Submarine Dream

Just realised I never posted about this really, really odd dream I had the other day. Basically, I was on a submarine, and I was diving with this other guy and we got into a fight while we were swimming around, and he went a bit deep and the pressure killed him, but I could withstand the pressure better and so it didn't kill me. And then everyone was blaming me for the fact that he was dead (including myself). Then for some reason I was in English Lit and everyone was pretty hostile to me but Martin was asking like if it was all ok and telling me that it wasn't really my fault.

Frog Dream

I have been ordered not to tell my brother about this as it would probably freak him out. Anyway, we were going camping, and at first we were sleeping in tents, but then it was really the caravan (several times larger than reality because most of the youth group at church seemed to be there as well as my parents and brother and me) and someone warned us about frogs. In the morning, we discovered what they meant when James got fed up of waiting for the bathroom and decided to go to the toilet block. He opened the awning up, and there were frogs everywhere, and I mean everywhere. They literally coated the ground. And then one jumped on him, and he screamed and squealed. We pushed him out and mum warned him not to wear socks, because otherwise they'd get frog juice on them, because he was having to walk on top of frogs to get anywhere, squishing them. It was pretty horrible. And freaky.

English Lit

I have come to the conclusion that a compliment from Martin means about ten times more than from any other teacher. Which is strange because you'd think with my history teacher being such a strict marker it would be the other way around, but no. I really want to do well in English Lit, and it's not just because of the determination I throw at everything regardless. He photocopied my essay the other day and handed out a copy of it to everyone, along with a copy of someone else's (he removed names to protect identity of people involved, so I don't know) and I was dead chuffed that he gave it an A* and such nice comments. Same with my story, although that didn't have a grade or anything, he did say nice things about it. Which made me feel all happy. :D

633 Squadron Operation Safeguard

I didn't realise they were still doing new ones. This one only came out two years ago! And there was me thinking that the series finished years ago and the author was dead. Shows how much I know. And also that you shouldn't judge a book by the cover and the fact taht it seems pretty old and so realistic that it sounds like it was written perhaps even during the Second World War. This book is remarkably well written, and the characters are so real, it seems as though they could step off the pages and greet you in the pub. And try to chat you up if you're wearing a skirt. I was a tiny bit upset by the fact that he introduced the two main characters of this one for such a short amount of time, it would've been nice to read about them again. But strangely, I didn't get all emotional at the ending, which kind of surprises me, but it just seemed right, if you know what I mean. I really want to read the other books of the series, but I can't seem to find them all. Never mind. Got it out the library today, had to walk home from the park and ride lugging it along with me because I got a load of books and they didn't all fit in my backpack with my college stuff and my parents didn't notice their phones going off asking for a lift, and I've finished it already. Not that it's a hugely short book, just that it's so good you don't particularly want to put it down and I suppose it is short in comparison to the Tom Clancy ones I've been reading. Well worth the trouble of finding them, the 633 Squadron books are really quite impressive. As evidenced by the fact I thought they were written far nearer the time. A lot of research must have gone into them. And the characterisation is really quite incredible. I suppose Frederick E Smith has got the whole 'show don't tell' business Martin's always talking about off to a fine art. In fact, it's pretty clear he has. So, I recommend you take the trouble of trying to find the 633 Squadron books. Even if war stories aren't really your thing, I think this one in particular speaks about things that go beyond just the action and excitement, which is well written, but goes even deeper into the moral rights and wrongs and so on, which is written even better if that's possible. Yeh, can you tell I like these books? In short: READ THEM! :D

Point of Contact

I've just started a new blog. Have a look why don't you? It's at: http://pointofcontact317.blogspot.com . Just thought I'd let you all know. It shouldn't impact on how often I post on here, though I might crosspost (is that a word? Well, it is now) some stuff on both. Don't know. Will have to see how it works out.

Shadows in the Sky

I've just finished it. Feeling rather chuffed with the fact that I've written a story in three weeks and it's about 100000 words long. Shall have to check up on that once I rescue the bit I kind of left on the college network... Anyway, it's finished. I'm really quite happy with it, and have ideas for not only a prequel but also a sequel now.

