-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I finally got my hair cut, for the first time in about eight months - last time I had it done was before I went to America! Eek! Kim did a fantastic job as usual; I asked for a bit of a style change, and she's cut it a couple of inches shorter as well as adding in more layers, and a cute fringe.
I also dyed my hair a really dark shade of red; it's faded a bit and looks so nice now, but of course I was bathing in the first plague of Egypt for a week.
At the end of January, I went to see Lana. It was pretty brill because I hadn't seen her for pretty much a year; we ate Chinese food and laughed at her aunt's dating adventures with a man who 'looked like a baked bean', and we wandered London, just generally enjoying each other's company. It was a welcome break from this stupid town.
On February 7th, I went out with Susie. It was a really good night - we chatted in German, laughed at everything, and toasted to 'chronic dissatisfaction'. It was only when I drank some crazy Slovakian liqueur that was ridiculously strong that I was in a bit of bother. Susie put me in a taxi and I somehow managed to get in the house and lock the door. I was just trying to pull my boots off when I fell spectacularly, hitting my face on the stair banister and falling back into the living room, where I hit the back of my head ridiculously hard. I got the next bit from Mum because I remember nothing from then. I was apparently violently and copiously sick; her and Martin had to drag me upstairs and wash my hair before they put me to bed. Then, apparently, I was laying in bed speaking in tongues and laughing to myself. After five days of a near-constant splitting headache and feeling queasy, I went to the doctors and it turned out the puking, subsequent mad behaviour, and the memory loss, was down to the fact I'd been walking around with a concussion. So, that was hilarious. Thankfully it's completely better now!
February 15th - Caz was down from Manchester for a bit, and we decided to go bowling. We put our names as House and Wilson, played terribly, and then went on this really cool Alien arcade game and played a really violent round of air hockey. Back at her house, we tried to play Fatal Frame 2 again because Markiplier is currently playing it and we still don't think it's as good as the first one. Honestly, there's so much wandering around doing nothing, the story is barely existent and has huge holes in it, and there are ghosts that literally have nothing to do with anything that happens. The first one is 1000 times better, and trying to play the second one again confirmed that for me and Caz. PLAY THE FIRST ONE/subliminal messaging.
My little brother Ryan turned 18. I may as well just put myself in a home and be done with it. He's thrilled about finally being able to buy booze legally. And he's gotten a really nice Buddha tattoo on the back of his leg. It's so weird that my baby bro is legally an adult now.
Continuing on the family vein, Ashleigh is now about 18 weeks along with her pregnancy. Google tells me the foetus is now the size of a bell pepper, and will be starting to move his/her arms and legs around more. I'm so excited to meet them!
On a much sadder note, my grandfather Dave (who has been with my Nan for about 16-17 years, and married her not even a month ago) passed away on February 18th. He'd been fighting cancer for 15 years, but you wouldn't have known it. He was always energetic and sociable and inquisitive, and he and Nan went on many travels and adventures together. He'd gotten worse in the last couple of years, but that didn't stop him going to Australia for Christmas last year. He only really stopped when he was hospitalised, mere days before he died. Even then, Mum says he was trying to get his coat and walk out of there to go to lunch with them. He was an ex-Para, so he was a squaddie through and through, and stubborn to the last. Apparently he went peacefully, surrounded by family, which is all we could hope for. His funeral is next Thursday.
I've also gotten into watching Gotham, and I'm so glad I did because I'm in love with it, and with most of the cast. Not to mention that Cory Michael Smith (Edward Nygma aka the Riddler) and Robin Lord Taylor (Oswald Cobblepot aka the Penguin) both favourited tweets I sent to them!
I've also been keeping up with Law & Order: SVU, and The Walking Dead. It's weird - I never used to regularly watch TV shows, or I'd just find one that I really love and binge-watch it. But now I'm discovering so much good telly, and it's great at the moment as it distracts me from my current poor, unemployed-ness. I've also compiled lists of movies that I want to watch, and I'm working on going through those. I'm reading a lot as well - I recently finished The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde and I'm now reading Tolkien: A Dictionary, which is so interesting and makes me happy because it's about everything, everyone and everywhere in beautiful Middle Earth.
I've been revamping my wanderlust list, and may update the page on here eventually. I must say that my list has gotten wildly out of hand - it would probably be easier to just write 'anywhere and everywhere, up to and including space'. I've had to split the list up into many subsections. There are so many wonderful places in the world, and I want to see all of them!
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
As for my productive day today, I woke up at 8am (naturally, and not feeling completely dead for once), and just before 10am I worked on writing a copy example for a job I'm applying to at Harrods' head office (eeeek!!). I finished that and sent it, then left to get some ingredients from - as I was waiting for the bus, a bloke gave me his dayrider that he'd finished with, so that was good! At asda, I got lunch and a hot chocolate from Costa, and when I got home I made some fudgy coconut brownies (using this recipe)! I have since sampled one, and they came out utterly delicious.
And have a bonus photo of Jackson:
