Quick! To beat my target, I have to get 12 pageviews in two days.
At the moment I'm up north in Hull staying with my grandparents. I took the opportunity to ask them about their parents etc to add to my family history project, but I wasn't expecting anyone to be so helpful. My grandfather couldn't remember a particular name so he rang up his brother, who dug out some old birth certificates and read them out over the phone so I was able to add about three generations onto my family tree straight away. (We were supposed to go round to his house and make copies of the records today, but my grandparents aren't very punctual so we didn't manage to.)
Then my great-grandfather came round for lunch: he brought some old documents with him too, and I found out that although I'd always thought that I was 100% British, it turns out I'm actually part Irish! My ancestors came from a town in the Republic of Ireland and came over to England in the Great Famine of the 1850s, I think it was. You know the big potato famine of Ireland? Well, the family came over to work at the docks in Hull because there was always plenty of employment there - at that time they were the biggest docks in England.
It feels bizarre to know that I'm related to Irish Catholics. Anyone reading this in the Republic of Ireland? It's a small world - I might be related to you!
I'm going to my family history website now to try and trace my great-great-great grandmother. Happy new year!
Sunday, 30 December 2012
Monday, 24 December 2012
Another random note
It was my goal to get more views this month than I did last month. There's one more week left of December and I only need another 29 views! Come on, people! I'll tell you if I make it.
(Shortest post ever, to counteract really, really long previous post)
(Shortest post ever, to counteract really, really long previous post)
Indigestion, earrings, icing sugar and dreams
Sorry for my post about water biscuits. Ignore it.
There are several things I must tell you about this Christmas Eve:
Yesterday I suddenly got a mystery illness. I thought at first that it was just indigestion, but it got worse and worse and worse and worse and worse and worse. I thought I was going to vomit; I thought I was going to collapse. Then it went away again. I was going to post about it yesterday but
a) I was so exhausted that my arms were too floppy to type, and
b) the laptop crashed.
I was also too tired to blow-dry my hair, so I went to sleep with it wet.
If you have thick, frizzy hair like me then you might know what this means.
If I don't comb it after I've slept with it wet, it looks horrendous. And if I do comb it, it puffs out like thistledown. What I did was I twisted it all up in a bun to hide it and then put in some dangly earrings shaped like little birds to detract attention away from my hair.
The third thing I must talk about is YULE LOGS.
Today we're having the promised day of shifting furniture and tidying up and worrying, but I'm not much help in this area so I made a yule log. I've mentioned before that whenever I cook something goes wrong. It was the icing sugar that did it this time. You know when you're making icing and you're thinking, hmm, it looks quite runny, so you put some icing sugar in and then you go, ah, it's too stiff now so you put some water in and you put some icing sugar in and you put some water in and... I tell you, it's a vicious circle of OVERCOMPENSATION.
Have you ever tried to ice a yule log? It's quite difficult because you have to force the icing sugar to defy gravity and, even though the icing is indebted to you because it wouldn't EXIST if you hadn't made it, it NEVER DOES WHAT YOU WANT.
I'm sorry. I think I'm still overtired.
The other problem with chocolate butter icing is that is tastes so divine. I ate sinful amounts of it.
When I'd done the icing I found an old, plastic decoration that is like a sign saying 'Merry Christmas', but it was quite small so I decided I needed a sprig of holly too. I stole my dad's shoes which happened to be by the back door, took some kitchen scissors and went out into the garden in the rain. (Why does it always rain on Christmas Eve? Does is rain on Christmas Eve where you come from? Or does it snow? Or do you live in Australia or something where Christmas is in summer?) Our holly tree is pretty sad and weedy but at least it's nearby. I cut a sprig of holly and came back inside to put it on the yule log. My little sister known as Small Person No#1 pootled in and said 'Are you going to put berries on it?' I was quite annoyed after going out in the rain so I asked her where I'd find berries.
'On a bush?'
'Which bush?'
'Um.'
Then I put it out in the utility room to set, because our fridge is full.
I hope you enjoyed that essay on how I made a yule log.
There was a large catastrophe at lunch time because WE RAN OUT OF WATER BISCUITS!
