Story Time – The evening of things getting worse and worse

I am not the kind of person who has a lot of interesting things happen in their day to day life, so I have not had many story time posts on my blog.

HOWEVER!

I just had the most chaotic evening of my life, and if I don't share it, it's going to be a story lost to time. No matter that I've already verbally told this story three times, I will now tell it here as well!

It all starts when I get a text from a friend, asking if I want to do something in the evening. Since it's a Friday night, and I never have plans, I decided it was a great idea. What followed was half an hour of us deciding that we were hungry, and that there's nowhere good (and fairly cheap) to get food near where we live. So, we come to the conclusion that we will head into town, get pizza, and do some bowling.

First off, I have to get fuel. And no one likes going into the little shop, so I decided to pay at the pump. I put my card in, it thought about it for about two minutes, and then announced that I had removed my card too early and should replace the pump. I hadn't touched anything. So, I took my card out, waited for it to reset itself, and tried again. Same thing. So, I just got back into my car, moved to a different pump, and everything worked fine.

That was the first instance of the bad luck that had settled over me.

Then I head to pick up my friend. Now, she lives in an area that is under a lot of construction, and the roads are very narrow. I came to her road, and it was blocked by a van, and two men tidying tools away for the evening. I waited patiently, they were well aware that I was there, because my headlights were on, and they were using the light to see. They spent five minutes doing stuff, which seemed altogether unnecessary, before moving out the way and letting me through.

The next thing happened a little while later. We were on the road, approaching a junction, when we came upon a lot of traffic. Cars start swerving out into emptier lanes, and the traffic was getting worse. I can see flashing lights at the junction. The junction splits into a left turn and a right turn. Across the left turn, a lorry is broken down, across both sides of the road. Police are directing everyone to the right. Guess which way I needed to go? Yes, that's right. Left. So, I go to the right, and start wondering where I was going to pull over to sort out the sat nav, because I hadn't turned it on. I know the way, but only if I had gone left.

Luckily, my friend announced that she knew exactly which way to go, and we made it with only one roundabout that I went around twice, because I missed the turn both times.

We were finally there, ready to eat some pizza, and then do some bowling. First, we have to queue to get into the pizza place. We get in, sit down. We have to order from our phones. I am an incompetent human being, and my phone decided the free WiFi wasn't good enough, and refused to connect to it. So, we ended up ordering twice, from my friends phone, so we could pay separately. But it's fine, because we immediately get drinks, so we're happy.

Until an alarm goes off. Now, sometimes you're not sure what to do when a fire alarm goes off, and that was certainly the case. One minute, everyone was sat down, looking around, and the next, everyone was on their feet, putting on coats, and picking up belongings. Children were grabbing as much food as they could carry. Everyone was being herded out the door. And then we were all sent to the other end of the complex, so I'm starting to think something's about to explode.

About fifteen minutes later, we're all brought back inside. I overhear the manager telling someone that there was no fire at all. We sit back down, keeping in mind that we are booked in for bowling at 8, and it's half past 7. We expected to be eating at this point.

My pizza comes out, and I start moving things to fit it on the table. And my drink falls over. I call to the waitress, asking if we can get a cloth or something, and pick up the drink. I put it down, in exactly the same place (where two tables join together, and there is a slight lip where one is taller than the other) and it falls again. Hilarity ensues. We clean up the mess I made, and I'm realising that my friend's food hasn't come out, only mine.

It is awkward to sit, when everyone has their food but you. It is also awkward to sit when you have food, but the other person doesn't. It took fifteen extra minutes for my friend to get her food, which I kind of understand, considering the whole fire alarm situation, and the fact that people were asking for new pizza, because their's had gone cold (it certainly hadn't. The ice in our glasses hadn't even melted) but mine came out fairly quickly, and I ordered second.

By the time my friend gets her food, we have ten minutes until we are meant to be bowling. I don't think either of us have ever eaten pizza so quickly. And, we didn't want our free drink refills to go to waste, so we downed our drinks as well.

