Welsh Girl In Leeds

2006-08-29T23:11:00.000+01:00

After 2 years, Welsh Girl In Leeds has come to an end. I'm still blogging - try and find my new home. I'll see you there!

Laura x

2006-05-29T21:08:00.000+01:00

A Welsh Girl In Leeds favourite, Mr Hugh Jackman to the left there(see here, and here), has been lighting up my life again in Xmen 3: The Last Stand. I staggered along to see it Saturday afternoon with a steaming hangover, hoping that the combination of popcorn and Wolverine's body hair and muscles would make it better.

And it did! Its a very good film, although I was a bit disappointed that more X-Men weren't included. The focus was very much on Wolverine which, lets face it, isn't a bad thing, but being an X-Men fan, I wish more of the blue-suited ones had been included. I have a few suggestions for improvements-

Wolverine should have forgotten all about that simpering Jean Grey and got it together with Rogue, as we all know should have happened.
Wolverine should have been shirtless more often.
When Jean Grey made his belt fall apart with the power of her mind, she shouldn't have stopped at the belt.

But yes, a good film - go and see it. Apparently a few other people agree with me as well. It had the fourth highest American opening weekend ever.

See - never underestimate the power of good body hair.

2006-05-26T17:19:00.000+01:00

... because we haven't had a shirtless Jakey for a while.

2006-05-23T14:54:00.000+01:00

Ah yes, that update. A bit late, but here it is ...

Since we spoke (the time before) last, April 28th I believe, I have done lots and lots of revision, and sat 3 very stressful exams, but I have also managed to fit in a few other things as well. In bullet point form:

I have won an award from the university volunteering awards, as presented by the vice-chancellor (brag, boast, brag), for my project that I set up and ran as part of STAR - a Saturday morning fun and conversation group for young asylum seekers in Leeds, as the best project for a hard-to-reach area of the community. They were very hard to reach. I may have had a little bit of help from Simon, my co-coordinator.

I went home the weekend after my dissertation was handed in and stayed at Ruthin Castle for the weekend, where I visited a medieval fair and then a medieval banquet. It was brilliant!

I have been to Rock of Ages and Brighton Beach-

But mostly I was revising, and then sitting exams. Before the exams I was convinced I was going to get a 2:2. Now that they're over, I'm slightly more confident, but we shall see.
On Friday I went to see the Da Vinci Code. Not having read the book, I thought it was great, but apparently if you have read the book then you won't necessarily feel the same.
On Saturday I watched Eurovision. I was not impressed. I thought the presenters were even more rubbish than the tradition of rubbish Eurovision presenters called for, and the songs weren't very good. Not a particularly good Eurovision year.
I have been slightly bored by ER. Last week's double bill was fantastic, but I am getting bored of the Darfur episodes. Perhaps if Dr Kovac was in them it would be a different story.

So yes, I think that is me all updated. I apologise for the extended lack of bloggage, but I have been reading everyone's blogs everyday. It was my only form of escapism from all the pressure.

2006-05-18T23:52:00.000+01:00

I had my last exam today.

My last exam, not just of this exam period, but EVER.

Am I relieved? Am I stress-free and without the constant worry of study and deadlines? No. I have to keep reminding myself that I don't have an exam tomorrow and that I don't have some sort of work, somewhere, that I should be doing. I keep catching the thought 'Oh, I've got work I should be doing now' running though my mind, even though this really is no longer the case, for like, ever (until the next degree, but I'm choosing to forget that for the moment). My brain has become acclimatised to stress. If I am not stressed and anxious then apparantly something must be amiss.

This is not exactly what I was expecting.

Proper update on all the fun times tomorrow.

2006-04-28T13:07:00.000+01:00

I'm alive!! Well, I feel alive now anyway. For a while back there, approximately 2 weeks ago, I was really losing the will to live. But on Monday I handed in my dissertation. All 52 pages and 12,093 words of it. Hopefully, it was good enough for me to achieve that 2:1 these past 3 years have all been about. And today I handed in the last ever essay of my Leeds University career. It was an easy essay to write, and I think that had a lot to do with writing the dissertation. My writing and analysis skills have been perfectly honed. I hope.

I can't believe how close it all is to coming to an end. In less than 3 weeks I've got my first exam. Actually, in less than 3 weeks I've got all my exams, because they're on the 16th, 17th and 18th of May. Cheers exam coordinators!!

In a lot of ways, I'm looking forward to finishing and leaving. Student life has been fun, obviously, but, and I can't believe I'm going to say this, I need to get some structure back in my life. Not getting up until nearly midday is starting to get really, really old. I don't think its neccassarily the case for everybody, but I think it is possible to outgrow being a student. Although, that may be the pressure of a dissertation, an essay, usual weekly reading, and the impending 3 most important exams I've ever sat talking. And I am sure that once I do venture out into the real world, these heady day will seem like the best time of my life. But then again, I do have another degree waiting for me in the not so distant future, so if that is the case, I can always retreat back to studentdom.

Easter was an interesting holiday. Although I did have the dissertation to write, and no money, I somehow still managed to have a good time. I didn't do any work over Easter weekend, and instead did some family day-trip type things, and really enjoyed it. I've felt a lot closer to my brother and sister over Easter as well. My sister will be 16 in September, but has been cooler than me for a long time, and I've really enjoyed spending Easter with her. We've both also felt closer to my brother as well. She even said 'I like him now, he's a lot nicer of a brother these days', and I agreed. Not that he was ever particualrly horrible (all the time), but instead of the usual sibling bickering, we can all have proper conversations and have things in common with each other. I think we might all actually be growing up. The dynamics have really changed with us, just over the past 6 months. I was always the bossy oldest, my sister was the baby who irritated my brother and was babied by me, and my brother was the unfortunate boy stuck in the middle, and with the two of us being so close in age we always used to fight. But now we're all friends, and I'm starting to see how we'll all be with each other when we're 'proper' grown-ups.

So, one last relaxing weekend without any work to do, and then the exam revision starts! Can't bloody wait.

2006-04-04T14:54:00.000+01:00

Well, after my last post and related comments, I think the only conclusion that can be drawn is that I am just a big, fat, scaredy-cat girl. But, I think we already knew that.

Dissertation is going well, I think. I finished my first chapter last night, so from now on it gets serious. The thing is, my first chapter, which was always intended to be just an introductory chapter and therefore the shortest, has somehow ended up being nearly 3000 words, and thats after some serious editing has already taken place. How did that happen? So I'm afraid Amy I'm going to have to disagree with you - I have an awful feeling that I am going to write way more than 12,000 words.

And as for being stuck indoors - a funny thing, that one. No matter how prepared I am to do some serious work, or how much I stare at my computer, or how tired I am at the end of the day, I just can't write anything. Whereas in the evening, usually right about 10.30, its like a switch gets flicked and it just flows. I'm writing about a thousand words a night. Unfortunately, I have to keep editing some of it out because I really am writing too much, but at least it shows I can do it. Its bizarre. I've never really worked like this before. Usually I spend all the daylight hours hidden away in the library, getting loads and loads of work done, and then I get home in the evening and just sit and stare at the telly. No matter how much work I have to do or even how much I (sometimes)want to do something, I just can't get it done. Now its the other way round. Strange.

I am aware that for some, if not all of you, all this dissertation talk is about as exciting as watching Home and Away (Marie and Ys excepted, obviously - you two think of another TV programme you think is stupid), but really, at the moment, its either this or Home and Away. Or maybe I could take some photos to post when I go on some exciting dog walks! In the woods behind my house. In the same type of trees I'm sure you already have where you live. No? OK then. Dissertation it is.

2006-03-29T11:34:00.000+01:00

I went to see Hostel last night. I won't post a picture to illustrate this fact, as I already have enough images from the film going around my head, many of which I'd rather forget, and I don't really want to add fuel to the fire, as it were. I am currently in the process of erradicating several scenes from the film from my mind through sheer willpower.

Yes, folks, it was that bad. Some readers who have seen it may disagree with me (men, I'd hazard a guess), but in my opinion, it was horrific. Now, this doesn't neccassarily mean it was bad. Yes, there were several scenes where I had my coat over my head, my hands over my ears and was actually crying with the horror (what can I say? I've never really been a fan of torture). Yes, there were at least two points when I actually thought I was going to have to leave the screen and sit out the film in the foyer. However, unlike most other gory horror films, this one actually made me think. Not to spoil it for those of you who still want to go and see it even after reading this, or indeed those of you who have now been spurred on to go and see it, but the circumstances that surround and result in the torture and gore could really, actually, probably already are, happen. Yes, thought-provoking indeed. But still very, very horrible.

Needless to say it took me literally hours to get to sleep last night. Even more than when I saw The Hills Have Eyes a few weeks ago. Why do I do it to myself, you ask? Well, after four years of making Tim see fluffy chick-flicks and romantic comedies it is, I suppose, the least I can do. And also, scary movies are a bit like rollercoasters. You know its going to be scary, and you hate feeling scared, but at the same time the scaryness is also really quite fun.

In other news, I am indeed at home in Wales at the moment for the Easter holidays, not that it'll be a holiday (see second to last post). I have spent the past two days finishing off my dissertation notes and then staring at the computer screen hoping it will throw some inspiration at me. The thing was, I knew exactly what I wanted to say, but it was the actually starting it that was proving the problem. However, today I just thought sod it, sat down at my computer and just typed whatever came into my head. I then went back and deleted the random crap I had just written, but the barrier had been broken and I was off! However, the barrier didn't break until approximately 9pm, so I have only written about 500 words so far, but I am confident that from tomorrow the writing of the other 11,500 words will be, I really, truly hope, easy.

Here's hoping.

2006-03-25T22:54:00.000Z

I went out for a meal with some friends the other night and the conversation turned to which was better: Neighbours or Home and Away? The sort of conversation that could happen to anyone, you see, whether I am there to instigate it or not, I imagine.

But anyhow. Neighbours or Home and Away.

I said that, at the moment, H&A is the better of the two top-quality Australian soaps, for the following reason-

*deep breath*

Hayley used to go out with Kim (a boy), briefly. She then realised she was in love with Scott so started going out with him instead. Three months in she finds out she's pregnant. She doesn't know if the baby is Scott's or Kim's, so a paternity test follows. Someone, I can't remember who or for what reason, swaps the results, and while the baby is actually Scott's, everyone thinks it is Kim's. Scott can't handle it, finishes with Hayley, who then goes out with and gets engaged to Kim. Meanwhile, Scott starts going out with crazy Amanda, who, somehow, finds out that Scott is actually the baby-father, realises Scott and Hayely are still in love with each other, so pretends to be pregnant by Scott. So. Scott is actually the father of Hayley's baby, but thinks he isn't, and thinks he is the father of Amanda's baby, which doesn't actually exist.

My friend's response?

Neighbours is better because Harold's gone mad.

So, I pose the question to you, dear readers, which is better, H&A or Neighbours?

Perhaps next time I shall try and think of some things to write about that don't involve telly or Jakey.

2006-03-21T21:16:00.000Z

Ah, last week of semester 2. Four weeks of Easter holidays are stretching ahead. Four weeks of fun days out, fun nights out, leisurely telly-watching until my eyes develop right-angles, lots of lie-ins, no uni work or money worries, oh, and spending ridiculous amounts of money on unnecessary but luxurious hair products.

*And then she wakes up*

The reality of Easter will be as follows-

Four weeks of getting up at NINE O'CLOCK to make sure I use the whole day to write my dissertation, scheduling my lunchtime to coincide with Neighbours so as to kill two birds with one stone and not take too much time out of writing my dissertation, days out consisting of walking the dog round the corner so I can get some fresh air and a view differing from that of the four walls in my bedroom and not spend the money I don't have, nights in so I don't get up late the next day and don't spend the money I don't have, and not buying hair products of any kind, luxurious or otherwise.

Did I mention I have no money and a dissertation due in the first day back after the Easter holiday?

2006-03-10T17:01:00.000Z

I'm off home this weekend, and when I'm home I rarely think to sit down and post, so I'll do this meme thing now. I quite like memes. I know they can get a bit boring, for reader and writer, if they get done all the time because a lot of the stuff that's in them can be quite samey, but I haven't done one for ages, and I was specifically tagged for this one, which is always nice as in my own little self-obsessed way makes me feel quite special.

Blimey though, 3 posts in 3 days? Thats practically unheard of for me these days!

Right. Down to the meme ...

... oh wait. Before I forget, I got an essay back yesterday and I got a first! For the same type of assessment last semester I only got a 55 and it dragged my whole average for that module down, so that 70 I am now the proud owner of is a good start to this semester's module and I'm well chuffed.

Right. Yes. Meme.

Seven things to do before I die:
1. Have babies. Cute ones.
2. Find a career I enjoy.
3. Learn to play the guitar.
4. Live in Italy for a time.
5. Travel everywhere I want to go (the list is endless).
6. Conquer my fear of fish (wild - goldfish are tame so not scary) so I can swim in the sea without having a panic attack.
7. Buy designer jeans.

Seven things I cannot do:
1. Miss a meal - I need to be fed every 3 hours.
2. Get by very well on less than 9 hours of sleep.
3. Not set the video to record my favourite programmes if I know I'm going to miss them.
4. Maths of any kind.
5. Sing.
6. Wear stilletto heels - they hurt.
7. Fit into my beautiful black boots I got for my 18th birthday. I was thinner then.

Seven things that attract me to blogging:
1. Contacting people from all over the world.
2. The fact that I must interest some people (check out my hit counter- and I'd say only about half of those are me).
3. Reading about other people's lives - I'm a naturally nosey person.
4. The possibility of one day getting recognised in person from my profile photo.
5. Hmm. Can't think of anymore ...

Seven things I say most often:
1. Only a little bit of milk please. I like my tea to be proper tea.
2. Sorry Dad, that's too weak, I can't drink that (see above).
3. Timotheee!!
4. Can you put Corrie/Eastenders on please?
5. I can't afford it.
6. Mmm. He's attractive.
7. I'm going to the library.

Seven books I love:
1. Anything by Sharon K. Penman, but especially Here Be Dragons, Falls the Shadow, and The Reckoning.
2. Anything by Barbara Erskine.
3. Anything by Catherine Cookson.
4. Little Women.
5. Death of a Salesman.
6. The Secret Garden.
7. The Loop, by the bloke who wrote The Horse Whispere, but I can't remember his name.

Seven movies/DVDs I watch over and over again:
1. Pride and Prejudice (BBC version).
2. Legends of the Fall.
3. Last of the Mohicans.
4. Grease 2.
5. Stage Beauty.
6. Emma (Gwyneth Paltrow version).
7. Bridget Jones' Diary.

Seven celebs I would be friends with:
1. Liv Tyler.
2. Kate Hudson.
3. Jake Gyllenhaal (we'd be good friends).
4. Bono.
5. Fern Britton.
6. Jeremy Kyle (if he promised never to shout at me).
7. Reese Witherspoon.

Seven people I want to join in:
Oh God. Anyone who wants to.

2006-03-09T21:27:00.000Z

I know I said that a meme was going to be my next post, but I am afraid it is going to have to be my next next post.

Behold -

Stolen from Pink Is The New Blog, this is a present for Ms. Mac. Not for me at all. Nope. Not one bit. Because I am totally selfless like that.

(As beautiful as Jakey's face is, perhaps we should ignore it in this photo, and just focus on the chest. I know I am.)

2006-03-08T14:42:00.001Z

A week since my last post! Terrible. I have been very busy though. This is what I have been doing.

Friday afternoon I was at a demonstration at the Leeds Home Office building against Section 9 of the Home Office's asylum policy, and detention of destitute asylum seekers - when it started snowing. I have been waiting for snow for ages, jealous of the inches of snow they were having at home, while we just had rain here.

The snow at home last week.

And then, when I am standing outside for hours on end, it bloody snows. What timing. But later in the afternoon, Tim arrived for the weekend, so, suitably attired this time and within bolting distance of home in case of extreme coldness, I enjoyed the snow.

Saturday night, we went to Rock of Ages again. It is officially my new favourite night. Two of my requests got played (Rainbow's 'Since You've Been Gone' and Bon Jovi's 'Shot Through The Heart', in case you were wondering). There was a fight, I'm not sure what about, and it was quite amusing to watch as I couldn't tell male from female apart in the struggle - there was just a lot of long, permed hair flying about.

Sunday night I finally made it to see Walk The Line, number 1 on my 'I can't wait to see ...' list. I can confirm it was every bit as amazing as I just knew it would be, and maybe a little bit more. When we got home, Tim wanted to see what Johnny and June really looked like so we did a bit of Googling. I didn't want to show him this post as I knew he'd laugh at me. Whilst Googling, we came across this famous photo of Mr Cash-

I said I'd seen the photo recreated by Joaquin Phoenix somewhere, but couldn't remember where. Then followed literally hours of frantic searching to find said photo, but to no avail. Tim thought I was making it up. But then! I found it! That'll teach him to doubt my celebrity knowledge. It never fails.

