quinze: rien.

I used to feel scared, but now I just feel nothing.

I'm quite surprised at myself. After watching Fight Club the other day my brain was in Chuck Palahniuk mode, i.e. I was coming up with witty bitter one-liners, and surprisingly I didn't blog any of them. Probably because they were rubbish. Go figure.

But anyway, I hadn't seen the film before. I'd read the book obviously. I don't know, it's quite confusing, especially the very veryy last bit, but it's still good somehow. But Invisible Monsters will be my favourite, forever and ever. I wish I could write a book that brilliant.

I'm going to go and play my guitar. I feel motivated, which is quite good, but I still need a job and I still want to go back to college, even though it means I'll have to face my results.

It's funny, accomplishments are supposed to make you happy, but they just make me feel relieved.

quatorze: nerveusement.

I just cleaned the bath with a cloth, some Cillit Bang and a bit of charm. Job well done.

There's a big cloud hanging over my house, and it's not metaphorical in the slightest. Yesterday was like the weekend, i.e. really sunny and reallyy warm, so I sat outside with my book. Which reminds me, I finished that volume of Daphne du Mari er, ending with Frenchman's Creek [eughhh] and My Cousin Rachel [pretty good]. Now I'm reading that parody of Harry Potter, you know, Barry Trotter. It's quite funny actually, but completely stupid and ridiculous. Luckily I've just ordered the Iliad and Wicked [it was a book originally y'see] from play.com to counter this stupidity.

But anyway, for once in my life I've been quite enjoying sitting out in the sun, and now I can't. Hopefully the cloud will have disappeared by the time I've finished this, because otherwise I'll just have to watch another episode of Skins. Ohhdear.

To be fair, it was supposed to rain all day today, and not just last night, so it's not too bad. I just hope that the weather stays nice for a bit longer, as I might be off out and about this week.

Results in just over two weeks. I remember having more nightmares about my GCSEs but feeling less sick than I do about my A/Ss. They really count if I really want to go to Oxford. Which I do.

People just assume that I'll be fine.

treize: au bord de la mer.

I've seen enough of the Lancashire coastline to last me a lifetime.

Last weekend, it was Blackpool. Yesterday, St Annes, which was a lot less boring than I anticipated. Today, we went to Southport, which was very nice and plus I got a really nice skirt from Primark of all places.

The sun has finally come out, at last.

The other night I watched American Gangster, which is truly a great film. Last night I watched Clueless, which is also truly a great film. I've seen it about 2839652937485632 times, and it never gets old. Never.

I love Last Choir Standing, to be honest. The one from Oxford who sang Spiderman last night were absolutely genius.

douze: le batman.

Heath Ledger was absolutely magnificent.

It is simply wrong that he's gone. Batman was great, but not because of Batman. It was because of the Joker, who was scary yet strangely alluring all at once.

Highlight of the film? The Joker asked the real Batman to stand up [I actually just typed barman, haha], and some guy in the cinema actually did. Ohh my days, we found Batman at last, and no, it isn't Bruce Wayne. Amateur.

Afterwards, we went back to Aaron's, crossing Deathville a.k.a. the really really scary part of Burnley, near where Emily's dad works. I don't even know where it is really, I just followed and whimpered.

I've had three people tell me now that there's a job going at Oddies. To be honest, I'm still hoping for just some temp work, and hopefully I'll get some soon from good old Jobsearch.

Emily's dad has a swish car, but it does nothing for my hair.

Today I'm going driving, he said we're going to do a mock test. I do not want to do a mock test, I really really don't. I'm trying to forget about doing my practical, even though I had hopes of passing it before I go back to college. I have until September, so I think I have a good chance I suppose. But I like to not think about the things I'm scared about. Or the things that I can't change.

Sometimes I wish I could change most things.

onze: court.

I am tired of getting my hopes up and feeling completely and utterly useless.

dix: la musique.

I now have pretty much the entire Hairspray soundtrack.

