My Odyssey and Matchgirls

Sorry sorry sorry!

It's been too long! (again)

Quick catch-up because I'm due at the theatre in 45 minutes (more about that in a minute) and I still have to get changed and make my lunch...

So you all know I got stuck at home for an extra 3 and a half days thanks to the eruption of Mount Eyjafjallajökull (pfft knows how THAT'S pronounced), which culminated in an epic journey back to the UK on my own.

This included a flight to Barcelona, an 18h coach from Barcelona to Calais organised by two lovely people on facebook and twitter who were trying to get their parents back home (props to Elizabeth and Joe for all their help!!), a 3h queue for a ferry, an hour and a half ferry from Calais to Dover and then I missed my train home by about 10 minutes.

This annoyed me greatly.

I ended up getting a 3h train to Eastbourne, staying with my godmother for the night and then catching another 3h train from Eastbourne back to uni the next day.

I left on Tuesday afternoon and arrived on Thursday afternoon. 48h total. Ugh.

I did meet some lovely people on the way though: an Irish guy who'd caught a last-minute train from Tarragona to Barcelona and managed to get on our coach with milliseconds to spare; a family of six who'd been travelling since Sunday from Morocco; a group of American girls who'd left Prague on Monday and were travelling back to uni in Scotland; the lovely volunteer lady who very kindly gave me a tissue when I went into hysterics after realising that the last train home had already left without me and then helped me figure out what I was going to do and how to get to the station...

To be fair, I was quite lucky. But it was still a pain in the ***!


Believe it or not, that's the queue of people waiting for a ferry to Dover.

And after that little Odyssey, we went into intensives for Matchgirls (the second year show I'm assistant stage managing for extra credit).

Sunday was the get-in. An absolute nightmare as our set (a 10-foot wooden wall) hadn't been made right, so we spent six extra hours fixing that, which then put us hours out of schedule and we didn't finish until 9.30pm.

Monday we did 9am until 7.30pm.

Tuesday was long and tiring: tech rehearsals. 9am until 10pm. Plus I lost my voice.

Wednesday: dress rehearsals. 9am until 8pm and I most definitely had no voice.

Thursday: last dress rehearsal and opening night. Drou, Kris and me had an epic laughing time but Jess was ill and didn't make it. I also went to the doctors and got diagnosed with laryngitis.

Friday (yesterday): had to postpone my singing assessment as still had no voice. Jess was half dying. We had a talk on our modules next year. Not happy at all. I'll talk more about this another day. The show was good. Again, Kris, Drou and me have SUCH fun backstage!!! Then we went to the pub with the whole cast and crew which was a laugh and a half I can tell you!

And today is the final show day. Matinee, evening performance, get-out and then After-Show Party at the pub with everyone! Should be good!


I'll post again soon, I promise!

Rock on,

KATY xxxx

Listening to:
Freedom - The Unauthorised Biography of Samantha Brown

PS. Listen to this song! It's amazing! Kerrigan and Lowdermilk. Check out their website for mp3 downloads, lyrics and sheet music to their brilliant shows!

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

It's Love...Not Santa Claus

I'm still doing Stage Management stuff.

Sigh.

I've done half of the costumes, but still have to finish the other half AND do my sketches and plan for our stage design of A Midsummer Nights Dream AND type out my learning outcomes for all three sessions AND do the prep work I never did for the first session...

Busy times.

But still fun times as well!

In production on Tuesday we did a read-through of the dialogue to help Maria (our director) sort out casting. Lots and lots of fun times. And then Maria decided to make us all say what our greatest long term dreams are. It was quite interesting actually...

Then it was 999 (Emergency) Night at the SU which was good. Lucy, Gemma, Zoe and me were nurses and Lizzie was a policewoman, Harry and Evan and the guys were fireman which was brilliant and there was even a few girls dressed as Ghostbusters which might be the most amazing thing I saw that night.

My night was kinda cut short when I slipped over in front of a group of guys and landed on my bum, hurting my hip in the process...

So I came home and had a lovely catch-up chat with Hector on MSN. He made me take note of a lot of things and remember a lot of stuff I'd been forgetting...

I think a shot of tequila in his honour might be in order tonight! Miss you babe...

Yesterday was fun too. Masterclass was BRILLIANT. Andy and Rosie sang The Marriage Tango from I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change with Tom and Shvonne doing the extra voices. Hilarious.

