what are everyone’s plans for summer? I think we should have some kind of a gathering, so write on here to say when you’re free. :]

I’m working weekdays at the mo as a cleaner at a school in penn, which is as fun as it sounds. howeverrr, in two weeks the school breaks up for summer so no more cleaning for soph. :] then I’ll be going up to warwick to sing at the graduation ceremonies (rosie, this means you get to hear us chamber choir lot singing the ‘warwick fanfare’ – it’s horrendous and has fake latin in it, so enjoy that!), then I’m free for a week again, then I’m going caravanning in wales with a group of uni friends, thennnn I’m free again, and thennnn I’m going to peruuuuu!

which is VERY exciting. :]

I’m going over there for a month (catching three separate planes to get there, which is the part I’m most nervous about currently :S), to do conservation work in the amazon forest. should be pretty great. :] I also get to do a little nip over to machu picchu while I’m there, which is equally exciting. so, I guess I’ll do a blog about that when I get back! I’m sure there will be lots to say and squeal about. like monkeys and parrots and pumas and things.

in the meantime, I’m keeping myself busy reading about a bazillion books for next year, and doing this online course in Teaching English as a Foreign Language (ie. TEFL). I’m hoping to be able to use the qualification I get from that to go and teach abroad after uni. fingers crossed. :]

so, that’s all my news really! let’s do summery things like picnics and barbeques. discuss.

over and out x

I had a splendid trip to Arran again back in January, there’s photos on Facebook. And then after an exciting bout of family illness problems I had my work cut out for me with university this semester!

Still, my major project has come along fairly nicely:

SEE – Sneak Preview from John Kingsnorth on Vimeo.

Crikey, its strange to think I’ve handed in my last ever photography project…

And now we’re in the mad rush of Degree Show preparations! And they overlap! Which is exciting and hectic and daft.

So IF anyone wants to seeee the shows, which maybe we could do a nice gathering around, it is in Cambridge from the 3rd – 11th June. I am most free on the 5/6/7th for that one.

The show is also in LONDON and is called ‘Seeing the Ordinary’ (I designed the website for the show heeeere > http://www.seeingtheordinary.co.uk Woot woot.) We’re on there from the 11th – 14th June, and I’m invigilating at some point, so maybe we could meet up and the end of that and do a food, or something. Not sure on the exact date yet though.

OTHERWISE I think a meeting-up with punting is long overdue, so come to Cambridge! Provided I am unemployed, any time from the 17th June to the end of the month I will be doing very little =]

I have been doing a little bit of job-hunting, but its hampered by the craziness of exhibition preparation at the moment! There may be a slight chance of buggering off to Zambia for a while (madness?). We’ll see!

Hope everyone is well and fine and I look forward to hearing from you all again.

p.s. Robyn, your wedding photos look splendid, must be fairly chuffed with them =]

Edit: Oh yes, I went to Stockholm in February too. It was bloody cold. And we walked over the lakes. Because they had, like, ice on them, omg. It was cool, photos on facebook :]

In other news, is anyone around next week for a meet-up? I was thinking maybe we could have a re-match of the London game or somesuch, because that was fun. I don’t know when’s best for most people regarding week days or weekends, and who’s where and on holiday and when and whatnot, so…let’s organise.

Ooh and in OTHER news, my dad has just walked in and told me that my grandparents have sold their house, which is really good news because it means we have the last bit of money to finish the building work for them to move in with us. They’ve been trying to sell it for ages, so celebrations ahoy now. Yay!

A bientot (:

So, most of us are going into our third year of university soonish (omg, WHAT), and for me that means a year out in the Merde, teaching English to French school kids. I’m not gonna lie, I’ve not done much to prepare myself so far. Because of this, I’m feeling pretty nervous about the whole thing and haven’t really got excited about it yet… but hopefully once I’ve sorted out a place to live, got over the trauma of going out to France all on my ownsies to move in with foreign strangers, and managed to deal with all the legal housing/bank account stuff that I can barely understand as it is in English, then I’ll settle down and have a great time.

