Day 242.

© Ruth Johnston 2010.

So the medicine I mentioned last week didn't work, I went to the doctor again this morning, and it turns out there is actually something wrong with me, I have some kind of throat virus. I've been given an inhaler, I don't know how to use it properly, I've had two doses and I'm still not sure. I think it has something to do with not smoking.
I also got my hair cut, it looked pretty nice, but is now very flat, yes I'm talking about hair and how I'm not pleased with it right now. It will look shit-hot tomorrow though.

Day 241.

© Ruth Johnston 2010.

I've started semi-packing to move, it's still just over two weeks, but I figure that I can't make things too disorganised in that space of time. I've got too many clothes and I don't know about kitchen stuff because the house basically has to covered, but I'm sure it will be fine, there's got to be enough room for everything somewhere.

Day 240.

© Ruth Johnston 2010.

I'm buying a pair of these when my loan comes in, I'll get my money's worth out of them too, I promise.
I bought some things I needed this afternoon, and spent the rest of the evening watching films. I also made soup, this is practically winter, I've nearly forgotten that we even had nice weather as recently as my birthday.

Day 239.

© Ruth Johnston 2010.

Eeep, so my mum found me this Fuji Instax camera, and I bought the film and was only waiting on the batteries, which arrived today. I'm very impressed with it, I'm packing in my Polaroid 600, to be fair, Polaroid themselves gave it up with some dignity, and it's time to move on.

Day 238.

© Ruth Johnston 2010.

If it wasn't August, and I was wearing a scarf and boots, this would be the perfect autumn/winter outfit. I'm very happy with it, I just wish it wasn't the appropriate weather for it today. My mum took my sister for dim sum this morning, I was so full, I had to have a little sleep. Check out my sweet horse cardigan ♥

Outfit;
Necklace, Topshop,
Dress, Primark,
Cardigan, H&M,
Tights; Primark.

Day 237.

© Ruth Johnston 2010.

Today I went out with Lucy and she took me to Hammersmith and over to Westfields in Shepherd's Bush. We passed the Hammersmith Apollo and this amazing thing greeted us, 'Gervais' in 20ft high letters, brilliant. My sister was hinted at getting tickets to see him again, but I just can't afford it at the moment. I bought lots of nice new clothes, which makes a change, but it's now dawned on me that I have bills (and other horrible things) to pay for in a few weeks. Urgh.

Day 236.

© Ruth Johnston 2010.

This is a photo of my teasub, my Earl Grey tea leaves came through the post so I put them to use once I got back from a wet and rainy afternoon in Kingston. It's quite neat, but I don't I'll stop buying normal teabags just yet.
I went to see Scott Pilgrim vs The World with my friend Laura today, it's pretty awesome, I haven't been to the cinema and enjoyed a film like that since I was about 15, with the exception of Kickass. As I found out, today as Scott Pilgrim day and I'm happy to say I took part, it's a great small movie and it was on my list anyway.

Day 235.

© Ruth Johnston 2010.

Today my sister got her GCSE results, I think she was putting too much stress on herself as what I've learnt from being in that situation since then, is that GCSEs literally mean almost zero. But she did great nonetheless with an A*, five A's and four B's, she's well into her college and has chosen some pretty tough subjects at A levels.

Day 233.

© Ruth Johnston 2010.

More teeth stuff today, my teeth bled, thanks hygienist, here have £50. Urgh, I'm in two minds now, my teeth feel great but I think the pain was far too much for me.

Day 232.

© Ruth Johnston 2010.

Uff, I'm so bored. I made/ate my first ever risotto today, it was quite nice, but I don't think I actually like the risotto rice too much, it's a bit dense.

Day 231.

© Ruth Johnston 2010.

I went on a quest to buy birthday presents for my Gran today. I also picked up this wonderful cushion, I could actually marry it, I love it so much ♥. I've also got some medicine to fix my cough, but we'll see how that works out.

Day 230.

© Ruth Johnston 2010.

Today was my first 'numbing by dentist', I've had fillings before but never had to have an injection. It was a weird feeling, particularly when I drank from a cup and could only feel it on one side, it didn't wear off until around 7 this evening, despite the fact that I got it all done by around quarter-past 2. Everything is normal now though and I'm all new-fillinged.
CHOMP!

Day 229.

© Ruth Johnston 2010.

