I Tell Terrible Stories

Back in February, when I was studying for/writing my exams, I decided to take the month of March off from blogging, thinking that doing away with that distraction would help me study and that I'd make up for it by blogging more often in April.

I was wrong. Come April, I had a thousand things that I wanted to do, and I found it hard to find the time, especially on Saturdays, to blog. I'll try harder next month, when I will commence blogging on the 18th, after I return from London. This will be my last blog post till then, owing to the fact that next Saturday I will be arriving at London's Heathrow Airport, and far too sleepy and jet-lagged to care about anything except seeing the Duchess of Cambridge.

Speaking of which, everyone's favourite Duchess went to the Warner Brothers Studio in Leavesden after all, where she met the Queen among writers, Joanne Rowling,

who was dressed in a surprisingly similar polka dot patterned dress,

which no doubt made Kate jealous, because it probably cost more than her Top Shop ensemble (J. K. Rowling is currently richer than the Queen). So, Kate whipped out her wand and cast an unforgivable curse in her direction,

which Jo easily deflected, shrieking "You need to mean them, Mountbatten-Windsor!"

Meanwhile, Prince Harry and William played with Batman and his things.

Oh, boys.

The next time you hear from me, I'll hopefully have met all these people and done all the things they did. If not, at least I'll have had a good time in London. You can't love royalty and Harry Potter and not have a good time in London.

So long, 

N

Middleton, Catherine! HUFFLEPUFF!

September 1, 1993

Eleven year old Kate stood in a line along with the other first-years in the Great Hall. On either side of her, students sat at two long tables. Her knees shook, but taking heed of her mother's advice she kept her chin up and a smile on her face.
"Middleton, Catherine!"
Kate walked up to the front of the hall and sat on the stool. She could feel every eye in the room trained on her. The weather was nice, she thought. She wondered if it would hold up.
"HUFFLEPUFF!" the Hat shouted.
Kate looked at it, puzzled. She hadn't known hats could talk. Maybe once she went home, she could make one of her fascinators talk, too. Pippa would like that. Kate sat at the Hufflepuff table, introduced herself to everyone, and then politely pretended to be interested in the proceedings. Little did she know that she would continue to do that for the rest of her life.

~

Think about it. What really defines Kate? Is it her intelligence, thirst for knowledge and sharp wit? As if. Her bravery? Hardly. Then is it her cunning, ambition and resourcefulness? Well, it runs in her family, certainly, but I think what best defines Kate is the fact that she's pretty and nice to people. A Hufflepuff, if there ever was one.

If you're wondering what prompted this sudden sorting, it's the fact that the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, along with Prince Harry, are visiting the Warner Brothers Studio in Leavesden this Friday. Next Friday, I'm visiting the Warner Brothers Studio in Leavesden. When I found out, I spent the whole day fuming. It wasn't because I have wanted to see the Duchess in real life ever since she became and Duchess and now I wasn't going to. It's because I came so close... and missed.

So, if you ever have to tell a story about terrible timing, tell of how I would have seen the Duchess (And a currently unmarried Prince Harry) in the flesh had I gone to London one week earlier. Or don't. I'm sure any story would be more interesting that.

I wish you every happiness for the next week. (No pictures today, I'm sorry.)
N

Birthday Blasts

Today is my birthday.

When I was introduced to the Internet, I was in my Harry Potter phase, so the first thing I did was Google Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint and Emma Watson. When I Googled her, I found out that her birthday was on the 15th of April, only one day before mine. For the past few years I bemoaned the fact that my birthday was on the sixteenth, and not on the fifteenth.
During the course of last year, I learnt that three royals; Margrethe II of Denmark, Grand Duke Henri of Luxembourg, and his son Prince Sebastian of Luxembourg are all born on the 16th of April. That's two more royals than any other day of the year. So I figured that if I aspired to be royalty, this date was the best day to be born on.

