Baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaack!!!

Here are my LJ entries I typed up when I was on holiday, enjoy!!

 

Errr….Thursday? 19^th August

 

Right, I am bored enough today to write a LJ entry. Today’s been a cool day, I had a lie in, showered and stuff, and then helped Mum paint the conservatory in our French house, which was cool. Well, I did kinda get cramp in my arms and knees for painting for too long, but it was nice to do some work for once. (WHAT??!!!) ….what was funny (well, it wasn’t at the time but now I look back on it…) was that when I was painting this really high wall I was stood on the step ladder painting the higher bits, and the huge paint can was hanging on a sort of hook on the wall. Anyway, I went to paint somewhere on the other side of the room, and as I took the paint can off the hook it flipped right over and landed on the floor, with about half a can’s worth of paint in it. I totally panicked, but Mum and Dad managed to clear it up.

Today, when I haven’t been painting, I’ve either been on here, or watching the Simpsons (Season 3) on DVD. I love that DVD…some of the commentary is really funny. But they say that they have Audio Outtakes on there and I haven’t been able to find them anywhere.

Anyway, I’ve been on here too, either playing on The Sims (the Sims 2 out next month! Woo!) or discovering (re-discovering, rather) my a1-loving/a1 fic-writing self. I have all these old fics that I just found again on here. Some of them had potential, but I guess I just couldn’t be bothered with them (or maybe I found Busted? No, that was last summer. Haha, last summer….hehehe…oops) or something…here’s a snippet of one… *blushes and hides*

 

Ben walked out of Marks room. He hated to see his friend all trussed up in bandages like that, lying in a hospital bed, in the customary hospital gown. He hated to see anyone like that. He sighed and walked on to the café. He got a coffee (to go) and started to wander around the hospital aimlessly. He bumped into Paul and told him where to find Marks room, and how he was. Then, over Paul’s shoulder he spotted a girl. A girl with a broken leg. His mouth dropped. Sarah. What was Sarah doing here??? In Norway? And why was her leg broken?

For a moment Ben just stood there, mouth open, staring blankly at her.

 

Hehe…that’s all you’re getting. Apart from the people who read it the first time round. *squeals* Wow! I Still Believe (an old a1 song) just came on my WMP! Yay! I can’t believe I still love this song! It’s sooooo cool! *sways* I’m glad I still like all this old stuff. Like I said to Sal (*waves*), it means my Music tastes are getting better, cos I used to love all this stuff like Bewitched and 5ive, and now I really don’t like it… but I still like this old a1 stuff, which means I’m getting better at liking ‘good’ music.

 

Yesterday was the half way point of my holiday – 10 days gone, 10 days to go – and also my Mum’s birthday, so we went to the coast for a meal. It rained and was windy and stuff so it wasn’t all that pleasant – especially the restaurant – it was all noisy and there were people smoking and stuff which annoyed me – plus my Pizza (all I seem to be eating this holiday) had all this weird stuff on it and I had to scrape it clean, so I was just eating the base and the tomato sauce, which is the way I usually like it, but it tasted all strange. I think it was the peppers that had been on it.

 

Right, for the 10 days previous to yesterday, one had been spent travelling, six had been spent at a Camp Site near to Bordeaux (very fun! We went body boarding in these massive waves one day – so much fun, but I got sand everywhere! When I showered afterwards it was like I’d brought the beach with me, hehe. The campsite was cool, nice and big, with two pools and a tennis court. My brother and me spent most of our time cycling around there, just to waste time. We stayed in a nice little chalet. Our sister stayed with us there until…a week ago, when she went home to get her results – which came today, I won’t post them here tho’ – and to prepare for her holiday in Gran Canaria (sp?) Then we went to Bordeaux the day she left and bought loadsa stuff for my Mum’s birthday – which she loved! :oD ) and the others have been spent here, basically chilling out, eating, playing with the dog, checking if the mail has come yet, blah blah. Also we’ve been talking to our crazy French neighbour Jean-Paul, who I actually understood, which was amazing for me!

