Ross

Apparently, I have received some complaints from a certain goat-breaker that he was not included in yesterday's blog post. So here is a ponderance all about Ross (selfish person).

There's not really that much to say, Ross is awesome; he likes construction and has some weird obsession with triangles, which did help us win the pioneering challenge at Splorers recently but, apart from that, is just odd. He likes watching weird videos (no, not like that) on YouTube, mostly about crazy french men and llamas, and he likes Lego, because it's like big person bricks, but smaller and eaiser to manipulate.

Ross has become famous throughout the imaginary realm of Cuffley for his immense goat-breaking skillage (just, just don't ask) and for finding sand on the beach. He has affiliations with the wonderful Becky (BT) and Philip (Gorgeous, who doesn't read this, so I can get away with calling him Philip), who are both pretty cool.

When I was younger, we used to visit Ross and his family for Christmas, or they would come to us. This led to such events as "the Tutu Incident", which I don't remember, but Ross's parents have a video of. More recently, he has become one of our Splorers and has been involved in several camps, hikes and teapotting experiences, most of which involve him repeatedly saying "erm..."

So yeah, that's all there is to say about Ross, apart from that really awkward time he invited us to the cinema with his mates and then didn't talk to us for the ENTIRE TIME. But I already wrote about that. (Rude!)

Thanks for reading, guys. If you like my blog (or even if you don't) please try to read this blog:
http://shirleynomates.blogspot.co.uk/
It might be interestring, you never know! (more likely not though, because Emily writes it...)

And, if you feel like it, you can follow me on Twitter at @EmPernilla. Thanks :D

Cub Camp

So, as many of you may know, I have been helping at the District Cub Camp this weekend with a fantastic group of people. Therefore I have been pondering the joys of Cubs, camping and the general topic of Scoutists. So basically, I have decided that I really don't want to be a Cub Leader! I don't know how they do it! The first night, the majority of them were awake until two am chatting and generally being awesome, yet several of them were awake again at four thirty, yelling at the Cubs to shut up and go back to sleep (but more politely, obviously). How do they do it?!?!?! It's amazing. The second night was almost the same, we were up until at least quarter to two, and yet everyone was awake and functioning properly fairly early the next morning. I swear, Cub Leaders have super-human powers.

At this point it may be useful to introduce the leaders, although we didn't actually learn their real names until the last night, as the Cubs tended to call them all by names such as "Akela". We invented our own nicknames, some of which I shall explain. Firstly, there was (of course) Jean (the Cuffley Akela) and Maureen (Hathi). Then there was Rolf Harris, who I think was really called Dave, who appeared to be the Akela-In-Charge, and his sons Beer Guy (Baloo - also Grant) and Steve-the-Two (not sure of his Cub name, but he was really Ian). Finally there was BeardyWeirdy (Miles, we also heard him called "Teenage Mutant Ginger Turtle") and Pencil Guy (Rikki Tikki Tavi - definitely pronounced Tar-vi, not Tay-vi - who was also known as Paul). I shan't go into the whole double-alias thing as it begins to get confusing.

There was also Other Ian, Bagheera (whose real name we don't know), Juan, Julio, GuythatlookslikePip and various people who didn't get nicknames as they didn't do anything awesome enough to warrant one. Or spend enough time with us for us to get to know them.

Anyway, these guys were cool.

Finally, this weekend, I have decided that, in the highly unlikely case that I actually become a Cub Leader, I would like to be Baloo, as he is awesome. Also, I think I would suit Baloo more than, for example, Bagheera or Kaa, and Rikki Tikki Tavi is just really really long...

Alice

Today for no apparent reason, apart from the fact she told me to, I am pondering Alice. She's really cool. She has, err, hair and a face. You know, a face. It's that lumpy thing that sits on the front of your head, next to the hairy bit....

Anyway, Alice.

She has quite a nice face, like a sort of white Cleopatra, but not as manipulative or evil, or with a really big nose. And she's got a really nice smile :-) And, errrr... It was fun to have her at the Bond Night last year, when she didn't get thrown in a paddling pool by a huge ginger. Unlike some people *ahem* Emily...

Martha thinks that Alice is "fantastical and incredibly clever and it's not fair"

Eduin thinks that Alice is "imaginative, cheery... Jonny Depp!!?!?!!?"

Leila thinks that Alice is "hot, good at English"

Alice thinks that Alice is "the pengalengalengalengalengiest". Ed disagrees...

