Natasha Self / Tash / Tasha / Whatever name springs to mind!
I am 17, live in London and am in my second year of sixth form - taking English, History, French and Economics. I love tea jams, roller coasters, the theatre, Harry Potter, food, basketball, following football, films, chocolate, travelling and music – especially live!
I hate eggs, stubbing my toe, being given a receipt and change at the same time, queuing up and people trying to communicate with me early in the morning.
Youtube
It is late and I should be sleeping – but this feels like one of those now or never posts. The last two nights have been muchas fun.
Last night Lauren and I went to see Shappi Khorsandi at the Soho Theatre. I absolutely love her she was so hilarious! We were also sitting at the front row and Shappi spoke to us the entire way through!!! Was so random, she kept accidently calling people Natasha and after doing it like a fourth time, she was like ‘Why am I doing this?! Is there anyone here actually called Natasha?!’ and I was like ‘wooooooooooo ,ME!’ – what a connection eh?! But yeah, she was so quick-witted and had amazing delivery! We hung around in the bar after to slyly wait for her to come out... but she didn’t and we thought it’d be too sad to wait for too long...
Tonight was Bonfire Night. It is one of my favourite festivities. I think I say that about all of them... but no it really is! I love getting all wrapped up in hats and hoodies, writing my name with a sparkler, walking down a street on your way out and watching fireworks in all directions around you, hair stinking for weeks no matter how many times you wash it and roasting (or in my case, incinerating) marshmallows on the bonfire. It may be silly but another thing I love is that it is a British celebration, and Americans give you blank looks if you mention November 5th to them. Like, Halloween is fun, but is clearly trumped by American Halloween. Christmas and Easter are fun but mark things that mean nothing to me. But Bonfire Night is y’know, a little memory of a well-known story of something that happened in England once. And that’s all it’s pretending to be! We don’t have an Independence Day or anything okay, we need something!
My main association with November 5th is my friend Hester’s family used to host everybody at their house for a night of hotdogs and fireworks and bonfire and fun. It was like the event of the year when I was in Primary School! :P Anyway this year, like last year, Hester had our friends round at hers and it was a nice, jammed evening, despite all nearly being blown to pieces by out-of-date fireworks.
Another reason I love it is I just love this time of year! Everything is so pretty! Even walking to school each morning at an ungodly hour is made prettier and funner by kicking the leaves. Yes I still do that! I love the wrapping up and the dark evenings and the smell of those evenings. Yes, I’m a freak. Plus I saw the Oxford Street lights the other night and it’s all so festive and magical it can’t help but make you feel so happy! (and yes... excited for Christmas already..!)
Tomorrow I am heading off to Sarah’s house in Norfolk for the weekend along with 9 other 17/18 year old gyals. I think that’s enough said to be honest. We arrive back ridiculously late on Sunday night/Monday morning after some treacherous coach journey home... and Monday I shall be... wrecked. Oh my god, I just realised I’m hungry. Is this a joke?! Today I had Rice Krispies for breakfast, a hot baked potato at school with cheese and beans, a snack of pitta bread and cheese after school, a good-sized dinner at home with Katie and dad, a hotdog at Hester’s, various snacks at Hester’s, and still, still, I am hungry. Well as much as my hunger is usually a driving force in me, I think right now my laziness is just about in the lead, and so I’ll have to wait for breakfast... This is the quickest post I’ve ever written so I hope it’s possible to read as the laziness emotion is dictating that I don’t read it through...
I will see you all on the other side of Norfolk 09 (‘baby’). Wish me luck.
It's the last day of halfterm. This makes me sad. It also means this'll be a short post because I have an entire halfterm's work calling my name. But this week has been such an escape from anything school related which was too good! Halloween was incredibly fun yesterday. When else can you hang out in a room with a leopard who kept thinking she was a lion, a ninja tiger, 3 bears - one of which was also a marshmallow/the Empire State building/farmer, a zombie hippy who died at Altamont, a Karate kid, Medusa and a standard Hester! I absolutely love fancy dress and went as a Zombie-Goth. Surprising how much stuff I had in my bedroom for dressing up, maybe I'm actually a goth at heart. So anyway, it was just 5 of us that went out in the end, though we were't particularly sure where we were heading and ended up in some club in Notting Hill. Proper fun!
