Lucia's pressie from the front.

The end of term is tomorrow. Obviously, we have all been celebrating. I mentioned unveiling something in my last post, and you can see it in all its glory here. I started it on the first day of my internship, and I finished it two weeks after ending my internship. That right there is dedication.

FOOD

The grand event happened at Lucia’s flat. Kathy cooked, Lucia helped, and I….drank vodka orange and played Angry Birds on my phone. Not the most social…I got a nice little slap on the wrist from Lucia for that, became more social and the evening progressed. With the arrival of Luisa, Matt and Patrick, we were all set to eat an amazing Christmas pasta dish. I know, you’re confused about how a pasta dish can be Christmassy? Well, it was a TURKEY pasta bake with CINNAMON, NUTMEG and CLOVES in it. Genius! It was delicious, and much appreciated.

The magic revealed!

Anyway, we then exchanged gifts, and after the unveiling of the Harry Potter illusion knit, it was my turn to be the recipient of the item that has been the subject of the grand deception all term. Basically, Lucia coordinated everyone to get me a Amazon Kindle, which involved all my Materials friends, and, right from under my nose, my boyfriend, John and my parents. The deception failed in that I saw Lucia emailing Tom, so knew about the ruse but not what it was. Oh. My. God. I’m so happy. The Kindle goes everywhere with me now. I’ve downloaded a lot of books and papers, and am convinced that it’s going to influence my degree in a good way. Thank you, you’re all the best!

Big pile of pressies.

Following the Unwrapping, we played games, which upon the disappearance of Kathy, Matt and Luisa, turned into drinking games that resulted in a few rather hilarious antics which can be hinted at in the photographs.

Wondering what the hell it is.

Patrick and I headed home at around two, getting a bit lost on the way but getting home safe and sound and happy.

I was very hungover yesterday. My head hurt. It was the second one I’ve had, and I didn’t much enjoy the experience.

So I’ve realised as I’ve been writing that I haven’t said much about Materials for a while. That’s largely because the stuff that is going on is fairly uninteresting. I took my samples out of the furnace in preparation for the Christmas hols today, have spent quite a while revising for my exam in Jan, and have had a couple of assessments this week for the Big Project. That’s about it really – nothing I can wax lyrical about anyway.

I’d rather talk about Christmas!

On the cards for today and tomorrow is cleaning the flat in preparation for leaving tomorrow evening, as well as making sure I have enough warm clothes for Denmark/Finland, all my revision and pressies for the family. I’m excited to be leaving tomorrow. I would like a break.

Pretending I'm actually Patrick

My new toy

HANDSTAND...Impressive!

Kathy with a new hot water bottle cover, for her below-freezing bedroom

Everyone needs a giant cookbook

Ciao for now!

Hello,

The Towersey Tiger Hats

It’s been a few days. Oopsy daisies. My advent blogging failed. “What have you been up to?” I hear you ask. Well, on Saturday I had the most awesome lie-in I’ve ever had, like, ever. I was supposed to be revising but the radio was on and my bed was warm and the flat was untidy, which I would have had to face when I got up. So I didn’t. This requires me pointing it out on my blog because people always say students are lazy and spend all their time in bed – it’s quite unusual for me to be in bed after 8 am, even after a 4 am bedtime (as I had on Friday). It was nice to relax – something that I forget frequently. The stress of this term is making me forget to be a real person, which is something that I’ve forced myself to do every year up until now. More lie ins are on the cards, I think! John and I cooked a Jaimie’s 30-Minute Meal, we recorded some Quartet Christmas music, and watched Inception. I also gave the boys their pressies, which I knitted in September during a day-long hospital visit. It’s taken me since then to sew the ends in. They are to match the infamous Tiger Hats.

One of the Tiger Scarves

On Sunday all my music peeps came round and Tom and I cooked a Christmas dinner for them. I don’t have photos unfortunately, cos I was too busy cooking – I think John has some which I will steal from his camera when I next get a chance, so you can all share the awe we felt at fitting 9 people around our little kitchen table. I think we used every single pot/pan/cooking implement we own, but in the evening we went out and everyone else cleaned up.

Where did we go out? To see Ross Noble! zOMG it was hilarious. When I watch him on DVDs or TV or something, I never think he is as funny as I did on Sunday. I pointed out to Tom, John and Jenny as we walked home that “I was laughing so much that I couldn’t laugh anymore”. First time in a long time. This is something else I want to do more often!

I had an assessment yesterday for my final project. I think I passed. Yay! Tonight Lucia, Kathy and I are cooking dinner for the Dwarves, and exchanging gifts as well. I can’t wait to give Lucia hers – you will see why tomorrow, when I finally post a picture of it somewhere on the internet where it can be seen! I finished it in September, have been waiting a long time for this day.

