Any Colour You Like

It is -10ºC and a brand new year. A brand new decade and so much is going to be new this coming year. Different, scary, exciting, a good mixture I hope…

My five years at uni are quickly running out (less than half a year to go!) and I can’t believe dad is already discussing graduation plans and dates. I am also going to break my longest standing principle at Easter by prioritising work over a holiday. I have never ever ever done that before, and it is going to break my heart sending twelve eager souls off to Tarifa South Spain for the annual kitesurfing trip with out being one of them. A few weeks from now I will be handing over my society presidency for the same reason. But at least it is one of the things I am most proud of from my years at university. I am pretty sure I have sacrificed the odd percent of a grade here and there for my society involvement but it has been worth it several times over. Incidentally, not dancing this year has been killing me slowly and painfully so I have decided to pass on the kitsurfing but take on some kind of dance class one night a week. I am feeling so stale these days without enough regular sport. I also hope to practice with Sammy again a bit next term and enter an open ballroom competition for a bit of fun before the deadlines come crashing down.

Did I say I was skipping holidays? Well that is a lie because in a few hours I am leaving for Austria will Elley and her parents and sister and sister’s fiancé. The snow isn’t great but it hopefully will be by the time we get there. Europes biggest interconnected ski resort – bring it on!

And then when I get back it is jobs. I have a visit to DCA design to prepare myself for an interview and I need to ring up GE Research in Munich and ask them to get a move on and make a decision. I also hope to be able to approach a product design agency in london with an offer from DCA in hand and try and bribe them into hiring me. All of this whilst doing my IEE and project work. It is going to be busy… especially since I will be visiting Elley in London lots. And especially now she has a tea pot!

Happy New Year everyone =)

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 =)

It was really good =) Riddled with love interest, smooching and teenager intrigue, but really good. It will seem a bit random at times if you haven’t read the book, but if you have then your brain will fill in the gaps nicely. Go see it. Soon.

My mate Adam’s new band had their first concert at Thekla. They are an eerie sounding post-rock band with some great dynamics and a lot of electronic trickery. Have a listen here:

http://www.myspace.com/normalstateband

I’m done I’m done I’m done I’m on holiday!! Ok so actually that is slightly old news but I’m still loving it. Such a relief to be finished with this year – it has been really tough but easily my most fun year at uni so far. Loads of stuff happened and I hope I will get up to loads over this very long and sunny summer break. I promise I will get back to keeping you all updated on here.

End of exam celebrations involved this sizable effort:

Caipirinhas at Las Iguanas happy hour =)

It was made all the more difficult because they kept clearing up our glasses as we finished them so we had to resort to hiding the empties under a chair. And yes there were only two of us.

I have also been generally enjoying the fantastic weather we have been having and have broken out in a multitude of freckles whilst sitting in the park and reading books – I had forgotten how much fun fiction can be! I saw Claire’s musical on Wednesday which was fantastic, great singing, lots of jokes and as lead ‘soiled dove’ I thought she did an awesome job. Finally I have also started booking up summer things like a few days in Cornwall and a week in Edinburgh to see my dad and grandparents. London people shouldn’t worry I will be coming to see you soon =)

I do still exist =)

Will get back to you all with updates in two weeks…

We’ve communally bought a big oil drum bbq from sainbury’s for £50. Yesterday if got its first trial of the year =)

Lots of things were great: The food was tasty, the cider was cold, the house didn’t burn down and everyone was on their best behaviour (mostly) and got on well with Claire…

I am looking forward to our next communal purchase which will be beer brewing equipment. Then we can have the two in combo!

I cannot believe I have spent £303 in the last few days – all in the name of sunshiny weather. Shocking behaviour but somehow quite satisfying. Board shorts, rash vest, new shoes, cool hoody. You really can never have enough pairs of board shorts. It is new CSN money soon right?

What am I up to at the moment? Lots of climbing, lots of socialising, not much work or a lot of work depending on whether we are being relative or absolute…

It is fun =)

And I can’t wait till kitesurfing in Tarifa next week and I bet Dave can’t either!

I’ve not been writing much because I have not been doing much. The dance season is finally over with the nationals up in blackpool last weekend – good fun, a bit mental, average results, much tiredness and a fair amount of relief. I have also been stressing about my time management and whether I can really do dancing and running the kite society next year along with being a fifth year. Everything indicates that it will be far more work than this year and I have really not been coping and am still so far behind.

But I also don’t reckon I can give it up, and have already promised to train until the end of term and enter some open comps. So maybe the kitesurfing has to give? But I love the society and have worked hard for it for four years. There really doesn’t seem to be anyone that can take over. But I have to do well in my degree aswell. And it would be nice to fit in more of a social life. No idea how to sort this out…

I have taken to blagging work recently. Preparing for presentations at 1am is hardly clever and I am not good at working late at night. Of the three pieces of coursework I have handed in this term I have been extremely ashamed of two of them. I have asked for extensions for two more pieces of work.

I guess it always fixes itself in the end