Achieved !

Day Eighteen: Your most recent achievement achieved

Today I finished of my script for Script Frenzy. 100 pages of script in 24 days, not bad for someone that has never done it before.

It all started when I decided to participate in National Novel Writing Month last November after seeing a report on BBC Breakfast. I had heard of the event before, but at the time I didn’t have the time or an idea. A few days before I saw the report, an idea had started to form and idea that for once I thought that I had the potential to finish, seeing the report for NaNoWriMo was the push that I needed.

Once I started writing, I couldn’t stop, the story just flowed and I hit 50,000 words on 26^th November and finished on the 30^th with 50,780 words. I thought that that was a pretty big achievement. I’ve never written anything that long in my entire life. Even my fan fictions from years ago that seemed that long were only about 20,000 words. Once I had my novel, I saw Script Frenzy advertised and I decided to give that a go, “how hard can it be?” I thought. “Writing the novel was the hard part”. I was wrong, writing the script was so much harder. Not only have I been faced with the flaws of my novel head on, which I had been avoiding by not editing my novel, but I also discovered just how unlikeable one of my main characters is. In November he seemed like a lovable rogue, but now, I hate him and he really doesn’t deserve the other main character. Though of course, now I have a much better idea of what does need work and I feel ready now to take creating a second draft more seriously. I also know now that the working title ‘Meet me on the Clifton’ should probably go, the affection that I felt for it in November has officially worn off.

Since my dreams of working in science are quickly drifting further and further away from me it would be great if I could carry on working on my novel, maybe sending it off to publishers if it ever gets to a point where I would want to do that, or maybe I will publish myself for e-books. I think it would be pretty cool if I knew that someone was out there reading something that I’ve written.

A little change to the schedule...

A little deviation from my 30 day challenge, I saw a link to a Flash Fiction competition and thought that I would give it a go, my entry is below, If you like what I've written, please, please, please give it a like at, http://www.writingonthewall.org.uk/flash-fiction-submission.html at the minute, it's the first entry on the page, why not enter yourself? Ta very much =D

Final Countdown

“Impact, T-minus 100…”

This was it, months of training, and the time had finally arrived. Zara sat at her station, observing the situation in London from The Bunker. She flicked through the streams of video, pausing when she reached the Oxford Street stream. The once busy street was empty, even the pigeons had vanished. Plastic bags drifted down the street like tumbleweed, a bus sat abandoned, indicator blinking on and off.

The next station was Cian on Dublin. He nervously tapped out the ‘Final Countdown’ with his pen as a drunken man ambled through the deserted streets of Dublin. “Shut up Man!” Mukhtar said through gritted teeth from the other side of Zara, he was on Cardiff, “Don’t you realise…”
“Chill out man…”
“I will not ‘Chill out’, we’re witnessing the end of the world as we know it, show some respect” he settled back in his chair and continued to recite an Islamic prayer as the masses gathered to pray together in Roald Dahl Pass.

The Authorities had known the Asteroid would collide with Earth for years. Trojan, they called it. They saw it as the chance to make a fresh start. Rid the world of evil. ‘Recruits’ had been collected in secret, only the best were taken on, the smartest, the fittest. Bunkers, deep underground had been built in secret. The ‘Lucky’ recruits had been moved into them as they completed training, only then their true purpose was revealed. They were told about the asteroid, how it would wipe out life on Earth, but they had been chosen to survive, to repopulate the world.

Of course, some Recruits didn’t take the news well, decided that they wouldn’t abandon their fellow man. The Commanders said that they had returned to the outside world, but deep down Zara knew the truth. ‘Returned to the outside’ was code for ‘Killed’. Of course they couldn’t return outside, if people knew about the Recruits, there would be chaos. People would panic, they would find the Bunker entrances, try to get in. No, it was better that they didn’t know, Zara told herself.

“Impact, T-minus 10…9…8…”

“This is it” Cian whispered as he made the sign of the cross. “May Allah have mercy on their souls”, Mukhtar whispered. There was a sharp intake of breath.

“Impact, T-minus 1…”

The whole bunker shook violently. Zara heard someone scream as one of the metal panels crashed down from the ceiling. The lights and screens blinked off and the room plunged into darkness. There wasn’t a sound, no one dared to breathe. It seemed to take an eternity, but one by one, screens began to blink back to life and a sigh of relief rippled around the room. The pictures of deserted streets across the world were replaced by grainy white noise. It would take some time for the cameras to stabilise and for the images to return. Then they would be allowed outside, the ‘New Age’ would begin.

Feeling Better?

Day Sixteen: Something that never fails to make you feel better

There are a few things that make me feel better. Watching Doctor Who is one of them. I can just settle down and watch it for hours on end, it’s nice to get away from the real world and loose myself in one of the stories. Same goes for reading books, I choose a nice happy book and read a few chapters of it til I start to feel better.

Other times, I write down what’s making me feel down onto paper, that helps to get it out there and rationalise things in my head.

Then, when all else fails, there is the world of You Tube, I stick on a couple of funny cat videos or the Backin’ up song

Something Missing

Day Fifteen: Something you miss

Right now, I miss being back at University. Not so much the work, I mean, right now my Facebook is inundated with statuses about the exams and final year projects. I don’t miss all that stress, in fact seeing those things make me quite glad that I decided not to do a Post-Grad course. Maybe one day I’ll go back and do one, but right now all that I need is a break from that type of stress. Admittedly, I’m more stress-free at the moment than I thought I would ever be, what with being unemployed at the moment. But I suppose that I should make the most of it while I do look for a job.