Ross Noble

Anyway, that’s about it. This week is just finishing up in labs, getting ready to go home, and packing for a five-day trip to Copenhagen and Helsinki with the girls. Excited!

Ciao for now!

I’ve previously mentioned this is in the works – here goes!

Bailiff!

Real life hit rather hard last Thursday. (Was it really more than a week ago? I wouldn’t normally go back that far in time, but this is too real to let go.) Following Knit-Sock and and a perfectly ordinary Thursday, Tom and I got home to a pile of post on the floor. Normally we do a quick scan of the post and leave it to the various people who supposedly live here. There are only three people in the flat above, but by the postman’s accounts there are thousands of them. I also had to teach the postman how to read the signs that clearly state that the restaurant is 199, we are 199a and They are 199b. Anyway, I digress.

On this particular Thursday, I spotted a little notice which I have attached for your viewing pleasure.  I read it with some amusement at first, thinking that They must have attracted it (they order the most insane amount of stuff. There is a package for them most days). To my horror, I suddenly realised it had “199A” written on it in pencil. Oh. God.

To cut a long story slightly short, Tom and I hastened upstairs to sit down to have a conference of war with the various parents, and check all the bank-accounts and post to ensure it wasn’t for us. The parents didn’t really help in terms of calming – phrases like “don’t let them in, they will steal all your stuff”, “go out NOW and get a chain for your door” “if they try to get in, call the police”  weren’t really helping. To make it worse, mum saying “they are bullying thugs”, coupled with the below photo from their website convinced Tom and I that we totally didn’t want to deal with this.

Whyte & Co header image from website. Eek.

Next day I stayed at home in an effort to make sure that they didn’t come and leave us with a fine (there was something about this on the small-print) and in the end managed to talk to “Steve C”, who turned out to be rather pleasant, and explained that it was for the previous tenants. (Why don’t they TRACK THEM?) Blood-boiling rage aside, I was most pleased that the whole episode was over. I ran in to college to hand in the biggest headache this year, my literature review, and experience the new design for the blogs this year. I’m not going to ruin the surprise, but you’re all gonna love it.

Rehearsing in Bath

The next real-life thing that took place was my ID card, driving license and card got ‘stolen’ in Bath on a weekend away. This is an annual thing designed to make all the people in Sinfonietta get to know each other. Rehearsals coupled with a night out on the town, and in my case, a lengthy visit to the police station. It was good, though, and my cards got found at the Youth Hostel as I was on the phone to the police explaining how someone had taken my stuff and replaced it with a sweet that I found in my pocket. I was rather inebriated, but I blame a certain friend who I had to help carry home for the ‘loss’, and would like to extend my extreme gratitude to John and Will, for being amazing at Corrie-consolation (Corrielation?). Unfortunately, I managed to cancel my card, and am now lacking money a lot because the new one will go to Devon.

Being attacked in Bath.

Returning to London on Sunday night, all was well. We went to bed relatively early, and at about 3 AM Tom woke me up with a “something just smashed – has something broken?” I hadn’t heard anything and dismissed his concerns with a “don’t be silly”. About ten minutes later I got woken up AGAIN by a timid knocking on the door. I opened to a John, covered in blood with the most endearing “I have a problem…I need some help”. I think I took his “I just punched the window” fairly in my stride, and all I can say is a) I need to do a first-aid course, and b) John has REALLY bad dreams.

That was a massive “I told you so” from Tom, and Tuesday morning found the glaziers coming to fix it. It took the guy about an hour, and the worry now is that the new pane of glass is so clean that the others all look terrible, haha.

Spoons in Bath with the second violins

Not much to say about the rest of the week. I spent basically the whole week in bed, with achy skin, achy hair, a temperature for a bit and the most painful cough I’ve had in my life. I hauled myself up on Thursday to try make it to lectures, managed to sit through two hours then bailed and ended up back at home, sleeping away the hours. I did manage to make it to see my parents, mum on Tuesday in the Docklands (“you’re looking pale Corrie, are you eating enough iron?” “Mum, I’m just ill”) for a delicious fish and chips and chocolate tart (not in the same dish haha), and dad on Thursday for some pasta in Bella Italia.

The morning after rampaging in Bath

Walking to the rehearsal venue in Bath

Pretty view of the river in Bath

Tom and me in the JCR, much happier after SCARING AWAY the bailiff.....

Attacking Simon in Bath

I’m pleased to report that my health is much improved (though the cough remains…anybody any suggestions on how to correct this? My throat is SORE). Tom has gone away for the weekend, John and I are going to Borough Market today, and I’m going to do my absolute best to catch up on everything that I’ve missed out on this week. Lovely.

Ciao for now!