Having recovered from my illness, I headed back into Dorking to get my new watch fitted as it was a bit too big. I also decided I wanted to stay with Moon a bit longer because I wasn't going to see him for 10 days while he was away in Ireland. This photo isn't really related to anything I'm talking about but it very rarely is, this squirrel was making a weird noise. Probably one of my best squirrel photos, they're all a bit bold now that the albino one is dead.

Day 228.

© Ruth Johnston 2010.

So it was hometime - and a bit of a downer was put on our - what was otherwise brilliant - break.
Moon and I both had food poisoning and felt horrible, especially by the time we got home. I thought I'd got over it the previous night and was fine the following morning for a couple of hours and managed to have breakfast, but then it came on again and we were both rank for the rest of day.
Once we got back to Dorking, I just went back to Moon's house, which is why I haven't updated until now.

Day 227.

© Ruth Johnston 2010.

By a stroke of luck I managed to get Moon and I tickets to see Ricky Gervais at the Brighton Centre in the evening of our final night in Brighton. I thought they would have been all sold out but we even got really good seats - despite only seeing 4 comedians on tour, Gervais was by far my favourite, best storytelling ever, even if I didn't learn anything about 'Science'.
It was a bit rainy which was quite disappointing considering how lovely the weather had been the previous day.
We made the mistake of walking nearly 2 miles from the hotel up to the Booth Museum of Natural History - which I thought was fine but it was a bit weird, due to only really being full of stuffed birds. I think I would have thought more of it if I hadn't walked so far, it still trumped it's Portsmouth counterpart. We also finally got to go to the Brighton Toy Museum which hasn't been open any time we'd been to Brighton before, it was lovely. Because it was rainy, after lunch (we had nachos at Ha!Ha!), we went back to the hotel for a cheeky nap. It's quite nice just sleeping with someone.

Day 226.

© Ruth Johnston 2010.

Despite having to change twice, the journey down to Brighton was pretty easy.
The day went by so quickly, I opened lots of great presents, nearly everyone got me presents that I can keep forever, which is the point of a 21st and it made me quite chuffed as those are the kind of things that I wanted.
We had a quick lunch and shop up the Lanes before a relaxing at the hotel and heading out again for a posh meal at a restaurant called English. I had oysters, sardines and fish and chips, all separate courses respectively.
The reason for the cupcakes was so I could blow out candles on my actual birthday too. The cupcakes were so tasty, the yellow one was banana and the other was Oreo - nom. Luckily we didn't set off the fire alarm with the candles, we then had some champagne and went to sleep. It was such a chilled out birthday, I was so happy by the end of it, particularly after how hectic the previous day had been. Definitely up there as one of my best and favourite birthdays.

Day 225.

So I've been a bit slack with this since my birthday. Here comes a mammoth update. I have the photos though, so it exists, just not on here. Here we go.

© Ruth Johnston 2010.

My party was Sunday, it was quite nice and I got to see a few members of my family that I don't often see. Tom and Lucy also made the effort to come along and that was great of them. I got to open a few presents, one of which was the collage shown above which my sister made - it has lots of old photos of us and me from when we were small. My Uncle David made a great speech too and I got to have/see my birthday cake which was the size of about four cakes. Crazy.
In the evening I went for a few drinks at the Kings Arms and set off some sky lanterns when I got home. I was in bed before it hit my proper birthday at midnight.

Day 224.

© Ruth Johnston 2010.

Last night was Redbull X Fighters - these past two nights, I've just passed out in bed from exhaustion.
It was good though, even if was delayed by around an hour and we didn't get to see the end. I saw a pretty awesome crash and a cool guy in hotpants and tights - yep.
Also, Amir Khan was there, we had pretty good seats, but he still was teeny-tiny because he was so far away.

Day 223.

© Ruth Johnston 2010.

We have a house house house! It's so, so nice!
I'm so excited to move in. Eeep, roll on September 16.

Day 222.

© Ruth Johnston 2010.

Moon finally got his acceptance letter to do his Masters in Portsmouth in September. I am so pleased because it means that we can kick start the house-hunting, and as we're not looking for four, it's going to be easy. I love (what is basically) nosing round houses, we've got 2 really nice ones lined up for tomorrow morning. Early start.

Day 221.

© Ruth Johnston 2010.