The thing that I miss most about my time at University is the people. I miss talking with them about lectures, or saying ‘Hi’ in the lab. I miss living away from home, in my little Wavertree house, where I got up to all sorts of shenanigans (Good word shenanigans XD). There aren’t many shenanigans now that I’m back at home, unless you count hiding random pictures around my brothers bedroom as an April fools.

I’m a bit naff when it comes to keeping in touch with people. I never really know what to say when the conversation starts to dry up, and there are people that I’m friends with from University, but not the sort of friends that I would be comfortable talking to not face to face. I suppose that that goes with the whole phone phobia thing. If I’m talking to someone, I prefer to be face to face unless I consider you to be a really close friend. (So, if I haven’t spoke to you in ages, it’s not that I don’t want to, it’s just that I’m at a loss what to say. Like I said in the first post, socially awkward penguin.)

Nostalgia

Day Fourteen: Childhood toys

Time for some Nostalgia: My favourite toys from my childhood =D So, if you're a 90's child like me, enjoy!

Barbie! (Of course) I loved my Barbies, and this was one of my favourites.

As well as my Barbie dolls, I had some Sindys too, I had that dog, I remember that when it had batteries in it it would walk.

Gina's world were about the same size as Polly Pocket today. I used to collect the magazine too, I think i had about 50 dolls in the end

Speaking of Polly Pocket, the Polly Pocket that I had actually used to fit into my pocket

Another pocket toy, Puppies in My Pocket! I remember the day that I got this set. In the morning I had had an Ice Lolly for breakfast, even though my Mum and Dad told me not to (Badass or what?!) we went out to Ellsmere Port, went into Woolies, I picked out this set, then when I got home, I was sick all over the kitchen floor. I blame the ice lolly. Needless to say, no Ice Lollys for breakfast after that incident.

Littlest Pet Shop, again, I had loads of these. I loved that Parrot one, it's wings flapped when you press his head down.

Couldn't find a picture, but this boat was my favourite Slyvainian Families set.

I was the only one of my friends that had Teeny Weeny Families. I remember collecting tokens to send off for some dinky baby frogs.

I have got every episode of The Animals of Farthing Wood on VHS, that's probably my favourite kids TV show, along with Noah's Island. I still have this set, but Fox is a bit worse for wear, he's lost his tail.

TV Teddy was something that I played with at my Nannas house, though she only had one tape and it was a nightmare to set up, so when TV Teddy came out it was treat!

I got my first and only cabbage patch doll for Boxing Day one year, it was like this one, but it was a boy called Herbert

I always wanted a Furby, but my parents wouldn't buy me one. Luckily though, my Aunt and Uncle got me one from Hong Kong. Loved my Furby, even though by the time I had got hold of one, the phase was well and truly over. My Furby made up me me never being allowed a Tamogotchi

Pokemon, 'nuff said. I didn't have a game boy or the cards, but I collected the figures and cuddly toys

And to finish off, the first computer game that I ever owned, Dogz. I had a cuddly toy too.

So ends my trip down memory lane =D

Admiration

Day Thirteen: Talk about someone that you admire

So after months of waiting, Pottermore finally opened up the other day. I spend most of this morning exploring the site, finishing the first book a few hours ago. I didn’t think that I could love Harry Potter any more than I already do, but here I am falling in love with the books all over again. It’s all thanks to one woman, and that woman is JK Rowling. In my ‘Table for Ten’ post I said that she would be one of my ten dinner guests because she is an inspiration to me, and I thought that I would expand on that.

If you don’t know who JK Rowling is, where have you been the past decade?!? She’s sold well over 400 million books and is responsible for getting an entire generation of kids interested in books again, myself included. Although I’ve always read books, none of them ever captured my imagination quite like the Harry Potter books.

The Harry Potter books have had such a large impact on my life. The books really fired up my imagination and I would often write my own short stories based around the Potter universe. Knowing about JK Rowling, and her story has encouraged me to write more.

As a person, he has faced adversity and come out on the other side, and I admire that. It would have been easy for her just to give up, to throw her ideas away after the constant rejections from publishers. Knowing about the struggles that she has faced and how she has come through them has taught me not to give up when things get hard. I hope that once I’ve edited my NaNoWriMo story, I can send it away to publishers, I would love to see something that I’ve written on a bookshelf, it really would be a dream come true.

Something else that I admire is that you can see that she cares about her fans, how many other authors would agree to work on something like Pottermore.

I like the thought that has gone into the books. She has meticulously planned out stories for everything, and some of this extra information is show cased on the Pottermore website.

Phobia

Day Twelve: Write about things that scare you

Spiders? Not a problem. Heights? Not a problem. Flying? Not a problem. Some people seem to think that I’m fearless, I like to think I’m fearless, but I’m not. In fact, I would rather be afraid of those things than the two phobias that I do have. I know that phobia’s are irrational, but my two really are pushing it a step too far.

