Before Tigers.

Busiest week I have had in ages, so I will work backwards. Tonight I went to see 'Where the Wild Things Are' with Alex & his family. I really enjoyed it, but it was much more sad/poignant than I was anticipating, almost made Alex cry. The soundtrack is just incredible, just got myself a copy and am about to unleash it upon itunes.

Trying to remember all the things I have done this week is almost impossible, they are just blurring into one. Last night I went round Kat's with all of the girls for a catch-up, I lowered the tone by being particularly vulgar and it was hilarious. Tuesday, me and Alex went late night shopping in the Oracle, where he spent lots of money on shiny new things whilst I watched on in envy. On Saturday I went to see Avatar 3D with Alex, which was incredible graphics wise, but essentially Pocahontas set in the future. But seriously though, the 3D was just uncanny, genius!

Friday was Christmas and it was a fucking disaster. My dad hadn't secured the new kitchen cabinets to the wall properly, so midway through dinner they fell off taking half of the wall with it and the floor and destroyed the dining room. Basically ruined dinner, and then went round to my mums in the evening (whilst secretly wanting to be in bed).

Thursday night was amazing however, went down the Manor and saw almost every single person I have ever known in Bracknell. Had a big catch up with about 100 people and spent 30 minutes queuing for the bar (which is not even possible in the manor I swear). The taxi home cost £20 though, I was not impressed. Wednesday night was also really great, went out for a meal with the NEWS TEAM, there ended up being 22 of us all eating and making ridiculous levels of noise in the Weathervane. Ended up at the Manor, Jon got so drunk he threw his shoe in Declan's face, then preceded to lick his shoe in apology.

Its been a great week, New Years eve tomorrow night and then I have definitely got to get going on this mountain, impossible mountain, of Uni work.

Saturday

Postcards from Italy.

It's been a while. I left Sheffield on Saturday, now I am back in Bracknell. Not as great as I anticipated, but seeing my friends has been good. There has been a massive, constant snow blizzard since I have been back, making it very hard to leave the house. I have been so bored I have actually resorted to doing uni work that isn't due in for another month. tragic...

On Monday me, Jess & Anna made plans to go to Starbucks for a catch up. However, by the time Anna got her car to mine the snow was insane, cars were crashing at the end of my street and sliding down the hills. So we ditched the car at Aldi and walked to Starbucks. We watched the sainsbury's staff pushing cars out of the car park because they were just sliding back down the hill, and then freezing rain started to fall so we decided to brave getting the car home. It was a nightmare, took us close to an hour to do a 5 minute trip, and the slope by the roundabout was a nightmare. Fuck this snow, its only cool if you are a kid.




Yesterday night I went round to Jess' with Livvi & Kat, had a couple of drinks and a catch-up, was good, especially harassing Liv. Tonight I am going to a NEWSTEAM meal with what appears to be every male in Bracknell. Still working out how to get there, as my street is still an ice-rink.

Bone Structure (D$R21)

So i'm in that stage of waiting to go home before the end of term. I have no money left, and no work to do. The house has descended into a pre-christmas madness, involving wearing the contents of eachothers underwear drawer in order to distract people from doing their essays.

We had a proper, adult-style dinner party on thursday. Lots of fajitas and chilli and 'I have never' (probably not the most adult thing but its fine) and winnneee.

Last night chilled & watched BLOW with the girls & Alex. Ended up being woken up by a hilariously/tragically drunk Sarah at 3.37am. Now I am playing jade dynasty instead of doing research for my january assessments...


I really want a silk leopard print cardigan. Alas, no funds...

Have No Fear

I am not very good at this blog thing. But I suppose its just for me to read in future, so it doesn't really matter. I have had the busiest fortnight ever, all of my assignments are now in until January, a big weight off my shoulders. I got back my first assessment and was prepared for a terrible mark, I had a bad feeling about it, but I ended up getting a really solid 2:1 for it, so much relief! I haven't had other back yet, I'm not sure I want to see my marks yet, it might bring down my mood.

Thursday was Ilda's birthday, went round to her (very lush) flat down in the city. She cooked us a mammoth amount of food, amazing lasagna, and we drunk wine & champagne...only Ilda drank a little too much champagne and didn't make it past Varsity. Me & Laura headed to PLUG though & had a really great time despite there being only two of us.

