(Not so) festive update

So, hi again, everybody, I'm sorry for not posting earlier but life has been pretty up and down so far this month! I see it's over a month since my last post and I thought maybe you'd like an update.

Christmas (today) has been pretty good. Good food, good company, and the house wasn't too down and that’s lovely. We had my cousins and my aunt over for Christmas lunch. They've never been to ours for Christmas but we wanted to get them out of the house considering my uncle passed away a week ago. It's been quite awful trying to deal with grief and still manage to function well enough to arrange a funeral. I advise all of you (jokingly, somewhat, since we can't choose the times these things happen) not to pass away around this time; we cannot have the funeral for another three weeks because these things need time and preparation and nobody is willing to do that sort of thing around Christmas time.

I'm taking it as a sign of logic that I'm not overwhelmingly upset, partially because I rarely saw my uncle and partially because I like to be a helping hand in times such as these, rather than another lost and crumpled soul. I have to be honest with you all, at the moment all I want to do is make sure people are okay and then get back to university, but this calls for family time and I like to think of us as sticking together in situations such as these. Note this is the same set of people as the one I wrote about before, containing the cousin I wanted to write a book for. I couldn’t get it done (not even started). I have no idea what to say now. As I prepared to write, this new development came along and now the family is simultaneously torn apart and pulled together by sadness.

Anyway, we’re waiting to have the funeral and I’m not leaving until everything is settled down. Thankfully I don’t start next semester until quite a way into January and so I can stay here without missing anything. I do want to go back early though, so I have some quiet time and I can just be by myself. I was looking forward to the holidays but so far they’ve been full of sadness and business (the two things you don’t always really enjoy on holiday if I’m honest). 

I'll be pretty busy covering the work I did last semester soon, and I'll try to get another post in between now and returning to uni. 

Happy reading, folks!

Victoria Jane.

Bitte entschuldigen Sie!!

One word to you all, dear readers, and that word is perseverance. I'm not afraid and not sorry to say that there have been good reasons for my not posting in a while!

Studying.
I have been sitting at my desk, and various other desks, and on my bed, and at the kitchen table, and I've been thinking and formulating and assimilating (to an extent) all this information we, as law students on the course, have been exposed to. Lectures are a welcome introduction to topics, believe me, but gosh are they fleeting. Oh, what a brief window of interest they open for us! And then the hard work begins. In lectures, I sit and I take notes and I assume I'm making sense of all the words and phrases and images I'm given to make sense of, but of course it's passive learning. And so I have to go away and read and commit myself to hours of thinking about the same things and working out how all those things fit together. It's wonderful, readers! I'm really enjoying myself learning things at university.
But of course the result of all this time-consuming studying is that I get good marks. I am getting good marks and I am very proud and because of that I can truly say that I feel I am spending my time well here. Of course I take time off! Of course I spend time procrastinating, and watching movies, and reading non-academic books, and sleeping and eating and just relishing being able to think. So far I've given in two essays. The first was a 2:1 (a high B) and the second was a 1st (an A). I am enjoying that. And then today we participated in a  test in class, multiple choice but quite difficult all the same, and I scored 35/36.

...Baking?
It was Patrick's birthday at the weekend and so I went home for four days. We baked a lovely chocolate cake on Friday, which we didn't finish until after his birthday dinner on Saturday, when I made the ganache and put it on. That word's a link because EVERYONE I told asked what ganache was and I couldn't define it well.

Here's a picture of the birthday boy exercising his self-control with said cake.

Pat, I gotta say, honey, you could probably fit that whole cake in your mouth in less than ten bites.

It's a pretty big cake, I tell you! It was/is lovely (I still have a slice keeping me company up in Oxford). I also bought Pat an Euler's disk, because he really loves physics and he specifically asked for one. Youtube it and see how they work, they're pretty cool (and heavy).

I got the recipe for the cake here, it is delicious, I recommend you all try it. I am having a lot of fun with the whole baking shebang now I'm older and able to do all that stuff I didn't understand when I was younger.

...Didn't stop me from melting a spatula when making the ganache, though. Moving on!


Coursework obligations
I have a piece of coursework due this Friday, which I am currently part of the way through writing, and two pieces due in three and a half weeks' time, so I'm likely to be quite busy between now and then! However, I will try to write after that, which shouldn't be too difficult as my Christmas holidays start once I've handed those in, so I should be back home for roughly December 15th. This is an exciting last month of my first semester at university, I must say! I'm being careful not to do so much work that I burn out and do terribly next year, but I also want to do well this year because I want a proper foundation year (looks good on CVs and also to any prospective employers to show that I'm trying hard even when it's not completely necessary!

I would put up some coursework extracts but we're not allowed for reasons such as cheating and plagiarism. Sorry folks! Don't hesitate to ask questions if you want to, though.

Happy reading, folks!

Victoria Jane

Purpose.

I'm not saying we're here for a specific purpose or that life is a wonderful miracle. I don't want to project an image of myself as someone very philosophical or anything like that. I like people to know I have thoughts, though. I find it somewhat satisfying that someone could be interested in the things in my head.

So, I've been going to Taekwon Do every day that I can (it only runs Thursdays and Fridays but some Fridays I go home to see my family) and I can feel myself getting stronger and faster. This is a good change, certainly. It feels like I am achieving something.
For years and years I felt pressure to be thin and to never lose my temper and to be helpful to people all the time, but then I realised that thin is not necessarily healthy and keeping your cool all the time is virtually inhuman, there have to be some things that annoy you, sometimes, and sometimes it's okay not to lend others a hand and to just have some time to yourself. I think everybody needs that.

I've been reading a lot recently, and I found this, which is interesting. I don't think being married is anything different than being in a relationship, but that's not the significance of it. I was particularly interested in point seven on that list, because quite frankly it's not a burden worrying about someone and being young and carefree doesn't go hand in hand, completely, with being alone. Again, I'm not trying to project an image of philosophy; nor am I saying that everybody simply must have someone to be with (come on! Nobody NEEDS a boyfriend, it's not a concept you should view in that way, in my opinion). My relationship does cause me some worry, of course; I care about Pat very much, and I do worry a bit sometimes. But he makes life a lot more bearable when I've had a terrible day (don't think, honey, that I merely use you to make myself feel better).

