The Best Friend visits.

Just over a week ago, on Thursday, I sat here waiting for my best friend to message me to say that she knew her arrival time. There had been some crash that had delayed traffic and she was somewhere in the Rotterdam vicinity with little knowledge of exactly how delayed she was. Not to mention the fact that her phone, had once again decided not to work when off of British soil making it tricky to contact one another. Eventually, and a little later than planned we managed to meet up and we made our way back to my flat ready to spend the next week together.

Friday, we were quite happy to spend the morning sleeping and chatting. A short stroll around my flat (to the nearest Albert Heijn) was also  undertaken. I had a class in the afternoon and it seemed illogical to attempt to do anything major that morning what with the general exhaustion of the journey still having something of an effect on Aimee.

The evening saw Leonoor, Dania, and Thijs join us for a trip into town. Aimee felt she had to see the Red Light District while over here and so we made an evening of it, grabbing something to eat and drink before wandering around a little. We also managed to introduce Aimee to the wonders of poffertjes (little fluffy pancakes of delight)

Saturday was supposed to be a day trip day but I was feeling a little unwell in the morning so we decided it was better to stay closer to come. Instead we wandered around the museum district and I bought Aimee a fresh stroopwafel - she loves the shop bought ones in England so it seemed only right!

Sunday saw us visit Paleis Het Loo, the place we were supposed to visit on Saturday. I'd particularly wanted to go here because there was an exhibition on Empress Elisabeth (Sisi) running. It focused mainly on the myth of the films compared the reality, a little on her visit to the Netherlands and gave a basic overview of her life. A lot of the items I had seen before or were replicas of things that I had seen before but some things on display were new to me and of great interest. Aimee, who knew little of Elisabeth except what she'd picked up from me, seemed to enjoy this exhibition rather a lot too.

As for the palace itself, well, it was a mixed place. Some aspects were lovely and some were... confused, I guess. Some rooms were exquisite, some seemed like less vibrant versions of palaces and houses that I'd seen elsewhere and some were full of badly placed art. I mention the latter because there were some quite lovely artworks that were incredibly difficult to see, and impossible to fully appreciate, because of their positioning in rooms that really did not suit them. You understand how much that pained me!

Something that must be said of the place, however, is that the gardens were truly lovely. The grounds are, as I understand it, quite extensive and we did not have time to see much of them, staying in the formal gardens. All the same, it was lovely. I would like to return just to spend a day looking around the grounds, in all honesty.

Monday was spent vastly apart as I had classes all day and Aimee went into town for the day. We did spend the evening together eating a roast dinner and drinking mead or, in my case, spilling aforementioned mead all over my carpet and Budapest scrapbook. I somehow managed to get the mead out of the carpet (miraculous as the carpet is off-white and it was a summer berry mead!)  and have only done minimal damage to the scrapbook...

Tuesday was another trip into town for a stroll through the shopping areas and a 'farewell' dinner. We decided to have our main evening meal out a day early in awareness of Aimee's early departure on the Thursday. 

Finally, the Wednesday we decided to spend in my flat. It was tipping it down with rain and we were both too lazy to go out. That aside, we are quite capable of entertaining ourselves and it was nice to have some time whereby we were simply hanging out as friends as opposed to attempting to be tourists together. Admittedly, though the entire week we had stolen moments were we could watch films, chat, or play silly computer games but it was nice to have a day of relaxation.

When Thursday morning came we were both pretty upset both because Aimee was to leave and because we both had to get up at an insane hour in order to get her to the bus station. Eventually, and after much hugging, I put her on the bus. Once she'd got on, the driver jokingly told me not to cry to which I replied that I wasn't going to cry... I'd finally got rid of her. He threatened to tell Aimee what I'd said and I wonder if he did... either way, his joking was exactly what I needed because, without it, I would have undoubtedly been in floods of tears. Why are goodbyes so difficult?

Anyway, Aimee promised me faithfully to let me know when she crossed back into England and  also when she got back home to Cardiff and I've not heard from her since I put her on the bus. I'm not worried because she's hardly the most reliable woman ever (and I've spoken to her mother!) but, just in case you read this before I speak to you next Aimee, you're in big trouble ;-)

Back in Amsterdam at last

A week today and my best friend will be out in Amsterdam. At last, we will be reunited for more than a couple of hours as I am kidnapping her she's chosen to visit me for a week. I can't quite put into words my unbelievable excitement about this fact. Aimee is someone I grew up with, a part of my family and, frankly, it's about time she got to see Out Here. I'm sure you'll hear much more about that soon enough but this is supposed to be a blog post about things that have already happened, right? It's not like there hasn't been a lot happening!

