Honey, I'm Home!

It's good to be back, especially after all the weather warnings up and down the country recently.

Both journeys went fairly well however. Thursday into London was pretty much plain sailing. Thats once we actually got going. Mum was hesitant over to whether actually go or not and dad was getting all stressed about being kept in the dark or whatever :S
I dunno, but for a few hours the atmosphere was quite tense.

Anyhoo, by the time we got into London and who we were staying with, it was late. As i think i said, we were staying with old friends we used to live across the street from in London. I still remember the street a little, not an awful lot, but it was nice to be back. So we chatted for an hour or so when we arrived but then we all just went to bed coz we had a long day ahead of us.

The funeral was on the Friday and our aunt and uncle's house (where we were in the summer) was only a few miles away so we headed over and met up with everyone, chatted a bit and then the undertakers showed up which immediately darkened the mood. So, in funeral procession, we made for the crematorium where it began to snow.

The funeral itself, thankfully, was short. Grandma Knitter wasnt actually a particularly religious woman, something i was actually quite surprised to find out. I recall my Grandad's being a good few hours long...

This one wasnt but i still sobbed as quietly as possible pretty much from start to finish. I am seriously not good with funerals at all, i mean, i only knew the woman for the last few years of her life and there were people there who probably knew her for over 70 years. Weird thought.
I remember looking up and seeing my aunt (Grandma Knitter's daughter) buried into a jacket and that set me off.

Also, the reverend was a useless cunt. *ahem*

He felt nothing for what was going on. Read exactly what was put in front of him, misread and read out one of my cousins' names calling *her* "Kevin". Worst of all, he even forgot who the funeral was for! Something like, "And now we are gathered today in memory of... umm.. *cough cough, turn page* "
I wanted to go and slap him but i just sat, like everyone. My aunt is certainly going to complain. I wasnt the only one there that noticed his fuck ups, everybody did. Arse :/

One thing that was nice was that it was snowing. It was rather fitting seeing as the last song was White Christmas. That set many people off but i think me more than some others because of one big thing. Grandma Knitter isnt her real name of course, it comes from her love of knitting. When i was born, i was given this soft toy rabbit which i have to this day and Grandma Knitter knitted a little costume for it. Unfortunately, the original costume got burned years ago and all that remains of it are the little shoes and a scarf. Its still special though coz its a very personal thing to me and its something that i will hopefully have for the rest of my life. Apparently i used to go everywhere with it :$

But yeah, i brought that rabbit from home just for the occasion and my aunt loved that i did and im sure Grandma Knitter would have too.

White Christmas played and i held that toy and cried. As i said, i dont deal with funerals well.

After the service, we went back to our aunt's house and it was crowded. But people eventually piled out and then i learned my mum had to leave for bloody Liverpool! She had a really ill aunt or something and had to head up right away. Done well to keep that one quiet, i had no idea but at the end of the day, that really isnt what she needs right now.
She got the train up ok and she probably wont be back till tomorrow, providing the weather behaves itself.


Saturday was easily the best day. Just hung out with our cousins and our aunt and uncle. Its lovely being with family. Saturday morning it snowed heavy and the roads were all iced up. Seeing as there was no traffic we skated around on the iced-up roads, had snowball fights (i got one smacked right in my face lol) and then we went to a nearby pub and had a few drinks and a little bite to eat. We went back home and watched The Wizard of Oz, all snuggled up. It was brilliant. Our cousin made us a lovely dinner and we watched some of Coming to America. Hilarious film.
We had to say our goodbyes there and then coz we were leaving the next morning. I get quite upset at these times, too. Im just a walking water works, arent I? :P

We didnt get to visit Abbey Road btw, or Wembley, as i would have liked. My dad didnt want to go out of his way if it meant possibly getting held up by the weather :/

Most of the journey back i done an english essay on Romeo and Juliet. Was gonna write it but that wasnt happening so i did it the difficult way and typed it up on my ipod :P Thats gonna be one shit essay but hey, at least ive done it! Ive said about all i can now about the past few days so i'll leave you with this in memory of Grandma Knitter...





Rowan <3


PS Good to hear about the repeal for "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" in the US army xD

Holiday Part 2 - Family Reunion

Take heed, this is another long post :P


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Previous day revisited :

• Arrived in London
• Met some family
• Went to Thorpe Park
• Went to pub/restaraunt for dinner
• Lauren and her parents arrived
  
  
   Let's continue............

