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I should be cleaning up my room for the inspection next week. I should be packing. I should at least finish the second Clessidra if I’m not going to do the above two “more important” tasks. Instead? I’m hanging out in the kitchen with Hannah, I’m reading blogs, I’m listening to L&V, and now I’m talking about everything that I should be doing instead of just doing it. >_< Nothing really thrilling to report about this last week. Went up to Sheffield on Thursday, hung out, did laundry, watched movies, bought books, came back on Monday. Since then I’ve been to class, bought food for the competition on Saturday and been to dance practice.

About the dancing, our Waltz seems fine, no tripping over feet even when Alan wore his shoes. That’s progress. Made a slight alteration to our Cha routine, now it looks better. And we have finally agreed on our Jive routine. Now we just have to remember it. I’m not doing Rock’N’Roll at Blackpool because I want to focus on the other dances and be better at them rather than trying to remember another routine which I will mess up. So today, while Alan was off practicing his Rock’N’Roll routine with Jenni (they’re doing the acrobatic version; looks very cool), I helped out with teaching beginners the few moves that I did know. There’s this part where the girl passes in between the guy’s legs and is pulled up and usually the person I’m paired up with doesn’t have enough force to lift me up. I mean, let’s face it, I’m not a small girl. So I don’t usually even attempt it. Today though, there was this Romanian guy and he really wanted to practice it, and there was another beginner couple who were having trouble with it, so I demonstrated it slowly for them. I figured that my demonstration of it wouldn’t really work, since it never really has previously. When this guy pulled me up, it felt like he had enough strength to lift me up properly as well! That was like: “Ooooh, this is fun. I wanna try that again!” And so we did. ^_^

Yesterday afternoon I got a headache similar to the one I had at NUDC. At 8:30pm I was like, okay I should probably go to bed after this mug of tea because it’s not going away. I drank the tea, climbed into bed and felt a bit better. So I decided to read for like 10-15 minutes before actually going to sleep. The whole time I kept telling myself that I’d stop at the next chapter break. When my eyes were beginning to forcibly close, I finally put the book down and checked my watch: it’s two and a half hours later. The book that’s so intriguing to me is Philippa Gregory’s “The Other Boleyn Girl” that I bought last weekend. It’s a really good book. A page-turner. And now I’m wondering if I’ll be able to appreciate the movie as a movie and not constantly be comparing it to what I’ve read. I’ll still go see it though. Not with Hannah as we had planned, since the only week that they’re showing it here in Aber is the week that I’m in Belgium. When the man behind the desk at the Arts Center told me that, my reaction was replying in a disappointed/whiny voice: “I’m not here that week… *sad face* … I’m Not Here that week…“Then, just to show him that I really was okay and not genuinely depressed by his news, I grinned and thanked him. That just made him laugh. XD So yes, I will be going to see it by myself sometime this week when I’m in Sheffield. I’ve made plans with Oliver so that I’ll meet him at Meadowhall for food after my movie ends and he has left work. He sounded so sad when he said that he doesn’t really want to go see it. Not about him missing the movie, but making me go by myself. I’m totally okay with going by myself. It’s actually quite fun. Especially when I can go in the middle of the day in the middle of the week when the theater isn’t that busy. :)

Ugh, okay. I’m seriously going to start cleaning my room now. And listen to L&V at the same time. *nodnod*

I got a First!!! *does happy dance* Oh I am so buying three skeins of yarn now instead of two. Just sayin’. Now I need to go find the final colorway to go with my Aww-tum and Printemps.

Last night there was an earthquake. I figured that since the epicenter was in Lincolnshire, that’s why I didn’t feel it. But no. There’s a comment in the “Have your say” section from someone in Aber saying that they could feel their floorboards move. Yeah, I slept through an earthquake. Did not feel a single thing. Oliver felt it (then again he’s up in Yorkshire anyway so it must’ve been stronger over there. I guess I just sleep like a log.

