I really gotta stop doing these quizzes, but I did like this result!

You Are Jennifer Aniston

Girl next door with a free spirit. You're low key and naturally sexy. Sweet and approachable, people are attracted to your upbeat attitude. And even when life doesn't go your way, you always eventually turn things around.

Are You More Like Jennifer or Angelina?

Facebook removes the word 'is' from status updates...

... and it makes the front page on MSN Today! That said it is significant as people are now free to write in whatever tense they want rather than using present participles (the words we use with 'is' and 'are'). BUT ... and this is a big BUT ... I kinda liked the restriction because it was a challenge to make what you wanted to say fit with the start of the sentence! Of course I haven't really shown off my knowledge of grammar very well by starting a sentence with 'but'. BAD GIRL LAURA!

"You work well in a group and contribute heartily - without needing to take the lead". Dermo how did you ever end up being a drummer?

And I thought I should be a pianist...

You Should Play the Drums

You are often hyper, restless, and full of a little too much zeal. However, people may be surprised to know that you can focus your energy well. You are driven and engaged enough to be a great drummer... and you have the stamina to practice for hours. In fact, when you can channel your energy productively, it only increases! You are independent and spirited... but also consistent. You can definitely keep the beat. You work well in a group and contribute heartily - without needing to take the lead. Your dominant personality characteristic: your aggression Your secondary personality characteristic: your precision

What Musical Instrument Should You Play?

I Love Black&White

I have recently caught the bug for black and white photography - here are some of the results...

Okay that one wasn't taken BY me!!!

Woohoo!

This is my first post from my laptop in my own house - woohoo!

I forgot to mention that last night I bought some wool and a pattern and am now in the process of knitting a cushion cover. It sounds a little artsy-craftsy but trust me it will look cool. I've done 15 rows and that's after ripping out my first four because I forgot how to knit and I had been doing a stitch that was a cross between a knit and a purl!

Dream Catch Me

I have a whole weekend of freedom! I really probably shouldn't but I never get anything done at the weekend anyway and we have a staff day on Monday, so I can do Tuesday's work on Monday night. So, a guilt-free weekend of fun! I've already started it off well by going out to Springsteens tonight. Where we took random black-and-white photographs. I can't put them up here because I left my camera lead somewhere else!

THE EXTENT OF MY WEEKNIGHT SOCIAL LIFE...

This is one of those rare occasions where I have time to actually go out of the house and go to the library to use the internet! Last night I got to Tesco so I'm beginnning to think I'm much more relaxed than I was a month ago. I've just finished Friends series 4 so I'm stuck for something to watch while having my dinner - oh dear well maybe I'll be able to concentrate better on my food...

My weeknight social life consists of trips to the garage and tesco, sending emails and texts...that's about it really at the moment!

Hope you're all well and don't all object to my 'seductive' tea drinking post!

Old Pictures

I found a couple of pictures of me on people's Facebook profiles so I just thought I'd post them up here. A bit vain I know. But maybe not because the 80s attire I wore to Sarah's hen night isn't all that flattering!

















I Love Tea!














Sarah is embarrassed by the childhood photos all around her friend's kitchen...maybe!













A picture of a person taking a picture of a person taking a picture of a person taking a picture of a person taking a picture... you could go on!

I also act my age! How flukey is that! Note to Dermo: am therefore obviously not immature.

You Are 22 Years Old

Under 12: You are a kid at heart. You still have an optimistic life view - and you look at the world with awe. 13-19: You are a teenager at heart. You question authority and are still trying to find your place in this world. 20-29: You are a twentysomething at heart. You feel excited about what's to come... love, work, and new experiences. 30-39: You are a thirtysomething at heart. You've had a taste of success and true love, but you want more! 40+: You are a mature adult. You've been through most of the ups and downs of life already. Now you get to sit back and relax.

What Age Do You Act?

You Should Be a Teacher

You are patient, optimistic, and good at explaining things. You work well with all types of people, and you are a good role model. Success and positive outcomes are extremely important to you. You are both a good leader and instructor. People look up to and depend on you. You do best when you: - Can see the results of your work - Are able to teach someone a new skill You would also be a good nurse or non fiction writer.

What Should You Be When You Grow Up?

Well, whaddyaknow? I actually couldn't have fixed this - it was one of those random choose the picture that appeals to you most kind of quizzes!