As you're no doubt aware, due to the crazily short holidays here compared to back in England, I am once again in Amsterdam and am part way through my first week of my second year at university. 'Second year' of university sounds way more advanced than I currently feel so I'm pretty pleased I took time out before starting else I think I would have felt even more overwhelmed!

I'll probably put up a post giving a bit about my classes at some point in the next few days but I'll stop it from going on facebook so if you're interested in that then check back here in a little while!

Sonja's semi-posed photo from pancake-meet up. I'll give you a clue,
the two of us smiling awkwardly were the posed ones!

Aside from classes,  it's been great to be back. I've managed to meet up with my main little group a couple of times although I've been neglecting a lot of people and that really does need to change. I've also found out that some messages I've sent over the past few months haven't sent so I need to work out who I've been unknowingly ignoring! Oh and I probably should study a bit.

But I digress...

Yesterday, probably deserves a special mention as the pancake themed meet up. The wonderful Sonja, who seems to have got better at hiding from my camera again over the summer, made us all pancakes and we sat and chatted for a while, just catching up on stuff that had happened while we were apart.

Dania's Pancake, created by Sonja.
Seems to sum both giver and recipient up nicely!

Other than meeting up with some friends, and with plans to catch up with some more, I've spent a fair amount of time rearranging my flat. It's a complete mess right now, partly because I've pulled out a lot of papers in attempts to clear some desk drawers, partly because I've brought over a lot of (beautiful) scrapbooking materials, and partly because I still need to assemble my new IKEA bookcase because one was never going to be enough for me. It'll keep me busy over the next few days, for sure!

All in all, it's strange but good to be back. I'm currently in that weird state of feeling like I've never been away but also feeling like everything's quite new again. I guess, I've not really been alone for two months and now I'm in my own flat once more. I've not had a structured work schedule and suddenly I have hundreds of pages to read a day. And let's not mention the early mornings! It's great but it is undoubtedly odd!

Here comes trouble!

Lack of routine leads to boring blog posts but to happy Havanahs

Ah, the freedom of the last weeks has allowed me to reacquaint myself with so many old friends... sleep... art... music... Aimee...

I also seem to have made some new friends as my shower gel (or that's what we think it must be) seems to attract moths. Seriously, I spend most evenings covered in moths and my mother has to get them off of me before I sleep so I don't squash them. I don't mind... it's quite flattering really!

You may call me the Moth Queen ;-)

All that aside, I think I've been quite noticeably absent from my normal channels of communication. I've been avoiding facebook (not actively but it's happened), I've not been logging onto Skype because even when I have the computer on the keyboard is generally too far away for me to type, I've let my phone run out of charge rendering that pretty useless. Okay, I've now recharged my phone as I've decided to end my self imposed, and oh so blissful, retreat.

It has been lovely to be free to dictate my own schedule and not to feel the overbearing press of deadlines and "I must get this A grade". In the first few days at home I probably painted etc for all the hours that weren't spent sleeping or eating. It was as though there was a real backlog! 

Sitting under a parasol in the middle of nowhere.
It's a hard old life.

I have also, quite naturally, been spending a fair bit of time with my parents which has been... interesting. I'm really close to my family but, as anyone who has met my father will confirm, he is quite excitable... to say the very least. Well, he's been excited to have me home - which is lovely - but that also means he's extra bouncy. It's like having a human shaped puppy bouncing around most of the time!

Catching up with people has also meant bugging the best friend in Cardiff where she is now working seven days a week. The insane girl. We only got to have one day together - her one day off of the summer - but she's going to come and see me in Amsterdam in September so we'll be together for a week or so then. Read that Aimee? It's in black and white now so there's no backing out now!

More recently, I've been translating again and I have cleared a great deal in that regard. I have to say that, with those couple of weeks of German lessons, I have found my speed of translation much improved. It's not that I couldn't do it before but now, knowing some of the basic grammatical rules, which I may have either fumbled through or completely missed previously, I know what to look for and it is so much easier. 