Friday morning I had to get up, still hammered/after 3 hours sleep, and go to stay at Sarah's in Lincoln for the weekend. Left the house at 10, in a state to say the least, and went to the Christmas Market in town. Was amazing, so many cute little stalls, so much food (I tried an ostrich burger). Went back to Sarah's & chilled. Went back into town on the Saturday, absolutely rammed, met up with Abi's parents and mooched around once again. Had a massive spag bol in the evening, thought I was going to explode, had to change my skirt for our night out. Got into town quite early, went to a couple of bars and ended up at a place called Trebles, where you get 3 shots of vodka & a can of fizzy pop for £2 something. This, combined with the bottle of vodka we drank before we left Sarah's, meant I was definitely fuming drunk. Got to Rizzi's, got a free drink & the rest of the night is one hilarious blur.

Next morning, still drunk, Sarah's dad made us an epic roast dinner. So amazing, hit the spot nicely!

In about 12 days I am heading home for the winter, actually looking forward to it. I never thought I would get homesick for Bracknell, considering I love Sheffield, but I surprise myself sometimes. I am also officially over the £1000 mark in my overdraft, and with no job for Christmas I cant wait to get home and stop spending money. I haven't even thought about how I am going to get books for next term...

At the Bottom pt. 2.

So I have handed in a shitload of assignments recently, all of them attempting to be good but ending up terrible, been to see Muse at the arena (which was actually amazing considering I think their new album is terrible, but they played all of the old classic stuff so I was chuffed) and eaten a hell of alot of Giant Chocolate Buttons. This is due to Oscar's (our local newsagents) having them permenantly on offer.

My mum came up for a weekend, which was good, went to Zizzi's and ate some actual food (as opposed to the vegeburgers and pasta that I am living off currently). She also took me shopping to Meadowhall & I scored some lovely brown boots that 'aunties would have worn in the 90's' (thanks Abi).

I have one more assignment due in next week, and a presentation. But instead of doing that I am occupying myself with finding clothes on the internet that I cant afford and convincing myself that I can, but then not ordering them because I actually cant...



p.s. I did purchase the new Mighty Boosh live tour DVD, and viewing this has taken up pretty much my entire weekend. I feel like a 15 year old fangirl all over again...

Idiot Drugs.

The past week has been really good...eventful. Halloween involved a house party at Sarah's sister's house, and a lackluster outfit attempt from me (a ripped shirt with fake blood on / fake cuts drawn on). A good night, ended short as Abi's asthma got really bad after we had been in a bar on West Street.

Beginning of the week we actually found a house for next year! Having seen a grand total of over 20 houses including last years lot, we found one on the same road as we are on now. Its lovely, 4 double bedrooms and brand new kitchen/leather sofas etc. So i am pleased that I can now relax, house hunting is 100% stressful.

Thursday was Bonfire night, me and Alex headed over to Will's house for a party with homemade toffee apples (impressed!) & soup. I got horrendously drunk and embarrassed myself but it was worth it. Spent literally the whole of friday sleeping and feeling very sorry for myself.

Saturday we headed out for Sarah & Abi's Corfball social, with Ilda, Alan, Adam, Rob, Laura, Hannah, Debbie, Jane etc. Had an amazing night, drunk far too much tequila and ate my last pizza for a while when I got home. Im going back vegetarian tommorow when my Tescos shop arrives, and trying to eat healthier stuff, so I thought one last piece of crap food would do me good.

Also I am dismayed to discover that the £30 worker boots I was going to buy are out of stock in my size. Almost at weeping right now, questing for the perfect worker boots is ruining me. Also the perfect top containing a picture of the cosmos...

This one is from Zara, I have yet to find it instore, but my mum is coming up at the weekend, so perfect opportunity to go to Meadowhall.

Gifted.

Could not be anymore stressed than I am right now. This probably/definitely explains my lack of blog postings. Its like everything has come to a head at once, like finding a house for next year and several issues that are tied in with that & my course being infinitely more difficult than I imagined.

Nonetheless, I have had a relatively productive day of seminars and now have to write my essay on the Earl of Rochester. Oh, and also find a house...

Seeing Portugal. The Man at the Shakespeare in Sheffield tommorow evening, and then heading to a house party on saturday for halloween. Fuck a costume, I am too poor, I will just go as 'me-but-with-added-cynicism'. Mm...

I went home last weekend, definitely a welcome break. Spent most of my time drinking excessive amounts of coffee and eating roast dinners/drinking at the pub. Was good to see some familiar faces, but it was a hassle not having access to the books I needed.

I have also just had a call from the estate agents saying that two of the viewings we had booked have been cancelled because the houses are gone. How fucking fantastic...

Life would be so much easier if I could live in this apartment with that view.

You Cried Wolf...