But yes, purpose. My purpose in life has never been set, but rather quite loosely defined as what I find important at that moment. At this time I'm interested in learning about Law (good thing, that) and improving my Taekwon Do skills.

Recently, I have been reading this blog. It's written by a man whose younger son has autism, and it documents, to an extent, what effect this has had on family, and general, life. I have a cousin with autism and there is a whole huge area of grey in my knowledge about the condition, though I know the basics-  that it's lifelong, incurable, and prevents normal social interaction to an extent. But I must say that the man's child has high-functioning autism, which is not as severe at what my little cousin has. I say "has" and not "suffers from" because, as horrible as it may sound, I really think he doesn't care all that much, but we do, and it affects the lives of my mother's side of the family quite extensively. I have had to, in the past (and we're talking five years ago) literally pull other children off my cousin. Bullies can be cruel. He doesn't understand how awful they're being either.

But A (his name genuinely starts with that letter, I'm not initial-ing him autistic) isn't who I'm worried about, it's his older brother, T. I love T a huge amount, and the sadness I feel for his predicament is something I will never cease to bear. He not only has almost no support and praise from his parents but also must deal with, every day and night for the rest of his life, the fact his younger brother has autism. It will always be a part of his mind. I worry for him, this once promising and bright child, whose personality, aspirations and livelihood have dulled under the weight of his burden. At twelve (now) he is expected to fully understand his brother's condition and deal with it as well as his parents do (they don't, really). T was a very bright child, and I mean that; he learnt to read analogue clocks before I did, and I had six years on him. I was genuinely jealous at one point. But now? Now, I feel anger and pity. Anger that he was wasted, ignored, left to almost raise himself. He has to eat what his brother eats, which isn't much. He has to live around his brother. He has to work around the entire situation, and believe me, A is quite the situation.

I would never say it is A's fault, but he can be very challenging to deal with. Partly, he has autism. Partly, he's a complete bastard because his parents have let him grow to always get what he wants. As a result my favourite cousin (sorry all other cousins) has completely lost the light in his life. He did badly in school last year. He can't bring friends home. He has no escape. Secondary school is a car journey from his house and during that journey I can bet you anything there is either silence or lectures revolving around A. Or T's lack of performance. How do you expect him to do well if you won't help? He's not an adult, you control him as his parents, to some extent. You let his little brother break his things and ruin his stuff and you blame it on autism or on him, and you're going to have an unhappy child.

As a result, I've resolved to write him a little book. Of my thoughts. Of what I feel. Of how I want to help. Of how everything is unfair and I see that and how mum and I have secret plans to steal him away for a day and we'll do whatever the hell he wants all day and he can eat and sleep and just not give a care that his little brother is autistic, for one day. Removing the burden. And hopefully he'll see that there are people who think he's not getting as much individual time and love as he deserves.

I'd genuinely not mind if he went to live with my mum, although it would be difficult. I'd love to see him more. I want his mobile number so we can text without his mum knowing; it'd be difficult but I'm sure there's a way.  My purpose is to write my little cousin a book to make him a little bit less miserable this Christmas, because it quite literally (I think it's the stress of thinking of being in that situation) makes my heart hurt when I imagine him all bored and upset and alone in that house, every day.

If you have any comments, please send them to me here. I'd love to read them.

Happy reading, folks!!

Changes!!

Hello readers! A mighty quick update for you from the lovely me (ah, who am I kidding?) to say that I've changed the name of the blog (as you can clearly see!). Now, the domain name for this is already taken, so I won't be changing the website address just yet, but at least if I do I'll give a couple weeks notice, so don't worry about that.

I never thought I'd do this really. Not that I thought I wouldn't, as such, but it never really occurred to me before, as it has recently, that the old name of my blog (everything I own [now]) seems very materialistic and therein lies the problem. I'm not materialistic. Happiness, in my opinion, should not be based on material items and their value (never let it be said that I'll forgive you for buying a cheap coat, though. There is cost effective, where you get good value for money, and then there is downright cheap, where your clothing falls apart and you complain even though you only paid a fiver for it).

Hence, I declare this blog to now be called Wired Weird! The principal principle (oho!) behind this change is to reflect how very odd and convoluted a place my mind can be, and seeing as you delve into it on a somewhat regular and somewhat frequent basis, I consider it false advertising to call myself anything close to "wired normally".

Happy reading, folks! There will probably by another post soooooooooooooooooooooon (extra Os intentional, based on the fact it was Hallowe'en yesterday)!

Work, eat, sleep

the title is pretty much my priorities at the moment. I'm doing a lot of work (not begrudgingly but willingly, mind you) and there isn't a whole lot of time for other things at the moment, which is a pity. But never mind. I've got pretty much everything done I wanted to get done, except the work for Tort Law, which is due on Thursday. I have time because like a particularly well-organised student I did the work for the other three modules over the weekend and so it hasn't been rushed and panicked, but instead patiently worked through as it should be. Which is what I enjoy the most about my life at the moment. There's time to do things.

I promised you all a picture of the flowers!!

They are truly lovely. And I still have them even though it's been more than a week (they're not over yet). They smell FANTABULOUS (yes, it is a real word) because there's Eucalyptus in the bunch, as well. So my whole room smells of Eucalyptus now. Not complaining at all. Thank you, Patrick!

I'm reading The Godfather by Mario Puzo in my spare time (scoff, scoff, chortle, chortle). I felt bad having seen the films and not read the books, which I really think I should have done first, but never mind. You can't do everything as you'd intend to do it. And besides, the films are rather good. If for whatever reason (coma? you're a hobbit? you have no self-esteem? lack of time/money?) you haven't either seen the films or read the books, I suggest you rectify that. I always find it amazing reading or watching these "classics". How did this come out of someone's head? It's an incredible phenomenon that we have such active imaginations, I tell you that.

I've had coldy-flueyness this week, unfortunately, so I'm not as lovely and happy and bouncy as I'd perhaps have liked, but that's not really a problem. I'm going home at the weekend again, to see my mum for a bit. I never feel like we get to spend much time together so I'm working through everything I need to do in preparation for that. I also have an assignment due in next week that I need to do the preliminary reading for, which means either going to the library or hooking up my printer (not difficult but time-consuming).

