Eighteen

Gah, I'm sorry I haven't posted in almost two weeks, time seems to be slipping straight past me lately and I really don't know what I have been doing, apart from the fact that I turned 18 last week!

For anyone who might be reading this overseas, turning 18 is about the biggest milestone in the UK, there are few things you can't do once you're 18, and the world just seems to open up right in front of you.

Eighteen things I can do now I'm eighteen:

1. Buy alcohol
2. Buy cigarettes
3. Get a tattoo
4. Go to a casino
5. Vote
6. Get married
7. Be in adult movies
8. Be classed as an "adult"
9. Get a credit card
10. Watch "18" films in the cinema
11. Go to 18+ gigs
12. Be a stripper
13. Go to nightclubs
14. Travel unsupervised
15. Bet on the Grand National
16. Get paid more than £5 per hour
17. Get a loan
18. Join Match.com

I got some of the loveliest presents as well from friends and family, as well as some much appreciated money to keep me going until payday!

One of my favourite presents is the Barnes and Noble leather-bound edition of Hans Christian Anderson's Classic Fairy Tales. I realise it isn't exactly a stereotypical 18th-birthday present, but it really is beautiful, the illustrations are exquisite and I will keep it forever. 

 

Promise of a suicidal father

Dress - H! By Henry Holland at Debenhams

Jumper - Next

Bracelet - Pandora

This dress is an absolute favourite of mine because of the collar and cute floral print, but it hasn't featured in a look since April (link to the blog post here) because I find dresses are difficult to, well, dress differently, and I don't want to be reported on Lookbook for reposting.

I want to point out that the title for today's post isn't a personal reference, but a paraphrased quote from the book I'm currently reading "A Tale For the Time Being" by Ruth Ozeki (available from Amazon). It was short-listed for the Man Booker Prize 2013 and so far I am really enjoying it, and it's teaching me a lot about Japanese culture, which I find very interesting. We tend to think of the world as a very small place now, with aeroplanes and the internet, so it's a shock to realise that places are still so different, and not everywhere has the ideologies of the west. 

The book is split between the diary of Japanese teen Nao, and American-living-in-Canda author Ruth, who finds the diary when it's washed up on the beach in a Hello Kitty lunchbox. I can't say much more because I haven't finished it yet but I really am enjoying it so far. 

Are you reading anything good at the moment? 

Just tell me you love me and it will be okay

Glasses - FCUK

T Shirt - Next

Cardigan - Dorothy Perkins

Jeans - Red Herring at Debenhams

This week is going by so slowly, every day it gets more difficult to get out of my warm, cosy bed and walk up to that miserable bus stop. I realise that neither of us have written many personal posts lately and I hate to tell you that it's simply because there just isn't that much going on right now. If it weren't for my birthday I would hate November just as much as everyone else, but it's my birthday soon and I am so very excited.

The worst part is that I'm 18 before all of my friends, meaning that I have nobody to have a drink with, but when they all turn 18 I will be able to join in the celebrations, so there is a silver lining!

Are you guys doing anything in November?

Secret Santa

Shirt - Topshop

Cardigan - Red Herring at Debenhams

Shorts - Topshop

Watch - Fossil

Tights - Primark

Today was a day much like any other - I dragged myself out of bed at the horrific 6:15am, got ready for school and trudged up to the bus stop. I actually understood my Chemistry lesson (okay, maybe today wasn't so normal) my English teacher is on maternity leave and school still hasn't sorted out her replacement so we missed another lesson, and by fifth period Psychology I could not focus on getting any work done.

On the plus side of my education, I've now received three offers from universities: Lincoln, Sheffield Hallam and Coventry, which I'm really happy about because now I just need to focus on getting the necessary 300 UCAS points and this time next year I'll be at university! It's really exciting but it's become very real and a little bit daunting since I got my offers, I'm actually going to study for a degree (results day permitting) and I won't be living in this little town any more, everything in my life will be completely different in less than a year.

I bought this shirt yesterday and I love the vintage look, it's so soft and feels like it's been washed a hundred times already so it's really comfy and having the top button fastened doesn't feel restrictive at all, and I love the metal poppers down the front.

How was your day?

Christmas Wishlist 2013

Christmas is a time for spending time with friends and family, for wrapping and receiving gifts, and buying lovely new clothes to go to Christmas parties in! This month I get my last payday before Christmas so it needs to count, but I just get too distracted looking at nice clothes to buy for myself... oops.


Yellow Check Shirt - £30 - Topshop
I love checked shirts, worn with skinnies, shorts and tights or a skater skirt, they look cute and preppy with a top button fastening and I like the unusual colour scheme on this one from Topshop.


Little Birds Mini Messenger Bag - £35 - Cath Kidston
I do love Cath Kidston even though the prices seem to have increased rapidly over the past few years! This print called "Little Birds" is new and I love it on this messenger bag which is the perfect size to fit in all your essentials whilst out Christmas shopping.



