Good news, everyone!

celebrating with expletives

I got a 2:2, which is what I expected (when I was stable enough to not be expecting failure, the disapproval of my friends and loved ones, and being put down for my own good). My mum was so excited! And my dad told me that he's been published, which is SO fantastic. My dad's pretty much the best.

Ben got the First that he SO deserves, not to mention a bajillion exciting authorial opportunities. That boy's going places, I'm telling you. B. John Shaw Liddle, keep an eye out.

Also, gay marriage is now legal in New York! Seems to be a good day all round, really. I hope you've got something to celebrate, wherever you are.

I went to a fancy dress party last night, actually wearing a fancy dress for once. It was SO fancy. I haven't uploaded the photos yet, but here is an artist's impression:

Much love to the incredible @irkafirka for that picture! Trying to remember which children's illustrator this reminds me of. It's a bit Horrible Historyish, but I don't think that's it... answers on a postcard please. Anyway, yes, I'll upload photos at some point. I've been taking a lot more lately, which is a lot of fun! They're all going up on my Flickr account, as usual, but here's a couple of recent ones I like:

To my older self

When you are older, Anna, and working hard, and you look back on your university days with wistful nostalgia, I want you to remember how you felt now. Remember that the world caved in on you and you almost caved with it. Remember the feeling that any way out is better than writing another essay. It's not true objectively, it's just a temporary stress-based madness...

If you really do start to miss the drunken sundays and days off and creative coursemates, remember that it came with chaos, wasted weeks and deadlines that cracked your head.

Rose-tinted glasses won't suit you anyway.

Found on Flick #10

Solitary, originally uploaded by philputnam.

So, so beautiful.

Yesterday on my way home from university, it had rained all day and the hot sun made clouds of steam come billowing off the pavements.

There was a huge puddle across the road under the bridge, and as cars went through they caused waves that ebbed and flowed like tides against the tunnel's side.

Ben rolled up his trousers and walked through. I ran, splashing happily, and shouting BEN BEN BEN IT'S AN ADVENTURE as I went.

Good day.

Cardiff protests, part 2

I've always considered myself a law-abiding person. My daddy is a lawyer, so I've known other lawyers and police officers my whole life as dad's friends. The side of good, here to keep us safe.

Which in many ways made it scarier to be surrounded by police officers and vans yesterday. To see them grab my friend by the arm and throw him back into the crowd. To hear that an officer threatened to tear my friend, pushed into him by somebody, "a new arsehole" if he touched him again.

One of my friends got arrested. This article phrases it "South Wales Police has confirmed one male was arrested today for a public order offence." Don't think for a second that this means he was violent - he's a cheeky bugger, but it's infinitely more likely that he'd try to get a policewoman's number than take a swing at someone!

The strangest thing, by far, was being part of a crowd with nobody in charge. There was never a plan, but occasionally a consensus decision would be reached and dozens of people would surge - into a bank, into a shopping centre, into a vodaphone store - anywhere that has been dodging taxes, the crowd wanted to storm. I got pulled into Lloyds TSB by a friend moments after I arrived, and stood in the lobby as policemen chased after 30 or so students who'd gone upstairs. The officers locked the door to prevent more people getting in - locked me in.

The mood was on a knife-edge. I think that's one of the reasons the police didn't get more threatening - if they'd pushed too hard, things would have gone bad and stayed bad. As it was, however, a strange sense of humour emerged that I couldn't help but smile at. Our anti-Tory chants had accordion accompaniment; the section of the crowd that invaded St David's shopping centre sang "We're only going shopping, we're only going shopping!"; two friends of mine started a conga-line that gained some serious momentum; some guy was playing a Bob Dylan song and forgetting the words (even the policemen were smiling and chatting with that section of the crowd) - unfortunately that was interspersed with moments of fear and anger that swept across the mob. Those two emotions are separated by such a thin line; I don't think I knew how thin until now.

One woman, clearly angry / frightened (frangry?), started shouting at us - telling us we were scaring children, I think, although it was hard to hear. The crowd started chanting "She votes Tory" and "Tory scum" while an officer pulled her away from us, and I was honestly disgusted. One thing I will never, ever accept is demonising opponents - and especially not members of the public, who we just can't afford to alienate. I won't draw the battle lines between the students and the public. We're all in this together. This affects all of us.

