Another drabble for the Royal and General. Alex is staying with Wolf for six months, from September till about February/March. Which means, he's going to have Christmas there...
And, here's a drabble with Alex and the guys. Totally random, due to a little speculation 'tween Von (miso_licious) and me, about how Alex only ever uses codnames with the guys. So, here goes.
Wow. I haven't posted here for nearly three months.
So, since I'm now creating a comm with the great and lovely Von from ff.net (yes, folks, shameless plug here...), I thought I'd post something.
For those who are interested (*hint. hint*), the comm is actually Alex Rider fanfiction, for our various drabbles and dribbles. Von's are very very good. I'm not going to make any comment whatsoever, cos I can't without looking either smug/arrogant/like I'm fishing for compliments.
OK, so that's my plug over.
Hmm, what's been happening in my life at the moment? Well, I'm sad to say that Band of Brothers got overtaken in my personal 'favourite TV program' poll by Dr Who and the great and wonderful David Tennant. My Spanish oral (that of previous post fame) is in a scary month's time, and my French oral follows way-too-shortly after. And after that, all the joys of AS-Levels. Man, I love exams.
No, really.
Which is why I just took an acting exam and a piano exam and failed both of 'em. well, technically, I don't know that I failed either of them - it's just a gut feeling. Which, when it's me I'm talking about, probably means that I've passed. I only fail when I'm certain I've passed; it's a bugger.
Except my Grade 4 piano, when I was sick over the piano. That, I knew I'd failed.
My parents are in England right now, and I'm at home - my dad has to have some form of heart surgery; I'd be lying if I said I wasn't nervous as hell, but I've had time to get used to the idea. And, I'm told that he's in the best possible hands, so, I'm sure it'll be OK.
Sorry, that's not a ploy for sympathy, which I'm sure it sounds like. Just trying to be as honest as I can be about my life over the internet.
So, apart from those things, revision is going swimmingly, and my best friend gets back home tomorrow, and that should be fun. I'm working on a band of brothers drabble/story, so I might be able to post it soon, at camp_toccoa, provided they don't mind me bobbing back up again like a bad penny.
I think I'm mixing my metaphors. Good Lord, it's 12.38 pm, and I'm already tired.
There's no hope for me. I'm going to go to bed now.
PS To anyone who comes here searching for Alex Rider stuff (all the multitudes who are going to come... *sarcasm*), I'm the 'amitai' half, and our new and shiny comm is very beautiful...
And so starts the fascinating epic that is... yep, you guessed it - my Spanish oral presentation. 10 minutes conversation plus, three minutes worth of presentation about los desaparecidos de Argentina. Oh, it's gonna be a ball.
I should probably mention now that I haven't finished it, and it's first thing tomorrow. I shouldn't be here. I should be back in my boarding house, finishing my presentation... but hey! I go home this Saturday! No more skulking in unexpected corners of the town so that I can actually have a cigarette (no offence to all you non-smokers out there)! No more clandestine reading, when my matron won't catch me! (And really, what is that about? For heaven's sake, I'm seventeen, not seven, I don't need someone to turn my lights out!) No more obsessive working/music practice/ballet practice/ learning words for LAMDA/tae kwon do practice!
I love holidays.
Oh, yes, my spanish oral topic. Hmm... the problem is, I've found, that I have lots to say, but not enough time in the presentation to talk about it, and my Spnaish isn't good enough to talk about it in the conversation. I hope to god my Spanish gets better before next summer, cos if it doesn't, bye-bye AS-level...
Mish. I can't bring myself to care right now.
Apart from the weather, which is so very, very not Christmassy (*grrr*), life's really good right now. I mean, unless they've found out that I've skipped games today. And what are they honestly going to do, anyway?! It's the last week of term...
First I went to the dentist, and got half my mouth numbed, and a filling put in. I'm still having difficulty talking. I feel like a need a bloody interpreter!
Then, I fell downstairs, landed on the cat (Who's fine, by the way), got the numb side of my face scratched (good thing it was numb, I guess, though not feeling her scratching me was weird), and sprained my ankle.
