Party Planning!

21st Birthday party planning is all systems go!

The wonderful Mummy Bason has found an excellent venue, which is considerably less pricey than a lot of the other potentials, so there is now more money to be spent elsewhere, which is excellent!

Ok, so I'm being rather over keen because my 21st isn't for precisely 6 months and 1 day, but there is a lot to do when planning a party, as I found out when planning Mummy Bason's surprise 50th a couple of years ago. 

As well as having the party on the actual day, we are also organising a 'Cousin's Weekend' which is bascially, all of Dad's family meeting up for the weekend somewhere as we live all round the country, making things difficult for everyone. We try to have one of these weekends at least once a year and the 2012 one was fab. Quite often they are centred around a family party so my 21st has been dubbed a Cousin's Weekend for 2013.

I am very excited for this, but a little nervous as the Elder Bason's and I are doing the planning this time.

As we are now definitely going ahead, I emailed all the various family members the plan of action so far, and asked for missing email addresses etc. To make sure that the Elder Bason's and The Boyf were in the loop, I included them in this email. The Boyf decided to reply...

He's a funny one, but sleep and bacon sandwiches do sound good...

I'm hoping that over the next couple of weeks more details can be finalised!

In other news, last battle of the season is coming up next weekend. I am very much looking forward to it, but will be sad when it's over for another year.

Must dash, more procrastinating to do!

Winter is coming.

I had been so lucky with the weather down here in Kent until this week. It had only rained on 3 separate days in almost 7 weeks here until Sunday (I know that the lack of rain isn't good, but it was nice and warm). On Sunday the heavens opened and have pretty much remained open since.

So far this hasn't affected any of this weeks activities at work, but it does make the place look a little less welcoming and enjoyable. The centre is truly beautiful, and this is accentuated in the sunshine, but with most places it just looks cold and gloomy in the rain.

Last week was considerably better though and I really enjoyed my second school week. Everything felt a bit more natural and the children were a delight. We went on more trips than the previous week and had a lovely day out in the local village of Woodbridge and another day trip to Bodiam Castle, which I was particularly looking forward to. The day did not disappoint, the castle was brilliant and the children really enjoyed it. 

There was a video on a loop in one of the rooms and when I was watching it, I spotted a few people that I recognised, as some of the footage was of a battle re-enacment by the society to which I belong. The children, when they finally believed me, thought I was some kind of superstar knowing the people in the video! (Hi Wallers and Ruperts regiment!) I also had a hilarious ongoing debate throughout the day with one of the members of staff, on the topic of whether he would make a good knight. That was a bloody good laugh!

After the castle we went to archery. The kids asked if I had done it before, to which I replied yes.   BIG mistake! They then expected me to hit gold every time, it had been 2 years since I'd shot a bow and arrow... luck was on my side and although it wasn't gold every time, the kids did think I was pretty good. Oh and I beat the teacher that was thinking he could be a knight.

Mice Update: All out warfare started on Saturday, the house has been thoroughly cleaned and traps have been set. During the cleaning we discovered where the mice had been getting into my room...

With a bit of excellent DIY, my boss has replaced the floorboards and my room is now safe!

In other, other news, The Boyf now has a car! No more picking him up from the station each time he wants to visit, more equal driving when we're both at home!

Time to go and light a fire and read Game of Thrones, yes, the title of this was a reference!

Mice, Board Games and the First School Group.

I have to be honest, I am rather loving the Kentish lifestyle. It all seems just a little bit slower than either the Rural Uni or Sub-urban Industrial Town type that I am used to.

Trips to town are pleasant (cleaner) and new places to explore are quite wonderful. And we have better* weather. It's also very nice living with a Kitchen Garden on site (partly because I don't have to tend to it) and being able to eat fresh fruit (not me so much, bad as it is) and veggies each day is brilliant.

There is a downside to this country living though... Mice. the mice and I are falling out, big style. Currently we seem to have 2 Living Room mice, 1/2 (can't work it out) Kitchen mice and at least 1 under-the-floorboards-and-in-the-walls-right-next-to-my-bed mouse. He particularly is my least favourite and has a distinct lack of understanding that I am diurnal, unlike him.

These mice and I have been having various battles of 'block up the mouse holes' and capture-release-recapture. To no avail. They keep coming back time and again, and are really starting to piss me off. Living Room mice keep on chewing holes in the throws on the sofas and doing expeditions across the living room floor (which I'm getting used to now, The Boyf had the shock of his life last night though). Kitchen Mice are meaning that I have to be super tidy, constantly, which isn't a particular skill of mine and U-T-F-A-I-T-W-R-N-T-M-B Mouse is keeping me awake. Unfortunately, he is the one I will not be able get at. Regardless of whether the boss buys a semi feral cat, or provides me with proper mouse traps. Bastard.

In other country lifestyle news: I now have to add 5 minutes on to my journey, purely due to the pheasant poults that are too stupid to just go straight to the side of the road when I drive up/down the drive, no, they do panic dancing which is mildly amusing but also annoying and time-consuming. Oh the joys of all the land around you being part of a shoot.

The Boyf is here this weekend (experiencing his first mouse-y weekend) and we seem to have developed a habit of Board Games, this new house came fully equipped with two Board Games of which neither of us had seen before. 

The first 'Streetwise' is basically Trivial Pursuit of London, which is rather good (and snazzy) but our own knowledge of London varies greatly, in the form of him being rather good and me being rather crap. This was a sore point until we decided to have a go at Where Is Moldova. This game is FAB (well, if you're a geographical board game geek like myself), supposedly this is one of only about 50 sets, as a small company in Tunbridge Wells (mid Kent) ploughed lots of money into making the game and it didn't take off. It's a shame really but I can see why, the board is huge and doesn't fold so the box is big, the game isn't complicated, but does have many options and things to do, and also, there are many cards that do different things and this can get a bit confusing. I personally though am a fan, and keep winning.

I feel I'm going to end up as one of those families that insists on family board game evenings for no real reason. Gah.

Finally, my first school group came this week just gone. They were a lovely bunch of 26 (to start with) but due to various events (one planned, one unplanned) the group left with 24 at the end of the week. As The Boyf arrived on the Thursday evening, we offered to help them with their campfire which was a roaring (sorry) success and we toasted marshmallows on sticks (actual ones from trees, so there, health and safety) for everyone and sang campfire songs, it was all rather wonderful. 

I will not ever forget my first week here, it was wonderful and I am very excited for the rest of my time here now.

Until next time, keep well!

*better being sunnier, this isn't necessarily good for all and the farmers are less than happy!

Weekend Adventures.

The Boyf has been to stay this weekend and I don't mean to be boastful, but it's been fab! 

On Friday we just had a quiet evening in, enjoying random Friday night tele and playing a board game about London that someone has left in the house. We had a slap-up meal of tuna & mayo pasta and finished up my fantastic bottle of local Kentish cider (note to self, I need another bottle). We then had a fairly early night as we had an adventure planned for Saturday.

Saturday was brilliant. I genuinely had the best day that I'd had in a while with The Boyf. We went to the Big City! This is not something I do very often and so the protocols of standing on the right on the escalators and not smiling at people confuses me. We had the most wonderful day, catching the train from a tiny, local village station and then getting off at Stratford, so that I could gaze across at the Olympics Park. We also decided to do this because the sun was shining and it was glorious so we decided it was a good opportunity to go on the Thames Clipper river taxi up from North Greenwich to the centre. 

