My favourite thing to do when walking about generally is smile and meet people in the eye. This is so disconcerting, it is quite funny and makes me smile even more. Some people look completely shifty or nervous and look away quickly. Others smile back, genuinely pleased. I wonder if it says something about the person? Would it be a good tactic for psychologists to analyze their patients- walk past unbeknown to them on the street before meeting them at wherever their clinic is to introduce themselves and continue their treatment. It definitely would be something interesting to find out.

Random acts of kindness are also pretty fun. Sometimes they happen by accident, for example helping a stranger pick up things they dropped in the street, but planning them is even more fun! When I went on holiday to Germany, we visited Heidelberg famous for it’s special ‘Student Kisses’. These sweet treats were specially made by a cafe owner because he saw that although the boys and girls met up together and had tea and coffee etc. they weren’t allowed any public displays of affection, such as a kiss, as they came from a finishing school. So he made these biscuits which when exchanged meant something special. My friend and I both bought a few of these and had a dare on to give them away to as many people as possible. It was so much fun, especially seeing the confused but delighted looks on strangers faces when presented with one! Oh the mad things one gets up to on holiday- ended up pinging coco beans into the Rhine with a slingshot one evening!

Anyway, enough of madness and strangers,

Till next time

Catie boi xo

Secret Santa has always held some mistrust and slight dislike in my books. First of all, there is the expenditure restriction. This is a great idea until it comes to actually finding a suitable present to fit the criteria. Where on earth can you find the perfect gift for exactly £5? It’s always a balance between suitable for the person/types of people involved, not too tacky and not too expensive or too cheap. Arrgh, impossible!!!

If it’s worked so that one picks out someone else’s name and buys a present just for them, it is easier than trying to cater for a whole heap of people with wildly varying tastes. My problem is, I have never bought for a guy before! Yes, I buy my Dad presents, but it’s not the same. I can get very practical things for him such as a dish scrubber, glasses case or some cooking utensils, but I don’t think they would be quite appropriate for a work colleague! I suppose I could get him a kind of funny present, but would be unsure of the reception. Oh well, I’ll find something. Socks seem a good idea at the moment, but are a bit clique and unimaginative, so still on the scout.

I am also kind of dreading what I might be given. I hope a girl has picked out my name, they are sure to give something decent-a lot of them know me quite well also, so will have a good idea of my tastes! I kind of dread it if a guy has picked out my name because I’m a bit of a flirt at work. I don’t mean to be but if I get embarrassed it somehow sets me off. I’m also a bit outgoing and bubbly- also kindly known as ‘the smiler’ because I grin most of the time. Plus the fact that some of the guys are not the cleanest minded. So I can quite imagine myself getting something rude- and dying of embarrassment! Maybe my imagination has run away with me a bit this time! Still, I am quite dubious of the results. Oh well, I can only hope and wait!

Have had many styles of hair throughout my life. When I was younger I grew my hair right down to my waist. It used to be called ‘my princess hair’ because it was so long and blond. It’ kind of darkened as I’ve grown older so now it’s more dark fair hair than blond. When I was a baby it was nearly white! I then got it cut up into a bob because I got so sick of it getting tatty and having to brush it so much. I still have the plaited length of hair that the hairdresser cut off. Up until then I had never washed my hair in shampoo. It wasn’t greasy or anything and had no intentions of becoming dreadlocks- all it required was a good brush with a soft brush and washed with water in the shower. People used to ask what shampoo I used because my hair smelt so nice and were astonished when I replied that I didn’t use any! I then started going swimming and that was the end of all of that. Chlorine wrecks hair and can only be properly washed out with shampoo. It wasn’t too bad considering I had a bob at that stage compared to my sister who still had her ‘princess hair’ so washing my hair didn’t eat up shampoo and take hours to do. I am quite convinced that every girl at some stage in her life will have a bob of some sort. They never seem to be unfashionable and are practical and easy to manage.

After several styles of bob later, I was still getting annoyed at the amount of maintainance my hair required. I then decided to get it cut up really short, and so it was. When one’s hair gets cut up so short after having a reasonably full head of hair, it feels unbelievably light and cool! I liked my short hair the best out of my styles but gave up on it after a few years because I got fed up of people getting confused about my gender- when that young, there is very few things apart from hair styles that distinguish female from male faces. I think that if you cut the hair from every young person’s head it would be very difficult to tell the difference. As you get older, the differences become more pronounced and therefore older women can wear short hair without any fear of gender mix-ups. Young faces are very generic.