I didn't blog about Live at the Apollo or anything else from half-term, like an for-old-times-sake OC Day and earning £50 catering for a fun fun office! But all of those were fun! Sorry I just can't really be bothered to delve into the old memory and pluck you out details right now... Apart from that I was an abolute full-frontal slob this week, no literally... the incredible sight that is my bedroom reflects how much of a pig I've been this week. No sorry, that gives pigs a bad name. I'm like an unemployed 45 year old guy still living at home reading comicbooks lazy. I have never experienced such laziness in my whole entire life, and that's saying something. It wasn't even the productive laziness where you watch lots of films so at least feel acomplished. It was like internet, food and lots of sleep. I'm not even that up-to-date with my multitude of TV programmes! Though I am with Flashforward and True-Blood - who's watching?! I love them! On the plus, I've listened to lots of new music this week which is good.
I changed my earrings yesterday which has provided hours of trying on fun. Bought 3 pairs from Portobello yesterday. Love them!
OK, so Happy November! Roll on Bonfire Night and Norfolk next weekend! Welcome back Japaners! HUGE good luck to NaNoWriMo-ers! This includes my sister, Grace, Abbi, Saoirse, Lucy, Sanna and the bloggers and youtubers I follow who are partaking and won't see this but good luck anyway, like Kristina (http://italktosnakes.blogspot.com/)and other FiveAwesomeGirls (http://www.youtube.com/fiveawesomegirls)
Tonks Update: Cleaned out her cage yesterday for the first time in a little too long. I was taking the dirty cage down to empty out into the compost bin and found myself standing in the kitchen. So jokes when your brain takes you to the wrong place and you look down at what you're holding and where you're standing and have that old 'I'm a muppet' realisation.
Song of the moment: This fun little feature is turning into a properly stressful decision for me at the end of every post! OK, well the song I'm listening to right now is Jay-Z's 'December 4th'. Love the voice-over from the madre. Actually no, I just remembered I had a live-lounge spree and got some amazing new ones! I'm gonna go for The Script covering Lose Yourself! Enjoy!
Then again, the song I've been singing round the house 24/7 is Michael Bublé's 'I Just Haven't Met You Yet'!
Hello people. It’s half-term now which is so good it’s unreal. This weekend has been hilariously lazy. I can barely think of one thing to mention. Last Wednesday I went to the London Film Festival with Lauren, as a tradition we go every year. Sad that we probably won’t be able to go for the next few years... what with gap years slash university slash the general rest of our lives! We saw this film: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1016321/ - it was good, one of those films that you really enjoy watching and aren’t at all bored, yet you don’t come out raving about it and there isn’t much to discuss afterwards. Really prettily done though. We don’t go for the film really anyway, more for the hype of walking down the red carpet and trying to meet famous people. We failed with that one this year... but did see Miquita Oliver on the way. And as always we thoroughly humiliated ourselves on public transport – through properly dancing the whole Green Park changeover along to a jazz busker and through Lauren deciding it’s funny to announce loudly on the carriage she thinks she’ll vote for the BNP (I should add she’s mixed-race which makes it all the more jokes (I should probably also add that she’s joking – just to clarify :P)).
Friday evening I went to a gig with Abbi in Islington which she kindly invited me along to. Despite it not exactly being my genre of music, I went with an open mind and quite enjoyed the bands in the end! Was hilarious watching all the 14-year-olds, and remembering it was just the type of ‘underage gig’ I used to go to with my friends! (Nothing to add to Abbi’s post really: http://wherethewildthingsare14.wordpress.com/2009/10/24/losing-passion/) Was considering meeting up with the others and going out afterwards but had no credit to coordinate and found myself bopping happily home to enjoy an evening of snacking and TV etc... and since then I’ve pretty much been doing that continuously till now... meal, computer, snack, TV, meal, computer, snack, TV... with a 6 hour babysitting spell in-between! If I continue like this the whole week I’m going to get no work done and shall also become morbidly obese. But on the plus will have thoroughly enriched my knowledge on the finer details of life, such as the contents of Paris Hilton’s dogs’ wardrobe (no, I’m not joking.)