Had a nice quiet night in with the Lovelies and Ryan. Lucy, Lizzie, Sam, Louise and me went for a run along the beach followed by porridge (which I suddenly had a massive craving for) and 500 Days of Summer...

It's SUCH a sweet film. But really sad at the same time because just from the title you know it's not going to end well...

And today I had a massive lie-in, followed by costume design and now I'm remembering why I love Italians.

The Light in the Piazza.

Sigh. I might just have to move to Italy in the 1950's...

Rock on,

KATY xxxx

Listening to:
Say It Somehow - The Light in the Piazza

PS for GLEE fans: the original male lead of The Light in the Piazza is Matthew Morrison AKA Mr Schuester :)

As Demetrius said to Hermia...

I'm thinking updates on here are going to be a lot shorter and scarce this term... There's just too much going on!!!!!

Friday was pretty quiet. Had a lovely time just chilling at the pub with the others, gossiping, playing pool and just generally catching up.

Saturday...hmm. Well on Saturday I left campus with Harry and Dom at about 2.20pm for a dance session at Katie's musical theatre academy in Portsmouth that started at 3pm. Should have been absolutely fine...

Except we got lost.

After discovering that tomtom wasn't working, asking for directions at a petrol station, going to Southsea, ringing Dom's dad for directions, going back the way we came, ending up back where we started, asking a taxi man for directions, a packet of hula hoops, a banana and a whole LOT of swearing later...we finally turned up at 4.30pm, having missed the tap class and half of the jazz.

Fun times!

Then it was Geeks and Superheroes at Zee Bar with the Lovelies! Had a great pre-drinking time at Zoe's (who got back on Saturday!), attaching "Kick Me" signs to the girls' backs...

It was a great night, but by 1am my fabulous new killer-heeled shoe boots were MURDERING my feet so I spent the rest of the night curled up on one of the leather sofas with my feet tucked up and people-watching.

(I always enjoy people watching, but it's so much more interesting when the people are drunk...)

Sunday I was so tired I completely slept through my 10.30am alarm and woke up at 1pm...an hour late for Glee.

Oops.

Finally arrived at 3pm and had a great jam session with everyone on "One Day More" and "A New World". Curled up in bed by 7pm with "The Princess and the Frog" and "10 Things I Hate About You" (OHMYGOD HEATH LEDGER) but didn't actually get to sleep till about 3am...

Stupid brain.

And today has been dancing and Stage Management. A whole lot of giggly yet productive times with Jodie O., Jodie D. and Sarah.

And now I'm off to (try and) do my whole backlog of SM work (which is a LOT...)

Rock on,

KATY xxxx

Listening to:
Home - The Wiz (Diana Ross)

So much stuff!

Agh. Two weeks into term and I haven't updated this thing yet! Sorry sorry!

There's just been SO much going on!

Quick recap for your benefit:

Ballet, tap, disco, jazz, body conditioning, singing, Merrily We Roll Along, monologues, surprise birthday parties, PJ Party, hanging out with the Lovelies, Sheiks, facebook, Glee by the Sea, Toga Toga, Thursdays, vodka, rum, hangovers, Musical Theatre in the Community, new shoes, Stage Management, sticky tape, costumes, Morrisons, room-raped Andy's place with a million and one balloons (332 actually), signed and paid deposit for next years flat, Girls Night In with Dom and Jodie, truth or dare, sleep...

And I have photographical proof too!









See?

[I really like my camera... :)]

I promise I'll start doing normal updates though!

Tonight I'm supposed to be going to the pub with Rosie, Andy, Shvonne, Tom, Harry and others I know not of.

Tomorrow I will sleep and then I have extra ballet and jazz classes in Portsmouth (courtesy of our dance teacher Katie's school)

And then I am going to Geeks and Superheroes night at Zee Bar with the Lovelies.

Yay.

Rock on,

KATY xxxx

Listening to:

Freddy My Love - Grease

Merry Christmas!

So I'm in an aeroplane.

On my way home! Yay! Finally!

I can't believe I've already been at uni for a term. It's an amazing thought really. I'm going to miss everyone a lot this month. I spend all my time with these people. I live with them for God's sake! So you get used to having them around. And suddenly I'm not going to have them around for a whole month...

Yesterday was INCREDIBLE!

I got up early to revise. Ended up changing the songs I was using for examples in one of the questions which meant re-doing my research, but actually I think the ones I ended up using where in fact a much better choice.

