Easter Break time

Just a small update, I’m on break and everything has been finished since the 22^nd of March. They sure like their breaks here, considering I have nothing until one revision lecture (maybe) in the last week of April, and a week of exams between the 10^th and 17^th of May, woo hoo. I don’t think I’ve ever missed not having a job so much. Also, as a small side note, I’m not going back to Canada until June 1^st, so that’s another few weeks of doing nothing ha!

On the fair side, I have started going on walks when the weather is nice enough, or doing some exercises in my bedroom when I have no desire to go outside. Since the university library as a good amount of films, I’ve been borrowing them as well, this past week I’ve had Blade Runner, The Book of Eli and The Queen. I enjoyed all three of them, I’ve seen The Book of Eli before, and wasn’t sure about Blade Runner but it did seem familiar while I watched it so I’ve at least seen bits before, and The Queen, oh I adored that film. Prince Phillip (Queen Elizabeth’s husband) and the Queens Mother were just played by two wonderful actors that helped cheer the mood from time to time, and Helen Mirren of course was just great, though she’s in a couple other films I love as great parts too, so it just fits! Other films include: The Prince of Egypt as the Queen and National Treasure 2 as Emily (she’s also in Inkheart, which I thought was okay, but that doesn’t exactly fall into “films I love”)

I’m also heading up to Luton this Thursday, so at least I’ll be out of the flat for awhile!

Winding down

It’s a few days later, but it’s time to talk about my birthday! It was really just an awesome day, International Women’s day, Shrove Tuesday/Pancake day and of course, my birthday! I had a very wonderful time with Emma, Hayley and Sophie, and could not have asked for a nicer birthday!

Where to start, well, I have to admit, because March is just a killer months for assignments for me, I did do homework on my birthday. I did research and a bit of writing for my paper, I also played a bit of Dragon Age later which is always fun. Later on, after everyone had finished what they needed to do, we started to get the pancakes ready for dinner. The day was really uneventful, aside from the bit of homework I just relaxed. I was a bit sad, I couldn’t find any maple syrup for pancake day, but then again, we were making pancakes more similar to crepes than pancakes I’m used to back home, so had some strawberries, bananas, chocolate spread, jam and a few other things to put in the centre.

Afterwards, we pushed our dishes to the side and went off to get ready to go out. I actually wore heels and a dress out, a dress I haven’t had a chance to wear yet, so I was really happy to wear it. Though, originally, the three girls had to push for me to wear it and heels, I was worried I might kill myself on the lovely cobblestone pathways on the way into the city centre. It was kind of chilly that night, but luckily you don’t feel it as much the more you drink and I did definitely have a fair amount to drink that night. The pub we went to was the Penny Theatre, we had considered going to Run of the Mill, the pub I often frequent, but because of the game on that night, it was just too full, the Penny wasn’t much better but the people didn’t stay so long.

Since then I have been lost to the land of homework, with all of my term work being due in this week, or present, except for one that’s due in on the 21^st, it’s been a bit of a struggle to get it all finished how I like it. Especially that Africa essay, with the regime changes and the various issues of each country coming to light, it fit into my essay of State Collapse in Africa. The last project that I’m working on is a portfolio of four resource sheets that can be maps or economic statistics sheets. Let’s just say that in the course of doing the maps, my hand is really aching because it is all by hand.

Well, back to it I guess!

Cheers.

I am alive!

Or so it seems anyways, I had planned more updates, but apparently Fate is a fickle mistress, there was a death in the family, Michael came for a visit, I got horribly sick and I have finally returned to the real world, and left the world of feverish deliriums.

I seem to be having a very strange relationship with germs in England, new country, new germs to get to know I guess, because I don't get sick all that often here, but when I get sick, man do I get sick. I have stayed for the most part in my bed, only getting up for necessities like food and when I really needed groceries because I ran out of food, medicine and tissues. Not only was I exhausted, I had fevers as I mentioned earlier, headaches, aches, coughing fits and I lost my voice, you know, everything fun you can get, even a bit of nausea early on. Can't say I remember the days very well, I'm so unsure of the days right now, that I keep thinking it's Friday.

My birthday is also in but a few more days, which is also Pancake day, I don't think I can ask for a better day really, birthday, cake, pancakes, etc. What more could I ask? (aside from all of my friends back home magically appearing to celebrate it over here, but not mastered that technique yet)

Anyways, Wales!

From where I left off last time, we had gotten to Chester after many hours, it was between 2:30pm and 3pm when we finally got there. We didn't get to see much of the town, so we popped into the nearby shop to grab a snack, stretch our legs and in my case, pick up some post cards. Then we got back on the bus and left Chester, I only managed a few pictures of it and they're terrible quality because it was from within the bus and there was window glare. From there, we drove into Wales and through the Welsh scenery (sheep, so many sheep) and made our way to Conwy to check out the Castle and the walls surrounding the town. We took a walk around the walls, they were very old walls and because of that, lots of rough uneven bits and lots of steepness, but the views were really cool!

From Conwy we made our way along the coastline, took a drive around some cliffs, and up some cliffs, didn't get many good quality pictures, again because I was on the bus, but look, here's me! (we stopped for a few minutes)

From here we went on to Llandudno, a nice little town on the Wales coast with a very nice hotel that we stayed in, I didn't get any pictures of the outside, it was dark, but I did get a shot of the room and a bit from outside of the town.

We ate out at a really nice pub, with really nice food, the pies came loaded with gravy with mashed potatoes and carrots on the side, was very tasty, and then it was back to the room to be asleep by 11pm. We ate breakfast at the place we stayed, the owners were really nice people and great cooks.

From there, we drove around the Wales again, first to Caernarfon Castle where we stopped for some photos, and then to Anglesey over the Menai Straights.

Afterwards, we were back on the road to a place with an exceedingly long name:

And I need to stop for now because I need lunch, but stay tuned, hopefully I wont drop off again because I get even sicker.

Cheers,