Another week, slightly uneventful, marred by illness - essentially the usual. I have read the whole of Ralph Ellison's 'Invisible Man' (just to note, I much preferred Jack Kerouac's 'On the Road'), Paradise Lost and Freud's 'The Uncanny'. O joy! Particularly disappointing considering I missed my seminars on Thursday due to some form of toxic throat.

Saw Bat for Lashes at the union last night, she was incredible. She has this hard to describe, otherworldly & ethereal voice which translates really well live. I especially liked that she changed the instrumentation slightly on some of the songs, it worked really well and livened up the set. Also, during the encore, she brought out a TV screen and dueted with a video of herself for 'The Big Sleep'. Lovely...

I am making the long, arduous trip home on Thursday for the weekend, as I am feeling like I need a small break for a few days. It may also allow me to get some proper reading done and being to work on my assignments will be a bonus. Having said that, I will probably end up down the manor as I know my home friends will want to see me.

I have a few gigs planned for the next couple of weeks, (Portugal. the man, fall of troy & muse). Fall of Troy is going to be abit hit and miss though, as me and Alex can't decide whether to go to Manchester or Leeds and it all depends on my bank balance/whether I am caught up on Uni work. I would have some interesting pictures of my escapades to put up, but Sarah has not uploaded them yet, so no luck there.

I have also discovered that when Alex goes home for a few days in Reading week he will need me to cover his slot on FORGE radio, so this will be exciting, but if I am to make myself tolerable I will have to work on the shrillness of my voice.


p.s. I bought a lace dress last week, kind of like this (except I definitely do not look like this in it, more like an overstuffed sausage)

I am a nomadic wanderer.

Do you ever have one of those days where you want to just get away, run away? Whether its because you feel trapped or bored or exasperated or just not yourself. I guess I am just having one of those nights...maybe going swimming tommorow will calm me down. Mmm...

I'm In Awe, Amadeus.

I definitely need to get better at updating this blog, but life has been moving so quickly that I havent had a chance. Tonight I headed down to the Harley and saw MAYBESHEWILL and CATS&CATS&CATS with Alex, such a lovely chilled out evening of post rock and jack daniels. It is nice to spend some time together indulging ourselves in our weird musical interests. There were also only about 20 people, which was odd, and I bought a vinyl copy of their latest single (I have decided to start collecting vinyl again like I used to when I was younger, now I just need my own decks seeing as my dad wont let me have the one from home!)



I have been keeping myself busy doing work and reading for my course, I am finding the workload makes it difficult for me to live an exciting student life. Nonetheless, I have been out a fair bit, the below photos are from the ENGSOC SCRABBLE SOCIAL that I ended up attending on a whim, and had an awesome time...


I need to finish sorting my room out, it is so massive that I haven't finished decorating it and I reckon it could take at least another month. But I will definitely post photos when I am done.

In other news, I have tickets for BAT FOR LASHES & MUSE over the next two weeks, and couldn't be more excited...as long as muse play 'plug in baby'...

Polar

O hello, my name is franki and apparently I like to be the butt of everyone's joke because it makes me feel like a really valued friend...

Record Clear

So I finally have the internet following a terrible struggle with Virgin Media, can blog at last. This week has been my first back at Uni, I have actually (shockingly) enjoyed it, my seminars seem to all be great this semester, but It has dawned on me literally how much reading/work I have to do this year. I feel like I am already behind, although I havent even really started yet.

Been a relatively quiet one this week, bar tuesday, when we headed into town to players bar & crystal. Normally crystal isn't my cup of tea, but I had a ball and was devastatingly messy by the end of the night. I suppose thats what happens if you don't eat and then down about 8 jagerbombs! pictures...



Other than that, I have mainly been going down our local and hanging out at Alex's. Tommorow my mum and brother are coming up so he can look around Sheffield to see if he likes it. Tonight I am chilling out, tidying 245 and waiting for this little beauty to arrive, which I ordered out of my paypal money from Ebay!

Team Meat

I have literally done nothing this week, and its been incredible. Took a couple of days to settle into the house, and I refused to sleep on my own on the first night because it is big and creepy and we have a dungeon for a basement. Been out for a couple of nights (Sarah hasn't uploaded any of the pictures yet so I have nothing to show you) and been into town. Nice and relaxing, but I now need to stop smoking in the garden all day and actually do some of my reading. I have to read Paradise Lost, but the effort has left me and instead I am stealing my neighbours internet for spells (i.e. when it actually works) to further my pathetic addiction to farmville. Yes, new low.

