IF YOU WALK OUT ON ME THEN I'M WALKING AFTER YOU

totally.

[Loeffler Randall]

GRADE SCHOOL SCIENCE=CHIC LOUNGEWARE

Natural crystal chair. This shit is heights. Had to be an asian.

[stolen from bookofjoe]

THE GIRL HIT HARD LIKE A BARRACUDA BABY

Yeah, I'm trying to make up for my lack of posts as of late. I dunno...there is just something in the air (SENIOR YEAR!) It's amazing how much use my planner is getting. Every page looks something like this...

So, anyway, to make my life easier, if this post were a series of Facebook Status Updates (god, I'm lame), they would look something like this:

Kara is appalled at the fact that she has something short of £60 in her bank account.

Kara is appalled at having spent £70 fixing her severely damaged hair today, but thinks she looks a lot better now.

Kara is going to ask her boss for a little money up front this week.

Kara is listening to Magic Spells by Crystal Castles.

Kara is loving this bout of non-vegetarianism due to perilous hangover and enjoying her Big Mac immensely.

Kara is fond of Gap again and plans to buy their coats, sweaters and biker boots.

Kara has so much shit to do and is pretending not to be fazed.

Kara is currently reading New Moon, The Cult of the Amateur and The God of Small Things and has to finish two of them in a week.

Kara needs to pee. brb.

Kara is back.

Kara went to a £2 yoga class yesterday on campus and re-acquainted herself with that awesome energetic buzz.

Kara has decided that she should not continue paying for this class, where people are falling over her trying to do shoulder stands, and just buy a mat and practice at home.

Kara is stoked that there are now pilates classes on campus and will be attending a few of them though.

Kara is currently dressed in a lot of plaid and it's making her dizzy.

Kara watched Clueless with her awesome flatmates last night.

Kara then went to Sainsbury's in the dead of night with her awesome flatmates and bought Jack, Coke, Orange Juice and Vodka.

Kara and her awesome flatmates already had 2 bottles of wine at home.

Kara and her flatmates will not be doing that again anytime too soon.

Kara is really into the YYY's 'Mystery Girl' lyrics.

Kara just remembered she has tiramsu in the fridge and will be enjoying that later.

Kara is first going to take a nap then pull an all-nighter with that tiramisu and some homework.

Kara says time for that nap.

Kara says ciao.

BIG MAC AND EARL GREY

LITERALLY.
I know. I thought I was vegetarian too.
Perilously hungover.
All I know is we filled up the recycle bin in our flat with bottles.
Hey, at least we're environmentally friendly drunks.

THE ONLY THING YOU'LL GET TONIGHT'S MY FUCKIN' DRINK TAB

[Last Night's Party]

DEAR PRUDENCE

Oh they just LOVE to ram themselves up my ass...

From: Kara Martin
Sent: 13th October 2008 at 16:39
To: Panda
"lol oh i didnt get my adaptor. that was me at the lrc this morning before class. i went to starbucks and they said they didnt have it so someone stole it lol. i kno ppl r capable of theft but this one is just random to me. i thought only merely/semi decent people sit in starbucks in the UK. ah well. i had to buy another one for 3.99 pounds. sigh. but i kno i have another one in my stuff at my aunt's.

very busy day today...geez, but it seems i got everything done. of course roe says i'm not registered and i am not getting full access to my student account. finance says its because i cant just pay the first instalment and be registered. they say i have to fill out some form with my dad's bank details to tell them how i plan to pay the second half or some bullshit. so for over 4.000 pounds i havent been able to access my online homework and shit.

still no heater. going to send them my last complaint then it's bitch mode. this is prolly my 4th complaint, and one of those was actually me at the office in front of their faces complaining and they wrote it down in front of me, and that was last week. actually, this one is gonna be bitch mode. i'm pretty annoyed. cus all of a sudden this morning the heater in the bathroom was working.