It didn't disappoint, we saw all the sites from the river and went under all the famous bridges including Tower Bridge with the Olympic Rings on it. We got off at the London Eye and went and got tickets to go on there later that evening. The morning was almost up and I was ushered back onto the tube  to be taken for lunch at a pub in Black Friars.  It was a grand little pub with Aspell's cider on tap and some of the most fantastic decor I'd ever seen. We had some fab sandwiches and chips and then it was time for the 'big surprise'.

We walked down through Temple, past Somerset House and then turned up off Embankment, by this point I had no idea where we were (my geography of cities is always horrendous, especially London) and as we walked up the road I suddenly spotted something that made me grin like I hadn't done for a very long time. He had taken me to see The Lion King. This was special for two reasons, 1) I love the West End and musicals and 2) I had never seen The Lion King (the film, yes I know it's criminal) before which is something that has bothered the Boyf since, well forever, so I knew he'd picked that specifically instead of just taking me to see something in London. 

After a quick pitstop at one of the coffee house chains for an ice cold milkshake (it was hot, bloody hot) we went into the theatre. He treated me to a drink before we went in, bought me a little pot of pick and mix and the programme before we went and found our seats. They were fantastic. Right in the centre of the theatre, second row in the Grand Circle. Conveniently two tiny (but very well-behaved) children were sitting in the seats directly in front.

The show was...well, I don't even know how to describe how good it was. I laughed, I cried, I sung, I fell in love and I nearly exploded with joy, all in one show. I will definitely never forget it. All  of the animals are represented with puppets/ head-dresses/ elaborate costumes that aren't just a standard costume of said animal and are very very cleverly done. There wasn't a single point that you just thought 'oh that's just someone dressed as a hyena' or something, you were totally immersed in the performance.

After the wonderful show we pottered up to Covent Garden, which I love and bought some dinner from the fantastic food market and sat listening to a man performing with his guitar before pottering around a few of the up-market shops. One goal I have in life is to at some point leave said up-market shops with a purchase (materialistic, yes, a bit). With the weather as it was, it couldn't get much better. Yet it did.

After yet another tube ride, we got back to the London Eye and had the most fantastic time. The sun was setting and it was all rather soppy and romantic. We were the only people that stood for the photo that gets taken of each pod so we decided to buy a keyring of said photo, one each, as we were both rather pleased that we still looked presentable by that time in the evening after our early start and the scorching temperatures.

After this we pottered round Marble Arch and Oxford Street before heading to St. Pancras for our train home. We were hot, exhausted and in need of a good sit down, but we were definitely happy, it had been a bloody good day.

Sunday was a far more relaxed affair and involved pottering around the local town of Rye, just over the border in East Sussex. It's a lovely little town with lots of cute little shops and we found a fantastic tea rooms before heading to the harbour for their 'Maritime Festival'. I have to say it sounded grander than it was, it was a bit more like a village fete than anything but the bands playing were good and we went over to the fish and chip restaurant for an unconventional but damn tasty Sunday lunch before heading home for a relaxed afternoon and evening.  I did go and ride Venus in the afternoon and the Boyf did take some lovely photos, such as this one. She's a big mare but she's beautiful :)

I took the Boyf back to the station this morning so he can head back to London to work at the Paralympics and I pottered around being a fairly productive domestic goddess before a relaxing evening of catching up with X-Factor.

Not much planned for this week, odd jobs to do for work and the daughter of the Rochester Gang is hopefully  coming to stay for a couple of nights before a big battle coming up at the weekend which I am really looking forward to.

Well, I moved to Kent!

The Kent Adventure has begun! Yes, on Saturday 4th August I moved down here to just outside the town of Tenterden. I have moved here for my placement (told you I got one!!) which is working as an Education Assistant for the charity I am working at. They provide residential trips for children from the borough of Hackney, as part of their primary school (mainly) teaching.

It's a fabulous place, a 250 year old Georgian Mansion, set in 3 acres. I live in the old Coach House, which is on the site and a considerable part of the land is taken up by 2 huge raised beds, a poly tunnel and a giant fruit cage, which means that in terms of fruit and veg, the site is totally self-sufficient. We also have 11 hens and a cockerel that live at the back of my house, which provide a steady supply of eggs. As I am now responsible for the chickens on a day to day basis, I am allowed to help myself to said eggs, which is rather brilliant. I am also able to take produce from the garden, although a lot of my meals are included as technically I am a volunteer. 

The House: Well, where can I start apart from it's gorgeous!!! Massive kitchen/ diner, living room and a cloackroom downstairs. I have a woodburner in the living room that is brand new, and my bedroom happens to be above this which is excellent. There are 2 double rooms, 2 single rooms and a bathroom upstairs. The house is older than the main house, possibly dating right back to Tudor times, as before the current main house, there was a Tudor mansion on the same site. It is full of beams, the kitchen is a proper country kitchen and I just love it. It's got all the old windows and all the doors are wooden with old latches on them rather than handles. It's also a traditional style Kentish house with the tile hanging over most of it.

My job is very varied and as well as helping with the teaching/ leading of various activities, I get to help in the garden and have been handed responsibility of the Tuck shop (sweets each day after lunch, although limited to one pack a day) and Gift Shop (set up on the last day selling various souvenirs) this includes running the books for the two ventures which helps to pay for it's stock and other sideline things such as the wild bird seed (oh, the feeders are my responsibility too) and chicken feed. 

I've really enjoyed my first week and everyone is so friendly, over the summer the majority of groups are self-catered using the place to do their own thing rather than the taught groups, but this week we have a small group from Young Hackney, so it's a good opportunity for me to ease into the taught routine. 

Today we greeted them all as they arrived, showed them to their rooms and then after lunch went on a 3 hour country walk. The weather was absolutely fantastic (although that made it thirsty work) and we all had a great time. Straight afterwards I went off to do something fabby (although I'm going to ache like billio in the morning...).

Guys, I have a horse!!!!! Well, the lady that lives in the nearest house to us (just down the track) has a horse and I'm riding her for her. Next Door actually have 3 horses, the big mare Venus who is 17.2hh (HUGE for those of you that don't work in 'hands high') and two small ponies for their children. Talking of their children I'm also going to be starting to teach ND's Eldest Child as in her words 'Mummy is a boring teacher', on one of the ponies. 

I've ridden Venus twice so far and she's a delight, she's had all the basics taught to her but she definitely needs work on bringing those on and Next Door are glad to have someone who can do that regularly! They have a bit of a hectic life with 3 children under 8, one of which has disabilities which require a lot of time, therefore Venus' work wasn't that regular before.  I'm very, very excited to have this opportunity practically on my doorstep and I can't wait to look back at the end of this year and see how she's come on. I'm also very lucky to have one of my old instructors from back at home currently living just over half an hour away in Kent, who has said that the opportunity for riding at her yard, or her coming down to teach me on Venus would be something to consider, which I definitely will.

Fantastic next few days planned, tomorrow the Rochester Gang (a mother and daughter whom I know from the Battle Re-enactment) are coming round in the evening for dinner (which we are picking from the garden) and a good catch up. Looking forward to the various antics that will inevitably happen with the two of them this coming year. Have said I will show them the chickens (not the mother, major phobia)/horses/bats etc to them too. Then, on Friday the Boyf is coming for the weekend and will be coming to see me ride Venus on Friday afternoon as well as helping me as I teach ND's Eldest Child on her pony before having an evening in. We're then spending Saturday day tripping up to London and probably be stereotypical tourists although this is the Boyf's treat to me and he supposedly 'has a plan', we shall see. Sunday is going to be spent relaxing and recovering from a busy week and weekend.

