ER last night - oh my God. Tim called me half way through it and I snapped at him to go away and I'd call him back at 11. What was he thinking? His stupidity was on a par with when he calls me when Eastenders is on. And then expects me to answer the phone.

Anyway. ER. Kovac and Abby finally got it together. Kovac throwing Abby's underwear (back) at her with that dirty look on his face. Grrrr! But then, at the end, when they were both stupid and decided to just 'be friends'?! I was literally sat on my chair, head in my hands, shouting 'NOOOOO!!!' at the telly. But it didn't work. They didn't hear me. I really hope this is just a minor blip and they get together properly soon. I'm really not happy when my favourite telly couples aren't together. Its just all wrong.

In other telly news, I think I have a new, fully-fledged TV crush. Behold Jack Holden -

He is otherwise known as Paul O'Brien, but seeing as how I don't like the name Paul (apologies to all the Pauls out there - nothing personal), we shall just call him Jack. He really is very, very nice to look at, but in this photo he reminds me a smidgen of someone else I have been know to obsess over from, uh, time to time.

In other (real life) news, I didn't go to Cockpit on Friday. Instead I went to Flares. Now please don't laugh. I have never been before and decided that 3 years in Leeds without one visit to Flares was just silly, so I took the plunge, as it were. It was hilarious - we were the youngest people in there by about 15 years. It was a very, very funny night.

I'm enjoying life at the moment. This is pretty evident by the recent lack of bloggage. When I don't post (properly) for over a week its usually for one of two reasons-

1. Life is so dull and boring I have nothing to write about.
2. Life is getting good so I don't have time to write about it.

Thankfully, this time, its the second one.

Last semester was a bit of a downer really. Right at the beginning I got hit with a minor financial crisis in that my sister's birthday and my best friend's 21st birthday struck on the same weekend. This meant double present buying, as well as a fabulous and therefore expensive outfit, was required. So before the semester had even begun, I was skint. I couldn't afford to go home for weeks, and I had loads of work to do anyway, so I stayed at home on the weekends watching DVDs by myself as my flatmates went home or went out and got drunk. Life was DULL.

However, I learnt my lesson and worked my arse off over Christmas in the pub, so I now have a small but hopefully significant amount of cash stowed away for the end of the semester and I've been more careful with my spending, so money isn't as much of a problem this time around. I hope not anyway. I've been too scared to check my bank balance, and my card hasn't been rejected at ADSA yet, so I'm assuming there's still money there.

I've had even more work to do this semester because its dissertation time, which was a pain in the arse at the beginning, but I've nearly finished my research now so I'm nearly ready to start writing it, well before the deadline's even in sight, so all that hard work is now paying off and the work-related pressure is easing a little bit. Plus, I'm really interested in my dissertation's topic, so I actually enjoy doing it. I know. What a novel idea.

I'm getting a social life back a bit as well. So far this semester I haven't spent one lonely Saturday night in on my own. The realisation that this really is the final stretch, and once we leave uni the carefree student social life we know and love so much will be gone forever, is jolting me into making more of an effort into socialising and going out, instead of sinking into the sofa, sulking, and telling myself that I can't go out anyway, too much work, not enough money, excuse, excuse, etc. etc. I went home last weekend purely to go out round Llandudno and have a laugh with my home-best friends (and laugh we did) and had a bloody good time. On Monday night I went along to a 'night of a thousand dinners' put on by my society STAR (Student Action for Refugees) which I'm a committee member for. The idea was to bring a dish you'd made yourself from your country of origin. I took along the famous bara brith. It was a really good night and I met all sorts of people, and all money raised went to destitute asylum seekers, so I left feeling not only full, but good about myself. And last night I went to a Brazilian-themed club night put on again by STAR for destitute asylum seekers. It was a really good night. And tonight I may even venture out to the Cockpit.

And also, my hair is finally long, shiny and in good condition and my fringe now does exactly what I want it to do all the time, instead of just when it feels like it.

So yes, all in all, I'm pretty darn happy at the moment.

Oh, and one final thing, I am very much approving of the telly at the moment. I won't go into too many details, but I will say-

• ER is amazing at the moment and I'm living for Monday nights.
• Footballer's Wives has made its welcome return. Favourite quote from last night's episode - (Amber, talking about her dead husband Conrad) 'Conrad would have wanted to help, and as his ambassador on earth ...'
• H&A's Jack Holden is very yummy indeed. The way he looks at Martha ... *swoon*. I do think he should take his shirt off more often though.

I've just watched Westlife on Davina's new chat/crap show. Now don't get me wrong. I used to love Westlife. I saw them in concert in Manchester and I was going to marry Shane. However, I was 15 at the time. That was SIX YEARS AGO. I've moved on from the whole Westlife thing. Perhaps its about time that they did too. Good lord. Even THEY were looking bored performing their new song. How do they think we feel listening to it?