Shadow of the Minotaur

This is the first book in the Legendeer trilogy by Alan Gibbons. It's really, really good. He came to my school once, and I've got a signed copy of it :D and I read it last night. Yeh, I know, I should've gone to bed really, I'm tired now, I've stayed up late too many nights in a row, all the rest of it, but the truth was, I couldn't put it down. Ok, I've read it once before. But I love the going into a computer game idea. Perhaps it's done a little more creatively in Epic (can't remember the author, sorry), but you can hardly say it's done poorly in the Shadow of the Minotaur. Greek myths galore, and a teenage hero I found myself relating too. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that I've been bullied too, and would like nothing better than to become a hero in a different world, able to deal with things in a different way, a way that seems more noble than tattling to teachers. Which I did in the end. But I have learnt how to escape into stories of my own. So maybe that's the good thing that's come out of it. Every cloud has a silver lining and all that. Still, it's a good book this one. I'd recommend it. It's not quite top of my list of books to recommend, but I wouldn't say don't bother with it. Worth the effort, and it's not a monster size like the Tom Clancy ones I've been reading, so it won't take too long anyway.

Blest

It was Blest last night, great fun. Really enjoyed it. Lukas was speaking, about opening doors for people and not missing opportunities. I'm gonna try and get more involved with it. I've been a couple of times now, although I missed the last one cos I was ill *waaa!*. Anyway. It was at this little church that looks like half of it's been sawn off. We watched our little video again, that our group did for Fresh Manna.

Random Story has a name!

I just thought I'd tell you all. Random Story has at last found itself a title. I mean, it only took me about 90000 words of story to find that. Anyway. It's called: Shadows in the Sky.

Tenpin Bowling and MacDonalds. And the Works is closing down...

Went to Tenpin bowling today with some friends from college. Well, a friend from college/bookclub and her friend. Anyway, it was good fun. Managed somehow or other to win! How I don't know. Enjoyed it. Scored 87 points. Which isn't bad, although we did have the sides up. Went to MacDonalds after, which was kind of fun. Food wasn't too bad either. Wandered into town. The Works is closing down! *sobs* I like the Works. Good shop. Oh well. I got a book in the clearance thing, on WWII airplanes. Pity they didn't have anything on WWI, but there never seems to be anything on those airplanes, even though they were way more interesting. In some respects. I've recently come to find an interest in jets and stuff though. Blame Top Gun for that. And Random Story, which was inspired by Top Gun. Still. Interesting stuff.

Another ten thousand word day

Wrote another ten thousand words on random story yesterday. Quite chuffed with that achievement, since I still went to college and did all that stuff. It's coming on pretty well still. Getting near the end as well. I know roughly what I want to happen there, but I'll have to wait and see how that turns out. Especially with Cowboy's mysterious mission and the reappearance of Butcher. Who is currently a little narked with Cowboy, but I have no idea why... Oh, and I have an idea about what to do with Lauren. A tiny little suspicion. But I don't know whether to run with it or not. It seems kind of cruel on Cowboy...

11000 word day, whoo!

I just realised I never posted to mark my highest ever daily word count (as far as I know) on Sunday, which was 11187 words...
Random story is going pretty well. Would be nice if I could finish it all off today, but that's not going to happen. Have too much story left to write. Never mind. Might still manage it in less than three weeks. Shall have to see.

Form, and how useless it is...

Tutorial is absolutely completely and utterly useless. We wasted ages, trying to find out what this stupid COPE thing is. I tried to force our tutor into giving us a straight answer by saying 'what do we actually write', but she waffled and wouldn't give it straight. I don't think she's capable of doing it. Humph. Wouldn't be too bad apart from that. Be nice if I had someone like Martin for form. Then it wouldn't be such a momentous waste of time. Although an hour a week is hardly a huge amount of time to waste. And it was less today, only half an hour before we managed to run off...