Ben made this point loudly and dramatically as only he knows how; he broke out of the crowd and declared to the surrounding police, "It'll be your jobs next! You'll be where we are." That was around the time it looked like we were going to be kettled. We were given the choice: return to the student's union, or get kettled - which, for those who don't know, means being penned in by the police, not allowed to go home, sometimes for hours, sometimes being denied access to food, water, toilets. I'll be honest, I was not up for that. I was terrified, cold, losing feeling in my fingers. I would have gone home as soon as they started to storm the bank, but I still believe in what we're doing.

Luckily, the overall result has been a good one. During the protest, we received news that Welsh students won't have their tuition fees raised, or EMAs cancelled, which is an excellent start and reflects extremely well on the Welsh government. My friend wasn't charged with anything, so I hear, and South Wales police have acknowledged the protest as having "passed relatively peacefully", which I'd say is accurate.

Well. I know this is a fairly muddled version of events, so here's the summary of events from the Guardian; and here's a link to the rest of my photos. Check my twitter feed for twitpics etc from last night.

Also, this is the video I've been making all my friends watch lately. They love it, you might too.

Cardiff student protest

I've just run home to pick up blankets and charge mobile phones, so now seems like a good time to bring you up to speed.

If you follow my twitter feed, you'll likely have seen that I joined a peaceful protest outside Cardiff university at 12 noon today. The protest moved inside the building, and a small portion of us held down a lecture hall while the rest marched around the city centre. The police have acknowledged this as a peaceful protest. No windows broken, no punches thrown, to my knowledge.

While they were gone, discussions began with Cardiff uni security regarding the intended aims of our protest.

On their return, the lecture or "teach-in" began. It was utterly inspirational. I'm going to look up the details shared and pass them along to you.

As things stand now, it's looking like the protesters intend to stay overnight and bring more attention to our cause. I have to head back out as it's going to be a cold night and my friends will need blankets! This is just a placeholder post, I'll update in more detail as soon as I get the chance! As it is, things are very much in progress!

Making it verse

I'm hammering a poem into shape.

Last month, my university started a creative writing open mic night. I performed, and I'm going to say here what I haven't had the courage to say elsewhere: I'm actually really disappointed with how I did.

I hadn't known in advance that it was going to be competitive; I don't think many people did. I've never been a particularly competitive person, but once I knew that's how things were, I accepted it. I've been writing poetry since I was 14 or so, and I thought they were pretty good. What I hadn't thought about, however, is the huge difference between the verse you find in poetry collections, and the incredible passion and power of spoken word poetry.

I didn't expect to win, not once I'd seen Leeum perform. It was obvious to all of us, I think, that he is incredibly experienced at this; an extremely talented performance poet. From the beginning, when he spoke of "the rocks He told me not to throw," I was alert and listening more attentively than in any lecture. Anyway, my writer-crush aside, I didn't expect to win after that.

What sucked, and again this isn't something I'd happily talk about in person, is that I failed to come in the top four. Ben did. Ben, my housemate, came fourth with a poem I had helped him refine. It's a good poem, but Ben's a novelist now and poetry - well, poetry was always my thing. I was jealous. And disappointed. And when he confided in me, on leaving the cafeteria where the event took place, that he was disappointed he hadn't placed higher, I selfishly replied "Shut up, Ben. I can just about pretend that I don't mind not placing, but you have to pretend too." I'm not proud of this side of myself. Lately his success has been highlighting my insecurities, and through no fault of his own I've become a little bitter.

Since then, I've been working on one poem. Just one. Ordinarily I'd write two or three a day in one of my creative phases, but I'm trying so hard to get this one just right that I keep coming back to it and chiselling, refining, reshaping  and rewording it. And next time - on the 25th of November - Leeum's going to be compering, not competing, and I'll hopefully be in with a chance. And Ben - well, if I'm not better than him at something, I'm going to cut his dreads off while he sleeps.

(Just kidding. I would never do that.)

(Probably.)

I've been compiling this youtube playlist of my favourite spoken poems. By all means check it out! You might be surprised.

Education is a riot, not a privilege

Yesterday at university, we studied Thomas De Quincey's 1827 paper "On Murder Considered as One of the Fine Arts."

