In which Demi goes there and back again.

A belated happy 2014 everyone!

(...pauses for odd stares)

Ahem. I realise I am beyond late, but quite how we're nearly mid-February I'm not sure. Last time I blinked it was New Year, and I was stood in the wind and rain and cold as close to the South Bank as I could get (not very, since we got waylaid by a pub and had to make do with watching the fireworks through gaps in the London skyline).

Now I'm home, home home, back in the North, and my London life feels like a dream. August to the end of November, as well as a hefty chunk of January - gone in a flash. I had the busiest and best, best, best time, making new friends and reconnecting with a whole bunch of people from University. There was an immediate shift daan Saauff (that's 'down south' for those who don't understand my pretty accurate imitation of my dire southern accent) in September 2012, after graduation, but I was part of the second wave - people who, like me, had been figuring things out for a year, or had been tied up in a four year course.

Jumping in at the deep end, I stayed with a friend of mine for the first week while I checked out potential rooms, and ended up living in the quiet area of Raynes Park with three complete strangers, who turned out to be ridiculously nice. Bonus! For a city-phobe like myself it was perfect - a fast train route straight into Waterloo, enough shops in nearby Wimbledon and Kingston for me to spend my non-existant income, and my best friend close enough for after-work visits. Yes, my darling Elf made the jump down in the September, and together we explored Clapham (Infernos and Aquum owe me some of my dignity), ate incredible food in Balham (and most other places actually) and spent a ridiculously fun afternoon meeting one of my writing heroes in Kensington at a film and comic convention.

Oh Aquum...

My adoptive southern family

Elf (R), her friend Natalie (L) and myself

My adorable little Raynes Park room

A family trip to Kew Gardens in the summer, when my parents brought down (more of) my stuff

Yes, yes he does. One of my favourite PR stunts, I moved down only a couple of weeks after Murray's historic Wimbledon win, to find that the local Morrisons had replaced their name to acknowledge his achievement.

I couch-surfed for longer than I probably should have in January - it's a good job Elf's housemates have practically adopted me at this point - until I had to realise that my drained bank account spelled out only one thing: H-O-M-E-T-I-M-E.

So with two more solid PR placements under my belt, I must admit I was disappointed to leave London empty-handed in terms of a job. A couple of near misses and several 'let's keep in touch' open endings have me furiously applying while supplementing myself with freelance work for my first placement.

[FYI, if you're interested in beauty and want to get some amazing behind-the-scenes interviews with top make-up artists, from Bourjois and Bobbi Brown to the legend behind The Lord of the Rings (I genuinely nearly died of excitement when he wrote back to me), then check out Warpaint, which I write for!]

SO, while I recalibrate myself and dust off the ol' blog (and journal, and writing notebooks - they've all been in a drought too), I'll leave you with a couple of songs which are currently being repeatedly blasted from my room, much to my family's frustration joy.

They've missed me really. xo.

'Can't Remember to Forget You' - Shakira ft. Rihanna. Two of the sexiest ladies on the planet, and two of my favourite female vocalists. Joy!

'SuperLove' - Charli XCX. Bubblegum pop perfection.

'Girls' - The 1975. I caught these guys at Dot to Dot Festival last spring, and they were amazing, even though they were suffering with sound tech problems.

'Happy' - Pharrell Williams. Because who doesn't love this song?

In which Demi is absent and tries to sort her life out... again.

So I suck at blogging. Again. Do I have an excuse? Not especcially. I got a job (not in PR, unfortunately, but it's enough to tide me over for now), and lazy, and quite frankly my social life has dried up into a small puddle of couple of guy friends who are all at varying stages of uselessness. Gotta love graduate life.

Here's a quick run-down of what's been happening:

I went all nerdy. I played this game for the 7th, perhaps 8th time, through and fell in love with it and the characters all over again. It's such an underrated RPG, even if the graphics are very dated now.

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And as a result of this gaming, I'm re-obsessed with the SSX snowboarding series, because I want to be skiing now.

I made a trip back down to Nottingham a few weeks ago for a friend's birthday. And it was SO much fun. I got to see all my housemates, other friends I hadn't seen in ages, and even my lovely summer boy, which unfortunately didn't work out, but it was still great to see him and catch up.

The 'Nottingham Lean'!

My darling Elf has disappeared abroad to Austria and live her daydream (I'd say her dream dream, but I'm not even sure if she knows what that is!) of being a ski instructor. I'm counting down the days until she comes home for a quick pre-Christmas break before her season gets into full swing.

I'm listening to Taylor Swift's new album Red constantly.

I've been reading a fair bit! Finally, something productive! I finished The Hobbit in time for the film's release. I had previously attempted the novel when I was about ten and got so bored with the tedious tale that I gave up just as they got to the bloody mountain and met the dragon. Years later, I'm now a massive fan of the Lord of the Rings films (not so much the books - The Fellowship was fine, but the isolated storylines of The Two Towers drove me mad and I gave up) and can't wait for the film of The Hobbit. So I figured I should give the book another, proper, go.

It's still stupid. I still thought it was tedious. And finding out what happened after I had stopped reading before only made me angry. The dwarves can't bang on about killing the bloody dragon all the way through the book and then it not be killed by them! Some man shot it instead? Great. How handy. And stupid. When I saw the turn towards war at the end of the book I decided to withhold my anger, hoping that a more satisfactory conclusion was coming. Wrong. He glosses over the massive, culminating battle by knocking Bilbo out for most of it. What an ending. Talk about anti-climatic...

