly claiming she doesn’t, and it’s very clear that she is 100% at fault during every argument she starts or involves herself in.

But seriously, is it really that difficult to fulfill a simple request without lying and trying to start an argument?

EDIT: An update on the twattery—Barbilee has banned my IP from her site. Oh noezz!!!1one If only someone could invent a website that could hide your IP. Oh, wait…

However, and I don’t really think these are connected, but it is slightly coincidental, a few months ago I lost a ring. ‘Lost’ is a bit strong a word, it fell off a shelf and landed on the floor, down the side of my bedside cabinet. I couldn’t see it immediately, so I decided to wait until the morning to look for it (as it was quite late at night). I couldn’t find it, there’s quite a lot of stuff in the small space where it fell, and eventually gave up. I’ve had a look several times since and still couldn’t find it. Yesterday, I put my hand in my jewellery bowl (a little ceramic bowl I put jewellery in) to pull a different ring I wear sometimes, when I picked up the one I lost. It was right at the top of little pile, and I would have definitely seen it if it had always been in there. No one else would have found it (although I did ask my mum if she had) and I definitely saw it drop down. So I have no idea how it got there.

Linda

Pandora, daughter of Phoebe (my cat), sister of Diego, Binky, Tallulah and Muffy (also cats, OMG) is pregnant. At least, her owner thinks she is. She (the owner) also owns Phoebe’s mother (the grandmother of Diego, Binky etc.). I so badly want one of these kittens, my mum so badly wants one of these kittens and, when she finds out, my sister will so badly want one of these kittens. Upon hearing the news, my dad immediately told us we will not be having one, however he said it with an “I know we will end up with one” tone. If we did have one, we would have three generations from the same family, which would be awesome.
The owner believes they will be born in June, which would make them ready for rehoming in August. Which is not so good, as we are going on holiday then. I actually told myself that our last holiday (in April) would be the last time I go with my family but I’ve changed my mind and I’m going on this one.
So if we get a kitten in August (and I really hope we do), it will be a bit awkward when we go away, so I’m not quite sure what we’ll do about that, should the situation arise.

I have been pretty much internet-less for over three weeks now. It started with the router playing up at the beginning of April. This continued until I went away on the 14^th. By ‘playing up’ I mean that the internet kept disconnecting every now and then. It would work occasionally if I switched it off and on again, but only for a few minutes, or up to half an hour if I was lucky. While it was on it would, most of the time, be incredibly slow. So of course, it was very frustrating, especially when I needed it for work. So this continued until I went on holiday, and presumably during, until the Monday after we got back when it went completely. That was the 21^st, I believe. We gave it a couple of days until we phoned our phone/internet company (TalkTalk). We had to phone them about four days in a row at sme point to get them to take notice and to actually do something about it. They actually finally called us back while I was writing this (just after ‘needed it for work’, if you’re interested :p), and I have plugged the router in the main phone line (downstairs) and at the moment it’s working. I have to leave it on overnight and they’re going to call back in the morning. At least, they say they will…
In the meantime I have gone crazy with no internet. I used my aunt’s a few times but I didn’t want to take advantage. I even bought one of those ‘broadband on the move’ things, a pay as you go one (I didn’t want to pay £10-15 a month for something I wasn’t going to use). Its speed is an impressive 7.2 Mbps.
So yeah, I have pretty much neglected everything web-related, and I hate it.

Mike

Li

A short account of my holiday to Cornwall.

Day 1—Monday 14^th April

The plan was this:
get up early (5am-ish);
leave early (6am-ish);
sleep in car;
stop off at a café halfway for breakfast;
get to aunt and uncle’s house roughly three hours later (9:30-ish—half hour added for breakfast);
stay there for a few hours then all set off together to arrive at caravan site at 4pm.

So I decided to wear tracksuit bottoms and no make up as no one would see me except the few other people eating their breakfast that early, I didn’t even bother with my hair.

This is what actually happened:

got up early (5:20am);
left earlyish (7:15am);
didn’t sleep in car, instead I felt sick the whole way and we had to keep stopping to go to the toilet;
stopped off at a café halfway for breakfast, could just about manage a sandwich;
got to aunt and uncle’s house roughly five hours later (12:30-ish)—still felt sick;
stayed there for about half an hour;
went shopping in a small village on the way to holiday destination, uncle said it would take about an hour and twenty minutes, took over two and a half hours—still felt sick, looked like shit;
stayed there for quite a while, before setting off on the hour-long journey to caravan site, took several hours—still felt sick (and yes, still looked like shit);
finally got to caravan site at just after 7pm. Hurrah!