Feeling slightly ill, we went to the bowling building, and had to queue for another ten minutes to say sorry we're late, can we still play? The person working there looked so fed up with their job, they asked if we were booked in as VIPs, we said no, they said 'you are now'. They literally upgraded us because they were fed up.

And then I awkwardly had to go back and ask how to put the barriers up, because neither of us can do bowling without those little kiddie barriers that stop your ball going into the gutter. That was a whole palava in itself. Turns out, bowling is actually quite difficult, and neither of us were very good at it. I won by about five points. It was very close the whole game.

And, it seemed, my bad luck was lifted. On the car journey home, I took a risk, and went the way that the lorry had been. It was gone, and all that remained was sand sprinkled across the road to stop other cars slipping on spilt oil.

I made it home, told this whole story twice, and then wrote it out again, here.

It was an incredibly eventful evening.

And done!

I was texting my Dad throughout the fire alarm/drink spilling situation, and he seemed utterly uninterested. When I told him I spilt my drink, he sent me a GIF of Yoda, with the words 'dumb you are'.

I hope this has been even mildly entertaining. And I hope I do not have another experience like this, at least for two or three years.

That's all for now...

Bye!

Story Time – The time I almost got locked in a library and forgot to panic

 My Library Adventure

I think this classes as something semi entertaining. Therefore, I am going to tell the story of the time I was seconds away from being locked in a library.

If you've read some of my posts before, you might have figured out that I generally have no plan. I spend a lot of the time with no idea what's going on and can be incredibly air-headed at times. I am the type of person who freaks out over nothing and is incredibly calm in situations when I should probably be freaking out. Whether this is a blessing or a curse, I am not yet sure.

I was meant to be meeting my friend. The same friend who I'm always talking about (I only have one. I know, poor me.) We live quite close to each other, and used to meet up halfway between our houses quite often (pre-lockdown). This halfway point is where there are a couple of shops – a corner store, a florist, a sweet shop... and a library.

It's not that I walk quicker than she does, but I am always more prepared to leave and leave before she does (also this halfway point is not exactly halfway, and I live closer to it than she does).

So I arrive first. And instead of just hanging around outside the shops and both looking like a weirdo and feeling awkward, I decided to do the thing any sane person would do – go into the library.

Now, I think this story is a testament to how little attention the people in that library pay to people coming in and out. It also doubles as a cafe, so I walked in and the person behind the counter glanced up at me. I walked on past, to the YA section, just to grab something to pass the time. I didn't want to check anything out, because I couldn't be bothered to bring anything back. I picked up Four (from the Divergent series) because I had read it before and I wouldn't feel the need to continue reading, as I already knew the story. Smart, right?

I texted my friend, letting her know I was in the library in case she arrived and couldn't find me. Then I sat down on a beanbag and started reading.

I was at about chapter three when the lights went out.

And no joke, I thought to myself "oh, that can't be good. I should probably leave" in the most calm, carefree sort of way. I then took the time to put the book back in the right place before walking over to the doors.

Luckily, the person locking up and gotten distracted in a conversation with someone, and was twiddling the keys in her hands as she talked. I walked by, my head down because I am an awkward carrot. As I passed, I heard one of them whisper to the other "oh, there was someone in there." Yeah, there was.

Everything was fine, I met my friend (who still hadn't arrived yet) and we had a lovely time.

I had a contingency plan. If I had gotten locked in, I would've phoned the police and let them know I was stuck in the library, then phoned my friend to let her know I probably would be a bit late, and finally phoned my parents to let them know so they wouldn't worry. The police would show up and get me out, and everything would have been good.

I must admit, this was not the initial plan. This was the plan I formulated much later. The plan I formulated immediately after was much more preferable and almost made me wish I had stayed where I was. This plan included visiting the cafe, eating sandwiches and cake, reading late into the evening and sleeping on the beanbags. There was a toilet, running water, food and entertainment. What could be better? And technically they wouldn't have been able to complain that I ate their food, as they had locked me in a library.

