Comment if you want to be added! Please tell me your name, age, and a random fact about yourself so I know at least a little bit about you first. :) Please add me first too, as I'll generally add you back without actually commenting to say that I have.

Bonus points if you tell me how you found me or why you want to be added.


Edit; If you want to promote to me, do it here. But please check that no one else has already promoted that community to me! It's getting a bit ridiculous now and I'm going to start reporting repeateded promos as spam.

I've been abnormally healthy this year, and now, five days before my PGCE interview, I am clearly coming down with a cold. Typical.

EDIT: My running is going to suffer too. Feel too ill to do it today. Damn.

My mum is the hardest person in the world to buy for.

My problem when choosing gifts is I generally basically buy what I would want. Which for my friends works, we are generally friends due to having a similar personality afterall. But while I would enjoy an egg holder made to look like a soldier, a colour changing umbrella, a chocolate making kit, a device that changes the colour of shower water, a cupcake making set or whatever else, my mum probably wouldn't.

I think the biggest problem is that we do not like each other. I live in the same location out of pure necessity. I do not like her, and I spend as much time in my room as possible when she is around. If I do talk to her I generally get yelled at for no apparent reason, so it's not really worth the effort. But when you do not like someone, it is extremely hard to get a gift that's anything more creative than a random soap set.

EDIT: I decided to look at hampers. Bwahahaha, the first hamper on Harrods' site costs £550. Considering the fact that last time I was there I was amazed to find a small box of mushrooms that cost £100, this shouldn't really be such a surprise.

EDIT 2: These Harrods crackers cost £300 good god what is wrong with the world!

I passed my new fitness goal of five minutes running two minutes walking x 4, and for the first time ever it didn't hurt at all. I've estimated that by next week I'll be able to run 20 minutes with no gaps. This is good. It was hard, running is an awful thing, but I was proud of myself.

Annnnddddd then I found out that the RAF don't expect to hire for either of my trade choices until October 2010.

I made a deal with myself about six months ago. Assuming that I get on to the PGCE of course, I said that if by September (when that course starts), if I haven't heard back from the RAF with an answer either way (as the original opening was going to be April, which would have given me just enough time to complete all four of the interviews and tests as my office generally doubles them up) then that would be it, I would give up on that and dedicate all my energy to the PGCE course.

So I guess that's that.

Damn.

EDIT: on a brighter note I can stop that 100 pushups a day thing that was beginning to kill me.

oh god, i'm going to end up having to work as a receptionist or something, a job that is perfectly fine but is not worth the fact that i spent three years and £20k getting a freaking degree.

I bumped into one of my old secondary school teachers earlier. Our relationship has been somewhat awkward for the last few years. We used to talk outside of school, until the restaurant I was at for Valentine's Day was also the same restaurant he went to. With his partner. Who just happened to be a man. Ever since then things have always been rather strange and we now sort of vaguely acknowledge each other before moving on quickly. And there is no discreet way that I can say, "DON'T WORRY, I have never told anyone!"

I got the day off, because the trains aren't running and because rail replacement buses are among the most useless creations ever. I might still go in for my 5 - 7 lecture but I've been refreshing national rail's website every few hours and so far they're still cancelled for the rest of the day. I don't mind so much about missing lectures, obviously, but I'd arranged to go in early to meet for someone for what would be a delicious lunch - and even better, I wouldn't have to pay for any of it - so I'm a little peeved that I didn't get that. Also today is pretty much the first day all year I have made some sort of clothing effort and am wearing make up. FOR NO REASON.

Next Wednesday I have a PGCE interview! Eek. And I've only just noticed they've asked for a second reference so I'm having to quickly find someone to send the forms to. Oops. Personally, I think it's stupid. Just like I find it stupid having to fill out CRB forms and get hundreds of photocopies (note to self: photocopy documents...) Just because I have an interview doesn't mean I actually have a place, and if they say no presumably I'll have to harass someone else into doing a second reference.

Also, today's movie is 17 Again, which I am pathetically excited about. Other DVDs I've already watched this month:

Body of Lies: I only watched it because of my pact to watch every Leo movie ever. I remember quite enjoying it, I think. Oddly I can't recall a single detail of it apart from that Leo was in it, so maybe I just spent the whole time mesmorised by him.
Confessions of a Shopaholic: I quite liked this, though BECKY BLOOMWOOD WAS ENGLISH. NOT AMERICAN. If I remember correctly they were all supposed to live in Surrey so sticking them in New York is terrible. I was also disappointed that Tarquin was good looking and not in the least bit awkward.
He's Just Not That Into You: Eh. It was okay. I enjoyed it, but I don't get all the hype and I wouldn't watch it again.
Marley & Me: This movie is soul destroying. But I enjoyed it. Blond kid is a douche, though.
Seven Pounds: Awful. We didn't make it all the way through. After about 90 minutes we couldn't take it any more.
The Reader: Awful. I watched the whole thing though. I quite liked the beginning and there were parts of it that I enjoyed but overall it was really dragged out.
Twilight: Okay. It was better than the book, but I don't think it's possible to be any worse. Robert Pattinson is hideous.