My cousin's 21st didn't actually begin until 4pm on what was Saturday 26th June so everyone staying at the hotel actually had quite a full day to themselves.

Me, well I went into the nearest, what you would call, town with my mum and my French aunt. I wanted to get some shorts, the longer kind with a sort of floral pattern on them because i think they look really good :D

(like these but it red) - lol, it says they're swimming shorts but they aren't :P

While i was there i also purchased The Beatles Rock Band, good times.

On our return, the mood at the hotel was quite frantic, what with about 15+ people getting ready to go out.

I just hopped in the shower, got changed and got away as soon as i could. Avoid hassle :P

My brother and I both sat in the lobby and slowly everyone came pouring down and we even had a game of cards there lol

But off we set to our cousin's house for the party. 3 cars full of us, another branch of cousins and one uncle had also arrived by this time so i think there were about 20 of us in total.

It was quite hilarious all parking up the street and gingerly creeping down the side path of the house (remember this was supposed to be a surprise) but it was kinda for nothing cause when we burst through the gate our cousin went, "I thought so!"

*facepalm*

The only people she didn't expect to see were our aunt and uncle from across the pond.

Anyhoo, after that failure, many pictures were taken, many things were chatted about, many drinks were drunk, many games of Monkey and Chinese Whispers were played and there was general all-round fun. It was really enjoyable.

Mum even let me have 2 beers. Generous.

... but i snuck a 3rd O__O

The festivites must have lasted until at least midnight i think and we finally said our goodbyes (although we would be returning the next day.)

I was quite annoyed coz the whole family was there and we didn't get a picture of all of us :/

(some folk were too drunk anyway so maybe tht was actually a smart move lol)

Now, you don't normally describe a take-away as funny but this is exactly what it was. We parked up outside and i was sitting next to Lauren in the backseat. I had been waiting for a moment to give her 3 cds and this seemed like the right time to do it, so i did ^__^

If you're curious, the cds were Black Holes and Revelations by Muse, a live album called HAARP, also by Muse and Puzzle by Biffy Clyro.

She seemed to like them so i was really pleased with that :)

But the funny part was my uncle went to take a picture of the front shop of the take away when a drunk guy stumbled out of it. He must have thought my uncle was taking a picture of him coz he came right up to the car and stared directly into it lmao

We were like "wut?"

And then he staggered off like nothing had happened. We were quite creeped out but at the same time it was hilarious.

Ahhhhh

We went back to the hotel, ate our meals while playing our favourite card game - Monkey - then hit the hay. This was the point that our French cousin, who i will also call TCWSTT(the cousin who sent the text)... sent the text to Lauren. I didn't know about this however, so i slept like a log.

Next Day

... we returned to our cousin's house and we watched England vs Germany lol

I will say one thing - oh dear

It was quite fun though. Unfortunately Lauren had to leave at half time and we still hadn't taken a decent picture for all you folks here!

So we're all "When should we take it? Where should we take it? How should we take it?" etc. etc.

Then we eventually asked TCWSTT to take one of us and one of my Muse necklace which Lauren bought for me.

Here it is :

I breathed a sigh of relief after we took it, coz to be honest, i thought we weren't going to end up getting anything.

Speaking of which, even after it was taken we still almost didn't get anything.

While the football was still on, TCWSTT was flicking through Lauren's camera. I didn't think anything of it, and i didn't know at the time that she had deleted the pictures we took. Why would i be suspicious of someone i love and trust to do such a thing?

I didn't find out till later of course, after Lauren left and i was quite sad when she did leave, i really enjoyed being with her.

But my state of mind was not to improve. Must have been about 7/8pm when i jumped on my ipod and found everything out.

It was quite an ordeal. I got really upset and locked myself in a bathroom, navigating my way (via ipod touch) through the mess which TCWSTT created.

The fact that TCWSTT was still around certainly didn't make things any easier. I couldn't bring myself to look at her or speak to her and i'm sure she clearly noticed this but i couldn't have cared less at the time. I just didn't want to be near her. I feigned illness and being cold for my lack of interaction.