You may or may not have noticed that yesterday was Valentine's Day. To be honest, it was sort of passing me by. The day was rather annoyingly scheduled midweek, and as I am in Leeds and Tim is in Wales, we were planning on having a belated Valentine's on the weekend when he was coming up to stay with me again.

So, 4.30pm. I had finished my lectures in uni and was in ASDA, getting my shopping done. Tim called me to say happy Valentine's Day, but I said I was in ASDA, and I'd call him back in half an hour.

So I go on my merry way, working my way around the aisles. I reach the last aisle, the fabric softener aisle, when someone taps me on the shoulder. I look around and see my housemate right in front of me. It's not her. I pause for a second before turning around, trying to think who I know who could have got to ASDA without me driving them there (just call me the Laura-Taxi). I can't think of anyone. I turn around. Its only bloody Tim! He'd driven all the way up to Leeds to stay with me just for the night. And suprised me in the fabric softener aisle. How romantic!

When we got back to my house, he suprised me further with a single, long stemmed red rose (below), a cute card and a mix-CD he'd made himself. But hang on. Wait a minute. All the songs are by Bon Jovi, with a few by Nickleback thrown in. He tells me to open the CD case. There's a note inside. "2 tickets to see Bon Jovi, with Nickleback, 10th June, in Wembley - the first performance in the new stadium." Oh. My. God. You may or may not be aware that I bloody LOVE Bon Jovi. When I saw Red hot Chili Peppers in Cardiff 2 years ago, I said to Tim "Now I just need to see Bon Jovi live, then I can die happy." YAY!!!!!

But that wasn't all. We were also going out for a meal and the cinema, to see Casanova, number 3 on my 'I can't wait to see ...' list.

I can confirm, that the whole evening was lovely. I can also confirm that I have the best boyfriend ever. Ever.

What did I get him, I hear you ask? Well. I made him a card. It was magnificent, it really was. It may have only taken me 15 minutes to whip together, but it had taken me ages to think of, and it wasn't as if I was expecting him to turn up. It would have been ready for me to present to him straight away if he had arrived as expected on Saturday. I am belittling my handiwork here, but it really was a wonderful work of art, with a picture and words that really meant something to him. I am thoughtful and romantic, just not on such grand a scale.

Anyway. Best boyfriend ever.

Yes, that is Keith Miller on the telly. I was watching Eastenders that I had taped from last night. Valentine's or not, I'm not missing Eastenders.

I love my new phone! Its my new favourite toy and I can't stop playing with it. Its got a fabulous mp3 player, which plays music on a loud speaker as well as headphones, so Led Zeppelin and Stevie Nicks are with me wherever I go. The camera is 2 megapixels so I can take great photos and amusing videos. But the best bit is this bluetooth thing. Dad sent me a bluetooth USB thing so I now have bluetooth on my computer so I can send music and pictures and things to and from my phone and computer, which means I can put those great quality pictures on the blog! Look! Its me, slightly drunk, at a houseparty on Saturday night (Laura in 'I Actually Left The House To Go Somewhere That Isn't The Library' shock)!

In other news, thanks to The Daily Mail's current DVD offer, I am rediscovering my love of Catherine Cookson. Yes, I know, I'm sure it's a huge shock that I, a history geek and hopeless romantic, love all that northern love across the social divides stuff. I've already watched Saturday's The Cinder Path, which I drove around 2 petrol stations and 3 newsagents to find, and last night I dug out my own copy of The Girl. I only intended to watch a bit of it last night, but ended up watching the whole 2 and a half hours of it, until 1.30am. Who knew Geordie accents spoken by rough, floppy-haired horse-traders were so sexy?

Stolen from Andi Knapp, this site works out the very essence of your blog. It searches it and brings up your most used words. I think. I have to say, if you were a new comer to Welsh Girl In Leeds, you really wouldn't need to read much further - it really is all there!

Tim came to stay with me this weekend. He hasn't been to stay with me for ages so we packed a lot in. He left this afternoon and I'm a bit sad, so I'm going cheer myself up by recounting a few of the highlights.

