Attention: Lynne Truss

Argh oh my goodness, I know Ms Colloff is marginally terrifying and not the sort of person that, as a student, you would really want to see outside of school, but I would have given up a posession of moderate worth for her to be here in the office with me today! This is because of a small dispute which came up over grammar in the Newsletter we're writing at the moment - I say we, but actually they haven't asked me to do my own article which is annoying for me and stupid of them becasue I'm better at writing than both Martin and Lois. I don't mean to boast, we all have our strengths - like Lois is better at organising things than Martin or me and Martin's best at doing promotional, creative stuff. I'm just better at writing. So the Newsletter was manically written today by those two in time for yesterday's deadline to be not too far gone, while I was sitting at my desk with not much of importance to do. The first draft of the Newsletter was finished by Lois (who wrote most of the articles) and handed to Martin and me for editing.

I made grammatical corrections.

They were rejected.

AAAARGG!! They couldn't accept that our projects should be referred to in the third person singular rather than the third person plural, i.e. 'Helping Hands gives thanks' rather than 'Helping Hands give thanks'. It's not that many hands which help are giving thanks, as is written in the second version, but that the organisation Helping Hands, one body, is giving thanks, as in the first version. But noooooo, they had to be confused by the plural pro-noun. Grrrr. So they wouldn't change it to the correct way of writing and I really could have done with Ms Colloff to be horribly sarcastic and correct them in her ruthless, incredulous way. Well it was really Lois who didn't want to change it because of course she wrote it, so it's perfect. She even got stroppy when I suggested that it would be more appropriate to write "...can buy me medicine, food and care" instead of "...can buy me medicine, food and hugs". I mean, who buys hugs? No one! But you can buy care, for example at a nursing home or a private hospital. Gah.

So as we were debating what the correct grammar was, which consisted of me telling them what it was (politely though, because I'm not good with conflict!) and Lois practically laughing down everything I was saying because "Helping Hands is" didn't sound right, I was asked to go into the other room and send a fax. Lois always sends the faxes, she just wanted me out of the room. Grr. Sly. Anyway, when I came back in about 5 minutes later they had decided to go 50-50 on the grammar (but Martin admitted he just did what Lois had told him to do). They could get that for Isle of Hope it should be "Isle of Hope wishes" but still thought it should be "Helping Hands wish". NoooooooOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! *cries* So now they've sent it to the printers with half of it correct, the other half abysmally wrong! It's not even the same rule throughout the article anymore!

What is the point of me being given the article to edit if they won't accept my corrections? But meh, it's their decision in the end and all I can hope to do is to influence it. The reason for this post being to bitchy (for which I apologise :s) is that throughout the whole thing I kept really calm even though correct grammar is something I will fight to my death for, so have only just vented my annoyance. I think it's important to try and stay collected in situations like this and not be selfish and angry/rude/whatever, afterall that's what Jesus would do! *waves wristband*

But I have to go because I'm about half an hour late out of the office due to writing this!

xxx

Disclaimer: there may be grammatical errors in my blog which I haven't noticed - if so please don't think I'm a hypocrite. It's just that this blog is not being printed and sent to thousands of people. The Newsletter is. Therein lies the difference.

Thoughts

Firstly, I would like to say that I am now a changed person due to one happening of Tuesday: I bought my first pair of Converse. Whereas before pumps were my single domain, I can now march forth with prominent feet in the ranks of thousands of other teen-people and young adults who for so long have captured my envy. I have become one of a type of person who is anti-trainer, anti-pikey, anti-asbo and pro-guitar; I'm making a social statement which is recognisable from Converse's birthplace in the USA to its furthest migration in the East (Japan, China? The conquest of Converse is surely embraced by like-minded people in more obscure places than these) and for once don't mind promoting a brand becasue Converse stands for far more than foot-fashion. Converse is about individual expression, as shown by the various designs you can get it in (hi-top, ankle, regular, textured, patterned... blah), but within the context of a global community of All-Star endorsers. With other people who wear the brand there is an immediate familiarity, whether it be in the shared tone of lurking grunginess or simply the evidence of similar taste, and this familiarity is an unifying force, uniting race, creed and culture in a common statement.