I'm sorry, but it's just absolutely amazing. John Travolta's voice ain't half weird though, I suppose it's because he's trying to sing like a woman. Just guessing.

Today I watched the very first two episodes of SATC. Now that was weird. Carrie kept on talking directly to the camera, which made me feel more than just a little bit uncomfortable. I did my best to just eat my noodles whenever she did that.

My dad just thought I was singing Good Morning Pokemon. BALTIMORE JEEZZ

Anyway, speaking of Hairspray, I'm developing something for Zac Efron. I blame Aaron. At my cinema, they now have a big cut out of the cast of High School Musical 3 to match the poster that we all posed next to. It's pretty impressive, unlike our obsession. But I am fair excited for this film, I've seen the trailer, and so has my dad, and we both think it's hilarious. It looks like the funniest yet. Because that's the only reason why I watch these films...

I'm not as cool as I make out, obviously.

Though I try. Instead of watching Hannah Montana re-runs, I decided I'm going to watch Skins series 2 again, and I also found Sugar Rush on TV Choice on Demand, one of the only perks of having Virgin Media. Thanks Mr Branson for taking my Sky One away, by the way. It's quite good, but just a little bit uncomfortable.

I reallyy like the new last.fm. They have my entire library ready for me to listen to, which means that I can practically listen to my entire iTunes library [and anything else I've ever listened to] on my laptop. This is very handy indeed.

Tilly and the Wall are fabulous.

I had a good guitar lesson today, even if I looked like a cartoon character. That damn C chord is still fair annoying though.

neuf: rouge.

I was visited by Jess today.

She came to drop Emily's present off, seeing as she probably won't be seeing her until she comes back from her holiday. And she can't come and see The Dark Knight [sighh, Heath!] with us on Thursday due to work and weddings and things.

Anyway, we talked for about an hour before she drove off back home just to check that her little sister hadn't burnt the house down or something. Fair enough I thought, and went back to watching the SATC movie for the second time.

Yesterday the parents and I went to Blackpool.

The weather is getting increasingly nicer, but in Blackpool it was incredibly windy. I had foolishly decided to wear a skirt [though with tights, because it wasn't that warm though it was sunny]. I had a lot of fun [!] trying to make sure that my skirt stayed exactly where I wanted it to stay. I.e. on my legs and not in the air.

The new jacket I got from the Monsoon sale is to die for. Well, maybe that is a bit extreme, but it is lovely lovely lovelyy.

I have just been for a walk on the canal with the parents. They would never let me walk on there alone, even though I'd like to, during the free time I have during the days. Jess understands this, and I guess I do too, because there are some scary people around here and there are even more scary people around the canal.

I never thought I would suit red, being ginger and all, but I fair do. Bonus.

huit: l'anniversaire.

Today is Emily's 17th birthday. I bought her perfume [clue: Use With Caution] and a mug from Urban Outfitters that says "Tea Club" and tells you all the rules of this club.

1. The first rule about tea club is that you don't talk about tea club.
2. The second rule about tea club is that you don't talk about tea club.

And so on.

Chuck Palahniuk is an absolute genius.

Anyways, tonight we are going to see Mamma Mia and I want to wear my new dress.

Yesterday morning I drove to Preston and back with my driving instructor, and I passed my theory test. I got full marks on my questions, bonus. Even though I didn't really know how you should park facing downhill. Shoot me.

As a treat, we went to Manchester, i.e. me and the parents, partly to buy Emily's present for today. Partly because the sales are pretty good this summer [ha!]. I bought a skirt and some shorts from Urban Outfitters, aside from the mug.

Oh and I fair pulled the shop assistant ;]

Haha. Probably not really, but he was very nice and my mum observed so from the next counter. It's nice when things like that happen.

Anyway, speaking of birthdays, my mum is constantly urging me to think about my party [by the way, it's in November. No joke.] and today we bought dad his present for next month. We've been saving for a tv for him, and then we realised that we know nothing about tvs whatsoever, so we decided to reveal the surprise. He was very excited, even more so now he's got one, and he even dreamt about tvs last night. Me, I dreamt about the Kaiser Chiefs and the end of the world. Something similar happened before.