Anyway, I’ve gotten lots of knitting done. My scarf is half-way done; won’t work on it until tomorrow when I get on the train. While I’m still here, I’m going to try to finish up Clue 9 of the SSS since I can’t work on that while on the train. And I need to figure out what yarns to bring with me for my Easter vacation by tonight, since I’m taking up my suitcase to Sheffield tomorrow. There’s been a slight change in plans for next weekend. I was going to spend two nights with Oliver at Blackpool during IVDC, but the Sheffield team has decided to go back already on Saturday instead of Sunday (which is what the Aber team is doing), I’m not totally sure yet what I’ll be doing. I guess I could try to find a place for just me for the second night and come back with the Aber team on Sunday, or then start Easter vacation a week early and just go back with the Sheffield team and not come back to Aber at all for that one seminar. Hmm…

Today’s going to be busy. Just had a group meeting about our portfolios, I’m going over to Dani’s house and watching videos that were taken at NUDC with other team members at three, then at eight I’ve got plans to go see an Ingrid Bergman movie with Alan and Ghislaine. And I still need to pack, do homework, edit my portfolio before sending it to my teacher…

…

There was just a really loud noise from outside. I think it was like one of those air force planes, sorta like what Mud experiences in Camp Nowhere… Didn’t see anything, but I definitely heard and felt it. I don’t know of any army bases near here though. Oddness. Maybe the pilot got lost during training. :P

Where was I? Ah yes, NUDC. It was an interesting competition. Everything went fine, except Jive. First round, Alan and I walk onto the floor, the music starts… We just look at each other with the deer-in-headlights look and ask: “What were we supposed to do again??” So yeah, we knew that we wouldn’t get a recall for Jive. :P Amazingly enough, during the “Old Time Dance” (which was called “The Cypress Swing” I think), we got a recall while Oliver & Jo didn’t. It was a fun sequence dance. ^_^

Warning: rambling about yarn shopping here. Mostly just thinking outloud right now. *sigh* I want a job. No, what I actually want is money. But that money would go to buy yarn. So technically, really, all I want is yarn. And the time to knit the yarn. I’ve been drooling over the yarns at the Loopy Ewe and I still haven’t decided if I should order from there or from Lisa Souza. I know exactly what I’d get from Lisa Souza, but the Loopy Ewe has loads of different yarns in all of these really delicious colorways and I really really want to get a start on becoming a Loopy Groupie. *le sigh* Oh the choices I have to make. Yarn I know or something new? If I go for the new stuff, then what stuff exactly? And I know that if I order from the Loopy Ewe, it would make more sense to buy more than just the two skeins that I was thinking of because of the reduced shipping thing that Sherri does that Lisa doesn’t. With Lisa, my order would be about £22 (including shipping). From the Loopy Ewe, it’d probably be nearer £30 (with shipping). And I just know that if I order from Sherri, I’ll fall off the yarn diet wagon and go BOOM. Then again, if I save my Loopy Ewe order for a bit later and have it sent to Ellu’s once it’s confirmed that I’ll be there for Christmas… Oooooh that’d be the best way to save on shipping because it’s free shipping within the US when the orders are over $75. Which it definitely will be. Yes, I’ll start saving up for that. Then I won’t feel so bad. Okay, this weekend I’ll order from Lisa. And since I know what I’ll be getting, it should be easy too. Not get distracted by other colorways since I’ve seen them all before. XD

And now it’s time to read some more of Spenser’s Faerie Queene. That text just puts me to sleep. Read one Canto last night, by the end of it my eyes were drooping. A 20 oz. Chai tea would help me stay interested, but alas, I haven’t found a place over here that makes it. Which is a good thing actually. Saves me money.

Well, the quiz was a bust. Only three of us showed up when it’s usually more like seven to ten. We did okay on the picture round, as in got everything, but it was all downhill from there. So when one of Matt’s friends called, he and Phil decided to go to the Open Mike Night at the Union and I came back because I had these grand plans of writing up the rest of my Writing Project. Yeah, that didn’t happen. Got sidetracked reading the L&V message boards.

