I'm a Christmas person. I have always been a Christmas person, and anyone who has ever met me would be able to tell you as much. The past couple of years, however, I have been a little more subdued about it than I would normally be. It probably has something to do with working in a pub where Christmas starts much earlier due to festive bookings and so on, and especially when you end up working on Christmas Day some of the enjoyment can be stripped away. However, I don't work at the pub anymore, and this year Jack and I have gone what I like to call 'full-festive'. We're steadily making our way through the Christmas movies with the fire on and candles and the tree lights making it the coziest we can get it. Mulled cider is currently an important part of our diet and I am listening to festive music almost exclusively. I'm mostly prepared for the big day, I think I only need a couple more things so I've just got wrapping to do now really. We thought we'd give some festive booze a go so we went to Ikea the other day to get mason jars and little bottles. Now, I had never been to Ikea before (or if I have, I don't remember it at all), so I was quite looking forward to it, although Jack warned me not to get my hopes up. I said, "Why not, what's wrong with it?" He just shrugged and said, "It's the layout really, it's awful. You'll see." "It can't be that bad," I scoffed whilst Jack gave a knowing smile. Oh how naive I was. Ikea, if you haven't had the pleasure, is sort of how I imagine Purgatory to be. You can't go straight to the main shop bit to just get what you want; you have to walk through all the showrooms first, following the arrows around and trying to avoid being run down by people with giant trolleys and/or pushchairs (aka: battering rams). Every time we rounded a corner and I expected to be nearer the end of the showrooms, there was more. Bedrooms, kitchens, dining rooms, miscellaneous furniture, you name it. It was there. And if I was trying to furnish a house perhaps I would have enjoyed the experience more, but all we needed was mason jars and it took fifteen minutes just to get to the general shop bit where they were. As soon as we found them, it was another ordeal to get to the tills. We kept following the signs that said which way the tills were, but every time I expected them to be, y'know, there, they were conspicuously absent. By the time they eventually came into view, it felt like the closer we got to them, the further away they seemed, there were so many obstacles in the way. There were no windows in there either, I couldn't tell how much time had gone by. We could have been in there for weeks for all I knew. I thought I'd never see the light of day again. But this tale has a happy ending, because we made it out in one piece, and there are currently mason jars full of booze and other stuff infusing away happily in the utility room. I don't know what they'll be like when they're ready, but it's alcohol so I doubt there'll be many complaints. Song of the Day: Fuselage (It's Starting To Look Like Christmas Once Again) by Centro-Matic
There's been quite a few bad-news days recently. So to cheer everyone up (mainly myself though) follow these links instead. Apparently death metal music attracts great white sharks and if that's not the best sentence you've ever read then you're lying. There's a dog in Seattle that catches the bus on it's own to get to the dog park. All the bus drivers know him and it's adorable. Christmas is upon us and that means festive tunes. I Believe In Father Christmas by Greg Lake is probably my personal favourite but for real cheer factor I really like Sleigh Ride as well and Walk off the Earth's version is the best of the bunch (in my humble opinion). I love the US version of The Office so was naturally distraught when it was taken off Netflix, but anyway this is one of my favourite Dwight moments. And as if there weren't already enough animal goodness on this list, here's some dogs who have no concept of personal space. That'll do I think. Song of the Day: Can't Help Falling In Love With You - twenty one pilots cover. This is I think the only version of this song that I like. I don't know, there's just something about it, and this little video for it is cute. (Take my hand, take my whole life too/ 'Cause I can't help falling in love with you)
Currently reading: Still The Invisible Library but I read a good chunk of it last night so might get it finished today or tomorrow which is good because there's a tonne of books that I want to read at the moment.
