America, black bouncers and free chips

How times fly when you're having fun! I'm more than half way through my holidays already! And I still have far too much uni work left to do, makes me wonder what I've even been doing for the last two weeks. The amount of work i now have to do is scaring me, I just can't motivate myself at home though, I need to go to the library or something, ick.

Anyhow, most exciting news ever! I'm going to America in the summer for sure! Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee! The American woman eventually rang me! I'd given her two time slots of five hours last week and she'd failed to call in either and she now finally rang me yesterday. Now as most people who know me will know, I hate phone calls, I'm better than I used to be, and can now talk to my friends and family easily enough, but anyone else and I'm hopeless. So that made it bad enough, then given the fact its international that means everything's a little bit quieter and harder to hear, and then the fact it was an interview for part of the phone call. Yuck. But I survived quite well I think!

So yeh, roll on June 6th! I'm on the camp until August 10th then I'll probably travel for about 3 weeks and come home after that. I'm supposed to be either swim teaching or in a more general role. I'll be living in tents all summer and will have no Internet access most of the time. I think I'm gonna get a new phone that'll work in America, and I can get decent Internet on, so I can send emails etc. And my phone is currently dying so I don't feel too bad about that! I'm also getting a life guarding qualification for pools and lakes, so I'm hoping I might be able to apply for a job back at home then, which then gives free swimming with any luck. Its a shame I let my other one run out really. But seriously, ahhhhhh, so excited!

For the nosey amongst you the camp is called Camp Mosey Wood, and there's a website, here . . . http://www.gsep.org/pdf/camping/mosey_wood.pdf

Anyhow, I've not been up to a lot else really, working etc. But we did go out to Bristol on Monday night, which was fairly eventful. The theme was fame which was hilarious, the clashing outfits and backcombing was epic. Anyway I was horrendously drunk after losing drinking games before we had even left Carrie's flat. I then went on to terrify Rich (Gemma's boyfriend who I have at least met before when sober) and Paul (her housemate I had never met). But its all good fun and games.

After a walk into town which I do not remember we were meant to be going to Thekla but they had some crazy pub quiz night on instead of the normal student night. Anyway everywhere seemed to be closed so we ended up in Lloyds. For those of you who think Lloyds is a bank, its also a chain of bars nationwide which are linked to Wetherspoons, the main difference being that they play music. So not really an ideal night out stop, please bare this in mind later in the story. Anyway it was quite busy so it was good fun. And there were a lot of random people around who talked to us, mainly other students who had discovered everywhere was closed too. Anyway we got the bar man's number and then . . .

It was nearly closing time, and we had been behaving ourselves fine. So when the bouncer started being really rude to us, like he's been having problems with us all night, I thought it was a little rude. Anyway he walked off and I was telling my friends what had happened, and described him as 'a black guy', which in my defence he was. And he decided to chuck me out for this, in the process of which he poured my drink, which was fairly full AND I had paid for down my friends leg. What a ridiculous over reaction. I reckon he was one of those people that can't accept they are black, or as I put it earlier, he was just 'some nigger on a power trip'. Alright you guys probably think I'm racist the amount I make jokes along those lines, but most of you I hope, know I'm joking, I'm not racist at all, and that was a descriptive comment. But I WAS CHUCKED OUT, of Lloyds of all places.

It was only once this had happened I realised how drunk I was, cos I started crying. I never ever ever cry when I'm drunk, this was genuinely the first time. But i sat in the road outside Lloyds and sobbed. And I was like, 'Why the fuck am I even crying?' but carried on regardless. That being said it was a good night, we then wondered the streets for about an hour trying to lose some random guys we'd picked up who were trying to convince us to go back to theirs. And Gemma and I got cheesy chips and the nice guy gave us free salad. And that was the end of another eventful night with the Wotton girls.

What a load of babble.

Eeeeee, exciting news! This morning I opened my email expecting to find loads of spam and emails from my library saying someone had requested my books and I'd have to post them back (a right pain in the ass). I did indeed have a ridiculous amount of spam, but I also had this . . .

