Well, last week was rather crazy - the freshers arrived!
Aber is again considerably busier than it has been for months and it is impossible to find a decent parking space! I've now gotten into the habit of when I get a parking space near the house, I don't use my car for a few days so that I can keep the spot - makes no sense really as I'm not benefiting from the parking space as I'm not using my car from it... but I guess it's there in emergencies!
I've been really good this term (so far)! I have only driven up the hills once and that was to help take things up for Fresher's Fayre! :) That makes a massive difference to last year! Oh, and it isn't just because I haven't been going up the hill because I have! :) I've walked up it loads in the last few weeks - more than I did in the whole of last year probably!
Having the freshers arriving also meant lots of CU/Church events... freshers' week was very busy! I didn't get involved as much as I would have liked though (I slept through prayer meeting and so didn't get to sign up to things - but I did ask to be on things any way :) )... We had a lot of freshers round at our house after the events though so we've definitely gotten to know people which is great :)
In fact, after CU on Friday Malcolm, Laura, Kirsty and I came home with a group of freshers (8/10 of them) and had just started playing a game when Isaac and folk came in with nearly everyone else! It was insane! We didn't even count how many there were but there were more than enough for an EPIC game of Articulate... we had 6/7 groups of 5-6 people... it was crazy! But fun :)
Sunday lunches have also been a bit crazy... Fresher's Sunday we invited back a group of people and I ended up making roast dinner for 18 people (Thank you Jesus for multiplying food! <- He's good at that!) and then last Sunday we made dinner for 20 people! 38 people in a week can't be bad! I was quite impressed if I say so myself, I've never really been amazingly skilled at the cooking front but people seemed to really like it (in fact, some were commenting to others about how good it was) :D
I was going to title this blog post 'back to routine', but I haven't really yet settled into a routine... this week is a seminar-less week and I have been given LOADS of shifts at work so it's been a bit crazy and definitely not standard routine...
Also, a quite add... thank you ever so much to Rachel from Dreaming of the Country for giving me a blog award :) And a very big welcome if you've found me through her post! :)
Showing posts with label Travel. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Travel. Show all posts
Wednesday, 5 October 2011
Friday, 26 August 2011
Drive time
Tuesday (23rd) I got to spend nearly a whole day with my sisters, it was wonderful!
I had to collect them from a little cottage half an hour outside of Aberystwyth where they were staying with my grandparents then drive them home to Nottinghamshire to my mum... my granddad had welled up when we were getting ready to leave and told to me to make sure I drove very carefully as if anything happened to us it'd kill him... no pressure!! (Of course, I do tend to drive carefully and wouldn't want anything to happen anyway)
After I picked them up we drove back to Aberystwyth. I wasn't quite ready to say goodbye again yet and wanted to show my sisters my new house... we then went to the beach for a while...
After playing around for a bit we then set off to Nottingham... However, not long out of Aber, we had to make another photo stop!
Esther also took lots of photos of the Welsh countryside on the way back, but they're her photos so I shan't put them up here as I don't want to get done for copyright! :P
I had to collect them from a little cottage half an hour outside of Aberystwyth where they were staying with my grandparents then drive them home to Nottinghamshire to my mum... my granddad had welled up when we were getting ready to leave and told to me to make sure I drove very carefully as if anything happened to us it'd kill him... no pressure!! (Of course, I do tend to drive carefully and wouldn't want anything to happen anyway)
After I picked them up we drove back to Aberystwyth. I wasn't quite ready to say goodbye again yet and wanted to show my sisters my new house... we then went to the beach for a while...
After playing around for a bit we then set off to Nottingham... However, not long out of Aber, we had to make another photo stop!
The journey back was hilarious. The three of us sang at the top of our voices for close to 5 hours non-stop! Our throats were starting to hurt by the end... but it was worth it!
Esther also took lots of photos of the Welsh countryside on the way back, but they're her photos so I shan't put them up here as I don't want to get done for copyright! :P
I really enjoyed the drive back, and while it is always scary driving with both of them in the car (all mum's eggs in one basket), it was wonderful spending some fun time with them. I definitely feel like I'm growing closer to them! :)
Thursday, 3 March 2011
Ou èst la plage
Rise and shine!
