Sweets and Things

Here are a few little wonderful things I found when wandering round the internet:

I SO want a pet penguin. They're so stupid looking when they walk with their chests pushed out and their "wings" held out. Imagine waking up to one every morning, you'd always have a smile on your face!

I think this pic sums up the story I posted yesterday perfectly. Never thought I'd be able to relate to lego so much...

I love this travel postcards. Such a great idea.

And here's a random website. I would say this dog looks stupid, but it has a better centre of gravity then me.

lots of love

X

A little love story that isn't really a love story at all...

The Rather Messy Breakup

“Let’s just be friends.”
She carefully placed her tea cup back on its saucer. Fanned out her fingers and told herself that her hands weren’t shaking. He looked from her face to her hands to her face again. They were shaking.
“Excuse me?”
“I think it’s best if we are just friends.”
She stared out of the window for some time. He grew a little worried for her sanity, but was in no position to judge or to push her so he kept quiet and kept his thoughts to himself. She watched a girl dance through the street, grabbing the hand of a boy who was chasing after her as she did so, pulled him towards her and kissed him hard and decisively on the lips before dashing off once more. Lucky bitch.
“I don’t agree.”
“You don’t agree?”
“No.”
“Ok.”
Well, that was the oddest response he had got to this usually very successful line.
“Can I ask why?”
“No. Not really.”
“Right...”
Well, this was very awkward.
“You’re really going to have to give me something here.”
“Can I ask you why you think we should just be friends?”
“I... just don’t think we would work.”
“Fine. Well then you can understand why I don’t think us not being together and just being friends will work.”
“Umm, no, actually I don’t understand.”
He wished he had ordered a pint now. He had not had the forethought for this conclusion. He thought it would have been a clean break, barely worth ordering a coffee over. A quick –Hey how’s it going, so I’m just going to, yep there you go, break your heart, here have it back- and Bob’s your Uncle done!
“Let me tell you what I don’t understand then maybe we’ll come to some form of understanding together.”
She laid her hands flat on the table. That was better. She felt more in control.
“I don’t understand why you wouldn’t want to be with me. It’s just all a bit silly isn’t it, because I can tell you now what everyone is going to say when I go home in tears and down a bottle of vodka: You’re too good for him, he doesn’t know what he’s missing, he can’t see how great you are, you don’t need him, you’re better off without him, he’ll see how great you are and will come running back and then you can reject him, he’s intimidated by how great you are, you’re too beautiful for him... do I need to go on, or do you get the picture?”
He got the picture, but wasn’t quite sure what to say to any of this. Most girls went home and did their crying and questioning behind closed doors. Out of sight. Out of mind. And that was a routine that had served him perfectly fine. He was ok with it. Don’t fix what ain’t broke and all that. Did she not get that?
“But we won’t work together.”
“Why?”
“Because my heart’s not in it.”
“And my heart’s not in us not being together.”
She leant back away from the table and took a leisurely sip of her cup of tea. Yes, this was a lot better, a proper solution finding conversation. None of this statement-bish-bash-bosh-we’re over and done business.
“But you can’t force two people to be together.”
“Then why can you force two people to be apart?”
She had him there. And she knew it.
“Why should you get your way? Why can’t we do it my way?”
“Because it doesn’t work like that.”
“Who says?”
His hands messed up his perfectly crafted hair that he had prepared earlier. If he was going to dump her, he had wanted to look good whilst doing so, it was that extra twist of the knife that those doing the stabbing did, though God knows why. It’s not very kind. Anyway, he wasn’t looking his best anymore. His carefully composed look was looking worn and distraught, his shirt frantically untucking itself from his distressed jeans (not that his jeans shared this emotion, they had just been stressed when dyed), his cheeks flushed and his hair was not looking quite so artistically messy.
“I don’t see how you can only see that we have to do it your way. We do it your way and I’m unhappy but you’re happy. We do it my way and I’m happy but you’re unhappy. It’s an equal balance either way, so each conclusion should be on the cards.”
“But you can’t force me to like you.”
“You can’t force me to not like you.”
“But... but you can’t force me to stay with you.”
“And you can’t force me to leave you. You see where I’m going with this yet?”
He saw where she was going with this.
But what was worse, was that he saw (in some weird, and roundabout way) that what she was saying actually made some form of sense. He desperately didn’t want it to. But it did. Damn.
“Now, let’s say that we’ll date for this first month, then not the second, then will the third... and so on and so forth. I really think we ought to start off as dating seeing as this was my idea, I should get some form of credit for it! And we’ll stop when either you fall for me, or I fall out of love with you. This way we’re equally happy and equally in pain.
Right, pick me up tonight at half seven, and make sure you’re on time, you know how particular I am, and remember to change your online relationship status when you get home. I love you boyfriend.”
She kissed him firmly on the lips. He could not reciprocate, too stunned by what he had got himself into. She cleared her throat and tapped her foot impatiently, waiting for an appropriate response.
“I... err, love you too... girlfriend.”

The Inconvenient Happenings at a Not So Convenient Store

“Mate, don’t you need to go to the shop?” He asked. His eyes didn’t leave the screen.

“Yeah... I’ll go in a bit.” He answered. His eyes didn’t leave the screen.
“Isn’t about to close?”
“What time is it?” There was no response as both out waited the other, each reluctant to let their eyes leave the screen to see the clock. He gave in first, he had been the one who’d been asked after all. His eyes flicked to the clock and back to the game so fast that he put lightening to shame.
“Five to.”
“Shit.” 