I feel that after the walking/riding combo (new Olympic sport, anyone?) it is time to go to bed. 

Take care, one and all!

Back on Track!

After a very very busy 7 weeks, my life is starting to get back on track and will soon have a normal routine and stuff! 

The past 7 weeks have been pretty good though. Moved back home from Uni for a little while (more about that later) and have had some adventures. In this time I have done a couple of battles, one of which was rather wet and one was very sunny (makes a bloody change!). I have been to visit my placement, yes I actually have one (again, more about that later) and been on the Olympics hype.

Placement is finally sorted! It took a while but I am off to work for The Kench Hill Charity in Kent! It's rather a long way from home but I am major excited and feel it's going to be a rather good adventure. I will have a house on site, which will be occupied by other volunteers should there be any, supposedly there is going to be one other guy there for a shorter time than me, but starting a couple of weeks after I do so I will have a friend! The house is gorgeous and has a proper wood burning stove and everything. It also has the BIGGEST kitchen I think I've ever seen in a house, which would make Yorkshire Friend very happy indeed.

The job is working partly as an Education Assistant, which is what I was going for, and also partly in their Kitchen Garden, which is a very exciting role as I am keen to learn how to grow various fruits and veg for when I have a garden of my own, and this gives me a perfect opportunity to learn about that. 

The lady that is going to be my boss is very lovely and made me feel so welcome when I went to visit for the day. The centre is small, which is what I prefer and is the ideal age range to work with in my opinion, which is the Upper Junior ages (most of the time) which is around the ages of 9 to 11. The majority of children come from the London borough of Hackney, as they are linked with the Local Education Authority and the children have generally not been to the countryside before so are taken to a whole different environment during their stay. This has led me to think about using the opportunity of working with children from an Inner City area for my Dissertation, as the contrast between Urban and Countryside life and the perception of the countryside that children from the different areas have is something I am very interested in.

I move to Kent on Saturday and am keen to start my adventure. Supposedly I have a few tasks to do in my first week, but not many as most of the staff are away, so my boss has said to use this time to explore the area etc, which I am very keen to do. Also, in another good turn of events, she knows someone that lives close to the centre who is looking for someone to ride their horse, so hopefully I will have something to ride whilst I am down there, which I am also very excited about.

Talking of horses, I have totally been on the Olympics hype. After missing the torch at both of my houses (Uni due to an exam and Home due to working a temporary shift at Loughborough Uni's Graduation Ball) I managed to get over to Loughborough with The Boyf so that we could see the torch. It was an exciting and rather atmospheric morning with lots of music and entertainment from local schools and bands etc. Sport is one of the big things in Loughborough, mainly due to the facilities at the Uni, so they made a rather big deal of the torch coming.

As well as seeing the torch, I have been madly watching the TV coverage, especially of the Eventing, this is because I was actually lucky enough to have tickets for the Show Jumping phase of the eventing, which meant that I was there seeing Team GB win their Silver Medal yesterday! 

All 10 members of Team GB with their medals

They were my 19th birthday present from the Elder Basons and Mummy Bason and I had a fab time, even with the 2am start! It was an absolutely amazing day and a wonderful experience. The competition was very close all the way through and having one refusal or fence was make or break all competition. The atmosphere was electric every time a British rider came into the arena and when they finished their round the noise was deafening and the stamping of feet made me feel like the stands might collapse. We enjoyed seeing a few of the Cross Country jumps that were still up around the arena during the lunch break and came back with T-Shirts and Caps and big grins. The only bad bit about the day was our rather hectic journey back across London to the coach station due to 'Points Failures' near London Bridge Station.

One of the best things that happened was actually not to do with horses, but showed the truly global connections that the Olympics brings. We had been sitting right behind an American Couple, which by the number of Olympic badges on the lady's hat, had been to their fair share of Olympic Games, and we got chatting to them. They were really lovely and after I'd made sure the man's poncho didn't get trodden on, on the walkway of our row, and Mum held the lady's seat cushion steady for us, she decided to give us a present, which at first seemed odd.

It turned out she wanted to give us two bracelets, that were made by her cousin. She told us it was a hobby of his, and he likes to get them in other places in the world so sent 2 for her to take to London when she went to the Olympics to give to someone she meets and she chose Mummy Bason and I! It was such a delight and really made the Olympics even more special for us. 

Our Bracelets

She had a tag on them with the name of her cousin and where he currently lives, and told us to find him on Facebook. We have done so this evening and have now been talking to him.  In the past few weeks The Boyf has announced that he's taking me on holiday to Morocco next year as my combined 21st Birthday and Christmas present, so I told the man who makes the bracelets that I would take mine with me, and get a photo of it in yet another continent and country. After this he decided that as long as he can sort out the postage, due to his health not allowing him outside the house to the post office, he is actually going to try and send me some bracelets to take to Morocco, so that he can add the country and continent to his list permanently. Currently the bracelets are in 3 continents, 6 countries and 13 different US states. He makes no money out of this and just does it for the pleasure of seeing his creations in different locations. It was truly inspiring and the fact that the bracelets are red and white and blue and white means that they fit right in with our Team GB supporting to make the Olympics truly unique for us. 

I have so much to look forward to in the next few weeks and months and cannot wait to get started now, just a shame that I haven't really done any packing yet, or even unpacking from Uni for that matter. 

More blogging will happen quicker than it has currently, to tell all about said adventures!

So nearly at the end

So it's all nearly done for a second year, and thanks to the Boyf and a very good friend, I'm sticking it out to the end!

After a weekend of brilliance but high emotions and other events, the Boyf and Ciren friend have told me that I can do it and that it will all be ok, which was very much needed. Ciren friend and I had a brilliant you're-a-bit-drunk-but-having-a-really-deep-conversation conversation at one point over the weekend whilst we were all at a battle, which ended up with the two of us getting really really drunk later in the evening with much drinking and dancing in the beer tent interspersed with walking back to the tent for more port (MY port, I should state). Boy did we regret it in the morning, our hangovers were monumental and I don't think either of us really recovered until about Wednesday, the evening it all took place was Sunday.


Having had this long conversation and other smaller things crack off including arguments with the Boyf, it did nearly all end badly on Tuesday, just after I got home I got myself properly worked up and thought I was being a horrible person and thought it would be better for everyone if this ended. Luckily I rang Ciren friend in panic and he stopped me from doing it, told me I was silly and that I just needed to wait until the stresses of Uni etc were done and everything would be fine. I can now safely say the Boyf and I are better than ever.


This did make me think, it can only take a few events to suddenly realise that someone unexpected really cares about how you're feeling, and you in return for them, I have to say it's been a strange few months for both of us, and now we seem to be helping each other out, and it's something that not many who know both of us would have thought, but it's nice anyway. The Boyf and him also bond well over joint tea-making, which makes them happy and I lost count of how many cups of tea they had over the weekend!


I found out on Tuesday that both Ciren friend and the Boyf had a conversation about me not wanting to really be at Uni anymore and were making sure they both kicked me up the arse to finish my exams. I'm nearly done now, only 2 more to go and the Elder Basons are coming tomorrow to start taking some of my stuff home, I am in no way ready for this, but it should be easy enough to shove everything in bags and send it packing.