I have been busy doing lots of other things as well, of varying degrees of importance, mostly involving eating food and watching the telly-

ER is fabulous as always
Home and Away is very good at the moment, what with Flynn's cancer story and crazy Amanda. I also really like the new Hayley. She's a lot less annoying than the old one and actually quite sweet.
Neighbours today - *sobs*. Poor Susan. She just can't keep a man. And you can tell that that Katya is going to be trouble.
I absolutely love Eastenders' Bradley. He is so cute. Friday was the best episode in ages. Jake on Friday - 'I've been molested by a teeny-bopper and attacked by the ginger-ninja. I only came out for a pint!' Honey's dad is hilarious as well. And Rosie has finally broken free from that fat, hairy slob, who is actually exactly the same in real life. Really. I saw him on This Morning.
The Oscars. I am very glad that Reese Witherspoon won best actress, and also that Rachel Weisz won best supporting actress. I am disappointed that Brokeback Mountain didn't win best film - I have never heard of Crash before. I am not suprised Heath Ledger didn't win best actor, as I though Jakey was just as good as him and he was only nominated for best supporting actor. Philip Seymour Hoffman looks revolting, but I suppose good acting and good looks don't always have to go hand in hand. Although, in my opinion, they should.

Hmm. I think that that is all.

Oh, and Amy has tagged me for a meme - I will do that for my next post.

2006-03-01T13:51:00.000Z

Dydd Dewi Sant Hapus!

2006-02-28T23:31:00.000Z

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.

2006-02-24T17:04:00.000Z

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-

Life is so dull and boring I have nothing to write about.
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.

2006-02-22T20:14:00.000Z

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?

2006-02-15T23:15:00.000Z

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.

2006-02-13T18:29:00.000Z

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?

2006-02-10T12:39:00.000Z

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!

2006-02-06T21:14:00.000Z

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.

2006-02-02T23:58:00.000Z

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:

Walk The Line - Joaquin Phoenix. 'Nuff said.
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.
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.
Derailed - Not really sure what this one's about to be honest, but it's got Clive Owen in it.
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.

2006-02-01T11:03:00.000Z

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.

2006-01-24T13:38:00.000Z

Continuing with the film theme, in eager anticipation of another film I mentioned a while ago and am really looking forward to watching, I decided to do a bit of Googling on said film, Walk The Line. Like Brokeback Mountian, Walk The Line has been winning some serious awards, reviews and column inches, particularly Reese Witherspoon for her portrayal of June Carter Cash. Reese, incidentally, isn't actually her real name - its Laura Reese Witherspoon. A little useless fact for you there.

I already knew who Johnny Cash was. Who wouldn't, what with all the aforementioned press coverage, etc. Also, Johnny Cash was a regular in a series of Dr Quinn Medicine Woman, many years ago (1993, I believe). Its this, to be honest, which is the more likely explanation for why I knew who he was. But I can honestly say I had no idea what June Carter Cash looked like. So, I got Googling.

This is Mr and Mrs Cash in their current silver-screen incarnation-

This is them as they were way back when - I'm guessing the 60s-

And THEN, I found a more recent picture of them, circa 1993 (that's a clue)-

Have you got it yet kids?

This photo was taken from Dr Quinn Medicine Woman, when Johnny Cash played a character called Kid Cole, who fell in love with some new-age healer lady called Sister Ruth, married her and ran off into the sunset with her, living happily ever after before he died of diabetes, or TB, or something else that not even super doc Michaela Quinn could cure. Now, this was obviously lost on me when I watched it the first time round at the tender age of 9, and also when I watched Dr Quinn again (obsessively) on the *whispers it* Hallmark Channel a year or so ago, but it would appear that Sister Ruth was played by none other than June Carter Cash! Aww!

Why I knew who Johnny Cash was as a direct result of Dr Quinn, but the same programme, and even same storyline, failed to do the same for me with his lady wife is a mystery to me. But, at least I now know what she looked like. And now, just in case you didn't already, so do all of YOU. Don't say I never do anything for you.

2006-01-21T20:50:00.000Z

Last night I went to see that film I've been going on about for a while, the one with the gay cowboy love.

No! Not that one! (Source)

Yes! That one!

Brokeback Mountain was everything I hoped and expected it would be, and more. Even the fact that, because the cinema was so full, the only seats left were in the front row which resulted in severe neck-ache and mild disorientation didn't take anything away from it. Really. What can I say? The story was handled very sensitively - you could feel the love and pain of everyone involved. Of course, despite several shots of Jakey's well-formed chest, it's Heath Ledger that's been getting all the best reviews from this film. I do agree that Heath gave a very moving, understated and highly believable performance. However, I will say that although Jake's character wasn't as perhaps as serious as Heath's, his performance wasn't any less for it. I left the cinema in what can only be described as an emotional state, and I'm still thinking about it now, 24 hours later. I really hope it wins all the awards it deserves.

I love the gays! (And Jake Gyllenhaal.)

2006-01-18T20:22:00.000Z

Well. Haven't I been busy today?

Actually, the answer to that question would be a resounding 'no'. Here's why.

9am this morning, there's a ring at the doorbell. Its the double glazing men! No, not salesmen. Those we could have ignored. Men to actually install double glazing. At 9 o'clock in the morning.

*Tired, drawn-out groan*

This wasn't suddenly sprung on us - we were given prior warning by the landlord. But I, in my naievety, thought it would be over in an hour or so. And seeing as how I don't usually wake up until 10 and get dressed until 11-11.30, I thought hanging around in the one room that wasn't being worked in with naturally drying hair and no make up as I couldn't physically access my room, would all be ok - no actual waste of time, when a mountain of research reading and refugee-related meetings and emails (I'll tell you about that another time) were waiting to be done, as I wouldn't otherwise be doing them anyway.

Alas, 1.30 came around, and I was still sat, nay, curled up in a ball wrapped up in a blanket as there were no windows (except for one) in the house and its bloody freezing, in the same room, with now naturally dried hair, doing a very good impression of a gorse bush or some other such wild shrubbery, no food as we couldn't get into the kitchen, and dying for the toilet as there was no window in the bathroom and I didn't fancy have a wee in front of any neighbour who cared to watch.

It was at this point that I actually ventured outside, driving to uni, throwing my bank balance to the wind and risking a parking ticket in the one, big, no-parking zone that is Leeds University ( didn't get one, thank God), just to go to the toilet, get some food, and attend and send out the aforementioned meeting and emails.

By the time I got back it was gone 2pm and the men were still here.

3.30pm the Fleetwood Mac DVD went on.

4pm they left, and I faced facts that no work was going to get done this side of Neighbours ( the crash! So good!)

I ate pizza for tea (forgot to get anything else out of the freezer to defrost), watched Corrie, and that brings us up to right, about, now.

Although I did sweep the kitchen floor as my chore for the day on the rota. And I'm going to do a bit of work now, before Desperate Housewives. As soon as I finish this. Honest. My reasoning is, I worked like a dog all last week and right up until yesterday, so one lazy, messy-haired, not my fault anyway, 'day off' is allowed, just this once.

But enough about me. Some responses to some of your comments:

Curly: It wasn't actually in The Cockpit, it was in the union but its a night run by The Cockpit. The Cockpit is actually really good as well. Indie nights are definitely worth it.
Huw: I have not abandoned H&A, its just not overly interesting at the moment. Its all about Neighbours at the moment! I know who dies! And who they make you think dies. I was reading it on Neighbours.com in November. Yes, I am that sad.

Desperate Housewives tonight!!

2006-01-16T21:13:00.000Z

Well, wasn't that a fun little experiment? While it was great to hear from two genuine new posters, and one housemate masquerading as a lurker (anonymous no. 1), and lovely to get comments from my favourite regular commentors (i.e. - all all of you!), I was vaguely disappointed that a few more lurkers didn't emerge. Remember people - I can see your IP addresses via my hit counter! I know you're out there!

While every day since Wednesday has been spent in the library working on my dissertation, I did manage to venture outside on Saturday night and, in my usual style, got wasted on just 3 pints.

2 days to go until Desperate Housewives!

2006-01-12T18:11:00.000Z

I am completely stealing an idea from Huw now.

Apparently it is delurking week, so I am going to take a risk and assume that there are some (at least one, maybe?) readers out there who visit but never comment. Actually, I know that there is at least one, because I have recently received an email from said lurker, which was very nice, being as self-obsessed as I obviously am. I mean, I have a blog. All about me.

I am aware that there is a risk of this falling flat on its arse and the blog, and therefore me, is revealed as the uninteresting drivel we all know it really is but pretend otherwise for my self-esteem, and NO ONE comments. Apart from my few but cherished regular commentors.

I know that lurkers do exist, because I am one myself. There's at least 3 blogs that I check everyday, and loads more that I check in on from time to time, but have never commented on.

So go on. You know you want to.

2006-01-12T00:31:00.000Z

And the countdown to 'spring' starts ... NOW.

A slightly shorter countdown - one week to go until new Desperate Housewives!

Wednesday nights rock!

2006-01-10T18:16:00.000Z

Richard Hammond, please be my boyfriend.

He is funny, oh so clever, and oh so beautiful. If not a bit on the short side. Just look at that smile. What a man.

Aside from admiring Mr Hammond on The 5 o'Clock Show, unfortunately accompanied by the nowhere near as funny Mel Giedroyc, I have been sitting my exam. It went quite well, I hope, and was my only exam, which means no more revision until May! I still have loads of dissertation work to do though, starting tommorrow. Today, though, is a rest-day. I am cooking a my-exam-and-therefore-my-revision-is-over dinner, from my new Jamie Oliver cookbook I got for Christmas, and then watching my new Fleetwood Mac DVD that I got for Christmas and have been saving for after my exam. While everyone else in my house is still revising! Ha!

Revision and dissertation and essay writing and reading, and so on, is all starting to get me a bit down now. I've been doing the same thing for three years now, and while I still enjoy the element of my degree that is being a historian, finding out new things and research and stuff, the actual work bit is getting boring. And I am really fed up of always having deadlines at the back of my mind. I can never completely relax. And what was making it so much worse was that I didn't know what I was going to do with the fruits of all this labour when its all done and dusted.

But over Christmas I've had a sort of revelation. The actual process that led to my realisation is a bit long and complicated, but basically I got talking to my friend from home who works for the council and we got talking about 'proper' jobs, which led me to think about what I really wanted to do. I realised, especially after thinking about how much I enjoyed working in Bodelwyddan Castle and how the management side of how things ran there really appealed to me, that heritage was the way to go for me! And now I've found an MA course in Bangor university in Heritage Management, which is really quite perfect for me, because I can live at home, as Bangor's only half an hour away, so I won't have to pay for rent living away from home, which is always good, and while it'll still be something I really enjoy, it will be a completely different style of degree and of learning, the freshness of which really appeals to me. And, hopefully, I will be able to get a good job that I enjoy at the end of it!

Ta dah! Now I just need to keep slogging away for the rest of this year so I get a 2:1 and can do it all.

2006-01-09T16:10:00.002Z

As I take a break in my spirit-crushing exam revision, cup of tea in one hand, ASDA Good For You digestive biscuits in the other, one thing in particular is on my mind.

Leeds University's policy is that when you finally get your degree results, if you are only a point or so away from a 2:1 or a 1st, then they look at your record to see if there have been any mitigating circumstances during the course of your degree that could have adversely affected your results, and then in some cases push up your marks accordingly.

I was wondering, does 'the new series of ER starting the night before my exam' count as mitigating circumstances?

2006-01-04T15:22:00.000Z

Happy new year!

I spent New Year's Eve in the pub, working. From 4pm until 3am . Dressed as a cowgirl. I lost count of the amount of times I heard 'Are those guns loaded, love?' 'I want to shoot off your guns!' Or 'Howdy cowgirl!' But dressed in a checked shirt, denim skirt, cowboy boots, two plastic guns and a huge hat, it was only to be expected. I finished the night not only shattered, but crippled. My boots were making my feet hurt by 6pm. By 9pm it hurt to step so I had to shuffle everywhere. I had taken trainers along, in preparation for just such pain, but having come so far, I refused to change shoes and was determined to make it to the end. 2am and last orders came, and I triumphantly kicked off the boots and padded around for the next hour clearing up in my socks. By that point I couldn't even take trainers on my feet. They still haven't recovered.

Pain aside, it was a really good night. Other costumed staff included an angel, a saloon showgirl, Avid Merrion (I think) and a naughty vicar - prim and proper from the front, silky knickers, suspenders and fishnets from behind. Yes, that 6 foot 4 barman did look very fetching in his fishnets.

New Year's over now. So, it would appear, is Christmas. Little sis went back to school yesterday, and the decorations in our house came down. And I am left with less than a week at home, and exam revision. Thank god there's still plenty of chocolate left in the house to eat.

2005-12-29T00:50:00.000Z

Go have a look at Pink Is The New Blog's latest - 'The Year In Jake'.

'Nuff said.

2005-12-28T18:25:00.000Z

Tim's sister has named her baby Jacob. Me and Tim spent the afternoon round at their house with his other sister and all the various other nieces and nephews. Little Jacob is absolutely gorgeous. His hands and feet are massive and he's already got brown eyes. When Tim was holding him, sack-of-potatoes-style, as men do, he was quiet and content. When I held him, he whinged. Typical. Its adorable watching the other kids holding him and fussing over him. His 5 year old big sister is all proud and grown up when she holds him. His 3 year old sister and 2 year old cousin keep, quite energetically, stroking his little cheeks and hair. He's got a lot of dark hair. I love babies. We're all doing the usual 'He looks just like (insert various family member's names here)', even though Tim and his brother-in-law are both adamant he's just a baby and doesn't look like anything except, well, a baby. But everyone agrees that he looks most like Tim and his mum.

Did I mention I love babies?

In other news, I am trying to decide what I am going to wear New Year's Eve. I'm working in the pub and we all haveto wear fancy dress. At the moment I'm leaning towards being a cowgirl - minimum money and effort required. Any suggestions?

2005-12-26T19:12:00.000Z

As Slade said,

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYBODY!

Tim's sister had her baby yesterday! Christmas Day! I knew she would. A 9 pounds 2 ounces baby boy - as yet unnamed. He's huge.

Hope everyone had a good one!

2005-12-23T17:45:00.001Z

I have just been to pick up my much-needed, much-anticipated wages. Two nights worth of hard work. And I have been underpaid by nearly £10. £10 isn't really all that much, I suppose, but when you're not getting paid all that much in the first place, and have not a bean to your name anyway, and it is Christmas weekend, that £10 counts for everything. There is absolutely no explanation for it - there was no wage slip in my pay packet. Head bar-man: 'no one gets a wage slip this week because of Christmas'. Huh!!?? And my boss wasn't even there anyway, so I have to drive back all the way to Llandudno again tomorrow to sort it out when he IS in, probably consuming the missing £10 in petrol in the process.

Grrr.

UPDATE (the next day): It would appear that I have been taxed by mistake - as a student I'm not supposed to be. I'll get my money back soon. Ah well. Panic over.

2005-12-22T17:10:00.000Z

This past week and a bit I have been (in no particular order):

very pleased that Shayne won X-Factor, although I did rather like Journey South as well;

scared of very large creepy-crawlies and moved to tears by King Kong. That Naomi Watts had it easy in that film - she didn't exactly have too many lines to remember.

putting up the Christmas decorations - and throwing myself on the floor in a tantrum when I couldn't get the fairy lights looking right and/or untangled;
back at work in The Pub, where I was told by some drunk regulars that I look just like Rachel Stevens. Can YOU see the resemblance?

stung on the sole of my foot by a very large wasp while at Tim's house. A wasp! In December! And a massive one! It hurt.
doing lots of uni work.
watching lots of Sky TV and making the most of it while I can.

Next week I will be:

opening presents.
eating lots of food.
eating lots of chocolate.
watching lots of TV.
working in The Pub.
drinking alcohol, in lots of pubs (when I get paid for the working).
crossing my fingers that Tim's sister doesn't have her baby on Christmas Day, as it is already 4 days late.

2005-12-11T19:03:00.000Z

I am back in Wales for Christmas. Quite frankly, there really is nowhere else to be!

After Sunday dinner today, Tim and I set off out for the afternoon. I suggested going to this pancake house that I had heard of somewhere in Trefriw. I was very confident I knew where it was.

So we drove through the Conwy valley, on the Trefriw side of the Conwy River. Through this valley-

I believe, that that cluster of houses is actually Trefriw itself! A lovely place.

However, either we blinked and missed it, which is very easy to do with Trefriw as it is so small, or I didn't know where this pancake place was after all, as before we knew it we had passed through Trefriw, and there was no pancake house to be seen. From Colwyn Bay it takes a good half an hour's drive to reach this point, and I was really quite hungry, what with all the talk of pancakes, but thankfully by now we were at this bridge -

and on the otherside of this bridge is Llanrwst! A lovely little historic market town.