I’m going to be teaching in three schools: my main one is a lycée (kind of like a sixth-form college but there are three year groups), and two collèges (secondary schools). They’re in a really nice area, in the south of France near Aix-en-Provence which is a lovely town I’ve visited quite a few times, and also near Marseille, so I’ll be quite close to the coast. My friend Amy (who I think everyone has met?) lived out there for a while and her mum lives in a town very close to where I’m going to be, so it’ll be nice to have a contact out there in case of disasters.

All in all I’m pleased about where I’ve been placed and the schools I’ve been assigned to. Although working in three different ones seems like a lot, I think it’s quite common to be placed in more than one, and one of my friends who was out there this year found that even though the kids in one school were a load of chavvy French brats, the kids in the other were much nicer. Hopefully mine will all be nice, but even if not, in all the different year groups across three schools, there’s got to be at least one nice set of students. I hope :]

So, yeah, I just thought I’d tell you a bit about what I’m going to be up to next year. As I said, I haven’t found housing yet, which is kind of my main worry, but it’s very common not to have that sorted out until a couple of weeks before, when you actually go over there, stay in a hostel for a bit, and visit estate agents and stuff. Some of my friends have been provided student accommodation by their lycées, but I wasn’t lucky in that respect Fingers crossed it’ll all work out for the best, anyways.

Onto more general stuff, I was really sorry to miss Quasar the other day because I was feeling poorly Hope you all had a great time, and maybe we can meet up for coffee or a picnic or something soon? Let’s plan things! *puts on planning hat*

My holiday has been pretty good so far… I spent a couple of weeks away with choir – we went on tour to Cornwall for a week which was loads of fun, and then came back to campus to sing at the degree ceremonies, which was also awesome. We did ten ceremonies across five days (paid ) and the rest of the time we had the whole of campus to ourselves, went out for pubbing and clubbing and curry-ing, etc. Funnnnnn times (although a load of people went down with swine flu, which was sad times but I wasn’t one of them, luckily for me).

Next week I’m going to Wales with some friends where we’re aiming to squeeze ten of us into a six-person caravan, which should be interesting…then I’m going to Wales again at the end of August with the fam. It’s clearly the place to go, eh John?

That’s pretty much all my news! This was long, so I think it’s best to end it here before I bore your socks off (sorry if this has already happened). Hope you’re all having a great summer and hopefully see you soon.

Peace! x

I’ve broken up for the Easter holidays now which is a big yay, although despite having 5 weeks off I sadly have no time to rejoice in this newfangled sunshine business, but instead have to get down to writing lots and lots of assessed essays (four of the buggers…that’s 15,000 bloomin’ words in total!). Bad times. But it’s good to be home, and away from a certain nauseatingly smelly housemate who doesn’t wash or cut his icky hair or shave his stupid face or pay his rent or bills. But that’s a story for another day (and my other four housemates are lovely, so it’s all good). So I got back home last night, and this morning I went to the dentist, where I saw Robyn – yay! So we had a good old catch up, and then I went in for my check-up and the dentist said my teeth were very good, and then cleaned them, which was HORRID and felt like she was trying to grind them down with some sort of machine that made my head feel wobbly. But my teeth are now very clean so I’m sure you’re all pleased about that.

Quoi d’autre… I’ve just generally being doing lots of music as usual, had a few concerts in pretty good venues – London and Birmingham this term, oh and a very little one in Cambridge which John came to see, so that was loveleh. I had a little solo moment in it too, yay. I’m doing more solos generally this year and really enjoying it. ) My next one coming up is at the beginning of next term in a choir concert in Oxford, which will be another fun road trip. Oh and if anyone is interested, *boasting-about-my-brother-moment-approaching-nnnnnNOW* Henry’s musical pursuits are going fantastically as always, and he’s going to RAM with a scholarship next year, woo!

