Latest Update

Should I start with my car? It seems to have taken over my blog anyway!!

Well for some reason or another the boot seems to have got moudly again, so I spent some time cleaning it AGAIN today, then drove it to the petrol station and vacuumed it out. Only got rid of some of the mould, the bits down the sides of the seat that I couldn't reach, so my car is still a bit muddy, but mud is better than mould!!

I then came back and guess what I did!

Go on guess!!

Nah you'll never guess...

I TIDIED MY ROOM!

Voluntarily!

I can see the floor!!!! It's amazing! I haven't seen the floor since I moved it!! I also wiped down all the sides, yes, me! Cleaning!! I have yet to vacuum it though, I ran out of time.

Because then I went to fencing, still going there too!! Woah, it's all a bit crazy lol

I'm actually doing quite well at fencing at the moment, for me that is! Not sure if that's a weird version of "beginners luck" or if I'm just fencing newbies...or if I've just randomly got good :P

Somehow during the session I found myself agreeing to fence on the women's team next Wednesday! Not entirely sure how I managed to do that, I hate team fencing and I've never wanted to be on the women's team! Ah well, apparently it's a really easy team to beat, the foil doesn't matter much anyway and they didn't have anyone else. They appealed to my good nature!

So yeah! Apparently I'm now on the women's team for my university! That should be fun...!

I also learnt that one of the fencers is also coached by my old coach (it's a small world!) and she was saying to him over the summer that she'd been fencing with me. Once he figured out who she meant apparently he said "Oh yeah, her! She only went fencing for the boys!" LOL! I'm amused and mildly offended :P Only because in the end it was totally true, but I did not START fencing for boys, not my fault I met That Boy at fencing!!!

That's about all my news I think. I had an exam, it went horrendously, I'm planning on cleaning up the house tomorrow in between my other jobs, I have fencing again on Saturday, I've found myself agreeing to a friendly competition the Saturday after...it's all good at the moment :)

Apart from my car being back to smelling bad lol

I'm starting to think my car should have it's own blog..

...rather than it keep hijacking mine! When was the last time I wrote about myself?? lol

Last Saturday I finally cleaned my car (at high-speed) and drove it...to the hospital for my friend who's torn a ligament in her ankle, get better sooooon!!

So I was very pleased to have my car back and driveable :) There were still a couple of problems with it, like it smells baaad, and the time on the clock is totally wrong! But me and my housemate agree, after all it's been through, if it wants it to be 5am when it's really 7.30pm, then it can BE 5am! We're not going to argue!

Anyway, all was well with the world (well, with my car!), we drove around with the windows open, the smell was slowly fading...It was good!

I need to vaccuum it out, fill up the oil bit and fill up the washer bit with water, but that's all beside the point.

Then yesterday happened (it was all getting a bit too good to be true!).

I went to fencing, then afterwards decided "you know what, I will go to the pub afterwards with everyone!" (no, I didn't drink and drive lol). I had no idea where this pub was, so 3 other fencers came with me for a lift and to direct me.

Unfortunately the 2 that were directing me only ever walked and didn't factor in the one-way system. So they got me a bit stuck and I had to turn around.

On one side of me there was a little mini car-park, with a slope going up to it. So I went to go forwards onto there rather than attempt a 3-point turn.

The slope going up into the car-park was considerably steeper than I thought and my car BUMPED on the way up it...and back down it.

I was so shocked by this and so worried about the front of my car...that I completely forgot about the wall behind me!

I sat in the car for a minute just going "OOOOOH NO!" (yes, obviously those swear-free words were exactly what I was saying!), there was a stunned silence, then one of my passengers offered to go and have a look if I wanted to pull forwards.

"No! I want to leave it here and go have a look myself!!" I had visions of the entire back end being crumpled...all the expensive fencing kit stuck in the boot...having to scrap my whole car because the repairs were too much...! I didn't hit it at any kind of speed but that's not the point :P

I got out of the car and went and had a look. I couldn't really tell how it was, I was still against the wall after all! So I took a moment to stop shaking so much and pulled it forwards. My passenger looked at it with me, popped the bumper back in and tried to assure me that they were all just "dings". I was pretty hysterical for the rest of the night, but another friend said he'd come over and have a look at it the next day for me.

He came over about an hour ago, and apparently I just bent the body work a tiny bit, it doesn't matter that I can get my fingers around one side of the boot as you can't open the boot like that, and all my lights work except possibly the reverse light, but I have one reverse light so that's also fine! I was a bit concerned that there was a tiny split in the bumper, but that's what bumpers are for, it's not a problem and I'm very silly for getting so worked up about it!

I then rang mum, who I was quite worried would be mad at me, but she told me that I'm a grown up now, it's my car, so long as I'm fine, my car is fine, then it's ok, accidents happen! Though I am under orders to drive somewhere, ANYWHERE tomorrow, otherwise I'll never drive again because it'll become SUCH a big deal for me. She knows me well :P

But all is fine! My baby is still fine, just a little scuffed is all!

He's a good car, keeps fighting on through, I'm very proud :)

Diagnosis from Dr Daddy

Well Dad and Sister came back with me to Uni today, Sister because she hadn't seen my house yet, and Dad to fix my car.

My car now has a new battery, anti-rust stuff on it, filler and mesh stuff (that cut dad's finger, *hugs* for daddy) to fill up the holes in it!! Soooo hopefully no more water will get in (not from there anyway!) and it will now start!

So all I have to do is make sure that like once a week I take my car for a proper drive, not just constantly 5 minutes to lectures or the shops! Clean it out, dry it out by finding a way to get sunshine to it, oh dear :P Take it to the petrol station and use their vaccuum cleaners to get the mould under the seats that I can't reach, and we should be sorted!