This morning we awoke nice and fresh; me at 7.30 (6.30 British time! :o ) and Laura at 10 - a much more sensible time! After getting ready for the day we went to a local grocery store, we picked sandwich stuff, crisps and some drinks then went to the till to be served by what we think was a Spanish man - he said sì! We also bought some bubble gum that had a tattoo sticker in - Laura has a pink person on her hand, and on my foot I have '@-', why, I have no idea!!! We came back to the hotel made sandwiches, ate lunch and faffed about with maps.
Then to explore...
We went back into the center and then went towards the harbour. We walked along the harbour and found some forts. We had to walk along and cross a very big fast road - I was a bit scared, but Laura was fine, she is obviously much braver than me. The view off one of the forts was pretty cool, we could see over most of Marseille and had a nice view of the harbour.
Ou èst la plage?
Then to find the beach! We walked along a long road and after a while we found the beach! We paddled in the sea and wrote names in the sand, then back off to explore.
With sand in our shoes we started back towards the center. On our way back we stopped into a cafe for a drink. Laura asked for a coke in brilliant French, and I spoke in Spanish - fail! After realising we were tourists we attempted at a quick conversation then sat to enjoy our drinks. After enjoying our drinks, having a rest and going to the toilet, we continued on our way.
The journey to the town was filled with photo-taking and laughs, some photos will be up here after the holiday. Once we were in town we went window shopping and enjoyed a crèpe in a nice French cafe. We seemed to catch the eye of the waiter so after our crèpe we were off to continue window shopping. We were disappointed to find so many British shops, but ecstatic to find sweet shops and a French food shop!! If we could, we would bring so much back!!
Believe it or not, it was now dinner time... so..."when in Rome"... we wanted a baguette...
We went for a little wonder and after a little while, found a nice looking baguette shop. We went in and were spoken to with very quick French. After, shamefully, saying 'inglès', the guy proceeded to speak in fluent English! We then wanted to buy the whole shop, he was so nice! We bought a baguette each and a cake each, said 'au revoir', and headed back to our hotel.
Since being back we have eaten, played plenty of card games, enjoyed receiving Facebook messages from our respective gentlemen, and are now going to do some studying before going to bed! Essays don't write themselves!
I've had a really good day, with even more memories to share. It's been really good fun finding out more about each other and relaxing together. I've realised I'm much better at Spanish than I realised, but no good at French. I think I'm either going to have to learn them both really well or be happy with just speaking Spanish. Going to have to think about that!
Anyway, I'm going to stop procrastinating and get some work done.
This morning we awoke nice and fresh; me at 7.30 (6.30 British time! :o ) and Laura at 10 - a much more sensible time! After getting ready for the day we went to a local grocery store, we picked sandwich stuff, crisps and some drinks then went to the till to be served by what we think was a Spanish man - he said sì! We also bought some bubble gum that had a tattoo sticker in - Laura has a pink person on her hand, and on my foot I have '@-', why, I have no idea!!! We came back to the hotel made sandwiches, ate lunch and faffed about with maps.
Then to explore...
We went back into the center and then went towards the harbour. We walked along the harbour and found some forts. We had to walk along and cross a very big fast road - I was a bit scared, but Laura was fine, she is obviously much braver than me. The view off one of the forts was pretty cool, we could see over most of Marseille and had a nice view of the harbour.
Ou èst la plage?
Then to find the beach! We walked along a long road and after a while we found the beach! We paddled in the sea and wrote names in the sand, then back off to explore.
With sand in our shoes we started back towards the center. On our way back we stopped into a cafe for a drink. Laura asked for a coke in brilliant French, and I spoke in Spanish - fail! After realising we were tourists we attempted at a quick conversation then sat to enjoy our drinks. After enjoying our drinks, having a rest and going to the toilet, we continued on our way.
