La Belle SaisonLa Belle SaisonSnippets of student life in Edinburgh and Paris Articles
Ollie and the Spider
2008-02-10 00:20:00 Tonight my cat found a spider in the bath. It was his first encounter with a spider. He ate all but a leg. Good lad!(the spider was not teensy - but by the time I'd arrived with my phone to video the momentous occasion the spider had curled itself into the tiniest ball. Disappointing.)And here's a bonus Ollie vid (with me in it playing around with new webcam) just because I thought it was funny...I More About: Spider , Crazy Cat Lady
Contaminated
2008-02-06 13:30:00 Last night something awful happened. But before I continue I suppose I should warn you not to read on if you have a sensitive stomach or are eating while reading because this involves bodily fluids. The incident took place in the writing class I attend every Tuesday evening. There are only 8 students in the class and the room was silent, apart from the scratching of pens as we scrawled down a page or two of prose. And then the woman sitting diagonally across from me sneezed, making some of us, who had been immersed in our own little worlds, jump. ?Bless you,? someone muttered and everyone continued on in silence, etching away with their pens, scoring out mistakes and rustling sheets of paper.But I had stopped writing. I was staring at my right hand in utter disgust. There, resting on my skin was a big wet bobble of snot. OMG. WTF! Yes! I had someone else?s snot on my hand! I?d seen the green goo fly from the woman as she sneezed. It scattered the table and sat...
Unfurling Fingers
2008-01-29 15:15:00 It has taken me well over 24 hours to recover from yesterday morning's driving lesson. Only now are my hands beginning to unfurl from their vice-like grip after having been at the steering wheel for the first time in four years. I?m peeling my fingers back, vertebra by vertebra. Not a pretty picture.My driving instructor does not appear to be the crazy eyed, pantie sniffer who drinks pints of orphan?s tears that I was expecting. From my first lesson I have come to the conclusion that he is, in fact, a very nice gentleman. The kind of gentle giant who spends his free time lovingly wrapping bandages on the paws of injured puppies and who smells of Werther?s Originals. His name is Scott.I sat in the driver?s seat, a yard away from my own house. Scott said that because it was only an hour long lesson there was no point in driving anywhere further when we could just practice going up and down my own street. I cringed with humiliation. It was bad enough having neighbours twitchi... More About: Fingers
The Answer, my Friend, is Blowin' in the Wind
2008-01-24 16:18:00 I am walking at a seemingly slow pace against a fierce wind as I cross the North Bridge. Edinburgh, being on the coast, can get hideously windy, and today the Gods are using every strength they have to send icy blasts of cold air around the city, causing anyone who is daft enough to be out on a day like this to grab onto the nearest sign post, hand railing or person in order to avoid being blown to London. I am late for my bus home and am trying with all my might just to make it around the corner where there is a haven of shelter in the bus station but I feel like I am walking under water. My muscles are working so hard but the wind won?t let me advance more than a few inches with each step I manage to take. It?s like living the proverbial ?one step forward, ten steps back.? My hair, which I tied up this morning, has come free and slaps at my face, dances across my eyes and sticks to my lip gloss. My cheeks I can not feel, they are numb from the blustery weather but I know t... More About: Scotland , Answer , Wind , Friend
Rejected Chip
2008-01-23 00:14:00 Tonight in my creative writing class we were asked to write a very short poem using metaphors and a negative emotion. Here is what I came up with (bare in mind we are given 5 mins max to do this);Rejection is a discarded doll left out in the rainRejection is the lonely child watching the other children play Rejection is the letter beginning "I regret to inform you..." Rejection is the lone, burnt chip left sitting on your plateNeedless to say when I read it aloud there was laughter. Doesn't anybody else feel sorry for the last baked bean or burnt chip left all by itself on the dinner plate? Or the green crisp, cast aside just because it's green? How sad the crisp looks without a partner to keep it company. Surely I can't be the only one who, if she doesn't finish her chips / beans / crisps, will leave two instead of one because she doesn't want the last, rejected morsel to feel lonely...Is it really that weird?!I love my subscribers More About: Geek , Writer , Rejected , Chip
Puberty
2008-01-20 00:18:00 Well, I knew this day was coming. I knew that my little kitten wouldn't stay a little kitten forever. I knew it, I just didn't realise he'd grow up so fast.Ollie will turn six months old on February 1st, which, in human terms, is still a baby, but in cat terms he's coming on for a teenager. Which only means one thing...Do you remember being a teen? Remember hating your parents? Remember being so embarrassed by them and refusing to be anywhere near them because they were, like, so uncool, man. Well, Ollie is going through that teenage phase. He's rebellious, he won't let me hug him or kiss him, he no longer comes to sleep on my lap unless he's feeling really sorry for himself, he refuses to allow me to groom his fur or trim his claws, and he's even started answering me back when I tell him off. Not to mention he sleeps all day and partys all night.And like most adolescent boys he's lazy. I mean, he has his bursts of energy which send him galloping through the hous...
