Hello, I miss you quite terribly.

(Oh no, I'm quoting Hellogoodbye as a post title quick turn back delete my blog burn the body it'll never be found...)

Thought i'd better update about the last week just because I'm leaving soon, and big surprise, the longer I put off stuff, the less likely I am to care about it slash do it.

(1) Touchdowned in London and boarded a train to Joe's for his weekend birthday celebrations. In all, a fantastic weekend. Arrived - after getting lost DUE TO THE FAULT OF GOOGLE MAPS and not my perfect navigational skills - amidst a poker game which I didn't understand, which just escalated into drinking and waiting to head to Ministry of Sound. Going out in London is expensive so we declared it vodka o'clock early and just attempted to drink as much as possible.

London clubs are big, expensive, and have tight security. I had to pass through my second metal scanner-thingy in a day (hint: first one was airport security) and then we went in and had a really good night, ending in a 5AM walk home watching the sun rise over the river in a really nice scenic way, ignoring the fact I was walking barefoot because I just couldn't deal with my shoes any longer. (Class act, as usual.)

And then, because we're a bunch of Warwick students, we went to the natural history museum (!!!) the next day, following the world's biggest brunch that just had us all ridiculously full. We traipsed around and touristed and I fawned over the exhibits and dinosaurs whilst simultaneously tried not to die of pigeon attack.

(2) I actually started watching a TV show and started American Horror Story which I like because it's really not scary at all but the drama and plots are pretty decent and the acting is good and (not gonna lie,) Evan Peters is cute. I'm not too far in but I like it and then I'm going to, as I promised Sophie, watch Buffy. This is going to be a fun summer.

(3) Just got back from Joe's in London again cause it was nananananana BATMAN WEEKEND. Dark Knight Rises at the Odeon in Leicester Square. Pigeons aside, it was pretty much the nicest two days. Me and Joe filled in bits of 'This is Not a Book" -

and caught the sunshine and we had Zizzi's with Toby and then watched what was one of the most engaging, well made, and emotionally involving ends to a trilogy. I shed a few tears.

After this and after I paid for the most expensive frozen yogurt ever - i was JOKING when I said i'd pay £10 for a froyo because it was funny because it was a gross exaggeration but turned out apparently to be almost true - and then me and Joe headed back to his. From then on, we constructed a very impressive fort with sofas and sheets and pillows. Touched up with glasses of wine - great idea for good lightweight me who seems to always fall into delusions of 'I can totally drink that really quickly' - and THIS IS NOT A BOOK. Didn't quite stay away and watch the sun rise on the roof-bit as planned but it was still pretty much perfect. (And really quite twee as well, HAh.)

Taking off back to 852 on Monday. I haven't been back since APRIL. I miss the little things and of course my dog and the things I constantly complain about here ... but I'm just a really good complainer, aren't I... Lizzy's back there and Esme and Sav and Izzy and the rest of them all. Should be quite a busy month or so, even if I'll be away from my England people for 2 months. I've planned my England room anyway, to the utmost detail, now just to try get a job so I can afford to pay for my extravagant ideas. I need to stop planning things.

Italy 2012

Backdated a bit as per usual - will do a quick post on Italy first before diving into the weekend's antics on the next.

So, following the wedding: zorbing, beach trips, mud, grass, nature, mud, mud, mud, wales, wind. We didn't really do too much apart from eat and go to the tesco and chill with the fam. I made it my mission to sit as close to my south african family as much as possible just to hear them speak because I love their accents and the kid is actually really cute and she loved me and it was a beautiful friendship.

Went back to my gran's for a day, then my aunt's in London for 3 before Italy. In between then, met up with Andrew & Toby and had ~* LONDON ADVENTURES *~ which involved walking along the embankment, debating about going into my precious aquarium (we didn't :( !) 5pm sake at wagamamas, and shots off some dodgy vendor on the pier and a mission to find a book. I'D REALLY MISSED THEM, MY SEPARATION ANXIETY IS AWFUL.

SO, ITALY.