The other thing I wanted to write about is this: I seem to have a lot of dreams where people are in love with me.
I've never had a boyfriend but my dreams seem happy to supply some.
I don't mind talking to boys and I have quite a few guy friends but the only boy who's ever flirted with me was our resident playboy who would flirt with anything on two legs, including penguins. Oh and there was Tom but he was just pretending because people were watching us. Which doesn't make sense but I don't want to explain because I don't really want to think about Tom...
You can ignore this post too if you want; I hope I haven't wasted too much of your time. It was quite long, wasn't it?
I mentioned penguins once so you can have this picture of a penguin.
I'm such an awful photographer, aren't I? It's in the penguin pool at London Zoo.
I hope your Christmas Eve is as fun as mine.
There are several things I must tell you about this Christmas Eve:
Yesterday I suddenly got a mystery illness. I thought at first that it was just indigestion, but it got worse and worse and worse and worse and worse and worse. I thought I was going to vomit; I thought I was going to collapse. Then it went away again. I was going to post about it yesterday but
a) I was so exhausted that my arms were too floppy to type, and
b) the laptop crashed.
I was also too tired to blow-dry my hair, so I went to sleep with it wet.
If you have thick, frizzy hair like me then you might know what this means.
If I don't comb it after I've slept with it wet, it looks horrendous. And if I do comb it, it puffs out like thistledown. What I did was I twisted it all up in a bun to hide it and then put in some dangly earrings shaped like little birds to detract attention away from my hair.
The third thing I must talk about is YULE LOGS.
Today we're having the promised day of shifting furniture and tidying up and worrying, but I'm not much help in this area so I made a yule log. I've mentioned before that whenever I cook something goes wrong. It was the icing sugar that did it this time. You know when you're making icing and you're thinking, hmm, it looks quite runny, so you put some icing sugar in and then you go, ah, it's too stiff now so you put some water in and you put some icing sugar in and you put some water in and... I tell you, it's a vicious circle of OVERCOMPENSATION.
Have you ever tried to ice a yule log? It's quite difficult because you have to force the icing sugar to defy gravity and, even though the icing is indebted to you because it wouldn't EXIST if you hadn't made it, it NEVER DOES WHAT YOU WANT.
I'm sorry. I think I'm still overtired.
The other problem with chocolate butter icing is that is tastes so divine. I ate sinful amounts of it.
When I'd done the icing I found an old, plastic decoration that is like a sign saying 'Merry Christmas', but it was quite small so I decided I needed a sprig of holly too. I stole my dad's shoes which happened to be by the back door, took some kitchen scissors and went out into the garden in the rain. (Why does it always rain on Christmas Eve? Does is rain on Christmas Eve where you come from? Or does it snow? Or do you live in Australia or something where Christmas is in summer?) Our holly tree is pretty sad and weedy but at least it's nearby. I cut a sprig of holly and came back inside to put it on the yule log. My little sister known as Small Person No#1 pootled in and said 'Are you going to put berries on it?' I was quite annoyed after going out in the rain so I asked her where I'd find berries.
'On a bush?'
'Which bush?'
'Um.'
Then I put it out in the utility room to set, because our fridge is full.
I hope you enjoyed that essay on how I made a yule log.
There was a large catastrophe at lunch time because WE RAN OUT OF WATER BISCUITS!
The other thing I wanted to write about is this: I seem to have a lot of dreams where people are in love with me.
I've never had a boyfriend but my dreams seem happy to supply some.
- Imaginary boy number 1 was called Jack and he worked on a farm. He followed me around until I went into the kitchen (?) and then he kissed me.
- Imaginary boy number 2 was a photographer and I was the model for his photoshoot. He was lovely. He gave me a gift which was a pair of shoes!
- Imaginary boy number 3 was Chinese, and someone told me that he liked me and I should go talk to him, and I did. We stood on a bridge and watched fish and butterflies.
I don't mind talking to boys and I have quite a few guy friends but the only boy who's ever flirted with me was our resident playboy who would flirt with anything on two legs, including penguins. Oh and there was Tom but he was just pretending because people were watching us. Which doesn't make sense but I don't want to explain because I don't really want to think about Tom...