Happy reading, folks! I can't tell you how nice it is, having you read these posts. It means a lot to me, not because I WANT you to read them, but because you're interested in what I say (whether you agree or disagree is interesting too, so please comment if you can).

Victoria Jane :D

Visiting family

So I took this weekend off (after handing in that Assignment, I needed a break!) and went home for the first time in a month! It's the longest I've ever been away from home. Once when I was younger I camped with a cousin for two weeks and going back home felt pretty good. So, after a month of being in a new, confusing city, doing work and generally not knowing where many things are, going home was not only AMAZING because it meant I could see my family, but because it also gave me the chance to be lazy with directions and   cooking. I got there Friday evening and went skating (the first time in a month, it was a relief to realise I can still skate to be honest!!), before having dinner at home. Just pasta and sauce but actually eating with my mum was really lovely.

I also (as you would) went to see my lovely other half, Patrick. I take great delight in surprising him, so I told him I'd be there on Saturday morning for hugs and such, and even called him while I was outside my house, saying goodnight... And then I got a lift to his and opened the front door VERY quietly and took my suitcase up the stairs VERY quietly... And walked into his room. And he freaked out! It was fantastic. He was sat in bed, saying "What are you doing here?!" and he had the BIGGEST smile on his face. Made it worth the effort of lying to him all week, definitely. He also bought me a LOVELY bouquet of white roses, which are my favourite flowers! I've never had flowers bought for me before, so that was a lovely surprise.

So we spent the evening chatting and then went out the next afternoon, after I'd been to the opticians to get some new glasses (I stood on mine, poor things, they're bent beyond all functionality) and check my prescription. My head has widened, they said, and I had to explain that it was because of the metal stretcher I used to have in my mouth. For reference, I used to get one Shreddie stuck between my opposite back teeth. The gap is now wide enough for a Party Ring. It's nice to know all the pain was worth it!!

In the afternoon, we went out for lunch (ham, egg and chips is an amazing meal and if you disagree there is something fundamentally wrong with you), then for a milkshake. Patrick bought a banoffee one that was so thick, he couldn't finish it, which I think was a foreign concept to him (he looked very confused). We also went out for dinner with my dad, so I am certainly well-fed now!

I currently have reading to do for the morning ( a side effect of not doing work all weekend is catch-up work that needs to be done), so I'm off to do that.

I will upload a picture of the flowers with my next post!!

Happy reading, folks!!

Looks and books

Hey hey! I'm just into my fourth week at university and having a great time so far. Sorry or not having posted (I know I said I would) but I've been busy!!

so, I've been preparing my first assessment (a piece of coursework due in at the end of this week), which is for Foundational Legal Skills. This part of the course is 100% coursework. I need to do some pretty interesting things for assessments here at the university, and I like that they don't spoon feed us the information, because it means we KNOW if we're not doing enough work. It's very autonomous and you control the outcome of everything quite strongly here. So, I spent maybe twenty hours in the last three days reading and doing little bits towards this assessment. I didn't feel like I was prepared to even start writing until last night!
 So obviously this means that I am busy and hungry and don't always have time for meals. But, like any good student should, and particularly one who tends to get ill when when they don't eat enough, I have cheats. Now, these lovely little thingies on the right are a new-ish product from Nutri-grain. They're called Breakfast Biscuits (as you can see) and they're really good if you're on the way to an epiphany, meaning you don't have the time or patience to deal with your grandparent of a cooker. You get six packs of four biscuits. They're perfect. They're yummy. They stop me from fridge-raiding.

 Everyone has a favourite drink as well! Mine is this stuff by a company called Tymbark, which is a Polish company. It's not very sweet, which is why I like it. The only problem is that I can get through a two-litre pack in about four hours.

So, this is my room! Accommodation is quite expensive, but it was worth paying for because, though it's not in the picture, I have a little en-suite too. Again, this is a good study-aid. I don't have to make any long trips just to have a shower or brush my teeth, and I like that rather a lot. It also happens to be good when I'm sore from training, because I don't do a whole lot of walking about at the moment. My knees hyperextend as a result of skating, and now I'm doing Taekwondo, they hurt quite a lot. I spent £40 on knee straps. It was worth it- I could actually walk today! I bought Elastoplast ones. They're fantastic.

So, yes. My room has lots of study space and the bed isn't too bad either (kind of a bad mattress but I'm always VERY tired by the time I go to bed so I don't really have an awareness of it for long. Taekwondo is fantastic. I'm enjoying pretty much everything about university, except that I miss my family. An unfortunate side-effect of loving people is that you feel a little empty when they're not with you. But I'm training four hours a week and studying maybe thirty or forty hours a week. and then I eat and sleep and explore. And life is good.

I'm going home this weekend!! It'll be great to see the lovely other half, Patrick for the first time in a month, I am very excited!!!

happy reading, folks!

Rank and file

Hello again! It may have been a little while, but I have a good reason: I've moved house! Well, that's a lie, kind of. I've moved to university! I feel it's all a bit rank and file from now on, because there are a heck of a lot of students here and we're all numbered (on our flashy student cards, which happen to match all the towels I've brought with me- style mistake? Or victory?)...

It was quite difficult packing all my stuff and leaving mum, but I'm having a great time here. So far, I've met all my flatmates, a lot of the people on my course, and some of the professors here too. Everybody is lovely and friendly and it's very liberating having to do everything for myself.

So, this week I've been doing the pre-reading for a module on my course, which starts on Monday. The actual module in question starts on Tuesday, but there's no harm in doing a little bit of work ahead of time to help get myself into the swing of things, right?

So, how are you all? Good? Well? Healthy? You know those New Year's resolutions, the ones that are impossible to keep? Well, I made a "New Academic Year" resolution, because it's easy to make all those changes at once; and I don't regret it. I have joined a Taekwondo course. So far, and for the foreseeable future, we train (and will train) on Thursdays and Fridays. Yes, Thursday was painful and fun. Yes, Friday felt like suicide. Yes, it was completely worth it. I am proud. I am proud that it hurts to walk and that my calves are so tight I can barely walk down stairs. I am proud that I have stretched, sprinted, side-stepped, punched and kicked my way to pain. I enjoy the experience, and I enjoy chatting to others on the course while we all get the crap kicked out of us, by ourselves. It's really, really painful and really, really fun, because it's nothing like anything I've done before. I recommend it highly!!

