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Sunday 16 October 2011

Preview of things to come!
One of my pictures from the Miserable Rich gig last month :D more to come.
And thirteen days till the next gig- ooh, I can't wait!

Happy Blogging,
Lots of Love
Little Newman
xxx

Saturday 15 October 2011

Good morning!

I don't know if I said this last post, but I'll say it again. I am, of course, engaging in NaNo this year. I know a lot of people think it's crazy to do that at my age, when I'm in my first year of Uni, and part of me thinks that too. But another part of me thinks: when will it not be crazy to do NaNo? November is always going to be a busy month. I'll always be at school in November, and I'm past the age when things aren't so important by about four years. I'll always have important examinations coming up. And even when I'm out of school I'll (hopefully) be at work. And that will be important too, and it will be tiring.

NaNo is something fun, and even if it's a little crazy it's something I love, and that I really want to do. I am not giving up the hope that I will win NaNo, and that I'll win it with something worthy, something that I can take further than November.

NaNo is also the closest I've ever gotten to finishing anything. Which is actually worrying in a writer hopeful. But it's also inspiring. It's also encouraging.
So even if it's a little crazy, a bit foolhardy, I will continue to do it!


I was actually gearing up to post the pictures from the TMR gig but I think it would sully the message of this post, so I'll do that later.

To those of you thinking about doing NaNo this year, I say do it!
And good luck to you all, you crazy, brave people!

Happy Blogging, and happier writing!
Lots of Love,
Little Newman
xxx

Friday 14 October 2011

Okay, I've been neglecting you again, haven't I?
And with really no cause either; lots has being going on, and I keep thinking 'I should blog this!' but I never do.

Sorry.

So I'll give you a speedy little update.
I saw The Miserable Rich again early last month, I believe it was the fourteenth. As always, they were wonderful. Because it was only a few days after one of my closest friend's birthdays, I tweeted the lead singer with a request that he dedicate a song to her, and he did :D So a lovely night on that count (with pictures that may follow)
We also saw another very awesome band at their gig, We Used To Make Things. They were amazing, very energetic and very entertaining. Plus, the bassist (was he the bassist? I never am sure) let me wear his hat.
The venue was The Old Queen's Head in Angel, where it is impossibly indie. There were V-necks and nerd glasses galore, and it was ridiculously packed for a Wednesday, but it was otherwise very nice. We were sat right next to the stage, which, while awkward, was actually very fun, especially when it came to watching TMR.

Also, I've started Uni.
Woo. Woo.
Okay, so really I'm enjoying it immensely. All of my lectures are really fun, and everyone is very friendly, but the work is hard and I have no actual friends :( even though I've been there a month already. Oh well.

And now I'll sign off because I'm still in my dressing gown, and I told Angeline to come round any time from four.

But! Before I go.
I've started reading two really awesome internet fics, Guts and Sass by M. E. Traylor and The City of Roses by Kip Manly, and I decided, 'why don't I do this?' 'This', being dedicate a site to a story.

I then realised because my dedication levels are generally sporadic and I skip from story to story, but I already have a blogspot intended for writing, which can be found here, and also made a wordpress for chronicling my NaNo adventures (a little prematurely, but something interesting will happen soon, I'm sure.)

So please, check them out :)

Anyway, that's all from me for now.

Happy Blogging
Happy reading/writing/planning
Lots of Love
Little Newman
xxx

Thursday 7 July 2011

Ironic

"Sometimes it is better to let your thoughts out before they consume you."

Scrolled like a lover's message on the bark of a tree, the girl stood an stared at the message.
She tilted her head in deep thought. Ironic it was, considering what the message was trying to convey

No room for thought

Sunday 3 July 2011

Sunburn: An excerpt.

All things considered though, the new school wasn’t really bad. The students were more welcoming than the students at my old school would have been, something that surprised me. It was almost like they were competing with each other as to who could be the nicest; who could win me for their group of friends. It was a little disconcerting, I’ll own, but it was better than being ignored, or teased, or hated and alone.

My form class were especially nice- something that I would later learn was specific to that form. They got a lot of new students in that class, at least one every year, a boy proudly told me. For all that, they were close knit.

On the first day, I got told by six different people from six different groups that I was welcome to join them at break or at lunch if I wanted. I ended up going with whoever asked me just before class finished- it was easier than trying to search through the crowds for the face of someone I barely remembered the name of.

***

To those wishing to read of the wondrous well of Sunburn, just comment and I shall get it to you, one way or another.

Sunburn

Recently, I've been re-writing a story I started an age ago in an exam. I've shifted the perspective from that of the main character to another (almost as important) character as when I first wrote the story I found myself having him as a narrator more than my protagonist.

The story, which used to be called Jesse, is now called Sunburn, after the song by Muse.

It follows Matthew Hilton who is moved from Kent to London in his last year of school after his father gets a new job.