The first is needles, can’t stand them, just the thought of them brings me out in a cold sweat and I feel sick to my stomach. It’s stupid, I know. You need to get needles to protect against disease and I have had them all done, but it’s not for want of trying to get away from them. I had to have a blood test and it was my worst nightmare, they had to restrain me in the chair as the nurse poked around trying to find a vein, which hasn’t helped one bit. Horrible. The fear is so bad that it puts me off having children because that would mean having more needles and I’m terrified every time that I visit the dentist in case I’m told that I need to have a root canal or teeth removed. On the upside, I take excellent care of my teeth. It’s a phobia out of control and I have no idea what to do. In theory it shouldn’t be a problem. In my first post, there’s a picture of my using a needle to tag a mouse. That was a massive step for me. When I started, I was terrified to even touch the needles, I did a pretty damn good of hiding it though, So maybe that’s helped me out, I don’t suppose that I’ll know until the time comes for me to have more needles. But that’s not even the worst of my phobias.

Answering the telephone, it should be easy. Not when you find yourself feeling sick to the stomach every time the phone rings. It’s a real struggle to answer if I don’t know who’s on the other end. If it wasn’t for caller display I don’t know what I would do. Once I’ve plucked up the courage to answer, it’s OK, I can muddle through, and anyone that I’ve spoken to over the phone at work has told me that I have a lovely telephone manner. It’s being the one to make the phone call that’s the bigger problem, it should be simple, I watch my friends and family do it without thinking twice, given the choice, I avoid making phone calls. Again, a phobia that’s getting out of control, but I’m taking steps to try and stamp it out. If I have to make a call, I go somewhere quiet and I keep some prompts with me, I make a note of the things that I need to say and that helps out quite a bit. I hope to make a phone call in the week about some voluntary work, once I’ve built up my courage and prepared my little crib sheet.

More rationally, I’m afraid that I won’t be able to find a job that I like. I can think of nothing worse than having to spend the rest of my life either unemployed or in a job that I detest.  This fear isn’t helped by the constant refusal for every job that I’ve applied for so far. I know that if someone gave me chance, I could prove to them what a good worker that I am, and I will prove it once someone offers me an interview.

Books, books, books!

Day Eleven: Favourite Books

I love reading, always have done. I can often be found with my nose in a book. I used to go to the local library every few weeks and I would pick out some new books to read. There is nothing I love more than reading a brand new book, I don’t think that I could ever buy a Kindle to read books on, I like the feeling of reading books too much!

I think that my taste in books has changed as I’ve gotten older. When I was younger, some of my favourite books were the ‘Animal Ark’ series. I also loved a book by Rolf Harris which was full of true animal stories, I still read it from time to time now. I was a big ‘Secret Seven’ fan too, I had a badge with SS on it and everything. Books that I never really enjoyed were the ‘Goosebumps’ series, I never understood why they were so popular! They were always the books that had huge waiting lists at the school library.

The Harry Potter series of books would probably be on the favourite book list of anyone my age, and I’m no different. These books really captured my imagination, even if I was a little late to the party! I started reading the books at the end of 1999, start of 2000. I went on holiday the day before the release of The Half Blood Prince, and it was like two weeks of torture, seeing everyone that turned up at the hotel had a copy of the book and I was on a constant Spoiler Alert. Luckily, I managed to evade the spoilers and the book was waiting for me to get back.

For Christmas year before last I got a book, ‘The Butterfly Isles’ which followed journalist Patrick Barkham as he travelled the country over the space of a year to see each species of British Butterfly. The book highlighted the plight of the butterfly. Their habitats are being destroyed to make way for housing developments and climate change is pushing butterflies further and further North as the South becomes warmer. Eventually they will run out of space if more is not done to protect them.

I love a ghost story, especially local ones. The 'Haunted Liverpool' series of books are firm favourites. I enjoy reading them and matching the ghost stories to the places that I’ve been to, even though it was a tad creepy to find multiple stories which took place close to my student house in Liverpool, walks home after a night out were never the same again after reading one story involving the ghost of a hanged man

Something that I now try to do now is read the book before I see the film. It annoys me when people say ‘why bother reading the book when you can just see the film?’ a phrase that I have heard a lot more of since the Harry Potter films came out. The books are a million times better than the films, so many people are missing out on so much of a fantastic story just because they won’t read the book! I don’t think that people read enough.

I’m not a fan of soppy books, I tried to read ‘The Time Travellers Wife’, after reading the blurb I thought that it would be a book that I would love, but I just never got into it, I found the characters unlikeable and the story boring. I can say the same of Nicholas Sparks books and ‘P.S I love you’, but somewhat hypocritically, I love the film. I try to avoid the genre at all costs, but I make an exception for ‘OneDay’, since David Nicholls also wrote ‘Starter for 10’, which is currently one of my favourites.

Currently, I have four books on the go. The first is the ‘Complete Sherlock Holmes’, it’s taking me much longer than I had expected to read. The next is ‘Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy’, I’m dying to see the film so I’m trying to get through it as quickly as possible, but if I’m honest, I don’t really understand what’s going on! Book number three is ‘Elephants on Acid’ which is a book about bizarre science experiments. The final book is ‘Forty Years of Murder’ which is a book written by a home office pathologist.

I have a very long ‘to read list’. I want to read more of the ‘Disc World’ series, so far I have only read one and a half books in the series, so there are plenty more to keep me going! I have ‘Pride and Prejudice’ to read too, I started to read it years ago, but I don’t remember finishing it, so it will be good to read it now that I’m older, I think that I’ll appreciate reading it more.