I watched House of Flying Daggers today and absolutely loved it! I know I’m a bit late... but still. I want to go to China so badly. Definitely up there on my mental list of countries I’m desperate to visit. Everyone’s got one of those right...? Brazil features in mine too, and Mexico. And many more...
So following Amy’s pre-Japan blog post about her current obsessions (http://amypayme.tumblr.com/post/219456652) I thought I should mention one of my own... I loveeee Motown! Cannot get enough - I love it all! And was so excited to discover the songs on this album, which is like a merger of two of the best things!
Tonks Update: See for yourself... Song of my week:
Wow such a difficult choice I’m loving lots of stuff at the moment! I’m gonna go for the two I’ve played constantly (no but actually...)all weekend:
‘Mama Said’ by The Shirelles (and covered recently by Amy Winehouse’s goddaughter Dionne Bromfield)
‘Oh Happy Days’ from Sister Act 2... don’t hate me. Get past the ‘omg this is cheesy and ultra religious shite’ (Personally I didn’t have to get past anything, love the cheese, but I know that may be harder for some of you with your refined music tastes...) - so yeah, get past that and just belt the words along. You know it feels good. LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LAAAA! If I lived in a southern American state and had a Baptist Church near me, I would so be religious!
Don’t remember that far back to be honest. Except for Amber’s 17th where I had a lovely time of good conversation and converting the kitchen into a dance floor... Not good times that some bum stole her laptop though. Such a pisstake.
On Friday we had a UCAS day which was absolute skin-prickling, fire-blazing, devil-cackling hell to be honest. I’d been working on my Personal Statement so much and on Thursday night I finally, finally, finally felt happy with it – had shown my mum and everything and was really hoping for it to be okay-ed by teachers. But they kept telling me different things to change and stuff, and just to get Ms. Akhurst to read it (which has to be done as she needs to see them all!) meant sitting in a queue that took, no exaggeration, several hours. To make matters worse when I went down to lunch the canteen had no food left for me (!!!). I was very grumpy about this. Anyway, I listened to about half of the stuff teachers said and ignored the other half. Just feel done with it now and happy to send off what I have (but can’t do that yet unfortunately, as our references aren’t done).
I read so many people’s statements on Friday, it was quite fun seeing what everyone has decided to study and reading and helping with other people’s statements – much more enjoyable than working on my own! I was even interested in a friend’s who wants to do optometry and had pretty much written solely about ‘the eye’ for a page! But by the end of the day I could not escape - my every thought was in Personal Statement lingo! ‘Drinking alcohol has really portrayed to me the value of practical experience, I revel in directly experiencing the effects of ethanol and would be thrilled at the opportunity of experiencing this in further depth at higher education’. I joke – but one person (who I’ll leave un-named!) did seriously put down in hers that her interests included ‘nightclubbing’. What a legend! The teachers tactfully advised her to remove this...
Friday was also my padre’s birthday, so we went out for some family fun time (minus the boy :P) to dinner at a restaurant in Willesden (http://littlestarrestaurant.co.uk/Home.html) which was really nice. Mmm to strawberry cheesecake. Then went round to Katty’s for a few hours to enjoy wine with the girls, and Aisha who was visiting – yay! (Not that Aisha’s not a girl, but just wanted to emphasise her visit!).
Sat, Sat, Saturday was Aaron and Qay’s birthday outing ting. We all went to Tinsel Town in Hampstead where they’d rented out the bottom floor bit. Was a really nice social jam and I absolutely loved their speeches! Very jokes and very sweet! Can’t wait to re-watch the recording of it. I always feel that those two best epitomise our entire school year. We then all went en masse to the 02 centre for Wetherspoons and then the cinema, to see Couples Retreat. I gathered most people didn’t like it but I thought it was alright, gave me a few laughs... had Veronica Mars in it so it’s all good! Of course I couldn’t blog this trip without mentioning that Charlotte Speechley took a drop in front of the entire, packed cinema and then just lay there at a man’s feet giggling about it. Classic.
