Less than 10 days 'til Christmas!

Today my parents came to pick up some of my stuff so I won’t need to carry it all on the train when I go home on Friday. I didn’t think I would have much but with my Christmas presents taking up a big bag [I feel like Father Christmas…just not as old, fat, or a man!] and a load of books for revision and assignments [it’s gonna be a fun ‘break’] there would be way to much for me to carry. I could probably manage, but I don’t want to be that girl who irritates everyone by whacking them with various bags and boxes [I do that enough with just the one bag!].
I submitted my short story before Friday, which meant I could start to crack on with my others [thank goodness!]. The modernism presentation I have been working on has been like a slap to the face, it really has. The idea is that we have to record a 3 minute presentation arguing the presence of a topic/theme [of our choice] in a modernist text [allocated]. Dull but simple, yeah? We have to submit the script for the presentation with the video – again, not a problem. Here is the issue: we were given no word count “because it depends on how quickly you speak”, fair enough, but when working it out we all estimated about 2000 words. So I wrote a script of 1500 to sample. When recording it, it was 6 and a half minutes long! This has meant I have been spending time I was going to spend on the Christmas assignments, trying to cut down this damn presentation. It’s currently sitting at 3 minutes 15 seconds, but as I want to edit and add text to the video, it needs to be shorter :( Absolute nightmare, because I feel like if anymore is taken out it will lose all purpose! Oh well…  I seem to be doing well on my Language research report though; I spoke to my lecturer about my proposed idea and she seemed really impressed :D I’m getting quite excited about doing a dissertation now, as I am loving this – just have to choose my topic!
We had a pyjama party at Brownies this week, which was actually a real success! They all dressed up [or down, depending on how you look at it!!] and all remembered to bring food! They are pretty good at stuff like that if I do letters [the previous leader rarely did them]. I hung paper chains all over the place and one of my uni friends did me a CD of Christmas songs. It was really good actually because I only realised I should get a CD, the afternoon before, and he lives directly opposite the church hall where I run Brownies. So it meant I could pick it up when I needed it! Next year I would quite like to allocate a budget especially for the party and have cotton wool snow etc. like a proper little Santa’s grotto!
Cathy and I are going to a friend’s Christmas lunch today [dinner would have been better, but shan’t complain]. Apparently they have bought loads of stuff, and they don’t want any money towards it or anything! It should hopefully be really nice :)

In less than 14 days I'll be on my way home!

This week I completed and submitted my second language assignment. I went through it with a fine tooth comb, checked my ideas with my lecturer and got the learning development teacher (I hate that term, it sounds like they are for special needs people, but they're not...) to look over it. With any luck I was on the right track this time; people have been talking about it and freaking each other out with what they have/haven't done but I have done my best and there is truly no point in stressing about it now - there is too much else to worry about!
This week my short story needs to be submitted, but luckily I have pretty much finished that - I just need to add about 15 more words (if real authors were given a word count to stick to they would have a fit!). The problem I am having is making the extra words relevant; I have just been adding more description as I feel that if I add any extra dimension to the story it will become difficult to follow. I have already had to more or less rewrite it once, as well as doing seven drafts, so I don't plan on doing it again!
I am currently working on a modernism presentation. It's not got a set word count, but I have been told it is meant to be 3 minutes long and I know that you need a fair few words to meet that time scale! And Modernism, really?! You all know my feelings towards this drivel, I'm sure, but never mind; there are only a few weeks left now.

I am also trying to make good headway on the assignments due in after Christmas, as I will need to be spending the Christmas 'break' revising for the Modernism exam on the 14th January. I get really irritated by this online submission stuff; if we could only submit in the university, no way on Earth would they ask for us to have a 3000 word Critical Chapter handed in on the 4th January and a 2500 word Research Report due on the 8th January! I mean we don't even officially start back at university until the 4th February!


On a lighter note, I have planned my birthday and given people the date so they have no excuse to let me down this year. No doubt they will manage to still, but at least they have had enough warning!

