Scrooge time!

Huzzah, Christmas has ended for another year. All things in bold are things I didn't ask for, and all things in italics were things italicized on my Xmas list, ie things I really wanted:

Present haul:
- This Is War by 30 Seconds To Mars
- Absolute Boyfriend manga, volumes 5 and 6
- The Sims 3 World Adventures (not useful... see below)
- Laptop carry bag
- £40 in cash, £15 cheque, £15 gift card (to be exchanged for cash)
- An Abundance Of Katherines by John Green (finished)
- Rainbow legwarmers
- Purple leopard print tights
- A mini slab of dark chocolate + 6 dark chocolate rum truffles (I hate rum truffles)
- Deathnote manga boxset, volumes 1-12 (I own volumes 1 and 3)
- Purple spray-in hairdye
- My laptop fixed in time for Christmas (hasn't happened... but at least it's being fixed. However the CD of The Sims 3 was still in there, meaning not only can I not play it but I can't install it on Dad's computer either)
- The Blackout in Portsmouth with Vikki

Yeah, about that last one... The gig got cancelled.
£120 in hotel fees, £40 in train fairs and £60 in gig tickets... gone. Unless I get refunds and I have no idea if half the places even do them.

I also discovered my dad's edited version of my Xmas list (which was written in order of what I wanted, and italicized items were what I *really* wanted)

The Betrayed by Lostprophets and Hold Me Down by You Me At Six preorders - nope, they weren't done.
Crash Love by AFI - no.
7 gigs which I wanted tickets to (won't list them all, but there were 7, all italicized) - no (seriously? Not even one?)
Paper Towns by John Green - no (fair enough, not sure if it's out in the UK yet).
The Catcher In The Rye by JD Salinger - no (Oh come on, you can get a used copy from Amazon for about 50p)
Fruits Basket manga, volume 10 onwards - nope

You know why I didn't get much? Because my main present was Portsmouth with Vikki... which has just got effing cancelled.

So, other miseries then:
- Getting to sleep at 3am last night, waking up six (it was more but I lost count after six) times during in the night, waking up properly at 6.45 and my brother refusing to get up till 7
- What I assumed was just a cold breaking down into a suspected throat/sinus/chest infection, which lead to all breathing, talking and swallowing being immensely painful
- Pain in my throat, chest, nose, ears and sinuses being compounded by period pains and rampaging hormones
- Not being able to eat much because my throat hurt so much, and what I did eat having no taste
- Not being able to eat Christmas pudding
- Falling asleep on the sofa numerous times
- My gran and great-aunt asking me if I ate sausage meat (hint: I haven't eaten meat for the past 4 years, nor have I eaten turkey. So no, I do not fucking eat it)
- Taking an hour to find all the relevant medication I needed before bed (inhalers, pain killers, mouthwashes, other mouthwash, cough syrup, cream for my dry skin)
- Blowing my nose/coughing up horrible yellow gunge all day. All. Bloody. Day.
- Sneezing up blood
- Portsmouth gig being cancelled

Mm. I think that's everything...

Merry Christmas. Hope you had a more fun one than I did.

Christmas Eve Playlist

Inspired by the lovely Tiernan Douieb (he's nice, most of the time, go find him on Twitter), here is my own Christmas Eve playlist... it's not very festive, mind. And it's not so much a playlist as just random songs that I thought were vaguely in some way appeo

1. I Got Love - The King Blues
2. Sunburn - Muse
3. Heartbeats - Jose Gonzalez
4. Love Like Winter - AFI
5. You're Gonna Go Far, Kid - The Offspring
6. I'm A Riot? You're A Riot! - The Blackout
7. Konstantine - Something Corporate
8. The '59 Sound - The Gaslight Anthem
9. First Day Of My Life - Bright Eyes
10. Just Like Heaven - The Cure
11. A Praise Chorus - Jimmy Eat World
12. Don't Stop Believin' - Journey.
13. Rock N Roll All Nite - KISS
14. Where We Belong - Lostprophets [or, as it's not on my Spotify, Rooftops - Lostprophets works nearly as well]
15. Reasons Not To Be An Idiot - Frank Turner
16. House Of Cards - Madina Lake

And, to sum up my sentiments and finish off my playlist...