Yeah, or something. Might have got carried away there o.O

Anyway the second thing I have to write is that my new Converse have the added bonus of being really practical, mainly due to them having laces and so strappable to my feet. Having lived solely (haha... sole...) in pumps for, like, a year, the feeling of wearing laced shoes was weird yesterday, it was a bit like having clumpy caskets tethered to my feet. I'm back in pumps today because I'm wearing a skirt so would have looked delinquent otherwise, also because it was raining hard this morning and didn't want to get my new Cs dirty on the walk in. Actually ended up getting the bus (for free - wahey) so disaster-aversion planning was unnecessary, but meh, the point is that although I'm enjoying once more to be able to swing my shoes off my toes and flick them over my heels and stuff the advantage of having shoes stuck to my feet for me is undeniable, particularly when it comes to riding my bike. For example, the other week I was riding to work and had got to Beckenham Junction when the lights turned red. According to the highway code, and under fear of squashage and mutilation by cars, I stopped at the lights in the green bike bay at the front of the queue, and waited. I can't do that balancing thing that some cyclists seem to manage so have to remain static with a foot on the road instead of wobbling about madly. Anyway I was poised to push off immediately when the lights turned, with my pedals all at the right angle and brakes off; which they did, and I did. Except not all of me left the bay. The shoe of the foot that had been keeping me upright was left behind and to the mercy of the rainy car tyres following behind me; I had to cycle over to the other side of the cross-roads with one bare foot, which was pretty embarassing, and try to work out what to do! - should I hop over through all the cars and try and get it, or wait until they'd stopped again and suffer the public humiliation of hopping out in front of them to get my mangled shoe? Meanwhile, many pedestrians and (I'm sure) motorists were having a good laugh at my situation. Fortunately a Noble Pedestrian gallantly ran forth and plucked the stranded pump from the road, sprinted accross the crossing and handed it to me. I recieved it with a painful laugh in an attempt to hide my embarrassment. But actually it was quite funny and I ended up having to try and keep myself from laughing too much as I cycled off, fully shoed. After that I've been wary at crossings etc. and have managed to avoid the Cinderella effect but now I have Converse this should no longer be a problem! Having laced Cs also means I don't suffer having my shoes shoot off my feet when I try and push against a wet pedal, which has happened before. So, woo: Converse are practical and funkeh.

xxx

Another yoink

Ok, so I know I'm stealing stuff from everyone else's livejournals etc., but you all have really good stuff on them! And I'm owning up to it, so I don't feel like such a plagiarist any more. This one is from Rhiannon's LJ and is... rather good. Although maybe slightly libelous. So before you report me I'd like to say I absolutely disagree with it and abhor all that it stands for. It's degrading. It's rude. It's an immoral slur on our political community.

(Only joking... it's hilarious!)

http://david-cameron.livejournal.com/

xxx

Success!

Finally! After years of hardly daring to dream that this moment should actually be, for fear of bitter disappointment, delusion or whatnot, It Actually Happened! Well in fact It Actually Happened on Sunday but I haven't remembered to post it until now so shhhh just go with what I'm writing.

