*insert witty title*

So far 2012 has been good to me, I think this year is going to be incredible!

 In September I will be turning 21 which means im going to be a grown up and need to start taking on some responsibilities… not having so much fun anymore… be sensible… go to VEGASSSS and gamble me life away and spend all my money on sex and drugs and rock and roll! YAYYYYYYYY! but its all good, im talented at roulette, always win, just got to choose the right numbers ;) so really it should be a super fun and profitable trip :D

Had lots of exams in January which ruins the start of the year and kicks it off on a bit of a negative vibe and they aren’t going to be off my mind until results next Friday… if I don’t tell you what I get it means don’t ask!

Apart from that iv had lots of fun so far this year, my timetable means I get Wednesday and Thursday off most weeks which is good coz I work Saturdays and Sundays so its nice to finally get a weekend! It also means I can do some fun stuff I the week. Tbh regardless of uni we go out whatever day we like coz in leeds every night you can find some mischief fun.

I LOVE tiger tiger, not sure why, it’s a bit chavvy and sticky but I always have such a good night there! I went last tuesday with Hannah and Helen and zoe (who you may remember from http://selinaboardman.blogspot.com/2011/06/sciencedam.html) and had a hilarious night :D except we had a bit of a party at hannahs before hand and apparently they don’t do glasses in their house so she provided me with a vase to drink my vodka pineapple from, biggest mistake iv made this year… man I was wasted. Was meant to be staying at hannahs that night but after lots of tequilas at 4am it seemed like an amazing idea to just get a taxi to bed so off I went. Me and the taxi men were like bffs! Bantering away, let me hold the wheel, gave me a nice cuddle… until we got to my house and I had no money no keys no nothing, then he turned really mean! Started shouting at me and scaring poor drunk me so I woke up all my housemates to let me in and ran upstairs and just gave him everything out of my piggybank! Unfortunately it was all coppers and 5ps, 10ps tops… he was not appy. Anyway when I woke up in the morning my knickers, bag and half a subway were on the stairs so not sure what went down there.

from left to right- zoe, me, hannah, helen

Ever since may has moved to London I really really want to go visit but iv not had a week spare so far :( I came home for a couple of days this week to see my dad on his birthday (more on that later) and he is going to London today to see her. She’s got him the best present! Taking him for a delicious meal in Mayfair tonight and tomorrow afternoon going for afternoon tea and champagne at the ritz… that’s like most typical English thing to do I cant believe iv never done it! I would have loved to have tagged along so I checked out the train times this morning but £200+ is just out of my price range :( hope he has fun there though, hes the best dad in the world ainec.

As you may or may not know im a bit of a science nerd and like to keep up to date with goings on in the world. Recently there has been some very exciting news. They have figured out how to turn brain waves into words so you can literally read peoples minds! Its still in the early stages but soon they will be able to know what paralyzed people people in comas are thinking and apparently its going to lead onto being able to see pictures which means people will be able to watch their dreams back and watch eachothers thoughts! Crazy stuff.

cundall won a special strike drink

Ben came to stay a couple of weeks ago which is always lovely, he only stayed a week because he only brings his laptop and cant play very much poker just with that but at home hes got his whole set up and can play a million games at once. It was good coz while he was here ben and matt came up from London for a few days and they are always good for a laugh so one night we met them at nandos along with scuba steve (chris hall) and Helen. Then we decided to go bowling, iv not been bowling for a long time and im not great at the best of times after lots of practise but for some reason this trip I felt in the zone. The first game I came last. But the second game I was all STRIKE STRIKE SPARE STRIKE and came second which may as well be first so yay me! Ben really doesn’t like losing and at the bowling thing we went to one of the pins glows in the dark and occasionally it gets put at the front in the ‘1’ position and when this happens you have to call over the commentator guy and he makes a big show of it and announces your name to everyone and the whole room watches coz if you get a strike you get a free drink. So on bens turn this all went down and he goes to take his shot with everyone watching and the boys going ‘ooooooohawayyyyyy’ and he looks at me with a ‘this is too much pressure’ look and spent ages selecting his ball and lining it up and for a minute I thought it might just happen but he chucks it and it bashed all around the alley and went straight in the gutter! It was hilarious poor benny, he really doesn’t like to lose.

