Happy New Year

Well, Happy New Year one and all.  Looking back, I've done pretty rubbishly at keeping up with this blog.  Never mind.  This is a new year and I'll have a bash at doing better this time round.  It was easy to push it to one side while I was at uni, but I figure I was just making excuses really.  And it's not as though there was nothing to write about, and I've had plenty of time since I came back.  Anyhow, that's me done apologising for lack of blogging.

What's happened this year?  I 'won' Nanowrimo for the fourth year running, with an end total of 113,114.  Finished at Cardinal Newman, started at Christ's College Cambridge.  Learnt lots about early modern social and economic history, including the fact that you apparently don't capitalise early modern.  Also discovered that footnotes are impossible and incredibly annoying.  Essays would be so much more fun without footnotes.

Got my A-level results.  Made lots of new friends.  Joined a new church in Cambridge, which I now find myself missing while I'm at home.  Went to two airshows, the first time I've ever been to one.  Sunderland was amazing, Southport was wet, and the commentators much harder to hear which was a shame because the commentating was very good at Sunderland.

The 'big' politically events of the year: coalition government, student protests, Harrier got retired :( (my favourite modern aircraft), what else is worth mentioning to any future historian?  Nick Cameron and David Clegg of the Con-Dem party are useless liars, and I think there's a case to do Nick Clegg via the Advertising Standards Agency or for breach of contract or something.  The expenses scandal.  It was cold and England collapsed in a big heap of snow, even though there wasn't that much snow.  Anything else?  I guess there's the Royal Wedding announcement, but that's not that important.  Do you like my value judgements, random future historian who just happens to be using my blog as a source?  I'm afraid I'm probably quite atypical, but I really don't care about a Royal Wedding as a 'big event'.  I mean, I like the fact we have a monarchy, don't get me wrong, but I don't like celebrity culture, it bugs me.  Oh, the F-35 finally started getting somewhere.  Does that count as news?  Yeh, I guess it does.  Budget cuts.  Lots of them.  And tax is going up on January 4th, again. 

What else would you like to know?  Or, more specifically, what else would I like to tell you?  God's great, that's about all I can think of.

Oh, my goal for this year.  Three posts per week, which I think is a perfectly reasonable aiming point.  Possibly more, if exciting things happen.  I shall try and talk a bit more about the world outside of my own life too, which has the added bonus of making me pay attention to things outside my own life.  It's too easy, especially while in Cambridge, to loose all touch with the real world.  I observed a few weeks into term that it would be quite plausible that London was flooded completely, or World War Three broke out, and we wouldn't know about it.  So it's worth checking in with the BBC every now and again :)

Bye for now :)

Some Observations

Being a student has led me to make some observations on life.  Most of them are probably pretty obvious for people who have ever moved away from home.

1. If I want milk, I have to buy it.  Preferably before I want it to put on breakfast cereal, because the shops aren't open when I have breakfast.

2. Dry brown bread is really not all that delicious.  I should probably get some margarine.

3. What Heinz alleges is macaroni cheese is disgusting slop which I wouldn't inflict on... well, on anything.  At all.  Ever.

4. On the other hand, Heinz raviolli is actually fairly tasty.

5. I need to get something to put on a sandwich for tomorrow, or I will have to buy a sandwich.  Buying a sandwich is more expensive than buying a whole loaf of bread and a tin of spam.  In fact, I think it's at least twice as expensive.

6. College food is okay, but the curry is spicy.  Thankfully I had a feeling it might be and avoided it.  Oh, and the onion rings are kinda weird.

7. I have to go fetch water from the kitchen.  I currently have none.  Hmm...  Dry bread makes you thirsty.  I should perhaps go get some water.  Which means finding my keys, closing the door, getting the water, coming back, unlocking hte door...

8. At some point, I will end up forgetting my keys.  Probably in the middle of the night.  Which will mean going to visit the plodge in my pyjamas.  I'm not convinced that's a great idea...

9. I am now running out of observations.

Fresher!

I am now a Fresher at the University of Cambridge!  And my college is absolutely amazing.  I couldn't get on the internet on my first night, but I wrote a post anyway.  Here you go...

Had an awesome day.  Everyone's very friendly.  Met Tom and Tom who are my new next door neighbours.  Both seem really nice.  Met Kate--a NatSci (like half + of the college appears to be!), got on really well with her.  Room is massive!  Have a firendly tree which popped a branch in to say 'hi!' when I opened the window--had to push the branch out again when I wanted to close it.  Room is all set up, though still seems a little bereft of posters--didn't realise how much space I'd have to stick tehm up.  Bathroom is a fair trek, but at least it's same floor.  Kitchen is diddy and smells a bit.  Bed seems comfy enough--let you know about that tomorrow (NB: Bed is comfy, but didn't sleep on first night because of strange noises like tree tapping...).  Though the way I'm beginning to feel, I could sleep on a broken park bench!  Whole day is a whirl of names and faces.  Good to have time to reflct though--went to Evensong in the Chapel, stunningly beautiful in all respects.  And whilst it was pretty high church, I really felt that God was present with us.  The choir!  They were amazing.

