Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in rachetpeg's LiveJournal:

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Thursday, August 6th, 2009
2:39 am	Past Rachel was far too quick to say "ah, this cold is really mild, it's fine". After 4 days of it BAM - worst cold EVER. Hopefully it'll shift soon though since I've already been ill 5 days. Want to be better by Sam's party. My biggest URGH is that bad colds seem to end in bronchospazm for me, which is basically where I have a really bad, painful cough for weeks and weeks which can only be shifted by an inhaler and is made worse by exercise. So considering I'm supposed to be going travelling/climbing mountains and whatnot this is NOT a good time for bronchospaz! Think I'm mostly worried about coughing all night and keeping everyone in the hostelrooms awake. O well, I shouldn't worry about that until I actually KNOW if I have bronchospaz. Just a little frustrated by the timing. Also, does anyone know the rules re: inhalers/aeroplanes? Can you take them on planes? (Comment on this)
Wednesday, July 29th, 2009
12:43 pm	Wooo Ghibli = sorted!! CHEERS NIM!!!!!!! p.s. this is the last time I will be half-way through my working week :-D Current Mood: excited (Comment on this)
Tuesday, July 28th, 2009
12:21 pm	Only 3 and a half days left of employment, then 6 months of fun can begin!! Still need to sort some stuff out/buy some things in the last couple of weeks, but I'm not too far off being ready now :-) We are having some problems getting Studio Ghibli tickets which sucks, but bar that little hiccup everything is looking good and I am now getting massively excited about our first stop - Japan! We have a few things we intend to do already, including climbing Mt Fuji at midnight (aim to reach the top by sunrise), find a local Japanese gig and Cosplay in Tokyo, visit the massive aquarium in Osaka and the shrines and temples in Kyoto, and spend a couple of days in Hiroshima, the city hit by an atomic bomb. I am so excited - I only hope the swine flu doesn't get to any of us first and stop us going! Yey Japan! (Comment on this)
Friday, June 26th, 2009
12:09 pm	Get your gush out So, Chestnut time is coming to an end. It makes me so sad to see the walls now (almost) bare, and where all the dvds/tv/cds/general things we shared once were is now just empty space. My room is mostly filled with boxes, and David’s room is completely empty. The last 3 years here, whilst having some particularly difficult moments, have been amazing. I don’t think I could have possibly asked for better circumstances than I have had; living with at least 6-7 others (and although who those 6-7 were varied at times, they were all great) as well as having so many of our friends use our house as a base has been brilliant. I loved never having to be alone unless I chose to be. I loved that whenever I felt bad so did choose to be alone I could never wallow for long, because there would always be too many people around to bring me out of it, even at the lowest of times. I really, really hope this isn’t the start of us all gradually drifting apart. Losing some level of closeness is probably inevitable, but I hope every Chestnut/person who might as well be a Chestnut keeps in touch. I know I am pretty bad at keeping in touch with people myself (unless they are they type who are good at making an effort), and I intend to try and rectify this. While I am incredibly sad to go I am also pretty excited. I feel like I am suddenly going to gain some kind of freedom, like this is the start of being able to do whatever I want and go wherever I want. I know this is silly because there was nothing really stopping me before, but leaving Chestnut is I guess an end of a certain part of my life that until now I was reluctant to let go, and now that I have to I will be more willing to go and try new things, and do all the things I daydream about. I hope I don’t return from Asia, get back into a 9 to 5 routine in a job I find boring, and then before I know it realise I’m still there 20 years later. I like now not knowing what’s to come, for me or anyone else. This entry was totally gay. Current Mood: excited (Comment on this)
Monday, June 15th, 2009
11:43 am	Had a nice weekend. I was pretty lame on Friday night, going home to sleep after the pub and so totally blowing off Rob's party and Idioteque. In my defence the practise course of malaria tablets I'm taking are making me a bit side effecty so I wasn't feeling great, plus I was exhausted from the week. The side effects aren't too bad though, nothing I'm not expecting to get anyway because of food hygiene. Plus if it's a choice between a dodgy stomach or malaria, I choose the stomach thanks. Saturday we went to Hansas for Rich's birthday. We got this big sharer thing called a Hansas surprise where they bring you loads of different dishes of whatever they feel like making you (hence the 'surprise'!). It's a very nice Indian place, and we had loads of nice dishes I had never tried or even heard of before. It was all really delicious, except for the thing they gave us at the end instead of mints, which I thought just tasted like shampoo. Then it was the final moorland party (sniff). I found it hard to leave (waaahhhh horrible breaking up of lovely leeds life) but I had