I also gave Me Before You a go after being lent it by A. I'd heard good things about it, and knew it had been on Richard and Judy's summer booklist (my mum's favourite way to check if a novel is alright, but not pretentious). Although massively predictable, it was funny and touching. Although I definitely didn't cry, unlike some people *cough* A....

Film-wise, there has been a fair few new ones, such as Crazy, Stupid, Love which I LOVED. Totally did not see the twist coming, and I'm a big fan of Steve Carell, Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling (marry me?) Then during my Nottingham trip I watched Midnight in Paris (weird) and The Amazing Spiderman (mixed feelings. Loved the cast and performances, not sure about the plot/script in some places). I caught The Dark Knight Rises in the cinema twice, as I am an unashamed nerd, and thought it was amazing, and even (despite Heath Ledger's incredible performance) better than The Dark Knight. I also got my Bond on with Skyfall, which I thought was absolutely brilliant - Sam Mendes has saved that brand single-handedly as far as I'm concerned, although the performances and script were also fantastic.

Through a swapsie-esque film session with one of the boys, I made him watch The Hunger Games (which maybe wasn't quiiiite as good as I remembered, but still pretty damn good) while he introduced me to Bronson. It's one of his favourite films, and while Tom Hardy does an incredible job, I didn't really get the big deal. Definitely style over substance for me. And I may have slightly spoilt the film for him too.... ooops. And finally, on Wednesday I finally got around to seeing Silver Linings Playbook. I'd been looking forward to seeing it for months, and I was slightly disappointed that most of the best lines had been used in the trailers (I hate it when they do that!) and that Jennifer Lawrence's character was perhaps less developed than I would have liked. But Bradley Cooper, considering I'm not a massive fan of his, really impressed me. And I think the film does a great job of showing how people are struggling with mental illnesses as part of their everyday lives - even when they're not aware of it - but that it doesn't, in any way, have to define you. With two siblings with mental disorders, I found it a pretty interesting representation.

And I've been watching a lot of Grey's Anatomy. From the start, because it's funny to go back to the beginning when you're watching series 8 and 9 and things have changed so much. An episode a night is all I'm allowing myself.

Now I'm going to crawl into bed after a long, busy day at work, with my current read and a cup of tea. By the way, The Lies of Locke Lamora is bloody brilliant if you like Pirates of the Caribbean, fantasy, kick-ass characters, twisty plots - or all of the above.

That's all for now folks. Things should be picking up soon with things to do and people to see, so hopefully my writing mojo will come along for the ride. xo.

In which Demi goes where it is forbidden...

A few weeks ago, in a final bid to take advantage of the "summer" weather (really, UK, it was atrocious this year. Get your act together!), I took a trip up the A1 to a wacky and brilliantly British tourist attraction called 'The Forbidden Corner'. Anywhere that describes itself as 'The Strangest Place In The World!' is worth a visit, in my eyes.

The place is the brainchild of a man who clearly had too much money, and decided to build a folly in his grounds - a project which stretched over years, and became more and more adventurous and, well, bizarre. There's the more typical mazes, herb gardens and castle-like structures to explore. But there's also a Roman temple which leads to hell, a tunnel that narrows so gradually that you wonder how you can no longer fit though the other end (unless, like me, you force yourself through and bang your head) and all sorts of strange things sticking out of walls.

Additionally, I almost deafened several people when I climbed the stairs, squeezed between the legs to peer through the window... only to discover it was a mirror, and scare the living daylights out of myself (and others, from the sudden noise)

It's all very Alice in Wonderland. What we found most crazy was the lack of a coherent map. When we handed over our tickets and were given our 'map' in return, we figured it would be a pretty straight-forward route.

Oh no.

Instead, the 'map' is filled with pictures of all the many, many weird and wonderful features scattered throughout the acres of land - but with no route. Some are hidden, some are easy to find. But there are dozens of them! And even worse, there is very little indication of the area around the features, as the pictures are so tightly cropped and overlaid, so you can't even track them down logically using your environment. Bewildered, we struck out into the forest, where we laughed, shrieked (well, I did anyway) and on several occasions got soaked by hidden spurts of water (again, mostly me) as we attempted to track everything down.

We failed, unfortunately, even after hours spent there. Every time we thought we'd explored everywhere, we uncovered a new area we'd missed - until we unwittingly found ourselves on the path towards the exit, and unable to return to spot the last few things. Dammit! I am therefore determined to visit again, and tick everything off this time! So if you're ever heading towards the Yorkshire Dales, I would certainly recommend a detour (it's pretty remote) and a visit! xo.

Disclaimer: Both of us were 21 years old. You do not need to be a child to enjoy this place. Just a sense of adventure and plenty of energy!

I was rather fond of the gambling bears

Impressive glass pyramid

Inside the Roman Temple, heading into hell...

The underneath of the pyramid

The wood giant. I'm pretty short anyway, but this was ridiculous!

Pointing the way... to madness...

In which Demi fawns over Frascati

I've been extremely lucky and been on two incredible holidays this summer - one with my family (minus my older brother) and one with my gorgeous friend A., before we are separated for the first time since we became friends aged fifteen.