Your Driving Is is: 82% Male, 18% Female

According to studies, you drive like a typical male. You're reckless, aggressive, and see driving as a game. And while you like to live on the edge a little, you still know how to drive safely.

Do You Drive Like a Guy or a Girl?

In 1985 (the year you were born)

Ronald Reagan is president of the US Live Aid, a 17 hour rock concert broadcasts worldwide from London and Philadelphia, raising $70 million for starving Africans An 8.1 magnitude earthquake hits Mexico City and results in about 25,000 deaths Vocano "Nevada del Ruiz" erupts near Bogota, Columbia causing mud slides that bury two towns American Jew Jonathan Pollard is arrested for giving military secrets to Israel Mikhail Gorbachev becomes Soviet leader New Coke is released on the 99th anniversary of Coca-Cola The GNU Manifesto first written by Richard Stallman Kansas City Royals win the World series San Francisco 49ers win Superbowl XIX Edmonton Oilers win the Stanley Cup Back to the Future is the top grossing film Less Than Zero by Bret Easton Ellis is published David Lee Roth leaves Van Halen to begin a solo career "Careless Whisper" by Wham! spends the most time at the top of the US charts Elmo is introduced on Sesame Street The Golden Girls and Growing Pains premiere

What Happened the Year You Were Born?

~Wedding Bells~

Yesterday I was at Louise and Stephen's wedding! It was a lovely day, they didn't get any rain and everybody looked stunning! I really enjoyed being there and spent most of the evening up on the dance floor. Unfortunately I brought with me a camera with a dead battery and so I don't have any photos but I'll hopefully get some off somebody else. (Note to self: don't do this again - always remember camera and always charge up the battery.)

While I had a lovely day, it was also a momentus and scary occasion in two ways. First of all, Louise is the first of my childhood friends to get married. Not the first of my peers, but if you take for example Rachel and Statto, I've only really been friendly with Rachel for about 4 or 5 years. I've known Louise at least since we were about 3 if not in creche before that!!! And now she's married! The second reason I was talking with Tim about yesterday was that she is the first of our age group in Campaigners also to get married. I wonder who will be next??? Watch this space (and no that doesn't mean it's going to be me, I just mean I'll post about whoever is next!)

Shine

Not to be left out, I thought I'd better jump on the bandwagon and post about my little bit of graffitti in the dust on the church piano also mentioned on Dermo and Elia's blogs! I never thought it would attract so much attention as I doodled during a Thicket practice over a year ago but I guess no-one else has played that piano with the lid up either in the past year which is why the boys had to photograph it when they found it!!!

Also attracting my own attention today was the new BBC2 teen drama Falcon Beach. I didn't really mean to watch it although I was wondering if it was the new one meant to be based on Friends when it came on. But about five minutes into the programme I thought the scenery looked similar to Winnipeg Beach, a place I visited with Rebecca when I was in Canada! Checking the TV Times I read that it was based in Canada but was supposed to be a seaside town. Other little things seemed familiar and even the licence plates looked like Manitoban ones. Then I saw the church and I looked back to my pictures and it was the same church. Same boardwalk, same arcade, same streets, same water tower. I was pretty sure it had been filmed in Winnipeg Beach and this was confirmed when I watched the credits!! So there you go - I've been to the place where Falcon Beach is set. And I bet none of you have :)

Watch it yourself next time it's on and look out for these landmarks! Salty's is where Tanya tried to get the bus in today's episode!

You are my joy (ode to the beach - that isn't in the title that's just my interpretation)

I haven't posted on this for a while and I won't apologise because I've been really busy and have had a lack of internet. What I will do is tell you what I've been doing - which is working, working, working. And eating. And sleeping (just a little) and doing a few cool things at the weekends (Crazy Golf with the Whitehead crew was very cool). I'm staying up on the North Coast this weekend so will not be doing any crazy stuff but will have access to the beach (joy of all joys - I LOVE THE BEACH!!!).

Why I hate High School Musical

As High School Musical 2 is about to launch (dear knows why), I thought it would be a fitting time to write this post. I have never got High School Musical for 2 main reasons:

1. It's a film about kids making a musical, but in the course of the film the canteen or other suitable place spontaneously erupts with singing and dancing and even the goths, skaters etc are singing away sweetly. And you never get to see the end musical.

2. The kids are 14 and are singing lines like 'I never loved someone who knows me like you do'. They're 14. What do they know about love? When I was 14 I thought I was in love with someone I wasn't even going out with and now I have no idea why. You're not in love at 14 - you fancy someone, you go out with them, you kiss them (that being more politely put than I said to Gayle and Lisa the other day).

