iRamble

You know how sometimes you get those weeks where you're too busy to pause for breath, and they've flown by without you even realising? Last week was one of those weeks. I got ill on Monday, which I didn't have time for, so I kind of ignored it and got on with my life. My life nowadays consists of lots of reading for university, broken up by some reading for pleasure, just to remind myself that reading can, in fact, be pleasurable. It's a piece of information you often forget when you're wading your way through something as dry as 'The Critique of Pure Reason'.


Tuesday was a day I used to sort out all those little nagging household chores; I won't bore you with the details, but I will tell you that I came 5th out of 27 in my weekly poker tournament. This the first time I've ever won a cash prize there. I was ecstatic, despite the fact that my cash prize was actually just getting back what I had paid to buy in.

Wednesday was hell on earth; a full day of campus tours, some of which were given to the grumpiest, most inattentive people I have ever met, only made worse by the fact that the open day was packed out (roughly 10,000 people), and so everyone was annoyed at the crowds and the queues. After walking around campus all day, unhappy people in tow, I then went for a two-hour pole dance session. This nearly killed me, and by the time I dragged myself through the front door, I was ready to collapse.

With Thursday came the start of my two new jobs. The better part of the day was spent in the coursework receipting office, a pointless endeavour as it is the start of term and there's no coursework due in. Our manager left at 2:30pm and told us to stay there until 4, which we did, even though there was absolutely nothing to do. After this, I went to the first training session for another job, which involves travelling out to schools and teaching groups of 14-19 year olds about university. Before the session, I was extremely scared of the job because they sent me a massive handbook in the post detailing my role. The handbook made it sound like the scariest job in the world, perhaps second only to a job where I'd have to look after tarantulas. But after the session, I realised that it wasn't so scary, and corny as it is, I'd be making a real difference to the lives of some teenagers by getting them to consider options they hadn't even thought were possible. In between these two jobs, I managed to go shoe shopping. I now own a new pair of boots. It makes me happy.

The weekend was spent with Richard, who came up on Thursday night and stayed with me until Sunday. We went to see Back To The Future at the cinema, and reminisced about the times when theme songs would be written specifically for movies. We also went to a friendly poker game at my friend Michael's, and I won £25 from a £5 buy-in.

This has been quite a ramble, so I shall end on this: I have my Hallowe'en costume sorted, and I am super excited! I am going to be a death eater, and my friend Em is coming to visit from back down south and we are going to dress up and get drunk and have fun. I cannot wait; it will be the perfect end to my October.

Mr. Postman

I love getting mail. I especially love it when the mail isn't bills. I recently experienced the joy of the electricity bill when our electricity company decided to confuse our account with the account for the flat upstairs, and further confuse us with the previous tenants, so we received a £140 electricity bill. We are not paying said bill.

Anyway, the reason I was writing about mail is because I owe massive thanks to the wonderful Virpukka for my package of finnish vegan goodies! It looks like this:

In no particular order, that is: 

- A variety of instant soups, including some berry ones. The strawberry is extremely tasty; it warms you right through and soothes your throat and tastes like liquid pie filling.

- Some crushed peppermint chocolate. I am going to bake with it.

- Panda herbal liquorice. I love panda liquorice! I'd never come across this type though, I usually just buy the fruity ones to gnaw on. Those were the first things to disappear, about as soon as the picture was taken. I liked them a lot.

- Snack bars with chocolate and grains. I've yet to try them; they are being saved for next week when I'll be spending forever in the library.

- Rice chocolate bars. Also being saved.

- Elovena biscuits. Had to hide them from Nyck, he wanted to steal them.

- Cactus pastilles. The box is half gone, they have a very odd taste but I really like them.

- Apple & Raspberry sweets coated in dark chocolate. This was my favourite food item, they are super addictive and I seriously need to find somewhere to get them.

- Two hand-made notebooks. They are beautiful! I'm saving them for something special, because I don't want to ruin them with my usual rubbish.

- A gorgeous hand-made card with a lovely letter inside explaining what everything was so I didn't have to try and read the finnish labels :P

So massive thanks again to Virpukka, she's made my week with all these treats!

I Defy Gravity

Photographic evidence:

This is one of the many painful things I learnt to do over the summer. However, turns out that the Southampton pole class was going easy on me, because the first one back up north well and truly kicked my ass. My ribs and abs and legs hurt for days afterwards. Jo, wonderful taskmaster that she is, had us doing splits up the pole. As in, one foot on the floor at the base, and one up the pole somewhere over my head where no foot was ever meant to be.

In other news, it's raining again. I don't think I've had one properly sunny day since I got back. I love you, Manchester.

Keep on Movin'

Moving is difficult.

5am Saturday, my mum shakes me awake. Turns out my plan to stay awake all night failed, I’d passed out around 4am whilst watching Charlie’s Angels. As a result, I was grumpy and lethargic, but I managed to pile the rest of my belongings into the back of the van and pour myself into my seat. I was planning on taking a nap on the 5 hour drive up, but there was a spider on the windscreen pretty much right in front of my face, so I spent the whole time keeping one eye on it in case it moved. It did. I screamed.