Nevertheless, I never had to carry out either of those plans, because I escaped at the last moment. I probably made this sound a lot more exciting than it was.

Honestly, though, it's two rooms, the library/cafe and the toilet. Not all that big. It would take a maximum of thirty extra seconds to check the whole building for people before turning the lights off and locking up. If the person had just looked around the corner of a bookcase, they would've seen me and they could've asked me to leave.

Not that I'm complaining, the experience means I have another kind of cool story to write about.

Okay, that's it.

Bye!

Story Time – A dramatised version of the time I saw a cute guy in a shop

A story that shows how creative my mind is on a day to day basis.

I looked down at my shoes as I walked, trying desperately to time my footsteps to the music playing through my earphones. The last song had been fine, but this one was just a little bit too fast for me to keep up with. I looked up from my feet as someone crossed the road in front of me and I slowed my pace slightly so it didn’t look like I was following him. 

I could only see the back of him, but from the bag tucked under his arm, he was obviously going to the shop, like I was. Great, so I had to awkwardly follow him all the way to the shop. 

My mind started to wander as I thought about the money in my pocket. My father had sent me for bread, just bread, nothing else, and I was wondering just how much chocolate I could buy before he got suspicious over how expensive the bread was. The guy in front of me crossed the road and I waited as a car went by before I followed. As the car passed, the guy turned his head to watch it and his eyes flicked towards me, just as I misjudged my step onto the pavement and stumbled. Great, not only had I tripped and scuffed my shoes, a complete stranger had seen me do it. On the plus side, he hadn’t laughed, so maybe he hadn’t been paying attention.

My stumble had set me back, away from him a bit, so I watched as he walked into the shop from a distance and sighed to myself as I picked up my pace, the song playing in my left ear finally changing to one I could walk along to. The right ear bud was bouncing on my chest as I walked and I had long since given up try to tuck it into my top to stop it from doing so. 

I walked into the shop, making a beeline for the bread. I sighed inwardly as I saw three different people standing around the bread. I tried to tell myself to excuse the elderly couple for taking a long time, because they were old. The other guy muttered an apology to me for being in the way and I replied with a ‘that’s alright’, my voice way too high and squeaky. I cringed – I had just phone-voiced this guy in real life. 

The elderly couple moved away slowly and I grabbed a loaf of bread as the other guy stood debating what type of baked goods he wanted. Slipping past the couple, who were now stood around the hotdog buns, I speed walked my way to the checkout queue, the loaf of bread swinging in my hands as I walked. I stood at the back of the queue, looking up from my shoes to see how many people were stood in front of me when I saw, guess who standing in front of me? The guy who had been walking in front of me. 

He turned as I approached him, coming to a stop the same amount of distance he was standing from the woman in front of him, assuming that was how far away I was supposed to stand. As he turned, I took one glance at him and then ducked my head, pretending to be looking at the chewing gum. Oh my God, he was cute.

His hair was dark and looked like he had missed a couple of hairdresser appointments, falling in a mess of curls over his dark brown eyes, curling around the frames of his glasses. His face was covered in freckles and, yep, he was taller than me. 

He stepped forward towards the till as I freaked out about how to be cool, despite him not looking at me. You read it in books, didn’t you? About how people met in the oddest of places and fall in love and get married and have five kids. Maybe this was my guy.

I walked up to the other till and placed the bread down. It wasn’t until the guy behind the checkout coughed that I realised he had asked me a question and, being the awkward parsnip that I was, I bypassed the polite ways to ask someone to repeat themselves and, very loudly, said ‘huh?’ Turns out he had asked if I was paying by cash or card. I replied saying ‘cash’ as the blood rushed to my face and I quickly placed the coins in his outstretched hand, grabbing the bread and walking towards the exit. Maybe cute guy was waiting for me. He would approach me, a blush across his cheeks as he awkwardly said that he thought I was pretty and could he please get my number. His voice would be deep, but not so deep it was intimidating. I would smile, coyly, of course, and ask him if he had a pen. If he did, I would take it, take his hand, and write my number on the back of his hand, adding a small love heart after the digits. 