and then the whole class is complaining because they made us pay 6 pound for this massive module booklet that is completely contradictory so none of us know exactly wat we're sposed to do this year, plus it's so scrappily put together that there is a page at the back with this random guy who died and a report on when his service is gonna be ...AND ACTUAL WRITTEN OUT HYMNS THAT ARE GOING TO BE SUNG THERE. AND, WHOever he is, he died in JUNE. the lecturer is all saying the creative writing course is still fairly new to UK universities and blah blah blah...whatev. this whole COUNTRY is fairly new to LIFE. like...they can't even tell me whether I need an NI number to work or not!

neways, i'm just ranting cus i kno u wud listen and no one else really cares OBVIOUSLY, so there! I actually had a really good and productive day despite all of the above. I'm very proud of my new-found get-shit-done ethics. Okay...time to go start the next novel for class..."

From: Kara Martin [mailto:krichellemartin@yahoo.com]
Sent: 13 October 2008 17:05
To: accommodation
Subject: problem
I am not sure who I am supposed to report this to because even though I have emailed you twice complaining about it already, as well as came in and spoke to someone at the office personally about it, the heater in my room (****) does not work. Fortunately, it hasn't been that cold these past few days but I am usually freezing myself to death in here, and, as you know, it will only get worse. This is absolutely unacceptable since I have paid for all these utilities in full. Also, my friend and flatmate in **** has the same complaints for a long time now. Can someone please come and deal with us immediately.

Thanks,
Kara Martin

WHY DON'T YOU JOIN THE GROUP, IT'S BETTER THAN BEING A PARTY POOP

10:23pm, 9/10/2008: Text Message received from M from S&M (lol):

Hi Kara. If u 2 want to 2 get weed, call this number ***********. Her name is %$^&#. She lives in *%$^#$$ %^$. She's kool if u call her and she'll come 2 ur block. So delivery as well innit lol.

So...ever since 11 and I ran into S&M the other drunken night, weed has been playing a pretty big role in my week. Tough titties to what you're thinking; I ain't smokin' the shit (although I might have to at least once if this is gonna be authentic), but I've been getting all these signs that have turned themselves unconsciously into novel research. My novel is supposedly going to have some drug story laced into it as well; at least that's what I envisioned over the summer, but God alone knows I can't stick to anything to save my life; except for being body-conscious and a pain in the ass.

Anyway, so my unconscious novel research has included getting hooked on 'Weeds' as of now. I don't watch TV so the outburst of gripping TV Series and everyone else raging over them usually passes me by like a robust sea breeze. Then, in my own time, when I've finally put down my latest Kureishi novel, I tend to browse surfthechannel.com for something else to pass the time. So now, enter Weeds. And in good time too. At least now I don't feel like I've been neglecting my novel plotting as much. Doesn't being a writer sound like fun?

Here, lemme supply you with your first hit then you're on your own:

SATANIC PICNIC

INDUSTRIAL by uuiuu

EVERYDAY HAZE by uuiuu

SISTER GRIMM by uuiuu

BLACK NIGHT by uuiuu

Right. Nicked these from Mafia Hunt's Polyvore account. I just...have a special place in my heart for the girl. She's a genius. She also just introduced me to those ASOS fingerless studded knuckle gloves in set 1 that I am literally about to order. So, dibs. Get your own. Plus little indulgences of colour have always been my thing so I'm totally all over these outfits, obviously (the bright orange nail polish is heights!). Round of applause, girlie.

HATE!

I HATE IT WHEN BLOGGER MESSES UP THE PARAGRAPHING LIKE THAT AND I HOPE YOU ARE NOT DAUNTED BY THAT JUMBLED UP MESS OF A PASSAGE AND STILL READ IT BECAUSE IT'S SOMEWHAT INTERESTING AND I SPENT A LOT OF TIME ON IT, TIME THAT I COULD BE USING TO SLEEP MORE OR DO HOMEWORK! THERE! PFFT!