Hopefully my car will now last the winter!

Thank you Daddy :)

And well done brum-car, I knew you could make it :P

During the time Dad was here, he also :
- Put iTunes on my laptop so I can have playlists on my mp3 player
- Updated my TomTom
- Sorted my download programme which wasn't working
- Tried to fix my disk drive
- Advised me on the leftovers from my flatpack shelves (I didnt know what was needed for some obscure reason and what could be thrown away!)
- Cleaned my laptop screen

Thank you Dad :) Love you!

Also, miss Mum and Bro already, see you both soon :)

xxxx

Update on my baby!

My car, not my brother, or some mysterious baby that I've neglected to tell you all about :P


So yesterday I bought some jump leads and battery charger to restart my car, and was discussing it while one of my male friends was over. He immediately took over for me, much to my relief! My car is parked bonnet to bonnet with Other Driver's car, so he took all the keys, the jump leads and started my car off hers. I was up at the house listening worriedly for any clue to how it was doing. The second I heard my car revving I was off down the drive to see how it was!! (This was 1am, otherwise I would have been hovering near by all along!!).

So now my car starts, I left it running for an hour to charge it a bit, and once I've cleaned it I'll be taking it for a drive! I restarted it again today to check, just turning the key and it wasn't having any of it, which meant I had to get in (eeew - sorry car, but eew!) and rev it quite a lot, but it eventually started up again. Yaaay for my car :)

Though it is now even more moudly and disgusting and needs to be cleaned again. Great. I'm willing to take any volunteers to help! Any takers...? Anyone?? PLEASE???? It was a toss up between tidying my room today and cleaning in the morning (while possibly hungover...it's my friend's birthday today after all!) or cleaning my car today and tidying tomorrow. The rain did put me off and I'm "tidying my room", also known as "updating my blog"!! Hopefully I won't be hungover and will be able to do something for my car tomorrow without being sick!!

I can't leave it in this state, my dad is driving me back this Sunday to see if he can do anything about the rust around the boot which is letting the damp in, so he'll need to be IN the car (I assume!) and it smells rank and looks disgusting and well, he won't want to be kneeling in mould! So that should be a fun task for tomorrow!

Wish me luck, I really hope I won't be sick, that won't help the situation at all!

I'll give you the diagnosis on Sunday about whether or not it can be rescued. Keep your fingers crossed for my baby!


*** FURTHER UPDATE ***


Well I spent 2 hours cleaning my car, using every possible cleaning product under the sun (or so it seemed) and ran out of most of them!! And I couldn't go to the supermarket to get some more...I need a car for that!!


I got almost all of my car cleaned, all except the passenger seat behind the driver. When I last reversed onto my drive I went too close to the hedge and I can't get through the door!

So with about three quarters of an hour left before I had to go and catch a train to go home, and with a fairly damp car (I hadn't thought through that the cleaning products were liquid!) I decided to start up my car, put the heating on full blast and move it forward to clean the last section.


Got in the car and turned the key. It wasn't happy, usual grumblings, so I tried revving it...

And it gave up completely. The battery is once again flat. It was recharged TWO DAYS AGO, it started pretty much alright the day before...but no. It was having none of it! Dad informs me that means the battery is gone and we'll have to get a new one. Fabulous.


So when he drives me back to Uni on Sunday he'll be trying to fix the rust problem, fitting a new battery and hopefully generally checking how my car is!

Come on baby, you can pull through :P

HAPPY BIRTHDAY'S!

So right now it's my American Friend's birthday, and tomorrow it will be my House Mate's birthday. So I just wanted to say...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY to them both :)

Hope you have/had great birthdays and like your presents :)

xxxxxxxxx

Feel Better Soon Little Bro!

We thought this weekend that my brother had chicken pox, which was a bit sad for him but good in that it's a "necessary" childhood thing (Unless you're my sister and apparently immune!).

Mum took him to the doctors today and...

...

It's actually shingles. So he's already HAD chicken pox. Poor little boy :(

For those of you who are that bothered and actually know us, for more detail see mum's blog. But basically it's sad for him and I hope that he gets better soon. 

Sending lots of (gentle!) hugs your way little bro!

xxx

Monstrous Journey!!

Well I can't go into detail about my horrendous journey back to uni last night, as that would give away too much about the various places that I live in!

So I'll sum it up.

I left my house at 4 pm. I got to Station number 1 to find that I had to get a train to Station 2 and then a bus to Station 3. Ok, I could live with this. I had a "gut feeling" that I should turn around and go home, but I figured I just didn't want to go back to uni and I should stop being so daft. I had classes the next day and an assignment due the day after. 

So I got on the train.

Then the bus.

Then another train.

Then another bus.

Then another train.

Then a taxi.