Met my tutor, she was very nice, and (finally!) found some more history students.  All seem friendly, can't wait to get to know them better.  And to get started with proper college.  Place (so far) seems to revolve around drinks and biscuits, orange juice being the alternative to both hot drinks and alcoholic drinks.

Dined in formal hall (though not in formal dress tonight).  What a place!  Half way through blurted out 'I want to live here,' realised abruptly that I do!  The food was really good and all.  Fruit salad, chicken with potatoes and peas, then delicious toffee cheesecake.

Then we were all herded into hte function room.  Wow that place gets hot.  Freshers Mingle, kinda fun but I'm knackered from mingling all day.  I love my room, actually think being away from bathroom will be good in terms of noise.  Night all!

Packing...

I am packing, honest.  I've packed my books (get the most important things sorted first...), I've got some other stuff packed or dumped in the spare room to be packed, and I'm starting a packing list.  But honestly, when did it get so hard to work out what I need to take with me?  How many books?  Glasses case, must remember that.  And pyjamas, given that I have a talent for forgetting pyjamas.  Alarm clock, need one of them.  Notebooks, pens...  It feels like I'm going away for years almost--although it's only two months.  And I want to take loads of books but my mum's persuaded me not to.  Well, told me not to more like.

I'm guessing I'll take too much stuff this time and then next time I go I'll have a better idea of what I need.  I'm just worried that I'll get there and realise I need my bike (which I've decided not to take this time), or I'll have forgotten something vital, like my timetable for fresher's week or something important like that.  Hopefully I won't.  We'll just have to see I guess.  So next week, you get to find out whether I remembered everything or not (lucky you!)

I'm kinda excited, but also getting a bit nervous.  At least I know a couple of people at the church I'll be going to in Cambridge.  Well, know them vaguely.  Don't know anyone who's going to be at Cambridge with me though.  Never mind.  I might get there and discover someone I know who I didn't know was going.  Failing that, I guess I just have to make new friends.  Not like I haven't done that before, what with moving to the States and back again...  Well, I've had a lot of prayer, and I know people will be thinking of me in Cambridge, so I'll just have to trust that God shows me the right people to be friends with when I get there.

Blocking the Light

What's between you and the light today? On Thursday, I got my Dad to put up some model aircraft that I'd built. One of the ones I put up was given to me for Christmas by a friend. It started life filled with chocolates, which I ate, and now it's hanging from my ceiling. It's a lovely little biplane, and it looks really good hanging up there. However, while I was pointing to where I wanted my Dad to put them, I was being a bit incautious. It's now hanging between my ceiling light and my desk, so although I have a desk light the light on me is not great while I'm sat here. It's being blocked. The aircraft itself is great, there's nothing wrong with it. It's just the position I've put it in.

Sometimes life gets a bit like that. We have things that, in themselves, are fine, perhaps even great. But when we put them in the wrong place, they block out the light and leave us in shadow, unable to enjoy the full benefit of what God's got for us. I need to climb up on my ceiling and move it. There are sometimes things we need to do that in our life with. We've put them in the wrong place, and it's stopping us from enjoying the full fruits of life. So in order to get back into the full light, enjoying the full benefits of God's provision, God's grace and God's faithfulness, we need to shift them out the way. I'm going to be asking my Dad to help me, cos I'm not overly fond of clambering on things and waving my arms around. Maybe we all need to ask our Heavenly Dad to help us shift a couple of things about in our lives, in order to be able to see properly.

Oops...

I'm quite behind with book reviews. Well, more than quite behind. I've been reading a lot recently. As in, seven last week, then another four today and yesterday. Which is quite a lot of books to review. I don't know that I can physically manage to review that many books. I have an entire series to review (minus the most recent one which I've not yet got hold of) for goodness sake! Okay, admittedly that's only four books, but still. That was the oops part of my post.