Still, today’s two QOTDs came during the quiz. The first one was when Phil was talking about buying another suit. Matt chimed in with: “Yeah, I need to go to the suit store too.”

One of the questions posed was something to do with boxing and they wanted the “famous lawman who refereed the event.” The table next to ours: “Judge Judy!!”

I’ll do a proper update about yesterday some time tomorrow most likely. Right now I’m just way too tired to do anything but crawl into bed.

Two things really bug me about living at Aber: 1) The boys I live with don’t do a thing to clean up after themselves. Which is why when Hannah went home for the weekend, I refused to do anything dealing with the trash and recycling. Someone keeps throwing in food into the recycling bag meant for cardboard and plastic bottles. And I know that that someone isn’t Hannah, since she wasn’t here. I’m pretty sure I know which one of the boys did it, but since I’m not 100% sure, I won’t say it. Still, it’s a recycling bag. The trash can, albeit overflowing when the pizza wound up in the recycling bag, is right next to the recycling bag. How lazy do you have to be to not bother putting in a new trash bag? *rolls eyes* I couldn’t stop myself from wiping all of the counters and scrubbing the stove though. But that’s because I need to use those to cook and there is no way I’m cooking on something that’s not clean.

And number two: There is no hot water coming from the shower. Seriously. Hot water coming from the taps, but none in the shower. Can’t go downstairs to the reception to complain because they’re not open! How hard is it to get a functioning flat?? This isn’t the first time we’ve had problems with the shower. Or with plumbing in general actually. The toilet next to my room doesn’t flush properly on the first try. The kitchen sink is backed up again. And now there’s no hot water. Grrrr.

On a more positive note, I got me some Welsh cakes today. They’re really good with a glass of milk. ^_^

Today’s been a good day. I’ve just been in an excellent mood ever since I woke up at 7:35 am… Yes, I actually woke up then without the help of an alarm clock. I think it’s because I sleep with my curtains open, so when the sun rises and my room slowly gets brighter my body obviously thinks along the lines of: “Oooh, it’s light outside again. Time to get up! Wake-y wake-y…” Never mind that my room faces west, not east, so it’s not even direct sunlight that’s getting me up. The cool thing is that the sky’s a lighter shade of pink and light blue in the mornings and a really deep saturated pink and blue when the sun’s going down. I think I prefer dawn to dusk.

I’m also really productive in the mornings. Maybe I’m a morning person?? Anyway, I have finished my essay! Well, sorta. I need to flesh out my conclusion (as it is now, it’s like one sentence, so that’s not a proper conclusion, even if it is a good sentence :P) so that’s another 100 words or so? Then I can send it off to Gabe for a read-over, then edit it to make it better, possibly send it back to Gabe if I make major changes and then it’s printing time!

I borrowed a book from Ludwig this morning. It’s Edgar Allan Poe in French. Should be interesting.

Then met Derya for some tea and knitting at the Arts Centre at noon. It’s so nice to finally have someone who gets knitting and yarn like I do. I mean, it’s one thing to ramble on about it online, but she totally gets the whole drooling over pictures of yarn online and the urge to just buy everything mostly natural in sight. I looked at yarn last night. I even calculated how much the postage would be… I’m so glad I don’t have a bank card that the online stores accept or a PayPal account. I do have a credit card, but I do not use that, like ever.

So, it’s been a good day. Been singing along to songs on my iPod while walking up and down the hill. Yes, I did get some looks, but I don’t care. It was a song that just *had* to be sung along to. Silly people. And I curled my hair again. Now if only I wasn’t so afraid of damaging my hair by putting a hot iron to it then spraying the curls I’d do it more often. Okay, so my hair smells great with the hair spray on it (Herbal Essences: Set Me Up; it apparently has cactus flower and bamboo in it. I just like the way it smells).