That said, a film about actual love is bound to be a better influence on teenagers than the other things they are exposed to nowadays! And the songs are okay I suppose - they're in my head because we're singing them at the Odyssey at Christmas.

Hey There Delilah

I was in Downhill at the weekend with the SWOT crowd. It was very good craic! Here is the group photo, stolen from the Thompsons' blog.

There was also a photo of me playing the guitar on Dermo's blog. I really like this picture for two reasons. Firstly because I didn't know it was being taken, I'm not posing and therefore look really natural. Secondly I hardly ever play the guitar and so I've never had a photo of me playing the guitar before!!! I have no idea what Dave and Elia are doing.

I am still loving the song Hey There Delilah and it was very good that Sam was playing it on the guitar so I got a chance to sing along!

Flickr!

Well, most of my Canada pictures are now up on flickr and the rest are going up tonight. The link is down the right hand side of this page. Enjoy. And follow the instructions below.

Ain't that a kick in the head?

After saying to Cara last night 'no it's okay I didn't GET West Nile Virus', I woke up today with a really really bad headache and I felt really sick until about 9 o'clock. Fortunately I don't have the virus as per the symptoms on the web though so I'm really glad about that. Don't be careless about insect repellent as I was (mosquito bites didn't really bother me that much...) and then you'll not have to worry about such stuff.

No, I haven't put the flickr photos up yet but I will I promise. I'll link to them when I do. I'll also finish the travel journal (below) hopefully tomorrow. Which reminds me - don't forget to keep scrolling down until I do, because I'm dating the entries on the date they were written, not the day they were posted.

Nite :)

Picture

Update to this post - I couln't change my profile photo for some reason, so you're probably wondering what on earth I'm talking about, especially since the latest experiment to try to change it showed me with brown hair. But how's this for a question - should I go back to blonde or stay brown (my natural colour)? Leave a comment as a kind of poll. PS thanks for the Comment Dermo, and you were right it was Sheryl Crow and Kid Rock and it's one of my favourite songs.

My new profile photo - don't worry I haven't dyed my hair again, this was taken 3 years ago when I was actually blonde - I just thought it was a cool picture - and I love swings!

PS to Dermo - I'm still using song titles and that is actually one. Can you tell me who by?

Is it because I'm White and Nerdy?

Have you ever watched the I.T. Crowd? It's hilarious. I wonder if that means I'm a nerd? ... oh forget it, I don't know enough computer stuff to be a nerd! But I DO have a blog, not just a Bebo or MySpace or Facebook or whatever other social networking sites exist (not that I'm knocking them, I do like Bebo).

A note about Flickr ... I'm going to put up my Canada photos on my Flickr site - Laura's Life - becuase Blogger is still not that great at displaying photos, more like putting images into a word document than into publisher or powerpoint! However Flickr sometime messes up the order of photos which are not in a 'set' (and I'm only allowed 3 sets which I've already used.) This is how to view the pictures in order: you will automatically go to the thumbnails page, but you'll proabably not want to view the pictures in that like that, so click on the first photo and then to the right, click view as slideshow. You will see all the Canada pictures from start to finish, then all the previous ones (Barcelona) etc. The only problem is that you can't see the titles. To do this in order, just view the thumbnails page.

You gotta go there to come back

As Elia very kindly reminded me last nite, I also have been neglecting my blog. I blame jetlag. For everything that happens this week.

As many of you know, I've been in Canada for the past week, visiting my friend Rebecca who lives in Winnipeg, Manitoba. It was really great to see her because we went to school in 6th year together, but I haven't seen her in 4 years. She's going to be a doctor just like Lisa, who I can't link to because she hasn't got a blog (bad Lisa!). I started a travel journal while I was away, with the intention that I would transfer it to my blog also, so below are my experiences in Canada in date order. Enjoy.

Thursday

Today was our big day trip into Kenora, Ontario. I think I want to name one of my children Kenora so if you object to this, please don't ask me to marry you. We stopped just outside the city to have some pancakes and syrup (well it had to be done!) and Perogys which are Polish or Ukranian and which Rebecca has been wanting to introduce me to all week!

After driving through the prairies for an hour, we finally hit 'Canadian Shield' which is much more hilly and has rocky outcrops and pine trees (it felt a lot more like what I referred to as 'real Canada' ie the stereotypical landscape!)

