Tuesday 17 March 2009

Deliciously Relaxed

I haven't blogged in a while, and I can't even remember what I've missed out so I won't bother trying to fill you in!

Today didn't start so well, I overslept and then had an irritating assignment to read, as well as not being able to get to my car so I had to either walk into town or get a taxi. I chose the taxi option as everything took that bit too long.

But WOW it was lovely outside. It's been sunny for 3 days now (you all know where I live, it's a miracle :p), in the past 2 days I've been to the beach 3 times LOL Today though I was going to be productive.

I went out in a dress and jeans, a black jacket and my coat. I carried my coat the whole time and had my sleeves rolled up on my jacket! Craziness! It was just so still and lovely, Spring is on it's way at last! This is further proven by all the gorgeous teeny lambs frolicking in the fields, so cute :)

I handed my assignment in then headed on into town. Things to do : Buy my Bristolian Friend her birthday present (Heroes - Season 1), a card, post mum's Mother's Day present and card, go to a charity shop and get an application form to work there.

Firstly I went and posted the stuff for Mum - don't open it before Mother's Day! Then I went to HMV, they didn't have Heroes, they'd have to order it in, it'd take 7-10 days. Oh. I then walked down to the charity shop. Before I got there though I got sucked into a shop, it drew me in, I swear!

In there I bought 2 bikinis (I spent the WHOLE of last summer searching in hundreds of shops and THREE different countries for the style I like, so I saw some today and grabbed them!!), 2 strappy tops and 1 cropped, short-sleeved jacket. I then didn't have time to keep walking to the charity shop so I headed back to meet my housemates. On my way I went into a shoe shop, my dolly shoes are falling apart. I bought two pairs (the ones I had already again and the same in white - what? They're nice shoes :P) - Summer HERE I COME! I just need a cheap pair of trainers now and maybe some sandals I like and I'm sorted on shoes :)

I did manage to get my friend's birthday card bought as well.

I then met up with them and we were going to have a BBQ but decided to go and have dinner out instead, a lovely long, relaxed meal :) I didn't like the dinner very much, but my starter and pudding was heavenly :P Great deal too.

We then went home, where we asked our male housemate to make us a fire in the BBQ, we went to get marshmallows and ended up with an easter egg each too (THANK YOU Bristolian Friend!). We then spend the next few hours laid on picnic blankets chatting, toasting marshmallows and watching the stars :)

So now I'm deliciously relaxed. I'd forgotten how lovely it was to wrap up in a blanket and watch the stars with a fire crackling, the smell of woodsmoke and general outside-ness. I want to go camping now!

So that was my lovely day :) Spring is here and I'm loving it :)

xx

Friday 20 February 2009

Hugs to my Ginger Dancer Friend

This is a post for my OTHER dancer friend (and housemate), who has now ALSO lost someone close to her :(

*HUGS*
Thinking of you this week, see you when you get back.
xxxx

Little Sister's Visit



Last weekend my little sister was at a skiing camp, then when my parents picked her up they brought her on over to meeee!

She got here Tuesday and we all went out for dinner, since my Mum, Dad and Bro were staying overnight before heading on home the next morning.

We didn't do much of interest, the main reason was to take her to fencing and let her have a go.

She doesn't like foil (the one I do) because it's "wussy", she was told by the club captain she wasn't allowed to do sabre, so epee (pronounced ep-ay) it was! We watched a match earlier in the day, we missed the foil and sabre, much to my disappointment, but it gave me the chance to explain epee to her.

I took her over to the training session and she looked fairly terrified but everyone was very friendly. She was set up with some kit and handed over to one of the fencers who gave her a 5 minute lesson, but he admitted he wasn't sure what to teach and usually coached foil.

Much to her horror she was then told she would be put into the pool of epee and fencing! I honestly thought she was going to cry, I felt bad for her but bullied her into it anyway :P

Me and the fencers debated for a while who to put her against, and decided on Old Jon.

I told her to try and remember what she'd been taught but if all else failed just flail around a bit and try and hit him! They seemed to have a lot of fun. It degenerated into Errol Flyn style flailing, on his part largely! He had a whale of a time and had her laughing within minutes. She won 10-4 I think, and then he gave her some pointers (pun not intended :P) at the end.

She then went against another fencer and lost this time, but still did pretty well. I did keep making the terrible sin of coaching on piste, but I think they forgave me :P She kept being defeated by the fact she didn't know to disengage (he's catch her sword, hold it out of the way and then hit her), so I told her how to disengage (go under the sword). On the next go she remembered to try that and got the point :) I was very proud. I tend to forget what was suggested to me by the time I'm fencing!

