Pet Peeves!!!

Haven't written in so long! Well a week, but that’s because I've been spending all this time procrastinating over doing my coursework, always fun! So today's blog is all about my biggest pet peeves, I do have a few but these two are ones that really tick me off.

Since I started learning to drive back in February I've realised something, people don't seem to know how to use their indicators. It's not that hard, you just push the thing up or down depending on left or right. Yet it seems most people seem to be completely incapable of performing this tiny task. The amount of times I have gone up to a roundabout and either stopped abruptly because someone told me they were going left when in fact they were going straight or slowed down and came to a stop because it looks as if someone is going straight ahead but in fact they are going left! Why can't you tell me where you are going?

It really gets my blood boiling when I'm driving along, minding my own business and another driver completely puts me off by turning off into a side road without signalling. I don't see what the problem is, why is it so hard? I'm a new driver and I get scared easily on the roads, so it would be nice to know that other drivers could perform the basic functions needed to drive a car!

The other night I dropped my brother off at a party at about 10:30pm, it was dark and I'm not used to that so I was being cautious. Then, whilst I'm trying to pull out of a side road onto a main road, a woman who is coming from my right down this main road looks as if she is going to carry on straight, so I stop for her, but suddenly she turns left into the road I'm coming out of. 'Thank you very much' I shouted sarcastically, this woman has just made me come to a stop and get back into 1st gear when I didn't need to be, and that has annoyed me because I'm a new driver and quite often I stall!

But it's not just new drivers stalling that can be the outcome of a lack of signalling, it can also cause unnecessary accidents, so in my opinion, anyone who cannot signal properly or at all, should not be allowed on the roads, because they CAN'T drive!

My second pet peeve is less reasonable, for this I should be a bit more forgiving as even I have done this before, but when I see it, I just get so angry. I'm talking about grammar or spelling mistakes. Ok, I know that there is such a thing as typos but if they are occurring often, then you need to look in a dictionary!

I also know that dyslexia can cause many spelling mistakes and I'm forgiving of that too, I know many people who suffer dyslexia and therefore I know not to get angry at their grammar errors. But if you don't suffer from dyslexia then you have no excuse. The other day I was reading someone else’s blog and I started getting really annoyed at the lack of capital letters at the beginning of sentences. If it occurred once then I would think it a typo but this was frequent, there were no capital letters at all. I knew this person didn't have a problem with spelling and grammar because the blog had started with capital letters; it looked as if half way through the author got lazy and so gave up! How hard is it to press shift? Or Caps Lock? You might be thinking 'what a nerd,' but grammar is important, it's the difference between sending a lovely message to your wife and breaking her heart:

'Having a lovely time, wish you were her.'

Having a lovely time, wish you were here.'

Or it could even save a life:

'Let's eat Grandma.'

Let's eat, Grandma.'

I know, I know, rubbish examples but you get what I'm trying to say. Just take the time to look over what your writing, otherwise I will have to have a 'Grammar Win', in which I point out you're mistake and make you look stupid!

And I hope to God that you noticed those grammar mistakes I put in that previous sentence, if you did then you are as much a nerd as me, if you didn't then check again!

Song's on the radio, Harry Potter and Taylor Swift

So this is my second blog post and today's is going to be a bit of a jumble of stuff that has caught my attention recently.

The first thing is something that has always bothered me. Overplayed music! Why is it most radio stations feel it necessary to play a song over and over again, sometimes once every hour. I get bored of it more easily that way. Take Lady Gaga's song 'The Edge of Glory' for instance, probably the only Lady Gaga song that I actually really like. I heard it on the radio once and instantly loved it, but now I can't stand it. I've heard it so much that if I have to hear it again I'll might actually rip my hair out (and I've just got it the way I like it). Why this sudden change? Maybe because I hear it ALL THE TIME on the radio, everytime I get in the car and put the radio on it's on! You know, I never hear Taylor Swift on the radio, amazing singer, very popular, good music, why isn't she on the radio? Maybe I'm biased since I am in love with Taylor's music! Paramore also are rarely on the radio, and they have recently released a single! And how about a bit of glee every once in a while? If I'm wrong then say so but I think I have a point!

Anyway... So I am a giant Harry Potter fan and have to blog about it!

Might sound a bit sad but I've been looking up videos of Harry Potter on youtube recently, some are pure rubbish but I've found a few diamonds in the rough. One video I love is a 'Friday' parody and it's hilarious not to mention the acting in it is perfect (I tend to notice peoples acting), it's created by The Hillywood Show and I just can't stop watching it. So you should too, click the link to watch Harry Potter Friday Parody 

Another I found is Harry Potter in 99 seconds, very good sum up and also very entertaining! There were quite a few videos of this but this one is my favourite. Click the link to watch Harry Potter in 99 Seconds

I also found a great song, 'Wizard Love' by Meekakitty and HeyHiHello. This song is great, a very catchy pop song with a Harry Potter twist! Click the link to watch Wizard Love 

I also found it on Itunes!

Last but not least. A Very Potter Musical/Sequel. Any true Harry Potter fan would have heard about this! It is, in my opinion, pure awesomeness and is probably the best quotable musical of all time.

