Thursday 7 June 2012

Tea and Their Pots

Dear reader, 

At a mere glance at tonight's title, you may be thinking, "...okay..." but I promise you, I have good intentions. Half the people reading this may not even drink tea, but after reading this may agree with my hate of using pathetic teapots, and the process leading up to them. 

So you're sitting down perfectly happy when all of a sudden you hear those dreaded words, "Put the kettle on, love?" Em, no thanks?! Believe me, I have tried to wiggle my way out of it by just sitting there after saying, "Ugh, fine!" but no. Parents, they forget pocket money month after month. But when it comes down to their cup of tea, it's ridiculous to even consider the possibility of them not realizing you haven't yet moved.

You then slump off the couch and drag your feet along the carpet on the way to the kitchen, huffing and puffing as loudly as possible so that they just might see that you're struggling to build up the effort to care enough to make a decent cup of tea and take over. Word of advice, don't hold your breath.

As the message finally reaches your brain telling you that you are infact going to have to do this yourself, you boil the kettle. A painfully slow process in which you sit there hoping that if you stare at the kettle for long enough, it might just hurry up. Yes I am a rather lazy person and have no patience whatsoever but the worst is yet to come, my friend. After boiling the kettle, pouring a splash of milk into each cup and popping two teabags into the pot, you pour the water into the dreaded teapot...

As I previously mentioned, I contain no trace of patience within me, and so instead of waiting for the teabags to release their... their... um... tea, I fish out a spoon and stir it, pressing the bags against the sides of the pot. Now, the time has come... to pour... the tea. You knew that this was coming, and take a slow, deep breath as you lift the pot, hovering it over the mugs. You tilt it slightly, and soon enough tea begins to flow through the spout. You smile, so far so good. But then again, you know it's too good to be true, and sure enough BAM!!! Disaster strikes. The stream of tea suddenly turns to a pathetic dribble, and thats when you know that that's the way it will stay until you finish pouring the tea. You groan, and silently abuse it from inside your head. Attemping to move the teapots from blocking the exit, you turn the pot to the right and swivel it around. You try again, fail, abuse, turn and swivel. This is how your actions will go for the next 5mins. Good luck.

But seriously, if you're planning on producing and selling your own brand of teapots, will you make sure that they actually WORK?!?!?! That a decent, constant flow of tea will exit the pot and land satisfyingly into the mugs?!?! It's really not that much to ask!!! God. I personally love a good cuppa tea, but the idea of going throught all that frustration and annoyance and stress makes me not want to bother. Oh, and you may be reading this thinking, "Is she stupid?! Just take out the blooming bags!" well haha cos I did and it makes no difference. The awful design of the pot doesn't allow me to easily prepare this delightful beverage, no matter what I do. So BOOM.

Once again, I'm sure that I'm not the only one in this situation. So please, comment at the bottom and if you like what I write, feel free to follow me using the wee thingymebob on the right. ---------------->

Liv.

Monday 28 May 2012

Show me the money!

Dear reader,

I'm deeply sorry that I didn't write anything last night, I spent the whole day at my Gran's and then sorted out my bag for today. What was this bag for you ask? Well, that leads me onto today's topic.

The whole of S2 took a trip to Edinburgh Zoo today, as part of biology. Well, I think that's what is was for, we were meant to attend a lecture on primate behaviour as part of the trip, but... um... we um... missed it. Shame... :S Anyway, we had a brilliant time walking round, admiring bored animals and surrounding them with cameras. And of course at the end we went to the gift shop. Ah the gift shop, more often than not it's the child's highlight of the day out. You walk in, squeal at the sight of cuddly toys and stationary that you know you will probably never glance at again but nevertheless like the colour. Then, you grab your favourite item and then suck up to mum and dad to convince them that if you don't buy this you will simply DIE.

The problem is, even as a fourteen year-old girl, I still feel that way. Knowing that you have a tenner burning a hole in your pocket is unbearably tempting. So naturally, I thought, "I'm here, I have to buy something." My mind then flew back home to my brothers: Fraser brought me something back from his trip, so it's only fair, and Elliot (being 5) would scream the place down if I got Fraser something and not him. Okay. Sorted.

Next problem - what to get. Nothing too big or fancy, but nothing rubbish that would be pointless to buy. They have to like it. I looked at around and settled for two magnets which suited them perfectly. Pleased, I checked the prices and I swear down I had to read the label twice. Now, not so pleased. £2.50... EACH. For both of them I would be paying a fiver on my brothers. A bit much perhaps, but those were the only "cheap" gifts I felt they would like. Sighing, I went on patrol for a little something for myself. I found a bookmark and a panda key-ring, totalling up to £9.50 altogether. And thank God I still had enough for the bus home.

Here comes the real question: why on Earth are they priced so high?! Well, in all fairness, Edinburgh Zoo profits go to charity which I think is fandabbydosey, but in general, costs for little bits and bobs at the teeny wee gift shops are ridiculously overpriced. I know it's all stupid stuff like, "Oh, people will pay anything these days, besides, we need the money," or "Ah, they won't mind. The public love the museum." Yeah, keep telling yourself that mate, cos after viewing the prices, they might not be so keen on spending that much on a pencil, meaning that you lose money. Ha ha HA.

I mean, it makes sense, doesn't it? If you bring the costs of things down, more people would be comfortable about buying them, meaning that you would possibly - in theory - get more money. It's a win win situation, no?

Comment your opinions, I'm certain that I'm not alone on this one. ;)

Liv.

Saturday 26 May 2012

The reason it's harder to have a social life.