He still didn’t move.

“Just one more game then I’ll go.”
“Good call. To be fair, at the end of the day, its not the end of the world if you don’t make it. Oh sure, bit long, but we’ve all had a good night, couple of cans, couple of games, just a couple of faces, who could ask for more?”
“Not me mate. Not me.”

They twittered on like that for a while longer, talking words of no meaning at the screen, until the last match was won.

“Alright mate, back in a bit.”

He finally got to his feet and braced the cold night air as he made the trek to the corner store.

“Hey-what the-”

The door stayed firm. It wouldn’t budge. It felt like being stubborn.

He heard a tinkling noise coming from inside and then the door opened. She looked up from rummaging in her purse and saw him.
“Oh sorry, we’re closed.”
“Nah, but it’s five to.”
“It’s five past.”
“Can’t I just get a beer? Go on!”
“Look I’ve had a long day-”
“We’ve all had a long day, we all need a beer, I’ll buy!”
“I don’t drink beer.”
“Fine, wine?”
“Look, thanks but we’re closed and I want to go home.”

She turned her back on him and locked the door.

“Some convenience store you are.”
She smiled to herself, this had happened so many times.
“This isn’t a convenience store. Read the god damn sign.”

He looked up and sure enough where he thought it just said ‘Convenience Store’ there was more; in a slightly smaller font, sure, but it was still there.

‘This is not a CONVENIENCE STORE”

He turned but she had gone. He saw her lit in the dark by the lamp light already half way down the road. “Sorry!” He yelled after her. She paused but didn’t turn.

“Yeah, I know.” She knew it would happen again; it always did. But the anger and annoyance she could’ve felt was displaced, misplaced elsewhere, for she knew that it was in our nature to not always be right. 

Anyway, some people just aren’t any good at reading signs.

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Just a little story for your consumption. And here's a few things for your eyes:

balloon people.

 Beautiful birds photographed by ALex Kozobolis. check out his blog here.

And best behaviour.

X

Sweet Nothing Saturdays

Today has been a Saturday of absolutely nothing. And it's been fantastic! Sometimes you just need a day to do nothing, especially when you're hungover. I spent the day window shopping, watching sex and the city and the INCREDIBLE film Drive. Ryan Gosling is a babe.

Another nice way to spend time on nothing is flicking through magazines; alas as a student, I can't really afford them, but I can still look longingly at the covers. Here are some nice ones I found on the internet, just a little tasty treat for the eyes:

And here are some old esquire covers... wouldn't it be great if "lads mags" still had covers like these?

Have a happy weekend!

X

Fly Away Home

Yesterday there was an out of the blue taste of summer. Suddenly everyone was in t shirts and shorts and I could actually justifiably pull out my old ray bans.

It made me excited for summer and my head was filled with all the places I could go. At the moment I'm torn between 'doing' europe properly, (I have visions of me scooting along dusty streets on a bright red vespa), and America, San Francisco in particular. A friend of mine went there and I've been obsessed ever since. She's also very talented and beautiful, so check out her San Francisco post.

Prompted by this and the avoidance of work, I revisited some old photos from when I went on a brief travelling stint a couple of years ago with a friend from uni, and stumbled across this which was written on the streets of Berlin:

And I was hit by the one downside of travelling. That you're away from the ones you love. Which lead to me discovering this genius piece of technology: long distance relationship pillows. Each person wears a special ring and when one person goes to sleep, the other persons pillow begins to glow and you can hear their actual heartbeat... kind of weird, but also kind of nice. Here's a video showing how it works.

Home or away, I don't mind which right now, as long as I'm not in the library anymore.

X

This evening I went to a charity cabaret show and now my head is crammed full with show tunes and once again I find myself wishing life was more like a musical. It's always been a dream of mine that I'll be walking down the street and then all of a sudden everyone starts a perfectly choreographed dance and sings a song that just happens to narrate my life. Of course I realise this will never happen, it would cause all kind of havoc and delays and I wouldn't like to think I would be the reason for anyone's day being disrupted.

But for now, I'll just have to make do with movies such as Mary Poppins, Footloose and Moulin Rouge until life can be just like the movies.

(I love old movie posters... though not all old advertising was so great)

In other news, an INCREDIBLE band called Opaque Nature released their shiny new album today. They're pretty fantastic. Give 'em a listen and buy their album here.

Look how arty and pretty their album cover is. If you can judge an album by its cover, as everyone knows you definitely can, then their album is going to be a real scrummy treat for your ears.

X

Forty Little Days and Forty Little Nights

1.

For Lent you're supposed to give up something. But my Lent cup is half full not half empty, so I'm doing something rather than not doing something. I've set myself a challenge to keep a blog for every day of lent. Something that I've been putting off doing.

I know lent isn't a time to indulge, but sometimes it's just nice to. For example, last night, due to stacks of uni work, I didn't get round to flipping my pancakes til midnight. By this time I was tired and wanted to go to bed but by putting in a little effort I went to sleep full and smug after having a midnight feast:

Everything tastes so much better at midnight.

Here's a few more things that I find put a smile on the face:

• Beards and Kittens
• A poem
• A song

X

p.s. strawberries and golden syrup are the best pancake filler. Sounds weird but trust me, and this is coming from a traditional sugar and lemon girl.