Though as Katie so kindly pointed out, this whole changing-things-at-the-last-minute thing is going to blow up in my face one day...

Everyone was really nervous about it, swotting up dates and names (and nationalities if you're Katie!) in the canteen an hour before starting.

Me?

I collapsed on a squashy sofa in the canteen and had a nap.

The exam went well though. I think the fact that we all love our subject helps A LOT.

Harry gave me a lift back to campus afterwards (with Dom, Lou and Evan) and we had a right laugh: singing Sister Act: The Musical at top volume, Harry giving Dom a drum lesson as he drove, wine gums, maltesers and all of us jumping up and down in our seats while singing Oliver!

Brilliant.

I joined Gemma, Lucy, Lizzie, Zoe and Ryan for pre-drinking at the SU and had an amazing time with them just dancing and singing along to Christmas songs and clubby stuff as well as cheesy pop like Barbie Girl and Macarena (oh yeah baby)

A few taxi shenanigans later (Gemma falling over...) we hit Sheiks. It was PACKED. I found Danny and Harry and Kat and Kirsty and Anna and Ben as well as a whole load of other people off my course and had a fab time with them.

It was Danny's birthday so Sambuca shots all round at midnight (and oh yeah I am SO blaming that shot on my hangover this morning...)

The best part of the night came when Alan and Harry and me left.

OHMYGOD IT WAS SNOWING!!!

Like proper settled snow! That you could throw and make stuff with!!! We got some chips/kebab and had an awesome chat with the bouncer from Mud about his life as a sergeant in Canada.

Then we got a taxi back and I lived my finest achievement so far at uni: hitting Harry smack bang in the face with a snowball whilst wearing heels and a pencil skirt. Boo yah!

Of course then I got attacked by about seven people all at once... But oh well. So worth it.

Made a snowman (his name is Bob) and then decided to get changed. By the time I got back down the boys had all wimped out and left, leaving me and Daisy and Louise to take photos in the snow with Bob and the snow angels.

Good times.

I was out there until 2am and after about 4h sleep cuddled with a hot water bottle, I woke up to finish packing/sorting my room out before breakfast.

I was going to get a taxt to the station but I was ready a full half hour before I had planned to leave so I just walked instead. I decided I wanted a last chance to see the snow.

It was SO beautiful...

And now I'm here. After three quarters of an hour waiting in the queue to check in and an hour's delay, I'm here. Somewhere over France on my way south and BACK HOME!

I know I said I wasn't going to post while at home, so this will be my last written update until January 16th 2010, but I'm going to post photos of my holidays so in a few years I can come back and see the photos and remember everything.

Once Daisy posts the snow photos on facebook I'll put some of those on here as well.

So all that's left to say is,

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR!

See y'all in 2010!

Rock on,

KATY xxxx

LISTENING TO:
By the Sea – Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street

Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow!

So it's been three days since my last post, and I though I should probably update.

I've been very busy the past few days with revising for my Intro to MT exam (which is tomorrow). My problem is the questions are very generic and could be interpreted and explained in a million different ways...but oh well. I'll get there.

Monday was Christmas pub quiz night. We came third. Again.

Sigh.

It was good fun though. We all got a 50p mince pie each and answered questions like who sang whatever line from Do They Know It's Christmas? in all three versions of Band Aid.

Yesterday was spent revising, except in the evening when I felt a bit funny. So I didn't go to the Christmas party at the SU but instead watched Oklahoma! (ohmygod HUGH JACKMAN), The Nightmare Before Christmas and part of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, before going to bed and having an early night.

And today was VOCAL ASSESSMENT DAY.

My group was at 2pm and I was going to sing MY BROTHER LIVED IN SAN FRANCISCO (from Elegies for Angels, Punks and Raging Queens) and WHAT MORE DO I NEED (from Marry Me A Little)...but I changed my mind.

At 11.30am this morning.

I didn't know the words to WHAT MORE DO I NEED, and I didn't like how I was doing it AT ALL, so I swapped to WISHING YOU WERE SOMEHOW HERE AGAIN (from Phantom of the Opera). I'm actually very happy with how it came out.

Danny and Ben and Sam and Dom and Harlie were all AMAZING and lucky me got to be last one to sing...Just build up the pressure why don't you!

And then when we came out...IT WAS SNOWING. Cue girly shrieks with Dom and Anna and Kirsty!!! It was quite pathetic snow. That sleet-y, rain-y snow that isn't really snow but actually is. But still...