So, I'm starting my degree on Monday. Freshers' week has been good too, although I do miss my family. And my feet hurt a bit from running around barefoot, but it's a mark of self-discipline if you don't complain out loud, really (that or involuntary mutism, I guess).

Happy reading, Folks!

P.S. Soon, as promised, you'll all meet Christmouse, whom I have chosen as my partner for shenanigans now I'm here at university! He's friendly, he's a mouse, he sings carols, and I got him in my stocking, hence his name. Speak to you soon!!

The pain of not moving

One of the reasons I don’t post very often (well, ain’t this post a lil’ funny then?) is that, quite honestly, sitting at the computer for hours is a largely uneventful and painful experience for me. I don’t have anything particularly wrong with me, but as a result of various incidents I find it painful to sit down for long periods of time.

You know that way you sit in bed and read a book? I have to have my bed in the corner and sit quite upright if I want to do that for anything longer than a couple of minutes. The bottom of my spine really doesn’t like prolonged pressure and it makes it difficult to do things people find relaxing, like have a bath or sit and read. I suppose it’s a good thing, because it means I don’t sit around all day (something I have tried rather unsuccessfully to do today, in fact) and I get more done. Walking around aimlessly is awfully boring. It’s good for thinking, but I prefer longer walks for that sort of thing.

Even now, as I type, it’s very uncomfortable. My neck doesn’t like it, my back doesn’t like it and my legs take about half an hour to recover every time I do this. Exams are a nightmare and I find that I break my concentration by moving around in the seat a lot. But there you go, no matter! I was, more than anything, wondering if anybody else feels like that. I find it very annoying; I have to go to a physiotherapist for the duration of exam season because the studying leaves me unable to sleep.

The main problem is either having had whiplash a while ago that was never fully resolved, or the ridiculously unbalanced amount of muscle I have on my back. The right side has about three times as much muscle as the left, due to my being lazy with sports training and not practising elements (of any sport that requires feet) both ways around. It sucks. I tell you (more like warn), don’t do it. It results in annoying cramps and rucksacks are never comfortable.

But enough! How were the cookies? I hope a couple of you tried to make them. I’d make them more often myself if it weren’t for the fact that I eat them all one after the other.

I always forget to mention, if anyone has questions about me, you can always send them here (as in, comment below). I’ll set up an email address for correspondence in the future.

Happy reading, folks!

Victoria Jane 

Très Apologétique (COOKIE RECIPE)

Hello, everybody! (Hi, Dr. Nick...)

Many, many apologies for not having been in touch earlier! I hope you're all well. I have news! And then, of course, I'll give you that recipe that I've been holding on to for so long (I bet you've all forgotten about it by now).

So, results day for A2 students was back on August 16th (last Thursday to the less formal readers out there, hey hey) and of course we were all pretty nervous. But, by some intervention (known by normal people as "revision" and "good fortune" I managed to get good enough results to get into university, and so did my boyfriend, and most of our friends (the ones who applied anyway). So it was a great day! I got an A* and two Bs, and the other half managed an astounding A*AAB combination. I'm very proud of both of us.

So, off to uni, to study Law LLB, and I've decided to take a qualifying Law degree, which means I'll be able to become a barrister or solicitor afterwards. I look forward to it. My lovely other half is off to study Computer Science, possibly filling his dreams of being a mole for the rest of his life (I imagine he'll do well at uni, I really do).

Right! On to the recipe! Now, this makes some lovely ginger cookies (or you can leave the ginger out and substitute other things, like cinnamon at Christmas) and I'll tell you all the tricks I've come up with to help make the process as successful as possible. Here we go!

Ingredients:

• 125g unsalted butter (I use Stork in a tub, it's fantastic)
• 100g dark muscovado sugar
• 4 tbsp golden syrup (Tate and Lyle!!)
• 325g self raising flour
• 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 2 tsp ground ginger

Utensils:
Glass mixing bowl
Dessert spoon
Saucepan (medium-large, non-stick)
Oven, Hob
Scales
Teaspoon
Greaseproof paper
Baking sheet x 2
Fork

Method:

1) Put your saucepan on the scales. Put in the butter and sugar, and the golden syrup. It's better to use four dessert spoons of golden syrup; the cookies are still going to be quite moist, don't worry. Then, put this on the hob and let it all melt together on a medium-high heat (I use around a 7 out of 9). You can stir if you like, but if you leave it on there it'll bubble and stir itself as a result. Just don't let it boil over!! Turn the oven to 180 Celsius (350-355 Fahrenheit).

2) Take your flour, powdered ginger and the bicarbonate of soda and (after weighing the flour) mix them all in a bowl, using a fork. Once they are thoroughly mixed and the butter/sugar/syrup mix has bubbled for a minute or so, pour that hot liquid (BE VERY CAREFUL OR IT WILL BURN YOU) into the dry ingredients, and stir it all together. It can get quite tough, and it will most certainly begin to rise.

3) Cover your metal baking sheets in the greaseproof paper and spoon spheres of cookie mix (around two-three teaspoons' size each) onto them at intervals of around five-eight cm.

4) Pop them in the oven, and wait about four to five minutes. After five minutes-ish, they'll cool to a soft but firm consistency and they're great with cold milk.

TIPS

Do NOT store them touching each other! Because of the syrup, they'll all stick together and form into one giant cookie-lump. (May not be a bad thing)
You can add chocolate chips to the mix! White chocolate chips are great.
They can be reheated in the oven (two or three mins at 160 Celsius) or the microwave (not more than 10 seconds or they burn).

Have fun and be careful! I've found them quite addictive, but they're really, really lovely so I'm not mad at myself.

Happy reading, folks!

Victoria Jane

Hello, stranger(s)!

I'll be the first to admit, it's been an abominably long time since I last posted, and I've not been particularly busy either, so I'd have to say that quite frankly, I'm just sorry. I've copped out. I've been a bit of a baby. 

My exams went... overall, disappointingly. With this phrase, I mean, I feel the first two exams went very well but the third and last exam, the two hour one in the afternoon... that came two hours after a three hour exam... That one didn't go so well. I put this down to a number of factors.

1) I completely underestimated the amount of time I'd need to revise the ten necessary chapters effectively.  I revised them, I did, but not nearly well enough. And that exam happened to want a lot of detail.