Dear reader,

Ah, the time has come for me to talk about the ultimate topic: homework. The thing is, where do I begin? There's just so much I could bang on about that it would be boring. So let's keep it short and simple by saying what every 5-18 year old person thinks when the teacher walks up to the board and begins to write the task you've to do for the next time you encounter each other - NOOO!!!!!!!!

Teachers have come up with all sorts of crap for you to do, and I swear they sit down with a cuppa tea at night and think to themselves all the ways in which they can make our nights endlessly essay-filled whilst rubbing their hands together and laughing.

But not only have they come up with all sorts of crap for us to do, they have come up with stupid reasons as to why they're giving it out! Some examples include -

- so that you're parents can see what you're doing in class. (if I wanted them to know I would tell them)

-so that you can practise more of what you've been doing in class. (oh please, as if we want to sit down and do more equations)

- so that you can go over what you've done in class and anything you find tricky. (yay! more school!)

To be honest they're not bad points to make, but as a typical teenager I frankly don't care. But the thing I really hate is when they dish out bundles of exercises to do over the weekend. Are they trying to make us hate school? Do they want to ruin our weekends so that when we're out having a jolly good time we can't help but worry about the four pages of English we've to write?

Sometimes I don't think teachers realise that we have a life outside school. We have other commitments that also take up our time. For example, my entire Tuesday night is blocked up because of things I do. I literally have about 45mins between the time I arrive home after school and the time I need to leave again. During that time I have to change, possibly shower, eat something and make sure that I've got everything I need to go out. I do not have time to do maths, or history, or physics. By the time I come home at 9, I'm tired and want to watch a bit of T.V. before going to bed. But no. Instead, I have to wander upstairs  and sit at my desk for the next hour and a half working.

Unlike my previous posts I think you may have found this one interesting, and that you may relate to this post in the fact that you too hate homework.

Keep reading!

Liv.

Friday 25 May 2012

Why rolling down a hill is now a safety hazard.


Dear reader,

Hello again. Ugh, I can’t believe how late it is: 11.04pm. Jesus, I was so confident that I would come home each day, do some stuff and then write this. Well, ha-ha-HA because so far so good, I have been doing that. It just so happens that each time I come to post something new it creeps up later and later. I keep getting distracted but there’s always something there in the back of my mind saying, “Do it, do it! Don’t forget! Don’t let your imaginary fans down!” So I came home after a three and a half hour dance rehearsal (of which I did less than I would have hoped…)  watched two episodes of Glee and now here I am.

So it took me a while to think of something to say, and then it hit me: what is the reason for my complete inability to use my nose today? Hmm, let me think. Oh yeah, HAYFEVER. The word makes me sick. Quite literally; I went through the equivalent of about three packs of tissues today.

You just can’t win! I mean, come on! Winter passes and you think, “Yass, the cold’s finally gone away,” and then you have about a month and a half where your nose is neither frozen, blocked of running. (Hehe, joke coming up: What do you do if your nose is running? … Run after it.) THEN Spring/Summer arrives, the pollen count shoots up and bam, we’re back where we started.

If you’re reading this and laughing in my face – well, the computer screen anyway – then stop it. There was a time where I was hayfever-free and could happily play on the awesome hill outside the house without sneezing or my eyes puffing up… then I turned seven and it all went downhill. (See what I did there? Eh? Eh?) And now every morning I have to take a tablet and then remember to out in eye drops four or five times throughout the rest of the day. Fun.

Well, thanks for bearing with today’s rant. It felt good to let it all out. Oh, and happy Friday.

Liv.

Wednesday 23 May 2012

Squelch squelch *wedgie!* squelch squelch

Dear reader,

Haha! I'm proud, I stuck to my goal and have so far written a new post every day. Well, considering my first post was yesterday its not much of an achievement... hmm.

That's not the point of this post though. Two words for ya guys, two words - sun SHINE!!! Yes that's right, this week has been one of the few days out of the year where people in Glasgow get their taps aff and toes oot cos thank God it's SUMMER!!! 

So, waking up and looking out my window I was practically blinded by the sun streaming in, then realised I got up half an hour later than I should have and rushed to get dressed. I am not a morning person. *yawns* Anyway, feeling all summery and happy I threw on my short sleeved shirt, skirt and (wait for it) tights. Yep, tights. Believe it or not my school has it written down as part of the school regulations that tights must be worn by girls all year round as part of the school uniform. How frigging annoying! I mean come on man! Don't get me wrong, the school itself is great. But the fact that the only time at school where I'm allowed to wear socks is at P.E. kind of bugs me. Especially when it's 27 degrees outside so that when I stand up to hand out a sheet in class, the lower half of my body feels damp. In the winter its great, but they should bend the rules so that we can allow our legs to BREATHE!!!

I'm really grateful that we can wear short sleeved blouses after the February break instead of long sleeved shirts with a tie though. At least the upper half of my body isn't damp. 

That's all for today, oh and if any of my teachers are reading this, sorry, but it's one of my human rights to peaceful protest. 

Liv.

Tuesday 22 May 2012

Introducing the blog

Dear reader,

Hello! Welcome! There's not much to say really, I'm a person with things to say, and I've found a place to say them.

I run another blog called A Day in the Life ( link here) where I create a character, maybe from someone I saw on the bus or in the street, and I give them a life and a story. It's relatively new, so not much is up, but I hope you'd give it a look to see if it's something you'd be interested in.

As far as this blog is concerned, I don't really know what it is. I used to have it narrowed down to me just having somewhere to rant about things that frustrate me, but I think I'm going to make it more general now, where I'll babble about whatever comes to mind. Could be books, could be films, an exciting incident or just... yknow... me. We'll see.

Hope to see you back here soon!

Keep reading,

Liv.