Firstly, to Frascati. Just south of Rome, Frascati is rustic Italy at its finest. Barely anyone in the town spoke real English, apart from the lovely staff at our hotel, and was mostly made up of restaurants and a scattering of boutiques. Oh, and an incredible gelato parlour which was never anything but heaving on an evening. During the day, when we ventured out for lunch, the place was sleepy and deserted, shimmering in the midday heat as the locals (wisely) took shelter indoors. But on an evening, the place exploded with people; gossiping teenagers, shrieking children, couples - old and young alike - sat on the steps of the church, simply watching the world go by.

We did venture into Rome for a day, as it was only a short train ride away. It was beautiful and interesting, but my attention was massively crippled by the intense heat; we'd coincidentally picked the hottest day of the year to make the trip, and sight-seeing in baking 42 degree heat was painful - literally, as I got physically burned when I sat down on the baking black seat of the tour bus. I'd love to return in the spring or autumn... definitely not summer. There's a reason people escape the city in the summer months.

Castel Sant'Angelo

The Vatican

Our beautiful 16th century hotel

The biggest and most delicious pizza everrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

It was, as it turned out, the hottest week of the year so far. Which, for two easily burning Britons (AKA my dad and I), was not ideal. It was so hot that after the first couple of days the hills began to ring with the sound of fire sirens, as local fire teams raced to put out the fires that were springing up left, right and centre. Fire planes, like enourmous canaries, swooped scarily low over the hotel grounds multiple times a day on their way to the nearby lake to fill up. It was pretty worrying, and the best we could do was keep checking in at the hotel that we weren't in any danger.

Other than the minor fire worries, it was a week of relaxation and de-stressing. My parents from their busy lives, and me from my surgery two weeks prior. A week of slowly, carefully excercising in the pool (and a somewhat doomed attempt to hold off the carb calories; Italian food is incredible).

More importantly, it was the first family holiday we'd taken in a while, for various reasons. And, it felt like, the first time this summer we were able to really relax and just be a family again, since the months of June and July had been so hectic and fractured. I wish my brother had come along too, but he chose to stay at home.

Next up... Malta mayhem with A. xo.

In which Demi does a book post, finally.

For a (former, *sob*) English student, I've failed pretty miserably at actually posting much about books. Probably because for the last three years I've been skimming through a whole host of books that I didn't particularly enjoy.

I'm picky when it comes to books. Really picky. Something that I didn't really anticipate being a problem (stupidly) when I first applied to do English at University. In fact, I kinda block out a whole period of literature. As far as I'm concerned, there is very little worth reading from, say, Shakespeare and Donne until you hit the beginning of the twentieth century.

Sacrilige, I know. I steam-roll straight past Dickens, past Austen, past the Shelleys and Byron, Coleridge, Wordsworth, Wilde, and I intentionally stamp on Hardy as I pass by (Tess of the D'Urburvilles is the single most ridiculous character I've ever had the misfortune of reading about). Jane Eyre got thrown across the room by me after a handful of chapters. Alice in Wonderland was tolerated, but not enjoyed.

Please direct all hate mail to Miss Demi Blogger, I Don't Care Road.

Forgive me for essentially ignoring 300 years of literature, but that's the beauty of personal taste. One man's literary canon is another girl's crap.

I can't relate to it. That's my main gripe. Somehow I can deal with pre-Shakespearean literature, all the way back to Old English, because the world was so foreign compared to our modern world that I can kind of accept the content as something far removed and easily analysed. But the Romantics and Victorians, who believed their world to be the pinncle of human existence, so modern and forward thinking - with their sexism and racism and stupid, stupid rules and morals - drive me up the wall. A woman raising her skirts abover her ankles? Wait, and she was in the presence of a man without supervision?! YAWN.

In fact, my favourite genre of literature transcends even our modern world. I love dystopian and futuristic fiction. I love seeing where our world - however unrealistic it seems at this moment - may go. And since finishing my degree, I've managed to indulge myself in the books I enjoy and wanted to read for months.

I chose some YA dystopic books to take away on holiday with me, something to kick back and relax with that wouldn't tire me out like some of the more literary books on my to-read list. I started off with Delirium by Lauren Oliver.

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They say that the cure for love will make me happy and safe forever. And I’ve always believed them.
Until now.
Now everything has changed. Now, I’d rather be infected with love for the tiniest sliver of a second than live a hundred years smothered by a lie.

 I really enjoyed Delirium. I loved the concept of love being a disease, an infection that Lena's society has decided is the main cause of depression, anxiety, madness - and so wiped it out. The result is numbness, a cure that is more of a curse. As a massive romantic, this concept was really sold to me, and while Lena certainly wasn't my favourite heroine ever, there was real character growth as it progressed. I can't wait to read the sequel.

Next up was Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi.

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No one knows why Juliette's touch is fatal, but The Reestablishment has plans for her. Plans to use her as a weapon.

But Juliette has plans of her own.

After a lifetime without freedom, she's finally discovering a strength to fight back for the very first time—and to find a future with the one boy she thought she'd lost forever. 

I had a real love-hate relationship with Shatter Me. I adored the style of it; Mafi writes with the kind of disjointed, hard-hitting style that I've always tried to capture in my own writing. Short, sharp sentences, unusual metaphors, and a real sense of humanity underlies this book. BUT. The insta-love had me rolling my eyes, along with her over-used 'power of three' rule of repetition, and the fact that Adam doesn't seem to be able to start a sentence without saying 'Juliette...' wistfully. It also fell flat at the end, after a good heightening of tension, in order to set up for the next book in the series.