 

*scream* Holy….cow…my results come in a week. I am sooooooooo scared. I’m pretty sure I’m ok in the Languages, Art and English – but it’s the others I’m worried about. Maths especially. I’m not gonna think about it. *shakes head*

 

Next week, it pretty much gonna be like this week, with us just hanging about in the house, except us going to Paris! Yay! We’ve done it the last two years we’ve been on holiday – the first just a drive round, the other – last year, was a very thorough, tube-riding, sight-seeing experience, which I hope we’ll do again this year. I love the Champs Elysees – it’s so nice! It has so many cool shops too, which hopefully I will be able to get to browse – I’ll end up buying something with my holiday money – but wanting so much more, haha.

 

I am hopefully gonna go up the Eiffel Tower this year. Last year it was dark, and I was a bit of a chicken, but I really wanna do it. My mate Will reassured me before I left, so hopefully I’ll get the nerve to get up there this year. I will report afterwards here, probably, unless I fall off…..*looks scared*

 

Right, so now I’m done. This is gonna be my longest LJ post ever, when I get back! :oD

 

Phillie.

 

Subject: …..on holiday….

Mood: perky :oP

Listening to: My new playlist on WMP – currently Franz Ferdinand – Take me Out

 

 

Friday : 20^th August 2004

 

Aaaaaand I’m back.

Hmm….what was I gonna write here? Oh yeah…..

Today has been a chilling out day again – I woke up at eight something, then woke up at 11, which was nice, did the normal shower/breakfast/entertainment routine. The weather has been a bit mad today. It’s been thundering, pouring (and I mean pouring) down with rain…but now…it’s stopped. It’s all clear and a little bit cloudy, but no more rain yet.

Today what I’ve been doing mostly (apart from sitting down) is playing on my guitar. I started (re-started, after a…7 year hiatus) Guitar lessons earlier this month, and will be continuing when we get back, so I’ve been practising like crazy. I even have blisters on my fingers to prove it! (Well on one finger…)

I definitely find guitar playing easier this time round – I’m much more willing to sacrifice my nails now, hehe. When I was eight I was very proud of my long nails and was not  gonna give them up for some stupid guitar club (which I joined to be with my best friend Graeme), but now I don’t really care about having long nails. They usually get in the way anyway.

Right, the guitar playing. Well, I’ve got this guitar book, and before I started my guitar lessons again, I was really put off reading it because it seemed so complicated. Now, I totally get some bits that I thought were impossible, which I’m glad of. It seems I’m not as musically inept than I thought I was. (Don’t ask me about barre chords yet– I am not good at those…)

I’ve been playing through some of the easier songs in the book – some of which are favourite songs of mine – like ‘American Pie’ (Don McLean) and ‘Brown Eyed Girl’ (Van Morrison) – it’s really cool to be able to play a song out by yourself, it makes you feel really proud, haha.

Ooh I just remembered. I text my mate Sal yesterday just after I finished the entry (above) to give me news of the outside world (‘cause my sister hadn’t sent my Mags or Mail yet – and we still haven’t got the mail, just my two Sneak’s and my brothers football mags) and she told me a) That she’s co-founder (?) of Harry (McFly) Air Drumming Appreciation Club (something like that – I have a v.bad memory), b) She’s moving ‘tomorrow’ – which is now today – good luck! And c) That Matt (Busted)’s mum had a stroke! Very sad news…of course I don’t know the details of it, but I hope she gets better soon…

Anyway. Now…I have to go. The Sims call.

Phillie.

 

Subject: Guess who’s back…..

Mood: achey (wrists and back – from all the geetar playing)

Listening to: Room on The Third Floor by McFly, currently ‘That Girl’ *air guitars*

 

 

Umm….the date…*thinks hard* Sunday 22nd August…I think.

 

Right, hello there.

A relatively small entry today, ‘cause not much has happened. Since I wrote here before, I’ve just been either out with my family (eating out/shopping/just driving around), playing on here (the Sims/Theme Hospital/Spider Solitaire) or watching DVD’s (LOTR/The Simpsons).