Lauren, Sarah, Max and I opted out of going straight home after that and went to a pub on Finchley Road. Twas pretty empty... And I am broke so sat there drink-less. But then this guy got up to perform and started singing these random songs (lyrics included ‘go to school and be a scientist, go to school and be an alchemist...’) and for some reason it was the funniest thing in the world. So awkward as we were right next to him and could barely contain ourselves. Each time I caught any of the other three’s eye I burst out in hysterics. It actually went on forever. After two songs, (but like 20 minutes of sitting through it) we made our escape and fell into hysterics outside the pub (they could blatantly see us though – most un-sly thing ever!) and then caught the last 187 home.
Sunday I didn’t do much all day, then had a Brigitte lesson, then went round to Beth’s in the evening with Charl, Lauren, Katty, Speechley, Sarah and Hester. Hester and I may have slightly outstayed our welcome? Haha. Aaaanyway – today was Progress Review day (hence the late Sunday night). I went into school basically to be told I wasn’t going to be set any targets. Totally worth me getting up for, I know. But Mr. Lemma and I had a good chat anyway. Plus I saw Flora and the lil bro for a while. And talked to the boys. And wished Qays a happy birthday. And lent Ben ‘Crash’. And other little things. So it was all good. On my way back I’d decided that I really, really, really need a job now, it’s beyond a joke. Armed with CVs I decided to go on a miniature job hunt. But seriously – I was some sort of inexplicable social retard when it came down to it! There was something irrationally wrong with me but I found it so difficult to go into places and ask, and I have no idea why?! I decided just to ‘look’ from the outside to see what type of shops there were, or if any had jobs adverts. What a cop-out! It’s just the cafes were so full and I just didn’t go into them, despite my intentions! Anyway, I was on my way home and I realised I was being a big freak and would never get a job like this. So I decided to make a detour to Roundwood Park cafe where I bit the bullet and went in and asked. And it was fine. Well, not fine in the sense that they said they probably didn’t need any more staff at the moment as they’d kept on summer people blah blah blah - but fine in the sense that the woman was perfectly sweet, we had a nice, normal exchange and she said she’d take my CV anyway. So yeah – personal progress! Woot! But still... something wrong with me?! I can’t figure out why I didn’t go into some places! I don’t mind talking to strangers. I don’t think it’s fear of rejection! I just have no idea!
Of course within these two weeks were four amazing X-Factor episodes! I am utterly addicted so am holding myself back from launching into a full-throttle rave about what I think of every performance and contestant... But I will say I could listen to Stacey Soloman talk all day because she is pure genius! And I’m too addicted to this show it’s not right. All I’m thinking about this evening is how good it’s gonna be when I finally go to bed tonight and can watch some Xtra Factor on ITV player...
In general, I’m in a pretty good mood at the moment! Loads of stuff I’m looking forward to. This term is such a sociable one. Money situation is a little annoying though. I have about £7 to my name. And only one babysitting evening coming up. And need to pay for Glastonbury somehow, by February. And getting the family Christmas presents is always so expensive! And I need to finance an entire gap year (LOL!). But just pushing these problems aside right now. I was thinking the other day about ‘being a teenager’. It was because I’d had like 4 days of being in such an incredibly, amazingly good mood. And then after that I was like all melancholy and putting on music like The Smiths. And there was no real reason for it except that I think it’s a main part of being an adolescent... you have natural ups and downs that don’t need explaining and you know your feelings are all exaggerated and over-the-top and kind of meaningless as they change so often, but you still feel them! I think everyone needs those days of teenage-angst and self-wallowing! They’re pretty fun!
Japan people leave on Thursday! Can’t believe how quickly it’s popped up. Really want them all to have incredible times, and there’s no doubt that they will. Plus I don’t know about the other people that applied, but I am genuinely feeling no awkwardness or resent about this – I barely remember that me going was even ever an option! I only say this because I don’t want the people going to feel bad and hold back from talking about it – if it was me I’d be screaming it from the school roof, scattering my yen over my shoulder as I walk and doodling Hello Kitty on any surface possible. So yeah, everybody gets opportunities at some point and this is your guys’ one - and I know you definitely don’t need me to remind you of this – but ENJOY!
