Grey sky... time to blog!

Hello ladies!

How the devil have you been?  Well, I hope?  And me?  Well, thank you for asking, I have been just fine.  Until today, the sun has been shining brightly and making it feel as though spring was peeking it's optimistic head around the corner.  But, today it's back to the classic British weather of grey skies, and classic Cambridge wind!  It is extremely flat around Cambridge, it is surrounded by an area called The Fens (drained of water way back in the day and now used for agriculture).  So, there are no hills to block the wind.

But, I digress.  The last few days have been spent moving into a lovely room, settling in, getting to know my fantastic house-mate, and doing a bit of job hunting.  All fun and games.  

Tonight, I will be going to the cinema to see  Beautiful Creatures.

I love a bit of the supernatural, and a love story to boot.  As you may have guessed, I shall be going with some of my female friends!  I'll let you know what it's like, although I have pretty bad taste in films so you may want to take anything I say with a pinch of salt (a large one).  

The last film I saw was Django Unchained.  Now that was quite different.  Being a Quentin Tarantino film, it had some great (dark) humour in it.  But, it also had some scenes that made me squeal like a girl and two scenes that simply made me cover my eyes and ears (if you've seen it you may know the ones I am talking about).  I'm a wimp, heck, I am queen of the wimps.  Before the film had even started they showed the trailer for a new horror film called Mama.  As Django Unchained is an 18 certificate, they showed the full trailer for Mama.  Seeing as though horror film trailers shown on TV make me turn off the sound and cover my eyes (yes, I really am that pathetic), you can only imagine how much I was trying to ignore the trailer when it was shown in all its glory!

The ironic thing is, that when I was younger (maybe 11/12) I would insist on watching these horrific horror movies with my brother.  He is older than me, and had a thing for all things dark and nasty, I was probably still playing with my Sylvanian Families.  However, we only saw each other now and then, and I wanted to impress him by watching the films (I think that must have been my motivation anyway).  I eventually realised the error of my ways after watching the film IT and being unable to ever look at clowns in the same way again.  But, before that, I have a vivid memory of watching Hellraiser with him and saying "Hello Mr Pin Head" to one of the characters every time he came on screen, he scared the bejesus out of me!  Needless to say, this annoyed my brother immensely...  Warning: click on links at your own risk, they freak me out.

Well, there you have it.  I had no idea that this was going to turn into an entry about just how much of a scaredy cat I am, but that's how the hobnob seems to have crumbled.  In my defence, I maintain that it is because of my vivid imagination that I am such a wimp.  I will literally imagine things coming to get me.  The fact that I am not a huge fan of the dark is probably a real shocker huh?

Ta ra for now!

The hunt for free wifi has started

Hello everyone!  

Sorry it has been a few days since I was able to post more than a quote, I've been a tad busy.  I am back in Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, and I have spent the last few days house and job hunting.  My friend Helen has been amazing and has let me stay in her spare room (she is fab), but tomorrow I should be able to move out and into something a little more permanent!  Woo hoo.  

Today, I am going to go on a free wifi hunt in Cambridge city.  I've googled and I have a few places in mind to try.  It may cost me the price of a light lunch or a drink, but hopefully I can find a corner somewhere and watch people going about their days.  Then, I hope to do some useful things and some blog catch up reading!  I haven't really read any in days, due to business rather than lack of internet, and I feel out of the loop!

Wishing you all a fabulous weekend.  The birds are singing here and the sun is trying to come out.

Bis bald

x

Bikes, viewings and coaches

I've been away for a few days, a visit to Cambridge, England.  

I lived there for 4 years as a student, not at THE Cambridge uni unfortunately, and then again for almost 2 years as an office temp.  Now I am heading there a final time, for a maximum of a year, whilst I work out my next move.  