When I woke up in the morning the first thing I saw all over the Internet were posts about the blasts at the Boston Marathon. Being from India, where violence on the grounds of religion and caste are a fairly common occurrence, I wasn't as shocked as most people seemed to be, but I still felt sorry for the victims.
Hours afterwards, the videos and tweets about the blasts kept coming, and they were starting to unsettle me. So, I turned off my news updates, and watched Alex Day read Twilight for a while. It was such fun that I watched him read the entire book. Once again, I found myself wondering if I should send Alex a copy of New Moon.

When bad things happen, like acts of terrorism or a World War, I find it nearly impossible to read about the disaster or look at pictures of it. And I don't. I choose to not focus on the things that have already happened, and instead on the fact that I'm still alive, and so are the people who matter to me, and on Anne Frank's belief that despite everything, people are really good at heart. And that gives me some solace.

Here's a picture of Pippa Middleton to cheer you up.

Have a safe week,
N

Crack Ships, Thatz Not Okay, and Whether Fergie is a Daughter of Athena : Random Thoughts

Today's post will be slightly longer than any of my previous ones because I've had all week with nothing to do but write it.

A few days ago, I came across the term 'Crack Ships' on Tumblr. I Googled it, of course, and found that crack ships are like regular ships, only the two people in the pairing come from completely unrelated fandoms.

Now, I didn't discover the concept, because I already... crack shipped? I just realised that I'm not the only one doing something so stupid. And a learnt a very important lesson; being on the Internet is a good morale booster. No matter how stupid you are, you'll always find someone on YouTube or Tumblr who is even more so.

Currently, there are two crack ships in my Top 15.

7. Prince Harry and Taylor Swift

What would fans of Taylor Swift like better than an album about some ex-boyfriend of hers? An album about a royal ex-boyfriend. Because, really, it would be foolish to pretend that that relationship would last. And, on the off chance that it does, she would make a great Princess. Much better than Cressida Bonas.

Taylor Swift and Prince Harry are just the kind of people who would go out with each other. She's power hungry and looking to get the most famous and well connected boyfriend in all the land, and he seems to have a thing for tall blondes (in remembrance of his mother, perhaps) who are significantly, but not a whole lot, younger than him.

This ship may turn out to be not as ridiculous and impossible as I'd thought, though. Prince Harry is going to the United States of America soon, and Taylor, apparently, is desperate to meet the Prince, which means she will do anything in her power as multi-millionaire singer/songwriter to become a royal girlfriend.
Poor Ed Sheeran.

13. Louis Tomlinson and Jennifer Lawrence

It sometimes irks me when famous people have not-so-famous significant others. I start to wonder how they met and how the relationship began and whether it's all just a scam by the not-so-famous one to get their pictures in the papers every now and then.

Jennifer Lawrence and Louis Tomlinson are both at the top of their game right now. She just won an Oscar, and he's part of the biggest boy band in the world. Also, as is evident from the assortment of videos on YouTube, both of them are hilarious while doing interviews and the such. Just think what would happen if they were doing interviews about each other.

Jennifer broke up with her English boyfriend Nicholas Hoult some months ago, and (please don't hate me for saying this), but I don't like Louis' girlfriend Eleanor very much.

What I did discover this week was a weekly column in the Internet 'news and gossip sheet' The Gawker, called Thatz Not Okay. In it, Caity Weaver gives questionable advice to her readers who ask her whether their actions were okay or not okay. I found it after I read Weaver's article about the Duchess of Cambridge, loved it, and wanted to read more. So, I Googled her - Caity Weaver the Gawker- and found the advice column.

I read through all of them in one day. I haven't laughed so much since Maureen Johnson last updated Notes from a Neighbor. Which is further proof of my theory that while the English are better writers in general, Americans are better on the Interwebs. A theory which you did not know, until I mentioned it in passing just now. More on that next week, unless Queen Elizabeth dies.

Also, I saw this picture of Fergie, from the Black Eyed Peas, and her husband Josh Duhamel.

Is it just me, or do Josh and Fergie look exactly how Percy Jackson and Annabeth Chase would grown up? (If they survive Tartarus, that is.) If it's not just me, does that mean Fergie is a daughter of Athena?
More like daughter of Apollo. Or Aphrodite.

More next week.

N