We went back to the hotel for one last night and my brother and I got a cooler, different room coz my American aunt and uncle went home. It was good timing, i needed a less stuffy room, i needed to get some sleep and i knew that wouldn't be achieved sharing a room with 4 other people.

So, in more relaxing conditions i did get some sleep, not much though coz there was still too much swimming around my head for that.

-------------------------------------------------------

Of course, as you can see we did get the picture back (thanks to David for helping with that) but unfortunately we couldn't save the other two that were taken and they are now gone forever :/

My feelings about TCWSTT are very mixed, even now, 3 weeks after it happened.

I simply can't believe that a family member would betray their own family like that.

My mum did eventually find out what happened and she told me it was obvious to her that TCWSTT was jealous right from the off.

Yes, unbelievable though it may sound, she was jealous of the fact that i was spending time with a member of my own family.

So that provides a perfectly reasonable explanation for deleting the photos doesn't it?

The hell it does.

The saying goes, "forgive and forget."

I might be able to forgive... in time. I will never forget.

Next post will be in a few days.

Hugs,

Rowan

P.S Thanks for all the comments i got on my last post. It's actually the most i have received on a single post - 18. Cheers.

Holiday Part 1 - Travelling to (and being in) London

3 weeks tomorrow is the day that my holiday started. That would be Thursday 24th June.

I'm not going to do a post covering each day coz then that would be about 18 posts lol. I will post a few days into one post, so some might be lengthy and some might not.

This post covers the first few days.

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Day 1

I don't remember a great amount of detail about everything as this was almost three weeks ago now but travelling to Liverpool was really nothing amazing. We got in the car just after lunch and not long after we were there. That's it lol.

We planned to visit the Liverpool FC store when we got there but it was closed and i wasn't too happy about that :P

As everyone one of us were tired, an early meal was in order but it wasn't just any meal (well, i suppose it was) but there is a pizza place in Liverpool that my family *always* go to when we are there coz the pizza is simply amazing!

So we took our pizza back to our hotel (i say hotel, it was a basic Travelodge...) and we ate while watching some World Cup game on the tv, i've forgotten which.

Bed followed not long after.

Day 2

Early start on Friday morning... 4am.

Why so early?

2 reasons. We wanted to avoid traffic as much as possible and we were going to Thorpe Park (an amusement park which opens at about 9am)

Groggily, all 5 of us piled into the car and off we set. I don't normally sleep well in travelling vehicles of any sort but i got a little doze on the way to London :)

As early as it was appropriate, i text Lauren to tell her we were on our way :) (she would be arriving later that night)

I also got some glorious 20 minutes of wi-fi at a Starbucks when we stopped for a while.

Anyhoo, we got into London at about 8/9am and were greeted by our cousins who live in France, along with their parents and my aunt and uncle who live in California.

So, hugs and handshake all round lol

We checked in to our room etc but we didn't dilly-dally, we headed straight for Thorpe Park - 9 of us in total went ; 2 of my uncles, myself, my brother and sister, my dad and (what we call our cousins who live in France) The Frogs -  not that it mattered tho, the queue was still about an hour long. We didn't get in till about 11am...

Now. I ask the question, is it better to go on a big water ride at the start or at the end of the day?

I ask coz the water ride was the very first thing we done and my hair got destroyed!

My lovely straightened hair was a curly mess for the whole day :'(

Ho hum, i didn't actually care that much, just would have preferred to go on it at the end.

Right, i'm not a huge fan of crazy, scary, make-you-shit-yourself rides but i was dragged on this contraption called Stealth.

Yeh...

Little did i know it was Europe's fastest rollercoaster (0-80mph in 2 seconds) or that the queue was an hour long for a 10 second ride.

Anyway, needless to say, i was a nervous wreck for about an hour and my bladder almost killed me but that's another story.

I got the ol' butterflies in the stomach just before it was our turn to go on but when it was i just got on like any other ride. We took our seats, i was beside my Froggy uncle and a few seconds later... PHWOOSH!

... and 20 seconds later i was standing up again.

Here's a better idea for you :D

That's me screaming btw ;)

After that, we just kinda did a tour of the park, went on a bunch of other stuff and had a wonderful time.

Had a quick shower, tidy up etc. when we got back to the hotel and then everyone went to this pub/restaraunt in the evening.

