Sleep

For once in my life I am glad I'm a teenager.

This gives me a good reason as to why I'm so tired. Permanently. Constantly. 24/7. And it also gives me hope that one day I will "grow out of it."

At the end of 2007 I went for a test for anaemia and glandular fever, because I was so exhausted that it was making me very blue. Both tests came back negative. I went through all of last year feeling tired (although better during BST because of the long hours of daylight), and now I am once again shattered.

Get out the violins, woe is me, etc. etc. Never mind. Moving on...

HOW TO MAKE AMAZING VEGAN BISCUITS (I am a vegan for Lent, in case you didn't know)
Pre-heat the oven to about 150 degrees, but it doesn't really matter. Make it up as you go along basically.

1) Seive 6 oz flour into a bowl
2) Melt 6 oz sunflower spread (you can use butter if you're not a vegan) and stir into the flour
3) Add 6 oz of brown sugar and stir in
4) Keep adding sugar as you stir
5) More sugar
6) Then a bit more
7) Make sure the mixture is on the borderline between being really firm and really soggy (this makes the final biscuits chewy and lovely).
8) Roll it out. It should be so soft that when you try and roll it out it nearly falls apart. You shouldn't be able to cut out shapes easily, so roll little balls of mixture, drop it onto the greased tin, then pop a glass bottom on top then pull it off to reveal the circular shape (you may need to use flour to stop it sticking).
9) Bake until you can smell them and they're nice and golden brown, like the Stranglers' song.

The more brown sugar the better!

You could also add chocolate chips for the best cookies on the planet.

Yes I am good!

xxxxx

Procrastination and Civil Liberties

1) Why? Why do I do it?

I am a motivated student in so many ways. I love my subjects, I usually only daydream for five minutes per lesson, and I am desperate to go to a good Uni. I really do care.

Most of my Sundays are spent glued to the computer screen, doing "homework." This means that for about six out of seven hours I will be on Facebook, and maybe I will occasionally procrastinate in other ways, such as compulsively cleaning my teeth or looking up pictures of ageing glam-rockers.

Procrastination is, for me, like a health condition. It causes me distress and I hate it, but I cannot really help it. There have been some articles in the newpapers recently saying that people who are happy in spite of the recession must have an "optimism gene." Perhaps there is a procrastination gene? I should contact Richard Dawkins.


2) Britain is sleepwalking into a police state, a nanny state, a Big Brother surveillance state...

It's time to wake up!

I have decided to refuse to carry an ID card if this bad idea, if you will forgive the pun borrowed from the Tories, ever comes through.

And if I do manage to vote in the next general election (although this is seriously unlikely as the election will probably be a month before my 18th) I will cast some kind of protest vote, possibly Green. I've always been a bit of a hippy at heart.

For more info, there's a fascinating and frightening film called "Taking Liberties" by Chris Atkins, which I definitely reccomend if you ever find yourself wondering what happened to liberty and justice.

Also visit no2id.co.net, liberty-human-rights.org.uk, and get reading political manifestos: our rights are slipping away! Let's get them back :)