2) I didn't sleep enough. Not just the night before the exam, but in the month preceding exams in general, I was getting five or six hours a night, which truly just isn't enough. I reckon nine hours would have been better. 

3) Law, which was the last exam, was the hardest exam. And because it was the last exam, I had almost no choice but to revise more for the others. 

4) After the end of term, I generally need three to four weeks to relax. This is non-optional. I literally stop functioning as a responsible adult and student for this period of time and as such was unable to revise, which was the ONLY thing I should have been doing. Really. And I messed it up.

For these reasons, and the fact that I am somewhat angry at myself, I am afraid you'll have to wait for the major reason you've wanted this next post, which is, of course, the cookie recipe (Wooo! I tried it again the other day and it is STILL amazing and very yummy)... But yes, next time! 

Happy reading, folks!! 

Victoria Jane

Obligations

Well, it's been busy, I won't lie to you. But I like being busy, it stops me feeling useless. Getting ready for exams is kind of one of those challenges that I always begrudgingly start doing, and then realise it's not all that bad and can actually be quite "alright" (I can't bring myself to say fun, but it's almost there) to do.

My revision consists of reading, past papers, markschemes, examiner's comments on bygone exam papers, and   quite frankly more reading. I also have a (sometimes annoying) habit of having to research certain interesting bits of my courses before I'll answer questions on them in the exams, because I'm loathe to put in information that I don't fully understand. That's much lower level than what I want to achieve.

All of this preparation comes at a price, and that price is nil. It is free. I can only get better. It's a beautiful thing indeed, is revision.

Anyway, clearly this means there are obligations. We all have obligations to work at this time of year if we want to get the required grades for our universities. For example, Mr. P has an exam tomorrow. I'll be there to wish him luck, and then I'm off to my own classes and to do things that I need to do. I've done two exam papers today (that's five hours), but left time (or rather made time) for other stuff as well. I cycled four and a half miles before school. I did an hour and a half of paid work. I supported my friends and boyfriend, all of whom have many more exams than I do and therefore make me feel like complaining would be a silly and unnecessary thing to do at this point. All we can do is work as hard as possible. Which brings me round to my next point.

You need fuel! Now, cookies aren't the healthiest fuel, by all means, but they are darned nice. Which is why in my next post (IF I REMEMBER, erk) I will share with you all the recipe for my rather lovely gingerbread cookies. They started out as a biscuits recipe but have since morphed into the little chunks of heaven I am sure to be a billionaire selling, Or I would be if I wasn't sharing the secret with you all for free.

Happy reading, folks!

(also, reading an EXCELLENT book at the moment called French Children Don't Throw Food, will report more upon completion).

It's been a while!

I'd like to open with a quick refresher, as it could be seen to be. I don't write this blog specifically so people can read it, and I don't aim for high ratings or lots of subscribers. It's more a good way to get interesting things written/typed out so I can find them again. A public online memory box, as it were.


So, let me tell you about recent events, there's been a great deal of development (if that's what you can call it). I would go into the cliche'd "I met a guy and he's great" thing, but in truth it's been three months now and we're pretty much together 80% of the time. He's lovely. He's Irish (NOT a selling point but an interesting fact nonetheless!). He's tall and blonde and we go to the same college. We were friends for a year first, which is a really excellent way of getting to know someone and their likes and dislikes... We like all the opposite things, pretty much. It makes everything more interesting (obviously there are some similarities otherwise we'd be at odds all the time and it'd suck).


Well, what can I tell you? His name is Patrick. He's most excellent. I really dislike being sentimental on the blog, but I'm in love with him and he more than deserves a mention, even though I've been hiding him away to myself for a while. I taught him to cycle. It's odd to think such a clever guy (mathematical genius) wouldn't be able to grasp that skill that I find so essential. Anyway, it means he steals my bike on a regular basis (the bike he broke, poor thing. He fell off it and the brake actually snapped).

Exams coming up soon, I have one on June 13th and two on June 15th, which means I'll be very busy doing worky things from now on. Unsurprisingly, this year is more stressful than the last, because quite frankly this decides whether I can continue the rest of my life in the way that I want to or not (ideally university as of September, but conditional offers mean that I have to get certain grades). I need an A and two Bs. Not particularly difficult IF I get my head down and do the damn work. Thankfully all my courses are pretty interesting, so I shouldn't have a problem actually doing work.


Of course, exhaustion is the one thing that gets in the way of studying more than anything else. Or rather, a bad exam day. That day on the 15th? I have FIVE HOURS of examinations. And I am to be escorted everywhere by a supervisor between those two exams, which have a two hour break. The first exam is German, which is three hours long. THREE HOURS!


If I'm still alive afterwards, I'll tell you of my next plans.


Happy Reading, folks!


Victoria Jane :D

Social sudoku

Buying something for someone else is not an uncommon event in my life. Indeed, I buy plenty enough for my friends and family when they need something in particular, and I love buying silly things to make my boyfriend smile... But what about the time when the recipient of the item you're buying is likely to judge you? What if it's an event that you can't ignore, like Christmas... Or a birthday? This brings me to the main point of today's post: What do you buy as a present for someone you don't know very well but must seek to please nonetheless? a little bit about getting presents for other people recently.

Now, this hasn't stemmed from nothing; it hasn't come out of the blue. No, no, it is in fact my mother's boyfriend's birthday on Sunday (well done, mother's boyfriend, your birthday coincides with Easter. Your birthday is completely overshadowed by a social expectation that you must have bought me an egg).

Now, the easiest thing to do when finding presents for people (or at least getting ideas) is to find out what they like, or enjoy, and focus on things based around that. Your first frame of reference is how much you're willing to spend. Set this out first, and stick to it. Note that there should be a minimum amount of about £10 (I'd say roughly $16) if you're buying presents for someone you like/respect. If you don't either like or respect the person you're buying presents for, don't buy presents.

So, Mum's boyfriend likes... Beer (I'm not 18 so I can't buy that yet), Cars (pah!), and racing (tickets? Pah again!). This means I'll default to all things RELATED to the things he likes. Hence, beer and car relatgetted jokes and presents. What's affordable? What's within my price range (I'm capping at £20 as a student with a part time job)? Well, this leaves me with fewer options.

