Rain, friends, and cakes

What a couple of days!

I managed to go down to Devon for a few days to meet up with Nené and give her the present I’d made for her 18^th birthday and also to get my Extended Project dissertation off Haydon.

It was so, so good to be back, if rather strange. My mother and I actually stayed in the hotel that we lived in most of the time when we were going through our nomadic stage. I cannot tell you how strange that was. The staff were really happy to see us, which was lovely. The new manager (well, technically she was away on maternity when we were there and has since returned so she’s not really new!) seemed to know a lot about us so guessing we’re pretty notorious hehe

I might not have been able to photograph
Nené but I did photograph cakes!

Meeting Nené on the Monday was quite wonderful. I didn’t manage to take any photos because it was bucketing down with rain (incidentally, I found out that my boots leak) but I don’t really care because it’s been so long since I last saw her! We mooched a lot, chatted a lot. It was lovely. It was also nice to be with someone who appreciates my musical theatre obsession interest. Hopefully it won't be long until I get to see her again.

It was also great to see Haydon again, having not seen him since I finished college. Of course, he insisted on buying me drinks (one day I will manage to buy him a drink!) It seems like he's getting on pretty well even if his university are causing havoc. He also brought me down my dissertation which he kindly picked up for me and put up with me reading all the marker's comments while we were supposed to be socialising. What a lovely chap!

They're heavier than they look!

As Haydon and I were wrapping up I got a bit of a surprise as he said he was going to go and get a tattoo done... rather him than me! Anyway, I faced my fears and actually walked into a tattoo studio just to see Tegan, another college friend, for a brief moment as she is now doing a  tattoo apprenticeship (and did his tattoo in the end but there was no way I was hanging around for that!)

The drive home was pretty hectic. It was sad to see how weather bashed my old area of the country has been and, naturally, the weather made the drive a bit tricksy. Nature couldn't help but send a reminder that, while she might be a bit harsh at times, she's an amazing, beautiful thing.

Onwards and upwards!

It seems that, after a couple of months of rather painful stagnation, life is moving forwards at an amazing pace.

This morning was my singing lesson, as normal, and it went exceptionally well. Okay, I actually had my singing teacher jumping up and down clapping her hands because she was so pleased with the progress I was making. She also ran out to the car and told my mother. You have no idea how amazed this made me. It's been under six months and I have gone from someone who was afraid to sing in front of someone, unable to get more than a few sounds out in a lesson, to the position I'm in now. I still can't say that I feel that my voice is 'good' or even 'okay' but there are moments when I actually like what I hear. There are moments when I feel more confident. Physically and mentally I can see so much progress and you have no idea how much that means to me. It's nothing short of a miracle!

I also received an email regarding my university interview and 'meet-and-greet'. It's going to be a challenging day, I'd wager. There are group activities, mock classes, discussions and question and answer sessions (as well as some optional social activities which I think it might be best to hang around for). I'm  really excited but a little daunted too. Mind you, I guess that's a healthy state of mind because a little adrenaline helps us to do our best, right? I've been given a choice of dates but, as long as I can arrange the flights, I'm probably going to go in about four weeks time. Goodness, this is way too real for my liking!!

This evening has been an evening of writing to people about meeting up. I'm going to have to rearrange meeting with Aimee because of the interview. I'm meeting the amazing Nené (i.e. one of the best friends a girl could have) a week today and I am so so excited. It's been way too long! Haydon and I have also managed to arrange our meeting up, at last, and it's going to be great to see him too. Considering I used to see him almost every day at college, it's been strange to not see him for ages. And then we have the impending visit from Annelies which is really exciting as I will get to meet my penpal :-D

Gosh, it's going to be a wonderfully busy month or two! I will also return to taking photos as I will take my little DSLR round with me. My compact has rather given up the ghost hence the boring text only posts.

Introducing The Geekling

Of course, if you went to college with me you have no doubt who I'm talking about when I say 'The Geekling'. There is only one Geekling in Exeter and that is this chap:

This photo is about two years old. Haydon might not be talking to
me any more because of my use of it!

Meet Haydon. We were introduced by a mutual friend. She had gone to secondary school with the gent and was also in my history class. Haydon and I didn't share any classes or anything like that but he ended up being one of my closest college friends, poor chap.

Now I haven't seen Haydon in, probably, six months now so the information I give here might be a bit outdated. I mean he was the biggest 'Apple' fan in the world but I believe he's just got rid of an iPhone so something is going drastically wrong there. That said, Haydon has always been the 'go-to' for any technological problems. If he pronounces your computer dead then you might as well dig the grave because it will not survive. Oh, there is one exception that proves the rule. My old Toshiba laptop is going strong about two years after being given the "it's over" prognosis. Mwahaha.

Making a big sacrifice and finishing my dinner as well as his
own to save me the embarrassment of being unable to finish!

So, if this gentleman is such a technological being, how come we get on so well? We have a lot of different interests but we have enough in common that we manage to find something to chat about no matter what. I guess one of the things we really share is our love of music and we've shared music recommendations over the years and just fangirled/boyed over things generally. He's also someone who I have spent many a happy hour with doing things that we both find enjoyable be that going out for lunch so that we can have a catch up chat or going to Torquay to go to the theatre (Spamalot, if you're interested). 

All that said, it's easy to see why I'm friends with Haydon, he has an inexhaustible supply of time and kindness for people around him. From his ability and willingness to listen to any problem to helping out with filming for one of your classes he is there. He's a friend who puts his all into the friendship and who is a genuinely lovely person. Rare those types. Admittedly, his solution to every problem might be a cup of tea but heck, that's mine most of the time too!

Overall, Haydon is a good friend and, more importantly, a good person.

I don't have any recent (or decent) photos so I
kidnapped this one from his facebook. Oops!

Bonus video:

I'm determined that Haydon will play the character singing this song 

(from the musical Le Roi Soleil). It's so him!