The Playground @ Tup Tup

Headed down to Tup Tup for The Playground with Millie and my whole house (who all decided to spontaneously come out after having one too many drinks at Bar Blanc…!). We danced ourselves into the early hours and I highly embarrassed myself by dancing like a lunatic and cutting some serious shapes dancing up on the sofas…. whoops. Afterwards we chilled in Ned’s room in Gibb for a while before crashing and finally falling asleep at 6am. Joss and Oli took a play fight a little too far and Joss ended up in A&E with a 3 inch gash in his head and 14 stitches. According to the boys it was funny and Joss seems bizarelly chuffed with his injury…. I’ll never understand boys!

Here are some photos of my lovely friends and some others from the night: 

Millie and Joe

Millie is coming to stay! She’s booked her Megabus ticket up to Newcastle just now and will be snuggled in my bed with me later on today. Happiness! However, Joe is leaving tomorrow to head back home all the way down south to begin planning his next adventure. He’s going to go to Thailand and do a diving course to become an instructor. Was so good to see him and I probably wont again until July just before I would potentially leave for Australia….! Eek! Gunna miss that boy. This picture is of him and my favourite of his dogs (Badger) and was taken one day down at his yurt over the summer. Possibly one of my favourite photos EVER.

Django Unchained

I went to go see Django Unchained with Joe, Oli and Harry…. it is the most ridiculous film ever and the soundtrack is amazing! Going to go and download it all now. Quentin Tarantino is such a good director, his style is so different and really easy to identify with all the super-imposed text. Definitely the best film I’ve seen for a while.

Bonobo - The North Borders

Just found out that Bonobo are releasing a new album on 1st April called ‘The North Borders’. I saw them at Outlook and I am so excited for this….! It’s only £7 and you can pre-order it now. Done.

Horizon Festival

Oh HELP I need to go to this festival so badly…! The line-up is incredible and it’s a festival AND a skiing holiday all in one. Also, because I cant book anything for the summer yet (because of Australia), I’m tempted to just blow the money I’ve saved up so far on this… I’ll earn more for the summer if I don’t go abroad. I’d go with Oli, Tally, Joe, Millie and Joss and it would be amazing... buuutttttt everyone is umming and erring about ticket prices. I am determined, however. Have a look at the promotional video... you'll be coming too.

Club Tropicana

We went out on a Monday night for the first time in ages, Floritas used to be a familiar haunt of ours last year but now it's kind of lost it's magic as we over did it a bit. It is a nice club though, and Club Tropicana on a Monday is a good student night. It was fun to dress up and party with the girls, I never seem to do that anymore! Somehow pre-drinks ended up being about 80 people in our house and it was a state this morning. Floritas was empty at first but then soon was packed and by the end you couldn’t move. Oli was really ill but came out anyway but is dying in bed this morning with a serious case of Man Flu. (I feel mean saying that actually, I think he is actually pretty unwell… but you know how boys moan). One of my housemates Ilinca had some girl smash her head with a glass, which was lovely… drunken bitch whoever she was. More unexplained kissing and nakedness from the rest of my housemates…. the usual suspects, and plenty of photos to shame them in the morning! Loads of people came back to ours afterwards as well, so we didn’t really get to bed until about 5am. I don't feel too hungover today, just tired. And I think I can feel the flu creeping up on me AHH….

Poppy's Marathon Plans

One of my housemates is running the London Marathon in April for Whizz-Kidz. If anyone could spare a couple of quid that would be great - just click here. This is a photo of her training hard... hmm...

Shindig W34/018

I worked at Shindig W34 last night where Loco Dice was playing. Poppy, Georgia, Dunny, Phoebe and Sharples came to work with me and Oli. We began work at 9 and it was already freeeeezing. Phoebe, Sharples and Dunny were on the internal bar, Poppy and Georgia were on external, I did the cloakroom and Oli ran the stock.