to get up really early the next day, so finally dragged myself away at 4.30. Next day stupid early start with stupid hangover, but totally worth it! Me, John, his aunt and cousin (who lives in Indonesia but was over for a while) went to Scarborough :-) We went to the sealife centre and walked along the coast. I resisted fish with my chips but had a bite of John's to satisfy the wanting without having to order one, and I guess that's what matters. We sat on the beach for a while and I forgot that the sun was stronger than it seemed due to the sea air and that these malaria tablets make you extra photosensitive so now I am sunburnt. Dang. I love how much Scarborough is a total stereotype of an English beach :-) It doesn't feel quite real! Possibly my favourite part of the day though was when me and John went exploring. We followed an old out-of-use cable car line over some hills and through some broken down railings and found an old abandoned themepark! Most of it had totally crumbled away but there was still the remains few brick buildings, what looked like an old teacup from a teacup ride, and these structures of what looked like fake volcanoes, only now they were all falling down and you could climb around the scaffolding inside! The whole place was so quiet and deserted, it felt pretty post-apocalyptic. It was kind of fun to pretend everything had been wiped out, although I kind of kept expecting an army of zombies to come storming over the horizon at any moment. Now I need to think of more ways to slow down my work so my job contract is possibly extended again. Facebook - check Email - check Walk to the shop - check LJ entry - check What next.... (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Friday, June 5th, 2009
1:21 pm	Well, it only took me 23 years to figure out who I am, but I think I have finally done it (hurrah!). Turns out I do not like this person very much - how unfortunate. My previous ridiculously low self-esteem (not the low self-esteem I have now, but the so low it is barely there self-esteem i had pre-uni) did actually make me a nicer person, but unfortunately due to it being so low I did not realise this! I need to knock myself way back down again so that I may rebuild myself as someone better. Someone nicer. Someone less selfish. Someone more likeable. Someone who doesn't deserve a massive punch in the face. Okay Rachel, ready?? GO! (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Thursday, June 4th, 2009
9:33 am	Dear Worryjournal EDIT: I feel stupid for worrying about things mostly out of my control. Things will work out, they always do, everyone always (well, usually) finds a way. Be rate. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Tuesday, June 2nd, 2009
8:58 pm	Apparently 76 people die each year playing Twister. That's quite a lot! (7 Comments |Comment on this)
Sunday, May 31st, 2009
8:00 pm	Note to self: You CAN get sunburnt in England. (4 Comments |Comment on this)
Saturday, May 9th, 2009
11:28 pm	cmon summer! hurrry uuuupppp! cmon summer hurry up and come summer bastarding summer suummmmeer cmoooon summer summer summer bastarding Sweet summer night and I'm stripped to my sheets Forehead is leaking, my AC squeaks and A voice from the clock says, "You're not gonna get tired" My bed is a pool and the walls are on fire Soak my head in the sink for a while Chills on my neck and it makes me smile but My bones have to move and my skin's gotta breathe You pick up the phone and I'm so relieved You slide down your stairs to the heated street And the sun has left us with slippery feet And I want to walk around with you And I want to walk around with you And be here with you, we're goin' It doesn't really matter, I'll go where you feel Hunt for the breeze, get a midnight meal I point in the windows, you point out the parks Rip off your sleeves and I'll ditch my socks We'll dance to the songs from the cars as they pass Weave through the cardboard, smell that trash Walking around in our summertime clothes, Nowhere to go while our bodies glow And we'll greet the dawn in its morning blues With purple yawn, you'll be sleeping soon And I want to walk around with you And I want to walk around with you When the sun goes down, we'll go out again Don't cool off, I like your warmth Let's leave the sound of the heat for the sound of the rain It's easy to sleep when it wets my brain It covers my rest with a saccharine sheen Kissing the wind through my window screen The restlessness calls us, that I cannot hide So much on my mind that it spills outside Do you want to go stroll down the financial street? Our clothes might get soaked, but the buildings sleep And there's no one pushing for a place As we end up at an easy pace And I want to walk around with you And I want to walk around with you I want to walk around with you Just you, just you, just you! Current Mood: chipper (Comment on this)
Friday, May 8th, 2009
7:44 am	okay, so i failed yesterday, but it was only one beer, and one beer is closer to no beer than lots of beer, so it barely counts. :-) (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Thursday, May 7th, 2009
