70 Days

Or 2 and a bit months. That's how long I've been away from here!

Several of my home friends have been complaining that since I stopped posting on this 'ere blog, they have no idea what's up with my life (you'd think that twitter, facebook, MSN, fotolog and tuenti would be enough for them, but apparently not...)

So I've decided to return to the world of blogging.

To be honest I've missed it. Just writing down the daily craziness that occurs at uni...Because you guys have missed SO much! Which means that when I come back to re-read this thing ten years down the line, I'm going to have trouble remembering the best months I spent at uni. Sigh.

So many things have happened, changed and transformed over these past 70 days. I'm going to try and bring you up to date with the main stuff and maybe some random things that I remember on the way, so get ready.

This is going to be one VERY long post...

I want to start off by quickly introducing you to the Lovelies. We've become really good friends this term and I'm probably gonna be talking about them a lot so it's fair that you know who they are. Lizzie, Lucy, Gemma and Zoe are four amazing girls who live on my floor in halls. We all have blue eyes and enjoy noodles with gravy and cheese but we do different courses and enjoy different types of music, movies, books, boys and alcohol.

Lizzie is my next-door neighbour and we watch Eastenders together and she borrows my hairdryer. She is the first person I ever talked to at uni.

Lucy has the complete collection of FRIENDS episodes, an awesome large pink bouncy ball and has just moved out of halls and back home. She likes Simba from the Lion King.

Gemma's room is almost as messy as mine and she let me borrow her printer to print my boarding pass home. She has two virtual dogs called Herbert and Sherbert who she lets me look after sometimes.

Zoe and I have almost exactly the same taste in guys. We are the Harry Potter geekettes of Longbrook and we share a kitchen (with other people).

These are my Lovelies (aren't they lovely?) I'm trying to get them to come and visit me at home over the summer!

So. Quick recap of what I posted last time: I was working on stage management, going out a LOT, Production had yet to happen and I was in love with The Light In The Piazza.

Well. Production finished about three weeks ago. I was a "Bathing Beauty" and literally used up half a can of hairspray getting my hair to do the feathery-flicky-Farrah-Fawcett style thing. It went very well I think. It looked good from where I was anyway. We haven't got our marks back yet. Now we're working on our Production essays which have to be handed a week on Friday (ARGH)

Stage management is still being worked on. We have to hand in our work folders on the 10th of May and I'm already forseeing several all-nighters to get it finished in time... I'm working on the 2nd-Years' final production as Assistant Stage Manager so I'm doing that as my Special Project which means the next two weeks (intensive rehearsals and then techs, dress and show) are going to be long and hard...

February Reading Week meant home for a few days and then a fab trip to London with one of my best mates from home: Mei. We had massive trouble with our hotel when we first got there (do NOT ever book the CORBIGOE HOTEL!) but it got sorted and then we had a fab time spending in Primark, visiting Madame Tussauds, watching Wicked and then The Lion King, before getting the train to campus and showing her around my town for the next couple of days.

I went out a LOT last term (especially February and the end of January) which involved a lot of late night parties, early morning dance classes and sleep deprivation, but was SO worth it. I had a great time, met some AMAZING people (the Longbrook crowd and Kelly especially) and (hate to admit this but...) suffered some pretty intense hangovers.

And speaking of hangovers...

Say hello to RAG RACE 2010. About 1500 people dressed up in funny, brilliant and plain ridiculous costumes running around 12 pubs and 2 clubs in town...

Starting at 9am in the morning.

The girls and I had vodka and lemonade with our bacon sandwiches for breakfast before hitting the SU for a couple of hours and then town all day. Then back to the SU and then back to the clubs! I spent 18h drunk. Zoe and I spent the day running around taking as many photos as we could with different groups of people in their costumes. And you wanna know the best part? All for charity.
(We were biscuits)

(Fellow MTers Danny, Ben and Kris as Greek Gods)

(Spongebob!)

(About a third of the Gingerbread Men Army that made my day!)

(Avatars!)

As you can see it was a FAB day!!!

It's getting late and this is getting long so I'm going to leave this here and carry on tomorrow. Hopefully by the time I get back to uni next week this'll be (more or less) up to date!

Rock on,

KATY xxxx

PS. Please excuse any spelling mistakes, my spell-check is randomly only checking in Spanish!

PS2. DAMN VOLCANOS! I'm stuck at home till at LEAST Wednesday 28th of April... Lets see if I can post more randomness before going back!

Listening to:
2006 - Hello Saferide

London and Procrastination

I am SUCH a procrastinator.

My plan for this evening is to tidy my room completely and then decorate. So far it's going badly.

Jem and I bought a mini Christmas tree each in Wilkinsons (£2.50: jackpot) and then hit the 99p Store for beads and baubles and tinsel and lights and a star to decorate it with (Yes I know I'm only going to be in my room for another week but I DON'T CARE)

So yeah. At the moment I'm putting off the whole "tidying" process by posting this and skyping Mei (WHO HASS PASSED HER DRIVING TEST!) while listening to FROSTY THE SNOWMAN. I've had that song in my head since yesterday. It's getting irritating.

London was good.

I loved the lights. And I got a kick out of knowing I wasn't a mere foreign tourist sight-seeing, I was a bona fide UK resident doing normal everyday shopping things. Tubing was fun also. I haven't done that in a while.

We got some Christmas presents out of the way, but we didn't find anything for me.
The vintage (no more caps and exclamation points...) turned out to be disappointing and everything I did like was in the £90 region. I apparently have expensive tastes that my heart/brain can't handle. Sandra reckons I unconsciously freaked out about the prices (actually, that bit wasn't unconscious at all) and then channeled that freaked-out-ness into the other more normally priced shops.

