2013: Week 6

This week, I pretty much spent the entire week being excited about going home at the weekend. I had the usual load of work to do, and I had a load of fun at Glee, but all I could think about was seeing my family again. I did get to use my new knife set though. It's better than my old knife, which is surprising as they only cost 10p. But they are so pretty!

I like colourful things. That's the only picture this week unfortunately. I'm really not good at remembering to take them.

Anyway, Friday finally came around, and I got to go home. I had to stand around waiting for a bus for an hour, because three didn't come when they said they would, and then I was waiting for another half hour for the train, so by the time I got on the train I was pretty freezing and worn out. But the train was warm, and only an hours ride to Stafford where Apollo was waiting to pick me up.

When I got home, there were lots of hugs waiting for me, which made me very happy. I had a bit of a sing song with my sister, and performed Skyfall for my mum and Apollo because they wanted to hear it after I told them about singing it at Glee. Then me, Apollo and my sister all watched Dark Shadows to end the evening.

Saturday was basically spent singing with my sister. We worked our way through three High School Musical piano books (yes, we are that cool), Wicked, Disney and, of course, our favourite I Dreamed a Dream. Which reminds me, I may only have one picture, but I have a video I can show you!



The most exciting thing about the weekend though, and the main reason I chose this weekend for a visit, was because Les Miserables was playing at the local cinema. I have been wanting to see this film ever since Apollo told me about the trailer the first time he saw it. I had no idea what it was actually about, but I knew it would be amazing. It had three very important things going for it for starters.

1) It has I Dreamed a Dream in it, which, as I said before, is a song that I very much love because I sing it all the time with my sister.

2) It has Anne Hathaway in it. If you hadn't noticed that I am basically in love with her by now, then I worry for you. I'm not very subtle about it.

3) It has Anne Hathaway singing I Dreamed a Dream in it. Everything I could ever ask for!

I was under no illusions that this film would be a happy film. It's called Les Miserables for starters... But I was still so excited to see it.

I was not let down. It was honestly amazing. I cried, like, three times and got goosebumps during some of the bigger songs. Oh it was good! Even Sacha Baron Cohen wasn't annoying in it, and I really don't like him normally. It is playing again on 18th March, and I have pretty much already decided that I'm going to go see it again.

The rest of the weekend was spent just slobbing around watching House with Apollo, trying to do a bit of work, recording the piano for a song to sing in Glee on Tuesday, and filming the video above.

When it got to the time for me to leave, it still wasn't any easier than the first time. I don't know why, but I still cry every time. I mean, I'm halfway through my second term now, and I still cry at the thought of leaving my mum or Apollo. It just makes everything that much harder, and makes me feel really weak and like I can't do anything. It's really annoying because it eats into the time I do spend with them, as I'm just moping around at the thought of having to leave later. I'm trying to remind myself that it's only two weeks until Apollo comes to visit again though. Hopefully the time won't go too slowly.

2013: Week 5

This week I have been so tired. A mix of staying up too late, having lots of work and rehearsals for Glee left me feeling pretty dead on my feet. I don't really want to talk about the week though. The weekend was much more interesting.

For the first time in 4 weeks, Apollo came for a visit. 4 weeks is probably the longest we've gone without seeing each other, and after practically living together over Christmas, it was really hard. I don't like to be away from my family.

When he got here on Friday, we just slobbed around for the evening, eating pizza and watching TV. We finally got round to watching the other DVD we bought after Christmas when the whole poster fiasco happened.

I really enjoyed it. Lots of explosions, chases, fight scenes and Scarlett Johansson running around with Ewan McGregor. Top film. Even if some of the things they survived were completely ridiculous.

On Saturday we got up early to venture into Coventry to buy a book for Apollo and to go into the comic book store, Forbidden Planet. I love it in there. There are so many cool things that I could just look at all day. Unfortunately they are also quite expensive, but I can still dream. That Lego Millenium Falcon will be mine one day! We did leave with one treat though. We bought a Spiderman Graphic novel. I'm looking forwards to reading it when I get the chance.