We wandered around Llanrwst for a bit, and then went into a tiny little tea rooms/antiques shop, which was a bizarre but appealing mix of medieval and Victorian. We had Welsh Cream Teas, which are the same as any other cream teas (i.e. tea, scones, jam and cream) but with the added extra of Bara Brith, a fruity, cake loaf made with tea ( I think).

Yum!

When we had finished stuffing our faces, we headed back off home, this time driving along the other (quicker) side of the Conwy.

When we got home, I introduced Tim to my Nainie (Grandma in Welsh), who, for many reasons, had yet to have had the pleasure of meeting each other. After Tim went home for his tea, Nainie informed me that Tim is very nice, and asked me 'when are you going to get married then?'

Later tonight, we are going to watch Narnia.

It is nice to be back home again.

*Disclaimer - no photos were actually taken throughout the course of the day. I didn't take my camera but decided to spruce up an otherwise potentially quite dull post with some illustrations. All pictures appear courtesy of Google Images, and for that, I thank them.*

2005-12-07T16:03:00.000Z

Well, I finally finished my essay. In fact, I even handed it in a day early, and I have never actually done that before. Not sure if it's a good or bad thing. I've also had my dissertation meeting with my tutor and we have decided that my ideas for my dissertation are really rather good. The title is -

An Investigation into the Justices of North Wales During the Reign of Edward II.

Isn't it exciting?! It's well underway, but with that and exam revision, my Christmas holiday is going to be anything but a holiday. I shall also be heading back to the pub to earn some pennies over Christmas, which I am quite looking forward to. After such an extended break from there, and not having to work there 5 nights a week either, my boss shouldn't drive me too crazy. Having said that, I will be working New Year's Eve. I'm just thinking of the money.

I've actually ventured into the city to attempt some Christmas shopping on my somewhat limtied funds today, and my attempts have led me to the conclusion that men are bloody impossible to buy for. Girls are easy! If you're unsure exactly what they're in to, are can't afford to buy someting truly spectacular, then something smelly, fluffy, or sparkly is never far away, no matter what shop you venture in to. But men? Blah. No idea. Tim has made it especially difficult, with his usual, 'I want a suprise.' I'm sure he'll be very suprised on Christmas morning if I don't actually get him anything at all. That would be a suprise.

In our house we have already had Christmas. Twice in fact. Once on Saturday, and again last night as one of our number was working all Saturday but didn't want to miss out, and we were all too greedy to wait.

Here I am sporting my 'luxury' cracker prize - one of those joke nail things that looks like its going through my finger. It kept me entertained for literally minutes.

With all of us at home for up to 4 weeks over the Christmas period, in all corners of the UK, its nice to get a bit festive together. I was very lazy and didn't contribute financially or culinary-wise to either Christmases, and as I was the only one who didn't do one or the other, it was my job to do the washing up last night. Particularly festive of me, I thought.

2005-12-01T12:17:00.000Z

Ever wondered if dreams really can come true? Take a look at the guy on the left. Not Jakey - the bloke who is the common theme throughout all the photos. You might find an answer.

That guy is Trent.

Until a short while ago, Trent was a teacher from Detroit who started a blog, much like this one. His passion for all things celebrity led Pink Is The New Blog to eventually become purely a gossip blog, with acidy comments and funny nicknames for celebs.

All well and good.

Until some Hollywood movers and shakers realised just how popular this blog was and how many people actually read it.

Newspaper and magazine shoutouts and then interviews started. Before long, some serious LA execs got involvd and Trent is currently in talks to secure an actual Hollywood deal off the back of the blog. All this was helped a great deal by favourite 'Pink' fodder, Joel from Good Charlotte, coming across it, liking what he read, and becoming firm friends with Trent, doling out treats such as VIP tickets to Good Charlotte gigs and to the concerts of his ladyfriend, Hilary Duff.

All this, however, was fairly small fry compared to what was about to come along.

Trent has since, amongst many other things, met Madonna, got a mention in Nicole Richie's new novel, and been to numerous celebrity Hollywood parties.

But then it happened. The biggest and bestest thing that could ever have happened to Trent.

He met Jake Gyllenhaal.

Yes, invited along to the world premiere of Jake's new film 'Brokeback Mountain', which Trent has been plugging for months new in eager anticipation, he got to meet and chat with his alltime love, apart from his boyfriend, obviously - Jakey-poo himself.

Surely, it cannot get any better for this guy.

Of course, with fame, especially fame of this kind, negativity often follows. Trent has had some comments on the blog saying that since becoming friends with the rich and famous his posts have gone soft, with him going easy on particular celebs. The extra publicity has pointed new readers in his direction, which has resulted in some unfortunate anti-gay comments, forcing Trent to have to moderate his comments. But, for the large part, and myself included, avid readers, followers and fans are happy for, and just a tad jealous of, Detroit's favourite son (Eminem who?).

And all this off the back of a blog.

Maybe, just maybe, one day, off the back of my blog, I could meet my alltime love. What are the chances, really, that Richard Armitage is an avid reader, follower and fan of Welsh Girl In Leeds?

(Please don't answer that - don't dash my dreams before they've had a chance to take flight, I beg you.)

(Picture source - Pink Is The New Blog)

2005-11-27T19:04:00.000Z

When I was 10 I was Take That's biggest fan. Me and my best friend had every album, video and poster. I went to see them in concert in Manchester, quite possibly the best day of my life (up until the age of 10, at least) and I cried buckets when Robbie left. The worst day of my life. Until they all split up. The next worst day of my life. Up until the age of 11.

Now, ten years later, they are getting back together again.

And I feel nothing.

Women of my age all over the country, as well as a fair few men, are rejoicing in the news that they have reunited and are going on tour.

And I have no desire to go and see them.

Maybe its because Robbie won't be with them, and Robbie was always my favourite, but then again I've had nothing but a passing interest in his solo stuff. Whatever it is, I feel like I am betraying them.

Or maybe, just maybe, I am finally (starting to be) a grown up!

Surely not.

In other news, I am 342 words, including title and footnotes, into my essay (see last post), which I have, believe it or not, been working on all day. Only 1658 words to go before I reach the word limit. Those pesky Italian merchants are proving difficult.

Maybe the repeat of Lost will give me some inspiration ...

2005-11-19T18:32:00.000Z

It is the middle of November, the first semester is not far from over, the nights are starting to get frosty, and all this means that it is essay time (apart from the frost bit, which has no real relevance to essays, but rather to the fact that its just really cold at the moment)! Yes, my weekends are currently revolving entirely around whether or not I can get to my desk on the basement level of the library (yes, I am in there that often) before anyone else does, and then work, work, working away on my current piece de resistance -

'Why did Italian cities become the commercial leaders of Europe by the early fourteenth century?'

I say my 'weekends'. What I really mean are my weekend days. Saturday night revolves around flicking between Strictly Come Dancing and X Factor, X Factor Results, and then a DVD and a little bit of chocolate, followed by an early night so I can get up early on the Sunday to get back in to the library.

Having said that, last Saturday was a night of TV fun and frivolity followed by a night out here, reaching a state of such drunkenness that I found it difficult to focus on the faces of those stood right in front of me. This, I am sure, being a direct result of not being out drinking properly for, well, ages. I still managed to get up relatively early the next day to plod off, hungover, to the library for 5 hours, though. OK, I lie. I got there at 2pm after eating porridge and toast and drinking gallons of tea in bed, watching Almost Famous that I had taped off the telly from the night before while I was out. I stayed in there working until 7pm when it closed, though. The library, not bed.

OK, that's all you're getting out of me tonight - Strictly Come Dancing is on!

2005-11-16T15:21:00.000Z

This week nature has made me happy.

Driving home to North Wales on Monday night, I was driving westwards, at about 4.30pm. The sun was setting, in fact it took ages to actually set, and the whole time the entire sky was the most amazing colours - a mixture of bright red, burnt orange and the same pink as the blog! As I got near home at about 5pm I was driving towards the mountains, which were all dark, with this amazing sky behind it. I saw a few people along the motorway pulled in and taking pictures of the sky. I wish I'd had my camera with me.

Driving back up to Leeds today, I drove along the prom in Colwyn Bay to get to the motorway. The sea was absolutely crazy. The waves were massive and the sea looked really full. That's a weird way of describing the sea, but that's how it looked. There was a small van parked up right next to the railings and waves were crashing over it, while its driver was on the edge of the road taking pictures of it. Two waves actually went right over my car and the water reached the other side of the road. It was hilarious! I got off the prom as soon as I could as I realised there was a chance it may have been a bit dangerous, but it was very funny.

2005-11-10T15:51:00.000Z

I went to see The Brothers Grimm last night.

We wanted to see Nanny McPhee really, but it didn't start for over half an hour after we arrived and we were too impatient to wait.

The film was very tongue in cheek and really didn't take itself seriously - which is good, because there was absolutely nothing about it that you actually could take seriously. Trust me when I say that that picture gives a very good overrall impression of the film. It was terrible, but in a good way, I suppose, because it did make me laugh and jump quite a bit, which I'm guessing was its main aim.

Apart from showing how much of a scaredy cat I am, jumping out of my seat at least once every five minutes to a film certified as 12A, The Brothers Grimm also served to remind me how sexy Heath Ledger is, although, admittedly it isn't all too apparent from that picture. Just trust me.

One of the trailers before the film got me all excited as well, for Brokeback Mountain,with, yet again, Mr Ledger.

Obviously I've been hearing all the hype about it for ages, especially from Trent at Pink Is The New Blog, who has an obsession with Jakey Gyllenhaal verging on, well, my obsession with him, and has been lucky enough to see a preview of it.

What's that I hear you all say? You want a reminder of why Jake is so dear to my heart? Oh OK then -

(Thanks to ms. mac!)

Anyway, yes, from the trailer it looks like such a good story. I can't wait for it to come out, as it were. Now I just need to persuade someone to go and see it with me.

2005-11-09T10:16:00.000Z

The eternal mess that is our house and the resultant in-house fighting about whose mess it is, who does all the tidying, who doesn't do anything, etc. etc., has resulted in a chores rota. The featured chores are -

Washing up and cleaning the surfaces
Hoover lounge and hall
Sweep and mop kitchen floor
Empty bins
Clean bathroom

The idea is for each of these chores to be done every day (except for the bathroom - we're not that dirty), with everyone in the house doing chores 4 days out of the seven, and therefore having 3 days 'off'.

The desired result is both a happier and cleaner house.

Today is the first official day of the rota and I'm about to go off and sweep and mop the kitchen floor in earnest.

Lets see how long it all lasts.

2005-11-06T18:25:00.000Z

Oh God. Huw's comment (from last post) about my 'bi-monthly' posts have scared me somewhat. Scared me into the realisation that I am now a rubbish blogger. Gone are the days of regular posts. When I first started blogging, way back in June 2004, I used to post 3 times a day. That initial enthusiasm soon ebbed away and levelled out to a pretty regular average of 3 posts a week. I don't know how often I actually post these days, but I would hazard a guess that it is in fact probably only twice a month.

I read all my favourite blogs every day (all the ones in the list on the right) and some of them I check several times a day. I definitely haven't lost the love for blogging, so maybe I just need some more inspiration. It doesn't help that I don't have the internet in my room anymore. There's only net access on one computer in my house at the moment which everyone uses and is always busy, and I really can't be arsed going into uni when I don't have to in order to use the computer when I only have one and a half days of teaching a week.

I suppose, though, through all this moaning, I am actually posting. There. I did it without even realising. Although, this has probably been helped by the fact that I am at home in Wales for the weekend and in this house there is internet access in every room.

Most significant and blog-worthy event at the moment (that I can think of right at this moment in time although there are probably, in fact almost certainly, countless other far more significant things, but I just can't think of them right now): yesterday I cut my fringe myself. The first time ever I have done that and it ended up looking good. Very significant, as far as I am concerned.

Huw, next time there will be more Home and Away updates. Don't worry - I won't let you down.

2005-11-01T21:08:00.000Z

Ok, its official, I'm crap at updating regularly. I don't really know why this is the case as, as has been discussed elsewhere, its not as if I have a life or anything. Due to shortage of funding, lots of work and general lack of enthusiasm, I have been out for a night out, apart from my birthday, obviously, just the once so far this semester. And with funds look more and more, shall we say, difficult, its looking like it'll be the only night out, AND I'M NOT EVEN REALLY BOTHERED. Bloody hell, I've hit 21 and may as well be signing up for my pension and bus pass. Before I know it I'll be 30, and then I may as well be dead!

I think that the most pressing issue that has taken place since I last updated was the revelation that Zoe was, as I accurately predicted, indeed the Summer Bay Stalker. Really, I could see it coming a mile off. That whole faked kidnapping and murder thing she had going on didn't fool me for a second. Really, that Peter - perhaps the worst *detective* ever. As for my outstanding detecting skills, all I can say is that all that watching of The Bill has really paid off.

The (other) most significant development recently has been my car dying on me while I was at home this weekend, which resulted in me having to use, the shame of it, public transport. I had to get a train back to Leeds yesterday. Oh the horror. Thankfully, though, when I go home again this weekend (by train AGAIN) it will be all fixed and well again. Really though, I'm not that much of a transport-snob, but it does take a bit of getting used to when I've always been able to drive door-to-door before.

Also, last night, in the spirit of Halloween and all, me and the girls went on a jaunt up to York, went on a spooky ghost walk, and had a drink in The Golden Fleece pub, the most haunted pub in Britain and as featured on Most Haunted. In fact, they were even playing the said Most Haunted episode in there on a big screen all night, which we watched some of.

Right now I am going back to working on my *yawn* dissertation proposal *yawn* for a few more hours here in the dusty old library that I am typing to you from. I shall be back soon! I promise this time!

One more thing -

Ys - I am afraid it can not possibly have been me, for the following reasons -

I was not in Newcastle Emlyn on the weekend. Or ever, in fact, now I come to think of it.
My car actually has purple cushions on the back seat, not pink.

I love how you went to have another look to make sure though!

2005-10-13T15:13:00.000+01:00

Guess what?! Saturday was my 21st birthday! This little detail may go some way as to explaining why I haven't blogged for a while, what with all the excitement and build-up and then the obligatory hangover afterwards. That, and I am very lazy.

I shall fill you in with the details.

My birthday, as I have said, was on Saturday. I went home on the Thursday, just because I am a history student and have next to no teaching hours so I can do that sort of thing. On Friday night I went out for a lovely Birthday Meal with my family and Tim and our waiter put a sparkler in my creme caramel dessert and Happy Birthday was played over the stereo system. On Saturday morning (the actual Birth-Day!) I awoke to lots of lovely presents, as listed below (abridged version so as not to appear spoiled [even though I so am]) -

diamond encrusted heart necklace
new boots
new coat
new jacket
perfume
new book
Fleetwood Mac DVD
various other fabulous things ...

And then, at midday, Tim arrived with my suprise. Now, since Friday morning I had been under the allusion that my car was in the garage under going repairs to its suspension. One week after its MOT. Yes, I am that dim. On Saturday morning, not only was I expecting Tim to arrive and give me my present, but also the 'mechanic' to 'drop-off' my car. You know, as mechanics generally do. But as I was stood there, outside my house, who drove up in my car, but Tim. At this point, I thought, 'Hmm, that's a bit strange. Maybe he met the mechanic at the bottom of my road and offered to take it the rest of the way himself.' As he got closer I noticed that the steering wheel was a sort of pink colour. I then thought, 'Hmm, thats a bit strange. The mechanics usually put protective coverings on the seats, but not on the steering wheel.' Yet I still suspected nothing. It was only when the car pulled up at my feet that I noticed. Yes! Tim had indeed 'pimped my ride!' A new state-of-the-art stereo system had been installed, with a 12-CD CD-changer thingy in the boot and everything. There was also leather seat covers, purple fluffy cushions on the back seat, pink air-fresheners and yes, a pink fluffy steering wheel cover! The brave boy had driven it all the way through town to my house behind that steering wheel cover!

Unfortunately, at the time, I did not have my new bought-on-insurance-replacement-digital camera, but I should hopefully have it on the weekend so you will all soon be dazzled by the beauty that is now my car!

But wait! Thats not the end of it!

In the afternoon I drove back up to Leeds, where my wonderful flatmates had decorated the house with pictures of my face photo-shopped onto posters of my favourite TV programmes! I am now officially a member of the casts of North and South ( I look so good on the arm of Richard Armitage), Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman (I am Dr. Quinn!), Lord of the Rings and, perhaps best of all, Charmed! Really, its like I was meant to be in Charmed! They had also got me lots of lovely presents, and banished me to my room while they prepared my party tea - a fabulous, full-on party buffet of all my favourites, like Jaffa Cakes and Wotsits. Lots of of our friends came round and we all got very drunk, decorated the ceiling with champagne and I ate a pint of jelly out of a casserole dish. It sounded like a good idea at the time ...

