Fluent For Catia

It’s 2017 now, I’m well over 18 and I’m starting to feel quite grown up! But the great thing is I’m still young and have my whole life in front of me.  But I do feel a bit different and the big news is that I’m moving out!

Actually it’s quite scary.  But I’m lucky because my Godmother owns a lovely little one-bedroom house and she says I can rent it really cheap for a year while I decide what to do.

And because I’m quite artistic, Caroline (said Godmother) is allowing me to choose some improvements, subject to her approval of course. She’s not that trusting lol!

So the first thing I did was get a decking builder around to look at the little garden. I really want somewhere to relax when (I hope) it’s sunny during the summer. He’s given me some great ideas and it didn’t sound too expensive so Caroline has given the go-ahead. She reckons it’ll be an investment because if I want a deck, then paying tenants will too. It’s going to be built of wood with a little railing around and will give me room to have a bistro table and chairs. I’m so looking forward to being able to use it because the garden faces south and I get a lot of sun.

Next on my agenda is the bathroom because I’d like a better shower. Caroline thought I’d be more concerned about the kitchen, but to be honest I’ve never really done any cooking so it’s not top of my agenda. However, Mum has given me a simple cook book so I shall be having a go and probably calling or Whatsapping her every five minutes.

I move next Thursday, although I don’t have much stuff yet. Luckily it’s furnished, although it’s pretty basic. There’s a sofa and small dining table and chairs in the living room and a small table I can put the TV on. Luckily I have a TV in my room at home so that’s coming with me. And Mum says I can take my chest of drawers for the bedroom.

There’s a decent bed in the flat and Mum has given me some spare linen, so really I have everything I want.

Flo is going to help me sort everything out and I expect she’ll be staying over quite often since she doesn’t always see eye-to-eye with her Mum. She has a blow-up mattress so I’m going to store that under my bed so she can stay any time she feels like it. I imagine it’ll feel a bit lonely to begin with, though I can’t wait to have some peace away from Cass. She plays her music so loud -and it’s not my cup of tea!

Anyway it won’t be long now and I hope the gang will be coming round to see the flat. I still hang out with them all sometimes, though me and Flo spend more time together now. I think we’ve grown up faster than the others, particularly the boys, who now seem a little immature.

Tomorrow me and Mum are going to the flat to clean. It’s not my favourite thing but we’ve got to make it presentable. Actually I don’t think it looks too bad, but Mum says she’s going to give the toilet and kitchen a good scrubbing, so I suppose that’s a good thing.

Off the bed now to dream of my new home 🙂

 

So excited. One of my lifelong friends is getting married!  And I’m gonna be her Chief Bridesmaid!

Hayley is marrying Sam. He’s an electrician in Horsham and works for a cool guy. There’s a picture of Sam on their website – guess which one!  I like Sam a lot – known him about 8 years now, so I guess that’s nearly half my life!

Hayley held me when I was 3 days old!  She’s about 9 years older than me but we’ve always got on really well and done lots of things together. She’s really more like a big sister and used to live in my road.

So this is really cool. I get to have another brill dress and it won’t be one of those naff traditional dresses but something real sick.

There are going to be 6 other bridesmaids and I’m in charge. Hahaha. Me in charge of anything is a laugh. But I’m gonna take this real serious and be the best I can.  Sam’s friend Luke is his best man. I like Luke too but unfortunately he’s not single.

So the planning begins. It’s gonna be quite a big do I think. Hayley is looking for the perfect place to have the reception. It’s got to be a bit rural because she loves the countryside, and they want to actually have the ceremony there too. That means there’s not big journey from the church to the reception, which is pretty cool.

There’s a lovely barn that’s been turned into a wedding venue – called Rainbow Barn or something similar. Looks pretty nice from the brochures so that could be something to check out. These places are pretty expensive though. I told Mum and Dad they’d better start saving for my wedding. Dad said I ought to find a boyfriend first!