I'm thinking about focusing on language learning over the next few weeks as I still have a few languages on my 'to learn' list. Also need to get round to seriously brushing up on French, having not spoken it in coming up to three years - oh my!

Lovely times with lovely people

Yesterday I planned to go into town because I had errands to run. Sonja planned to go across town because she had to buy a bike. We decided to smush our plans together and drag Dania and Leonoor along to make a day of it.

And then the best thing happened... we woke up to snow! I have so been hoping for snow recently as I seem to keep being in the wrong country when it does snow and therefore keep missing it. Yes, I know, I'm very much a child when it comes to things like this. Annoyingly, the weather did mean that Leonoor decided to stay behind as she wasn't feeling top form and didn't want to be out in the cold and wet. We missed her but she was definitely wise as today I've been feeling absolutely awful but there we go. It was worth it ;-)

A bit worn down as this photo was taken late in the morning.
The view from my window was truly stunning at dawn.

I can't say that I managed to do what I wanted to do in town but had a great day, nevertheless. We messed around in the shops a little and spent a bit too much money for a student budget, or I did anyway. Because we've not got classes together at the moment we're having to put in a bit more effort to socialise so those times when we do manage to meet up are extra special.

Custom made magnum icecreams might not have been
100% appropriate for the weather but they were worth it!

And, as if it wasn't enough to spend the day with that wonderful duo, I finally managed to pin down The Best Friend and skype with her. I've been here for all but six months now and this is the first time I've managed to catch her on skype. Impressive.

It was a combination of madness and of chilledness. Both in our dressing gowns, we managed to call for three hours. Admittedly, that call involved me watching her make dinner but, for the most part, it was just chatting, catching up and messing around. 

The fact we're not in the same physical space will not stop my
photo taking obsession. You're never safe mwahaha.

And then I missed the Aimee. 

Oops.

The things I do for Reckless Love

I guess that flying to England for a show is one of the more extravagant things I've done in my time. That said, the fact I got to eat curry from the restaurant I've visited since I was three, got to have a bath, oh, and see old friends made it all worth it. Wednesday day was dedicated to dress shopping with my mother and The Best Friend, while the evening was set aside for a bit of music!

Me, Jessica, Aimee, Kim. Waiting to go in, trying not to freeze!
From Jessica's camera,

Queuing in the cold and the rain is always one aspect of the gig experience that I dread but then ultimately love. It's a complete social experience and before this show, in particular, it was a riot. It meant, in reality, that once we got inside there was a rather good fun little group formed of old friends, people I vaguely knew from other shows, and totally new faces. 

Kim, Jessica, Me, Aimee. Entertaining ourselves before the set began.

There was only one opening band this time, The First, a melodic rock band from Cambridgeshire. I will admit that their sound tech was not great but, from what I could hear, I think they were rather good. Certainly, I plan to look up some of their music and give it a proper try (and buy a CD if I do indeed like it). In addition, there is no way I can fault their live set. All members were engaged and energetic without seeming silly or OTT. It was a very strong performance. There was one moment when the vocalist decided to put a microphone in my face to get me to sing along which didn't work on two counts (recovering from a phobia of singing and I don't know their music) but, other than that, they really knew how to perform to a crowd.

The main act was, of course, Reckless Love. The Finnish glam rock-ish band who attempt, and succeed, in making every show a party. This night was no exception. If anything, Olli was more chatty with the crowd and I enjoyed watching Olli and Pepe, in particular, play to Jessica's camera.

One of Jessica's many photos from the show.

The set was great, as always. Although it was cut a little because of illness (not mine for once!) it was full of some great tracks and to just dance away was rather liberating. It really did help that both Jessica and Aimee are little party animals, albeit in different ways, so I simply could not help but dance, jump and bounce along.

However, Hessu, bless his heart, was quite clearly ill. Seriously, that man should not have been on the stage at all yet he soldiered on until all but the end. Ultimately the set was cut by a couple of songs but I feel incredibly lucky that we got a set at all. It would have been annoying as anything, of course, but completely understandable.

After the show we had a bit of a chat with Jalle, Olli and Pepe; Hessu quite rightly escaped to the bus and hopefully put himself to bed! We then had the joy of walking back to Aimee's house (and beyond for some of us) in the rain and wind of Wales. Wasn't the highlight of the evening but was worth it all the same.