Counting down the days 'til I come home now :) It's going to be brilliant! Shame there will be a lack of 'break' what with revision etc, but that's just plain typical.

First post of 2012

Okay, so this post is well overdue. It has been such a busy time recently, what with Christmas and New Year etc, but at least it gives me something to write about. I had my first university exam today (luckily only one in January!) so thought that the blog could wait until afterwards.
I was really worried that I wouldn’t get chance to see my friends over the Christmas ‘break’, as I was to be working so much. We all managed to catch up a couple of times at a pub after work, so that was good. I also managed to encourage one of my best friends to come and visit me as I have a week of nothing before lectures actually start, so she is coming up next Friday and I am SO EXCITED!!
So, let’s take a trip back to Christmas and let me recap for you. Other than working, I saw my friends and saw Chris and his family, and most importantly spent time with my family.
Christmas Day was spent as just the three of us (me and my parents). It was nice just to relax and do very little, for a change. We watched a long awaited episode of Dr Who; it was quite a sweet episode actually, but I have to stop being such a wimp when it comes to television as I seem to cry at most programmes.

We spent Boxing Day at my Grandparents, including my Aunt (who I hadn’t seen for ages) and Chris, there were seven of us in total. Tracy got me a kit where you can build your own gingerbread house, so Chris and I are going to do that this weekend :) Very unexpectedly, my grandparents gave me money as well as couple of little presents, so that was lovely and has gone straight in the bank – woo!
I got a fair few Christmas presents this year, although I shan’t rattle them all off for you! I got a printer, as I didn’t realise how vitally important it would be until first semester. That’s all set up now, nice and sleek in the corner of my room. I can’t help thinking about the trouble I am going to have when it comes to moving out of this flat; when I bought stuff back just from Christmas I had 2 full suitcases and the car was packed! So goodness knows how many trips I’ll need to move all the stuff out…oh well, a fair few months to worry about that…and to most likely accumulate more stuff!

Despite already having bought me LOADS of Christmas presents, Chris wanted to take me shopping at Westfield shopping centre. He spent a fortune on me, and I have such a lovely new collection of clothing!

These are some of my favourite pieces :)

I spent New Year at Chris’s house, as they were having a family party. It was a really happy occasion, everyone seemed to enjoy themselves and even people I had never met before made me feel like a real part of the family. We watched some of the fireworks on television and did our own little count down outside with party poppers, it was so sweet. Most special for me was that it was my first ever New Year’s kiss, as last year we were on different sides of the country. It was wonderful!

So here we are, 2012, it’s going to be a busy year with Olympics and whatnot. I wish everybody a wonderful year, and hopefully this time next year I will be writing about having an equally fantastic Christmas.

xx

I’m coming home for Christmas…

 

I went home on the 3rd of December as it was my old babysitter’s 80th birthday. It was such a surreal party, as everybody was really lively! I know that sounds like I am being dreadfully stereotypical, but if you had been there you would know what I mean. Anyway, I had a great weekend at home, as Chris stayed and my Godsister and her family came over on the Sunday. We put as many of the Christmas decorations up as possible whilst I was there, even though I come home this Saturday! Chris helped me put the trees up, though, and they look lovely.

Last Friday, we had our ‘snow ball’ at the Student Union Bar. I can safely say it was the best night since freshers; most people dressed up, and those who didn’t, got into the spirit of this anyway. I have absolutely nothing to wear, so Sengagh gave me a red ‘devil’ costume as it was basically a red dress. I ended up stitching some white smurf fabric(from smurf night, obviously!) along the top and bottom and trimming off the flames. I swear I have never been still making an outfit half an hour before going out before! It was effective though, and we were given free ‘Santa’ hats so that finished off the outfit nicely :)

I have done most of my essays now, so am far more relaxed! The only one I have left is due one January 3rd, so I am going to try to get it done this week. I am really looking forward to going home now!

Sophie reminded me of this Christmas song by S Club 7 :)

4 days!!

xx

ONE MONTH TIL CHRISTMAS!!