I wasn't very hungry coz i knew that Lauren would arrive when we were there, it was just a matter of time. Every car that pulled into the pub i was like "Is it her!?" lol, even thought i had no idea what the car looked like :P

Must have been there for a good hour or so before Lauren and her parents did arrive and there were more hugs and handshakes when they did.

This was followed by general chit-chat and MONSTER desert!

They did not get finished...

Not long after, we left, we got the bum's rush. J/k.

I got in a car with Lauren, a French cousin of mine (who is known as "TCWSTT" on here) and Lauren's dad, who drove of course.

Biffy Clyro's "Only Revolutions" was in the cd player and so there it went. A bit of "singing" commenced and that was quite funny. There's also this thing in my uncle's car where you can connect your phone to the dashboard through bluetooth. We did, and the dashboard says the name of the person you are trying to call in my uncle's voice. So he called Lauren's mobile and he has her listed under "L Mob" and then you just here this thing from the dashboard blurt out "ELLLL MOBBBB!!!"

It's one of those "you have to be there" moments i suppose but i'm sure Lauren will know what i'm talking about.

Anyhoo, nothing much else happened worth speaking about. We returned to the hotel and went to our separate rooms (which, btw were waaaay too warm) and i had to share a bed with my brother. Why my mum didn't book two separate rooms, i'll never know but there you go.

Regardless of the warmth in the rooms, i fell asleep fairly quick, it was a long day and i knew i needed some decent slumber for meeting the rest of my family and the birthday party the next day.

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It's a good thing i have all this to talk about or i probably wouldn't have much else interesting to say lol.

Erm... i got a new mini-fridge...?

Oh, actually there is someone i need to say thank you to. One who goes by the name of Chris Bright. I haven't seen you around here in months Chris but what you sent me at Christmas, i put into use yesterday and well... thanks a lot :)

Just remembered something else actually lol

The poll. Queen won with 53% of the votes. Other came in 2nd. Muse 3rd. Rage 4th. Wolfmother 5th. And Kasabian were last with no votes :(

Poor Kasabian. I'll just say one thing. I watched the highlights of their show at T in the Park and they were epic, so there! *blows raspberry*

Anyway, i thought Queen would win, so now i am going to do another poll :D

"What is your favourite Queen album?"

I'm going to leave this up till next Friday evening and you can select multiple albums if you like. (but don't be a tool and select all of them, just 2 or 3 will do)

Let's hope this one goes well, personally, my vote goes to "A Day at the Races"

What's yours?

Hugs,

Rowan

This is one of the songs that Lauren and I "sang" along to :P

Summer Plans :D

Hey you crazy lot! This is gonna be the last time i am able to post for about 2 weeks i think...

I'm away on hoilday!


Today has been pretty hectic in the house - Steven was over (gulp) coz he had to fix a problem with my ipod (GULP) but thankfully it went ok, in the sense that he never found or seen anything but we didn't get the ipod properly fixed.

I"m not too bothered, all it means is that it isn't jailbroken but i can live with that.

After he left everyone has just been packing like mad here today, it's been mental. People have been running around doing all sorts of errands, dropping the pets off at different people's houses for while we're away and cleaning... and... general busyness.


Anyway, it's late now coz i've been busy all day but i thought i should share with you my plans for this summer :)



Firstly, as you probably know by now (coz i keep talking about it) i will be going off to London for a big family reunion. ^_^

The centre-piece of this event is actually one of my cousins's 21st birthday and there will be a big party on Saturday.

That will be great, but so will getting to see everybody else. I haven't seen my cousins, aunts and uncles for about 3/4 years now and they're a great bunch, i love the family sense of humour especially and simply i just cant wait to see everyone.

So yeh, we will be arriving in London on Thursay night but we are spending a day in Liverpool tomorrow then travelling to London the on Thursday morning, by car.

Don't think Lauren is getting to London until Friday night tho coz she is still in school unfortunately.

But one of the thing that makes this trip so exciting is that our cousin who's 21st it is, doesn't know that the whole family is coming, we're just surprising her on the day and there will be a party on Saturday!


Anyhoo, that's part 1 :D


Part 2 :

On Monday, after everyone has departed, we will still be in London and will hopefully be jetting off to some exotic unknown land on a last minute deal.

Yep, just catching a plane to anywhere, so i don't even know exactly where we're going yet.

