Any Colour You Like

Orsolya and dave are acting very grown up with their proper shiny new house. It is in a nice residential area and even has a turret on the corner. Unfortunately the most imaginative thing the builders decided to put up there was the boiler. But it was great catching up with orsi, hearing about ina’s placement in Cali, being inspired by ina’s mom’s sailing escapades and being jealous of cecilia’s travels in Honduras. And the best part was that all of this involved about five cafe visits per day!

Gutted that only Wilmore fell in. And even more gutted that it was at 9am when no-one else was awake! It sounded quite funny though – one of his barrels was rolling down the hill and he dived after it to stop it falling in the water. Apparently he succeeded but fell in himself instead…

All in all canoeing was a great idea but harder work than anyone expected. The river was very low and practically lake-like which meant that all two human-powers per canoe were needed to go at anything slightly above walking pace. We had ambitiously planned a 42 mile trip for two days and not really factored in the fact we would go out the night before in hereford and be really tired and get up late. But it was very idyllic when people weren’t crashing into each other and splashing around. Our ‘campsite’ was great with a nice view and plenty of firewood for a huge fire/bbq. Grilled haloumi and mushrooms with a side of cous-cous was an awesome idea. And I didn’t get capsised by a swan! Major result compared to last time I went paddling =)

I went to easily the most random thing in the world on Friday. It was a yearly festival arranged by a local group of people where you go along and play street games completely for free.

We went to an event called La Noche de los Muertos. It is at night, dark and scary. You get a map and a torch and a yellow armband to identify you as part of the game. You then have to sneak and dash your way through a series of checkpoints without getting caught by the chasers (leather trench coats, skeletal faces). At each checkpoint something happens and you move on.

At the end of the night they herded us onto a london double decker and drove us to Arno’s Vale cemetery where we were told storys and led along a winding path through the tombstones. Actors were amongst the graves with torches. At the bottom of the hill there was a band and a bridal dance.

150 of us then trooped across the road to paintworks for a drink. Strange indeed…

Back in Bristol means back to the flat antics. Everyone has not always been around but there has been enough coming and going to make for a very interesting few days. It seems we have now found a final two people to fill the house too.

First things: Josh seems to have passed his resits which is a big relief. As a consequence he has been going hyper with planning fun things for us. It seems I will be going canoeing/camping for a few days and then going to Amsterdam with the electrical engineering crew plus flatmates past and present. Somewhere in amongst all of that I need to go to London and see Orsi’s and Dave’s new place. And I need to organise my kite society for next year. And I need to get a significant amount of work done.

There has been lots of flat cooking which has been fun and very much missed over the last three weeks – Josh’s orange curry is still legendary and Laurence pulled out the most epic pie in the world three days ago. I don’t know where he got his housewife streak from but it was an epic 2.5hr effort!

Also had dinner plus banter with the 5th year EngDes people which was great fun. Some brilliant stories about engines falling out of cars and adventures in Italy and the annoyances of my course. There has been ice skating and there has been the ‘Propaganda Mini Festival’ at Syndicate. There has been Terry Pratchett movie watching (I didn’t even know there were any!), and there have been a few episodes of tying teddy bears to kites. And it has been fantastic.

Probably best if term doesn’t start tooo soon =)

Yesterday was always going to be sad. My last day in Japan and what-not. I have really loved it here. But what better way to cheer us up than a trip to Disneyland Tokyo =)

Most of you probably know all about what goes on at Disneyland but I must admit I had no real idea what to expect. It was pretty busy and ridiculously hot and humid, but we went on almost everything and it was great fun. I do reckon it is cheating having so many rides based on Pixar – it is only sort of Disney after all – but I won’t hold that against them. I do see why kids find it magical with so much attention to detail.

Is anyone up for an excursion to thorpe park?

See you back in England!