7:18 pm	glug glug glug I have (for about the gazillionth time) been making a massive effort the last couple of weeks to drink less. Last week I got my unit count below 30 (I am aware that 28 is still high, but usually I round down to 30 AND it was a bank holiday weekend), and this week I HAVE NOT DRUNK YET. NOT SINCE SUNDAY! Usually I'm really gagging for one after a couple of days, but this time it has taken me until day number 4 to really REALLY want one. I could just go to Jackson's before going to Josh's house and get some beer.... but I'm going to try not to. Oh god I really want some beer. Even if I do crack, unless I go mental at the weekend I will have drunk so little this week. I can't remember the last time I have gone 4 days without drinking. Probably not since I was working in Disney World and we didn't have the time or money to drink every day. So there you go. The point of this entry was just to congratulate myself for this weeks effort. I am so very proud of me. Clap clap clap. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Monday, April 27th, 2009
8:52 pm	I thought, screw that guy the other day, I'm going for a run round the park. And yet again these fraking douchebags were whistling and whooping out of a car driving past the park. I wasn't even right next to the car or anything. I looked over to check if it was at me and the nobface was actually leaning his full torso right out of the car. That is now 3 times in the last couple of weeks I have gone running that some idiot has done something to irritate me. SERIOUSLY, WHAT IS IT WITH MORONS THINKING THEY CAN'T JUST LET PEOPLE RUN IN PEACE?! WE ARE HARDLY MAKING MASSIVE SPECTACLES OF OURSELVES OR DOING ANYTHING THAT WARRANTS THIS ATTENTION. GO AWAY. I'm going to attempt to make spicy Thai soup tomorrow me thinks. I hope it works, I've never made it before. If I learn to make nice Thai soup I don't think I will ever want to eat anything else ever again. I should find out before Friday whether or not I will be jobless! I hope not, it doesn't sound like there's too much going at the moment. (6 Comments |Comment on this)
Sunday, April 26th, 2009
9:39 am	Me and Jen got a bit garlic happy making our curry last night and ended up putting in (between 4 people) 19 cloves of garlic, so I would stay away from me today if I were you! I want to go for a run this morning, but yesterday some dick was being a dick and stepping infront of me like a dick to deliberately stop me running and piss me off to make his mates laugh because he's a dick. So I told him to stop being a dick and he shouted at me to fuck off and I thought I was going to get into some sort of fight. but I didn't. but it has now put me off going for a run today even though I want to go :-S There was the guy the other day too who, well, wasnt being horrible at all but was running alongside me trying to have a conversation with me while i was running with my music in, which was a little offputting. So basically since these 2 things have happened in the space of a week or so i now feel really self conscious about running around the park, like people won't want to just leave me to it. Where can I go where I can just run in peace?! Whatever, I'll get over it and start running in Hyde Park again soon. I have had SUCH a tame weekend, but i've kind of enjoyed it being that way. I haven't been in the mood for anything massive and overly drunkard all weekend. O god, I hope I'm not getting old and boring. OH speaking of feeling like I'm getting old that reminds me...I went to see Catch 22 (heh) on Thursday and the singer looked scarily like a cross between Stu and Eric (of Tim and Eric fame). It was ridiculous. John got a photo of him. I still can't make myself be that bothered about Tim and Eric. I think I may be the only person I know who doesn't go into a massive fap over it. I think my typing is annoying John because it's keeping him awake, but I have been awake since about 8am because he kneed me up the bum really hard in his sleep and it jolted me properly awake. So it's sort of his fault I'm up and being not-quiet. Sleeping John's fault anyway. (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Thursday, April 23rd, 2009
1:31 pm	sooo part one of our contest is complete. for the swimming section, john did 64 laps, i did 40 and Oli did 20 (he got cramp in the last 15 mins). I definitely should have done better, since last time i did 32 laps in 30 mins and this time i did 40 in 45 mins. oh well, it's still not too bad. the doctor has bought me a bottle of ginger beer. yum :-) (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Monday, April 20th, 2009
9:53 pm	AND IT STARTS Today was the first day of the fitness contest. Basically, as a way to motivate us to exercise more, Oli challenged me to a fitness contest (and when I told john about it he decided to join in. It does involve competition, afterall...). Obviously me being female and John and Oli being male I am at a physical disadvantage, so instead of us simply racing or whatever, we are pitting against each other in terms of seeing who improves the most fitness-wise. Today we went to see how many laps each of us could do around a section of the park (Oli did 2, I did 3 and John did 4), and in a few days we are going to see how many laps we can each swim in 45 mins. Then in June we are going to remeasure and see who improves the most on their personal score (obviously will have to be in percentage). We have covered for