Went to EMBRACE on monday night, went to Cav & Players on West St. first, which was nice and I got satisfyingly pissed on jagerbombs with Laura. However, EMBRACE was a disaster, they oversold capacity so there were 5000 when there should have been 3000. Consequently, it took us 20 minutes to clamber our way out of the crush on the stairwells and last I heard the police were considering shutting it down. Either way, they will get a hefty fine.

Wednesday was Corporation time, and I had a really awesome night, partly due to the fact that Alex was paying for me (yes, it is 50p a drink and free entry but I was still too poor!) and I got rather hammered off his £8.50. Corp vodka does soemthing to my body, makes me ecstatic but also very unstable on my feet/in my vision. Lovely night all round though.

I personally think managing two nights out this week, but various shenanigans in 245, is quite a feat considering I have had flu all week. I'm not sure if it is the dreaded SWINE, but I have certainly not felt this rough in my life & my throat keeps bleeding, but I am hoping if i dose myself up cold&flu remedy and coffee it will pass in time for my lectures this week.



p.s. I am getting a nose ring at some point in the next two weeks, hoping it will look like nice but it is more likely to resemble an empalement upon the face of a pig. We shall see, I might try and rock the punk-pig look anyway.

the candle burns too bright

so i am now in sheffield, and absolutely loving it already! currently sitting in my room (still half unpacked) stealing next doors wireless internet (aha) and about to go down to meet the girls for a hot chocolate.

getting up here was the biggest journey ever. my dad got the smallest van, natually ignoring my advice to get a transit given how much furniture we had, so it took about 2 hours to squeeze everything in & i was terrified on the journey up that the back doors were going to open and my stuff would end up all over the M1. But we made it successfully up to sheffield, got into the house without setting the burglar alarm of (success!) and starting shifting my mountain of stuff upstairs.

that was yesterday, and after a mammoth food shop (including olives & brioche, what a result!) and some more home stuff shopping today i am finally beginning to feel a little bit settled. the only thing i cant do is listen to my music on my tiny laptop speakers, so i just ordered some epic speakers off amazon to complete my room.

laura and sarah arrived earlier today & abi is arriving tommorow morning. i can't really afford to go out this week, but i am not really bothered, because i did the whole freshers thing last year and i cant be bothered to go out every night. plus i wanted to spend the last of my overdraft on some speakers, and they cost the same as a night out anyway. a much better investment i feel!

tommorow i am going to have a nice lie in and a quiet one i think, supposed to be going to embrace tommorow night but we will see how i feel when the time comes.

my hands are cold...

so this week i have essentially been doing nothing other than working and stressing. i have had work everyday, which has been fine as otherwise i would have just sat in bed all week. i have been packing in the evenings in anticipation for my return to sheffield. i have also spent the last hour compiling a list of all of the clothing i need/would like to buy...


i suppose this helps me be a little bit more sensible when shopping as i have particular items to save for rather than just wasting my money on unwearable crap.

in other news, my house has been overrun by spiders so big they have post graduate diplomas, i am moving up to sheffield on saturday morning in a transit van (i do, unfortunately and embarassingly, have enough to fill it) and i am going to bed in preparation for my last shift at work tommorow...

évasion de la ville

I returned last night/this morning from a trip with my uni housemates to the south of France to visit Ilda (our french flatmate from last year). It was so lovely, refreshing and fun! Particularly amazing to get away from Reading for a few days, this town is driving me insane as well as some of the people in it. We only went from wednesday - saturday but it felt like an age and was such a nice break, and a great chance to visit somewhere I hadn't been before.



On wednesday me and laura flew out (with Ryanair - we were worried but actually we ended up landing early so pretty perfect really) and met Sarah (who had flown out earlier that evening from Stansted) and Ilda! We threw our stuff into Ilda's little green frog car and went to see Aix-en-Provence at night. It was such a beautiful city, very historic and VERY french, with lots of apartments with balconies and peeling shutters. It was good that it didn't feel very touristy at all really. We went and had a drink in a little outside bar in the town square and talked for hours about all sorts (NHS, uni lol). Then we went back to Ilda's flat and ate Brie and bread at 2am :)



We got up the next morning to fresh croissants and coffee (lovely!) and then lounged around smoking until lunchtime, when Ilda's mum made the most amazing amount of tasty food (meats, olives, bread, cheeses, gratin, goats cheese, salad) and then we went to a massive mall to do a spot of shopping. I didn't buy anything other than a drink when we went to the bar, oh and some very tasty chocolates that contained apple and one that was shaped like an owl.