One day, Pepe will forget about the pen incident. This was not that day.

A quick goodbye to The Best Friend and Kim kindly drove me to my hotel. We said goodnight but with the knowledge that the day after we would meet once again but this time in Amsterdam!

Setting up

Wow, what a busy couple of days. I mean, I knew it was going to be busy but I don't think you ever predict the chaos that will await.

The flight yesterday (was it only yesterday!?) was actually quite smooth. Checked in with no problems, no problems at the airport, flight actually flew... a lot better than we've had recently! Just before we flew I got a text from my Aimee's little sister, Caroline, regarding her exam results. She's done incredibly well, and got into the college she wanted to go to, and I am so proud. It was really good news to have as we got onto the plane. Good news greeted me off of it too as Aimee has got into graduate medicine and you have no idea how proud I am of her too. Well done to both the sisters... wow!

The problems started when I got to my flat and found out that my bank card, pin code, and authorisation code hadn't arrived. It was a little worrying because the fact that all three were missing meant someone could have had full access to my account. Nothing we could do about it that night, however, so it had to wait to be sorted.

Today saw another mini crisis as Mediamarkt, the shop I was ordering my white goods from, wouldn't let my card's billing address be anywhere outside of the Netherlands. That meant that I couldn't use my credit card as planned, although it's fine in store, and, as my debit card hasn't arrived, I was left in a little bit of a mess. Oh well, at least it's saved me having to plan what I want to do tomorrow!

I also had to go to UvA to a Start meeting. Of course, the heavens decided to open just when I needed to set off and I ended up walking through the red light district in a thunderstorm (and back again). The meeting itself wasn't all that useful for me but it gave me my ID card and it wasn't too hard! Oh, and the minute I got back to my flat the sun decided to make an appearance!

Once I returned, Thijs kindly helped me with the bank issue as the only number I had wouldn't switch to English for me. It did for him. Technology hates me. Anyway, I was really grateful for his help, and tea, and it was lovely to meet someone from the university, face to face. We'd been speaking a bit online and get on quite well so it was also nice to meet him, of course!

The evening was spent continuing to attempt to get my room in a liveable state. It's going slowly but I have carpet down (if a little wrinkled still as it's not relaxed down yet), my desk, sofa, and bed. Tomorrow's going to be a long old day but there we go! All exciting now!

The clock is on the wall even if I'm missing batteries!
Yep, this room is certainly mine!

A moment back down in Exeter

In a rush to attempt to see a couple of my closest friends before moving out of the country, I managed to steal a couple of days back in Exeter. The plan was to see Lloyd on day one and Nené on day two. I also planned to drop some stroopwafles off at Aimee's as she loves them and I forgot to take any last time. However, on the way down, I received another text from Aimee asking if I was sure I really couldn't stay (again) so I took the hint and stayed there for the night.

Meeting with Lloyd is always fun. He's a highly intelligent and really lovely person. We have some of the most amusing debates on every subject, usually while drinking tea and or eating good food. Naturally, this meeting was no exception. He introduced me to a little restaurant, Mashawi, in Exeter, which serves Middle Eastern food. Although my diet is severely limited at the moment, the food that I could eat was lovely while there was so much I would have liked on the menu. Well done, once again, Lloyd. As always, it was great to see him!

I did bring my camera but only took the one photo!

Then it was a half an hour walk to Aimee's in the rain. I guess it was worth it but y'know... ;-)

Seeing The Best Friend again was a real unexpected bonus and we messed around, played silly games on the computer, talked about stupid things. The morning was brilliant too as Nené was running very late and Aimee, her sister Caroline, and I spent the additional time singing through Disney songs. We're certainly responsible adults, okay?

It was also lovely to get to see Nené again. She was her normal bouncy self and I am so pleased I got to see her before I went. Aimee came with me and those two got on exceptionally well, as I always said they would! Our time was cut unexpectedly short but, to be honest, her gentleman friend who accompanied her seemed so bored that I am slightly pleased to have relieved him of the burden of my presence!

Leaving Aimee once again was really rather strange. Although our previous meeting had seen us saying our goodbyes, doing so once again was really rather painful. My leaving, exciting as it may be, feels so much realer now and to say goodbye within that realisation... it's not comfortable. Now she just has to come out and see me in the Netherlands soon!

