Dear Honey...

Dear Honey,

You are quite honestly the most astounding rabbit I have ever known (apart from Sandy of course). You have touched many hearts. You have spent many hours chewing your way through mounds of dried food and veg, coats, and even the hutch. You dug your way out of the run on countless occasions. Scratched and bitten every part of my body. Burnt a great big hole in our pockets...draining our purses of money. But most importantly you have left a huge hole in our hearts. Never has a day gone by, that I have regretted picking you in that smelly pet shop. Never has a day gone by, that I wished you were ever so slightly smaller. Never has a day gone by that I wished you would STOP EATING! I loved you for what you were, a greedy, stroppy little mare of a rabbit. I wouldn't have had you any other way. You were the Rachel in rabbit form. We will remember you forever. Those three short years you were with us has flown by, but we will never forget them. I mean, lets face it babbit, it is pretty much impossible to forget you :P. And now you decide to leave us for a better place... but if you have the time, between sleeping and eating (always your two favourite things), please think of us, particularly your beloved Sandy.

One last thing I must say is: Honey, my adorably beautiful babbit, I love you...always have...always will.

Sleep well babbit xxx

Montage

I am pleased to say, I FINALLY have something to talk to you about. Ok, so I was a little depressed at the weekend. I decided I needed some cheering up. I was going to go to the cinema with my boyfriend Mark, but he is stranded in America due to the ash cloud. Instead, my friend Abbie took me to see Dear John on Saturday evening, to cheer me up. I also decided to start on a project that I have been meaning to do for ages: a montage - the story of my life, in photos, plastered all over my wall. My best friend Alicia, came round to help me cut and stick them all up, but also keep me company and cheer me up. We didn't get anywhere near finished because we decided to go down to Caversham Court and we spent a great deal of time in front of the tv watching my old home videos of me eating chocolate buttons at the age of 10 months (VERY embarassing) while eating camembert and crackers. It was a good day in the end, but I still miss Mark :(.

A little afterthought that you may find slightly amusing:
Well, I had some special spray glue, that informed me that I needed to have windows open in use....so we opened the windows when spraying the stuff (I could see what they meant...it did make us a little...dizzy and hyper). Anyway, when we decided to stop spraying and go downstairs, I kinda forgot about the windows. Later, once Alicia had gone, I came upstairs to my room, which was FREEZING. So I shut all the windows. 10 minutes later, I decided to do some more gluing, but forgot about the windows....it completely stank the place out...and I went COMPLETELY high. And the worst thing was...I had to go to sleep...with the smell still in the air. I woke up with headache...or what I can assume is the equivalent to a hangover.

apologies...

I haven't written very much on my blog recently, and for that I must apologise. But, if truth be told, I haven't had a lot of luck recently, and because you don't want to listen to all my problems, I have resorted to writing nothing. So, in case any of you were worried by the lack of posts, I am not dead or critically ill and I have not been kidnapped. I am just a little depressed. Although things have only got worse, I am starting to think a bit more...positively, thanks to both Alicia and Abbie who have cheered me up during these dark times. Hopefully, soon I'll have a bit more to write about.

London and Billy Elliot

Yesterday I went to see Billy Elliot in the West End. As we were going to London, naturally we arrived a few hours early and took advantage of the extensive ranges of the shops on Oxford Street. I had very little money, so I bought hardly anything. Despite the rather unsuccessful shopping trip, Billy Elliot was simply AMAZING. The cast was brilliant, and had the whole theatre watching in awe as they danced and sang their way around the stage. The show didn't finish 'til 10.35 and there were "minor delays" on the circle line. In the end we caught the 36 bus to Paddington followed by an immensely slow train, which didn't get us to reading until 12.10. We then decided to walk home, because the buses had all stopped running, and there weren't any taxis. In the end we didn't get home until 12.40. I then "went to bed"....and signed on msn and talked to my boyfriend (who is in America at the moment) until 4am. Apparently, this morning every member of the household tried to wake me, but I was completely out. I vaguely remember answering a call half asleep, I don't know what time, who from and what about. But I have, since that call, misplaced my phone and so have no way of checking. I eventually woke up properly at 1.30pm.....a total of 9 and a half hours sleep - which was much needed.

Overall, I had a really good day in London yesterday. And I can conclude that...my sleeping pattern is SERIOUSLY messed up :/

RAVES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ok, I have just had the most epic last 3 days ever. I attended a double sleepover. On the wednesday night, I had 6 most...*cough* esteemed *cough* guests over at my house. Its a tradition to have Dominos pizza and chocolate fountain at my house, so naturally we had Dominos pizza and chocolate fountain. This time....we judged the amount of food we ate a lot better, which is a shame really, because it is ALSO a tradition for us all to be flat on our backs in the dining room, growling at anyone who so much as touches our stomachs. Then while Becca, Alicia and I (sticking to tradition) were lying on our backs, the others had far too much fun on my laptop, downloading goodness knows what, and scaring away my friends on both facebook AND msn - for which I apologise profusely.

We then watched 'Notting Hill' and, following the discussion on Hugh Grant's floppy hair, had a rather philisophical debate on the meaning of life - in which many of us had a disagreement over religion, and the existance of god, heaven and hell.

The next morning, we woke up at the unnaturally early time of 9. I made everyone croissants and pains au chocolat - I made the dreadful mistake of having pains au chocolat WITH NUTELLA.

After Ruth and Martha had been picked up, we walked Clo to the bus stop and continued down to Caversham Court (which is BEAUTIFUL when the sun is out). We had too much fun putting flowers in each other's hair and walking round with bare feet. We then ventured to the other side of the river, which wasn't as nice, and watched in despair as children were PICKING DAFFODILS!!!!!!

