Things Wot Smell Fishy, rambles from a train.

And so here it is. Second year – over.  Packed away, nothing but mere memories, much treasured. Its been amazing, Met many amazing people, some of whom I miss A LOT.  In 9 weeks I will fly to Germany to begin the scariest chapter of my life so far.  What mentalist goes  to live in a foreign country for the sheer hell of it, when they have so much back home?! Linguists who want a degree apparently.  I’ve surprised myself in not crying at all this week, not that I’ve time to. One was kept rather busy particularly by some rather sneaky individuals, but we’ll come to that.

So, Planet Beth is going to Germany, Specifically the south western Bundesland of Baden-Württemberg. But you may have guessed that from the rather manic post below, which I hworfed out in my mindless excitement on Monday. The excitement, I’ll admit was fuelled in large part by relief in finally having a placement, and most reassuringly put to bed any of Birgit’s “Well if the worst comes to the worst you can always study”, at that point one would have become a single honours English student with a minor in German.  Studying is hard enough work in English let alone in German, when you then add my 5 minute attention span and 3 hour block lectures that are beloved of German universities the result is some seriously chewed up nails on my part just trying to contemplate the sheer horror.  Especially if you consider that my A-Level tutor refers to my German essays as a “Form of carnage more familiar to Dresden in 1945”, my issues with cases have thankfully lessened somewhat since then,  and are now unlikely to unteach anyone German as Tosh was once convinced would happen to him.

Instead I am spending the summer revising the latter half of 203 so as to be able to explain my innate English grammar to Germans come September, a thought that simultaneously fills my mother with dread and hysterical laughter.

Hopefully I’ll know which school I’m going to soon enough, though my entire family and friends from a certain time will all laugh if I end up at the school I went to in 2004 on exchange.

How this train is quicker I don’t think I’ll ever know, it stops at every village between Lancaster and Leeds with a functional train station!  But the Website clearly states that it’s 42 minutes quicker.

Tangents aside.

So what have been doing recently other than sleeping badly and packing? A week today I turn 21. A small thing, that my friends weren’t going to let go uncelebrated.  Though they rather gave the game away when I attempted to plan my own birthday shindigs and Amy rather vehemently suggested that it was unnecessary and to leave well alone.

(One is in Yorkshire.)

Anyway, Monday started with a migraine the size of Texas and a refusal to remove ones self from bed because moving was guaranteed to be a very bad idea.  During this time I received some peculiar texts and Phone calls, all concerned with my whereabouts and plans. Something was beginning to smell fishy, particularly as nothing had been mentioned on the Birthday front and Amy was leaving the following day. Being all nauseous and migrainy however one didn’t dwell on it too much and opted for further snoozing. Eventually paracetamol and Imigran made enough of a dent to make making a brew and mindlessly staring at the gogglebox a viable activity. Activity being used very loosely here.  Anne then popped around and dropped off stuff for her visit to the right side of the Pennines next week and treated me to a massage, because they’re good migraines. She then left to catch her flight to Ireland.

Amy returned from excursions of a sneaky nature, (I wasn’t aware of this at the time), and was again very concerned about my plans for the day, and whether getting dressed was on my to do list at all. Her eyebrows wiggled worriedly when I announced it wasn’t likely, this was followed an hour later by Hannah Brown demanding I quit moping, get a wash, get dressed and, come shopping.  Apparently pyjama days are a waste when there are shoes to be bought. Or when Housemates need you out of the house.  I was convinced that I was being turfed out, and was pretty sure why. Hannah only smiled weakly when I announced that something smelt fishy.

Hannah was all too good at distraction and got me there ½ an hour late. It wasn’t necessary to act surprised, far too many Party poppers going off for that. An evening of much frivolity then began.

An evening for reasons that I will never understand I decided to check my emails.  And found out I finally had a BC place.

Hannah Dengate slept over. And in the morning announced we were having a girly dress up day because why not?!  That should have been the first clue. However my attention was focused elsewhere which meant that the very devious Hannahs Brown and Dengate  got me to The Borough without me questioning anything. When we arrived and I put the phone down:

HB:“Fancy lunch?”

Me:“Yeah why not”

*walk in to borough, cue best face Emily says shes ever seen me pull”

Me: “(squee) AS IF! HOW? YOU DID NOT JUST PULL THIS ON ME!”

Ladies Lunch FTW.

Amy then sought to assure me that there would be no further attempts to cause me a heart attack.

With great relief I trotted of to Henry’s birthday BBQ for dinner all fears of further shock allayed.

Tuesday also brought something that would, under normal circumstances, warrant its own post. Lucy has returned. She is back in Lancaster, she is back in Britain. Major wootage!