The air outside was much colder than it was in the shop and I glanced around, looking for cute guy. I caught a glimpse of him just before he turned a corner, walking in the opposite direction to me without a backwards glance. 

Maybe he wasn’t the one for me. I sighed, pulling my phone out of my back pocket and changing the song. Maybe I would find the love of my life next time I go out for bread. Then again, he probably was so incredibly humble he would never approach a girl to ask for her number. That poses an issue for how I would meet him. 

Maybe I should leave my love life to fate, and get the bread home before my father decided he no longer wanted toast, making my trip a waste of time. 

Yes, this actually happened.

It was a little less dreamy, but the main structure of the story is basically the same.

I'm just a sucker for hair thats messy and a little too long, and pretty eyes.

And yes, I'm this awkward in real life.

I wasn't sure whether to post this on a Wednesday or a Saturday. On Wednesdays, I tend to post reviews, or things that are basically me talking, rather than stories, which is why I opted to post this on a Saturday, when I normally post creative things/short stories. The only problem is this is technically also a story time, which I post on Wednesdays. See my dilemma? I might have to rethink my system...

Okay I'm done.

Bye!

Story Time – The Fault In Our Stars by John Green – my relationship with the story

 Story Time

The Fault In Our Stars 

by John Green

So I have a couple of stories about this book, but first I'm going to introduce it because I can't be bothered to explain what it's about! Also, I honestly can't find an image online that I can use without issues about copyright that looks like the cover I have. The one I have used is the best I could find!

I fell in love the way you fall asleep: slowly, then all at once.

Despite the tumour-shrinking medical miracle that has bought her a few years, Hazel has never been anything but terminal, her final chapter inscribed upon diagnosis.

But when a gorgeous plot twist named Augustus Waters suddenly appears at Cancer Kid Support Group, Hazel's story is about to be completely rewritten.

Insightful, bold, irreverent, and raw, The Fault in Our Stars brilliantly explores the funny, thrilling, and tragic business of being alive and in love.

Amazon UK • Amazon US

So, I have introduced the book, you've (hopefully) read the blurb. If not, why did you scroll past it? Click on the links and go and get yourself a copy!

I first heard about this book about four years ago, when everyone at a drama group I attended was talking about it. I wasn't actually friends with any of the people who were talking about it, so I was purely eavesdropping and was not at all involved in the conversation.

The next time it was brought up in my presence was when I was at a friend's house for dinner. We were trying to decide what film to watch while we ate and she suggested The Fault In Our Stars. I said I had never seen it and she was appalled, immediately putting it on without any further debate. We sat, watching it, while eating pizza, dipping it in copious amounts of barbecue sauce (the pizza that is, not the movie). Not being a particularly emotional person when it comes to watching movies, I didn't get as emotional as many people have when watching this movie, but I loved it all the same. I now own the DVD and it's sitting on my shelf in front of me as I type this.

After having watched the movie, I, at some point, obtained a copy of the book. I can't actually remember who gave it to me. I think it might have been the friend I watched the movie with. Anyway, so I had watched the movie, and I read the book in no time, loving it as much as I had loved the movie.

Now comes the reason I'm talking about this book. I went on holiday with my family a couple of years ago. It was the start of autumn and we were going away for a week, to a caravan park near the beach. Of course, being in England, and it being the end of summer, it was much too cold to actually spend time at the beach. The weather was nice, but the water was freezing and the sand was the wet, clumpy, pebbly type.

Going on holiday is always a massive to-do in my house. There's always a big deal about packing. My brothers are completely incompetent when it comes to packing. I am not. We had three suitcases – obviously not enough for me, my brothers and both my parents. So I said I would pack my things in my backpack.

This is not the backpack I took, because that one since broke. This one is the same size, with my copy of the book for reference, both sat nicely on my rug.

