alice

In fact it’s already nearly the end of June. Time’s flying by so fast. I start work again tomorrow, so it’s probably going to go even faster. Anyway I’ve been meaning to write a nice plan for my summer, things I need to get done etc. Plus I like making lists.

Stuff to do:

• read all books for uni reading lists
• buy laptop
• finish sorting all photos from travels
• buy new lens
• organise trip to Thailand next Easter
• have a picnic
• have a BBQ

I’ll add more when I remember.

il n’y a rien de mieux qu’un roman
pour faire comprendre
que la réalité est mal faite
qu’elle n’est pas suffisante
pour satisfaire les désirs,
les appétits, les rêves humaines.

MARIO VARGAS LLOSA

Right so I leave tomorrow. 7am in the morning, to be precise.

How am I feeling? Very very very nervous and scared, but also incredibly excited. This is going to be amazing. You know when something happens in your life which changes it forever, this is one of those. I can’t believe it’s actually happening. Maybe it’s all a dream and I’ll wake up…

Things I envision could go wrong and my solutions:

• I get lost - well, I will pick up a map of every city I’m in, and I will mark on it where I am staying. I have a document of directions to all my places of staying. I can always ask someone
• I lose my money - credit/debit cards. Emergency store of money.
• I lose my train ticket - I will break down and cry. Erm, after that, I’ll go to the train station, British embassy, sort it out.
• I lose my camera - I’ll buy another one
• I lose my passport - British Embassy will have a visit from moi
• I get, um, mugged… - give them the old one-two
• I miss a train - duh, I get the next one! No problemo
• I slip and break my leg - free European health care ftw
• I lose my credit/debit cards - ring up and cancel them immediately, survive on what money I do have until they can send me a replacement. Hmm this one could be tricky…
• I forget a German word for something vital - meh, they can get over it.
• I miss home - meh, I’ll be back soon enough.

I’ll try and put another update up where and when I can See you all later x

Hmm well I’m in two minds. On the one hand I’m very very sad because tomorrow is my last day at work and I will miss it and all the people there terribly. But on the other hand Bob is then coming up in the evening and I haven’t seen him in a month, so of course I am immensely looking forward to that and that makes me happy.

And I can’t wait to see him of course, but also I don’t want the day to go by quickly.

It’s strange to feel the exact opposite things at the same time.

EEEEEEEEEEEEEE

Eeee I’m so excited. I have finally organised it! A FINAL and DEFINITE route and I have done the scary and daunting and looming task of booking stuff. I have now booked all my stuff for the trip. ALL OF IT.

Overall I’ve spent about £1500. That includes 2 x Inter-rail card and 2 months worth of hostels/hotels. Money well spent!

I’m not going to post up my itinery here cos like, no offence to you lovely reader, but what if a stalker/scary person reads this :/ unlikely but still possible some general stuff though is that I AM SO LOOKING FORWARD TO THIS. Along the way I am stopping at Jutte’s, Uka’s and Terry’s, spending 5 days in Paris with my boyfriend, a long weekend in Rome with parents, and so on.

Anyway.

I’m so excited and so deadly scared at the same time. In a way I can’t believe this is real and it’s happening. In a month I’ll be on the road. TRAVEL TIME. I’m no longer scared about being by myself. It’ll do me good.

OMG this is amazing. I can’t believe I’m doing this. I’m proud of me, in a way, haha. I know I’m going to have a fantastic time. I really cant wait to get to Belgium and see Nic. I hope my Dutch will be good enough! Will be fun, we’re going to visit the Photography museum in Antwerpen too, and I will see Joris as well if he is around at this time. I’m going to visit Terry in Switzerland, and he lives quite near Zurich and stuff so that’ll make some nice trips.

Eeeeeeeexcited.

(more…)

I’ve ended up completely loving my job.

Really and honestly and completely. I don’t want to leave.