Awkward.....

Day Ten: An awkward situation you’ve found yourself in

I have a big mouth, and I can be rather opinionated, more often than not, speaking without thinking. Of course, when that happens, its total crap and I end up retracting what I say, but there has been the odd occasion that such things have left me in somewhat awkward situations. A case point is saying how much I hate the name Patricia, when the friend that I’m telling this too tells me his Mum is called Patricia… Oops! But there is one occasion that tops that.

I went on an Identification of Bats course as part of my degree, it was a field course and I spent a long weekend in the middle of Shropshire learning about bats. The person leading the course was a tad odd, she kept dead bats in old margarine tubs, she dried out the bodies in her airing cupboard and we had a un-holy amount of tea breaks. It was the last night and we were out on another bat walk at stupid o’clock at night. By this point I had had my fair share of bats. Once the bat walk was done, she said that she would see us at about 3 in the morning at the same spot to see the bats coming in to roost. Now, in the itinerary that we were given, it said that this final bat walk would be optional, something that she didn’t dispute. We went to bed, but of course, I couldn’t sleep.

The alarm went off in the room and I got up and dressed. It was cold outside, I wasn’t feeling well, and I had less than an hour of sleep. Fair to say that I wasn’t in the best of moods to stand in the pouring rain counting bats. I tried to get her attention to ask if I could leave, but she was too into counting non-existent bats. She’ll never notice if I nip back to bed I thought to myself, and away I went.

 The next morning, I got up, well rested and ready for the day, went down to breakfast where a heated conversation was going on. I was right, she didn’t notice that one person had left, but she sure as hell noticed when about 15 people left and she was practically stood on her own. I had unintentionally started the mass migration of the group back to bed! The people that had stayed out told us that she had noticed that most of the class had disappeared and she would be docking marks from the people that had left (Not that it mattered, I made up any of the docked marks with a 71% on the essay afterwards). Everyone that had left was angry; the itinerary did say that it was optional. Anyway as we went back upstairs after breakfast, I had a conversation with my two friends, pointing out that she hadn’t even been looking at the right roost, that she was being unreasonable, that she shouldn’t have put optional on the itinerary if it wasn’t. I went on, and on about it, getting it all off my chest.

When we got into the room, my two friends were absolutely wetting themselves and I couldn’t understand why. When they eventually gained their composure, they told me that she was behind me the whole time, and she heard everything. Well, the class was a tad awkward after that. Glad that my friends had a laugh, because I was mortified. I laugh about it now though, you have to!

Feeling proud

Day Nine: Something that you’re proud of

So yesterday I wrote about my ‘What if?’, so I thought that I would lighten the mood a bit and talk about something that I’m proud of, and that something is the fact that despite all of the disappointment on A Level results day, despite all the self-doubt, I have managed to obtain a degree.

As I said in my last post, I found my A-Level results disappointing. When I saw the results on paper in front of me, I thought that was it, no University for Fiona. Luckily though, I was offered a place on a Foundation year course at my chosen University. When I say luckily, I really do mean that I was very lucky. Talking to people on the course, I think that I had some of the worst results by a mile; it must have been my personal statement that grabbed their attention because I’m certain that it wasn’t my exam results.

I worked hard for the next four years, during the Carmel College year; I had a run in with my old nemesis, Chemistry, as well as Maths, something I thought that I had escaped after my GCSE’s. A word of advice, if you decide to study Biology because it’s the Science that has no Maths in it, think again. Maths continued to haunt me every year since, whether it was forgetting how to work out percentages in my first Quantitative Biology workshop or compiling statistics for my final honours project. But I struggled on. I defeated Chemistry, I mastered differentiation. Alright, I maybe didn’t fulfil my potential, I was painfully close to getting a 2.2, if only I had picked different modules in the first semester of my final year I could have clinched it. But that doesn’t matter so much to me, because the fact is that I know that I tried my best and I think I’ve done alright, considering the 2 E’s and a D at A-level.

The day that I graduated has been one of the best days of my life so far. The sun was shining, not a cloud in the sky. I had to pinch myself as I sat in the Philharmonic Hall, surrounded by my fellow graduates. I was so nervous, the thought of this day kept me going for years and years and now it had finally arrived. Walking across that stage as my name was called, shaking hands with the Dean, collecting my certificates and transcript; I can’t even describe how amazing that felt. Against the odds, I had achieved my lifelong dream; I had a degree from the University of Liverpool.

Every now and then, when I’m feeling low during this job hunt, I get down my certificate, I hold it, and I remember how proud I felt on graduation day.

Fiona McDougall BSc (Hons) Zoology

What if....

Day Eight: Something you always think ‘what if?’ about

I was very proud of the results that I got for my GCSE’s, still am, because that was the last time that I was ever truly happy with my exam results. I decided to stay on to sixth form at the school, I had 5A’s and 5B’s, why should my A-Level results be any different? All my friends were staying on at the schools sixth form and I was able to study the subjects that I wanted to, so why bother moving?