We’re going to Paris tomorrow! YAAAAAAAY!!! I loooove that place, as I’ve probably said before. It’s gonna be so cool, we’ll (my dad, brother and I)  have two whole days there….I can’t wait! I’m gonna spend my holiday money (50 Euros) there, hopefully on a cool T-Shirt or Pair of jeans. Last time I was there I bought 3 T-Shirts there – one of which I’m wearing now!

I still hope I’ll be going up the Tour Eiffel, but I may chicken out at the last second, like I did last time. I just couldn’t believe how big it was!

I can’t believe that in a week I’ll be home, getting ready for school and stuff. This has been amazing Summer. :oD Oooh I sound so happy! It must be all the Sprite I’ve had today.

Results. *cries* *screams*

So so so so so so sooooooooo scared.

Phillie

 

Subject: short and sweet

Mood: perky/nervous

Listening to: my WMP play list again. Currently – Mel C ‘Northern Star’

 

 

Tue- no, Wednesday the 25^th of August.

 

Wow! I almost forgot I was doing this on here. I suddenly remembered it when I was listening to Make It Good, I still love that song!

Ooooh Paris was great! We left early on Monday morning, around 8-ish and drove up to Orleans (pronounced Orr-lee-on) where we got the train to Paris, after a panicked-search-for-parking twenty minutes.

The train only took an hour, which was good. I just sat and read Lord of the Flies (I’m bracing myself for when it gets really scary…) until we got there. From the station, after lots of searching for it, we found the tube (no, Metro) and decided where we were going to stay (an Ibis Hotel, like we did last year, in exactly the same one as last year…they’re v.good hotels, all clean and stuff, so we decided to just stick to what we knew) and then set off around Paris on the tube (Metro!) which was fun for a while but it soon began to freak me out. There are always loads of homeless people down there or people begging and it scares me a bit, after hearing about attacks on people in tube stations in England. But it was the quickest way to get around so I just got on with it.

Firstly, well, after we got the hotel, we headed up my favourite avenue in the world, the Champs Elysées, just for a ‘wee dander’ as my family would put it, haha. That’s a ‘little walk’ if you didn’t get it. We walked up the Avenue, well, as far as we could – it was very tiring – looking in a few shops and just browsing. Then we went to a small café on the backstreets of the C-E (the Champs-Elysées), where I caught my first glimpse (on this trip) of the Eiffel Tower. After our (very expensive) drinks, we headed off to get picked up by Les Cars Rouges – the Red Buses that do tours around Paris. The bus is a great way to get around Paris. It takes you to and stops at all of the famous parts of the city, and along the way you can have commentary on certain places, by getting these special earphones.

For us, the bus was a way to rest our feet, but still see the sights. We went around most of the city and stopped again on the C-E, and went to see the Arc de Triomphe. It was the first time I had actually stood underneath the Arch, and then, we went up it!

Luckily, because me and my brother were underneath a certain age, we got to go up for free, but Dad had to pay.

            They only have stairs up the Arc, so we had to go up them. It was very tiring, and very dizzying, because the stairs go up in a Spiral. I’ll post the pictures up here later – but it was amazingly strange to climb up going round and round and round and round…But when you got to the top it was amazing. You could see all around Paris – it was amazing to see the whole of the Eiffel Tower from so high up. You could see Sacre Cœur, Les Invalides, the Montparnasse skyscraper thing…it was so cool. Again, I’ll post the pictures so you can see. It was really funny, up on the top of the Arc, my Dad kept getting asked to take pictures of couples or families – hehe – it was really funny and sweet. He said he must have that Photographer look about him, teehee.

            After that we got back on the Metro, and went back to our hotel, and relaxed for a while. I had a banging headache by that time and so went straight on to my bed and napped for a while. Then I had a shower (‘cause Dad said it would make me feel better) and got changed.

