Twitter

Who else is into this new up-and-coming website. It may catch on. I’m here if anyone wants to know what I’m doing.

Balloons

It’s Bristol Balloon Fiesta this weekend!!

I’ve just been watching a load of them fly over from the upstairs window. From there you can see them coming out of Ashton Court and going across Bristol. It’s a wonderful sight. As well as beautiful coloured and stripy ones, there are the weird shaped ones. Amongst those I saw – a house, a barrel with something written on the side, and a fire extinguisher. There was also one which, as it was coming up above the trees looked like Sonic The Hedgehog. However, as it came closer, it turned out to be a crocodile type creature with a big open mouth, spines down it’s back and big googly eyes. Bizarre!

I’m off on holiday on Monday. Just down to the same old South Allington. It should be fun this year as there are quite a few of us in our pitch. Mum’s friend is joining us with her son and a friend plus my sister’s friend so lots of people. I haven’t decided whether lots of teenagers is a good thing yet or not.

Hopefully I’ll take some many many good pictures. I want to get up really early one morning and go down to the beach and take photographs. There is so much out at 6am I want to capture it.

I’ve also got an interview tomorrow for HMV. I’ve been practising my interview questions so hopefully there won’t be anything that takes me by surprise too much. Wish me luck!

One last thing – check out this new album by a wonderful musician called Steve Jones. It’s available for free download here. I recommend it.

Steamy

I went on this steam train yesterday. Quite by chance, we were coming back from Weston-super-mare with all the T4-on-the-beachers and because of all the people, they needed extra trains. I was able to get on this one with a normal FGW ticket to temple meads.

Love it!

Desmond

I am now Lucy Deas BSc hons.

Isn’t that cool? I got a 2:2 in my degree. It was only 2% off being a 2:1 which is a bit annoying but good mark anyway so can’t complain. Everyone else I’ve spoken to did very well too so I’m pleased for them.

That’s it now. We don’t graduate till September. I can’t wait really to get my gown and hat and all that. Feel like it’s all been worth it. Apparently I’m the first one in my family – well second to my cousins a few years ago but im my immediate family to get a degree. My dad left school when he was 16, mum went to college and started uni but then dropped out. She told me last night that’s she’s never told either me or my sister that because she thought she might influence us and might have the wrong effect. I told her that would have made me more determined not to end up like her.

Among my morning net surfing I came across this video by a internet friend of mine. Check it out – it’s really very funny. They deserve some publicity.

I’m off to apply for more jobs.

TTFN

Comedy and parties

I’ve been ab it busy last week organising my dad’s 50th birthday. He’s been building a boat for the last 8 years but it’s nearly done now and actually looks boat shaped and as it was his 50th on Saturday, we thought we’d have a casual glass of bubbly and some cake in the shed where it is currently being finished off.

We decorated the shed with loads of bunting and had loads of fairy cakes with pink icing on them. Very twee don’t ya know.

On friday night, I had tickets for Russell Howard at the comedy box in bemmie so me and dad went to that as a sort of pre-birthday outing. Russell was so funny!!! Would recommend for young and old as he definitely appeals to both. The comedy box is really small – a room above a pub reeally so we were really close. He’s so short in real life. So cute. It was a show testing new material for his tour in the autumn which I am also seeing him in the Colston Hall. I’ll be much further away but I hope I’ll still come away with my face hurting from laughing so much.

What else… well still looking for a job. I’m just looking for something that pays really. My ambition is to be a wildlife photographer but as I keep telling uneducated people, you can’t just apply to be a wildlife photographer and get it and then ur sorted. It doesn’t work like that. I am a wildlife photographer at the moment in that I take picture of wildlife a lot. However, I’m not paid for it. I need to be able to find the right person and show them a decent amount of good pictures and for them to say, “those are good, would you like to work for me” etc etc.

Also mu uni results are out this week. They are released into the wild on the 1st July which is today. However, they tend to not arrive in the post actually on the 1st so we’ll see. The postman hasn’t been yet so you’ll find out as I’ll post something later on if I know anything. Fingers crossed, ey.. wish me luck.

How to… learn a language

Guy Browning
Saturday December 3, 2005

Learning a language is a wonderful thing. Once you’ve spent years mastering it completely, you can then talk the same rubbish as you do in your own language. You also realise that to get by in life you need only five key phrases: “Hello”, “Please”, “Excuse me”, “Thank you” and “I’ve lost my passport”.The first stage of learning is realising that you already know words such as sushi and sayonara. It then dawns on you that there are other words, often verbs, connecting the two words that you already know. That’s when you sign up to evening classes. On average it takes about 3,000 evenings before you’ll be able to order a Coke. You can then progress to the intermediate class.

