Right, I've finally managed to get through the immense backlog of comments. I wasn't ignoring you guys all last week; I've just had a lot on my mind with This Bloody Course, that's all.

All the stress meant I wasn't having much of a home/social life. I was coming home every day exhausted, wanting nothing more than to pass out in front of the telly. My room became a mess, my journal, but for the odd post, was neglected.

Weird, isn't it, how just trying not to lose your patience all day can take so much out of you. I kind of understand why Tim and Vicky are so tired with us now, because I'm tired with everyone else.

So, I'm getting myself sorted out. I tidied my room and wrote a little last night, so things are starting to feel a little more normal. I'm going to have dinner in a minute, then go upstairs, make my bed and tidy up my desk.

As for entries on the to-do list, I believe I have yesterday's shenanigans with the final presentation speech and the tea party on the day before (the last day of my final team challenge) to update you all on.

Also, I found a whole load of handwritten entries yesterday that bridge the gap between my computer dying and my excursion to Ireland. So I should probably try to get those up some time.

I forgot the council were coming to rewire all the houses in this area. To be honest, I'd rather hoped that they'd forgotten, too. Alas, we got a letter today - they'll be invading our homes starting Wednesday, drawing up plans to absolutely ruin our decor.

Surprisingly, it's not the looming repainting job I'm worried about. I have, after all, recently discovered that I rather like painting and decorating. It's the fact that I now have to tidy my room.

"But," you might protest, "we thought that since moving house you'd turned over a new leaf! Your room was supposed to be the pinnacle of tidiness, was it not?"

Not so much. In recent weeks I've yet again been spending more room downstairs at my computer, where it's easy to do a bit of research here and there, or have five minutes on Twitter to let my brain recover from whatever project's currently occupying me. Plus I have more desk space down here. Consequently, my room's fallen into a sort of disrepair. I use it for sleeping and getting dressed; that's about it. The desk's full of stuff I've just dumped there and there are clothes all over the floor.

I find a room like that utterly unusable for anything other than sleeping. So, rewiring survey or not, I think it's about time I tidied the place up.

Anyway, creative pursuits have been coming along well. I've started work on a ridiculously complicated cover for my novel; a kind of art nouveau, 1960's concert poster affair. I thought it would be fitting, considering what my novel's about and when it's set. So far I've drawn out an elaborate border, a couch with a hand sticking out of it, a postbox in a field of gigantic mushrooms and some circular psychedelic designs. Because I fail utterly at drawing cars, I've employed Ashley, who's fantastic, to draw the 1984 Volvo 340 for me. It's flying, leaving a trail of swirly colours behind it.

Now I just need to think of a good way to stick all these images together. I've drawn them all separately so I can scan them in (if my Dad ever replaces his now useless scanner) and compose the cover digitally.

Today, I shall confess, has been uneventful. I wrote a few church fillers, an entertainment story and that was about it, really. I've got one story left to finish on a fundraising event for a lymphoma patient that can only be completed once I actually manage to get the organiser at his phone.

Anyway, while the electric's nearly gone (we've had a superbly thrifty weekend to the point where I'm not even allowed to breathe in the living room's heat) I'll have to log off. I'll write something a little more meaningful tomorrow!

I was woken by my alarm at about seven this morning, as usual, and then I went back to sleep until ten. I'm trying to kick this late morning habit in time for September. This morning, though, I noticed something quite different. By now, I'm more used to seven in the morning looking like midday; bright, sunny and vivid. Today, though, the light was different.It was softer, more subdued, and the sky's blue was deeper, autumnal in tone. It felt less August and more mid September, to be honest.

Well, I'm awake now, anyway. I'm dressed, my bed's made, my three postcards are written and my room is tidy. Other than some clothes that need washing, I've got nothing else I need to do. Perhaps coffee, lunch and ibuprofen would be a good start. I'm starving, and this episode of the monthly reds includes crippling back pain that makes existing a nightmare.

The other day, when I was out with Laura, she said she didn't think me the sort to keep a diary. Fun fact of the day: I actually am. I write about the silliest, most pointless little things here.

I've been quite busy today, figuring out how to move all my books and things back into my room without losing all of this wonderful desk space that I've been enjoying. As it happens, we had a couple of old storage boxes knocking about that weren't in use, so I've shoved all my art materials into these to keep the lot under my bed. This frees up a lot of the space at the end of my bed, by the wall, where I used to keep them. In this space, I've stacked all of my books in three neat piles, out of the way.