It might also just be me, my mum and sister but if we can include my brother and dad as well then that will be cool. It's only coz they went on holiday earlier in the year by themselves and they don't mind staying in London for a week or so. They're taking all their golf stuff with them and i think if they can't come with us they will just be staying in a caravan somewhere, they dont seem to bothered, after all, it is only fair.


Recap :

June 24th - June 28th = Liverpool/London
June 28th - July 5-7th = Unknown destination in Europe somehwere :P


And when i get back i plan to change this blog design and link some more blogs, i got round to a fair bit last night but there are still loads of blogs out there. Remember, the more links, the more traffic there is for everyone, this isn't just personal gain :)


Unfortunately, it looks like this will be my last post until maybe 5th July at the earliest. However, if i can get on a computer somewhere or get a good wi-fi spot then i will try to post some but i cant promise anything.


And with that, i bid you farewell, au revoir, hasta la vista, auf wiedersehen ,adeus, وداعا

Okay, i'll stop now, just messing with translation websites... ha det (sorry couldn't resist)

Love all you guys, you will be missed, speak to you all soon :')


Love and hugs,
Rowan


Gonna leave you with a few tunes :







Lovin' Biffy right now :D




And this because it is appropriate :P


P.S My poll is going pretty much the way i thought it would, keep those votes coming!


See you guys soon!

Loneliness inside my little room.

*Prepare for long rant*


I should be the last person to be complaining about being lonely.

I have a brother AND a sister.

I have people in my house who i can interact and talk with....

but not freely....



Of course a big reason for this feeling of loneliness is due to the fact that i'm not out yet. But there is another thing that contributes to this sense of isolation.


My bedroom.


A teenager's bedroom should be free, spacious, their own.

Mine is not.

It's pretty much all down to the layout of the house, and the size of it.
The house i live in was not built to accommodate 2 adults and 3 children, but our house has been "adapted" to do so.

My parents of course have their own room. My younger sister has her own room. But my brother and i, half-share a room...

That's to say, we took the biggest room in the house, put a thin wall in the middle and called them two separate bedrooms.

It's horrible. I have to walk through my brother's room just to get to mine.
It's shit.

I spend a lot of time in my cupboard.


*Ahem*....Room.

The fact that i can hardly do anything privately annoys the hell out of me.

At anyone one given time somebody could waltz right in, regardless of what i'm doing.

It is just simply too small.
This is a room that my sister would easily fit into.
But no, we can't have a boy on one side and a girl on the other apparently.

It's impossible to study in this room as well.
My brother is constantly on his xbox and it's impossible to do 2-3 hours work a night with the noise.
And this is a big year. I have to be doing a lot of work and i can't.

*sigh*


Anyway, my room makes me feel lonely because it is just completely cut off from the rest of the house.
Mine is the only one that does not connect from the hall.
And when i think about that it sometimes makes me feel like i'm not so connected with the rest of my family.

Strange how people can link things like that together.

But really, this room makes me feel detached from everyone else. I feel like i've just been shoved into the corner of the house and forgotten about sometimes.

Not just at school do i have nobody to talk to freely but it is the same in my own house.

In fact, school is sometimes the better option. At least my friends make me happy. But of course, i can't speak with them completely openly.

There isn't much to be happy about in my house to be honest.
Money is tight.
My room makes me depressed.
People don't get on too well.
My parents both smoke.
Sometimes they drink too much.
They argue.



Ok, some of this is normal but a lot of people say that house is the escape from school. The reverse is more true for me.
However school is obviously still crap but it beats the house most of the time.

A while ago, i mentioned to mum about moving rooms coz i have to study and stuff and we eventually came to the agreement that a change would be made.
I would swap with my parents room (coz all they do is sleep in their room.)
And it would only be until my exams were finished, in June.


That agreement was made in November.


Today's date is January 8th.


But to my mum's credit, things are more organised and she and claims that i could be in there by Sunday. I don't see it but you never know.

This feeling of loneliness is one of a few reasons i came to blogland in the first place.
So i had a place to call my own.
And it does feel like that, i feel happier when i can get all my feelings on a page and i can talk to people openly and without hate or disregard.

I have slowly realised how important blogland is to me. It's the only place in the entire world i can be myself for a few hours a day.
And for that i am grateful.


*End of long rant*


I'm sorry if this post was too depressing to read.


Cheers,
Rowan