The story focuses mainly on Matt trying to understand the real protagonist, Jessica Priestly, with his bad relations with his father as a sub-plot and a small possible romance on the way.

An excerpt can be found here.

Tatty bye!
Happy Blogging
Lots of Love
Little Newman
xxx

Lit Corner

I've finished American Gods and The Importance of Being Earnest this week. Both are wonderful books, although quite different, and not just in terms of form. Neil Gaiman weaves a deliciously intricate plot about gods and mystery and love that is just stunning. It's a large book for a large subject, but the length doesn't detract or spoil the book in any way. In fact, one rather finds oneself wishing that it would never end because the world he creates is just so completely fantastic.

The Importance of Being Earnest is as ridiculous as American Gods is fantastic. Its frivolous and silly, and it makes fun of its characters in a manner that is beautiful to behold. It is very Wilde; I'm sure there is no one else in the world whose pen it could have come from.

That was impressively pompous. Learning French has made me view the use of 'one' as a pronoun (personal or otherwise) in a far more favourable light.

So, the rest of the books I have been reading this week

On Saturday, I started reading The Republic by Plato. I'm still at the intro, but I'm enjoying it. The translation I have is easy to read, with clear footnotes that ensure the meaning of the original text is not lost.

I have also restarted reading The Hundred Secret Senses by Amy Tan. I adore her writing style. It reminds me, in the way that it alternates between our world and a dream world that seems to be the past, of The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy. Tan's writing style is humorous yet slightly heavy. You feel the weight of the issues and emotions of Olivia, who narrates, but you can get past her mortification enough to chuckle at Kwan, who makes the best of every situation.

I'm pushing my way through chapter thirteen of The Picture of Dorian Gray. Pushing is very necessary, it is without contest the dullest and most needless chapter of the book, for the most part, but I see the light at the end of the tunnel and I'm using the hope it gives to guide me through. I've already read the end, a while back, when I despaired of ever being able to get past chapter thirteen. I'm looking forward to reading the entire book in the order it appears, with the middle, middle and the last, last.

I'm rereading Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen, along with a collection of her Juvenilia. It is incredible to see the similarities and differences between her earlier writings and her later- the way her subjects are treated (she always satires, but her mockery is more subtle in her later works and therefore less ridiculous). It's quite nice to watch her grow- I feel almost like a proud mother, or her mentor :')

I have also started reading In Rememberance of Times Past (A la Recherche du Temps Perdu/In Search of Lost Time) by Marcel Proust. Well, when I say started, I mean I know what the title of the first part is, and it's very possible I have started reading the first sentence. I mean, it's Proust. I'm pretty sure carrying it your bag counts as starting it. Opening it marks you as literary elite. (Those who have actually read it are the ruling classes. Those who have read all of it -past Volume I!- are priceless gems who should be sought out and cut as such.)

I intend to finish at least another two of these this week, as well as to start Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier, The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan and Madame Bovary by Gustav Flaubert- in both French and English.

In other news, I am trying to teach myself Russian.
I'm doing this, for now, through poetry.
225 by Osip Mandelshtam and that poem by Boris Pasternak that appears nameless but begins 'February. Get ink shed tears...'
Soviet Russia. Cheerful as ever.
I'm learning the alphabet first, pronunciation etc. I think it's be easier that way.

So.
Happy blogging and happier reading!
This has been a literary post
Lots of love (and admiration for those who've made it through- for a while I wasn't even sure if I would make it!)
Little Newman
xxx
Miscellanea

#225 -
Osip Mandelstam

After midnight the heart picks the locked silence
right out of your hands. Then it may remain
quiet, or it may raise the roof.
Like it or not, it's the only one of its kind.

Like it or not, you may know it but you'll never catch it,
so why shiver, now, like a thrown-out child?
After midnight the heart has its banquet,
gnawing on a silvery mouse.
Moscow. March 1931

Monday 6 June 2011


Currently I'm reading Neil Gaiman's American Gods. It's a hefty book- because this is the full, unabridged text- but I'm enjoying it immensely so far (although so far is a pitiful chapter three... ) it's intriguingly and intricately written (just what I would expect), and I can't wait to get deeper in.

So, that's all I really have to say... over and out! :D

Happy Blogging,
Lots of Love
Little Newman
xxx

Thursday 19 May 2011

Tomorrow is my last day of college, forever. I am dressing up as Captain Jack Sparrow, Wench.
This is my outfit.

Happy cosplaying!
And happy blogging
Lots of Love,
Little Newman
xxx

Wednesday 18 May 2011




Anna and I made this cake today, one of four. Cake Wednesday, is it's new name.
This one is for our history class, as our course is International Relations from 1945-2004. On the left hand side is the communist Sickle and Hammer, on the right, the American Stars 'n' Stripes. Down the middle is the Berlin Wall with black iced barbed wire and a Checkpoint Charlie made of butterscotch.