SNOW!!!

It made me very happy.

Kinda makes up for the freezing temperatures and losing one glove so my hands were numb from the cold...

And now I'm gonna go do some more revision before dinner.

Ho ho ho!

Rock on,

KATY xxxx

LISTENING TO:
Winter Melody - Donna Summer

Busy Busy Busy

I've been quite busy the last few days.

On Thursday I did actually watch MIRACLE ON 34th STREET but didn't really get an early night as Jemma then called to see if I wanted to go down to Tom's room to chill with her and the others and I was there until about half midnight...

Friday, I had a lie-in and then tidied my room and did some research for my exam questions (I am not impressed by them, by the way. They're hard to interpret)

I also did a LOT of washing which burnt a hole in my purse...Two loads ,wash and dry came to £5.20. It's freaking expensive!

After checking out Tom's new room (he had to move into an even BIGGER room for Health and Safety reasons...he's now got a DOUBLE room all to HIMSELF!) I watched a LOT of Sabrina the Teenage Witch on youtube.

Because someone mentioned it to me and I was in the mood for childhood memories.

Saturday (yesterday) was PANTOMIME DAY!

Steph and Katie and me (Katy with a Y) went to watch PETER PAN at the Regis Theatre. Good times!

Hello gang, it's Smee!...WE KNOW IT IS!! *shakes hands in air*

Lots of shouting and booing and singing and standing up/sitting down and my Bonnie Lies Over The Ocean and High School Musical and Bam Bam from The Flinstones.

T'was a great laugh!

Then we hit Morrisons for food and we spotted Smee in there. Considered stalking. Sang songs from the show instead.

And then Christmassy-ish karaoke in the evening at the SU!

Bit naff because the usual karaoke programme wasn't working so we had to use DVDs...

Steph sang I LOVE ROCK AND ROLL by Britney Spears. The video that came with the song might be the funniest thing I've ever seen: a couple skipping happily down a pavement.

Beautiful.

And now I'm stuck in my room revising. Which is not fun at all. Even the DVD I have planned to watch tonight is part of my revision...

Sigh.

Oh the joys of being a student...

Rock on,

KATY xxxx

PS. Check out my little sister's new fashion blog (designed by me!) here!!

Questions and Minis

I'm just about to go have dinner but I'm going to post this quickly before I do.

It's been a pretty quiet day really.

I woke up late, had breakfast, tidied my room (which was urgent and took quite a while...), had lunch and then got the inter-campus bus to BOC. Roadworks and traffic meant it was running over 20 minutes late, so that was fun.

Then when we finally got to BOC, we discovered that the Music Office wouldn't actually open until 3pm, so we were stuck waiting around for half an hour just to collect an exam question.

Let me explain that.

We do what's known as a "seen exam" for our Intro to Musical Theatre module, where we're given the exam question a week before so we have time to research and prepare it. You'd think that would make it easier wouldn't you?

Well haha.

There's actually a reason why we're given the questions a week before you know!

So Nick, Alan and me joined Danny, Anna and Andy in Holts cafe while we waited. I threw an orange juice bottle at Danny's head. I missed. It rebounded on the wall behind him and nearly hit a random girl sitting at the table next to us. I apologised profusely.

Finally managed to get our exam questions.

We then waited for Ben outside his halls while he fetched his car keys (he offered to give Nick, Alan and me a lift back to campus, Danny came along for the ride).

Danny and Nick made loud bird noises and imitated a strange laugh they'd seen on a youtube video. Nick is quite good at being a chicken. Ben is very good at being a pigeon.

We played BEEMER! and MINI! and YELLOW CAR! (complete with arm-numbing punches) in the car.

Ben's driving scares me.

I've sworn off the internet for tonight. I'm going to finish my room (yes. I haven't finished tidying yet. I know...) and then watch MIRACLE ON 34th STREET and then get an early night.

And I know I said that yesterday and then I (of course) didn't get an early night.

But today I mean it.

Time for dinner.

Rock on,

KATY xxxx

LISTENING TO:
Evan Gardner (he's on my course!) - http://www.myspace.com/evangardner


PS.Just got back from dinner.

Ben Hall made a surprise appearance with Arthur Robson in the canteen.

Jem and I were wondering whether he knows about the Ben Hall Appreciation Society facebook group...

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

Weekends...Bleh

I hate Sundays.

