I had an amazing time visiting my family with Justin – we shared lots of presents and ate well (Justin even got me a giant lolly which I sucked on for a few days :D) and I now have lots of things that I can use to learn to cook in the new year – some pans, measuring spoons, a casserole dish and even a Dutch recipe book from Emma.

I also went out to dinner at London steakhouse, Goodman’s, as the company Christmas do and it was the best meal I’d eaten all year (sorry, mum!) of New York strip steak, mushroom sauce, beans, chips and extra mushrooms with creme brulee for dessert. I couldn’t help but laugh when Dan (my boss) ordered a bowl of tomato ketchup and two bowls of chips with his biggest steak (650g) after the waitress tried to persuade him that he wouldn’t be able to eat it all. He did eat it all. Then he ordered two more bowls of chips and another bowl of ketchup, and still had room for pudding.

I decided to copy a questionnaire from Darnielle, in celebration of the new year.

1. What did you do in 2009 that you’d never done before? Rented my very own apartment with my boyfriend instead of living in dormitories, shared households or with my parents.

2. Did you keep your new year’s resolutions, and will you make more for next year? I don’t think I made any resolutions for 2009, and I don’t think I’ll make any resolutions per-se for 2010 – only that I hope to learn to cook. :)

3. Did anyone close to you give birth? My boyfriend’s brother and sister in law had a baby girl named Imogen, and Jem gave birth to a baby girl named Isabel.

4. Did anyone close to you die? No.

5. What countries did you visit? Japan. :)

6. What would you like to have in 2010 that you lacked in 2009? More savings in prepatation to buy a house.

7. What dates from 2009 will remain etched upon your memory, and why? My 21st birthday (20th January) – kinda obvious.

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year? Work related achivements at Christmas, and graduation from university.

9. What was your biggest failure? Deciding not to turn up to the Japanese exam after all, because I had nowhere near studied enough to even get half marks – so I decided to stay in bed.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury? I had a few colds, and possibly swine flu? Nothing that didn’t clear up in a few days. I also currently have a cut across my finger as part of a sewing related injury.

11. What was the best thing you bought? Did I ‘buy’ permission to live within this flat? :P If that doesn’t count, probably the Christmas presents I bought for my parents – they will be well loved forever.

12. Whose behaviour merited celebration?

13. Whose behaviour made you appalled and depressed?

14. Where did most of your money go? On renting this damn flat. Other than that and the essentials, probably on books. No wait, I spent a lot on the Japan trip. :)

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about? Visiting Japan. :D

16. What song will always remind you of 2009? Rage Against the Machine – Killing in the Name. (If you didn’t hear, they got Christmas #1 in the UK over X-Factor winner – the first download only #1, ever, all because of social networking.)

17. Compared to this time last year, are you: (a) happier or sadder? (b) thinner or fatter? (c) richer or poorer? a) Happier, by a mile. b) About the same? Maybe fatter. Not that it means much! c) Richer, but not rich. I mean, I earn more, but it gets spent quickly enough.

18. What do you wish you’d done more of? Travelling and studying.

19. What do you wish you’d done less of? Working!

20. How did you spend Christmas? I went to visit my parents in Dorset with Justin and we had amazing Christmas with lots of presents and food, and also went out for work Christmas dinner. It was the first time I had ever met my boss & colleagues but it was amazing. Gorgeous steak at a really nice steakhouse in London, I will never forget. :)

21. Who did you spend the most time on the phone with? Until we moved in together, Justin. After that, my mum.

22. Did you fall in love in 2009? I fell in love at the end of 2008, and we are still in love.

23. How many one night stands this past year? None.

24. What was your favourite TV program? Peep Show.

25. Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year? No.

26. What was the best book you read? A Thousand Splended Suns by Khaled Hosseini. I loved The Kite Runner, too. He is an amazing author.

27. What was your greatest musical discovery? Justice. :)

28. What did you want and get? New pans and a casserole dish, Wii Fit, and some jigsaw puzzles.

29. What did you want and not get? A sewing machine. :P (It is a little expensive!)

30. What was your favorite film of this year? Avatar, in 3D, at the cinema. I don’t think you could watch it in any other way. :)

31. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you? I had a party at my parents’ house with a few of my best friends, and played drinking games. It was pretty fun. I turned 21.

32. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying? Saving more money to put towards a mortgage deposit.

33. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2009? Black, with a bit of pink or purple depending on my mood – so a lot more normal than usual. Occasionally goth. For the first time in years I let my hair turn back to its natural colour (strawberry blonde i.e. bordering on ginger).

34. What kept you sane? Justin, my family and my friends.

35. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most? I don’t fancy celebrities, I fancy Justin. :P

36. What political issue stirred you the most? The fact that so-called supporters of a liberal democracy protested against the appearance of the British National Party on a show broadcast by the BBC – a company that have to remain impartial. What kind of democracy do we live in when we forbid certain people from having their say just because we don’t agree with them?