I do have a feeling that when my room is considerably emptier tomorrow, I will feel like it's all nearly done and that new adventures will start.


In other news, after our exam today, Leicestershire housemate and I went to Cannock today, purely to go to the OK Diner there, which she keeps telling me does amazing food and milkshakes etc, and sure enough she was right, the food was amazing and we had a lovely time before going back across to Telford to do some shopping.


Today I bought a Onsie, an actual Onsie (big baby grow, basically) and people, it is wonderful. I probably look like a complete berk, but I can live with that because my god it is warm! And it's main aim is to keep me warm when camping, because yet again this weekend I nearly froze and I got fed up! My particular Onsie is a donkey one, with a hood with ears and a face on and an actual tail! I'm very pleased! 


All in all, it's been an ok couple of weeks with a cracking weekend in the middle and I am counting down the days until the next battle, where we can all have a great time again (and partly so I can wear my Onsie...)

Everybody has their down days

I apologise now for the fact that not a single bit of this blog is going to be jolly and that I will probably depress you all, you may not want to read about my general rantings of feeling well and truly stuck in a rut, and to be quite honest I don't blame you.

I also know there are so many people in the world in a far worse situation than me, but I shouldn't feel guilty that even though this is all a pile of pathetic crap I am genuinely being gotten down by it.

Well, I'm about to start one of the best years of my life according to my University by going out on placement and learning 'vital industry experience' and yes, I am excited about that and relieved that I have finally sorted it out (they make it sound like it's going to be a doddle, it really, really isn't) but I really want all that to start now, and not in a month and a bits time.

I also feel like the last three weeks and the next 3 weeks in regards to my day to day life (there have been good weekends etc that I have enjoyed) are completely wasted and time that I'm never going to get back.

This last term hasn't really had any proper structure and so it has made it difficult to really kick start being back here, each day feels like an existence of much the same of 'plod about the house not really doing anything productive and occasionally go to do stuff at Uni'. I have revision to do, yes but that's about it and the whole feeling is leaving me completely unmotivated to do anything, hence it's not often that the revision gets done.

Last year I had the feeling of 'Exams start in 3 weeks time, oh god' today it's 'my first exam's tomorrow and I couldn't give a crap' which is not like me, I do usually at least care even if I don't work, because ultimately I still like to do well.

I'm doing my degree because it will help me get the job that I want, which is most people's reason I guess, but I know that the job I want isn't really a job that I want to have a fantastic career in where I strive for each promotion until I'm at the top, which is probably what my problem is. I want a job working with children in the environment because Environmental Education is something I believe in, I don't feel like I need to go on some kind of huge campaign to either get to the top or change other people's opinion though, I just want to have my job alongside and good marriage, a family and a nice house. That's all I want and I could happily be a nobody for the rest of my life. I have no ambition in other things to achieve. Well I have complete wildest dreams, but nothing achievable.

In my fantasy world The Boyf and I will be millionaires within the next 2 or 3 years and I will be living a lifestyle of regular (but not always) partying with a lot of horse riding and fancy holidays thrown in, but I think everyone wants that. Preferably I would spend a lot of time in Monaco too, after falling in love with the place on holiday.

I guess I just thought that I'd achieve more along the way as I was at Uni, instead of just leading this mundane lifestyle for 3 years achieving a graduation, which is fantastic (although don't be expecting some kind of first class honours) but ultimately I felt I'd have other achievements added to the list by that point. The most I've done is manage to be the Secretary of the Equestrian Club for a year and I can't say it's something I have to boast about or really want to do again. 

I have to say rejoining the Sealed Knot has been a bit of a big deal for me, because I feel like it's something I get genuine joy out of again, the kind of joy I only really get out of that and riding, but due to the expense and time neither of these things happen as often as I'd like, but I do get a great buzz as battles get closer as I feel that I can just escape and don't really have to think about anything apart from sitting with friends laughing and whether the match I'm holding is burning at both ends.

In 3 weeks time this will all be over and I have a fantastic two weeks planned after exams, before starting placement and moving to Kent some time in July, but in complete honesty I really don't want these next 3 weeks to happen, apart from the 5 days at the end of this week where I will be at a battle. 

(Apologies now if you're depressed).

I will blog again in just over 3 weeks time, when happier events have happened and I will have a bit of a happier outlook on things!

Bank Holiday Weekend

So as I said in my last post, the Bank Holiday Weekend was full of adventure and such like.

The Boyf arrived Thursday afternoon and after a short potter round the shops (and him buying me a lovely new top), we headed off to the cinema. That afternoon we went to go and see Salmon Fishing In The Yemen. It was a brilliant film! Ewan McGregor, Emily Blunt and Kristen Scott-Thomas were the main actors, so I had high hopes from the start and they weren't disappointed, the story was wonderful and very well played out, and overall there was a feel-good vibe that made you think 'Why do I always give up so easily? Maybe things that seem impossible can be done'. 

That evening was then spent at home eating home made chinese and watching tele.

Friday was spent in Shrewsbury, which as I keep saying is a wonderful town. Yet again my town driving skills failed me and we got well and truly lost, but managed to eventually get to the cheap car park I know of near the Abbey. The main reason for going to Shrewsbury was to take The Boyf to the Shropshire Regimental Museum, also so that I could go round a bit slower this time as I was trying to leave enough time to visit the other Museum in Shrewsbury last time I was there (the other museum isn't as appealing to me or the Boyf, so we gave it a miss this time). We both really enjoyed it, and although the weather was no where near as nice as when I went before, we climbed to the top of the tower and got some lovely pictures of the views over Shrewsbury.

Please excuse the dire weather...

After going round the shops for a little bit I decided to treat myself to a lovely new bag, it really is lovely, if a little pricey. I think I deserve it though, for no particular reason. It's the Cath Kidston 'Be a Good Sport' bag and I am pretty sure that I'm going to take it to the Olympics with me. 

The evening was spent with the Engineer Boys and Yorkshire Friend, after cooking them all dinner we spent the evening watching various Friday Night Telestuffs and had a totally enjoyable evening. It was really nice to have a social gathering of sorts to kind of make up for the lack of social gathering due to the battle being cancelled.

On  Saturday we went to the museum at RAF Cosford. It was brilliant! and I don't really like planes so that's saying something. I found it really interesting and loved finding out about things and with the Boyf there with his geeky plane stuffs knowledge he was there to answer all my questions. 

Highlight of my day was definitely the 1:1 Scale Airfix Spitfire that is there, the one that was featured on James May's Toy Stories. I am pleased to be able to say to people that I've now seen it!

In the shop I purchased another model plane to make and have got part way through it so far. I really wish that they were already built and I could just paint them, that's the fun bit!

On Saturday evening we went out for a meal, and ended up going to the pub that was my Grandpa's old local. It was weird but lovely to be back there, as the last time I was there was 30th June 2009, as that is where his Wake was held. It was still a rather happy affair that day though, as everyone knew he'd have hated to see us at said pub being miserable. 

Many other memories lie within that pub, so it was special being back. The food was great as always, but I've got a feeling that now it's owned by a different company, that Paul the Landlord that was there for as long as I can remember and was a great friend of my Grandpa may not be the Landlord any more. I was too shy to ask and find out, but partly because if he's not, I'd rather not definitively know that. 

Sunday was a very lazy day, nothing of interest happened but it was mice just to have a relaxing day with the Boyf and not feel like we should be doing something.