Gradually the pine forests gave way to small lakes as we drove through Whiteshell and into Ontario. The larger lakes were dotted with holiday cabins. We stopped at a service station in Clearwater Bay to have ice-cream (I had Rolo and Rebecca had Algonquin Canoe).

Kenora itself was very maritime and we had a nice walk by the marina.On our way back we had a picnic in a random campground. We also followed the sign for East Braintree, only to discover that it had a church and 4 houses. We were not impressed.The day we nicely finished off by watching a video. Funny story about that. Rebecca didn't have enough I.D. with her so I JOINED A VIDEO STORE IN CANADA - isn't that hilarious? So far I have accumulated an American Eagle loyalty card and a Rodgers video card.

Wednesday

I slept in really badly this morning - I think it was a mixture of being up till two last night, and the jetlag I've been ignoring all week. I feel much more refreshed now after a good sleep! Today was our shopping day and we hit the St. Vital Mall, rather a huge shopping centre. I seem to be getting quite excited about a load of things that Canadians take for granted - like prairies and ... AMERICAN EAGLE ... where I spent the most money! I also had the chance to try poutine (not to be confused with poteen) which is a gravy chip with cheese curds. All I can say is ... YUM! After dinner we headed out to Rebecca's friend's birthday party which was at an Ethiopian restaurant (evidence of Canada's varied culture). I tried some of the Ethiopian food, I'm not sure what it was but it was quite nice! I am really enjoying the experiences like these which you wouldn't have if travelling independantly.


WILDLIFE UPDATE: we saw some Canadian geese at the side of the road today.



This is me trying to make chemistry googles look sexy. As you can see, it was not overly successful.

Anything But Ordinary

10 Random Facts about Canada:

1. They drive on the Right Hand Side of the road (okay so I already knew that!)

2. The water sits higher in the toilet - this is actually true, I thought I'd blocked it the first night!

3. Their 5c coin is bigger than the 10c coin.

4. Canada doesn't have a 2c, 20c or 50c coin.

5. A 1 dollar coin is called a loonie and a 2 dollar coin is called a toonie. (Excuse the spelling, it's probably wrong!)

6. They don't have signs for elderly people crossing.

7. 'Eh' means 'isn't it?' or 'don't you?' or 'aren't we?'.

8. Their roads are unbelievably straight.

9. Canada is a surprisingly multicultural society - foods introduced to me as typical had their roots in many different countries.

10. Many parts of northern Manitoba (don't forget this isn't even as far north as the Yukon, Northern Territories or Nunavut) cannot be reached by road.

Tuesday

Yesterday I omitted to mention the wildlife which I saw, so I can now add to my list a chipmunk, gopher and a monarch butterfly & dragonfly (at the ruins) to my list. Today we travelled north of Winnipeg. It was the first time I had been out of the city properly and I got very excited about grain fields, prairie grass, flattened houses and GRAIN ELEVATORS (Rebecca - "Yay - ANOTHER grain elevator!")!! The first place we visited was the Lower Fort Garry heritage park. This was a fascinating opportunity to see life as it was for the early settlers in the times of the Hudson Bay Trading Company. A first for both Rebecca and me was trying a Buffalo Burger - I was proud of myself for trying it, and very impressed with the flavour which was similar to beef.

Next stop, further north, was Winnipeg Beach, a small town at the lower edge of Lake Winnipeg. I really liked this town - it felt like we were on a beach near Florida! We spent some time lazing by the water, and then Rebecca introduced me to Slurpees (like Slush Puppies). A very interesting thing to note about Canadian roads (especially in the prairies) is that they are very, very straight - in fact so straight that every bend has to be marked in case you miss it! I think we hit a maximum of 5 curves on our travels today! Travelling further northwards again we saw a storm brewing ahead. I was quite excited at the prospect of seeing a tornado, but I guess it was a good thing I didn't! We didn't stay very long in the next town of Gimli because of the storm (by this stage there was lightning, wind and a bit of rain) but I was fascinated by its Icelandic culture. The storm didn't come to much, or else we beat it driving down south again.
At night I had the unique opportunity to participate in some Metis square dancing, something Rebecca is learning. Metis culture is a mix of Aboriginal and European. We also drove throught the North End (dodgy area) to get there!

[PS Apparently I was quite good at the dancing!]

