To keep track of whatever I post on runaway_tales . Look, original fiction! Ordered chronologically within the story's timeframe.

Lucille is Forgetfull
An Arrival
A Storm

Partly because I need somewhere to have links to them all, I'm going to start archiving the parts to my Mint Royale fic here. Just to make it easier on myself when I need to check things, mostly. Dated so it stays at the top - because I am blatantly stealing thieving_gypsy 's modus-operandi.




1 - This Is What Living Like This Does
2 - One Way Or The Other
3 - Those Who Favour Fire
4 - Long Way Down
5 - So Much More Than Everything
6 - Down To The Wire

I am very excited :) My second Valentine's day with Antony; we're going back to the place we went last year (erm... The Slug And Lettuce, but it's very reasonably priced and last year the restaurant was lit by candles and each menu had a tiny red envelope with two lovehearts in it, so it's a good place!) We be dressing up and everything, of course. Not doing gifts though, because we're both on a budget and frankly the way I see it the best gift is getting to spend a romantic evening together, especially with the amount of time we spend apart. I think we're doing cards though, just because it's always nice to get a card from someone saying they love you :)

It's going to be a great weekend, basically. I can't wait!

I'm meant to be writing a fictional speech for Technical and Creative writing as though I was a member of Southampton City Council giving a speech about why I think we should implement a congestion charge in the city. I'm having problems. For one thing, it doesn't strike me that the majority of Southampton is terribly congested. It's busy, but nowhere near London standards. Even this wouldn't bother me though, I'd just write a piece referencing the good things congestion charge has done in London (or at least what the website says it's done) in an academic sort of style. The main problem is that I'm meant to be approaching it in a creative and original style. I'm totally bare of ideas, though. Gah. I can't think of a single interesting angle on congestion charges. This is going to take a while.

I on my way back from my seminar this morning I ran into a girl who was in my Islands and Oceans class last semester. We stopped to talk for a moment, and she excitedly told me to guess who was in her Images of Africa lecture, so I asked who. Kat, apparently, who was bored before she left and decided to audit the lectures. I have no idea who Kat is. Nor do I know why I should be so surprised that she was in a lecture. Just another one of life's small mysteries.

I was just about to get ready for my 2 o'clock screening when I realised that it was half twelve, not half one, and I was an hour ahead of myself. This is a good thing because it means I've now got time for food, but I also feel a wee bit disorientated heh.

Yesterday was surprisingly good. Started off dull with a 9am lecture about Hollywood in the 30s (which isn't exactly my favourite topic) but afterwards my friend Bob (real name Elzabi, but everyone calls her Bob) went and got a cooked breakfast from the campus canteen. Mmmmmm. I'd forgotten how good those things are! And cheap too, only £1.95 for a five-item breakfast. Om nom nom. Then I wandered up to main campus to meet Steph for our Images of Women lecture. On the way I met a cat. Now, I know it's not unusual to see pets around the streets etc., but it is just a tiny bit unusual to see a lone cat in the middle of a busy university campus. Made me happy because it let me fuss it, though it seemed to have an attitude of "fine, so long as you don't get in my way". It was on one of the bridges over our ornamental streams. Kind of made my day a little bit.

Everything was helped by the fact that it was a beautiful sunny day, with the first scent of spring in the air. All grey and cloudy today of course, heh. I think it's a couple of degrees warmer though, so it's all good.

House dinner out at Trago Lounge this evening. No idea how I'm going to afford it, but oh well. No more food for the rest of the week? Could work. Maybe just a LOT of soup and beans on toast and cereal. Yeah, that's the way forward.

Wow, it's Thursday night already. I'm going back to Southampton the day after tomorrow. Weird. Also: eurgh, coaches.

This probably won't be much of an update, I'm just letting you know I'm still alive.

I feel sleepy, which is WRONG because it is only 8:40pm and I got up ten hours ago. I think it's because Antony's sleeping beside me as I type and I've got that sleepiness-by-osmosis thing going on. Doesn't help that for the past two nights I've slept in 2-hour bursts. I hate that kind of sleep, you still feel so drained when you get up. And all muggy in the head.

For once, I'm not actually desperately sad at the thought of going back. I am desperately sad at the thought of leaving Antony, which is to be expected, but at least the course shouldn't be quite so awful this time - I hope. At least I've got Technical and Creative Writing to force me to actually think creatively for a change and do some damn writing. Plus it might give me an edge in getting to do a creative writing dissertation next year which would be awesome.