History Rant

Yeh, I just figured I'd get it off my chest here, rather than exploding elsewhere. Probably a wise move. I'm just really annoyed about a couple of things. For one, my history teacher said she'd mark our mock exams over the holidays if we e-mailed them to her, and then she'd send us back the marks and give us more detailed feedback on the day we came back. Still not marked them, or if she has, she hasn't told me about it. Wonder if she ever will bother now. Then she set us loads of homework. Two one page profiles on 'important' people (Roger Fenton and William Russell) which was actually kind of hard, especially William Russell because he shares his name with about a million people, one of whom was a lord and alive at the time of the Crimean War, so I had to be pretty careful getting info for that, and we had a couple of source questions to do, and she told us to watch this forty-five minute film clip she'd put on moodle. That's a lot of work, you have to admit, especially when you consider it's not actually that long since we did the exam. I did all of it, apart from the film, which I watched the first half of, decided to watch the second half the next day and she changed the name of it. Got to lesson on Tuesday, and she said 'who's done the biographies, show me', and I was one of two people who'd done it. Ok, maybe half a dozen or so had missed the previous lesson because of exams, but still. That still makes it about 20% who'd done the work she set. And she just said she'd be nagging them about it. Which she hasn't done today. Oh well. Such is life. It was pretty interesting, researching those two guys, I have to admit. And I got to give Notebook a proper try, and it was pretty useful I have to say. Apparently it's being scrapped, which is crazy. It's a great application.

The Sum of All Fears

Another Jack Ryan book by Tom Clancy. You'll get fed up of me reviewing these sooner than I get fed up of reading them. Anyway, it was very good. I liked the fact that he didn't stop the bomb going off and stuff, and how detailed the stuff with the nuclear bomb was. It was incredibly believable and realistic. The fact that I love the character of Mr Clark leads me to say he was perhaps underutilised again, especially near the start of the book, although he did get a bit of a look in nearer the end. I was annoyed by the blurb again though. It gives away way too much. Ok, I know that if you go by proportions, giving away stuff that happens maybe half way through the book, maybe a little beyond, isn't such a big deal. But when the book is a thousand pages long, that's a bit far in to start giving details of the plot away as far as I'm concerned. It did have a good plot though. A nuclear bomb, set off by terrorists but made to look as though it were the Russians (I'm giving away no more than the blurb here), an incompetant president... Anyway, worth reading. Trying to work out the chronology of these books is hard though. I think there's another one between this and Executive Orders, which is the next along that I have. Hmm, Fantastic Fiction isn't loading at the moment. Oh well, I'll check later. Or just get on and read Executive Orders (I've already started it, but stopped to read ones that came before after I got them, because it seemed logical to me, and so I kind of suspect there's another in between). Anyway, it's a good book, worth the time it takes to read it, although it did feel like it took a while to really get started. And I almost found myself favouring the president over Jack at one point. But I guess that's how you make characters realistic, by not making them perfect.

When All Was Fair, The Battalion, and Random Story

Well, I'd figured a while ago that I needed a different name for The Desert Rat, because it didn't actually fit the story any more. It fitted my original idea of what the story would be about, but not the reality. Anyway. It's now called When All Was Fair, which I think suits it much better. I've also had a really good idea involving Cowboy and the Princess and stuff as a prequel to what I'm writing just now, which I'd call The Battalion. However, I still have no title for Random Story. So I guess it just remains Random Story for now. Maybe I'll figure it out after I finish. Which hopefully I will do. Be pretty neat if I could say I'd written it in less than a month. Let me think, I started it Friday before last. I'm just over 50000 words now, which is getting towards the length mine usually finish at. As far as I know. Having said that, I've not typed up Broken Sky or Chain Heart or Twisting Fate, and I haven't finished editing Winged Fire which is growing significantly and When All Was Fair is over 100000 and still nowhere near finished. I think I've realised why books set during the war tend to be pretty long. Especially books set during the war and after the war. First World War in this instance. I've only really read Second World War apart from the Biggles ones which got me hooked on First World War aviation. There is surprisingly little information available on that, in book form at any rate. There you go though, that's life. I gotta watch a forty-five minute film for history soon, and do two source questions, and I've already done a load of other work. Humph. She seems to think we have nothing better to do. And she never even marked our mocks, and we've had the exam now so she probably won't ever. Double humph. Gonna go do some more work on Random Story I think. The pace is starting to slow down a little, but I want to keep getting it out, getting it written. I can sort out little plot details and contradictions later. For now, I just want it written.

