Games with the Dwarves and assorted friends

Well, the last you all knew, I was having dinner with the Dwarves. And so, we did. I roasted two chickens with BBQ flavour (marinade chickens in BBQ sauce for several hours, put in an oven at 190 degrees Celcius for an hour and a half, turning every 20 minutes and basting. Add some olive oil and salt, too) and we played an utterly ridiculous card-game. Everyone got bored and left – sorry! I had fun, though.

BBQ chicken, Corrie-style

Had a riding lesson on Wednesday, which was brilliant. The best one yet, I reckon. Lots of cantering, and in a group full of people who didn’t really know what was going on and so couldn’t really follow instructions very well. Ego boost, right there. Yay! Luisa tried out for the team and got into the seconds! Congrats, I’m really happy for you! We spent ages giving Flora advice on what to do in third year (get started on your project work early, do all your courseworks, go over your lecture notes) and I got back home for a quick shower.

Matt graduates as a Master Jedi

This was all overshadowed by the big event of the day – graduation! Neither Tom nor I were graduating, but John was, so we headed over to the union for a bit of fun. I got a parking ticket outside the RSM which I’m going to contest (you can’t actually SEE the parking suspended sign) and spent the night admiring the new bar (568), laughing at certain people who were VERY drunk, and taking Simon, Naomi and Eugene home on a grand tour of Fulham in the Leopardile. Don’t worry, I wasn’t drinking! Ha.

Anyway, congratulations to everyone who graduated. By all accounts, all the hard work was done months ago, but nobody tripped over and you all looked stunning! (I LOVED that you were all walking around looking like Jedi/wizards. Win!)

Ashton teaching Twitch a fun party-trick

I was ill on Thursday, and the busiest day of my term so far was quickly cleared by a number of emails, texts and Facebook messages. I spent the day sleeping, hugging a hot water bottle and taking copious amounts of pain-killers. John made me soup – Tom brought me all my knitting, and I felt much better on Friday. Yay.

Anyway, yesterday I went into college for a chat with my tutor about PhDs, worked out I need to get 100% this year to have a chance of getting in to the group I want to get into (I already failed on that, deffers didn’t get 100% on the last assessment I did. Sigh.) and spent a while working. ICSE in the evening was good, I somehow ended up on the front desk of violas, and afterwards Tom and I came home to give our gerbils a bath and clean up the flat. Simon came over, we went to the Sains, bought supplies, and got home in time to meet various members of our crew plus friends we made over the summer for a night of epic Harry Potter. To be honest, I slept through the first two films – we are now on No. 4, Jason, Tom, Hannah, Jenny, Simon and John are all asleep on the floor/sofa/in my bed, and Richard and I are the only ones still going.

Two of the ladies, pigging out on porridge and cardboard

You know we’re cool. While everyone else catches up on their ZZZZ’s, I’m going to work on the literature review, do some more knitting and write a shopping list! All while watching HP, of course. The joys of being an adult. Tomorrow promises fun and frivolity, with a jaunt down to Kent with John and Jenny, to go see Seth Lakeman and eat wholesome roast dinner. Yummies.

The slightly business-like nature of this blog is a result of the extreme fright I currently have over the state of my life. I’m having to drop Sinfonietta and pull my act together in terms of efficient working, which is sad and good. Too busy! I’m going home next weekend to see my mummy and daddy, and can’t wait to have a break with them and the brother.

Ciao for now!

PEOPLE PILE

Benjy eats sorbet with his broken spoon

I’ve just read Jaimie and Chris‘ blogs - commendations, guys, you make me feel like mine is a pile of useless rubbish - what use is this going on about my day to day life when you are doing exciting things like meeting Steve Jobs and being useful in life?

I’m going to continue anyway, simply because I had such a good few days. Yay me!

Thursday - KnitSock. It. Was. Awesome. Sitting in a room with people who know what it’s like to be stared at on public transport while you transform a ball of wool into a scarf/glove/hat? Perfect. Ben, Simon, Hannah G and Nikita came round to eat the sorbet Ben made on Tuesday (if you remember, it failed miserably). He broke a spoon in the process, and we stayed up till 3 am playing Mario Kart and a game called “Bang!” or something. The hilarity coming from “I’m going to Bang *insert name here*” was so immature that it was Allowed. 

BIRTHDAY CAKES

Friday, Tom and I went to Finsbury for a dinner. This was insane. Five course buffet - we were full by the end of the second course, but powered through. My dairy allergy went out of the window (“in for a penny, in for a pound”) and I ate four slices of cake. We drove back home feeling slightly sick, getting lost as a result of the stupid GPS on Tom’s phone. I’m surprised I didn’t wake up obese on Saturday.

I spent the whole of Saturday making cake, eating cake, then recovering from cake. This was all in honour of Simon’s 21st, which was awesome! Tom and I went home and to bed early, as a result of all the late nights during the week. John turned up at 8 am on Sunday morning, made us Eggs Benedict for breakfast, and spent a happy day with us preparing some stuff for the new members of the Berry-Budden clan (as shown in photos, I’m not pregnant, Toby).