BLACK SWAN GREEN

"Dawn Madden ate too. I saw the cud pulp on her tongue. Closer now, on her crucifix I saw a skinny Jesus. Jesus'd be warmed by her body. Lucky guy."

*********

Just brill. I wrote something to that effect once about a cellphone in the back pocket of some girl's tight jeans. Anyway, this is better. There's a crucifix! I'm doing homework at the moment, i.e. reading a novel for class, the novel being David Mitchell's 'Black Swan Green'. It's mildly entertaining and very well detailed, but also quite chavvy. I hate chavvy. But he does it well. But if you must read something by Mitchell, no matter what my lecturer says, read 'Cloud Atlas'.

Pardon the regurgitated lameness of my last two posts. I did them last night after a gruelling first shift at the bar. My brain just didn't care to engage my fingers in any more activity after all the till-work from last night. Anyway, I've fully recuperated (sp?) so here's a bit of a post for ya. So...today was supposed to be the Horror Movie Day/Sleepover with my Uni friends but it got postponed, which works for me because I slept the entire shockingly beautiful and sunny day away (I was peering through my curtains everytime I turned in bed, and groaning that I was missing out).

Also my cousin Becks just this second called me to see if I was still going to 333 bar tonight for this Mercer's gig. And seeing as it's in Old Street, and looking at the present time, that won't be happening. BUT HEY! Maybe, just maybe, you live a LOT nearer, have no novels to read tonight, don't look/feel like a vagrant, and are into Radiohead-esque bands. If that is the exact case, then you should probably head down there on my behalf, scope out a white girl with long braided hair and a prominent chin and tell her that I loves her and will get the 4th Twilight novel to her as soon as possible. She's the one that got me hooked on that bloody crap in the first place (pun intended when I say bloody, as it's teenager vampire chronicles).

In other news, I just applied for my National Insurance number. This bar is very picky.

Moving on! I want to introduce a few new characters into the blog mix. One, I am calling 11, because she lives next door in room...got it? As simple as that. She's from Boston and we're flatmates and friends now so I'm sure she'll come up a lot, especially since she has a penchant for drinking too much wine, complaining about British standards, and the occassional social smoke; like me. Also because we're the international outsiders in the block and will ALWAYS run into each other anyway.

There are two other int'l guys we met in the neighbouring block who aren't half bad, and don't mind sharing their weed (not my thing, but occasionally 11's). You might be hearing more from them too, not sure. I think I'll just call them S&M (HAHA!) because they're inseperable anyways so can be labelled as one, and because, fittingly enough, those are the letters of their first names. Loves it.

Lastly, I was introducing myself to all the bartenders who will be on shift with me on a Wednesday night, and one of them is a third year Roehampton student as well! The more I talk to him, the more familiar he seems but we seem to have been clueless about each other before now. We take the same bus home at night now, and he knows tons of my friends. We've agreed since we constantly get in each other's way behind the bar and 'sorry' flies out of our mouths more than anything (which can get pretty annoying), that we will no longer care to apologize and that it will be understood that we will always bump into each other, esp. now since we know we walk the same campus everyday, and share the same bloody friends too! So, he'll be called...Barfly. Don't know why. Accept it.

So, to recap, I'm sharing halls (and plastic dishes and cutlery as well, actually) with 11, roll-up's with S&M and night buses with Barfly. Are we clear?

THERE'S STILL A LITTLE BIT OF YOU LACED WITH MY DOUBT

DUDE! Was browsing through the Illustration section on We Heart It and came across this and automatically saw it emblazoned across my chest. I was thinking this would make a killer tshirt...
...and, of course, it is!

AND SHE CAUGHT A GLIMPSE OF THE WISDOM OF THE AGES

You know Lulu right?




motherfuckin' champ full stop

HEAVEN KNOWS I'M MISERABLE NOW

LOL OHMYGOD, MY FRIENDS ARE ASSHOLES!!!