Today was Moon's brother's 19th birthday, I suddenly feel very old, not because he is so much younger than me, because he isn't but, frames of mind tend to differ between young people who have experienced something and young people who haven't and let's just say the difference was fairly obvious once his friends arrived.
Although I do wish him a very happy birthday and a great time at Uni when he joins us at Portsmouth in September, I just can't wait for the day that he realises people throwing up isn't hilarious.

Day 220.

© Ruth Johnston 2010.

Out with the old, bit of a spree, my new handbag is dead. Moon wouldn't let it die with dignity and wore it as a hat before it got thrown in the bin. Bye old friend, you served me well, until your strap started to look rank.

Day 219.

© Ruth Johnston 2010.

I'm 21 in exactly a week, how thrilling.
I really enjoy the amount of spelling mistakes in this 'department list', obviously particularly the first one, well done Dorothy Perkins of Guildford, well done.

Day 218.

© Ruth Johnston 2010.

I have literally been sat in the same spot for most of today. I think it is time to rectify this.
Saying that, once Friday is out the way, the five days after that will be full of action.
Here is a preview of the underwater/waterproof camera photos that I took when I went out on Long's boat.

Day 217.

© Ruth Johnston 2010.

I am published. The Village Voice did pull through in the end, so not only did I get paid but my photos are featured in such a way that they look pretty good too.
At the end of the photo page it says;
"A huge thanks to our official photographer Ruth Johnston who enthusiastically donated her time to Malden Fortnight www.ruthjohnstonphotography.com. See more on www.maldenfortnight.com"
There is also a bit about a vet who took the photos of the dog show, but that isn't important because it's not about me. :)

Day 212, 213, 214, 215, 216.

So, I've been away again - here are the photos I picked from Cornwall to be in the 365.
We had a great time away, we should have stayed longer but it's a bit different when it's a case of staying in someone's house.

Long was dying to show us all the activities going for Cornwall, so once we dropped our things back at his house, we were almost straight out again to The Eden Project. It was a nice afternoon out and we got in for free because his mum works there. It was very interesting, a much more interesting version of Kew Gardens, although I didn't see any butterflies there. In the evening we visited a few pubs around Bodmin, one of them had a lion in the window. Check my blog for that.

Simon arrived today and Long took us to a small town called Fowey and then over to an even smaller area called Polkerris, and the weather finally started to brighten up. In the evening we were very grown up and had a barbecue followed by a few drinks in the garden until late. All in all the whole holiday was very grown up.

Simon's birthday was the most activity-filled day, we took the ferry from Rock to Padstow where we found a beach but due to the weather being miserable when we arrived, only Long was prepared to swim in the sea. We played crazy golf, which is definitely my game, I won, we then had lunch and after that went for a ride around the harbour on a classic 1950s speedboat, called Jaws and we got very wet. After dinner at Katy's pub, and a wander over to Rick Stein's cookery school, we headed back to Rock where the boys went into the sea for a proper swim. After a shower back at Longs we were off out again but all of us - apart from Long - were sat in the pub thinking about how tired we were, despite it being Simon's birthday - although I think we ended up having a fun-filled day anyway.

Before Simon headed off back to Clevedon, we went out in Long's boat, which is definitely not red. We all jumped into the sea from the boat, although I will admit that I needed a bit more convincing. In the evening Long, Moon and I had dinner at Frankie & Bennies and went to watch Toy Story 3 as Long still hadn't seen it.

Our last day in Cornwall was the most miserable, with about 10 minutes of sun in total, but we had a wander along part of a beach and climbed some rocks, and later watched a film before heading back to Dorking on the train - it felt like a much longer journey than on the way there, but we made it back in one piece, it's definitely something we have to do again.

© Ruth Johnston 2010

Day 211.

© Ruth Johnston 2010.

My sister, my Gran and I had a barbecue in the garden, it's the first time I've been allowed anywhere near a barbecue to cook anything in over 3 years - men - it was delish, wasn't sure I'd get it right but I did. Was amazing too because it was the first thing I'd eaten since having dim sum yesterday, om nom nom. Moon was invited but he is poo.

Day 210.

© Ruth Johnston 2010.

Moon won yet more tickets, this time to the iTunes Festival to see Biffy Clyro.
We had dim sum, it was delicious, I was so full all the way from Leicester Square to Chalk Farm that I didn't speak, we waited in line for over 2 hours because didn't plan the day well enough, but it was quite a fun gig anyway. It's the second 'free gig' I've seen them at within the year, Moon and I are clearly favoured by the iTunes people.