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Ryan, Oliver & I went to Meadowhall today. I was given my birthday present early. iPod! :D o/ Converting my music library to be compatible with it right now..

Oh these are sooooooooo good. We stopped at Thornton’s and this prompted Ryan to buy “death cubes” again. What he actually bought were the mini caramel shortcakes, but the last time he bought some, we came to the conclusion that the amount of saturated fat in them was so bad that we renamed them to Death Cubes. So now, he just offered me another one. Sooooooooooooo good. ^-^

I’ve finally finished the front bit of the poncho. The annoying thing is that I ran out of green just four rows from the end. The back bit is going to be white. I’ve begun knitting that today and so far I’ve got 30 rows of that done. :) I’m aiming to get all of the white used up tomorrow, so I can take the thing back with me and finish it off at home. The needles aren’t mine, so I’ll be really busy knitting tomorrow. Listening to my iPod while I knit. ^_^

I’ve got a strange headache.. I got it as soon as I had eaten the baked potato. I had a headache Tuesday night as well. Lasted for about 7 hours before I gave in and let Oliver get me some paracetamol. Really strange. I hope this one goes away faster than the Tuesday one.

Well, I’ve just updated my wishlist. Those are just ideas of what I like if you have trouble thinking of what to get me. No pressure! ;)

Yesterday at Shaun’s BBQ my shoe broke. The nice tan strappy one. The nine of us decided to go play rounders (sorta like softball) in the field. Well, there was no field that we could use, so we wound up in this playground. We made the bases out of the weird thing none of us knew what it was, the big spinning roundabout thing and the swings. Anywayz, I was the only one in a skirt and with improper shoes for running. Go me for being girly. Still, I decided to play anyway and after awhile, one of the straps broke. *sniffle* But once Oliver and I got back to his place, his dad superglued it back together. o/

The pub-crawl in Leicester wasn’t that much fun. I don’t really like going to loud pubs. I don’t mind going out with Anji&Steve because the conversation’s better, but going out in Leicester is not my idea of fun. The house parties aren’t that bad though. The only bit where I really did enjoy myself was in the club Streetlife (a gay club, but still). Hilarious seeing the old man from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang mouth along to Britney’s Toxic. Y’see, they were playing that movie silently in the background while blasting away the dance music. People do unpredictable things when they’re drunk. Like this one friend of Shaun’s suddenly hugged me when we left Streetlife. With a lit cigarette in his hand. I thought he was going to set my hair on fire with it! Not on purpose, but still. Luckily, Shaun took it off him so that wouldn’t happen. Then on the way back, a group of guys laughed as they went past us. Not so unusual in itself, but once we had walked along a bit more, we saw this girl on the ground crying with blood dripping onto the ground. The group of people with her had already called an ambulance and the police so we didn’t stop. No point in gawking. I think it was just her nose bleeding, but it still made me feel uneasy for the rest of the trip back. Especially since I was the only sober one out of the group.

On Saturday we stopped by Leicester Pride. Really nice weather. It wasn’t that interesting really. But I did see lots of cute dogs. And in the same park there was a gathering of families. The kids were really cute. There were these two boys in particular that caught my eye. The older one was about 5 and playing softball. He threw the ball in the air in front of him, ran towards it, let it bounce on the round and then swung with all his might so that he spun around. He didn’t hit the ball, but it was so cute how much effort he put into it. ^_^ The other kid was about four (guessing, since I saw them from a distance) and also trying to play softball. He threw the ball up, tried hitting it with the bat but wasn’t fast enough. So then he decided that since the bat wasn’t working, he’d just kick the ball because that way worked. XD So adorable.

I’ve almost finished the first stage of the front of the Hooded Baby Poncho I’ve begun making. Need to make a few adjustments to the size though. I’m making it for a big 12 month old, mainly because even if it is a bit big, it’ll still be fine and it can stretch. Plus, who knows how big the kid’ll be that’ll eventually wear it. So it’s just in case. ^-^ It’s a pretty greenish color, with a white hood. I picked “neutral” colors because then both boys and girls can wear it. Maybe I should start a hope chest or something like that. I’ve been reading this community and that gave me the idea. Just preparing for the future, slowly getting all the stuff together that I’ll need later once I’m ready to have kids so it won’t seem like such a big drain financially all of a sudden. :)

Today I went to Meadowhall with Ryan again. His Mac is really acting up and he went to complain about it. It’s the third time he’s had to give it in for repairs. Anyway, they gave us four different people to talk to. The woman listened to the problems Ryan’s having and took the computer into the backroom to listen if it was making the sounds Ryan said it was. Then we got this chubby man who did the whole trained spiel of listening to the customer’s opinion and then stating what the store could do to help him. The really skinny bobbing-head man was the most condescending out of them all. He had the attitude of “I’m right and you’re just making all of it up”. Really annoying. I was lucky enough to be allowed to tune him out and concentrate on scoping out everyone else in the store. Then we got a Spanish man who was nicest of them all. He also was very understanding and gave Ryan a form to fill in. So now his MacBook Pro is in for repairs once more. Lovely stuff.

