So I believe that Soph gave the dates 27th-30th? I am going to have a chat with mum and Colin to see which of these days will be best, and shall update soons. I shall also then attempt to start organising who can bring what in terms of food and drink. At the moment this is just a headsup ^^

P.S. I probably wont be able to get rid of my family: they are large and noisy and imposing, and likely as not will refuse to budge I shall try and minimise contact though

P.P.S. I have resisted the urge to spell it barbecue, even though thats what looks right to me – anyone know the definitive spelling?

Updates:

Ok, the date chosen is the 29th, which is a Sunday. My family will be going out to a party so that works well ^^

And now….the food. And the drink. And poosssibly a disposable extra barbecue? I am not sure whether one will be enough or not. Anyone want to throw some ideas about what they could bring at me? If you leave a comment then everyone will be able to see each others ..things I shall get some bread and salad type things for burgers/on their own, ketchup, napkins and so on, but I can get more if needed. I would like to spread it out across everyone though if it is possible, but if you cant manage it then no worries I am sure we can make do ^^

Some ideas:

Hamburgers! Sausages! Dessert type things! Drinks! Crisps! Anything else you can think of

Ok! Comment plz

Sorry, I just keep adding things as they come up ^^ It shall be happening in the afternoons, and I thought we could make a whole lazy afternoon out of it. so the barbecue….wont quite be lunch….or dinner. But we will start off with snacks and things maybe….at 2? and blibble around while the barbecue heats up and and we get everything set up and so on. And then the barbecue can be like an early dinner. Does this sound ok?

So I think the time to start will be about 5. We have some light then right? I cant say I have been examining sunset times so if any of you think that will be too late let me know

Dinner will probably be around the 7/7:30 mark (for the people who might be late ) and it will most like be stew and possibly baked potatoes which I hope you are all fine with me and mum are going to try and find something nice to make for desert as well as I have decided that to have a birthday cake on the 5th as well as the 7th would be a bit much

I am afraid my dinner party will be rather different to sophs parties because my mum refuses to help me cook and not have dinner with us so we shall be joined by mum and Theo, although attempts will be made to lock him away during the rest of the evening *nod*

Feel free to bring any gamey (as in games, not pheasants…) things/ideas with you because I am awful at organising such things

um…

John: !! Twould be so great if you could come!! If you could let me know soonish whether you can come for dinner that would be good I hope the maybe becomes a yes ^^

Ok, I think thats it Feel free to email me with any questions, or ideas of things you want to do.

J x

P.S….there will be Kettle crisps *ninja*

I hope this is better. See previous post for details.

I hope more of you can come now *does puppy dog eyes*

- It will probably be the afternoon/early evening —>dinner—–>some time in the night.

- hopefully there will be some nice weather because I am hoping for aaaaan…EGG HUNT

- This is for Robyn – there will be a birthday cake, but I really want you to come so if there is a way we could negotiate this so that you can come that would be great

- If you can come please help out a bit with the drinks I dont think mum and colin would appreciate having their wine stash raided. Just a bottle of something is fine – there arent going to be that many of us.

- Presents are not obligatory no worries, I know student finances are stretched (or at least mine are! D:)

Please RSVP  so I can let mum know about numbers for dinner I hope you can all come ^^

Toodles x

Anyway, I guess stuff has been happening to me We signed our housing contract (me and Adam and three people from the flat above mine) a couple of weeks ago and after I got over the initial heartstoppingly expensiveness of it all I was ok. It is a good deal I think – a semi detached in a residential area (so less chance of a break in) for 220 pounds (my computer lacks a pound sign ) a month. Just had to come up with 290 pounds on very short notice to secure it which nearly gave me a heart attack and stopped me from being as excited about it as everyone else. Everyone else having seemingly inexhaustible funds

That was a long rambling sentence. Anyway, the buying a house nervousness is made all the more interesting by the fact that me and adam will be sharing a room which is exciting but also…well we have very different tastes

But I will get to play on his Wii! Whenever I want! Muahahaha!

Ahem.

So, what else? I have some news about my dancing group which is …exciting to me anyway My dancing lessons are so great and I have been specially noticed by the teacher who knows my name and says I am a very good dancer *squeals* The news is that she is planning on entering some of us in for exams in future – and she wants to do competitions with other Universities!!! *bounces up and down* How cool is that??? Very cool I am sure you will agree I am loving the dancing so much – we did the Viennese Waltz a couple of lessons ago, going round and round and round and wheee…

So there is that. Also dancing related: I am going to Blackpool with my dance society next weekend ^^ and we will be dancing in the Tower Ballroom ( Blackpool is quite famous for ballroom dancing competitions)

I guess I should accept that not everyone else gets excited about dancing

I have had loads of work recently – many many essays. However, I have got them all done (more or less) and just have one more in for a week today on “post classical reworkings of Helen of Troy”. Once I have got that done I am considering giving myself a new project to fill my hours with. I dont know if you all know (lots of knowing…) that I am quite into knitting at the moment (no granny comments please – dont you know knitting is hip now? I happen to have knit myself some very nice fingerless gloves ) and I am considering creating a knitting blog as a spinoff of my website. So let me know if you have objections John

I am not really sure what else to say now. I am very bad at writing blogs – that or I am hideously out of practice…and I’m supposed to be an English student

Hugs to you all, hope you are all grrrreat

Mima xx

MERY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!