I started back at school in September, happy that I had done the right thing and excited to carry on learning, one step closer of achieving my dream of going to the University of Liverpool to study Veterinary Medicine. But then it all went very wrong. First came the French incident, an argument with the French teacher which led to me dropping out of the French class before the teacher had the chance to kick me out. Then came Chemistry. Science was always the subject that I had been good at, but all of a sudden I was struggling to grasp Chemistry, with French dropped, I had no choice but to persevere with the Chemistry as I wouldn’t be allowed to drop another subject, besides, I needed 3 A-Levels to get in to University. I slowly came to realise that the dream was slipping away from me.

I loved studying Biology and History, but I couldn’t even get decent grades in those subjects either. I decided to lower my expectations, and I applied for Zoology rather than Vet Med, but I stuck with the University of Liverpool, despite efforts from teachers to get me to apply for Universities much lower down the rankings.  A-levels results day was one of the worst of my life, I left Wallasey School with grade E’s in Biology and Chemistry and a grade D in History, and I was bitterly disappointed, even today 5 years on. It was one of the worst feelings, opening that envelope and seeing the grades in front of me on paper. The only thing that saved me from getting a U in Chemistry was good course work, I had failed every Chemistry exam that I took that summer. That leaves me with something that I have wondered about almost every day since I got my A-Level results, what if I had left Wallasey School after my GCSE’s and did my A-Levels elsewhere?

It’s something that I still think about, why didn’t I move. If I had went to a different sixth form, maybe I would have passed, I could have saved myself all that hurt, because it did hurt, it still does. It really knocked my confidence, until then I had believed that everything was possible, but now I doubt all that I do and it haunted me all through University, I couldn’t help but think that I wasn’t as good as everybody else, and I shouldn’t have done, no one should ever have to feel like that. I may have been at University now, living the dream, in my 5^th year of Vet Med.

You might me saying, ‘well if that’s what you wanted to do, why didn’t you just re-sit you’re a-Levels?’. I’m the first person in all of my family to go to University, there was no one else to talk to about it, and the school was eager to push as many people as possible through their sixth form and on to University. I was never given the options to re sit anything, and I was never told that I could move sixth form, I was just pushed through the system. Of course, I know all about that now, and there is no way that I’ll let anyone that I know go through what I went through.

On the other hand, if my A-levels had been better, I would never have went to Carmel College and had such an amazing time there, I would never have met some of my closest friends. But even that doesn’t even it out. I think that if I could, I would go back and save myself some of the pain, because I’m convinced that had I gone elsewhere, I wouldn’t have got those grades, I think I proved that to myself that I was more than capable of doing well during the foundation year when I truly grasped Chemistry, some of the highest grades that I got that year was from Chemistry assessments. I just have to live with it now, and I’ll always ask myself ‘what if?’ because that’s just the sort of person that I am, I don’t forget easily.

All grown up?

Day Seven: A quote you try to live by

‘What’s the point of being grown up, if you can’t be childish sometimes?’

The Fourth Doctor, ‘Robot’, 1975

When I was younger, I couldn’t wait to grow up, as I’m sure that many more would agree. I couldn’t wait to be able to watch whatever I wanted, drive a car, move away from home…. But now I’ve done it, and it’s really not all that it’s cracked up to be if I’m honest.

I stayed at home for the first year of University, travelling to a college in St Helens for my first year after a set of disappointing A-Levels. I met a group of people at the college and in my second year I moved into a house with them. Using my student loan, I decided to delve back into the Doctor Who back catalogue and I started buying some of the older episodes that I hadn’t seen before. One of the episodes was Tom Baker’s first story, ‘Robot’. I settled down to watch, I was taking a break from my studying and a few other adult issues. Then, The Doctor said something that changed my life. ‘What’s the point in being grown up if you can’t be childish sometimes?’

A light bulb went off in my head. What was the point of being grown up if I couldn’t still be childish sometimes? Being a grown up meant the freedom to do whatever I wanted, and what I wanted, what I really wanted was to spend some of my time doing childish things. So I went out to Asda and bought myself a paint pallet and colouring book, and I spent the rest of the evening painting. I loved every second of it.

I watch kids TV now. I LOVE Horrible Histories, then there’s Rasta Mouse, and don’t even get me started on Nuzzle and Scratch. I even still watch the odd Disney movie, something that I stopped doing when I was about 13. I listen to my old music again, something that I stopped doing years ago because it wasn’t considered cool. In fact, I’m much happier now embracing 10 year old Fiona from time to time; than I ever was pretending that I was more grown up than I was. I think that realising that it doesn’t matter what people think, I am who I am, has only helped that. It isn’t me with a problem, it’s them, and if someone can’t accept that I love Doctor Who, or I watch kids TV from time to time, so what? They’re not worth my time. I only wish that I had realised it sooner, it could have saved me years of bother.

It is still with me today, it may only be 3 years on but I know it’s something that I will always keep with me, and I’ll pass it on. Should I ever have kids of my own, I want them to know it too, because it’s important. Being a grown up is scary, so many things to think about, so much responsibility. I think it would drive me mad if I didn’t have my childish indulgences. Especially now that I’m in the not so wonderful world of unemployment. It is nice to have a little time each day to thrown away my grown up chains and watch a cartoon or listen to some music from my childhood, because for that half an hour I can be 10 years old again, without a care in the world, and I think that that’s priceless.

Pass the remote...

Day Six: Favourite TV shows

I love watching the television. There is nothing better than settling down after a hard day to watch a few hours of quality and at times a bit naff television.