I don’t think I blogged this last time, but my nana (Suffolk grandparent) was diagnosed a few weeks ago with dementia and early stages of Alzheimer's. To be honest though, personally, although obviously sad, it wasn’t big news as you could basically tell this from visiting her and I didn’t need to wait for it to be officially diagnosed. Dad thinks it’ll be easier for him now though as now he has a label it means frustration at her is pointless and he knows he should just change the subject when she starts on one of her crazy stories. But like most old people, she has good and bad days! She’s also over 90 so fair-dos to her!
While on the topic of relatives, I’ll go for a positive now! My cousin Alix, a budding and very talented actress is currently in LA doing the whole shebang of networking and auditioning and meeting people. She’s only in her third week there and has had the most incredible stories it’s just wow... most massively, meeting Jamie Foxx and joining him for a weekend in Vegas. I sat there speechless for a good hour after hearing that one! She’s extended her trip now so she can do more there and won’t be coming back till the start of December! After skyping with her the other day I think she’s a little homesick and frustrated, but I am thinking of her and looking forward to more stories. Mark my words now by the way readers, watch this space, because I’m telling you she is going to be famous one day. You heard it here first!
I don’t know what to be for Halloween! Normally I’ve decided by around March! Maybe I came up with something before but have forgotten it now...?!
I enjoyed this weekend. Not that I did anything particulary exciting! Very autumny out there which is nice.
On Friday I jammed with Saoirse (really hope I haven't mispelt it again!) and Dom for a bit, we wound up watching Lady and The Tramp after Saoirse's confession over her hidden love for the Hercules bande sonore (yes Beth! Revising the words!! Everyone else - soz. Hercules 'soundtrack') led to a nostalgia for Disney and desire to watch one of the classics. We wanted Sleeping Beauty originally but devastatingly it was missing. Later jammed with Katie and friend (who stayed over as her mum was in labour!! Aaaah!) - Dom and I were quizzing them about their wild year 10 gossip... thoroughly entertaining conversation.
I had intended to stay in that night at it was Dom's last night at the mothership, but by 9ish I felt the bonding session was complete and it would be OK to go out... so joined Alice and friend Louis at the Chamberlayne. Except we had no-one with ID and little money and so it was more just sitting at a table that happened to be part of a pub... fun nevertheless. Charlotte joined us too and then Munnawar popped up which was nice. It then became too freezing to function so went back to Alice's to catch up with Derren Brown and enjoy some of Dave's finest, before strolling home.
Saturday I woke up to the challenging task of fitting all Dom's uni stuff into our new, much smaller car. Also leaving space for four people in it. Twas no mean feat. Made me laugh to see the food and drink he was taking with him consisted of one carton of orange juice and one large slab of Sainsbury's cheddar cheese... Anyway I waved them off (how windy was Saturday?!) and enjoyed the home alonity for a while before going for a very vague and half-hearted job hunt and then visiting my aunt and a couple of her friends for a) food (always the priority in our family) b) computer help and c) collecting some rejected old clothes from cousin's collection - I love this and always get a good haul! Some of this time's finest items were: an amazing gold, sparkly skirt; hilarious white trousers which I couldn't resist for fancy-dress times and high-waisted black shorts.
Vivaaaaaa Las Vegas! Sorry about shit quality, I'm reliant on webcam because haven't replaced dead camera. I miss my camera.
Then visited Charlotte's - they were watching some old Neighbours episodes which was hilarious. Was such a blast from the past... I loved the Scullys! Then that night I babysat, and went round earlier than usual so that the kids could get to know me better and shiz. I absolutely love the fam and their bedtime routine was so fun! Goodnight lion...goodnight bears.... Had to miss Thelma's 18th which was annoying, but ho-hay, it's much needed money. Which was good actually because it meant today I could pay my Glastonbury deposit!!!! WOOOOOO - going next summer babaaay! Cannot wait to find out who's playing...
We had mince pies after dinner today. Now I'm thinking about it, I have no idea why? Can you buy them all year round? I just drank apple-juice from the carton, which always makes me feel like such a rebel... Why do I always blog at times when there's so much else I should be doing? Today had some epic procrastination it was unreal. Doubt I'm ever going to be a very productive person... Oh X-Factor was good. Mum is hooked, just like I had her hooked to Britain's Got Talent. So many programmes on at the moment, love this time of year for all the good TV! But quite bad for work levels... This was the randomest paragraph.