And as such we all gathered at Emily’s for a much needed brew and catch up.

The rest of the week has consisted of packing, a pharmaceutical farce of proportions only obtainable by the NHS (National Halfwit Society) and Boots and procrastinating with Hannah Dengate.  I now find myself on the train home for a mummy hug an ‘UG and a cooked meal (whatever that is.)

So I’m going to go enjoy the view, readjust to a single bed, scare the living daylights out of Anna, prepare for other Anne (it’s German, pronounced like the English Anna) to come on Tuesday, and prepare to change at Leeds.  Till next week!

Bethxx

PLANET BETH GOES TO GERMANY!!!

BADEN WÜRTTEMBERG,BADEN WÜRTTEMBERG,BADEN WÜRTTEMBERG,BADEN WÜRTTEMBERG!!!




ARGHHHHHH! YES! YES!
WOOT!

I swear I'm not procrastinating ...

...Well, not much.

Ok I totally am. Last night I got so bored I tidied the tip I had laughingly been calling my bedroom. It looked like a combination of Primark during the sales, clothes flung everywhere, and an explosion in rymans, or whatever stationers you prefer.
I'd even taken advantage of the glourious weather and washed my bedding which I was gonna put straight back  on but for the discovery of THE GIANT BEASTIE SPIDER! that made its home in the nice neat pile I'd made.

We also discovered that my shoe collection is rather large. I'll post the photo on my twitter later, because my camera is at home and I am in the LZ, eating a healthy lunch, which was extortionately priced, but has the effect of not making me feel like the pig that ate 3/4s of a tub of ben and jerrys last night.

Hannah also went home yesterday. And we went to the train station to see her off, good job we did really. We literally has to load her on to the train.


She had 4 bags, only the teeny weeny beige suitcase had any clothes in.

She is not amused by this photo. We couldn't help but giggle. Which is bad of us, she was going home because she's ill and stressed, but still when the ruck on her back is almost bigger than her it tickled our collective funny bone.
Brecht is very dry and very dull.
I may go back to my IPA flash cards; though I'd have to sit on the floor because everything about flash cards reminds me of carpet time in Reception and learning to spell.
I may have to go buy wotsits, I'm still hungry and they're excellent revision food.

Bah, I shall have to go revise now!

I shall leave you with a sign that sits next to the main bus stop on campus, which had clearly been ill thought out:

Much love,
Bethxx

My Apologies..

..for my extended leave of absence.

A lot has happened many good times have been had and now I'm drowning in revision.

What fun!

Key points of Interest to note:

Easter holidays happened: A wild Josh was sighted:


A very rare event indeed and therefore worthy of a mention.

Emily and Ollie came to visit to see Becky and Seth:

Seth made a lot of cute faces and ate his bodyweight in formula. 

My Parents celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary

And my grandparents their 60th!!!!

The return of the Lucy is but 5 weeks away, Camp is but 13 weeks away which quite terrifyingly means in 15 weeks I... I... I have to do something scary.

Oh and I did something crazy.

My mother is displeased.

But for now I will return to the oblivion of yacky Studying. My exams are trying to kill me and The British Council STILL haven't told me where I'm going!

However this is for those of you procrastinating... a lot like me:

Avengers is awesome and if you haven't seen it; SORT YOUR LIFE OUT! xD

Much love
Bethxx

Wise Words of Wisdom...

"Next time you hear someone's going to spend some time abroad, here's a list of things not to say:

1) You're going to have the time of your life.

2) You should make the most of it.

3) Oh can't be bad, going to live abroad for a while! Wish I could get away.

4) A year-long holiday! Lucky you!"

©Lucy Fisher 2012

Dear readers, 

I apologise for not having blogged in forever, don't worry as soon as I've finished these darned essays, knitting this blanket and generally run away from the fantastic mental brilliant busyness that has been 2nd term 2nd year. don't worry next term is third term and 7 weeks of revision. It will be blog central. I'll catch you all up at some point.

But in reference to the quote at the top.

Should anyone of you say ANY of these things to me again, I WILL PUNCH YOU IN THE FACE or fine you, seriously. You have been warned. 

These get so boring, very quickly and have very little to do with the terrifying idea of me being unleashed upon Germany for a Year. Yes I'm excited, yes its going to be awesome but please, find something less clichéd to say.

Now I leave you with a ridiculously cute picture:

 

And a quote of the week:

"Laura Puges Cevenini: next year I'm turning down all my Masters offers running away and joining the circus. In Timbuktu.