Everything in this world has two handles. Murder, for instance, may be laid hold of by its moral handle (as it generally is in the pulpit and at the Old Bailey), and that, I confess, is its weak side; or it may also be treated aesthetically, as the Germans call it — that is, in relation to good taste.

His point here (whether satirical or serious I am unsure) is that we can ask whether something is beautiful, and we can ask whether something is right, and that they are not the same question. This is quite a tricky concept at first, but if you find it truly impossible to accept the 'beauty of murder,' you probably haven't seen Dexter.

Dexter is a programme about a homicidal sociopath, and yet if you watch a few episodes, that stops being the focus. You start to appreciate his craft; to acknowledge the conscientious planning and the skillful execution. You become, as my housemate terms it, a "murder snob."

We can do that, as humans. We can separate the morality of a thing from the beauty of it. It's similar to Orwell's doublethink, and it's something that I've learned to do happily as part of my Higher Education.

I got home from university to find that HE was the subject of inevitable controversy. A peaceful protest in London had turned - er - less peaceful, as an estimated fifty-two thousand students protested the huge hike in the university fee cap (from the current £3,290 a year to £9,000).

They got angry. Some of them got very angry, and while I was too late to see how it started, I sat on the sofa and watched in amazement as students smashed windows and started fires at Millbank tower, which serves as the HQ for the Conservative party.

Our in-house punk was delighted, and it's not hard to see why. For years I thought that our generation had been placated by endless amusement; that youtube had given us all three-minute attention spans, and that I'd never see people my age care about anything as much as teenagers did in the 80s. They didn't particularly look like punks, as I remarked to Ben. He replied "Some of them are wearing jeggings, Anna. JEGGINGS." His point was that these are normal students. They're not a fringe group who identify themselves with rebellion, they are just normal people. At that moment, they were just normal people who had taken over Tory HQ, but still - normal people.

My heart goes out to the police officers who clearly wanted to be anywhere but there. They have a very tough job to do, and it does them credit (and gives me hope) to see that they responded without undue force. That's what separates us from dystopic fiction. (By the way, now's the perfect time to remind you about Little Brother. I bought a paperback copy and I'm lending it to people obsessively.)

On the one hand, it's destructive and morally wrong. I don't hesitate to say that. I can't imagine how frightening it must have been for the people just doing their jobs in the building. My heart also goes out to the police officers who were injured on the job; and as for the twat who threw a fire-extinguisher from the roof - well, he's incredibly lucky nobody died. On the other hand... I'm part of a generation that cares enough to riot.

There were anarchist flags flying from the roof of Tory HQ yesterday, and while that may not be right, isn't it beautiful?

Recommended pictures:
Spanish journalists were on the scene, and got these incredible photos of the occupied building's lobby.
Funny banners and protest signs reflect the mood.

A rare rant

I've been so grumpy today. No, not grumpy; grumpy implies that it's my 'time of the month', or that I 'got up on the wrong side of bed', and I want to be very clear about the fact that it was not my fault. In fact it was very definitely other people's faults. And I was all ready to write a strongly-worded blog post that they'd (hopefully) never read that would eviscerate them and prove me King of the Everythings once and for all.

Then I remembered to get over myself, and that it was just a damn uni project, and then I was ok.

BUT THEN! Oh, I know, non-stop drama!

HULK SMAAAASH.

Anyway, in the spirit of Phil's glass-half-full approach, at least it reminded me of Trogdor. It's an awesome game!! Maybe the best game ever!!! You can't play it though.

Oh, go on then. BURNINATE!


PS I know I'm being a douche, but that's my right. I'll get over myself again soon enough.

Frantic catch-uppery!

Hello all! Right, first off, I've been listening to a lot of Owl City (Spotify link). It's beautiful stuff; Fireflies has been #1 in the UK. I have no idea how long for, and in fact it's a miracle that that much information made it into my head.

I'm afraid that my extreme slackness means I'll have to do a bullet-pointy catchy-uppy thing.

Friday 29th Jan: We had a uni field trip to Cardiff Bay, got rained on, and went to the pub; and I had one glass of rosé and wouldn't stop talking. Here's a  few photos from the field trip:

Saturday 30th: I'd had a very early night, and consequently woke up at 4am. My housemates were awake, though more of the "still up" variety than my "already up." I watched Iron Man, started making my boyfriend's Not-Valentine's Day presents (bath bombs! It's ok, I've already given them to him), and saw the final episode of Dollhouse. No spoilers here, don't worry, but I was a WRECK by the end! A shell of a woman.