Head Over Heels
2008-01-17 09:27:00 I often tell FP that I'm head over heels in love with him because...well, because it's true. I suppose it is one of those strange expressions we use in the English language that doesn't entirely make sense and is therefore slightly difficult for a foreigner to make head nor tail of (and there's another one!).The sms was sent to me almost a month ago, I mentally folded it up and stored it in the dresser drawers of my memory and even now it still sends me into convulsions of giggles.It read;Baby, I am really head over wheels in love with you...Yes folks, head over wheels. It was his deadly serious tone that really got me. How cute is that?! Another FPism to add to the growing list.Ah, sure, there's never a dull moment with that boy of mine!I love my subscribers More About: Head , Heels
I Chickened Out
2008-01-13 18:12:00 Readers in Britain may be aware of the Chicken Out! Campaign fronted by (the very lovely) celebrity chef Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall against the unacceptable conditions that Britain?s chickens are reared in. If you haven?t got a Scooby what I?m talking about then take a look here. Anyway, part of this campaign was televised on channel 4 not so long ago and I managed to catch an episode or two following Hugh and his campaign. And it reminded me of a Very Bad Day I?d had when I was younger.The whole thing must have been so revolting that I?d pushed it to the recesses of my mind and left it there to rot with other bad memories because I hadn?t thought about it in years. Back there, in the cobwebbed corners of my memory hides one recollection of The Day I Worked on a Chicken Farm. I must have been around 12 years old, and getting up to go to work for 5am was a novel experience (that I will never repeat). On arriving at the farm, I was introduced to the farmer, Hamish, a big gruff...
Busy
2008-01-10 17:58:00 Bonne année à tous! Happy New Year!Okay, okay, I know it's dead late and I know there must be a time limit on how long after the New Year you can keep wishing people 'happy new year' and the like (February? March? April?!) but it's better late than never, n'est ce pas? Anyway I do hope you all had a fantastic time yourselves, that Christmas wasn't the horrible anti-climax that it usually sets itself up to be, and that you made it to midnight at Hogmanay (that's Scottish for New Years E ve, fact fans) before you passed out in the bog. Also, I do hope that none of you made any New Years Resolutions; you're only asking for trouble if you have, they always end in tears.The Christmas holidays in Princesse Ecossaise HQ this year were...busy. Busy with lots of people coming and going, to-ing and fro-ing. Busy with lots of things to do, people to see (or, for some, things to see, people to do). Busy as a busy man in a busy place. But busy is good. Busy is my new buzz-word...
Noel, Noel!
2007-12-24 18:24:00 This Christmas, like every year, I shall be spending in the comfort of my parent's home surrounded by family. There will be the token old biddies wearing snowflake jumpers and paper hats, everybody will be getting merry, pulling crackers and reading those terrible jokes aloud to a response of groans. We will all eat way too much turkey and to keep up tradition, the majority of us will be asleep on the sofa by 7pm. Presents will include The Broons and Oor Wullie annuals, a Terry's Chocolate Orange each and a good old bottle of alcohol which will no doubt be opened and perhaps finished on Christmas Day.Oh how I love Christmas!Merry Christmas to you all, mes amies, have a wonderful day!I love my subscribers More About: Noel
Princesse Waz 'Ere
2007-12-18 22:55:00 Now that I've left school it's not often that I have to use a public loo with scribbles and messages on the walls. However this evening when out with my brother at a comedy club I discovered that the unisex loos were absolutely plastered in graffiti. I read some interesting confessions and learned about who 'waz ere' but one message scrawled in bold writing across the toilet stall door stuck in my mind.Joe is a Gay HomosexualIt has left me a little bemused. What other kind of homosexual is there?I love my subscribers
Ugly Princesse
2007-12-18 00:37:00 It's been quiet around here recently. In my minds eye I can see cyber tumbleweed blowing softly around this cobwebbed little blog. So where have I been?! I reeeeally want to say I've been so busy lately that I've simply not had the time to write. I want to make you all think that I'm cool and have an interesting life. But I can't lie.I've been lounging around the house in scaffy velour tracksuits, eating stodgy comfort food and watching Ugly Betty season one and two. (Me and Betty have a lot in common. I feel I can relate to her. In fact I am Ugly Betty.) I haven't pulled a brush through my hair for...a very long time and my eyebrows are in serious need of plucking. Yes, that's how bad it has got. Eugh.You see, I've been feeling sorry for myself. (What do you mean, 'again'?!) I'm having my seventh biopsy this week, taken from my face, so I shall have fetching stitches on my cheek for christmas. Jolly good!Still, after a few days of being stuck in a time war...