Today we randomly watched the Boyzone video for Better in one of the lectures. I genuinely have no idea why. I remember there being a connection that made sense at the time but it's completely gone now. Anyway, the video basically features each of the boys partnered up and acting all lovey with a girl - apart from Stephen, who was gay, and was therefore partnered with a man. I was initially surprised by this - even though everyone knew Stephen was gay for a large number of years, for some reason I still expected them to have paired him up with a girl for the video. I am glad they didn't, because Stephen + partner were ridiculously hot in it, like the only pair with any form of chemistry. Afterwards I was one of the unlucky people asked for my opinion on it. I gave some opinion that was vaguely relevent to whatever the topic was (It's gone now, clearly I repressed it) followed by, "but more importantly, I am wondering where I can find the X-rated version of Stephen and partner."

That basically sums up my day.

I bloody hate the kid next door. It screams all day. It screams consistently. It screams whether they ignore it or whether they attend to it. I may have just figured out the reason. The mum is currently with it, screaming at it. Not as if she is yelling at it, she is just screaming to make a noise and to make the devil spawn laugh. Well NO BLOODY WONDER IT SCREAMS ALL DAY YOU STUPID WOMAN, it's clearly worked out that it's supposed to be funny when it screams. I feel sorry for dad because he is the one that is stuck with it for most of the day and he clearly hates the child - and he never makes stupid noises at it. I really hate that kid though. It's made even more obvious by the fact that it's about 1 1/2 now. There is a child the other side of us one month older, and I have heard that kid make any sort of noise once. Stupid devil spawn screams at least once an hour. I have made a decision that if the mum is still making stupid noises in five minutes I am going to go to the wall and scream right back at her. UGH. GIVE ME A BREAK.

( Fitness Update )

Add me if you're on twitter, I'll add you back.

I've only just got it after deleting my old one months ago so...there's nothing there...but I'm determined to actually use it this time.

here!

One of our lecturers just mass emailed us and asked how we would feel about cutting the last bit of term down and instead being in a FOUR HOUR LECTURE twice, instead of the regular four two hour sessions. It took a lot of restraint to not reply with "No, I would probably kill myself." Good lord. I mean, I'm already in for four hours in that 3-7 block, and it sucks, but as that's two different lectures there is the excitement of a five minute gap walking from one side of the campus to the other. That and, you know, it's a DIFFERENT TOPIC. Four hours on one module. Eech.

The creative writing fiction workshop totally wasn't that bad. Mostly because I am incredibly elitist when it comes to writing. Even if I have written something terrible, I'll probably still think it's better than everyone else's. It's a problem. I was lucky enough to get in a group full of people with disturbing minds so my piece didn't stand out a ridiculous amount. The first piece in my group was about someone stealing from an old lady. The second was about an uncle raping a young girl. Mine was third, with my old person suicide. Then a piece about someone stabbing an ex-boyfriend. And then a really long story that I'm honestly not sure what it was about but I presume there was some sort of death in it. My biggest worry was everyone else writing happy fluffy pieces but no, we're all sick in the head. I feel good about my piece, mostly because I didn't actually get all that much feedback on it, haha. At the time it was a bit annoying but now I see it as a good thing. On others people were highlighting everything for not making sense or being an odd sentance, for mine people were pretty much like "It's already fine."

I have decided not to attend Children's Lit for the rest of the year until the regular teacher are back. It's such a waste of time. Hi, I'm in the final year of university, doing an English degree. I don't need you to read a book to me, I can do it myself. And so, that is exactly what I'm going to do. Also attempting to read all of the books for this term over the summer holidays was a terrible idea as now I can't remember any of them, even with books I really enjoyed. I originally planned to read all of the rest of the books over the Christmas holidays, but I've now decided to do the essays extremely in advance instead as there's no point reading them if I'm just going to have forgotten them again by the time we actually get to them in lectures.

Also I decided that having a seperate fitness filter was becoming too much of a hassle, as the poor people on that list would generally get one fitness post followed immediatley afterwards by a regular post that everyone sees. SO, now it goes behind a cut, that way you still have a say as to whether you care or not!