Arrived late at night and it was up to me the genius to figure out how to change the language on the gps (everytime my dad has a go at me for doing something stupid, I now snap back 'IF IT WEREN'T FOR ME YOU'D STILL BE STUCK AT ANCONA AIRPORT TRYING TO CHANGE THE GPS LANGUAGE,') and because of this, I was put into the front seat to navigate because, y'know, my Italian and navigational skills are excellent.

Italy is gorgeous. Because of the way it's set up - lots of little towns and villages on the tops of mountains - it was even prettier at night. Neatly scattered lights amidst the pitch-blackness, almost as if they were a reflection of the stars ...

and then we realised it was around 38 fucking degrees in the daytime and I was no longer happy.

Not too much to say really, so I shall post some pictures from Rome and then move onto a new entry to keep things neat. (Plus I'm aware this is boring.)

 

Image heavy, word heavy.

Alright, I've quit being so dramatic - a little bit. Basically, I'm now tucked away right out in the sticks of Wales with appalling network and very slow internet connection - what's better than a SUPER LONG BLOG ENTRY!

Mostly concerning the post-exam shenanigans in full, wedding stuff, and my summer plans. This is a very selfish entry because it's all me, me, me, but let's not kid ourselves, literally everything on this blog is about me because I am just apparently a terribly self-obsessed person.

So, I basically didn't drink for like... 1 or 2 days of those 2 weeks we had off after exams. There was all the going out with different people, the casual drinking in the evenings, and the westwood bbq of course (and our alcoholic teacup!)

Two photos nicked off Abi from... Smack lie below, I'm pretty sure it was, on the thursday after THE HANGOVER. Basically, I think, based off my memories, the two weeks went like this:

Wednesday: Pop

Thursday: (Hangover from fucking hell,) Smack

Friday: Evolve, foam party.

Saturday: Skool Dayz (a.k.a super grumpy-angry-emotional strop night)

Sunday: Westwood BBQ (adventures with the alcoholic teapot)

Monday: Chilled night in but I drank anyway.

Tuesday: Smack (intention,) Koko's (where we ended up.)

Wednesday:~~~ SOBER DAY ~~~

Thursday: Saint's (WITH PORTIA!)

Friday: Smack

Saturday: ??? Stayed in here again I think. Don't have recollections anymore. Someone tell me if I have this wrong.

Sunday: Summer party!

Monday: Gatecrasher

[EDIT] I am silly. Andrew has informed me that the first Friday was just plain Evolve and the missing Saturday was foam party. THERE WE GO THEN. Both were good nights. SEE, EVERYTHING KIND OF JUST MERGED INTO ONE. [/EDIT]

This looks absolutely appalling. Hannah came down to visit on the Tuesday after so obviously couldn't bring her out - wanted to show her the standard uni lifestyle (minus the hardcore partying of course... she is fourteen.) I warned her we'd probably just sit around drinking, and true to that, we just drank and made a giant, very impressive fort.

 

I don't have a lot of photos from going out because I brought my disposables to use up and didn't want to bring my big camera out after already losing my lens attachment during Skool Dayz... I have yet to get the disposables developed. They should be hilarious. I've skipped out another huge event too: THE SUMMER PARTY Basically, despite it being a ridiculous £38 and had taken me ages to help set up - they made me carry heavy things and my arms hurt so much for a few days because I am a weakling... this was pretty good fun. DISPERSED PICTURE POST TIME!!!

Basically, there were three fairground rides - the waltzer, the rhythm rider and dodgems - and the stage where a few acts played. Headliner was Noah & The Whale (who I really do love,) and other standout ones were Miss Dynamite and Jakwob I guess - although I didn't watch either of them.

(With Tara a bit before Noah & The Whale came on!)