37. Who did you miss? My parents.

38. Who was the best new person you met? My boss, Dan. Amazing person – and we have a lot in common, and he’s quite funny. :)

39. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2009. Don’t put off important decisions just because someone might get hurt.

40. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year. “Now it’s a good time for a tasty glass of wine, let’s not burden our minds with carbon dioxide.” Zero 7 – Waiting to Die

On the subject of Japanese(-style) I have registered for the JLPT level 3 this December. Provided that the capacity hasn’t been reached I’m taking the exam and can’t un-register so I can’t really afford (£70) to fail. I officially have two months to cram as much kanji, vocabulary and grammar as I can. And on the subject of exams, I finally received my degree certificate. Now I just need a frame so it can join the rest of my academic achivements on the wall (me? modest? no)….

This doesn’t just apply to school workers, doctors or club volunteers. This applies to, for example, adults who drive children other than their own to and from afterschool clubs (nominated minibus drivers/carpool operators), hosts for exchange students, and anyone who intends to visit schools on a regular basis. For example, childrens authors for ‘reading sessions’ and charity workers. Failure to comply results in a £5,000 fine. Compliance costs £64 (although the fee is waived for unpaid volunteers). ‘Frequent’ contact means once a month or more.

Why did they decide on this scheme?

Because of the Soham murders. Ian Huntley, who was mistakenly employed as a caretaker at a school after ‘passing’ criminal records checks, murdered two young schoolgirls. Ever since, the British government has been pushing for tigher checks on all employees that work in a place where they might have contact with minors.

However, I don’t think this alone is a good enough reason to implement this scheme. Why? It’s simple; Ian Huntley did not work at the school Holly and Jessica attended. The fact that he was employed at all was completely irrelevant. He would have met them regardless of his working position.

Furthermore, criminal records checks were performed on Ian Huntley. They revealed nothing of relevant concern. His only previous convictions were driving a motorcycle without a license and theft, many years ago. Implementing tighter checks would not have revealed anything more. It was found out after Ian’s conviction that rape and assault allegations had been made against him, but the allegations were not kept on file as they had not lead to a conviction, and the relevant police force would have considered it a breach of privacy had they done so. In my opinion, rightly so. Allegations that don’t lead to conviction should not affect a person’s criminal record – innocent until proven guilty.

I don’t condone Ian Huntley’s behaviour, of course. It was a dreadful incident that we will never be allowed to forget. I can only say that this response is a complete over-reaction and will not make any difference in the long run.

But surely it can only help to protect children further?

From what? Adults? Many people are arguing that it will widen the divide between youth and older members of society needlessly. By enforcing criminal records checks on all adults that have frequent contact with children could lead children to believe that all adults are dangerous unless they can prove otherwise. It is accusative and insulting to many people who have volunteered without trouble for many years. There has been a very strong hit-back from childrens authors who call the scheme ‘demeaning’. In my opinion, it is just a grandiose extention of the ‘Nanny State’, and a backdoor tax.

Many of these writers will be boycotting schools. I am sure that they won’t be the only ones. It is expected that many volunteers won’t agree with the checks and will not want to comply. Instead of continuing to volunteer and face a £5,000 fine, they will simply cease volunteering. Many more children will be out on the streets wondering what to do with their time because their clubs and youth groups closed down after failing to find, or retain, sufficient staff due to volunteers being unwilling to undergo the necessary checks. This is an absolutely dire outcome and is completely backwards. Reading comments on the BBC website; one person mentioned that there would certainly be a need for the “super ASBO” once the effects of this new scheme are felt.

A person could apply for a check and be completely clean (maybe they are not first time offenders, maybe they just didn’t get caught yet), yet still commit an offence the next day. Also, an extremely large proportion of attacks against children are committed by personal aquiantances and family members (I’ve heard it reported as high as 98% of cases). Therefore, the new scheme will not prevent the majority of incidents. What this scheme will ultimately protect against are attacks by those people who should be in jail already, and therefore wouldn’t be a threat.

The new scheme somehow sets a precedent and potentially opens doors to even tighter regulation in the years to come. There has been much joking and speculation about Britain’s future with the new vetting scheme. What’s next? Will we require vetting before we can spend time with our younger relatives? Will anyone living in a home that overlooks a school or park (mine does!) require criminal records checks and face eviction otherwise? Will all parents require checks before they can pick up their children from school, or do the school run for friend’s children? Will other parents be suspicious of any adult who /isn’t/ checked? The possibilities are endless…!

So no, I don’t believe this scheme will be able to protect children any more than current vetting schemes, and in fact will do more harm to youth and adult societies; separately. And with 11 milion adults estimated to require registration (that’s 1 in 4 of all adults), it will be extremely expensive to regulate and enforce. The money would be better spent elsewhere – for example; with the social services, where the protection of children really matters.