In case you were wondering, the bag says:

SARCASM
Noun. (saːkaz(ə)m)
The ability to insult idiots without them realising it.

Amazing, right? I can't find this exact one, but here's a link to where I got it:

Amazon

Five days' worth of clothes, as well as a phone charger, two jumpers (although I wore one on the journey, so that doesn't count) and a coat (granted it didn't go in my bag, but I took it). At this point, my bag was bulging from all the stuff in it, but I only had my charger in the little front pocket. And everyone knows that the front pocket of a backpack is to put a book in.

I shoved my copy of The Fault In Our Stars in it. I didn't know if I was actually going to read, but you never want to be caught without a book available, so I took it anyway.

On a five day holiday, I read that book at least seven times. As soon as I finished it, I would turn the pages back to the start to begin again. I read it on the caravan's little porch in the sun, I read it in pyjamas, curled up on the sofa in the evening, I read it when I woke up in the morning. One time, I woke up and the sun was streaming through the curtains, so I assumed it was at least half seven. I picked up my book and read at least half of it before I realised that my family should've woken up by now and I was starting to get hungry. I checked the time on my phone, which should've been the first thing I had done. It was half five. Whatever time it had been when I had woken up, I'm not sure, but the mystery as to why it was so bright out so early in the morning remains a mystery to this day.

All in all, I have read this book over ten times and loved it a little bit more each time. Granted, I found the book through the movie, but I don't think that really matters if you love the book – better to find a book that you love than worry about the fact you watched the movie first, right?

I think that's it! That is my entire history with The Fault In Our Stars. I don't know how entertaining it will be to read about, but I'm going to upload this nonetheless because I want to share the mystery of the light in the middle of the night and the book plays a pivotal part in that story. Also, I had so much trouble getting the fonts and font sizes correct on this post, because I would set them right and then preview the post and they would all be wrong. Therefore, after so much work, I'm not not going to post it!

Bye!

Why impulsiveness and hair don't mix

You might be able to tell where this post is going.

When I was little, my hair grew really slowly and my brothers' hair grew really fast. I remember sitting in the hairdressers, waiting as my brothers got their hair cut and I didn't, thinking 'I want to be a hairdresser when I grow up'.

This is where it all started going wrong.

I had it cut very short at one point – shaved sides and the little floof on top.

You may be wondering where this is going, but this specific haircut is very crucial to the story. As, when you have such a haircut, it doesn't grow out evenly. The sides reached my shoulders before the top had reached my chin. When the top layer was just long enough was when I reached for the scissors and lobbed it off, in a lovely little bob. And I must say, it was cut very straight.

Skip forwards about a year, I'm obviously bored again. So I cut my fringe. Not short, it fell past the end of my nose, but it was a change and there's nothing quite like feeling freshly cut hair and your fingers not being used to the hair ending so suddenly.

Skip four more days and I want my hair short again. So I pick up my trusty green kitchen scissors and chop chop chop. The return of the little bob is here.

This is where I explain the impulsiveness fully. When I cut my fringe, it was because I was watching Spiderman: Homecoming and there's a scene where they're getting on the bus to go to the decathlon. MJ talks about protesting. She has a fringe. It was not three minutes later that I sat back down with a fringe like hers.

I decided that I wanted to cut my hair short about half an hour before I did it. I gave a friend updates as I did it, questioning why I do these things and why she's not texting back and stopping me.

My hair is a little (lot) shorter than I meant for it to be. And yes, IS. This happened this week. My hair barely reaches back into a ponytail.

Oops.

I have a feeling this is not going to be the last time I make a drastic decision without prior thought and I have a feeling at some point, I'm going to make a decision more drastic than cutting my hair. Hair grows back, what's going to happen when I end up with last minute decision tattoos?!

I don't know how interesting this post is, but I wrote it late at night so I can be excused. Please, though, let me know if you enjoyed reading it or not. What sort of content do you actually want? Stories about me, short stories by me, posts about books, movies, WHAT IS IT YOU WANT?!