Fresh Manna Christmas Meal

Yup. We had our Christmas Meal last night, at a Golf Club. Good food, plenty of fun. We went early though, because Mum was shattered and not feeling well, and James was pretty knackered too. As was I, but I'm sure I could've coped... At least we got pudding. The sticky toffee wasn't quite as good as Sally's, but still pretty decent. My favourite pudding though. Yum!
To explain: we have our Christmas Meal after Christmas because then it doesn't clash with all the festivities and stuff. Not because we're so disorganised we can't get it sorted before. Well, maybe a bit...

Random Story...

Well, I did call it random story. But that was more because I lacked a real title than because I really intended it to start doing random things. Like Cowboy announcing he used to be part of this thing called the Battalion, and he saved the life of the Princess. Yep. Really wasn't expecting that at all. It just kind of happened. And now the Princess and the King have turned up at Fight School to meet Cowboy again, because he's been avoiding them for ages. Doesn't want to remember it, because his friends Butcher and Allegro were killed during the raid. And he's a bit shy around people like princesses. Around everyone really. So yeh. It's just got a bit more random...

The Cardinal of the Kremlin (aka, why I'm absolutely shattered)

I was up till about half two reading this book last night, so I'm now somewhat knackered, and I'm going out tonight. It's our church Christmas meal (alright, so it's a bit late maybe, but still). It's really good. I was a little disappointed by the fact that Mr Clark didn't play more of a part, because he's such an awesome character, but it was a nice plot, and pretty realistic. I like the fact that you get the behind story of the operations and stuff, rather than just the action, although I do like action. A lot. Which was why I was a weeny bit upset Mr Clark didn't get more page space. Still. I really enjoyed it. The only other thing was that the blurb kind of spoilt it a bit, because it said that Ryan had to catch the guy going to betray Cardinal, and then he was 'betraying' him himself, but I knew he wasn't already. Would've been quite interesting, even though I don't really have any doubts about his integrity, if I hadn't known that it was all a big plot. Worth reading for sure, despite the fact that it's pretty long. And therefore kept me up until half two. Although it has to be said, I managed to force myself to stop reading, tried to sleep and failed for ages, and gave up in the end.

Randommest dream ever!

Yeh. I had this really, really weird dream. It involved ninjas. And Jack playing the piano in a library and people dancing around, and then for some reason or other I was in this room and I was Jimmy Coates (not the first time I've dreamed myself into a book, but I haven't actually read any of these that recently...) and Jimmy's mum was talking to me and trying to persuade me that she wasn't really evil (I know she isn't, but I think the dream kind of mixed her up with Mrs Coulter from The Golden Compass/ Miss Benett) and that it was all fine. I had a green belt in ninja studies, and it would all go fine when I attacked these people. Then it all got really confused and there was a burning CD player and I was really mad at her saying she'd fix up my room because I was like "that's fine for you to say, but I'm going to die in two days, that's when my expiry date is". Very random. And then I was jumping out a window, and then I woke up. I'm not entirely sure why I was jumping out the window. Or any of the rest of it to be honest. But dreams rarely make sense at all.

10000 word day! Whoo!

Yeh. On Tuesday I didn't have to go into college in the morning, because you get the morning off if you have an afternoon exam, and then I didn't have to go to sociology after my exam either, so I had loads of time at home. So I did a lot of work on Random Story. And wrote just over 10000 words in a day. Which I'm pretty proud of. Last time I did it was also in January, a year ago. I think it was on the third or something, can't remember when exactly. But yeh, I'm chuffed. And the story is going well, apart from the odd bit or two which I'm going to have to fix. And I've had to make a spreadsheet of characters and call signs and proper names and stuff like that, and there is a pilot and navigator floating around who have not yet been named or appeared at all. Maybe they never will, maybe they're there but not really there. I don't know. Shall have to see what happens.

