On the weird concept of bucket lists

First of all, I must apologise for the lateness of this post (once again). I thought I wouldn't have pressing deadlines for while, but it all came to kick me in the butt... So, yeah... Uni is hard work, let me tell you.

Anyways, this week's topic is bucket lists. First time I ever heard of a bucket list was sometime last year when a little girl who has cancer made a blog about all the things she wants to do before she dies. And people started responding to it and helping all of her wishes come true. My first question, naturally, was "why do they call it a bucket list?". I didn't really care enough to find out and hadn't really thought about the whole concept until Kate chose it as our theme this week...

Which essentially means that I do not have a bucket list of my own. So, people, I will have to think of a few things just on the spot...

Taking a cue from Anne (and in the process, stealing some of her wishes) here are some things I would like to have/do sometime in my life:


1. Own my own house with a LOT of books in every single room! And definitely a study of-sorts, where I would have even more books!

2. Travel a lot! I live on an island in Greece and I haven't been to many other places in Greece, due to the fact that you always have that extra boat trip to the mainland (which is a bit of a pain). So, I'd like to go to other parts of Greece, to all the countries in Europe and I would definitely like to at least visit one place on every single continent! One place I really want to go to is Australia! It must be weird to have snowstorms in July and wear shorts at Christmas....

3. Have a job that I actually like doing. I don't fancy getting stuck in a tedious 9-5 job. Actually, I don't mind the 9-5... I just want it to be on something I actually like doing.

4. Go to a book signing. This one might strike you as weird, but foreign (non-Greek) authors don't really come to Greece (not counting Victoria Hislop). I don't want to have a conversation with the author (I'm rather shy and not very talkative), I just want to go to one of those meetings! They sound fun!

5. Since I've already met Kate in person (and hopefully will be seeing more of her in the not too distant future!), I really, really would like to meet Anne in person! But she is so, so far away..... Someday! I promise!


That's all I can think of right now. They're not really all that interesting, but then again, I've never given the matter much thought (if any)... I'm actually rather proud of myself for coming up with these 5!

Let's see what next week has in mind for us!

If I die before I wake...

ACK! It's 10:30 on a Monday and I haven't posted yet! Sorry in advance for the lateness, and shortness, of this post, but I have to get up early tomorrow so I really should already be in bed... (though in fairness, I do have a good excuse for not being with it this weekend =P)

Topic this week is from Kate, and she picked Bucket Lists. Unfortunately I've never done one, though I've always meant to. Yesterday, when I first saw the topic I thought I should just go ahead and make one up just for the post, since I wanted to anyway. Yeah, don't think that will be happening because it could take me hours. There is just so much that I want to do with my life. BUT! If I had a list it would include things like:

1) Set foot on each continent (current total 2) and each state (current total 24 + Wash D.C.) at least once.

2) Own a home/apartment with an entire room devoted to books/a library.

3) Live at least 1 year in a foreign country on my own (kind of already did this, but I don't really count it because I was still in school so they took care of things like a place to stay etc.)

4) Learn to at least read a language that uses a different alphabet than English.

5) Grow a plant without killing it.

6) Be a published author (either through research or fiction).

So yeah, that's my brief beginning of a bucket list. I'm sure I'll be adding to it, and one day, maybe I'll actually sit down and spend some real time thinking about it. For now though, that'll do.

My Name is Katie and I'm a TV Addict

The theme this week is TV shows as decided by our invisible member. I definitely watch too much TV, it has to be said, and what with me signing up to Netflix a few days ago that is only going to get worse. Right now, thanks to Netflix, I am really into Dollhouse. As I write this I am only about six episodes in but completely hooked. It is not Joss Whedon at his best but Dollhouse is still up there. I'm so sad it got cancelled after only to series. Joss is a brilliant writer, a fact which is obvious if you ever saw Buffy the Vampire Slayer which has to be my all time favorite TV show. It is just so good. 

At the moment I am watching The Big C, 90210, Shameless, Skins and Grey's Anatomy. They're all really good shows and I would recommend the American ones to most everybody and the British ones to anybody who could handle them because they aren't for the prudish. I recently finished watching Call the Midwife which was a British TV drama set in the East end of London in the 1960's, it was really good but sadly too short - as with many British TV shows. 

I tend to watch more hour long dramas than half hour sit-com's even though I enjoy both just as much. I desperately miss Friends being aired on E4 day in, day out because other than that I don't really like to just sit down and watch random sit-coms because I rarely know where it is at. That said, I am watching New Girl regularly and do drop in on Big Bang Theory and Rules of Engagement every now and then.