Saturday night, I made Tim a deal. I'd watch football with him in the pub on Sunday, if he went with me to Rock of Ages. You don't really need to use too much imagination to figure out the type of night it was. And I loved it! Really, its like someone had taken my Media Player library, and turned it into a night. Fantastic! It was a bit of a last minute thing, as it took hours to pursuade Tim, so we were actually a tad overdressed, as up until the last second we were just heading into the city. What I mean by overdressed is that we were the only ones in there not wearing black. Or leather. Or ripped denim. Or an Axl Rose-esque bandana. Or tattoos. Or piercings. Or lashings of black eye make up. You get the picture, right? Oh yes, and while my hair was suitably long and curly, although admittedly not quite poodle-perm, Tim was also the only man in there whose hair wasn't longer than mine. So, after the initial half an hour it took for Tim to acclimatize to it all, whereas I got stuck right in there straight away, we were both having a great time. I think, apart from the amazing music (Zeppelin!!), the best bit for me was the fact that everyone was doing air guitar in all the guitar solos, AND IT WAS COOL. Loved it, loved it, loved it. Of course, we were both also wasted, and by the end of the night were both sick as dogs. But surely thats just obligatory for a rock night?

Sunday night I cooked Tim a huge proper roast chicken dinner. With stuffing, and parsnips and everything. I was very proud of myself. And then after dinner we went to the cinema, and I can now tick off one film on my 'I can't wait to see ...' list (see last post). Derailed was even Tim's choice. I didn't have to talk him into it or anything, although I would have done if needed as I really wanted to see it and Lanette had said it was worth a watch. I can confirm that she was right! Its a very good thriller, with a few twists and turns that I did not see coming. Jennifer Aniston was also very good. I really did not think of her as Rachel at all, which I sometimes do in those rubbishy rom-coms that she does (Picture Perfect, anyone?). There is a rape scene that is particularly harrowing. I couldn't tear my eyes away from the screen but I was willing myself not to cry as it was so realistic (I assume), although well-handled. All in all, a good start to my (now officially known as) 'I can't wait to see ...' list!

And finally, I've got a new phone. I did NOT pay that much for it. In fact, it was free! Students - check out Dot Mobile. Its beautiful and shiny and slidy and I love it. It also has a very good camera which will be good for phone-blogging. Once I figure out how to do it. Although to be honest, this may never actually happen.

I saw Memoirs of a Geisha last night. I wasn't really expecting to love it because I've seen the trailer quite a few times but wasn't moved by an urgent desire to run out and see it (the effect that Brokeback Mountain had the first time I saw the trailer for that about 5 months ago, for example). This really suprised me as I usually love films like that. However, I was pleasantly suprised.

Visually, it was stunning, and the little girl who plays the main character as a child, whose name I can neither pronounce or spell, was amazing for such a little person. The love story, although a bit predictable, had me in tears at one point. All in all, apart from one scene that reminded me far too much of The Ring and The Grudge and made me shudder, its a simply fabulous film.

In reflection on the frequency of films in my recent posts (all 3 of them) I have decided to compile a list of the films that I really cannot wait to see which are coming out very soon:

1. Walk The Line - Joaquin Phoenix. 'Nuff said.
2. The New World - A live action version of my favourite Disney film. I wonder if Grandmother Willow will be in it? Also, Colin Farrell and Christian Bale.
3. Casanova - When this trailer comes on in the cinema, I'm the one saying "I've been there! And I've been there!" when different parts of Venice are shown. Also, Heath Ledger. Mmmm.
4. Derailed - Not really sure what this one's about to be honest, but it's got Clive Owen in it.
5. Grizzly Man - No attractive, potentially shirtless men in this one, but it does look very entertaining.

Who says my life revolves around the telly? Because cinema's pretty important too.

Over a week since my last post. Terrible. But I have been a busy girl. The new semester has started in earnest now, and the dissertation work is getting serious, so I have mostly been in the library. I did, however, find a little bit of time to go home on the weekend to see Tim before I disappear under library books completely. There is a serious possibility that that might actually happen - last semester I didn't have the time (or money) to go home for over 6 weeks.

While I was at home in Wales it was freezing, as always, but on Sunday it was lovely and, deceptively, sunny, so we decided to venture out to a beach on Anglesey for the afternoon. I don't know which beach exactly, but it looked right over the Menai Straits to Caernarfon (that's the castle in the picture). It was very cold, very pebbly, and the sun was very bright, and we were in a very silly mood. I think the unnatural Welsh winter sunshine adversely affected our behaviour.

But before we knew it, the sun set and the day was over ...

... and we had to go home (to the other side of these mountains).

I was going to come back to Leeds on Monday night but kept putting it off and then got too sleepy to drive (my plan worked), so then woke up at the ungodly hour of 7am on Tuesday to drive back for my 11am lecture, and was on the motorway for 8.15am. After I got over the intitial shock that Chris Moyles is still doing the Radio 1 breakfast show (that's how often I'm awake and in a car at that time) memories of listening to him on the way to school all came flooding back and I enjoyed it so much I am still quoting gems from Tuesday's show now. Preston from Big Brother saying that he didn't want to go out with Chantelle, he just 'fancied her like a sister' is still a particular favourite of mine.