Went to Lytham yesterday. And St Annes too, because they're basically next door to each other and St Annes has a really neat library. Lytham's a great place, have to say, and not just because I know a bunch of people who live there. For a start, there's the Windmill Bookshop just as you're heading into the town. I don't think I've ever seen a place quite so stuffed with books. No particular order to them, other than them being generally sorted into fiction, children's, and then the non-fiction was kinda sorted too. At least, most of the history stuff was together. Lytham itself is a nice place to walk around too. We stopped at a lovely cafe called the Source (there seems to be about a million cafes in Lytham...), had coffee/hot chocolate and cake (the coffee being for my parents, the hot chocolate and cake being for me :) ). Yeh, just generally had a nice day out. Oh, and visited the libraries, which somehow despite being technically smaller than the Harris library in Preston have contrived to get a better selection of books in. Or maybe that was more because I've read most of the interesting ones that the Harris has in. Any rate, there were good teenage sections in both libraries, so although I haven't taken out any stuff that was technically teenage for a while I've got a bunch out now to read, and some of it's really good. Then came home and read. First Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief, next Act of Treason (not a teenage book, but very good all the same). Today was Changeling Blood Wolf and Fever Crumb (a prequel to the Mortal Engines series). I've still got a fair stack to go at though, so I might go and read some more... Then I'll have even more catching up to do, but never mind.

Frustrating

Well, today it rained on me while I was walking home and I'd forgotten my umbrella. I've also forgotten this week: an essay, my modern history text book, my ancient history text book, and I think I may have left my brain somewhere... It's quite annoying, because normally I'm pretty well organised. Or at least, I don't tend to forget important things. We also had a 'launch' of General Studies A2. Meh. The teacher (not my form tutor, we had to go to a random room which is set up like a cinema to listen to the senior tutor launch it instead) went on and on about how it'll improve our essay writing skills and how we'll be doing loads of practice on writing essays in tutor and how we'll have essay structure lessons. Essay structure plans are the most pointless plans I have ever seen. Essays have an introduction, body and conclusion. How you order it within the body depends a) on what you're writing about and b) personal preference. For example, some people like to start by arguing against the statement you're given or stating one side of the argument followed by the other. Others like to split it up into factors, for example looking at the pluses and negatives under one topic then moving onto the next. I'm doing three essay writing subjects already, I really don't need to sit there and write more essays. I'll have essays coming out my ears at this rate. Then we had to go and learn how to use ebrary. For a start, it's one of the simplest programmes I've ever seen, so it wasn't really necessary to have twenty minutes 'learning' how to use it. For seconds, there weren't even any decent books on it! There were a large number of history books I'll admit, but when I tried to get books on Irish history, there were only short guides, travel guides, and the odd academic paper which was of no use for the topics we're looking at. Meh. Rant over.

Oops...

I have a slight problem with book reviews at the moment. I know I've read about eight books that I haven't reviewed on here yet. I know some of the names of these books, and could probably, if I took a little time, get them written down again. However, I've gone and lost the little scrap of card left over from when I was making presents. I'm sure it's around somewhere on my desk, so until I've made a serious search I don't want to go through the process of trying to recreate said list. I also took two books back to the library which I need to review. Normally, not a problem. Both, I'll add, were great books. However, I didn't make a note of the author, I can't remember for one of them, and they were on the history reader's group ticket, rather than on my own, so I won't be able to find it from there. Hopefully google can provide the answer (or at least, google can show me where to find the answer). But the book was called The Brink, and it was published in the seventies. About the Cuban Missile Crisis, but unless I see the exact copy I had, I won't know that it's the right one. Hmm... I shall have to investigate. Meanwhile, I apologise, and shall review a book I can remember the name of in my next post.

On a slightly different topic, we went to Haywood today, to go to the market. I think it's about forty odd miles--it took a fair while to get there at any rate. We also tried to go to Bury market, but there was absolutely no parking, apart from some on street stuff which wasn't even that near the market which was £1.65 for an hour! Now that, I'm sure you'll agree, is somewhat ridiculous and extortionate. So we gave up on that idea and tried to head home but got lost. We got back on the right track after a couple miles going in the opposite direction to which we should have gone, and then stopped off at a cafe to have some lunch--I was starving by this point. And then we went to Sommerfield which is technically the Co-op but they haven't changed the sign outside only the inside ones, and got some food for tea etc. Oh, I never said why we went to Haywood, did I? My dad's had an interview for a job based out in that direction, he and mum went out to find it the other week and went through Haywood, stopping off at the market for a brew. While there, they noticed a book stall which sold books from 10p each. Which is a pretty good deal--I don't know of anywhere in Preston you can get them that cheap. It's cheaper than reserving books from the library too. Anyway, I ended up buying six. I actually initially only wanted one, but figured that on the basis they were also 6 for 50p, I might as well go for six.

