The big smoke part II

I had lunch with my mum today and she gave me some more great ideas for London, so I thought I'd add them to my list:

Somerset House Ice Skating - in the long distant past I used to have ice skating lessons, sadly everything I learned have escaped from my brain, I now look like a baby deer trying to stand up for the first time, think Bambi. Nevertheless, it's always fun, especially if there's a big group with you to share the painful falls and inevitable pointing and laughing which comes with them. Plus Somerset House is just beautiful!

Next up is The Wallace Collection, this came to my mum's mind as she thought it was in Somerset House, but actually it's in Hertford House, which also looks bloomin' beauteous. It houses paintings, ceramics, sculpture, armour, furniture and more and I cannot wait to give it a go.

Then there's the V&A, I haven't been for a while and there's current exhibition which is beckoning me back, which is 'Ballgowns: British Glamour Since 1950'. What could be better than looking at two floors of beautiful dresses??

Pizza's here! Time to eat.

The big smoke

I'm off to London next weekend for a three night extravaganza of fun, or so I've decided. While Sex and the City is on (I love 5* for bringing me Sex and the City when my box set is still at my parents' house), I thought I'd start writing my London to-do list. For some reason I'm super excited about this particular trip, I'm no stranger to London, I know it well and most of my friends live there now, but this time I'm hoping it's going to be a super super good weekend.

So, the definite number one destination is The British Museum, I'm an ancient history student and I'VE NEVER BEEN!!!!!!!! I've made it my mission the past couple of London trips but have never managed it, might have to take my A-Z as I actually don't know where it is.... for shame.

Number two is a gallery which, shockingly, I'd never heard of until a few days ago, and looks fantastic. The Wellcome Collection looks incredible, they have a lot of medical exhibits, which, don't get me wrong, look brill; but what I'm really excited to see is Death: A Self-portrait. I'm sure I'll be getting a fair few postcards.

Number three is the Advent Procession at St Paul's Cathedral. I normally go with my family but as I'm not at home this year I might have to go it alone - unless I can find someone in London who wants to come with me - I'm not holding my breath.

Now I'm a bit stumped, I'm sure there'll be nights out, too many drinks and lots of shopping too - well I bloody well hope so anyway.

In the meantime I'm shopping for my dress for my work's Christmas party, there are so many horrid dresses out there, here's hoping I can find a nice one to go with my beautiful Jeffrey Campbell shoes, courtesy of my gorgeous sister.

London planning

Cannot wait

(Image: Wellcomecollection.org)

Berlin Photo Blog

I think a photo blog is in order to ease me back in to my blog after so much time away! What with work, finishing uni and skipping off to Berlin for a week I've neglected the old Snippets for far too long.

So here are a few choice photos from my time in Berlin (which was incredible, by the way)

Packing

I'M GOING TO BERLIN ON WEDNESDAY.

I'm a little bit excited - even though this excitement hasn't spurred me on to start packing. And, not only do I have to pack my little suitcase for Berlin, I have to pack up my entire room and kitchen things as our lease ends on Saturday - while I'm in Berlin. Luckily I have a super lovely mummy who is going to come and take everything away for me while I'm swanning around Berlin in 30 degree heat - don't get too jealous, 30 degree heat and rain storms, which means I will be clammy.

Ew.

New Tricks

I have an exam in 7 hours and I've been trying to sleep for 3 hours, obviously with no luck - damn you brain!

I have a borderline dangerous obsession with BBC drama series 'New Tricks' (keep going, I do, surprisingly have a point to make) - I don't really think I'm the show's target demographic as it is a series about 3 retired police officers [Dennis Waterman, James Bolam and Alun Armstrong] going through unsolved cases with Amanda Redman playing their 'guvner'. It's the sort of police show grandmas like, so as I have a very grandma-ish TV taste (favourites include Murder, She Wrote, Monk, Lewis, history documentaries of any sort, Antiques Roadshow &c) I'm on my third episode of the night. I find it really hard to sleep if I don't have it on while I'm nodding off, even Michael's got used to it (he always used to listen to music to fall asleep). Alas, this evening, the smooth tones of Dennis Waterman's voice have unfortunately not worked their magic, sigh!