            Then we were gonna decide where to go for dinner. I told Dad I didn’t wanna go to Montmatre to eat because that place freaks me out a bit at night. It’s where the Moulin Rouge and other seedy places are and I didn’t really like the thought of going there at night again (we went there to eat last year), so in the end we ended up going to a Pizzeria across the road from our hotel. It was really good…my Dad and brother ate a stake, and I had a lush Pizza….Mm-mm good.

            Then it was on to the Eiffel Tower. I was very apprehensive about this part a) because I was nervous about being out at night (it was probably 10-ish by this time) and b) because we were going up the Eiffel Tower. But we got there alright, and took some great photo’s from the Trocadero. Then we headed down to the tower, which was lit up spectacularly. Being stood underneath the tower is so intimidating, it’s just soooo big. But Dad got tickets. I was so frightened, so I refused to go up the 2^nd stage, so we were all confined to the 1^st stage, which was fine for me, but I felt bad for stopping Dad and Andrew getting up to the 2^nd stage, like I stopped them from going up at all last year. Damn vertigo.

            Anyway, we got the tickets, and stood and waited for the lift. At first it looked like we’d be the only people going up there, but soon, loads of these Chinese or Japanese people came over and were going to be in the lift with us. I was very nervous when we got in, and clung to the side bars in the lift. When it started moving I was so nervous – I couldn’t even look out of the window. It was quite a short lift ride and we were the only ones to get out on the 1^st stage. We walked around there for around 20 minutes, it was so cool. As my Dad said it would, it looks really good at night, when everything it lit up and stuff. By the time we went to the lift to go down, it was 20 to midnight, and I got all scared all over again.

We went to the hotel via the Metro, which really scared me, as I’ve explained before. When we got to our final Tube station steps, we were just walking up (as you do) and a door slammed behind us, because someone had just gone in behind us. I totally jumped out of my skin when I heard the door slam, it sounded like a gun shot. Dad just laughed at me and said that I was a jumpy little thing. I didn’t like that, ‘cause I was really worried, but we were really close to the hotel then so I felt more reassured.

When in the hotel, I got changed into my PJ’s, brushed my teeth, washed my face, and generally felt a lot better. I went up the ladder to my bed (it was a kinda bunk bed thing) and just chilled out until the lights went out, and listened to a couple of songs to lull me into a good sleep, which I always do, and, also, this time to drown out the noise of my Dad’s snoring. I woke up when I heard the maids outside with their trolley things to clean up the room, and when one knocked at the door Dad and my brother woke up as well.

Then we got showered, dressed, and I wrote my postcards. I did plan to send five, but I wrote Will’s address on the wrong card so I could only use four of them. (Sal! I never got your letter sent here, I’ll have to read it when I get home.) I sent them to Kylie, Katie, Will and Becci, from the C-E, after a big search for a Post Office.

So, we checked out, and then dumped our bags in this place in the hotel with all these lockers – for 3 Euros you can put your luggage in there for the whole day, which is great, ‘cause some of our bags were really heavy.

Then we did our usual – Metro to Red Bus routine, and went around Paris again. We went to the C-E and Rue de Madeline to shop. I’d seen a nice top in the Quiksilver shop on the C-E (that shop is like my heaven, hehee) the previous day, as had my brother. Dad told us to sleep on it, and in the morning I decided to get it.