I don't think she thinks fencing is her kind of thing though, she whinged about the "costume", that she "looks like a bug" and generally "looks ridiculous". Plus she didn't win and wasn't instantly incredible at it! Never mind, I get the impression that if she stopped whinging, took it seriously and worked at it she'd probably be better than me :p

Other than that, she went to a Social Psychology lecture (but I didn't, I sent her with my 2 housemates because I was ill), we played cards, played on Abba Singstar on the PS2 and other such fun things as that! I'm a bit worried it was boring for her, but we do very little and it completely threw everything off that I was poorly yesterday!

I hope she had a good time though :) I was lovely to have her!

Little Bro is upset and wants to come and stay now though! So I've told him when he's a bit bigger he can come and stay for a WHOLE WEEK. Which cheered him up a bit! Don't think he understood I wouldn't be in that house...or in that University Town in a couple of years, but I'll deal with that another time!!
(OMG isn't that just the cutest picture ever!? lol)

Wednesday 18 February 2009

Saga of the Missing Tutor!


Today I had an exam at 2pm, then a meeting with my personal tutor at 3pm to pick up my Semester 1 exam results.

The exam started at about 2.30 and we were told it was 45 minutes long and so we couldn't leave when we were done. Ah.

I (and everyone else!) was finished after about 15 minutes. They gave in and let us go. I headed over to the building where all the Psychology people "live", I sat in the waiting room until it was 3 o'clock then went and found his office, and the other tutees sat outside.

After 45 minutes I was STILL sat outside, as were 15 other people by this point. It was starting to be clear he wasn't turning up! Someone had already been down to reception - no one had seen him yet today.

We all went down to reception and the poor receptionist started making phonecalls to try and track him down! By the second phone call there was no "Hello" just "Where's [tutor]? I have 15 of his tutees stood in front of me." (We were meeting in groups of 5, but he'd missed 3 lots of appointments).

She was very sorry but she had no idea where he was.

We then marched on the Psychology building demanding our results. On an Open Day.

Someone quickly ran back up the hill to the other building to pick up all of our results off his desk and then met us individually to get them. It was now 4pm, I had Little Sis waiting for me back at my house, and we were meant to be watching a fencing match that had started an hour ago! Also, halfway through my meeting, the tutor himself rang up! The conversation I could hear went along the lines of "Yes. Hello, I know, in fact I'm meeting with your tutees right now. The ones that turned up. They're pretty angry. I'm going now." *giggles* Someones in troooouuuuble :P

BUT my results were good :)

I was expecting to have failed Psychobio (which was incidentally taught by the missing tutor!!) but I got a C in my final exam (they "moderated" the questions and scaled the grades up or something LOL), which got me a D+ overall for that module (I got a D on my mid-term). In Memory, Perception and Attention I got a B- on my final exam, and so a B overall (A- on the midterm). In Developmental I got a B, which was the same as my mid-term, so that was a B overall.

The best result though, was Research Methods, for the third semester running! I was absolutely bowled over! I got an A- overall, I'm terrible at stats, or so I thought!! Plus that module carries the greatest weighting (it's a 30 credit module, the others are 10 each).

Which means I have a solid 2.1 and if I put in the hours (i.e. actuall do some work) then it shouldn't be difficult at all to get a First :D Watch out Dad, sports car here I come!!

This is only 12.5% of my overall degree like, but given that one module I genuinely didn't understand, I think I'm off to a spectucular start :)

I shall update some more soon, Alix, I'm about to take Little Sis over to fencing. This should be interesting :P Sorry my blogging has been lacking, hope this is enough reading material to procrastinate with for the time being :P

xxxxxx

Wednesday 4 February 2009

Some days are just not worth getting out of bed!


So last night I didn't sleep too well and I had to wake up at 7.45. This then led to me staying in bed dozing til 8.15 then running around manically trying to get ready on time.

The reason? More injections. I was daft enough to actually agree to an appointment at 8.40. WHY do I do that to myself? Or more importantly the people around me??

I got out of bed, remembered I had no bread or milk, so had to use 2 slices of Lucy's.

I then had to go and wake Lucy up and ask very nicely if she could PLEASE go and move her car in 15 minutes. She did eventually agree.

My toast was almost instantly cold, that's how cold our house is.

My hair was impossible to brush, so I simply stopped trying. I didn't care!

I wrapped up (not thinking to put my gloves on - I'll be in the car!) and went out.

My car did not want to start. As in I genuinely thought it wouldn't. I was sat there, opposite Lucy's car, with her car starting perfectly first time, glaring at me because I made her get out of bed, begging my car to start. I nearly cried. Luckily my car did finally do as it asked.

I then got stuck in traffic. I was driving like...5 minutes away, and it took ages because of the school run! ARGH! I was already late at this point! And my fingers had gone bright red they were so cold. So, trundling along, whimpering, I had to try and get my gloves out of my pockets and put them on, before the pain made me cry. (I was starting to think at this point it could just be one of them days).