What I had estimated to be a nine-hour journey at most (including several-hour stay at relatives’ house) had taken nearly twelve hours.
So we arrived at the caravan site. I had seen pictures and had read up on it online and wasn’t really impressed. Its only real amenity was its swimming pool—which was pretty much like a bog-standard pool. However, I was still looking forward to it—kind of. I wasn’t really looking forward to sharing a caravan with my parents, sister, and uncle and aunt.
Luckily, the caravan was fairly big, with decking around it. Inside was pretty nice: quite a large front room/dining room/kitchen area, three bedrooms (though only one was a double), tiny toilet and small shower room. The toilet (or rather, the room with the toilet in) was about the size of a cupboard and not very comfortable (or warm). The two twin bedrooms just had two single beds, with a tiny gap between them. The beds were pretty narrow and not very comfortable (but bearable).
Just opposite the van was a children’s play area, which was great for my sister, who went on it every day. When we first got there my uncle was filming the caravan and the views out the window. He was filming the area and excitedly shouted “Hey hey, there’s all the kiddies playing in the park!“
My mum told him he sounded like a paedophile.
I went to bed fairly early, disappointed we only had four TV channels. I couldn’t sleep too well though.

Day 2—Tuesday 15^th April

I woke up and felt like crap. Really tired and again, nauseous. We were going to a place called Flambards , which is a theme park. Now, I’m not too keen on theme parks at the best of times, but when you feel ill it’s even less inviting. So I ended up staying at the caravan alone. It was OK though, I slept and went for a walk around the site. The views were absolutely gorgeous. I wanted to take some photos but the day I was going to take them it was the last day and raining.
My mum bought me a DVD (Miss Potter) to watch while they were out, which I thought was quite good.
That evening my uncle wanted to take us all to a pub for dinner. He said they’d gone before and was brilliant. It took us about an hour to get there and the food was crap. There was barely anything on the menu, it was overpriced and in all was just shite. I was still feeling ‘off’ so I wan’t even hungry.

Day 3—Wednesday 16^th April

Quelle surprise I still felt sick. I felt a lot better than I had though. We went to Land’s End in the morning. It was quite good but Wednesday and Thursday were so, so windy. We had a photo taken under the Land’s End post thing, but it was so windy my hair was everywhere and we were all in coats and looked like a bunch of saddos.
After that we went to St Ives . My sister had a blueberry muffin and a seagull flew past and snatched it out of her hand, she was gutted. St Ives also had some beautiful views but I hardly got any photos.
That night my parents, aunt and uncle went out to the site’s club for a drink. I stayed in the van with my sister, I wanted to get to sleep early. When they got in my dad decided to have toast and ended up setting the fire alarm off, which woke me and my sister up. I was still half-asleep but she quickly got out of her bed so I followed suit. It turns out my mum (slightly drunk) had been shouting “Fire! Fire! Everybody out!” They all, of course, found it hilarious. I went to the toilet but didn’t lock it because they all saw me go in so they all knew I’d be in there. But my mum and aunt opened the door and started talking to me (which I did not appreciate, being half-asleep) and my uncle walked past with his camcorder and filmed me on the toilet, shouting “Hey hey! Got you on the toilet!” He then went into our room and filmed my sister trying to sleep and flicking the light on and off, while laughing and shouting.
I looked at his camcorder the next day to wipe off the toilet bit but luckily it was too dark to see anything.

Day 4—Thursday 17^th April

Thursday I felt much better. I was supposed to go swimming in the morning but I didn’t get up in time.
We went to the National Seal Sanctuary . Seals are one of my favourite animals so I was looking forward to it. And it was great—the seals were just amazing and so cute. I got plenty of photos of them, although they’re not too great. In the afternoon we were supposed to go to a chocolate factory but we couldn’t find it. We then tried to go to The Lizard but it was too windy.
The caravan that night rocked so much because of the wind, it was quite scary, though fun at the same time.

Day 5—Friday 18^th April

Yay, another day of driving. It was broken up with a trip to Port Isaac , where they film the TV programme Doc Martin . It was a little boring, but there were some great views there too. We left at 10am and got home finally and 7pm.
When I turned my PC on (not as soon as I got in, mind), it made a buzzing and then went bang and smelt of burning. I panicked because I thought I’d lost everything and would need to buy a new one, but luckily it was only the power supply that needed replacing. My Internet is still playing up though.

