S is for… Suckage.

(Yes, that is now a word.)

Hi guys!

How’re you all this week? I’m… Not too bad I suppose. Well… No. That’s a lie. I’m not great. A bunch of crap seems to be going wrong as of late. And, it’s my 23rd birthday at the end of the month, which I know is going to suck. Like my birthday did last year. I hate not being able to see my mum or a bunch of my friends. I miss people. I’m glad I’ve got Matt, he makes it all a bit better. Y’know, I spent my 21st birthday trying to keep everyone else happy, doing everything they wanted. I thought it was supposed to be -my- birthday right? I have a feeling that this year is going to be the same. Like last year. Although I guess that last year was pretty quiet, so hopefully it will be like that. Quiet, if lonely. Or, it might be better, or worse, but I won’t hold my breath on that one.

Also, recently I’ve been thinking about how… How much crap I have. How many notebooks and paper related goods I have specifically; and how it feels like I’m never going to get through it all. I don’t really know anyone who I can give some of this stuff to either. Argh.

More to the point; it’s not like any of the stuff I write in my notebooks is any good anyway. It’s all fairly rubbish really. No hope of getting published at all – no hope of ever having an original idea what would allow myself to ever get published, which I’m not sure that I do. I don’t really know anymore.

Bleh.

Anyone else have any sucky things they want to rant about in the comments? Feel free!

Until next week guys,

(a more subdued)

Danni x

Blog post word count: 307 words.

S is for Sassoon

Come on, you were expecting this, weren’t you?

If you weren’t then perhaps you either live under a rock or you have never spent any length of time with me. (Both of these things are fine, just people who have spent any length of time with me will know of this slight obsession)

I won’t bore you with lenghtly biography of Sassoon’s life (which I feel I know in great detail after reading a HUGE biography about him), but I will, in a time-honoured fashion, link you to his wikipedia page.

I will, of course, share with you some of my favourite Sassoon poems. I won’t make any comments, as I fear anything I try to say will make no sense.

To Any Dead Officer

Well, how are things in Heaven? I wish you’d say,
Because I’d like to know that you’re all right.
Tell me, have you found everlasting day,
Or been sucked in by everlasting night?
For when I shut my eyes your face shows plain;
I hear you make some cheery old remark -
I can rebuild you in my brain,
Though you’ve gone out patrolling in the dark.

You hated tours of trenches; you were proud
Of nothing more than having good years to spend;
Longed to get home and join the careless crowd
Of chaps who work in peace with Time for friend.
That’s all washed out now. You’re beyond the wire:
No earthly chance can send you crawling back;
You’ve finished with machine-gun fire -
Knocked over in a hopeless dud-attack.

Somehow I always thought you’d get done in,
Because you were so desperate keen to live:
you were all out to try and save your skin,
Well knowing how much the world had got to give
You joked at shells and talked the usual ‘shop,’
Stuck to your dirty job and did it fine:
With ‘Jesus Christ! when will it stop?
Three years… It’s hell unless we break their line.’

So when they told me you’d been left for dead
I wouldn’t believe them, feeling it must be true.
Next week the bloody Roll of Honour said
‘Wounded and missing’ – (That’s the thing to do
When lads are left in shell-holes dying slow,
With nothing but blank sky and wounds that ache,
Moaning for water till they know
It’s night, and then it’s not worth while to wake!

Good-bye, old lad! Remember me to God,
And tell Him that our politicians swear
They won’t give in till Prussian Rule’s been trod
Under the Heel of England… Are you there?…
Yes… and the war won’t end for at least two years;
But we’ve got stacks of men… I’m blind with tears,
Staring into the dark. Cheero!
I wish they’d killed you in a decent show.

The Dug-Out

Why do you lie with your legs ungainly huddled,
And one arm bent across your sullen, cold,
Exhausted face? It hurts my heart to watch you,
Deep-shadow’d from the candle’s guttering gold;
And you wonder why I shake you by the shoulder;
Drowsy, you mumble and sigh and turn your head…
You are too young to fall asleep for ever;
And when you sleep you remind me of the dead.