I had the most fantastic weekend :D
Chris had been teasing me all week saying he had bought me a present; so when he arrived I was ecstatic to find he had bought me a pink Christmas tree :) It all spurred from the fact that I was jealous of Sengagh, who went Christmas decoration shopping with her mum and I was complaining about feeling left out lol!

He also bought me a bunch of flowers :) They are gorgeous – he ended up getting two bunches combined to make them more special:

Smurf night was pretty good, bearing in mind it was a good change of pace and scenery. My home-made hats didn't stand up very well, but they were white and as we were blue I think it was pretty obvious that Chris and I were smurfs!
Unfortunately, very few people actually turned up and out of those who did, not many came in fancy dress. This was a real shame as the SU bar had put in so much effort trying to advertise it. Oh well :) It was fun, but we left early as it got a bit boring.


On Saturday, the university was holding a ‘Christmas Fayre’ which we went to, just to have a quick look. It was a bit rubbish, but I did finally manage to find bunting! It is awesome! 3 metres[ish] for £2.50, which is far cheaper than all the ones I have found online.


I also coerced Chris into making paper snowflakes with me for my bedroom window, to get further into the Christmas spirit :)


Over the weekend, we watched 'Jennifer's Body', 'Coraline' and 'Suckerpunch' :) I didn't realise how weird my taste in films is until I had seen them all! I jumped a few too many times at 'Jennifer's Body' [it was a scary film, okay?!] and we realised that the Other Mother in Coraline looks a little too much like Victoria Beckham for it to be a coincidence...

Suckerpunch was really good, but I did find it quite confusing [even after Chris told me the whole plot again!]

I tried to make an ‘almost’ roast dinner on Sunday night. It had the first roast potatoes since I’ve moved away to university, and I made my first ever honey-roast carrots – YUM!! I was very proud if I do say so myself ;)

I had a fantastic weekend, but I have 4 assignments due in three weeks, so going to be completely stressed during the weeks from here on. I am going home for my old babysitter's birthday party next weekend (I think she's going to be 80!) so really must focus during the daytime I  have available. I may have to unplug the internet for the next few days - just to ensure I don't get distracted!
It was amazing to just have a few days where I could just forget about everything else and relax a bit (and to have somebody happy to wash up for/with me!). Back to the real world now, then home for Christmas in 18 days :D
xx

Colchester!!

We went to Colchester on Saturday, as planned, to go Christmas shopping. Unfortunately this post cannot be as detailed as I would like, because a few people who will read this I have bought Christmas presents for. For once [CHRIS!!] I would like my presents to people to be a surprise :P

All I am going to say is that I have not yet spent my whole Christmas budget, but I do have a fair few bits to buy still :) I am hoping I will manage that online

It was extremely difficult to stop myself from buying a load of decorations, but I can’t afford them so only bought a cheap, white tinsel garland instead. I regret it considerably as it looks awful in my room, and as we aren’t allowed to stick things on the wall I have stuck it to my desk. So now, I have 3 empty walls and a hideously cluttered desk. Such for making the place look Christmassy!

Oh well, it is cheering me up to think of people’s reactions when they open their presents :) OH and Chris is visiting on Friday so I am extremely excited about that :)

xx

Shop ‘til you drop!

 

Funnily enough, the delivery arrived about 10 minutes after I posted the last blog post! Sengagh’s delivery didn’t arrive until nearly 4pm! So a bit of a difference, really!

They gave me an extra bottle of still water, so that was good as I’m 17p better off! :) [little things amuse me, haha!]

I definitely have enough food to last me a couple of weeks, which is good as I spent well over my weekly limit by going shopping. We purchased all of the Yoga stuff that we had been aiming to get for ages, so that was £23! Not to mention a generic shop in Primark…Christmas cards and wrapping paper, so getting there gradually! QD has some lovely Christmas stock but I’m going to wait until January and get it in the sale, as some of it isn’t obvious seasonal stock :) [Although if it’s anything like my plan to snap up the Halloween deals, it won’t go very well…fingers crossed!]

xx