Greetings from Adele!

Hi again just discovered a blog writing programme on here! It spell checks and everything : I love my laptop. she is called Adele :)

 

Night night x

Positive thinking & Empty purses

Good evening voyeuristic readers of Blogdom.
I hope you’re sat down for this unbelievable news... i am typing this message to you from the comfort of my bed... yes. That’s right I have FINALLY bought a lap top! DUN DUNDDUUUUN! This may seem like a speck in the ocean of technology and I’m sure i am the odd one out here. It is a rather big deal for me though. I arrived at university on my first day and was branded a hippy because the only electrical item i bought with me was my radio. Looking back, i suppose it was rather strange seeing as everyone had TVs and lap tops and some even computer consoles. I have gradually built up my collection of technology and today made that final leap into Laptop Kingdom. And daym don’t it feel good! I feel like a proper student and all that. Weirdly its easier to write and I’m going to be one of those annoying people that takes their laptop to Pret and looks longingly at it googling French poetry and the like. I will keep you posted with computer related mishaps of which there are bound to be many. Oh. Did i mention it is also cherry red? B.E.A.Utiful! so now I have a new phone and computer and I can actually link them up and my phone doubles as an MP3 player (something which i didn’t own before also) so looks like I’m sorted for the foreseeable future! Better get these keys burning, it’s just me and the fish tonight so a perfect opportunity to do work a plenty!

Peace out technogeeks 

Fish Food and Celeb Spotting

Hello world!
Well been back in the UK now for four days and I haven’t touched my assignments yet... oops! Just been way to busy with birthdays and things! We now have a very large fish tank in our room. I thought it’d be the perfect present for Chris, which it is, but the tank is a massive 30 litre Biorb! We’ve got four little fish settling in at the moment and they’re very cute. It’s nice to have a bit of life in the room anyway, I miss having a pet here.
I finally succumbed to buying a new mobile phone today. I’d been using my housemate’s old one after the phone smashing incident previously mentioned and its finally given up and keeps telling me the wrong dates and deleting my messages naughty phone! So I ended up forking out fifty five quid on a LG cookie phone. It’s purple and rather snazzy if I do say so myself... I’ve spent this afternoon playing with it and discovering what all the buttons do. It’s flipping confusing but I have worked out how to send texts and take photos which is a proud moment!
Last night my dreams came true. Me, Gen and Kirsten trekked to Laaaandaan to see the fabulous Shooting Stars filmed. The audience tickets are free and it was so worth the little trip. We basically had a free lesson in laughing. Never have a felt so weird laughing... the guy came on to warm us up (not us three personally or physically) but to warm up the crowd. He had us practising laughing. We had a belly laugh, titter and a chortle. Very strange indeed. Especially sitting in the middle of the front row, I felt rather exposed!
Watching the actual show in action though was just great. I was overwhelmed at seeing Simon King one of the Hairy Bikers in real life. He is so funny and it was difficult to resist temptation to jump over the barrier and give him a big hearty hug. He was on Ulrika Johnson’s team and my goodness is she looking haggard, the old bat. She ambled out, probably a size 4 (UK) if that and made a huge show of pulling her jeans up which we falling off of her scrawny frame. Blurgh, it was a sight for sore eyes. All she did was sit pulling idiotic faces all night and having the piss ripped out of her by Vic and Bob. Which I enjoyed immensely obviously. Jack Dee was also there, very short little grumpy man. It was great but it exposed how unglamorous showbiz is. It’s a long process and the set so cheap and wobbly. Its helping me gets over my tendency to get star struck to easily by seeing more famous people. A couple of years ago I got star struck at seeing Patricia Amos in town. She was the first woman to be imprisoned for not sending her kids to school.

On that note BYE!

Baskets of flowers & Birthday wishes

God, how lazy am I with this bloggy blog?? VERY. Terribly sorry, I returned from Deutschland over a week late. I won’t lie to you, I wasn’t that gutted about it. If I’m honest, countries like Germany and Holland have never been at the top of my wish list. I’m not a complete philistine; I was interested, but not completely overwhelmed like a kid going to Disneyland (which I can only imagine as I was never taken to Disneyland... child neglect!) I am happy to say I was more than pleasantly surprised, I absolutely adore Germany (and Holland). We stayed with Mike and Linda (Chris’ Brother and sister in law) right on the boarders of Belgium, Holland and Germany which gave us easy access to all three. Fabulous I say! Germany is dead chilled, and with a bakery on ever corner, what’s not to like? Only downfall was spending our planned budget completely in the week we were there. Then when we got stranded we had to withdraw money and eat all of the cakes we’d bought because they’d go all skanky... that’s how we convinced ourselves to eat them all anyway...
I have a new mission in life. I want a bike. With a basket. In the basket will always be newly picked flowers and a freshly baked loaf of bread. I will ride my bike around the cities of Holland all day long pleasuring people with my waft of bread as I float by, my long skirt falling and flowing behind me as I ride past with a look of nostalgic, Enid Blyton contentment on my fresh, rosy face. Ahem. One day...
I have come back fresh faced and feeling positive. It was a lovely long break, a getaway from Birmingham which can sometimes be stifling. Mike and Linda are just lovely and I am happy to have gained new friends. Although across that teeny strip of water we will hopefully see a lot more of them.