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!

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

A week and a half to go!

Gosh, it feels like all things are go right now.

The other day I went to the doctors (I managed to get an appointment, hurrah!) and have been put on some daily medication to see if this helps with my general illness. It's a low dose and the idea is, if it causes a positive change then they can mess around with dosage etc. later. However, if it doesn't work at all then we're onto all the horrible invasive tests so fingers crossed it works. That said, I'm really chuffed that this doctor has said she'll go onto invasive testing after this one because the last lot just seemed to put me on drug after drug with no real method to the madness. Hopefully, we're moving forward to some kind of management system!

Of course, my general health slowly getting back on track had to herald general illness as the whole family seem to have been struck down with the lurgy! Actually, for once, I, touch wood, seem to have got of lightly. Although I spent most of yesterday in bed I feel almost better now and have regained my voice, and got rid of the throat pain, overnight... just in time to sing tomorrow! 

However, just because the people around me are having to put life on hold because of general ick doesn't mean that life's stopping. I realised earlier that it's a week and a half until my university interview and 'meet and greet' day. I am actually pretty nervous. Okay, I'm frankly half terrified but what ya gonna do, eh?

On the plus side, I went into town with my mother and managed to find a coat that I'd been eyeing up with Aimee in a size eight and in the sale so I now know what I'm wearing to the interview (of doom!). Actually, I managed to get a lovely knitted and embroidered coat thing in the sale too so I had quite a successful day that day, as far as clothes go!

I don't know how to title this so let's call it "Aimee"

Curry and naan and a happy Aimee.

Last weekend, well a couple of days ago, I got to stay with my annoying childhood best friend and might-as-well-be-a-sister Aimee, having not seen her since Christmas (and then only for two minutes as I dropped off her gift).

As always, we had a wonderful time. An unsuccessful search for clothes for my university interview turned into a pretty successful spice shopping time. Seriously, we found the most beautiful delicatessen  which sold all sorts of foods from around the world, as well as local things, and would practically be my home if I lived anywhere nearby! Actually, in finding the above link for the blog I have found out that they have an online shop... bye bye bank account.

Rosé in tumblers - that is class!

Naturally, a lot of the time was spent cooking and eating. I think that both of us enjoy using our meet ups as a chance to try and make/eat new things. This time was no different with the first night being a beautiful pork bolognese that Aimee has made previously and then reheated. Saturday was Havanah throwing random things together to make a mild curry that Aimee could enjoy. Sunday was an attempt at a variation of Kaiserschmarrn for brunch, which was all done by hand and by the end of the whisking we were both knackered. The roast we had later was a bit more traditional but by the end of the weekend we could both safely say we had made at least one new dish!

This should give you some idea about
the amount of tea drunk!

The rest of the time was spent chatting and messing around. Our favourite online game (mature as it may be...or not!) was pretty much constantly on because we realised that it gave us something to do while actually interacting. It also was something we could do at three a.m. when the flat upstairs decided an out of tune sing-along was in order! I also gave Aimee a quick hour long 'lesson' on tin whistle, inspired by my last visit where she said she wasn't musical! Not only did she pick up a tonne of stuff quicker than expected but she nearly refused to give me my instrument back! Meanie!!

Aimee being musical.

So basically, I had a wonderful weekend. It's been the coming back home that's been hard and I am feeling a bit down again. Dad moved back in on Sunday which is a good thing but very strange and tense. Something that I won't go into because it's a little complex has happened with regard to the university and I now think they have tiered the applicants with me being in the lower tier. This means I'm going to interview knowing thinking that I have a lower chance than others. It's not the end of the world because they may offer me a place still and if they don't it's their loss!

However, yesterday I worked out that the main thing that is bringing me down is that I am completely fed up with my health. It's been nearly seven years since my stupid illness thing started and I am still without diagnosis. Not only that but it's got progressively worse so that now I am ill more than I am well and am severely limited by things. I can't go out without worrying that something is going to happen and those worries are justified because it's only one in five times that I won't have a problem. I think the health thing is what's really affecting me because it's possible to battle the world and the bad things in life (and if I'm honest I get more than my fair share of bad luck) but when I can't trust my body to work for me... it's not a good thing. I went to the doctors today and was told that I can't even get a non emergency doctor's appointment until the 27th, and am abroad then for my interview, so I guess this is just going to have to classify as an emergency and I'm going to try and get an appointment on Friday. 