Today in Sainsburys a woman dropped a big box of Becks bottles and they all smashed on the floor.

sept: Londres.

Ohh my days, London was wonderful.

The train journey on the way there was not. We were stuck near Milton Keynes for about two hours, and the light was slowly getting dimmer and dimmer. However, we did find ways to entertain ourselves. After all, they did give us glowsticks. And the announcer, aka the self-professed "train man" couldn't speak English very well. He kept saying that Virgin would like to thank each and every individual for their immense patience and that we would eventually reach our final destiny. No joke.

I couldn't even listen to Nick Grimshaw on the radio talking about the fruit in McFly's dressing room. Gutted.

We don't know where Rugby is, but imagine what their rugby and football teams are called.

Anyway, after our fears of there snakes on our train being dispelled, we were finally in London and at the YCW house. We went as a Catholic youth group, y'see. And we went to bed.

The next morning, a lovely Monday morning, we went on a clipper boat across the Thames. Then we decided to brave an open top bus across London, where we saw pretty much everything there is to see in London. You name it, we probably saw it. It was good fun though. Father Brian was desperate to go to the National Art Gallery, so we went and had a look. They had Claude Monet and Van Gogh dolls, complete with removable ear. Wow.

After freshening up a bit, because it was really really hot, we had a very rushed tea in a pub on the Wharf, and then ran to the West End to see Hairspray.

I still have You Can't Stop The Beat in my head.

It was boss, and we were all in great moods. Shattered like, with half of us getting sunburnt as well. So sleep wasn't a problem.

On the Tuesday, we decided to go to the Tate Modern, which was great. I really like Pop Art, and Lichtenstein was there. Well, not in person, but some of his art was on display. The Street Art murals were pretty ace too actually. We pretended to be holy outside of St Pauls, and I got excited about the Globe because Shakespeare WOZ ERE 1599 BBZ living it up to the max and such.

It was off to see Wicked at night, after having some pizza at Bella Italia. Wicked was also boss, I could have bought a t-shirt but I thought £19 was a tad extortionate. Ahh well.

On Wednesday, we went shopping OHHYES. I had a heart attack when I saw Topshop, because it is HUUUGE. I was so impressed with the vintage section, I could have gone ballistic but I didn't. I got a really nice dress though. Then Emily, Becca and myself went to Abercrombie and Fitch, and it took us ages to find it. Quite worth it though, seeing as all of the shop assistants were incredibly attractive and some were half-naked. Then we raced to Primark and got lost in people traffic.

The journey home was slightly more interesting as we had to manoeuvre our luggage on the Tube. Very hard indeed. But once we were on the train home, things went pretty smoothly and we were home quite early.

I slept until 12.30 today, surprised?

six: la ville.

Our town centre is even worse than I ever remember.

Ridiculous chavs throwing pear drops [jeez what a waste] was just the beginning. We had a good day though to be fair, despite having to run into Boots to escape them. They were pretty scary with those sweets.

The above photo of Emily, Aaron, Sarah and myself took about 21387184546 attempts to get it right.

I decided to brave Topshop, and it wasn't as bad as I had feared. I bet the sale is 143757567 times better down in London, yess we are going tomorrow! I actually can't wait now. Plus, we're not getting into London as late as we though, so we won't be that tired hopefully.

We tried on High School Musical hats. I have the worst fringe gaps in the world.

All in all, we had a good day :] Aaron did well with all his DVDs and his jeans which he tried on in the Subway [the sandwich shop] toilets. We thought he was locked in or something. I got a Crunchie from nowhere, and Michael was working hard of course.

I always worry about getting in people's way.

Tonight Ghostbusters is on, ohhyess! It serves my parents right for not buying it on DVD for me [to be fair, it was only a couple of quid.], because now they have to watch it to prove that it is always on TV. Ha.


