Home visit

I was at home this weekend. Nice to see the family again. Judi had a dance show, and wanted me there. It had been planned for the last, what, year or so that there was going to be one, and I had promised her that I would come back and watch it.

Glad I did. It is not often that I get jealous of my little sister. At least, not in the sense that I was at the weekend. I knew she was a good dancer. Hell, it's a job and a half to get her to stop dancing, but I never appreciated just how good she was at it. She is absolutely amazing! Out of all the people that were taking part in the show, she had to be the star. And I'm not just saying that because she's my sister. She looked like she enjoyed it, hell, she DID enjoy it. Some of the others looked a little apprehensive and unsure of what they were doing, but she didn't.

And even crashing into a wall on the Friday night performance didn't stop her enthusiasm. There was one part of one of the dances that she did where she made her way across the stage and then goes off, except she didn't appreciate the size of the gap that she would have to exit the stage. She had the choice of a little kid, a light, or a curtain. So, naturally, she chose the curtain. Unfortunately, the curtain just happened to be right next to a wall. And, when you leap into a wall, you kinda get hurt. Bless her.

Her costumes! OMG! She was complaining that the corset she has to wear for one of the dances was a size 10. I was looking at her like she was insane! Hell, if I could get into a size 10 corset I would be happy!! But that the thing. She is so thin! But not "OMG, you're skin and bone eat something already!" thin, but "OMG, you're so thin and it's muscle! I wish I had your figure" thin. And some of the things she wore showed that off perfectly.

She was pretty excited this weekend as you can imagine. And it didn't help that she got the first solo dance of the performance. OK, so it was only for something like 5 seconds, but that's 5 seconds that everyone is looking at her! And she's really good when people are paying attention to her. So yeah, really glad she enjoyed herself, but JEALOUS!! She got the looks, the talent, the brains... What did I get?! The joys of being the first born... GREAT(!)

She was performing it in Whitely Bay Playhouse, and because of the one way system and where we ended up parking, I suggested to dad that we simply followed the coast up to Cramlington and get home that way rather than trying to get back onto the A19, especially with Grandad being the driver of the second car and him not knowing the area and all. So naturally, you have the person who has no idea really where they are going in the lead car and the person who does actually know that way thanks to going out on Kev's trike in the following car. Makes perfect sense... Apparently... /:-l

My grandparents (NOT the one's in the CARIBBEAN with my MUM *GRRR!*) were up for the show too. It was cool to see them again. They went up on the Thursday and were going to go back yesterday but my nana isn't feeling too good at the moment so they decided to come back today. Hope she gets better soon. From what she was describing, it sounds like what she had last time I saw her in December has never actually gone away fully. Whatever it is it isn't nice. She had some antibiotics but they don't seem to have some much. I'm quite worried about her. Have to go visit her in a few weeks, see if she's doing any better.

We were going to go out for a meal with them today, but instead she gave us the money for us to get some food. Went to the "Falcons Nest". Good food. Didn't have to send the salmon back for being too thick. Though trying to explain and get my dad to understand where it was was fun. He was adamant that there was no pub by the Marriott hotel in Gosforth the last time he went down that way. I tried pointing out to him that that was a fair while ago, and the pub is relatively new. And you know what... It was exactly where I said it was... Isn't that strange...

sort wished I'd asked for a life back to Birmingham with my grandparents. Bloody Virgin trains. People going on strike. Canceling trains... Such as the one I was actually booked on! I swear, it was coming in from Edinburgh, and it was PACKED! There must have been about 3 trains worth of people on board. And then the number of people trying to get on at Newcastle was so many that they actually had to leave some people on the platform. They couldn't fit them on the train. I was lucky to get on at all.

And it didn't get much better. It took till DERBY for me to get a seat. Not really worth it if you think that Derby is only about 40 minutes away fro New Street, but it's 40 minutes where I wasn't sitting on the floor by the doors. So I'm happy about that. The announcer on the train made me laugh though. "Please take any coats, bags etc off vacant seats as the train is extremely busy." Yeah... See, if they had run the previous trains it wouldn't be so busy, would it?! DUH!

So I eventually got in about a hour after i was planned to, wrote a post and Blogger decided to eat it! So hopefully this time it will get posted and I can go to bed! Got a full day tomorrow. 9-12 lectures, 2-5.30 biochemistry practical. On the plus side, I have Tuesday and Thursday off this week!! wOOtness!!

...wtf?!

...blogger just ate my post... i'm going to cry...