Me, Erika and Toby, after collecting our tickets with the others at 10-11ish, headed down at 12.30 because we wanted to go on the rides. We basically ended up alternating between the 3 several times whilst the lines were fairly short. The other stuff was really all fair stalls and inflatables and whatnot. OH, AND THE REALLY CUTE COCKTAIL TENT (of course I would pick that as a highlight,)

We actually went back around 4 to chill for a bit - I'd had 2 hours sleep the night before... WHERE THE HELL DID WE GO, IT'S COMING BACK TO ME THAT I WAS EXHAUSTED BUT I DON'T REMEMBER WHERE WE WENT... and we went up to Joe's room to drink and watch a film, and it turned into 'Accidental naptime with Abi, Laura, Joe & Toby,' with us all just asleep during the film... except Toby, who watched it.

Went back to catch Noah and go on more rides. I thought they were brilliant - the artist liaison lot (I didn't work that day because I didn't like any of the artists massively enough) said they were all really nice... even though a lot of them were late in typical band fashion.

In all, it was just such a nice day - and such a nice way to end the year (sort of, even though I didn't leave til wednesday.) There was this really ice bit where the sun was just setting and they were playing L.I.F.E.G.O.E.S.O.N and all my favourite people (almost) were in sight and Joe was holding my hands up and dancing and Megan was waving at me from a bit away and it was just really nice, awh. (sap!!!)

As I've been writing this, Abi's been putting photos up from her camera - so I guess here's some more image spam...

This night was... no idea... not Saint's... Smack I think! (oh god, they're all jumbling into one.)

I love this :')

Joe making the photo cute by closing his eyes...

Rest in peace tongue piercing, 2012 - day my parents arrived to see me at uni :(

God, looking back at these now really makes me want to go back! It was such a fun, spontaneous two weeks - just doing whatever, waking up whenever (lol, not really,) and hanging out with my favourite people. Most notable nights were really - well, all of them. There was the freezing to death from the foam party - which was a bad idea. Turns out, the foam got taller than me a lot of the time and not only does it kill your eyes, but it makes things hard to breathe, and god forbid, 'choked to death on foam' is just a far too embarrassing way to die. Kept having to go to the bathroom to just rinse off, leaving us all sopping wet and wandering around in the cold outside getting hypothermia. Literally sprinted off the bus and had the nicest shower of my life afterwards though...

The other nights were good fun - I kept going through alcohol ridiculously though. As in, a surprising amount for such a lightweight. I am very generous when I've had a bit to drink though - I just like making people try my concoctions! Me and Jordan went through our 1 litre SoCo as well..

Anyway, enough uni moping - I'll get to see some of the hallmates SOON as you shall find out later so STAY TUNED, DEAR AUDIENCE!

Better move onto Wales and whatnot. After a relatively painless 4-5 hourish car ride (I slept for a lot and then just sat there listening to music,) we got to this place a.k.a way out in the sticks in Pembrokeshire. Long story short, wedding held here because this place (Druidstone,) is where Amy and Mike met, and where both their families went loads.

I mean, although I was being all mopey, it's nice to chill and talk with my sister again. I've also started talking to my parents again, (I started on Friday, really,)

So, had to be up for SEVEN for hair and makeup. I was quite astounded - "it can't possibly take that long!" I said. IT TOOK TWO AND A HALF HOURS. Two hours to sort my mane out into some intricate hairstyle - there were seventy hairclips in my hair. SEVENTY! I was still finding some this morning - and half an hour to make my face look somewhat acceptable. We then sat around and I put on my cinderella bridesmaid dress WHICH WAS LITERALLY LIKE FIVE SIZES TOO SMALL AND VERY TIGHT AWH.

Bridesmaids :') It was absolutely FREEZING. We were all shivering so much and the photographer kept telling us to think warm thoughts. Cheryl came up with 'I AM ON A WARM BEACH, I'VE NEVER BEEN WARMER.'

Wedding party! Amy looked absolutely stunning (Mike not bad too,) and she actually so calm - my poor aunt was the one running around worrying about everything. Everything did go okay though. My goals of the day were not to trip going down the aisle, and not to fall off a cliff - probably considering how damn windy it is here. I was already blown by the wind into a muddy ditch on the first day.