Apart from feeling very loved by all my favourite people and having the best birthday ever, both at home and in Leeds, I have mostly been in the library, back to the bloody books.

I shall really try very hard to update more regularly from now on.

My thoughts as I end this post are ... perhaps Zoe isn't the Summer Bay stalker after all. And if she isn't, then, really, who the bloody hell is?!?

2005-09-23T15:41:00.000+01:00

And I'm back in Leeds.

I have moved into my new house, which is so obviously a perfect party house!, and I have been spending time getting to know my new house mates, who I can confirm are lovely. All my stuff is in my new bedroom, which is probably the tiniest bedroom ever, and although a bit of a shock at first after last year's beautiful purple bedroom complete with real floorboards and skylight, has quickly become nice and cosy. Until Tim comes to visit and it becomes a miniature prison cell with no visible floorspace, probably.

Classes and lessons (what little I have of them - I'm a history student, remember) start next week. This year's classes are as follows:

Italian Merchants in the Twelfth Century
Special Subject: The Reign of Edward II
The Age of Chivalry and Knighthood
Dissertation: as yet, unknown

Doesn't it sound thrilling?!

*silence*

Well, I'm excited!

Speaking of excitement, the university is simply abuzz (such a word?) with fresh-faced first-years. I remember what it was like to be a fresher - talking to absolutely anyone within reach who stands still long enough, whether it be on a bus, in a queue or in a lift, in order to make as many friends as possible, as quickly as possible. Just now, I was waiting for a lift in my department and two sprightly looking girls bounded up to me, and one asked what floor I was going to. I replied "Floor 3". She replied "Me too!". The three of us got into the lift together and the other sprightly girl asked the first one, "Are you a first-year? Are you off to meet your personal tutor?" To which the first girl replied, with the most energetic head-nodding I have ever seen, "Yes! Yes I am!". Then they both turned to me and asked me in unison, "Are you a first-year? Are you meeting your personal tutor?!" To which I replied, "No, I'm a third-year and I'm going to pick up my timetable" (to their obvious disapointment - after all, what fun are boring old finalists, ay?). They both then wandered off, happily chattering to each other, new best friends for life. No sooner had I picked up my timetable ( a mere 30 seconds after exiting the lift) than the first first-year ran up to me and begged me to show her how to get to floor such-and-such in building such-and-such for her meeting, which she was TWO WHOLE GHASTLY MINUTES LATE FOR, which I very kindly did, because I am that generous and kind a person.

Aw. Freshers. Bless 'em.

On a side note, may someone (most probably Marie) please explain to me how on earth Martha can be Alf's granddaughter?! She cannot possible be Duncan's child, as she is at least a year older than him, and to my knowledge, Roo (or whatever) does not have a daughter. After being away for nearly a month, I have astonished myself with how quickly I have got back up to date with all my fave soaps, both UK and Aussie based, almost as if I had never been away, in fact. I don't really know if this is a testiment to my soap 'skills' (as it were) or is a demonstration of how bad these programmes are, in that in four weeks nothing has changed. However, despite all this, the whole Martha-thing has me stumped.

And ALSO, I would like to make a H&A statement -

ZOE IS THE SUMMER BAY STALKER!

I would like it to be noted, in advance of when the plot unfolds, that I knew first! (Unless, of course I am wrong, then I shall deny all knowledge.) As of yet, I haven't figured out why she would be the stalker, although I think it will probably be Sarah-related.

2005-09-19T17:25:00.000+01:00

I'm baaaaaaaaaaaaaack!!

If we're being technical, I got back on Thursday morning, but I have been far too busy unpacking and being very tired to update.

First of all, I am going to have to disappoint anyone looking forward to loads of pictures from my fabaroony Italy and Croatia holiday - my dearly beloved digital camera was stolen from my backpack (quite possibly while it was actually on my back) on the third day I was away. So imaginations will be needed (with a little bit of help from Google Images).

Here goes:-

Tues 23/8 - Me and Tim got the train from Colwyn Bay to Crewe, then to London Victoria, then the tube (no bombers, thank God) to London Euston, and then to Dover Priory. Then ferry over to Calais. I was all fit and well when I left home in the morning - and quite possibly dying upon arrival in France. Yes, after having an entire summer to get ill but without so much as a sniffle, I had a bloody throat infection the day I left for my fabulous holiday. We were only going to spend one night in Calais and then leave the next day for Italy, but ...

Wed 24/8 - ... the next day I was even worse. So we had to spend an extra day and night in a tiny B&B in Calais. Great start.

Thurs 25/8 - Woke up feeling quite a bit better so we got the train to Paris. Nearly started dying again trying to work out the Metro system with a huge bag and stuff, but we got on a train from Paris to Milan ...

Fri 26/8 - ... and got off at Turin because we got bored of the train. Stayed at a hostel overnight in Turin. Friday morning we left for Florence, but decided to have a little stop off for a few hours in Pisa. We walked around in the heat for the afternoon with our bags, which was crazy, but we had fun doing all the holding-up-the-tower photos (with a bloody disposable camera). It was here I noticed my camera was missing and had to report it to the police. Got into Florence in the evening.

Sat 27/8 - Spent the day wandering around Florence, looking at all the lovely buildings and things. Spent the evening on the Ponte Vecchia, eating ice cream and listening to a live guitar band. One of my most favourite bits of the trip.

Sun 28/8 - Got a train to Rome. Had dinner at a restaurant outside of the Colliseum, all lit up at night-time.

Mon 29/8 - Wandered around Rome. Walked EVERYWHERE. Saw the Colliseum, the Trevi fountain, the Pantheon and the Vatican. Amazing. In the evening got a night train down to Catania in Sicily. Didn't want to fork out for a bed on the train so we had normal seating. Wasn't too bad.

Tues 30/8 - Arrived in Catania. Tim's great-great-great-grandfather, Giovanni Verga, was a very famous Sicilian author, and still very famous now over there. His house is a museum now, which we went to see, as well a Piazza which is named after him. Crazy stuff.

Wed 31/8 - Went up Etna. We got a bus half way up, a cable car a bit more up and then walked as far as you're allowed to go because its active. Saw smoke coming out of the crater and everything! Got another night train back to Rome ...

Thurs 1/9 - ... but there were delays and we missed our connection the next day for a Eurostar to Venice, so had to spend 5 hours sat on the floor on a very posh train. How very backpacker-ish! Arrived in Venice in the afternoon. Ended up staying in a little hotel 5 minutes from St. Mark's Square and had to get a water bus along the Grand Canal to get there!

Fri 2/9 - Spent the day wandering around Venice. Fed pigeons in St. Mark's Square - and shouted at a child for picking a pigeon up by its head. Didn't get a gondola because they were so extortionate! Got a train to Trieste on the Italy/Slovenia border.

Sat 3/9 - Got a bus to Zadar in Croatia, passing through Slovenia, which took all of half an hour. Arrived in Zadar at about 10.30pm.

Sun 4/9 - Tim's birthday!! Had a massive mixed-grill brunch and then spent the afternoon on the beach snorkelling. Then had a very posh dinner and watched the sunset.

Mon 5/9 - Went to Plitvice Lakes National Park. Breathtakingly beautiful.

Tues 6/9 - Bus to Sibenik. Went to the beach for the afternoon.

Wed 7/9 - Went to Krka National Park, with massive waterfalls and swam in a big lake.

Thurs 8/9 - Bus to Split. We were really looking forward to going to Split, but it was like Benidorm - all neon lights and high rise hotels, and everywhere else we'd been in Croatia had been so nice. We also ended up in a horrible room with foam rubber mattresses (I'm severely allergic), so when no-one was looking, we did a runner and got the next ferry to an island called Brac. Brac is like stepping back in time, with vegetable patches, goats and log piles in everyone's back gardens. The lady whose house we were staying in was so nice and made us cups of tea when we arrived!

Fri 9/9 - Set the whole day aside to go to the beach - and it rained. Spent the afternoon, in the rain, messing about on the beaches skimming pebbles, catching fish and behaving like a pair of kids. Best day of the trip.

Sat 10/9 - Ferry back to Split (from which we 'split' very quickly) and got a bus down to Dubrovnik.

Sun 11/9 - Spent the whole day on the beach in Dubrovnik - in 45 degree heat!!

Mon 12/9 - Wandered round Dubrovnik. Its a very tiny place, but absolutely beautiful. In the evening got a bus back up to bloody Split. Got an over night train from Split to Zagreb in the north.

Tues 13/9 - Got a train from Zagreb to Salzburg in Austria. Then train from Salzburg to Munich. Then overnight train from Munich to Paris.

Wed 14/9 - Arrived in Paris at 6 am. Train to Calais. Ferry back over to Dover. Then trains back up to home, arriving 1 am Thursday morning.

Obviously LOTS more things happened, but I couldn't possibly fit them all in here. I just wish I had my camera, but never mind. So yes, that was my fabaroony backpacking trip!

2005-08-18T20:34:00.000+01:00

Everything's booked now - train tickets, ferry tickets, interrail tickets, hostel in Calaisfor when we first arrive in France. I've bought everything I could possibly need - clothes, toiletries, First Aid stuff, walking boots - I've even thought to buy a backpack. Yes, that was the fatal flaw in my grand back-packing plan - no backpack. I've earned all the money I aimed to earn to take away with me so I can enjoy myself and do lots of things without worrying about money. I've even had my hair cut in preparation, although the less said about that the better (how SHORT is my fringe?! Aaah!!!).

Yep, just 5 days to go. And I can't wait.

Oh, and another thing - remember this post? While I am not quite down to what I was when I was 17 (and nor do I think I ever really will be again, but I am now resigned to that fact) I have, over the past 2 months, lost a whole stone in weight! And while I have no intention of disclosing my start or finish weights (some ladies never tell their age, I never tell my weight) I can confirm that I now look and feel loads better, and thanks to pulling zillions of pints of bitter, carrying billions of heavy glass trays, and walking up and down the stairs in the castle trillions of times, I now have muscles in places I didn't even know I had. Fabulous!

And finally* -

(borrowed from Bill)

- just because!

*note I am looking at Jake and his chest, not the woman lying at his feet, although if I had my way, that woman would be me.

2005-08-11T18:59:00.000+01:00

I'm having a bit of a crap time in work (pub) at the moment. My hours are being messed around, and the manager was all moody with me when I said I was leaving, a mere 2 weeks earlier than I was going to anyway. The busiest nights of the week (Saturday and Sunday) were ridiculously understaffed last week and those of us who were there were made to feel inadequate in our jobs by the manager when it got so (understandably) busy. I have had one night off the whole two months I have been working there, and even then only for a friend's birthday (that's what I told the manager, anyway, otherwise he wouldn't have given it me off) and have since received sarcastic comments about skiving, even though everyone else practically dictates their hours to him, and despite being told 'no more nights off now Laura - I'm not having any more of that', I have been scheduled down for not working two of my usual five nights this week. That would have meant loosing out on two nights of pay when every penny counts at the moment. I've managed to wangle my way back on to the rota for one of those two nights, but I couldn't for the other one, hence why I am now blogging, when usually I am on my way to work right about now. And the tills keep mysteriously being down at the end of the night - on Saturday both tills (there are two) were down by £20 each. The manager's answer to this mysterious and recent development is to take the £40 out of the wages of whoever was working that night - i.e. me included. Now, I'm not being funny, but a £5 missing here and there, while being unfortunate, can easily be done on a busy Saturday night with 4 people working - wrong change of a few pence here and there can add up. But £20 exactly in each till?!? Not that I'm implying anything, but perhaps something funny is going on ... ?

All I can really say at this point, is I am glad I only have two weekends left before I leave. I've really enjoyed working there - the staff are great fun and I've made some great friends amongst them, and some of the regulars are amazing individuals - but 5 nights a week for 2 months and with the world's most unpredictable manager is finally getting a bit stale.

I'm still enjoying it in the castle though! So thats good!

But, I think, in order to cheer me up, I shall post this fabulous picture that I came across earlier -

Its from Mr Phoenix's new film, 'Walk the Line', with Reese Witherspoon, in which he plays Johnny Cash. Joaquin playing a guitar - mmmm!!!

2005-08-08T20:27:00.000+01:00

I am breaking this extended period of bloglessness with an important message:

I really, really don't like Jessica Simpson's new song/video.

Not only has it completely destroyed what was an old classic song, in a way that only Jessica can do, but, as usual, the video, rather than being a vehicle for the song, is just a vehicle for Jessica and her ever-decreasing body. Which is possibly the main reason why I hate the video - she looks too damn skinny! Ill, even! Look at that ribcage! Eww!

I could now bore you with the details of how, well, boring things have been for the past 2 weeks - but don't worry. I won't. Just rest-assured that I have been working away solidly in both jobs and earning lots of pennies for my holiday! As yes, you did read right, I will have enough money to go away after all and have booked the tickets last week. 3 weeks round Italy and Croatia! Yay! A holiday funded entirely by me - 15-16 hour days, 5-6 days a week, the selling of lots of unused posessions on ebay and, lets not forget, helped in no way whatsoever by all of your kind Paypal donations - in that none were made. All I can surmise from that is that the begging wasn't blatant enough. Either that, or you all had enough faith in my ability to work hard and felt that to simply give me money would be to undermine that ability. I know, it was the second one, right? ;)

2005-07-20T15:25:00.000+01:00

I have a new job.

No, I am not now working 3 jobs. I don't think there are enough hours in the day for that. I have quit the pier/bouncy castle job, and got a new one.

There are several reasons for this, and in order to make them clear, I shall list them(in no particular order) -

The job, being outdoors, is weather dependable, meaning that if it rains, I don't get paid. For example, my training was delayed by 5 days because of rain, and yesterday we had to finish 2 hours early because of rain, meaning 2 hours less pay. Not good for the holiday fund.
The weather presents other problems, in that if its hot I either go home (or even worse, go to work in the pub) very, very sweaty and covered in sun lotion/sunburn. Most definitely not a good look for the pub. If its cold, as it was yesterday, I still have to be outside, on a blustery pier, freezing my arse off, being blown about to buggery (again, not a good look for the pub) and standing in perpetual drizzle, as drizzle doesn't quite qualify as rain so we have to work through it.
I have a cold. Which I swear was brought on by the aforementioned wind and drizzle.
If I work on the pier adn in the pub on the same day I only have an hour in between shifts, leaving nowhere near enough time to get home and back to Llandudno again, so I have to have 2 packed lunch-style meals (the horror!) a day, which is neither beneficial for my diet, as my packed lucnches usually consist of crisps and chocolate biscuits by their very nature, or for my growly, grumbly tummy.
They're not giving me enough hours (hours which they said I would definitely get when I started).
I'm sure I can think of more, but I really don't want to moan ...

Yes, I know these are all things I should have considered beforehand, but I didn't, so tough on me.

So my new job is working here -

At the fabulous Bodelwyddan Castle, as a room steward. Basically, a sort of tour guide. Some people may find this kind of job boring, but I am very excited (history! Yay!), and best of all, its indoors! The poor delicate flower that I am, I find this particular aspect very appealing. I start on Friday and I can't wait.

Unfortunately, getting a new job means you have to quite your old one, which I did before over the phone. It went suprisingly well, but nonetheless, I was still shit-scared beforehand. I also have to honour the shift I was down to work tomorrow as a sort of notice, which is fair enough, but I hope they won't be shitty with me.

In other dramatic news, two buyers of some old CDs I had for sale on ebay still haven't paid me or replied to any emails., over a week after the end of the auctions. I am very annoyed, as not only is this very rude, but I am missing out on about £20, plus listing-fees, and not only THAT, but one of the CDs is a particularly old and shit one and when I relist it there is no way I will get the same amount of money for it. Non-paying ebayers are BAD :(

2005-07-14T18:57:00.000+01:00

Well, it appears that it was so hot when I was on the pier on Monday that I sunburnt my scalp. And I sunburnt it so badly (and added to the burnt-ness with a bike ride along the prom on Tuesday) that it blistered. Yuk. I have a blister on my head. And it oozes yellow stuff, and when its done with the oozing, will become a scab. YUK! This now means I have to wear a hat when I go out in the sun, which is the worst bit about all this, because I suffer from terrible hat-hair-itus. Bad, bad, bad.

The bike ride however, while being detrimental to my head-health, was highly enjoyable in that I happened to spot a huge fat seal pull itself up onto a rock about 10 metres away from me, and proceed to sunbathe on said rock for ages. I was all by myself, and when I first spotted it there was noone else around, but I was so excited that whenever someone cycled or jogged past I was all, 'Look! There's a seal on the rock!' And I had soon aquired quite a large group of excited people to share in the experience with, the seal, meanwhile, remaining completely oblivious, sunbathing quite happily and occasionally flicking its tail. Unfortunately I didn't have my camera with me (I so nearly took it as well! Aah!!!) and the pictures I took on my phone just look like a rather large rock. So you shall just have to take my word for it. But it was very exciting, until 15 minutes had gone by and the seal still wasn't doing anything particularly interesting other than being itself, so I got bored and cycled off.