I’m feeling really positive about life, which makes a nice change for this time of year - even though I looked at my calendar yesterday, trying to work out a time to go see Tom’s sister, and realised the only free weekend I have is the last weekend of term. That’s right, December. I discovered today that I could possibly be eligible for a type of immunotherapy that will ‘cure’ my hayfever (although it involves injections every week for four months, and pills every day for three years), which will make exam season awesome - just in time to have no more exams. Woot.

Getting ready for a "hats and ties" party

Piper and Phoebe, two of three new little ones.

The Dwarves are coming round for dinner tonight (except Matt, who was a retard and forgot to order his graduation gown), so it looks to be another late night. Yay!

The first draft of this blog was happy-clappy philosophising and silliness, so I deleted it all and started again. Suffice to say, I’m feeling positive today!

If you hadn’t realised, C&S = Clubs and Societies (it’s a type of maths that Corrie understands). My life at the moment seems to consist of C&S activities…so, on with it!

Sinfonietta on Monday - Jason and Toby

Sinfonietta had their first rehearsal of the term on Monday night. I met some people I’d met at ICSE on Friday, which was cool. Simon was my new desk partner (now that John has moved on to newer pastures…and Scotland) and I think it’s going to be a long and prosperous relationship. I enjoy the way that he is really really good, but doesn’t make me feel bad about my own playing. Yay! During the breaks, we did a challenge to talk to more Freshers than each other, and I have to say, he definitely won. I did well until I got taken down to the vending machines to pay for SOMEONE’S Sprite (that would be Mr President, the one and only Tom). Never mind.

Jyasun Derulo

After the rehearsal, the club provided some free wine and nibbles. We ate a lot, drank even more, and despite the fact that it was a Monday (a SCHOOL night no less), ended up going to the pub and getting home at one in the morning. That makes it one rehearsal that I’ve played in this term, and two that I’ve partaken of a little too much. Good/bad statistics? When Tom and I got home, I discovered my stew had burnt in the slow-cooker, and to alleviate the pain a bit, we played Harry Potter on the Wii. I woke up feeling terrible, with no memory of what we’d done on the game, and feeling most distressed about my stew. Probably a good thing that the wine was in my veins when it was initially realised – this is the first meal that I’ve ever totally screwed up! (Apart from those sausages that Ashton and I ‘cooked’ when our parents went to Africa one year and left the two of us to fend for ourselves. I don’t count that as cooking, it was a lot more cowboy…and I was, like, 16. It’s too long ago to count.)

Ben comes round for dinner...

I spent the whole day in the hospital Tuesday (nothing to do with anything apart from my horrendous hay-fever), and when I was done headed off to KnitSock! I’ve advertised this previously, and even sent my file to the Chair to double-check I’d got all the details correct before I posted the blog. Anyway, I turned up promptly at 17.20, texting Katie along the way to make sure she was also going so that I wasn’t a loner, only to find the Chair (Raj) sorting through wool. No sign of Fresher’s, no other club-members…after a few moments of confusion, it was established that the blog was wrong, and it is in fact at 17.30 on a Thursday evening instead. Apologies if anybody read my blog and tried to turn up. Totally my fault. (Although, Raj, what kind of checking is that?!) Katie headed off for dinner, I picked up a bass drum and waddled down to the bus to get home.

On a related note, Raj press-ganged the two of us into turning up this week to be tutors. So, if you want to learn to knit (it’s only £5 for a whole year, and all materials are provided) please turn up! It’s in Room 3 in the East Wing of the Union.

...and ends up making sorbet.

Ben came round for dinner (part of the reason why it was so distressing that the stew failed – I had advertised it to him as “wholesome stew”, but not so much). We bought burgers, and he had brought his ICE CREAM MAKER!!!!! So we made sorbet (I am still dairy intolerant….oh cruel world, ice cream is my favourite food) which failed, played a lot of Wii, and stayed up rather late drinking Sprite. One of the good things of having our own flat – we can have whoever we want around for however long we feel like without feeling guilty about disturbing our housemates!

I woke up yesterday feeling very grumpy; on the bus, my mood morphed into something incredibly chirpy and annoying…don’t know how, but mainly not complaining.

Pretty skies over Fulham.

I worked for three hours, then went riding. All the Freshers (and Luisa) had joined this week, so I had many people in my lesson who I didn’t know. It went really well, which was nice – a bit slower than I’m used to at the moment, so was good after four months (or more) of not riding at all.  I was not so sore after this lesson (I was definitely waddling last Thursday). It was fun!

Just finished off 10% of my entire fourth year giving a presentation. It went well, I think. Everybody asked me a lot of questions, which was really cool, cos hardly anybody asked anyone else questions, apart from Ashton and I. Yay.