ONCE-UPON-A-TIME RACH AND CLAIRE CAME TO VISIT =P

This week has been pretty hectic, I’ve not had much work to do as of yet in these modules, and no practices in the afternoons, so I’ve been spending allot of time doing ether thing.

Monday night, got back from karate and met Lindsay, went back to mine to watch pride and prejudice and eat cake, we were both so tired though so we cut the night short at about 10:30 and went to bed. Tuesday night I, Lindsey, Amy, Struggles, Matt and a few others had a kitchen / film party at Lindsey’s. Ending up watching Moulin Rouge, then part of the Lion King, then Euro Trip! (Which I’m not a fan of). Me and Amy had a go at table wrestling round tables at some point and I got confused when I thought it had too many legs ... fan was also had spinning round the room on a desk chair. Most people left at 1ish, and me and Matt left at 2ish, or rather I left and dragged Matt with me.

Wednesday was a nice sunny day, a good day for a climb, so that what we did. I and Matt sweet-talked Rachel into driving us there and she really enjoyed the climbing too! Went to Trowbarrow where we did a few routed before it got dark including ‘Jomo’. Wednesday night, me and Amy were scared about going to Karate as sensei Frank Brennan was teaching ... a 7th Dan black belt. Wasn’t too bad in the end.

Thurday went to another meeting about going abroad and I spent most of that night looking at Colorado, Calgary, Ontario and Iceland universities ... still undecided.

Rach and Claire came on Friday for the weekend. We put up the bed and did the Lancaster campus tour, bought allot of cake, and then went back to make potato wedges, which took hours ... it was really late by the time we got to watching films and eating excessively! Stayed up late into the night talking as usual. Got up the next morning or rather Rach and Claire climbed into my bed with me ... made breakfast and got the bus to the station. The plan was to go to Ambleside for a walk, but the train was rather expensive and to we decided to explore Lancaster instead! Ended up at the tourist info! Then went for an adventure in historical Lancaster, where we made a friend on the bridge! Old man Boris ... Old man Boris told us how he built part of Lancaster uni when he was 16 and kept waring us about the ‘Bad lads in Lancaster!’ at some point during this convo I dropped my camera batteries over the bridge ... don’t know how that happened exactly! We chatted for about 10mins then he suddenly said, ‘I once went to B&Q and a man in an orange boiler suite asked me if I needed decking ... I only wanted some screw drivers!!!’ then he walked off. Anyway, we had fun navigating around Lancaster and going in River Island in waking boots!

Made a mess (pancakes) when we got back, then got ready to go out and watched Claries ‘LIPA’ DVD’s and watched the sing along version of Hairspray (and sang along). Had problems with the shower which was flooded and transformed into a wet room. Also I had issues getting dressed, as I’ve put weight on since I’ve been at uni and half my clothes don’t fit!! I have now decided to do something about it as I am also a stone heavier than this time last year!! Went round to Matt’s for a few mins before we went out because Rachel wanted to take pictures of his kitchen. Ended up in Toast and Elements where I scared off a stalker by yabbering on about geology and climbing ... hehe ... got in about 3ish, had a toast feast and went strait to sleep. When to see the lights in Lancaster the next evening ... was luminous.

RACHEL’S 19TH AND CHESTER ZOO!

Yes ... a 19th birthday spent at Chester zoo!

Got on the train after my 9:00am exam, Dad picked me up from the station, and headed back to Southport. Spent late Friday night sorting out stuff for going abroad with my dad and looking into ML’s and SPA’s and an appealing navigation course run by Andy Brown.

Went down to the climbing wall on friday night to sort out my D of E service with Jenny. Woke up Saturday morning extremely disoriented, thought I was still at uni, only to wake up not even in my room at home, but in the spear room as mine is being decorated! Make a cooked breakfast for me and Vicky, and then we headed into town to find her some new jeans and to get me a hat. Met Mum at cafe Matisse at 1:15, then went to the cinema to see High School Musical 3, much to Vicky’s embarrassment when I started singing along (having downloaded the album before the film came out!) ran into a few old friends from Dancing, and chatted for a while.