Following all the bibly stuff - oh, and I managed to have a massive coughing fit during prayer and then whispered 'Oh bloody hell' because I wasn't thinking and got quite a few glances oops - we went back for the reception and after party. I got changed into something I could comfortably exhale in EVEN THOUGH I WAS STILL FREEZING.

Basically after that it was just food and drink and food and drink and dancing. Lots of all of it. ESPECIALLY FOOD, I'M STILL FULL GOD MOM AND DAD IT'S NOT DINNER TIME UNTIL TOMORROW SH.

There were also fireworks, which you will all know are my favourite things on this PLANET. They were beautiful and even though I was cold, having them go off less than 30m above my head was still magical and made me so so happy.

And then I went inside and officially became the happiest girl in the universe because THERE WAS A WHOLE TABLE JUST FOR CHEESE AND ONE FOR CHOCOLATE. I DON'T EVEN NEED TO ELABORATE ON THIS. CHEESE AND CHOCOLATE, GUYS.

 

Those were pretty much the wedding celebrations - danced with everyone and was running around and everything was just beautiful and it was really cute. Got given the loveliest charm bracelet - AND COLOURED PENCILS, my cousin knows me well - for a thank you bridesmaid present thing, bless. Danced with my baby second cousin, who is the cutest and most energetic girl ever. She came to see us this morning to show off her dress as well!

Now all the guests have gone and the bride and groom as well off to Mexico - it's just really our family and the South African cousins here to chill for the next four days. Today's grand adventure was literally going to Tesco. I know we're going to a theme park for one of the days... the other ones... maybe I'll just have to sit here and write long blog entries.

But overall I've cheered up; I suppose part of that is to do with the fact that after this and ITALY (!!!) I'll be going over to London for Joe's birthday and will get to see him and some of the other hallmates. Hopefully we'll be able to chill apart from that too - I'd love to force them to play tourist with me. It also means I don't have to send Joe his birthday presents - because that would be ridiculously expensive - and can just send a card (which is on the table,) instead. Thank god. Sending a bottle of alcohol cross-country would probably be quite expensive... and just a bit weird, hah.

Summertime Sadness

I literally feel as if I have been kidnapped by my own parents. I’d been told, Thursday was the day we were going to Wales. Therefore, I made the assumption I’d be picked up Thursday to go after having my stuff taken back Wednesday. Long story made short, after my dad flipped out at me for having “so much crap,” I was told I was going to stay at my gran’s that night and that I wasn’t coming back.

It feels weird. I’m being melodramatic (as per usual,) but despite my minor tantrum earlier, it still hasn’t totally sunk in that I’ve left the room and Knightcote and living on campus. That’s it, guys, DONE. Never again will I haunt the green-carpeted, yellow-walled corridors on the way to my room. Never again will I sit bathtub-style in the comfy chairs in the common room chit-chatting about absolute nothings with my hallmates – okay, it sounds like I really have a physical attachment to the place. I assure you, it’s far more emotional.

It’s just – it’s been a long three terms and so much has happened. There’ve been high ups and low downs but overall, it may have been the best year of my life. This has been such a life-changing experience and I’m so glad that there are still another two years to go.

Didn’t actually get to find out my results because of lack of time. Great. To be fair though, I’m not even really caring about anything.

I guess the main thing that’s really irking me is that I wasn’t able to say goodbye properly to a lot of people. I’d left people’s stuff out so I could return it and say goodbye, but with my parents tapping their feet at the door, they were a bit rushed. It was really when Kathryn looked like she was about to cry that I really got myself worked up.  After leaving bits and pieces around for people who weren’t in, I hurriedly returned my keys and then went outside with the last of  my stuff. Was just about to get into the car when I saw Joe, Jacob & Jake walking back from Jin’s so at least I was able to say a very quick bye after I just went “I’M LEAVING NOW.” (Luckily I was with Joe earlier in the day – we’d made plans to get coffee after I’d dropped my stuff off at my gran’s but obviously it turned out I wasn’t even coming back.