Abandoned half-way was Matched, by Ally Condie. I was so disappointed with this one, I've had it on my to-read list for aaaages, but it was so slow and childishly written that I simply didn't care to find out what happened. So I won't bother saying any more about it!

Then there was Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas.

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When magic has gone from the world, and a vicious king rules from his throne of glass, an assassin comes to the castle. She does not come to kill, but to win her freedom. If she can defeat twenty-three killers, thieves, and warriors in a competition to find the greatest assassin in the land, she will become the King’s Champion and be released from prison. 

Her name is Celaena Sardothien.

The Crown Prince will provoke her. The Captain of the Guard will protect her.

And a princess from a foreign land will become the one thing Celaena never thought she’d have again: a friend.

But something evil dwells in the castle–and it’s there to kill. When her competitors start dying, horribly, one by one, Celaena’s fight for freedom becomes a fight for survival–and a desperate quest to root out the source of evil before it destroys her world.

Ahhh, where to begin. This book has such a backstory to it that I could probably write a whole blog post on it. I touched upon the story back in January, in this post. Basically, I'd been waiting five years to read this story again. Five years of reliving scenes in my head, trying to remember snippets of dialogue, of aching to feel the joy and wonder I felt when reading its original form.

And, perhaps inevitably, I was somewhat disappointed.

I had prepared myself for some of the changes. The book was bought and published as a YA novel, while the original story was more of an adult story, with Celaena older and more accomplished - and perhaps more believeable. Changing the heroine from a young woman of early twenties to a girl in her late teens added, I feel, an unwelcome restraint to Maas' tale. That, and I was confused and disappointed to find about half of the events of the original Book 1 just plain missing. This frustration was resolved when I went back to Maas' blog and remembered that she had turned the trilogy into a quartet, with the rest of Book 1 forming a brand new Book 2 to be out next year. If they're not in there, then I really will be upset.

Don't let my preconceptions put you off though. Celaena is still a fantastic character, as are the two boys, although they've all got so far to go. The world is rich and detailed, but not overly so. Worth a read if you like girly yet kick-ass heroines and old-school fantasy.

This post is getting ridiculously long... hope you enjoyed! Coming soon: current musical loves, Malta mayhem, graduate woes and an insight into the story of the mysterious and rather scary lump, which has made my life difficult since Easter.

Summer's over, and change is in the air. xo.

In which Demi is a jet-setter.

Another blogging delay, I know! I suck. In my defence, I spent a lovely (albeit scorching hot) week in Frascati, just south of Rome, with my family, followed by a week of seemingly non-stop catch-ups, day trips and general time wasting with my friends and family.

And today I am off to Malta for another week, with A.! We booked it after I'd spent less than 24hrs at home, after the mysterious and rather scary lump put a massive dent in our America travel plans. We're celebrating our last summer together, before she swans off to London to live the high-flying life, in her gorgeous new flat in Clapham. Not that I'm jealous or anything. Although I don't envy the fact she's locked into a contract where she deals with tax every day. Ick.

More in a week. Photos, news, book/film reviews galore, I promise. xo.

In which Demi has olympics fever.

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It should be said that I'm not exactly what one would call 'sporty'. I enjoyed horse-riding for a number of years during high school, and on holiday I love to swim and ski. I'll watch the football, if Liverpool or England are playing. PE lessons in high school were mostly enjoyable, always irrelevant. But that's about it. My laziness inhibits much more than that, and a half-hearted use of a Davina McCall DVD to stay in shape (thank god for a decent metabolism).

All things considered, I shouldn't be anywhere near as enthralled by the olympics as I am. Today for example, I sat and watched pretty much anything I could. Not just my favourites, the swimming and gymnastics. Fencing, basketball, beach volleyball, hockey, cycling, football, archery, canoeing, sailing, table tennis, regular tennis, badminton. I watched a bit of all of them. And maybe, in the cases of fencing, basketball and beach volleyball, it was an effort to investigate these sports I'd never watched. But I'm pretty sure it was my sheer awe at these incredible specimens of humanity, who have trained and sweated and lived and breathed for London 2012.

It's not even an over-developed sense of patriotism; while I'm excited by the fact we're the host nation, it's not the reason I'm watching it. I am, however, enjoying the fact that we have full access to all the sports through the BBC coverage, and don't have to worry about the time difference, rather than just relying on highlights.

This is exciting. The greatest athletes in the world are gathered on our doorstep, and I don't want to miss a minute of it. Unfortunately I'll have to, as we fly to Italy for a week on Friday. Hope my Sky+ is up for the challenge.

More life catch-up later this week. xo.

In which Demi dusts off the keyboard

So, you may have noticed there's been something of an almost-three-month hiatus here. Which is  quite unlike me, I'd like to think; I got into the swing of blogging a lot more this year - or so I thought - but I had enough bumps over my Easter holiday in April to send me careering off the track.

My bad.

So what, you might ask, caused this diversion? Well, to be honest, it was a number of things.