Seriously, when I get my health back on track this world ain't gonna know what hit it ;-)

Home sweet home?

All my 'important stuff' ready and packed. Including
Ring of Power thanks to Aimee's Christmas present!

Well, I've just got back home from my little Christmas escape. I can't really say that I'm pleased to be back but oh well!

One thing that was lovely was walking in the front door and practically tripping over a pile of Christmas cards to various members of the family. We'd missed getting the last minute cards due to our being elsewhere and it was nice to be welcomed home by them.

This card from Gitta has to win the prize for the most
Christmassy; the cinnamon in the tea made it smell so good!

What's not been so joyous is the pile of emails I have to reply to! Yes, some of them are delightful messages from friends (I'm not complaining about you lot!) but a bundle are about varying types of work. Guess there's no easing back into life gently!

Anyway, I'm going to upload some blog posts I wrote while I was away and then go and have a bath and a sleep... I'll probably put off writing emails until tomorrow. It's been a long old day!

In the midst of relaxation comes a busy day

After just a couple of days here I feel so much healthier and so much happier. It’s almost as though my body and my mind had forgotten what this state was like and has suddenly reawakened. I’d definitely got used to abnormality.

Anyway, today was the compulsory last minute trip to the shops to get the vegetables that wouldn’t last if they were bought any earlier. My parents somehow managed to convince me that my father’s van wasn’t like normal vans and so I consented to doing the hour long journey in the van, in a storm. Yep, I felt sick the whole way. Why vans make me feel ill when no other mode of transport does will never fail to confuse me!

The shopping wasn’t as hectic as I’d expected. A lot of (sensible) people had, it seems, been put off by the weather. That said, the queue was about an hour and a half long. I’m really not complaining about that in the slightest. It’s amazing how everyone starts to chat in those circumstances and how no-one tries to push in even though the line was snaking around two and a half isles…

I then went to drop Aimee’s gift round even though she’s not contacted me properly in forever and has been messing me about again. Turned out that she’s been having a bit of a tough time so I couldn’t be angry with her even though I wanted to be. In fact, I feel guilty that I couldn’t stay to give the needed hugs. I know that, no matter how annoying she might be, Aimee is always going to be family and I really do miss her. Urgh, soppiness over!

Returning back to the cottage, today was baking day. I don’t know why I made gingerbread again this year because it never goes right. My first ever attempt was tooth breaking. I’ve made a fair few successful batches in the years since but the dough never binds and therefore I kinda smush it together and my gingerbread’s highly unattractive.

Pretty pleased with my quiche though ;-)

Yep, I'm proud of this little quiche!

When I wrote this post, I was without an internet connection. It’s been uploaded onto t’interweb since!

So, apparently I’m nineteen now. How’d that happen?

The majority of my birthday has been spent reclining in a hotel bed attempting to shake off the remaining fluey feelings. I’m not complaining because I wasn’t really celebrating my birthday this year due to the general chaos of life! That said, I’ve had a good day :-) 

I think the highlight for me was my mother’s gift to me, a low whistle. Having played high whistle for a little while now the low whistle was a natural progression so that was what I asked for. Earlier in the week we went out to buy one. Because I was quite ill I was unable to try the whistles, well I didn’t feel it was fair to anyway, so the first time I heard my whistle was today. It’s a Dixon Alloy and, my goodness, does it have a beautiful, haunting tone.  Not managed to reach above second octave G yet but that’ll come with time, practice, and probably be easier when I’ve recovered my lung capacity in a week or so! As I’m sending this on my phone I won’t pop a picture in but I’m in love.

I also really want to say thank you to Aimee who gave me a card that made me smile and laugh and was just perfect. With her permission, which I haven’t got yet, I might upload a photo tomorrow. She also gave me a gemstone necklace which is lovely. Basically, my friend thought about what I would like and hit the nail on the head. Thanks Aimee!

Right now I’m waiting for my mother to finish working so we can go and pick up my father from home and go to my favourite restaurant for dinner. I’ve spent many a birthday in that place, and many a day full stop! Having gone in there since I was about five, the owners know me quite well!