Going to Leicester tomorrow morning. The plan is to go pub-hopping. Go to every pub that Shaun likes. Then Saturday before we come back we go to Leicester Pride. I’m assuming they won’t mind me & Oliver participating even if we are straight. XD

I really like Open For Business. So far I’ve got two toy shops (one selling only wooden toys, the other wooden toys & robots) and a flower shop. It’s fun to run them. It’s just annoying how the Sims want to wander off and do other stuff when they should be taking care of the shop. That’s what I get for having home businesses. It’s still fun, even if they do frustrate. ^-^

I caved in and installed Open For Business yesterday. So far running the Delarosa flower business is easy enough. I saw a fear that I’ve never encountered before: Be Old and Never Married. But it went away the next time she got up, so it’s not gonna ruin her life when she becomes an elder. Now that I’ve had a bit of practice, I can get my regular Sims to have businesses and stuff. XD

Went out to Meadowhall with Ryan today. We were looking for a b-day present for Shaun. Well, he was, I was just there. We stopped by The Body Shop and I just fell in love with the Almond Body Butter they do. I wants! But I can’t buy any. Only have like £30 left in my current account. All of the visa application fees and stuff just kinda crept up on me and now I have practically nothing left. Gotta wait until my parents pay me back before I can buy anything. I sampled some of the Body Butter at the store and some of the scent is still left on my arm. I just made Oliver smell it and he doesn’t like it. So I guess I won’t be buying that specific one while I’m still around him. Maybe there’s some other scented body butter that he won’t mind as much..

We met Mel and Steve at The Bluecoat at five. Well, Oliver & I got there at five and they didn’t get there until 5:40 (they did let us know that they’d be late, so it’s okay). It started off with Oliver and Mel just talking about people they know and what’s going on with them. Apparently some girl deliberately stopped taking the pill to trap some loser guy. Right now she’s over seven months pregnant. No clue who these people are, but apparently this is very juicy gossip. Anyway, after awhile Steve and I began to participate in the conversation a bit more and soon enough we were all feeling a little bit more at ease. One thing that all four of us have in common is that when we eat, we’re totally silent. No one talks, we just eat. This isn’t what I’m used to at home (with five around the table, someone’s always got something to say) and it seems like that’s what goes on at Steve’s home as well. We also talked about what we thought we’d be like. I had this picture of Mel having reddish-brown hair. Other than that, pretty much what I thought she’d be like. She told me that she thought that I’d be bitchier (most likely because she didn’t like Oliver’s last gf) and that I’d be taller. That one was probably because Oliver doesn’t really talk about people at all and all she had to go on was my name and nationality. All in all, we spent five hours together so I’d say it went pretty well. :)

We’re meeting Mel today. I totally forgot about it this morning, but when Oliver finally got up, he reminded me. Anywayz, we were supposed to meet up at four, but it’s been pushed back to five. I wonder how it’ll go… I mean, she and Oliver had a thing. Not really a relationship, but still a thing. That’s as accurately as I can describe it. We’d been planning on meeting up for ages but never actually did anything about it. So last week we finally decided that now we really will meet up.

I’ve just started reading Memnoch the Devil. I’d finished The Historian a few days ago (loved it!) but I’ve been busy knitting and solving Hanjie puzzles. XD I did start reading Memnoch near Christmas, but then I had that huge pile of books to read for my courses and it kinda got left on the back burner. I remember thinking it was a really good start to the book, but now that I’m reading it… not so convinced. Could be that I’m just itching to read the other books I’ve got waiting for me on Oliver’s shelf.

Anywayz, I’d better get going. We’re going soon, so I need to get ready.

Went to see The Da Vinci Code on Friday with Oliver, Ryan and Shaun. Shaun drove since he finally passed his driving exam. He’s pretty good considering he hasn’t been driving for that long. Sorta makes me want to get my license at some point. Just not over here, since I can’t handle driving a car that’s got the wheel on the right. :-S Anywayz, the movie. To me it seemed kinda slow paced. The book just flew when I read it (before I heard the hype about it, Ellu just sent it to us and said that we should read it). But the movie… not so much. Maybe it’s because I prefer reading to watching movies. I get to go at my own pace and things actually look like how I want them to. Yes, I like having control of things. Another reason why I love playing games like Sims2 and Civ4. XD

The four of us went out yesterday as well. Ate at Nando’s and then went out for a walk. In the park we found a lot of frogs/toads. Jumping things anyway. I remember three of them quite clearly. The first one is the little cute baby frog hopping across the path. The second is an adult sitting in a puddle. That confused us at first: Why is it just sitting in a puddle?? Then it dawned on us as the puddle was getting bigger. It was peeing. XD And the last one was another adult toad, just sitting in the middle of the road. Oliver tried poking it to move away so it wouldn’t get run over by a car, but it wouldn’t budge. Ryan nudged it with his shoe, nothing. Shaun tried to make it move it, it just leapt forward once and made Shaun jump. In the end, we just left it there because it would not move! Silly toad.