My only qualm is that they're in no real order, and if I want to read one book in particular I'm rather screwed if that book is at the bottom of the pile. Once I have a bookcase, it should be okay. I can keep it all in order and pluck the book in question off the shelf without a load of physical labour, first.

All I've done today, really, is tidy, clean and have the occasional telly break. This is the first time all day that I've held a pen. I'll put in more of an effort tomorrow, I think. The last thing on my to-do list is postcards. Hop on the Wii, check my LiveJournal (though I detest the Wii Internet browser) and see who wants them. God help me if I get more than ten replies, because I only bought ten!

I'm trying to think of anything I need to do tomorrow, and all I can come up with is have a bath in the evening before Holly's 18th and phone the Birthday Child to confirm her party pick-up and sleepover details. Because I - er - accidentally deleted her text in a fit of rage when my phone was being flooded by tweets. Two eighteenth birthday parties in two weeks. That's actually busy for me.

I've definitely gotten over last week's post-Ireland blues. Sorting out my bedroom was probably a contributing factor; there's finally a room in the house where I can bear to be in because the effort's been made to make it look nice.

I found a decent sized bookcase! It's sold at Argos, and it's 180CM high, 78 wide and 20 deep. That should be plenty of space. It comes in a walnut finish and costs £34.99. I just hope that stocks can hold up until I can scrape the cash together.

Well, Dad's snoring so I'm gonna nip downstairs when this album's finished (on 'Baby You're a Rich Man' now) and see to these postcards.

I've got water, now, and I've had another snazzy idea. Either I get a wall-mounted stereo, or I can just make a little corner shelf where I can plonk my current one! As temperamental as my old green stereo is, it does work - occasionally - and I've had it for so long, gone through so much awesome music with it, that I couldn't bear to part with it. Everything I'm into now - Kevin Ayers, Caravan, Soft Machine, Yes - has been played through this.

Sure, it's jumpy and dusty and apparently hates Jimi Hendrix (it never plays his CDs!), but it's old and its mine and I love it. It's been to sea with my Dad and it's kept me sane in what might otherwise be moments of silence. I love you, stereo <3

P.S. My stereo's been immortalised in my Art exam final piece, anyway; the big A1 oil pastel drawing that I did for 'everyday objects'.

I did the dumbest thing ever, today. Or, should I say, two days ago? Remember how Laura and I arranged to go out today? Well, we did. Then, as we ambled along Peasley Cross road, I realised I'd done something very stupid. I was expected by Sian for a game of Snap at the Oak Tree Pub in Newton, at 3PM.

Sian naturally got very, very annoyed at me, but I balanced it up. I hadn't seen Laura, my best friend of ten years, in two or three months. Choosing between her and pub snap with a bunch of friends I'd seen only five days ago wasn't difficult... at the risk of sounding horrible. Consequently I felt like a pillock all day.

( Despite all that, today was a good day. You'll only get to share in the awesomeness by partaking in this LJ cut. )

Can it really be that the last days of summer are upon us? Outside, it's overcast and raining, and sitting in my room, I actually feel cold. My feet are freezing. In twenty days, it'll be September. Autumn's just around the corner.

This time last year, I had a pretty good idea of what I'd e doing in the upcoming September. I'd be going back to Sixth Form, regardless of grades; I just didn't know whether I'd be moving on to A2s or resitting it all. This year, I don't even know if i'll be returning to Sixth Form; if I'll even be allowed to, whether I fail or not. I could be in a different college - not that fresh starts are entirely new to me. Or I could be gap yearring, with the grades I need, raising a bit of cash for uni. Maybe I'll even have been abducted by aliens by then. I simply don't know.

Not knowing what lies ahead is scary. It's like having to walk around a blind corner on the street, only you know that on the other side you'll find either a slap in the face, an axe murderer or a piece of delicious cake. Or even alien abduction. But you can't turn around; the only way is forward. You can only go on and hope it's the cake, because cake is better than being slapped, murdered and abducted.

I had a good night's writing last night, though Dad would probably disagree - I woke him up by moving my chair. This is precisely why I need a carpet, Dad! Chairs don't scrape noisily on carpet! They do on wood! And with a bookshelf to keep anything non-essential out of the way, I'd make less noise tidying up before bed.

Ergh. Rain, rain, sod the hell off or I'll smash your face in. Seriously. You annoy me. I want the sun!