First Day Back....Again....

I spent most of today writing an essay for Timglish that I should have done over the holiday. I hate filling my holidays up with college work... I think it's nice to have the opportunity to do some work, but I never put pressure on myself to do it, I need my chill out time too much. As a result my entire two week holiday resulted in only a singular 40 mark essay for Sarah, but that's cool with me. College is for working anyway :)

Today I also watched the Great British Sewing Bee, which is a really tiny series of only 4 episodes, but I'm completely in love with it as a concept, and I've been told to apply for next year....I must say I'm very tempted...

Now I think me and James might have a bit of a jam session before bed.... nighty night...

James is applying for a new passport..... this made me laugh SO much...

(I'm so cruel...)

Day off.

Today, I made a cheesecake, some little spicy lentil cakes called chilladas, and avoided doing an awful lot of work. It's our first day back at college tomorrow, and I really am the queen of procrastination. We've eaten the entire cheesecake, and now we're all sitting around watching the first ever, super awkward episode of Gavin and Stacey.

Back on the horse.

I'm back again, from the Gower, and my little blogging holiday :)

Today I've written an ENTIRE page of my english essay, which is in for Wednesday, so I've got a load to do tomorrow. I'm also planning to make a cheesecake tomorrow, to tick something off the list, since I haven't done a lot lately, I've been doing other stuff. I've been doing that home hydroponics (update: two going well, one shrivelling), trying to book myself in to get a coil fitted (sorry if that's too much info) and organising the house. I'm also getting super duper excited for uni, even though I'm slightly concerned about missing James since I've been away for six days and I actually missed him LOADS. But we're thinking we'll see each other about every two weeks, and at Cambridge the terms are only 8 weeks, so we should get fairly long holidays together, but it certainly going to be a juggling act between him, uni work and the family...

Here's some photos from our delightful week in the Gower:

Lily's adorable Used Bedding sign.

A missed post from easter.

EASTER!

Today we had an Easter egg hunt, kicked down the igloo and of course, shared out all the eggs lined up on the grooves in the table. I also made some hot cross buns, but they are as yet untasted because we had a massive roast dinner (cooked by moi): a huge chicken, 20 sausages, masses of roast potatoes, and parsnips, plus veg, and roast red onions and pepper. So they'll be a nice breakfast :) This is my favourite kind of day, full of messing around and cooking and failing to get the fire going and cuddles with my favourite people and confused body clocks from the clocks changing. It's good. :)

Photos will appear when I get them off James' laptop :3 I wanted to clear my memory card for the Gower.

Last day...

Tomorrow we're going to the Gower for a week, so this is my last post until next Friday/Saturday. I was thinking about taking my laptop and doing offline posts so I didn't get behind, but I've decided I would rather just enjoy the isolation. So I'll be back next week. :)

Today, we went for a walk through Leasowes, put new (mismatched) curtains up in Lily's room, and watched Pocahontas (James' first time!).

Allotmenting!

Today, me, Dad, Lily and Joe went up to the allotment. We dug over half the plot, and moved the plastic that was covering another quarter, so we've got less than a quarter to do next time we go. I'm really into growing our own food at the moment, I think that in the years ahead, some degree of self-sufficiency may well be the best way to protect ourselves. My next project is a biogas digester for our house. I want to try and make one before I go off to uni.

Lily's unusual digging style....

Buffet Island

Day 93 (?) - 3rd April 2013

This evening we went to Buffet Island for James' mum's birthday. It was fun, but I don't cope well with 'all you can eat' scenarios. Growing up in a big family, the emphasis was always on 'if you don't get it now you won't get it at all.', so I tend to go a bit crazy, load my plate up at the first round, and I'm full up by the 2nd plate. Having said that, I did manage to eat 3 platefuls of food, 1 plate of puddings (black forest gateau, profiteroles etc.etc.) and 2 sticks of candyfloss. Now I feel like I'm about to go into a food coma.

Also, I made a poofy fairy dress today, after watching the Great British sewing bee on iPlayer. It is definitely my new favourite programme.

Bowling with the Jim...

Day 92 - 2nd April 2013

Aside from watching way too much Walking Dead today, we went bowling with James' family. It was fun. I was terrible...but I'm used to that ;)

A meal with the grandparents...

Day 91 - 1st March 2013

We went for a meal with my mum's mum and dad at The King's Head in Bearwood. It was lovely.

This was Dad's very impressive looking Moroccan spiced cod with coriander mash and chorizo. It was SO delicious.

Liz's party.

I've got to be super quick because there's only 9 minutes of today left. Tonight, I went to Liz's party. Liz is kind of more a friend of James' (y'know, only his oldest friend ;P) so I was really happy she invited me.... and I had a great time! :)

Also, I made this dress today...

Food!

Day 88 - 29th March 2013

Today I made crumpets,then me and James went to the Handmade Burger Co. for lunch. I am absolutely in love with the Handmade Burger Company, and I don't even really like burgers that much. Last time we went we both had cheese and bacon beef burgers, but today we wanted to mix it up a bit. I had a tikka masala lamb burger.... IT WAS AMAZING. Completely and utterly changed my life by eating that burger. James had mexican salsa, which we both agreed was not as good as the cheese and bacon burger. We also had a gigantic ice cream sundae, and stole some uneaten chips from the next table over. I know that sounds desperate, but...