I haven’t read my facebook messages yet, although I know I have some as my phone keeps vibrating. I’ll wait until I have internet access to read them properly but thank you if you sent me something. It means the world to me.

And that’s it, I think!

And that was my weekend!

The weekend was absolutely wonderful. I saw the amazing Rapalje, for a full review click here, and then it was off to Cardiff to see the best friend Aimee.

Arriving in her flat at about five on the Saturday I wasn’t overly shocked to see that it was about as much of a mess as her bedroom at home and couldn’t help but grab the broom. In short, it took us about two seconds to fall back into our respective roles. Of course, we couldn’t fall back into our roles without me cooking dinner although it seems that Aimee has suddenly learned to cook now she’s alone (I think she’s always feigned incompetence).

Spinach pie looked quite good.

Proof Aimee ate it of her own free will, just in case she dies :P

Sadly, I struggle with simple kitchen tasks like making ‘tea’

Of course, it being a Saturday night the majority of people in the university halls hit the town. Aimee and I, not to be outdone, decided to stay up late watching Disney’s Swan Princess. It’s lucky we did because one of her room-mates came back drunk, and noisy, and scattered Aimee’s freezer tray around the flat. Sadly, we only realized this after the sausages that had been placed in the shower had defrosted.

If you understand this picture then you know Disney
too well. If not… watch the film :P

Sunday was the day we had both waited for, however, and it came round pretty quick. The morning was spent meeting up with Gareth, a friend of mine who I met several years ago through the THUKST. Eventually, I managed to convince Aimee to come on down and queue for HIM (where we met up with Kim again!)

The HIM gig was surreal as anything. I’ve already written about the band and my history with them but nothing can really prepare you for seeing one of your ‘childhood bands’ on stage. I’m still not quite sure it happened!

I must say that I did rather like the tech at the venue although it was suggested that the dry icey smokiness was the cause of my chest and throat hurting during the gig. It was a great all round experience.

The crowd weren’t as raucous as I had expected, and Gas, the band’s drummer, commented on how quiet they were. I can’t say that I mind a quieter crowd. Actually, talking about that, there was a group of people behind me who were talking about us wearing earplugs and how we shouldn’t be at the front with earplugs, daring each other to take them out so we’d have to go to the back. If this group happen to read this then please know that earplugs are good to protect your ears, the musicians wear them, good quality earplugs improve sound quality, oh and I could hear every word you were saying! I also have a spare pair on me at all times due to tinnitus! Well, that turned into a mini rant!

Aimee looking stunning after the show

I look about how I felt. Very happy but in pain
and about ready to collapse!

Tea and cake; There’s no better way to recover from a gig.

The morning after was spent feeling grim (I’ve since come down with a mild flu-type thing) and meeting up with Kieran! It was great to see him again and we had a lovely meal in a place called Ruby Tuesday. The strawberry lemonade was heaven! Next time we meet up I’ll hopefully be able to talk a bit more ;-)

A sad farewell to Aimee, and a long journey home later I collapse with flu and then eventually recover enough to write all this up.

So, that was my wonderful weekend. I won’t thank everyone here but I must thank Rapalje for the best show ever (and for being lovely), HIM for existing and playing so many songs from my childhood, Aimee for being my best friend, and her flatmates for not only putting up with me but for being both kind and great fun!

Making Aimee's present, the Harry Potter Cake

This blog post is a scheduled post, written during the last week but set to automatically post while I'm at Aimee's.

____________________________

So, right now I'm visiting The Annoying One in Cardiff, where she's just started university (my little girl's growing up!). Anyway, this visit falls on the Weekend Between Our Birthdays which means it's a party time. As last year we're going to go to a gig but, different to last year, we're also going to have a joint celebration because it was impractical to meet up twice in such quick succession.

So, during the last week I've been having fun making Aimee's birthday presents, a mix CD and a cake. I've not made a birthday cake for a couple of years, although I used to make them all the time, so it's been an interesting time. The easiest part was thinking of a theme, Aimee having just been sorted into Slytherin at her university's Harry Potter society seemed to decide for me! (*)

Day One, making the decoration

Asda might have the best selection of baking products but
their food colouring lids have serious design flaws.

Finished the main decoration. Yes, this was my
second attempt but I'm pretty pleased :-)

Day two, making the cake

Is it cheap to make a cake board out of two pizza
board things glued together and covered in foil?

