what alice forgot

My mum is a nurse, and one of the perks of her job is that she can bring books left on the ward home to borrow..  not sure if she's meant to, but i'm not complaining :')

the last book she brought home was 'What Alice Forgot' by Liane Moriarty.

The story is about Alice Love, who awakens in the gym, very confused. Alice is wondering many things: 1. If her unborn child is safe, and 2. What the hell is SHE doing in a gym? It soon becomes clear that Alice has lost all memories from the last ten years, so not only is she no longer pregnant, but she now has three children, and is in the midst of a nasty divorce from her husband, Nick. The rest of the novel follows Alice and her family as Alice gradually regains her memory.

The story is told from the points of view of Alice, and also through the blog-posts of her 'Granny' Fran, and letters from her sister Elisabeth (who is undergoing fertility treatment) to her psychiatrist.

Alice finds everyone treats her differently, and she realises that at some point over the last time years she had lost her sensitive, youthful ways, and had become strict, cynical and oh so sensible.

I found the book a little confusing for a while because the three different points of views (Alice's, Fran's and Elisabeth's) are not separated by chapters, and at times i found myself having to read back over sections to get a grasp on what was going on. 

written during a yoghurt break ^_^

so... it's the night before i have to hand my first draft of english coursework in, that i've had over a week to do, and i am not finished, surprise surprise.
BUT don't panic, i am well on the way! :D
i'm currently on 906 words, and am also currently working on my 9th illustration for it (a zoo keeper!)
I'm finding writing a childrens story quite easily, but being your typical horrendously disorganised teenager, i realised halfway through that i didn't ACTUALLY know the details of the plot!
solution?
facebook chat!
********************
me: i need help!
friend: what for?
me: how would a seven year old help an elephant to escape from a zoo?
friend: urmmm.......

          unlock the cage?
me: YES thank you!
      she shall steal the key off the zoo keeper!
*********************
hence why i am drawing a zoo keeper on paint :)

anyway, having been sat on my sofa typing and drawing away for the best part of the last 2 hours, i have now decided to let my brain rest by having a rather yummy black cherry yoghurt (YUM! i love it when my dad buys these!), and update my blog-a-tron, of course ;)

oh, i've finished it now :(

well, back to work!

xxxxxxxxxxxxx

P.S. i have one of those annoying bump things of your tongue!
but, good news about my mouth, i have really noticed my teeth moving around lately, and some of the gaps around the front have almost closed up! could this be... the END of my braces treatment? well, i'd better not jinx it :)
and that's enough for izzies dental news haha!

urghhh

just a short one..

i'm not drinking again for a loooooong time....

bleurgh.

english coursework...

Well, I have officially started my english language coursework!
I found just choosing what to do was the most difficult part so far, knowing that we could write literally any piece of text we wanted. I have settled on a short story, aimed at young children around aged 6 or 7, who would probably be reading with their parents. I originally had Roald Dahl's 'The Twits' as a style model, but I found that imitating his style of writing is not only incredibly difficult to do without just copying his ideas, but I also knew a story of the same complexity level as The Twits would have to be quite long, and I'd end up going over the word limit for my coursework, which would suck a little bit!
I am now writing the sort of story you'd find in a book of 'bedtime stories', so my story has to include very few characters and a simple plot, yet still be interesting to engage a young child. I'm actually finding it harder than I expected, but I plan on adding lots of little drawings I'll either scan onto it, or make on paint, so this will not only make it more interesting for the child who will (probably never!) read my story, but also give me an excuse to draw lots of cartoon zoo animals! :')
Anyway, the basic plot for my story is a little girl called Holly goes to the zoo with her parents on her birthday, and is rather unimpressed with the toy elephants in the gift shop, so she hatches up a plan to take the real elephant home with her!
I've even made a front-cover on paint :'), showcasing my EXCELLENT paint-drawing skills!

:D
Izzie

P.S as you can probably guess from all the words I've randomly put in bold, I have only just discovered the panel thing just above the box where you write... my computer skills are growing by the day! :'D xxx

17th birthday tomorrow!