Photos: Land’s End , St Ives , Seal Sanctuary , Port Isaac

More good news, I have a job! Yes, that’s right, I’m now a working member of the British public. I’m working for an online company on a self employed basis. Yay me!
Of course, I haven’t been able to start working properly because my router has been playing up. Why? Because my dad switched the electricity off for about ten minutes the other day. *stabs* Seriously, this was Wednesday and my router is still being a dick.

But yay for me!

Starlet

Remember last November when I did NaNoWriMo ? No? Well shh, pretend you do.
Anyway, this month I’m attempting Script Frenzy . It’s the same concept as Nano (and by the same people, I think) except you have to write a 100 page script (screenplay, stage play, TV script etc) as opposed to a 50,000 word ‘novel’. You can also write this one with another person (although you could with Nano, as no one would know :p). I’m writing alone, though it would have been fun to write with someone.
I’m writing a screenplay, purely because that was the easiest one to find formatting for, and I’m using the fantastic Celtx . I’m 16 pages through so far, yay! Although, I am actually just turning my Nano novel into a script, so it’s not like I’m coming up with anything new.
It’s weird though, because I’ve never had the desire to write a script before, and I only decided to do it because I liked doing Nano so much, but I’m really enjoying it. It’s really fun writing and formatting it, and you don’t have to worry about coming up with better words than ‘he said, she said, he said…’, or any imaginative descriptions and words.
Another weird thing is reading what I came up with in November. Some of it I’m quite impressed with and some of it is pretty terrible.
It’s quite hard writing when the 4^th most popular letter on your keyboard doesn’t work properly (O, behind E, T and A). I’m surprised it’s that high actually, and that S is 7^th, behind N!

I got two new pairs of glasses on Saturday. I dropped my old pair and it caused a little chip in one of the lenses. I got two pairs as they were buy one, get one free, although I had to pay for the extra ‘thin and light’ lenses for both pairs. I paid £200 ($400) for both pairs, including £60 and £30 for the lenses (one pair had to have thinner lenses than the other because they had thinner frame. ¬_¬
That’s not to bad, but I’m now skint because of them, and, I had to return one pair because they have scratches on both lenses. They’re only little scratches, but I could see them. And I hadn’t even worn them.

I have added some content *fanfare*. Some Yahoo Instant Messenger (YIM) skins. Hurrah! They’re for YIM 8, and get them while they’re hot as they’ll be obsolete when version 9 is officially released. My personal favourite is the pink one.

Linda

Li

Millie

Jem

…everyone for their deep concern over my fall. It’s so nice that no one found my injuring myself amusing.

I’ve just realised that I haven’t blogged for nearly a month—I keep going to do it but I then think ‘That’s not interesting…‘, and don’t bother. I think the same when I actually get around to blogging but I do it anyway.

I’m all excited because it’s Easter and I get to eat chocolate my sister is coming down to stay. That means: my nephew! Yay! They’re coming down tomorrow and going back on Sunday, I think. They’re not staying specifically for Easter, they’re down for someone’s birthday or something.

I’m going on holiday next month. I haven’t been on a ‘proper’ holiday for ages (by ‘proper’ I mean not staying with family). Now, it’ll (hopefully) be nice, but we’re going with my aunt and uncle—the ones who come to stay with us a lot. They are really lovely, and fun, but they can get so so annoying. And I think we’re all staying in the same caravan together. It will drive me mad. What’s more—they chose the destination, and I’ve looked up the holiday park and it seems to really lack facilities. So I won’t even have anywhere to ‘escape’ to. >_<
Ah well, I might enjoy it.

I have added new smilies and brushes, hurrah! The smilies were originally made as a joke during a YIM conference. They’re…well, I’ll let you guess what they are. Here, under ‘Other’.
The brushes are swirls, they’re not very interesting but what the hell: here.

I’ve played around a bit with the CSS for the default skin (cat one). I’ve edited the headers and the links. I’m going to give each page a custom title at some point (soon), there’s little enough pages for it not to be a huge task.

I’ve applied for a job, yay! I was going to apply for it a while ago but didn’t. The likelihood of getting it is so slim, but it’s worth a try. I would really really love to be accepted though, it would be perfect for me. Fingers crossed, eh?