Gasp. I've just looked up New Tricks on Wikipedia (so bored) and I knew that James Bolam's character was leaving in this coming series as he's cracking on a bit, but I've just spotted who's going to replace him - noooo! Although I'm quite happy as it's Denis Lawson and in Holby City, a few years ago mind, I thought he was a bit of a silver fox, he also narrated a documentary I watched today about capital punishment, what are the chances, eh! He does have a rather dreamy Scottish accent.

So yet again it seems I've managed to write another blog about, well, nothing at all really. Looks like an all-nighter might be on the cards as I have to be up in 3.5 hours anyway;  I haven't done one of these since my early uni days (Uni of Manchester 2006-2008, left after 2nd year).  Plus, as it's an unplanned all-nighter I have no supplies! I've run out of tobacco and have no nibbly treats so will have to survive on coffee alone for the next 5 hours until Tesco opens... hmm, maybe I will try and snooze after all!

The end is nigh

So it's been a while again since I posted, too much revision (and crafting, more on that in a minute)!

I have 2 exams left!!!! Only 2!!!!! The end is nigh! I can't wait to be done with them, alas I only have 2 days between ending exams and starting work full time for the summer, oh the joys of being a penniless student! Plus I've just had to say goodbye to my housemate Betti and her boyfriend Oli as they start an 11 week adventure across Europe. Jammy beasts. Ah well, a week in Berlin is headed my way, where I will be meeting up with said Betti and Oli for a few jaunts so that will be most fun.

This week I have been mostly revising, as above, and busying my idle fingers with crafting, in the form of cross stitch and I LOVE IT! I rang my grandma mid-week and asked if she had any rings I could borrow (the frames you use to make it easier to sew) and she said she'd have a look and pop round the next day. She popped round armed with a bagful of cross stitch goodies, loads of kits, patterns, silks, needles - it was like cross stitch Christmas. So, as I was at Michael's this weekend I had to watch football and lots of it, 2 matches a day (with the end of the Premier League I thought I would have a football free summer, unforch this seems not to be the case) so I decided to keep myself sane by doing cross stitch at the same time. It's quite old fashioned I suppose  but it is so enjoyable to make, and as Michael said, it just looks really nice and neat and proper when it's complete. At the moment I'm very nearly finished with my first proper piece, I used a kit to make a needle case - an essential and a sensible place to start, I thought. I've finished all the actual cross stitch, now I just need to make it look like a needle case (for which I very much need my grandma's assistance). A kit consists of a piece of aida, the necessary threads, a needle and a tassel! This kit was for counted cross stitch, which takes some time, especially when you have a row of 45 stitches - I was getting very cross-eyed. It has taken me a good few hours to do, I will post a picture of it when it's finished. It is a very old fashioned design, the kit coming from a company with 'Victorian' in the name would suggest as much (I can't remember the name but will put it up when I have a picture of the completed item). I am also in the middle of making a birthday piece for Betti, but shh, she doesn't know and I hope to goodness she doesn't read this blog between now and the 27th!

Yesterday, while I was cross stitching, Michael skyped his mum in Perth for a catch up. Mid skype his sister and her fiance popped in and it made me super excited for Australia! I've probs mentioned this before but Michael and I are going to Australia in September for another wedding, last time is was Michael's brother, this time it's his sister and I cannot WAIT! I'm very excited and also very excited that I'm working full time this summer so I will, hopefully, have some money left over after all my wretched bills are paid, to buy some lovely bits and pieces to take down under with me.

Giveaway tip & I had forgotten I have that!

Do you ever get that, 'oh, I forgot I had that!' when you're in your old room and are having a look around at the things you left behind?

I'm at my parents' house tonight, we just got back from visiting my sister in Cornwall and I'm staying the night here before I go back to my uni 'digs'. I was just getting changed and I started having a rumble around my jewellery boxes and I came up with some right corkers I had completely forgotten about. Then I got the 'I-already-have-too-much-stuff-why-do-I-carry-on-buying-more guilt'. Hate that feeling. So I'm going to pack them up and take them with me tomorrow, in a bid to try and wear more of what I already have...

Anyway I have lots of lovely pictures from the weekend, including a gorgeous A/W jacket I picked up from a local arts and crafts fair for £10, which I will put up in a couple of photo blogs.

I'm just catching up on my blog-reading and saw that one of my favourite blogs to read is doing a really fantastic, generous give-away. I'm really new to this blogging lark, especially including fashion in my blogs and seeing give-aways [I only found out they existed like a week ago] I'm amazed at how many go on.

