Broken Promises.

I'm a failure ;~;

You know that promise I made to myself; the going running one?
I've broken it already. Instead of getting up early to go for a run, I instead had a lie-in. Rather more enjoyable, although not exactly physically exerting.

Ah, well.

That was on Saturday morning. Also on Saturday morning, my whole family bundled into the car, and we went to visit our puppy again.
We cannot pick our puppy up yet, as we are going on holiday. So, the breeders agreed that we could pay him a little visit so we don't go into withdrawal..

I took my perv camera along, and I took a few photos. I apologise if this doesn't work, but I shall show you my particular favourite:



Assuming that has worked, isn't he adorable? He's eight weeks old at the moment, and we've named him Chester.
Can't wait to pick him up <3

After we got home from seeing Chester, I got ready to go out. My friend, Jess, had invited me to a party, and I'm never one to refuse a good ol' shin-dig.
She had advertised this thing as a "Garden party! With BBQ, drinking games and loads of fun!"
Perhaps understandably, I thought it was going to be a good'un.

Wrong.

I arrived, and everyone was sitting in her dining room, in a circle. It was almost silent, a few people were texting, but that was it.
To be fair, it did perk up after 9pm, but only because that was when she got the alcohol out. Before then, I'd endured 3 hours of utter boredom.
Now, I don't need alcohol to have a good time, but the other people at this party were the introverted, quiet type. I'm the opposite. I could tell that I scared a few of them.
At around 10, people started leaving. I stayed, and it got better then; the quiets were the people who left first, so by the time they'd all left, I was just with people I could get along with without scaring.
We played some Mario Kart Wii. My driving was atrocious, but I'm blaming the fact that:
1) I'd never played it before.
2) I was steering with one hand.
3) I'd had a bit too much JD and coke. Or whatever was in that concoction I was given.
I headed off at around 11.30. If I hadn't, I'd have been the only person left..

Today has been good, too. My mum, dad and I went to a retail park to pick up a dog cage (sounds cruel, it's just to house-train the puppy) and some dog toys, but I ended up getting some new football boots, a load of vest-tops and a David and Goliath t-shirt.
Not a bad haul considering I have no money.. xD
Tonight, we're off out to a restaurant, which should be nice. My brother and sister are with my grandparents at Alton Towers, so it's just my parents and I.

Peace and quiet. Lovely.

Thank goodness.

Football training is cancelled tonight.
Thank. God.
Don't get me wrong, I love football (soccer, not American). It's just that I am so unbelievably unfit right now; I practically live off crisps and Red Bull, and have done no physical exercise whatsoever since May.
Not to mention, the weather has been bloody awful.

It always happens here - we go through a period of hot and sunny weather. Just as we're getting used to it, the thunderstorms come. I did learn about this in geography, but I've forgotten why. I've been well taught.
So, yesterday brought with it the first of them. I had friends over and we were having a film day. Suddenly, out of nowhere, we saw some lightning and heard thunder, and the storm was upon us.
My cat, bless her, was hidden underneath the desk in the study. She doesn't like loud noises.

My friends all had to leave in the middle of the thunderstorm, so my mum gave them lifts. It would've taken a cruel person to allow them to walk home in that :L

Soon after they left, the rain basically stopped. Typical.
I was glad of it, though - as it was Wednesday, I had my St. John Ambulance meeting. James came to knock for me, and on the way walking to ol' John, we went to One Stop and bought some Monster.
Yummy <3

We then fancied a stroll in the wooded area, but both got petrified after we saw someone else, so we ran for it xD
We then arrived at St. John rather flustered, and got odd looks off the other people there; we couldn't say we'd been running because we were running late, because we were 10 minutes early.

The meeting passed without much excitement. We learnt how to fill out PRFs (Patient Report Forms - they have to be filled out each time you treat someone, even if it's just putting a plaster on). We then did scenarios, and I had to pretend to treat a 53-year-old diabetic who had a burst varicose vein.
Considering I've done no first aid training (yet), I don't think I did too badly. :B

Today, nothing exciting has happened, except for the second wave of the storm, and the cancellation of football training.
I think I may take up running to get fitter. I'll start on Saturday, and I'll go out at 5.30am-ish, so it'll be light, but no-one will be about to see me.

Watch this space.

Whoopsie.