So EIGHT HOURS, 3 trains, 2 buses and 1 taxi later...I slammed into my uni house. Which was remarkably quiet, I like to think that my "I'M GOING TO KILL SOMEONE" aura was responsible for this :P And the fact that I tripped over something and so threw everything at the floor. I was not a happy bunny. If you want a major understatement :P

However the actual weekend at home was fun :) I got to go shopping, which for once was less fun. Have you ANY idea how hard it is to find a suit in a size 8? Waaaay too hard! I eventually found one which I'm not overly happy with but was the best of a bad bunch. Finding a white blouse that doesn't look like a school blouse is even harder! I eventually went for the dreaded "frilly" look, but it kind of works, so I'll let that pass I think! My main problem with it is that I'm not really a "suit" kind of person, I like pretty things, and I like properly fitted things (I have no boobs but a great waist, not many clothes deal with that!!). The suit jacket has padded shoulders which to me looks quite angular and spikey (mum says it's fine, I'll just have to take her word for it!) and the jacket isn't as fitted as I would like. It does nip in at the waist which is nice, but I'm skinny enough for it to go in another few inches!! Ah well. I have one and that's all that matters. So long as Disney likes the look, it doesn't matter what I think!! I wouldn't be happy with it whatever I suppose lol

I also got to see two of my Home Friends, one of which recently passed her driving test (WELL DONE!!) and so drove to see me. And didn't kill anyone! (Again - WELL DONE!!). So that was nice :) I like getting to see people, and since I don't drive over (and am therefore stuck on EVIL EVIL TRAINS) it's nice that people come see me, rather than me not get to see anyone :)

That about sums up my weekend I think. To summarise... Trains are evil...Suits are annoying...Friends and family are good!!

My Car Needs Some Love, Send It Some Love People!

So I haven't driven my car much since I got back from the fencing competition, first because I was still too achey, and then because it was just easier to get into my friends car which was at the front of the drive. And it's not been driven at all in about a week.

When I last drove it I noticed it smelled mildly damp but thought "it's OK, I'll just spray it with some Oust or something". So when today it was my car's turn to drive (my other driving housemate was out, we were to go pick her up on the way), I went down earlier to spray it lots.

I opened the backdoor and stood there in horror.

The entire of the back seats, the floor, the seatbelts, EVERYTHING, was covered in spots of mould. My car looked like it had chicken pox!! My other housemate came down the pathway soon after this, looked at the car, and said a few choice words.

Then, being House Mummy, she examined it properly and announced that it was fine, it was just surface mould, on the way back from lectures we'd just buy anti-bacterial stuff and clean it. No problem.

We got into the front (which wasn't anywhere near as bad) greatly heartened.

Problem Number Two...It wouldn't start. At all.

We'd already rung Other Driver to say "bring a bin bag to sit on!!". Now we rang back again "Uh...can you pick us up?".

All the way to the lecture I tried to get in touch with mum and dad, who I was later told were in a meeting. So I texted mum and she rang me not long later.

Dad calmly explained that because around the edge of the boot was rusted, water was getting through, and because I only drive to lectures or the supermarket etc, I simply wasn't driving long enough for it to dry out. Also, I was using up the battery starting it, and then again not driving long enough to recharge it, so the battery was flat.

Fabulous.

So then me and Other Driver had to go to the supermarket, buy every product that may in some way help, and try and clean my car. It's doing alright so far, but we ran out of daylight so we have to do some more tomorrow. We also didn't want to jump start it off her's because we're a little wary of blowing up the engines or something (we've no clue what lead joins onto what), so HOPEFULLY one of our other friends will come rescue us tomorrow. Then tomorrow we'll be driving to the cinema (about 20 minutes away) to air out the car (all the windows open on a big A-road...fuuuun) and to see High School Musical 3 as a HUUUUGE THANK YOU!! to her for helping me clean my car. And by that, I mean cleaning up most of the mould for me.

THANK YOU, LOVE YOOOOOU!

So send my car some love, it's poorly sick and it needs your happy thoughts to recover! I'm terribly sad over its predicament, and the fact that Dad has now told me that come Spring I really SHOULD get a new car. If it lasts even that long. It's been a good car, it's temperamental, yes, but it's served me well and I love it, even more for it's quirky personality!! My poor baby :(

Update from Alix's

Well after the most insanely long train journey ever I arrived at Alix's university-land. Remind me again why she's worth this nutty trip? :P

We went out of a meal last night with a load of her housemates which was nice, the food was goooood! I seem to remember having been there before and not being too impressed, no idea why! I confuse myself sometimes!!

We sat in the restaurant for ages chatting, loudly, and probably winding up the staff, but never mind :D

Then we came back and watched some INSANE programme which is absolutely hilarious...but insane. Flight of the Conchords or something...?? No idea.

Then we decided we'd go to sleep, after first running around the house and stealing various bed-making things from people! Of course as soon as the lights went off we decided that was the perfect time to chat, we did get to sleep eventually!

Today we went into town to look around, Alix wanted shoes (she found none she liked), and we just mooched. It was fun. Though I kept setting off shop alarms, it's getting quite annoying now! I don't know why but sometimes I set them off...and other times I don't! But I've no idea what I have in my bag or my coat that would set them off! Ah well.

Now I'm sat in her room while she's off decorating the bar for the launch party (for the Winter Ball I'm going to, yaaay!) so I'm updating my blog!

So far it's fun, and tonight should be good also :)

xxx

Excited!

Well all is well in my world at the moment :)

Mum's found my camera stuff and has sent it (or was planning to, I'll assume she has).

I'm off to visit Alix this weekend which is always good fun :) (and she says I can borrow her camera)

The weekend after I'm off home to go shopping for suits and stuff for my Yummy Jobs interview

My pretty, pretty dress is being adjusted so it fits for the Winter Ball I'm going to

AND! Most important and exciting of all!!

Mum just booked my friend's plane ticket :D So now my American friend (who I've been chatting to for years but have never met) is coming to visit over Christmas!

*Happy happy happy dance*

More Whinging

I'm not in the best of moods today, I'm a little over-tired and I've realised that I can't find the charger for my camera. The camera I've been struggling on with even though it's clearly broken, but now it's not that it's given up entirely that I can't use it...no! it's that somewhere between home and uni I've managed to misplace the charger for the battery!! GRR!

