End of an era

For some reason, my trip to see Aimee last week, brilliant as it was, and I will go into that below, seems to have triggered a slight feeling of sadness within me. In some ways, it feels as though it was the beginning of the process of change. Saying 'goodbye' to your best friend and her family, a family that may as well be part of your own, knowing that you're unlikely to see them for a long, long time... suddenly the reality of the move starts to hit home. It's not to say that I'm sad because I'm not, I'm excited and nervous and everything one would expect... I just can't quite explain the emotion in English.

Anyway, onto my trip to see The Best Friend...

Caroline somehow managed the impossible and took a
completely out of focus photo on my camera. I think she has a talent!

Arriving later in the evening leaves little time for the innitial catch up discussion so, naturally Aimee and I managed to stay up quite late. Okay, we stayed up until about half three talking about Game of Thrones but oh well!

The day after was a day of exhaustion leading to a decision to mooch as opposed to force excursions. Naturally, this gave Aimee the perfect excuse to attempt to introduce me to her not so new obsession of pole dancing. Admittedly, in my case, this was more like jumping on the pole and clinging on for grim death but heh, it was fun nevertheless. I actually didn't think I'd enjoy it but I really did and would love to have a go properly. It requires yourself to push yourself physically and mentally, a challenge but not impossible.

Aimee and Caroline down by the Quay

The afternoon saw us taking a lazy stroll along the river with Caroline, Aimee's younger sister, and a complete darling. The combination of good weather, better company, and sheep milk ice-cream made the afternoon thoroughly enjoyable. It's lucky we ate out a bit too because I got distracted by DUWO messing me around in the evening and burned dinner slightly. It wasn't badly burned but it was darn annoying.

The day after was a busy one. Aimee and I took a train down to Exmouth and had a bit of time in the sea and in the arcade and being generally touristy. It was, quite simply, lovely. I didn't take my camera down because I didn't want to leave it unattended if we decided to swim and leave the bags on the beach.

At the fair

The evening saw a trip to the fair which is somewhere I've only ever been with The Best Friend and The Sister. Once again I was coerced into going on the roller-coaster despite being a verified coward. I can't say I enjoyed it but eh, I did it. The rest of the time was more enjoyable with me going on some of the calmer rides while watching the other two having fun on the more daring ones. For various reasons, we couldn't stay for all that long but it was a great end to the day.

The weird thing is, talking to Aimee, it's become clear that I will see her at Christmas at the earliest. If not it will be a year until I see her. That's really weird. It felt as though I was facing saying my first 'goodbyes' earlier than planned both to her and to her family. Not to mention, on the way home, we stopped in one of the pubs I've been going to for as long as I remember to find it's been sold and all the staff are leaving next week. It really does feel like change is in the air. I don't really like ends but my goodness, aren't the beginnings they make room for an adventure!

One year of blogging

It was exactly one year ago that I made my first post here. 

I had just finished my exams and I felt pretty low about them because, to be honest, I felt I hadn't done so well. However, it was the start of my gap year, my exciting year of travelling and fun, and I decided to set up this blog to keep friends in the loop as we went our separate ways.

My gap year ended up being a strange thing, and not what I expected at all. From housing to family issues, there were a lot of serious strains,  but I have also seen the direction of my further study change in just a few months.

There's no doubt in my mind that I'm going to continue blogging here. Lets see what the next year holds!

Is it time for bed yet?

Baking for Aimee when I can't be bothered to cook for myself!

Wow, what a busy day this is turning out to be. I've only snatched a moment to write a quite blog post while I wait for the oven to heat up so I can shove in a ready meal!

Although I'm looking forward to going to stay with The Best Friend tomorrow, the fact that I'm going to be away from home until Monday means there's quite a lot to get in order, both regarding The Move and work. Not the end of the world but pretty hectic. Of course, this is without me having to do stuff in readiness for my father's birthday tomorrow and going to Aimee's!

Exciting surprise stuff!

Baklava is ready, shortbread batch two didn't come out quite as well as batch one (the base is a bit thin, I think) but that's setting in the fridge as I type. Just got to run around shoving clothes in a bag and wash my hair and I'm sure I'm forgetting something!