I’ve learnt that things always work out. Maybe in a different way to how you imagined it, or how you think you wanted it, but it’s always for the best. Even when things go wrong, it’s for the best. It didn’t happen any other way, and it never will again. It’s been and gone, so I think just make the most of what’s happened, and think of it in a good light. I really have found that everything always works out, you know. Everything that scares me and worries me and wastes my time because I spend ages thinking, oh god, how do I do that?. It all works out. And it’s not because I’m a ‘lucky’ person, and everything always goes right for me. It’s because I want it to work out, and I believe it does. That’s who I am as a person. Plenty of stuff doesn’t go exactly as I would perhaps like it to, but it doesn’t really piss me off or get me angry, because I don’t like being angry and I don’t like feeling pissed off.

Stuff just happens, and I kinda believe everything happens for a reason. When something goes wrong, it forces you to find a solution and resolve the situation.

Enough of the philosophical shit haha.

(more…)

Just in case.

I like being free.

I really like 43 Things, I find it a really handy way of keeping track of all the things I want to get done, both long and short term stuff. And it’s great that it’s more about the fun side of life than actual tasks, so it’s not really a ‘to do’ list, which is daunting and boring, but a ‘aims I want to achieve’ list, which is interesting and quirky.

Well, maybe quirky is the wrong word.

My current list has 27 items, I’ve just crossed two off:

1. Wear more skirts - I crossed this off because it is happening! I am wearing more skirts and dresses nowadays which I love, and also, when I go shopping, I purposefully look for skirts and dresses. I went away last weekend and I didn’t take a single pair of trousers with me (except pyjamas and they don’t count). So yay. Plus my new skirt rocks:

2. Learn Dutch - I crossed this off, not because I am fluent in it (ha I wish), but because I have crossed that line now of no return. Well, not ‘no return’. But I mean, I have come so far now that I couldn’t give up learning it, even if I wanted to! I now feel somewhat confident in it, when I talk to Nic or Joris on msn, our conversations are mainly in Dutch, they help me with my errors, and I learn from the way they write how to improve my own Dutch So yes, far from perfect, but I think when I go to Belgium I will be able to get around by myself all fine

Some of the things I have on 43 things are really life-long ambitions, like writing a book, living in france, get married, learning to play the piano (tho I’m hoping I can get a cheap keyboard when I go to uni and thus play all day/night instead of doing essays), but others are more short-term, including:

1. watch all the DVDs I own but have never seen
2. find the perfect pair of jeans (still looking!)
3. grow my hair long (getting there :))
4. fly a kite
5. stay up all night talking

If you want to see the full list, please click here.

I want to add some more, I’ve never had a full list of 43 things! I’ll think about it tonight and maybe update tomorrow Night! x

Yep it’s a huge big commercial piece of rubbish. Everyone agrees that it is no different to any other day, yet single people still moan about being single, and people in a relationship feel happy they have someone to “be their Valentine”.

So yes, although I don’t go in for the whole tacky and commercial issue of Valentine’s, forgive me that I do feel happy that for the first time in my life I have someone to spend it with, and I know that if I was single I would be saying “pfft Valentines, so cares!” while inside wishing I DID have someone to be with on that day, wishing I had someone to spend it with. But it doesn’t mean that just because I do have a boyfriend that I will go and buy lots of overpriced consumerist rubbish which is pink and fluffy and is in the form of a huge great teddy bear which is holding a heart saying ‘I LOVE YOU’ or something equally sickly. Being Feb 14th doesn’t mean that I suddenly love him more than I do any other day, or that we should do something special just because it’s Valentines. Valentine’s is a poor reason for people to be all lovey-dovey and stuff: if you love someone, you love them every day!

I’ve only ever had one Valentine’s card, but it hardly counts because it was from Amy last year at college, and she wrote it in a German lesson, so it came out as “frohliche Tag des Valentins” haha.

I’m going to listen to my mix CDs from Bob all day and then I shall meet him at the train station tonight. And I can’t wait to see him.

Happy Valentine’s Day.

This picture’s got a woman who looks like you, and a guy who looks just like someone I’ve seen. When it turns out, I hope that it turns out the way that you dreamed.