Sorry I’ve been away so long.
This is just a short note to refer you to my new blog, which will explain my absence.
Enjoy 🙂
Tag Archives: new
I Did It!
60 quid and an hour of pain later, I have my tattoo! It’s really cool, if a little sore now, but the pain wasn’t too bad and it was totally worth it because it looks ace 🙂 I’m so pleased with it 😀
A couple of hours later –
Exciting Stuff
I’ve just booked my next tattoo – my first literary one! As you guys know I’m a rather fanatical fan of Christopher Maine’s “Tales From The Terra Firma Fleet” series, and I’m proud to say that I’ll be the first person to get a Tales From The Terra Firma Fleet tattoo. It’s a different studio to last time so I’m a tad nervous, but more excited than anything! I can’t wait! Â
Welcome To 2013!
So, welcome to 2013, and what will be my second year of blogging. Yes, I started this blog twelve months ago and didn’t really think it would get anywhere – like all my blogs, I figured I’d crash and burn by the middle of February. But here I am a year later with a blog that seems to still be going strong. Of course, most of my views aren’t actually people who read what I say – the majority of my referrals are people looking for “inspirational pictures”, so they stumble across my inspirational posts, presumably steal a few pictures and leave, never to be seen again.
Of course, there are some people I know of who do read my blog, and if you’re one of them, thank you and please stick around! I’m actually going to try and make this into more of an all-rounder blog so as well as writing and moaning about stuff, I’ll be exercizing my right as someone’s fiance to have bits about wedding planning in here, and I’ll also try and do a lot more about being a student – tips and tricks, a little student survival guide. I also want to review a lot more things; got some exciting stuff coming up over the next few months so that section of the blog should get a little busier.
For now, however, I shall leave you all to see in the year however you see fit and I hope that in 2013, you achieve everything you are hoping to achieve and that 2013 is successful, peaceful and happy.
Peace out,
Maddy x
Resolutions
This year I’m not making new year’s resolutions. Last year I made quite a few and I think I did keep many of them – I said b I’d finish a novel and I did, I said I’d do Nanowrimo and I finished the month with over 100k words, and I said I’d think about losing weight and although I’ve yo-yoed a bit when it came to my weight I’ve ended the year lighter than I was when I started, so I consider that a success.
My reason for not doing resolutions this year? Its because all the things I resolved to do were okay, but they were minor successes compared to the things I never dreamed I’d do in 2012. I never imagined that I would write a short story that would get me a place at an awards ceremony in London and a piece in the Wicked Young Writers anthology.
I never imagined I’d get engaged in 2012, or that I’d do so well in my A Levels (one of my resolutions was to get three Cs, so getting ABB felt incredible), and I think the biggest achievement for me was raising over £300 with my fiance for Birmingham Children’s Hospital in memory of my brother, by running a half marathon on what would have been his fifteenth birthday. That was just incredible, and will always be my proudest moment.
So in 2013 I’m going to go with the flow and let life surprise me, because if there’s one lesson I’ve learned this year, it’s that the best achievements are the ones you least expect.
Semester One
So, last night was the final show of Blood Brothers, which marked the end of my first semester at university. I’m not sure quite what I expected my first semester to be like, but all I know is that it’s gone by too quickly, and I’ve really enjoyed it. At times it’s been tough – the work isn’t easy, but it isn’t ridiculously hard yet – but I’ve had a great time, made amazing friends, got some fantastic memories and I’m starting to get a clearer idea of what I want to do with my life!
So, what does next semester bring? A new timetable, new classes – including Movement Studies (eek!) and my elective, Radio Production (yay!) – and hopefully new exciting adventures too! First of all, though, I want to enjoy a peaceful and relaxing Christmas (if you know my family, you’ll know that the chances of that are slim!), and get a finished draft of Book One that I can edit and polish and make into something vaguely publishable by June.Â
It’s been a crazy year, but I’ll leave the full musings on how I feel about my first full year of blogging until closer to New Year’s Eve – I don’t know if we’ll all survive December 21st yet! (for the record, I am joking – I don’t believe anything untoward will happen that day). Now then, I’d better get packing!
**** Just Got Real.
So… three weeks today, I go to university. I move away from home three weeks today, to a new place with new people and new experiences. I’m excited, don’t get me wrong – I can’t wait to meet new people, and the thought of independence is exciting – but it’s also really scary. I’m in the same town for uni where I was in hospital back in April, and I think a lot of my fears stem from the fact that I was so aware of how far away everyone was from me when I was up there. I think I need to remind myself that in April, I was in hospital – I was poorly, I didn’t want to be there and I didn’t have a choice about it. In this case, I’ve made the choice to go to university, I can visit home whenever I want, I can easily chat to my family on Skype or Facebook and I’ll be having fun – I won’t be ill (save for the Freshers Flu, which I’m bound to end up with), and I’ll be with new friends.