At Decathalon (a big French sports store) on Rue de Madeline, we all had a look around. Although it was mostly my brothers idea to go there, I had a really good browse around there, it’s a cool shop. I also found what I had been searching the whole of England for – a black hooded fleece thing with a zip. It was plain black and very cool. Looking at the price (19.99 Euros) I decided it was perfect and went to tell Dad and Andrew. I ended up getting it, which was very cool. Dad also bought a compass, for some weird reason. We ended up eating in the Decathalon café. Well, I didn’t really eat. I nibbled my cookie and saved it for later, in case I got a bad stomach from it. I did drink my lush Schweppes Lemon drink tho’, that was niiice. After that I went to the Loo and we headed back onto the tube station (which was directly opposite Decathalon, convienently) and headed off to the C-E to complete our shopping madness ( I have a feeling we did something in between those two things, but I can’t remember.) It ended up with me buying this amazing white Quiksilver T- Shirt (not the one I had originally planned on, but it was just, so good. So good, in fact, that I’m wearing it right now!), Andrew getting a blue long sleeved Quiksilver shirt (for 58 Euros!!), Dad getting a little Quiksilver organiser thing, me getting a Quiksilver pencil case, (geez, we really went crazy in that place) Dad getting Mum lovely bracelet…..(the previous day we’d gotten my big sister, Vicki, a nice black and pink heart design T-Shirt from Planet Hollywood)….and errr….that’s all I can remember.

After all the shopping-ness, we had a sit down and a nice fast food meal in ‘Quick’. I had very nice chicken dipper things with Ketchup, and a nice lemonade. Then it was the rush. We went to the tube, to the hotel, picked up our stuff from the locker, re-organised it so that we were carrying less stuff, and then got back onto the Metro (for the last time, *sniff*), and rode the three stops to our station. We found the train very quickly and got on, about 10/15 minutes before it was due to go.

So we chilled out, my brother read the paper, I filled out my address book, Dad listened to music, then I read the paper, and it was time to go.

We got off the train (at the right stop, thank goodness) got to the car. We got petrol, and drove on, occasionally singing along to Brown Eyed Girl or 2-4-6-8 Motorway or Walking In Memphis. We got home just after midnight, to our delighted dog and tired Mama. And that was it. *breathes*

Wow. Now my wrist really hurts. I’m gonna get up, I really need to move my legs. Later. Ow.

Phillie.

 

Subject: Moi et Paris

Mood: Comfortable

Listening to: My WMP playlist – it’s currently Busted –What I Go To School For.

 

 

Friday 27^th of August 2004

 

Haha, I know the date today.

This’ll be my last entry from here – we’re heading home tomorrow!  Right now Mum and Dad are taking the Dog to the vet for a check up before we go, and then going for a final shop, I think.

Yesterday was another nice day. Got up around ten, showered, ate, and then my brother, my Dad and I went to the Futuroscope, near Poiters (Pwa-tee-yay….haha, fo-net-iks are fun) which was nice. It’s this cool park with loads of simulations and fun shows. We got there at midday, and wandered around, first going on this simulation (promoting the area, haha) and then all these different show’s and simulations throughout the day – stopping only to eat, drink or to look at the map. It was a very cool- stop saying it was a ‘very cool day’! Sorry about that, my mind’s set on repeat. I’ll be right back, I’m just going to get the map so I can tell you which things we went on……………………………………………back.

Right, we went on:

1)      Amusement 11 – La Vienne Dynamique – (Dynamic Vienne)

2)      Amusement  2 – La Gyrotour

3)      Amusement 19 – Le Defi d’Atlantis – (The Race for Atlantis)

4)      Amusement 21 – Space Station 3D

5)      Amusement 15 – Poursuite Éclair – (In Pursuit of Éclair)

6)      Amusement 10 – Destination Cosmos

All very fun, but very tiring after a while. They do make you wait a lot there. Especially in number 15 – me and my brother started playing paper, scissors, stone to pass the time. He won round one, I won round two, he won in the final. Boo.

            We left around seven, and then drove home, much quicker than I realised – it only took us about ½ an hour, which was cool.

            Right. Now. This has taken me so long that Mum and Dad are actually back now, the Dog’s fine to go and we’re doing the big shop on the way up to the ferry port tomorrow. Tomorrow! In 36 hours I’ll be posting this up on t’internet and waiting to see if Sal’s come to welcome be back.

            Oh geez. I know what else will be waiting for me when I get back. Wah.

            So, in conclusion. Holiday fun. Time for home. School in a week. Wah.

Phillie. 

 

 

Right right right right right....off now! I'll update tomorrow...probably!

Phillie.