Tonks Update: Friday: Cage was smelling - badly. Saturday: I clean cage. Sunday - Cage is smelling - badly. I don't get it.
Random song I like right now: Les Champs Elysées by Joe Dassin. It's on the soundtrack to The Darjeeling Limited which I watched on our day off school last week with Alice, Speechley, Charlotte and Grace.
Friday night was Beth (and Ben’s) 18th party which was very, very fun times although it took me most of the weekend to recover and catch up on sleep. On Sunday my grandparents came round for lunch, here’s an amusing anecdote for you. Amusing for me at least. At one point when we were at the table, sunlight was streaming through the windows and so my grandma reached into her bag and produced a pair of sunglasses, which she then put on. In general, sunglasses indoors is something I just cannot stand - annoying, unnecessary, pretentious, the list goes on... But I’m telling you, there was something unbelievably comic about seeing my grandma standardly rocking some shades in my living room – what a rockstar! I just started chuckling to myself alone...
So two things I wanted to discuss on le blog today.
Firstly, it was Yom Kippur yesterday. I didn’t actually fast, but have done once before, and only didn’t because I kind of forgot to and missed sunset... But I just want to attempt to explain why it’s something that I would do. Because I am not remotely religious in my beliefs so I can see why people may think it makes little sense for me to observe this. I don’t know if this is going to be make any sense but I’m going to try and write down my explanation. Okay - just imagine that you could find out something, anything, that your ancestors did and passed down through the generations. Me, I know that my ancestors (on my mum’s side) were Jewish. And so they would have done Yom Kippur and followed the traditions. So even if it is meaningless and arbitrary to me, it is a way I can continue something that my family would have used to do. Obviously it can’t go for everything. I’m not going to live identical lives to family 300 years ago just because they’re related to me. But I like that I can take the odd thing and follow it, even if it’s merely because I like traditions and I like the fact that this ‘connection’ can exist through it. I also view a 25-hour-fast as a good challenge and an achievement I think is quite worthy of trying. I probably won’t do it every year of my life - this isn’t a pledge to do so - it’s just that when I do want to celebrate Hanukkah, Passover or Yom Kippur, or even just aspects of them, this is my main reason why. And I think it is okay to doing so without having the actual beliefs. You’re welcome to disagree? (Comments!)
The second thing is just me wanting to emphasise my disbelief at Beth turning 18 (No particular reason why it’s Beth’s turning 18 that’s shocking me! It’s just that she’s the first of my close friends to do so!). This year, we turn 18 and finish school. I think finishing school must mark one of the biggest changes that you can go through in life nowadays. The fact that I go to school has been a constant all of my life (except when I was a very small child obviously, but those memories are hazy and you’re just being picky!) and now, after this year, (unless of course I have to retake!) I will never go again. It is beyond cliché to say it but it actually is a whole new chapter! And all of my friends will be doing different things – some straight to university, others on gap years in all sorts of places – it’s just so weird to think about all that actually becoming reality in like 9 months! I was speaking to Freya about it on the phone last night and she was saying how scared she is that she’ll not be reliant on parents anymore, and how daunting university will be. At the moment I’m definitely more excited than scared, I’m not actually worrying about the sort of things like making friends, but more than anything it just does not seem at all like reality yet.
Feeling ill today - stiff, stomach ache, sore throat and slight headache, so am not at school. Actually being mildly productive from my bed though! Go me!
Battling with my personal statement this evening so will keep this post short and sweet. I am absolutely exhausted and am craving a day in bed. Back to school honeymoon period is officially finished. I am back to old ways with being behind work and exhausted all day. Beth's 18th party is on Friday night which will be fun, fun times and I cannot wait for. The light at the end of the tunnel - seriously! But right now it seems like a million years away, so roll on Friday!
Here is a song I keep listening to, amazing! Ignore the weird anime, I couldn't find another video. Nina Simone - Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood
And here is something (pretty sure it was Abbi! So thanks!) tweeted a while ago - kept meaning to share it and forgetting - absolute genius in my eyes!