Essays (three of them. Big ones too). Reading (when am I not?). Doctor's appointments (enter mysterious and rather scary lump, stage left). Being smitten and/or embarrassed (over the cute and funny design guy at the magazine, who somehow made me revert to a 14 year old with a crush). Magazine elections and two new issues (the timing of the last two could certainly have been better, but loved the year as a whole). Summer placement interview at a great PR company (which I didn't get, due to my unavailability thanks to mysterious and rather scary lump). Celebrating the end of my degree (lots). Getting drunk (lots). Met a boy (sort of. Three years ago, technically). Films and Grey's Anatomy (my treat for finishing). Grad ball (beautiful). Results day (2:1 BA in English Studies, thrilled). Goodbyes (lots of them). A wedding (my cousin's, in Dingle, Ireland... beautiful, but far too remote). Trip to see the boy (romantic). Graduation (surreal, but lovely). Two early birthday celebrations (hilarious and very different). Surgery (damn you, mysterious and rather scary lump). My 21st birthday (two days later... not ideal).

Forgive me?

I'm now laid up in bed a lot, resting and/or being generally lazy after my operation, so I'll try to fill in the gaps of some of these events with some quick, belated posts. I've got a ton of photos to sort out and upload, so they'll probably make an appearance, along with some insights into my post-university life. No idea what they'll contain - mainly because I don't feel like I've properly finished. It all seems rather surreal. Once my results come back from the lab, I'll also finally be able to make some decisions about The Future, and what it shall contain.

...For now though, I'm going to curl up and watch New Girl I think. Hope you're all enjoying your summer so far, wherever you are. xo.

In which Demi is frozen in time

Waiting, I have decided, sucks. Having an uncertain future, a vague description to go off, is not enough. I've always wanted concrete answers. Vague is not something I enjoy, especcially when your future might be hanging in the balance.

Apologies for the delay, but I've not been very well. Trying to get back on track with my last two essays. I'm returning for my last term (although does it count as a term if I have no teaching...?) on Tuesday and I'm both dreading and impatient for it. Dreading because it's the last one, my final three months as a student, unless I have a massive change of heart and decide I need an MA. Impatient because I miss my girls, and the freedom of living on my own. Although I don't get perfect chicken pies served up for dinner in Nottingham with no effort, no siree. Thanks mum!

This is a bit of a cobbled together post. I'm avoiding an essay, as per usual. This time it's my Language one, which is unusual because they're normally my favourites to study and write. This one is certainly interesting, but its scale and 100% module assessment weighting is scaring me.

Nail varnish, chocolate and cups of tea in my adorable new teapot are making my life right now. With all that excitement going on, I'm sure you can understand my lack of blogging.

I feel like sherbet sat fizzing away in anxiety.

On another note, how awesome is this performance? I know Juliet as the girl who's featured on one of my favourite All Time Low songs, Remembering Sunday, so when I saw she was on The Voice in the US I knew I had to keep an eye on her! xo.

[edit: This is my 100th post. Wish it was a cheerier one! But yay! Happy blogday to me?]

In which Demi is basically her own worst enemy...

So it's 3am here, and I've settled down for the long haul to get half of my first essay written. Today didn't quite go as planned; an accidental lie-in was a bad start (sort of. I enjoyed it really), before I, along with my sister and mum, spent about 3 hours longer than planned shopping for outfits for my cousin's wedding in June.

[We didn't even end up with anything for me, which was mostly the point as the other two have their dresses already. Bad times.]

Then, when I finally did settle down to work, I sent myself careening off course and topic in my essay, which I'm only just rectifying now.

It's one of those annoying essays where I can reduce the 3500 word count, quite easily, down into one word to answer the question: No. I hope my tutor's prepared for 3499 words of waffle as a result.
At least I've got Liquorice here to keep me company. Not that he's being particularly useful...

My new song discovery, along with M83's album (thanks J.!), is keeping me motivated though, along with crispy Italian breadsticks, tea and a delicious raspberry and lemonade 'cooler'. The song is by Aidan Grimshaw, who was my one of my favourite contestants on the X Factor a couple of years ago, and while I'm surprised by the style of music he's adopted, I'm also loving it. Check out Aidan's soon-to-be-released single here. xo.

In which Demi shares her current favourites

First and foremost, Happy Easter to everyone :)

So after having a quick rifle through past blog entries, it seems to be quite customary for me, when doing essays at home, to post some songs which unintentionally form a work playlist for that period. Over Christmas it was Hurts and One Republic. This time, I can already tell it's going to be The All American Reject's latest offering, 'Kids in the Street'. I am a maaaaassive fan, and while it is by far my least favourite of their albums, it's still got some gems on there.

'Beekeeper's Daughter'

'Heartbeat Slowing Down'

I predict that a medley of AAR tunes will form the basis of my playlist. My Hurts love is still going strong, so they'll be in there too, along with Carrie Underwood and Lady Antebellum from my jaunt into country music.

'Cowboy Casanova'

'We Owned the Night'

Films-wise, I've been spoilt. From re-watching olders ones I loved which have recently made it onto Sky Movies (No Strings Attached, Love and Other Drugs, Water for Elephants) to films I never got around to seeing (Thor, American Beauty) and new releases in the cinema (hello The Hunger Games ♥ SO glad the film was an accurate representation of the book!).

Quick shout out to Chris Hemsworth for having a body that literally made me and my sister gasp, at the sheer size of his muscles. Which made our brother roll his eyes and sprout about how ridiculous we are. [It's probably true...]

Had a lovely meal to end the term with the housemates, and it's been great to catch up with a bunch of my friends back home as well. Spent yesterday with my grandparents, having family time. I'd missed them way too much. We're all still at the 'spontaneous hugs' stage, even though I've been back over a week, we've all missed each other so much. Even my usually anti-social older brother!