Oh! I haven't told you guys the exciting news! Remember how I've been stressing over the carrot-dangling-ness of Anton possibly coming to uni in southampton? Found out last week that he's got an audition for the course at the beginning of March! Muchos excitement! Of course this will make it EVEN WORSE if he doesn't get in but shhhhh no thinking about that. Deal with that if it comes to it, eh? Until then I can think happy thoughts of city centre flats and shopping for housey stuff and A CLEAN KITCHEN. I probably shouldn't be doing this, I should be remaining utterly neutral, but it makes my head such a happy place to be that I want to hang on to it for a little bit at least :)

I also discovered the other day that all of my assignments for semester 2 are due in by the 17th of May. Erm, what? Last year I finished on the 4th of June which was VERY VERY early, this year I finish two weeks earlier. GENIUS. It means I'm back in Southampton for only about a month of my summer term. This is a thing I am very happy about. I also did some sums and I think that I should be sorted with a couple of hundred left out of my loan to spend over the summer (read: a holiday! An actual holiday!) because of only having to pay 2 months rent out of the final loan installment. Basically things are looking up :)

Also Antony just muttered something in his sleep that sounded like it was about "fishies" and "toast", though it was hard to tell because he seemed to be speaking in double time. Awwwwwww. He's actually going to get a full 8 hours sleep tonight so he might just be awake tomorrow! We'll see. Going out for a meal and a film anyway, so he'd better be. Aww, he looks so cute when he's asleep. I love him.

Yes, I've been unfriended without a reason. Admittedly, I know why the friendship broke down, but I never got a reason as to why the person concerned waited eight months to decide they didn't want to talk to me at all anymore. One of those "right... what did I say this time?" situations!

Mixture of more exercise than usual yesterday + not very much sleep = achey, stiff Lucy! My back and shoulders click when I stretch. I really want a full body massage but I can't afford a professional one and Antony is still 150 miles away. But not for much longer! 24 hours and I'll be on a coach on my way out of Southampton. As usual, very excited about that heh. In fact, I probably get more excited every time. And ten days seems like such a luxury.

So I'm concentrating on that rather than the exam that starts in five hours. Up early (for me) so I can go over stuff again before and hopefully get it into my head. The fact is, I'm never going to be prepared enough for this exam - it's a closed book English exam and frankly I've always thought that was a ridiculous idea. It's more a test of how good your memory is than how well you can analyse a text. I still wish I'd been able to read more of the texts, but with essays and stuff it became impossible really. In my two-and-a-half revision days I was left with I decided I had the choice of studying two texts in reasonable detail (the exam is about a comparison of two texts) and hoping that a question would come up that I could use both of them to answer, or I could study loads of texts in little detail and find it hard to write more than a page about them. I figured having more to say and needing to maybe take some liberties with the question was the better one. We get a choice of nine or ten questions so there must be one I can twist to ask what I need it to. It's one of my few talents when it comes to exams!

All over soon. Thank heavens!

I don't know what I've done to it, but my jaw really hurts. It's been a bit achey on the left side for a week or two, but this morning when I woke up it was owwww. Which is annoying because I keep yawning. It hurts a bit when I open it but it's mostly when I go to close it again. Bit sick of it now!

I'm meant to be getting myself un-addicted to sugar, but seeing as how it's exam period I can't see that happening today XD I've got too much revision to do, I need custard creams!

So yeah, exam on Tuesday which I am so so unprepared for. Oh well, it's only... 25% of the module. Could be worse... Still, on Wednesday I get to go back up to Leester for ten days, whic as usual I'm incredibly excited about. Ten whole days! Ten! With no work to do or anything! Well, I have to do a bit of reading and make a couple of notes, but that's it. I can probably do that on the coach if I want to. Yaaaaay. Big ol' treat to make up for weeks of essays and exam stress, can't really ask for better :)

I can't remember if I've written about it much before, but I have a bit of a situation with housing for next year. We already knew we were moving out because one of my housemates (I'm in an 8 person house at the moment) is going to Germany for a year. Then another decided to move in with some other friends. And here's where I come in: I don't know whether Antony's moving down here next year or not and it's stupid but I simply can't pass up the opportunity of living with him if there's even the slightest chance. I can't pass up the chance. In regards to the other 5 housemates, I had hoped we would be able to leave finding a house until a bit later so I could know for definite who I was living with, but this week they've been very very active on the house-hunting front, both for houses for five people and for six. Thing is, they've found a house -  a five bedroom house - that they really like, and they're planning to sign the contract tomorrow. This is fine if Anton does move down here for uni. If he doesn't, I have to find myself somewhere else to live, most likely with strangers. Eep.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not even slightly mad at my housemates. In fact this is pretty much what I told them to do if they found a house they really liked. And I'm calm, I'm currently very calm about the whole thing. Just, oh god, grown-up situation much?

