As Anti-Social As Ever

Hello blog universe,

Phew, after the never-ending blog epic that was my last post, I almost thought I wouldn't have worked up the energy quite yet to post...But, somehow, here I am!

Actually I still don't know if I have the energy, I'm simply doing this out of boredom. My aunt, uncle, and one of my cousins are over at the moment. Let's reiterate; My boring, math-y, genius cousin. His FUN, humorous, hitting-with-giant-inflatable-bananas(hehe) brother is still up in York enjoying doing whatever it is students do, before seeing Bill Bailey this evening, which not only makes the day sort of suck, but makes me totally jealous of him. Gawd, my stupid Drake And Josh-esque cousins are so annoying. So I'm here.

Yes, I guess I am being rather unnecessarily anti-social, but I cant say I like family do's and such. The purpose of them is simply to compare who looks like who the most and go off on strange little discussions about, in our case, education. At the moment my sister, dad, and aunt are outside playing croquet. Now, I know what you're thinking! And, no, we are not all outside drinking tea and scones in a pretty garden and laughing and being generally English. Tt's cold, windy, and has before involved at least one player nearly being the victim of another's fury in the form in a mallet across the head. That and the devilishly difficult course on a sloping-hill that leans towards a busy road would make it something more like Croquet; EXTREME!

The one positive event of the day was, before going on a walk, we all got our own little performance in the form of my uncle playing his bagpipes. Yes, yes, "Every family has one" and shizz. This was my dad's idea for his 50th birthday as he has an interest in peculiar instruments. Considering he's only had two lessons and a lot of people probably couldn't even blow enough to make a sound, he didn't sound too bad once he'd fixed all the pipes and knobs and such. And even when he did sound bad, as apparently said fun cousin once said, "That's what garden sheds are for"!

- Naomi(Short posts are fun, aren't they?)

PS- Read this - http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/8228053.stm -- music fans and weep. Another legend bites the dust, I guess. I can't wait for a heart-felt reunion in fifteen years time.

I Return; Tired, Sunburned, and Eager To Blog!

Hello blogging universe!

How are you all? Enjoying summer, I guess? I'm at my grandparent's house at the moment, and thus finally blessed with Internet access. We only got here a few hours ago, after a stop-and-start six and a half hour drive from Essex, and was then forced to sit through a two-hour discussion on the American education system, like they expect me to know anything about it, from my grandmother. But at least I'm here.

"The Festival"--That is, V Festival-- was yesterday and Saturday. Sorry to brag, but it sort of was really cool....I came away with a sunburned head, beer in my hair, and aching legs but it was so worth it. But I'll be sure to tell you all about that in the next few days. It is way too much to talk about in one post, for a start, and also I'm really tired right now! But, if you're interested, I can talk about the few other things I've done while I've been here...

As far as people go, it's been pretty interesting catching up. I got to see my an aunt and one of my cousins a few days ago, which was really nice. They live way up in the north of England(Lucky them, no sarcasm intended!). When you live with an accent as stereotypical as mine, a Leeds accent can be nearly unreal! My best friend didn't want to see me because she seems to think avoiding people is fun, though I did bump in to her at a local maze and didn't really say much. I saw my three other better friends, though, and they hadn't really changed too much at all, surprisingly, other than a friend's obsession with Lady GaGa, and another friend now sporting a bit of eyeliner. We also spent a few days with a few really good friends who used to go to the same school I did. We randomly met them in Pizza hut on the 2nd day, and their mother has been insisting we come round everyday since! We also went to the first day of V with them, which was cool.

We went to this really cool local pool at one point. For someone who can't swim for their life, I think public pools are surprisingly fun. This one had rapids and slides and everything. And we went to a zoo fairly close by there another day for my sister's birthday, and I simultaneously discovered my extreme distaste for zoos in general. Come on, they're just animals, and we all now that it's all about the young ones!

We got to eat out one of the evenings too, at a faux 50s New York pizza place. Being utterly surrounded by Yankees merchandise is now such a bizarre circumstance for me! It was nice there, though.