Me: I can't see that. I just can't imagine it.
Laura: DEAL WITH IT! ITS HAPPENING!"

Until the madness ends! 

Bethxx

In which a familiar face is in a familiar place.

 

This face 

Has been found in this place

 Yeah thats right, I came home for the weekend.

Its very, very cold. Its warmer in Lancaster. Without a shadow of a doubt. I'm writing this wrapped up in my duvet. Earlier however I ventured outdoors.

It has snowed here, and now its frozen solid. :(

It was however worth it. Even if I did have to change nappies.

 This is Seth. You've met him before. 

He's 6 weeks old on Tuesday. 

Today I held him for the first time.

He's amazing , a tiny bundle of joy.

And very hungry, he polished off his whole bottle.

Before giggling as he pooed whilst sat on my hand -Definitely a boy. 

He doesn't like cold baby wipes and whilst him wiggling away across his blanket to get away from said cold wipe is very funny, it makes cleaning him up difficult.

He's very wriggly and prefers fingers to dummies, as I found out.

I wrote that on saturday, then I got distracted by Star Wars and Knitting, I have a baby blanket to finish.
Then on Sunday I got to take Seth to Church with me. Well... Becky came bringing Seth with her.
In his giant blue snow coat:

This little Boy melts my heart. And his mummy will be pleased to hear that many, many people have told me how cute he is, and marvelled at how he doesn't look like an alien. Because apparently babies look like aliens. I've never seen an alien looking baby...
It also made me feel somewhat broody, I even changed his nappy unprompted. having never changed a nappy before in my life. For a brief moment I felt like I was made to be a mummy. and then I remembered that cute bundles of joy grow up into mardy teenagers and instantly found myself cured.
Although I'm still tempted to steal Seth.
Anyway I must drink coffee with Hannah and then actually do some work seen as none got done this weekend.
Bethxx

OH MY GOSH A BLOG!

Sorry. I think I'm avoiding doing work...
I nearly didnt make my first lecture.
Since then I've come home picked up something in town, cleaned downstairs, (I stopped short of the washing up, the floor in the kichen- now clean- was just too cold to stand on any longer) and emptied the bins, a task that involved far more effort than it should ever required to move waste from A to B but hey this is lancaster and i have 7 waste receptacles and as I refuse to carry waste bins through the house I have to walk aaaaaaaaaaaall the way round several times when a week after bin day the bins are still out front along with the food caddy, a title that only makes sense if you're a rat with a penchant for partially mulched food waste.

Anyway.

There seems to have been an explosion of Uni memes.... hmmm I have the attention span of a goldfish.

Back to the important stuff.

This is Me and Hannah. We'd just got new hoodies.
If you're reading this from Lancaster uni its likely you saw a lot of these hoodies last week.

The CU did events week.

It was AMAZING. Really well attended and very encouraging.

God really blessed the whole week and loads of people were asking really good questions.

I keep seeing every day how awesome God is. MYC really helped me in this.  It lifted the lid on things I'd barely even scratched the surface on.
I know alot of you think I'm crazy or deluded. I'm not really bothered.
I think that before you start to knock some thing you should look at the evidence first. Thats what events week was all about.Uncovering the truth. Looking at the evidence. And free lunches.Theres another tomorrow. :D Fylde common room at 1. (Shameless plug - its my blog!)


In other news the shopping ban isnt going well. I dont even have to leave my computer to spend money.
Thats how this happened:

d'oh! On the other hand they look awesome we're only £18 and give me a 3rd option of winter footwear #feetwhyyousocold?
Another problem I seem to have developed is Twitter. Whilst i suspect my facebook friends are quite pleased I'm aiming my endless gibberish in another direction I should probably tweet less. I blame Anna, it wasnt this bad before; but then she blames me for her increase in activity.

Also Afyer looking at my bank balance I imposed a Greggs ban. Sadly they sell Strawberry Milkshake doughnuts. I think they have an addictive substance in them. My love for them is  getting slightly rediculous.   must enforce willpower! 
Talking of will power I'm sure I have some work to do. Y'know that stuff that I came here to do in the first place. Rather than waste time looking at memes, tweeting, blogging, cleaning.
Then if I did the work when I was supposed to I crush all student stereotypes and there would be no meme. hmmm This is a vicious, vicious circle.

Byeeee
Bethx

In which I remark on how not to blog and things I have noticed of late.

