Look what I just found!

I had a couple of friends over last night for a Girls Night In. We had wine, pizza and watched Magic Mike and needless to say we had a great time.

Also one of the girls who had come to Vietnam with me brought along a USB saying that "She had found a video of mine on it" so I took a look and I thought you'd like to see it.

(as requested by myself, here is the science behind Ha Long Bay (Courtesy of Wikipedia)):

Ha Long Bay has an area of around 1,553 km², including 1,960–2,000 islets, most of which are limestone. 

 Ha Long Bay has 14 endemic floral species and 60 endemic faunal species.

Submarine mountains formed about 420 million years ago in the deep sea where Ha Long bay is now. 340 million years ago tectonic activity brought it almost to sea level. 340-240 million years ago the limestone that now makes up the bay's formations was developing. 

The bay was again affected by tectonics which sunk it back down into a deep bay but not quite a sea, this was called the Ha Long Depression.

The mountains were eroded by the water and caves and grottos began to form.

Et voila! 

The limestone karsts (the towers and peaks) is what remains of those mountains!

You learn something new every day :)

Sod's law

I have just noticed an interesting correlation.

When I work best I am almost always "about to go do something" or thinking "should I go join in whatever-fun-thing-is-going-on-that-I'm-missing-out-on" or even when I have something else that I need to do first.
It is never when I sit down to work.

Any psychological input here Dad? Or am I just screwed?

I am the worst blogger ever

I have only blogged ONCE! I mean I have been trying to do a couple of different blog post over the last 5 WEEKS but none have them have made it to the "Publish" button.

I am suitably ashamed.

So I'm just going to attack you with random pictures and photos of my life so far in Third Year.

This was us at Alton Towers last weekend.
Obviously I didn't get the memo about the poses...
Alton Towers was actually fantastic fun. We got there at about 10.30 and stayed until 21.00 as it was open late for all sorts of Halloween Shenanigans, and we managed to do every single ride!

That's me at the front, fifth from left. This was the scariest ride for me,I don't like these sorts of ride, although it was a very cool idea.

This was us in the queue for Oblivion. We were very lucky in that just as the rain got saturatingly heavy we had managed to all cluster inside a little metal room in the queue.

A couple minutes later it was hailing and they had to shut the rides, bad times, however after about 10 minutes they reopened them! YAY! And because of the bad weather most of the queue times were really low so there was no wait for Air, a 15 minute wait for Nemesis and a 5 minute wait (plus the Hail) for Oblivion. It was great!

We did all the main rides and lots of the little ones, and when it got dark we went to the...

Which was one of things that you walk through and things happen to you, most of the things being zombies. At the time it was terrifying, immediately afterwards it was the funniest thing in the world. The zombie-dressed staff would jump out at you everywhere and sneak right up behind you and make zombie noises or right up in your face and growl. It was so scary! None of us actually believed that we were out when we finished, we were all looking around for more zombies to jump out at us. It was great fun!

And finally, we did The Smiler.

It has 14 loops.

It is meant to "mess with your mind" so they have hypnotic and annoying music on loop and TVs (that are way too bright) everywhere displaying optical illusions and brainwashing-type "programming" - flicking through news reels really quickly, showing computer programming language overlayed over pictures of peoples faces and MRIs on loop, that sort of thing. Which was really irritating because we were in the queue for more than an hour and a half. It sucked.

We didn't mind too much because we had done all the other rides in the park but it was cold and rainy and our legs were tired AND then they closed the ride for 20 minutes. In the end, however, when we got to the ride it was a fantastic rollercoaster. We just couldn't tell which way was up or down and were just spinning and looping and zooming around. It was really cool, just wish the wait had been a shorter.

So that turned into a bit of an Alton Towers blog but hey ho! Better then nothing eh? 

I don't know about you but...

I'm feeling 22!

I had a very relaxing actual birthday, the girls made pancakes and waffles for breakfast and had gotten everyone to sign a card for me, then later on we had some friends around to watch a movie, eat cake and have a couple of drinks. It was really lovely :)

My birthday party was yesterday and it was an altogether more *active* day! Mia, Amanda, Samuel and I spent all day cooking and getting the house ready for the evening's activities: dinner (for 31!) and then a Campus 14 (where you have a drink at each Hall of Residence bar on Campus, starting and finishing at the SU Bar and totaling 14 drinks).

Here are a couple of pictures from the celebrations:

My birthday bouquets from the Girls and from Samuel <3

(One of the bartenders gave us free pirates hats as it was my birthday!)

Third year!

The first post of third year! It was going to be a vlog tour of the house for my Mom but the computer said no. Instead I give you a discounted bunch of flowers from Samuel (aww) and a cut up ribena bottle from Mia to make...

Student household win.

Right now...

I am...

Wearing: Jeans and a hoodie, my exam-time uniform. I even sleep in it sometimes. Then in the morning I don't need to get dressed again :) EFFICIENCY!!

Watching: My tea mug. Deciding if I can merit another cup yet.

Listening: Film soundtracks constantly. Right now Inception, previously Brave, Apollo 13, Harry potter and, my pre-exam panic classic; Transformers.

Making: Ridiculous amounts of urine - I literally pee every hour, it must be all the tea I'm drinking.

Doing: Nothing but revising, drinking tea, having existential crises and daydreaming.

....AND now to get back to revision :(

Desperate times call for desperate measures

This is a bowl of butter icing I made myself.

I made it as an incentive to revise - every time that I get something right I can have a spoonful of icing.

It didn't work and I just ate it. 

Now I feel sick and still have to revise.