I'm fine, I'll find somewhere to live next year no matter what. But... erm... kinda sorta really hoping Anton goes to Solent uni now.

Just watched Glee with a few of the housemates - it's so cheesey it almost hurts and the acapella incidental music makes me want to tear my hair out but it's oddly addictive. In a terrifying sort of way. Now I'm watching The Killers live at Albert Hall DVD Antony got me for christmas and I can't work out if it's meant to be in black and white or if it's just disagreeing with the PS2 I use as a DVD player. Doesn't really matter, I still love them <3 I can never quite decide on my favourite band, but it's almost definitely The Killers. Except for the days when it's The Cure. Hmm, now I've said it, Robert Smith... I think I'm just going to have to love them equally.

I bought a new handbag today, which is something I almost never do except when an old one breaks. To be fair, it was for a specific reason rather than just because I saw it, so I'm not getting too girly just yet. I decided that I needed to bite the bullet and get a nice bag that I could stow a pair of heels/flats in for nights out. Me being me though I didn't actually go to any high street shops because they're all far too expensive. Instead, the many charity shops that are two minutes walk from my house and that I love dearly. Aaaand found the perfect bag, with a New Look label and it looks hardly used AND it was only £3.99 so I'm happy on that front.



Oh Brandon Flowers, marry me. Even if you are playing that song that always makes me sad because it reminds me of she who will not be named.

I've been looking through the course outline for the Technical & Creative Writing module I'm starting next semester. Is it wrong that I'm excited to study Advanced Grammar?

( To begin with, a rant which ISN'T about university! High five! )

Anyway, now that's over with, onto other things. I was looking over the message templates in my phone earlier because I was bored, and I found some at the end that I don't quite understand. Why do you need a template that is only a couple of words long? There's one that just says thank you - it takes longer to select the template than to type those words heh. It's bizarre!

I don't feel even slightly tired yet, which is annoying. But then I 'accidentally' slept in til midday today so I guess that's not surprising! I can just never find the will to get out of bed if I don't have something specific to get out of bed for, because bed is just so... nice. Sleeping is a wonderful hobby in my opinion and hey, when else in my life will I get to sleep like this!

In other news, I think I've become addicted to satsumas and clementines. So sweet and juicy! It's a while since I've been addicted to something that's actually good for me, so yay. Except that I only have two left, so I will have to venture out into the ice and snow tomorrow to get more. Not fun, but better than scurvy heh.

I'm starting to get worried about the weather. Not because I can't get into lectures at the moment (which is fine by me) but because in 13 days I'm meant to be getting coaches back up to Leicester for ten days. If it hasn't thawed out by then my plans could be in serious jeopardy D:

I've only got an hour-long changeover time between coaches once I get to London. Which I'm hope hope hoping will be enough in case the Greyhound there gets delayed (it'd be main roads all the way, but still, we all know how crazy the roads get in this kind of weather) but if not I'm not exactly stranded, as I can go to the national express office and book a new ticket for the next coach, or go across London and get a train from St Pancras but both those options come with a big helping of EXPENSIVE. I'm really tempted to spend an extra £5 on a second coach ticket for the coach to London after the one I'm meant to get, which would give me an extra hour's leeway should stuff go wrong. I know I'm worrying about this a bit early, but I can only afford FunFair tickets so if I wait the ticket prices will go up...

Am I just being really paranoid? Or should I buy the extra ticket? (Which still leaves me worrying - what if national express cancel their coach services? Should I buy an advance train ticket too?)

Arrrrrrrrgh.

I only got up half an hour ago because I couldn't bear to be up and have to actually do more hours of this day, and because I was so so very tired. I wish I could go back to bed.

I ate a satsuma for breakfast because I'm trying to be healthier and maybe maybe vitamins and fruit and stuff might help me feel better, but then I felt empty so I ate a flake bar too. I still feel empty, completely empty, but I feel sick too.

My parents gave me £20 before they left yesterday. It was meant to be for food. I have to go past Somerfield on my way home from lectures later, I might go in and spend all £20 on alcohol so I can get too drunk to care about anything. It wouldn't last very long because everyone knows that £20 doesn't go far when it comes to alcohol but it might be enough for a couple of days, maybe.

I don't know. I just don't want to think.

What happens if I can't do this? If I actually can't?

I'm back in Southampton. This means that I have spent the majority of the day trying not to cry, and the rest of the day crying. And really and truly this time, it can't go on. I nearly quit today. When I was left alonI just cried and cried and was sure I couldn't go on, not even for another day.