I’ve just been called for dinner so I better skip off, but I think that was all the news I had anyway…hope everyone is well and hope to see you all sometime soon!

xxx

Just before going I emailed one of the folks who I went to Arran with, as her manfriend is Danish, asking for advice and tips etc. Only to find that she was travelling to Copenhagen about 12 hours before us! What is this madness.  Luckily it meant we had an emergency point of call in the city, which I will come to later.

Day 1

Up at 4am, coach to Stansted, plane to CPH! Lovely! We arrived and headed out to explore. And good grief is Scandinavia cold or what? Average temperature was about 0, add to that the blustering winds and we were certainly in minus whatnot figures. We met some Moscowvian tourists who said that CPH was actually colder than home… So, anyway, on the first day we saw… LOTS. The Little Mermaid, of course, Nyhavn, and the longest pedestrain street in Europe, many green statues and spires, some of which were incredibly twisty. But the highlight was certainly when we stumbled into a Danish Princess at a museum. We walked in down a red carpet, wondering if this was standard procedure for tourists, only to learn that Princess Marie of Denmark would soon be making an appearance. An one she did indeed make! What luck :]

We slowly learnt that CPH perhaps wasn’t the best location for a budget holiday, with everything costing about twice as much as here. A mug of coffee sets you back 35DKK on average, which is about £5! Whups, we thought. The only place we could really afford to eat was an all-you-can-eat Indian resturant. So much for staying out clubbing and pubbing all night! So with the freezing temperatures becoming even more freezing we continued to wander the streets and re-visited the main places by night. Eventually we gave up and got the train to CPH airport again, where we enjoyed a night’s sleep on the lovely warm wooden floors above arrivals. Mmm.

Day 2

Tired! Plenty more walking ahoy as we saw the changing of the Danish guard and continued with the various cultural explorations of the city. We also found the highly rated (3 mich. star) resturant ‘Noma’ (maybe recognise the name from Masterchef?) but couldn’t even afford to open the door to get in, let alone sniff the food. After dinner and more exploring we headed off to our Youth Hostel for the night: “Sleep in Heaven”. Not a very optimistic name considering it was in one of the dodgiest parts of Denmark. We turned a corner to see graffitti, rocks and stones all over the pavement, etc. etc. Luckily this turned out to be the wrong corner, and the hostel was around the next bend. Phew. It was a lovely place though, and I’ve never appreciated a warm bed more than that night! A fantastic experience, sociable people there.

Day 3

After the botanical gardens and a bit of castle action we went to my Arran contact’s house for lunch! A lovely traditional Danish lunch, with fishy bread and schnapps. Mm! We then wandered off to Christiania, which is a very bizarre place indeed. It’s basically a part of CPH that a bunch of hippies invaded and took over =] So there are stalls selling plenty of drugs, and people smoking their substances out in the streets. There was a great cafe there though, with live music and the like (read the sign below…). Anyway, the time had come to head off. And before we knew it we were back in England.

Thus concludes the brief account of my time in Copenhagen! But I’ll have to go back because we never made it to Elsinore castle! It was too far north of the city to reach, alas. But we only spent about £130 each, with accommodation, flights, food and everything else. Which I think is pretty damn good for 3 days in the second most expensive city in teh werld.

Well I hope all those photos haven’t taken too many years to load.

Now then, also! Easter is approaching! I propose a big meet up session. However I am well aware that everyone is practically drowning in university work, and that our holidays do not neccessarily collide in a favourable manner. Thus I shall begin by just stating when I’m free :] I -think- it’s from the 30th Mar – 17th Apr. But I’m really not too sure actually =]

Anyway, hope everyone is keeping well, see you all soon hopefully ^^

Well,

Where to begin? First of all, I want to say that I had the most wonderful time in Paris at the weekend. The weather on Saturday was fantastic. I was on the top of the Eiffel tower in just a t-shirt and a baggy short sleeved jumper, it was so warm. It was a little colder on Sunday but we still enjoyed a tour of Paris on one of those open top buses and it was a great way to do a bit of sight seeing. We visited the Notre Dame and also the Louvre (although I could easily have spent longer in both places!).