Songbird
2007-12-04 19:16:00 I was feeling creative today.I love my subscribers More About: French , Songbird
FP Says...
2007-12-03 23:09:00 FP sent me an sms message to tell me how much he missed me."I miss you so much I feel like a junkie in rehab," says he.My man never ceases to make me smile.I love my subscribers
Flight From Hell
2007-12-02 18:52:00 I was in a bad mood to start with. That morning, after having just finished applying my make-up, the tears started flowing, allowing freshly applied mascara to course down my cheeks. I didn?t want to go back home so soon, I didn?t want to leave FP again, and I'd spent hours doing my make-up only to find I looked even worse than when I started. And so the tears flowed freely and they never really stopped for the rest of the day. I?m pretty sure I lost a good few litres of water that day due to my eye leakage.At the airport there were simply Too Many People. FP and I sat in the café surrounded by tables full of rowdy Scottish men in kilts and football shirts. They were loud, drunk and vulgar. One of the men spilt a glass bottle of beer on the floor, laughed and walked away from the scene of the crime without a care in the world while the rest of his crew laughed as one of the staff slipped on the sodden floor ('ha ha ha Jimmy yer a pure riot by ra way'). It was the first ti... More About: Hell , Flight
Thank You
2007-11-24 16:52:00 I began to reply to comments left on my last post, but realised that what I wanted to say is rather long and so it's definitely worthy of it's own post.Firstly I want to say thank you to everyone for the comments, the kind words of support, love, advice and prayers (and to those who don't pray, your best wishes were just as appreciated). Not only to those who gave me their thoughts on yesterday's ramblings but those of you who have ever come to this blog and left your penny's worth when I've been upset or a little lost in life. Isn't it funny how people you have never ever met face to face can all of a sudden become your closest confidants? Sure, I write things here that I would never dare share with some of my closest friends and family. Writing under the nom de plume of Princesse Ecossaise has provided me with a certain amount of anonymity on the net, which in turn gives me the courage to reveal my deepest feelings about the difficulties in my life. The blog was neve... More About: Hank
Holding Onto Life By A Thread
2007-11-23 11:05:00 Last christmas I vowed that if I was still in bad health by christmas 2007 I would kill myself.I said it in desperation, a cry for help.But I meant it.Unless there occurs nothing short of a miracle between now and the 25th December, it doesn't look as though I'll be 'fixed' by my deadline. But I can't end it all, can't give up just yet, because I still hold the tiniest flame of hope that the tuberculosis medication will be the answer. I also have one boy who I love with all my heart - probably too much - and I can not leave him. And my parents. My poor parents who have fought so hard against this illness, fought for me when I had no strength left to fight for myself.I can't give up yet.But I can't go on much longer like this. Not another year. I don't want to share a fourth christmas with hospitals and illness, medication and hopelessness. Right now I feel like I'm holding onto life by the thinnest thread. The part of me that is tired of fighting is pulling me into... More About: Life , Holding , Thread
Graduated
2007-11-17 16:44:00 This Thursday was my graduation ceremony. Here are some highlights;I got a special gift!We had a family fall-outMy gown got trapped under someone's chairWe ate dinner in a posh Italian restaurant and got v drunkI didn't particularly want to attend the graduation ceremony. My dad wanted me to. He said if I didn't go I'd have no 'closure'. Whatever that means. So I painted a smile on my face and nodded and agreed to go after all. It was unfortunate that I didn't know a single other soul who would be there. Indigo was supposed to go but had decided at the last minute not to and everybody else on my course had graduated in July. Suffice to say I was not particularly looking forward to the day.The first sign that things were going wrong came even before I woke up. I had had a dream that I was up on stage receiving my parchment when I suddenly realised I had no make-up on. This is a recurring nightmare; it's similar to the naked-at-school nightmare because when you ... More About: Geek
Inside Princesse's Bag
