Do you think the girls here ever wonder how they got so pretty?

I don't even know who reads this anymore but I guess I should update for the sake of it.

- AAA in A-levels, got into uni. Will be moving in 3 weeks and a few days to Kingston, living on about £94 a week when my loan/grants kick in.
- Still going out with Luca. We've been to Spain and Italy together and he's moving to London too so I see us staying together foreeeever. We're even starting to plan getting a flat nexy year for 2nd year. Can't wait.
- Tomorrow I set off for Leeds festival where I'll be seeing Radiohead, Placebo, Brand New, Vampire Weekend, Patrick Wolf, blah blah blah, everyone.

That's about it, haha.

So, my last ever week of Sacred Heart starts tomorrow. Funny how last year I planned to switch to college, planned to go to uni in America, blah blah blah. And yet, I stuck with SH and opted for London for uni instead. But instead of a total failed plan, it's actually happening. I'm actually going to move to the other end of the country in September. I'm quite proud of myself.

Leaver's Mass is on Thursday, Leaver's Dinner is on Friday. No idea what to wear.

Revision is going alright. My birthday is a week tomorrow. So is the start of exams, oh no. It's okay, the gift of finishing war synoptic forever and ever on my birthday is the best gift ever. Mum is getting me clothes. No idea what Michael, Luca or my friends will get me, we'll see. :D

Then on the 19th of June, I'm having a joint birthday celebration with Claire and Heather of a massive pub crawl. Then a few days later, an English Lit & Lang night out. Another few days and it's my AEA exam, then right off to Manchester to see Brand New. Fabbity.

Don't even get me started on how awesome the summer will be.

The 1920s. I love the music, the hair styles, the clothes, the way they talked, EVERYTHING.

Hey, it's been 14 weeks since I've last updated!

Last time I posted, I was revising for my LAST exams (I got A's in them, all good in the hood) and now I have to revise for my exams in June. The big, important, final ever decide-your-next-three-years exams. Jolly good. I'm super nervous but hopefully I won't fail too spectacularly and besides, it'll be pretty tricky for me to get lower than a C in Literature which is all I need. Phew.

So yeah, my university has been chosen (Kingston University London) which will be awesome, 20 mins away from London. Access to all the good gigs ever. I'm going to be so broke. I just sorted out finances in a panic the other day, hopefully I didn't mess up and I'll get the whole shebang. I also need to decide on beautiful halls with shared bathroom (though you get your own sink in your beautiful room) or not so beautiful halls with en suite. Hmm, I'm tempted to go for beautiful because it's only for a year and if all else fails, I can wash my hair in the sink. Hah.

I'll be 18 soon, how weird is that? I've spent years wishing away my years for legality and it's literally right around the corner. But guess who has a 3 hour birthday exam to celebrate... ¬__¬ Yeah, party time. Not. And most people have exams the day after too so no huge party after it either. I fret not though, I' m planning a huge pub crawl with Heather and Claire to celebrate our poorly timed birthdays together. And since exams will be well over, there is no excuse of 'oh, i have to revise'. So the turnout will be something special.

Things are going fab with Luca. We're still together! It'll be 6 months on Friday, how amazing. I love him. :) Handily, he's going to Imperial College in London so no nasty heartbreaks over circumstances ahoy. :D

Eeerm, what else. Oh, upcoming plans. Wahey. Intend to see Cursive right before exams kick in, just to keep morale high. Then I have Evolution Festival (aka The Wombats and The Human League), Brand New in Manchester, tempted to go to Field Day in London (for Final Fantasy mostly, but seeing Mogwai and a few others would be a nice bonus) and then Leeds Festival for pretty much the whole line up so far. Radiohead will make me explode. Then after that, further explosion with moving out all the way to Kingston (aka the other end of the country) and living adult-like. Ish.

Eep. Growing up is fun.

I've left this thing for a week, whoops.

I've been ultra-busy with learning/revising for exams as well as the occaisional thing for:
http://www.changetherecord.co.cc/

Yeah man, shameless plug. Basically, a few online friends and I got sick of this dude acting like his online music blog was the most elite thing on earth and decided to do our own which doesn't restrict its genres. We post about rock, rap, indie, pop, whatever, we're a music blog for everyone.

Naturally I'm covering the indie side. I'm email-interviewing Mother Mother soon and Jeremy Enigk (!!!!!) in March so far. Oh and hopefully if I get on the guestlist, a review for The Thermals. Not to mention the early listenings I get of upcoming albums. I feel so cool. We're only 2 weeks into it, it's crazy how nice publicists are! So yeah, this is a nice new hobby for me and a good chance to increase my English skills.