I normally wait until the 1st of December to put up the Christmas decorations, but I caved this year and roped Jack into helping me put them up on Saturday night. There's something about a Christmas tree that really ties a room together. After we had finished, we put on our PJs, had some mulled cider and watched Home Alone with the fire on. It was great. Yesterday was very productive, despite it being Sunday. I finished NaNoWriMo! Well, I didn't finish my story, but I reached 50,000 words, so technically I'm a winner and I'll take that. Jack had a headache and lay down on the sofa feeling sorry for himself all afternoon so I turned the telly on and had The Little Mermaid on in the background while I wrote. Which probably wasn't the best idea because that movie actually makes me really angry. I hope I'm not alone in thinking this, but Ariel is a moron. I mean, no offense, but she really, really is. Why would you give up being a mermaid (I really wanted to be a mermaid when I was a kid) for some bland, boring prince that you know nothing about? She's not in love with Eric, she's infatuated, and it's borderline creepy. The only one to make any sense in the whole movie is Sebastian - "Ariel, listen to me. The human world ... It's a mess"- and he gets completely ignored. Not to mention that only two of the songs are even any good! Sorry, apparently I have a lot of opinions about The Little Mermaid. You know what you should watch for a much better interpretation of the story, featuring love in its most innocent and pure form instead? Ponyo. I love Ponyo. I went off on a tangent there, but I think I made some valid points. But I was talking about NaNoWriMo, and how I finished it! Good for me. And a day early, too. I'm pretty chuffed about it. I think now I just need to not look at it for a little while, and then I can finish it, and then I can go back through and edit. I might just rewrite the whole thing, change things around and make it better. But that's getting ahead of myself, so we'll see. Here's to getting stuff done! Song of the Day: Don't Think Twice It's Alright by Bob Dylan (I ain't saying you treated me unkind/ You could have done better but I don't mind/ You just kinda wasted my precious time/ But don't think twice, it's alright)
It's really, really cold. I feel like I'm in that movie The Day After Tomorrow, specifically the bit when the helicopter freezes because it's in the eye of the storm and it crashes and then that one guy survives the crash only to instantly freeze to death. I am that guy. And NO I'm not exaggerating, not even a little. Should I have put a spoiler alert before that paragraph? Whatever, that movie is like a thousand years old. The good thing is that I have a little electric fleecy blanket kind of thing that I got for Christmas from my mum and dad last year and it is the cosiest thing. I put it at the end of my bed to warm my feet at night and just bask in happiness with how cosy I am. In other news, NaNoWriMo is going really well (she says as she writes this instead). I'm on 38,261 words at the moment with a week to go so I'll reach 50,000 easy. I don't think my story will be finished at that number, but at least I'll have something to show for it. It'll need a lot of work afterwards if I decide I think the idea is good enough to do more with - and I think it is, the basic shell is there at least - but what the experience has shown me so far is that I really can do something when I really set my mind to it. Well, I knew that anyway in theory, but at least I've proven it to myself now. Little victories. I'll take them when they come. Okay I'm going to go and get inside every blanket I own now. Song of the Day: You And I Will Meet Again by Tom Petty (I heard you singing to no one, I saw you dancing all alone/ One day you belonged to me, next day I just wouldn't know/ One day all the rules will bend, and you and I will meet again)
As far as Sundays go, yesterday was a pretty good one. I jolted awake super early and disorientated (perhaps I had been dreaming), and Jack - still asleep mind you - laughed and said, "Yes." He talks in his sleep sometimes. I get a real kick out of it. Anyway, I went back to sleep and woke up at 10.30am, much more refreshed. Downstairs, Jack made me a cup of tea and then we had pain au chocolats for breakfast (because we're fancy), and after watching Nigella, I went to have a shower and then changed into a fresh pair of pyjama bottoms and an old baggy t-shirt. Sunday is a day of REST, okay? I had no choice. Back downstairs, I removed my super dark purple nail polish and replaced it with a slightly lighter shade of purple nail polish whilst watching Christmas cooking shows on the Food Network channel. After that, I lit a candle and we watched The Nightmare Before Christmas followed by The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe, because they are Christmassy without being overtly Christmassy, if you know what I mean. I don't like to crack out things like Elf or The Grinch until December is upon us. We ate leftover lasagna for tea, and then I caught up with Sophie who made me get Whatsapp and introduced me to the 21st Century. We chilled out for a bit before Jack went home, and then I wrote 2,000 words for NaNoWriMo whilst listening to Third Eye Blind (who have reinstated themselves as one of my favourite bands). Yeah. A good day. I like to remember the good days. Song of the Day: The Background by Third Eye Blind (The plans I make still have you in them 'cause you come swimming into view/And I'm hanging on your words like I always used to do/ The words they use so lightly I only feel for you/ I only know because I carry you around in the background) Currently reading: The Invisible Library still. I keep stopping and starting.
I was going to write a blog post today anyway, an update on how I'm getting on with NaNoWriMo or something, but in light of what happened in Paris last night it didn't feel appropriate somehow to wither on about that. Not today. It's another day when the world we live in just seems a little (or a lot) more terrifying than it usually is, and my heart just feels heavy and sad in the aftermath of such senseless violence and death. It boggles the mind. I don't really know what I can really say about it that hasn't already been said. Stay safe, everyone X
So November has arrived under a layer of fog, and Halloween came and went without a single trick-or-treater, leaving me with a bag of goodies that I suppose I'll now have to eat (it's a tough job but somebody has to do it). This year I decided to do NaNoWriMo for the first time (basically trying to write a 50,000 word novel in a month). I've debated doing it for a few years now, ever since I first heard of it, but the timings never quite seemed to work out, or I remembered too late. But a few days before November started, I remembered that it existed and figured 'what the hell' and signed up. I didn't have a plan, I didn't have an outline, all I had was an incredibly vague idea of a particular character, and I decided to just do what I do best - wing it. The target is to do 1,667 words per day, and yesterday I managed to do 2,602, so all in all I was pretty chuffed with my start. Today, however, I am sitting pretty on a grand total of zero words. Oh well, the day is not over yet.
Song of the Day: Everything's Not Lost by Coldplay (When I counted up my demons/Saw there was one for every day/With the good ones on my shoulders/I drove the other ones away)