( Fitness Update )

EDIT: I have recently began to consider nursing. I know it is one of a grand total of three trades that the RAF are actually recruiting for at the moment. I asked them about their student nurse career, which is basically where they train you up and pay all your fees for you in return for you working as a nurse for them. You have to sign up to work for 22 years if you go that route. 22 years! 22 bloody years! That's basically my entire life gone, haha. Especially if after a month it turned out that actually, being a nurse sucks. And I thought the 9 years I'm currently looking at signing up for was long...

Tomorrow in my creative writing class we are doing a fiction workshop. Which may end up being one of the more embarassing moments of my life. Basically, we have all had to write a short story (something I am terrible at) about whatever we want. We have to print off five copies and get into groups of six, where everyone in that group will read through each person's story and go along and edit it and give opinions.

Though I can definitley see why this will be beneficial, it is also quite mortifying. I don't want anyone to read it, haha. Mine is terrible. It is about an old man who is suffering with mobility problems and more recently a wife who no longer remembers him due to her Alzheimer's, and so he goes back to the building where he worked when he was a teenager where he first met her and kills himself.

Exactly. Oh, the humiliation.

You can tell I am growing older because when I was reading my Metro on the train this morning I was sitting there feeling enraged with the stories I was reading. And now I will complain to you about them.

1. The mother of a dead soldier complaining about how the prime minister's letter to her. For some background to non-Brits or people who just don't care, the prime minster writes personal letters to the families of all British troops that have died in the war, which, obviously, is a personal choice and something he doesn't have to do. The mother of one of the recently dead soldiers is currently complaining to the newspapers about how hard to read his letter was and the fact that he spelt something wrong (their surname is Janes, he spelt it James). Gordon Brown is blind in one eye, and apparently the sight in the other eye isn't great either. He is also dyslexic. Of course his handwriting and spelling is not going to be all that great. He also has a lot of other things to be getting on with, especially when writing letters is something he has chosen to do. When he heard about how angry she was about this he called her to apologise over the phone, which she recorded and then sold to the same tabloid newspaper that printed the letter. RAGE.

2. A bunch of kids slashed the tyres of an ambulance and threatened the paramedics, who then could not take the child they were there for to hospital. EXTREME RAGE. While I don't think we should be like America and have everybody allowed to have guns, I do think that all people involved with the police, the medical service and the fire service should be allowed to have them so they can protect themselves against such morons. More so the police generally, but now I'm hearing more stories about attacks on the ambulances that I'm thinking they should be able to as well. I'm sure that opinion is unpopular and perhaps counter-productive, but whatever, those kids were complete idiots. Who the hell attacks an ambulance? Especially when that ambulance is actually there helping someone? RAGE.

Other than my RAGE today has not been too bad.

In Victorian Lit we were told to read to the end of the first book of Adam Bede. Which I did. Then she promptly ruined the ending and pretty much told us everything that happanes over the last few books. This actually didn't cause rage, Adam Bede is very long and drawn out but the events she mentioned were actually very interesting and now I want to read it to get to them.

My two hour gap I continued reading it, and ate many Subway cookies.

I find my Education class odd. Everyone is allowed to take one class that has nothing to do with their normal subject. Apparently no one else does, as I am the only invader to that classroom. Everyone is nice and no one minds me talking to them but it's always a little awkward as obviously they have all been together for the last three years, and it is natural for them to talk to each other over me. I usually sit on my own in that class unless we have to do group work, but today I got in first so went right to the back and noticed the majority of people seem to sit on their own. I find that really strange. Their class is only 15 people so I figured people would be a lot closer in that. Everyone talks, but people will get their own row in the theatres if they can. Very strange.

Apparently people doing the Early Childhood course can apply to gain the new Early Years Professional Status without doing the entire course. We basically have to give up our summer holidays to get it, but whatever, it's a Masters level qualification in four months and they'll give us £5000 to do it. Very nice. Unfortunatley we have a grand total of two days to fill out the application, and it's clearly against us. There are twenty places across all three universities - the other two universities are for students doing purely that course and therefore they have had to do relevent placements. My university is purely for joint students, and we haven't had to do placements. I don't see the point, it's blatantly not going to any of us! It's disappointing, I was going to apply, but the very first thing it asks for is a handwritten reference from someone relevent which I blatantly can't get in less than 48 hours.

EDIT: Who here has Google Wave? I was very happy to get an invite to it, but as no one I know in real life has managed to be as lucky as I am it isn't much fun talking to myself.

My student loan reminder came through today. I'm not sure why, being that I have another year left. And it even says it's not expecting me to start paying it back yet, so it's very confusing.