1. They were cajun.
2. There were some other people who left their chips, and them fed them to the geese. The geese.
3. We still weren't full.

Guinea pig, stop motion biology and some face paint...

Day 87 - 28th March 2013

Last day of term today, ready for a couple of weeks of resting, including one week in the Gower. I woke up to Chaka needing feeding more, and I've been on that all day, he's been fed 5 times today...but he is definitely getting fatter already! Then, in biology today, we had to make stop motion videos of how muscles work, which was super fun. Then I went to the doctors to ask about getting a copper coil (and got the go ahead! Just got to wait for a period now :3 ). Then I came home, made tea, did some face painting, the watched a new How I Met Your Mother, and new New Normal. Night Night!!

If guinea-pigs could be models....

A slightly more interesting day...

Day 86 - 27th March 2013

Today was one of those days which ended up much more interesting than it set out to be...if you see what I mean. Firstly, I re-invested an ISA which had matured. Not hugely fun, but money is always significant ;).

Then, I did some DIY hydroponics. I stumbled across this yesterday while I was supposed to be doing a General Studies mock. I'll maybe do a tutorial if it works out :) So far I've only got mangetout, because I already had some seedlings, so I put out some bell peppers and spinach to germinate too.

I also came home today to a poorly piggy :( Chaka is super skinny, but because he's so poofy none of us had noticed. Dad took him to the vet, thinking it was his teeth, but apparently it isn't, so all I can do is fill him up with critical care and hope he fattens up :s He is still eating a bit on his own, he's just not that into it.

Finally, we all went down to watch Sam's performance at school, Ghost Town, and came back wearing the WW1 hats that he had bought for it. It was a fun evening, and there are definitely a few Earls pupils I wouldn't want to get on the wrong side of.

Piggy nose!

Shopping!

Day 85 - 26th March 2013

Me, James and Sophie went shopping for presents for Liz, since it's her birthday (and party) on Saturday. It's difficult because Sophie, James and Liz are all really close, and I don't really know her that well. We returned with a variety of pirate related paraphernalia, as well as some Spongebob stuff and a Nightmare Before Christmas poster. I also bought some Smiffy's face paint in metallic bronze, because I wanted to compare it to my snazaroo and paradise ones :)

Pretty cutters :3

Sophie's hair made me happy against the colour of her jumper.

Nothing much...

Not a lot happened today. I thought I was coming down with some disease yesterday, but actually felt really good today :)

I've been feeling thankful for my fabulous boy-friends (and my fabulous boyfriend too) lately. Alastair made me smile today by linking my arm and skipping me part-way to my next lesson. Then I walked home with Corey, and we had some deep conversations (although in retrospect I was the one talking....), as well as talking about our favourite words (mine: exacerbate, disparity). I am so excited for new New Girl tomorrow.

Oh, and also, I finally booked an appointment to see about getting an IUD. Exciting!

Hair chalk, and a shrunken hat.

Day 83 - 24th March 2013

I've got the dreaded lurgy today, as well as an awful lot of aching muscles from igloo building yesterday. Therefore, I've done very very little. I did however, colour Lily's hair in with chalk (which is AWESOME, and so easy! Why have I never heard of this before???), and laugh for hours about this hat which got shrunk in the wash.

I'm feeling a bit preoccupied with contraception, and somehow getting a period around here, my last one was on the 10th February. I'm gonna head over the docs tomorrow, and get it sorted out hopefully.

IGLOOO

Day 82- 23rd March 2013

It snowed LOADS overnight, and there was around about a foot of snow all over the garden....so....we made an igloo!! It's ginormous, and we managed to fit 7 people in it, AND it's big enough for a fairly short person to stand up in :)

I also did LOADS of baking...I made pretzels, and a tea bread, and a loaf of olive bread, AND a load of pizzas for tea. Woah.

Even more snow.

Day 81 - 22nd March 2013

Today it snowed AGAIN. It's supposed to be March! We're all getting a bit fed up of it now to tell the truth, it sort of loses it's charm when you have to cancel all your plans for it. Anyway, hopefully we won't get snowed off tomorrow on our 'bring your sibling to the cinema' day. :)

Snow forecast, and some fun.

Nothing of any particular interest happened today, I wrote 4 pages of my 'novel', came home from college, went for a walk with Lily to test out her new walking boots and apparently tried to steal this man's dog :s

Now me and James are gonna snuggle up in bed and watch The Walking Dead; our new favourite programme.

Here's some photos of the boys wrestling in the lounge.

End of the project.

Day 79 - 20th March 2013

I handed in my EPQ project today. It was really sad for it to be the end of my textiles 'career' as it were, but I actually had a bit of a revelation. I had to present my project to these year 10 textiles students (some of whom were REALLY not interested.) and there was also a foundation course project, and a degree project. And, I really feel like I made the right choice in not deciding to do my degree in textiles. It feels like such a relief to get rid of that nagging doubt that I've chosen the wrong thing. That, coupled with the great marks I've been getting in Geography, and an offer from Cambridge for geography, and I feel pretty sure that I made the right decision.