The journey to the town was filled with photo-taking and laughs, some photos will be up here after the holiday. Once we were in town we went window shopping and enjoyed a crèpe in a nice French cafe. We seemed to catch the eye of the waiter so after our crèpe we were off to continue window shopping. We were disappointed to find so many British shops, but ecstatic to find sweet shops and a French food shop!! If we could, we would bring so much back!!
Believe it or not, it was now dinner time... so..."when in Rome"... we wanted a baguette...
We went for a little wonder and after a little while, found a nice looking baguette shop. We went in and were spoken to with very quick French. After, shamefully, saying 'inglès', the guy proceeded to speak in fluent English! We then wanted to buy the whole shop, he was so nice! We bought a baguette each and a cake each, said 'au revoir', and headed back to our hotel.
Since being back we have eaten, played plenty of card games, enjoyed receiving Facebook messages from our respective gentlemen, and are now going to do some studying before going to bed! Essays don't write themselves!
I've had a really good day, with even more memories to share. It's been really good fun finding out more about each other and relaxing together. I've realised I'm much better at Spanish than I realised, but no good at French. I think I'm either going to have to learn them both really well or be happy with just speaking Spanish. Going to have to think about that!
Anyway, I'm going to stop procrastinating and get some work done.
Wednesday, 2 March 2011
3 countries in 24hours
So, here we are, sat in our hotel in the south of France....
The journey so far....
So straight after my 5-6 o'clock lecture I ran out to Laura's car, she had driven up to campus straight after her lecture. We were rather hungry so stopped off at McDonald's for some chicken nuggets, chips, and the toilet!
The journey to Laura's was made in record time with plenty of fun conversations. We contemplated how much Aber has changed us, quote of the night 'yeah, if you think about me' - oh dear!! I got to experience Laura's comedy comments when driving - she talks to herself and goes very weird ;P all the better to laugh with. :)
We arrived at Laura's just before midnight, Laura high on Red Bull, me struggling to stay awake. After re-packing and having a sad realisation that I could've brought my suitcase, we went to bed.
Nice and early this morning (6.50) my alarm went off to get me out of bed... a shower and an orange juice later we were off!!
The journey to the airport was fun. I found out that Laura's dad did international relations so we chatted about Africa, colonialism and the difference between a nation-state and a state-nation. Fun I know :) Laura was thrilled by this conversation!
At the airport we weighed our bags, sized our bags, and avoided talking about safety pins, bombs and machine guns when going through security, and then... waited...
After finding a 'the windmill' weatherspoons, we went a little bit crazy in a toy shop: Laura danced on a floor keyboard, I couldn't find hand puppets (they were right behind me), and we played catch. We then contemplated buying a real aston martin for £20 but realised we wouldn't be able to afford the insurance. Now for the search for shampoo...
'Laughter is the best cosmetic, so grin and wear it'
We found the Boots and found the travel sized shampoo, conditioner, shower gel, face wash and deodorant. After getting some snacks we went to the till, only to find out we could have a freebie item with our 'skin care' products, so we got a moisturising cream. Not only was this cream free, it also managed to knock 30p off our total! We discussed buying more to get our total to nought but figured this might not actually work...
Then for preparing to run to a gate when it was shown on the screens... after packing our products in our bags and getting our passports and boarding passes ready, we sat for a while. As soon as the gate came up we ran, I was impressed at how organized we were! We enjoyed going along the flat escalator things and arrived at the queue to be the second party there! WIN! The French don't seem to like to queue - one man kept trying to cut the queue.
We managed to get the seats by the emergency exits so we had lots of leg room, which was useful as neither of us really needed it as we both like to cross our legs.
The flight had quite a bit of drama. As we repeated French phrases, words and numbers off my 'teach yourself French' ipod mp3, babies around us were causing some issues. We had two very cute little boys sat behind us who we had been pulling faces at and there was a little girl across the aisle just behind them.
Drama number one: 'excuse me, can you help me, my baby has been scolded'. The youngest of the boys behind us had spilt tea/coffee on himself. After yelling down the plane, the lady continued to yell at the Ryanair people, attempting to blame them for the hot beverage. She tried to get Laura to act as a witness, Laura refused.