Stupid Form

Humph. Form/tutor/whatever you want to call the pointless wasted hour where you sit and listen to a woman with a boring voice blather about university choices and what you need to look at, is the most stupid thing in the universe. If it wasn't for form and critical thinking (sometimes), college would be perfect. However, I accept that nothing in life is perfect. And there is a lot less wasted time at college than there was at high school, I have to admit. Still. It would be nice if my form tutor could find some interest in what she's talking about, and then maybe it would be more interesting to us. The content is just fine. She just takes a little too long to go through it (bearing in mind we're supposed to be Gifted and Talented form, and she treats us like we scarcely have enough power to collectively power a lightbulb. Although maybe we wouldn't. I don't think brains power lightbulbs. But you know what I mean. I hope). Anyway. Form/tutor is pointless. But never mind. I'll survive.

On a different note, I was amused by the fact that two of my friends have way more in common than I'd ever realised, because the three of us sat together at lunch, with me being the one who actually knows both of them pretty well. I don't know why I'm writing this. Never mind. Shall go do some work on Random Story I think. It still doesn't have a name.

Random Story

Well, I started a random story based on Australia, but that kind of fizzled out. However, I'm now working on another random story, loosely based on Top Gun. Good fun to write, and it's certainly going somewhere. I started it Friday, and it's already hit 16000 words... So, going well at the moment. Hopefully that's not a premature statement. If I get stuck, I can quite legitimately blow stuff up though, so that's ok.

Clear and Present Danger

Whoa! This book is real good. Long, but good. I was up reading it till one in the morning on Sunday. Couldn't put it down. It mixes action very well with the sort of high level action/drama/politicsy stuff that Tom Clancy writes really well. I'm a little annoyed that I've managed to miss out a couple of the in-between ones, but oh well. Good books. Very, very good books. I have no idea how the chronology of the series is supposed to work though...

Google Notebook

Ok, I said I'd let you know how it works once I've had a go at using it. And I have now. We're fitting a new carpet, my dad wants some info on how to do it. So I used the notebook thing, and it's surprisingly easy to use. Just right click and say notebook, that's it. Nice and neat. Haven't worked out all the little features, but it's certainly a very quick way of collating information.

Google Notebook

This is an interesting looking little add-on that basically lets you pick information from the web and stick it into a notebook, to which you can add comments. Looks like it'll be useful for research projects etc, which I might have to do some of. Not tried using it yet, because at the moment I can't quite think of anything to use it for (have no major researchy projects on the go), but it looks good. Will let you know how it works once I figure that out myself. I was actually trying to refind the google calculator, which is really impressive because it does conversions as well and you just type it in and it works. Magic!

Naomi's Birthday--The Olive Press

I felt a bit stupid when we found the restaurant. I've walked past it a couple of times and not even noticed it was there... Then again, I tend to eat at the market or greggs when I'm in Preston, so it's not really that surprising I didn't look for it. Food was really good. It was great to see everyone again especially. We talked and ate and talked and talked and ate and... You get the picture I'm sure. Great fun. Nice and relaxing after the two stupid exams I had to sit through. Now, what speck did I do for maths. Ooops, that's the wrong spelling of spec. No matter. The spell check thingy doesn't like the other. But it doesn't like thingy either. Ok, enough random rambling about nothing. :D I think it was OCR. A different one to Naomi at any rate, because when we tried to compare notes I was like 'don't remember that question'. Never mind. Hopefully I did all right. Maths teacher rewarded us in lesson with sudoku, which is like the best stuff ever... Although Killer Sudoku is the best of that bunch. So much fun! This is nothing to do with what I started talking about. Never mind. James has just bellowed at me nastily--gotta go. Post later I guess.

Stupid maths exam

Meh. The stupid maths exam was supposed to take an hour and a half. I finisished it in the half an hour. Could've done my sociology exam as well in that time, and actually done something other than sitting in silence for ages and ages and ages. It's like they punish you for doing well and finishing early. Meh. I think that maths papers should include sudoku puzzles at the back for people who finish early. That's my theory. The sociology one wasn't so bad. One of the questions was a bit 'huh', but I got an answer down and I think it was about right. You get some marks for common sense answers at any rate, so it shouldn't be too bad. The e question was much better for me. I guess it was something I feel fairly strongly about.