The rest of the day consisted of a girls' day at my church. I hadn't been to one of these things before, but my wariness of all things girly has subsided somewhat as I've grown up, so I thought I'd give it a go. After a worship session of rather gutless and floaty (but very pretty) songs, we had a great sermony thing, and set off on a Grand Adventure.

We started with a pub lunch at the Captain's Wife (a name that gave me the giggles for some reason); after which we traipsed around the beaches of Penarth, enjoying the sunshine and taking photos of people, places, and (in my case) interesting bits of driftwood.

Back at the church, we watched a movie called My Sister's Keeper. It was billed as a chick flick - I was expecting something with Sandra Bullock in, you know, a guilty pleasure, but instead I got a child dying of cancer. Lolz were not had. Don't get me wrong, it's a good movie, but crying at a screen twice in one day is just demeaning.

My week at university was fairly standard, and then I had another action-packed weekend...

Friday 5th Feb: I went round to my boyfriend's house and watched Buffy. He got the box sets recently so we're plowing happily through them! We're into the 3rd season now, and honestly, I wholeheartedly forgive Joss Whedon for always killing the one I love. When I'm King of the World, I'll ban FOX from cancelling anything he ever makes, ever.

That night we went to TGI Friday's. I'd never been in one before; the food was great (if pricey) and the service was excellent, but I couldn't help staring at the waitress's 'flair.' I've gone off pin badges lately - I used to think they were awesome, but I never seem to have a good place to put them. Yes, I have braces, but now that I've seen Office Space, they've become emblematic of workplace dictators and the futility of ambition. So YAY for that I guess.

Saturday 6th: Pub, house party, home at 7am. I met lots of lovely new people, and totally messed up my 8-day streak of 'early to bed, early to rise' success.

Sunday 7th: I woke up late for my new role-playing thingy! Also, I appear to be having noun troubles today. ANYWAY. The pub's just around the corner from my house, so I ran in with my dressing gown flapping dramatically behind me (untrue, but improves the visualisations). We started playing a Victoriana game, and it's AWESOME. Also, I'd never met the GM before - his name's Nimrod and he runs a convention called OddCon  UK. I very much like the sound of it. I've been searching for geeks like this my entire life... I'm so happy... and determined to get myself a pretty set of these:

Also, a huge thanks to the legendary Andrew Canham for the blog's new look. As someone remarked, mine is the Incredible Changing Blog, but I think this is a dramatic improvement over the old look! What do you think?

Back to school

Well, what a week... on Tuesday, I had my first 'proper' job interview. I'd been saying for a few days that I felt really confident about it it, but as I took the 15-minute train journey to Penarth, I got increasingly jittery. The truth is, I had no idea what to expect. My good friend Tony had given me a few tips, told me what questions to ask etc -and I was racking my brain trying to remember them.
I arrived about an hour early, taking punctuality to new and unnecessary levels. Just as well I did, really, as I got lost. I managed to arrive a reasonable ten minutes early, filled out a form, talked to some people, and then was led into a side-room where I would either be murdered or interviewed. As soon as it became apparent that it was the latter, I relaxed, and answered every question confidently and with a smile on my face. They'll let me know in two weeks, and I'm quietly confident. Can you still be 'quietly confident' if you're telling everyone that you think you got it? Let's say yes.
The next day, I went back to university for the first time in almost a year. The second I got talking to a couple of lads outside my class, I knew that this year would be interesting. The one with a ponytail had perfected the sleazy wink that has been used (tragically, quite successfully) on me in the past, and one with ginger dreadlocks and a massive coat seemed like a generally lovely chap. The class itself was more or less what I expected, but I'll be honest, I was more interested in Mat and Ben, for those are their names. They made me laugh, they were friendly, and I ended up spending the day with them.
Mat was handing out CVs in town, and ended up getting an interview while Ben and I talked on the steps outside. It was fascinating to speak to someone with such a different philosophy to myself, who nevertheless seemed very much on my wavelength. I went back to Ben's and watched half of Dark City before I had to go.
Today was a much quieter one, but I'm delighted to say that I have made a personal breakthrough! Ohyes! It's a matter of record that I have never, ever managed to draw a man that doesn't look horribly deformed or like a serial rapist. Often both. But today, I drew this chap:


... and I'm really quite pleased with him.

