Cleaning Up and Hamsters

Cups of tea: 6

Weight: 8st 12lbs

Song of the day: Neopolitan Dreams by Lisa Mitchell

Mood: Restless

...And the relatives came unto the Bowles family, and with them there came a madness in the mind of the mother that caused a great tidying to fall upon the land...

As it is my Grandma and Grandad's Golden wedding anniversary soon, a lot of my relatives are going to be at my house this weekend. This is good in many respects; I shall see my Uncle and his girlfriend again, and we are going out for a lovely sounding meal. However, I have had to scour my room from top to bottom, as my grandparents will be sleeping in it. I have been evicted to sleep in our caravan on the drive. Awesome.

...And with the madness of the mother there did come restlessness and disease amongst the livestock, until the nights were filled with their frenzied cries...

I have had tragedy and annoyance from my hamsters this week, and more than enough to last for the rest of their lifespans. It all started when I discovered an odd tumour on the underside of Ratchet. He was acting very poorly as well, to the point where I was willing his death on him to put him out of his suffering; he looked so helpless and miserable.

Nonetheless, I couldn't spare him too much sympathy. He and Clank sometimes scrap a little, but it's mainly play-fighting. Feeling ill clearly made him vicious, as they were suddenly at war with each other, screeching and scrabbling around until... Blood everywhere. I'm not too sure of what my initial reaction was, but I remember prising them apart with a pencil, and I remember muttering to myself "Oh, sweet Jesus..." as I saw what had happened.

Ratchet had bitten Clank's tail clean off. Needless to say, I have separated them now. This morning I awoke to find a lot of blood on Ratchet's bedding and the tumour gone. Looks like both of my pets are going to live to fight another day. Or not, as the case may be.

Yours tiredly,

Emma

Different Seasons - Stephen King

Aha! I have finally managed to drag myself away from Procrastinationville in order to write about one of many fabulous books by the King. Perhaps this might be a little biased, as adore almost every aspect of King's work seemingly unconditionally, so it might not be so much a review as a recommendation. Either way, let's crack on.

Overview

'Different Seasons' is a collection of four short stories (one for each season); 'Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption', 'Apt Pupil', 'The Body' and 'The Breathing Method'.

The stories are vastly different, and are all hypnotically captivating. I had to take this book in to work in order to continue to read it during my breaks, despite the fact that they are only 15 minutes long, as I was so desperate to find out what would happen next.

I read the stories out of sequence; the first one that I read was the last one in the book. 'The Breathing Method' is the tale of an unmarried pregnant woman in a time when society shunned her for this very reason. The ending is a gruesome twist that is oddly empowering towards women.

'The Body' had many elements in it that I believe inspired the masterpiece that is 'It'. The similarities are clear, and both stories show the loss of childhood innocence in chilling ways. However, I feel that there is a certain amount of self-insertion in this story that is also present in 'It', and several other King stories, which is a little uncomfortable to read.

The other two stories are equally spellbinding, but I shall leave them out in the name of space-saving.

Pros

• Four times the captivating plot lines!
• As always, King manages to word so concisely intricate areas of human thinking.
• The characters remain believable no matter how wild their actions or situations are.

Cons

• At times the narration can be long-winded.
• The aforementioned self-insertion

All in all, this book is a must-read! I would recommend it to people that have attempted to read King before but have found the books difficult to sink into. These stories are short enough for the "interesting parts" to be relatively quick to get to.

Rating - 9/10

Ideas For Posts

"No, it's not a very good story - its author was too busy listening to other voices to listen as closely as he should have to the one coming from inside." -Stephen King

Once again I find myself wondering what to write. I could follow the whiny teenage girl's version of a blog, I suppose. Why doesnt he notice me, all of my friends are prettier than me, i hate my parents their so annoying they wont let me go to that awesome party, i think im gonna kill myself.

It makes for dreadful reading, all of the petty problems of a teenage girl. I know; I go through them myself. I just don't see the point of sharing them with the world. Since I remembered about this blog this morning, I want to add a little variety to it. It came to me whilst I was at work. I live to read, so perhaps I should write about the books I've been reading recently?

I have bought three books recently, and I shall write the first review tomorrow. I have lent the third book to a friend, so I will not be able to read it myself for a while, but the other two were excellent. The books are:

• Different Seasons by Stephen King
• Ugly Shy Girl by Laura Dockrill
• Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Seth Grahame-Smith

Looking forward to writing my first review,
Emmy

An Update!

Cups of Tea: 1
Weight: 8st 13lbs
Song of the day: Gone In The Morning - Newton Faulkner
Mood: Sleepy

It seems that I have somehow managed to succumb to my habit of forgetting about blogs and diaries after a much shorter period of time than usual. However, I feel somewhat justified by the amount of different things that have been happening recently. My apologies.

The main event of my life over the past few weeks has been my extraordinary good luck in landing a job at Eskimoo Milkshakes. I have discovered how tiring it is to work, but I have also discovered how rewarding it is to earn money. The shop has always been one of my favourite places to buy drinks - I prefer Cafe Nero, but I prefer to go there alone, with a book. It's a very different world on the serving side of the counter.

Prom has come and gone, and despite the fact that it was barely a week ago, I still feel odd nostalgia every time I think about it. It's been an event that I've been looking forward to for a long time, and it seems strange for it to have passed so quickly. I had the wonderful surprise of being crowned Prom Queen; despite my friends asking people to vote for me I was never particularly optimistic about my chances. The ever-charming Will Wivell mentioned me in his blog, so it seems that I should return the favour - he was the Prom King (unsurprisingly).

If you should ever find yourself in need of a confidence boost, become the Prom Queen. It was so lovely to know that so many people voted for me. Nonetheless, I couldn't help but feel a tiny amount of bitterness when congratulated by people that I know only usually mentioned me in order to take the mickey of me. Not even part-way to being enough to ruin how happy I was, but still enough for me to dwell on. It was a rather befuddling feeling just knowing that I had my moment in the blinding social spotlight after spending the past five years behind the red curtains with the people that really matter.

School has also blessed us with the Sixth Form induction, which was actually relatively enjoyable. I always enjoy seeing people from school, and I thought it was interesting to see what I'm letting myself in for next year. It's a good job that I did, because I decided to change my options whilst I was there. I'm now taking Biology, Chemistry, Physics and Psychology. Unfortunately I'm no longer 100% certain as to whether or not I want to be a veterinarian; the idea of becoming a doctor is also inspiring. I shall have to see where my interests take me.

Speaking of interests, the discovery of the Radio One Live Lounge albums has been enough to satisfy my love of acoustic music for a long time to come. Some of the covers are undoubtedly terrible, but the ones that are good more than make up for it.

Well, that's enough rambling for today. I need to get ready for work.
Love,
Emmy