We eventually reached Manchester, where I picked up my keys and began dragging my stuff in. I’m the first one here as Nyck doesn’t move in until Monday, so I got to choose where everything goes and how best to decorate. The flat is actually bigger than I remembered, and had been suitably tidied and fixed up, although the toilet didn’t flush at first so we had to call the maintenance guy. He was over pretty fast, and used a blowtorch to fix it. This was epic.

Sunday was more relaxed, although when I went to make my breakfast the cooker blew up. Go figure. Same maintenance guy came to fix it, and couldn’t, so I’ve been living off of microwave meals. They promised to fix it Monday, they didn't. I told Nyck to call them on Wednesday, he didn't. They came over yesterday, and simply disconnected the hobs (which were the broken part) so we were able to use the oven at least. Why didn't they do that Sunday?! Hobs won't be fixed until Monday, when we will be getting a brand new set. Hooray! And I'm glad I can use the oven now, even if it did take a while to figure out that the oven timer has to be on before the oven will heat anything. Stupid useless feature.

Despite teething problems, It's been fun being back. A few friends came to join me on Monday, we had chinese food and got drunk and stayed up until about 5am. The same few friends (with the absence of Manny) came over on Tuesday, when we invented our own Jurassic Park drinking game, and then decided to play drink-cheat (you know, the card game. with drinking). Then Michael taught us a card game where he wasn't allowed to tell us the rules. I picked it up really quickly, nobody else did. Hilarity ensued.

Anyway, I'm all settled in now, and Richard is coming up to visit me tonight. Until then, however, I am confined to the library, writing essays that didn't quite make it in with last year's batch of work.

Pictures, taken on a rubbishy phone camera:

Lounge.World's comfiest sofas.

Bookshelf. And toad.

Kitchen, with still-broken hobs.

Fridge, complete with lolcat fridge magnets.

Part of the kitchen window ledge. Some of my most prized kitchen posessions.

Bathroom.

Bedroom.

And again.

Bangers 'n' Mash

If you're wondering what the hell that is, then you're thinking the same thing that I was when I discovered it atop my lounge cabinets. I swear I've never seen it before in my life, and yet it's collected enough dust to suggest it hasn't been moved once in the nine years we've been living in this house. Maybe we really do have a ghost.

Past couple of days have been hectic; I had my final pole session at Pole Position (for a while, at least), as with my return to the glorious Manchester comes my return to my beloved Rock and Pole. I managed some cool stuff, which I have pictures of, but my camera is being stubborn and refuses to connect to my laptop. The only photos I can access are my phone pictures. Hence the cow statue.

That evening I undid any good the excersise may have done to my body by consuming a vast amount of chinese food. I have no regrets.

Today, I transformed back into a six year old and went to Legoland with seven other giant children (otherwise known as my friends). Reece and David span the teacups so hard I felt like I'd been playing ring of fire with straight tequila, and Spoh (who organised the whole event) got her head stuck in a lion. I bought myself a new set of kitchen scales. They look something like this:

I am now off to the casino, where I shall spend money and hopefully win some back. Wish me luck!

IT'S MY LIIIIFE...

Yeah, I have just re-discovered my weird love of Bon Jovi. Especially this song. It's actually kind of ringing true for me right now, what with all these outside factors trying to affect what I want to do. I'm stubborn though, so there's not much that's going to stop me doing what I have my mind set on. Right now I'm just enjoying the feeling of rebellious teenage nostalgia (yes, I listened to Bon Jovi when I was a teenager). I feel like I should curse loudly, or get something pierced, or abuse some addictive substances, or do something dangerous like severing a limb*. Ah, life as a pubescent youth was fun.

Alas, grown up** life is not as carefree. I'm currently packing everything I own into boxes, ready for the big move on Saturday. This move feels so much more important than the previous two, because I will no longer be living in student halls. I will be responsible for bills (okay, one bill), and I will be allowed to decorate, and - most importantly - I am able to put up a pole in the lounge. It's all incredibly exciting, and I've been bugging my former-and-soon-to-be-again flatmate far too much with random texts about decor and room layouts and whether or not we can have a hamster (we can. He shall be named Kenzie).

*Disclaimer: I am most likely not going to do any of these things.
**Meaning 'aged 18+ and living independently', not meaning 'mature'.

Consumerism!

So apparently I always love shopping. It doesn't have to be for clothes or shoes or CDs, it can be for anything. Even the little chore-like stuff, such as groceries.

The shopping trip I embarked upon today was for uni stuff; the kind of mundane trip most people consider a mild annoyance. But when I found a 39p toilet brush, I was ecstatic. 79p bath mat? Get in my trolley! I managed to colour coordinate everything for my new bathroom using the cheapest items I could find for a total cost of under five british pounds. That's a skill right there.

The kitchen items were no less exciting. I am now the proud owner of an offensively pink colander and a 99p frying pan.

I probably need to get out more.