It hasn't really been perishingly cold this winter.
Not after last year.
I have too many essays this Term. 9 is just too much
2nd year is code for how many times can thoughts of YA and too much work reduce Beth to tears?
I hate cold sores.
I haven't blogged enough.
I am currently blogging to avoid having to think about 9 essays. This is a vain attempt to wake up.
I'm already worn out and its only tuesday week 2.
I have the cutest godson ever.
Whom I have now met :)

He is ADORABLE.
And he has pretty awesome Godparents

It broke my heart to have to leave him behind :( Though he was inducing unhealthy levels of broody into my system.


To counteract this, the terrible trio reconvened.


For Markus turned 21 and a day of our particular brand of crazy was therefore absolutely mandatory.


Though there was a shock in store.

Anna had done something drastic. Her hair seemed to have taken leave of its senses and jumped off her head into the not so loving embrace of the stylists shears.
(This seems to be a recurring theme, I have today experienced a similar shock when I arrived in the zoo to discover Mudge had also had a rather drastic meeting with some scissors too.)
On a theme of drastic happenings:

Mark is wearing a bobble hat. A BOBBLE HAT. I nearly fainted! Some miracle worker had parted him from the ubiquitous beanie.


I miss these two so much.

But the lesser spotted Anna having credit helps. (No kidding, shes actually adopted that name, I got a text from someone claiming to be such a creature this afternoon.)


Its was an awesome day, it had been far too long. I need to get skype on Anna's comp so we can conference call.

And that was the end of my holiday.

The next day began with a bump.

followed by a crash,

bang,

thud,

rattle,

and a clatter.

At 8AM.

The scaffolding men had returned to remove the construction that they had put up so my parents could stick solar panels to the roof. (Note: no parents ascended scaffolding and no glue/sellotape/blutack was used)

As at the time the plan was to go home on the Wednesday, I was less than impressed that the final day of my holiday was started in such a fashion. But noise cancelling sennheisers are good for more than just helping me concentrate on work.

Shortly after breakfast i was informed that the plans had changed and I should probably start packing seen as I hadn't started.

I loathe packing. I always have too much stuff and never enough room.

And to have to do it in a hurry?

Some how I remembered it all.

I will never know how.

Then came the petrol station. Never ask me to fill your  car for you, I will waste precious petrol on the floor because despite it being idiot proof as a process my mother's overfangled piece of french discombobulater makes it rather difficult. 

Then we got lost, because the sat nav refused to work and my father who is secretly part homing pigeon wasn't driving. His knack for knowing precisely where he is is disconcerting. My brother is also showing these bizarre tendencies.

They must have studied the A to Z maps.

Its the only rational explanation.

Getting lost wouldn't have been an issue. 

However the car refusing to turn back on stranded us in heaven only knows where for an exceptionally long time. I was somewhat displeased.

The day was finally capped off in the worst possible way. 

I burnt my pizza. A pizza that was short on cheese to start with!

Oh and I had to unpack. 

Unpacking is possibly worse than packing.

I haven't yet decided.

What I have decided is that is enough to keep you going till tomorrow when I will tell you all about the following 4 days and a rather busy first week back. 

Right now its bed time. 

Night!

Beth xx

EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!

I'm a Godmummy!!!
Which means Becky is a Mummy!
:D
Oh its all so exciting!

I just wanted to tell you all.

Also having just re-read last nights blog, it has become apparent that I shouldn't blog whilst tired and emotional. I repeat words, miss words and letters out and still think it makes perfect sense.

I have since edited the big mistakes. The rest I'm still too tired to notice.
I'm too poor to afford an editor, and the only other option open to me would make complaints about the content, the phraseology and the substandard language.

I'm a Godmummy!!!!

He's no longer a smudge on a scan!! :)

Evil Essays, Cubic Memories and why I am a idiot.

When your lecturers send you off on your holidays, wishing you well, expressing their hopes you come back relaxed and refreshed, you may notice them smiling.
Its because they know what they just did. They made a joke. Only, its only funny to them. As Academics they find no greater pleasure than endless reading and writing, whilst the rest of us would rather be hanging out, watching TV and doing normal people things rather than behaving like Dr. Sheldon Cooper.
I for one hate writing essays, don't hate writing, you already figured that out though. I hate writing about other peoples ideas and then having to writing nearly as much in reference their tasty as chalk dust book.
They love nothing more than making Christmas holidays miserable. I want to have fun. Not write essays.
At one time Child Language Acquisition was the most interesting thing I'd ever come across, at one point I cared if I wrote a decent essay. I remember a time when I didn't need a bat cave full of food to eat just to keep me going.
I have 9 of the blessed things to write next term.
If at some point you find a broken shell that gibbers and looks haggard, and perhaps half resembles me, remove it from the learning zone, take it home, force it to eat and drink nutritious things and then put it to bed.  11 hours I'll fall into the bathroom making comments like "Why am I awake?" ,"How did I get here?",  "Why did they frape me whilst I was delirious?"