The other bit of news from today is that I received a surprise package which turned out to be a copy of The Testament of Marcellus by Marius Gabriel. I am so looking forward to reading the book as it seems to have a really interesting concept, and one that appeals to me, and will, of course, review it here and on Goodreads when I'm done!

Well, oven has heated up... best put dinner on!

Baking for Aimee (also featuring "How many things can go wrong in one day?")

The last period has been a busy one to live through and a dull one to write about. I'm sure you have no problems with guessing why so I simply won't go into all that.

Today's been a funny old day with basically everything going wrong that could go wrong from printers breaking, something going wrong with the signing of my tenancy agreement which led the website to ask me to call the company whose number doesn't work (certainly not outside of the Netherlands anyway), chopped nuts being bought two days ago being out of date by several months... It's certainly been one of those days.

I feel that it's my duty as a friend to
fatten Aimee (and family) up a bit ;-)

That said, I'm really excited at the moment because I'm going to stay with The Best Friend, and her delightful family, for a couple of days later this week. If you read my blog then you'll know when I last saw her, around the time of my AUC interview, a.k.a. too long ago! I'm really hoping that the weather holds and we can do something nice like go doing to the beach or the like. Anyway, I've got to wait until Thursday for that.

I've already been doing things to 'get ready', however as it's a bit of a tradition (it seems!) that I cook so I've been working away on some baked treats. Given free reign by The Best Friend (as long as there's no mint), I've been experimenting a little with a millionaires' shortbread inspired thing, second batch to be made tomorrow, and a kinda baklava thing which is done but needs some little tweaks yet.

So that's that :-D

Instead of keeping what I'm making a secret, I've decided to tease with photos

Book review - 'The Death of Death' by K.N. Parker

Rating: 3/5 stars

Plot:

"Death guides usually have rather normal names like John, Mary, Harry, and Jessica. And even ones not quite so normal, like Bartholomew or Ambrosia. They also have the most interesting tales behind their deaths. But one particular death guide has a few problems: she cannot remember her name or the details of her demise, and thus has no story of her own. One fateful night, she meets a young girl that may change her death forever.

Inspired by and in the style of Children's tales of old, The Death of Death is a tragic, yet sweet little tale about loss and acceptance.

Suitable for ages 12 and up."

-from 'The Death of Death' on Goodreads

Review:

Okay, I'll admit it, I didn't really like this story to start with. The style didn't really catch me and therefore none of the earlier bits did either. I therefore put this book 'on hold' for quite a few weeks.

However, having nothing else at hand, I gave this another go, picking up from where I left off and really did enjoy it. I'm not sure if I just wasn't in the right mood for it when I first tried or whether chapter one doesn't appeal to me but if anyone else happens to be in the same position, press on.

What follows is a heart-warming story including miniature tales belonging to various characters, joined by overarching themes. It's certainly worth a read!

 

I've also put this book on my 'teaching English booklist'. While the recommendation says that the story is for ages 12 and up I would say that it's suitable for quite a bit younger. It does deal with slightly darker themes through its very nature but they are not dealt with in a particularly dark style.

I downloaded the kindle version while it was free from Amazon, although it is no longer on promotion.

This is a blog post, if you couldn't tell!

The last week or so has meandered by quite peacefully. I've been painting, playing music, going to singing lessons generally pottering.

As I write, I am procrastinating several things, the Marie Antoinette translation being one of them (don't hurt me), gardening being the other. Quite frankly, I think I might do the gardening first except I'm pretty sure there's a tribe of angry bitey ants living in my flower bed and I'm not sure if I have any proper shoes... anyway, that's my problem!

There was also the surreal incident of a few days back which some of you might have seen mentioned on facebook. Some gentlemen came by our house looking to build another house over land that belongs to us. After a bit of a heated discussion with my parents, it looks like they now want to buy our house and knock it down. Unlikely to come to anything, I know, but seriously that would be the answer to all our renovation issues!

I know this isn't a proper post, and it has no photos (boo!), but I'll be back properly soon ;-)

In the meanwhile, if anyone fancies recommending any songs/tunes for me to learn on 'cello, bass guitar, or tin whistle (high or low) please do so... I'm running low on ideas!