Dance practice on Sunday was interesting. We were all tied together at the waist with long scarves when doing the Waltz and Quickstep. It was kinda fun, but my shoulders got really tired after going around the room three times non-stop. And now that Alan has sorted out his lock step mistake in the Quickstep, it’s shaping up to be pretty good. It’s not brilliant, but it’s still pretty good. Then later on Sunday I went to the pub quiz at the Cambrian with some of the people from the dance team. Out of eleven teams we came in third. :D And I was actually useful! I knew stuff like what the cassis liquer tastes of (blackcurrant, but that’s because cassis is French for blackcurrant. Never actually had that liquer); what country the “Teddy bear row” teacher went to next (China); and I was able to recognize a Spice Girls song from the very first few notes played, much to the amusement of everyone else at the table. XD And Phil, who was the one my enthusiasm brought most glee to, was the one who told everyone else which Teletubbie had the triangle on its head. Yep, my trivia knowledge wasn’t as bad as his was. Another funny thing that happened at the quiz was that the people at the table next to ours were mostly biology students and they were having a debate about what the collarbone was also called, while me and Hannah, creative writing and drama respectively, whispered in unison: “Clavicle!”

And now it’s time for dinner. Don’t really feel like having pasta tonight (which is the only “proper” food I’ve got the ingredients for right now)… Might make me some mannapuuro. Haven’t had that in ages, mainly because for breakfast I’ve been having Frosties. I don’t usually buy Frosties, but it was a Buy One Get One Free thing, so I’ve lots of it. I think the store has now changed the deal from Frosties to Rice Krispies. Might get some of those if I run out of Frosties…

I love curly hair. Especially when it’s my own. :D

Lookie what happened after 25 mins of trying not to burn my skin or my hair!



Now, I know it won’t last all day, but that’s okay. I still feel great. ^_^

It’s such a pretty day today. Cold, but pretty. Still all sunshine and no wind (unlike on Thursday). I would be outside, if I knew that I’d be moving around, but all I want to do is sit and knit or read. Again, it’d be the perfect day to do that and eat strawberries on the beach, except that it’s too cold to stay still. So I’ve got the strawberries next to me, sort of a lunch/snack while I catch up on my blogs and knit a bit more of my SSS. :) And now I want some sock yarn in a strawberries and cream type colorway. I’m sure there’s something on The Loopy Ewe.. Still need to wait two weeks before I can buy yarn though. It’ll be a tough wait. But in the mean time, I’m working my way through the stash; slowly but surely it’s getting smaller. :)

Speaking of staying still, I haven’t! I’ve been trudging up the hill at least four times a week, mainly because I have dance class four times a week (I don’t always go to the Friday one) and then my English lit class on another day. I’ve been up to the Sports Center so often that they know me at the front desk by now. I don’t even need to show my membership card anymore. ^_^

My social life has begun to pick up as well. Derya came over yesterday for some knitting time, then Ruth and Gabe are coming over tonight to watch Narnia, tomorrow’s the pub quiz… It’s a wonder I can force myself to work on my essay (which is a third done) when there are so many more fun things to do. And that my sleep cycle was interrupted last night when someone, who was most likely drunk, set off the fire alarm again. Grr. I liked waking up at eight! Now it’s all messed up again because I didn’t wake up until 9:30. Which is pretty early compared to when I used to get up, but still… I had an odd dream again. This time it had Ian Somerhalder, aka Boone from Lost, in it and he had this ability to fly and we were trying to get away from this huge red robot thing… then there was some green gas that took away the black mold that was growing on everyone’s teeth and… it was just weird. Maybe I should stop watching Lost…

I know I know, been quite for about a week now. Not much has really happened though, just the same stuff. Oliver’s birthday was on Saturday. We spent it at the Sheffield competition. Got to have lunch at Nando’s; something that never happens at other competitions because we don’t know where places are in the towns they’re held in. I bought him three DVDs for his birthday, I picked one that I knew he’d like and then I had him pick out two more. And I also got myself The Last of the Mohicans on DVD since it was only £3.