You can ignore this post too if you want; I hope I haven't wasted too much of your time. It was quite long, wasn't it?
I mentioned penguins once so you can have this picture of a penguin.
I'm such an awful photographer, aren't I? It's in the penguin pool at London Zoo.
I hope your Christmas Eve is as fun as mine.
Sunday, 23 December 2012
Why I like water biscuits
I am over the moon at how many views I've been getting! I'll write fast before the laptop crashes again. My dad wants to fix it by destroying everything and then reinstalling it, so I hope my blog subscription won't get destroyed.
I haven't been doing anything useful lately, just reading books. I finished 'Feeling sorry for Celia' and have now started on 'Finding Cassie crazy', the next book in the series, which is equally good.
I've just had lunch with my family and I don't really like having meals with my family at the moment. I've started feeling like I'm stuck in a time loop, because my family always sit in the same places and always eat pretty much the same things, and have the same kind of conversations. I feel trapped. I've suddenly developed a liking for water biscuits because if I'm not busy I get depressed, so I always nibble mournfully on water biscuits taking tiny bites to make it last longer. Water biscuits are good because they're really just flour and water and don't contain anything bad for you or many calories.
That is why I like water biscuits. I always feel guilty when I complain about my family, because really I'm lucky in my family situation, since I still have both my parents etc...
What are your plans for Christmas? We're going to spend the day tidying up, making Christmas crackers and moving furniture around getting ready for all the people coming round on Boxing Day. I'll get to see my baby cousins :D they are both one year old.
All my posts seem to be the same length. It must be so boring to read. I will leave you with this photo of a tiger which I took a few years ago when I went to London Zoo, and has nothing to do with anything - but I like tigers.
I haven't been doing anything useful lately, just reading books. I finished 'Feeling sorry for Celia' and have now started on 'Finding Cassie crazy', the next book in the series, which is equally good.
I've just had lunch with my family and I don't really like having meals with my family at the moment. I've started feeling like I'm stuck in a time loop, because my family always sit in the same places and always eat pretty much the same things, and have the same kind of conversations. I feel trapped. I've suddenly developed a liking for water biscuits because if I'm not busy I get depressed, so I always nibble mournfully on water biscuits taking tiny bites to make it last longer. Water biscuits are good because they're really just flour and water and don't contain anything bad for you or many calories.
That is why I like water biscuits. I always feel guilty when I complain about my family, because really I'm lucky in my family situation, since I still have both my parents etc...
What are your plans for Christmas? We're going to spend the day tidying up, making Christmas crackers and moving furniture around getting ready for all the people coming round on Boxing Day. I'll get to see my baby cousins :D they are both one year old.
All my posts seem to be the same length. It must be so boring to read. I will leave you with this photo of a tiger which I took a few years ago when I went to London Zoo, and has nothing to do with anything - but I like tigers.
Saturday, 22 December 2012
Just a random note...
I would like to muchly thank the people in China and Croatia who read this blog for making me very happy. It's such a surprise when people actually read what I've written. And also, of course, the people in France, Germany, the USA and the UK because it feels completely cool that people are reading my pointless ramblings all over the world!
Why I fail
First of all, the world didn't end and we didn't all die. When it got to eleven o'clock (the world was supposed to end at 11:11 am) my friends and I were doing a really loud countdown, and then silence at the end when nothing at all happened... Then two of them dressed up as Santa and hid under my maths teacher's desk... but that's another story.
Second of all, I FAIL.
I will tell you why. I TOTALLY fail at sticking to one thing at a time! I've already told you about my inability to finish my Greek short story before starting my other one. I told myself that after I'd finished Dracula (which I have; it was pretty good) I would go for another classic: Heidi. (I'm also reading Oliver Twist. Do you see my point here?) And yet I spent all day reading a really brilliant book called 'Feeling sorry for Celia'. It's all in the form of notes and letters and postcards, not a traditional novel structure. And reading it reawakened my old desire to write a story in that kind of style - so I now want to ditch my current story 'Little Brass Town' and start on that!