On top of all that I watch 'adult cartoons' when I'm trying to sleep because they are both entertaining and easy to ignore. For this I usually watch Family Guy, American Dad, Bob's Burgers, The Cleveland Show or South Park. One of these will be the next thing I watch, in fact. 

I'm going to have to go now and kill a queen bee which is hiding in my room. Bye. 

Apologies of a TV series addict

First order of business...

I would like to apologise to each and every one of you (especially Kate and Anne) for not posting last week. I was so, so busy that I completely forgot I had a post to write and publish on Wednesday. I did remember on Friday, but it was a little too late by then. Anyways, here I am, awaiting my punishment...

And now on to the relevant to this week's topic part. TV series!!!

I am sooo sxcited about this topic! (I mean, I did choose it after all.) Anyways, I just have to tell all you guys what you might have already surmised from my post title. I am a TV series addict.

I'm not sure when exactly this came to be, but it's definitely been going on for a couple of years, since I first found out about How I Met Your Mother and started watching it over the internet. Don't get me wrong, I used to watch TV series before that, but not that many... I remember watching Friends (which I love, though I do believe that there must be episodes I have watched more than 5 times over the years), Grey's Anatomy (which I was only hooked on for a season), True Blood (which I used to watch with my friend, Penny), Lois & Clark (yes, the ancient one with Teri Hatcher!) aaaaand that's about it. There were some other series that had been on Greek TV, but I hadn't really been interested in them at the time. Prime examples are Smallville (which I watched for a while and then just got boring), ER (which I never got into), Ugly Betty (ditto), Two and a Half Men (ditto), Lost (which I seriously disliked - for no specific reason) and quite a few more, whose names I now cannot recall. (See my amazing use of the English language?? I am oh so sophisticated!).

But from the day I watched my first episode of How I Met Your Mother, I managed to watch the whole of the series that had aired until then in the space of a week. That means I watched four 22-or-thereabouts-episode-long seasons in 7 days!

The thing is that it didn't stop there. Once I started, I found I couldn't stop. So, I'm just going to do a list of what I'm watching right now:

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- How I Met Your Mother

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- The Big Bang Theory (where I used to have a small crush on Leonard... It's all gone now, though)

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- Chuck (for which I have to thank Anne for introducing me to and let me just say, Zachary Levi is soooooooooooooo cute!!!)

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- Sherlock (A-M-A-Z-I-N-G! And Benedict Cumberbatch has a pompous attitude to match his rather pompous name! I can't wait for the next season!)

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- Psych (where I watched the 89 42-minute-long episodes in less than a month and promptly developed a rather weird crush on Shawn/James Roday, who shares my top spot of TV series crushes with Zach Levi)

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- Castle (which I only just started)

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- New Girl (which is so much fun! And I am so rooting for Jess and Nick to get together!)

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- 2 Broke Girls

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- Suburgatory (which is okay, though I only end up watching it when I want to watch something funny and upbeat)

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- 30 Rock (which I am not really in love with, but it's still okay)

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- The Office (Loooooove John Krasinski!)

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- Once Upon A Time (Why, oh why did you kill him off??? Yes, him. Whyyyyyyy???)

So, yeah. That's me... Sounds like I don't have much of a life, doesn't it? Well, I assure you, I do. Just so that you don't get worried about me!

PS: It took me ages to write up this post... All those pictures and link-outs to the sources...

PPS: I have way too many TV crushes. Someone please stop me!

This week on...

OK everybody, pull up your comfiest chair, and get your cup of hot beverage of your choice (TEA!) ready. Phanee has assigned television shows as our topic this week, and let me tell you, we might be here a while!

Hi. My name is Anne, and I'm a TV show junkie, bordering on addict. I have been known to go through entire seasons of shows in the space of a few days. Seriously! We're talking like up to maybe ten episodes a day when I'm not busy. As you might imagine, that gives me quite a lot to say about the subject.