On Monday morning he went home and I then spent the afternoon at home doing as little as possible. It was a Bank Holiday, I was entitled to do so!

Tuesday and today have been much the same as the usual, attending lectures and starting on some revision, the proximity of exams is a dreadful thought, but hopefully nothing will be too daunting once the time comes.

Overall, it was a good way to spend a Bank Holiday weekend once original plans had been dropped, and I did really enjoy it. Currently in the process of deciding whether to go to an event in Sheffield in a couple of weeks times, but that will depend on who else is going I think.

In the mean time, have a good few days!

Back at Harper

I've decided that blogging every few days is probably more practical than every day as I'm finding that sometimes I'm just not being remotely interesting.

Last Friday I again don't think that anything of great interest happened. Saturday was an all together better day as I went shopping with the Elder Basons followed by a riding lesson with Mummy Bason. The lesson was great and everyone had a good time. It was also a nice way to end as I won't be able to ride back at home for a while.

Sunday was also good, the morning was spent at church saying goodbyes as that is another place I won't be back at for a while. We then had my Great Aunt round for Sunday lunch which is one of those things we've been saying we'll do for years but haven't gotten round to doing until now. The weather was appalling and I spent the late afternoon packing before heading back to Harper. Some of the stuff I had packed was camping gear, ready for the next battle that we're going to next weekend in Yorkshire. Except I got a call from my friend when I was half way home to tell me that it had been cancelled as the majority of the campsite is underwater. I was disappointed to say the least but the Boyf has decided to come and visit me here instead and we have plenty of trips out planned that I will tell you about after.

It does make the next battle all the more eagerly awaited!

I spent Sunday night with the Engineer Boys and a couple of other friends and we had cake baked by Yorkshire Friend (different person from Yorkshire Housemate) before watching The Big Bang Theory.

Now I always thought that show wouldn't really be my kind of comedy but oh lord I am now addicted. Yesterday I spent most of the day watching all 17 episodes of series 1 and today I have watched the same number of series 2. I had no lecture's and I really need to get out more!

Eventually I persuaded myself to get up today and I have completely unpacked and spent some time downstairs with my housemates.

Tomorrow I do have lectures so I'm going to end now so that I can get a sufficient nights sleep before an early start.

Live long and prosper (too much Big Bang Theory?!)

Thursday blues

Not a lot has happened today, no really, not much at all.

My productivity went down to about zero, although I did do some washing.

Was feeling a bit blue due to another day just in the house doing nothing. I was intending to go for a walk but due to the weather decided that I wasn't in the mood for dealing with the weather. Only actually left to go and get Mummy Bason from work...

Hopefully tomorrow will be a bit more productive and now a final decision as to what day I am heading back to Uni has been made I really should do some more packing.

That really is all for now folks.

Ignorance, Rain and Bad Driving.

I'm not going to apologise for what I'm about to say, but it is going to make me sound very opnionated and up my own rear end. But as I said, it's my opinion and it's all because of the rain...

As you probably know, today has been wet, very wet, thus has lead to many complaints on my Facebook feed about the weather, and the fact that people don't think we can be in a drought with all this rain.

To be quite honest, yes that seems logical, but also a basic knowledge of how the water table works, and some common logic that although there's been a lot of rain today it won't make up for 18 months, can tell you that it's easily not going to be enough for us to be automatically out of a drought. This kind of thinking bugged one of my pet hates. Ignorance.

In the occasional instances, yes ignorance is bliss, but not in day to day life. I don't intend to imply that I'm not ignorant about some things at all, and I think that is perfectly fine, but I do think that I have a good general knowledge, that will better with age and more life experience, but I know a lot of people my age, older and a bit younger that just have no idea about even the basics of common subjects. I feel that I would be able to hold a reletively intelligent conversation with someone about most common subjects, and some that aren't so well known, and even if I was clueless, I would be interested enough to at least listen to what someone had to say and to try and get an understanding for the topic in which they are talking about. I also thought that that was the normal way to approach things, but the more I look at the world and the people around me, the more I see that that seems to be dying out.

It's also very common in the subject of 'Current Affairs', so many people wouldn't have a clue what the top new stories of the week so far had been, but they do that every week, completely ignoring newspapers, radio, television and interenet news. A lot of people of my generation take pride in the fact that they don't really care about what's going on around them, surely that cannot be a recommended way to live your life? This may well contribute to some of the worlds problems, a lack of basic understanding as to what is going on around you. It upsets me to see that this way of thinking is becoming the norm when news and information on every subject you could wish to know about is now easier to come across than ever.

Hrumph, sorry, it's been bugging me all day. Rant over.

Rain. Well, today has been soggy to say the least. It's welcome in my opinion, even if it does make things look miserable. To get a good crop this year we need rain like this to continue for at least a month and I for one would be glad of natures help to stop food prices rocketing (as long as the farmers aren't being cheated).

It did mean that my first day of Student Ambassadoring for my University was pretty soggy. The main part of my job was taking people on a campus tour. Luckily my group was small so it was easier to walk and talk instead of standing at each place in the rain, but we still all got dutifully soaked. The free lunch, wages and cake did make up for it a bit though.

One of the Engineer boys was also working today, which was nice, as it meant I knew someone there, and had someone to ask silly questions as it was my first time. Since he was already back in his house (his 'car' is a Defender, so he came back early, too expensive to go back home only to come back at the weekend, even if his car can run on vegetable oil costing less than £1 a bottle from the Supermarket!) we decided to grab something for dinner from the co-op, and we spent the evening at his, having a bit of a catch up.

I then made the journey home, which was alright, again apart from the rain being an inconveniance. This morning had been a bit slow, the rain was fairly hard, but by that time there wasn't too much surface water and people could have been safely travelling faster than they were. This evening though, a whole days worth more of surface water, and a load of people driving like morons in the dark.

I spent most of the journey travelling on Country Roads (single carriage A roads and a couple of B's towards the end, but neither of those are single track and only a section has no markings in the middle) averaging somewhere between 50 and 60 in the sections that were national, dependant on the  puddles and the road layout. This was a safe speed as far as I was concerned, but I wouldn't have gone any faster. There were people going in the other direction and over taking me at ridiculous speeds, hitting large puddles at frightening speeds and one guy nearly crashed his Jag as he went past me aqua-planing.

I did have my own little episode on one of the B roads though. I was coming down a hill (aka slope at which water usually gathers at the bottom, although I didn't think of this) at just under 40 mph and even with beam on couldn't see the BLOODY HUGE PUDDLE all the way across the road until the last second, I braked heavily and hit the water pretty fast, it was a bit scary, but I kept the car under control and was just glad there was no one there to see me!

In other news, I Emailed all of the National Parks the other day, to see if any of them had any possibilities of placement, and I've had a few fairly positive sounding responses today, so I will keep you posted in due course.

Ta-ra a bit!

2 weeks of no blogging.

To be quite honest, I can only apologise for the 2 weeks of no blogging. Again, I have no excuses, but that seems to be the story of my life. 

Quite a bit has happened in these two weeks, maybe I was so blinded with excitement that I forgot to blog (or not... I'm just lazy). 

Firstly, it was my birthday! Huzzah, I am now in my 3rd decade. Birthday was a very good 3 day affair, which I wasn't expecting. On the evening prior, the Elder Basons, the Boyf and I went down to the new Flaming Grill that has opened in town. The food was great, but it was extremely busy for a normal Thursday evening and so it took nearly an hour for our food to arrive.