After getting some chips for lunch, we spent most of the rest of the day hanging around with Glee, preparing for the performance we had in the One World Week Carnival in the evening. I know it can't have been too much fun for Apollo, just waiting around all day, but I'm really glad that he did because I really enjoyed the performance and I'm happy that he got to meet my fellow Gleeks. This was the first performance where we had proper costumes that weren't just a vague colour scheme. It was awesome. The look we were going for was creepy.

I think we managed it XD I walked round Costcutter looking like that as well. I've never had my hair so big! I felt like I'd fallen out of Grease with my big hair and black clothes. Then someone told me I looked like Bellatrix LeStrange from Harry Potter, and basically made my life. Seriously, of all the Harry Potter characters to look like, Bellatrix LeStrange is an awesome one. It was nice that Apollo got to see us perform as well. I didn't have any solos this time, which would have been nice for the weekend he was here, but I think our songs were cool enough that I didn't mind.

Although the costume was awesome, it was kind of hard to get the make up off. The black eyeliner came off fine, there was just a lot of it, but the gold line was stubborn. In fact the black underneath the gold came off before the gold did. I'm not sure how that works... The hair wasn't as hard as I thought it would be to tame, but it did leave my brush looking rather fabulously sparkly.

We spent the rest of the evening feasting on the magnificent dish of nachos we made, and watching How I Met Your Mother.

They were gooooood.

This morning, Apollo introduced me to a show he watches at home called Britain's Brightest. Weirdly, one of the contestants reminded me of my Differential Equations lecturer from last term. He then watched the Rugby while I got on with my analysis assignment. I surprised myself this time, because normally on Sunday morning, I know that Apollo will be leaving soon and spend most of the day on the brink of tears. This time it wasn't until he said "I'm going to leave after this finishes" that it really hit me. I hate it when he has to go. I cry every single time, today was no exception. He's here for just long enough that I get used to having him around again, and then he has to go. It sucks.

I just have to try to remember that I get to go home next weekend, so I can see him and everyone else again. It's just hard sometimes to not think that a week is a really long time. Because right now it feels like it is.

2013: Week 4

This week saw the snow begin to thaw. It's just as well, the ice rink outside my building was starting to be a bit treacherous.

And I think I've been wearing my gloves maybe a little bit too much...

I don't have any pictures of this, but on Tuesday I got to sing my first proper solo for a Glee performance. I sang Skyfall by Adele and everyone said I did it really well. One person even told me I gave her goosebumps when I sang it in the practise! I've never given anyone goosebumps when I've sung before, so that made me really happy :)

I didn't feel quite so happy after my first tutor meeting of the term on Thursday. It's bad enough that I had three assignments all due in that day, as well as almost 6 hours solid of work starting at 9 o'clock in the morning, but during the tutor session we had to describe our strengths, weaknesses and skills we learned in the modules we did last term. I hate doing that sort of thing. I actually cannot do it. It made me feel like I hadn't learned anything. And then I had a bit of a panic attack that I wasn't good enough for the course, and poor Apollo had to deal with me being all depressed and grumpy. So the next day I came up with a plan. It involved a quick trip to Wilko's, and lots of colourful pens.

Hopefully with this extra work I plan on doing, I will feel more confident that I can actually do maths at Warwick standard.

After a very long week, and with our kitchen having power back in the plug sockets again, I made myself a hot chocolate with marshmallows and a crushed flake I found in my snack box.

It was good :)

2013: Week 3

Basically, this week it snowed. A lot. And I took a lot of bad pictures of it.

I was trying to take a picture to show how heavy the snow was falling, and how pretty it looked. Didn't work... All this snow, however, meant that it was time to get out the cosy socks, crank up the heating, and have a hot drink.

I finally got round to using the whiteboard (wipeboard?) side of my super grown-up chalk board set.

The chalk board also came in handy when designing my rollercoaster for my Geometry and Motion homework. No lie, that was one of the questions. It actually sucked.

Apollo helped me to plan out a story line for my flash video UWC challenge.

Apparently it is a lot warmer inside my room than it is outside. I have a small lake growing on my windowsill...

Also, all of my posters appear to be cowering (or bowing down to) the sheer awesomeness that is my Catwoman poster. They keep falling off the wall. It is quite annoying.