So much for my 'let's post every day!' promise.. ;P
I have been meaning to post, actually, but I have been quite pre-occupied, for reasons I shall detail in this post.
Well, on Monday and Tuesday of last week, I didn't get up to much at all; I just lazed around. I think, I can't actually quite remember.
Wednesday perked up a bit, with my first St. John Ambulance meeting. For those of you who haven't a clue what St. John Ambulance is, it's a volunteer organisation which trains people to administer first aid.
I popped along to the meeting with my friend, James, and we were thrown in at the deep end in our first ever session - CPR.
A man there, who is a nurse by profession, first gave us a presentation on the heart. My GCSE biology came in handy as I could already read an ECG, could tell you where the SAN and AVN are, can rattle off a list of heart conditions etc. which seemed to impress the bloke.
We then got on to the practical side. We got shown how to check airways, open airways, do chest compressions, mouth-to-mouth resuscitation etc.
I was pleased with myself; the chest compressions, you're supposed to aim for doing 30 of them in 18 seconds. I got it spot-on 18 seconds, but James went too fast and did 30 in 12 seconds. He was told that if he did that, he could very well kill the casualty.. :L

Skipping forwards now on to Thursday; although I left school two months ago, due to exams, the rest of the school - Year 7, 8, 9 and 10 - were doing their Sports Day. Last year, I was trained as a Sports Leader, and was asked to go in to help with the running of Sports Day.
Now, given that they had asked specifically for trained Sports Leaders, I had assumed that I would be needed for important jobs - surely anyone could do it otherwise?
Wrong.
Sadie and I spent the whole day measuring how far small children could throw the discus and shotput, almost getting decapitated around 10 times in the process.
Still, I suppose at least I got a tan..

Friday passed without much going on, except babysitting. The child that I babysit is unbelievably cute, and I get £10/hour for looking after her, so I thoroughly enjoy the job. We watched Spongebob for a while, and then I put her to bed. I only actually looked after her for about an hour, because as soon as she's in bed, she goes to sleep.

Saturday is when I actually got out of the house to see friends again. I live relatively near a reservoir, which is good for riding your bike around. As the weather was forecasted to be nice, Louisa, Nicole and I decided we'd ride there, ride around and then ride back.
What. A. Mistake.
Firstly, the route we took - the only route not on a major road like the A1 - was ridiculously difficult. It was seven miles to the reservoir, and although that doesn't sound like much, we had to travel across the countryside - that means, uneven ground, hills, no civilisation for miles around.
Secondly, we mis-judged the weather. Yes, it was nice.. if you are the sort of person who enjoys 32-degree heat. Being English and thoroughly unused to this sort of weather, we suffered.
Thirdly, we ran out of water two miles into the journey.
Fourthly, we got lost.
Fifthly (if that's a word), none of us are into regular exercise at the moment, and suffered greatly.
Lastly, sitting on a saddle for hours on end, hurts.
Still, though, we completed the 22 miles (7 there, 8 around, 7 back), even if not graciously.

When I arrived back at home, I was greeted by my parents who had been to Milton Keynes earlier that day. They'd bought me my birthday present - an iPhone 4 - early, and I spent the rest of the night ecstatic.

Sunday, Andy (my boyfriend) came over. We played a bit of pool, listened to some music etc.
Then the children came over.
I have a little sister. She's friends with a girl called Heather. I babysit Heather's sister, Rebecca.
Heather (8 years old) and Rebecca (4) came over to my house. Instead of doing what they usually do - joining my sister in watching a film - they seemed to take a shine to Andy. By means of showing how much they liked him, they decided to 'playfully attack' him. This means, they whacked him with snooker cues, threw unripe apples at him and sprayed him with the garden hose until he was drenched.
Bless him, he put up with it all whilst I tried in vain to make them stop.

Still, though, I now have some rather hilarious videos on my new phone to show people..

Another Good Day.

My summer is, so far, turning out a lot better than I had originally expected; I'd envisioned spending days on end, cooped up inside my house, bored out of my mind whilst everyone else is having fun.
Thus far, it has been most enjoyable.

Yesterday, I met up with my boyfriend, and we went to the cinema to see 'Get Him to The Greek' - the film with Russell Brand in it. I cried of laughter when that American bloke imitated Brand's accent, and my boyfriend whispered in my ear, "You sound more like Russell Brand than I'd realised.."
This got me worried - I don't particularly want to sound like a man - until I realised he meant the accent.
I think I need elocution lessons.