And soon there will be a threequel so mega-excitement for this.

Click the link to watch A Very Potter Musical Act 1 Part 1

Well I should probably shush now! Till next time :-)

Introduction to my life and my new blog

So I should probably introduce myself a bit. I am Vicki and this is my blog 'A Random Assortment of Flavours' and here you'll read about little tidbits of my life. BUT, considering my life is not that incredibly interesting, I will also be sharing my views on the world and current issues. You might be thinking "oh dear, not another person who thinks they know everything about the world and can solve all it's problems," however I'm hoping to be a journalist so one day that might actually be my job! I'm kidding of course. So this blog is about me and my troubles as well as current affairs, random facts and info and a lot of opinions from me, which is why my blog is called 'A Random Assortment of Flavours'. Gettit?!

So to start off my new blog, I think I'll start talking about some recent events in my life. Last Friday I recieved probably the best present I have ever gotten from my parents, and that is... Daisy, my new car!

I am so pleased that I now have a car, it fills me with immense freedom, I no longer need to get my mum to take me out, I can just go myself. Yesterday, I went out and bought myself a frappacino from Starbucks, it was amazing to be able to just do that and I could just take myself!

However with this new found freedom comes a HUGE responsibility, you're thinking the usual right? Washing it, not crashing, not speeding, not scratching the car etc... No I'm talking about not getting lost! Let's just say my sense of direction is a bit off after the fiasco I had on Monday.

I had planned my journey perfectly, I live in Farnborough and I needed to get to Camberley to drop of a friends birthday present, I knew where she lived and I knew how to get there. I then needed to go back to Farnborough to pick up another friend from work and give her back the cake tins I'd been harbouring for 5 months. Sounds pretty simple right? WRONG! Don't get me wrong, I got to Camberley just fine but couldn't find my friends road. I hadn't realised that I had gone past it and got to the A30 in Camberley which was queued with traffic for about a mile, fun! So I joined the queue and looked down at my clock to see that I had to pick up my other friend from work in less than 10 minutes. So at this point I knew I was gonna be late but there was no way of getting out of this traffic queue. So I sat and waited for 20 minutes until finally I got to the front of the queue. The reason why there was traffic was apparent when I got to the end, the Meadows Roundabout, as there were roadworks going on and only one lane was open, and when my car decided to break down, I was blocking that one lane with a mile long queue of traffic behind me! Oh dear. I tried to keep calm and I called one of the men doing the roadworks over and told him I had broken down. He was a lovely man and kindly helped me move over to the outside lane. He told me I had flooded my engine (how did I do that?) and needed to let the car rest for a minute, he then stopped the traffic going past so that I could get out. I shouted thank you back at him from out of my window, I was so pleased!

Of course my troubles did not stop there.

I drove up to Sainsbury's in Watchmoor Park, I needed to park up and calm myself down. I rang my friend and told her I was going to be late picking her up from work, she kindly said she was willing to wait for me. I then got on the map on my phone and found a way to my other friends house to drop off this present. So I found my way there and went down the 2nd exit at a roundabout which lead to her road which happened to blocked off (just my luck)! So I texted her to come to the end of her road and turn left, where I was parked up. So I managed to get one task finished that day!

After leaving her I knew I needed to go back past Sainsbury's and go up to the roundabout that lead to the motorway to get back to Farnborough. There was a bit of a problem though, I didn't know what exit to take and there was no way I was going on the motorway until I do my PassPlus. So I got to the roundabout and with a choice of 2 exits, I took the wrong one and ended up on a slip road to the motorway. I panicked but knew there would be no way of going back, so I continued. I got to the motorway and just got on it! I was so pleased and proud of myself, I did it safely and managed to not to kill anyone. Unfortunateley, the problem with going this way is that I was heading to Windsor and Ascot, and not back to Farnborough. So I managed to get on the motorway safely, I just got on it the wrong way! So I got off at the next junction and suddenly saw a sign saying 'Welcome to Bagshot'.

Now, those of you who know the area will know that Bagshot is only a 15 minute drive from Farnborough and it's not that far away. But as soon as I arrived there, on my own, not knowing the way back, Bagshot suddenly felt like a foreign country hundreds of miles away!

So I parked up in a car park next to a garden centre and it happened... I knew it was coming... I'd been holding it back for the past 2 hours... there was no way of stopping it... I burst into tears! Hey, it's not my fault I was in shock, it had been a very, VERY bad day! So I rang my mum and as she heard the despair in my voice, she immediatly thought I had been in a car accident only to find out I had got lost in Bagshot. Next I texted my friend and had to break the news, an hour after she had finished work, there was no way I would be able to pick her up, I felt awful but I was so in shock that I just wanted to get home, I would not trust myself going out again, at least until I'd calmed down. Luckily for me my mum was kind enough to come out and get me, I followed her car home and arrived at my house at ten minutes past 6 in the evening, that was a whole 3 hours after I had left the house that afternoon!

So to sum up what was a longer story than I had intended, always make sure you know where you are going before you leave for a journey and plan detours in case of things like traffic queues and roadworks because you never know what is going to happen out on the roads. OR get a SatNav!