Even my original Catwoman poster can't face the awesomeness!

So that was my week. Just ended it perfectly with a take out curry with the rest of my kitchen. I am looking forwards to left over lunch tomorrow, I can tell you!

2013: Week 2

This week has been all about getting back into Uni life.

 The first few days were spent on solid revision for the exam I had on Wednesday. I found this really hard for a couple of reasons. The more I revised, the more I realised that I didn't really know a lot of the content for one of the modules in the exam. The more I realised this, the more I stressed out about it. The more I stressed out about it, the more I wished I was still at home with my family. The more I sat there missing my family, the more I realised I was wasting precious revision time. It was a vicious cycle. I managed to do a load of revision. I went through two revision guides, and filled half an A4 notebook with notes and exam practise.

So you can imagine that when it got to Wednesday evening, and I could tick off the exam, a huge weight lifted from me, and I began to relax back into my Uni routine.

I even managed to polish off a big plate full of pasta. I was meant to take a picture before I ate it, but I came out of my exam REALLY hungry!

I looked up at my desk and noticed that Pascal seems to look happier than usual. I'm not sure why that is...

I no longer have ducks outside my building in the morning. Instead I have Canada Geese. And let me tell you, they are huge. Quite terrifying really.

My new chalk board has been put to good use already. I actually really love it. It is the coolest thing ever. Makes me feel proper geeky :)

I got woken up at 3.40 this morning by a fire alarm, and had to stand outside in the freezing cold for 10 minutes. In my pyjamas. I was meant to be asleep -.- I did however get to go to archery for the first time since the beginning of last term (oops!) today. I think I'm actually quite good at it, for a beginner anyway. My arm wasn't so convinced though...

It's amazing the damage a piece of string can do! I had fun though, and can't wait to go again next week :)

So that was my week. More pictures and hopefully blog posts next week!

2013: Week 1

The first week of the new year has been a very mixed bag of emotions for me.

On New Year's Eve, it was my younger sister's birthday. She turned 16, so naturally, my 4 year old sister thought it would be appropriate to decorate a white chocolate snowman as a gift. She's so thoughtful. She did end up eating most of it though, as the birthday girl was more interested in the jelly sweet things around it.

I went after-Christmas-shopping with Apollo, Mum and various siblings. I got a cool new chalk board (which yes, it does say ages 3-8 on the box). Apollo bought me some DVDs to take back to Uni with me, and I bought a couple of posters because they were two for a fiver, and I had finally found the Catwoman poster I've been looking for basically since I saw it when The Dark Knight Rises came out in the cinema.

Isn't that just the most beautiful poster you have ever seen? Apollo wasn't so please with his Spiderman poster however...

I think I laughed for 3 days after he unrolled that. Best £5 I've ever spent!

We had a marshmallow, or 'Mashmallow' party as a farewell to me before I went back to Uni. People seemed to enjoy smearing toasted marshmallows on Justin/Spiderman's face rather than eating them. Can't imagine why...

My Step-dad also tried to impersonate the pose. Didn't really work did it?

Then came the time for me to go back to Uni. Mum, my Step-dad and the babies took me back on-route to visiting a friend in Swindon, so me and Apollo got an extra long goodbye when he stayed with me instead of going to Swindon. We built my chalk board up, which then got loads of messages written on it.

Apollo and I spent the rest of the evening, after putting away the tonne of food my parents kindly bought me, watching Big Bang Theory, 2 Broke Girls, Grahame Norton and finally Juno. In between enjoying spending my last day with him, I kept bursting into tears thinking about him and the rest of my family leaving the next day.

My parents and the babies returned the next day with lunch. After food and a drink, we went back to my room, had a little chat then said goodbye. I cried, again. I hate it when everyone leaves. It's so hard knowing that everyone I love isn't just downstairs, in the next room, or even on the other side of our small town.

I'm going to miss these two munchkins like crazy. And my Mum. And Apollo. And singing with my sister. Instead of all the mad things we do together, I have to think about taking an exam on Wednesday, and trying to survive on my own for four weeks before I can see Apollo again. And trying not to cry all the time because I miss them. I'm not doing a great job of that so far...

I love you guys.