I cannot actually remember that much of the film, but I did fall in love with the bit about the Jeffrey - the spliff with a thousand different kind of drugs in it - and the furry wall.
"When life slips you a Jeffrey, stroke the furry wall.. (8)"

The journey back from the cinema took a lot longer than it should have - 25 minutes on the train should have been the entire journey. However, there were delays, so the first train going home was at 9.47; we had come out of the cinema just before 9. I was extremely tempted to just hop on the train to Newcastle, for whatever reason, but I decided against it.
Still, we waited - we had no alternative - as it gradually got colder; although, being the female, I was lucky, as I could steal his coat (:<
I also hid behind him as a train driver who looked scarily like Stalin stared at me as a train pulled into the station.

When the train finally came, we had an uneventful train journey back, which made me wonder what delays there were. Apparently, there were maintenance works going on, but if that was the case, we must have just run over the maintenance workers.

Once we got back, it was just gone 10, and we still had the walk from the train station to my house (he, being the gentleman he is, walked me all the way home). He was starving, so we went to get food from the Garage. On the way to aforementioned Garage, we acquired a cat. I'm not quite sure whose cat it was, but it certainly took a shine to us, and followed us all the way to the Garage; it even came in with us!
The person working on the till was like, "Erm, excuse me, but could you please remove your cat?"
We loved this cat's loyalty, and christened him 'Bernard', even though we weren't entirely sure of the gender. But he was cute, fluffy and ginger, and just looked like a Bernard.

Also in the Garage, I got drawn to a rather magnificent children's magazine. Not for the content - I'm far too mature for that - but because it came with a free 'barnyard play set'.
Oh yes.
Hello, Daisy the cow, Rufus the dog and Hilda the pig.

Unfortunately, Bernard didn't follow me all the way home - although part of me is glad, for my own cat would never speak to me again had she found out I'd been seeing another cat - and the journey back from the Garage to my house was pretty uneventful, and I got home at around 11.30, even though it should really have taken only 20 minutes to walk back from the train station.

As for today, I've done nothing except for convince my parents to buy me an iPhone 4 for my birthday <3>
I've also teased my brother about his 'illness' - apparently, he's far too 'weak' to go to school, yet can prance around the front room playing tennis on Wii Fit.
Hm. He must be feeling awful.

Better Than Expected.

I apologise in advance if this blog is riddled with spelling mistakes and grammatical errors, for I am concentrating on two things at once - writing this, and clenching my stomach, for I am in rather a lot of pain.

Why the pain?

I have a feeling it is down to my 'summer diet'. No, not a diet plan - but when I'm on my summer holidays, my diet seems to consist of three things:

- Crisps. Mainly Doritos.

- Energy drinks.

- Alcohol.

I fear that, after seven weeks of this diet, my body is beginning to reject it.

Ah, well.

Anyway. My weekend was better than expected. I had banked on spending Saturday lazily cooped up inside, but my best friend rang to say that her parents were away for the weekend; did I want to go over?

Of course, I did, so I packed my things and went to hers. We didn't do anything particularly exciting - mainly sunbathing and watching films - but it was better than nothing.

We also cracked open the cider, although I fear I may have drunk mine too quickly - when we went to One Stop to buy Doritos, I was feeling rather light-headed, and I almost skipped in front of a car.

We then watched some rubbish 2am telly and listened to some music.

I eventually got to sleep, but not for long - it was far too hot - and when I woke up, at around 5am, there was the most absurd advert on; one for spray-on hair.

It looked quite exciting. I'm quite tempted to buy a can, so I can give myself a beard.

Won't my boyfriend be chuffed?

I got picked up from her house later on in the morning, and got ready to go out again,for I was meeting Lou, James, Nicole and Sadie at Subway. I didn't buy anything, but at least I was out of the house.

We then toddled to my house to pick up some Smirnoff Ices, and my paedophile camera. James took a shine to it, and when we all toddled to the park, he was obsessed with taking photos of us jumping off the benches.

There's an amazing one which I took of James landing after jumping off this bench :L

However, although it was nice out, and fairly sunny, it also got chilly pretty quickly, as it was rather windy; that's when I came home.

When I got home, I found out that my parents had been to the pet shop, to buy things for our puppy. We haven't got him yet, but because we're picking him up the day after our holiday, we need to buy everything before we go away.