Top Gun

I watched Top Gun night before last with my dad, since it was on tv. Really good. I missed the beginning, because I was busy running round like a lunatic and trying to get everything ready for Thursday etc (it was Hattie's birthday and I'm soooo disorganised). Anyway. It was pretty awesome. Especially the flying stuff. And I love Maverick. Ok, maybe there was a little bit too much emphasis on the romance (especially the physical side of it :D), but it was well worth watching. Glad I stayed up to do so.

Patriot Games

This is, I think, the third book by Tom Clancy, but chronologically it comes before The Hunt for Red October. It's a very impressive book, and I much preferred this one to THFRO. There was a lot more character development, more action, and it had a much more intriguing plot in many ways. Although maybe making friends with the Prince of Wales was a bit OTT. Not sure about that one. Interesting though. And kind of vital to the plot.

The Hunt for Red October

This is by Tom Clancy, and it wasn't as good as Without Remorse. Supposedly it's in the same series, but the character from the other book wasn't mentioned at all in this one. And I don't remember ever meeting Jack Ryan in the other book. Maybe. There wasn't a lot of character development, that's the main reason I didn't enjoy it so much. I think there were just too many characters for that size of book. It could quite easily have been much bigger, and I think that would've made it better. However, it was Tom Clancy's first novel, and publishers don't really like to take huge novels as a debut work because there's no guarantee of how well it's going to sell. It was still a very good book, worth reading. Had an interesting plot. The Red October is a Soviet submarine, and the captain of it, along with several senior officers, have decided to defect to America... taking the Red October with them as a gift to the Americans. So begins a hunt for the Red October, carried out on the one side by the Russians who want him (apparantly Soviet ships were often referred to with a male pronoun, whereas European/US ones are usually referred to in the female, though I don't know if it's true. Suspect, given the realism of the book, that it is) back, and the Americans who want to find him and help him get home. Couple of nice twists and stuff, but I certainly preferred Without Remorse.

That's a bit annoying

Well, I'm listening to CrossRhythms again, but for some reason they've put on that stupid song 'I wanna have your babies' which is one of the most annoying ones on the planet. I was hoping to listen to something nice. Still, it only lasts a couple of minutes, then I can be happy and listen to nice decent music again which doesn't tell you to go off and have sex with random strangers etc.

Warmning up at last

Well, I set off for colege this morning, first day back, and froze on the way there. As well as nearly falling on my bum several times of course, but that's expected when the place is covered with ice. Didn't even make it down my driveway before I slipped. Slowed down my journey by about ten minutes, which was kind of annoying. Good job I left plenty of spare time, just in case. Nothing wrong with the theory of just in case. It works pretty well. Anyway, I was pretty chilly by the time I got to college, and then the stupid boiler was bust and apparently switching back on again. Yeh right. Froze in Critical Thinking, which is just about the worst lesson ever to be honest, apart from form which is just the utmost boringest thing ever. Then in Sociology, turns out that room's heating isn't working either. Mind you, that room's always pretty cold. Then Maths, back in St Mary's, heating still not working it would appear. Library was cold too at lunch. English lit classroom wasn't so bad mind, but then I was walking home again and getting cold over again. Still, home is nice and warm and cozy.

Fresh Manna by the youth...

Our youth group ran church this morning. Went pretty well, even if I was involved and may be slightly biased... :D Quite good fun to be honest, once I got over complete stage fright that comes from looking at a hundred or so people and playing a clarinet into a microphone. They were all singing, they wouldn't have heard... Anyway, it went well. I heard pretty positive comments about it. Not that people were likely to say anything too bad, but still.

Confusing array of a million bazillion things...

I managed to navigate myself well away from this blog somehow or other when I was looking at help stuff, and was amazed at how many different things you can sign into with a google account... I never realised. I kind of found out by accident when I had to sign up to U-tube so I could make a favourites list of the songs we're doing at church tomorrow, and discovered I could log in with the same account as I use on here, but I didn't think you could get on so many different bits of the internet with just this google id thing. Never realised how much of the internet was google, besides the obvious google search engine and this. Maybe I shall have to join some of it. As if I don't spend enough time online already...