He’s probably got a point.

On that front there hasn’t been much news. I’ve been hanging out with the gang and we’ve had some good times, but I’m not finding a boy I want to date. But Mum says I’m still very young, although that doesn’t seem relevant to me.

There is one guy I quite fancy but he’s a bit shy. Flo and me are trying to plot a way to get him to ask me out – or at least say yes if I ask him! Not gonna share his name though – just in case he comes across my blog. That would be mega embarrasing.

Not much happening with the prom. It’s all gone a bit quiet, but Mum says we can get my dress in about April. Perhaps I should go on a diet?  You can see what sort of dress I like here

Oh and I’ve got a new job doing some writing work for someone who runs a website. It’s quite cool because I can do it when I want. I don’t think it’s going to bring in mega money but at least it’s something extra and I don’t have to get smelly in a restaurant.  Good job I’m pretty good at English.

Actually it’s quite interesting the work this lady is doing. I might try to find out more about how she builds websites for people. I’m guessing that once you know what you’re doing, the most difficult and time-consuming part is the content. Well that’s what I’m already doing – so how hard can it be?

Maybe I’ll do websites for companies and make a fortune. There are loads of internet millionaires aren’t there?  Can’t be that difficult for an intelligent and diligent girl – hahaha!

Just come across a couple of prom dresses.

Here’s one I wouldn’t be seen dead in though I like the colour

This one’s much nicer

Oh dear. All my good intentions to keep my blog up to date came to nothing. I just found out that my last post was in October – rubbish

But it’s a new year now. Even though it’s almost the end of January I feel it’s still just about ok to make a New Year Resolution – maybe it should be a February resolution haha.

But I do feel I was rambling in my blog so I’m going to start afresh with some much better content and see if I can come up with something awesome.

Back soon – promise x

Toni, Flo and me have actually started our Christmas shopping. Amazeballs. We are so organised this year.

Actually I haven’t bought much but we went out to the mall and there was one of those Christmas stores. I can’t believe it was open already but I’ve noticed the garden centres have lots of Xmas stuff too (mum dragged me round last week to look at autumn hanging baskets – like I’m interested).

So we had a wander round the Christmas shop and I bought a couple of little gifts to get the ball rolling. I got a nice bracelet for Cass. I think she’ll like it. It’s purple and sparkly and that’s her favourite colour. It expands so it will definitely fit her little wrist. I’m going to look for a nice little box to fit it into so it looks really special.

Then I found a joke present for Dad. It’s a squiggy ball with a horrible eyeball in the middle. Really gross. We always give funny things to Dad and sometimes wrap something over and over so he starts with a big present and ends up with something really small. It’s a bit like pass the parcel when you’re little and have birthday parties, but Dad gets the parcel all the time. It makes us laugh anyway.

I’ve made a list of all the gifts I have to buy and it’s quite long, so I have to save up. I’d like to get something really nice for mum and because they’ve been really good this year.

I’m fed up with my job at Max’s. It’s just too boring and I don’t like clearing tables or washing up. So I’m looking for something better. I may try delivering local mags, although mum says it’ll be harder than it sounds. I’m not really good at walking loads so perhaps she’s right.

Nothing has really happened about the prom. It’s such a long time to wait that we’re all getting really depressed. So I’m going to focus on Christmas and have decided to make some new ornaments. We went in a craft shop at the mall and they have lots of things for making stuff for Christmas tree decorations and things to hang on the door. When I get paid I might go back and choose something. It would be nice to have some special ornaments and maybe I’ll give them to my grandchildren one day.

The catalogue arrived and Toni, Flo and me have been going through it with a toothcomb. They have some fab co-ordinating stuff that we just love.

We’ve all found dresses we like, but as mentioned before we really can’t afford to order them yet. But there are some great accessories. I’m not going to put anything in black and white because I don’t want to spoil the surprise for any friends who happen upon my blog. Suffice it to say we will all be stunning!!