By a mile my favourite thing to watch is Doctor Who. It’s something that has always been there, even if it was cancelled in November of the year that I was born. There’s a video of me somewhere, about 5 years old dancing around the room singing the Doctor Who theme tune, talking about the Daleks, even though at that point I’m sure that I had never actually seen an episode.

The first episode that I ever saw was ‘Warriors of the Deep’, a 5^th Doctor story from 1984 which I saw on UK TV Gold one Saturday morning when I was about 10. The part that stuck in my memory was the episodes monster trying to get through a metal door, and by metal I mean foam. The metal/foam door then fell on the leg of the companion, and I fell about laughing as the Doctor tries his very best to life the door from her leg. I’ve been a fan since then.

I rejoiced when the series was revived in 2005, but I had to watch upstairs on a tiny portable television on 26^th March, because heaven forbid the rest of my family missed an episode of Ant and Dec! The revival only made me love it more. My favourite episode of the series so far has been ‘Blink’ which aired on my birthday in 2007, and my Doctor is David Tennant, though Matt Smith grows closer and closer to stealing it with every passing episode.

My love of Doctor Who has led to a love of both of its spin offs, Torchwood and The Sarah Jane Adventures. Torchwood began in 2006 and was more adult than Doctor Who, but if followed a similar formula, and the lead character was Captain Jack, he had too little time in Doctor Who and it was great to see more of his development. With more Torchwood looking unlikely, it would be great to see him in Doctor Who again. A the other end of the spectrum, ‘The Sarah Jane Adventures’ aired on CBBC and stared Elisabeth Sladen reprising the role of seventies companion Sarah Jane Smith. The show was crafted with just as much quality as any other show, despite it being classed as a children’s TV show. I was upset by Elisabeth Sladen’s death, in early 2011 it came as such a shock as no one had known that she was ill, but it made watching the final three episodes even more poignant, and I’m glad that the series ended on a high and the character of Sarah Jane will live on for a long time.

Moving away from Doctor Who another of my favourite television shows may only have lasted for 14 episodes, but each one of them in a corker. Afterlife created by Stephen Volk who also gave the world the infamous Ghost Watch aired on ITV in 2006 and 2007 and centred around psychic Alison Mundy played by Lesley Sharp and a psychology lecturer who decides to write a book about her played by Andrew Lincoln. I was the first adult drama that I have really watched and I became enthralled by the relationship between Alison and Robert. It ended in 2007, and the series finale is still on that never fails to bring a tear to my eye. I won’t spoil it here, but if you haven’t seen it, I really recommend a watch.

I like my Sci Fi and Drama. I watched the first series of Heroes when it was on the Sci Fi channel, I watched it before many of my friends and raved about it, no one else caught onto it for months, but it slowly went downhill and I’ve only seen half of series 3 and none of the fourth series, but that doesn’t take away from the first series being fantastic, I still watch it. Being Human is another Sci Fi favourite, a show about a ghost, werewolf and vampire sharing a house in Bristol doesn’t sound great on paper, but it is fantastic. The second series, not so good, it seemed to get a bit bogged down with religion and a cult, but it was back on form in series three and although series four saw it loose three established characters, it was still just as good and I eagerly await series five I am also a fan of Downton Abbey and Upstairs, Downstairs, old and new, which has been somewhat overshadowed by the ITV juggernaut. Sherlock is another classic in the making, just when you think there is no more that can be done with the great detective, two of the greatest minds behind Doctor Who come up with this television gold. A third series really can't come quickly enough.

Then of course, there is the more unusual television. The guilty pleasures. One of my current guilty pleasures is Embarrassing Bodies where people too afraid to see a doctor in private, go on the television for millions of people to see their problems instead.  There are the gypsy weddings. I think it’s fascinating that they can have such high morals, no sex before marriage, first communion, and yet they are more than happy to have young girls dressed in next to nothing dancing provocatively. Yet, it’s compulsive viewing, and once I start to watch, I really can’t stop. The same goes for Horrible Histories, which returns tomorrow, it's daft, but it makes history fun and I wish that it had been around years ago!

There’s the television that you can watch and you don’t have to think about watching. Things like Snog,marry, avoid. Half an hour of orange madness, a make under show where tan-tastics are turned into natural beauties, again, something that I don’t think I should like, but once you get started, it gets harder and harder to stop. Celebrity Big Brother is another one, seeing celebrities fight with each other and make utter fools of themselves is always funny, though I draw the line at watching the regular Big Brother, I couldn’t care less about a bunch of nobodies wanting a fast track to fame, though you could say the same about Celebrity Big Brother!.

I do draw the line at some things though. I can’t stand the new breed of reality television, the scripted reality. The Only Way is Essex started the trend and it really has gotten out of hand, culminating in the abysmal Desperate Scousewives. Thank goodness there won’t be any more of that! Then there are things like Glee, something that I should love, all the cheese and singing, but I really can’t stand it at all, I find it too cheesy and the characters just the wrong side of annoying, with the exception of Sue, maybe if it was just about her it would be watchable. One Born Every Minute is another turn off, I don’t get why people would watch it, I don’t want to see a bunch of random women giving birth, people say the cry watching it and that it’s heart-warming, but it’s really not something that I would watch, and that is saying something!