I've already done all the deliberation, and decided that as a joint present there will be beer, and later in the week, a mug with a picture of a car on it. And hopefully mum's boyfriend will be especially pleased when he finds that the picture of the car is in fact HIS car. If any of you are thinking that might be a little, er, lame, he owns one of these.

I'm mainly relying on the beer; you can't go wrong provided you know their favourite brand of alcohol or food. As I said, it's always a time-saver to appeal to their happy side by buying things you know they like, just in large quantities.

The other way to buy a kickass present is to appeal to a more secretive side of the recipient's personality; this is particularly useful in buying presents for people you know very well, though don't go over the top, clearly. Also do remember who you're buying for; buying your parents clothes is kind of acceptable; buying them 36 cans of Relentless/Monster/Coca Cola may not go down as well.

Good luck in your present quests!!

Happy reading, folks! Victoria Jane

P.S. Apologies for the infrequency of posts, I'm working on academic schtuff and am therefore rather busy much of the time. When exams pass I may (but not definitely) have more time on my hands to talk to you all. Thank you!

Why I'd make a terrible drug dealer

You've gotta be pretty in charge of yourself if you want to make a living doing something illegal. Especially something that requires lots of people having your number, knowing they can contact you, and all of whom have the opportunity to contact the police whenever they want.

I think any teenager with even the smallest hint of narcotics experience (be that their own or that of their friends; I'm very tame, I don't drink or smoke, let alone take drugs) has had that thought at some point: What would it be like if I were a drug dealer?
I can tell you, it'd probably be difficult. I mean, you have to do a lot of things and have a lot of things which mean you're out of free time. You're also constantly looking over your shoulder.

Okay, so a list of things I'd need if I wanted to become a drug dealer:

1) A car, to get around. See my clients. This means driving lessons, insurance and petrol as well (blech, unnecessary money output).
2) Somewhere to either buy weed on the cheap (i.e. a damn good dealer I can buy in bulk from) or somewhere to cultivate the stuff (I have nowhere and also really am not keen on the smell)
3) Contacts. Now, my boyfriend Patrick, and anyone else who knows me, knows I have a LOT of contacts. Every time I go out I see at least one person I know well enough to stop and talk to. And I do just that; conversing with tens of people each day.
4) Money, so I can buy my stash.
5) A safe, so other people have to buy my stash.
6) A good phone so people can ring me and ask after my goods (I realise it would be at ridiculous hours of the day and I hate being woken up so sure as hell that wouldn't work)

...Basically, I need lots of money, lots of people who like weed but won't take advantage of me, a car, reliable sources (etc) and the ability to NOT smoke my own weed. That last one will be fine. However, I doubt very much I'd be able to keep to the ten rules of being a drug dealer, which are noted here. The reason I show you all that column is because it's damn genius. I love Nathan DeGraaf's writing style, as well.

Sorry for not having posted in so long, I've been seriously busy with school and work and university stuff. In fact, I need to be up early in the morning to see a university, so I'm heading off now. To lalaland, of course.

Happy reading, folks!

Want is not the same as need

People ask me how I don't spend a great amount of money. Now, I'm no Calvinist or anything, but I still work hard and I don't splash out (a great majority of the time) on things I don't need. New shoes? I have eight pairs of shoes. That's enough. I mean, if you can find pieces of clothing that don't look awful with other pieces of clothing, then it's a plus because you can use them over and over again. And there's no issue in that.

SELF CONTROL
Huge amounts of self control. I want cookies? I think for a long time about whether I should really get them or not. I mean, for one thing, it's money spent on something I could probably make at home. Secondly, I don't know what's in them- often they don't have ingredients written on the packaging. Thirdly, I know that cookies are not (unfortunately) a staple part of the human diet. So, they should be eaten in moderation. When I go to buy things in the supermarket I wonder whether they are necessary. Is that bag of cookies a necessity? Of course not. Put it back.

One of my mottos is that want is not the same thing as need. Some things you should need before you get them, like food. Eating because you want to eat is never clever. Other things... It's a situation of want. Boyfriends, for example. Nobody should NEED a boyfriend. It's very important to be able to be happy without someone there, obviously. Human beings are well-adapted and developed and on an evolutionary basis, they don't particularly need to be paired all the time. That being said, meeting someone who makes you happy is really, really important, if you're doing the dating thang. That's no typo, I do mean thang. It's got a nice twang to it.

Anyway, when you want something, it's akin to saying, I'd be okay without it, but for the sake of my own happiness, I'll obtain or attain it anyway. Like, I want three As in my A-Levels. I need two As and a B, but I want three As. Wanting things is just saying, the situation is adequate but I'd like to improve it beyond how pleasing it currently is. Do you "need" a new pair of shoes? Or do you want to buy a new pair because you feel like it? I never replace shoes until they're unwearable. The shoes I'm wearing today are three years old. They're still watertight, they're still warm, they still fit, and they're still comfy. And they don't look particularly shabby either, which brings me nicely to my next point.

STOP BUYING SHIT CLOTHES, ETC.!
My GOD it is infuriating when people complain they don't have enough space in their wardrobe or drawers. Take all the stuff out, sort through it. What you don't need or want goes to charity. What no longer fits, goes to charity. Is it broken? Yes? Can you repair it? No? Throw it out.
Adolescents the world over need to do something very very easy. Boycott Primark. For god's sake, why buy things that are not good quality? I'd rather save up for a nice warm hoodie than buy one now which is cold and uncomfortable. This looking to the future is called "deferred gratitude". It's a sociological way of saying, "wait for it and it'll be more enjoyable". And it's true, tried and tested. You want to watch a DVD but you need to get that coursework done? Want shouldn't come before need. I've always found that waiting for things I want makes me appreciate them more, anyway. Or I lose interest and don't want them any more, which is a win-win, because everything I want (clothes, lunch, snacks, sports, leisure activities etc., etc.) I pay for.

I've been working two jobs for four months and I've earnt a great deal more than I've spent, and I'm proud, because it means there's money here for when I really NEED something. I'm prepared.

Ice Rink Rant

I'm currently in the habit of saving. I try not to spend money most of the time, unless I really need something. Spending money of stuff I just want leads to little feelings of guilt because I was brought up pretty anti-consumerist. Anyway, to get the money I have, I work. I work Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Saturdays and sometimes Sundays. Saturdays are the worst days to work.