I hate losing things, and I've tipped my room absolutely upside down looking for it, it's not in my room at home (someone would have noticed), and it's not where it would have been left in the dining room. ARGH!!

And I'm off to visit Alix next weekend, something that always leads to many picture takings, and it'll drive me mad that I CAN'T! Alix, I hope you realise I may be forced to steal your camera :P

So yeah, now I feel really bad that I've managed to lose something ELSE to do with this camera! I take good care of things really :(

My Brother : Tech Support

Me and my brother's favourite game is Lego Star Wars (as I'm sure everyone who knows me is fully aware of!). However before I went back to uni I discovered it was broken. This was a disaster of GIGANTIC proportions. I was devastated. I did everything I could. Nothing worked. I was heartbroken.

It would appear that no-one told my brother of this tragedy, and he hadn't tried to play it in the weeks that I've been gone. Now that I'm back then the obvious thing for us to do was to play it. Me simply telling him "It's broken" had no effect. He had to try it out for himself.

He was very excited when the Wii turned on...and the picture for the game appeared...he didn't understand that I also had got this far!

He tried to put the game on...and as I had told him...it didn't work!

"Oh. Have you tried cleaning it on your t-shirt?"
"Yes."
"Have you tried phoof-ing it?" (blowing on it)
"Yes."
"Have you tried checking it for scratches?"
"Yes."
"Have you tried turning it off and on again?"
"Yes."
"Oh."

He then proceeded to try all of these things for himself, but then was finally forced to conclude that it was, in fact, broken. Just like I'd tried to tell him 15 minutes earlier!

However, it was absolutely adorable that he's picked up all these ways to fix things, that's exactly the way I approached the problem...and I'm a LOT older than he is! He's very definitely a child of the 21st century!

If he's tired...he's run out of batteries.
If he's forgotten something...his memory card's broken.
If he wants to go to the toilet...we have to "pause" the game.

He by the age of 4 was able to turn on the complicated huge tv, the surround sound and choose what he wanted to watch on Sky. By the age of 5 he was able to set up the Wii and the DVD player, including finding the right channel, he can also set up his computer and games. (Ok, he couldn't plug any of them in etc, but he could use them without help). He totally understands things like blogging, texting and emailing! As well as this he also has an impressive understanding of how things work like cars (and by impressive I mean that his knowledge is about equal to mine, since I'm the poor soul coerced into explaining them!)

UPDATE : I am also being told off for turning him into a geek, as he was VERY excited when we found all of my old Star Wars books, some of which had pictures in. Much to mum's disgust he was able to identify almost every vehicle and scene in the pictures, which GREAT enthusiasm!

"Look at the Time Fighter!!" (TIE fighter)
"Charli, it's a LANDSPEEDER!"
"OOOOH, the mellian VOLCAN" (Millenium Falcon)
"AT-AT!" (followed by gun noises to demonstrate it's use!)

He's pouring over a book about how all the stuff is made and he finds it hilarious.
"Charli, he's a DUMMY! How can a dummy drive a ship?! Only people can do that!"

I'm very proud of my little Star Wars geek, even if he's yet to watch a single one of the films all the way through!! :P

UPDATE

My sister is a twit.

BUT I WASN'T REPSONSIBLE OR INVOLVED IN THE BREAKING OF THE SHOWER :D

Little sister was reading Mum's blog, which also recounted my disasterous day, turned around to us and absolutely sincerely said -

"Oh, didn't you know the shower was broken?"

Uh...no? No-one TOLD us it was broken!

Sis "Oh, well yeah it's been broken for ages, that's why I've been taking such quick showers"

Us "What???! How long has it been broken for?!"

Sis "Oh like...5 days?"

Us "You didn't think to tell anyone!?"

Sis "I figured someone would take a shower and notice, plus I kept forgetting. It really was a horrible smell, hurt my nose."

So she's a moron, and the broken shower is nothing to do with me :D

It's turning out to be one of them days...

Where did we leave off?

Ah I was feeling sorry for myself in bed, ok. I am now out of bed lol I stayed in bed all morning and a bit of the afternoon, but dragged myself out for my last lecture and my language class.

On my way there I got a phonecall off my mum and WE PASSED PANEL!!! WOOOOOOOOOO! See mum's blog for details :D

Anyway, that's not why it's one of "them" days, I'm just on catch-up first.

The week was fairly uneventful, did nothing of interest really.

Yesterday I came home for the weekend since it was Dad's birthday earlier in the week :) Happy Birthday Daddy :)

Mum, Sis and Bro all came to pick me up from the station, I was very confused about why they were sat in the car outside though. But when I got to the car I found Little Bro absolutely zonked in the back. He woke up when he heard the doors opening and closing though, looking VERY confused to find me grinning at him!!

He quickly woke up properly and we went to McDonalds on the way home, where he got a Star Wars lightsaber. Which of course he had to attack me with. It quite quickly got confiscated when I got hit repeatedly on the knees with it!!

When we got back I got to put him to bed (not that he stayed there!) then sat downstairs chatting to mum and various people on MSN.

Now we get to today...

I got dragged out of bed at 7.30 and moped about for a bit, eating my breakfast and stuff. Little Bro read his reading book to me, which I am VERY proud about because apparently at school they gave him the wrong book and this is a few levels ahead of what he's supposed to be reading, but the FABULOUS clever boy barely even had to think about it! He didn't know "Can't" but this is a hard one, so as soon as I told him that's what it was, off he went! BRILLIANT :D He also did his spellings, again absolutely no problem. He's my little boy genius :)

I then had to dash upstairs to throw some clothes on so I could go and take him up to school.

When we got back I decided I'd go and have a shower. This is when the trouble started...