I really do. Boring, depressing, lonely and most recently: rainy. And you know what makes it worse?

It's only Saturday.

I've spent all day on my own. Sad isn't it?

I customised the look of my blog (what do you think?) and listened to music.

I had special fried rice and a yogurt for lunch.

I watched P.S. I LOVE YOU.

I had a Pot Noodle for dinner (I am such a cliche...)

And now it's not even 8pm and I've got nothing to do. Karaoke at the SU's been cancelled due to lack of staff.

So here I am.

Yesterday was pretty similar to today.

I had rice and a yogurt for lunch.

I watched GUYS AND DOLLS (ohmygfreakinggod SKY MASTERSON)

I watched CRY BABY (ohmyfreakinggod WADE WALKER)

I watched Bridget Jones' Diary (OHMYFREAKINGGOD Daniel and Mark Darcy crashing through a window - I think that might just classify as one of my favourite movie moments ever).

Pretty boring stuff.

And tomorrow and Monday will be similar, the monotony broken only by Pub Quiz on Monday evening.

So the point is: I cannot WAIT for Tuesday...

Rock on,

KATY xxxx

LISTENING TO:
Passing By - Yiruma (I like listening to piano solos a lot)

Hangovers and Fire Alarms

So yeah... T'was a good night.

Had a great time in Rosie's room with the girls and then Andy and Tom. Shvonne and Barney tried on their purchases (I personally think the thong as a hat is genius) and we had a good laugh just chilling with some drinks and a couple of pots of Ben & Jerry's.

I've fallen in love with my outfit. I can count the times I've worn my blue silky blouse on one hand. And not even use all my fingers. And I usually wear it with skinny jeans and heels. But with my black pencil skirt, belt and ballet flats, I think I hit the jackpot. I'll definitely be wearing that again!

Then Tom and I met up with Harry and Dom and we taxied over to Sheiks (because it was freezing!) Dom and I split the taxi between us (£2 each) and the guys then bought us drinks to even it up.

So. Harry and I had pinky-sweared to try a shot of Goldschlager that night.

Goldschlager is a clear alcoholic shot that has tiny bits of actual gold leaf in it. The rumor is that these gold bits scratch your throat on the way down and the alcohol gets into your system quicker. Lies. I just googled it. That's an urban legend.

But it is amazing stuff.

We had a few more drinks (OK. More than a few) and Dom got trodden on so we swapped shoes. May I just say that I'm quite impressed that I managed to walk quite well in her slingbeck stilettos (even though I did have to hang on to Danny)?

This morning, the first thing I hear? The fire alarm going off at 10am.

The uni administrators have a very sadistic sense of humor.

It was just a test, THANK SHIZ. If it had been a drill I might have actually hurt someone. Instead, as I couldn't get back to sleep, I got up and the hurt was transferred to me and my poor head.

And now I'm sitting in my bright pink uni sweatshirt drinking glass after glass of water and wishing I could find my paracetamol pack.

But I'm happy. It was a FAB night out! Even the hangover is worth it.

Have I mentioned how I love uni?

Rock on,

KATY xxxx

LISTENING TO:
A Star Is Born - Hercules (Disney)

Lock-outs and Love Stuff

MERRILY WE ROLL ALONG.

That's the show we're doing. Or rather, the song we're doing is FROM that show...

Yup. One song. OK it's a ten-minute-long one plus dialogue but still... People aren't very happy! Apparently we're not going to do a full-length show until the second year. Nobodies very impressed by that...

(But I bet nobody mentioned it in the Course Evaluation forms we filled in this afternoon!)

I locked myself out again this morning. It wouldn't have been so bad if it weren't for the fact that I didn't realise until I got out of the showers and was clothed in little more than a towel...

Had a small panic attack when I realised. Then freaked out even more when I knocked on Rosies and Shivers' doors and they didn't answer. Luckily I saw the cleaning lady just coming out of the corridor cupboard and she let me in (even though she's not supposed to). She felt sorry for me because of the whole towel thing... That woman is a LEGEND.

So yeah...

Only 22 days left until Christmas! And I'm still waiting for my parents' Christmas lists! (hint hint if you're reading this, Mum!) I need to sort myself out. I'm currently in the process of writing/posting 20 Christmas cards to various family and friends spread over two countries (and slowly losing the will to live) as I wait for Mum to email me everyones addresses...