Anyway, I've always appreciated musicals and how the people in them just break into chorus and synchronised dance without the slightest hint of premeditation. I've also said to a few people (Jenny, I think, and some others too...?) that I wish life were like that and people would start spontaneous song and dance just when walking down the street or at school or something. Lol! Just think of the communal harmony that would be spread by such unifying acts of happiness: Labour government, I propose you incorporate this into your Londone (or whatever it is) campaign! Anyhoo, I hadn't had the though for ages as it had gone down the drain of increasing maturity with some of my other childish dreams (like there actually being fairies that you can catch changing your teeth for money etc.). But then on Sunday the improbable occurred and fantastico musical was my life! I had been skim-reading a thing in the newspaper about Andrew Lloyd Webber not wanting the lady who won the 'A Problem Like Maria' show to sing every night as it might ruin her voice, or something like that. I came away from the paper humming 'The Sound of Music', as it is one of those songs which is ingrained in my being and so surfaces with only the slightest provocation, and by the time I was up stairs the humming has progressed to singing, which soon grew to a full-belted caterwauling. Rosie and Matthew did their 'double-twin-attack' thing, jumping on me in desparation to make the noise stop and smothering me with fleece dressing-gowns, their own bodies: anything to try and end my song. Needless to say the power of the music won through and I was left dishevelled yet still melodious in my room. I carried on singing just to try and annoy the miniature ones even more, but to my surprise (or not - mum's always warbling something) mum joined in with the song. I just though that this would annoy the twins which made me happy, but then they joined in too! There was no dance, but we were a chorus nevertheless! Woot woot. So after many years of idle dream I finally achieved a sing-along thing, despite it being really weird and involving physical attack - wahey!

That's all for now xxx

p.s. In my defence for this post I'm really bored atm! Where is everyone??

Personal Statement

Ahh, sitting at work on my own as all other members of staff have decided they have better things to do with their afternoon than to be in the office. As the junior, defenceless one I was elected to be the solitary phone-manner for the afternoon which has its goods and bads:
1) Get to answer the phone (good)
2) Have to be near phone at all times (bad)
3) Can have as many biscuits as I like (good)
4) Have eaten too many biscuits (bad)
5) There's no one to tell me what to do (good)
6) There's no one to tell me what to do (bad)

So I have had nothing to do all afternoon, except for having to write my personal statement for Uni next year. It was going really well; I'd developed my initial (rubbish) statement content into something which was, well, pretty good if I do say so myself. Loads of stuff about my opinion on literature's function, how we can or should read it for meaning etc. etc. which I thought was much better than my last statement, and anything else I could come up with. It took about four hours to write roughly 30 lines, such was my pickiness about what should go into the thing. So just as I was about to move on to the final 'please love me' bit, the phone rang. This was actually quite welcome as by then I was getting sick of writing about myself for so long and appreciated the distraction, however the end to this tale is not so rosy as ye may think. Basically, in orter to shorten a long story, I had to e-mail a thing to a person, and in the process of doing so lost my ENTIRE PERSONAL STATEMENT. Aaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.... I still can't quite believe it. I have so much to do at the moment that the fact I have to re-write my stupid personal statement is actually quite depressing. And I just know I won't be able to get it as good again! I'm hoping that the phone call was actually divine intervention, and God wants me to write something different in order to get me into a different Uni than I would have done with the last statement. Still, I am quite annoyed and ratty. Also, to compensate for my loss of statement I ate three biscuits and a Toffee Crisp. So now instead of just feeling like an imbecile I also feel fat! Might cycle home at a manic speed in order to work off psychic turmoil and calorific globules.

At least I know what I want to put in my statement now, so hopefully it won't take as long. I can also re-jig the structure of the statement which, on reflection, could have been better. Hopefully being with family will help me to calm down and to see the funny side.

Ha FRIGGING ha.

xxx

Dates for Malawi

I have finally found out the dates for my Malawi trip - wahey! After much guesswork and confusion etc. I now know that I'm going out on the 3rd of January (2007, duh) and come back on the 28th of July. That means I'll be out there for a huge 7 months, give or take a week or so. This of course means I'll be celebrating my birthday in the traditional Malawian way... whatever that may be.

Actually the late return is annoying because a long summer would have been useful to do all that I've planned to do, including making some money which seems to be slowly entering into the realms of impossibility. But hey, if I go to Uni a pauper I guess it's for a good reason.

You all had better come to Heathrow to see me off! No excuse for absances since my flight's at the very respectable time of 7pm :p

xxx

Uno

The real reason I have created this is so that I can message Ruth's blog, but I guess it will be useful to have in Malawi rather than sending round loads of e-mails. Nothing to say atm really, seeing as I'm just in the office.... ho hum. Maybe I should go and find some work to do now.

Meh, that was only a maybe!

Heh eh eh.

xxx