I got in the shower and was quite happily shampoo-ing my hair when I noticed a weird smell, I ignored this for a bit while I tried to wash the shampoo out but it was getting worse, and it was a pretty awful smell. So I started looking around and realised that white smoke was coming out of where the pipe thingy joined the box thingy. (Technical terminology that is :P).

EEK!

So I turned the shower off, wrapped up in a towel, then stuck my head out of the door to shout mum.

Nothing.

Two kittens appeared, but no mum. So I had to traipse through the kitchen and dining room, dripping wet, loads of shampoo still in my hair, absolutely freezing, to find her. She was in the hallway and so hadn't heard me. Ah well.

She went to look at the shower and her guess was as good as mine (Er...I don't know...I'll ring the handyman or something...). So I had to go and have a bath. I hate baths, they're alright if you're just laid in a nice warm bubble bath with a book, but for actual washing? Yuck. However, clean is clean, right? And it got the shampoo out of my hair lol.

Then I decided that I was hungry.

So I proceeded to root through the fridge, and threw a fair bit of stuff out, then started on the freezer and have now taken a load out for me to eat over the next few days.

I decided on a garlic flatbread, which I defrosted in the microwave (took forever), grated some cheese onto, and put in the oven.

After the first 5 minutes it didn't even begin to look cooked, so I moved the shelf up to the top and put it in for another 5 minutes. STILL didn't look cooked. However this time when I shut the door back up there was a bright flash of light in the oven and then the entire thing went off.

Charli : 2 , Technology : 0 (or is the technology winning here since I'm not actually getting to do what I want...? Hmm).

I decided to microwave the garlic bread to see if that would get the cheese to melt. Mum finally thought to mention that it was Wensleydale (or similar) that that wouldn't melt. Ah. That would explain it then. So I ate it un-melted (ugh, not anywhere near as nice).

So now I've been banned from touching anything else technological in the house, this mostly just includes the TV, the Wii and mum's computer lol.

Fingers crossed I won't break anything else!!

Update from Bed

Well I'm currently wrapped up in bed feeling sorry for myself!! I ache all over and feel sick and blergh. Not sure if it's because of the fencing competition yesterday or if I'm coming down with something, either way I feel like death!!

I drove for 2 hours on Saturday to get to my Auntie's house, which was 10 minutes away from the competition I went to. It was lovely to see her and we went out for a meal (she had no food in!) and then watched Sleepless in Seattle. Very cute film with lots of references to An Affair To Remember, which I now also want to watch!

The next day I got up at 9! Woah! I've never been able to get up any later than about 6 to go to a competition!! Then I drove over to the school where it was being held, my mum's old school no less!! Very cool :)

I had every expectation to be thoroughly thrashed at the competition, but since I found out when I got there that I'd get a medal either way, and I only really went for the chance to see my family, I couldn't care less!

I did much better than expected, at the end of the first poule I was last in the poule but ranked 10th overall (out of 11 - not last!!), at the end of the second poule I was 4th in the poule (out of 6 both times) and ranked 7th over all!! Not bad! So I came out of the poules with an overall ranking of 8th. (sorry for the overuse of the word "over all"!!)

Then came the D.E. which is normally my forte, but I got beaten something like 15-3, oops!!! At the end of the competition I was ranked 9th out of 11 and got the Highest Ranked Under 20 medal :D Which wasn't hard...I was the ONLY under 20, but still absolutely delighted!

I then went over to see my Grandma and Grandad, and my Auntie again who was there as well! My dad and sister also turned up after running an errand, they'd been to watch the competition which was lovely :) Thank you! Even if you were bored, sis!!

The 2 hour drive back was nightmarish though. The sun was in my eyes the WHOLE time, then it dropped into twilight which I actually find WORSE to drive in! I was tired, I was achey, everything seemed to try and go wrong...I drove an hour then stopped at a McDonalds and refused to drive any further!!

Of course I did eventually get back in my car and somehow made it back the last hour. The final 15 minutes was pretty awful but I got back in one piece!

I then got in and was asked if I wanted to go to the cinema (20 minutes back in the direction I'd just come from!) the answer, funnily enough, was a big NO!!! I just sat in my room on my computer being "Bleeeerghhh" and tired lol

Then when I tried to get up this morning, as already said, I felt like death. I would say like death warmed up but that would imply that I was warm!! So I haven't gone to two of my classes, hopefully I'll be ok to go to my lecture...? And possibly more importantly I'll make it to my language class, which I'm not very good at and really don't want to miss!!!

So that's about it for now I think?

oooh mum and dad are at a VERY IMPORTANT meeting right now so -
GOOD LUCK, YOU'LL BE FINE :D

xxxx

Best Day EVER!

Today I went to HEAVEN ON EARTH which is the most amazing gym/pool/jacuzzi/EVERYTHING, I'm never showering at my cottage again when I can have an AMAZING AND WARM SHOWER THERE! This was followed by internetting where I found out I'M THROUGH TO THE NEXT ROUND OF INTERVIEWS FOR DISNEY! THEN I went back to my house and the internet got set up!!! Seriously the best day EVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Quick Update

Ok so I'm caving in to popular demand and updating my blog!

Where did we get up to? The B&B I believe...? Which was, by the way, absolutely rubbish. The man was a bit weird, the breakfast was huge (but otherwise good I guess), it stank of stale smoke, and they were way paranoid. We had to pay when we got there (could have told us...we had no money) and so had to pay a deposit, the internet was locked and we spent ages finding the password...it was generally ruuuubish. Ah well, I had internet! lol

At the moment I'm in a university building using their internet, been here the past 3 days running!!

I've not been up to much, spent a lot of time being miserable and homesick and generally being wound up by the people I live with! Pretty much calmed down now, it was helped by Housemate L admitting she thought a lot of the things I did! We also sorted the kitchen, which weirdly was the main thing bugging me! I'm not OCD...honest...

So far I've done very little productive, not even put up my shelves on my bookcase yet!! (Yes mother I'll do it soon!). But what I HAVE done is sign up to lots of random societies, I fully intend on having no free time :P

I've joined...

Fencing (well, technically I didn't sign up, I just turn up for training, they know I'm coming)

Judo

Ki-Aikido

Photography

Film Society

Amnesty International

Student Volunteering

Some random society that does ghost tours

Japanese Society (I'm now learning two languages this year)

Blood donor group

Looking out for First Aid courses

Yeah ok looking at the list I'm going to diiiie! But I'll be able to kill you all first, then revive you, talk to you in two different languages, then kill you again before I do :P

So far I've only gone to the Ki-Aikido which is WEIRD but lots of fun and really interesting. I'd never be able to explain it, so I would recommend looking it up if you want to know about it!! 

Going to Ki-Aikido again on Friday and doing Judo on Tuesday (I think??).

Apparently we're going out tonight which should be fun, I haven't done any Fresher's Week-ing yet! It's disgraceful lol

I don't remember anything else I've done, so I'm sorry if I missed anything out!

Talk soon, internet in 7 working days - woooo! :D

Miss you all

Charli

xxxxxx

Going to Uni

The next day I got up to mind my brother while my parents went out and got Dad's new car. Since my car is with me at uni that would have left them with a bit of a problem!

When they got back I stalled going packing for as long as possible!

I went and got dressed.

I insisted on a picture with my brother and sister.

I got something to eat.

I did lots and lots! But eventually I did have to go and pack. Ugggh.

There wasn't much left to do, just pick out a couple of weeks worth of clothes, sort my stuff some more to make sure I only had what I needed and then labelled all the stuff that was left. Like I had a "Ask Dad" pile, a "Going to Uni Next time" pile, a "Not going to Uni" pile etc. For mum to deal with later, have fun with that :P

After some more stalling once I was done, I packed up my laptop and started loading the car. Well, dad loaded the car, me and my sister dragged it all downstairs!!

Stalled some more...then it was time for hugs and kisses and setting off :(

Me and mum drove over to grandma's (half way point!) for food and drinks and hello's, then after a while we had to set back off again.

OOH! Part way to grandma's I took over the driving :D I only drove for 15 minutes, but I did major traffic jams on a big hill, a little bit of motorway AND driving with my GPS :D I was so proud of me!! (Be proud, you know you want to!).

We got to my uni, everyone helped bring stuff inside, then me and mum got 'ranging.

We then get a phonecall off the B&B man asking if we were coming, so we went and checked in, then went over to the supermarket to buy food and a blanket and stuff.

We dropped all the food off and put it away, before us all going off to dinner as mum's treat.

Turned out we should have booked a table!! We waited about an hour and a half before our food arrived. And that hour and a half wasn't just sat at a table, that includes the AAAGES we sat waiting FOR a table!!

It was good, cheap food though and everyone seemed to have a good time :)

Me and mum then came over to the B&B and collapsed in bed to SLEEEEEP! Very long day, though much longer for mum who had to drive all this way.

THANK YOU MUMMY! :)

Soon we're off away from the B&B (and from internet - 10 working days til we get it, nooo!). Going to Argos for bookshelves and then supermarket for a microwave!! Mum's train is at 2pm, and then I'm back to unpacking, sorting and generally being a bit sad :(

Miss everyone already but I'll see you all soon! Try not to have too much fun in your various places without me!!

Ooh and Alix, text me how you'd like your money for the Ball and I'll get mum to send it over. An address would also be good lol I don't want to miss out, Charli-ella want's her ball!!! :P

xxx

Quick Catch-Up

Let's see, where did I get up to?

Right, after the night out I was pretty exhausted but the next day I had another driving lesson, this time driving to Big Shopping Centre an hour away. I was told that she would direct me there, however I had to direct me back again. AAAARRRRGGGGHHH! I absolutely panicked about that ALL morning, to the point where I was almost sick and when it came time for me to go I burst into tears and was completely hysterical at mum!!

I eventually left and met up with the Driving Lady. We went through all the checks on the car you had to do (and found out I had no oil, dad fixed that for me yesterday morning - Thank You Dad!), what to do if I broke down on the motorway (apparently it's more complicated than "Pull over and ring the AA!"). Then we set off. Still scary, but less so at night, and she let me drive at 60 if I wanted to drive at 60, whereas the man the day before tried to get me to stay at 70.

We eventually got there, went for a drink and a walk around, then it was my turn to navigate. I'd already plotted a route, and she showed me it on the map, then we put the page up where I could see it and I had to set off. And I managed it! I got all the way back :D

There were only two near-mishaps which she took pity on me and wouldn't let me make. One was being in the wrong lane on a big roundabout (3 lane roundabout with traffic lights, we don't have them at home!!). I was in the lane nearest to the actual roundabout, and then was like "Uh...how to I get over there to turn off?!" so we just went around again!!

Another time I was told by my directions (thank you multi-map!) to take the second exit on the roundabout. Ok, services exit one...there's exit two. Apparently the services don't count as an exit?! We couldn't figure out why, but since it was an understandable mistake she told me I wanted the next exit.

We got back to the supermarket, paid up, and she was gone! Best £40 I ever spent of my parents money!!!