But this one is really great, everything in the give-away is so lovely, for your chance to enter go and visit Eloise's brilliant read of a [revamped, new look] blog at http://www.frolicsandfashion.com/2012/06/1000-followers-jewellery-giveaway.html.

Great stuff!

P.S. tattoo

I totally forgot the main reason I started to write today's post!

I know Sam (http://samanthascopic.blogspot.co.uk/) has been wanting to see a picture of my first tattoo for a while now so here it is:

Apologies for close-up leg shot, not my best angle. But there is my little owl. I know owls seem to be dominating interior design, soft furnishings, jewellery, clothes and everything else recently, but my nickname for about 6 years has been 'owl' and this particular owl is very close to me. She may not look the greatest but this design is from a picture I found in a library book I was using for one of my ancient Greek essays, it is a very old drawing by an ancient Greek of the 'owl of Athena' as the owl was her symbol. I was in two minds to get the foliage either side done or not but I wanted to be true to the picture so I had it exactly as it was and I love it, it's exactly the same as the picture (even if it is a bit bigger than I thought it'd be!!) As soon as I saw it I loved it, then the idea for it to be my first tattoo popped in to my head. Even my mum loves it! 

I am addicted to piercings, I have my nose pierced, upper and bottom lips, 2 normal and 1 cartilage on my left ear and 2 normal and one anti-tragus on my right ear. I can't really get any more piercings, I already look slightly ridiculous with the amount I already have but now I have a new addiction - tattoos! 

I loved the feeling of getting one - it hurts a little but it's really nothing of note, the outline definitely hurt the most but the shading and little details actually felt quite nice! I got this done as my birthday present to me and I'm so glad I did, I love her - and now the nice weather is here I get to show her off as it's on the inside of my right leg, just above my ankle. 

Now I've got to think about what and where the next one's going to be! I'm following what I call 'the wedding dress rule' at the moment, so I'm not going to get any done where they could be seen when I'm in a wedding dress. I think I might stick to the legs as I really like the way they look and they're really easy to cover up / show off.

I got my tattoo done at Alpha Omega studio on St Mary Street, Cardiff, by Morgan.

Sunshine + revision =

So where to begin, it's been a while again!

So my exams have finally begun. I had my first one yesterday, so that's one down... five to go! My next one is tomorrow, I'm dreading it. Ugh. Must remember to refill my fountain pen!

I've been meaning to do a little post about my fountain pen, it's so beautiful. I asked for a really lovely one for my birthday, I've been using my £5 Parker pen for I don't know how long and I thought having a super lovely one would make note taking in lectures that little bit more enjoyable. It's made by a company called Cross and do you know the brilliant thing - it has a lifetime guarantee!! No need for a receipt, if it breaks then I can take it to any Cross retailer and I'll get a replacement, now that's good customer service.

It's a lovely pearlescent white and writes like a dream - thanks parents!

In other news I have been roasting this week, as I imagine everyone has - today was supposed to be rainy, I have yet to see any rain. On the weekend I went to Bristol as Michael is away this week so we had a lovely weekend. I went to visit my great aunt & uncle (this makes them sound ancient, but they're really not, I don't have a first aunt!) and their two children, Nicholas & Katie - along with their two beautiful new cocker spaniel puppies! I WANT ONE!!!!!! These puppies are both rescue pups but both are pedigrees. They are getting a brand new puppy soon, my aunt says she's going to let her have puppies and said I could have one if I wanted, when the time comes - how could I say no?! 

My aunt and uncle live in Weston Super Mare and by goodness there are some right horrors down there. Ugh. The amount of bright red skin I had to look at was just not pleasant. Along with the array of VILE tattoos (there seems to be a bit of a trend for men to have Mum and Dad tattooed on to their boobs, nice) it just wasn't great. Then we saw a massive fight which was great. And then two incidents of beach rescue. It's a bit of a mare at Weston as the tide goes soooo far out and then people walk out to it and then when it starts coming back in, it's very quick so people who don't think about these things get a little bit stuck! 

So yes, Michael is in Barcelona [lucky beast] this week while I'm stuck here doing exams and trying to revise, yawnnn. At least I have something to look forward to, tomorrow my parents and I are heading down to Cornwall 'til Sunday for my sister's birthday, she's 22! Madness. I'm really looking forward to it. I bought her present (while we were shopping on my birthday) from Ollie & Nic, it's a beautiful soft fold up purse and I want it! You can see it here. I'm going to get thrifty in a minute and make some hearts out of floral material for her to hang up in her room, just something nice, nothing fancy. And of course, an origami card as they are my speciality. 

Today I went for a little browse round the shops with my grandma. She was shopping for my sister's birthday present but had to get me something too - she's been doing this since we were little and even though my sister and I are now 22 and 24 respectively, she still has to give the other a present on the other's birthday! She is lovely, I love grandmas. Anyway, I said I wanted to expand my casual bracelet collection as I love wearing bracelets but I just don't have that many and I wanted some that I can wear all the time without bothering to take them off. So I got 2 leather braided bracelets from a little, wonderful, shop round the corner from me on Wellfield Road called Halcyon Daze. They were only £1.50 each (maybe they're not actually leather...). The pictures have come out a funny colour as I'm in my room but here they are anyway

The top two braided ones are the ones I got today, the straggly woven type ones underneath are from Barcelona last year and, yes, that is my Glastonbury wrist band from last year, I'm not leaving it on there to look like a dick I just keep forgetting it's there and haven't really got round to chopping it off, maybe now that it's coming up to a year I should really get round to it...

The other bracelet I got today was a bit of a bargain I thought, it was £6.99 from Ushi's, another shop on Wellfield Road but they also have branches elsewhere.  This has also come out a funny colour, it's mostly greens and golds on this one and I really love it. It's one of those that can be worn with anything and anywhere I think. It's got lovely little wooden beads on the ties too, love little details like that. Ushi's can be quite hit and miss, the clothing section definitely should only be approached if you are 50+ but they do have some lovely bits and pieces in there:

Right I think that's more than enough for one post, I really must start doing more regular, shorter posts as I can't keep writing essays - I mean, who's really going to read all this?! 

Hot & colds

I have a cold. ARGH. I hate having colds, especially when the weather is as beaut as it has been the past few days. My nose stud has disappeared during one of my many nose blows and is probably now in my bin. Brilliant. Well, actually, it probably is brilliant because blowing one's nose numerous times a day with a nose stud in gets painful. Ouch.

Anyway, aside from my poor health I am trying to get going with revision and it's going alright at the moment, hence my lack of posts recently. My exams don't even start until next Tuesday and carry on until the 15th June!! The little beasts on my Facebook page rejoicing in the fact that they've finished already for the year makes me want to throw books at them. Hardback folio sized books.

On the plus side I have definitely got my summer job back, it was a bit touch and go for a while but it's confirmed now, hurrah! So now after my exams what do I have to look forward to? A sprawling summer of days in the park? Days free to read for hours? Making the most of my summer wardrobe? No, of course not. I have weeks of office dress and ill, angry holiday makers to look forward to. But this means I'll be able to pay Michael's mum back for the flights to Australia. Now that is something to look forward to. She paid for mine in advance so we didn't get hit by expensive prices like we did last year. Thanks Heather!

I'm going to Australia again this year with Michael (his family live down there) for his sister, Ali's, wedding and I'm so excited! Also going to Berlin at the end of June for a week.

I guess it's not all work and no play.

I hope everyone's exams are going well and if you've already finished, don't tell me.

(Tattoo pictures for those interested will come later on, I've just tried taking some myself but they make it look a ridiculous shape so I'm going to have to ask one of my housemates to get down on their hands and knees and take a good'un).

Flambé

I'm going to the dress rehearsal of the WNO's latest production of Tristan und Isolde at the Wales Millennium Centre tomorrow and I've just finished reading up on the synopsis as it's an opera I've not seen before so needed to get it in to my head afore tomorrow.  My parents have been taking me to see opera since I was little and I'm really lucky and glad that they have, it's now a big love of mine. My favourite is La Traviata by Verdi, and T&I is going to be my second opera by Wagner. I'm not a big fan of Wagner but my friend Charles is (he got the tickets), as is Stephen Fry, so if it's good enough for Stephen, it's good enough for me. Never mind that I've just seen the running time - 5 hours and 40 minutes!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ARGH! This does, thank god, include intervals though. No wonder hardly anyone puts of Wagner opera anymore - epic or what!!

Tonight I nearly set myself on fire trying to flambé a rum sauce for my fried pineapples, I managed to create a fireball in the kitchen which only ended with me carrying the frying pan to the back door (which was open - phew!) and lobbing the frying pan out of the door, managing to set fire to the back door at the same time. It was terrifying. And, of course, by carrying the frying pan to the back door I was fuelling the fire with lots of lovely air so that it got even bigger and managed to cover my arm, how I didn't get severe burns I don't know. So yes, my evening was eventful.

It got even better when Betti and I popped open the champers she'd given me for my birthday and watched 'The September Issue'. It was brilliant, André Leon Talley was probably the highlight and definitely didn't make enough appearances to make me happy! Anna Wintour looked such a sour puss the whole time, Devil Wears Prada may not have been as exaggerated as I initially thought...

On the topic of Vogue, I opened my daily email from Vogue UK and saw the delight that was the Chanel pre S/S 2013 show in Versailles - see the fabulousness here! Some of the clothes are just madness and fantastical, but there are definitely a few items I could see myself sauntering around Monaco in, if I were to ever become a millionaire that is!

I decided this evening that I wanted to do something except twiddle my thumbs while I was watching 'The September Issue' so I decided to do something I've been meaning to do for a while, it's nothing major, just adding a little embellishment to my new Topshop jeans (don't worry it didn't take me the whole film to do, I'm not that inept with a needle and thread!). They are a real pale sky blue, and while they are gorgeous, I felt I needed to add a little colour as they are so light

It's not my neatest work but it'll do, I wasn't concentrating half the time; it's just a little coral pink embroidery around the edges of the pockets, very simple but it keeps my fingers busy and I feel like I'm doing something productive while sitting there and watching fashion documentaries hahah. By the way, if any of you don't have a pair of Leigh jeans from Topshop, just go in and try some on. I got them because I needed to replace the only pair of jeans I had as the rip in the crotch was getting really quite noticeable. Seriously. They are the comfiest jeans I've ever had, and really soft, the label said something like 'super soft ankle grazer' and they really really are lush. However, ankle grazer is optimistic as I am 5'3" and they didn't have my waist in the petite section damnit! They're more like 'normal length' for me. 

Oh dear.

Eat the seasons

Well I haven't posted for quite some time, shame on me! This is just a quick one afore my super long post I plan to write tomorrow in lieu of revision...

Tonight I totes watched Made In Chelsea for the first time and I must admit - I LOVED IT!!! It is fantastic. Also, my flatmate Betti and I made dins and it was gorge, puff pastry with mozzarella and tomato (thanks studentrecipes.com) with salad & balsamic dressing, yummm. Followed by my signature (easiest, quickest and tastiest) dessert - stewed fruit. I've only done this twice [hardly signature then is it], first time with rhubarb - get it while it's in season and delish!! - and tonight with strawberries. We had the rhubarb with vanilla yoghurt but tonight we had vanilla ice cream.

I'm follow my mum in that we both try to buy in season fruit and veg and definitely try to buy British at all times!! Waitrose at the moment have the most delicious British strawberries, they are TINY but very very tasty! 

http://eattheseasons.co.uk/ is a super good website to get to know what's in season at the moment and has recipe suggestions. 

End.

Gluttons

My goodness I am so full, my sister came home today to spend the weekend up here for my birthday and she bought back pretty much the whole of Rick Stein's patisserie, seriously there was so much - thank you staff discount! [If I'd known she'd be laden with so many treats on her return from the SW I'd have sent her down there years ago]. We had so many goodies for dinner - crab, smoked salmon, steak pasties, cheese & onion pasties, sausage rolls, focaccia, walnut bread, salad, mustard mayo, pear frangipane AND sticky toffee apple crumble. I can barely move.

In other news it is my birthday tomorrow, I have made lots of purchases of late about which I want to post, so have decided to wait until early next week so can write about them and my birthday all at the same time. Economical.

In other other news, I'm getting my first tattoo done tomorrow morning. EEK. Putting myself through an hour of pain, on my birthday - what a great idea! I'll post a photo of it - but maybe I'll wait until it's gone through it's scabby phase.                 Or maybe I won't.

Geld & Roses

Hoorah hoorah student loan day has arrived. The first thing I did (at 1am this morning) was pay my phone bill, what a luxury it is to call and text people, not to mention having 3G back (I'm addicted to the game Gardens of Time at the moment [don't judge me]), and paid my best friend for my share of our Berlin trip at the end of June.

The count down to this day had been running for quite some time, and over the past few days especially time could not have gone any slower; my loan was spent many times over in my head browsing websites and making fantasy shopping baskets, but now it's here I can't bring myself to spend it! Everything I put in those shopping baskets has now lost its shiny glow and I don't want any of it anymore.

The thing is, I need new denim shorts, they are what I wear pretty much every day and I have repaired mine one too many times and they are only a few threads away from completely disintegrating, I need new jeans because, well, you can't have just one pair can you? I need new shoes, my beloved Fred Perry shoes, which I wear pretty much every day too, have lasted me well but the right one now has a hole in the sole and with the current weather, which promises to stay around for a while, they need to be replaced. They were so perfect, I have problem legs - in that I am very short and my legs aren't stick thin so I have to be careful when buying shoes that I can wear them with shorts/dresses/skirts and they don't 'cut my legs off' and the Freds were perfect! I've been browsing websites for a couple of hours and I want to buy things but ... I ... just ... can't. ARGH.

I'm going to ease myself in with some charity shop hunting today - giving to charity, paying low prices and, fingers crossed, finding some hidden beauties is the best way to start, I think!

In other news, I have some roses which I bought in Lidl on Thursday last week. It is now Monday (obvs) and they are still looking beautiful [as they are from Lidl I wasn't expecting much of a shelf life]! I'm very impressed Lidl, good roses.

Snaps

Well well we certainly are having our share of the ol' April showers at the moment! Good job I've got so much uni work to do that going outside isn't even an option for me at the moment eh. Oh well, indoor distractions are more than enough for me. I'm embroidering a bluebird on to a white vest top at the moment, picture to follow once it's finished. Also made a top yesterday, will have to pop that up on here some time soon.

At the moment my bed is covered with pages of notes and 6 books flopped open about Anglo-Saxon churches and, even though I am interested in them, I need a break. So, as I haven't written, properly, for over a week it's time to update this bad boy.

Holiday in Germany was beautiful, Dad had a brilliant 60th and we ate amazing food. The whole holiday was about food pretty much. Nom nom nom.

We were in the middle of the Black Forest so everything looked like this. :D. 

And the day after we got back we drove down to Padstow to leave my sister to her new job. We weren't there very long but whenever I'm by the sea or, in this case, river, I can't help but take pictures...

In other news, I must stop biting my lips. 

Tick tock

So much to catch up on! Catch up on my reading list on here, my reading list for uni..., friends, essays etc etc etc.

No time to post properly now about my holiday as we are just about to leave Cardiff to take my sister down to Padstow where she will be starting her new job tomorrow, exciting!

For now though, the clock in my bedroom has been stopped for about a week, I come back from holiday and it's started working again... weird.

Seeds

Today was a rather productive Easter Monday. I had a super breakfast made by my sister and then went out to the greenhouse with my mum to plant things, we planted courgettes, chili peppers, cucumbers and something else which I can't remember. It was lovely being in the greenhouse while it was raining, it was lovely and peaceful and was so fun! I loved getting my hands dirty and writing the labels, it was brilliant! Here's my handiwork

During Midsomer Murders I did lots of reading for uni, specifically for my 'independent study', which is a creative writing piece about Aristophanes. We got to choose the format and subject of it which is pretty cool.

I needed a break so I thought 'a ha!' I'll do some knitting and I'll get my mum to teach me how to cast on and cast off; and she did. It's easy! I've just never been shown how before. I thought I'd make an iphone case as it's quite a simple shape and so quite easy to get started with. My mum and grandma are such elegant knitters, they have a certain way of holding the needles, whereas I am all fingers and thumbs and look really clumsy when I knit but the end result ended up looking ok. Here is my finished piece

The little bird is my first attempt at embroidery and I'm quite pleased with it! It's completely free hand and was a lot easier to do than I first imagined. So 2 hours after I started my 'break' from reading this little creation was finished and I made a salad for dinner and no more reading was done - oops! 

Also, in other crafty news, I bleached a pair of shorts over the weekend, inspired by my housemate Betti (see her bleach blog here). They came out even better than I could have imagined, I will post about them tomorrow night. 

For now, it's definitely time to sleep, I turn in to such an early bird when I'm at home!

Paşti

(Title is Easter - will google translate get old? Hm. This time it's Romanian, which is fitting as my grandmother was Romanian!)