In other news, there is no other news. Except that I am addicted to BBQ Chicken Pizza from Tesco. Everyone try it.

Well, happy new year to you all. 2009 is here already, crikey.

Since I was too busy yesterday to post my happy thing, here's a bumper edition.

1. Spending NYE with good friends, good food and good drink.
2. FINALLY having someone to kiss on the New Year countdown, yesss!
3. A newly discovered love of cheese thanks to Rachel the cheese connoisseur. I honestly thought all cheese consisted of chedder, haha.
4. BBQ chicken pizza later. Words cannot describe how much I'm looking forward to it.
5. Not being ill even after trying what feels like every kind of alcohol ever.

Basically, an awesome start to 2009, wahey!

Today's happy thing:

Reading a whole war novel (509 pages!) in four hours and doing an essay on it. Maybe a really bad essay but an essay all the same!
And having a whole bunch of Decemberists to listen to now I've reached them in my music collection.

1. Post about something that made you happy today even if it's just a small thing.
2. Do this everyday for a week without fail.
3. Tag 8 of your friends to do the same.
I tag: everyone. ever.

Today's thing:

Hanging out with Rachel and Leanne who I've known since primary school and eating spanish food and pineapple and posh cheese from Waitrose without worrying about how I look or how they'd view me. Just complete comfort with two girls who feel like my sisters. :D

Oh and just talking to Luca, hee.

The last week has been crazy hectic, constantly doing the Panto which was super fun but exhausting! I managed to pretty much get my own round of applause after doing a silly OTT 'allllll byyyyyy myyyyyyyyseeeeeeeeelf' thing (think Bridget Jones) on my own which was an ego boost in itself, haha.

Then on Thursday, we went to Pizza Hut to celebrate the awesomeness of Panto and the food was delicious. The waitress was super lovely too and managed to get double chicken on our pizza! Win. Then Leanne and I pigged out and had a cookie dough dessert which was worth the extra calories.

Thursday night, the Hollywood party. I sorta stressed out for no apparent reason beforehand but my brother managed to calm me down. When I got there, it was awesome and everyone was having fun until someone's PARENT (???) rang in to complain that there was 16 year olds there. God damn. So we all pretty much got thrown out so we went to Coco V's instead which was cool. Then that place closed so we went to Gotham which was uber smokey and sold vibrating rings in the toilets. Odd stuff.

Friday: pointless.

Saturday: Spent the night throwing up for no apparent reason which was horrible and worrying because I had plans for the next day.

Then yesterday! Slept over at Luca's last night. Funsies. ;)

It's a Saturday night and I am really, really bored because:

a) Luca is at work so I have nobody interesting to talk to.
b) I have been online so much in the past week that the internet is no longer amusing me.
c) I have exhausted all my games.
d) There is nothing to do but sleep but I have also slept too much this week and so I refuse to nap until later.

Unfortunately, I can't just nap then wake up at 11pm (then go to bed at 3am or something silly) because there are panto rehearsals tomorrow at 10am. 10am!! I am never up at that time on a Sunday.

It's a monstrosity.

Today I ate too much at Nandos and too many apple and cinnamon cookies. Bad times.

To remedy this boredom/lethargy, I am dancing to Animal Collective (as you do) in my chair while playing Word Challenge on Facebook furiously. It's an addiction, guys.

(Take the first line of your first non-meme post from each month of 2008 and post it)
January: Hello 2008, you are looking particularly beautiful for a new year.
February: My LJ is rather public.
March: So, I got my sociology result back from my first ever A level exam.
April: So getting my Weekend ticket was possibly the highlight of March which is silly considering they went on sale on the 31st.
May: This week has been bittersweet. (wow, me contemplating college then...)
June: So as my birthday week draws to a close (we decided to dedicate the week to my birthday, haha), I feel like reflecting. (and I decide to stay at SH, thank god!)
July: I've been on and off with my mood this week, it's been crazy.
August: Long time no see. I suppose it has only been a month but life has been amazingly good!
September: I finally got around to buying the tickets for the Tilly and the Wall gig in October.
October: This is going to be mostly vague because I have no idea who I personally know is reading (if you're outside of Newcastle, you're cool) and despite several attempts, I can't even rephrase that sentence to make sense to anyone.
November: Butterflies when I think of him and all. (aw yay!)
December: Good news: UCAS HAS FINALLY SENT OFF!!!!

