Snoofles, sniffles and silly sickness

Day 3 of a bad immune system, and I fear I won't make it out with my nose intact. So much sniffly coldness. So much watery dopey eyes. So much constant desire for bed. 

    

       It's also the day before my end of the year exams, and I think if I crammed any harder I'd get lost inside my head along with all the formulae and phenolphthalein indicator. 

Cramming < structured studying, but cramming > failing. Such is maths in effect. The funny thing is, I've only studied for one of my 9ish exams (religion doesn't count), so I have much more cram to look forward to! 

*At present, my left thumb won't quit twitching, so typing is a heavy task to say the least*

Probably due to my sickness, back/shoulder/neck pain and stress of exams I have very little to say, unless it involves expressing how many I'd injure for a massage right now.

If only school exams consisted of my snuggling up in bed with my cuddlym'n and reading books all day, feasting on meringue and cheesecake... 

Mmm... Cheesecake...

Sickness, exams and lack of entertainment

I woke up this morning, after a terrible night of nightmares, and realised that I happen to be sick. Very soon I realised I have exams on Wednesday, in 3 days time, and that I desperately need to study. I then realised I'm in no fit state to revise and that I should just accept a lack of As and Bs in my exams. After these successive realisations, I had one final one: I am frightfully bored and have naught to do. This was by far the worst realisation of the day.
   
        So after forcing down brunch, here I am, with a lack of entertainment. I cannot watch TV, as I can't stand it, reading will irritate my eyes, drawing takes too much effort and eye strain, and anything outside of my leaba (bed) is out of the question. So, I have accepted the fact that the majoity of my day will be spent probably learning Jayp'nese, trying to make my laptop STOP FREEZING and trying to make my phone and internet work, while also perhaps watching some J-movies, anime or the likes, if my internet stops being a hormonal teenage girl and begins functioning as it ought to.

      I also have an intense craving for meringue, which is more than likely due to le boif's mummy making delicious ones yesterday. I wouldn't kill for some meringue, but I would seriously consider maiming.

      I've also recently discovered the really sweet, adorable Japanese community of Instagram, and been chatting to some people, practising my horrific lack of Japanese. It's a great way to practise I have to say, because you get to see the everyday speech used in Japan, and it forces you to at least recognise kanji. The only problem I have with Instagram is that you can't copy the text within in the app, in comments and so on, in order to translate, and kanji, being tricky and bastardly, are very hard to look up without the copy function. For example, every time I come across a kanji I don't know on Instagram, I first try to enter it into a dictionary using radicals, but I'm terrible at that, so I usually go on to drawing the kanji into a handwritten kanji recogniser, but due to not knowing the stroke order that often doesn't work either. Then finally, when I have no other options I try to go onto the web/safari version of Instagram, which you can copy from, if you copy practically the entire page, and on that version, you can't view your notifications, search, or on my iPhone, scroll down too far on your feed before the whole app crashes.
Such are my woes of Instagram.

Such are my woes of sickness.

Baked goods of the day!

Well, as I've been off school sick today I figured the best way to spend my time was to make fattening baked goods and make my stomach even sicker. So, I did. And after decluttering the kitchen, washing up a ludicrous amount of delft and closely avoiding serious burns, I'm finished, and stuffed with nummy foodlings. I was quite keen to use up some of the thousands of Cadbury's Easter eggs that lie sprawled along my kitchen counter, so I made these nutty brownie yummy fings, that are cooked in ceramic mugs, and served warm. Heart stopping, artery clogging goodness, at its best. Oh moma, were they tasty. End result: stuffed stomach and these fellows:

Oh and I never want chocolate again, thank you very much. I've had more than my fair share. I wish the Easter eggs would hurry up and evaporate or implode or something. 

    

I also made lemon shortbread biccies with a lemon glaze that look quite pretty sitting there all cute and starry on my cakey standy thingy. 

Not that there's much left to look at. My family have been scoffing them all. I still have a handful to share with my schoolmates tomorrow though (and a mug of brownie stashed away for me for later). But the recipe I used to make the lemon stars made waaaaaaaayyyyy too much dough, so I have loads of dough in the freezer for whenever I feel like adding some more inches to my waist. 

Conclusion: I love/hate food. 

Schlemiels and Schlimazels

A schlemiel spills soup on a schlimazel.

    What a fantastic sentence! A schlemiel is a Yiddish word meaning a clumsy or awkward person, who is prone to spilling soup. A schlimazel is also a Yiddish word derived from the German word 'slim' meaning crooked, and the Hebrew word 'mazzal' meaning luck, and translates to an unlucky, accident-prone person who is prone to getting soup spilled on him. Hence the sentence 'a schlemiel spills soup on a schlimazel.'
 
   Interesting eh? Yiddish is quite an entertaining language, it has some brilliant words, that sound exactly like what they mean. The onomatopoeia is amazing. To me, some of the words completely sum up what they stand for. Now, I don't speak Yiddish, nor do I know anyone who does, but I would love to learn it one day. I'm a bit of a language nerd. I'm studying French and Irish in school, but the Irish education system still hasn't figured out how to teach languages yet, sadly.
 
   I'm very fond of the Irish language, although not many people can say that. In my estimation about 80% of people learning Irish in school hate it, and nobody can speak it properly these days, apart from the very few Gaelgoirí left in the country. It saddens me really. As an Irish lassie, I'm quite patriotic and proud of my little island, and whatever we have left of our culture, since being invaded by Britain all those years ago, is diminishing to the point where I have to wonder, will there be any left? I believe the Irish language to be very poetic and beautiful, and while most see it as an unnecessary chore to learn it in school, I love it, and hope to learn it fully in college, and to become fluent one day. It's a tricky little language, because it's difficult to put into practice due to the lack of fluent speakers, but I think it's worth it. As the Irish saying goes "tír gan teanga, tír gan anam", meaning a country without a language is a country without a soul.
 
   I'm also learning Japanese at present, on my own, (it's not like I have the option of lessons where I live anyway) and I would love to study that in college too. Finding a career out of language is tricky business though, but I'm sure I'll get by.

I'll be a polyglot yet!

Just a spot of art.

As of late I've been doing a bit of drawing, as you can see, my focus has been on hands and eyes, I find they have the most humanness in them. Plus, hands are so tricky to draw, and it's very difficult to capture the emotion in eyes, so I've been practising. 

An Introduction Perhaps?

Courtney is my name and I am indeed a silly little lady. 

    

I also have a frightfully bad habit of sounding like a poncy little lady when I write, for which I apologise. I'm no ponce, although I am partial to the theatre, tea, classical music and fellows with posh English accents (especially one in particular that I'm happy to call le boif); but I suppose when one lives in the arsehole of nowhere, surrounded by farmers, cows and unpleasant smells, one wishes they were in the company of aristocrats, dining on caviar, after being at the opera. 

    Anyway, instead of wearing some dungarees, and shoveling muck, I generally spend my time reading the occasional book (loving Wild Swans at the moment), drawing, watching many movies, watching anime, and learning Japanese. Oh, and cuddling, drinking green tea or listening to records. I decided to start a blog because I'm prone to bouts of speech, and I enjoy writing (and ranting). I'm 17, at present, and I'm an Irish lassie, still dragging herself through the schooling system, longing for the taste for freedom.

Feel free to comment, email me (check out my profile), and I also have an Instagram account (@korkny) which I frequent. Lordy I hate introductions. Now that's over and done with I'll be less oddball.