2007-11-14 17:42:00 When Zhu tagged me for this meme I was really pleased. Firstly, it's a girly meme. Secondly it proves to a certain FP that I am not the only wuman that carries everything but the kitchen sink in her bag. And thirdly this meme physically excites me because I.love.bags.I am a bag perv. When I see a good looking handbag I get a thrill. If it's on the arm of another girl, I want it, I have to have it. And when I buy a beautiful handbag I treat it like a God. That means the bottom of my bag never touches the sticky floor of a pub, a seat must be reserved for my bag. No exceptions.There were the days when I went out and bought bags (as Zhu puts it) 'the size of a pack of cigarettes', but those were the days when I could get away with wearing no make-up, I didn't have credit cards or house keys and carrying practical items such as Kleenex and pens didn't occur to me. So the purse the size of a cig packet carried a crumpled ten quid note and a mobile phone, perhaps the odd gl... More About: Inside
Obsessed
2007-11-13 16:16:00 Help! I've become obsessed with the design of my blog. Or more accurately I've become obsessed with photoshop. What does everyone think of the new look? Have I gone over the top?Ah, and before I forget, if you were on my blogroll before and aren't now, let me know and I'll re-add you. I lost my widgets from the previous template and I think most of you are there, but perhaps not all of you - I had to do it from memory mostly!I love my subscribers More About: Geek
Pretend
2007-11-08 12:20:00 Yesterday I was suddenly hit by inspiration for the plot of my novel. I sat with my laptop warming my lap and wrote 4000 words enthusiastically, excited as the story came into full flow, and my hand has changed shape into a claw-like form after the hours I spent typing without taking a break. I'm still trying to unfurl it now.The novel is exciting to write, but I'm terrified it's not going to be all that exciting to read. It's certainly not going to be a man-book, that's for sure. Although I suppose I could add in a few steamy sex scenes, that might get the men interested. Sex sells. Then again, no. It's a bad idea; I mean my dad might read it!Although I'm nowhere near finished, I decided while taking a tea break earlier that I would check out some reputable literary agents. And now things are looking bleak. So bleak in fact that as I googled and read the websites of interesting looking literary agencies, the digestive biscuit I was dunking into my mug fell in and we... More About: Geek
Driving Along in my Automobile
2007-11-06 16:41:00 Dad has a new car. It?s a Peugeot 207, electric blue and I quite fancy it. I?ve pointed out that it?s a young person?s car, that it would be better suited for, say, a young, hip and happening 21 year old girl-about-town, but he?s having none of it. He points out that I, said young, hip and happening 21 year old girl-about-town, can not drive. I have a slight phobia of driving. Okay, perhaps not so slight. Sitting in the driver?s seat with the gear stick in my hand, knowing that I am in control of an entire vehicle brings me out in a fever, sending black dots swimming in my vision. But I really feel an attraction to this damn car. And it seems like everyone around me is advising me to take up lessons again. And what?s more, I?m getting sick and tired of seeing kids around our wee village driving. When I left the village four years ago they were only 13; just babies! And now they can drive! And I cannot. I mean am I the only person left over the age of 17 who cannot ... More About: Driving , Automobile , Tomo
Romantique
2007-10-30 12:45:00 Monday Night; ParisFP and I lay in bed together for the first time in seven weeks. Entangled limbs, bed head hair, breathless and hot, we slowly drink each other in. His fingers stroke my arm softly, his eyes rest on my own, seeing something in there that only he sees. I lay my head on his chest, listen to his heartbeat, pounding against his skin as though it wants to jump right out, ba-boom, ba-boom, ba-boom.His scent lingers in my nostrils, a heavenly mixture of musk and sexy man and I breath deeply, filling my lungs with FP scented air. I never want this moment to end.It's been so long, and yet here we are, together again, entwined and reunited as one and nothing has changed. He still loves me, I know because I see it in his eyes, I feel it in his touch, I hear it in his voice and I taste it in his kiss. I feel like I'm the happiest girl in the entire universe, and God knows, I'm certainly the luckiest.I tell him so.He smiles down at me, his eyelashes casting long shadow...