Yesterday I spent dancing. An hour in the morning, then two more in the afternoon. My feet are feeling mutinous. But that’s because my shoes I use for dancing aren’t proper dancing shoes. They slide around alot on the floor (which makes it very tricky to do the jive successfully). I think I might need to buy some gel pads or something before the next competition. Speaking of, it’s next weekend! Eep?

For some strange reason I keep waking up before eight. Like the whole of the past week, it’s been before eight. No alarm (except one morning when I had to get up early). It’s like: “Oh, I think it’s time to get up now.” So I sit up, look at my watch and see that it’s eight am. It’s really weird. Then again, I have been falling asleep before eleven as well, so that might be a reason why. I have a theory that the dream I had last night was my body’s way of telling me to wake up. It wasn’t really a nightmare by “normal” standards, as in no scary-ness, no panicking, etc. What happened? Well, in the dream I was wearing my Isabella, the tank top that took me forever to knit. I took it off and there was this huge gaping hole in the side! Like a moth or something had eaten away at it. Except that it’s made out of cotton, so it wasn’t that. And no matter what I did, I couldn’t fix it and the stitches just kept dropping and unravelling and… it was bad. So yeah, I think that’s my body’s way of telling me to get up and check on my knitting. XD

I’ve finally begun writing my &%$(* essay. I so don’t want to do it. Nothing is inspiring me, I have no opinions about the texts. Well, actually, I do have an idea about one of them, but I’m going to use that one for my second essay where we have to compare a text from the first part to a text from the second part. So now, I’m just muddling along writing about death and desire and how those two elements make Romeo & Juliet a tragedy. I know, not very original. But it was one of the questions set by the teacher, so he can’t really complain at me about it.

I sent off my MA application yesterday. Now it’s just a wait-and-see game. No idea when they’ll announce their decision. I mean, first they have to receive the transcripts and reference letters which I mailed yesterday and then they’ll probably take a month or two to decide… I also mailed my grandfather’s birthday present. Silly me forgot to take pictures before sending it so now that project is blank on Ravelry… Oh! I know what I’ll give Auri for her birthday! Not telling you all because you might blab. Plus, I think she reads this, don’t you Auri? :P

Derya, another Aber knitter, might be coming over later today. We’ve made tentative plans, but she too has an essay to write and some of her friends might be coming over to Aber today, so we’ll see. If not today, then we’ll meet up sometime next week. We were planning on knitting on the beach, but it’s gotten kinda cold again. Still really sunny, but the wind has picked up and makes it feel like it’s below freezing when it really isn’t. At least Sunday-Tuesday they’re predicting +10C and sunny skies. From Wednesday onwards it’ll be colder and more rain though…

Well, today was a first: there were more guys than girls at dance class today. So I got to dance with Alan and Ludwig (the French guy). ^_^ Ludwig is a really really good leader. And he applies the right amount of pressure and has enough force to make sure that I spin enough and… he’s just a very quick learner. *grin* It’s just too bad that he’s too busy to compete because he’d up Aber’s chances of getting into the finals of various dances. Plus, he’s really nice, good smile, smart and smells nice too. :P It was actually kinda fun teaching him how to do certain steps that I knew how to do and he didn’t. Like I said, quick learner. It’s such a shame that our Wednesday slot got taken away. I’m always so happy after dancing for two hours. Sure, my feet really hurt because I haven’t worn my dance shoes in like a month, but it’s so worth it. Ooh and we learned a new dance today too. It’s called the Gay Gordon. Really fun, but very very dangerous to one’s ankles when the high heels keep slipping and sliding on the floor (seriously, I’ve got no traction; even Alan knows that and is prepared to stop me from winding up on the other side of the room when I’m supposed to stay near him).

Gotta leave to catch the train. Get to see Oliver tonight! :D