And in other news, last night I burned my first ever CD! It was put together with the intention of being my summer driving CD, but so far it has been played in every room in the house that I have also happened to be in, but yet to be played in my car as, when I went to drive off accompanied by my new summer driving CD, my car wouldn't start. So that idea's out of the window then.

Here are the fabulous tunes on my new CD (remember - I have original taste in music - bare this in mind, please).

Rocky theme tune.
Big Love Fleetwood Mac
Apache The Shadows
Nothing Else Matters Metallica
Since You've Been Gone Rainbow
I Disappear Metallica
Go Your Own Way Fleetwood Mac
Woodstock Matthews' Southern Comfort
Hold the Line Toto
Turn to Stone Joe Walsh
The Logical Song Supertramp
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly The Shadows
New Year's Day U2
My Immortal Evanescence
Big Log Robert Plant
When Doves Cry Prince
When My Guitar Gently Weeps The Jeff Healey Band
Something To Believe In Bon Jovi
Smoke on the Water Deep Purple
Layla Eric Clapton

Isn't it fabulous?!

2005-07-11T23:35:00.000+01:00

This is the view from the balcony in my garden tonight. Isn't it lovely? Yes, I did say balcony. You don't have to tell me - I know I'm a spoiled little rich girl. Just look at the picture!

2005-07-11T20:28:00.000+01:00

How much am I just not having the time to update?! This having two jobs lark is a bit of a pain in the arse. Although, having said that, I only started my second one today. Did I say what that one was? I can't remember if I did or not so I shall tell my few but cherished readers again - I am working on the Llandudno pier supervising the big slide and the bouncy castle. A kushty job it is - you basically do nothing for 6 hours, occasionally shouting at the odd misbehaving child - but an easy job it ain't - today was so hot I feel like I've been on holiday for two weeks, and may even have heat exhaustion. But it is all about the money and I need lots of it.

Which brings me to the main point of this post - money. I am currently hours away from making several pounds on eBay from the sale of old crappy CDs, but it may not have escaped the notice of the more astute of readers that a new Paypal button has been added to the sidebar (please avert your eyes to the right, NOW) in an attempt to squeeze a few pennies (perhaps pounds even?) from you - my few but cherished readers - in order to help fund my greatly desired and anticipated, but as yet financially out of reach, holiday. As they say, every penny counts and all that. What do you say? Spare a few, sir? ;)

2005-07-07T18:17:00.000+01:00

Oh my God I cannot believe that London has been hit by terrorists. Its the sort of thing that, even though we now live in the world that we do, you never really think will happen so close to home. Its always something that happens somewhere else. I know that being in North Wales I probably couldn't be any further away from London while still being in the UK if I tried, except if I was in the Outer Hebrides perhaps, but its still the UK, and its very, very scary.

So, my 'Look where I was this weekend - Edinburgh!' post will be a little more sedate than I intended it to be, but I shall post it all the same.

So, Friday morning I packed up my car and made my way up to Leeds to pick up Elaine. I got stuck in horrendous traffic and the poor lady was sat around waiting for me for about an hour. Over a McDonalds we planned our route up to Edinburgh for the G8 rally and march (a wedding if anyone from work asks, ok?).

We thought it would only take a few hours. We left at about 3pm - and finally arrived at the house we were staying at at 9pm. Hmm. At least the scenery was nice -

Although who knew that Northumberland was so big? It went on forever!

There were so many people there, loads of studenty type people, but loads of old people and young families, even with babies and toddlers, loads of normal-looking people as well as hippies and grebos.

We went for the second march which started at 1pm - and didn't get going until half three cos there were so many people. My feet were bloody killing before we even started marching. Once we did start it was so much fun. We tried to keep pace with a bag-pipe playing band because there was loads of atmosphere around them, and also because all the tv cameras kept following them. Totally shameless.

By the time we got back to the Meadows we were shattered, so we had a tuna baguette, some donuts and a little lie down on the grass while watching these things being raised -

When we got back to the house we managed to keep our exhausted eyes open to watch some Live 8 before heading off out to perhaps the coolest pub I have ever been to, called the Jekyll and Hyde and which was themed like a haunted house. The toilets were disguised as book cases and everytime a door opened they made scary noises!

We ended up at the Forest, a cool pub full of hippies, no, actually overflowing with hippies cos there were loads of people out on the street outside dancing to the beat of lampposts that were being banged against. We drank organic beer and nearly threw up the seaweed beer called 'Kelpie'. Possibly the foulest thing I have ever tasted.

Sunday morning we ended up driving for 7 hours, I think I may have been caught on a speed camera (only 6 miles over the limit!) and nearly ran out of petrol on the Al, and was saved only by an emergency stop-off at Wetherby. I got home at 5.45pm, had some tea and a 10 minutes sleep (literally) and then was in work for 7pm. I have never been so physically exhausted.

See? Thats the face of nackerd-ness.

And that, I believe, is how my weekend of saving the world (or something) went!

In other news, I went to see War of the Worlds on Monday and I can confirm it is the best film I have ever seen ever. Probably. And Tim has finally persuaded me to watch the Rocky films with him (after 3 years of begging itfinally came down to anything for a quiet life) and I can also confirm that it is true - the Rocky films are about so much more than boxing (thank God) and are really quite fabulous! I so should have watched them sooner, like 3 years ago, perhaps.

That is all.

2005-06-27T00:12:00.000+01:00

Interesting things. Right. Well today, I've done two interesting things. First of all, me and mum cycled along the prom from Old Colwyn to Penrhyn Bay and back again. Fairly insignificant, you may think, but it was a good 8 miles round trip, in boiling hot sun, and I am usually far from the most active of people. So not only was it quite an achievement, it was great fun. The sea was in and a bit choppy so it was great cycling right along next to it, with the sky so blue as well. I really wish I'd thought to take my camera as I would have had some great photos. Next time, maybe.

Second interesting thing may not interest everyone, but I found it quite interesting. One of the girls I work with in the pub, and who I get along best with, is from Belarus (thats in between Poland and Russia for those who, like me, have no idea where Belarus is) and is staying here in Wales working for a year. When we were having our break, in between end of serving and starting clearing up, we were sat outside with our pints of lime and soda water (cos its the only thing we don't have to pay for) and one of the regulars, John, a lovely old man whose wife has recently died and comes in mostly just for a chat and some company, sat with us and, somehow, we got to talking about the post-Communist political state of Belarus. It really was very interesting, but I'm not sure how interesting others might find it, so I'll give you the highlights -

In Belarus people work twice the hours that people work here, for a fraction of the money. For example, my friend's mother is a doctor and earns just - prepare yourselves here - £200 ... A MONTH.
Belarus is smack in the middle of Europe and Russia has to cross it to get anywhere else to the West, and Belarus is currently under threat from potential invasion from Russia because that would be cheaper for Russia than constantly having to go round Belarus (I may have misunderstood that, but I think its right).
And Belarus' president is practically a dictator who is not, by EU law, allowed to go into another EU country or meeting (like the G8, for example) and has changed the country's constitution in order to be able to stay in office for an extra term.

So there - all you ever needed to know about Belarus.

I thought it was interesting, anyway.

2005-06-26T00:49:00.000+01:00

I've not long got in from work and, although I should be fast asleep by now because I'm shattered, my dedication to the Bloggies is such that I am blogging instead, because, although this having a job business is good financially, it has left me no time to do anything blog-worthy, or indeed, blog at all, and I am aware of how spartan the bloggage has been this week, declarations of employment aside.

But, as it is, I do indeed have very little to blog about. All I can think of at such a late hour-

It has been decided that instead of 4 weeks away we are going to have to settle for 2, 3 at a stretch, instead, because I can't quite afford 4 even with all this pint-pulling.
On my first night in the pub I only made £1.50 tips and tonight I made £9!
Um...
... the tennis is very interesting at the moment!

Nope. That's its. I can't think of anything else to write. Not even anything telly related because Neighbours is off for the tennis and my episodes of Eastenders that were taped on Sky Plus when I was working have been mysteriously deleted. Even worse - I haven't watched BB all week!

I shall try and fit in some interesting things over the next few days.

Until then, I'm going to sleep.

2005-06-23T18:46:00.000+01:00

I'm employed! Yay! And not only do I have one job, I now have two! Count them - one ... TWO! Yay! Might actually be able to afford to go away after all.

First job is as a bar maid in a very cool old pub in Llandudno. I started there on Tuesday night and after a few initial glitches, such as never having pulled a pint of bitter before (there really isn't much call for it in a student club) I now know exactly what I'm doing and am an ace barmaid!

Second job I got today. Its working on the pier in Llandudno supervising the big slide, bouncy castle and mini golf course. Its an ace job! Its full time, fits in around my bar hours, I'll be outside all day and will get a fabulous tan from the sea air. Although to be honest I will probably just get a fabulous sunburn, but it'll go brown eventually. Yay!

The downside is I will be very nackered. I'm already nackered because I've worked two nights as well as two lunchtimes in the pub, and thats not even full time hours, or double full time as it will be when I start the second job next Thursday, but its all about the money.

AND both jobs are happy to give me time off next weekend to go to the G8, I MEAN that wedding I'm off to that just happens to be in Edinburgh and just happens to be on the same weekend as the G8. Fancy that? ;)

2005-06-18T20:02:00.000+01:00

Now, I don't want to make myself sound like a sad, pathetic loser, but I am still unemployed. Oh. Look at that. I did it anyway.

I think it is safe to say that I have not got the job that I had an interview for on Thursday, so I shall now disclose what it was for.

*drumroll*

An ice-cream lady!

I kid you not. The position I applied for was a full time superviser of an ice cream shop to be opened in the Colwyn Bay shopping centre. Now, admittedly, it doesn't sound like the most difficult job in the world, or, perhaps, the best, but when I called up the number given in the Jobcentre the man I spoke to was very enthusiastic and said the interview was basically just so he could meet me. He also told me to bring along a CV, which I spent over a bloody hour preparing on Wednesday night, albeit most of that time having been taken up trying to get the printer to work. The interview came ... and went. It was very bizarre - it lasted all of 5 minutes, I wasn't asked any questions whatsoever, and the CV I was asked to bring and had lovingly prepared was barely glanced at. I was told that from the 'interview' I was 'more than OK', and although they had a few other people to see first, I would get a call that afternoon, after 1.30pm, to let me know either way.

1.30pm came and went. Fair enough. He said after 1.30pm. However, hour after hour went by, and still nothing. Thursday afternoon was the busiest my phone has ever been, but everytime it rang, it wasn't the job, it was someone else entirely, and it took me at least 10 minutes each time to stop shaking again. By 4.30pm I still hadn't heard anything so, upon the pressurising from Tim and against my own better judgement, I called them up to see if they had made a decision yet. A little over eager, perhaps, but not too unprofessional. Until! The one time I picked up the phone to make a call that afternoon, and mum picked it up downstairs and started dialling. Now, the professional thing for me to do would have been to say to the man, 'excuse me, could you hang on one minute?' and then rush downstairs and quietly ask mum to put the phone down. But in my adrenalin-rushed state (yes, I do get that carried away) I screamed down the stairs, phone still in my hand, 'MUM! PUT THE PHONE DOWN! MUM!!!!!!!!' The man on the other end of the phone, having heard that very unprofessional outburst, said that they hadn't yet made a decision and they'd let me know the next morning. By now, I was a jiberring wreck, and foolishly failed to stop my mouth from talking and went on to say, 'will you be letting me know only if I get it, or will you call me anywayif I haven't?' By this point he was a bit pissed off and just said, 'we'll let you know, OK?!' and hung up.

Oh dear.

Needless to say, I didn't hear anything all day yesterday or today, so I am assuming that I didn't get the job. I don't quite know how to take this rejection, seeing as how he was so positive on the phone, and equally so, really, in the (rather odd) interview. Perhaps someone qualified to their eyeballs (to sell bleeding ice cream, people!) walked in after me, or my telephonic outburst did more damage than good. Either way, I am consoling myself with the fact that had I got the job there is no way that it would have done my 'get slim for the holiday' diet any good whatsoever, as how could I possibly have resisted all that ice cream? A holiday that, at this rate, I will not be going on because I still have no money.

And what happened to the fabulous historical-type job I mentioned earlier, I hear you ask? Well! While being my dream job, it only offered a maximum of 20 hours a week and I really need more than that in order to pay for the holiday AND my summer rent for my Leeds house, so, while I was offered an interview for that job, I (rather stupidly now, it would seem) turned it down as I already had an interview for the bloody ice cream job and on the phone he made it sound like I pretty much already had it. Kicking myself in all manner of painful places right now, I can tell you!

The good news (yes, there is some) is that I have another interview on Monday morning. If I don't get that job, then it may soon be time to consider other career prospects, such as as a table dancer perhaps. I hear they get pretty good hourly rates.

In other news, the exercising is still going well. In response to some comments I got to my last post, I am realistic enough to know I will never actually have 17 year old thighs again, but I am using it as a sort of motivational tool as I at least tone up my less than toned bits in time for the holiday.

If I ever get enough money to pay for it.

And while I have continued turning down those Galaxy bars, I have proved to not be strong enough to say no to a Cadbury's Fruit and Nut, minus the nuts cos I don't like them.

I have been passed on a meme from Rhys, but its a rather long one, and this post is long enough as it is already, so I will save that for next time.

2005-06-14T23:02:00.000+01:00

This is what I used to look like when I was 17 -

Please ignore the mad hair (I was in the middle of the windy sea) and the even madder sunglasses, and instead pay particular attention to the slim shoulders and not-fat thighs. It may be a poor quality photo, but these two particular last points are fairly clear.

The point? I was once thin. Further point? I will be thin again! And hopefully by the time I go away - i.e. in 7 weeks time.

The tennis I have started playing again will hopefully contribute some way towards my target (of not-fat thighs). But I am aware that piss-about pretendy tennis will not achieve my target alone. So, along with taking the momentous step of refusing a Galaxy bar today (I never refuse a Galaxy bar), today I also started using this -

Shown in its usual state as a dog-towel holder is my dad's cross-trainer. You can tell how much it gets used. After waiting for my tea to go down, as you always should before pursuing exercise, while watching Emmerdale and Eastenders, I climbed aboard said cross-trainer and cross-trained for 45 minutes. So as not to get too bored while staring at the garage door in front of me, I listened to music on my MP3 player (my student budget won't quite stretch to a pink mini iPod) and also used it as an exercise aid, with varying my cross-training speed according to the beat of the song. Tonight I managed to get through 11 songs, covering countless kilometres (probably - I forgot to look) and over 300 calories! Yes I know thats only about one chocolate bar, but its a bloody good start!

Not to copy any particular bloggers, no not a one, below you can find the first 11 songs on my MP3 player, as cross-trained to tonight.

Everything I do (I do it for you) by Bryan Adams - A good warm up song as the beat was very slow.
Layla by Derek and the Dominoes - This one was quite fast - averaged about 63 steps per minute.
Go Your Own Way by Fleetwood Mac - Bloody hell! I nearly killed myself with this one! Averaged 78 per minute!
Dreams by Fleetwood Mac - Quite fast but not heart attack inducing.
Seven Wonders by Fleetwood Mac - See above.
Club Foot by Kasabian - It was very hard to pick out a beat with this one. I think it was a very slow one, but I wasn't sure so I just went very fast again after the last leisurely ones.
Dakota by Sterephonics - Another fast one! 71 per minute!
Maybe Tomorrow by Stereophonics - I flicked past this one. It bores me now - I really need to delete that song actually.
Scar Tissue by Red Hot Chili Peppers - I slowed down a bit to this one - didn't want my favourite song ever to be associated with pain in my mind.
Sara by Fleetwood Mac - Oh I really like this song. A nice steady 66 per minute, which burned, but not too much. A very long song. I quite got in the zone with it actually!
Rhiannon by Fleetwood Mac - Oh. I just remembered that by this point I was bored so stopped 10 seconds into the song. So I only actually go through 10 songs. Oh well.

I would just like to add that the cross-trainer was set at difficulty rating (or something) number 7, and thats from a choice of 1 to 10, 10 being near impossible at the moment.

So! Hopefully, along with the fact that I am now drinking considerably less lager now that I'm away from the student 'scene', I may once again soon have not-fat thighs!

In 7 weeks.

Hmm.

2005-06-13T19:48:00.000+01:00

My brother showed me this yesterday on t'internet. Its of some army troop, or whatever they're called, and was made while they were in Iraq in Al Faw. It got emailed back home and was so popular that all the downloadings of it crashed the MoD! Now, I know that certain people have previously expressed an intense dislike of the Peter Kay song, but you've got to admit, it is quite a funny attempt. My particular favourite bit is the naked sqauddies in the portaloos.

In other news, still heard nothing from the history job, but I have applied for another one, not quite as much fun but better money, and I've got an interview on Thursday. I'm not disclosing any details until after the interview though, in case I jinx it. But please, don't get all excited by the mystery of it all - it really isn't exciting, but it is all about the money.