Music, music, music

Day Five: Put your i-pod on shuffle and talk about the first 10 songs that come up

Last Friday Night (T. G. I. F.) –Katy Perry

Yeah we danced on table tops and we took too many shots…

I love this song, ridiculously catchy; I listen to it all the time, and sing and dance along (badly). It reminds me of all the good times that I’ve had on nights out with friends and it certainly seems to describe the events pretty accurately.

If I can’t have you – YvonneElliman

Am I strong enough to see it through? Go crazy is what I will do…

One of the first musicals that I went to go and see at the theatre was Saturday Night Fever when I was about 15 and I fell in love with this song. Again, one that I can’t help singing along to. It sums up how I’ve felt a few times.

Little Amy – Murray Gold

The first of much music from Doctor Who on my i-pod. This piece is so lovely; it’s a young Amelia Pond waiting for the Doctor. It makes me think and it’s often one of the songs that I listened to during NaNoWriMo when I was writing some parts that involved my main characters being children, because it does make me think about when I was younger.

Type 40 – Chameleon Circuit

Last Type 40 in the Universe, but there’s still so much to see…

More Doctor Who, Chameleon Circuit is a Trock – Time Lord Rock band and this song is about the TARDIS itself. I think that writing songs about Doctor Who is genius, and they’re so damn catchy, it’s a bit of a geeky pleasure, and it reminds me how cool it would be if there really was a TARDIS…

Somebody that I used to Know –Gotye

I don’t even need your love, but you treat me like a stranger and that feels so rough…

This song seems to be following me about lately, every time I turn on a music channel or my i-pod, its there! I think the reason that it’s so popular is that you can relate to it, I know how he feels, it’s happened to me. When it comes on, I imagine that I’m singing it to someone, telling them how I feel, and it’s made me feel better about the situation.

Born this way – Lady Gaga

I love my life, I love this record, Mi amore vole fe yah…

I remember hearing this for the first time on the radio, I was doubting myself and feeling low, but hearing this made me realise that none of that mattered. And now, whenever I’m starting to feel like that again, I play this song.

Vienna – Ultravox

The warmth of your hand and the cold grey sky, it fades to the distance

This is a song that I first heard during the first episode of ‘Ashes to Ashes’, when Alex finds herself in 1981. Really not something that I would have expected to like, but it pulled me in and I had to download it, along with a lot of other eighties music. I don’t really know what the lyrics mean if I’m honest, but it’s sung with such feeling that I don’t think it matters.

I’m Yours – Jason Mraz

Look into your heart and you’ll find love love love love

This song always seems to be on the radio, and it cheers me up. Not much to it really!

Doomsday – Murray Gold

This is the music that plays as Rose makes her way to Bad Wolf Bay in the ‘Doomsday’ episode of Doctor Who (Also seen in my last post). Again, another piece that I love, the scene on the television wouldn’t be the same without this music and even now hearing this music still makes me tear up a little. I think it’s really powerful and some of the best music that’s appeared on the show. Doctor Who just wouldn’t be the same without Murray’s music.

Loving you Hurts – The Musgraves

Loving you hurts, loving you aches, loving you burns, loving you chaifs…

The Musgraves are an unsigned band, and I first heard about them when they appeared on the Graham Norton show a few weeks back, and since them, I can’t stop listening to them. This song is about being in love with someone, but is more about the difficulties. The Musgraves manage to take something that’s a bit dark and turn it around into such a happy tune; it just gets stuck in your head! I recommend that you go out and listen to them right now!

And that’s it, a taste of my i-pod

'Round the world

Day Four: Five places that you want to visit.

I haven’t really travelled much, not even around my own country! The furthest away that I’ve ever been is Turkey, and I can probably count the cities in the UK that I’ve visited on my fingers. It’s not that I don’t want to travel more; it’s just that I’ve never really had the chance to. Or the money, which is sort of important too.

The place the first springs to my mind when I think of places that I would like to visit is New York. I have never been to America, and this is the first place that I would visit given the chance. It’s the place that I’ve wanted to go to for years, I was rather jealous when my Dad got the chance to go with work a few years back, but I’ll get my chance! My earliest memory of wanting to visit New York was from watching the film ‘Balto’, the opening scene of the film is an old woman looking for the statue of the famous dog in Central Park, all that I wanted to do was go and find the statue for myself, so it would be a crime against my inner child not to find it!

Then of course, there are all of the classic sites, Empire State Building, Times Square, Statue of Liberty, Broadway, Carrie Bradshaw’s Apartment….. The list could go on forever! I would end it by having some of what ever Sally was having at Katz’s Delicatessen.

I’ve only been to London once, and that was when I was about ten, and I don’t really remember much, other than somehow we managed to get lost driving around the city, but ended up driving right past Buckingham Palace. So I would love to visit again now that I’m old enough to appreciate it. Stop number one would be Baker Street. Thanks to ‘Sherlock’ I’ve really gotten into the adventures of Sherlock Holmes, working my way through Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s brick of a book, so I would like to see that.

I would also like to see the Tower of London; I love the history of the place, and all the stories about people that have had a somewhat unpleasant stay there. There would be the shops too, I’ve only ever seen the outside of Harrods so I wouldn’t mind going inside.