Plus there are a lot of decisions to be made. 'House politics' (as I'm calling them - basically the ever-changing who is fighting with who and who's taking who's side) are getting ever more complex and basically there are many people with thoughts of moving out of the group at the end of the year. I am one of these people - in fact, I was the first to state my intentions. Not because I'm fighting with anyone, but because (as anyone who follows the ups and downs of my life will already know) Antony might be moving to Southampton if he gets into Solent uni, in which case we will get our own place.

But that was something I wasn't meant to be thinking about. I wasn't meant to be getting my hopes up because of how much it would hurt if it didn't happen. But that went out of the window because throw me the thinnest rope and I'll cling on to it for grim death. And I've realised that there probably isn't any point in not hoping anyway, because I'm getting more and more certain that without him beside me, I can't get through a third year - hell, I'm not even sure I can get through a second year yet. So I have planned a plan.

If Antony gets into Solent I'll be able to cope, because it won't feel like having to fight for a year and a half, it'll feel like having to fight for six months and then moving in with my partner and happening to still have to do coursework. I can cope with that. If he doesn't, I'm going straight to my tutor and finding out if they'll let me take a year out of the course, even if it means having to go through a doctor and proving that I'm mentally unfit for it. Then I can spend a year finding work and working out what I want to do, even if that's not finishing the degree.

I don't want a degree. That's the problem, really. I know it sounds ungrateful and stupid after all the time and money spent, but I don't give the slightest damn about whether I have degree to my name or not. It doesn't seem worth it, really.

Here I go with the bandwagon jumping...

01. What did you do in 2009 that you'd never done before?
Moved into an actual rented house that wasn't horrible uni halls.

( More under the cut )


Whoa, is this year over already? Where did that go??

It's nice being home. I'm starting my Christmas preparations already and it's making me excited. I've done most of my cards, and this morning I've wrapped three out of four of Anton's presents (I'd have wrapped the last one too, but I haven't made it yet :P) and next weekend we're getting our tree because if we get it any earlier all its needles will be gone by Christmas and and and. I'm all happy and childish and I want to make decorations with coloured paper and glitter glue.

For the past couple of days literally everything has been ALL GOOD. Also, best thing ever, Anton picked me up after he finished work on Saturday and when I answered the door to him I was greeted with a big bunch of roses XD I'm a complete romantic at heart, so to be randomly bought a dozen red roses is BEST. THING. EVAR. I've taken loads of photos of them I'm so excited. I've only ever been bought a single flower before, and that was by my dad the first time I went to Paris. I still have that pressed somewhere. If I can find my flowerpress I intend to press one of these too as a memento. Yaaays :)

Also, EXCITEMENT music-wise! Anton's parents have bought this wooden cabin thing that's currently being put up at the end of their garded, and when it's finished and there's electric in it it's going to be a music room :D I think I am almost as excited for this as Anton and James, heh. Hurrah for rehearsal space!

My hair is actually having a day when it's behaving itself and looking nice, so I hairsprayed it (something I do very very rarely) to keep it looking ok after I've walked to campus. Only I misaimed a little and now the eyelashes on my right eye are sticking together. Hee.

My dad's picking me up this afternoon to take me home for christmas :D So happy to be going home for three weeks. Yay yay yay. I'm feeling a lot lot happier now too - I dressed as a pirate yesterday in honor of my presentation about Pirates of the Caribbean and I've even been writing a bit. Feels more like me. Just got to keep it going now. Hopefully that won't be too hard with having more free time etc.

We had a house christmas dinner/secret santa/games night last night, it was awesome. Partly because I'd only eaten a banana and a biscuit all day and I was starving by the time the food was ready, but also because it was delicious and it was nice to actually spend some time as a house which never happens anymore. Everyone seemed to like their secret santa present (only it turned out not to be that secret). I got chocolates. Chris apologised for lack of imagination, to which I responded that he obviously doesn't know how much I like chocolate. Then we played 'humbug', where you choose a song from a card and have to hum it, and if someone gets it right they get a point (plus a bonus if they can say who it's by) and the person humming gets a point. Turns out Christine's really good at it, heh.

I can't be bothered with this final seminar, but I guess it's only 50 minutes. Seems a bit pointless for that tiny amount of time, but oh well. And it kills an hour. Three hours until my dad should be here, provided traffic's ok. I'm almost completely packed, just got to pack up my laptop and shove a couple of things that are drying on the radiator into my wash bag. Then I can go hooooome.