As for my visitor at the end of last term... lets just say they've got a lot of making up to do.

So for now, I'm grudgingly making a start on my Easter work, although as it's Easter Sunday I'm taking it easy and just doing reading/research. 11,500 words to go, bring it on! But first, chocolate and Northern Lights by Philip Pullman.... it's research, honest! xo.

In which Demi is starting to feel like a new person.

After the heart-break of editing down what I think might be the best essay I've ever written, the stress of realising I had 700 words left for my Arthurian essay when I needed at least 1000, and the tediousness of checking, checking and triple checking, all three essays were handed in on Thursday. At 10% each of my final degree mark, it's little wonder I went a bit cuckoo. But I wasn't expecting the full extent of the stress I'd put myself under, which revealed itself in the following days. I've lost about 6 pounds in those two weeks, from sheer stress, weird sleeping times, and a churny stomach which sent my appetite AWOL. It's slowly returning, but nausea still grips me when I eat lunch, and I'm wracked with dizzy spells and an emerging cold as my adrenaline slowly dissipates, revealing my crippled immune system.

Luckily I'm confident that I'll be in much better shape for my final essays in Easter, even though I'll have more words. It's always the madness of Christmas that distracts me - the family, the films on TV, the food, the friends. With these distractions gone, I have more faith in my ability to get them done to a decent standard and not make myself ill.

It was so lovely to see my housemates and friends down the road, even if it was for less than 24hrs. It's made me want to go back, but I'm glad I took the opportunity to come back home for an extra week, for some R&R, while everyone else finishes up their exams. I've spent a lot of time with my family - watching films, playing on the Wii, visiting my grandparents in their new house. We're making a collective effort to sqeeze every second of family time out of this short period where both Dad and I are not away. I've got shopping tomorrow to look forward to, with my mum and sister, and final friend catch-ups on Tuesday, before I head back down for my final ever term at University. I can't quite believe it yet.

I've been very bad and abandoning my course reading for this term (currently Alan Sillitoe's Saturday Night and Sunday Morning, which is bizarre to read, as it's set in Nottingham in the 50's. The narrator is casually mentioning roads which I walk up and down all the time, yet are very different - filled with factories and smoggy terraces) in order to indulge my love of fantasy with S.J. Maas's new novella, The Assassin and the Pirate Lord. It's the first of four e-novellas to precede her debut novel Throne of Glass, an epic fantasy loosely based on Cinderella. I read Throne of Glass in its original incarnation (then called Queen of Glass) when I was about 16, on Fictionpress.com, a site for amateur authors.

It was a sensation, pulling in about 3 times as many reviews as the second most popular story. Even now, she has regular readers who have followed her since Fictionpress, like me, on her blog, or her Facebook page, flapping about excitedly at the prospect of reading the real, edited, published version. She's a lovely, lovely girl, who always replies to comments or questions, and to say that I was excited to have a conversation with her on Facebook chat is an understatement. She pretty much single-handedly sparked my interest in fantasy novels, and I am literally counting down the days until the book is released in the summer. I'm only on Chapter Three, but I'm already hooked. 

She's getting published by BLOOMSBURY, which should tell you how awesome she is. Picture Source

I've also been taking full advantage of having Sky Movies here at home, and been catching up on a whole host of films I missed out on seeing for one reason or the other. While Never Let Me Go was a bit of a let-down (as was the book), I loved The Adjustment Bureau with Matt Damon and Emily Blunt. Even if the concept was a bit wacky, I thought the cinematography, score and acting pulled it off.

And to finish off this post, some more Hurts (sorry! Obsessed!). Every time I think I've found a favourite song from the album, I start to fall more in love with another one. But I keep boomeranging back to this one, mostly because Kylie's addition makes my hair stand on end (in a good way). That, and I have a real urge to play this to a handful of boys, to shake them up a bit and make them see sense. After this, no more Hurts promo, I promise. xo.

In which Demi says, very simply...

I don't want to write this essay. I don't want to write this essay.I don't want to write this essay.I don't want to write this essay.I don't want to write this essay.I don't want to write this essay.I don't want to write this essay.I don't want to write this essay.I don't want to write this essay.I don't want to write this essay.I don't want to write this essay.I don't want to write this essay.I don't want to write this essay.I don't want to write this essay.I don't want to write this essay.I don't want to write this essay.I don't want to write this essay.

I really really don't. Sorry Arthur, I don't think you're the best king in the world. End of. Unfortunately, my tutor wants 3500 words on the subject.

To distract myself, I keep staring at my fingertips (yes I am that easily distracted), which are currently covered in my lovely Nails Inc.'s Magnetic Nail Polish from Christmas. I'm currently sporting Trafalgar Square, a deep chrome, but my favourite has to be Houses of Parliament, a lovely deep purple. Unfortunately Big Ben, a bright brassy gold, didn't work very well, but that's okay because the other two are gorgeous, and came with a super glossy top coat in a big bundle. If you haven't seen or heard of the magnetic nail polish trend, feast your eyes on its coolness:

Sorry it's so messy. I was so excited to try it that all technique went out the window.

People who know me know that I'm big on nails, so my mum apparently bagged these months ago in excitement for Christmas. And with good reason, look how cool it is! The magnet in the cap of the polish pulls all of these microscopic metal particles in the polish into this awesome pattern, which shifts as the light changes. Depending on how you position the magnet, the pattern changes. LOVE IT.

