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

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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?