Some languages are more difficult to learn than others. The hardest ones are tonal languages. In English, we have two tones: normal and sarcastic. In Chinese, they have 19 tones, three of which are sarcastic, so it’s a great language to learn if you want to be sarcastic with a billion other people

Once you start learning a language, you really appreciate English, especially the fact that you don’t have to remember whether the word for plank is masculine or feminine. Similarly, our verbs stay the same: I am pissed, I was pissed, I will be pissed. In a foreign language, you would need to include Pisa, Pizzeria, and Pizzicato. No wonder the British find it easier to get drunk.

Finding a native speaker who will talk to you is a big help. A native speaker means somebody who speaks the language very, very fast and who hasn’t yet learned to speak the language as clearly as you have. Make sure this person likes you, otherwise they will speed up rather than slow down.

When you try to speak a new language, you feel as though your brain is in a mild coma, your tongue has swollen to twice its normal size and your memory has been wiped clean. But remember, the natives will always appreciate you making an effort to speak their language – and giving them hours of amusement.

Of course, there is no better way to learn a language than total immersion in the country and culture. You therefore need to travel to the country, find the local expat community and attend evening classes with them.

Moving stuff.

On Wednesday, me and dad went down to Dartmouth to pick up our new toy. It happens to be an Airstream caravan which belongs or used to belong to a friend of ours who lives in Dartmouth and was keeping this thing in the field where his office is. We’ve just bought it off him and have a field to put it in in Saltash in Cornwall. However, this thing is 8ft wide and 27 ft long. It also (being American) has a difference size towball so cannot easily be towed by a large car.

We managed to find a flatbed truck that had trucks more than 8ft wide so booked one of those. Getting it on the truck proved to be quite simple in the end. The truck had loads of high tech parts that came out and we put it on the back and drove it to Cornwall. The hard bit was getting it to the field was it was down a long narrow lane with not many turning spaces. We decided to abandon that idea and take it off the recovery truck at the top of the road on a large junction. From there, we attached it to the back of Dad’s car (Nissan Navara big truck thing) which was ok to go about a mile down the road. We managed to get it a bit stuck on some large stone gateposts not far before the field, which meant we had to unattach it, and swing it round manually and then connect it to the car again. Eventually with the help of Nick the previous owner and his pick up truck, we got it down the lane and into a space next to the field where it’s going to go eventually which is currently headheight with grass and nettles.

After that, we had to drive to a nearby boatyard to pick up a trailer for dad’s workmate.  We were making the most of this trailer to pick up a boatmast from further down in Cornwall. and take it back to Bristol. It was a bit bad in that we didn’t arrive at this place until gone 8.00 in the evening. I think we did a pretty good job adding randon parts of wood and rope to this trailer so the 11ft mast could go along it and not stick up miles above the car. It was a bit difficult so we compromised a bit by having it sticking out quite far at the back. At least it was low down there. As it was quite late, the roads through Cornwall and going up the M5, it was nearly empty and we got back to Bristol without any problems about 1am. Well – everything sorted.

Went out last night with friends. Bit of a school reunion cus Dawn was back in Bristol just for that day so loads of us were meeting up for drinks. Me and Vikkie had to be elsewhere at 8.00 but we had a good catch up and a drink with the old lot and then went to the Assembly. The usual quiz was on. We weren’t up to our usual standards of winning by miles but I don’t think it was our fault. The questions are definitely getting hard lately and the quiz has become quite popular especially with slightly older people. There were 9 teams there last night. We managed to come 3rd which wasn’t too bad but there were a few questions we should have got right. It was fun anyway but I am very competitive so humbug to the lot of them. Maybe we’ll have another go next week.

Bla de bla

So… what have I been up to since the last blog?

Looking for jobs, lazing about moaning about the fact that I don’t have a life. Well, I suppose I have a bit of one, but I’m trying to get used to living with my parents and not my friends and I don’t want to do things with them all the time. Some of the usual lot did the Assembly pub quiz on thursday. We won it – no surprise as the three of us that were there have got most of the general knowledge type questions covered. It would have been nicer with all of us tho.

A bunch of people – well most of whom are my parents age, went out to breakfast the other morning as we’re all back from uni, some people are about to go off again for the summer so we met and had a fry up. Good food.

I forgot it was Father’s day yesterday until the afternoon but then reminded the sister and she had the idea of cooking dad – and mum if she wanted, dinner. We did smoked haddock, with halved boiled eggs, boiled potatoes and cheese and spinach sauce. trawberries and Toblerone for pudding. It was rather yummy if I say so myself and both the parentals loved it. I quite enjoy cooking. I don’t do it very often, not proper cooking anyway. Most dinner/evening meals tend to be something heated up, stuck in the oven or the microwave and then it’s done. Sometimes when I make something that does require cooking and someone likes it, it’s definitely an achievement.