Drama number two: 'the baby has been crying for so long and the mother is doing nothing for it'. The little girl behind us was crying, we were coming to land and I can only assume that the child, who had behaved perfectly throughout the flight, was experiencing ear pain. I was too so I totally empathised. The passenger in front of her started yelling at the mum. This resulted in passenger, girl's mum and boys' mum participating in a yelling match. A Ryanair stewardess came over to see what was happening, kindly another passenger translated (quote above). She tried to calm the situation.
After landing we went through passport control and went to find a bus. After finding out how extortionate taxi prices are, we got on the coach. Twenty minutes later we arrived at Garè St.Charles, then for finding the hotel! We located where we were and where the hotel was. We were to walk down a really long road turn right and walk down another long road. We did and found the hotel without getting lost or asking for directions! :) WIN!
We checked in and freshened up and headed back out to find some food! We hadn't had anything proper to eat all day! Our 'lunch' consisted of a packet of crisps and a small bag of popcorn each (I had also had some grapes). We walked into the centre away from the side streets and suburbs that we are in. After finding the sea, we realised we REALLY needed food. We walked along the harbour looking for a cheapish restaurant but every time we tried to eat somewhere we were told they were closed - even though people were in there drinking. After walking around for some time we realised that we must have been too early for food! It was about 5.30. Too hungry to wait we went back round the harbour, enjoy the sights and looking into tourist stuff as we went, and decided to go to Haagen Dans for some desert and to pass the time away. After seemingly taking forever to decide what to have we ordered and enjoyed some delicious ice cream!! As we were too embarrassed to go back to the restaurants and rather fuller up (I know that's not grammaticaly correct) we decided what we really wanted was a slab of pizza and to come back to hotel to chill out. So to find pizza... we wandered the streets of Marseille and couldn't find pizza anywhere... until... we wandered down a, slightly rough, side street... PIZZA GALORE! Exactly what we were looking for! We ordered our pizza and continued to wander, until we got a little uncomfortable :S so we headed towards the center again and walked back to the hotel.
We have gotten into our pajamas and after me spending just under an hour writing this and Laura editing the video from today, Laura has just this minute drifted to sleep and I am going to do some reading then do the same.
Today has been so much fun and we have so many special memories simply from today!
So... 24 hours, 3 countries...
Let's see what tomorrow will bring...
The journey so far....
So straight after my 5-6 o'clock lecture I ran out to Laura's car, she had driven up to campus straight after her lecture. We were rather hungry so stopped off at McDonald's for some chicken nuggets, chips, and the toilet!
The journey to Laura's was made in record time with plenty of fun conversations. We contemplated how much Aber has changed us, quote of the night 'yeah, if you think about me' - oh dear!! I got to experience Laura's comedy comments when driving - she talks to herself and goes very weird ;P all the better to laugh with. :)
We arrived at Laura's just before midnight, Laura high on Red Bull, me struggling to stay awake. After re-packing and having a sad realisation that I could've brought my suitcase, we went to bed.
Nice and early this morning (6.50) my alarm went off to get me out of bed... a shower and an orange juice later we were off!!
The journey to the airport was fun. I found out that Laura's dad did international relations so we chatted about Africa, colonialism and the difference between a nation-state and a state-nation. Fun I know :) Laura was thrilled by this conversation!
At the airport we weighed our bags, sized our bags, and avoided talking about safety pins, bombs and machine guns when going through security, and then... waited...
After finding a 'the windmill' weatherspoons, we went a little bit crazy in a toy shop: Laura danced on a floor keyboard, I couldn't find hand puppets (they were right behind me), and we played catch. We then contemplated buying a real aston martin for £20 but realised we wouldn't be able to afford the insurance. Now for the search for shampoo...
'Laughter is the best cosmetic, so grin and wear it'
We found the Boots and found the travel sized shampoo, conditioner, shower gel, face wash and deodorant. After getting some snacks we went to the till, only to find out we could have a freebie item with our 'skin care' products, so we got a moisturising cream. Not only was this cream free, it also managed to knock 30p off our total! We discussed buying more to get our total to nought but figured this might not actually work...