I’ve been watching the National Geographic and History channels alot. I just looooove learning about hurricanes and tornadoes. I wonder if someone’ll want to take a road trip with me to Tornado Alley next year. All they get in Montana are blizzards. If those. I know the forces of nature aren’t to be messed with, but I want to experience a tornado passing over us. Well, I’ll just have to make do with NG. I did see this really cool thing about locusts on NG the other day. I now know the stages of life they go through, why they swarm, how they eat.. and most interestingly of all: why the Rocky Mountain locusts just suddenly disappeared after the huge swarm of 1875 (that I first heard about in the Little House on the Prairie books). And I want to complete the set that I have already. I’m missing the last three books: Little Town on the Prairie, These Happy Golden Years and The First Four Years. Which is why I’ve been looking in all the bookstores over here, but they don’t have them. So I guess I’ll just have to wait until I get to the States to buy them. I can’t wait to get to the huge bookstores they’ve got over there. My favorite store out of all of them. I just get this high whenever I go to a place with a lot of books, like a library. I want to read them all! XD

I’ve been knitting a lot. Almost finished a potholder for Oliver’s mom. The back of it is white in this kind of pattern:

-—-|||||—–|||||—– |||||—–|||||—–|||||

And then on the front, it’s a white background with four turquoise hearts and a “J” in the middle. :) It’s so nice to be knitting again. Very comforting. Next, I want to try to make a quilt. But that’ll have to wait until I get back home where I’ve got a sewing machine. Plus, I need to find a pattern that I like. And then of course some cloth to make it out of. XP

Spent the day driving around with Oliver’s dad. He drove, I read the map and found the houses he needed to get the interviews. Not that he actually got any interviews, but still. It was fun. Saw this really pretty place where you can just go wander around. There was this rock that looks like a toad’s mouth. XD Anyway, I’m gonna suggest it to Ryan that we go walk around there while Oliver is at work. Since Oliver doesn’t want to go camping (something Ryan and I are very interested in) so just something similar to it that we could do during the day instead. In theory, Oliver has nothing against just me and Ryan going camping just the two of us, but I am going home soon so he doesn’t want to lose any time that we’ve got left.

Gave blood yesterday. One of the questions they asked before I donated was: “Are you pregnant? Have you had a child in the past 9 months?” Me: o_O;; “….. I hope not!” Wouldn’t be good if I’d had a child in the past 9 months and somehow not notice and therefore have lost it. o_o Then when the nurse tried to find the perfect vein in my arm, she chose a side vein which apparently squirted out a lot of blood down my arm. I didn’t notice this. She saw some of it and wiped it away but didn’t get all of it. So when I had donated and was getting some refreshments to get some sugar into my body the nurse over at that side of the donation clinic gasped and asked: “What happened?!” It wasn’t until then that the rest of the blood was cleaned up. XD

It’s so warm over here. Usually I wouldn’t complain about it since I like summer and all. But for some reason, the temperature in Oliver’s bedroom is unbearable. We did go shopping yesterday and he bought this unit thingy that has lowered the temperature a bit, but not by much. So I’ve been outside reading a lot. Tanned quite a bit, much to Oliver’s dismay. He doesn’t like me being brown. And now I’ve developed this weird coloring on my chest of brown, pink and white. XD

I’ve got my visa for the States. Only had to wait for them to process the application for three and a half hours. They didn’t have any air conditioning in there either. And I forgot to take something to read with me, so it was kinda boring just sitting there listening to the announcements of: “Now serving customer number ### and number ##”. Anyway, I’ve got the visa. o/ I’ve decided that the sauce they use at Nando’s is really good. So I’m gonna buy some before I go and take it home with me. ^-^

The strike is over, so I should get my results on time in July. I know that I got 64% for my second portfolio (improvement ^_^) which means that my grade for that module would most likely be 62.5%. Don’t know will they round it up to 63%. So now I might have to e-mail my other tutors and ask if they could e-mail me back the front pages of my essays so I’d know what I got from them.

While we were in London we stopped by Foyles (naturally). I bought three books: Necroscope IV &V and The Historian. Right now I’m over half way through The Historian. It’s interesting stuff, more like a thriller than a horror book (it was in the horror section). It’s about Dracula and how he’s haunting these historians by leaving these blanks books that only have a picture of a dragon in the middle of them. It’s text upon text upon text. Sorta like The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner. XD