A little thing about working at an ice rink is that people believe you are being paid to skate. Therefore it's an easy job. Ha! You see very little of what we have to do! Now, this post isn't going to be complaining about the tasks I ahev to do at work. I like my work. I enjoy it. Even when it's a bit difficult and you're pushed for time, because then the feeling of elation at having managed something is just that little bit stronger. No, I'm complaining (sorry) about the customers. Here goes.

Dear customers,

The ice rink opens at ten on a Saturday morning. However, the site is open and up and running all the time. Please check our opening times. Please don't get angry at having dragged your kids down to get here at nine thirty. We're not letting you in. You can't browse and so we see no reason why you should be allowed on the premises before we open.

Secondly, no hats on the ice. This means you shouldn't have one on your head. By all means, bring one, but as soon as you're skating (or trying to) please take it off. Now, you ALWAYS ask me why. Always. Have you ever seen someone trip over a hat on the ice? No? Think of it as if you were running and you put your foot in something sticky. What happens? You pitch over straight onto your face. The other thing is, because one foot is stuck in this figurative sticky thing, your head is on the end of a pivot. The bad end. The fast end. In short, your hat, when it accidentally comes off your head while you're skating (or trying to), is a dangerous weapon. Have you ever seen how much a head wound bleeds?No? We have. We have also seen how nasty it is when we, the stewards, have to go out onto the ice and scrape off the frozen blood with our skates. N'ice. As in, not nice.
Don't give me your bullshit about your hat protecting your head. All a hat will do when you fall is soak up the blood. Have fun cleaning it out. It's a hat, not a helmet.

Thirdly, the reason we ask you not to wear long coats and scarves is so you can't take out a small child (or an adult). Or get strangled. Or strangle someone else. Your clothing should be warm but not pose a danger to other customers.

Fourthly, don't treat us as if we're stupid because we appear to work somewhere where qualifications aren't needed. I assure you, we can (and most likely will) argue back, but we choose not to because we like our jobs. Sunday morning a guy told me I get paid to piss people off because I told him to take his hat off. Then he fell on his ass really, really hard. The look of pain on his face made my self-control worth it. Don't be dicks. We're all pretty damn well educated, thanks.

Fifthly (it's a damn word), on a  Saturday, there are about 600 of you using our facility. When we ask you to do something for your own safety, please do it. You outnumber us about 60-1. We can't help you unless you listen.

There are bins every seven metres on average. They are not for display. They are for you to put your unwanted stuff in. Especially socks. I loathe picking up socks. I also loathe picking up tissues off the ice. If you must vlow your nose, do it off ice. Stood next to a bin. And then, get in the bin.

Finally, in the cafe there is a bin right next to the sugar, milk and stirrers. DON'T LEAVE YOUR DAMNED STUFF ON THE SIDE SO WE HAVE TO WIPE IT EVERY FIVE MINUTES. Don't leave all your stuff on the tables either. It means we have twice as much cleaning to do as is really necessary.

Many thanks, workers at the ice rink.

Next step

As I'm sure a lot of you know, I'm seventeen (ah, alas, she has no experience nor knowledge of the ways and wiles of  life!) and that means a number of things. Firstly, I can drive. Secondly, my next birthday should be a cracking one (LANDMARK BIRTHDAY! WHOOP!). Most importantly, I can do magic outside of school. That's been the best one by far.

Quite honestly the best thing has been doing A-Levels, because the amount of care and attention you get from teachers is amazing. They will mark a hundred of the same essay and still put their all in, and that's something I greatly admire. All my teachers have pushed me so hard this year, and I'm really happy they have. I'm pretty complacent with my learning until someone yells at me to do stuff. They're (metaphorically) yelling every lesson. And I'm learning.

Which is why, dear readers, I have some news which I hope will serve to at least make you happy (if not for the general situation then for me, pretty please?)...

I got a place at my chosen University! A conditional offer! Based on ABB in my A-Levels. I reckon I'll go for the A in Sociology and then the B and B in German and Law. Those are all minimums, obviously. They are the pass mark. But seriously, I sent off my application two months ago! Three, in fact! And I have been obsessively checking my inbox every day, waiting for an email telling me of any change. And now I'm happy. Having not had any previous relatives go to university, I am the first in my family and I'm very proud to be offered a place. Now I have something to work for! The little ideas in my head are all coming together to form this big picture of stuff to do and opportunities.

It also means I now have to absolutely hit those targets, and so I'm apologising in advance for the probable break in blog posts. believe me, I'm trying to keep them to about once a week! But it's difficult! There's a lot to be done, and all of it is essential. I'm not naturally particularly bright. I have to work very hard to maintain my grades, and it makes me proud when I can live up to the task and complete the challenge, and so I must say that from now on I will be throwing myself into my work in order to achieve the best I can. That's all I can do, really.

Happy reading, folks!

Business mentality

When you walk past a hospital, do you look up and see its windows? Is it a new building? Are there colours? Do you imagine to yourself what the doctors and nurses are doing inside- caring for the sick, saving lives... It's the same with a court. There are likely to be people inside, looking to improve our society by applying their knowledge and evaluating situations.

When you apply for a medical degree, it helps to want to help people. But what you mainly need is a great, maybe even morbid interest, in one area of medicine. Radiology, Paediatrics, Neurology. Why? Because it's a difficult profession in which it is likely that you will be relied upon to contribute to the health of others and to help solve medical anomalies. But what you must keep in mind is that a hospital or a general practitioner's office is not just a place for helping or condemning people. It is a business.

When you apply for a legal degree, it helps to want to help people. But what you mainly need is a driven, maybe even obsessive interest, in one area of law. Family, Criminal, Media. Why? Because it's a difficult profession in which it is likely that you will be relied upon to contribute to the predicament of others and to help solve legal anomalies. But what you must keep in mind is that a court house or a legal office is not just a place for helping or condemning people. It is a business.

While these two admittedly unrepresentative professions do happen to inflict a large amount of power over certain realms of society, we must always remember that somebody who has trained for years must have money coming from somewhere. Either these people are working for their money (and if you feel they are overpaid try being them for a couple of days), or they are already rich and simply working because they are interested in their area. These are very tricky jobs to have. A simple mistake can cost a life, whether that is literally physically true, or because you have just allowed your client to be imprisoned for life for an offence he did not commit.