So, what's new today? Not much. Had a very relaxing Easter Sunday, hope everyone did.

We had our Easter egg hunt as normal after dad managed to get outside and hide them. I had a number of chocolate bunnies and this beauty

I'm going to have to start eating boiled eggs now, can't let it go to waste! Either that or keep it in my room and use it to hold jewellery or summat. We'll see, I do like a good boiled egg. 

Also this evening I saw the bats for the first time this year. We think they live in our roof but we're not sure, even if they don't our garden is definitely their home, I saw one big one and one baby one tonight; I checked with my parents, I'm the first to see them this year, yay! I'm very attached to the bats, plus once they're out it means it's nearly summer. 

It may be nearly summer technically but we've been checking the weather forecast and the place we're going on holiday next week is forecast snow!! Which means I'm definitely going to have to re-think my suitcase. 

I'll leave you with a rather novel picture of an owl I came across in my reading today - it is ancient Greek so does look a bit odd, but I love it nevertheless.

Mifuko ya

(The title is 'bags', I put 'bags' in to google translate and clicked on random languages, I ended up choosing Swahili, it sounded the best. I said bags {in English} too many times and it started sounding like a made up word, hate it when that happens).

Anyway, I've had a nice few days at home and will be lazing around here until Monday. I'm off on holiday on Wednesday and have two days at work and packing to do between Monday and Wednesday, not to mention uni work blaaaah.

I have had 3 perks of today:

1. Michael text me and said he'd found some books at a market he went to, Sophocles and Virgil! Yay!
2. I got an early Easter egg

3. I went down to Cardiff to pick up my parcel, the Jack Wills Rustington bag hurrah! I couldn't wait until after the Easter bank holidays so my mum kindly drove me all the way to Cardiff and back, love you mum! It is beautiful, if a bit smaller than I thought it would be. 

I do love it, it's a lovely light-weight summer bag which I think will see a lot of wear. It's 100% cotton which feels canvas-y (?), which can get grubby, especially as it's white, but that also means it's easy to wash, so even if I do end up spilling ice cream, or some other summery offering (like beer, in a beer garden :]) then it's nothing to woz about!

Another great thing about parcels from Jack Wills is the packaging, three lovely layers of reusable tissue paper, hurrah!

I'm really bad with bags, when I get one I use it non-stop. Now I have this bag it means that my beautiful Mulberry will have to become a part timer. My tan Mulberry Mitzy Hobo has been in constant use since I got it for my 21st birthday... almost 3 years ago, eek! She is looking a bit worse for wear, she's a bit battered and bruised so I think a rest will do her good...( it's weird that I refer to her as a her, isn't it?) Ne'ermind. But it is a wrench not to use her all the time!! She's so beautiful.

On the way home from collecting my lovely bag we stopped off at Tesco for my mum to 'stock up on berries'. While we were there I saw a pair of shorts I saw a few weeks ago and alas they did not have my size. Today however they did, so lovely mum got them for me - a steal at £6 I think!

They're blue - yay - and dotty - yay. 

Time for me to go and do some cooking, I'm making another Delia dish today. Delia's blackened gammon with salted caramel crackling. Mmm thanks Waitrose. It is smelling delicious, 18 minutes to go until I take it out to rest.

Mum and dad are in for a treat.

Lemon Curd

Today I got my exam timetable from uni and my sister got a new job, in beautiful Padstow of all places  - is that fair?! No, I didn't think so either.

She is now going to move to Padstow to join Rick Stein's clan. JEALOUS MUCH?? I'm super jealous, had you guessed? She's going to be living in a beautiful gorgeous place where you can get Tribute ale (my favourite) pretty much everywhere, while I'm going to be stuck in a hot, sweaty SU hall writing essays about Late Anglo Saxon grain supplies - UGH.

Anyway, one of the good things about this amazing opportunity for my sister is that she went down to Padstow with my mum today for her interview (yes, they called her not even 15 minutes after she left offering her the job, even though they said they'd be in touch within 2 days) which meant my mum went and got some super delicious bread from Rick Stein's deli, which I can't wait to have at Easter, and this beauty

We've been to Rick Stein's quite a few times, it's where my dad likes to go for his birthday trip, and the food is always super super good, but I've never seen them do doughnuts before! It had lemon curd in it. Phwoar it was good. 

That is all.