So yeah, 2008 has been an awesome year. Good exam results, good decisions, good music, good gigs, awesome friends, awesome family and a lovely boyfriend to boot.

Reading over my entries, it still amuses me that I still haven't got a working router.

Congratulations; Kingston University has asked us to tell you that it is offering you a place for English Literature with Criminology, Q3M9; starting in September 2009 at point of entry 1.

The conditions of the offer are:

This offer is subject to you obtaining A minimum of 240 UCAS Tariff points from at least 2 GCE A levels or AVCEs including GCE A level Grade C - English Literature

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU
*bows down to almighty ucas*
I could literally only start tracking my offers yesterday, maybe Kingston fell off their chairs when they saw my application.
Ohh, this is weird, it's like a confirmation that I'm actually doing something with my life.
And Kingston is beautiful, I need to go there.

240 points is easy, so it looks 100%. :D

I am so hungry, like woah.

Yesterday was good, got a haircut which only cost £30 as opposed to £40. I think she took pity on me as I played the whole 'broke student' act. Then I met up with Luca and we spent the day wandering, eating paella and cookies (apple and cinnamon cookies, oh my god, there is nothing better) and cuddling :)

I have to say, I hate trumpeters that play jolly festive tunes. Seriously, shut up.

I keep dreaming about UCAS, it's irritating.


Still, 18 days left until Christmas.
:D

I don't know if anyone here likes Arcade Fire but even if you don't, you should listen to their Christmas EP because it is the funniest thing I have ever heard that is related to Christmas.

It's like they all got drunk and stuck on a recorder and started singing/playing.
But because it's Arcade Fire, it's not embarrassing.

It's hysterical, especially when they butcher O Holy Night (aka my fave Christmas song).

Oh my.

Good news:

UCAS HAS FINALLY SENT OFF!!!! I feel like a major weight has been lifted off my shoulders and even though I was majorly worried about how awful my personal statement was, the deputy head said it was one of the best she had seen so I'm rather glad. Now to obsessively check my tracking.

Since it's snowing frantically here in the North East of jolly old England, I have been feeling really festive. Moreso than normal. I think I downloaded about 163 christmas songs off indierockcafe yesterday. They're all pretty awesome (especially Polyphonic Spree covering Happy Christmas (War Is Over), it's like it was meant to be) but they don't quite compare to Sufjan Stevens and Bright Eyes' Christmas albums. Although I may be biased there.

Anyway, 6 inches of snow apparently. Holy hell.

( Things to do before I die, apparently. )

This is going to be mostly vague because I have no idea who I personally know is reading (if you're outside of Newcastle, you're cool) and despite several attempts, I can't even rephrase that sentence to make sense to anyone. This is sleep deprivation kicking in.

My hormones are all over, it's great, I'm kind of enjoying it. I love the awkwardness of it all and it gives me stuff to think about.

UCAS is still a pain in the bum. I have said this every day for the past two weeks - I WILL GO TO THE MENTORS OFFICE AND CRY AND BEG THEM TO HELP ME WITH MY PERSONAL STATEMENT. I know, I know, everyone finds it easy and I'm just over-thinking it and blah blah blah blah but I can't, can't do it. I can write about anything, just not myself.

I have made my peace with hip hop and rap music through the genius that is Cage and I've just downloaded the top 100 greatest rap songs of all time. I'll be the judge of that. Actually, I can't be the judge of that since I haven't heard every rap song ever but they have to beat Cage.

I SERIOUSLY love Hey Ya! - By Outkast right now. I know, like 5 years late but it came on the radio in the common room and it was a happy moment.

I am determined to complete all the sudokus on More Brain Training on my DS. I also spent about an hour recreating Sufjan Stevens songs on Nintendogs. La la la procrastination.

When I open my window for a while, every time, there is a singular woodlouse walking across my carpet. It really freaks me out because I fleetingly believe they are living under my bed but then I befriend them and name them after war poets because I fail.

I want to go into McDonalds and steal their wifi but the charvs will nick my laptop.

Ice added to any drink makes me feel content.

I have just realised the irony of me saying earlier that I can't write about myself. Evidently I CAN write about myself, just nothing that is of relevance to university.

Tilly and the Wall is next week and I am too excited.

I am already listening to christmas songs - more specifically the Bright Eyes Christmas Album which is quite clearly the best festive thing out there.

Halloween is first though and I may be going to a party dressed as a nun. This was vaguely based on Isabella from Measure For Measure. However, I'm not sure if going as a nun is a wise idea because I imagine they must get rather hot under all that clothing. Not that I'm condoning less clothes over purity and such but come on, comfortability. So I might just cop out and go as a witch.