Our puppy is a boxer, and we've named him 'Chester'. We used to have a boxer dog named Dottie, but she unfortunately died suddenly last October. Now, though, it seems the right time to get another.

Going off on a bit of a tangent, my friend's cousin's also getting a boxer dog, and they want to give it a 'stereotypically German name', and they asked me if I could think of any.

Now, I know it's bad, but when someone says to me, "Think of a German name!" my first thoughts go something like:

"ADOLF! No, no, sorry.. Rommel? Not that either? Why not? OK then, how about Roehm? Goebbels?"

I decided not to put my suggestions forward.

In the end, I think they've decided on 'Boris'. Is that a German name? I don't know... what I do find funny is, they're getting another dog, a terrier-type, and calling it either Dave or John.

If it's Dave, it'll be like Boris and Dave (Tory party anyone?).

If it's John, it'll be Boris Johnson.

Not to mention that both Dave and John are hilarious names for dogs.

I laughed more than I should have.

Helpful Citizen..

Despite being on my summer holidays, I went into school for a few hours this morning to be 'trained' - for, next year, I shall be helping Year 7s with their maths. Apparently, they'll all have got a Level 2 or Level 3 at the end of Year 6. To people who aren't British, this shall mean nothing, but this should give you a good idea - Year 7s are 11 or 12. I got a Level 3 in maths when I was in Year 2, aged 6.

The most difficult thing therefore shall be simplifying the maths enough for them to be able to understand it. Many have difficulty with '3 + 8', simply because the answer is a number greater than 10; more often than not, they have to use numberlines for most of their calculations.

Even so, I'll persevere with them. I don't particularly like 11 and 12 year olds, but I am more than willing to try and help them improve their maths. After all, maths is an important key subject, and one which happens to be one of my strongest points.

Not to mention it can go on my UCAS when university application comes around..

That's about all for today. I'll probably have a lazy day tomorrow, but I should be going out on Sunday, so I'll hopefully have something fairly interesting to write about then.

Heyy, blog.

After apparently creating this blog all the way back in April - what a successful enterprise - I have only just re-discovered it; I think about now is the right time to begin the blog for real, as I have ahead of me a ridiculously long summer, so I shall have a lot of free time on my hands.

I would usually begin something like this by telling you a bit about myself - however, I am going to assume that you ended up at this blog by following a link from ACC, in which case you can look at my profile on there and save me the typing, si si senor?

Another reason why I'm starting this today is because I actually have something to talk about, for last night was my prom. It's a mainly American thing, I think, but the trend's gradually come over here, and we celebrated the end of Year 11 in style last night.

I was apprehensive over this whole prom thing. As far as I was concerned, I'd already left school - my exams were over, we'd had our 'Leavers' Day'; why did we need anything else? However, I soon realised that the prom served as a kind of 'goodbye' to those who are leaving next year, as well as a pretty stylish celebration of all of the work we've put into our studies over the years.

My friends and I had booked to turn up in a 'Green Goddess' - a fire-engine type vehicle whose insides had been converted into a limousine. I was also apprehensive about this, as from the photos it looked fairly ugly, but I found out when we arrived at the prom that literally every other group had arrived in a limousine, so I was grateful that we had arrived in something a bit different - even if I did almost trip over when I got out of it.

I don't want this post to be overly long, so I shall break the prom's events down into a few bulletpoints:

- Arrived at prom. Found my boyfriend (Andy), headed into the prom with him.

- Sat around drinking our free drinks (Y).

- Had my photo taken with Andy.

- Headed back into the dance place, boogeyed a bit.

- Feet started hurting due to my heels, so went to sit outside.

- A few prizes - driving lessons, a digital camera, hot air balloon ride - were given out by means of a raffle. I won nothing.

- Prom King and Queen crowned. The 'Queen' was evidently a joke, 'ironic' vote - bless her - whereas the 'King' was voted for because he's popular.

- Headed back onto the dancefloor. Somehow managed to do the macarena and the Cha-Cha Slide.

- The balloon drop.

- The last few songs, danced with Andy. 'Sweet Child O' Mine' by Guns 'N' Roses, 'Mr. Brightside' by The Killers, and 'Angels' by Robbie Williams.

- Cue the holding back tears moment.

So yes, I shall bore you with no more, and I shall leave you with, "I had a great, memorable night last night - and expect regular, sometimes rambling posts from now on!"