The thing about me and TV shows, though, is that I'm really picky. I think I've watched more shows about halfway through and given up than ones I'm currently watching and have finished combined! The other thing? I hate watching shows in real time. I'm not big on commercials in a show with a story. I'll sometimes sit and watch a cooking show, and I don't care about them there, but seriously, DO NOT just throw them in for tension right when the story is getting good! *glares at ABC execs* Instead, I prefer to just wait until a show is out on DVD or Netflix and go through the episodes all in a row, no commercials, hardly any breaks. In fact, the only drama I've ever watched from the beginning week-to-week as it's on is Once Upon a Time (currently airing Sunday nights on ABC... and CRAP I'M MISSING IT RIGHT NOW!!!! brb... *runs downstairs* OK, am now in position, will continue typing in commercial breaks *glares at ABC execs some more preemptively*) I have done plenty of talking about Once though, and if you're interested, you can hop over to my book blog and read all about it.

Since we don't have FOREVER to sit here and talk about all of the TV shows I'm obsessed with, how about a short list. At the moment I'm in the middle of watching things like: Buffy the Vampire Slayer, How I Met Your Mother, The Big Bang Theory, Sherlock and Doctor Who. I also have about 15 shows on hold right now, and for the most part they're just shows that I've set down for the moment and haven't picked back up. Those include Psych, Will and Grace, Red Dwarf, Merlin, Battlestar Galactica, Supernatural, Smallville, Castle and Chuck. I've probably even forgotten a few. I've maybe finished two shows completely since I got into watching TV. I guess I'm just bad at follow through or something.

That's pretty much all I have to say. I mean, just about the only thing I won't watch is reality (as long as the show is good, at least). And if you don't want to be here all day... well yeah. Back to watching Once now! :) Have a nice week!

The Banes of my Life

As Phanee hasn't posted this week (at least while I am typing this on Thursday evening), it looks like Anne and I will have to think up a suitable punishment. Good look, Phanne.

Anyway, I have some pet peeves to talk to you about. This isn't really a phrase we use in the UK, as far as I'm aware, so my definition of the phrase is coming from an old episode of Friends and an understanding drawn from Anne's post. Basically, pet peeves are things which annoy us, right? I guess I can take a stab at this...

One thing which annoys me is when I come home after a day out or whatever and find a little note from the post man telling me that I have a package that went undelivered. This would not have made it onto the list were it not for the fact that this happened to me today. It's only really annoying because I have to wait to pick it up instead of just going straight over considering the depot is only down the road. Grr...

Okay, so things which actually annoy enough for me to pick them from the top of my head. Hmm... Definitely the weather, specifically weather in Manchester because OMGFWUBHJDSC WHY?! Just why?! It seems to always be raining, or if it's not raining then it's windy or the air is suspiciously moist despite the lack of fog. Do you know what this means for my hair? It means that all my hair straightening was for nothing and I` then get to look like a fool for the rest of the day. 

Another pet peeve definitely has to be sick people. And by that I mean people who have a cold and act like they're on their death bed. I get colds and I live with it, I don't even take paracetamol unless I have an exam or something the same day. I just get on with my life, but then you have those people who get a runny rose and behave like they've been shot in the arm - and boy do they insist on letting you know about whatever is ailing them. 

I'll just go now, because I could list annoying things for hours, but being the kind soul I am, I'll leave you all alone now. Bye.

P.S. Phanee, let us know you're still alive :)

What makes your teeth itch?

Hi there ladies! It's my turn to assign a topic again, and I've picked Pet Peeves.

Most of the time, I would say I'm a pretty even keeled person. I may notice every little spelling and grammar mistake you make, but I'm not going to be upset, just make sure you're aware of it. I may not enjoy the sound of nails going down a chalkboard, but instead of flying off the handle, I just leave. But there are two areas that really drive me nuts and belong in the pet peeve category.

Number one is stupid drivers. You know, those people who cut you off or drive 5 miles below the speed limit for no apparent reason or just seem absolutely fixed on being in the way no matter what you do. I know most people probably don't realize they're doing it, but if we could all just be nice and share the road, we'd all get along I promise!

And the second big one? People who make scenes in public. Some people, when they get really upset about something, feel the need to let the entire world know about it. Especially if it involves another person who happens to be right there and can be shouted at immediately. It makes me so uncomfortable to watch someone fly off the handle in a place where they can be seen and heard by anyone who happens to be walking by. Call me old fashioned, but if you're going to have a breakdown like that, I personally think you should go find somewhere private to cool off before rejoining the rest of society. If that's not possible, then just bite your tongue until it is. I know they say not to bottle up your anger, but trust me, later you'll regret a lot of the things you said (we all do when we get angry) and the more people that hear you the worse it will seem.

Otherwise, it's pretty easy to keep me happy. Let me do my own thing, and I'll let you do yours!