The cake itself is finished and wrapped in clingfilm, ready to
ice tomorrow! (the pizza in the background had to be cooked for
the sake of the board... see previous image!)

Day three, shoving it all together (and remaking the decoration because things never do go to plan)

Buttercream (green of course) and jam in
position, ready to assemble!

The final thing, albeit the colour looks faded in this photo.

(*) Actually, I toyed with the idea of a TARDIS cake for a while but Aimee judged Harry Potter to be more important than Dr. Who so...

Nothing like a busy weekend!

Well, this weekend is VERY exciting. So exciting that I just wrote 'very' in caps lock as opposed to italics and you know how much I love my italics.

Firstly, on Friday, I am seeing one of my favourite bands in the world, Rapalje. That makes it two of my favourite bands in one month, not bad going right? Having seen Rapalje live for the first time at Castlefest I was getting withdrawal symptoms. I logged onto their facebook to see when their shows were as I had decided to travel and see them on the continent and what did I see but this post, posted about an hour earlier.

Post by RAPALJE.

Actually, they're playing two shows but I can only catch one of them. Not complaining though because the weekend's not over yet!

I'm going straight from Glastonbury to Cardiff to see my best friend (and probably the most annoying person I know!) Aimee for the first time in what seems like forever. I think it's been two months in reality ;-)

As always we'll celebrate the weekend between our birthdays in style (cake anyone?) and we will also be seeing the band HIM. HIM are a special band for the two of us, and for our friendship because, the first time we went away together, on a history themed holiday with school, we watched two videos in the common room. These videos, and the songs with them, became our holiday's theme.

Looking back this wasn't the best song for a WWII trip 

but I'd just bought my first Deathstars CD so... :-)

To this day the phrase "Your life ain't worth living", 

in any context, makes us laugh!

Anyway, I will take my laptop with me because I feel insecure without it (and I like putting my photos off my camera safely!) but whether I'll log on over the weekend is unsure. There'll be blogs a plenty when I get back though as I'm sure I'll have a fair bit of news ;-)

Oh, and then it's my birthday on the 31st so the fun's not over yet hehe

New Month, New Leaf.

It's no secret that September's been a difficult month for me. From some melancholy facebook posts to a general absence from the internet people have been aware that things have been less than perfect in Havanah-land.

However, today's the first day of October, one of my favourite months of the year. October has always seemed like the bridge month. It's mild and almost summery at the start yet by the end winter has started to take its hold. You've had time to get back into the swing of things with work or study but there's rarely any major deadlines. You also get an extra hour's sleep because of the joys of daylight saving time.

This October is going to be a particularly fun one for me. Next week I'm seeing Reckless Love again. Later in the month I'm going to see Rapalje. The same weekend I'm staying with Aimee, having not seen her in ages, and we're going to see the band HIM. Suddenly I have a social life.

It's also my birthday at the end of the month but I'm not really looking forward to that. I don't have anything special planned and I don't really know anyone locally so I think I'm going to just let it pass by a bit but that isn't a bad thing at all.

And then onto November, December, and Christmas.

Oh yes, I think I've found my smile once again!

On my way home again...

So, I'm guessing, that right now I am rather melancholy. I hate coming home after being away. I guess I am meant to be a traveller.

However, if you read my review of "Vox" then you will know that I have a thing for boats. I adore ships so much because a lot of my childhood dreams focused around, admittedly flying, ships. You can imagine that there is one bit of the trip, therefore, that I adore. Yes, a ferry is a bit tame (although my mother still gets sea sick), but I can still stand on the deck and watch the ocean go past even if I can't feel the rocking. It's pure magic... until I get earache.

The last time I went on a ferry was a few years back, 2009ish, on a school trip to France and Belgium for history. Aimee and I went on deck and had a great fun time. It was a great trip and Aimee's first time abroad. Reliving this is going to be extra special for me.

Something else that will make this trip extra special is that it is my first night-time ferry ride. I don't like night travel normally because everyone sleeps and I feel awkward and unable to read or chat or draw or the normal things I like to do. However, I can't wait to see the lights in the sea, watch the stars go by.

Knowing my luck it'll be raining.

On board "The Pride of Burgundy".
Aimee is far right, Muggins is behind the camera as usual.