Helen hadn’t had strike the whole time and it came to the last shot so ben cundall jokingly said if she got one he would take his last shot naked and BAM strike! We were all like ‘wheyyyyyyyy’ but suddenly he refuses despite everyones mocking and anger, for future reference ben cundall is not a man of his word!

Half way through they had this music bingo thing and initially we were running pretty bad, losing all the 1 line/2 line etc prizes but who needs them! ofc our team won the main prize thanks to chris. We won a bottle of delicious cheap champagne, sprinkled with the taste of victory and lots of free games which I shotgunned in case you forgot chris…

We went for some drinks after and it was fun night all in all.

the jellyfish tank

For my mum for Christmas me and max got her tickets to the ballet in Manchester which I forgot was on the same week ben was there so I had to abandon him for the night- sorry ben. I met mum and max in manc at a thai restaurant called chaophraya, I know theres one in leeds too but iv never been, after this trip I think I might make an effort to coz it was an awesome place! They have just invested in a £10,000 jellyfish tank which was really cool, iv never seen something like that before. It was very posh and the food was really good, we shared this big fancy taster starter thing and then I had seabass which was cooked in lime and ginger and chilli and came in a big banana leaf, was sooooo good! We must have got a bit carried away coz we were a bit late for the ballet. One of my most favourite memories from our childhood was how we had the VHS’s of all the Disney films that ever existed and my mum used to watch them with us every day, one of our favourites was beauty and the beast so we thought it would be really nice to see it on stage so that’s what we saw. We had some of the best seats in the place coz that’s how we roll and it was really beautiful. I love the ballet so  much and they did their own take on the film so it was a bit different but I loved it and I think my mum did too so that’s good. I would def recommend it and want to go again as soon as I can! Heard the  lion king is coming to Manchester this year so id like to see that :) max just got dragged along a bit but secretly I think he liked it too… the men wear skin tight leggings and I caught him checking out the main guys package har har har was impressive though tbf.

beauty and the beast

Since then iv not seen ben so its been a while and I miss him lots. Im going to Cardiff next week though for a week and a bit for valentines day :)

Like I said before I came home for my dads birthday and last night we went out to this new restaurant called langs. My favourite ever place is in churchtown called botanic bistro where I went on my 18^th birthday and this place is owned by the same people so I knew it would be good. We all dressed up nice and smart and I gave my new dress a test run… the only thing I brought to wear and just before we left max told me it looked like a bin bag, cheers blud. So he came bounding into my room asking to borrow a black belt… I know hes a little camp but still a bit weird and he came back in 2 minutes later wearing a replica of my dress he had made out of binbags :( not funny. I didn’t want to admit it but it actually did look a lot like my dress so I def wont be wearing it again.

Apart from feeling like a bin man all night it was really fun, my dad and brothers are really good company, they amuse me a lot. My dad’s favourite cocktail is a kir royale but they don’t sell champagne by the glass there so we just got a whole bottle and the bar man spent a good 15 mins constructing them and they were amazing! Better than any other one iv had, little flute of heaven. We ate lots of fabulous food and drank lots of fabulous wine and they brought over this fancy big dessert with a firework coming out of it and sang happy birthday and all that jazz.

Max is 18 next month, hes a little rascal so im sure there will be lots of fun going down and coz im 21 this year too we are going to celebrate our mid-birthday in june :D never turn down an extra birthday!

biz

'Super'

I have literally just realised this second how much essay writing I have been doing! Too much. Just caught myself trying to do a plan for my blog… ‘specific subheadings will make it flow and an easier read, keeps everything neat, a plan is important’

FU UNI!

It is just reaching the end of exams and I don’t think iv ever been so stressed in my life :( My two main modules this semester are ‘neurobiology’ and ‘cardiovascular physiology and pharmacology’ and there is so much to learn for both to the point where I genuinely think my brain is full (which I know is a bit ironic because it’s a stupid theory and im meant to be totally clued up about the brain because of my supposed fullness of knowledge…?) oo controversial. So I did what I do every year and think il just start learning after Christmas… then I think I should probs get new years out of the way then start learning… and BAM a week to learn about 10 billion things that I don’t understand. And the thing is its like trying to learn another language when youre doing about stuff like cyclic adenosine monophosphate dependant protein kinases and sphygmomanometry half the battle is remembering the word!

Sigh anyway iv really struggled with these exams so keep your fingers crossed for the results.