Pub crawl and door arguments

One of the societies put on a pub crawl last night. To show that you're taking part, you have to buy a t-shirt, and this basically gets you into all the pubs and the nightclub for free. And because the t-shirt is quite boring, i.e. white with the name of the pub crawl on it, Helen, Kylie and I decided to jazz them up.

Started off in the Guild, before heading out to Arcadian, which is this complex by china town where there are a load of pubs and a load of nightclubs nearby. Was cool. Made our way steadily through the list of places that were supporting the crawl.

Met up with Sonny, the tkd guy that we still don't know where his medal went. He was so pissed. (Drunk, not angry...) Twas quite funny. One second he's got his hand on my butt telling me how he loves me, the next his got his tongue down someone else's throat. Good job I'm not really the jealous type isn't it? A couple of the others from tkd were there too.

Helen was working for the beginning of it, so she met us up on about the 5th place on the list. Considering she was only drinking for about 3 hours or so she got so pissed! i mean, i was only slightly mellow and i was drinking from half 7! Ok, not constantly, but still.

Oh, Pritt, one of the guys who lives down the road, was at the casino the other week and won something like 6.5 grand! We were in Arca, one of the pubs, and he got out this wodge of notes and said "I'll have a bottle of champagne" and gave us each a flute! We had champagne on a pub crawl!!

After visiting each of the places on the route, even if it was walking in, turning around and walking out, we headed off to Nightingales, which is the nightclub that was booked for us. The last free entry for it was going to be 11, so when the time was 1/4 to and we were still in Prague (the pub, not the place), people were telling each other to down their drinks. Now i can't down wine, and i don't drink cider, beer or whiskey, but anything else is fair game. So by the time Helen had finished saying "get it down your throat" i had finished... Yeah...

Nightingale's was such a cool place. 3 floors, and the ground and 2nd floor had music with the second level having a cafe-ish place where you could get chips/burgers/coffee etc. One the "club" levels there were these podiums where dancers normally are, but upstairs there wasn't any, so it was fair play to get one. I was quite happy dancing with Helen and Kylie, when this guy already on the podium grabs my hand and pulls me up to dance with him!

Come to think of it, i stayed a fair amount on the podiums and stages... What?! It was places to dance... Which probably explain why my feet are threatening to cut themselves off and leave me! Because i hadn't been out in a while and it was a pretty mild night, i decided to wear a skirt and heeled shoes. For 8 hours. After being on my feet since 11, because me and Amy went to town to get things to do up my t-shirt and then we had a 3 1/2 hour practical, that actually only lasted for 2 hours. Thank god.

At one of the points when i wasn't dancing on the podium, i think at about 1ish, can't be sure, i run into Sonny again, and he grabs my ass... Again... And kisses me... And then grabs another lass and kisses her... And I'm pretty certain the lass he was with at the end of the night was someone else... Man, Thursday's gonna be fun! One of the perks of being one of the sober ones is telling people what happened that they can't remember.

Helen, bless her, can't remember past 1ish. When i filled her in on some of the details she got slightly embarrassed. I don't hold anything against her, she as DRUNK! Completely and utter pissed as a fart!!

Woke up today feeling fine, go downstairs to go to my lecture and notice that Haydn's door isn't sitting in the door jamb. Or is attached to the door jamb. When i questioned him, he said "i got a little drunk, i got a little angry, the door came off worst". I personally think he lost his keys and had to break the door down to get into his room. Makes much more sense. Can't wait to hear what the landlord has to say about it though...

Valentines day today. I have my evening of films and chocolate and ice cream fully planned out. Oh... Can't remember if I've already said this... I found a shop that sells Hershey's bars! They're a type of American chocolate bar, and i had a few when i went to the States last summer, but i hadn't had one before then since coming here from Canada. But my local corner shop (It is actually on a corner!) sells them!! wOOt!!

Um... Think that's it for now. I'm gonna go watch a film.

TKD grading

Quote 1: Alan Haynes-(to group at tkd when practising set-spar)- The attacker says they're ready first, then the defender says they are ready. We do it this way because you don't go up to someone outside and say "attack me!" Me- (to partner)- Well you don't exactly go outside and say "i'm going to kick you in the solar plexus in a second" either!

Quote 2- Kate Seamark- (on hearing about the ferry in the red sea)- What was it doing there? Did it get lost? I thought they only went to France and Norway!

Quote 3-Master Oldham (To Afro)- You're free to train on valentines day?! Go and get yourself a girl!