I’ve just signed up for Jobseekers allowance. I hate the sound of it. It sounds too much like the dole and that I’m some drunk that isn’t allowed to work or something but that’s just my stereotype I supppose. It was recommended to me from a friend who is also looking for a job but left Uni a year ago and went travelling so if it works for him. There are so many different reasons for getting it like if you’re on strike over pay, or just had a baby, blind, deaf, etc. I’m just ungraduated but perfectly able to work. Well – I’m off to look for a job now then. Got a few places that may do wildlifey photography stuff. I’m tempted to look for a part time course thing in it if that will guarantee my a job. My lack of experience lets me down especially as I’m trying to avoid things that would probably fit my degree.

Boyzone – Back again.

So I saw Boyzone last night. Grew up a huge fan with posters adorning my walls and their cd’s constantly in my stereo.
Bought tickets for this tour having no-one to go with and ended up getting rid of the other ticket for no money but sod it. It was worth it.
So – SPOILERS ALERT here for anyone who hasn’t been yet and is going to.

The end.. or the beginning?

So. That’s it. I’ve finished Uni. I’m moving out of my house tomorrow and back to Bristol with the old parentals.
It’s been an eventful last term. Well – mainly revision and getting stressed out and sick to death of exams and never-ending notes but nice bits in between. It’s sods law, or murphy’s law or something that there was a lot of lovely weather, baking hot sunny days during the exam period. Longing for barbecues or lounging around in the park became a constant urge but the fear of not doing enough work was scarier and the last push for the finish line carried on throughout. However, after we were all done with exams, chilling out and ready to spend lpng hours doing nothing, it’s been rainy, colder, and cloudy. Thats british weather for you.
So.. for the last week it’s been getting emptier in our house. Rich has left as he’s going away for the summer, Anna has gone on holiday as well and me and my best girlies have been spending some quality last time with each other. We all went to the Uni end of year ball on wednesday. I even bought a proper dress and nice girly shoes. Most people I knew expressed disbelief at that thought. I am not the most girly of people and I rarely wear low cup tops or anything remotely pretty but yes I did wear a dress and actually felt comfortable in it. Go me!
We had a lazy day thursday. The 3 of us girls and luke spent most of the day watching dvd’s whilst eating chocolate coated rice krispies and curry. Was definitely needed.
Today – been packing up my room. I have chucked quite a lot of stuff and am still wondering how I seem to have accumulated so much stuff in my room. Since my room at home is much smaller than my nice big student room, I have nowhere to put any of it so I’ll be living out of boxes for a bit at home until I can sort it all.
I feel quite sad to be leaving Plymouth. The nice bits anyway. I walked down to the Hoe earlier on and took some photos. It was quite quiet and calm around the harbour and across the water. I was thinking how as much as I sometimes dispise some bits of the city, or the people, or the main roads and lack of cycle routes, there are some lovely places to go and walk. Especially as it’s by the sea.
Bristol may be a port and a coastal city but it doesn’t have sea in it. Just some nice muddy docks.Just as I was walking back down towards the Barbican and boat float, it started to piss it down with rain. I’m not really complaining because it wasn’t cold, but nice wet summery rain. It also meant that anyone walking about suddenly rushed for cover which left the pavements quite empty. I was a little disappointed because I had wanted to sit and look at the water a bit longer and take lots of pictures but I took some of some raincovered swans and then walked home.
Jess and Luke have gone this evening so we said bye to them. Esther’s parents are staying over till tomorrow when she’s leaving, as am I. I’m looking forward to getting home now.
I can’t wait to be in a kitchen which is not constantly covered in grease or crumbs. I’m looking forward to sitting in my bedroom and not being able to hear buses outside the window. I’m looking forward to sitting watching the tv and my cat coming to sit on me and claw me. I’m looking forward to having a garden again.
I’m not looking forward to the cut-off-ness in Bristol, that I live a bit further away from the main shops and pubs that I often go to, nowhere really close to go for a nice walk around and the whole feeling of everything being right there.
I’m not looking forward to my sister’s noisy music, constant social life inside the house and having to put up with sharing things with other people.
I’m not looking forward to the lack of social life, random studenty things like sitting up watching dvd’s, making weird food, bitching about other people in the house, watching tv in the kitchen, playing piggy in the middle up the stairs, txting each other from our bedrooms, rendezvous-ing in the kitchen for tea/toast/cake.
Oh well – I’m not classed as a student anymore. I’m no longer at uni, back home for the holidays. I’m just living there and now going to find a job.
That was a bit of a long post there – I wonder if anyone reads this random bloggeration. If you do – thank you, you’re very kind and must be either mad or both.
I bid you goodnight and very sweet dreams.