Zoom

Cor blimes that weekend went swiftly! At least I am on Easter break - hooraaaah!! No uni for a little while. However I have 12,000 words to write across 4 assignments over the next two weeks so I've got that little lot to look forward to, great (!). We are going on holiday for my dad's birthday during that time as well though, so that makes everything bearable.

I drove over to Bristol on Friday evening and we had a lovely weekend. On Saturday we skipped down to Weston Super Mare to visit my family. Weston was great fun! Unfortunately that one day out of the last I don't know how many decided to be cloudy and miserable so I didn't take as many pictures as I would have liked. Here are a few:

Michael and Nicholas tried to have a go on this bad boy but it wasn't working! How rude!

Left to right: Katie, Auntie Trish, Michael, Nicholas and Uncle Peter behind.

I spent a grand total of £1 on the 2p machine, I got so bored by the last few coins I was hoping to lose, which I eventually did - Michael was on there for ages, loving it. Katie and Nicholas absolutely loved the pier, I had never seen anything like it, there were so many machines and games! Makes Barry Island look even worse than I already thought it was. 

I wore my dress as a shirt again on the weekend, I love it but it definitely needs more buttons, using safety pins all the time is way too much effort! Still don't know whether to have it as a shirt or dress...

Apologies for the awkward photo - I don't take photos of myself hence it's a bit pants but that's how the dress/shirt/whatever it is, is looking at the moment. 

Also, I had a couple of Jack Wills vouchers lying about and thought they'd been there long enough and with my lack of funds it was nice to buy something that didn't involve any money! This bag is on its way to me: the Rustington Duffle Bag. It's so beautiful, I can't wait to have it in my grubby mits. 

How did I forget to mention last night?! I met my friends Betti and Jenny for a drink yesterday afternoon in Bristol as they were going to a gig there, I was super jealous as I loved the band they were going to see, D.R.U.G.S.. Anyway as we were sitting there Jenny only managed to get bloody guest list! Which meant Michael and I got to see them and it was brilliant, they were super. So thanks to Jenny and her well connected friends.

I did a little bit of sewing today, I made myself a skirt from an old dress that just didn't look right and I taught myself how to do button holes on my machine - yes! Only tried two and they were both pretty poor but it's a start. 

I'll leave you with a picture of the magnolia tree in my parents' garden, it's just bloomed and looks beautiful

Mister Magnolia has only one boot.

Photos

Photos from the weekend:

Feeding the ducks (make that geese) was AMAZING!! 

This swan bit me. Charming.

A grey flamingo?!

I had to get this as a reminder of our time at Slimbridge. He's called Domingo.

Bodleian Library, loved loved loved it. I made Michael do a walking tour of locations in my most favourite recent read 'A Discovery of Witches' by Deborah Harkness. 

This is just an example of wrongness.

We had a super weekend away - despite terrifying single track country roads everywhere, I had to stop to let two peahens cross the road, we saw some pheasants and on the way back from Oxford at 11pm we saw loooads of rabbits, they were super cute and I managed not to squish any of them - success!

Since then I have done my first solo presentation at uni which I think went alright and am preparing for the Easter break. 

All my immediate family left the country today to go to Heidelberg and left me behind - nice! I have uni which I can't miss. Yawn. At least it means I get to have the little car, which means I can drive to uni tomorrow - hooray! - and drive to Bristol this weekend - hooray! - and it means I can go and visit my great aunt, great uncle and my lovely cousins, Nicholas and Katie in Weston Super Mare on Saturday. Candyfloss and seaside pictures to follow, woohoo!

Tomorrow I plan on doing more work to the dress I posted about previously here.  I wore it on the weekend in it's very unfinished state as a shirt with a tie at the bottom, it looked rather good so now I'm wondering whether to scrap it as a dress and make it a shirt, but I'm not sure yet. Will have to think about this one! 

I had my first job today via the JobShop at my uni and my GOODNESS it was KNACKERING!! I've never worked hospitality before and now I have a lot of empathy for people who do it full time. I was a 'hospitality runner' which basically entailed me running round the suites at the Motorpoint Arena in Cardiff bringing food, drink, extra cups to the suites and then clearing it all up afterwards. I had to panic buy black shoes this morning as I didn't have any that met the very precise description; and my feet were absolutely killing by the end, as I didn't sit down for 6 hours. Yikes, I'm probably not going to be doing that again in a hurry! 

Gute Nacht.