Oh the Irony

Maz’s Holiday Diaries: Isle of Wight Edition

plugs Regina

I have actually been back from this holiday for almost a month, I just couldn’t be bothered to finish writing. :p 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. :D

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. :o 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! :D 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 :p , 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. :p

Posted Aug 17, 2008. Filed under Family, Random. 1 comment.

Kitty Blog

Plugs Li, Regina, Rhiannon.

Phoebe’s (my cat—in the header :p ) 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. :o

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.

Posted Jul 11, 2008. Filed under Random. 1 comment.

The Pointlessness of Toothbrush Holders

Jem, Linda, Regina, Mary.

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. :p
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 :p :
Script Frenzy award
Hehe, yay. It was fun, but I preferred NaNoWriMo.

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

Posted Jun 22, 2008. Filed under College, Yay!, Random. 4 comments.

Is It Really Too Much to Ask?

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:

comment asking for credit

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…

Posted May 25, 2008. Filed under Rant, Random. 13 comments.

Weird

The other day, in town, my mum and I were stopped by a gypsy. When I say gypsy, that’s what she claimed to be, but she was really just an oldish woman in jeans with a lot of hair on her face.
She held out a piece of ‘lucky’ heather to my mum who, against her better judgment, took it. The gypsy then took us aside and started talking to us. She gave us each a little plastic star painted gold and told us that it was also lucky etc.etc. She went on a bit about how she was related to Gypsy Rose Lee and that we would have luck now, blah blah.
In exchange for this good fortune :| she wanted money from us. We each ended up giving her £5 ($10), just for a little star that would have cost her, at most, about 10p (20c) and a piece of ‘heather’ (I think it was actually lavender) that she probably stole from some field.

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. :|

Posted May 16, 2008. Filed under Random. 2 comments.