On Tuesday we went to Lego Land which sort of is but still sort of isn't as babyish as it sounds, but who cares anyway? The lines there were really huge, plus the first ride we went on was only partly working, and the last one had a fifteen minute delay! But that payed off. Sorry to sound as teenage as possible, but there was a really cute guy in line! A girl in my homeroom once came in after April vacation and told as a story of meeting a "hottie", while in, I think it was, Spain. At the time I was thinking "Um, okay...", and then I discovered the wonders of random holiday boys. <3 Anyway... On Thursday we went into London. It's a nice place to go if you're just visiting, I wouldn't want to live there though. On my request we got to see Abbey Road which was cool until I was nearly killed by a taxi while doing the swinging-arm cross walk thing. And the studio looked nice, despite all the graffiti, very little of which was at all Beatles-related. And the British museum was nice. I got to see the Magna Carta(Signed by King John in 1215, the first written document to say that the even the monarchy must abide to the law, later becoming one of the most famous documents in British history), some of Galileo's early writings, the first book made in England, and a bible made around 900 years ago. And the Beatles had their own section. The first draft of Yesterday lyrics, oh my god! And we walked through Regent's park, my mother suddenly transformed herself into a cricket know-it-all as we walked past a stadium of some importance I couldn't care less about(By the way, England won the ashes, hoorah! I'm such a hypocrite!), we walked past Downing Street, went to Trafalgar square, St. Pauls' cathedral, and walked along the Thames.

Must go now, Mock The Week starts in ten minutes, and it's my 2nd to last time to experience some Frankie Boyle hilarity for a year, which is of grave importance. Comment, Cbox, you know it. xD

Off To Essex Today!

Hey,

Today's my last day I'll be able to blog until...Er, August 24th, I think. Today we're going up to Essex, where I used to live. It only takes about two hours to get there. Where we're staying now is basically borderline south-east and south-west of England, and Essex is still south-east. We'll probably end up getting there so amazingly late though as my mother takes forever and a day to pack. The place we're staying is so pretty. It's a little one-story house on a farm. There's a big field behind the house, too, which I can enjoy unlike anywhere in the US because of the stupid mosquito's. And the farm has a dog, which runs around outside. <3

Since it's summer, I have the liberty of being able to talk about what I'm doing and not appear quite as boring, yes? Yes?!

Okay, Friday we went to a zoo around here(Around here meaning a couple of hours away). I decided to do my really pathetic habit of taking several pictures of each and every animal, nearly all of them blurry, to "capture the moment" even though it's not like it's my last time to go to a zoo or anything. The weather was so nice that day -- Most of the weather's been pretty on-and-off around here, but it was rather busy. Considering nearly everyone there was a mother with a baby, I felt sort of out of place. I also felt pretty sick of bumping into push chairs and hearing screaming in the "Please Be quiet; Nervous Animals" sections. And, I got unnecessarily annoyed with my sister as I normally do it zoos because she takes too long. You look for the animal, you find it, you look at the animal, then if it's doing anything interesting which it probably isn't you keep looking, if it isn't you keep on walking. You don't stay for ten minutes hoping you'll see young offspring doing something adorable! But, it was still fun, and I got a cool wooden lizard painted with the African-style colored dots on.

On Saturday we were supposed to go on a picnic with a couple of my mom's school friends. I'm guessing you know how boring it can be when parents get talking about "the good old days", right(To be fair I'm already talking about my "good old days"!)? It started raining so we ended up eating at one of the friend's houses. Their family is one of those old-fashioned, traditional, somewhat up-tight families, which is basically the dictionary definition of exactly what my family isn't. I remember being four or five years old and going there for the first time, and being creeped out by the hundreds of old portraits, but of course I'm over that now. The parents talked for a few hours about high school, Bruce Springsteen, and many weird and questionably "random" things in between. I was expecting to be sent away with the friend's daughter, a year older than me, which considering I barely know her would be the most awkward thing in the world. I'm so glad that didn't happen.

Yesterday we got to go see our grandparents for a bit, and later go rowing. That was really fun. But me and my sister had one oar each and my stroke was a lot stronger so we kept drifting to the left and bumping into people, but lots of people were doing that so it wasn't too bad. And I got ice cream. Cookies and cream, yum. <3

I heard Paparazzi, Lady GaGa's most recent single, and admittedly I quite like it, even if Lady GaGa is an "Expensive hooker" as a YouTube comment put it. That's what most singers are these days, it seems. It was the only song in the fifteen or twenty songs in the Top 40 countdown I liked(Yes, I did listen to it, for once!). I think I'm gonna get The Fame when I'm back in the US. Of course I could get it sooner but I don't think my mom or dad would be too impressed by the idea of disco sticks and such. See, I'm trying not to make a huge flippin' deal out of this music!

Also, I finished A Connecticut Yankee In King Arthur's Court by Mark Twain yesterday. I'd got my head around the language, and did enjoy it. Even though the character was really pretentious and annoying, he was witty. I'll talk more about it some time.

Gotta go pack now because I left it way too late. I'll probably be able to CBox occasionally at friend's houses. I'll let you guys in on the summer excitement when I can.

Bye! <3