I refused to motorway back home again though, I was sick of them and I wanted my nice scenery and country roads with CORNERS lol

xx

I'm Off

I'm going in a minute *sob* See you all soon, I'll update my blog when I next have internet

LOVE ALWAYS
xxxxxxxxxxxxx

"I'm gonna dance the night awaaay"

Well I finally found things to do, people were nice enough to talk to me and I sorted some more of my stuff for uni.

Just before 7 I went over to the next village to meet up with a driving instuctor so I could go out on a motorway and learn how to do it properly.

It was TERRIFYING! It was dark and scary and I DIDN'T LIKE IT! I went on 4 different motorways I think and I was out for about an hour and a half. I got back home and nearly fell over when I stepped out of the car! My back which had been hurting anyway had absolutey DIED, my arms, shoulders, my knees, my neck, my EVERYTHING ached!

I just went in and collapsed on the sofa feeling sorry for myself and refusing to go anywhere!

This was a bit of a problem though since I was already late to meeting my friends and going out though!!

I eventually dragged myself up the stairs and got changed and was ready to out. Protesting that I didn't want to the whole time!

I drove me and my friend to another friend's house. Two of them were already DRUUUUNK and the other was only around for a while. Boo hoo! She was going out driving at 8 the next morning for lots of driving practice before her test on Monday.

GOOD LUCK! You'll do fine and text me straight away to tell me about it!

After talking a lot, watching "Vanessa" and Alix drink some more and generally making a lot of noise, we drove over into town.

We started at the Place of Amazingly Cheap Shots, then went to Where Mini Sam Works (but wasn't working that night!) and THEEEN moved over to Cheesey Music Night!!

It was fabulous night, I didn't get to do much dancing because I was daft enough to go out in KILLER heels and I couldn't stand up for long without dying!! Ah well, watching Alix and "Vanessa" be drunk and loud was hilarious :D

Vanessa isn't her real name though! We were at some chicken take-out place at the end of the night when she was being contrary and difficult at some drunk man stupid enough to try and talk to her! She refused to give her name (My name's....um....Vanessa"), how old she was ("How old do you think I am?") etc etc. I was dying of embarressment in the corner, I'm sure I would have found it hilarious while drunk, but sober I was mortified!!

I got to bed around 2.30 am. No wonder I've been exhaustd all day today!!

Just one of them days!

Mum came in and woke me up at 7.30 and told me she was going back to bed for a bit since Little Bro woke her up some time before 6 and she was tiiiired! I had no problem with this.

I got up, got him some breakfast, let him watch TV while he ate (he's not meant to but I was too tired to argue!), checked my emails while he was eating, got him dressed, read his reading book, did his spellings, got my own breakfast, got myself dressed, read a book...And still had loads of time to spare!! Me and mum are still trying to figure out what I missed since most mornings we're rushing!

We drove up to school since I wasn't entirely sure what time school started or how long it would take me to walk there. I say walk, but there's no walking involved since Little Bro goes off at top speed on his scooter!!

I came back and generally mooped around tidying up bits here and there, wrote a big long email to my friend and made some lunch, til mum got up at about 10.30 demanding to know why I hadn't woken her up already - "The social workers are coming!!!"

I (hopefully) convinced her it was ok, there was barely any tidying to do and the social worker wasn't due for another 4 hours. BREATHE! I didn't want to wake her up, she was tired and she needs to be awake for social worker-ing!!

I then went off to the next village to drop ANOTHER 4 big bags off at the charity shop and then my car off at the garage to have it's wingmirror fixed. No I didn't break it, I had nothing to do with it!!

I then sat outside in the GLORIOUS sunshine (we have BLUE SKY! I took a picture of it to commemorate this momentous event!) drinking a can of coke and eating some chocolate. After half an hour or so I wandered back over to the garage to see how my baby was doing.

The wing-mirror was only half on, but the fix-it man was busy sorting some other people out. He then went back to my car, drove it out onto the road for me, I paid up and I was off.

Or so I thought.

I got into my car and immediately stalled it. I keep forgetting they leave it in gear!! Shamefacedly I tried to start it up again.

Nothing.

So I tried again.

Still nothing.

I held the accelerator down while I turned the key.

Nope, still nothing.

The fix-it man came running out to help.

"Alright love? Try locking it and unlocking it again, the immobilisers probably on".

Nope still wouldn't start.

"Ok then, jump out of the car let me try."

The little monster wasn't having ANY of it.

"Just one of them days, eh! Let me just go put these papers away then I'll come back and have a look under the bonnet"

While he was off I rang mum to explain what was going on, she rather impatiently told me I'd have to go back to the garage, not realising I WAS at the garage!! When I explained she just laughed and said she'd see me when I got back then. The man returned and lifted up the bonnet.

"Alright, can you try turning the key again for me?"

Started with no trouble at all.

He looked just as stumped as I was!! He shrugged at me, shut the bonnet up and sent me on my way with a rather bemused smile!!

I got back, regailed my parents with my adventures in Other Village, decided my car was just sulking about being stalled, then got sent to make drinks for everyone as the social worker arrived.

So now I'm sat up in my room doing...absolutely nothing.

Someone care to entertain me?

Poor Little Bro!

Little Bro really is looking worse for wear at the moment, he's covered in cuts and bruises and grazes! So far in the past two days...

- Mum caught the side of his nose with her nail while she tried to stop him messing about at the same time as him turning around.
- Chasing after a friend after school yesterday he "Superman"ed up the pavement grazing his elbow
- On the way back from school today he fell off his scooter and skidded up the pavement so now his knees and legs are covered in grazes and he's hobbling along everywhere. "I've an owie leg so I won't be able to go to school tomorrow!"