This not having a job business is, however, leaving me with plenty of time for other gainful pursuits. For example, a spot of lawn tennis was enjoyed today in my back garden, until it started raining anyway, the only not-fun bit being when I skidded on the grass and bounced on my bottom, severely winding myself and brusing said bottom in the process. I am also currently enjoying rediscovering the joys of Theme Hospital. I'm not a sophisticated gamer, in fact I'm quite shit at the vast majority of computer games, but I do easily get very addicted to Theme Hospital. Although I could never get into Theme park. Funny.

2005-06-12T16:56:00.000+01:00

Its a veritable baby boom at the moment! Two of my favourite bloggers are up the duff, as is Tim's sister, not to mention your best friend and mine, Ms. Spears. And I don't care if they're refusing to announce it, Ben Affleck and Jennifer Garner are so expecting. They're everywhere! Oh yeah, and Sunita on Corrie as well.

There is no real point to this post - just a general observation.

That is all.

2005-06-10T19:08:00.000+01:00

You know its summer when the tennis rackets come out. And its not even Wimbledon yet. Me and Tim played yesterday for the first time in over a year. At first I was a bit rusty* but after a while I was scoring aces left, right and centre.** Tim's a fantabulous tennis player and always goes really easy on me - if he played properly then our games would consist of me standing still for about 10 minutes - the time it would take for me to watch enough tennis balls fly straight past me in a blur for it to be game, set and match. Its all great fun though, PLUS great exercise, which I need if my bottom and thighs are going to get back down to the size they were when I was 17 in time for me to go away in August - i.e. about a quarter of their current size. Achievable goal? I don't think so. Fun in the process? Yes. Until I get bored, anyway.

At the moment, apart from putting Maria Pavlova (or something) to shame on the court, I am looking for a job. Me and Tim are going travelling round Italy and Croatia for 4 weeks in August and I reckon I'll need about a grand, including travelling costs. Current funds? About minus £60. So the job situation is dire. I have applied for what can only be described as my dream job -

Must have a good knowledge and keen interest in local Welsh history, be
experienced in dealing with the public, have a polite pleasant and cheerful manner.

Its like they know me!! I won't find out about it until at least Monday, though, and its only part-time hours so I'll need to get another job, perhaps bar work, to make up the money, but I really, really, really, want that job! I shall keep you posted.

And in telly-related news, I was most distressed when watching Home and Away today, to discover that Scott and Danni have broken up. To be honest, I have seen it coming for a while, but it was still a shock and I think that the whole community of Summer Bay will be shaken upon hearing the news. And, after checking H&A.com, I was even more shocked to discover that Scott gets together with Hayley! Gah! Wrong. All wrong. That girl gets around a bit, in real and telly-life. The actress, Bec Cartwright, is engaged to and having the baby of Lleyton Hewitt - after barely a year together! Kids today.

* complete understatement.

**one left, one right and one centre - all 3 complete and utter luck.

2005-06-08T14:26:00.000+01:00

And finally! I am now back home in Wales for the summer, except I am going back to Leeds briefly next week because I appear to have forgotten loads of stuff. Oops!

So! It is the end of an era. The Woodhouse Crew Massive (which we were never called) is finally over.

Tim moved out about 6 weeks ago - the first step towards the end.

And then there were four.

Max is soon moving on to South America, or something, for a year, Tim will be staying here in Wales and us girls are moving to the other side of Otley Road, to Hyde Park. Gone will be the smashed car windows and burgled houses, along will roll the gun crime and drugs.

Oh. Wait. Woodhouse had all that too. And burglaries are pretty prevailant in Hyde Park as well. Let the good times continue!

The last remaining survivors ...

will carry on the legacy and add to it with our new housemates next year.

Can't wait!

2005-06-08T14:06:00.000+01:00

As threatened, here are the pictures from last Monday when me, the boyfriend and the dog went on a bit of a trek around Llyn Brenig.

Bryn was really excited!

Tim enjoyed himself so much ...

... he decided to show off his impressive muscles.

I was very impressed.

Bryn even decided to actually try swimming - this is the dog who has gone six years only ever going knee-deep in water before running back out scared.

Overrall, a fabulous, if not slightly chilly, day was had by all at Llyn Brenig!

2005-06-08T14:04:00.000+01:00

Ok, so another momentous occasion has taken place. Sort of.

You may remember that I used to be blonde-

Then I went dark-

However, it soon faded back to a non-descript not-quite-blonde-but-not-quite-brown colour-

I do like that picture of me!

So, last week, I went dark again.

Hopefully, this time it will last!

2005-06-01T17:16:00.000+01:00

I have a few photos to blog from the weekend which I had every intention of posting today, but I left my camera at home and only realised once I sat down at the library computer, so, I'm afraid, the photographs of my fabulous new hair (again) and wonderful walk around a humungous lake will have to wait until tomorrow, if I remember.

On Monday I went to see Star Wars, and thoroughly enjoyed it, not least because of this -

but also because, well, it was just simply fabulous. I wasn't part of one of those audiences who applauded at the end, which was a shame because I really would have quite liked to, but everyone did laugh and sigh and gasp collectively at the appropriate points. I do like it when that happens when you go to see an important film at the cinema. Like when I went to see Return of the King - what an emotional experience that was! I balled my eyes out when that film finished, and then again in the car park outside. I wasn't quite as moved by Star Wars, but it was still very, very good - loads better than the first two, anyway. God, how much of a film geek am I?!

I am now back in Leeds for one last week before I'm home in Wales for the summer again. I am most enjoying doing absolutely nothing, watching hours and hours of tv on end, barely moving from the sofa except to eat and go to the toilet, and having little naps whenever I feel sleepy, now that I don't have exams and revising to worry about.

Oh. Wait.

I've always done that anyway. Never mind.

And also, Big Brother! I was working on Friday night and missed everyone going in and had slightly better things to do on the weekend, so didn't see it then either, but from what I saw on Monday night and last night, they all look like a bunch of thick, pretentious tossers, quite frankly, which surely in itself promises a good series! No sarcasm intended there - no, really. I do think it will be good.

2005-05-28T21:01:00.000+01:00

Right. First things first. Here is that meme thing as promised to Richard, passed on to me by Richard himself. I am expecting it to be very revealing and give my few but cherished readers an interesting insight into my mind. Although, to be honest, it really probably won't. I am excited nonetheless.

3 names I go by: Laura, Whitters, I do believe that is it.

3 screen names I've had: none. Apparantly I'm not famous enough, or something.

3 physical things I like about myself: Mmm, a tough one. My eyes are really quite dark, not the usual hazel brown, so I quite like that. Since my rather lengthy and occassionally painful orthodontic work, my teeth are quite satisfactory. My bottom, but only with black trousers on, because they make it look smaller than it is, which is always good.

3 parts of my heritage: thoroughly Welsh on my dad's side, and I think some Irish and maybe Jewish on my mum's side? Could be wrong though.

3 things I am wearing right now: my MPH white band, um, my purple and sparkly slippers, and odd socks.

3 favorite bands/musical artists: only 3?! Sorry, I can't only say three. People, please don't desert me once you realise that I have rubbish taste in music (well, I like it, but few others agree with me). Bryan Adams, Fleetwood Mac, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Bon Jovi, Backstreet Boys, Maroon 5, The Eagles, Guns 'n Roses, U2, um, I'm sure I'll think of more ...

3 favorite songs: Scar Tissue by the Chilli Peppers. I may have mentioned this before, but it is my all time favourite song (it touches my soul!) and I want it playing at my funeral.
Seven Wonders by Fleetwood Mac because it reminds me of someone I loved and lost.
And, um, God, I have no idea. I'll get back to you ...

3 things I want in a relationship: honesty, laughs and love. Money would be nice too. Maybe next time ...

3 physical things about the preferred sex that appeal to me: stubble, lithe but toned muscles, chest hair.

3 favourite hobbies: in no particular order, blogging, watching tv, not walking everywhere.

3 Things I want to do badly right now: have a cup of tea, maybe eat a little bit of chocolate, sleep.

3 things that scare me: people wanting to kill other people for any reason, spiders, that 2 second pause before the Oblivion ride in Alton Towers drops.

3 of my everyday essentials: hair straighteners, mascara, toothbrush.

3 Careers you have considered or are considering: teacher, historical documentory researcher, resident historian on Most Haunted.

3 places you want to go on vacation: Italy, Croatia, Scotland.

3 kids' names you like: lots and lots, but the children I am going to have with Ricahrd Armitage are going to be called Alexander, James and Marie. He just doesn't know it yet. Neither does my boyfriend so shhh!

3 things you want to do before you die: be regressed, snog Anthony Kiedis, visit Fontevrault Abbey.

3 ways I am stereotypically a boy: I fart a lot, I mostly just drink pints, you'd be most suprised if you caught me wearing a skirt.

3 ways I am stereotypically a girl: my obsession with my hair, I will NOT leave the house without at least mascara, eye-liner and concealer on, pink is THE colour.

3 celeb crushes: oh there are so very many, but at the moment the top 3 are Matthew McConaghey, Hugh Jackman and that new young Scottish whippersnapper on Corrie.

That, I believe, is it! I pass this on to whosoever would like to do it. Go on. You know you want to!

2005-05-28T19:11:00.000+01:00

Well. Last week I was 'fabulous but not quite fabulous enough'. Now I am under official warning for not blogging enough. Huh. Well, tonight, my first proper access to a decent computer for an age, I had intended to compile a list of '10 Reasons Why I am More Than Fabulous Enough'. I had taken countless minutes out of my exam revision to consider this list carefully, in order to ensure that it was enough to put me on the leaderboard.

But oh no. Not now.

I shall explain myself.

There are two main reasons why I haven't 'blogged enough' recently.

I have very important, and very difficult, exams to revise for, which, via the medium of my moaning, my few but cherished readers should be very aware of, and as every time I post properly it takes up at least an hour of very valuable revision time, I decided that my blog was the lesser sacrifice to make in comparison with, oh, I don't know, my degree.
And two - it may be remembered that my computer broke, then I got a new one, then the new one got stolen. So for weeks the only computer access I've had has been in the library and as I have been revising from home for the past two weeks to get into uni to use a computer would have eaten even more into revision time. So again, the lesser sacrifice ...

All very reasonable, I think. So, I feel, my bloglessness should receive special consideration, rather than punishment, especially considering that despite all this I have managed to update at all.

Rant over.

So instead of my fabulousness list, I am going to blog repeatedly all night (or until I get bored) on my brand spanking new computer here at home back in Wales. Just because, now, I can.

2005-05-21T15:21:00.000+01:00

Well! Who knew that getting broken in to could do such wonders for one's blog! EIGHTEEN comments! A record, I think, and also from new readers. Bonus!

A few responses:-

Alice - you know you love the little lady really.

Gina - a new commentor! Always welcome.

ms. mac - fear not - that I am aware of, no one else has suffered such bad luck since, but then again I haven't checked Richard for a few days and there is still time for Mrs Richard to find out about GG.

The many, many anonymouses who have turned up all of a sudden - firstly, please identify yourselves - don't be shy. Secondly, please come again!

Fellow history student in London - fortunately, or perhaps unfortunately considering recent events, the hamster just does not bite. Except my toes when she's running around the living room floor on an 'adventure', i.e. escaped from the cage again. But I shall work on it.

Curly - yes, flour is very helpful. Who knew it had so many uses.

Ys - it wasn't so much as a flour fight, on my part anyway. I just walked down the stairs and had a handful chucked at me. Thankfully I had missed much of the earlier action (by hiding in my room - I had just done my hair).

Yet another anonymous - I do have a big hairy boyfriend, but unfortunately he had moved out of the house just a week earlier and was back in Wales. Talk about timing.

Ann - keep at the blogging. It is much more fun than essay writing, revising, etc.

WS! - Well hung, hey Jon? ;)

Mother - all I can say is - bless you! You are now famous and have your own fans. And I can confirm that despite being the tiniest person I know, you do have the ability to be very, very scary. And although the burgling scallies will never, ever read the bloggage, I'm sure, if they did, they would most definitely think twice before burgling me again.

And in other news, the revising is still going strong. I now know everything you could possibly ask me about Richard II. I am currently halfway through Edward I. This is my favourite module, being medieval and all, so at the moment its not so much of a chore, which is always nice. However, I was working in the union last night, in Stylus, and I'm still a bit sleepy. It was an Aftershock promotional night so we all had to wear very flaterring Aftershock t-shirts (not). So I'm going to have a cup of tea and maybe a little bit of chocolate and then get back to your favourite king and mine - Edward!

2005-05-18T12:00:00.000+01:00

There are several reasons why I have not updated in an age, such as endless revision, for example. However, the most prevailing, and therefore most contributory, reason would be (can you tell I've been practising analysis techniques muchos??) that last Wednesday my house got broken into.

Yes, it would appear that some of Chris' incredible bad luck has somehow, perhaps via the blogosphere as a sort of blog-virus, rubbed off on me. Nobody was in the house at the time, thankfully. Quite pathetically, I was in the library - at 10pm. Also thankfully, the house wasn't trashed, they just kicked in the door, ran around the rooms grabbing our computers, dragged the DVD player and Sky box across the living room floor (?) and left. In my opinion, it was probably our own messiness that saved the DVD and Sky from being nicked, because the wires were in such a mess they evidently couldn't untangle them quick enough so just left them. Ha! Despite, the initial trauma of discovering that scallies had been rummaging around our house, it did become quite exciting, in that we had a crime scene investigator round (CSI!) and then a forensics lady who finger-printed everything. Also, a flour fight (do not ask) had taken place briefly earlier that day on the stairs and in our usual fashion we couldn't be bothered to clear it up, so the stoopid burglars may have left floury footprints upstairs. May have, in that it is also possible that the said footprints were left by the CSI man who, along with myself, walked straight through the flour several times.

So, ripping off, I mean adopting the style of ms. mac, here is my letter to the burgling scallies:-

Dear Scallies,

I hope that my very slow and old computer that I had had for 3 days before you stole it and the other computer which had a debilitating virus on it made you lots of money and were worth the £80 I had to pay for an emergency locksmith, along with the days of unease you left 3 defenceless girls with at simply being in their own home, although I very much doubt that they were. Bastards!! However, I extend to you my thanks for the robbery of the aforementioned quite rubbish computers as brand spanking new ones are now whisking their way to us via insurance claims! Ha! Hahahahaha!!

Yours,

Me x

PS - thank you for sparing my hamster.

In other news, this morning I had my first exam, 'Barbarians of the Dark Ages: Anglo-Saxons, Vikings and Slavs.' The first question went ok I think, although I didn't know what one of the words in the question meant and had to ask one of the invigilators, while feeling very stupid because no one else had had to ask it. I mean, really though, how many times do you use the word 'acculturation' in an average day anyway? The second question could, to be honest, go either way. Once again, I implore you to pray for me. The next exams are next Wednesday and Thursday, so I'm not expecting to update too regularly until then.

Oh and also! I have been accepted into the new gang that everyone wants to be in! The badge should be arriving in my Inbox any time now, and I shall display it with pride.

2005-05-10T15:58:00.000+01:00

I hate revision.

Fact.

I would like to get hold of whoever invented exams, nay literacy, just to cover all bases, and hold them firmly by the neck until they die a very slow and painful death, while holding bloody revision notes in front of their face so the written word is the last thing they see before they die, probably going to hell afterwards.

These are my feelings on this matter.

Back to the books ...

2005-05-05T16:36:00.001+01:00

Jumping on the acronym band-wagon, here is mine -

L	Lucky
A	Awesome
U	Unusual
R	Refined
A	Ambivalent

href="http://www.go-quiz.com/acronym/acronym.php">Name Acronym Generator
From Go-Quiz.com

'Awesome' I'll agree with, obviously, and 'refined' goes without saying.

I still think Jon cheated on his though.

UPDATE: It would appear that even automatically copied HTML is beyond my technological abilities.

2005-05-04T14:39:00.000+01:00

*WARNING* This may be a long post, due to prolonged absence from blog-land.

What a lot has hapened since last Wednesday! Oh look at that! It has been exactly one week since my last post. Never say I'm not observant.

But enough blathering. What has happened. Right. Yes. Well, firstly, and obviously most importantly, on Friday I handed in my essays. All 3 of them. Done and finished forever. Thank bloody God. If they had taken any longer (although not that they could have because Friday was the deadline, but work with me here) there may possibly have been a call for Vallium, or some other such anti-depressant. The handing-in process in itself was enough to tip me over the edge. I had prepared a whole, and rather lengthy, post on Friday afternoon going into some depth and detail as to why exactly it was the worst day of my life (again - I have a lot of them), but my crappy computer crashed, and it seems that Blogger's 'recover post' function only works when the crapness of Blogger is at fault, not the crapness of your laptop, and I really couldn't be bothered to write it all again, so you shall all just have to use your imaginations. Although to be honest in the time it took me to type all that I probably could have written about it again twice over. But such is life.