On the Friday, various things happened. I was lucky to get some wonderful presents including a new all singing all dancing hair dryer, a Keep Calm and Relax cushion, a Keep Calm and Canter On hoodie (seeing a theme), jewellery, money, books, clothes and National Trust membership. I am very grateful for all of these things. But I'm afraid the Boyf trumped them all by buying me an Angry Bird for my car (if you don't know what Angry Birds is 1) you haven't lived and 2) google it, I have the white one). It's now hanging proudly from the back window and always makes me giggle slightly when I see it.

I also went riding that day. I rode a wonderful horse called William, who is pretty much perfect. He did everything I asked and Mummy Bason and I had a wonderful time, jumping fences of a height (not a great height to anyone else) we both hadn't jumped for months. It was a great way to spend the afternoon followed by going to the pub in town with a few friends to see my friend's band do their first headline set. They were brilliant and decided to announce to the pub that it was my birthday. This was followed by a night out on the town with some of said friends, which involved far too many bottles of free 'champagne' (that perry they put in bottles that make it look like champagne) because it was my birthday (produce ID saying it's your birthday in town and that's what you get, I wasn't going to say no!).

Feeling a little delicate the next morning, the Elder Bason's and I went off to the BASC (British Association of Shooting and Conservation) Game show at Catton Park. It was a wonderful day and we spent FAR too much money, but it was all bargains that we wouldn't get anywhere else and was worth the investment that day. The biggest savings were made at one of the clothing stalls. First of all we spotted hoodies, for £5!! This was a branded clothing stall well known in Country circles. Reduced from £35, all 3 of us dutifully kitted ourselves out with a new hoodie. The next thing we found was the biggest bargain of the day. We found two wonderful tweed coats for... £20!! Reduced from £100! Mummy Bason and I both snapped them up (I spent some birthday money on mine, a very good buy indeed). I'm so so pleased with it, it's very warm and will last me at least 10 years, hopefully more.  Other various items such as a coat for Dad and some wonderful food were also bought, overall a very good day.

You'd think that Sunday would be a relaxing day after the previous 3, but no, I went to Wales, and not just the bit near to home, I went all the way to the South West bit of Pembrokeshire for a job interview. I'm not going to say much about that as I haven't heard the result yet, but the drive there and back, although long was beautiful! It didn't rain once! I spent 6 hours driving, but loved it. I took the mountain road between Newtown and Aberystwyth and the coastal road between Aberystwyth and Caernarfon. Both stretches were blissful and quickly became two of my favourite places to drive. 

Somewhere on the mountain road I stopped in a lay-by for lunch and made two new friends. They were so cute and so I may have sneaked them a polo each through the fence!

Also, on the way there I went through the beautiful little town of Aberaeron, unfortunately I didn't have time to stop on the way there, but made a point of doing so on the way home. I got there around 4pm, and decided to snack on couscous on the beach. I was the only person there and it was so quiet that all I could hear was the sound of the sea, truly wonderful.

It had all the pretty pastel coloured houses, which I adore, and I would love to say I owned one, I particularly like the idea of a pale pink or orange one. This was the view from the beach into the little harbour.

After my little adventure to Wales, things did calm down during the week. I went out to see friends a couple of times, but that was about it. Most of my time has been taken up looking for other options for the placement job, should the one I had the interview not be successful. It's starting to get pretty nerve-racking now, but hopefully something good will come.

The weekend was spent riding again on the Saturday and then a family meal on the Sunday. That was a wonderful afternoon, with 12 of us eating at my Uncle and Aunts. This is usually annual affair in late January, but for one reason or another got moved to April this year. My cousin and his fiancé weren't there this year, due to the cousin being on his stag weekend. We have been informed by his father that he was still alive Sunday morning and of all the ridiculous outfits his friends had made him wear. 

Monday and today have been quieter. I've had some bad news regarding my summer job, the two training days are completely impractical, thus meaning I probably don't have a job. One of the dates is on one of my exams and the other is in Edinburgh, with no accommodation and only £40 towards expenses (I don't mean to be greedy but including accommodation, that's not a lot) and is the same weekend that I'm volunteering at a festival that I am really looking forward to. I have applied to a couple of others instead today, so hopefully I will be lucky to find something else, but only time will tell.

Finally, Mummy Bason and I went shopping this afternoon, and she bought me a new straw hat, perfect for the festivals and other camping trips I will be embarking on this summer. I am very proud of said new hat, so just need some sunshine to accompany it now.

I endeavour to be better with this now, partly so that I don't have to type so much at once!

Take care!

The Battle of Basing House

First weekend of the season back with my regiment in the Sealed Knot has been absolutely cracking. Most of it was spent with the Boyf and the two Sussex boys but most of the people on our regiment are friends with everyone else so it was great to be back with everyone.

Managed to leave an hour earlier than planned due to being packed up and ready earlier and the managed to do the journey in less than 3 hours without stopping which was nice. Having got to the site we realised that the area in which our regiment had been delegated camping was going to be tight to say the least, therefore we were pitching tents within very close proximity (not always a good thing) so we ended up camped almost under the trees next to one of the Sussex boys.

The afternoon and evening were pretty uneventful with the evening spent at the pub on the edge of the site. This pub turned out to be horrendously over-priced and wasn't visited again unless to use the loos.

Saturday was also rather uneventful as due to the lack of battle (we hadn't realised this before) by was spent mainly sitting around drinking before me and 4 of the boys took a trip to the local Tesco (mainly for more booze). This was highly entertaining due to the Boyf's attempt at directions on the rubbish map we'd been given and the fact that half of us were wearing our kit. This lead to our regiment traitor nearly slipping over in the middle of the busy store on the hobnails on his boots, highly amusing to watch.

That evening was spent with the Boyf and the two Sussex boys on our joint principle of refusing to pay the pub's prices. The evenings were bloody freezing and the family that usually bring the Brasier weren't here do we attempted our own. To be precise this was 3 candles! They were worth it more for the heat than the light but never mind, much fun was had by all and we occasionally got a little more heat when the Boyf and one of the Sussex boys had cups of tea, thanks to the camping stove. Oh and the warming sensation that you get from a swig of good port,

The Sunday was better due to the opportunity to actually do something. Drill in the morning was made midly entertaining by the two Sussex boys (the Boyf would have joined in but he's in the pike block, we're musketeers or in my case carry water for the musket) all they did was pick on me or ask if I was carrying any port instead of water.

The afternoon battle involved a pointlessly long and hilly walk so that we could launch 'a sneak attack' in a planned battle... Which was a very short and quite chaotic affair, which also involved the Sussex boys getting bored and asking for port again.

The evening was spent doing gate guard, something that people usually try and avoid but it was the only place that had a fire and we had chairs, more port and Easter eggs so we were happy to oblige. Much fun was had by all and we staggered off to bed at about 1am.

Monday was well, wet to be quite honest. This was when we realised that none of us in our little group had a tent big enough for us to all sit in, next battle the Boyf and I are taking the 6 person tent which has a great wet weather seating area in the middle. We got dutifully soaked and managed to get out of drill as they didn't want to risk the guns getting wet. All this meant was we were all bored and wet until the afternoon which was spent doing a crappy pre-battle display and then another crappy and unorganised battle before we all plodded home, damp but happy to have taken part.

After a better nights sleep in a proper bed, I'm still not sure that I'm ready to face Tuesday but we'll give it a go anyway.

Back later!