After my very short hair, I grew it back out into an easy maintainance (top priority concerning my hair style!) rough bob and then out to shoulder-length. At shoulder-length I got it cut up again into a layered bob and it has grown out of that ever since. Recently it had been curling nicely when dried naturally (ie. when I couldn’t be bothered drying it with a hairdryer/ didn’t have time, ie. most of time) because my hair is naturally curly if it isn’t too heavy. It was just wavy when it was down to my waist. The thing is, it’s not that my hair is particularly thick, quite the opposite, it’s just that there is so much of it. I have enough on my head to spread around 3 people with plenty to spare! Due to the fact that it was curling nicely, I didn’t want the layers put back in and I didn’t want it too short. Instead I just got it trimmed and a side fringe put in. I hope I will make up my mind soon whether I like it or not, because nobody to date has explicitly said it looks better. What a vain creature I am!!!

Untill next time,

Catie boi xo

There’s this guy I know and am a bit more than acquainted with but he’s not quite a friend. I sometimes speak to him on msn and I got to know him through my school friends. Anyhoo, he’s gone to uni now and is missing home. His friends at uni all go home at the weekend so he’s left working away by himself. he writes poetry and posts it up on a blog. I was kinda interested and read through some of it which is very good. I have this aim that one day I’m going to get something published, something on paper, be it a novel, non-fiction book, poetry anthology, children’s story or whatever. My stories end up grinding to a halt so the best hope so far is for my poetry. Inspired by his poetry blog, I decided that I would start my own, posting up the slightly more recent poems that I have written. From there it kind of grew. Finally I created this blog and here we are now!

My life is pretty hectic most of the time, or at least should be. I spend some of it dossing around when I really shouldn’t. I have 4 horses at home, 2 of which are mine. I am in lower 6th so will have A levels coming up and I hope to go on to do veterinary or something like that at Edinburgh so I need bloody good results and piles of Work Experience. I also work as a waitress at weekends in a restaurant, am a member of the Pony Club and love running. Therefore, I should be pretty busy doing stuff and not messing around on the net! Oh well!

Today was reasonably busy, I suppose. Got up at 8 to go to the vets to do work experience. Love it there. They are so friendly and I get to see and do so much stuff. Plus, one of the vets, who I normally travel round with is pretty hot and has the cutest of dogs. Pity about the girlfriend though. Went to a farm to do pre-movement blood testing, before coming back to the surgery to see a couple of dogs. There was this poor puppy who wasn’t feeling very well. It possibly came from a puppy farm because the owners had to meet the seller on the road to pick it up. It had never been wormed or vaccinated and was 11 months old! The worms caused problems, making the pup constipated and it’s intestinal tract to swell up so it was in a lot of pain. Hate those things, puppy farms. People should never buy from any unreliable source- you should be able to go to the house and see the parents, not see some stranger on a random road. Does it not scream dodgy all over? The poor animals are kept in cramped conditions, with lots of disease, poor food and bad water. It’s absolutely criminal.

Came home and dossed around on the net for a while then did a bit of revision, writing notes and the like before it all ground to a halt. Fed the horses and then spent the next 10 mins running around trying to outwit the cat!

The cat is called Mr Tipps, or Tipps for short, named for the white tip at the end of his tail. He is otherwise black and a pain in the behind sometimes. This week he has managed to break a very valuable antique glass vase, get covered in honey, tip over the vegetable peelings bucket and generally make a nuisance of himself. I had just put him out the door because he was attacking the washing (why??!! Never did any harm!) when I went to feed the horses. I then spent a very enjoyable 10 mins running up and down the garden trying to outwit him. He runs very fast and can slip in between your legs as you go in the door of the house and I wanted to keep him out. Finally got in without him, and then my sister made the whole exercise entirely pointless by opening the door to go to the car! Oh well, a bit of exercise never did me any harm!

Should really get some sleep, catch up on all that I’ve missed because of having to get up early and not bothering to go to bed until late. Yes, I say bothering because it involves moving from one side of the house to a very cold other side!

Till next time,

Catie boi xo