So I wasn't a happy bunny by the time I decided to practice my driving.
I'd just like to clarify something here. In England, the legal driving age is 17. I turned seventeen a fortnight ago today. I'm only just legal. Guess what happened?! seventeen for two weeks, and my first car crash already. God, I'm good.
Well, I just scraped the car on a notoriously difficult corner, but it's really badly scraped. Like, it took all the paint off right down to the bare metal.
My parents love me right now. Honest.
On the other hand, the rest of today has been great. Went out for a meal with Mum and dad, because I hadn't seen them for a long, long time, (before my b-day, in fact), so we went and celebrated that, talked to my grandma, and my brother, who's studying music right now, and is still bugging me for his BoB DVD set back. He hasn't got a hope in hell. 'Tis mine, I tell you, mine, mine MINE!!!
See, my extremely irritating boardig school blocks livejournal, and because it's a boarding school, and I can't go out at weekends, I'm literally stuck until I can get outm, which happens all of three tims a term - two weekends, Friday night to Sunday afternoon - and half term. I'm on half term now, but at the same time, I'm in Paris, without a laptop. And I'm writing this in an internet cafe with all of ten euros to my name for the next three days in this most-expensive city.
Paris is, though, absolutely amazing! I have many many pictures. Most of them are shit, because I'm a terrible photographer, but I have a friend who has the world's most amazing camera, and she's good at the photos, so if I don't like mine, I'll just nick her photos.
We've been to Place des Vosges, Les Invalides (Which was... big. Grand. Bright gold. It's amazing that we couldn't find it, really, isn't it? I mean, I asked literally four or five people, in next to perfect French, where to find Les Invalides. None of them were French, and none of the spoke English. I tried Spanish. I tried what little German I have. I tried Jersiase, for heavens sake! Nothing. So we waited, until we saw a guy wearing a beret and carrying a baguette. We asked him - he looked at us like we were completely and utterly fucking mental, and pointed at this massive, bright gold edifice towering above everything else for the next four miles, dwarfed only by the Eiffel bloody Tower, and goes, with a looke of distaste "it iz zere, mesdames". We felt a bit stupid after that), and the other, more typically touristy places - the Louvres, The Eiffel Tower, the Sacre Coeur... etc.
Having talked about toursity places, I have to say, I feel like a complete tourist. I take photos of everything. I thank God that I can actually speak the language, or I'd feel like a right clown.
I'll write again later, whne I'm not paying the earth for this internet connection - and tel you all about the bakery we're going to see tomorrow. I bet you can't wait, can you?
LOL!
Honestly. We're in Paris. And we're going to a bakery? For heavens sake...
In - two and a half hours, I go back to school. And that's a very, very scary thought; I've had two and a half months off, and I'm torn between being geeky and excited about going back, seeing all my friends, starting new subjects, etc, etc, and being dorky and absolutely terrified. What if I've F**cked up my subject choices? What if my room is a hole above the kitchens, and right on top of the street, and I get stuck with all my clothes and bed clothes and everything smelling of yesterday's asparagus? AAAHH! And - here's the clincher - what if nobody likes me anymore?
Is my acute paranoia showing through? Is it still paranoia if people really are out to get you?
Guess so.
Still, it also means I have next to no internet connection for the next month of so, and that's bad. It's like the Germans, Frank. Apparently, no internet connection is bad.
So - goodbye, my friends, until next we meet. It was nice meeting y'all - see you in about three weeks to a month. BYEEE!
Has anyone else ever read the book "We Need to Talk about Kevin"? I read it recently, and thought it was brilliant, but very difficult to react to. I spent most of my time reading it in a state of fairly numb horror, and then, at the end, I wasn't sure whether to laugh with relief, or cry because it was just so awful. An amazing book, though.