The set up there is so basic but it works so well. It’s just a huge warehouse with a massive sound-system and light show at one end and a larger internal bar and an external trailer bar outside. Inside the atmosphere is amazing. It wasn’t too bad a shift, the cold was the worst bit and I honestly hung up over 600 coats which became so repetitive. Had so much stuff handed in this time, two wallets, a phone, about seven bank cards and a camera. One of the wallets belongs to a guy at Newcastle so I’ve brought it home with me and emailed him on his uni email to tell him I’ve got it. Good samaritan!

Some friends of mine came to the event too so when it was quiet I could chat to them which was nice. Finished the shift at 5am and hurried home to catch up on some sleep. So exhausted! I’m becoming nocturnal….

Rubix and Turbulence

Leeds

Just got back from Leeds and I am so exhausted, I feel like half a person.
When I arrived Jack met me off the bus and I went to go see his flat - it’s like a miniature little New York apartment with brick walls on the inside and his room is amazing! He’s got all his music equipment set up on his desk and his bed’s on the floor so it’s honestly the most cosy comfy room ever. I met his flatmates who’re all also at Leeds College of Music and then we headed to Dry Dock to meet Millie. It’s the coolest pub as it’s just a big renovated boat with amazing decor inside and £1 pints. So good! We stayed there for a few hours and chatted to loads of people. I met this guy who was telling me how the choice of finger you wear your ring on can tell you something about your personality. It’s all linked to the greek gods apparently…

After that I went back with Millie to her halls and snuggled down in bed together. The next day we spent the morning sorting out all the art she had to hand in and dropped it off at the Art Department after a little tour round the uni. We just left it and ran away to go see Jack because she was worried she’d only done about a quarter of the work she was meant to…!
We met Jack and Izzy and went for lunch at Coffee Duran and had the most amazing paninis. 

After that we went and had a look at some of the markets and had a random inspiration to do some tie dying so went and bought some cheap white tshirts and dye and headed back to Jack’s. We took over the whole kitchen and each made two tshirts with grey and green dye. We made such a mess but the looked great in the end! If you're feeling arty and wanna try some tie/dip dye you can find a good guide here.
Whilst we waited for the dye to set we just chilled, tried our hand as some skateboarding round the flat and listened to some of Jack’s music that he makes with his friend Francis. Their band is called Capua Collective, find them on Soundcloud here: https://soundcloud.com/capua-collective

Our t-shirts came our really well in the end, my favourite of mine was this one:

We stayed at Jacks for a while and he showed me a little note I’d written three years ago talking about us being at university up north together! So funny to be sat together reading it doing exactly what I’d predicted…

After several thousand cups of tea we headed back to Millie’s for some supper and to get ready to go out. On the way back we passed her house for next year which she’ll be sharing with nine other girls - it looks massive! We made an absolute ton of pesto pasta and then got changed and headed over to a friend’s flat to drink where I met all her future housemates. We then moved on another halls and bumped into so many people I knew from travelling over the summer in that flat. George and Li were on such good form and I met loads of their friends. Was so good to see them on such good form.

We hopped in some taxis and arrived at Mint Wearhouse for Flux and I saw Bertie in the queue just by coincidence. So lucky! Also bumped into a friend Rosie who I haven’t seen in about three years. Such a small world in Leeds.

We partied hard until we left at about 5.30am and then spent the rest of the night in Bertie’s room listening to his record collection - each vinyl worth £300 as they were all original pressings. Was so nice to catch up and people came and went until we left and went to bed at about 8am.

We slept in until about 1 the next day and the popped to a local cafe LS6 for some lunch where everyone who we’d been with last night was doing the same as us and grabbing some recovery food and a health-kick smoothie. After that we watched a film in bed (The Accidental Husband… never watch it, it’s shite) and before I knew it I had to say my goodbyes and get back on the Megabus up to Newcastle. So sad!

Not too bad though as Joe had come up to stay for a week and everyone finishes their exams today so there’s still fun to bed had before Semester 2 starts again…! Going to miss Millie and Jack though, you guys better get your asses up here soon!