Clare,

My name is Jodi Saul I direct a girl scout camp in Pennsylvania. I emailed you last week about setting up a time to talk about camp, but I have not heard from you, please contact me whether or not you are interested, because I have your application and BUNAC can not send it on to another camp until I release it.

Thank you,

-Jodi

Ok so I never got the first email, but still! Looks like I'm in! I'm so fucking excited already! I've been browsing on their website but I can't quite work out which camp it is, however they all look really good! Ans less than two hours from New York, which was top of my list of places to visit afterwards! Eeek, I actually can't keep the smile off my face. I know I shouldn't get too excited because its still not definite as they just want to talk to me, but still!

Right to avoid getting overexcited then disappointed I'm going to move on. I've not been up to a lot since my last entry, just chilling out, enjoying the slower pace of life back at home. Been to the pub a couple of times, even when Cheryl was there. I was proud of the fact I didn't claw her face off. But it was so nice to see everyone else, specially Gemma who I hadn't seen since August! We're off to the cinema tonight, I'm not sure what we're going to see exactly, I think someone mentioned Step Up 2, I haven't seen the first one, but never mind, I'm just going along for the 'cinema experience', haha, nah I'm just going for the laughs really. And the pub again on Thursday, its good to see pub Thursday still going strong nearly two years later. Then bowling on Friday if people get their act together and text me back. If not it'll just be a few of us, which is still nice.

Other than that I've just been at work, which has been remarkably good fun. Granted I am feeling gradually older but still. I discovered the guy I thought was hot is indeed 16, and in fact in my brothers year at school which just made it worse, still he's a really nice guy. One of those people you instantly get on with, reminds me of Matt actually, he was exactly the same last year, i remember when I got back from Rome, we just talked for hours even though we'd only just met. He's still there as well which is good, although I'm not sure how long for. A lot of us older ones are considering leaving, I doubt there will be many of us left by the end of the summer. But looks like I won't be there anyway! Although I've already had a request that I come to the staff party, its nice to be loved!

Hmm, what else to write about. Oh my grandparents came, so we spent a lot of time just sat around the TV in the evenings. Ended up watching The Great Escape the other day, I can't believe I haven't seen it before! Its an epic of a film, I'm really loving these old films at the moment. They made them long back in the day as well, 2 hours 47 minutes or something ridiculous like that. Ended up watching it over two nights as we had it saved on our hard disk recorder and its so long it started getting late and everyone was falling asleep on the sofas around me! I fell in love with Colin, he was so cute, and then he got shot, boo. Its one of those films that everyone should just be forced to watch I think.

Then after we finished that we watched Catch Me If You Can, throughout which I tried to work out if I'd seen it before. Parts of it were really familiar but the general plot wasn't, it was odd. Not the best Hanks and DiCaprio film out there, but it was easy enough viewing when I couldn't really be bothered to think. It was back in the days before DiCaprio got proper good looking as well, so that took away from the charm slightly. In my opinion it would have been better with some bigger twists, or required more thinking to work out or something. It just seemed a bit too steady and plodding along if you get me.

Finally to finish this entry I'll give it a slight seasonal twist given that it was the Easter weekend and all. Now I'm not a Christian by any stretch of the imagination, but I've always thought the Easter story is a good one. I've not seen The Passion of the Christ, the Mel Gibson film I mean, but we recorded that from the TV the other day so that's next on the agenda. But I have seen two very contrasting Easter story depictions in the last few days. The first was the BBC mini series, The Passion, for some reason I got very addicted to this even though I completely missed the first in the series. I thought it was brilliantly acted, and was very realistic without being unnecessarily gory as I've heard Gibson's film is. I also loved how it had the ability to get me to shout at the TV, when Judas was about to betray Jesus, I was there shouting at him not to, as if I could change the Easter story. It confused me when after Jesus came back to life, they chose to have different actors play him, granted I don't know the story in enough detail to be able to say they didn't give different descriptions of him, but if it was done purely to add to the 'is it really Jesus coming back from the dead' issue, I don't think its really necessary. I mean even if it had been the same actor, they'd still have been a bit like, 'NO WAY MAN YOU'RE DEAD', surely?