On Friday night me and the boyfiend went to see The Amityville Horror. I thought it was very good, the boyfriend was less impressed (but only slightly). To be honest it was impressive just to see that someone from Home and Away (Melissa George) actually has a career after leaving the aforementioned fabulous-but-not-a-great-step-on-the-career-ladder soap. I mean, just look at Dannii Minogue.* In addition to all this, it scared the bejeezus out of me. Upon returning to my slightly-sinister-in-the-dark hundred year old terraced house, I was a little bit apprehensive, and even insisted that the boyfriend accompany me to the bathroom while I went to the toilet, as it has already been unanimously decided that if ever there was a haunted room in our house, the bathroom would be it.

Hmm, what next. Oh yes. On Saturday afternoon I went home for the weekend. (For the benefit of Jon, I left LEEDS and went back to WALES for the WEEKEND, and am now back in LEEDS again.) The May bank holiday in Colwyn Bay is 'celebrated' by a weekend of Victorian-themed fun and frivolity at the Victorian Extravaganza in Llandudno and then on Monday Prom Day at, wait for it, Colwyn Bay Prom. I spent Prom Day with my lovely best friend and nearly killed myself on the world's most terriying ferris wheel, because on Sunday night me and the boyfriend had a roaring argument and were not on speaking terms. But don't worry! The fairytale isn't over! We made up yesterday morning and all is now well again, after I made him apologise to me. I love being in the right.

And then yesterday, while driving back to Leeds I got caught in perhaps the worst storm EVER. It was thundering and lightning right overhead, no one could drive over 20mph because there was so much water on the motorway, and it started hailing the biggest hailstones I have ever seen. I had to pull over several times every time the hailing got a bit too scary, but thankfully I made it back alive.

And I think that brings us up to date, because apart from paying the water bill and attending a very boring seminar nothing of remote interest has happened so far today.

And oh yes, my laptop is dead. The old thing has finally gven up the ghost and choked it. Thankfully, Daddy Dearest will have a brand-spanking new second hand one for me when I go back to Wales this weekend for a wedding and then blogging will finally return to normal.

*I have just remembered that Julian McMahon of Charmed and Nip/Tuck fame started out in Home and Away. There goes my theory.

2005-04-27T10:58:00.000+01:00

Today the boyf and I celebrated our 3 year anniversary as the world's most fabulous couple (title inherited after the recent fall of its last holders, Brad and Jen). Three long years full of laughter (mostly at my dire sense of direction and appalling maths skills), a few tears ( mostly jealousy-related, but thankfully we are far too grown up for that now), endless cinema trips ( he buys the tickets, I buy the popcorn and Coke), several holidays (Zakynthos, camping at Dolwyddelan and Shell Island, Brussels, Malaga, Southport), an awful lot of TV-watching together time, an awful lot of dog-walking (mostly my dog because his is useless in a car), an awful lot of shopping ( I do love my automatic bag-carrier - very useful), and oh yeah - a whole lotta love.

Three years ago today in the morning I woke up knowing it was Tommo's party and that fit bloke I fancied and had been flirting with for a while was going to be there and I just HAD to get off with him.

Three years ago today in the afternoon my friend Kate and I were concocting a plan of how to get our friend Jen away from that fit bloke at the party because she also liked flirting with him and was quite frankly a bit of a pain. (Remember I was 17 at the time). And needless to say, the plan worked.

Three years ago today after school had finished I spent 3 hours in the hairdressers getting a 'fabulous' hairstyle and new colour (and so began my only recently ended life as a blonde. Although the dark colour has faded considerably. Hmph.).

Three years ago today at teatime I moaned to my mum that my fringe had been cut too short and how was I ever going to pull Tim with such a short horrible fringe.

Three years ago today this evening I arrived at the party, he arrived soon after, me and Kate executed 'the plan' and got Jen out of the way, my frantically straightened fringe clearly didn't put him off, and the rest, as they say, is history.

And now its three years on, we're still together, against a few odds in the beginning (see! I TOLD him that staying in Wales with me instead of going on that 3 month round the world trip with his best friends would be worth it in the end!) and we even live together, albeit with two other fabulous people and albeit as of no longer come Saturday when he goes back home to Wales for good. We are celebrating this fact with a bouquet of 12 red roses (from him to me), a fabulous 3 course home-cooked gourmet meal ( from him to me) and the theatre tonight to sit front row and watch 'The Odyssey' (from me to him).

I wonder where we'll be in three years from now? There's a thought.

Please pass on that sick bucket in the back.

NB- for 'today' read 'yesterday' as our anniversary was actually yesterday, the 26th, but I was too busy with all the celebrations to post.

And in other news! I am not dead. My posh sarcastic tutor did not kill me, cut me up into little pieces and hide me in his book cupboard. He was actually suprisingly helpful and made me laugh a few times with his well-timed sarcasm. Not so scary after all. I have unfortunately been very, very busy writing my surely fabulous essays. One down, two to go. By Friday. Please pray for me.

I have also bought a new hamster cage for my far too intelligent for her own good hamster, who kept escaping from her old one. Its very cool - all purple and blue plastic and lots of tubes and things. I shall post a picture when I get home. Or maybe not, as when I get home from this here library I am continuing the essay writing. We shall see.

I think, in the words of ms. mac, that is all.

2005-04-20T15:09:00.000+01:00

How much work am I doing at the moment?! HOW I wish I'd been a little bit more organised at home. Its all getting done according to schedule though, so it should be ok.

Last night me and the boyf went to t'pub to watch a comedian. The performance was under the name of a 'Peter Kay Experience'. The bloke was actually the guy from the Amarillo video. Loads of people there thought it was very funny, but the 'experience' basically consisted of a fat northern bloke completely ripping off every show Peter Kay has done, including Phoenix Nights, and just re-telling every joke. I'm sure if I was hearing them all for the first time then I would have found it funny, but jokes that you've already heard once on telly and then a million times by everyone who's eveer watched it, are not so funny. To cut a long story short - I was not impressed. But I got drunk, so it all worked out ok in the end.

This morning I went to a local high school to get the kiddies to do some poverty-related artwork for next week's Make Poverty History art exhibition I'm helping organise as part of the uni's MPH week of action. It was heaploads of fun, and I got a fair amount of paint down me. I'm back off there later to pick up the pieces once the paint has dried. On the paintings, not on me.

And now I am killing some time before my meeting with my tutor at 3.30pm. I was supposed to see him at 2.30 but he forgot and has rescheduled. I'm a little bit scared because he's a big, posh, heavily sarcastic man and can be a little bit intimidating. I'm not in trouble or anything, that I know of anyway, I just need help with my essay, so I can't think of too many things that he could torture me about.

Oh, and I hear a new Pope has been elected. I'm not entirely sure what the point was in making such an old bloke Pope. He looks like he'll be dead before the end of the year. Are younger men not as dedicated and devout as old folk?

2005-04-18T19:03:00.000+01:00

And I'm back in Leeds! I arrived approximately 3.45pm on Saturday afternoon and its been none stop ever since.

I could regale you with stories from The Hives gig on Saturday night which turned out to be a Terrorvision gig (no, I have never heard of them either) instead because I didn't pay proper attention to the gig schedule, but I won't (although someone did give me a fiver tips and everyone there were at least 40 years old with hair twice as long and large as mine - and that was just the men).

I could give you details of last night's Manic Street Preachers gig, but I won't (I really won't - it was dull as ditch-water).

I COULD fill you all in on the fun and frivolities that was had today in the library and Barbarians of the Dark Ages lecture, but again - no, no, no!

Because ... Jon has passed the book-baton (or something) on to me as I am 'brainy', apparently.

So here goes ...

1. You're stuck inside Fahrenheit 451; which book do you want to be?
After doing a bit of research, I now know what this means. Homer's Illyiad because it is a classic. Quite literally.

2. Have you ever had a crush on a fictional character?
This is an easy one - Wolverine from The X-Men - long before Hugh Jackman personified him. Although that certainly hasn't done the character any harm at all.

3. What are you currently reading?
I am currently reading 'Lady of Hay' by Barbara Erskine. I have read this book about a million times but I still love it. Its about a journalist who's doing an article on hypnotic regression to 'debunk' it but in the course of her research finds out she's a twelfth century baron's wife reincarnate. Its very good, with lots of twists and turns.

4. The last book you bought was?
God, I can't remember! Does a text book count? If it does it's a book on 17th Century England, but I can't remember the title.

5. The last book you read was?
'The Queen's Man' by Sharon Penman. Its a medieval murder mystery.

Noticing a pattern in my reading yet?

6. Five books you would take to a desert island?
Five?! Hmm ...

'Lady of Hay' again because its so good.
'North and South' by Mrs Gaskell.
'Scar Tissue', Anthony Kiedis' autobiography.
'Here be Dragons' by Sharon Penman.
'The Warlord Chronicles' by Bernard Cornwell. It is 3 books but they're a trilogy so I'm counting them as one.

7. Who are you going to pass this stick to, and why?
I'm going to pass this stick (I knew it was something like that) on to -

- Ys
- Curly

Because ... I can't think of a proper reason so I'll say because they're Welsh, and if that's not a good enough reason then I don't know what is.

And after doing all that I've just realised I've already done it on the comments of someone else's blog. Ah well!

2005-04-15T15:12:00.000+01:00

This is how my days have been spent this past week (on average) -

8.00am - alarm wakes me up
8.10am - mum comes in my room and wakes me up again.
8.30am - decide to get out of bed and have a shower, get dressed, do hair, etc.
9.00am - make breakfast.
9.00-10.30am - eat breakfast while watching TV. This week, The Bill on ukGold followed by Andes to Amazon on ukDocumentary.
10.30-11.30am - catch up on blogs, celebrity news, etc. on the net.
11.30-1.30pm - do some work on essays.
1.30pm - make lunch.
1.40pm - settle down with lunch to watch Neighbours.
2.05-6.00pm - work on essays, with a little bit of net surfing, tag-board chatting, tea-drinking, chocolate-eating and knitting sprinkled in between for variety.
6.00pm - watch Home and Away.
6.30pm - have tea.
7.00pm - watch Emmerdale.
7.30pm - watch Eastenders/Coronation Street.
8.00pm - work on essays (this was substituted for watching telly on Wednesday and Thursday because of The Bill, which was very good this week).
9.00pm - watch Footballer's Wives, Supernanny, etc. while doing a spot of knitting with a cup of tea.
10.00pm - work on essays (Desperate Housewives was taped on Wednesday).
12.00am - go to bed with a cup of tea and a book - 'Lady of Hay' by Barbara Erskine.
12.30am - go to sleep.

With a few variations here and there, this has pretty much been my life from Monday to yesterday of this week. I may stress that I am not this boring and reclusive all the time. However, despite my best intentions, the essays I have had 4 weeks to do have been more or less left to this week to do in their entirety (and I'm still going back to Leeds tomorrow with work still to do). This has also coincided with all my friends going back to their respective universities already this week, and the boyfriend being back in Leeds.

When I get back to Leeds I will be working in the union on Saturday and Sunday nights ( The Hives and Manic Street Preachers gigs, if anyone's interested), which I am looking forward to. But after that it will be 2 weeks of essay-finishing and exam preperation, nicely coinciding with the Make Poverty History week of action which I'm involved in and still have loads of work to do for.

I'm looking forward to getting back to Leeds now, as I always do towards the end of a holiday. After you've been out in a city there are only so many times you can go to the same local over-priced club without getting a bit bored. It will also be nice to swear whenever I want without fear of being told off by my mum and dad. Not to mention seeing the boyfriend again from whom I have been departed for 2 weeks now (feels like yeeeeears!). But I am not looking forward to all the work. True, I have been doing work here (sort of) but because of my, shall we say, lax attitude to it in the earlier part of the holiday I am going back to uni with looming deadlines and not as much done as I would have liked, hence the monotony of this past week.

You can tell how fried my brain is now. I've just re-read all this and not only is it slightly devoid of a point, it is also slightly repetitive, but I simply cannot be bothered to start again.

On a slightly more upbeat note, this week there is something else I have been doing with some regularity - listening to the Top Gun soundtrack on my MP3 player! I have to say that my favourite song is 'Playing with the Boys' (calm down Jon) by Kenny Loggins, not least because of the memories it stirs up from the unforgetable volleyball scene.

Mmmmmmm!!

2005-04-12T19:43:00.000+01:00

Cast your eyes over this -

Admitedly, it doesn't look too shiny in this picture, but trust me, it positively gleams in real life. Alas, I have suffered for my labours. I woke up this morning with sore, stiff wrists and lower arms from T-Cutting and waxing it. Twice, in the case of the roof and bonnet because they looked crappy the first time.

I am currently recovering from a mild case of Post-Traumatic Stress Syndrome. Last night I was attacked by a beast in my bedroom. No, unfortunately Hugh Jackman did not pay me a visit. It was something else large, hairy and unnervingly sinister - a bloody ginormous spider! At approximately midnight, while I was sat on the floor fiddling on the laptop, it ran over my leg, across the room and under my desk. I stifled a scream as everyone else in the house was asleep. Unfortunately, this also meant I was unable to get my dad to rescue me from the monster and had to go to bed knowing it was still in my room and there was a possibility that it could crawl over me in the night.

I had several nightmares about the spider during the night. Several, because I must have woken up about 50 times, in a cold sweat, swiping at my hair that was tickling my face and impersonating spider legs.

This morning before I started doing any work I got on my knees and checked under my desk and prodded my bags and papers lying abround it, because that was where I was going to be sitting all day. I couldn't find the horrible thing and mum said it probably wasn't even in the house anymore anyway, so I got down to some work and forgot about it.

About two hours later I was going to go and speak to mum, who was in her room, but I was cold, so I picked up my hoody, which had been on my wicker chair all night. As I started walking across the landing and started pulling my hoody on I - God, I'm shuddering just at the memory - came face to face with IT. It had crawled up my chair (see! It could have SO easily crawled up my bed in the night instead!) and settled down to sleep in the hood of my hoody.

I threw it on the floor and screamed my head off. Mum came running, thinking I was being attacked, which as far as I was concerned I was, and I just jumped up and down and pointed at my jumper on the floor. After getting a bit off sense out of me, mum poked around at the jumper, keeping it at arm's length, and discovered my attacker. My mum is just as terrified of spiders as me, if not more so. However, she picked up the hoody - again at arm's length - and carried it very slowly downstairs. She said later that she got a rush of adrenaline which gave her the courage to do so that must have been caused by the need to protect her baby. The same kind that allows mothers to lift cars off their trapped children and such, I expect. It moved and I screamed and mum told me not to becasue it'd hear me and crawl up her arm. I opened the front door and she threw it onto the porch. It didn't move, so we started kicking the hoody to get it off. It then turned, and ran toward the house. We ran straight in, slammed the door, locked it and then stood staring at the floor, waiting for it to crawl in under the door. Fortunately it decided that it preferred sunbathing on the wall instead of eating alive two defenceless women, which was where it stayed for a good while before disappearing off. To start a whole new reign of terror somewhere else, no doubt. It took me a good while to control my breathing and mum was visibly pale. But I think, with a bit of time and patience from friends and loved-ones, we shall eventually get over the trauma.

I did try to get a picture of it when it was on the wall to demonstrate its monstrous size and ferocity, but unfortunately I couldn't get quite close enough for the picture to not be blurry - i.e within 10 metres of it. You shall just have to take my word for it.

2005-04-11T22:27:00.000+01:00

*Welsh scenery-type photos alert*

Yesterday I went to Bodnant Gardens with my mum. I know everyone's dying to see what its like there, so I took the liberty of stopping off at every strategically-placed bench to take a photo of the beautiful sights I could see, just for this here blog (and, also, for me cos I love it there).

The Welsh Tourist Board should pay me commission.

My favourite view in Bodnant - looking out towards Snowdonia.

Looking down at the River Hiraeth-something (can't remember the last bit) which runs through The Dell - what the river and its banks are known as.

The river!

See, I think this shot could easily be mistaken for somewhere tropical. Like Thailand maybe?

Oh, I do like this shot. How much am I practically a professional photographer?

The lovely hall. The Queen Mother stayed there once.

Last one - honest! I had to put this one up because I thought it was so thoughtful of Mother Nature to have a bush flower exactly the same colour as my blog.

In other news, today I polished my car. It is now so clean and shiny I could use my new hairdryer to dry my hair in front of it in the style of a big mirror with wheels. I shall photo-blog it tomorrow just because I am so proud of all my (4 hours) of hard work, and also because I have only just thought of doing it and its too dark now to take a picture.