I don't know what to call this post

I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I know I haven't updated in ages. I've fallen victim to Blogger's Law - if anything interesting is happening in my life, I'm far too busy to write about it!

The day after my birthday was wonderful. We had a great time at the comedy club - I was going to review the comedians individually but to be honest I can't remember their names!

University stuff is sort of getting started, although I'm still not actually enrolled yet. It's a bit frustrating (in the same way that child abuse is a bit unfair. Um.)

I had fun last night talking to a bunch of people in Americaland, and didn't get to sleep until 5am because the last few of us in chat got talking about the separation of church and state. I also told them about what happened with the vicar, and the objection to that rather bizarre story was "a beatboxing forum? Yeah right." Strange what some people find improbable. Good thing I didn't tell them the bikini story, really...

Anyway, I promise I'll update again soon, I have been getting the blog withdrawal shakes. If you don't know what that's like, it's basically when you walk around narrating your life inside your head trying to make it sound funny; an effect compounded by the fact that I've been thinking about stand-up comedy a lot.... all I'm saying is, haters beware, I've got a few choice heckler putdowns up my sleeve!

Big Al says dogs can't look up

Well, things are looking up for me! I'm feeling better, showing up at uni (if not actually enrolled yet), and turning 21 tomorrow. 21. That's properly grown-up! Fortunately that means nothing these days.

And, in addition, a bit of charity shop hunting has led to me listening to Hanson and B*Witched's albums from back in the day! AMAZING. It's even sunny and everything!

Oh, and I must remember to tell you why time flies when you're having fun. I worked it out! yeh! so remind me if I forget.

Today we have a VERY interesting thing: Fantastic Contraption! I've had so much fun with this the past couple of days. Give it a go. If a few of you are into it, I'll post up some amazing solutions!

Nothing, really

I've been waiting an unreasonable amount of time - like FIVE WHOLE DAYS - to update you on whether I passed my first year of uni or not. But you know as much as I do. So rather than dwell on it, and rage out all over again, I'm going to talk about other things. Hooray!

I'd rather have a bottle in front o' me than a frontal lobotomy. Hahahah.

Seriously, I've been trying to think of something to write about for five minutes, and that's all I came up with.

It's too late for thinking. Also I'm still recovering from the laryngitis.

Instead of anything interesting or amusing from me, watch this video of Christian the Lion. It's so heartwarming your love-organ might start burning like after a visit from a two-dollar whore.

End on a high note

Let's play a fun game! What's the worst possible thing that could happen to Anna? That's right: this all over again. Last year I spent Fresher's week, when I should have been getting to know people, curled up in bed, miserable and completely unable to eat / drink / talk for the best part of a week. This year, it's time to get rolling with the uni thing, and my throat decides to pull it's old inflammation trick again.

This time, however, I am actually registered with a doctor! Silver lining, people, silver lining. Until I can get an appointment, however, it's extreme hunger for me. Hoo-bloody-rah.

I spent a fair portion of today watching youtube videos of Sesame Street, getting all nostalgic, and deciding it would be awesome to design muppets for a living. It would, wouldn't it? What a job.

(removed videos deleted)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ptbp0pmcg3U

That kid has got KILLER comedic timing!! And she's adorable, so little Joey is my interesting thing of the day. Hooray! See why you should watch Sesame Street when you feel low?

/EDIT: videos removed? Dagnabbit! Try these:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fOKcG-B3VkA


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wrwn_v7WkfA


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VNLBke_jvYg

THE WORLD'S GONNA EN- oh no it's okay

Y'know, I now understand why emo-kids all have livejournals full of their depressing thoughts*. I have had an absolute shitter of a day, pardon my Klatchian, and my first response is "oh em gee I gotta blog this ish right here."

HERE FOLLOWS
THE TRUE AND EXTRAORDINARY EXPLOITS
OF ONE MISS ANNA FRUEN

So, today was the day I was supposed to get my results. I failed one module of my first year at Plymouth university, and I had to retake it to transfer. It was vitally important that I get those results before Monday because THAT, dear reader, is the day I register at UWIC, my new uni.

However.

They couldn't give me the results over the phone.
I couldn't access the student intranet because they've taken me off the system.
It had not yet arrived at my home address on the Isle of Wight because they were only sent off today.