Let me know or else I'll keep doing whatever it is I want and you'll have to put up with it.

Bye!

Being Unoriginal and Asking Twitter for Questions to Answer

 I asked for questions on Twitter

I figured, I have no idea what to post about, I ran out of ideas after about five posts. So, like the unoriginal person I am, I went on my Twitter and asked for questions so I could answer them and pretend I'm interesting. Here are the questions I got and my answers!

Who are your favourite fictional characters?

Well, this might take a while! If we're talking books, I tend to like characters that make me want to be a better person. For example, Tris from Divergent made me want to exercise, but I was too busy reading to actually get up! Another character might be Evan from The 5th Wave, partially because I had a bit of a crush on him.

If we're talking movies, I like characters that go through a lot because it's interesting to watch and I'm obviously a mean person who likes watching others suffer. I must admit, most of the characters I like in movies and TV shows are generally male, and I generally like them because of the actors. An example of this would be Tom Holland's Spiderman.

TV show wise, I tend to fall in love with the characters more than in movies, probably because I spend more time watching them. I'm currently going through a Peaky Blinder's phase, and Tommy Shelby is my computer screensaver. Yes, I'm that sad. I'm also currently in a Supernatural phase, which has been going on for about a year so far, and I have to say, Sam is one of my absolute favourite characters in that.

Sorry, I rambled a little too much on that answer! Notice how there's only one female character in this answer...

Do you watch soaps?

I have to be honest, I had to look up the definition of what classes as a soap. This may be a clear sign I do not intentionally search out shows to watch that are considered soaps. However, Mr. Google tells me that both Friends and How I Met Your Mother are soaps (I beg to differ, I would call them sitcoms, but who's really bothered), and I have watched both of those and enjoyed them both. I haven't actually finished watching How I Met Your Mother yet, because my brother was also watching it and finished it before me and let slip the ending. Brothers - the most infuriating creature to roam the earth.

Do you have a colour theme in your room?

Yes! I used to have a room with no theme at all, it was very much like Bella's room in Twilight - random colours everywhere. And no, I'm not a Twilight fan, but I have read the books and watched the movies, which is how I came to the conclusion of hating it (after a period of loving it, a phase I much regret). Now, my room has a purple and grey theme. Half of my walls are purple, the other half are grey. I have wooden floors and furniture (bookcase, wardrobe, shelves). I have a grey rug and curtains, and purple and grey bedsheets. It all matches very nicely and I'm very pleased with the outcome of my careful planning. The only very different colour in my room is the plants in my windowsill, of which I have far too many and need to stop buying more.

Give us a moment where someone you didn't like experienced karma.

I had to sit and think about this one for a bit. I don't tend to dislike people, unless I'm related to them and they give me good reason. From this conclusion, I remembered a time when I was playing tennis and I was on the team with one of my little brothers (the same one who gave away the ending of How I Met Your Mother). I am not very good at tennis, and he is. Therefore, there was a lot of yelling at me to 'get the ball' and to 'run, you're missing it'. I missed quite a couple. Getting bored of the yelling, I basically stood still and hit any that came my way and let him get the rest, much like in Wii Sports Tennis - I was the person at the front. Anyways, after all this shouting at me, he tripped and fell. He got back up, blaming me for missing the ball, but his wrist was hurting. Turns out, he sprained it (it was assumed broken for a while, until the swelling went down) and he couldn't play tennis for four weeks. I think this counts pretty well as someone experiencing karma for being mean to me, even though it doesn't really fit the criteria of the question.

And with a grand total of four questions asked, I have managed to stretch this out into a full post because of my inability to shut up. Success!

If you wanted to follow me on Twitter, for when I inevitably run out of ideas again and ask for more unoriginal ideas, you can do so here:

Twitter

I also post kind of funny Tweets sometimes, so there's that too.

Thank you so much for the questions, because otherwise this week would've had some stupid post about my organisation of books or something - spoiler alert, they aren't ordered at all.

Bye!