Anyway the other depiction came in the form of Monty Python's, The Life of Brian. I'm not sure I even need to give a review to this. It needs to be seen, if you haven't shame on you. Personally I prefer The Holy Grail, but still Brian is awesome. I'm not sure you can top the image of 15 odd people on crucifixes singing Always Look On the Brightside of Life. British comedy at its best once more.



And I think I'll leave it at that to be honest! Hope everyone had a good Easter, and I'll try and update this more regularly in the future.

Help, help i'm being repressed!

So its been like two weeks, shoot me or something. I did write one other one in that time which many of you may have read but I deleted because it was just a massive moan about crap as I was in a foul mood. So yeh.

Anyway life has been bloody hectic the last two weeks, I finally finished my essays on bloody peasants, I think Monty Python had it right all along to be honest, should have just handed in a tape of this http://youtube.com/watch?v=rAaWvVFERVA. I must have seen that clip about 20 times in the last three weeks but every time I laugh. I love how it makes such a potent point (haha, at that use of words) about history, whilst obviously completely taking the mick. I love classic English humour, especially historically based stuff, Monty Python and Blackadder FTW. Oh and Dad's Army, such fond memories of that as a kid. The opening credits where the flags show the movements of the armies, must have been one of the first pieces of subconscious history I ever learnt.

Anyway, yeh finished those essays, and then went out and painted the town red. Sent many an embarrassing text for a couple of nights, absolutely killed my liver. Then spent the rest of term chilling out. Saturday was amazing, Kayleigh and I hardly moved from my bed between 3 o'clock and midnight, we watched the England rugby match then because we were lazy and really excited about what the final six Nations table would be ended up watching the Wales match too. England ended up second! English rugby makes me laugh, they seem to always play badly and scrape through things, then end up doing well, take the world cup for example! Anyway, when that finished actually got up for a bit to cook some food, then watched Billy Elliot, before spending about an hour youtubing random films, and looking on IMDB, which is quite possibly the most amazing website ever.

Billy Elliot is a brilliant film, I don't know how many times I've seen it now, 4 or 5 probably, and it can still make me cry. I'm not in the mood to write a long reply but I love the reality of it, gritty British film making. Julie Walters is fantastic, although not like any dance teacher I've ever met in my 6+ years of dancing, but there we go. And Jamie Bell is fantastic, I've not seen many (if any) of his more recent films, although he's ended up pretty hot, but as a child actor in that he's fantastic. Of course me being me, I like the political-historical back drop to it all as well. It was originally meant to be called Dancer, but I think Billy Elliot is a much better title. I read afterwards as well that in the final scene at the theatre it was debated whether Julie Walter should be there, and i want to tip my hat to the directors on that one. She shouldn't have been there, just with his friend (Michael?) being there it was verging on too slushy, so yeh, right choice!

And now I'm home. Nightmare of a train journey, ended up with my holdall between my legs most of the time (no need to make the sexual jokes). For some reason the stupid company seems to have upgraded the trains as everything seemed very new and clean, but downsized the luggage wracks. Seriously nowhere to put my bag at all, if the nice lady from Cardiff hadn't let me put it on the spare chair I might have been straddling it the whole way to Gloucester, 2 hours and 20 minutes!

Ah well, home is good. very relaxing, much slower pace of life, I like it! Having said that i got so much organised today, dentist appointments, hair cuts, premium bonds, savings accounts, you name it! And I went to staff training. I'm not gonna lie, I wasn't really looking forward to it, hadn't been to work in over six months again, but when I got there it all fell straight back into place, some of the guys had left including Jak (who for anyone who doesn't know is the guy from the ballpit), but loads of them were still there. And one of the new guys was hot, but I really hope to god he wasn't 16, otherwise I really am a paedophile.

Then just a minute ago I watched Singing in the Rain with my mum. Oh my goodness, I seriously love it. Why don't they make films like that anymore? they are absolute genius, if a little bit long, I think some of the scenes went on for far too long, such as the 'last number', but on the whole I really really loved it. Ok it was obvious and cheesy and a musical for gods sake, but there's nothing wrong with that once in while! And oh to be able to dance like they could, I was just entranced, I remember in our tap lessons a few years back, Helen said her aim of the class was to dance like Gene Kelly, and OMG how great would that be, you'd be so fit, and what a party trick. I swear their legs were made of jelly. That being said, it wasn't Gene Kelly that stole the show. Oh no, I fell in love with Cosmo, his sarcastic best friend, played by. Donald O'Connor. He was hilarious! perfect man material tbh, shame he wasn't slightly better looking but I'm sure he was quite the dish back in the day!