Song- Thin Lizzy- Whiskey in the Jar.

Song 2- Bounce- Bon Jovi.

I had my tae kwon do grading last night. And it was really good. It was the first grading that i dod when i felt ready to do it. And considering we have only been doing the stuff for this grading for 3 weeks is actually pretty good. And i was even confident on the korean, which is normally everybodies weakness. OK, so i pronounced Turning kick wrong, but i knew what it was. And i got the next 3 questiond he asked me right.

And sorry Tomo, i still cannot say "keep you mits off my gorram milk!" I can, however, say Middle inner forear block. And Middle outer forearm block. And i can kinda count to, um, 4... yeah...

Really really proud of Matchek, he got his black tags!! Now he's only one more belt off his black belt. he had to kick through 4 inches of wood (NO MEAN FEAT!) and i don't know who was more nervous, him or Helen! She was shaking, bless her. Jackie got an A+ pass. In tkd there are 5 levels in a grading: fail, low pass, pass, A+ pass, and double promote. So to get an A+ pass under Master Oldham, the head of the organisation, was pretty damn impressive!

Once we had finished the actual grading, Neil asked who was free on Tuesday for training, and Master Oldham told Afro (not his real name, just what everyone calls him on account of his hair...) that he was disappointed that he didnt have a girlfriend, and why not ask one of us out on Tuesday! Now, considering was have to take everything he says seriously in a grading, and call him "sir"... it was pretty damn funny! Poor guy's gonna get it rippedout of him for weeks!!

Went out for a drink with most of the club and Master Oldham afterwards. One of the lasses, Liz, said that we have done more in the last 4 months or so than what she did in an entire year! Got another graing in 6 weeks. Not sure if i'm going to go for it, but then again why not? That is if it's at a time when i'm able to grade, and if they let us...

Finally got around to sorting out all of my junk. About half of it has now been classed as work... So maybe it wasnt all junk. But yeah, it's all been filed and is in subjects and not just lying about somewhere on the floor. Never know, it might last. Might not...

Hmmm. Think that's it for this post.

Day Trip

OK, i know i aint updated in a while. But there has been nothing going on. I mean, a post saying "went to uni. Did work. Came home. Went to Tae-kwon-do. Had fun. Came home" doesn't make an interesting post.

I went to the seaside today!!! I'm studying in the middle of the country, and yet, i go to the seaside! hehehe. There is actually a good reason why i ended up going to the seaside. Amy, one of my friends, isn't happy at Aston, and is looking to change to do Marine Biology, and Hull has a separate campus at Scarborough for it's Marine-y biology programmes. So me and Amy went to Scarborough for the day. In February.

We were going to get an early night, (midnight is early, right?!) but then Amy's flat decided that they were going to go to the beach party that was on in the guild. So, despite knowing that we'd have to get up early, she went to the guild. And got in at about 3. And went to bed at about 4. And we had to get up at 5. What was the point of going to bed?! I mean, really?

But, as it was a uni open day, we had to be there for 10. And as we were getting the train, it meant we had to get the 6 train from Birmingham, change at York, and we were still only getting to Scarborough for 10.40ish. But the marine biology talk wasn't until 11, so we had enough time to get to the campus once we got off the train.

3 1/2 hours to YORK!! Normally, i can get HOME in 3 1/2 hours! I must have stopped off at basically every station between here and York... Just where IS Donfield or whatever it's called anyway?! See, i don't even know what the station was. Somewhere between Chesterfield and Sheffield... i think...

But yeah, it was a good day. Had a look round the place, went and had a walk along the beach... well, i went for a walk along the beach, Amy went fo an impromptue paddling session... So i was walking along in fits, with her trying to not step in any more big puddles of water... and failing miserably! Eventually, we got off the beach and got some fish and chips, and an ice cream. In February.

Had a bit more mosey around the sea front beofre heading back to town. Decided to call it a day a little early than what we were going to, but we had been up since 5 at this point. if you can call Amy going to sleep that is...

Because we were on the earlier train, when we changed at York, there was no-one in the 1st class, so they said that if you wanted to, for £10, you could upgrade to a 1st class ticket! hehehe... First class seats from York to Birmingham. Of course, the way the train was laid out, the shop where we could get complimentary goodies was at the other end of the train. But still, 1st class! And we're STUDENTS!!

Ok. I think that will do for this post.

Oh, got my next TKD grading on Thursday... eek...