Underage Drinking
2007-10-28 22:27:00 This week has all been very exciting. I have actually been out and about, living something that resembles a normal(ish) life! I caught up with Zannie, PartyHard and Indigo; real, live, 3-dimensional people in the real world! Wow wee! On Friday, Indigo and I decided to meet up in Edinburgh after she?d finished her classes at uni. She called to tell me that although we?d been planning to have a hot chocolate at Costa she?d left the flat that morning without her purse and had no dosh on her whatsoever. Luckily, later her boyfriend lent her a tenner for her bus and a coffee with me (this all sounds like very random details I'm giving out here, but it's vital info for the story later on, honest!) As I approached her on Princes Street outside Jenners, I ran quietly up behind her, tickled her, making her squeal out. ?Oh my Gawwwwwd!? Indigo cried as she realised it was me, ?I thought you were pure muggin' me you jobby!? I was so delighted to see her, it had been months sin... More About: Drinking , Memories
Teenage Dirtbag
2007-10-22 17:10:00 Teenagers. I hate them. I utterly, honestly, with a passion, downright hate them. While out searching for a nice birthday card for bestest friend Zannie earlier (she?s 21, happy birthday my dear!), I was forced to pass a group of Neanderthal hormonal ?chicks? and ?dudes? of the spotty adolescent type. This terrifies me. I go out of my way to stay as far away as humanly possibly from teenagers. Always. They are revolting things. As I approached the motley looking crew (after fearfully and unsuccessfully scanning the area for any other route just to avoid them), I took in the standard adolescent giveaways. Four boys and four girls, acne ridden and decked out in the latest sportswear, the boys were either wearing caps at 90 degree angles or had skin head hair cuts. The girls were shamelessly flirting, aided by their tight, tight, low rise jeans and although it?s almost November and we?re in Scotland, they wore no jackets, but short sleeved tops, bare, doughy midriffs an... More About: Memories , Teenage
An Exciting Month *
2007-10-21 18:56:00 * Title is false advertisation...sorry.I'm not a 'cat person', honest Ok I mean it. It?s time to get back to blogging. I know I?ve said it for the past couple of posts; I?m ready to write again, blah blah blah but I just got sidetracked. And then, when I wasn?t distracted, I dreaded turning on the computer and feeling the guilt of not having written. I wracked my brains for things to write about, trying to avoid droning on about any health situations or cat escapades (more about that later), but a writer cannot be forced, and when my head is empty, my head is empty. Which is quite often. But here I am, throwing myself in again amidst the blogosphere and I?m going to encourage myself to write like I used to. Perhaps not every single day because at the moment not a lot happens here on a daily basis, but a few times a week should get me well and truly back into the spirit of things. So, as I?m trying to ease myself in, let me make some updates. It?s all been terribly e... More About: Month , Mont
What's up Doc?
2007-10-03 15:30:00 Remember Doctor Asshole? Well it's become my little game to get to know all my doctor's names; first and last, in an attempt to find the doc with the most unfortunate name. Doctor Asshole, or if you want to be technical about it, Doctor Assol, is still up there with the best of them, but I think he may have some stiff competition.Sitting in the TB clinic (holding my breath in case the woman across from me who is coughing and spluttering is infectious) my name is called out by a short, bespecled man with a salt and pepper beard. I've never met him before, and as I approach him I realise I'm taller than him, which makes me feel like a heifer."Hi [Princesse], I'm Doctor Urine. If you'd just like to follow me, please."Pah! Doctor Urine...hahaha! Poor guy...Again, it turns out the spelling is not exactly the same; it's Doctor Uren, but still, it does cheer me up!Then again, is it completely wise to put all your trust in someone whose name makes you want to pee?I love my subs...
Bloody Norah!
2007-10-03 14:57:00 So, something funny happened this week...I was diagnosed with tuberculosis. Yes, TB! That really ancient disease from the Victorian times. Thankfully it's not in the lungs, and I'm not contagious so I've not been locked up in isolation for months on end. More's the pity. You see, I'm a greedy thing. One disease isn't enough for me. Normal modern day flu viruses just don't cut the mustard. No, my body contracts TB, just for the laugh. And now follows 6 months of antibiotic treatment which will turn my pee, saliva and my boogers pink! Pink! Love it! I'll match my blog!To be honest, after the initial shock, I'm not too down about this latest development. You see, sarcoidosis and cutaneous TB present themselves really rather similarly in the body and it's extremely easy to misdiagnose a patient. The two diseases are also often connected; TB can be the underlying cause of sarcoid. So, could it be that I was misdiagnosed and treated for sarcoid when all along I hav... More About: Bloody
Risen from the Dead
More articles from this author:2007-09-28 15:41:00 Wow...it's been some time since I last wrote here, mainly because this September has been an absolute rollercoaster for me and my family. As I wrote previously, my health had deteriorated, and I had to spend a lot of time in and out of hospital, getting tests, being treated and having operations. Of course this was all I've been doing, spending time in white, sterile rooms that smell of disinfectant, reading magazines and becoming pure addicted to Sudoku. I have been actively avoiding writing in my blog, simply because the only things I have to write about are the difficult times I've been having and let's face it, that's no fun for anyone!So, I'm going to skip over these little complications in my life and I'm going to start writing again. About things. About two very lovely things that happened to me this past week.Firstly, I got a letter from university...Yes, that big brown envelope that contains a few simple sentences that would either make or break my future career... More About: Dead 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 |
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