I finally got there, and after all my panic...they weren't running on time anyway. I got called in...and only needed one injection! I've had my first HepB one, I need to remember to call up in a month's time for my next one and Yellow Fever, then about 10 days before I go I have to have my Meningitis ACWY. The last nurse didn't mention that one, but everyone else is having it, so I asked this one. "Oh well that's only if you're having a lot of contact with the locals" "...we'll be in the orphanage...." (de ja vu, I DID tell the other nurse that. REPEATEDLY). "Oh well then! Yes I'd definitely recommend that one".

I finally left, tried to pull out of the road at the end (turning right) and there was no way I could. I ended up reversing back a bit, turning left, driving down the road a fair bit til I came to a roundabout, going all the way around it and coming back. That was quicker than waiting for a space.

I then decided to go to the supermarket (since we had no bread or milk!). I managed to walk straight past the milk, and had to go back. And then walked past the bread. So had to go back.

I finally got home, got a load of hassle off Lucy because she couldn't get back to sleep and so I should stay awake with her, and not go back to bed, which I'd been dreaming of doing since I got up. I eventually lost my temper, snapped at her and stormed off into my room. There is a REASON I'm going back to bed, people! It's for your own safety!! If I stay up I'd just end up killing them all, even though I'm not especially tired right now, I know I'll get to about lunchtime (when we're going out to the gym) and just die. And then kill them all because I'm tired and therefore every little thing is irritating.

So, for the safety of my housemates, I'm off back to bed! I'll update later and let you know if the rest of my day is an improvement on the first 2 hours!

xxx

Friday 30 January 2009

Best Wishes for Dancer Friend

This is just a note to my Dancer Friend who, besides generally working herself too hard, has recently lost someone close to her. So this is just to say

*HUGS*
You know where I am if you need me, you can get in touch at any time, I (and everyone else I'm sure) are absolutely here for you :(
Love you!

Tuesday 27 January 2009

Trying to keep updated!

I'm a bit hopeless at this aren't I? It's now been 10 days since I updated this thing, but it's an improvement on last time I guess!

I had my final exam, and oh God...it was an epic fail to end all epic fails...But I figure it's worth 50% of a 10 credit module (10 credits out of 120), so even though I blatantly failed, it's not the end of the world. Though I'm pretty sure I won't get an "F", when they return my grade it'll be "Why did you even bother?!" I could have spent the night watching films instead of revising and it wouldn't have affected it in any way :p But I've got over the hysteria and am fairly upbeat again now!! I just hate failing. I know I have previously failed exams (like Philosophy *shudders*) but they just gave a number, not a grade, so I could pretend it was still a pass :p

My mentor training was much less disasterous and quite good fun :) I have my first mentoring session on Friday (Eek! Need to get that sorted! Oops!!!) and I'm pretty excited about it, though a bit nervous! It's basically convincing a bunch of year 7's that they want to go to university!! Something to do with the fact children from working class backgrounds are less likely to go to uni, so we need to find out why and try and counter that. Brain wash them young :p

I had my first of my injections for travelling to Ethiopia the other day. I went to the doctors to ask what they recommend I have, and the nurse was like "well, since you're here, do you want to have one now? *stab*" My arm has just about stopped hurting!! I have to book myself in for my next few soon, think I'm having HepB and Yellow Fever. The nurse didn't mention Meningitis ACWY (or something) which everyone else is having, so I have to ask about that one. I don't know if it's one I'm still covered for from childhood injections or something?

I'm driving back over to uni tomorrow, quite worried! I'm doing the same as last time, stopped over night at Grandma's and going the rest of the way on Thursday. Still not quite up to the whole journey all at once!

That means that today is going to be spent packing up the rest of my stuff and cleaning my car. You know what that means? YUP! It's mouldy! AGAIN! Woo...hoo...!!

I'm having to pack up pretty much everything this time around since Little Bro is moving into my room as soon as it's decorated. I'm finally actually being kicked out! lol! My room should look awesome when it's done though :p (And yes, to me it will ALWAYS be "my" room, even when I have a house of my own :p)

That's another thing, I'm moving next year. Me and my housemates have found a different, more convinient house, with actual insulation (no more £450 gas and electric bills...we hope!). I'm sad to move, I've grown to love our little cottage, but I was outvoted.

I should be starting fencing back up again soon, since my car will be back with me at uni :)

My lectures started this week, but it's Little Bro's birthday mid-week and I wanted to be here, then figured I could drive on back since I'd have missed most of them anyway!

Oh yes - This is a shout out to Little Sis :

Feel better soon Poxy :p
Little Sis has gone and got herself chicken pox! She's getting better now, but she's been utterly miserable with it! At almost 15 it's been awful!!
I'm not sure what else has been going on so I'll leave it here, and hopefully I'll remember to update this more often!
xxx