I don't remember it but according to my housemate on the first day of uni this year (7AM alarm) I fell out of my room announced "What is this unholy hour?!", Yelped (I stubbed my toe - I remember that),
and crashed into the bathroom.

I don't mornings. I do them about as effectively as I write essays. One A - Level tutor frequently called mine "Utter carnage".

However this afternoon whilst writing one of these horrendous pains in the rear, something quite marvelously procrastinational happened. In fact it was a lot like what we began to reminisce about.
Good times in the Cube.
There were a lot of sucky times at college.
But there were also some epically awesome times.

It involved people like those.

Doing stuff like this:

And throwing very humble people parties:

And other weirder things...

I miss those times. The parties. The violent card games, (trust me you've never played Go Fish! or Cheat! till you've played it with us - or more specifically Josh.), the ceaseless hilarity, the shuddering at the words "ASDA, GUYS?! Pleeeeeeease?" (NO! We will not buy you more food. Buy it yourself!), the terror induced by Conor uttering the words "Well, You see..." (that was always and indication that severe mental trauma was about to be inflicted), picnics in the park and the amazing friendships that remain to this day.

We made a point of accepting anyone. We didn't much like the common room, and they thought we were mighty odd. 

We were, still are and intend to remain so. Admittedly some of us were odder than others. Very few people who were at NEW College in 09/10 have forgotten Jed's Lightsaber battles. Or his karaoke. But that's why we loved him. We were a motley assortment of Characters and that's why we worked and still do.

We get together sometimes. But its not the same, and the room no  longer even exists in the same way. 

This essay is still giving me grief. I'm giving up for today.

Tbf I gave up hours ago.

But that's not why I am a lummox.

Sorry was watching Pirates of the Carribean. No-one uses that word better than Cap'n Jack.

Side note.

No I am a lummox because I can't take advice. Or think such advice is irrelevant to me because I'm not that stupid. I wouldn't make that mistake again.

Turns out I am and have.

And just as my friend told me way back in October, I've gone and got myself hurt.

Because my brain, my heart and I are all at odds with each other.

And the only half cocked plan I've got so far is to avoid the situation entirely.

Refer back to the bit about being a complete numbnuts.

The thing is as well by the time I realised, "I probably should have been more proactive with that advice..." it was already far too late. 

New Year, New Start.

Yeah. Right.

We'll see.

(and I said that in exactly the same way that your parents did when it meant "er, yeah right")

And having said this, I'm never going to mention it again.

See avoiding the situation.

It may serve to help me a bit.

The destruction of Facebook would help too. 

Actually that would help in lots of ways.

Mark Zuckerberg has more to damage my degree than anyone else.

I'm getting rambly.

Always a good indication of its being bed time.

NaNight!

Beth xx

A Very Sisterly Affair.

This is the Lesser Spotted Anna.
More frequently found in its natural environment of the living room with a good book and a Coffee.

It has never been seen wearing a white hat before however.

Shes now a fully fledged member of the Illustrious group of white hat wearers. I'm its leading member.

More about that later.

We'll start with yesterday.

 Eventually I'll stop laughing at this photo.
I'm not sure sensible photos of Conor exist.

This is a week of seeing people I havent seen in ages.
Yesterday, included a trip to Wakey and seeing my friends from college. I love these guys most of whom see each other on a weekly basis at uni at Huddersfield for those of us flung farther afield we only catch up during the holiday. I love seeing them we always have a laugh and as is tradition Conor and I will always have some kind of fight.
It would be wrong if we didn't. Much like it wouldn't be right if, (despite my protestations and indignant squeals), my hat wasn't forcibly removed from my head and modelled by someone else.

 Just a few shots from yesterday.

As I mentioned before Anna came over today.
I was quite excited by her hat. Which said she thought it was grey when it was ordered xD

She however more excited about this:

Her favourite Christmas Present.
However her excitement was loud and squealy when she got on to the subject of these.

If anyone feels like buying me these, or some similar, I love you.

Guess the brand (not you Anna) and I'll buy you a Mars bar.


We had a large amount of chat, fun and Anna pointed out that she probably was Isla Fisher's character in Confessions of A Shopaholic. I'm inclined to believe her. She keeps devising plans to get her hands on a credit card.

It was a very entertaining afternoon, which was long overdue.
So long in fact she'd forgotten where to find the teaspoons.
Kind of embarrassing for someone I once thought actually lived in my house she was here so frequently.

Anna's still awesome :D

Anyway I am off now.
Much love
Bethxx