I just finished reading Captain Corelli’s Mandolin by Louis de Bernières, and what can I say. An epic story of love during the German and Italian occupation of Greece in World War II. Terribly funny in parts and very serious and traumatic in others, and the writing is extremely poetic. It took me a long time to get through; it’s really quite a mouthful, but I found it a more than worthwhile read for anyone interested in romance and war stories. Highly recommended. One of the better WWII stories I’ve encountered.

Now, I decided to be a part of a meme. I received five ‘interview’ questions from Clem which I will answer hereafter. If you would like to receive five questions from me – post a comment and I will reply with my selection. :)

1. What was the last thing you bought that cost over $200?
Apart from the obvious spending of £2066 on the deposit for the new flat (not really a purchase, after all) I think the last physical thing I bought that cost over £100 (and I apologise for using my own currency!) was probably my Nintento Wii – two years ago! The new phone comes close, but it didn’t quite cost over $200. I tend not to spend too much money at once, though I plan to buy myself a new laptop soon to replace my broken one.

2. If you were trapped in a room for three days with your worst enemy, what would you do?
I’d probably try and talk things through so that we could at least live in harmony for those three days. But then, it takes two to tango. It may just end up reaffirming why they were my worst enemy in the first place.

3. What inspired you to start blogging?
Everyone else, and a deep-down narcissism that I hate to admit. I first joined the blogosphere in full-force in 2002 (though I dabbled before then, but mainly created Pokémon fansites since ‘99) and have been going on and off ever since. On and off because I am rather lazy. So lazy that I can’t always be bothered to indulge in the most self-obsessed hobby I have.

4. If you had a superpower, what would it be?
I would probably like to have the ability to learn a foreign language very quickly, so that I could go all over the world and speak to anyone I wanted, read any book, and experience so many different cultures that might have seemed obscure without first being exposed to the language and the people on a more personal level than can be achieved by simply being a wordless tourist.

5. Would you recommend the last movie you saw?
Now I’m trying to remember the last movie I saw. Oh – one of the Film4 ‘Frightfest’ films. Isolation. It’s about cows involved in a genetic experiment – it’s basically like a bovine gore film. I can’t say I would recommend it, unless you have an obsession with tomato ketchup (or blood and guts, either way). It’s Irish. Are you surprised? It’s so odd…

Things I like about this phone:

• The fact it provides me with a compact camera that produces somewhere close to alright images.
• I can access my emails and RSS feeds with it, so I no longer have to religiously carry around my now broken laptop.
• It has a hole to fit my charms on it. The strawberry was a present from a friend, and the fox and train I got from Japan (Fushimi Inari shrine and Hakone), in case you were wondering.
• It has a clock widget that shows multiple timezones, and some other funky bits and bobs that I wouldn’t expect from a phone.
• It can store so many details for each contact that you will never forget a birthday or address ever again.
• It works, and doesn’t have some of the faults that my old phone, the Sony Ericsson k850i, had. (Bad touch screen, bad battery, bad camera lens cover.)

Things that I don’t like about this phone:

• You can’t show downloaded applications on the homescreen, you have to go to the applications subsection.
• The default browser is crud. However, installing Opera Mini went smoothly.
• There is no support for Japanese. However, there is support for various European languages including Greek and Russian.
• It cuts off my best really super fucking cool ring-tone ever that you should definitely check out at “I’ll let it ring foreve-” before diversion to answerphone.
• It doesn’t support M2 memory cards, so I still can’t access the videos I captured in Japan that were stored on my old phone when it died (before we got home).

Overall, I am happy with my purchase, but only time will tell how good this phone really is. After all, the Sony Ericsson broke mysteriously half way through my old contract. In other news…

We Got A Flat

It’s located in Plaistow, East London. Yes, one of the most deprived areas in London (but what areas besides Kensington and Chelsea aren’t deprived?) but we got a total bargain at £866 a month for a really nice, large one bedroom apartment on the first floor of a ~four-year-old block overlooking a park. Hopefully a lot of money will be going into the local community over the next few years because of the 2012 Olympics – they’ll be right on our doorstep in Stratford, only two miles north! This will probably be our nearest shopping hub, too.

There are a few ideals I’ve had to sacrifice for this flat, however. Primarily, we don’t have a balcony, a river view (we were hoping for dockside apartments, but since Justin didn’t get work we can’t afford £1,000pcm), our own furniture or a gas stove. The biggest hit is that the landlord wasn’t willing to take out the furniture so we’ve had to discard Justin’s sofa, and we can’t buy ourselves a new bed. We’re still going to take our bookcases, desk and revamped bedside cabinet and chest of drawers. We’ll fit them in somehow. It does mean that I can spend the bed money on kitchen equipment instead, though. Here I come new pots and pans.

Work has been going great, I’ve had some fun the past couple of weeks creating forum software. A very steep learning curve what with the new programming framework and templating language I’ve had to teach myself (no documentation, can you believe it?!).