The other thing I've been doing today, besides blogging, is modelling. Modelling as in model making, I hasten to add. I doubt anyone would take me for a model... Although as part of the history reader's group (last night) at Chorley, I had my photo taken for Lancashire Life. We did a thing in the summer on local authors, that's what they were there about. Nothing like being timely... Anyway, I've been working on a model Tornado, which is quite fun. I don't often do jets. I tend to do WWI/WWII aircraft instead. I've got six built besides this one, not counting the Me 262, which although it is a jet kinda gets counted under WWII as far as I'm concerned. Two of them are Harriers--I think the Harrier is my favourite modern aircraft. It's just so impressive looking, dangerous, and then there's the added fact that it can land vertically which is pretty ace you have to admit. The WWI ones are my favourite I think, although I am quite fond of my Spitfire, Lancaster bomber and Bristol Blenheim. Oh, and my biggest model (although not the most pieces), which I recently completed--a Short Sunderland flying boat. It's huge! It's wingspan is about three and a half times that of a Spitfire, and it's about three times as long. It dwarfs all the other aircraft currently sat on my styrofoam drying/holding while they wait to be hung 'mat'. When I say one of them's an F-15E, which is hardly a small aircraft, that gives you a bit of an idea of the size of it. Sorry, I'll stop talking about model aircraft. One of my more unusual pass times and interests. I don't actually know anyone else who builds them, though I presume there must be others or there wouldn't be dedicated magazines, two major companies, and (although there's none in Preston now Toymaster has basically got rid of their entire range) a lot of places that stock them in large numbers.

Blest

I'm pretty knackered today I have to say. I didn't get home till about 11:15 or so, and then I woke up really early (as in quarter to six early) and couldn't get back to sleep for ages. But Blest was awesome! While we were singing 'This Is Our God' (Hillsongs), I just sensed that there were angels all around, and I was nearly crying. It was just incredible.

Sarah was talking about prayer, and she did an ace job. I didn't want her to stop. She just really brought it to life. I would've taken more notes, but it was kinda dark so I couldn't actually see my Bible... But she was talking about praying as we went through the day. So I prayed that the gears would change on my bike properly, and they did... but then the chain fell off. Meh. But it did go back on again without too much of a faff, so that was okay. Oh well. I didn't get run over or anything, so that was okay.

Oh yeh, and I've managed to volunteer myself for something again. Well, I've volunteered myself to do the first Creative Writing Group on Wednesday (we'll be talking about characters), and I also volunteered myself to play my clarinet at the next Blest. Maybe I should stop just randomly agreeing to do stuff, but it is quite fun. I'm looking forward to it.

Birthday

It was my 17th birthday on Wednesday (must go change my profile). I was at the Museum of Lancashire in the morning, helping out with the craft, and then as I was getting ready to go, the staff gave me a present: a huge plant! It kinda has to live downstairs cos I have no room in my bedroom, but it's pretty awesome. Then in the afternoon I went into town to meet up with Rhea and Naomi. It was great to see them again and get chance to talk to them, cos I haven't seen either since Rhea's birthday party, which was ages ago. We went shopping, but the only thing I bought was paint :D. I needed some model paint (not got round to using it yet, but it's for a biplane). Naomi came back for tea too, and that was great fun. So I had a really awesome day.

I can't help but look back on my birthday last year and marvel at how far God's brought me and my family. Last year, my mum was in hospital unable to eat, at the start of what turned into a five week stretch. I came home from the Lake District where I'd been on holiday with the guys from Fresh Manna who at that point I scarcely knew, and I went to my Aunty Lynne's for tea, because my Dad was having to cook but he's not the most fantastic cook of all time. Had a clarinet lesson, and then went to see my mum in hospital. Since then, my mum's come home (finally), and she's starting to get a lot better--certainly she's improved tremendously on that although she still gets tired. My Dad's lost his job. I've done a whole year at college, and managed to get 6 A's at AS, and made loads of new friends. I've got to know the people in my youth group a lot better. I've volunteered at the Museum of Lancashire and had a great time doing that. And you know what? God is still looking out for me, so who knows what this next year's going to bring?

My Story

It says on the Blogger Buzz thing that Google wants us all to talk about why we blog and how it's affected us, since Blogger is soon to turn 10. Well, I've been blogging for about a year and a half now. It started out as something to replace my diary, which I'd become increasingly bad at writing in. Shortly after, my mum was diagnosed with cancer, my dad had been suffering with stress, and exams were soon to set in. Needless to say, it was a pretty tough time in my life. So it helped sometimes to just be able to sit down at a computer and just write whatever came out, whatever my feelings were at the time. I survived my exams, and then had a long summer holiday stretching away in front of me, and no real prospect of a holiday like I'd been expecting, since my mum was still pretty grim a lot of the time. So I decided to write a review of every single book I read over the summer holiday. I'm not entirely sure that I managed all of them, but it was certainly a large percentage. I've kept on with that now, and I'm getting better at doing it. Although it has to be said that I do make a note of what I read and write the reviews later, not necessarily straight away. My mum's very much on the mend, and I've now done almost a full year at college. Can't believe how fast the time has gone. And I've actually managed to keep my blog (mostly) up to date with what I'm doing, which is more than I ever really managed long term with a diary.

So happy birthday blogger, and that's my story.