Since then, went for dinner with Portia, downloaded bad music and lay in bed feeling sorry for myself. Thought everyone was ignoring my texts but it turns out my gran’s house has the worst network ever and upon going outside, received about 12 in one go.

So this was really just a rant; off to Wales today for the wedding and for just a bit longer before we head back here. I’m too exhausted to work out how I feel. This is so weird.

I’ll update properly again at some point.

Post-Exams

Well well well, my last exam is over and there goes with it the need to work and apparently my ability to think coherently and do stuff. It's the end of my first year of uni. This is a strange concept. This may take a while to get used to.

As I do, I've spent the last few hours just going through old blog posts and pictures from the beginning of the year. Okay, two months were spent on holiday but it's been a ridiculous year. I've done and been through so much new and weird shit. This year has been the biggest upheaval; I've flown across the world to go study in a new environment and live with a bunch of strangers I've now luckily (for the most part,) come to love. When I was sitting around at home moping last summer, I occupied my time and bored little self by imagining what it'd be like. It's certainly been very different to how I thought it'd be, but I've still loved (most of) it.

Exams: not going to go over them because it bores me to tears. I've sat through them once I don't need to fucking relive them. All I'll say is that I seriously manage to put the pro in procrastination and that our TOMI exam screwed us all over. Seriously - the minute we were allowed to turn our papers over, there was just this sad ten minute space where all the film students stared in despair at the questions. Karl, why would you do that to us?

Celebrated finishing our first year (!!!) by drinking almost immediately and continuing into the night. This resulted in a fuzzy night and lack of memory (bless you camera... even though I barely remember past photo freaking twenty,) but basically yeah. Erryone got wastaaaaad. (Except the people who hadn't finished exams oops.)

 

LUCAS BEING A CLASS FUCKING ACT AS USUAL :')

 

 

Rachel hadn't finished her exams but it was her birthday so THAT WAS FINE.

 

 

 

Okay, let's just clarify something here: I never get hangovers usually, but come Thursday morning I had my first hangover from fucking hell. IT WAS AWFUL OKAY, I'M NOT BEING MY OVERDRAMATIC SELF AND MAKING A MASSIVE DEAL OUT OF SOMETHING NOT-SO-BAD IT WAS LIKE SATAN HIMSELF HAD CRAWLED INSIDE ME AND WAS JUST DESTROYING ME RELENTLESSLY FROM THE INSIDE - GOD, that is a weird simile, wow I'm sorry I won't do that again.

So I complained all day (only thing I managed to do because everything else was so much EFFORT - including lying down - but for some reason I could complain okay SAYS A LOT ABOUT ME,) and then finally started functioning again around 7. I also 'quit drinking alcohol forever,' until about 10pm that night when I was completely fine and decided to go out again to Smack that night. #poorwillpower.

AND then of course LAST night (Friday!) was Evolve which was good because everyone had properly finished then so yay drunkentimes again. I'm actually not an alcoholic oh my god, my blog is making me look bad.

 

 

 

(And then I wonder why no one wants to sit near me on buses - #1 camwhore)

Yesterday was actually brilliant and they played good music and it was cute people and we're out again tonight. I think I'm actually going to write out a nice ~reflection of my first year at uni~ in between this entry and the next (sentence made redundant because if I do it'll actually be the next entry and thus this doesn't make sense...) so it seems like I do stuff other than take photos of myself when I'm out. Not that I really do.

On a final note: for someone who can barely handle freaking caffeine, i've been drinking a ridiculous amount of mountain dew and then I get the caffeine shakes and start having existential crises and then hate myself. These days have been weird.

Million Dollar Man

GOD FUCKING DAMN IT I DID IT AGAIN. Don't blame me, blame my hallmates/friends for distracting me whilst I blog because I've gone and written half a post and just left it and now I have more to update on top of that. SIGH. Here's the first bit eh, I'll just continue on I guess!

Okay, so I do this thing a lot. I write very ambiguous statements about things that I am feeling and post them because I am either too (a) lazy or (b) introverted to actually write out proper, like, you know, thoughts and stuff on here.