I’ve got a new camera! It’s only 8 mega-pixels (I wanted a 10) but it was such good value. The cheapest 10MP one I have found is at least double the price. I can’t use it properly yet as my SD card has photos on it from my old camera and won’t work properly until it’s wiped. I have bought a 2GB one though from Amazon. I hope it arrives soon. ^_^

Mary

Linda

On Wednesday I got a phone call from my bank, telling me all about life insurance. I wasn’t really interested, but I listened because the guy sounded sweet. I couldn’t understand him at times because he had a very strong Northern accent. He asked me to confirm my date of birth, which I thought was weird as anyone who answered my phone is very likely to know that. He started explaining the policy, then got confused and started to ask me to confirm my date of birth again.
He then asked questions about my hobbies, what sports I do, what my job was etc. He told me he was going to the cinema that weekend to watch PS, I Love You… with his girlfriend, but he wanted to watch Alien Vs. Predator, which is what stopped me from hanging up on him.
He asked me to confirm my name and address because he was going to send me info on it, which I did. Then he asked for my bank details, telling me politely he would wait while I got them. WTF? He genuinely believed I would give him my number over the phone. I agreed to do it, waited a few seconds, then hung up.
I Googled the number and it came up on some scam calls website. Apparently these people keep calling you, and, lo and behold, they called again within ten minutes. It was a different guy though.

I’ve added a couple of pages about my pets to my ‘Me’ section. I know they don’t interest a lot of people but they do some, me included. I’ve also added two new graphics to my ‘folio, under ‘Misc’.

Its my sister’s birthday on Friday, I haven’t got her a present yet.

Rhiannon

Alexandra

Jem

I really, really, really want an EEE PC . I saw someone recommend one to someone else and was intrigued. Then on a forum I go on, there was a thread dedicated to them, about how good they are and how difficult it is to get one (due to them being out of stock everywhere). And now I want one really badly, but I have no need for one. They’re only £200 ($400)-ish though. I’d love to get a pink or blue one, or a white one if I can’t get a coloured one. I don’t really like the look of the black. Gah. *saves furiously* Now, to buy the 4GB one or wait for the 8GB…?

Muffy, one of our kittens, went missing on Tuesday night/Wednesday morning. I was, of course, beside myself with worry, as were my mum and sister. We called and called, and searched for her but couldn’t find her anywhere.
Well, this morning I heard my mum coming upstairs and it sounded like she was crying. I panicked, thinking the worst. She burst into my room and who was in her arms? Muffy. She came back this morning. She has two cuts on her face and is thinned than she was, so God knows what happened to her. I’m just so so glad she’s back.
The ‘crying’ noises coming from my mum were her talking to Muffy.

Talking of my mum, she and my dad have gone on a mini ‘holiday’, if you could call it that. They’re staying with relatives in Devon. So I’m at home, looking after my sister, which is pretty fun. She’s nearly 12 and can be quite fun. Plus she has an inset day on Monday so I don’t have to get up and help her get ready for school.

Ooh, the dentist. So, I was über- nervous about going and spent the day worrying. I have a new dentist. He’s Polish (I think), he has a very strong accent and a speech impediment, so I could barely understand a word he said. On top of that, he has really bad breath.
Anyway, I need to have a filling (I knew I would, and I knew which tooth). All through my childhood I was only allowed sweets/sugary foods at the weekend, whereas a friend of mine had them often. In our teens, she would buy about £1-2 worth of chocolate/sweets every day on the way to school (it was her lunch money). I had a ’sensible’ lunch everyday. Yet she has never had a filling in her life, and I’ve had several. So unfair.

Rhiannon

This is a minor grievance of mine. It’s nothing important but it just annoys me slightly. I was randomly reading someone’s blog earlier, reading their ‘about me’, when they claimed their hair was ‘dirty blonde’. Which is fine, except this was accompanied by a photo of a brunette. There was no mention of dye or anything, so one can only assume she believed her medium-dark brown hair was ‘dirty blonde’. Which reminds me of when I was talking to an online friend, and she mentioned her hair was blonde. I’d seen several photos of her and her hair was dark brown. I said, slightly confused, “I thought your hair was dark.”
To which she replied, “Yeah, dark blonde.”
Her hair was closer to black than it was blonde, or even than it was light brown.
What I don’t get is why people are claiming their hair is a colour it clearly isn’t. This colour is always blonde, no one ever pretends their hair is black, or brown, or red. I don’t really see what the fuss is about, it’s only a hair colour, and one with the most negative ‘tag’.

I have for you, ladies and gentlemen, what I believe to be the final installment of the IWOOT story. Today I finally received the missing item. Round of applause for IWOOT, please. It’s taken them a staggering 42 days from when I placed the order to get it to me. Now that’s a company worth using, hey?
Now all I hope is that the bloody thing works.

I’m a bit nervous as I have a dental appointment on Wednesday. Not such a big deal, you may think, but my last two dental treatments were real nightmares. So I’m bricking it.

Oh, I opened a new site, it’s a glitter word generator site—Say It With Glitter , please visit.