From across the seas

I know yours is nearly over now, but mine is just beginning  – hope you all had a wonderful day, ate too much, and got what you wanted

So, kids…please look where you are going VERY carefully. Cars hurt.

How to follow such news? Firstly well done to Robyn for passing her test! Secondly, I am back at home for the weekend (lucky considering the circumstances) and it feels like I’ve never left I dyed my hair again today which is a bit of a purply shade of brown that I’m not sure I like too much…maybe it will grow on me.

The bestest bit about Uni at the moment is my dancing its so fantastically amazing, and I am loving it, I feel like I am getting so much better very quickly, because the lessons are much  more intensive. I was supposed to be going to a big band social with my dance class next saturday but I’m not sure my legs will be in a fit enough state by then. I am hobbling around at the moment, so cant really imagine summoning any kind of grace, especially in heels

Right, time to return my attention to Strictly Come Dancing. Lots of love to everyone, and I will try to blog sooner this time.

If you are sitting comfortably, I will begin:

First things first! This was the view of the tower and church from the hotel roof garden

Mum was playing in the church, so as you can see, it was all packed closely together. Twas very odd how you emerged from the narrow streets and then suddenly theres this amazing architecture plonked down in front of you. Its rather impressive. Inside the church was deliciously over the top:

Those people

are some of the orchestra rehearsing busily.

A few more photos…lets see….

The beautiful:

(oh how I am itching to draw that)

The Scary:

(Arent its eyes all scary and alive looking??)

The Italian-godawful-tacky-religious decor:

(found adorning the walls of a restaurant themed on the Saints. Mum informs me that this is Sebastien. It…just…there are no words.)

…..The downright disturbing:

And people think the British are eccentric

Thats quite enough photos I think Overall it was reeeeeally fun, even though I had a stinking cold that stopped me from sleeping and made me feel whoozy enough that I actually refused wine after the first day. I climbed up the tower…this morning bizarrely And after all that effort on my part ( STEPSOMGDEADLOL) I think you can put up with one more photo dont you?

Ciao peeps!

- last Friday I went to see an 87 year old Jazz pianist (or penis – thank you Adam ) called Dave Brubeck. I dont know if anyone here has heard of him, but he wrote Take Five which is a rather famous jazz piece  that I bet you’ve heard before *hums* see? Told you so He was very very old sounding (funnily enough) but also rather witty: “Do you remember *insert name of song about to be played here*?” Audience: “Yeah!” “Wish I did…”

Well it was funny at the time

- then on Sunday last week me and Dad decided to hotfoot it up to the wineries, which California is rather famous for. It was very pretty and green but BOILING. Quite fun/terrifying to whizz along these winding roads up the mountains withnobarrierattheedgeaaaaaaaaah. Luckily Dad managed to keep control of the car and it was all good. We collected some bottles from two different wineries ( sadly couldnt do any tasting – darned alcohol laws in America mean I cant drink till I’m twenty one – what’s up with that? I did eat a grape though *is sneaky*) and then went to another winery where we got last minute tickets for a Madeleine Peyroux outdoor concert there. Again I dont know whos heard of her on here but shes a singer and really really good. Probably not something for the boys, but girls I highly recommend her. We had a picnic on the hill side beforehand, with crackers and cheese and salame and, of course, large amounts of yummy wine that we had just bought. The supporting act was a gospel singer and everyone was clapping along and it was lots of fun ^^

I think I am rambling too much

Since then we havent reeeally done much, because Dad has to work. So I have been sitting at home. I’ve recently taken up crochet and am currently attempting a jacket! Ambitious, I think, perhaps too much so? It should be finished by the time I come back so you can laugh at it then

Finally, I found out the other day that I got 97% for my Waltz exam. Which is quite good I am pleased

Finally finally, I’d like to say yay for Adam passing his driving test – I have a chauffeur! Just joking dear

And thats all for now folks Hope this hasnt been too boring a post to read. Hope you are having a great time and I look forward to seeing everyone on the 9th ^^

Mima

Toodles ^^

Mima