Preparing for battle

Today quite frankly has been a very lazy day. I wasn't even up and dressed until just gone 3pm and wasted my
morning watching whatever ITV had to offer on morning TV. All that really happened is I got angry at that Samantha Brick woman on This Morning (who incidentally isn't pretty) and then swooned a small amount over Peter Andre (there are better men but he's more attractive than Samantha Brick) on Loose Women.

The afternoon was mainly spent slowly getting up, showered etc but when I was finally functioning I did do a couple of loads of washing before picking Mummy Bason up from work and scrounging £50 worth of petrol from her (thank you!).

The Boyf then arrived and after a little while we did the very much dreaded tent inspection. I realised about a month ago that it had been out away wet way back in September and could very well be totally disintegrated and unfit for use at the weekend. Very luckily (probably due to it's home being in an un-heated caravan) the tent passed the inspection! It is a little mouldy in places but will be fit for use this weekend after a few applications of mould killer spray tomorrow morning.

The camping this weekend is for the first battle of the season, which I am very much looking forward to. In other battle preparations, The Boyf and I took a trip to that ever helpful supermarket to get the food. We have packet pastas and rices a plenty, breakfast that doesn't require milk and various tinned items. This goes against all my farmers ways of cooking good quality meals with fresh, fairly local produce (yes, I'm a student). But it is only for 4 days and there's not a huge amount you can do with a camping hob, limited gas and some rubbish 'saucepan' things. I did have to laugh when we were in the biscuit aisle and the Boyf picked up 1 packet of cookies before turning to me and asking 'is 1 packet going to be enough or are you going to get the drunken munchies?' he knows me far too well...

Anyway, this will be my last post for a few days as I go and kick some parliamentarian arse for the weekend. One thing the new fangled phone is not very good at is battery life so it's not going to see much use for now. Have a good weekend being all Easter-y.

Ta-ra a bit

Insurance Saga

Today has been a little rubbish. But there have been some good parts :) picked up the parcel that I missed the delivery of yesterday. The Wales job interview had posted the hoodie back to me that I left behind. Although I got up very early to pick it up after reading the opening hours wrong on the card.

After that I went in the bath, and then there was another parcel the postman tried to deliver, but not only was I in the bath, I had a bright green face mask, on so I definitely wasn't bothering to get it!

I then went to the bank to ask to extend my overdraft. I wasn't excepting the process to be so challenging! The woman (who was pleasant but didn't seem very friendly) quizzed me and them announced she had to send it off to the main customer service whatever it is an they would tell me in 4 hours. Eventually it was all done and I'm now not surviving the Easter Holidays on a measly £18.

This evening was spent with the Biyf, a long with many hours spent talking to the lovely (ahem) people at Admiral about my claim from last September. In the end we just found out that they'd done everything wrong and were pretty much starting from the beginning again. Mummy Bason and I are going to write an angry letter!

These were pretty much the highlights of my day... Yes it was that good... On an actual good note, the final decision has been made and we are going to the muster at Basing House at the weekend, so we have something to look forward to.

Bye for now

Bloody NHS

Today I have spent 5 hours of my life at the hospital and to be quite honest it was boring. I arrived at the hospital just over half an hour before my first appointment and after faffing around with change for parking (£6!! Outrageous) I got to the department for the MRI scans 27 minutes early. According to the letter I only had to be there 15 minutes early so I thought all was good. I filled in the safety form etc and the nurse or whoever she was came across with a gown for me and went through the questions and procedure with me. Having done this twice before it didn't take long and I was changed and ready to go by ten to eleven for an eleven o'clock appointment.

I waited in the little cubical with the curtain open just as I was told for a little while, and just presumed they were a bit behind when it got to 11:15 and no one had come to me. Time ticked on and at 11:40 someone came out to say 'Hi, we've got a small delay, which I guess you've noticed, we'll be with you shortly' OH REALLY? Well I hadn't gathered that already... Also if that's a short delay god knows what a long one is! 2 days maybe?

I was eventually seen at 12 and after nearly falling asleep in the scanner and being told off by the man for fidgeting (I was losing the circulation to my arm, but never mind) I got out at 12:45. Bugger, I was meant to stop eating 15 mins ago according to the letter for my 2nd appointment of the day and I was running on the one Malted Milk I'd had as some kind of breakfast. Deciding to throw caution to the wind I scoffed a pasty just before 1 and went to my next appointment's department. The rest of the day was a lot smoother an I spent my time waiting wisely like a good Uni student and did over an hour's revision in the waiting room.

The second appointment was an exercise test, which I was dreading. I'm not one for doing a lot if sport apart from riding and even that I haven't done for weeks. Last time I did this test I was 8 and had to do the test on the treadmill. I HATE running... Today was my lucky day, I did the test on the bike instead which is something I fair a lot better with and managed to complete the full test time (just).

I spent the evening at the Boyf's house (the dog liked me this time) and the allocated meal and pudding of pizza and garlic bread and cheesecake undid all my hard work this afternoon. We did play Wii Sports and Mario and Sonic at the Olympics though, does that count?!

Tomorrow looks to be a lot more relaxed, but I may well go on the Wii Fit and rowing machine though.

Ta-tah for now!

A Sunny Sunday

Today has been a wonderful day! I went back to church this morning, it was great to see a lot of new people in the congregation, boosting the numbers, including a few new families. It was also brilliant to catch up with some of my friends, The Twins being the main ones. I've known them since we were all 2 and we have some wonderful memories. The service was great with a drama for Palm Sunday written by one of our members.

Went home for a few hours and enjoyed a lovely roast pork lunch before heading out again. It was with The Twins again, but this time for a job, they had asked me to do some work for them taking photos and producing promo material (something I currently dabble in as a very small business) for a charity concert they are doing to raise money for their trip to work in an Albanian orphanage running music workshops in September. The concert is going to be at church in July and I will unfortunately be missing it due to
working.

After taking the photos at church and discussing requirements we headed to Derby for a monthly gig Sunday Night Live, that is put on in the Costa in the big shopping centre. This gig is organised by a group of people from a Derby church, one of which is a good friend of ours.

The music isn't always by people under the christian genre, but there is always a person being interviewed about a religious experience or event they are part of in between the two acts. They are always very interesting and talk about wonderful things. The two acts tonight all happened to be people younger than me and The Twins and are all friends of ours that we know through our old school and some of them the church too. The first girl was very nervous but played and sung beautifully. She played the guitar for most of it but also had a eukelele which made a great change for a couple of songs. The other band are an awesome four piece called Double Helix (they are on both Facebook and Twitter) who sung a mixture of their own material and a few covers. They performed brilliantly and were full of energy. The drummer is a very good friend of ours and all four of them are at our old school so it's great to support them.

After coming home I started some of the flyer and poster design for The Twins which I have emailed to them. Hopefully they will like the design etc and it can be full steam ahead for the rest of the work.

Tomorrow will mainly be spent at the hospital, which I am not looking forward to.

Until then, have a good day :)

Saturday fun

Today has been fairly busy for a Saturday that isn't away from whichever home I'm living in at the time.

I spent the morning at the Boyf's house, which was nice although the bloody dog didn't remember me so didn't appreciate me walking straight into the house. We spent most of the time playing on the wii with younger brother, which was nice as the Boyf isn't known for being nice to his siblings.

