Paul Askwith, Gabriel Page

I have not been slacking. I wrote up a character on Sunday and Monday, but due to family things I didn't have chance to type them up.

Paul Askwith was hard work. He just did not want to become a fully formed character. So his is more of a character sketch. Gabriel Page, on the other hand, is already pushing me to write his story. So without further ado.

Paul Askwith is 20 years old. He is a student of Sociology in his second year at university. He is not exactly the ideal student; turning up to lectures occasionally and only scraping a pass for every single assignment. This lack of effort is because Paul spends the majority of his time throwing or attending parties in the student halls where he still lives.
He has absolutely no idea what he wants to do with his life, and only took Sociology because his parents expected him to go to uni and it sounded like the easiest course he could actually do. This lack of direction terrifies Paul, which is partly why he won't (or can't) put any effort into his course.

That's it for Paul.

Gabriel Page is a 10-year-old boy who lives at home with his mother, father, brother and two sisters. One sister and the brother are older than Gabriel, and the other sister, Love, is 7 years old.  Gabriel and Love are very close. The elder sister recently revealed she is pregnant which, as she isn't married, makes the house a very tense and hostile place to be. Gabriel often takes Love to a small park across the road from the house to get away from the tension. As well as playing at the park they read together, or read their school reading books to each other.
Gabriel doesn't do very well in any subject at school except for English. He has read all the set books for the year and now his teacher brings in her own books for Gabriel to read. He also finds his own spelling words from the dictionary while the rest of the class learns the set words.
He does have a lot of friends at school, but they all live away in the posh side of town so he never spends any time with them outside of school.
Whenever asked, Gabriel says he wants to be a doctor. But really he wants to be a novelist and has several books and stories hidden under his bed that he has written over the years.

3 days to go

I just sat and read a book cover to cover, simply because I wanted to, and it was wonderful. No pressure to finish it, no need to search desperately for something clever to say about it - just reading. It's a whole different experience to reading the set books for my course.

  Only six or seven more Christmas cards to make, although it seems like every time I finish one I think of someone else who should be on the list! I'm fast running out of ideas though. Today's job (aside from packing) might have to be scouring the internet for some ideas to steal. Oh, I also need to go shopping. Better get a wriggle on!

xXx

Sleeeep

Just a brief update. So far the snow has been here three days and I've managed to slip and fall over three times. Only the first time really hurt because I went straight on my backside. On the plus side, it's the first time I've ever been glad to have so much padding there. 

  Got separated from the main pub crowd tonight but ended up having a really good chat and coffee with Erin instead. She is my American equivalent, it's quite scary how alike we are! Possible theories about her and Rachael being swapped at birth will inevitably surface.

  I read a whole book today, just for fun. I cannot describe how much I enjoyed it.

  Much to do tomorrow so I'm off to bed.

xXx

Strange peaches

Yesterday in the discussion of James Baldwin's depression-fest Another Country, the discussion leaders decided that they weren't going to read the text out themselves; everyone had to read, a paragraph at a time. And of course when it got to my turn we arrived at a paragraph with swearing in. It was only two words, which isn't much compared to the rest of the book, but still a 200% increase in swearing for me. Saying no didn't seem to be an option so I took a deep breath and read it, trying to think of the words just as sounds instead of thinking about what they actually meant.

 It was very, very weird. I'm not sure I can explain properly how strange it felt to hear those words in my own voice. There was a physical reaction in my ears, almost like they were ringing. It was probably one of those horrible blushes that starts at your ears and works inwards. 

 Aha, I've got the comparison! It was like saying a word in a different language in the middle of an English sentence. "I'm not too keen on chocolate ice cream but I älskar vanilla." It was that jarring.

 But at least I didn't have to read any of the sex scenes!

xXx

You must allow me to tell you how adrently I admire and love you

I have a GINORMOUS urge to read Pride and Prejudice again, even stronger than the urge to read New Moon whenever I get to the end of Twilight. But I can't! I've got to make some banana bread, write a 500 word parody, print off three lots of work (which is turning out to be an exercise in not smashing my printer on the floor), make some dinner and pack my bags because I'm going home tomorrow!  

 I've managed to stay up here a whole month and I'm really looking forward to seeing home again. It's only until Sunday afternoon, but that's plenty of time for hugging. I'm kind of sad that it'll make me miss salsa though, I've been looking forward to it since Monday morning and it's hard to think I won't get to do it again for more than a week yet. But hugs!! Yay! 

 Anyway, I suppose I'd better get on with that long list of things, as I've only got five hours now to get them all done. Off I go!

xXx