But the best bit was on Saturday evening. To set the scene: I had been told that the trip was as a result of a buy one get one free offer on lastminute.com. My sister Adele and her friend Paula had been sent an email saying that if one couple paid for travel, one night’s accomodation and a meal that another could get it all totally free. We only had two weeks notice but it was enough time and the best bit was that Damian and I only had to take spending money because everything else was paid for.

Fast forward to Satuday night. We got a taxi from the hotel (with my excellent French skills coming to the fore with the driver!) to the Seine as the meal was going to be on board a boat. We had all dressed up a bit as it was our first time in Paris and we wanted to make an effort but none of us, or so I thought, expected it to be that posh because it had been a last minute deal. When we got there, it was amazing. All the tables were laid out beautifully, the lighting was perfect and there was a live band and a singer. The food was lovely. I had scallops with leek and truffles for my starter followed by sea bass, a cheese board and a chocolate praline dessert. Just before the main course, Damian pulled a little box out of his jacket pocket, presented me with a beautiful diamond ring and asked my to marry him! And I said yes!

So, we are now officially engaged and getting married in the spring next year. Afterwards, I realised how many signs there had been that he would propose but it was still a total surprise. For example, as soon as I heard about the  ‘deal’ (which of course didn’t exist and Damian had spent months planning it and paying for it!!), I immediately pointed out that Damian had always wanted to be the first to take me to Paris and I thought he would object to somebody else doing it instead but he seemed strangley compliant! Also, he was really uptight and, at times, grumpy when we were travelling there on Saturday to the point when I snapped at him to lighten up. Now, I understand he was just nervous. It was also really sweet to learn that he had booked tickets in advance for us to get into the Louvre to avoid queueing, only for us to find out that it is free entry for eveyone on the first Sunday of the month! Still, the tickets didn’t have a date on so we can use them another time.

So, that was my weekend and we are both very happy now. I hope everything is going equally well for everyone else.

xx

Well with that out of the way onto the blog firstly I would like to start by saying UNI IS AWESOME! man I had no idea it would be this much fun. The constant clubbing, drinking and wandering the streets at ridiculous hours looking for a kebab is great and somehow I still managed to reach the top 20% in my year for both of our last exams  (honestly i’m freaked out and kinda confused as to why some people here are uber nerds while I sleep through lectures). Still Christmas has so far been a big slow down for me I just can’t seem to focus on doing any work but hey i’m sure that’ll sort itself out in the end. Plus medicine is fun so far i’ve learned how to sew up wounds, take blood pressure with a stethoscope and . . . wash my hands  (seriously there’s a 7 stage process involved). But on the plus side  in the new year we get to start dissections on real human corpses yay.

Other than me being at uni, which has more stories than I can honestly be arsed to write down, not much has really happened to me since I got back from australia. Still I was kinda sad to see that I missed the meet-up on the 19th but I guess its my own stupid fault for not reading whasblog so are there any plans to meet up in the new year or even any new year celebrations that you are all attending ?

Oh and if anything is bieng planned I won’t be around from the 9th because me and a bunch of rowers are dressing up like Spartans and getting drunk for 3 days straight.

And finally Merry Christmas everyone .

See you all soon!

Well thats about all I can think of right now I promise to have photos for you all as soon as I feel the inclination.

Oh and since you all seem to keep asking I am not sunburned. I have managed to go this entire trip (so far) without being sunburned thanks to the application of vast amounts of sunblock (which has meant other members of the group can identify me by smell alone) still now I am over 2/3 of my way through australia I expect I shall see you all soon.