I took a pack of leftover burgers from the BBQ to his for lunch as they needed eating. They were a bloody good buy! Waitrose Aberdeen Angus Steak burgers, which I will definitely get again. I hate to be a supermarket snob, but I will miss Waitrose this month! After some time lying in bed with Boyf and the family cat Kitkat who I absolutely adore, I went off to watch Mummy Bason ride and see everyone up at the yard.

It was really nice to be up there again, as I haven't been up there any weekends since Christmas. I've now got a couple of lessons booked in for later in the holidays.

This evening was spent watching The Voice, BBC 1's new talent searching contest, which I am starting to love. The difference with this show is that 1) all the hopefuls have been scouted for their talent so there are no wannabes that actually sound like cats and 2) the auditions are 'blind' so the 4 coaches (Will.I.Am, Jessie J, Tom Jones and Danny O'Donnoghue ) actually have their backs to the artist as they audition I like it because it's fresh and a bit different to X-Factor etc which are getting a bit samey. All that really happened after that was that O cleaned my little hamster out! He's so cute.

That's all for now. More will follow tomorrow I should imagine.

Neglecting the blog

I apologise (again) for neglecting the blog. Things have been a bit here there and everywhere for the past week or so.

Last weekend I went on a little jolly for 5 days around the country for various things. The first being a job interview at a Field Studies Council centre near Port Talbot in South Wales. It was quite a nice place but I unfortunately didn't get the job so not really wanting to dwell on it.

I then went from there to Walsall, just north of Birmingham. This was for a. big family get together weekend. It was absolutely wonderful! Friday night was spent Having a curry and then some of us went on to an Irish Bar around the corner. It was a very drunken affair but and my friend left without me so I was banging on the door at 3am to be let in the house!

Saturday was spent getting the train to Birmingham and then going on a canal boat trip. The weather was absolutely beautiful and we had a fantastic time. We then went to a Robbie Williams tribute act at the pub. To be honest drift was shit, but the food was good and we made the best of the situation!

The remaining family troops then went for a carvery on the Sunday before saying our goodbyes for probably another year. The next 'cousins weekend' as we call them has been delegated to the Elder Basons and I to organise here in Burton for my 21st birthday next year. I'm actually beyond excited!

On the Monday I then travelled down to Hampshire for another job interview. to be quite honest I absolutely loved it but won't here anything until the end of this week.

Tuesday and Wednesday were itching special, although we did have a really good BBQ in the evening on the Wednesday with the Engineering Boys.

Yesterday was spent panic buying petrol, except I had a reason to panic. My car was on the red and I was meant to be driving home for Easter... All the other dicks had bought all the petrol for quite some distance, eventually I found out that the Sainsburys in Telford that I didn't even know existed until yesterday had got a delivery that afternoon and I got fuel, packed and got back to the home town at about 9 last night.

I don't usually say this but it is nice to be back this time :) I spent the first full day back with the Boyf and the Elder Basons going to Ikea (rock and roll) which caused me to wish I had my very own house (with the Boyf of course) to decorate and furnish. Some day... We then went home via Lichfield to visit a hi-fi shop and buy invitations for my birthday dinner party.

I'm now going to attempt to watch the first episode of Twenty Twelve on the shockingly slow internet with Mummy Bason.

Take care, one and all!

I'm still alive!

I apologise (again) about the lack of blogging, but I have been away since Thursday without my laptop. As of today though, I am an iPhone owner and I now have a Blogger app for blogging on the go!

The antics of the past 5 days though are far too much to type on an iPhone though so I will fill you all in tomorrow

Take care out there

Excuse my absence

Due to a fun packed weekend, not much blogging has taken place.

Friday and Saturday were spent with the Best friend in Chester. We had an absolutely wonderful time and spend Friday day time at the Zoo. The place is HUGE! and we had to miss out a few enclosures to make sure that we got to see everything we wanted to. This included seeing the Okapi, which I have always wanted to see and walking through the Fruit Bat forest, which is a big building (quite dark) in which around 500 bats are flying as you walk through, it's a wonderful experience. We also had a lovely lunch in the restaurant there and an ice cream as well as doing other standard zoo things such as going on the monorail and visiting the gift shop. The Best friend and I are now proud owners of cuddly giraffe (me) and red panda (her) key rings and I also bought a cuddly chimp, as we both decided that it reminded us of The boyf. A picture message was sent to him and he likes his present.

We then had a big meal with the rest of her flatmates, which was really nice and went to the pub later that evening with all but one of them. It was a pretty full flat this weekend as one of the other girls had her sister over to stay with her too. 

We then watched a film, a nice romantic comedy kinda film we thought we'd enjoy. To put it bluntly, it was rubbish, and just full of a huge number of cliches! Bit disappointing but it was something to do.

Saturday was spent having a good lie in! (Totally deserved after the amount of walking that we did at the zoo...). Then we wandered over to the butchers round the corner (I was a massive fan of this) to buy venison sausages and other meats to take away. The venison sausages were then consumed in sausage butties for breakfast, with the remaining being saved for a pasta bake to have that evening. Next on the agenda was shopping in Chester, something that I particularly love. It's a wonderful city with some of my favourite more high end shops that you don't get in the likes of Shrewsbury and Telford. This included a Crabtree and Evelyn, Jack Wills, Joules, Whites of London etc. It was lovely to go and look around them all, not so lovely is the fact that I'm a poor student. All I bought was a bottle of wine from M&S and a card and wrapping paper for Mothers' Day. The rest of the time was spent relaxing and eating before I came back home. It was lovely to see the Best friend again, and to see Chester.

Sunday was spent at Grandma's, a place that I'm particularly fond of. The houses (the Uncle and Aunt also have a house on the same plot of land) are both beautiful and the setting is very desirable). The Elder Bason's came to join us, to celebrate mothers day and all the giving of presents etc was done. Before arriving I went to the local garden centre to go and get both Mother Bason and Grandma a pot plant and pot each, it was meant to be a little extra to go with their gifts. Instead, I bought some very lovely plants and pots (one in pink, one in purple) and then decided to get them gift wrapped, so both presents turned out to be more expensive than the original presents! It was worth it though, they both loved them. 

Today was spent being downright lazy, the first lecture was cancelled, so I never did bother with the second (I don't like Mondays-itis), I finally dragged myself out of bed well into the afternoon, before going to physio, which was quite frankly a waste of time. This evening I went to the hospital, where I had major issues with parking and had to borrow 50p from some nice man, then I couldn't find the way to the ward, and after getting there and waiting for what seemed like a life time, I was called in for my scan. 

I was dubious from the start, she was very curt, and didn't ask the details of why I was there etc, what had been all the medical reasons that I needed a scan blah blah, which part of me just thought it was because she'd have read my motes, the other part of me wasn't so sure. Sure enough the scan was done with no hassle, so at the end I was told I was free to go and that they were not allowed to discuss the results of a scan with the patient and that I had to book an appointment with my doctor. At that point I knew that the NHS was too good to be true again and that as usual they couldn't give a monkeys about the fact I finally thought I was going to find out what was wrong. I felt like screaming 'ARE YOU BLEEDING SERIOUS' at her (she hadn't exactly been friendly) but I refrained. I have to say I am truly disappointed. It's been over a month now and for one reason or another I still don't know what's wrong with me. I don't care if they take ages to treat me, I just want to know what's wrong with me in the first place.

Seriously considering going private, but for now, I will go and buy chocolate full of the fat that I'm meant to be avoiding for the gall stones that they think I have but won't tell me even though they had the results on a screen right in front of them.

I'm not bitter at all... for now folks, I bid you farewell