all variables we could think of (eg, no changing stroke when swimming, if you don't run with music the first time you can't the second time etc...). Hopefully this will finally get me more motivated! (not that I'm particularly competitive) I have been reading a little into areas of Asia recently that I didn't know much about before, namely Borneo, Indonesia and the Philippines. It sounds like we would struggle to fit much of it into the month we have after reaching Singapore, so I might extent my ticket so I can do them all. Hmmm, will have to think. This weekend was nice. It consisted of Poker, drinking games, a trip to Harrogate (where we found a nice park and crazy golf), Ramzy's bday drinks aaaand sun and sunburn and FILM. In the Loop was pretty good, although I was so tired and in an odd mood that day that I kept getting sudden bursts of "Oh...where am i again? What film is this?? O yeah..." which was wierd. The sun is GREAT :-) I think I'm going to go swimming tomorrow post sun. sunsunsun. (11 Comments |Comment on this)
Thursday, April 16th, 2009
9:09 am	Seriously, SUCH musical regression at the moment. We went to see the Aquabats on Tuesday, then upcoming gigs over the next few weeks include Catch 22, NoFX, HORSE the band and Me First and the Gimme Gimmes (providing I get tickets). I listened to Less than Jake on the way to work this morning too and still genuinely enjoyed them (and I'm not even sure it was entirely for reasons of nostalgia!). Whilst my music tastes have definitely 'matured' (as everyones does), I don't actually think I want to ever stop liking the music of my teenage years anyway. Screw being an adult :-) (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, April 13th, 2009
3:41 pm	To say I was expecting this weekend to be a massive snorefest with me spending the whole time thinking OH GOD I WISH I WAS BACK IN LEEDS, it has been pretty good! I will make a list of all the good things that have occurred over this weekend, as I do enjoy lists (both when I make them and when other people do) Idioteque was good, had some dancin' and some drinkin'. Met a couple of new people who I liked too, which is always an added bonus. Also met a guy (whose name i have forgotten, whoops :-S) who was homeless and also had some form of motor neurones disease, which was sad as he was getting rapidly worse and could barely speak (which made it really hard to understand him). I don't know why I have stuck this in the list because it wasn't good at all. IF YOU CUT TRAGEDY FROM YOUR MEMORY THEN IT DON'T EXIST AND THERE THEREFORE ARE NO PROBLEMS IN THE WORLD. aha. (I blatantly don't mean this) Erm yeah, so back to the good... Went walking in the forest near my house with John (totally worth filthing up my only work boots for). We saw our first woodpecker hammering away at a tree! Also saw plenty of baby lambs/pigs/ducks etc :-) Found my favourite childhood toy, rabby (who I thought had been thrown away) Went to a Thai restaurant and both me and John were forcefed LOTS of thai food, including the best thai soup I have EVER had Also forcefed much beer, courtesy of my dad (who can drink much faster than I remember) Had a lovely roast made for me (thanks John's mum!) Watched Grease, which I hadn't seen in ages (and now can't get several of the songs out of my head. At least they're alternating) FINALLY had a MUCH NEEDED haircut (according to the hairdresser you are meant to have one every six weeks, WHAT?? Six months minimum for me, thanks) That's it. (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Friday, April 10th, 2009
12:08 pm	Best idea ever??!?!!? I read that there is a place in Laos called Vang Vieng that is famous for tubing. I thought, hmmm, tubing? What's tubing? Tubing is THIS: "Tube down the Nam Song River which they say takes 2 hours to do if you don't stop at all the pit stops. These aren't any ordinary pit stops. Along the river banks starting at the launch point about 2 km north of the town, bars line up and as you tube by if you want to stop they throw out a stick to wheel you into their bar. The greatest thing is that they sell only Beer Lao, which we absolutely love. At the bars they have zip lines and swings, which of course we go on" I actually cannot imagine anything better right now than floating down a river in those little rings, drinking cheap beer and stopping occasionally to go on ziplines and swings. WANT! WANT WANT WANT!! (4 Comments |Comment on this)
Friday, April 3rd, 2009
1:10 pm	The doctor was on the phone, and from his side of the conversation he was obviously being told one of his patients had died and he had to go see the body before it was taken away to be cremated, but he was just so calm and totally unphased by it. All I could think was "oh no, someone died, how sad" and "I've never seen a dead body before, that would be a pretty big deal, I wonder how I would react?" etc... Obviously I know why he reacts calmly, obviously because he is a doctor is this is normal to him. He has to be like this. Obviousness. But I still found it really wierd to see how different someone else can react to the thought of someone dying having to go see the dead body and then the grieving family. I blatantly could never be a doctor. (yeah, cos that's the only reason...!) (5 Comments |Comment on this)