Now to debate action + sleep or sit here + tiredness. Hmmm.

It's weird how friendship can be so awesome but so restricting at times. I can't exactly discuss it here (many spies have many eyes, and such) but for god sake, if only the unwritten rules of friendship didn't exist.

Also, I'm now awaiting an apology from two people. I'm more likely to get one from the most recent person since we haven't ever fallen out ever and as I have done nothing wrong, she should pick up on my pissed-offness. The earlier one, well, I don't know. Stubbornness also can restrict you but again, I have done no wrong so I'm just waiting for the ignorance to fade a little in her.

I am so broke, it isn't even funny. Of course, yesterday my mum had an act of pity and gave me £20 for some shoes for sixth form (which I bought and promptly left at Claire's) and Rachel and I popped to M&S because we like to pretend we can afford to shop there constantly. I ended up leaving with some pasta, some chicken drumsticks and a large pile of watermelon - seriously, it's no wonder I don't have money.

I've been getting constant headaches these days. I don't know if it's the lingering stress of writing a personal statement but it seems I'm the only one that hasn't even finished my first draft. I can write about anything in the world except myself which is really unfair. I could write about myself in third person but the universities may actually think I'm on crack. Perhaps not.

A few weeks in and Literature is scaring me already. It's interesting and I love it but the sheer amount of work, eep. I'm typing up war poems frantically and reading war novels hurriedly because I don't want to be behind and in the meantime, I'm being handed sheets and sheets of information about Measure for Measure and Tess of the D'urbervilles and then I'm trying to do sociology coursework and sociology homework and english language homework and soon to be english language coursework.
gasp

ON TOP of this, I'm trying to write some form of personal statement and it actually disgusts me at how difficult it is. I've got vague bullet points and I've got about 7 lines so far (I need 43 lines.. and it's better to have pages and pages apparently) so I'm not doing so well. The only thing that is encouraging is that I've actually chosen my university places (et courses):

1. Kingston University - English Lit and Criminology (joint hons)
2. Goldsmith's University - English Lit
3. Kent University (I'm unsure whether to have this 3rd or 4th) - English Lit and Popular Culture (or something mental like that)
4. Bath Spa University (sounds very clean, doesn't it? ha) - English Lit
5. Cardiff University - English Lit

So... yes, pretty much all my choices except for my first is based on Literature and I'm already worrying. At least at Uni I won't have to do god forsaken war literature. I love the poems but the novels go on and on too much for my liking.

My biggest fear is that none of my choices will take me on because my personal statement is so rubbish and that I'll have to go into clearing for Leeds met (they only need 2 Cs and a D for Literature???) or something horrendous. Bad times.

If I get an offer from the first or 2nd, I'll be the happiest bunny in England, honestly. Ugh, such stress is not good for my complexion!

I finally got around to buying the tickets for the Tilly and the Wall gig in October. So yeah, I have to travel but this time I have a reliable traveling partner (Rachel) who is just as excited, yippee! £12.50 each, not bad at all. This trip is a bit mission impossible because her parents have no idea that we're literally leaving the city for this band (my mum is fully aware so it's cool) so we're pretending she's staying at a sleepover at my place.
The next task is to persuade my brother to pick us up from the train station at half 2 in the morning... oh dear.

I hope they play:

You and I Misbehaving
Let It Rain
A Perfect Fit
Bad Education
Sing Songs Along (they must play this)
Lost Girls
Freest Man
In that order. Not really but anything off that will be wonderful. And of course they'll be playing stuff off their recently released album so I'm just as thrilled.

Yaaay, I'm getting my Omaha fix for 2008, first Conor and now Tilly! ^__^

P.S: OH MY GOD, UNI STATEMENTS WILL BE THE DEATH OF ME
P.P.S: We're going to eat pancakes/waffles at Stateside tomorrow afternoon, excitement
P.P.P.S: We might be going to Barcelona next year :D

This entry is dedicated to the actual beauty of Conor Oberst in the flesh. Seriously. It's the kind of beauty that makes you want to weep because he is that pretty but you don't because getting teary eyed over how pretty a boy is is kind of silly.

Pity I couldn't get to the Manchester gig today. :'( The tickets are sitting here, looking sad that they aren't put to use. If I hadn't saw Conor at Leeds, I probably would have cried about it more than I already have (this was the highlight of my summer ruined by plain carelessness on my friend's part) but to make up for it, I'm going to see Tilly and the Wall in October at Leeds. Hurrah!