After another amazing & large dinner, including the best mushrooms i have ever tasted, we headed to the airport to pick Abi up. Whilst we were waiting, Sarah terrorised me and stole my shoes. I was walking around the airport for about half an hour with one shoe, i definitely looked like a 'security risk' and would not have got away with it in Gatwick!! Then we grabbed Abi and headed to Aix-en-Provence again for a drink. We took lots of pictures, my shoes got stolen again by the whole gang, and then Laura pulled my top down during a photo to reveal full nipple action. I did consider calling Samaritans for counselling!!



On the friday we headed first into Gardanne to see the amazing market, where some of the girls purchased tasty caked from the bakery and I purchased a ring shaped like a lizard which we named 'Laurent'. Then we got the train into Marseilles in the baking heat and arrived to the most grand train station I have ever seen!! took some lovely pictures and walked down to the port. The pharmacy said it was 37C so its a good thing we were wearing tiny shorts, but seriously about 100 old men/tramps stopped and stared at me, making me feel qutie self conscious - one literally stopped in front of me and told me he loved me , and another said I was like 'cleopatra'. Sarah and Abi found this highly amusing of course!! We then went for a massive lunch where i accidently ordered prawns for both starter and main, but it tasted divine so it didnt matter. Then we did a little shopping and headed back through Marseille to catch the train. We had steak for dinner, courtesy of Ilda's mum and had an early night because we were shattered (we watched Anastacia first though).

Then on saturday we headed back in to Aix to see the city during the daytime, had a lovely drink and walked around to see all of the beautiful buildings. We saw a wedding taking place in the city hall and I was very jealous of them being able to get married in such a nice building. I then bought some crushed olives and headed to the airport with Laura. On the flight home we met a man who had literally run away a year ago to join the French Foreign Legion and had just quit the day before. He was a very intriguing person, and was on his way home for the first time in over a year, having had no contact with his family.

Church Mouth

So it transpires I am terrible at updating this thing, or at least I have been for the last 2 weeks. Its been so hectic I am trying to remember what I have to write about...

I have been working quite alot, and keeping myself extremely busy on my days off (this, coupled with reading festival, might explain why I am currently horrendously ill). I went up to Sheffield for a weekend to stay in the new house and see Sarah & Alan. It was so nice to get away from the drama of Bracknell/Reading for a weekend and get a feel for the house. I am defnitely in love with it now, its going to be such a nice place to live once we have all moved in (in like 3 weeks!!) and filled it with our trinkets. So far I have acquired an undersheet and a fur throw for my room, and found the pefect bedding which I have yet to purchase (edit: have now purchased). We spent most of the three days I was there chilling, discovering our new local, cooking fajita's, watching x-factor/comedy shows and smoking/gossiping in our lovely concrete garden which overlooks the city. I also spent about 3 hours sticking some photos to the walls in my room in order to start transforming it, and had to share a bed with Sarah for the whole duration of my trip because the house still creaks and scares me slightly/alot. This fear of the house might have something to do with the fact we have a spindle and a sacrificial stone table in our basement. On the monday me and Sarah went for a pub lunch and I had to run like a dick'ed down WEST ST. for the tram. But it was lovely, apart from the train journey home...

Then I worked all week in preparation for the mighty READING FESTIVAL 2009! the wristbands were black this year, as opposed to mustard like 08 (thankgod!). I had the best Reading Fest of my life this year actually, took me completely by suprise as I was in a bad mood about it for most of this week and thought I would have a terrible time. But it turned out to be amazing, and bar not seeing Alex quite enough it was perfect. Because I can't be bothered to write an overly detailed account of the entire weekend I have created a collage of images to give you an idea of how insane it ended up being...



I suppose not alot of these images really make an impression out of context. Best bits of the weekend include Lauren taking strangers hostage for several hours screaming "CHOOSE ONE, MAKING YOU BETTER FEELING" & screaming "TIMMMAAAAAAAYYYY" right in a disabled person's face (I know morally this is not funny, but after laughing gas it has hilarious comedic value), the fur jackets, human kitkat, singing afternoon delight and rounds of frere jacquesat 5am, the angry bob marley mob on sunday night ('BOBMOB'), seeing YYY's/Deftones/White Denim/Bloc Party and rediscovering a previous love for Lost Prophets, "50BAHTSCHNOOOTERRRSSS", the abundance of drugs and the abundance of photos with drugs in that I can't post on facebook, eating 150 cheesestrings, getting a massive puffy cider face, eating burritos and jon drunk running at people with an inflatable chair.

Essentially, the best weekend ever!!

However, I am currently suffering for it, having contracted something hideously nasty, like a flu mixed with norovirus, so I am currently wrapped up in bed unable to eat with a stinking headache.

Off to France next wednesday to see Ilda, so excited its impossible to contain it!!