My point is, there's no argument in doing something lots of people find invaluable if you're not going to have a pricetag to go with it. These professions are businesses. These businesses, however, are not governed solely by profit. They are also governed by ethics. Research and hard work goes into being a doctor or a lawyer. You are dealing with other people's lives, their liberty, their happiness, their health. If you wish to obtain a job such as one of these, then certain qualities have to be either acquired or brought to light.

- Ability to work under pressure.
- Ability to work long hours.
- Enjoyment of puzzles.
- Enjoyment of hostile and confused clients who need you to use non-technical language so they don't walk out feeling lost and confused.
- Organisation beyond compare.
- Teamwork.
- Communication skills.
- A long fuse.

In short, business mentality. If you don't know how to run a business and how to operate efficiently, then you find out how, you change things, and you carry on. Research and development. Of yourself. Of your profession. Of your goals.

Be good at something. This year, learn one new thing that will help others. Make it a goal. Find out how to achieve it. Stick to the goal. Improve. The point is, high-flyers wanted to be up there. And they got what they wanted, by managing themselves and creating opportunities. Create opportunities.

Happy reading, folks!

How to prepare for exams

Most of us mere mortals out there (fact: there's at least one or two aliens in every school who will do well at almost everything, usually with the exception of sport) have a time where we do badly at exams. Now, there's a time and place for fails. I'll tell you now, the acceptable place to either metaphorically or physically faceplant is NOT at your desk in that quiet hall full of people. It's usually on a Friday night when you're out with mates, getting pissed and doing silly things. On holiday when you go skinny dipping and your clothes get washed away. On the weekend, when you plan to try and get up and end up in bed until gone one pm. NOT as you sit down in the Room of Doom. Don't let your mind go blank. better still, don't let your mind be blank.

I have some tips which should, hopefully, help you study a little more successfully.

Firstly, pick subjects you're interested in if you're going to attempt to do any good amount of work to an acceptable standard. This goes without saying, really.

Secondly, accept that sometimes you'll have to sacrifice time you'd have spent doing other things in order to get work done. You want to play WoW? You want to read some of that HILARIOUS book you got for Christmas? Fine. Just do it AFTER you finish your work. Some level of prioritisation is useful.

Set yourself a goal. "I will do ten essays today" is probably not achieveable. "I will revise one whole topic of (Subject X)" is better. Subject X will be all the more understandable if you don't flood yourself with it.

Past papers. Oh my god. They're beyond useful. They help you with timing, with clarity of work. And they'll teach you, if nothing else, to READ THE QUESTION and proof read your answers. When your hand is spewing out words as fast as your mind tells it to, there are likely to be a few silly mistakes. Go back and check. Clever people don't not make mistakes, but they do correct them before others get the chance to catch them out.

Mark schemes! Don't do a past paper without having the mark scheme to hand to check your answers. That being said, don't read it BEFORE you answer. You won't improve unless you know how to rewrite and evaluate your work.

Extra essays. These are the bane of my life, but boy are they useful. Write an essay, send it in, get a lower grade than you want? Keep a copy and update it. Trust me, three weeks down the line it's much more useful because you've learnt what mistakes you've made. ALWAYS read what you've written.

Stress a little bit. No stress is the same as saying, "don't worry about missing that bit out". Of course you should. Just don't let it get to the point where you feel like you're imploding. When something is set, try (and really TRY) to do it that evening or afternoon. You get it out of the way and it's usually better quality than the piecemeal shite you'd have written much later on (say, the night before the deadline).

Revision timetables. These make revision manageable instead of daunting. They also mean you can actually go and see your friends and chill when others are stressing. Keep your work under wraps, and you won't miss anything out. Good organisation is tantamount to exam preparation and studying. You need a set time to do things, because that way you can get into the routine of it.

If I've missed anything out or you have anything you'd like to add, comment below.

Happy reading, folks!

The magical adventures of Christmouse

News news news! In what can only be described as a surprisingly satisfying cliche, I received socks for Christmas, again. Don't see it the wrong way, though; I asked for them. My room is pretty cold most of the time (in comparison to the rest of the flat, at least). It's currently 18.2 degrees (Celcius, not Fahrenheit!!) so it's bearable. My feet, of course, aren't cold. Why, you ask? Because, dear reader, I didn't get just any socks for Crimbo. No, I got ski socks. Proper ski socks. From animal. And they're green and black! And they're padded on the front and back! And... Okay, I'm starting to rhyme, which is a sign I should stop.

I've always wondered, when geniuses get bored in exams do they answer in rhyme instead of the normal way just for a change or challenge? Perhaps they answer in iambic pentameter, that'd be awesome.

So I have a bit of an embarrassing tale for you all. If you've ever seen an advert (it was on UK TV for a while) in which  lady drops a mug of tea on her laptop... You can see where this is going. I had a major cock-up incident in which I knocked over a mug of hot ribena. If anybody reading this doesn't know what ribena is, you need to google it, find out if your local shop has some, and then go and get it. But as a matter of opinion the one with no added sugar tastes best (just so you know). So... Yeah. Great taste. Even my laptop liked it.

So, new keyboard, whoop!

Now, you'll be wondering who the heck Christmouse is. Basically, I still have a stocking. My mum (I mean Santa or his elves) fills it with silly little things. This year I got a Newton's Cradle (everybody needs one, let's be honest, they're endlessly entertaining) and a toy mouse that, when you press its belly, belts out a verse of "Let It Snow" in an adorable high tone. I love it. It was duly named Christmouse.

Anyway, I've had this idea that, as I'm going to university in September (subject to grades), I will take Christmouse with me and take photos of him and show my family (and probably you folks, too) what I'm up to and what's going on. I wrote my mum a note explaining that there is likely to be at least one scene in which Christmouse takes over Cathedral City as mayor (Cathedral City is a cheese), but he gets fired because he eats the citizens and buildings. I'm very proud of the silly pun.

So hopefully Christmouse will be going places this year. I hope to find my camera (yes, I've lost it) and start ASAP. Note: Help me find my camera!!

Aside from that, I've got examinations next week and so I doubt very much that there'll be anything particularly interesting out of me for some time ( I mean until they're over). Unless you want to read rants of paranoia about not having done enough revision, that is.

Happy reading, Folks!!

Victoria