Anyway, guess how much I owe so far?

£11,857.

LOL, LOL, LOL.

Apparently the reason my teeth are so worn down now and why I am going to find out about veneers is because of acid erosion.

So, today's meals so far:

Breakfast: Cornflakes. I think this is safe.

Lunch: A scone with jam. Jam is apparently extremely acidic. Followed by some raisins. Which are apparently extremely acidic. Followed by a lemon tart. Which is apparently extremely acidic.

Dinner: Rice. Which is apparently extremely acidic. Followed by two yogurts. Which, guess what, are apparently acidic!

SO I QUIT.

I cut down on all the fruit I actually enjoy, like strawberries and whatever. I figured the foods I am now eating should be completely safe. But no. And I bet if I looked for long enough I could even find something saying that cornflakes and scones are acidic too. (EDIT: Yes, cornflakes are)

So I'm pretty sure this means, to hell with this, I'll eat what I want. I'm fairly sure the only way to avoid acid erosion is to become anorexic and that seems rather extreme, so let's just go with, I'll eat what I want, and if I have to get all my teeth turned into veneers, fine.

Oh, LOL, I also just found out that all the squash I drink is acidic too. You're kidding me. You have got to be kidding me. I hate the taste of water, I always have, I've been refusing to drink it since I was about five. I cut down on all the juice and the fizzy drinks and I figured that as squash drinks are about 90% water they would be fine.

Screw it, I will spend the rest of the day eating as many strawberries and drinking as much coke as I feel like. On a brighter note, chocolate is apparently very alkaline, so maybe I will use that as an excuse to immediatley consume chocolate after every grape I might happen to eat.

EDIT: EVERY SITE I LOOK AT TELLS ME THE OPPOSITE TO THE ONE BEFORE IT ARGHHHH

My mother does not usually approve of me skipping university, surprisingly. Generally when I give what would normally be a valid reason (eg. "I WAS THROWING UP ALL DAY AND I HAVE PROOF") she is still very annoyed with me about it. Earlier she asked why I didn't go in again. I truthfully answered, "I decided my time would be better spent stalking Michael Buble." There was silence. "And?" "And we are going to get married. And I am going to write that creative writing piece I've been putting off about our marriage." "Okay then." And that was that.

I really am, too. I'm sure come Friday when I have to hand out a copy to all the class members, I will be horribly embarassed to have everyone witness to my most intimate of fantasies. But I am also fairly sure that everybody in that class knows me well enough that it won't come as a huge surprise.

Also, looking at the results of my poll, the average person on my friends list:

Eats three pieces of fruit/veg a day

Doesn't watch Lost

Is European

Likes Charmander the most of all the starter Pokemon

Thinks that ghosts are real

Would save 10,000 people over themselves

Would rather be deaf than blind

Would rather lose their legs than their arms

and has never wanted to be an astronaut.

If you put all of those answers then let me know, because I'm sure at least one of you did and I am quite curious about who it would be. But not curious enough to add all the scores up myself, apparently.

I decided I wanted to get to know you all better.

I also decided that everyone likes pressing buttons, so I figured I would do this through the medium of polling.

The questions are not at all serious, but give a good insight to a person. Or something. Maybe I was just bored.

( It doesn't matter what the reason is, do the poll anyway :) )

If you would like to humour me and give reasons, please be my guest.

I failed at staying the whole day at uni. About half way through Victorian Literature I turned to the two people I was sitting next to and said "I don't think I can take another six hours." By the very end I was asleep. Decided no, there was no way I could stay till 8pm and went home.

On the train home I freaked people out by becoming extremely ill out of nowhere. I hadn't been feeling very ill at all, and that little bit of illness I put down to the ginormous brownie I had eaten, but on the train home it suddenly all fell apart. I think my highlight was what felt like the longest sneeze chain ever, to which the person in front of me turned around and said, "27 sneezes, well done."

I got asked out on the train on the way home, which I found quite amusing. It all started because I accidentally made eye contact whilst turning to see how much longer till the train arrived, and the guy on the other side of the bench made a comment about how he'd missed the previous train by about ten seconds, a feeling I could relate to. I don't think anything will come of it, because he looks like my friend James and also has a receeding hairline, but it was nice. Especially because all day I was very aware of the fact that I wasn't wearing makeup and had forgotten to get my eyebrows waxed, haha. On a brighter note now I am more open about the RAF (for some reason I am happy to mention it to complete strangers but only select few of my friends are aware) I also have a good excuse as "I don't date friends" obviously doesn't work well for people I hardly know - but now "I don't know where I'll be in a few months" is quite perfect.