Staying in the UK, Cardiff would be next on the list. Purely for the Doctor Who connection, I would love to visit some of the locations where my favourite television show is made. I would have to have my picture taken everywhere! Stand on the Rift and hope that the TARDIS will stop by. Outside the city centre, I would have to visit Southerndown beach, Rose said goodbye to the Doctor in ‘Doomsday’ and ‘Journeys End’, two of my favourite scenes.

Australia. Nowhere in particular, just the whole place. I love it. I would like to dive in the Great Barrier Reef, and see Ayres Rock, maybe even hold a Koala Bear or see a Duck Billed Platypus. Then there would be the MasterChef Australia kitchen, that would be awesome, I love that show. I would end up visiting Fenix or The Press Club, restaurants owned by the presenters, George and Gary

To finish off, Florida or more specifically, the theme parks. I went to Disney Land, Paris a few months after it opened and four times in total, but I’ve never gone to the one in Florida, so I would love to indulge the inner child and drop by there for a visit.

If I could get to visit all those places, I would be very happy indeed! =D

Table for Ten

Day Three: Name 10 people that you would like to invite to dinner.

First on the list, JK Rowling. I got my first Harry Potter book for Christmas ’99, though Father Christmas didn’t realise that there was an order to the books and got me Chamber of Secrets! I read that book over and over again, and although I had always read books, this is the first book that really captured my imagination. JK Rowling is an inspiration to me, she had nothing, she lived in a council flat, lived of benefits, faced depression. But she came through all that and against all odds; she’s now one of the most successful women ever. I would like to ask her more about the Harry Potter world, and just tell her how her books have changed my life.

David Attenborough would be next on the list. One of my earliest television memories is watching Wildlife on One, it was one of the only times that I was allowed to stay up past my bedtime when I was little, along with the nights that Animal Hospital was on the television. These programmes encouraged my love for the natural world, and such programmes by David Attenborough inspired me to study Zoology at University. The man is a legend as far as I’m concerned. He has a career spanning decades and even today in his eighties he is still out there, seeing the world. I would love to follow in his footsteps, and see some of the things that he’s seen. I would love to meet him so that I could ask him all about his adventures. Watch out Attenborough, I’m after your job!

I would love to see Attenborough meet Charles Darwin, so Darwin would be invited. He was a genius, end of. Even when people put him down, laughing at his theories, he still kept going, knowing that he was right. I would talk to him more about his theories and his voyage on the Beagle. I would also ask him for a reference, I’m sure that that would get me a job!

One of my favourite actresses would have to come. Lesley Sharp played Alison Mundy in afterlife, a television show that despite being brilliant was axed after 2 series. When I found out that afterlife had been cancelled, I was gutted. It had just ended. I had so many questions about Lesley’s character, and it was such questions that inspired me to write my first bit of fiction. It was the first time that I had ever written a story in my entire life. If it wasn’t for Lesley’s portrayal of Alison, I may never have discovered the joy of writing.

Couldn’t have my favourite actress without my favourite actor, David Tennant. He’s probably most famous for playing the 10^th Doctor in Doctor Who, and that was how I came to know of his work. Since then, I’ve seen everything that he’s been in. I think he is fabulous. He’s so energetic, and he brings so much energy to the roles that he plays. He is my Doctor. I was so sad to see him go, announcing his departure live on television at the National Television Awards, what a way to go! I know that he’s a fellow Whovian, something that I think added to his portrayal of the Doctor; I would probably just spend all night talking to him about Doctor Who and his other acting work.

Keeping on a Doctor Who theme, the current head writer and executive producer, Steven Moffat. I think that he’s written some of the best episodes of Doctor Who since the return in 2005 and of course he co-created the fabulous Sherlock, anyone that hasn’t seen it really must. I would love to find out how he comes up with his ideas, as well as pitch him some of my own, and convince him that he should definitely cast me as the next companion. And once he had had enough wine, I would have to get how Sherlock managed to survive jumping at the end of series 2!

Golf is something that I’ve only recently discovered that I quite like to watch, and its thanks in most parts to BubbaWatson. He’s someone that likes to goof around a bit and seeing what he's been up to brightens my day. The Golf Boys is a good example of that (He's the one in denim). I’m not particularly religious, I’m of the school of thought that Richard Dawkins sort of has a point, but I do think that the Bible can be quite inspirational, and Bubba seems to find all the best bits. Seeing him tweet the odd Bible quote gives me a bit of hope in what is a bit of a rough patch for me. Lastly, the man ownsthe General Lee, the actual General Lee. What’s not to Love?! Bubba to win The Masters this weekend!

Lady GaGa is my favourite singer. I love her music and I think that she’s inspirational. She’s out there, flamboyant, and she just doesn’t seem to care what people think of her. You can tell that she loves her fans and she doesn’t take her fame for granted. I can’t wait to go and see her on the Born This Way Ball Tour; hopefully I’ll be able to get a ticket.

Adele is another favourite of mine. She really sings from the heart, and her songs have so much meaning to them, you can really relate to them. She always seems like a laugh in interviews and I think it would be great to meet her.

And to end the list, Jono Lancaster. Jono has Teacher Collins Syndrome, and I saw him on a television show a couple of years ago. He spoke about the problems that he has faced due to TCS and how he has overcome them. He does a lot of charity work, and again, I just think that he’s really inspirational. If you’ve not seen any of his shows, I really recommend that you give them a look.