My purse is currently on its way to Portsmouth.

So I have spent a happy half term entertaining and being entertained, seeing friends and bemoaning (might have made that word up, ah well) the awful weather. It is now nearing the end and I have precisely 2 hours before church starts to make sure all my work is finished. I am therefore sprawled on my bed writing this.

I say 'my bed' loosely. It is the bed in my room, but I don't sleep on it very often. Now my brother has moved out I prefer to hijack his bed and the bed that pulls out underneath his bed and use these as a sort of makeshift double bed, rolling around and changing positions to my little heart's content.

My friend Hannah from Portsmouth has been staying with me for the past 3 nights and we've spent an enjoyable few days swimming, panto/TV watching, playing Bananagrams, going to a museum and doing all the sorts of things you never bother to do when you actually live in a place. She left about an hour ago, and I realised just after she did that my purse was still in her bag. Which means I now have to go at least 4 days without catching the bus, buying anything, getting a student discount, catching the train or using my Vittles loyalty card before she sends it back to me. Lovely. I think the lesson here is that you should just take your own bag rather than shoving your crap in someone else's, it's not the first time I've ended up with precious items around various parts of the country...

I was victim to a vicious soup-related assault yesterday. Well, OK, my Mum dropped a bowl of boiling minestronie soup on my hand by accident but it hurt a lot. I consequently spent the rest of the day bandaged up and wincing excessively. Waking up today I realised most of the pain was gone, replaced by very red but generally OK skin. I felt like I shouldn't risk too much though, so I put some plasters on in order to milk this injury for all I'm worth. I dare say I'll have made a fairly miraculous recovery by school tomorrow.

OK, my neglected french essay calls, he is lonely.

Have a lovely day my chummy chum chums :)

God bless,
Anna x

Newcastle is bigger than I expected.

So, much as I would like to use my blog as a tool to extract my innermost musings from the deep dark crevases of my brain, I have decided to buy a journal for this purpose instead, as there are just certain musings I'm not sure the internet needs to hear (like the conversation I had yesterday in which we discussed whether it is possible to pee out ice, oops). Turns out journals are a pain to buy. The nice leathery pretty ones are super expensive so I'm doing that 'look in every shop at every one you can possibly find before actually buying the first one you looked at' thing, in order to satisfy myself that this is not, in fact, a waste of money.

I spent today traipsing around Newcastle with my brother and parents. It was prettier than I expected, but also much bigger and now my feet hurt. I experienced my first chicken-bacon-cheese combo burger, and have to say was somewhat disappointed - beginning to think that vegetarian Anna might make an early comeback, meat just isn't cutting it!

I am now sitting on the train home, contemplating life and how I intend to watch Avatar when I get home and thinking about how lovely tomorrow's lie in will be. There is an extremely jovial ticket conductor on this train. Seeing happy, smiley people like that makes me happy to be alive - it just makes everything softer and more friendly when you can tell someone is just genuinely content.

I learnt two new words today: 'avuncular' and 'sop'. One means 'like an uncle' and the other 'a gift given to shut someone up/satisfy them for the moment'. I love language :D

God bless,

Anna :)

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Keeping Everything In Context.

Sometimes, something happens that makes you step back and appreciate the simple beauty of being alive. You have to take a look at everything and put it all back into context because life is so highly strung and frantic that we often lose sight of what's really important.

In the past 3 months, several things have happened that have forced me to consider what a miracle life is, what a wonderful blessing it is to live and breathe and think and do. It just makes me realise that, although some consideration of the future is needed, it's so important not to get lost and caught up in the stress of exams or the pressure of a busy life. Eventually, impossible though it may seem, those things won't mean a thing.

I think at the core of who everyone is, at the core of what it means to be human, everybody craves the same thing. Beyond knowledge or truth or happiness or even meaning, everyone needs love. It's this need that makes us so beautifully fragile and so easily hurt. Its definitely a cliché to say love is all that matters. But I think it kind of is. Love as a verb and what we do with it is the only thing worth anything as far as I can see. Everything good in the world is always appreciated with just a little bit of love, surely.

"My candle burns at both ends

It will not last the night

But ah my foes, and oh my friends

It gives a lovely light."

- Roald Dahl

This is my favourite quotation because to me it talks about the importance of the loveliness and goodness everybody gives out in life, no matter how long that candle burns for.

I love life.

God bless always,

Anna x

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New phone, whirlwinds, curry, stereotypes.

So, in the spirit of updating my blog more than once a year, I have a swanky new phone! With a swanky new app on which I can post stuff on my blog from the comfort of my phone.

Life, lately, seems to have been running in a sort of automatic whirlwind of days and events. It just seems like everything's happening and passing me by!  The holiday for this summer with the girlies has now been booked, and I wish it was happening sooner. Roll on August! Tomorrow night, the long awaited curry night me and my friends have been trying to organise for nearly a year is actually happening! Excellent. Imma have korma. I have before been criticised for my loveage of this creamy cuisine, but I stand by my original refrain: it tastes good. It's also yellow, which is my all-time favourite ever colour so it's a win-win scenario as far as I'm concerned.

I was glancing through Glamour magazine today and it struck me how much pressure there is on girls to look perfect. Even the bigger models in the magazine are stick thin and I left my reading uncomfortable and feeling rather inadequate.

And although many people object to this stereotype, it surprises me the extent to which people conform to it. We know we shouldn't feel this way about ourselves, but we do because the pressures and temptations that cause us to feel imperfect remain. It makes me angry that there are so many stereotypes expected of me because of my age, race and sex, and yet at the same time I hold others to these same expectations, and it's all largely untrue, unrealistic and unfair.

OK, rant over. That was nice wasn't it?

God bless :)

Love, Anna