Seems we are all getting too busy to think about blogging! Again, months have past since the last time I told you anything new so here goes…

Just trying to think of things that have happened since I last posted and then putting them in chronological order is far too difficult for my cold-filled head to deal with so I’m just going to write things as they come to me! This week, I’ve been ill and I’m really hoping that’s me done for the winter. Wishful thinking, maybe? But the week did start well. On Monday, while I was at work, about 4:45pm, I had a phone call from a colleague’s boyfriend asking me what I was doing later that evening and offering me two tickets to the O2 arena to see Djokovic vs Berdych at the ATP World Tour Finals!! (tennis). So we (my brother in law came with me as Damian isn’t too bothered about tennis) just about managed to get there in time and it was brilliant! It’s completely different to Wimbledon which I think is a unique tournament anyway. Although I have seen it on tv before, it’s really weird sitting there live while they play pop songs during warm up and change of ends. But getting the chance to go (and for free!) was brilliant as only the best 8 players in the world even enter the tournament so you’re pretty much guaranteed a good match.

Another ‘first’ will be next week as I’m going to one of Raymond Blanc’s restaurants, Brasserie Blanc in Oxford next Friday! I’m very much looking forward to it. It’s not quite as refined as ‘Le Manoir aux Quat’Saisons’ but I’m still very excited. We’ve already chosen our menu and I’ve opted for the most traditional French cuisine I could find! Boeuf Bourguignon here I come!  Wow, a lot of exclamation marks in this paragraph!

Damian has booked for us to go to Barcelona for our anniversary next year! I can’t wait! It’s only for two nights but a little weekend away will be really lovely- yay for Groupon getaways! At least this way, I don’t have to think about what to buy him. Looking forward to trying real Spanish tapas bars and sight-seeing. It will be a pretty crammed itinerary as we won’t be there for long but hopefully, it will be long enough to see some of the city at least. I’ve wanted to go since reading ‘The Shadow of the Wind’ but have been warned about pick pockets in Las Ramblas- so hold on to your handbags!

In other news…we have signed the lease for our house for the third year. We still can’t really afford the deposit for a mortgage so we’re continuing to rent but we’re happy where we are at the moment and will just have to wait and see what happens. Damian is hoping for a sizable end of year bonus so maybe that could help!

We’re already planning another trip to Poland. We have recently found out that our friends there (Damian’s best friend growing up and his wife) are expecting a baby next summer so we’re hoping to go out late summer time to visit. I was hoping they might come to England next year but the baby’s thrown all our plans out the window! Still, it’s happy news.

I’m sure I’ve forgotten several things but that means I’ll have to blog again and not leave it so long!

P.S: Any wedding gossip from all you loved up couples?!

P.P.S: Anyone watching Strictly (I’m looking at your Jemima!) and if so, who are you backing to win?

Robyn

xxxxxx

Scariness asside it is a really good house. It has just had new kitchens fitted and everything! I hope it will be less scary when it is full of students being noisy. It should be : )

Hello everyone! Hope the various movings-in are going well. I have heard of several problematics with internet and moving in and whatnot, so I hope those all get sorted out swiftly and your new places are perfectly cromulent.

Things are good here, I’m starting to learn how living in a house makes some of the inhabitants more annoying than previously. We’re all starting to complain about how it’s just us who does the cleaning and tidying up. No falling out yet though! On the bright side we have amazing internet and overpriced TV. That’s what you get for not being in the house over the summer when other people are! The downside of this is its fairly expensive, but the upside is I don’t have to look after any bills and there’s so many channels that Friends is always on at least one of them… yay?

My room is a little more homely now also, with a large plant purchased. Photo slightly enhanced through the magicks of Photoshop.

I’m in the second week of lectures now, so projects are starting to get underway and the realisation of another year of work is slowly dawning.

Anyway I’m sure I had more to say than this, but to save you all from drivel I shall depart!

Good luck with the moving in and courses starting and and, well everything else you might be up to.

I’m all moved in now, you might get some photos soon, but you’ve already seen most of what’s to see about the house in previous postings. My room is just as lilac as it was before and at night I’m bathed in the gentle glow of orange sodium lamps. Soothing. Posters have yet to go up to cover the walls. I opened my wardrobe earlier and the side panels fell away outwards, a rather comical event which has taught me to open doors slower in this house. Still, better than the drawer in the kitchen which you can’t open because a door handle is in the way! Who knows what’s inside.