Exam-time

Hey everybody!

Sorry I haven't blogged in YONKS. Blame the exams. I have loads of blogging ideas gathering in the back of my head so as soon as they are done crazy blogging will ensue!!!!!

Thanks for checking the site - I'll try to get some more quick posts up before I finish exams :)

HAPPY SPRINGTIME!

Norway day 3

Today it snowed.

We could barely see anything outside the boat.

OOH LOOK! The waves have made a grid!

The snow on deck (which had turned to ice by the evening).

 I ventured out to take pictures during a gap in the snow. Didn't even last 5 minutes.

Back in the warmth of the boat with a cup of hot water :)

This is later that night. Mom and I got wrapped up and ready to wait for the Northern Lights to come out but it was still cloudy and snowing  intermittently so we didn't have any luck :( I got to wear my leggings though (on top of two pairs of thermals :P) ! YAY!!!

Norway day 2

So on Day 2 we spent the morning wandering around Tromso, the afternoon dog sledding and then got on the boat in the evening to start the cruise.

That's the hotel behind us - SO MUCH SNOW!

At the biggest dog sledding place in Norway - behind me are their 250 dogs!

 

We didn't get to mush the dogs but we got to ride in the sled which was great fun :)

After this we got on the boat, had dinner, took some sea sickness tablets and then after fighting over the single book that Mom had brought with her we pretty much just went to sleep!

Norway day 1

We travelled down to Gatwick yesterday because we flew out so early this morning. I tried not to read into our view from the hotel....

Once we arrived in Norway, however, something caught my attention - I seem to be able to read Norwegian.
Who knew?!?

It probably helps that about half of the words are just English spelt with a Norwegian accent. For example:
- Welcome = Velkommen
- Exit = Ut

- Tomato = Tomatisert
- Tourist information = Turistinformasjonen

- Room = Rom

- Toilet = Toalett
- Cathedral = Katedralen
- Hot drink = Varme drikker
- Laundry/Dry cleaning = Vask/Rens
and occasionally, the words are just French or English, which is helpful.

What is not helpful is that food is hugely expensive. To give you an idea of prices a hamburger at Burger King here in Tromso costs £11. Eek...

But enough of my garble, here are some pictures:

It's a heart!  

It's another realm!

Tomorrow we are getting on the boat and going dog sledding so hopefully I'll have some good pics for y'all then :)

Photo of the day: 10

I fixed it!

Photo of the day: 9

I curled my hair :)

     

OH NO THEY DIDN'T.....

SOMEONE USED MY CHEESE.

SOMEONE USED MY CHEESE AND LEFT A HAIR ON IT.

A CURLY BLACK HAIR.

WHAT WERE THEY DOING TO MY DELICIOUS CHEESE?

WHY?

WHY?

WHY?

 Now I don't know what to do either! The pasta is already on the boil and I must have cheese with my pasta! Do I eat around it? Do I throw the whole thing away and ask, no MAKE, the perpetrator replace my befouled cheddar? That cheese is expensive! How would I even identify the perpetrator?
WHY WOULD THEY DO THIS TO MY CHEESE????

MY CHEESE IS RUINED!

Photo of the day: 8

THE SPIDER HATH RETURNED

And I hath removed it from thy chamber and moved it to the garden of thy neighbours.

Teeheehee

Spiders

I'm not scared of spiders. I don't mind spiders at all, in themselves, when observed as a small, stationary insect or on the TV. The reason I don't entirely like them though, is because they move quickly, very quickly. More quickly than I can jump onto the nearest object not attached to the floor, because spiders obviously cannot ascend verticle sofa arms or furniture legs.
Which is an issue because I don't speak spider and so I can't tell it not to run up my trouser legs or into my ear or up my nose or down my shirt.

My most recent spider encounter has inspired me to share some spidery stories with you....

Today:

It had a bigger body than any I've ever seen in England. I thought it was dead so I folded up a bit of loo roll and got into "pinching position" but, just to be sure, I blew at the spider. Lo and behold IT WAS ALIVE! I reeled backwards, screeching as it scrabbled at the wall (the image above is an accurate reconstructed photograph of my behaviour at this moment).

The spider has now disappeared.


Tioman:
I was fixing a broken toilet with another girl. We were being tough and manly and sucking it up when what should run across the tops of our feet? A puppy! Just kidding. A tropical, brown HANDSPAN-IN-DIAMETER-SIZED SPIDER - causing screaming, hopping and flapping hands on all parts, even from those not in the room *cough-Mia-cough-Bethany-cough* - which proceeded to hide behind our mirror and then in our ceiling. I didn't need to sleep that night anyway...

Although imagine what would have happened if the toilet was working...

Malaysian cockroaches:
We had just moved in. We were unsuspecting, innocent exchange students excitedly unpacking our stuff when all of a sudden TWO cockroaches scuttled across the floor in front of us! Cue three screaming, flying girls, leaping for the safety of the bed against the wall on the far side of the room.
Luckily though that was in Mia's room so I actually slept very well that night.

I was filming this so, for your entertainment, here is what I looked like when we found the second one:

Madagascar tent:
There were holes in my mosquito net.
I was so thoroughly nestled into my sleeping bag that only my eyes were exposed. The insects, spiders and godknowswhats marching one by one over the mesh, searching for the weaknesses in my white safety net, and, one by one, they were finding them.
It was like that scene at the end of I, Robot where all the evil robots are crawling through the hole in the ceiling.
Except that those bastards didn't account for me and my sewing kit.

SUCK ON THAT INSECT BITCHES! NO MALARIA FOR ME!!!!