I put it down and wrote this. It's not fanfiction - it's just attempting to be 'in the style of'. Don't let it put you off reading the book - Lionel Shriver is far better than I am. The delicacy that she writes with (the entire book is in the form of the mother of boy who killed a group of children in his school writing letters to her estranged husband) only serves to make the content hit even harder. It's like having trying to sleep on gravel and having a very soft pillow - you always feel the stones through it.
Anyway - here's my pathetic attempt to write like Lionel Shriver. Sorry if it's a bit weird, and/or disturbing. Really, I've no idea who Claire is, or where she came from, or what her relationship with Marcus was, or where Jessy is. It just sort of - appeared - as I went along.
Nothing catastrophic has happened; I haven't broken my leg, or anything else (well, there were a couple of dishes, but I'm going to put that down to ham-handedness and move on), all my family is fine, my best friend has a wannabe stalker, but we're working with it, and she finds it more amusing than freaky... but, apart from the really, really important bits, life sort of sucks at the moment. You know, the parts that make life fun, family relationships, free time, emotions. That stuff is taking a nose dive right now. I'm probably being over sensitive and self-indulgent, firstly for feeling it, secondly for posting about it here. I'm sorry. I'm not a sob story. I'm not trying to be one. I'm just... posting. Because - well, because?
Firstly, and most obviously, holidays are nearly over. I have less than a week till I go back to school, and I have three Grade 6 piano pieces I should have learnt, and haven't, an atrocious Spanish reader to finish, six essays to write for French, and another six for Spanish, a book to read for my English lit course, and a couple of songs I should learn. Man, I'm lazy.
We're going back to Jersey tomorrow, and, while I love Jersey, it's my home, I always miss France. I spend over half my holidays here, and not being here always makes the holidays feel that much more - finished. And I've done something to one of my knees, which is making the pack-up-and-go-home stage a real blast.
My parents and I are equally enamoured of each other (read: not. Because... well, let's just say it's my fault, and move on, shall we? Because I really only have myself to blame for being pissy with them, so I shouldn't be complaining. I just need to vent a bit). My brother is going off to a new college this September, and I'm going to miss him like hell, but that hasn't stopped me having a row with him, too. In fact, the only person I can have a civil conversation with at the moment is my best friend, but seeing as she's in a different country at the moment, several hundred miles and a long-distance phone call away from me, that's not hugely helpful.
On an upside, I screwed up two relatively important GCSE's, so, y'know, life's a real ball at the moment.
Philosophically, I know that I have no right whatsover to complain. I'm a healthy sixteen year old, I'm at a good school, my parents are wonderful, loving people, I've got friends, pretty good results and over-all marks, etc. But... right now, I just want to curl up and cry a bit. If that makes me pathetic, that's OK, because at the moment, I feel utterly, utterly pathetic.
It'll be alright tomorrow. I know it will; I'm not so stupid that I don't realise that with some sleep and a little time to calm down, everything will be fine. (I mean, yeah, I'm dumb, but not quite that stupid. I've done this before... ;-P)It's just, tomorrow seems to be taking it's own sweet time coming.
Sorry for that little rant, and the uber-post. I'm gonna suck it up, promise; don't feel you've got to reply, or say anything about this. I'm having a wimpy moment, it'll pass.
However, on a massive good-point, I don't have to take maths anymore! This is amazing! I got the grade I wanted, I passed, and now, the moment I've been waiting for for eight years has finally arrived. NO MORE MATHS!!1!1!111!!!
Ahah! Something not stolen from meyrevived! No, this time, it's from foofighter!
You scored as Medic. You're a medic. Not really into fighting people, but prefer to help and heal. Your a caring person who generally wants to help, but not fight. But instead you heal the injured. Your a brave person, but most people generally regard you as foolish because of the risks you take to help others. But you don't care because your a battlefield medic, and saving lives is your business.
Today has been something of a World War II day for me.
It's a little weird to see World War Two from a French point of view; I'm so used to hearing about Dunkirk and the Allied missions, and the Russians on the Eastern Front, about how the British were desperatly fighting a losing battle, till the Americans declared war too, that it's a little strange to see it from the point of view of a country which was forced to take a relatively passive stance.