Let's say: this feels like nostalgia. This "England summer" feels like a time I knew before. I am waiting for the same things and doing the same things and it all feels the same but it's not and it's weird and whilst it's nice it creeps me out a little and i'm so nervous and damn, this is one long-ass run on sentence.

Anyway; rest of the "summer" has gone by beautifully, only to end in today's rain, just as I buy a ton of summer clothes - hello HK government money, finally! We can start with the beginning continuing as it did in the last blog.

We had a chill night out during the nice summery bit - of course, at the time of the writing of this blog entry a.k.a a million years later - where I brought out my duvet and we all chilled on the glass and drank cider and had a cute day!

 

 

And then the day after or something like that - all those days seemed to have kind of merged into one big happy day now - we had a big film bbq! (DISPOSABLE BBQS ARE REAL GUYS, THEY WORK, THEY'RE SO COOL!) This ended up with us cracking open the cider the minute we sat down (so four in the afternoon,) and then having delicious foods and lovely company. We also took a dip in the skanky-looking bluebell lake and whilst I think I may have gotten a disease from it, it was refreshing as hell, so whatever.

Forever a hipster.

  

There was also some football and frisbee and 'GET DOWN MR. PRESIDENT' whereupon James, who wasn't even informed of the game, was chosen victim.

  

Photographic evidence right here.

  

JJ found a trolley in the lake so the guys - after their skinny dip - went shopping a bit.

  

  

GOD, I FORGOT ABOUT THAT MAJESTIC DRINK UNTIL I SAW THIS PHOTO. Less than £2 for a woo woo in a bottle. So good. Drained that shit.

  

  

Infiltration of the film bbq by Megan and Lucas cos they're cute.

Apart from that, it'd been revising in the sun. My productive streak was obviously too good to be true because it reached the point where my attention broke, and since i'm a selfish brat, because I wasn't allowed to concentrate, no one else was allowed to either and we just ended up pouring water on each other.

So apart from that, the weather's gone back to shit again and everyone's hermitting away. My first exam is on Thursday - theatre, it WOULD be theatre - and I've had so many almost-panic attacks already. Exam stress, ugh.

The weekend though saw me near London as it was my cousin's hen do - brilliant timing - so I went down on Friday for the weekend festivities. I'm going to list the events because it'll just be neater:

(1) Cracked open the champagne at breakfast, 10am.

(2) Started to drink/get ready at 1pm.

(3) Got on bus, met people, 3pm.

(4) Ice bar:

  

DRINKS SERVED IN GIANT ICE CUBES. So cool. (Literally BA DUM TSS) and fruity cocktails, god, they were nice.

(5) Went to loop to watch - I kid you not - a male strip show. Awkward would be a bit of an understatement considering I was with my cousin and my AUNT who's related to my dad, wow that was weird. It was, safe to say, absolutely ridiculous and innappropriate: 

 

YES, THE STRAWS.

The show was exactly as it sounds. Imagine a film portrayal of a tacky and hilarious strip show with blatantly gay men. Exactly that. Can't say I'm not a bit scarred though.

(6)  After the show it was just a standard club night of dancing and songs. Was so tired that I sobered up. Feel asleep on the bus on the way home.

 

Was meant to come back to uni Monday but I left Sunday - despite my parent's annoyance at how fucking expensive it was PLUS the more difficult journey - for numerous reasons, not limited to the fact I have my exams soon and I'm an anti-social brat who can't be around people - no matter how lovely they were - for TOO long.

Since then, I've sat in my room and complained about work and made a shit ton of coffee BECAUSE I BOUGHT A COFFEE MAKER. BEST INVESTMENT EVER. I also got cream and sweetner and chocolate powder and set up a table starbucks and now I can make mochas. God, it's so cool.

 

My room permanently smells of coffee now though. I quite like it, but I feel like perhaps it's contributing to the spiral of insanity I am quite clearly falling down upon at this time.

I should probably sleep more.