FRIEND A: School in Barb is so muhc better than STA. The Cave Hill campus is well landscaped and colourful and there is an energy in the air although at times I think it is just the humidity killing us all. The beaches are ever present, I bought a bike and ride around every Sunday to a new beach along the east coast.

FRIEND B: We're going 8000 miles east to the Philippines!! Come join us if you want... hehe!! You call this cold? Wait till winter actually kicks in.... LOL

SOME CURRENTS...
Current Book(s): New Moon - teenager-ish vampire chronicles that I am embarassed to sport around town but which are oh so addictive
Black Swan Green - for class

Current Blog(s): Just came across Mafia Hunt; think Gnarlitude, but with more eerie artsy stuffs. Book of Joe is also a very well-informed man. Good stuff.

Current Food: Okonomiyaki; now and forever. And Amai Udon at Wagamama
P.S. I found cheap okonomiyaki at Brick Lane's Sunday Up Market but it's nowhere as satisfying as the expensive type at Abeno Too. And if you don't know what okonomiyaki is...then it's time you seriously questioned your existence.

Current Drink: Iced/Regular Chai Tea Lattes from Starbucks, tons of water and tea.

Currently Excited About: the rest of my third year and living on campus, the vast number of Miyazaki films I have yet to watch, my exploration into the more bizarre and underground cultures of London, my new blazer and fake fur coat.

Current Hangout: Brick Lane venues like Cafe 1001 (one dark, leather-sofa-ed constant rave and poverty haven - £3 Vodka Redbulls?); and Casa Blue; a Bohemian/Meditarranean themed lounge that offered us free exquisite mojitos that surprisingly weren't laced with anything (appropriate review here).

Current Fashion: purple, Zucca, black black black grey black, ridonculously chunky knits, feathers, secondhand/vintage/cheap anything, too many flashy rings, plaid (isn't everyone?), fake fur, leather, zips, spikes, shoes I can't walk in, battered denim, band t-shirts, blazers and everything of mine I haven't worn in a long time.

Current Film: Anything by Hayao Miyazaki

Current Reccommendations:
-Watch Spirited Away by Hayao Miyazaki
-Buy a ticket to see Lacuna Coil, Rancid and Slipknot in the coming months.
-Read one book a week. It feels good
-Spend a day on Brick Lane
-Get customer satisfaction at all times
-Decorate your room
-Drink lots of water
-Come and tip me at my bar job
-Cover up. It's cold
-Go to a Fetish club
-Have a sleepover with friends

Current Mood: Pizza craving, more Earl Grey tea in a minute, I should really sink into that Elle issue but just not interested, will read more of Black Swan Green tonight, should I watch another Miyazaki film on Veoh, but what about vampire chronicles? mood.

I'M SORRY YOU FEEL THAT WAY, BUT BASICALLY, IT'S THE NATURE OF THE BEAST

This Who What Wear Daily collage is rippin'. I'd like to channel this. Click to enlarge, kids.
Hope you had a good day. I had such a sick day. Wagamama, fur coats, blazers, novels, madeleines, earl grey tea, really nice flatmates, pub plans tomorrow. sweet.

AND IF I'M WASTING MY TIME THEN NOTHING COULD BE BETTER

*sigh* Okay so here's the plan. Today's 'Developing the Novel' lecture is going to be pretty mind-numbingly useless and I don't care to discuss 'The Great Gatsby' any further. So...I'm skipping (sorry guys!). But the Wagamama rendez-vous post-lecture is still SO on. Could do with some decent amai udon and rekindle my inner fire with some warm green tea. IT'S. SO. COLD. BITE. ME. LONDON. YOU. ROCK. BUT. WHAT. THE. HELL.

It's just I have a lot of errands to run and can probably get more done for the class on my own today. I have been neglecting my novel plotting and collegiate reading, and what have you, recently, so...Starbucks today, lecture next week. And if somehow my lecturer stumbles upon this in the near future, I'm sure he'll understand the necessity for a creative person to have the occasional spontaneous tryst. And it's totally for a good non-fun-and-games cause.