And to motivate myself through these essays, I also bought two polishes from the indie brand a-England, which arrived the other day and are GORGEOUS. But I'm giving Trafalgar Square it's outing before I try them out. Once it chips, it's switcheroo time.

I can't wait to see my housemates on Wednesday, even if it is only for about 24hrs while I hand in my essays. It's been a long, stressful holiday, and I can't wait until we're all vegging out in companionable banter (there's never silence) and watching trash on the TV. Thank God for Take Me Out etc.

Back to the grindstone. 4 days. Then freedom, filled with films, tea, food which I am no longer able to stomach due to stress, and restful sleep. I had an irritating waking dream last night, which involved me searching desperately for some sort of technological gadget (which most certainly does not exist but I seemed to think did) at 5am, resulting in me ripping all of my bedding off in a harried attempt to find it. And then realise I was being stupid, and re-making my bed.

I'm turning into a fruit loop. Trying to motivate myself with my new kick-ass playlist, which features a lot of Hurts, which I know my dear Elf is happy about. I find the singer, Theo, to be strangely sexy... not quite sure what it is about him. He looks like someone my mum would have fancied in the 80's. Like mother, like daughter I guess. Half of it's probably his voice tbh. And the fact he's called Theo, which is one of my favourite boy's name. Happy weekend everyone xo.

I think it's the eyebrows. And the cheekbones. Maybe. (Source)

In which Demi is a little late to the Hurts party.

I'm meant to be furiously finishing off my second essay, which I am, but I had to quickly take some time to rave about how AWESOME the band Hurts are! How am I only just listening to them?? I watched the recent 'Never Mind the Buzzcocks' episode with my lunch, which featured the singer Theo on Phill's pannel, so when I got back to work I thought I'd have a listen.

Since then, I must have listened to this song, in particular, about 50 times:

Amazinggggg. I'm only a year and a half late to the Hurts party. Ahh well.

Also, I watched the first episode of 'New Girl' last night when I took a break from writing, which I LOVED. Zooey's just so cute! Although I can't make my mind up on Schmidt, I think he'll start to grate on me.

Looking forward to treating myself to the absolute trash that is the new series of 'Playing it Straight' when I finish this (only 500 words left!!). I remember watching the last series, when I was about 16, and it was amazingggggg, I'm hoping this reboot will be as good. Such a weird concept for a show. And hopefully, tomorrow my celebratory nail polishes from a-England will arrive, to brighten my nails as I bash out my final essay.

9 days until hand-in. 4000 words to go. Ding ding ding - game on. xo.

In which Demi is clearly crazy.

Not only was I up far, far earlier than is the norm for me, to entertain company at 9.30am ('barely presentable' is how I would describe my look, but then again, he didn't look much better), but it is now nearly 4.30am and I am STILL GOING. I am so behind on this essay that I refuse to go to bed until the majority of it is complete.

ONWARDS. Relying on a mix of OneRepublic, Star Wars and Gabrielle Aplin to keep me going musically. Rawr.

Tea and music are getting me through. Just about.

Apologies for the craziness. xo.

In which Demi is knackered.

I'm up and working on my esssay at 9am on a Monday morning. What madness is this? This, it turns out, would be at the request of my friend. He'd better bring me something nice to make this early morning business worth it.

So, December and January. Blogging fail, a bit. I've been going a bit crazy, trying to be both social and productive. And, ultimately, achieving neither. The only reason I agreed to meet my friend at an ungodly (in my eyes) time is because I'm not sure I'd have time to see him another time. I've another nine days to write about 5000 words. Oh I do like to put myself in sticky situations.

A picture-laden post of Christmas goodies and New Year madness is on its way, as soon as I locate my camera.

Recently I've said goodbye to two friends heading back to Uni, pulled my hair out about Transitivity and verbs for my language essay, applied for my first real job on a graduate course at a massive adertising firm (eek!!) and played babysitter for some of the kids in our parish yesterday. The tiny chapel we used to attend got shut last year, due to lack of funds in the diocese, so my dad decided that we should play hosts to the first reunion of the friends we'd made there. It was a small, friendly community that my dad really misses, and apparently so does everyone else, as we had a good 40 people show up. Me and my sister entertained the kids on the Wii, and I wanted to steal away an adorable little blonde-curled four year old girl, who had been just a baby the last time I saw her, when I became lazy with my church-going at the end of school. Too cute.

Yawn. Verbs, I hate you. xo.

In which Demi ushers in the New Year.

Source

 May your coming year be filled with magic and dreams and good madness. I hope you read some fine books and kiss someone who thinks you’re wonderful, and don’t forget to make some art — write or draw or build or sing or live as only you can. And I hope, somewhere in the next year, you surprise yourself.

Neil Gaiman - Source

I hope everyone had a fabulous start to 2012! I went to a small but lovely house party and am now feeling decidedly worse for wear after celebrating from 8pm until 4am. Ahh well, if you can't do it on New Year's then when can you?

This holiday has been a very sleepy affair. Lots of food, films and family. My grandparents came and stayed with us, and it was lovely. After the passing of my Nana earlier this year, I was desperate to see them, in case anything terrible befell them. Life has the habit of surprising you.

I also had a very nice reunion with my homegirls, with a delicious meal and plenty of gossip. It's been a stressful term for all of us; there have been break-ups, house issues, fall-outs and sadness at Uni, so it was nice to have familiar ground under our feet and familiar faces in front of us. 