What can I say. I'm a Primark gal.


The musical was a bit of a let down. We went to see LITTLE VOICE. Starring Lesley Sharp, Marc Warren (Danny Blue from Hustle) and introducing Diana Vickers (Xfactor finalist)

This wonderfully funny, incredibly moving play tells the story of a shy, reclusive girl named Little Voie and her larger than life, out of control mother Mari.

Desperately missing her dead father, Little Voice spends her time locked in her bedroom listening to his old record colection and perfecting astonishing impersonations of famous divas, including Shirley Bassey, Marilyn Monroe, Judy Garland and Dusty Springfield.

When Mari starts dating small-time club agent Ray Say, she thinks he's her last chance for a better life. When Ray Say hears Little Voice sing, he thinks she's his big ticket to the big time. Little Voice just wants a normal life and to be loved.

Not everyone is going to get what they want.

Especially not the audience.

The show itself was good. I just wasn't impressed at all by the performers.

I'll shorten it for you: Ms Vickers is quite obviously not an actress. Yes, she's playing a shy, retiring character, but she should still be able to draw the focus, and she doesn't. Her voice is OK, but her imitations leave much to be desired, especially Judy Garland. And don't even get me started on her Julie Andrews...

Lesley Sharp is extremely loud, extremely over the top and very irritating by the end of it. She oveshadows everyone else (and not in a good way). And Marc Warren was disappointing. I adored him in Hustle, but here, he just seemed to have lost his charisma, and like everyone else, he was overshadowed by Ms Sharp.

Basically: we weren't impressed.

But the lights and set were amazing. I'll give them that.

What else to tell? Mmmm...

We had an interesting conversation at dinner tonight including Alan's camel tongue, salty-custardy-water, Christmas trees and a lot of fun loudness that got us stared at by every other person in the dining hall.

Fun times.

Rock on,

KATY xxxx

LISTENING TO:
So Simple - Stacie Orrico

Christmas Songs and Fairy Lights

I am currently sitting in the dim light of fairy lights, listening to The Chipmunks (yes, those little animated chipmunks off Alvin and the Chipmunks) singing FROSTY THE SNOWMAN, eating a mince pie and drinking Nesquik banana milkshake.

OK. So the banana milkshake has nothing to with it.

My point is: I feel Christmassy.

I went into town this afternoon and bought two sets of fairy lights in Wilkinsons. One set is strung in my window so I can see them from my desk AND the world can see them too; the other set is above my bed, circling my safari animal calendar.

I used a lot of blu-tack.

I wanted to get a mini Christmas tree too, but they were all out of the small ones I wanted...

(Song change: I WANT A HIPPOPOTAMUS FOR CHRISTMAS by Lenny the Lion. Don't ask)


We came third in the Pub Quiz this week. Harlie's team won, which was cool because it wasn't the Third Years AGAIN (they've won three times in a row), but not cool because it wasn't us.

And I answered a question all by myself and got it RIGHT (I am way to proud of that...) - PATO! Be proud of me! The answer was HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER!!!

But the decision has been made. The Paxmans WILL be coming first in the Christmas Special Pub Quiz next week! (The Paxmans is our team by the way. We change the name each week but it nearly always has something to do with Jeremy Paxman. I'm not really sure why. But it's stuck.)

(Song change: NEVER DO A TANGO WITH AN ESKIMO sung by Alma Cogan)

So tomorrow is Tuesday. Which means LONDON. Yahoo! I am SO looking forward to it! Sandra's taking me to Carnaby Street to check out the vintage (VINTAGE!) stuff, and then if we draw a blank there we'll hit Topshop.

And then in the evening: musical time!!! (Which I still know nothing about! My most recent guesses are SOUND OF MUSIC or OLIVER!...)

So I'm off to get some beauty sleep before tomorrow!

Rock on,

KATY xxxx

LISTENING TO:
The Wonderful Christmas Pig - Rolf Harris

Christmas Bells Are Ringing

RENT fans will recognise the title to this post. I went to see the show on Thursday and it was amazing. The guy playing Roger also had the best arms I've ever seen.

Had a fab day out with Lucia today. One of the best I've had in AGES.

I had trouble tracking her down at first because her phone wasn't working but after ringing both Mum and Ches to get her Spanish number we got there in the end.

I helped her sort out her CV and then we hit Tesco's for supplies.

I had a sudden urge for mince pies. They were on offer. I bought mince pies. And a couple of cheap but beautiful DVDs. And sushi.

Back at Lucia's place, had a nice international lunch of Spanish omelette, American corn on the cob, Japanese sushi and English pudding before heading out into town. Me being clever I'd forgotten to take a coat. So I borrowed Lucia's (way too small for me) black leather jacket.
Note to self: do not leave house without gloves ever again.

I got a phone call from my auntie Sandra while we discovering the HMV store. We're going Christmas shopping in London next week (VINTAGE!) and she's taking me to see a musical. She won't tell me which one though! I really hate not knowing this sort of thing... It drives me bananas! But hey. Musical. Who am I to complain?!

Lucia and I then got a couple of hot chocolates (with whipped cream and marshmallows) and sat in Costa's to watch the Christmas lights go on. They had fireworks too. But I don't think the lights are as nice as the ones back home... They're too plain.

I can't wait to see the ones back home!

Merry Christmas to one and all, and too all a good night

Rock on,

KATY xxxx

PS. Anyone else get the feeling that Christmas is coming round earlier each year???

LISTENING TO:
I Won't Be Home For Christmas - Blink 182