Monday

Today we moved out of the city limits a little. We started off the day by having lunch in the Prairie Ink cafe in McNally Robinson, a bookshop which is a Winnipeg institution. The bookshop was lovely and the children's section upstairs was dubbed the '100 Aker Wood' and had various references to Winnie the Pooh including a forest where they could read books.
You may or may not know that Winnie the Pooh was inspired by a real bear called Winnie the Bear, from Winnipeg! I visited the zoo in Assiniboine Park solely to take a picture of the statue. On our way out to visit the St Norbert ruins, we passed a heritage park and decided to go in for 15 mins. It reminded me of the Ulster American Folk Park and there were lots of interesting things to see inside the houses, although it must be mentioned that we ended up just chatting to the French Canadian tour guide as he was very cute! The St Norbert Ruins were also lovely and it was here that I had my first glimpse of prairie grass.
Tonight we met Rebecca's Grandmere for dinnner and then coffee. She is a lovely woman of 92, who acts and looks like a 65-year-old! She heard I hadn't had tea all week so she made me some back at her house, and then we made a funny video about the uses of tea and the proper way to make it! I still can't get over how youthful she is, she is also really trendy (probably due to her being an artist long ago!)

Sunday

This morning Rebecca and I went for brunch in a revolving restaurant which was pretty awesome, to use a Canadian term! We were able to get a 360 degree view over the city and make out some of the important landmarks like the Provincial Building, the Golden Boy (yep, that's actually the official name for the statue on the top), the Forks (meeting of the Red and Assiniboine Rivers) and the St Boniface Cathedral. It's a pity I can't put video up on this thing because we had a very interesting commentary from Rebecca on the sights below! I did however take some pictures, here is one that shows the Golden Boy...

After eating, we crossed the esplanade (spiky bridge) to St Boniface (the Francophone area of the city) and visited the Basilica Cathedral and Louis Reil's grave. Louis Reil is famous for something, but I can't exactly remember what. Back at 'The Forks' we toured the markets which sold all kinds of everything and got our portraits taken by this crazy-looking guy who only asked for donations. Rebecca said he had been doing that for as long as she could remember. It must be about 35 degrees. I am currently sitting in the shade of a polar bear (sculpture) and sunbathing ... After the sunbathing we went to get our pictures taken with some of the bears.Tonight I experienced the Winnipeg edition of Maud's - the BDI - and had a very delicious ice-cream. There is a funny video of me asking for a flake in my ice-cream and the girl looking a little confused. We crossed another bridge into a very quiet neighbourhood and sat for ages on the swings talking about life, love and music. On the way back over the bridge we encountered some racoons, but only from a distance. Apparently they bite. These creatures were very stereotypically rummaging in the garbage!

Saturday

My first experience of flying over the Atlantic ... an endless expanse of water, as far as the eye could see. When i got bored of everything else on the plane, I just stared out of the window, mesmerised by the vast scale of nothingness.

9.15 (Toronto): The thing I have found most hard to get used to in Canada is how weird my accent sounds. You never notice it so much, say in France, because everybody else is speaking another language most of the time, and it is very obvious that English is their second language. But when everybody is speaking English and you're speaking it differently, that's when being from Northern Ireland really sticks out. It's not always a bad thing though, guys in the airport were flirting with me because of my cool (cute?) accent!

I am really pleased that even though I didn't get into Toronto, i saw the CNN tower from the plane, and I like to think i flew over the Niagra falls, but I didn't actually see them. Canada is a big, big country.

Twentysomething

I haven't been around for the last wee while hence the lack of blogging! So let me update you...

A week ago on Friday was my graduation from Stranmillis. I am officially no longer a student (my student discount even expired on 1st June) - I felt pretty identityless until I realised that I now belong to a new group - the twentysomethings! I even bought a Christian book aimed at the age group to start off this new era of my life. Graduation itself was lovely, it rained in the morning, but the hair was saved and it cleared up well for the afternoon tea party. Here are a few of the photos:

Me and Jo

Me and the Girlies

Me and Jen

After graduation I went off to CCSM for a week and then Coleraine Camp. I had a great time and made loads of new friends. Here are some of my new friends. I also acquired a few friends for my fridge door thanks to Kyler (Miffy rocks!)

The Explorers

Mark, Tanya, Ali, Elaine, George and Laura K

Jo P painting a Bee for the Bee-Attitudes!

Me and Laura K!

Sarah, Jo W and Someone Who Doesn't Want To Be Seen!