2005-04-09T16:12:00.000+01:00

My computer is broke again so until Daddy-Dearest (official title) fixes it for me I can no longer sit on the floor at the end of my bed, laptop on knee, telly in front of me, cuppa on one side and mound of chocolate eggs on the other. Instead I am having to fight my sister for the house computer when I can, and do other things with my time. Like essay-writing, for example. It is a rather large pain in the arse. On the bright side, though, my knitting is coming along a treat, with my fingers spared up to do things other than type.

I have not done much that is blog-worthy since my last post, but thought I had better post anyway in case certain other bloggers I have been pestering for updates hurl abuse my way for being a hypocrite. And we don't want that. No.

Yesterday my hairdryer broke. Seeing as how I have horrendous hair at the best of times, this really was a catastrophe. The only thing that could have been worse was if my straighteners would have broken, but that doesn't bare thinking about. So I went out and bought myself a new one. It is so fantastic and so high-power that I simply had to go and wash my hair just so I could dry it again. That was my highlight of yesterday. Although Ken and Deidre's wedding was good too. I did feel sorry for poor old Ray, though.

Today I went shopping with Mummy so she could spend her birthday money (Happy Birthday Mummy!) and I could buy a new top and accessories for going out to Broadway tonight. Not because its the sort of place where you have to wear something new everytime you go there. Oh no. Far from it. But because my best friend with whom I shall be going out is the most annoyingly beautiful, stick-thin, clothes' horse you can imagine who never wears the same thing twice. Unfortunately (or fortunately - for HER, anyway) she has enough money to shop places other than New Look. So the pressure to look fantastic is amazing. I am confident I may just pull it off tonight, but we shall see. Not like its a competition or anything.

*nervous laughter*

2005-04-07T16:29:00.000+01:00

Last night I ventured onto the official site for the new Fantastic 4 film, and I for one am awaiting it with eager anticipation. I'm not a comic geek or anything, but I do like it when a new one comes out. Its true, there are some crap comic book films, although I'm not naming any names COUGH *Daredevil* COUGH. However, on the whole they usually do provide an enjoyable cinema experience. X-Men and X2 are my particular favourites, although for the life of me I can't think why.

*swoon*

Anyway, I'm particularly interested in The Fantastic Four because of Mr Fantastic himself, Ioan Gruffudd. As long as it doesn't bomb then this may finally be the big time for my favourite Welsh actor. Although, again, the exact reason why I like him so much, apart from being Welsh, obviously, completely escapes me.

*swoon again*

Here, as threatened, is an update on my kitting progress.

See - its about 3 foot long now, I think.

And here I am modelling my handiwork. This photo is the result of an hour and a half of photographing in an attempt to get a picture which actually demonstrates the full length of the scarf, surely the whole point of the photo, and in which I do not look fat. This is the best of a very large bunch - over 200 photos, I think. A shout out of thanks is due to my very patient sister, the photographer for the day.

2005-04-05T15:49:00.000+01:00

Just a quick post because I really should be doing the reading for my bloody Victorian England essay. I have decided to knock WS! off of the 'My Official New Favourite Blog of the Moment!' spot, as it really has had enough time as my fave now and any longer would just be greedy . So now, due to its continuous interest in 'Spederline' (i.e. Britney and family) and keeping me up to date on the very important situation that is the state of Reese Witherspoon and Ryan Phillippe's marriage, Pink is the New Blog is 'My Official New Favourite Blog of the Moment!'

(Laura kids herself that anyone actually cares ...)

That is all for now.

Back to the reading ...

PS - the knitting is going well - my hot pink scarf can now get all the way round my neck. Only 3 more feet of rows to go. At this rate it will be finished just in time for June. Great.

2005-04-03T21:48:00.000+01:00

On Friday I went to Alton Towers! It was a very good, if not very long, day (we had to get up at 6.30am to leave at 7.30am!) and we went on that new ride, the worst named ride ever:-

Despite the crap name, its still the best ride. 0-60mph in 0.25 seconds. VERY fast.

I'm very glum at the moment (even though I am watching Hugh Jackman in X-Men 2 right now) because the boyf departed for Leeds this evening and I'm not going to see him for nearly two weeks until I make my return back oop north. So to cheer myself up I'm going to post some lovely pictures I took when I went for a walk with my lovely dog yesterday afternoon to my most favourite place in the world (it really is - I want my ashes scattered there when I die, to the tune of Scar Tissue by the Red Hot Chili Peppers). Very originally known locally as 'The View', its usually very beautiful and offers views of the whole wide world (nearly), but as it was late afternoon it was unfortunately very hazy. But still, it was a very lovely walk. So, as I am entering into that time when I am running out of money to do interesting things to blog about, I shall continue what I started last week with the beach pictures and show you some more lovely, if not slightly misty, Welsh scenery-related pictures.

Here is the lane me and Bryn walked up to get to The View. Not too misty yet, but we weren't very high up at this point.

This is the view that greeted me as soon as I walked over the hill. The glistening rainbow type-thing is the River Conwy going out to the sea. Conwy castle is a tiny dark speck there somewhere too.

Here's Bryn posing on the top of the hill. He loves having his picture taken.

The view of the lovely A55 (it is there - honest) and a little bit of Mochdre.

Another one of my 'arty' shots - just as the sun came through the clouds.

Thats it! Well, it isn't really. I took about 40 pictures, but looking over them again its just 40 pictures of the same thing, each from a slightly different angle.

Ooh, tomorrow, when my camera batteries have re-charged, I might show you all a picture of how my knitting is progressing! Or maybe not.

2005-03-30T21:03:00.000+01:00

Saturday night was a rip-roaring success. For once, considering I was out with a certain person who usually proves unfailingly to be a 'bad influence', I did not end the night with my head down a toilet, talking to God on the big white telephone, which is always good. Yes, it was very, very good to catch up with my bestest and oldest friends.

Sunday, however, was spent recovering from the inevitable hangover, unable to face all that lovely chocolate staring me in the face. But I am making up for it no, so its all ok.

Monday we all went to Knowsley Safari Park. 'We' being my family and the boyf. It was a most enjoyable day, what with baboons sitting on the car, and ostrichs trying to eat the wing-mirrors.

Yesterday was spent watching Most Haunted that I'd taped from Monday night. It was the one when they went to Bodelwyddan Castle, which is approximately 10 minutes drive away from me and a favourite visit of ours during school holidays and the like. It was strange seeing somewhere I go to frequently being on TV. That doesn't happen to me much, living as I do in the area that the outside world forgot (seems like, sometimes). I intend to go there before I go back to Uni to have a look around again and see if I 'sense' anything. You know, being the spiritualist psychic clairvoyant* that I am.

I am now doing a bit of blog-surfing, looking for my next Official Favourite Blog Of The Moment. I think that seeing as how Whateva Sista! is currently the 'Whateva Sista! Blog of the Year' as it is, it has a few too many accolades to its name and room should be made for other lesser known blogs to have a chance.

I am also waiting eagerly for the next instalment of Desperate Housewives. It is, after all, what Wednesdays were made for.

*I'm not really.

2005-03-26T17:07:00.000Z

Me and the boyf went for a barbecue on my favourite beach at Conwy this afternoon, and as usual I took along my trusty camera. Here are some 'scenery' shots, with a few of my attempts at being 'artistic'.

Here we have Llandudno and half of the Great Orme.

Anglesey and Puffin Island in the misty distance. I particularly like this shot - looks all mysterious!

The sea and Anglesey, as seen through long grasses - one of my 'arty' shots.

Penmaenmawr, as seen round the grass bank we were sitting on.

A rabbit burrow! I was particularly excited by this. Boyf thinks I am very sad, but I don't care.

2005-03-26T16:14:00.000Z

OMG I can't wait for tonight. I'm going out to the lovely Broadway Boulevard with my home-bestfriends, one of whom I haven't seen since September, one I haven't seen since Christmas and one I haven't seen since Wednesday. I can't wait! Two of them haven't seen, or even know of, my recent hair change, so I can't wait to see their reactions.

I'm starting a new thing over there on the right of the page *look right!*. I'm doing a lot of blog surfing recently and have come across a lot of new ones to read, instead of the same old 5 blogs that I normally read. I've been saying to a few people recently that 'such-and-such a blog is my official new favourite blog', so I thought -'Hey! What an idea!' So I am making it official - from now on I shall list over on the right 'My Official New Favourite Blog'. Hopefully it shall change regularly. There. Look at me getting all adventurous with my blogging.

Mmm. I'm just watching 'The Inspector Lynley Mysteries' that I taped from last week. It has Richard Armitage in it! Look at the great picture I've just taken with my digital of the TV -

Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

2005-03-24T19:43:00.000Z

Here they are, as promised, the photos from Comic Relief night where many a crazy thing happened, all in the name of charity.

Some crazy people were 'sponsored' to down a shot of this tasty liquid -

Then one even more crazy person was 'sponsored' to have his head shaved.

Before -

During -

And after -

Doesn't he look good?

All in the name of charity. Just think of all the lives we helped/saved *warm, self-satisfied glow*.

2005-03-22T23:31:00.000Z

Today has been a momentous occasion in the world of Welsh Girl In Leeds. After spending the best part of my teenage years attempting to get back the lost 'blondness' of my youth (i.e. the white blond hair I boasted before the age of 12 when it inexplicably started going dark), today I stopped fighting against nature, and root regrowth, and coloured my hair brown. Dark chocolate brown, to be exact.

Let me demonstrate.

This was taken a few months ago, and represents the general colour of my hair this morning, pre-hairdressers trip, give or take a bit of rootage.

This is me now -

It shall take a bit of getting used to, as it is a drastic change, to say the least, but thats exactly what I wanted - a change. And I've certainly got it! Now I just need to stop those mini heart attacks I keep having every time I walk past a mirror and don't immediately recognise the face looking back at me. Sure it won't take long.

2005-03-21T16:34:00.000Z

I am now back home in Wales for the Easter holiday. Missions for the next four weeks: - 3x 2000 word essays; knit at least one scarf; finally make that follow-up visit to the orthodontist, 1 year and 8 months after my braces were actually removed; not put on too much chocolate -related weight. Yep, think that's enough for the one vacation.

Its very nice being back home. I don't have to spend money on food every week (Mummy pays for it), I don't have to do laundry every week (Mummy does it) and washing-up never has to be done (dishwasher does it). Its bliss, I tell you!

Unfortunately, though, I do find that I have less to write about when I'm at home. Mostly, because by the end of term when its time for me to return to the nest I've run out of money so not a lot of exciting and interesting things can be done on a budget of £10 a week. Mind you, I'm not going to kid myself and pretend I'm the most interesting of blogs anyway. Not compared to the humourous wit of, say, Whateva Sista!, or the dry sarcasm accompanied by numurous pictures of naked/semi-naked men of Tottyland. Hmm, I'm noticing a pattern. Clearly, all I need to do to be a better blog is become a gay man. And therein lies my tragic flaw, in the style of a Thomas Hardy novel, as sadly that is one thing that will never happen.

To continue the theme of my recent bloggage - Sunset Beach. Readers may remember I was lamenting its disapperance. Thanks to the detective work of Ys it has since been discovered that SB hasn't disappeared, just moved - to a ridiculously early-mornign, weekend timing! Curses on Channel 5! No Charmed series 7 until September and now this! If it wasn't for Home and Away, they'd have nothing going for them now. Nothing.

Oh yes, one more thing. It appears a little event happened on Saturday afternoon. Not sure if anyone's heard about it. Probably not. It appears Wales won a small competition of some sort? Might just be a rumour though. Hmm ...

2005-03-15T22:26:00.000Z

I've just read this* and I'm shocked. Absolutely speechless. I know its not going to happen for at least 6 weeks over here (this is the Australia site) but I'm still shocked.

*You're supposed to be reading the first line of that, by the way.

2005-03-15T16:43:00.000Z

I have just escaped from enforced confinement hell. Otherwise known as left my house keys in my car last night, woke up after everyone else in the house had left and was locked in. Its all my own fault though because I knew my keys were in my car last night, but my car keys were all the way upstairs and I couldn't be bothered to get them. I did have every intention of getting my house keys before I went to bed, but after two hours of watching Most Haunted Live, on my own, until 1am, I conveniently 'forgot' to go out in the dark all by myself and just assumed it would all work out tomorrw (i.e. today). Obviously, though, it didn't. Its all the more silly because I did exactly the same thing yesterday, missed a lecture for a module I haven't missed a single one of so far this semester, and had to wait until someone came home at 1pm-ish to let me out. As it was today, the only person available to let me out was the boyfriend, who, at 3.45pm, rolled up outside the house in a huge removals wagon (he works in it - didn't just steal it or anything) full of lairy men laughing at me. Tre, tre embarassing. At least I got to watch another whole Charmed double bill, as well as an hour and a half of baby-related programmes on Discovery Health, with a sprinkling of Will and Grace along the way.

On another note: Neighbours. It is all very good at the moment, what with the fire-related drama, Stuart and Sindi getting Toadie's blessing (Stuart's going to be blind you know!) and Steph's double pregnancy/euthanasia storyline. But I have a bone to pick with the scriptwriters. Paul Robinson? Everyone knows that without those Elessi twins he was nothing as a character. And if they were going to insist on bringing back a Robinson, why not a better one? There were loads to choose from, after all. Personally, I think they should have brought back Jim Robinson. The fact that he's now dead and 'living' in the OC, complete with dodgy American accent, would just have made it all the more interesting.

2005-03-14T16:04:00.000Z

I worked in the union again on Saturday night, with accompanying background music provided by The Thrills. And I can report that they were very, very good. The gig was absolutely crammed but people didn't seem to be drinking much so I had plenty of opportunities to lean over the bar, knees nicely propping me up on the lower shelf, to get a good look. Unfortunately I only got 10p tips the whole night. Maybe I need to work on my smile or something.

After work I did go on to the union nightclub, sneaking in via the staff entrance to as to avoid paying the extortionate entry fee, with every intention of dancing however-one-dances-to-indie-music the night away, but come 1.30 am I was falling asleep on my feet and skulked away home to bed early. This wasn't just because of the gig I'd just worked, although I'm sure it had something to do with it, but, combined with still being a little bit sleepy from working in the union club on Tuesday night and having to get up for a 9 am seminar on Wednesday morning, more to do with the previous night. As my last post mentions, twas Comic Relief on the said Friday, adn as well as joining in a Blogger 'disco', I also played a little game of 'Dare or Donate', which didn't end until 4 am, approx. Fairly self explanatory in that you either do the dare handed out to you, or you call up the donation line and donate the allocated amount of money. Really, I don't know why everyone doesn't play it. Between 6 of us we donated £250. Very charitable of us. Dares consisted of downing shots of tobasco sauce and having heads shaved, amongst other things. My home computer is currently broke, but as soon as I get home this weekend for the Easter holidays and have access to my other home computer, then photographic evidence will be provided here. Needless to say, I'm still a leetle bit sleepy.

Oh, I got an assignment back last week that I got a 70 on - thats a firm first, thank you very much!

2005-03-11T21:16:00.000Z

As the time is currently 21:16pm on Friday the 11th of March I HOPE you're all watching Comic relief and donating all of your money RIGHT NOW. I'm particularly enjoying all the Jack Dee-related things, as well as 'Spider-plant Man'. Very funny indeed.

I am joining in Troubled Diva's very good idea to raise some Blogger-related money for the old charidee. Tis a complicated affair, but just follow the link and have a look yourself. Once you have read it, you'll know what I'm on about when I say that the nominated song for Welsh Girl in Leeds is Let's Get Ready to Rumble, by those pop icons, Ant and Dec.

Quick! If you're a blogger and reading this, get over to Troubled Diva right now! Or at least before midnight tonight.

2005-03-05T11:42:00.000Z

Tell I'm bored much? This is the most action my blog's had in ages, all in one morning.

I have a question. What has happened to Sunset Beach? It inexplicably disappeared three weeks ago, replaced on Channel 5, supposedly for just the one week, with dodgy 80s films, and has yet to return. Surely it can't have been cancelled already? I am sorely tempted to email Channel 5 and demand an explanation, but seeing as how I've only just emailed them demanding to know when they will be showing the next series of Charmed (not until Septemeber!! And its too late to start watching it on Living because I'm already 7 episodes behind) I'm a bit scared in case I come across as sad and pathetic as I'm sure I actually am.

Any ideas anyone? Or is it time to start distributing those 'missing - reward offered' posters?

2005-03-05T10:54:00.000Z

As requested by neighbour/close chum who has recently become aquainted with the blog and is dismayed at lack of mentionage, a whole post devoted entirely to said neighbour:-

Max Max Max Max Max Max Max Max Max Max Max Max Max Max Max Max Max Max Max Max Max Max Max Max Max Max Max Max Max Max Max Max Max Max Max Max Max Max Max Max Max Max MAx Max Max Max Max Max Max Max Max Max Max Max Max Max Max Max Max Max Max Max Max

Happy now Max?

2005-03-04T14:40:00.000Z

Ys -when you visit next, my link to your blog isn't working! Don't know how to get onto it now! Could you please give me some instructions when you're here next in case the address has changed or something and I just missed it?