If you want to see any more (and why wouldn’t you?!) have a look here.

I’m not sure I can add anything more to this, so see you next week!

Lil

 

R is for Return

I’d like to thank the readers of this blog for being especially patient with me the last couple of weeks. I know the posts weren’t up to my usual quality (HAH!) so allow me to regale you with an explanation for what happened.

I disappeared to Belgium. Stayed with some friends and their family, who were amazing. Took inspiration from the cemetaries and trenches of the war, rode rollercoasters, ate Dutch cuisine and spooned a Dutch guy awake. It was a good trip. As such, the posts have either been last minute or poorly planned. However, it does highlight the importance of taking a break once in a while, if not somewhere different then just something different.

Upon returning I went to the doctor to find out the results of an X-ray and blood tests. As a result, I now have to watch my own body more carefully but it cleared a few things up. Lately my motivation to write has been terrible and now I’ve discovered the cause (nothing terminal or dangerous, but I’ll spare your lunch) hopefully I can start concentrating again. Hooray!

Thanks for reading my mini rant. I love writing posts for this blog and it’s a pleasure to work with my fellow writers and of course, you guys what do read this.

R is for… Rest, Relaxation… Ranting!

Hey guys!

So! R week. I’m not going to be talking about stationery this week (shock horror I know). Nope, today it’s rest and relaxation. (Actually… More likely a rant.)

Ugh. Both are things that I need right now. Y’know, just a little break from the same scenery. And, I’d like some more human contact other than my boyfriend (and everyone else in this house). Don’t get me wrong, I love my boyfriend very much but I would like some other people to socialise with.

I know I don’t exactly do very much either but it’s still very… Tiring and a tad boring living my life. It’s hard work living here – always trying hard but never succeeding, just generally sucking at everything and breaking every rule that I didn’t even know I had to follow; rules I didn’t even know existed because nobody bothered to tell me about them! And, in addition to that, having to deal with a women who overreacts to/over every tiny thing, including tubes of toothpaste!

And breathe.

I know, I know; it could be a lot worse, so much worse, but right now, I can’t see how. My life feels freaking awful. No as bad as some people’s lives but… To quote a good friend:-

“There’s no comparison when it comes to life being shitty. We’re all in the same boat, no one swims.”

Fairly accurate I feel.

So yeah, I need a break, a holiday; -something- away from here. Please. I really need a break from here to relax and not feel like I’m doing anything, something, wrong every thirty seconds, or something like that.

Normally, to relax, I’d take a nap (somewhat frowned up on unless you’re ill. And even then, still somewhat frowned upon) or I would read (nowhere in my room is comfortable enough to sit for ages – I have no headboard on my bed to lean against and I can’t sit in my desk chair because I like to curl up to read.) Failing that, I’d play a game but… That doesn’t work at the moment either. As for writing? Pffft! Don’t even go there. I think I’m losing it again, which fills my heart and brain with utter, utter dread. I mean, if I lose it, what the hell am I going to do with all the notebooks, pens, ink and paper I have? D:

But yeah… I’m tired of my life as it is, and there’s currently nothing I can do, nothing that’s it my power, that I can do to change any of it. Things just aren’t working out for me at the moment and I don’t foresee it getting any better at any time in the near future.

Sorry for the downer guys; but I needed some time to vent and I really couldn’t think of a stationery product beginning with R except Rhodia (which is the most delicious paper by the way) and I certainly couldn’t think of enough material to write a whole post on it. Once again, I’m sorry folks. Back to normal next week though, hopefully.

Until next week!

Danni x

Blog post word count: 519 words.

R is for Reading

Are we going to go there?

Yes, yes, we are.

I’m in a bit of a reading slump at the moment, which is terrible. I’m taking so long to read books that it feels like an effort. The last book I finished was Eleven by Mark Watson which I got as an ebook, free on my phone. It felt strange reading a whole book on my phone, but I did manage to read it quite quickly and it was nice to always have something to read without having to carry a book around all the time.