Christmas shopping next week with my auntie Sandra. Maybe after that I'll feel more organised! (By the way, apparently I'm not going to see SISTER ACT. Once again, Mum knows where I'm going, but I don't. I never get to know anything!)

Ooh! I'm going to post a video for you people to watch here. Just because it reeeeeally made me giggle. We were sitting in Andy's room waiting for dinner to open when he discovered it... It's pretty self-explanatory.



So once I finish writing these Christmas cards, I'm gonna go hang out in Shvonnes room with the girls and investigate Barney's (Emma B.) Ann Summers loot. She and Joey (Jodie D.) and Chonty (Chantelle) have become Ann Summers reps and are due to receive their merchandise stuff tonight. We stopped at Tesco's on the way home and stocked up on alcohol (and in my case, yogurts) so should be good fun!

Then I'll probably go out with Harry and Dom and Tom etc. I say "probably" because I'm not sure I will. I'm quite tired and quite fancy a few drinks followed by watching "Bridget Jones" and then bed.

But I'll blatantly end up going out.

I haven't gone to Mud/Sheiks for several weeks now and I won't go next week cos I'll be revising, and I might go out on the 17th, for Joey's birthday shindig, but if I do, it won't be for long as I've got a 8.30am train to catch to the airport!

And talking of going back home, I should mention I won't be writing anything here while I'm away. For the pretty obvious reason that this is a blog about my life AT UNI.

And I won't BE at uni. So I won't BE writing either.

Rock on,

KATY xxxx

LISTENING TO:
Just A Dream - Carrie Underwood

A Night of Drama and Bananas

Yes! The assessment is over! We are FREE of Hired Man!

(And I bet you anything that now we don't have to sing it, we'll have it in our heads until New Year...)

It went well. A small group of the second years came to watch and they said it was good. I enjoyed doing Sweeney Todd very much!

There are rumours going round that that's the show we're going to be doing in May, which would be AMAZING seeing as Julian was Musical Director for the show in West End... But realistically, I doubt it will be that.

It's more likely to be a revue thingy, like the second years have been doing...

Whatever. We'll find out soon enough. We've got a course meeting with Julian at 3.30pm and he'll be telling us what show we're doing and other info about next term. I'll let you know.

Had a bit of a boring night really. Watched a film (Ella Enchanted), had a very quick chat with Marc, played a few (a fair few) rounds of Bejeweled Blitz...

I went into hysterics around midnight when I heard Steph outside shouting: I've lost my banana! I think I left my banana in the club!! Noo! I want my banana!!.

Then I had a very interesting conversation with her on facebook about it. She said the banana was her gun (yesterday was Army Night at the SU) and she'd left it upstairs and couldn't climb back up the stairs to get it. And I promised her I'd buy her a banana to replace it.

Steph. You are amazing.

Oooh! I know what else I was going to say! I have a new first-cousin-once-removed!! My cousin Alex had her baby girl last night: Ella Mae, weighing in at 7pounds 11oz. My mum forwarded me my aunt and uncle's email, they'd attached pictures to it, and she's huge! I'm looking forward to going to visit them all!

Welcome to the world Ella!

Rock on,

KATY xxxx

LISTENING TO:
Give Him A Great Big Kiss - The Shangri-Las

CHOON!

YOUR WELCOME!

If there's one thing I've learnt today, it's that you should ALWAYS say thank you to Shvonne for opening doors. Because otherwise she is a scary person.

Love you Shivers!

Busy rehearsal day today: Hired Man, Sweeney Todd and we're back in half an hour for a full run-through. I am SO looking forward to kissing Hired Man goodbye and NEVER having to sing the damned thing again.

Sorry Mr Goodall, I'm sure you're amazing and everything. But that Opening number might just be the most complicated and horrible-to-sing thing I've ever heard. Sorry.

Changing the subject, I've finally managed to translate my posts. I've started another blog, EXACTLY like this one, except it's in Spanish. And the colour scheme is purple, not blue. Check it out if you can't understand a word I'm saying here (the link's in the list to the right)

WELCOME TO UNIVERISTY in Spanish

Cleaning day tomorrow. I need to go put a mountain of clothes away, so I'm abandoning with a very short update again. Sorry.

Rock on,

KATY xxxx

LISTENING TO:
Lucky - Colbie Caillat ft. Jason Mraz

Sugar High

As the title would suggest, I am on a bit of a sugar high.