Eton Messy Mix 6

Megabus

Just redeemed some Tesco clubcard vouchers worth £10 for Megabus so I’ve booked to go down to Leeds for three days and it’s only cost me £10.50 in all! Going to go visit Millie and Jack and chill with them for a bit. Haven’t been to Leeds yet and quite looking forward to getting out of Newcastle as it’s driving me crazy being cooped up here with nothing to do whilst everyone else is working.
These two beauties are my host and hostess for the next few days:

Two Years One Month

It’s mine and Oli’s two years and one month today. So happy and still going strong, unbelievably! This is a photo that was taken at my 20th in October. (The theme was Moulin Rouge, he doesn’t usually wear top hats…)

Fion and Highstreet - Back Now

I'm loving this at the moment.

RGB

I’ve just discovered this artist 'Carnovsky' who creates wallpaper which is layered in different colours. When the room is lit in a certain colour, or you look through glasses with different coloured lenses, or even take a photograph with a certain coloured filter, different layers of the picture reveal themselves. So beautiful! Here are some photos: 

His exhibition ‘RGB’ was shown during Milan design week and it's mad! Take a look at his website here: http://www.carnovsky.com/RGB.htm

Nomination Form

Ahhh yikes. I went and had a meeting today at the International Office to talk about my year abroad application process. My nomination form for Sydney has to be in by Friday, though I have to go and get it approved by the Year Abroad DPD for the Music Department before, and he could quite easily tell me that my exams results for my first three semesters haven’t been good enough... and tell me that I can’t go. There’s only five places for students from Newcastle at the University of New South Wales and people are applying from all humanities, sciences and arts… and there’s already five applying from music so it’s hugely competitive. 
My application for Salamanca has to be in by the end of February so I have a little longer for that one. Not nearly as motivated for there though….

Finished Exams!

The last exam was hard, but I actually think it went quite well and felt that my revision had actually paid off. Such a good feeling to have finished now! I went straight to the pub with some of my course mates and snugged up with a yummy lunch and a couple of drinks. If you're up in Newcastle and have never been, pay a quick visit to The Hancock as it's a lovely little pub with some super cheap food and drinks, and different deals on every day. They have all sorts going on too, like big screens for the sport and quiz nights etc. and it's just a cute little student pub - check it out here. 
It was so nice to be able to just do nothing and watch the snow outside and get drunk without feeling guilty! The boys tried to teach me how to play pool…. didn’t go so well. I'm a bit spatially and angularly retarded...
I then spent the afternoon with Oli shopping for a friend’s birthday present and I spoilt myself and got this lovely little bra in the Urban Outfitters sale - only £4.50 with my student discount. A HELLS YEAH. Urban Outfitters have such amazing sales, their usual prices are outrageous for what the clothes are, so as a little tip - always wait for the sale. 

New Year Photos

Tally got her film back and has uploaded the photos! Ahaaaaa they are AMAZING. Here are a few of the most spectacular….

SNOW!

There is SO MUCH SNOW up in Newcastle at the moment! Our road looks so pretty in the snow, though there are mobs of yobs with snowballs and you cant walk down the street without being bombarded. We have to travel around in a huddle to protect ourselves.

This is my housemate Sophie just when it started snowing. She looks so cute all wrapped up, I couldn’t stop taking photos of her…!

Its been falling on and off over the past week so we’ve definitely had at least a foot now. There’s been proper blizzards at times. Last night it was so deep when we walked to the shop - we saw someone barricading in someone’s door so that when they opened the door it was just a wall of snow. So ridiculous... but hilarious!

Bit boring that it’s snowing just when I have my hardest exam. I WANT TO GO AND PLAY! In two days I’m done though, thank god. And then I shall party. Very hard. Looks like this week is going to be snowy and freezing every day though… 

Year Abroad

So I finally submitted my first form for my year abroad. Took me a while, but I decided on Salamanca and University of New South Wales in Sydney.

First choice is definitely Sydney as it would be incredible and the Music Department there does everything, which is what I want. Only thing is, is that I’d leave here in July just after exams finished and wouldn’t come back til the next June…. I’d miss all the English summer and the festivals and, though I know this is a pathetic thing to say, I’m going to miss everyone’s 21sts too! 