Cambridge is a nice city, except that city seems the wrong word to describe it.  It is more like a biggish town.  It is beautiful in the spring and summer.  As you'd expect, it is swarming with cyclists, some on pretty Dutch bikes, some on proper road bikes, most on dodgy cheap bikes.  And then, there is that separate category, the tourist on a rental bike.  This usually takes the form of a gang of teenagers, on bikes rented from a place near the train station, that take up the whole road whilst chatting away in some other language.  As you can understand, they are not a motorist's best friend.

I arrived Sunday afternoon and spent my time a friend who was kind enough to let me stay.  We chatted, ate and watched "Pitch Perfect".  Have you seen it?  It is a really great film!  Well, it is if things like "Glee" make you happy.  It's a more grown up version, with a great sense of humour.  That does not mean that it is not still cheesy, feel good fun.  There's also a great scene where the main character performs a song whilst using cups as her background music, let's see if I can find a clip on youtube...

If you like that, you'll most probably enjoy the film.

What else?  I spent Monday afternoon with a good friend of mine, we wandered around town and then went to her new home for a catch up and lunch.  She had made the most amazing butternut squash soup, it had chilli and ginger in it.  I then headed to the house I used to live in, my old landlady was kind enough to offer me a place to stay for a few days.  I spent a lovely evening with her and her friends.  

The next day I scoured the internet for jobs and rooms to look at, before heading to the train station to meet my friend from the previous day.  Have you ever heard of "Strictly Come Dancing"?  I believe in America they call it "Dancing with the Stars".  Every year, after the live TV series has finished, the winners and an assortment of previous contestants embark on a live tour.  We headed to Wembley Arena to watch it, my friend had received tickets as a gift and I was lucky enough to be invited.  It was really great to see the dancers perform in "real life".  Watching the crowd as we headed to our seats, there were quite a few reluctant husbands in the audience.  It was a wonderful evening of disco balls, over the top reactions from the judges and sequins.  At one point one of the male contestants almost dropped his professional dance partner, the whole audience gasped and then let out a collective sigh as he managed to "rearrange" her at the last minute and save the dance.

That brings us to Wednesday.  A day filled with making arrangements and viewing rooms, none with any success.  A random day where I felt like a headless chicken most of the time.  I was reminded of how expensive it is to live in Cambridge, I may have to up my budget...  The places I saw varied from houses that were almost dorm like to lodging with an Italian family where I wouldn't be able to relax anywhere but my room.  No, no and no.  I will go back next week for round two.  Once I made it "home" I ended up curled up on the sofa, with my landlady and her friend, for the evening.

Yesterday, Thursday, was home time.  I was picked up by a friend and we went to Grantchester, near Cambridge, to walk a dog she is looking after for the week.  It was a beautiful morning, we were lucky.  Afterwards, we had time to drop the dog off and eat a biscuit (or three) before she took me to the coach stop to catch my coach.  It takes forever, but using the National Express coach to Victoria and then catching the train really keeps the cost of the trip down.  My mum was nice enough to pick me up from the station and I then crashed out on my bed with a cuppa and some crap TV.

The end.

x

Weekends and photo challenges

So, Friday is here!  Do you have anything fun planned this weekend?

Today I FINALLY made it to the post office to send my friend her very belated birthday present.  I love sending post, as you may be able to tell by the doodles on the jiffy bag...  But, is there anything more exciting than getting something special delivered to you by the postman (or landing on your doormat with a thud)?

 

This weekend I will be heading up to Cambridge, Cambridgeshire.  I am hoping to move there soon, I've lived there before (twice) so I know people I can stay with whilst I look for a house share and a job.  Will be nice to be near friends again, I've been a bit alienated the last few months.

This month I will be partaking in the Fat Mum Slim February 2013 photo a day challenge, I tried last month and did pretty well until the last few days.  If you are interested here is the link to the list.  I have done my own 365 project in the past, but at the time I was living in South Korea so taking a different photo every day was easy, everything was new and exciting!  However, having a daily prompt can be quite challenging, especially if I'm feeling artistic.

1. Fork

Hope you have fun, whatever you get up to.  I'm working on some posts at the moment, something way more interesting should be headed this way soon!