Wer've just spent the last ten-twenty minutes, at Alice's request, trying to work out who we wanted to play us in the movie of our life. The list is as follows:

• Ed: Matt Damon, as he looks like him (and he's the pengalengalengalengalengiest)
• Eduin: Alan Rickman, or Hugh Laurie when Alice said he couldn't be Alan Rickman (as he was mean in "Love Actually"). I think Alan Rickman would be a wonderful Eduin. Hehehe, Eduin.
• Martha doesn't think Alan Rickman is vegan. If we are going by this criteria, we will be here forever trying to find someone who is an actor, and vegan, and awesome/hot enough to play Eduin.
• Martha suggests Paul McCartney.
• He is not an actor.
• Or hot enough to play Eduin.
• Alice: Probably Emma Stone, I don't know why.
• Martha: Kiera Knightley, as she has been told she looks like her. I think perhaps Jim Parsons, or even Morgan Freeman, would be a better choice.
• Martha suggests Miss Piggy.
• Leila: Jonny Depp, no questions asked :)
• Sophia: Probably... Evanna Lynch (Luna Lovegood, for those who [like me] weren't sure of the actor's name)
• As for me, we are torn between Whoopi Goldberg and Lisa Kudrow. Obviously neither of them look like me, but that is perhaps for the better.
• At a later date I have returned to this and I now suggest Neil Patrick Harris, as we have so much in common...

N.B. I think Liz should be played by Helena Bonham Carter in the movie of my life...

List Of Things One May Feel Inclined To Buy Cards For

• Birthdays
• Christmas
• Easter
• Eid
• Hannuhak
• Diwali
• Valentine's Day
• Mother's/Mothers' Day
• Father's/Fathers' Day
• Anniversary
• Engagement
• Wedding
• Wedding Acceptance (Sender)
• Sorry, We Can't Come To Your Wedding/Soiree (Sender)
• Grievances/With Sympathy
• New Baby
• Christening/Batism/Whatever
• Good Luck
• Passing Exams
• General Congratulations
• New Home
• Getting A New Address (Sender)
• We're Moving! (Sender)
• Apology
• Late Birthday
• Thank You
• New Job
• New School
• Leaving An Old Job
• Retirement
• Get Well Soon
• Justin Bieber Day. (It's actually a thing. Today. If you send me a card for this, I will disassociate myself from you permanently.)

Any I've missed, please feel free to add :-)

Birthdays

Today is Eduin's Birthday, so it is fairly obvious that I am pondering Birthdays. (duh, that's what the post title is...) Anyway, Birthdays are a quite ridiculous invention. I mean, a day to celebrate having been born x number of years ago. It's not like you've actually planned for it to happen, it just did. Well, obviously someone probably planned it, or at least allowed it, so it's not totally random. But you see my point.

So, why do we have all these traditions for Birthdays? Parties, for example. As a child (and still now) the party was the best bit of having a Birthday for me. It meant I could get all my friends together, who didn't necessarily know eachother, or who hadn't seen eachother for a long time, and we got to do something awesome for a couple of hours. Like caving, or swimming, or just playing pass the parcel (a totally normal 16th Birthday party - it surpassed the passing of any past parcel which had been passed in the past!) and the fact that it was your Birthday Party, that everyone was there to see you, made it even better. But why do we have parties to celebrate Birthdays? Why not have a special meal with family and/or friends, like we do at Christmas? Or decorate trees? Or have hunts around the garden (or park or whatever) for tiny chocolates? Obviously, depending on your inclination, you could do any of these things (except perhaps the tree) on your Birthday, but why isn't there something universal, like there are for other celebrations?

And what about presents? This has never made sense to me. Not that I'm complaining, everyone likes presents, but they don't really mean anything, do they? At Christmas, we give eachother presents to represent two things; firstly, God's gift of His son into the world and secondly the giving of the gifts from the Wise Men to Jesus. (N.B. If you're an atheist/non-Christian believer and you give presents at Christmas, it just makes you as nice person.) So why Birthdays? Is it meant to be a sort of prize? Congratulations on not having died since this time last year? Or is it an incentive to carry on living? It doesn't really represent anything, except for the fact that your birth is being celebrated several years too late by those who love you (or at least like you a bit).

Finally, cards. Whilst they are pretty and are given at many, many occasions (which I cannot be bothered to list here) they do appear to be a little bit silly. regardless of what pictures they have on them, or silly messages they have inside or whatever they are still a little piece of folded up paper containing a sentiment which would be more genuine if it was said out loud anyway.

I may never understand the logistics of Birthdays, but hopefully I shall continue to live to celebrate many more, not only of my own, but also everyone else, because you're all awesome people too.