My last little story from my journey afar will be one of my favourite things from the entire trip. We went to Cologne to get our flight. It was at seven so we put our cases in lockers at the airport (before we knew about the cancellations) and explored the city. Now it is the bridge across the river Rhine which I am so in awe about. It is a huuuuge bridge and is built with a sort of mesh wire running about shoulder high the entire length of the bridge. Attached to the mesh are hundreds and hundreds of padlocks and ribbons where friends and lovers, husbands and wives have secured an engraved padlock to the bridge with their names and declarations of affection and adoration are literally locked forever to the great structure. It was quite a sight and one of my favourite moments. Not wanting to be left out (but not having a spare padlock to hand) Chris and I tied a pink ribbon to the bridge. I love the romance and randomness of it all. Just love it!

I’ll leave you with that for now, I have many tales but I feel I must catch up on sleep. It is Chris’ 21st birthday tomorrow. He is planning on getting up at 6.30 am and I’m still knackered from travelling (the Eurostar, which by the way is amazingly efficient you MUST try it!) so I feel that bedtime is nigh.

Goodnight!

Gingerbread towns and Printen

Here I am in sunny Aachen, Germany. Our journey nearly killed me. We left at 3 am on Saturday morning after Chris' little sister's 18th birthday party. They're dead lucky and have some garages and barns at the end of their huge garden which each of them over years got to use for parties and such things. Knowing I am a complete baby if I don't get at least twelve hours sleep I chose to have a quick fifteen minute nap instead of showering before we left. Good for me, bad for Mike, Linda and Chris who had to smell me! Journey was pretty quick and we made a couple of stops. Once in belgium where I ate a yummy waffle and saw a white wedding and also at the Flanders Fields memorial grounds. It was so lovely and warm but now it seems the weather has turned and Lin expects snow! Tel me it isn't so! I will die if it snows. Snow is the enemy...

Visited Monchau yesterday which is definitely up there with my favourite places IN THE WORLD! It is a tiny town not touched by the war at all. It is nestled in a valley and is absolutely ADORABLE. I cannot stress this enough! We went to a tiny mustard shop which is what the town is famous for and bought two pots and a bunny shaped bottle of eggnog-ish liqueur for myself. YUMZERS!

Tragedy has struck.. I am in Aachen without a hair dyer. Naturally I must find a funky hat to cover up my mess of a head. I will make it my mission to find one!

It's bloody freezing and being English I saw the first wink of sunshine and decided Spring had sprung so packed no jumpers. Luckily I bought my big purple coat so it's okay! Looking forward to today, we will be leaving soon for Holland so I will say Aufweidersehn and goodbye for now!
xx

Grandads and Easter Bunnies

Bet you thought I'd overdosed on corned beef and pickle sandwichs eh? I've come close, I wont lie to you. I'm home at the moment for the Easter holidays. Three weeks off for Easter. It's great to be home with my Mum and Katie for a while before I jet set it to Aachen. So I'm spending one week here (today is my last day) a couple of days in Uckfield with Chris' family and then this Saturday we will begin the drive to Germany. I've been informed that we will be stopping off at Flanders Fields and Bruges (WHERE IN BRUGES WAS FILMED DUUUH) and guess which one I'm more excited about? Seeing the place where In Bruges was filmed... obviously. This is the one occasion I will allow the word philistine to be bandied around okay?
Anyway I am rather excited because I've not been out of the country since a college holiday to Majorca, and lets face it. That was NOT my cultural awakening.

So... Hmmm... This week. This week Chris and I visited the spanking new Ashmoleum museum in Oxford. I tend to drift off in museums but I like this one because the building is nice to look at. I saw an old piggy bank from the Iron ages or something and learnt that apparently pigs are a sign of wealth and prosperity and that is why we have piggy banks. I'm a fountain of knowledge I am. So we had Falafel for lunch (very exotic) and had a browse of the market. If you get the chance to visit Oxford go on a Thursday or Saturday when the market is on. Its all dream catchers and second hand furniture and coats etc (you get the jist) and I hearts it I do. You always find something unusual. I once bought there two creepy looking dolls just for the hell of it. They were only two quid so I thought why not? They still watch me sleep at night and guard my room whilst I am away....

I've also visited my Granddad which is always pure entertainment. Didn’t get to speak to him much as he was chewing a toffee for the duration of our visit and insisted we have one too. Don’t know where he flipping found those toffees but I don’t think they've been approved by the health and safety laws. So we had a little chat and spent twenty minutes listening to each other slurp and smack our lips together pulling each filling out one by one. Now don’t you tell me the Scots don’t know how to have a good time...?

And so I will be travelling down to Uckfield near Brighton tomorrow. I was informed that the sign reading 'Uckfield' had to be trimmed before the 'U" because silly youths insisted on putting an F right in front of the name. I shall have to have a look-see tomorrow. It’s juvenile but funny. Probably the kids only form of entertainment in that town and they took it away.
Hope you are enjoying the Easter break if you are lucky enough to have it. I better crack on with some work. Unfortunately I cant do any of my proper essay work because clever me saved my work in the wrong format and now I cant open it at home so im just planning and things until I get back to Birmingham. As I have stated in previous blogs, me + technology = disaster.
Hope the Easter bunny bought you a little egg. He bought me a yummy Thornton’s one but Douglas my boarder collie, nightmare, poofter of a dog decided he wanted it. What a waste, he only threw it up the next day in the back yard. Little pig; I’m still not talking to him. He’s got some making up to do.
Hopefully I will blog back soon of my many adventures in sausage land. (Aachen, not Brighton) and will have many a tale to tell!
Ciao x