WHY AM I TRYING TO JUSTIFY THIS?! SUCH A GEEK!!

EVERY OTHER WEEK I NEED A NEW ADDRESS

'X' marks the spot. Can't get more cliche than that. They're just one of the two bands I'm listening to right now (the other being Rancid). Damn you, Jen. They're sort of like a Punk Siouxsie and the Banshees, and anything remotely Siouxsie is cool by association.

Wish I could see them play at Club Nokia on Dec. 20th. (Yeah Panda, that's in L.A.). He has me contemplating coming there again for christmas. But that would require me quitting my job and blowing all the money I made, which is the start of some sort of after-college-poverty-fund. bummer. My life sucks, doesn't it?

P.S. Diana, QUIT THAT JOB!

[Pixie Market]

I could probably kill to own these looks; and of course most of the things I want would be Sold Out and RIDONCULOUSLY out of my price range (well the entire website is). That pink coat is divine and I bet it's warmer than I am right now. sigh.

I'm going to Brick Lane tomorrow for free cupcakes and champagne at some event. I thought I was excited but it's so cold...poo. I look like poo.

MILES AWAY

Hiya. Just thought I'd give you a write up of what's been going on around my end. So, as you know, I touched down in London Town last weekend, and already by this weekend I have two jobs. One's a part time bar job at The Alma and the other is a newsletter project at Spoonfed for which I will be Student Editor (paid in gig tickets, though). So, YAY! Good times a-rollin'.

I've done bar work before so it's standard rowdy fun, but I'm really excited about the editor position. I'm not sure what the entire project entails at this point and shouldn't tell you too much but it's going to be linked to my University. I'm going into their office some time next week to work out the specifics. SWEET!

I did my trial shift at the pub last night and they asked me to stay on 'til closing. It's a really quaint place on a nice street. I was dead serious in my last post about you coming to check me and tipping me. You really should. It's for a good cause. I'm saving up for a decent coat, which really, I should be wearing already. Right now I'm just getting by by cocooning myself in several sweaters and shawls.

Speaking of which, today was really biting but this great Greek lady in my 'Writing for the Internet' class says she'll give me a ride home every Friday since it's on the way. She's either really friendly or just pitied me because I was sort of vibrating with jitters in my tshirt and open plaid shirt. Yeah, I tend to dress by mood. My friends always shake their heads at me. But I DID bring along a hoodie.

Before class I met up with some of my friends at Bede (one of the dorms) where we breakfasted on Sake and cookies. We bullshitted around and watched a couple of the finer scenes from Stephen King's 'IT' (a childhood favourite), then we planned to have a Japanese Horror Film sleepover on Sunday, and get just about smashed enough on boxed wine from ASDA, so we could go to our 'Developing the Novel' lecture the next day in an amazingly ruffled and hungover state. Such drinking habits are usually a common occurrence with me and a few of the others, but I think it more has to do with the fact that our lecturers this year are mind-numbingly dull so we must amuse ourselves before class in order to stick it out the full 3 hours. Regardless, Michael has the best ideas.

Speaking of mind-numbingly dull (don't you just love my tangents?) our 'Writing for the Internet' lecturer has such a voice. But the class was interesting, even without the bellyful of sake. My homework on an erotic museum was put on display for one of the lesson examples.

And in other erotic news, I found out that my awesome friend Emily, who's in the class, is like some sort of naturist and does lots of naturist jobs at like fetish clubs and such. It's awesome. She's performing at Torture Garden tomorrow night and told me I should come. And that is TOTALLY the kind of thing I'm looking into this year (that being Fetish clubs and alternative culture etc.) but the tickets are a bit steep and I'm already going to be drinking tonight and Sunday. Poo. Next time.

Anyway, I've got an unopened copy of the September Elle (yeah, a bit behind) to read and some madeleines to eat. Have a spectacular weekend everyone!

My day. My inspo.
Have a good one!