This took many, many phone calls to Plymouth and to home to ascertain.

STRESSFUL!

I was left, panicking and tearful, to explain to Gavin and my parents why everything had gone so horribly, horribly wrong...

Until just now. Gav called. He said that he'd phoned UWIC, talked to K who's been helping me through the transfer (and thus deserves a medal), and found out the following:

a) I don't register, technically, until Thursday
b) Even if I've failed they can work around that
c) They've had a bunch of transfer students like me and it's all gone fine with them
d) They've found a tutor group that goes well with my "lively debate" style of learning
e) It's all gonna be ok and I can allow my blood pressure to subside to the point where it's not trickling out of my ears.

I therefore nominate Gavin and K for 'best people of the month' awards. Thank you SO SO SO MUCH!

I know it's difficult to follow this post - the life-saving phone call came partway through, so it's a bit jumbled - but all you have to do is say "Oh well done, thank goodness" or words to that effect.

*Sweeping generalisations. They're always right.

Entropy and rain

Today, it rained. I walked. Computer. Laminater. Velcro. Posters. Guillotine. Database, database, database...

Still it rained. I walked, waited, watched My Fair Lady. I read.

I read this. Read it. You'll like it. Ben probably already knows it backwards.

I don't know enough to stop my boyfriend having panic attacks. Hell, I can't stop MYSELF having panic attacks: the string, fluff, and optimism that I'm made of seems to fall further apart every day. Entropy. Hah.

He can reverse it of course. In theory, He does. By His wounds we are healed. But still, my life is a bit of a shambles.

I need to retake a module to get into UWIC like I hoped. I need to submit an essay. A really long, big, difficult essay - you know I have trouble with them at the best of times. While holding down a 9 to 5 job.

I'm halfway through my overdraft... getting paid tomorrow though, hooray! And I'm seeing a very special friend soon! And I'm going home soon after that.

And it rains.

A post that possibly includes pineapple and a delusional caterpillar

Good news, everyone!! I am currently ploughing through my last essay of the academic year, after which I will run away to sunny and exotic lands, meet interesting and exotic people, and eat exotic fruits, possibly including pineapple.

By which I mean, I'll go to Cardiff. And then home to the Isle of Wight, at which point I'll begin an arduous five months of living out of boxes because my bedroom has been a building site for the last year and a half. Didn't I only leave home 9 months ago, I hear me ask? Why yes, yes I did.

It's ok. It's part of the natural growing-up process to be bitter about how quickly your parents move on. It's due to the assumption that they don't properly have lives of their own, and only do these things to annoy you.

At any rate, I think I'll be a lot more psychologically healthy when I'm not "stuck in the gap" any more. People warn you about that if you're going on a gap year, getting a feeling of aimless in-between-ness, but my gap year was purposeful and busy and awesome. This year, however, has been rather more... voidish than I would have liked. I'm currently working on deluding myself into believing that the second I leave here I'm going to emerge from my cocoon as a beautiful butterfly... which I imagine will look something like this:

Shalom!

Every silver lining has a cloud

I have so much to look forward to right now, so I thought I'd have a rare (these days) moment of unbridled positivity. Yes, I am aware of the irony in that sentence.

So! I got my essay handed in, and tomorrow is that last day of lectures... and I think they've been cancelled. So technically it's easter! Hooray! And for Easter, G and myself are going to Paris for a week. I'm very very very excited about this!!

ALSO

ALSO

I'm moving to Cardiff. Wow.

I discovered a beautiful poem today, it's here if you want to read it. My poetry seminar went so well today! It's by far my favourite subject, and to be honest I'm gonna miss our lecturer. I've had differences of opinion with him, but that's a good thing; in so many subjects I don't have any opinion at all.

I bumped into Dainjamouth on the way home from university; the only beatboxer that I know of in Plymouth. It was good to catch up with him; he reminded me about a hip-hop battly type thing that's happening today but I don't know anyone here who'd want to go to that kind of thing with me, which is a shame!

I saw Lost last night! I missed it on Sunday due to being in Cardiff, and on Tuesday due to being a fool, but they repeat it on Wednesdays as well and I'm so very excited about that. Hahaha. Yes, my life currently is that dull, but it won't be for long!