My family were planning on going to Sydney for Christmas in 2013 though, so they would come and see me for 3 weeks at about halfway through my year away, which would be ideal. Its such an opportunity, but I’d leave a lot behind too…

Salamanca is a bit more of a prestigious conservertoire, rather than a university, but also does Musicology as well as performing which would be good. I’d have to learn Spanish again, though I’d quite like to do that as it’s good for getting jobs etc. in the future. Not sure if it would be 100% right for me but it’s better than going nowhere…!

So thats the form in just to get the ball rolling, it’s nothing final, it just lets the International Office know what I might plan to do.

In the mean time, this is what I'm listening and groovin' away to at the moment:

Frank Ocean - Channel Orange

I am completely obsessed with Frank Ocean’s album ‘Channel ORANGE’ which I got for Christmas. I love his lyrics and his voice. So smoooooottttthhhhhhhhhhhhh. Have a little listen... your ears will thank you.

New Year's Resolutions

So I am desperately trying to think of some New Years resolutions to make myself a better and happier being in 2013. I don’t know why I should even bother thinking any up because I never bloody stick to them, but it seems like I should oblige to this tradition. 

So far, I have come up with:

1. Go the the gym. At least once.

I tackled my parents about the whole gym membership thing and my Dad just said “Well how about you spend less money on food and spend it on a membership instead?” which basically means he has no faith in me because I’m fat and lazy. Cheers pap. I don’t actually spend that much money on food, and the food I eat is genuinely healthy, though I am a little squishy round the edges.

I do actually have every intention of going to the gym, whether its a resolution or not, however, as most of my house mates go and all I would have to do is whack on a sports bra and hop in a car and they would drive me there. Then I could faff about on the cross-trainer for a while and gawp at all the other girls’ fit, toned bottoms (something I will never have). I’ve recently lost a 4kg completely out the blue and this has inspired me to try and look like this:

Oh Miranda. You’re great. She’s even had a baby and still looks like this. How is that even possible!? I think another one could be:

2. Get up earlier.

I waste far too much time in bed and I realised, when I do get up early, just how much you can actually get done in a day! Sleeping is one of my favourite things to do and it’s awful that Oli’s halls are so close to my where the Music Department is as I treat his bed as a little nest I can snuggle in when I have an hour to kill between lectures (whether he’s there or not!). I love the mornings in Newcastle too, wintery sunshine is so beautiful… it’s just the horizontal rain and freezing wind which make some of the mornings hell. Getting stuff done is so much more appealing when the days start sunny side up.

3. Get back in touch with old friends.

This is one I’ve literally just thought of. I think staying in touch is pretty important actually, and these days, what with Facebook and texting, it’s just so EASY… and yet I’m shit at it. I think it would be nice to get back in touch with some people I used to be so close to, and find out what’s going on in their life... and just catch up! I think there’s a lot you can learn from other people and the things they have to say. I miss a lot of people and all I would have to do is drop them a quick email to speak to them again.

4. Get better at cooking.

I’m not awful, I can cook. Oli and are actually quite good at it… it’s just I’m lazy and my housemates are so good at it they just end up doing it all. Whilst I don’t mind doing all the washing up (I find it bizarrely therapeutic!?) I would like to improve my culinary skills and wow everyone’s tastebuds with some yummy meals. I have to admit though, that there was this one time where Millie and I cooked a stir fry for everyone... and it was going great until Sophie suggested that we used up her noodles rather than buying fresh ones! It was only when everyone sat down to eat, and found that the food tasted like stale piss, that we looked at the packet and realised they went off in 2006. Went down a treat. NOT. I don’t know why we didn’t think to check if they were in date when they were in a solid block covered in slimey green goo, and we had to mash them up in the pan to get them to cook... hmm…. maybe I’m not such a good cook after all!

I don’t know, I’m running out of ideas now, thinking up resolutions is actually quite hard as it's difficult to strike the balance between something achievable and still actually having a goal. Maybe I’ll come up with some more at a later date, but for now I’m going to try and stick to these.