So, in less than four hours, I will be seventeen years old! I don't know why, but the novelty of my birthday definitely seems to be wearing off a bit, I know that this time five years ago I would have been literally bouncing off the walls at the thought of my birthday! Maybe it's because, rather than looking forward to it being my birthday, I am looking more forward to having a saturday off work - an event which only happens 4 times a year :'D? And of course starting driving lessons on monday!
   Tomorrow morning though, my hopes of having a lie-in will be ruined, because my mum and aunty are heading off to Wolverhampton for the day, so I'll have to be up opening birthday presents before they leave.. is it wierd that I'd rather be in bed? Haha! Then I'm heading off out during the day with some of my old friends who I haven't seen for a few months, then it's back home, then out for a meal with my 3 best friends, then they are staying over for the night YAY!
   Sunday morning, the birthday celebrations will come to an abrupt finish, because I'm going into work from 9-5... I seem to luuurve Primark, don't I? :/
   Well, this concludes my last post as a 16 year old :') roll on the next year, I say! xxx

P.S, Also, here is a photo of me and some of my friends on our last day of secondary school.. It's wierd to think how much has changed since then, especially as it was only about 5 months ago!

  

I'M GOING TO PARIS!

yes yes yes it's finally booked! i'm going to paris in february!
ahhhh, i'm so excited! Paris is somewhere i've always wanted to visit, and it hopefully will be a great chance to experience another culture, see some amazing sights and of course practice speaking french (unless of course, the people there think my accent's so terrible they just speak to me in english anyway!)
and, best of all, the booking includes a piece of luggage each, so that means... I can take up to 20 kilos of whatever crap i like! :D YAY for not having to share one huge suitcase with my family!

xxxxx

just a short, ranting one...

Well, i've just been to the orthodontist, and i now have had SPRINGS added to the growing list of contraptions inside my mouth! Man, the things i put up with in order to get nice teeth! Well, hopefully i shouldn't have my braces on much longer, i've now had them on around 16 months, and today the orthodontist said that he is "quietly confident" that he can take them off at my next appointment, but then said "Well i know for sure they'll definitely be off by your 18th birthday!", which isn't a huge reassurance seeing as it's my 17th birthday next week... !

So, braces rant OVER, next rant.. i swear my college bag is gradually getting heavier! It's been almost a month since i started, and originally on a tuesday i would go in with an english folder, a french folder and a pencil case. Now, the contents of my bag for a tuesday are as follows: english folder; french folder gradually getting fuller and fuller with handouts, french grammar workbook, french textbook, pencil case, purse (containing around 26p), french vocabulary notebook,  ipod, phone, drinks bottle and a small tub of vaseline! Notice that most of the bulk in my bag is in relation to my french? Why did i pick that subject! Ah well, by the end of the year, i may have a severely deformed spine from carrying this bag around, but at least i'll be good at french... hopefully!

current book... Keeping Faith by Jodi Picoult

I'm a fan of Jodi Picoult and am always looking out for her titles. I bought this book at a charity shop in Stafford for £2.50 (hardback) , and started reading it on the train journey home and got hooked straight away!

The plot revolves around 7 year old Faith White, and her recently divorced mother Mariah. Mariah has raised Faith completely non-religiously, and suddenly, her daughter develops an imaginary friend she calls her 'Guard'. Mariah takes Faith to visit a doctor who finds nothing psychologically wrong with her daughter, but suspects she is seeing God, and this rumour is further rooted when she brings her grandmother back to life after she dies from a heart attack, and develops stigmata (spontaneous wounds at the points of the body where Jesus was nailed to the cross). Throughout all this, the media has been going crazy for Faith and Mariah White, led by the very determined 'tele-atheist' Ian Fletcher, who is determined to prove that Faith's visions are a hoax set up by Mariah. When Faith and Mariah flee across the country from the media, Mariah's cheating ex-husband Colin files a petition for full custody of faith.

Currently i am reading at the point in the midst of the courtroom drama, and i can't wait to read on and find out what happens! Even though i haven't finished this book yet, i definitely would reccomend it! Jodi Picoult has included romance, drama, suspense and of course, a vicious courtroom battle, that she is so well-known for writing. A great read!

xxx

hello, i'm izzie :)

so... i was told today in engligh language that we have to start a blog. i figured the best way to get this thing going is to blog telling a little about myself :)

in this photo above is, from left to right, me, my rather special best friends Hannah, Jenny and Morag, and Gavin gorming out in the background of course ;)

I study english language, french, sociology and gcse spanish at New College, so these will probably be brought up into my blog posts fairly often. I'm finding the blogging experience a little strange so far, for a start, this website is very confusing and i'm amazed i've got this far! Also, it feels a little wierd knowing i'm typing this out, and no-one's probably even going to read it!

Hope someone reads this!

Izzie xxx