The notes-and-letters-story-idea is called 'Dear Daniel', or it might be called 'The city is watching', because I think 'Dear Daniel' sounds too wishy-washy.
The other thing about 'Feeling sorry for Celia' (I seem to be using quotation marks a lot right now) is that a lot of it is in letters between a girl and her penfriend. That also reminded me that for a long time I've thought it would be cool to have a penfriend. But, by writing this blog, I can be penfriends with the whole world! It's just a shame that the world doesn't write back.
My mum wouldn't let me have a penfriend, I don't think. She has a problem with sending messages to people we don't know.
I'm looking forward to Christmas! This year my family is hosting the big family celebration. However, I want to stop writing now because, as I've said, this laptop is broken and I'm really scared it's going to crash before I can publish this.
Second of all, I FAIL.
I will tell you why. I TOTALLY fail at sticking to one thing at a time! I've already told you about my inability to finish my Greek short story before starting my other one. I told myself that after I'd finished Dracula (which I have; it was pretty good) I would go for another classic: Heidi. (I'm also reading Oliver Twist. Do you see my point here?) And yet I spent all day reading a really brilliant book called 'Feeling sorry for Celia'. It's all in the form of notes and letters and postcards, not a traditional novel structure. And reading it reawakened my old desire to write a story in that kind of style - so I now want to ditch my current story 'Little Brass Town' and start on that!
The notes-and-letters-story-idea is called 'Dear Daniel', or it might be called 'The city is watching', because I think 'Dear Daniel' sounds too wishy-washy.
The other thing about 'Feeling sorry for Celia' (I seem to be using quotation marks a lot right now) is that a lot of it is in letters between a girl and her penfriend. That also reminded me that for a long time I've thought it would be cool to have a penfriend. But, by writing this blog, I can be penfriends with the whole world! It's just a shame that the world doesn't write back.
My mum wouldn't let me have a penfriend, I don't think. She has a problem with sending messages to people we don't know.
I'm looking forward to Christmas! This year my family is hosting the big family celebration. However, I want to stop writing now because, as I've said, this laptop is broken and I'm really scared it's going to crash before I can publish this.
Thursday, 20 December 2012
The end is nigh
Hi people. I haven't posted in ages because the laptop was broken. I think it may be fixed now but time will tell.
It was my birthday on Sunday! I'm now 14. We went up to London on a train (yay! I love London. And trains.) and went to the theatre, which was cool. Also, my sister had promised to get me a unicorn for my birthday, and she did! It was a brass unicorn-shaped pendant for a necklace.
It's Christmas in five days, which is a strange feeling, isn't it?
I also wanted to make a note that the world is going to end tomorrow. This, to quote Doctor Who, is the last day of humanity on this planet. The end is nigh. I don't know why or how the world is specifically going to end on the 21st December 2012 but that's what's going to happen. My friend Megan predicts that tomorrow will be the most frantic day in Facebook history, with everyone saying 'Yes! We survived!' Apparently someone in Russia has bought himself an ark.
But then again, the world also ended in 2000, so it's hard to say...
I started reading the classic novel Dracula today, so I'll go into oblivion without ever knowing what happens at the end :D
Bye, people. Thanks for reading.
It was my birthday on Sunday! I'm now 14. We went up to London on a train (yay! I love London. And trains.) and went to the theatre, which was cool. Also, my sister had promised to get me a unicorn for my birthday, and she did! It was a brass unicorn-shaped pendant for a necklace.
It's Christmas in five days, which is a strange feeling, isn't it?
I also wanted to make a note that the world is going to end tomorrow. This, to quote Doctor Who, is the last day of humanity on this planet. The end is nigh. I don't know why or how the world is specifically going to end on the 21st December 2012 but that's what's going to happen. My friend Megan predicts that tomorrow will be the most frantic day in Facebook history, with everyone saying 'Yes! We survived!' Apparently someone in Russia has bought himself an ark.
But then again, the world also ended in 2000, so it's hard to say...
I started reading the classic novel Dracula today, so I'll go into oblivion without ever knowing what happens at the end :D
Bye, people. Thanks for reading.
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