And to make it all worse his Girlfriend got sent home from school today because she's poorly! He was telling me all about it ...

Bro - "My Girlfriend got cold at school and had to go home, I kept wondering where she was but she'd gone home"
Me - "Did you give her a hug to make her feel better?"
Bro - "Yeah I did. I tried to make her feel warm but she didn't, my hands were warm so I tried to warm her up but it didn't work."

He was quite distressed that he couldn't warm her up, I don't think he understands the idea of being poorly and feeling hot and cold and needing to go home for Calpol!!

Feel better soon Little Bro's Girlfriend!!

(Though apparently she's not his girlfriend anymore, but he won't tell her because she'll kill him! He doesn't have ANY girlfriends because we keep singing that "STUPID SONG" i.e. "Little Bro and Girlfriend sitting in a tree K . I . S . S . I . N. G ." etc!)

"I believe in angels, something good in everything I see"

We were in the car today listening to the soundtrack to Mamma Mia when the song "I have a dream" came on. Little Bro listened for a minute then asked ...

Bro - "What does it mean 'I believe in angels'?"

Me - "Well do you know what angels are?"

Bro - "Yeah, they're like fairies"

Me - "Well believe means that you think they are real, if you don't believe then you don't think they're real"

Bro - "If you say you don't believe in fairies then a fairy dies, but I like fairies and I don't want them to do die so I believe in fairies...and angels!"

He's a little sweetheart, as well as worrying about the welfare of fairies and angels, he's decided that when he grows up he wants to save the world! A few days later he then decided that he also wanted to save the princesses, but he wouldn't marry them as well because that wouldn't be fair to the boys who didn't get to rescue them!

He's proof chivalry isn't dead and he'll make a fabulous Jungle Fury Power Ranger one day :) Even if he does only want to be a Jungle Fury ranger because Theo [blue ranger] is "Sooo cute!!". I think he's spent way too much time with his teenage sisters!!

Starting as I mean to go on (ie wafflingly!)

Today started at 7.30am when mum dragged me out of bed. At least today I wasn't woken by kittens or by someone being at the door! The past 2 days in a row there's been someone at the door, so I'd leap out of bed after the second knock, assuming no-one else was in, only for mum to answer the door! Gutting!

I was pretty tired so I just slumped on the sofa for a while, making mum worry that I was sad about something and wouldn't be able to "bounce" sufficiently for my interview. But I was fine, just tired! I was cheerier once I woke up a bit more. Breakfast was interesting as Little Bro (we think) had messed with the settings in the fridge and everything in there was frozen, including the margarine and the milk!!

We took Little Bro to school then came home to wait for a wonderful, wonderful man who cleaned our oven. I hadn't realised how dirty it was until I saw how beautiful and shiny it is now! It seems a shame to cook in it!

I had the much awaited and fairly dreaded interview (read about it here http://charliemalo.blogspot.com/), which HOPEFULLY went quite well? I think I did the best I could do, and the lady seemed positive, so now we just have to wait 3 weeks to see if my best was good enough to get me another interview. Keep your fingers crossed for me!

Once my interview was done we went over to the next village to take a load of stuff to the tip (which we had to sort out while we were there, should have got Dad to sort it as he tidied!), then 5 big bags to the charity shop (that's quite good for us, normally it's 7 or 8 bags!). After that we went over to the bank the FINALLY sort my account out and make it a Student Account. They were lovely and helpful, it's gret how nice everyone is in villages :)

Then mum treated me to a bacon butty and some chocolate, made me feel muuuuuch better. I was actually shaking when I went downstairs after my interview, so bacon and chocolate was JUUUUST what I needed! Though not at the same time, YUUUCK!

For the rest of the day I just sort of lazed around and checked up on how everyone elses interviews went, before deciding I wanted a blog. I then spent the rest of the afternoon and a large part of the evening playing at blogging!! Mum kept laughing at me but it was quite good fun! Had lots of trouble with getting pictures to fit, but I like how it all is now :)

We had a Chippy Tea tonight, we go to that chippy waaaay too often but it's a good chippy! Under it's older management I'd just have to ring up to order and get as far as "Hello..." before they started on "Ahh! It's our best customer! An order for the [our house]?". They were lovely but I found it quite embarressing! Now it's got new people working there but they've started to recognise me too, they were quite surprised the other day when I went in and asked for a Steak and Onion Pie instead of a Mixed Shish Kebab for Dad. "No mix shish today?!" Aah it's quite shameful I think! Either we need to go there less or Mum and Dad need to do the driving more often!!

Oooh that's what else I did, I heard back from a driving instructor that I'd rung. I wanted to know if I could have a lesson on motorways before going back to Uni on Saturday. WOW IT'S SOUNDS TERRIFYING! She's taking me to the shopping centre about an hour away, so I can practice longer driving, motorways, going on and off them etc. She'll direct me there, then I direct myself back (with written directions). Apparently if I miss a turn and get lost that's "GREAT!", she won't tell me I've missed it until I leave the county, then we'll stop and look at a map. I'm SCARED!! This sounds awful!! SAVE MEEEE! I don't do maps! I don't do directions! I'm HOPELESS! That's why Dad just bought me a GPS!! EEK!

That's all for now I think...
Charli

Starting Blogging

I started my "journey to Disney" blog and was told that I should keep it up to date with my day-to-day things. So rather than distract from the important bits on that blog (ie the Disney bits!) I thought I'd start a general blog.

Whether or not I keep it updated is another matter entirely of course, I've always been terrible at these sorts of things!!

I'll try though :)

Charli