Mary

Rhiannon

Yes, I’m aware ‘fabulous’ has only one L in it, but it makes for prettier alliteration this way. I was lucky it had an O in it as I broke my O key. My laptop was on my bed, open, when a CD fell off the top of my DVD player (well, actually I dropped it whilst picking it up) and hit my lappy right on the O. It popped off and I had to reattach it. It’s all lopsided and looks ugly. Plus it’s not very sensitive, I either have to push hard on it for it to work, or right at the bottom of it. When I type I do neither of these, so my sentences usually end up with no Os. The most annoying thing is that I do most of my writing on my laptop. X(

So, back on to the title. I do love both Flickr and Flock .
Now, I have to admit I don’t use Flock all that often, mainly because of the toolbar I have installed on Firefox, which is very handy. However, I do use it for its social networking brilliance. And thus, enjoy using it with Flickr. Now, Flickr’s only downfall (well, the only one I can find at the moment) is that you can only have three ’sets’ with a basic account. I purchased a pro account because I have more than three sets.
I have added their little ‘badge’ in my sidebar.

I have updated my ‘folio. I have a page of cartoon portraits I made in Photoshop. Here are thumbnail examples:

See them here.

So I called again, this time having the phone on loudspeaker so I would hear when someone answered. Eventually someone did, a bloke this time. I was caught of guard again and said “Hello, could you hold on a second please?”, which was marginally better than the last time.
The guy on the other end replied with “Yes, certainly,” and waited patiently until my dad got to the phone.

Anyway, to cut an (overly) long story short, the man was very polite and said the missing item was probably their fault and offered to resend or refund. I chose to still get the item and it should be here in a week or so. Fingers crossed, eh?

My sister and brother-in-law are coming to stay with us again tonight, as it’s our auntie’s funeral tomorrow. I am, of course, not looking forward to this but I am looking forward to seeing my nephew again. It’s his birthday on the 7^th and I bought his present yesterday—an outfit comprising of a little jumper and some dungaree-type things with a bear on. For Christmas I got him a toy giraffe (which I have a photo of him kissing ) and an inflatable tube thing with balls in that you push when you’re crawling or something.

Yay, apples! See them all here.

A few of the pressies I got:

• Super Mario Galaxy for the Wii
• PoPoLoCrois (or something like that)—PSP
• Rainbow Islands Revolution—Nintendo DS
• A mini chocolate fountain
• A Spongebob Squarepants lamp
• DVDs: The Simpsons Movie and Hairspray
• Some money

I got a few other thinsg too, but they were the “main” presents.
I haven’t played Super Mario Galaxy yet as the room the Wii is in is full of stuff and there’s no space. I’ve tried PoPoLoCrois, I’m not really sure it’s my thing but I’ll give it a go. I used to own Rainbow Islands on Commodore 64 when I was little—it was awesome. This one is really hard though.

We went shopping today, I bought Extras, the first series on PSP UMD (the little DVD things) and a mini digital photo frame. It is so cute, really small. It’s not a key ring one, it’s one you have on your desk, like a regular sized one.

New Year’s Eve I shall have the oh-so-exciting job of babysitting. I’ll be babysitting my sister though, so it’s not too bad. She’s quite fun and we’re going to play on the Wii.

My other sister came to stay with us on the 14-16^th with my nephew and brother-in-law. My auntie and uncle are staying with us for Christmas and early in the new year my sister et al will be back again. Although that’s for my auntie’s funeral, which is the 3^rd. This will be the first Ive ever been to—in all my twenty years I’ve been fortunate enough to have never been to a funeral.

I’m working on some smilies, I don’t know whether to add them to this site or my up-and-coming pixel site.
Talking of other sites, I’ve completely updated my fanlisting collective and Myspace Graphiks —which, in case you hadn’t guessed, is a Myspace resource site. Please visit.

My parcel from IWOOT finally arrived today. That’s good, right? Well it would be if both bastard items were in the box.
My dad brought the box up to me and I noticed that the tape wasn’t sealed properly. I asked him if he had opened it already and he said he hadn’t and it had just arrived. I opened it eagerly, relieved it was actually here, removed the humongous packaging and inside was just one. The box was huge and the actual item inside was tiny so I looked at the sticker on the box and lo and behold—both items should have been in there. The missing item had to be the most expensive of the two, of course.

So we decided to give them a call—but surprise, surprise, they are now closed for the Christmas period. Reopening on January 2^nd. I can’t contact Parceline, the courier, as all the numbers on their site aren’t relevant and I wasn’t given a bloody number to track the parcel with.

Merry fucking Christmas.