We’re just about to book the limo too and that’s pretty exciting. We found this brilliant Hummer that’s so cool inside. We’re gonna be like princes and princesses. One thing we have to work on though is our prom partners. That might be a bit trickier.

Can’t believe it’s so long to wait, so Mum says focus on Christmas then it won’t seem so far away. Mind you, Christmas still seems a long time.

I’m going to start Xmas shopping really early this year to spread the cost. I like to get presents for everyone, then in our family we have tree presents too, so it can get quite expensive. But I still love Christmas, just like I did when I was a little kid. We have to have a real tree, nothing fake for us, and all the ornaments come out each year from a big box we keep in the loft. It’s always exciting. I think we need a new angel this year though because last year’s started to look a bit bedraggled, expecially after she fell off the tree.

I think I might start shopping next weekend now I’ve thought about it.

It was great to see all my friends at college, and right now I’m mega excited!

The big topic is the end of year Prom! Well Christmas comes first of course but we’re starting to plan because it’s going to be the most exciting thing that happens this college year!

Flo and me are in charge of finding a limo. Yep we’re going for a really fantastic stretch job and a group of us have persuaded our parents to pay for it! I fancy one of those lovely Hummers, but we’re getting prices and have even been to one company to check them out. Wow. My favourite so far is crawleylimo.com – check out the cool pics.

We’re also starting to look for prom dresses. Mum says it’s far too early because we could grow by next year! I know she’s right of course but it won’t hurt to suss out the best place to buy a dress and the kind of things they sell.

Actually we might hire because there are a couple of nice places that rent dresses and it would be a lot cheaper. I can’t see the folks dishing out hundreds of pounds for a dress on top of  the car rental. At the moment I’m thinking a gorgeous deep blue, but of course I may have changed my mind next year. I think blue goes with my hair and eyes, but Mum says keep an open mind till the time comes to choose.

Flo is thinking pink – which suits her because she’s always been a girly. I’ve got a really nice bag which would be great with a pink ball gown, so I’ve promised to lend it to Flo if it goes with her dress. Oh it’s so exciting, I just can’t wait. I’ve been on a few websites and one is sending me a catalogue, so I’m checking the post every day.

Oh here’s Flo – gotta dash…..

The hols have been fab but in a way I’m quite glad to be back at college. At least I get to see all the friends who haven’t been around in the hols, so that’s cool.

I’m doing A levels but best not talk about those. I got reasonable grades at AS but am not really academic like some of the bright kids. Not sure that I want to go to uni but I’m keeping my options open as my mum says. She and dad didn’t go to uni so they’d like me to be the first in the family I think, but let’s see how it goes. I may be completely sick of studying by then.

I haven’t really decided what I want to do when I leave but this is the year when I have to think about that. It’s difficult at 17 because some things sound glam but could be really boring. And I don’t like to be bored.

Flo seems to have her future mapped out. She wants to be a lawyer like her dad. He’s a barrister and earns squillions. She’s doing A level law and some other subjects for bright people, then she’s going to uni. Don’t know which one, I guess it depends on her grades.

On the other hand, I don’t have a clue. I really like animals so perhaps I could do something like dog grooming or even veterinary nursing or working in a dog stud or something. I like horses too so perhaps I could get a job with them. I don’t think it pays much though so that could be a stumbling block as I like to spend.

I keep thinking I should be able to find a way to make money online. Now I’m learning to do my own blog, I may branch out and find out how to have a proper website to make some money. Perhaps I could sell something. But what? That’s always the problem but I guess I could work something out.

Now I have homework so got to get to that. When I’ve finished maybe I’ll give that money-making idea some thought. There must be a way to make squillions online mustn’t there? Perhaps me and Flo could work on it together. I’ll do the donkey work and she can come up with the bright ideas – team work.