For the first time ever, today, I visited a war cemetery. I'm interested in the period, but I've never actually visited one of the cemeteries - there are none in Jersey, and though there are tributes, there are very few in England either. My parents have never taken me to any of the ones in France, until today.
Near where I'm living at the moment, there is a cemetery for the people who died on the troopship Lancastria. Here's an extract I found about the sinking of the Lancastria on the Lancastria Organisation Website:#
St. Nazaire is about twenty minutes drive from where I'm living at the moment, and the ground for the cemetery was 'given by the French people'; and one of the graves is for an eleven year old. It's hard to accept the scale of these things from what text books say; faced with a cemetery in not overly affected area of France (ie. There were no major battles there), it does, in a strange way, become easier.
This must sound very stupid to anyone reading, but it's just what I thought.
On a less morbid note, I also found out today that Lucky Strike cigarettes are still being made, and that put a smile on my face.
Saw this in someone's journal (really can't remember who at the moment, sorry!) and went and took it. I love IQ tests, I always get different results!
Tee hee!
Once I took a test like this and got the result that I was 'braindead'. I spent the whole day grinning madly, and finally my brother asked me whether I was 'mad or just stupid'. He still doesn't know why I started laughing...
I've worked out how to change my userpic per entry.
They say you learn a new thing every day. Seems to me I learn about eight. I'm starting to think that someone is just chucking new information at me for the fun of it, like a sort of memory game - you know, thinking 'hmm, I wonder what she'll remember today?'
Like this. My new userpic knowledge. Also, did you know that 'fredonner' means to hum in French?
I stole this off meyrevived, who snagged it off ryutsuki. I'm not entirely sure whether that means that I've ALSO stolen it off ryutsuki, but it looked like fun, and I thought maybe all those millions of friends I've made on livejournal (*read 'three'*) would maybe feel like filling it out about me.
You don't know my surname, but dammit, you can answer indepth questions about your relationship with me!
I am now going to test my lj-cut. If it doesn't work, well, who cares, it's just my journal, and if it does, yay!
But, you see, I promised lizhowhp that I'd post some of the fanfiction I write here, and she said she'd comment, so, in a shameless plug to get more comments (even though she doesn't know that fandom - small details...), I'm putting one up here.
lizhowhp - this is for you. It's Webster/Liebgott (fondly known as 'Webgott'), and it may be a bit dark, but I said I'd try, so I'm trying again. Enjoy!
I just got my holiday reader for my AS-levels - and dear lord, it's the stupidest thing I ever read.
If you've ever read The Famous Five, you'll know what I'm on about. It's about Steve and Sue Summers. Sue (and I quote) "As always... looked very pretty. Young, slender and red haired, Susan always wore the most fashionable clothes. Her robe" (yeah, cos robes are so fashionable nowadays, guys. No, really.) "was of a new style. Her eyes shining with emotion, Sue exclaimed..."
Is anyone else feeling sick? Or is it just me? No? Well, here's the description of her brother, Steve (he of "I always sleep in a shirt" fame):
"Sleeping, Steve was handsome. He was tall, slim, but strong, and he had a small moustache". He also has "new glasses", so this guy is obviously one of those moustached, glasses-wearing sex gods. I'm not entirely sure whether Steve is ONLY handsome when sleeping; you know, he wakes up and suddenly becomes short, fat and weak, with a massive moustache to make up for his... other... deficiencies... but either way, this guy is FIT. Don't you agree?
This book includes (within the first chapter), a uncle who has a sex change (or the genders the author uses would lead one to believe so), a private investigator and his handsome step son, "Ramon" (who Sue has met once, but is apparently passionately in love with), and the suggestion of murder.
It's like some of the worst fanfiction I've ever read, just worse, because, jeez, someone actually published it. And I have to read it for my AS course.
But you want to know the REALLY bad thing? it's one of a series.
![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
zahndra's journal
cheerful
sleepy
depressed
stressed
thoughtful
anxious
tired
silly
hyper