Went to Rachel’s for about 8.15, and had a good re-union and got excited about going on holiday in the summer! Emma came later and brought ‘You’ve Got Mail’, one of my fav classic films (although we never got around to watching it really). We stayed up late that night.

Met everyone the next morning at 9:00 at Elim. Jon and David were driving me, Emma, Rach, Claire, Eddy, Hannah and Nicole (meeting Bex there) to Chester zoo!!

David got confused when the ‘reliable’ sat-nav told us to ‘take the 1st exit’ at an imaginary roundabout! Finally got there, and I got the camera out as usual. Headed for the cafe and got a chocolate muffin and a hot choc. It rained for most of the day, but fun was had by all, especially when watching the elephants ... (private joke).

I didn’t have fun in the bat cave and Jon had to hold on to me when a bat flew across us, I panicked mistaking the bobble on top of my new hat, for a bat!Got some lunch, then me Rach, Emma, and Bex went for a last look around in the rain while Jon and Claire went to the gift shop and the others had gone home for band practice. Got very sleepy on the way home in the car. Rach fell asleep and I used my scarf as a blanket across her, Claire and me =]

Jon did a good job driving through all the road works on the m-way on the way back, but it gave us chance to talk over a summer holiday trip! Thinking of getting a cottage somewhere for a week or 10 days, chilling, and having some adventures perhaps. Also planning a tips to Wales at some point, and a 20’s party at Christmas, not to mention the annual secret Santa day and new years eve party at Bex’s and Adam’s!! So many good times to come ... =]

Got back to uni a few hours ago, stocked up my cupboard with food and put up my pics on my wall. Matt came to pick up some food from his parents and then I wrote this blog! New modules starting tomorrow ... I may do some work this time ... and do some exercise too ... maybe ... =]

ULTIMATE NIGHT! ARRRRGH!!!!

Ultimate night is the mountaineering club’s social event of the year! I can see why! With the dressing up, stupid games and free stuff, it certainly was a night to remember ... the ‘ultimate night!’

Got to Lindsey’s at 7:00 with Lindsey, jojo and struggles already there (Mark appeared later). Got our pirate gear on, and after spending 20mins trying to fasten my waist-coat, decided I needed to do some exercise in the coming weeks! My flat mates had helped me make a sword earlier in the week, and I was in full pirate mode! ARRRGH!!!

Got on the bus and accused the driver at sword point of ‘steelin me treasure!’ thought up rank names on the bus and harassed everyone. Jumped off the bus in town only to run into international rescue!!! The THUNDERBIRDS!!!

After getting our sheets from ultimate outdoors, we began to go from pub to pub, from bar to bar, club to club, completing idiotic challenge after idiotic challenge (and doing pretty damn well I might add!). One included someone belaying a chalk bad with a pint in it up the bar and someone trying to (and succeeding with minor spillage) to drink it! At other times people were blind folded and chalk balls were thrown, chalk feet prints were left by Mark all the way to the next bar I think.

We had the knack for getting completely hopelessly lost in-between almost every bar, not helped by the fact that we insisted on running everywhere to get there faster and win! Got separated somewhere down Lancaster in-between the last bar and the canal.

By 10:30, most groups were at the last bar, had a while to chat to people, and I managed to start a bit of an ice cube fight with the ice cubes I stole from the last challenge (I have a thing for ice cubes for anyone that doesn’t know!). Points were added up, and we came 3rd!! Winning a nice rucksack, and lots of free stuff inside it. Lost of other free stuff was thrown at us during the course of the night too!

Decided to head back about 11.30 as me, Lindsey, Struggles, Mark and Matt had a 9:00am exam the next morning! After waiting a while for a bus we worked out they had stopped, and got a taxi. On the way back, Matt discovered his rucksack did indeed have two straps (a concept he had been struggling with for the last hour much to the amusement of everyone else). We stopped for a quick climb up the back of spar, and struggles got electrocuted by putting his hand fully into the light! Back to Lindsey’s to collect stuff then we headed back to our flats.

Certain people still had blue faces in the morning after being ‘smurfed’ by some blue smurfs. We were all pretty tired after going home at 2:00, only to panic and start revising! Exam went ok, just hope I’ve got the 60% I need to go abroad next year!