Then for preparing to run to a gate when it was shown on the screens... after packing our products in our bags and getting our passports and boarding passes ready, we sat for a while. As soon as the gate came up we ran, I was impressed at how organized we were! We enjoyed going along the flat escalator things and arrived at the queue to be the second party there! WIN! The French don't seem to like to queue - one man kept trying to cut the queue.
We managed to get the seats by the emergency exits so we had lots of leg room, which was useful as neither of us really needed it as we both like to cross our legs.
The flight had quite a bit of drama. As we repeated French phrases, words and numbers off my 'teach yourself French' ipod mp3, babies around us were causing some issues. We had two very cute little boys sat behind us who we had been pulling faces at and there was a little girl across the aisle just behind them.
Drama number one: 'excuse me, can you help me, my baby has been scolded'. The youngest of the boys behind us had spilt tea/coffee on himself. After yelling down the plane, the lady continued to yell at the Ryanair people, attempting to blame them for the hot beverage. She tried to get Laura to act as a witness, Laura refused.
Drama number two: 'the baby has been crying for so long and the mother is doing nothing for it'. The little girl behind us was crying, we were coming to land and I can only assume that the child, who had behaved perfectly throughout the flight, was experiencing ear pain. I was too so I totally empathised. The passenger in front of her started yelling at the mum. This resulted in passenger, girl's mum and boys' mum participating in a yelling match. A Ryanair stewardess came over to see what was happening, kindly another passenger translated (quote above). She tried to calm the situation.
After landing we went through passport control and went to find a bus. After finding out how extortionate taxi prices are, we got on the coach. Twenty minutes later we arrived at Garè St.Charles, then for finding the hotel! We located where we were and where the hotel was. We were to walk down a really long road turn right and walk down another long road. We did and found the hotel without getting lost or asking for directions! :) WIN!
We checked in and freshened up and headed back out to find some food! We hadn't had anything proper to eat all day! Our 'lunch' consisted of a packet of crisps and a small bag of popcorn each (I had also had some grapes). We walked into the centre away from the side streets and suburbs that we are in. After finding the sea, we realised we REALLY needed food. We walked along the harbour looking for a cheapish restaurant but every time we tried to eat somewhere we were told they were closed - even though people were in there drinking. After walking around for some time we realised that we must have been too early for food! It was about 5.30. Too hungry to wait we went back round the harbour, enjoy the sights and looking into tourist stuff as we went, and decided to go to Haagen Dans for some desert and to pass the time away. After seemingly taking forever to decide what to have we ordered and enjoyed some delicious ice cream!! As we were too embarrassed to go back to the restaurants and rather fuller up (I know that's not grammaticaly correct) we decided what we really wanted was a slab of pizza and to come back to hotel to chill out. So to find pizza... we wandered the streets of Marseille and couldn't find pizza anywhere... until... we wandered down a, slightly rough, side street... PIZZA GALORE! Exactly what we were looking for! We ordered our pizza and continued to wander, until we got a little uncomfortable :S so we headed towards the center again and walked back to the hotel.
We have gotten into our pajamas and after me spending just under an hour writing this and Laura editing the video from today, Laura has just this minute drifted to sleep and I am going to do some reading then do the same.
Today has been so much fun and we have so many special memories simply from today!
So... 24 hours, 3 countries...
Let's see what tomorrow will bring...
Tuesday, 1 March 2011
Watch this space
Well, all packed and ready, one lecture to go then we're off.
We'll be staying at Laura's tonight so we've got a long drive. A long time to not get travel sick! I think I'll just sleep.
Tomorrow morning we'll be off to the airport and we'll be in the air by lunch.
I'll try and keep you updated with what we're doing through this blog... so... WATCH THIS SPACE
We'll be staying at Laura's tonight so we've got a long drive. A long time to not get travel sick! I think I'll just sleep.
Tomorrow morning we'll be off to the airport and we'll be in the air by lunch.
I'll try and keep you updated with what we're doing through this blog... so... WATCH THIS SPACE
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