Making the room more my own and looking forward to everyone else being here too and the course starting.

One of the more major points of this blog then is: I’m going to buy some tickets to see Hamlet in London in December. This would be the Hamlet with David Tennant in, and others like Patrick Stewart. I’ll be buying a few tickets on Friday for a performance some time between the 15th – 21st December. I know Mima and family were also thinking of going at some point, any news on possible dates on that front? Just throwing out the idea if anyone else wanted me to pick up a ticket for them when I book ^^

Otherwise I hope everyone is winding up to university well, and various other courses / work related things.

No more interesting news from my neck of the woods in the slightest I’m afraid! Hasn’t the weather been grim recently! I look forward to picnic-ing weather before Winter comes and snows all over us.

Oh! Of course, another major thing then. Who wants to come and see little old me in Cambridge? We can go punting and dance in the rain and the puddles. If a date can be agreed on then so much the better. Any time is fine for me. Somewhere between the 13th-21st September? Hope that’s not too short notice or anything. I can understand if people can’t come though, travel costs are not exactly cheap and things are getting busy this month.

Ttfn

My room is quite a funny place and we were in fits of laughter as we discovered all the things that were wrong with it. It seems its fitted out with old gas lighting pipes! There’s also an old fireplace, just a shame its non-functional. The furniture falls apart if you touch it (you can knock the desk top off by accident) and when I arrived all the light-bulbs were missing!

BUT. All that said (and there was more than that), I’m looking forward to moving in and making the room a less cold feeling place. ‘Tis quite exciting. I’m thinking tapestries, log fires and flaming torches on the mini-corridor which leads to my room. Rugs and pillows everywhere. Perhaps some new oak fittings. Plumb it out with a sink, possibly a shower. Oh and a service lift to the kitchen.

Here’s some photos of how it looks at the moment (stitching errors left in for amusement factor, look at the cupboard!).

Isn’t it lilac :fem: ? Tis a good size, a fair bit bigger than halls. I was also thinking of doing something about the view out my window. Luckily the double-glazing cuts out most of the traffic noise. Not so much the street lamps and traffic lights, but they’re not too bad. I was thinking of applying for planning permission to rip up the road, and perhaps install an enormous fountain?

And as for the rest of the house and garden, all reasonably lovely. Bit odd that the bathroom is accessible only through the kitchen, but life goes on. Enjoy these other photos (again stitching errors left in for comedic porpoises).

Aye, that’s out shed door being relocated. We thought it would look better on the roof, or perhaps just lying on the floor nearby, to fool thieves.

p.s. I’ve just found out my timetable for the next academic year too. Looks like I’ll have a lot of time slobbing around! I have two days of lectures, 10 ’til 5 on a Thursday and Friday :3

Keep safe peoples.

Peace :music:

Hope you’re all okay and havin fun, despite the rain (although I know people who like the rain, including Toby and my mother). It’s very grey in oxford at the minute, but that’s okay, becasue Freddie and i may have found a house!!! Yay!!! It’s a three bed, kindof semi, but it’s tucked away in an alcove. No off-street parking as such, but its on a quiet one-way street which is unusal for student accomadation. It’s university owned, had a tiny kitchen and riduculously steep stairs, but it’s the best offer we’ve found so far, so we’re taking it. We’ll find a third person later.

When’s everyone coming back/free for Easter? Hugs in every direction to you all.

xxx

I thought I’d write a quick updatey-type blog since I don’t have much else to do at the moment except work, which I’m not quite in the mood for yet. :] Everything at Warwick is proceeding as normal – my flatmate is hopefully getting his cast off today (see my last blog if you didn’t know about the when-forearm-meets-glass situation), and I’m back into balancing-work-with-lots-of-music mode. So far it’s going pretty well – in fact, last week the six of us from the flat managed to all go out together on two occasions, which is quite rare. We went to the union on Monday, and on Thursday we went to the Arts Centre to see the musical version of Sweeny Todd, which was put on by the music theatre society. It was absolutely fantastic. :happy:

However, the most exciting thing that happened last week was … *drum roll* … We signed the contract for our house for next year! Yay! We’ve been house-hunting for absolutely ages and we really thought we were going to be living in boxes on the street because houses were being taken literally every minute. But we finally found one that’s in a great area, has six bedrooms, two bathrooms, nice sitting room and kitchen, little patio garden…all is well. It’s also really close to this big grassy hill that looks like it would be great for sledging. And picnics. :3

I don’t really have much other news. Doing a concert tonight with Consort, and we have another one next Thursday in which I’m doing a solo – extremely nervous about that. I have several other things coming up in the next few weeks which I’m looking forward to:

- John is coming to Warwick this weekend, yay!
- I’m going home next weekend, and John will also be there, yay!
- It’s my birthday the week after that, yay!
- It’s the music centre masquerade ball the weekend after that, yay!
- I’m going to Cardiff to see my brother compete in the Brass Finals of BBC Young Musician of the Year the week after that, yay!

And that’s about it. :happy: Yay!

I don’t really have a huge amount of news, except that my weekend was a bit weird after coming back to Warwick. On Saturday my flatmate managed to put his fist through a window and went into hospital, so pretty much as soon as I got back yesterday I went to visit him with a couple of the guys from the flat. He had an operation yesterday morning and was lucky enough not to be left with any nerve damage, and he’s coming out of hospital today. We had quite an adventurous trip back, involving calling security after seeing a chav harrassing this girl at the bus station, and then we had a meal at a chinese place before getting a bit lost in Coventry and finally getting the bus back home.

All in all, I’m quite tired out. I hope everyone else had a good weekend, see you all again in a few weeks. :]

Secondly after a few months of silence the next chapter of The Project has been finished. So here is Robyn’s image :happy: . I hope you like it, if you find me online some time (or tell me otherwise) I can send you the proper big version of the image. A slightly larger one can also be found here. I present, Lakes. A slightly different aesthetic when compared to Tim’s image.

I spouted a lot of mumbo jumbo about The Project in the last blog about it, most of which I’m disregarding for now. So Robyn if you want to describe this image or add some kind of background or story to it then feel free, but don’t feel forced :happy: Anyway, moving on…

This evening I’ve started looking at possible accommodation for next year. It’s a lot harder when you’re not given a printed list of choices with prices beside them. I don’t even properly know who I’m going to be staying with yet! But at the moment I have my heart set on this lovely little place. It’s a while from Cambridge, but I’m sure I can persuade whoever gets lumped with living with me that it’s the best option. Have a look see. Of course you’ll all be invited to the… tower warming.

And finally, with a little more near-sightedness, there are plans to meet up and go out for a drink in a grotty (or not so grotty if people would prefer) establishment after the prize-giving. All those in favour, keep your evening free :happy: Hope you’re all having fun back at university / work. See you all before the week is out I hope ^^

Bai.

_{P.S. Some photos from the recent party of dinner are all up in the gallery. Enjoy.}

Saturday we decided to go into Coventry and have a look round and explore. As I have a slight genetic instinct to take photos of churches and cathedrals I dragged Soph into a standing one and a ruined one. The cathedral there consisted of a few old walls and a distinct lack of roof. Assuming that was the cathedral? Anyway, we had a mosey around the shops and found a couple of Waterstones’ among other things. Coventry, whilst perhaps not being as picture-skew as Cambridge, certainly has no lack of shops! (And chavs, but I won’t labour the point). Chocolate ensued and we returned home, where it seemed I was to be involved in the dinner-making. Only been there a day and they already had me working! By chopping the carrots, potatoes and othervegetables I contributed to my share of the cooking, making me less guilty about stealing communal food. Good food it was too. Cooking for 6 or 7 at a time looks like no mean feat, but certainly seems to save money. And cooking in Soph’s Whitefields’ Family’s kitchen is an experience one will never forget. But I won’t go into the details for reasons of health and safety

Natural beauty wise, the University of Warwick makes up for whatever Coventry lacks (or built over). We ventured off for a walk on Sunday and discovered a really pretty lake and woods just behind the accommodation blocks on the way to the medical teachy buildings. It seemed pretty on-campus to me, which was rather impressive. The lake has its own little ‘Nature Reserve’ areas and everything, so we basked next to it for a little while. Watching the multitude of ducks and wildlife on the lakes. Here is a particularly autumnal tree that was nearby, just to add colour to the blog.