On the downside, somebody I know really needs a cuddle and to be told everything's gonna be ok. Both things that inexplicably lose 99% of the meaning when you're not in the same room as the person.

Cardiff Bristol Bath etc.

Wow. What an incredible weekend. I'll race through the main points!

Friday: Travelled up early. Gav met me at the station to give me sandwiches, a solar-powered keyring and some cuddles. I love this man!
The interview was easy, I was in there for ten minutes and as long as I pass my first year, I'm in.
So I'm moving to Cardiff.
I'm moving to Cardiff!!!
Then we went out to watch Son of Dave. I met a bunch of Gav's friends, which was ace, and SoD was awesome musically. I freaked out though. Got all claustrophobic; it hardly ever happens, but when it does I would give ANYTHING for people to stop brushing past me. G was a star so I didn't have to run away like last time.

Saturday: Slow start, which was lovely. We watched the rugby, England deservedly thrashed by Scotland, and watched Withnail and I which I'd never seen before.
The Bristol Beatbox heats were awesome!!!!! it was so good to see everyone again! There are photos here if you're interested, which you should be you ungrateful spoon.
Gav and I were on photo duty; he got some truly epic shots with TyTe's digital SLR.
After that, Gav, yasSon and I went back to Mr.T's house and crashed on the floor. It was so wonderful! We got all giggly and went to sleep fairly quickly.

Sunday: I woke up to realise that I'd slowly and steadily inched myself towards Gav, almost pushing him off the mattress. Heheheh. I'm a somnuggler.
His church was awesome. I'm not going to church enough, and it was very touching to be handed the bread by a man I respect so much. I got a bit weepy afterwards.
We had lunch with his family, who are all total stars, and T took us to the station. G and I said goodbye to Yass and got our train - I think I fell asleep on G! I was very good on Sunday night, I let Gavin get his sleep.

Monday: agh, I hate leaving in the morning. No more 8am trains for me. The frantic rush to get everything ready, and the fact that got there 1 minute before the train was due to leave and couldn't find my ticket so I had to buy a new one... gahhh! I'm a student, y'know? It's slightly scary to realise that I'm spending over £100 a month on weekends in Cardiff. On the plus side, when I move there, I'm gonna have more cash than I know what to do with, possibly maybe!

Anyway, it's back to Plymouth and back to work for me. I have an essay to do and three books to read, so I might not update for a bit... take care, all!

Ooo tidy!

My room is usually an utter mess. This is a huge shame as I love having a tidy room; I get all houseproud and turn on my pretty colour-changy things.



For the past few days I've been spending MUCH less time online; it's been good for me. I suddenly have heaps of spare time, hence the tidy room, the fact that I've been doing lots of reading for my course, and my thoroughly moisturised body. I've even painted my nails. Heck, I've even painted my TOEnails. I haven't taken this much care of my appearance since... last time I had this much free time.

I might go out and buy that celebratory bottle of Baileys I've been promising myself. For weeks now I've been saying "When I make some definite progress on my uni transfer, I'll treat myself." Well, today I finally managed to beat the information I needed out of the admin team! (They were lovely and helpful actually, I just wish they'd been as lovely and helpful the first seven times I asked them...) Mad props to my tutor for helping me out with that, even though she probably doesn't know what mad props are.

On a similar note, I have an interview at UWIC on Friday the 7th of March. I'm pretty confident about the interview aspect of things but I'm terrified that my grades aren't up to scratch. We'll see. That's gonna be a good weekend though; I'm staying in Cardiff Friday night (plans yet tbc but I think there's a party on the cards), going to Bristol for a beatboxing event on Saturday, staying over at a friend's house and going to his church on Sunday, then back to Cardiff until Monday morning! Most excellent!

It's especially good to have the countdown at less than a week because I've been missing my boy like CRAZY. It gets particularly bad for no apparent reason sometimes, and this is one of those times. Last night we were talking on the phone and we agreed that it felt like ages since we'd been together. Some quick mental maths put "ages" as 12 days. I mean seriously; that's not even two weeks! What's wrong with me?!

Oh right, the love thing.

Anyway, hope this finds you all well. I'm not spending ages online but I will get your comments as I'm still checking my emails... several times a day. Well nobody said I was going cold turkey!!

EDIT: Oh and I almost forgot, ITOTD: Garfield Minus Garfield. Well worth checking out!