I think this will only get more nervewracking in the next three weeks. Looking at my bedroom, with the pile of bags and boxes ready for uni, only serves to remind me of just how soon it is. I’ve got loads of stuff ready – pillows and sheets, boxes and decorations and towels and bathroom stuff – so I know that physically, I’m pretty prepared. The question is, am I prepared mentally? I’m looking forwards to the course – my best friend from college is doing the exact same course as me, so I know that friends won’t be too much of an issue. I also know that I got great results at A Level, so I’m ready for it. I’m looking forwards to meeting the people who’ll be in my flat – I’ve already spoken to some of them on Facebook, so I’m looking forward to actually meeting them. I’m looking forward to parties, to nights in with pizza and films, to living independently and shopping for myself and cleaning up after myself.
I’m dreading leaving my family behind.
I’m so scared that my fiance will get sick of me being away, and I’ll get home to find out he’s with someone else. I’m terrified that my dog won’t recognise me when I go home. I’m scared of being away from my family, purely because I’ve never been away from them for so long. It’ll be nice to challenge myself, to live on my own without my parents there to correct me before I go wrong, but that doesn’t make it any less scary. I’m worried I’ll be really homesick and end up shutting myself away and not make any new friends. I’m worried that people will think I’ve changed since I’ve been at uni. I’m worried because I’ll miss my fiance so much – he’s everything to me, and I hate the thought of being so far away from him. It’s not a huge distance – people continue relationships across continents – but for me, it’ll seem massive, because I’m so used to being so conveniently close to him.
So, in short, the feelings are a bit mixed at the moment. Excitement and fear are having a bit of a battle, and I’m not sure who’s going to win. All I can do is hope that by the time I’m settled in at uni, all my fears will be gone, replaced with excitement for what’s bound to be a great year – and as many chances to go back and visit my family (and yes, I do include my fiance in that) as often as possible.
Facelift!
So, the blog’s had a bit of a face lift. I loved the last theme – it was fun and summery and the bright colours were great – but I’m trying out some new themes and I’m going to pick which one I like best and use it permanently (or until I get bored of it!). I like this current one, the stars are an addition I’ve made but I think the design looks a bit winter-y, it might be more suited to Christmastime? Anyway, I’m going to post how a few of the blog themes look, and I’d love it if you guys can comment and let me know which one you prefer!
Thanks!
Kindle/Kindle App owners, LEND ME YOUR EARS!
(And your Kindles and your enthusiasm for science fiction).
Christopher Maine’s second book, “Dragon Flight: Wrath” has just been released for Kindle and the Kindle reading app, and it is amazing! I recommend it very highly and I would love it (and more importantly, I know Christopher would love it) if you would buy and read the book!
Busy busy busy.
Well – not exactly busy. I’ve been keeping busy, but it’s hardly been anything exciting – lots and lots of revision and writing essays ready for my exams which start in a couple of weeks, and not much else. On the health front, there’s still not an awful lot of improvement, I’d hoped it would have all cleared up (to be honest, it should have cleared up within 24 hours of starting the the first course of antibiotics, but of course it didn’t and we went through that whole palaver that has now lasted nearly two months), but now I’m waiting for more scans and stuff which is fun, fun, fun right in the middle of exams season. I haven’t been to college for a while but I’m making sure that I keep going with work and essays – I’m not jeopardizing my chances of university for anything, especially not stubborn pain that won’t go away.
As you can imagine, writing is still on hiatus, as it has been for about two months now. It’s not that I can’t think of what to write – I know what I want to write, but I can’t translate it from thoughts to actual words. My new laptop should make it a bit easier once I’m back in the groove of writing, because I thrive when I’m listening to music and writing at the same time, and with my old one it kept freezing so I couldn’t really do much! I think, to get myself back in the swing, when I’ve got the two week break from exams after my first exam on the 31st, I’ll write the short story I’ve had the idea for – it’s only a really short one, but it’s related to the series of novels so it might help me to get back in the swing of things.
Anyway, I won’t keep you all reading any longer – I’m sure you all have something more important to be doing, just as I need to be getting on with more essays (I’m determined to get an A in Psychology!), as much as I wish I could just write blogs all day.
Ah well.
the life of a moomin 