17. Happy Holidays, You Bastard - blink-182

So maybe I'm turning sentimental...

But I make no secret of it: I love Christmas. I love feeling like a little kid again, unpacking the boxes from the attic and putting up decorations. I love stringing up tangled fairy lights all around the house. I love watching Mum get all the Christmas card precariously balanced on the sideboards. I love over-eating until your trousers are too snug to be comfortable.

I love getting up at 6am with my brother and getting the stockings down from above the fireplace and emptying them out our parents' bed while they wake up and complain.

I love tearing paper off presents with rabid enthusiasm. I love giving presents to others and seeing them beam. I love the way that my parents are so sleepy that they don't argue until at least 10am.

I love Mum's annual panic about turkey and her failed attempts at gravy. I love my Gran's insistence on doing everything, despite the fact that we stopped eating at her house because it was too much stress for her. I even love the way she always asks me why I'm not having turkey and refers to my pescatarianism as "a phase" (which has so far lasted 4 years).

I love seeing my great-aunt, who I see twice a year, makes a habit of insulting me and my beliefs, and then smiling indulgently at me and saying she loves me and is proud of me.

... No, wait a minute, I hate that bit. And come to think of it I hate being bugged about not being turkey.

And I hate getting presents I didn't ask for which I didn't ask for for a reason: because I didn't want them.

I hate the way we have to squish together on too few seats, and I have to sit on the floor or offer cake or just be a good little hostess girl and offer cake and tea.

And I hate the inevitable arguments about the petty trivial things and the way everyone just gets riled up and at each other's throats.


And despite all that, I still love Christmas. Merry Christmas, everybody, and have a fucking awesome new year - I know I will, because I'll be in Portsmouth partying with Vikki, Kelly and Annie, and six Welsh BAAAASTAAARDS!

Chin up, all, it's nearly Christmas!

Happenings: Part I

This is the first part. To be honest, it breaks at a weird place because that's just how much I can fit onto the image canvas I created. Click the picture to read the story.

A Short Story: Happenings (the process)

Here was the thought process behind this short (4,095 word) story:

2am, December 20th: I have this idea. It's annoying me. I can't sleep.
3am, December 20th: Hell I'm going to write this down.
5am, December 20th: Story is written. It's a pile of crap but at least now I can go to bed.

All day, December 20th: I must not read what I wrote or I will edit it into oblivion. I know it's crap.

Some point, December 21st: Read my story. Dear God it's so awful that I can't edit it or it'll lose all meaning.

4pm, December 22nd: Read the story again. Actually it's not too bad... just needs some tweaks.


NB - I have noticed that this blog is defunct as I cannot copy and paste any text... so I will have to find another way to get the story up. It might take a while.

Formspring II

Q: What is your quest?
A: To be loved. To be remembered. To create something beautiful and be rewarded by people appreciating it.

Q: What is your name?
A: V. Haha thought I'd tell?

Q: What is the average air speed velocity of an unlaiden swallow?
11 metres per second or 24 miles an hour. And I <3 the Monty Python reference.

Q: If you could stand on the rooftops and scream your heart out...what would you scream?
A: I would tell everyone to buy the new Lostprophets album ;) "FUCK, I KNOW I'M DIFFERENT AND I FUCKING LOVE IT. IF YOU DON'T LIKE ME FOR WHO I AM THEN YOU'RE A TWAT. I'M NOT GOING TO CHANGE FOR YOU."

Q: Ever had a girlfriend?
A: No, but I do have a lot of wives.

Life is random and good.

So I read over the story I wrote between 3am and 5am. Aaah it was cringeworthy. And about a random Motley Crue-esque band, so kind of cringeworthy for all the boozing and sex.

Aaaaanyway...

RAGE MADE NUMBER ONE! BOOYAH!
And Lee Gaze's wife (I'm terribly sorry, I have no clue what your name is) had another baby 'Prophetlet, a little boy. We're rooting to call him Tom or Zach in honour of RATM's Xmas Number 1. Lee's had an awesome day, clearly.

The tree is up, I've drawn more pokemon on Paint, and my cat is happy. I've booked tickets and trains to Portsmouth, so I'm going to Portsmouth on NYE. And it looks like with a bit of work I'll be going to The Party on the 29th...

Life is fucking good.