20120730

Okay, what a weekend... Not really busy but definitely a surreal one. I woke up at about 4:30 and went and saw off my friends Saturday morning. After that I really didn't do much until 10, save pack since I had to switch rooms. After 10 I spent all day moving into my new flat. So, i was almost done moving my things into Reception so that I could trade keys for my new flat. I was on my last run, just grabbing my food so that it would spend the least amount of time out of the fridge and it happened... I finally knocked the fire extinguisher off the wall... I was so sure it would happen, all session. One of those fleeting thoughts you have, over and over, like background noise you're so used to it becomes invisible until it's pointed out to you again. Yeah, it was pointed out. When the fire extinguishers come off their little pin hanger it sets off the fire alarm. My last minute and a half in my flat and THAT's when I set off the fire alarm... I was so tired I just let it go off, finished packing my stuff and after about 20 seconds it sort of wound down, like a wind up noise maker, it became all sad and uncertain in itself and then finally stopped making noise. I decided I'd finish moving before I got into trouble for that so I swapped keys, moved all my stuff into my room, figured out I'd forgotten a few dishes in my old flat and then went and 'fessed up. Interestingly, the little wind up fire alarm is supposed to set off the whole block unless it malfunctions. If that had happened I would have had to pay something like £130 for the fire department to do a system reset. Lucky me it malfunctioned! O.o Anyway, I got my dishes and went and made some lunch. I figured out I was not supplied with pots and pans and whatnot yet so I went and asked and they said they'd get them to me on Sunday since it was getting late and their log had filled up. No biggie, sammiches it is! Ran in to Sainsbury and picked up a microwave soup dinner thing. Comes in a plastic bag and you just nuke the whole thing, shake it, nuke it some more and then eat it out of the bag. It was actually REALLY tasty! Anyway, after my light lunch I helped Tonu move, and when I was finishing that Boey was at the bottom of the stairs so I carried her stuff to her floor for her. Ugh! By then it was about 4 so I spent the rest of the day working on my paper, not getting very far, changing my mind on the prompt, giving up and then went and met some friends for a drink that I was told was gluten free, Strongbow Cider.

Sunday: Got up and basically spent the entire day working on my paper. Finally settled on a prompt, my third one, and reread everything I'd need for the paper, taking notes as I went. After I finished that it was about 6pm so I ran to the store for stuff to cook and clean with, and some more easy stuff to eat. After that little trip I sat down to start writing. Got done at around 5 pm Monday. I have no idea what happened but this was the most difficult paper I've ever written. I wrote and revised it so many times and still it's only subpar. Anyway. Nothing I can do. I emailed it in and had just enough time to rush down and pick up this new little toy I'll be sharing with you later. For now it'll be a surprise. :) When I got that surprise toy I swung through Kingston, played around on some knocked over phone booths and walked home, making a quick stop to top up my phone. Yeah, I pretty much stayed close to home all night after that and just relaxed.

Here are some more photos from the Final Dinner:

Fiona having a wig out because I was going to have a pipe. Maybe a wee bit hyper, ha ha!

Fiona!

My crazy eye. Not sure why it was happening but I'm sure it was necessary.

Sam!

Live music deserves a good lighter, mine just happens to live inside my iPhone and produce no heat.

Picking up groceries on Satur...unday?

Oh, so here's something interesting that happened. You see that guy ^ next to the yellow bag? After I'd been sitting on this bench for maybe 15 minutes, just relaxing, he came over to me in a sudden burst of energy and tried to sell my lighters and socks. It was kinda strange.

A bag with the 2016 Olympics sticker on it, to be held in Rio.

This is in Kingston, maybe a 20 minute walk from Clayhill.

Ciao for now!

20120727

Tried to write my paper in the morning and failed miserably. Honestly, I got some nice verbiage out but nothing really substantial. I'm having a tough time with these prompts... Anyway, after that I went to class, he offered extensions to those who would be around and so I accepted. Interesting to be proffered an extension on a paper but I'm totally good with it! Very fortuitous! Came back to the flat and basically just worked on my horrible paper, I really want to scrap this and just start over but ... I've never been good with just tossing work like that.
Ah! everyone is leaving tomorrow at 5 am so I decided to hang out with them as much as possible before they left. Unfortunately everyone went out to watch the opening ceremonies of the Olympics. I went to the pub with them for a minute and then popped over to Waitrose to get groceries.
Here's a neat flowery bushy thingy I saw on the walk into Surbiton:

Once I got back to the flat I was so tired I decided to just try and work on my paper and wait. I fell asleep in my chair without getting much done, went outside to welcome a few of them back and then went to bed.

20120726

Alright! I basically sat in my room and worked on my portfolio all day. It shouldn't have taken all day, but Apple came out with an upgraded OS and every time they do that you have to upgrade your App Store purchases or they go nucking futs! Well, I didn't remember or realize this until around three in the afternoon, by which time I had finished hacking my portfolio together in an application (Pages) that kept crashing about every three minutes; basically every time I got a few lines written the program crashed. So, after sending a dirty letter with a crash report to Apple reps, calling my professor and discussing my situation, and forcing my way through several hours of hellish formatting, crashing and beginning again, I checked to see if any updates were available. No such luck. However there was a new OS. This basically meant there were updates that I couldn't have but needed. Bought the upgrade, installed the new OS, installed updates and guess what, IT FIXED EVERYTHING! ..... Grrr..... So I quickly polished my portfolio and sent it in. After that travesty of electronic operations had subsided it was about time to go to the Final Dinner, a three course meal at a four star Holiday Inn. It was fantastic! Lots of photos were taken, lots of food was eaten, and a prize was won, a tea candle holder, for this photo which I believe you've all seen:

Here is about half of the people from the Study Abroad program, I didn't have a chance to get the rest photographed before the end of the night:

After dinner I caught a cab back to the flat, wrote this, chatted with my Mama, and went to bed. Gotta get up early and bust out this last paper!

Ciao for now!