I've developed an obsession with having my hair curly/wavey recently, with the rediscovery of my SpinCurl hairdryer extension. So simple! This is what I wore for our catch-up.

Right now I'm having to knuckle down and finish off my first essay, so I can crack onto the next one tomorrow. I didn't really factor in such a raging hangover to my schedule... rookie error! It's even more difficult to concentrate than normal this year, with my brother receiving the new Zelda game on the Wii for Christmas. We are hard-core Zelda fans, and I'm constantly finding myself drifting into the living room to watch him soar among the clouds of the new game. Jealous! Luckily the syrupy smooth voice of Gabrielle Aplin is making my work easier. I predict we'll be hearing a lot more from her this year! She's too talented not to make it. 

Ghosts

The Liar and the Lighter

Thank you to Beth for posting about her on your tumblr! Instant love!

I have a good gut feeling about 2012. My gut feelings have never steered me wrong before, so here's hoping. I'm wishing for at least a 2:1, some form of job before the end of the year, lasting friendships, and maybe even a new boy on the scene. God knows I'm sick of drunken, regretful texts from my ex.

2012 will be my year. I'm sure of it. xo.

In which Demi wishes everyone...

A very merry Christmas :)

♥

It's not even cold here, which is the only problem. We've never known such a mild Christmas!!  My grandparents are over, and we are all feeling very blessed and loved after vegging out watching Christmas films after my mum's deeeeeelicious dinner. I look forward to Christmas dinner take two tomorrow night!

More later in the week, but for now, I hope everyone has/ has had a really wonderful time, whatever you celebrate :) xo.

A tired Demi, after a lovely day. Wearing my lovely Primark jumper dress, which is both festive and dressy!

In which Demi is delighted :)

I have packed up my life temporarily and relocated back in t'North, as my dear Fryn would say. Home for Christmas, and I couldn't be happier. Only 36 hours in, and I've already had a delicious roast dinner and gone to buy our Christmas tree! We went to three different vendors, only to return to the first (and nearest) place after all! We'd tried to hide our potential tree, but someone had spotted it and snatched it up :( The one we ended up with isn't too bad though :) Mum has announced that this year's colour scheme (yes, we're a house that does colour schemes... and no, we're not allowed tinsel. My Mum's one of those types, who think it's tacky. Pfft.) is silver and gold, which looks quite nice, although I like a bit more colour to be mixed in, personally.

Christmas jumpers and tiger onesies galore in our house :D

My second reason for being delighted is that my favourite couple, Harry Judd and Aliona won Strictly Come Dancing last night!!!!!! Yeahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh! I was a fan of theirs from the very start, and it was brilliant to find out I'd also pulled the pairing for the sweepstakes that our family friends were running. I won £20, which I'll be using to treat myself in the Christmas sales :D

 

Marry me Harry?

AND, as the cherry on top of my little happy cake, I'm seeing my darling Elf for the first time in months tomorrow, for a coffee date and a much needed catch-up :)

The term ended on a lovely high, with an addition to our house (a vibrant blue plush crocodile, by the name of Nigel. Don't ask.) and a lovely house Christmas, where we exchanged Secret Santa gifts. Thankfully I seemed to tick all the right boxes with my gift of an OPI nail varnish, which Sugar had been eyeing wistfully since the summer. I received a lovely mug (regular readers will know of my immense love for tea by now!), with the slogan 'Brew up and sleep in'. Everyone laughed (an almost embarrassing amount), as I have become rather infamous for my love of tea and lie-ins in the house. Perfect gifts all round. My particular favourite, as I think everyone's was, happened to be Sugar's gift of a Cliff Richards calendar to lovely Fryn. Yes, it might seem a bit strange to gift her with a calendar of a wrinkly old singer (who I'm pretty sure is being cryogenically frozen every night to keep going...), but given her love for Christmas, and in particular Cliff's Christmas CD, which she likes to sing incessantly around the house once October hits... it was the perfect choice :)

In the run up to Christmas, I hope to polish off the shortest of my three essays (which, at 3000 words, is still hardly short), finish off my Christmas shopping, and have a catch-up with my girls from home.

I'm finally feeling festive... I hope everyone else is too! xo.

In which Demi is Queen Procrastinator!

So in case you haven't noticed, I blog a lot more when I have work to do. Coincidence? I think not.

I am an expert at procrastination. Take this afternoon for example; I wrapped up last night at 2am on 1700ish words, with only 300ish left to write. Easy peasy. Yet after a leisurely lunch, instead of sitting down to tackle this, I've sat and watched 'What Women Want', which I have both seen before and don't even like!! Then I read The Times magazine. Now I've made a cup of tea, and blogging instead of wrapping up this bloomin' essay, which will probably only take me 15mins.

Part of my frustration stems from the fact that I could write at least double the word limit I've been set on this vague question. I've only written 3 out of 5 sections, and with 300 words left to go it's not looking good.

Meh. I've eaten all the yummy snacks too. Guess I'm out of distractions now. Unless I start looking for a new winter coat...

NO. Bad Demi. xo

PS. Totally unrelated, but I liked this and wanted to get it down before I forgot:

When he looked into her dark eyes, and saw that her lips were poised between a laugh and silence, he learned the most important part of the language that all the world spoke – the language that everyone on earth was capable of understanding in their heart. It was love. Something older than humanity, more ancient than the desert. - Paulo Coelho, 'The Alchemist' (via Quotebook)