Still I best leave it at that, I do need some sleep tonight, although having said that, its about an hour earlier than I thought it was!

On a final note, I don't normally put my poems in my blog, but this one is just so reflective of my mood right now I felt I had to include it.

Sometimes I cry I mope and I moan
But really my life is completely on loan
Time is precious
Forever just the blink of an eye
Life’s too short and then you die.

I got it good, no room for complaints
Regrets and remorse do nothing but taint
This is my life
We all make mistakes, heck I’ve made mine
But degree, friends and family, I’m doing fine.

I’ve had my fair share of critics and haters
But to be quite honest, I’ll tell them ‘Laters’
I’ll do what I want
With a smile on my face
Cos right now I’m in a damn happy place.

I’m always determined, brave and strong
People never underestimate me for long
Sure I’m not perfect
But then that’s not my goal
To live life to the max, as one happy soul.

Mai Ah Hi Mai Ah Ho!

What a great way to start a morning. A bowl of cereal, a blog, and an absolutely massive cup of coffee (courtesy of a stolen Starbucks mug). As per usual I don't have anything to say, but I've been nagged to write, so write I will. Bit hypocritical really when my last entry is more recent than his, I've just noticed!

Yesterday was an incredibly odd day mood wise, I wouldn't say roller coaster, that's a bit extreme, but it had its ups and downs. The morning was nothing too special, I dragged myself out of bed for my nine o'clock lecture (seriously if I'm gonna have only 5 hours a week, there no need to put to of those hours at nine o'clock is there?), went to that and my seminar, filled time in between etc.

Came back and messed around for a while, started watching video of Ozone, the Romanian band originally from Moldavia who released that annoyingly catchy Dragostea Din Tei a couple of summers ago, 2004 I think?
Here it is for your viewing pleasure; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BgU_m3SuYPE
I can't stop listening to them recently, even though I know they are complete crap. Its a result of someone posting a thread on TF (www.teenageforums.com/forums > indiscreet advertising, woop), about the worst album you own. And yes I did indeed own Ozone's album. It was a birthday present, my friend ordered it all the way from Romania for I'm guessing it must have been my 16th birthday. I think the postage cost more than the album did. The album has subsequently gone missing, I lent it to a friend a while back, and she says she gave it back, but I don't remember having it. I think the likelihood is its ended up at one of my friends houses/cars and no one realises they have it. Anyhow, the point of this waffle was that I was trying to establish whether the all guy in the video with dark glasses was hot or not, cos you can't really tell in that video. He also really reminds me of one of my friends, in terms of his movements, its most odd. Anyway, hell was I successful. Check him out!

Phwoar! I'd have a piece of that, I like his shirt too! Although when James used to have one similar I called it a table cloth, still maybe he just didn't pull it off so well.

Wow, so that was a random detour I didn't intend on taking. I think I've had far too much caffeine, I feel like I'm buzzing slightly. Anyway so then I went to the library, and talked to Matty on the phone on the way there. I used to hate talking on the phone, but I think I'm genuinely over it now. Talking to people on the phone always leaves me smiling, specially the crap I talk to Matty. So yeah people, you've been told, ring me! Just not during lectures, still there's only five of those a week, you'd be unlucky to hit one of those.

And this is where my day went downhill. I went to get some short loan books out, came back upstairs, read them all. And went to take them back and realised I had no idea where my library card was. I figured I musta left it by the computer, or by the self checkout machine. This was maybe an hour later. Went down it was at neither. I asked at the desk and at lost property, not been handed in. I'm beginning to panic now. Because not only is it £15 for a new one (YES FIFTEEN POUND, HOW RIDICULOUS IS THAT), but the library is like my life. I'm not kidding, I can't cope without the library. And its my sports membership and my student ID. I stuck around for a couple of hours hoping someone would hand it in, but no such luck. Some fucker stole it for spare student ID I imagine. Damn them to hell. At least it proved easy to get a new one, takes 24 hours to activate fully which is why I'm at home now and not geeking it out in the library.