After we had got home and had finished our lunch, we realised we had missed TWO trains to Newbury. So, we decided to (as none of us could afford the bus) run all the way to the station. Our train was at 3.10. We arrived at 3.07 and got our tickets. We could see a train.....and....it went. We were distraught. Alicia looked up at the screen only to discover that that was in fact NOT our train and that the train to Newbury was still on the platform.....only...the far platform. This is the part where we REALLY RAN. And we JUST made it.

We got to Newbury, and I am hastily brushing over the bit about our Geography fieldwork to continue to Sophie's AMAZING performance of The Three Musketeers at the Watermill Theatre. She was Milady, the evil, murderous lady, so.....naturally, we all loved her.

After the play, we went back to Sophie's and had more pizza, watched Ever After, and slept. The next morning we went up to the tree house (which is right over the river which runs THROUGH Sophie's garden - jealous much). We also walked down to the bridge and dropped a bottle with a....rather profound message inside...for some randomer to pick up.

We than had some delicious soup (courtesy of Penny - Sophie's mum) and then caught a train home.

For these immense last two days, I must thank the following:

Alicia
Becca
Luce
Clo
Martha
Ruth
Sophie
And everyone's parents who permitted us to go gallivanting off for two days and/or allowed us to crash out on their floor.

shopping...

Today, I went shopping with my mum. I am not particularly girly, but I do LOVE shopping. However, today was different. I voluntarily bought, not one, not two but THREE dresses. Unfortunately....I also bought a lot of other stuff...and have concluded...when I received the enormous bill from my mum...that I can't afford to keep all three dresses. Such a shame really :(.

the recovery...

Ok, so you read my previous post about the dreadful DofE expedition. Well, I was completely exhausted last night. i promised to ring my best friend when I got home from the expedition, so I decided to ditch Doctor Who, to ring her, and then I could go to bed straight afterwards. Turns out, she had spent the entirety of yesterday in town, shopping. Not only that, but she bought soooooooooo many nice clothes, or rather, her mum bought them. Hmph.

Anyway, last night, I went to bed sooooo early, and slept right through the night. 12 SOLID HOURS SLEEP. Heaven. My back still kills, but I feel so much better, and I am now eating the greatness that is...nutella and banana (a thing I have missed most dearly over the past few days). I am, by no means, recovered, but now I can relax and look forward to the week ahead. Excited much XD.

Just seeing whether this works XD

DofE: dirt, determination and depression

Just 10 minutes ago, I walked through the door, caked in mud, having returned from my dreaded DofE expedition. For all those who have been in England for the past two days, it wouldn't have escaped your notice that it was CHUCKING it down out there. We all got ABSOLUTELY SOAKED! For about an hour today, it actually stopped raining (yes I know, I couldn't believe it either) and I saw the sun. I swear that was the best moment of my life (until I arrived home). My weekend camping was....lets just say, eventful. On several occasions we had to stop and seek safety and protection (I can't quite say dry - because it was far from it) under some tarpaulin. There were 7 of us, the tarpaulin barely covered 6 of us. So, guess who had to ditch their bag, leaving it out in the rain to get completely drenched, and had to sit right on the edge under the tarpaulin, with only their sandwiches and the front of their head protecting from the rain. Yes, you guessed it - me. That night I had real difficulty feeling my fingers, I knew I had brought some handwarmers, but I couldn't undo the zip to my bag to get them out (because my hands were so cold). The following morning, I made pancakes for the group, and I helped to wash up -despite having lost the feeling in my fingers for over 12 hours. We then set out on our 11km walk at around 10am. We were making excellent progress until....we got lost.

It was on this little, last minute, unintentional detour of ours, that I managed to fall in a river. Yes, I fell into a river. I got completely drenched from the knee down, and wasn't at all happy for the rest of the day. When we finally got to the farm where we were to be picked up, I found my dad waiting there patiently for me, only to discover that we had to make an apparently compulsory visit to the lambing shed, before we had a debriefing and washed up our trangias. So, when I thought it was all over, I then had to spend another 2 hours out in the rain, knowing that when I got back to the car, my dad was going to be in one hell of a mood with me for making him wait.

So one lesson from this story I have just shared with you: NEVER go camping.

the dreaded DofE.....

Ok...have begun to discover that, aside from playing the piano, blogging is a miracle when it comes to relieving stress. I am looking outside at the moment, watching the rain pour down, and thinking....**** - I am too decent to actually say the word, I'll leave it up to you to decide which one i used. Anyway, tomorrow - yes Good Friday - I have my dreaded DofE expedition tomorrow. This consists of a 13km hike through muddy fields and woodland (with the vast amounts of must increasing due to the rain), passing only a few buildings (if I am lucky). I then have to set up a 3-man tent (yes - one which I have been lugging round with me all day) and sleep under canvas in the rain. The following day will probably start unhealthily early, when we set out on another walk, this time a mere 11km to reach or destination point. Here we will be picked up by our parents (if mine remember) and taken back to our own beds....where I intend to stay for the next week.

blogging from the beginning...

Hey. My name is Rachel, or Rache (whichever you prefer - just make sure you don't forget the e!). I am famous for my many obsessions. Many of my friends refer to me as "the music geek" - what can I say? I like music. Increasingly, I spend more and more time in front of the piano, last weekend I played for 7 hours solid. Another obsession of mine is facebook. Ok, its a bit more than an obsession. I am addicted. But hey, who isn't? I am also well known for having no life, yet I still seem to leave all my coursework til the last minute - I was up til 12.15 last night doing an English essay due in today. I also overuse smileys - my particular favourite is XD. And last but certainly by no means least, I am proud to say, that I am obsessed with my best friend Alicia! And you all must thank her, for if it was her who encouraged me to set up this blog.