Grimm's Complete Fairy Tales (Barnes & Noble Leatherbound Classic Collection) - £16.25 - Amazon
Barnes & Noble released a collection of leatherbound classic books and I am rather determined to collect them, I already have Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, The Scarlet Letter and The Complete Tales and Poems of Edgar Allen Poe. But this Brothers Grimm book I thought was particularly grabbing, I still do love fairy stories, especially as I expect these to be the slightly more sinister original versions that the toned down modern ones.


Eyeko Skinny Liquid Eyeliner - £10 - Selfridges & Co
Now I don't usually go for expensive make up because a) you never know how good it is until it's too late b) I'm crap at putting it on anyway and c) nobody can really tell whether your eyeliner was £2 or £20, atleast I can't. But this Alexa-Chung-endorsed (I also never usually go for celebrity products) does look really good and I do want to invest in some decent make up, I think liquid eyeliner is a good place to start, as I've really grown to love the stuff lately.



Ponte Skater Skirt With Braces - ASOS - £20

I already have a normal skater skirt but these braces are just too cute to ignore, they cross at the back and just make everything look so preppy and adorable. I would obviously need some new shirts to wear with it... a girl can never have too many clothes.

Boring

boring

ˈbɔːrɪŋ/

adjective

1. not interesting; tedious

So one of my so-called "friends" has apparently said that I am "quiet and boring" which I have to say both offended and upset me. I know that I am shy and I don't really put myself out there when it comes to talking to new people, because I am just worried that they won't like me so don't like to say anything too forward. And I will admit that I take things like school work and university applications and even my weekend job quite seriously, because I want to do a good job and I take pride in the things that I do, especially when they are as important as getting in to university so that I hopefully don't have to fold kids' pyjamas for the next fifty years.

But boring? Boring? I resent that. 

Ten reasons why I am not boring:

1. I dressed up as a freaking sheet ghost for Halloween

2. At said Halloween party, I danced on the benches to Mardy Bum... the girl who said I was boring stayed at home.

3. I once ran through the fountains in Sheffield, and wore a bin liner on my aunty's boat whilst waiting for my clothes to dry.

4. I am the furthest thing from Bah Humbug at Christmas, if anything I'm like a small child.

5. I want to be a writer, show me a boring writer

6. I like to think my dress sense is on the right side of quirky

7. I have bloody ginger hair

8. If someone wants to make plans, whatever the plans are, I will always be up for it. 

9. I always choose Dare. 

10. Ha ha, I can't tell you that. 

Do you think I'm boring?

What is the worst thing you think somebody could possibly say about you?

Nineteen Eighty-Four

I just finished reading Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell (£5.75 from Amazon) and I have to say that I was a little reluctant at first, but the book grew on me and I was certainly hooked by the whole concept of how the world could be if a party ever got enough power.

For those of you not familiar with the story, we follow a man called Winston, living in a dystopian version of 1984, where your every move and sound is captured by telescreens and hidden microphones, and any if you ever commit thoughtcrime, where you do not absolutely believe in all that The Party and Big Brother are saying, you will be caught by the Thought Police, tortured in the Ministry of Love, and all record of your existence will be removed from history.

There were two ideas that were central to this novel that really got me thinking, and quite frankly scared me a little. The first is that the past is only what is written in the history books and what lives in human memory, we can never really know if what happened in the past is true or not. The second is the idea of language. In the book, a new language is being developed, newspeak, which basically simplifies and constricts all the words of the English language, so there is only ever one word for what you want to say, and when this new language comes in to full effect, thoughtcrime will not exist, because the words simply do not exist to speak ill of The Party.

I know how frustrating it is when you can't think of the word that you want to use, but imagine if the words you wanted to use simply didn't exist? 

It just got me thinking, and I wanted to recommend the book to you. It is a typical English Literature class book, but I didn't find it half as dry as I was expecting to, and it is well worth a read.

Have you read any good books lately?

Dead Alice, Black Widow, Cat & Ghost

The long-awaited sixth form Halloween party finally came around last night, and here we are all ready to go, after a lovely girly evening of food, chatter, hair and make up. 

The party was at the regular venue, a grotty run-down pub that will serve the most baby faced of Year 12's. But it is the people that make the party, and it was so much fun to see what everyone had arrived as. There were gangsters, zombies, LMFAO, Frenchmen, The Spice Girls/Boys, and the classic dead school kid, among many others in fancy dress and a few boring people that didn't bother to dress up.

Arriving as the sheet ghost certainly had the desired effect, everyone was all-out staring at me as I stumbled past them (I could barely see through the eye holes) and saying "who's that under the sheet?" a few people knew that I'd planned to come as a ghost and lifted up the sheet to confirm that it was in fact me. And one person said "When you said a sheet... I didn't think you literally meant just a sheet" What on Earth were they expecting?

I love Halloween, and cannot wait for next year when I will hopefully be a fresher, I bet Halloween at university is incredible. My UCAS application has officially been sent off and now all I can do is wait for offers, wish me luck!