Of course it rained over the weekend, especially Monday, when it didn’t stop!

But Saturday and Sunday weren’t as bad as feared, so we had a great day at the Dunsfold Airshow. It was a tiny bit worrying after the awful crash at Shoreham but we soon got over that and had a lovely day.

Actually it’s Wheels and Wings so there are lots of cars too, but I don’t think they’re as exciting as the air display. But they were doing laps in really old cars when we first arrived so we watched those first. No idea what type of cars they were but some were really fast. And they also had a race between a plane and a car. Taxiing the car won by a mile but once the airplane was airbourne there was no contest.

We bagged a spot where we could see the whole runway, cos that’s where they do all the interesting flying, away from the crowds. Most people had brought their own chairs but we’d never been to an airshow before so Mum and Dad didn’t think to bring anything. I sat on the grass mostly – until it started raining in the afternoon, when it got far too wet.

The airshow was great. I forget the names of all the planes but I remember the Pitts because Dad used to do aerobatics when they lived in America and he always wanted a Pitts Special. Never gonna happen though!

Then there was a Spitfire that flew with a Typhoon and a really really noisy modern plane – maybe that was the Typhoon too. That was ear-splitting, so not so keen on that one. The Spitfire also flew with a Hurricane and I think a Mustang.

And the Red Arrows were fantastic. I’ve never seen them give a display before, only a fly-over. They went back and forth in all sorts of formations, belching out red, white and blue smoke. It was really good. Loved them.

Unfortunately the rain got quite heavy after the Red Arrows so we decided to leave soon after. They did warn us there would be queues to leave but there really wasn’t much option. It was too wet to sit on the grass and we didn’t even have umbrellas.

So we queued to leave. OMG it was dreadful. How can they be so efficient at getting you into the show and so terrible at getting you out? In the end Mum dodged past someone and followed some other renegades down a track we weren’t supposed to go. Haha luckily she has a 4×4 because the track ended. Just like that with a brick wall. Luckily she went off-road on the grass, through a small ditch and we’d skipped a good part of the queue and got out much faster.

Then we made another mistake and decided to head off on some back roads to bypass a huge queue on the road. We ended up on a little track and asked a lady whether it went anywhere. No, she said, you’ll have to turn back. She told us she’d probably see 50 cars up there over the weekend. So we weren’t the only “clever” ones.

Got home eventually, but it took about 3 times as long as the journey there.

So we really enjoyed the show, shame about the journey home, but if we go again next year then we’ll look for another route.

Rest of the weekend was a bit of a washout. Chilled on Monday and watched a couple of videos and caught up on Facebook but that was about all. Didn’t even bother going out, but Holly came round Monday evening to chill with me.

Usually in the holidays I don’t get up till at least 10. I mean what’s the point of not having college if you still have to get up at the crack of dawn?

But today I woke early and couldn’t get back to sleep. Not like me at all and totally annoying. Anyhow I remembered my blog and thought I might as well get on the laptop and give an update. Still in my jamas though.

Well we went window shopping which was cool, and I bought a friendship bracelet and Toni got a new top, purple and silver, totally cool. Toni has been working for a few months so she’s got more money to spend. Lucky!

In the evening we met up with some of the gang and hung out at our fav coffee bar, Maxims. It’s cool cos it has lots of really comfy chairs and they don’t seem to mind that we stay a couple of hours and only have a couple of coffees. I suppose it makes the place look full.

Jaz is the comedian in the gang, so funny he had us in stitches with his story about his grandad. A bit disrespectful maybe but definitely had us rolling around the floor. So we had a good time and I was back home by 9.30. Watched a film that was real boring but it gave me time to catch up on Facebook. Nothing earthshattering there so was in bed by 11.

Not sure what we’re doing today but I’m going round Toni’s later and we’ll decide.

By the way, not one person in the gang noticed me and Toni looked particularly radiant after our facepacks. Waste of time I guess.