New Years Day, and the days that followed...

Just got home from our three day New Year party at the Ellingworth’s. I am EXHAUSTED and can barely move, but it was best few days ever - I love my friends!

I picked up an old school friend from Salisbury, Lottie, and we drove together in my little red mini all the way to Joe’s. It's quite a long journey but gave us time to catch up and she filled me in on all her adventures and relationship mishaps. That girl has no shame! We arrived at Joe’s, miraculously, without getting lost - for the first time EVER! (Being able to use my iPhone as a SatNav is such a saviour, my sense of direction is appalling...) 

We were greeted with a kitchen full of smiling faces, very large glasses of wine, and many entusiastic hugs for each other - I hadn't seen Jack for a year to the day so was so so good to se him again. 

Joss and Joe (the now professional cooks after a month's cooking course at The Grange) cooked pork, dauphinois potatoes and yummy home grown veg for the meal, which we washed down with some more (pretty damn nice) wine. The dining room was all laid out so beautifully and everyone sat down to eat; parents, Amanda and Charlie’s family friends, all us rabble, the lot. Most of the conversation over supper was about Joe’s leg and all the operations he’s had, poor boy. So good to see him back on his feet now, despite all the bandages he’s wrapped in…! I was ashamedly pretty disappointed when I arrived and he was actually walking, I was ready to play hospitals… but no.

We then all moved into the drawing room and New Year came around pretty fast - there was mass panic for a while as we only managed to get the telly working 43 seconds before the fireworks began…! I took so many close-up photos of the fireworks, it looks like I was actually there:

Celebrations carried on long into the night and everyone was very merry and happy to be together again. Most people had a serious case of ‘Red Wine Teeth’ but it was great to have us all together again and a massive blow-out was just what I needed after trudging through my 2500 word essay and two portfolios all holiday. By 6am things had got seriously weird and I hardly slept that night, meaning that I spent most of the next day curled up in the spare room’s huge double bed, much to everyone’s annoyance as I missed some of the clearing up 'fun'. Natalia, who's one of those really irritatingly beautiful bi-lingual Spanish goddesses, told us about some weird Spanish tradition about stuffing 12 grapes into your mouth when it turns midnight, however this just ended up in obsessive grape eating throughout the entire night. Here’s a photo of mine and Lottie’s ‘New Year Grapes’:

On New Years Day Amanda and Charlie escaped the mad-house to visit a friend, and before they left, Amanda drilled me (apparently Joe told her I was the responsible one!? Paha WHAT!?) about all the food she wanted eaten and what we were and were NOT allowed to use/drink/eat/break/dress up in. We all crashed together on the sofa for the majority of the day, but things got going again and we were in for another night of ridiculous antics...

The next day (this is the 2nd Janurary now...!) around 40 more people arrived in the evening and 'Joe's Overdue Party' began. It was so good to see people like the twins and Tonni again, I haven't seen them in ages. Everyone looked great in their fancy dress - the theme was 'You are what you drink' and this meant that you had to dress up as a native of the country of which the alcohol you were drinking came from. For example, if you decided to bring a bottle of Tequila, then you dressed as a Mexican. This prompted some very weird costumes and some pretty experimental cocktails...! Oli got the lazers, smoke machine and decks working (which the Ellingworth's just casually have amongst the antiques in their drawing room!?) and we partied hard until about 7am. How we had the energy still after two nights, I'll never know. 

We crammed 5 people into one bed that night, there were so many people that even Joe’s house couldn’t cater for everyone…! In the morning we all attempted to help tidy up and then Oli and I drove back to his and crashed in bed, only surfacing after 14 hours sleep.

I’ve finally mustered up the energy to drive home and my body is suffering severe exhaustion. My attention span is roughy -1 minutes and I have no strength to do anything. I thought I’d be back on form today after having a good night sleep and told myself I would come home and start some more work. But no. There is no chance of that happening…! 

Bed time again now.