I was hyper enough already because, after a long tiring day of rehearsals of Sweeney Todd and Hired Man, Maria (our director) let us finish half an hour early (!!!)

Then Rosie and Shivers and I went straight to pub quiz at the SU (which we came second in AGAIN by the way!!!) and I had a pint of coke. And then Rosie and I went and got (what was left of) our B&Js ice-cream and I finished that. And then I had another pint of coke with the quiz Shivers owed me.

Plus, the mystery round was Disney songs. Which just sent me over the edge. I feel a little bit drunk.

Drunk on sugar...is that possible?

Rehearsals for the assessment are going good. I think it will be fine for Wednesday. Not too keen about the idea of the second years coming to watch though! And I really really wish I'd been put in the Beggar's Opera group. They seem to have so much more fun than we do in Hired Man...

Maybe it's the whole "we're drunk prostitutes" thing...

And now I'm gonna go finish skyping my boyfriend and then sleep for hours and hours before I have to get up and rehearse "Here us coming o' running" again...

Rock on,

KATY xxxx

LISTENING TO:
Summer of '69 - Bryan Adams

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

Just Life...

Just back from our last acting session of the term. Interesting. We had a hot-seat interview session where we had to answer questions as a member of our family. I did Ches. It would have gone a lot better if Drou and Harlie and Andy and Rosie hadn't gotten the giggles over my hair. Because Ches pushes her back from her face A LOT. So I did too. Except I've got a short fringe. So I just looked like a turkey...

I've had a few boring days really. Had the most intense body conditioning session EVER on Monday morning...IT BURNED. A lot. We learnt RHYTHM OF LIFE from Sweet Charity in the afternoon. It was good. Weird and a little bit random. And VERY HIGH FOR THE SOPRANOS. But good.

AND WE CAME SECOND IN THE PUB QUIZ! That may not mean much to you guys but ohmygod is it a big deal for us. We've been last or before-last for the past 3 weeks... The mystery round was musicals which is always fun cos our team consists of MT students and a singing teacher (Zoe, Tom's girlfriend).

Yesterday I got told off for going to breakfast in my PJs. Apparently it's not allowed. Health and Safety regulations. AGAIN. People are getting way too anal about this sort of thing nowadays...

I love tap dancing. It's one of my favourite classes. And yesterday I learnt triple timesteps! (Check out the updated list of stuff I've learnt at uni). The problem is I can't seem to stop doing them. And tap springs. And shuffles. Just non-stop. Whenever I'm standing around waiting for people. I just start tapping...Is that bad?

What else happened?

We had an interesting conversation at dinner yesterday. I swear they get more random every day...This one was about pineapple rings.

So yeah. Time to go do that musical timeline...

Rock on,

KATY xxxx

PS. Going to watch the MT second years in OH WHAT A LOVELY WAR with Sam tonight, and then joining the girls for the Girls Only Ann Summers Party at the SU!!! Fun times!

LISTENING TO:
Everything - Michael Buble

Being Children

It was Open Day yesterday. I got paid to trail possible-2010-Freshers around campus I showed Business possibles the IT centre, Teaching possibles the primary school-style classrooms and Musical Theatre possibles the Assembly Hall where we rehearse.

And I loved it.

Especially hanging out with the possible MTers. Rosie and Shvonne planted themselves in Daisy's room (Daisy is our brilliant 3rd year hall rep and has to open her room to visitors on Open Days as part of her job) so we had a great time name-dropping, telling tales of agony in dance classes and hyperactive accounts of our free time spent together.

If I remember correctly, we specifically recounted the second night we were here when we all played Twister at 2am on the grass outside our halls.

It was fun and I got paid for it. AND I got a free lunch courtesy of the uni. As well as an ice cream Tom gave me when I had a quick pit-stop at his kitchen window for a chat.

Good times.

Been looking up vintage thrift stores in London. Awesome stuff. Looking forward to having a look round if/when I ever finally get up there!

Last night was pretty good. I don't think I've eaten that much junk food since well...forever. Turkey dinosaurs, chicken nuggets, potato smileys, a big bowl of ketchup to dip into, alphabet soup, Nesquik banana milkshake and to finish off: mini strawberry and mandarin cheesecakes.

I like remembering what it felt like to be six.

Rock on,

KATY xxxx

PS.The sun is coming out from behind the rain and the grey clouds. This makes me happy!

LISTENING TO:
Here Comes The Sun - The Beatles