And it meant I ended up missing yoga. Damn them, damn them all! So instead I ended up doing crunches and sit ups, and yoga, and jogging on the spot in my room to relieve my aggression! I had an amazing dinner of curry though, and talked to many a lovely person on the Internet in the evening, whilst still getting some work done! And forums ftw (www.forumsftw.com > more indiscreet advertising) is really beginning to take off, woop woop!

I think I'm gonna leave it at that cos I just spent ten minutes mucking around on web cam and this blog has taken me about an hour and a half cos I keep getting distracted, and I really should do some work.

Ya da ya da ya da

Right I should warn you now, I've started this entry not really knowing where I'm going with it.

Firstly my big news is, I got accepted by BUNAC! I'm going to America baby! Well hopefully, they still have to find a camp to place me on, but the chances are I am now going. Its all a bit surreal really, I just signed up for three months in another country living with spoilt rich kids. Mad? Partially perhaps, but come on, would you turn down the chance to travel America for very little money? No I thought not. So exciting! I have to go to a 'orientation' session over the Easter holidays, which is just a massive question and answer session as far as I can work out, so that'll be good, maybe I'll realise quite what I'm letting myself in for and run for the hills.

Uh so what have I been up to? Oh on Thursday I went out dressed as a policeman, that was a laugh. Although I was pretty much the only one dressed up, which I was not happy about! Then we went into Gatecrasher and they took my toy gun away. I was gutted. I can't remember a lot of what happened, except we ended up coming home early, basically cos Hannah wanted to shag her friend and me and Adam didn't want to stay on our own. I then proceeded to make myself cheesy chips and nearly took them out the oven with no oven gloves on, I was drunker than I realised I think.

Other than that I've been trying to stay in and do some work. I have two essays to write still! Not going too badly now, just need to keep up the hard workingness. I did make time to watch the last two episodes of series 2 of Lost. Wow, it was weak after all. It wasn't quite as bad as I was expecting, I mean at least they have Sawyer, Kate and Jack held captive, so that's one bit of interest for next time, and I do wonder why they let Hurley go but still. I guess you gotta wonder whether Michael and Walt get away, but I don't know if I care that much anymore, I've gone of Michael rather a lot now. Ok he's doing anything to get his son back blah blah blah, and I'm sure that's what being trapped on an island does to you. But lets face it, its a big cast, I can't like them all.

Oh and I completely missed what was happening at the end because I was falling asleep. A couple of guys in a station thing? I dunno, maybe I even dreamed that.

Oh and last night I watched The Last Kiss. I was in the video shop (I know an actual video shop, how quaint!) actually looking for the first Bourne movie, but I saw that there, and after a brief phone call to my movie buff, realised I hadn't seen it, got that instead. Its a really good film actually, I cried. But thats cos I'm a big girl and I was on my own. But I thought the film seemed really genuine it wasn't ridiculously Hollywood sugar coated. Like the scenes with Michael and Jenna when they were probably screaming at each other. It also didn't have a ridiculously happy ending which I liked, ok she lets him back in the door but still, there was no @I LOVE YOU SO MUCH', dramatic music styleee. Same with the sub plot of Chris, he didn't get back with his wife, he just carried on being the kids father.

All that being said, I fucking hated the character of Kim. She was so stupid, and annoying. She musta been 20/21 ish? She'd clearly slept with a guy before Michael. And yet she knew nothing. the first bit when she asks whether he wants her number, I swear I could have leaped at the screen and scratched her pretty little face to shreds. And ringing him asking him to come over and she wouldn't touch him. Fucking hell. Ok granted it was partially his fault, for going along with it all, but I love Zach Braff, so I'm gonna ignore that.

Awesome soundtrack too, Snow Patrol and Coldplay, 'I misss youuuu'. ha that song brings back so many memories of me, my dad and my brother singing it in the car at the top of our voices. Love it.

I think that's me done to be honest. I have to decide if I want to watch something tonight and I really don't know. Hmm. Oh I scored the goal that saved our match today, proud of myself!