Can't look at cake for another week...

Saturday 7 May 2011

Titus Groan

I am reading Titus Groan, still, painfully.

It really does hurt, the insane ugly beauty of it all, and the slowly unfolding plot that tantalises, and teases and offers small glimpses of the horror that is to come.

I shall soldier on, however.

Lots of Love
Little Newman

Thursday 28 April 2011


Good morning from Pippi Longstocking.

Sunday 17 April 2011


Purchases of today :)

The first is a skirt from Primark that I got for £12 :) I'm in love with it already!!

The second is The Hour of Bewilderbeast by Badly Drawn Boy.
I was dithering like a madwoman, trying to choose which CD to buy- there were THREE in Oxfam. But yeah, I settled on this one in the end :D

Very happy with today :)) STEAL!

Happy blogging :D
Lots of love <3
Little Newman
xxx

Friday 15 April 2011

Bonjour!

You have been sorely neglected by me once again, dearest blog, for which I am intensely sorry TT__TT I have no excuse.

On other notes, however...

This week, I've been to see Cabin Pressure be recorded un... deux... TROIS times. Stalker much...

I'd never listened to it before, so I didn't know what to expect. I got particularly anxious when we were queuing, and there were many -erm- elderly people hanging around. I was, therefore, pleasantly surprised when I found it to be actually really very funny. Not to mention that I fell in love with pretty much the entire cast...

This picture is taken from Monday (before the heavens opened and I got drenched right through to my bones...)

The shirt I found in my mothers bedroom. It was my aunt's, apparently. beautiful cream silk from Wallis. The skirt and shoes, by contrast, are last year's from Primark :') The headscarf is one of my mothers from an age ago. I'll not lie, I felt very pretty and summery.
However, when it rained, i just felt cold and see though...


This book is what I'm currently focusing most of my attention on reading. I've been reading it for a fair while now- over a month, but I'm not very far in... that'll be the A2s kicking my arse. But from what I've read of it so far it's awesome.

So, I urge you all to read it. Also being read (or purporting to be read) by myself is Samson Agonistes by Milton.
I opened it, fearing that it would be like trying to read Chaucer, but again, pleasantly surprised. I'm actually enjoying it (or what I've read of it.)

I also need to finish reading Anna Karenina before the film is made! I'm very excited for the film, although as a general rule I am not in agreement with film adaptations of books as they don't follow the story line closely enough. But this is different, due (almost solely, I'll own) to the absolutely gorgeous cast.

Gorgeous.

So, this has been a post my dears.
Thank you for reading through my ramblings about clothes and literature.

Joyeuse Paques!!!
Happy Blogging
Lots of Love
Little Newman
xxx

Saturday 19 March 2011

Also, although it was a while ago,



I met Benedict Cumberbatch last month after seeing him play Frankenstein's Creature for the second time ^^

Thanks to my chicas who bought me tickets for my birthday. The show was brilliant.

Thursday 3 February 2011

Hola Amigos!

Bongiorno!

Actually that should be Bene Notte, or something, right? Because it's currently 20.46...
I don't know why I don't stick to French, the language I'm learning. Or, better yet, English. The language I'm at least meant to know.

D'accord, I'm posting to tell you about my friend's blog, peaceful anarchism. It's about, believe it or not, peaceful anarchism. He's just started it now, and has his first post up. I recommend it to you all, whether you believe in anarchy or not. It's very good :) and my standards are pretty high currently.

So, January's been a bit of a rubbish month, true to form. For a week or two I was bloody upset and then for the last week, I'd been doing coursework for Lit, which was a true killer. Srsly, I was exhausted.
I'm hoping February will be better but I doubt it. History coursework deadline is loooming and I started it off badly. So, just as our good friend Boris Pasternack wrote:
Fevrale! Dostat chernil y plakat!
Pisat o Fevrale navzryd
Poka grahochu schuya slykot
Vesnaryu charnoyu garit.

Or, for those who are to lazy to trawl the Regina Spektor fan forums for translations (apparently the only places where translations exist), that is:
February! Pick up your pen and weeping
Of February' in sobs and inks
Wrrite poems, while the slush in thunder
Is burning in the black of spring.

Apparently, it doesn't translate well. But you get the overall feeling of the poem, which is that february is not such a good month in which to be alive. Then again, who knows which calendar Pasternack was writing to. I have so much respect for Russian poets.
However, I'm going to see Frankenstein TWICE which I'm ecstatic about :) The Miserable Rich are returning to little old London town in the spring =3 soooooo happy.

Ugh, I'm so exhausted all the time, I'm not really sure what's going on with me. I want to read and write but I can't very well. I'm reading my lit books though, which is a first.

Happy Blogging
Love you all
Little Newman
xxx