Eleven was a good book, but as with a lot of books I seem to be reading at the moment the ending just let me down. Whether I just expect really dramatic, exciting ending and keep not getting them or I just miss the point of some endings, I’m not sure. The ending of Alan Hollinghurst’s The Stranger’s Child left me a little confused, not because I didn’t understand it, but because I felt there should have been more.

At the moment I’m trying to read Isherwood’s Goodbye to Berlin, the Downton Abbey companion book (yes, sorry…) and a book of quotes. Maybe the problem is trying to read more than one book at once, but sometimes I can’t keep focused on just one (or I can’t take the book I’m reading in the bath with me!)

See you next time,

Lil

Q is for QWERTY

I’m seriously apologetic for the fact that this post is late. Having spent the day travelling home from Belgium with a flight transfer and some broken technology on the homeside front, I just don’t have a full post in me.

However, I will briefly mention that we in Englishplaces really do take the QWERTY keyboard for granted. I borrowed a good friend’s computer a few times abroad and they use the AZERTY system, and it’s hard to switch between the two. So go out into the world and treat QWERTY with the respect it deserves!

Business as normal next week, folks.

Q is for Quotes

Whilst I am a sucker for quotes from other people, you should never live by their exact ways.

I say — go and make your own; life’s YOUR  adventure to explore.

Sorry about the short post. Will make it up to you all next week.

 

Jon

Q is for… Quirk.

Hey folks!

So, Q is for “quirk” this week for me.

The first thing would be my preferences in regards to my stationery which I wrote about in a different blog post but that’s covered in that there post.

I consider my love of stationery and so forth a quirk. I mean, it certainly sets me apart from… Well, a lot of the people my age / people I know. Not everyone is a stationery nut like me. This in itself kind of sucks because it means that I have no one to geek out over stationery with. Boo However, thankfully, with me, there are plenty of people (who are kind of nutty about stationery) on the internet, which means a few things a) I’m not alone in having this quirk and b) I do have people to talk to and “geek out with.” It’s just unfortunate that I can’t do it in “real life.”

It’s an odd quirk, I think, but I don’t think it’s a bad thing. Fortunately my mother agrees. I’m not sure that my boyfriend’s parents do though… They seem to really disapprove of me getting post. Oh well. I actually really don’t care. My stationery doesn’t take up very much space in our bedroom. It’s not like they have to dodge around my stuff or anything. So they shouldn’t care, but, apparently they do. Oh, well, never mind; there’s nothing I can really do about it.

I like this quirk. It makes me good at something – I know more about pens and paper than most people I know. I’m not an expert by any means but I consider myself knowledgeable. A friend once sought me out for advice on which pen would be better to use on a certain, popular brand of notebook, not too long ago, ’cause he thought / thinks I’m the “expert on the subject.” (As I just stated, I wouldn’t call myself an expert but it’s nice to know that my friends think that I know what I’m talking about.) I also had a good chat with a different friend about notebooks, not too long before or after, before I think, the pen conversation. Both very enjoyable conversations that I felt very comfortable in. (I don’t always feel comfortable in conversations because I don’t always understand what people are talking about, or I don’t really have confidence in my opinions or… Something.)

So yeah. My quirk is that I love stationery and I like to think that I know a fair amount about the items I use for my craft. If I’m honest… I actually take a little pride in it and I don’t care what people think about that.

Until next week guys!

Danni x

Blog post word count: 453 words.

Q is for Questions

So, if you haven’t  seen my updated post from last week it’s here.

This week  – questions! All of these were taken from a vlog on YouTube, which I will link to at the end.

P is for Placeholder

If you’re stuck while writing a novel or story, put a placeholder and jump ahead, then work backwards. There’s no shame in it.

On an entirely unrelated note, I’m in Belgium right now this is a short “I’m not here right now, see you next week!” post.

I hope you’re having a good summer!