As always, any comments (not too rude) are welcome and you can still follow me on Twitter - @EmPernilla (although why you would want to, I don't know)
:-)

Shout It To The World!

You peeps! I have a very serious, yet jokey ponderance today.

This evening I found out a very interesting fact about one of my best friends that, really, I should have found out about a year ago. It's nobody's fault, it's just how things happen to have turned out. But it got me thinking. When I asked my other friend (Alice) if she knew she said it was "knowledge" but that there "hadn't been a huge song and dance about it". This gave me an idea.

From now, I am starting a campaign to get people Shouting their news from the rooftops!!! I think that the best thing we can do for our society and for ourselves is to be more open about our lives. So, if anyone had anything they'd like to share, they can comment here or message me and I will make it public (slightly) for them. This blog only reaches about forty people, but it's more than one person can tell at a time without a microphone or a soap box. You don't have to give a name, if you don't want to, but telling people will make you feel so much happier within yourself.

I'll start.

My name is Emma (we all know that) and I play the saxophone. I use the saxophone as a way to stop being sad and be awesome instead. I am a massive grammar nerd. I am a huge geek. I am both massive and huge. I have some friends, but no boyfriend, which is a shame. I study English (which I'm not as keen on as I used to be), German (which I love), Religious Studies (which I also love) and Chemistry (which is difficult, but worth it). I am a Methodist Christian (but not in a "you should all come to church with me" way. It'd be nice if you did, but I respect your right to choose, as long as it's not a danger to anyone else). I have recently discovered that I possess a power which makes people answer "yes" when really they should answer "no". This came back to bite me. I have the most supportive friends in the world!! I am an Explorer Scout and a Ranger (Guide Senior Section). I love playing the saxophone and it is a major part of my life. My saxophone is like the child I have yet to have (don't worry I'm not pregnant). My favourite film is Snow White. My favourite book is The Shell House.

Is there anything else? Ask me questions, I'll answer them. (Keep it clean please)

SHOUT IT FROM THE ROOFTOPS!
Spread the word! Start telling people things!

You Know You're Sad When...

Shalom, as Phoebe would say, my darlings. My ponderances since I last write have been minimal, although my working-ness has been much. Today I have been pondering how very, very sad I am. I really am very, very sad.

I thought to myself, as I cleaned my saxophone, wearing a shirt with a colourful message about Jesus after finishing playing music nobody had listened to and thinking about Scouts.

Yes, I am about six walking stereotypes.

So, here is a list of things which I, the Queen of Sad, have deemed "You know you're sad when..." If more than half apply to you, then you need to take a serious look at your life.

• You have never looked at a wall and thought "I could run through that!"
• Your one true love is a saxophone named Alfonz
• One of your top goals in life is to achieve the Silver Acorn
• You know what the Silver Acorn is
• Your best friend is a dog called Bertrandt
• You wish you had a dog called Bertrandt
• You are part of a society or organisation in which you have less than three friends and you only turn up for the free food and/or drink.
• You can recite the first chapter of the first Artemis Fowl book
• You read this blog regularly
• You write this blog regularly
• You watch more than 1 hour worth of programmes on "Dave" per day
• You watch more than 1 hour worth of YouTube videos per day
• You are overly pernickety about both spelling and grammar, especially on social network sites and in Greetings cards
• You know all the words to The Garo Song
• You've never been camping. No, PGL doesn't count. I mean PROPER camping
• You don't know what proper camping is
• You broke a goat

Computer Games

Hello All (I got told off for writing "sexy beasts" last time). How are we today? Sorry I haven't updated in a while, real life took control :(
I have been pondering computer games today for a reason which will become apparent; this evening, James (my brother) and I are at a friend's house because my parents are "sociable" and the boys I am with are intent on playing computer games all night. Which is fascinating. Except that one of them thinks anything we do is boring (but can't come up with anything better to do - genius that).

Computer games were, it appears, invented by nerds for nerds without girlfriends or the entrepreneurial skills to invent their own computer games. Or those who are bored inventing computer games and just want a break. The are the most colossal waste of time and don't do anything for any form of personal skills. Just ask my brother.

This can also be said for most of the videos on YouTube (you tube). Who cares whether or not a cat can say "no no no no no no" for a minute and a half, or whether a baby looks scared at the camera? Apparently, Russell Howard and some more nerds, who got RSI from their computer games. Actually,  there are some pretty good videos out there, such as the "Urban Sports" series and the video I will be uploading later tonight, or tomorrow, of our neighbours singing "Sweet Caroline" very excitedly at yesterday's street party.
And little clips from film and TV can be funny too.

Comments?