EPIC FAIL
Haha.
I wonder what will happen to this car. It might be punished I suppose. Serves it right for disobeying the painted warning. Aaron and Emilyy look so shocked, well actually they look quite puzzled. I looked like a fool taking this picture. Worth it I suppose.

London babyy! EEK

cinq: j'ai oublié.

My driving instructor nearly forgot me again today. Maybe I'm just forgettable.

Enough with the negativity. I can drive well enough, and park and reverse around corners and do turns in the road. I like those the best. And I will pass my test before I get back to college in September, just so I can say that I can drive and even plug my "driving skillzz" to prospective universities. It might work. I won't even have a car to drive, BUT if I did, I could drive it. If I wanted to.

Frenchman's Creek is boring, boring, boring. But I'm still going to read it.
Driving, for me, is hard, hard, hard. But I'm still going to drive.

Both reading and driving will get easier if I just keep at it.

I will have to ring Emily. She hasn't called me yet. Hopefully we will all meet up tomorrow, and I can roadtest my new camera. I need some new lovely pictures of us all.

Another frustrating thing, however, is that I really want to go to the Me&Yu sale, even more than I want to go to the Topshop sale, but I can't, one because it's in Manchester and two because I need to save, save, save for London on [eek!] Sunday. At least they have a HUUUUGE Topshop in London to keep me happy. Though it's vintage bargains I will be seeking in our capital city. I have, however, seen the most amazing bag in the world in Toppers; I saw it last night on the magnificent Gok Wan's show. It's a big red heart, and I refuse to forget it.

quatre: maltraitance.

Jess cannot spell to save her life.

Luckily, I can. I taught her how to spell "cheque" today, because funnily enough that's what we both received in the post from college. Finally. College is paying for our Student Railcards, which we had to buy for when we went to Oxford the other week.

By the way, Oxford is magnificent.

Anyway, Jess and I have resolved to make plans after I come back from London, probably for a week on Sunday. The cinema is looking like a safe bet, but to be honest, with this washout summer, there's not much else we can do.

I really wanted to go to the park near my house today. The swing there is boss. But it's raining, again. The park near Emily's house is also really good. Jess lives near a very big park but I don't remember ever seeing any swings there actually. For me, a park without swings is like undiluted Vimto - it's just all wrong and it hurts your throat.

I finally finished Rebecca. I couldn't believe it ended how it did, but it was still quite good though. Now I'm on Frenchman's Creek, which isn't quite as interesting to be honest.

I wonder, if on those pre-recorded message phone calls, there's someone on the other line who could hear you if you tried to talk to them. Or abuse them, rather. I might try it next time, I'll probably get one tomorrow knowing how frequent they are at my house.

One of the things that I hate about this town is that you can't strut around the dirty streets without gaining unwanted and obvious attention. I like attention, but I don't like car horns sounding at all. I can't wait for London, especially as I know what I'm going to wear now. I've made a fashion itinerary.

trois: le capitaine et l'installateur.

You'll never believe it.


I received another pre-recorded message phone call today. Luckily I was downstairs this time. I picked up the receiver, only to hear a deafening klaxon on the other end.


"Hello, this is The Captain," the pre-recorded false voice said to me. I could hear the sea in the background. Ohh no.


I didn't even bother to wait to find out what I'd won this time.



The waves of the ocean I could hear behind "The Captain"'s voice sounded quite threatening actually. It reminded me of the chapter I've just read in Daphne du Marier's Rebecca. I saw the plot twist coming, but it was still surprising. The main character, not Rebecca incidentally, reminds me of myself - shy and insecure. Great.


When I heard the knock on my door this afternoon, I was actually upstairs. Behind my front door was a man who is doing some work for my next door neighbour, and he needed to measure some wall at the back of our houses. He kept referring to my neighbour as "The Shopfitter", which was a bit strange. I didn't have a clue what he was talking about the whole time he was here.


I am no good at painting my nails whatsoever.



The weather looked a bit more promising this morning for a full hour, before the sun disappeared completely behind the greedy clouds. Completely unfair. By four o'clock it's raining, again. It's supposed to be good in London next week at least, and I did get a high score on the signs and signals theory test quiz. Bonus. Hazard perception is completely pointless, mind.