Also, Royal Mail, I hate you. First of all you fail at delivering my items in a timely manner (yet still have no problem with all the spam and crap I get) and now today someone didn't receive a DVD I sent out which I'll have to refund them for £30. You ass, Royal Mail. I don't think it can even be postal strike related as I sent that nearly a month ago, and she really should have received it by now.

I am beginning to think that if it is taking me this long to get anywhere near the standard I'm supposed to be to pass all of the RAF's fitness tests, then perhaps I should not be joining the RAF. Sure, technically it's possible for me to get up to the standards, but maybe it should just be left to the people who are naturally able to do it all.

I have decided on a new method of getting to the goddamn 3 km.

My theory is, they want me to be able to run it in 14 minutes, although I am aiming for 12 eventually. As I have become bored with my usual method, I have decided a new tact.

Today I ran at 8km/h for 4 minutes. (Shut up, I know that's rubbish, but if it starts to hurt I start to quit) Every time I am comfortable with that length of time, I will up it by 30 seconds or so. Eventually, when I get to being able to do the full 12 minutes, I will up the speed somewhat until I am running at the required 12 km/h.

That way, if I am actually moving up the time closer to the goal, even though initially I won't be running anywhere near the required distance, it will seem more acheivable.

The only problem is, this is going to take forever, especially when I generally only do the running three times a week. But, it's unlikely that my trade will open until April, so I may just have time to do this. I need to work that out though. I'm presuming I'll have at least 100 runs until then, and eventually I'll be strong enough so I won't need the day off in between each run anyway. I will make a database to work this out...

EDIT: I wasn't kidding, I really did go and make a databse. I have been fairly easy on myself with it because I don't like being pushed. Initially it takes longer for there to be increments as I am more likely to quit early on, and over the Christmas period the times go up faster than anywhere else because I won't be at uni and so will have less excuses. I have set a rule that I can always do more or for longer (I won't) as long as I actually reach the target amount.

So, using my handy dandy chart, provided I stick to it, I predict that:

On December 2nd, I will acheive my first full 12 minutes - albeit with a 3 minute walking gap in the middle.

On January 14th, I will have acheived my full 12 minutes with no gap.

On February 1st, I will have acheived my full 12 minutes at 12 km/h.

That last one might have to be amended a bit. At the moment I'm assuming that once I've done 12 minutes at 8km/h twice I can handle an up of 0.4km with every run, I'm not entirely sure if I can or not as it means nothing to me, so that can be amended.

Technically I still won't hit the speed, it has to be 12 minutes 20 or something on my treadmill, but I'm assuming that once I've been doing it for a while it won't be too hard to move it up a little. And if I really can't do that, well, I'm a girl, I can slow it down but will have to run for longer as a result.

We shall see how long I actually keep to my new chart.

EDIT: I have put my chart into my journal, in an entry that will always be second to top. CLICK HERE to see. I'll keep it updated as much as I remember so if anyone wants to see how I am getting on with it or be my personal cheerleader, there is where to go!

After about seven years of us completely ignoring each other, my grandmother facebook stalked me. I believe she found me through one of my aunts, who also facebook stalked me just over a year ago, mostly because she knows all about my RAF issues which I figure only Sarah could have told her about. She mentioned my uncle, A, and said that he is ex-RAF and is currently training to be a fitness instructor now he has left and would probably help me out. I googled him shortly after this and found three things out.

1. He has over 200 google listings, all of which are him doing various fitness events like marathons and triathalons around the world. He has apparently also represented the UK several times. Which means genetically I SHOULD BE ABLE TO DO THIS STUPID RUN.

2. He lives the next village over from me. All these family members that have slowly got into contact with me over the last few years seem to live in local villages now, it's quite odd considering we're all from the Isle of Wight originally.

3. HE LOOKS EXACTLY LIKE MY DAD. I had to double take it. He is seven years younger than my dad would be, and my dad died seven years ago. Looking at the photos he looks now exactly like my dad did when he died. It was a bit of a wtf moment.


All of this is fairly helpful as I now know I have an RAF relative. They ask about military members in the family as with every member you sort of get an extra point, more so if anyone has been RAF, and I have a lot of military members, but until now I wasn't aware anyone had been air force. My mum's side is useless because she hasn't spoken to her family in over 20 years and doesn't know where any of them are, which is annoying because near enough all of her brothers were army. I now know that on my dad's side, he was navy as were two of his sisters who I talk to, and now I know one of his brothers was RAF.

On a sadder RAF note today was the first day since buying my own treadmill that I have given in and quit half way through. Which is a Bad Thing because once I quit once I generally keep quitting.