SPAM saved the Russians!

According to my history text book, SPAM was a major contributor to the Russian victory over the Nazis. Hmmm... Not quite sure how they worked that one out. It made me laugh though. SPAM actually tastes quite nice. It was just the way they put it in the book. First they talked about Russian acheivements in the 1930s, then they said there was another great development by an American company, which was SPAM. Well, everyone's entitled to their own opinion I guess. And I suppose if all the soldiers had starved, they'd never have one the war. You just have to admit though, it does sound a little bit far-fetched...

Crazy random statistic

I posted on 85% of days last year. Well, if you average it out. I know some months I hardly posted at all and some I posted loads in, but overall, 85% of days have a post. My goal was to post five times a week. That means an average of 71%. So I managed that, in a roundabout sort of way. So, this year I hope I can match that. And yes, I did take into account the fact that 2008 was a leap year. This just shows my slight obsessiveness over things like that...

Writing Update

So, I kind of started a new story. As if I don't have enough part finished already. But it was buzzing round my head and driving me mad. Inspired by Australia. I'm enjoying it so far. But that always happens. I'm liable to drop it after three days. In fact, I've got within half a dozen chapters of the end of a story (they were really short ones) and given up on it. Might redo it. It wasn't too bad, just mega redwally. I'll see what happens. I suppose the thing with it being inspired by Australia is that if I start to get stuck, I just pinch some ideas from the film. Which I've kind of done already. But still. It has my own take on it. Just think: Australia but with fantasy creatures. Yeh. Crazy. But could be quite fun.

Australia

This is the most amazing film ever! And I mean it. My new favourite for sure. Used to be a tie between Over the Hedge and The Dark Knight. But definitely Australia now. It is absolutely awesome. It takes the best bits from westerns, romances, action/war, and adventure and combines them all together to make an absolutely marvellous film. Don't let the fact that it's three hours long put you off. I was gripped throughout, and this despite the fact I was knackered having had about four hours sleep the previous night. Nullah, a half cast child, is very sweet and interesting, and parts of the story come from his eyes. Lady Ashleigh is played very well, and I liked her character, but my favourite was definitely Drover, a reluctant hero, a tough cattle herder who is roped into helping Lady Ashleigh save the farm left by her husband. It could be split into two films I suppose, but it works so well as one that I don't see the point, and it gives you such a better appreciation of the characters. Drover is amazing. I don't know what else to say, except that you really have to watch it. I came out and wanted to go straight back in and watch it all over again.

Happy New Year!!

I suppose I should really have posted yesterday, but I didn't really have chance... Got home at about half three, went out again about four, got back in about half seven, went to bed at half eight. And what, you ask, was I doing that meant I spent so much time out the house? And only getting in at half three... Well, I went to Phil and Nicky's on New Year's Eve, to a party, and then slept over because mum and dad and James all wanted to go home earlier. There were seventeen of us in total who slept there--thirteen more than usual. Well actually, I suppose not really more than usual, I swear there always seems to be someone at their house, but thirteen more than the number who technically live there. We played that game where you stick a word on someone's back and they have to guess it, and I got The Fifth Ammendment. I did get there in the end and work out what it was. Plus we had some riddles to work out, which was good fun, and then a really, really hard quiz. Then it was midnight, so we all set off party poppers (apart from the rest of my family, who'd gone home about tennish) and hugged each other. Then tried to work out how many hugs if everyone hugged everyone else once. Hmm... Then we played a couple of games of Articulate, which was great fun. A little like pictionary, only you describe things with words instead of drawing them. Great game. We started going to bed about five in the morning, but we had to sort out duvets and pillows and stuff because there were a lot of people there, and so it was probably about six when I finally got to sleep. Got up at eleven, cooked breakfast (yummy!), talked and stuff, came home. Then went to see Australia with James and Hannah and Alex. Then home again and I was shattered so I just crawled into bed. Hardly surprising.