I love finding new good music. And really old music, just remixed.

That photo above is a familar scenario with my best friend, Emilyy. The one who isn't covering her face in shame. That would be me. I do that a lot. She smiles a lot. I'm glad that she's possibly one of the only people in the world I can really talk to. Plus, we have Hannah Montana necklaces. Except that she lost hers, perhaps she should be the one covering her face in shame. Ha. She rang me today, my Dizzee Rascal ringtone screaming out at me from nowhere [ohhyes, I am this cool]. Hopefully she, Michael, Aaron and myself will be meeting up on Saturday, which is good yess :]

This week, I will make more plans. I need to.

deux: dégouté.

This afternoon, the phone rang whilst I was upstairs. Que a mad scramble to get to the phone in time. I'm surprised I'm not in the emergency room by now, given the number of times I have had to do this over the past few weeks.
I got to the phone, and it was one of those rubbish pre-recorded messages. Apparently I've won a free holiday or something. Bonus.
Gutted, more like. I nearly died trying to get that phone call, and there was no point whatsoever.
Much like today really. Mind you, last night's Sex and The City episodes were good, though today's Cornish pasty wasn't. Gutted once again.

Speaking of being gutted, it looks like there's no chance whatsoever of me earning some extra money in time for London next week [eek! excited]. Yesterday, my mum was at this fashion show [don't even ask. I was not impressed i.e. I was highly jealous] and her friend knows someone who works at JobSearch, where I applied for some temp. work. Apparently there is absolutely no work going whatsoever. GUTTED. Ahh well, at least I have my boss new camera, that's a plus.

Today I went from being inexplicably jealous of someone to having pity for that same person in about three seconds.

At half past five every Tuesday I have my guitar lesson with my teacher Paul. He's ace. I started playing bass guitar a while back, but when I realised just how easy that was I decided to start playing acoustic. My acoustic guitar is beautiful, it's all white and everything. I'm not that good at it though, to be honest. Gutted.

I wish I could write and sing songs like Backseat Goodbye. He is magnificent.

At the moment, the C chord is the worst chord in the world. Most of the time when I play it, it comes out all whiney and it hurts my ears. Much worse, however, were the scary ghost videos Paul decided to show me. They look so false but the weird ghosts come out of nowhere, especially after the panpipe music. I think I screamed; ohh dear.

Y'know, if I can't get a job, I should at least find something more productive to do with my time, instead of just reading, watching tv and revising driving theory.

I think I need to get out of the house, but the weather is so disconcerting. It looks like it won't pick up for quite some time. Gutted, again.

Finally, note to self: when practising hazard perception for your theory test, if it asks you to look out for the horse rider, LOOK OUT FOR THE HORSE RIDER, and not the ice cream shop next to the junction. It won't get you any marks, honest. It's much more interesting though.

un: bonjour :]

Hiyaaa.
My first name is Claire, most people generally believe that my last name is Poof.
It isn't, but life would be much more interesting if it was.
Apparently blogs are also interesting, so I have decided to start one.
I do rather like writing to be honest.
I also like skittles and swings, believe it or not.
I like the tripling and the sibilant alliteration in the title of my blog. Just goes to show what a year of english language at college does to you.

I should probably start to tell you a little about me.
I have ginger hair.
I'm seventeen.
I live in the north of England. Apparently I don't have much of a northern accent though, according to an Australian policeman.
Next year I will be going to university. This scares me, quite a lot more than I'd usually admit.
I like literature, quite a lot.
I like fashion, quite a lot.
I like music, quite a lot.
I'm too shy and too nice for my own good most of the time. If I wasn't so shy, maybe things would be a lot more interesting.
I think I'd like to be young forever, like peter pan or kiefer sutherland in the lost boys before the last ten minutes of the film. But that probably wouldn't be interesting for very long.
Speaking of which, I'm going to shut up now.
Inabit