A good thing about uni though is that we practically finish for summer in march coz lectures finish then, then its just exams and we are free til octoberrrrrrrrr :D

After this week there’s no break between exams and lectures starting again but I could really do with one so im hoping somebody will whisk me off my feet for a weekend in paris or new York or something similar… long shot though, will be getting an extra lottery ticket this week.

Cant get too greedy with my trips though, it was my lovely boyfriend Ben’s birthday just before chirstmas and coz im such a good girlfriend I took him for a few days in Amsterdam :)

me and benny at the airport

 according to the news, as of 1^st jan 2012 only Amsterdam residents can smoke weed in public there so I thought we better get in there for a final trip before all the fun is sucked out but now its been delayed til 2013 so everywhere in the Netherlands is banned except Amsterdam for another year. We only went for a couple of days but it was really really good. Not going to lie, we spent a large proportion of the time in coffee shops (drinking coffee ofc) because we had both been before we weren’t really up for all the touristy stuff done to death (but actually we did get lost and stumble upon what looked through hazed eyes like anne franks house if that counts) but we did go to this Christmas fair they had on and ben won me a turtle that looked like a jaguar so I named it jagwar.

 And we walked down to the red light district and I wanted to get a hooker but wasn’t allowed, most of the girls were actually quite hot, thought it would be dead skanky and aidsy but it wasn’t so bad, creepy as the day is long, but generally just amusing.

Fact for the day:

Did you know the red light district is called that because back in the day when the Railway workers used to be working at night but they fancied a bit of hoohaa they would stroll down to hooker row but took their red railway man lamps and hung them outside the door just incase there was an emergency so their friends could come find them and would know which cubicle they were in. Remember you heard it here first.

One night we were there we went for an amazing meal at the Gauchos in dam. If you’ve never been to gauchos you are seriously missing out, theres one in leeds and London and I think Manchester and I didn’t even know there was one in Amsterdam but I saw it and was like :o lets go! So we did, and we got delicious delicious steaks and lots of wine mmmmm good.

One place I have frequented recently is Cardiff. Before the past few months I had never been to wales at all before but Cardiff is lovely I would highly recommend it especially for shopping. Anyway I went just before Christmas for Ben’s birthday. We had a bit of a party beforehand at dan owstons house and ben got abso wasted then we went to town and ben got even more wasted and everyone else caught up. Ben doesn’t do much dancing but when he does I think its adorable and hilarious... hes like the dancing guy in the white suit from the skype smilies lol you all know the one. So while we were dancing I left my bag with all the boys and turns out they thought it would be funny to steal some of my birth control pills and put them in bens drink. Personally I don’t see how it would work out good for anyone, either I get pregnant or ben starts ovulating or something! I didn’t realise til a few days later and it was too late so if theres a little degenerate running round in 9 months we know who to blame!

Christmas

Christmas was a fun time. Usually we go away but not this year which was actually nice for a change. Had Christmas day at my dads and in the afternoon we went for lunch at this dead nice place called Ferraris in longridge, its really pretty set back into a little woods bit and its really popular for weddings which I can see why. The food was alright but my dad makes the best Sunday dinners and I know everyone says that about their dads Sunday dinners but my dads actually is the best! so I wish we had just done that instead. But we did a nice present swapping thing and its just nice to get together because theres so many in our family its rare we are all together. Speaking of rare, im loving the rare dresses collection in topshop! But they just don’t have enough selection so I bought some awesome dresses and accessories online the other day, may discuss this in more depth later they are that fabulous. And also this awesome shoe shop in town called garage had this thing on where you buy one pair of boots and get another for £1! Amazing! Naturally I was sold and will be going back this week for another hit.

me and may and pop

But yeh Christmas, was nice, we do a secret santa in my family and my dad got me which is good coz he gets awesome presents. This year he got me and Ben a voucher to stay in this fancy hotel right in the ribble valley with a 3 course meal and breakfast and some afternoon stuff, all very romantic! so thank you very much pops. I think definitely the best present was mays… she was last to get picked out the hat which someone was then meant to give to my grandma as she wasn’t present at the time but somehow that didn’t happen so it got to xmas and my grandma says ‘are we not doing secret santa this year then?’ and may got nothing lol lol lol, she must have been bad this year. At least getting nothing is better than getting coal which is what my little brother got me :/ bast.

such a mistake getting a bunch of boys big guns to play with

Fakemas

all 5 of us :)

We had another Christmas day on boxing day at my mums which was also really nice. My favourite bit about xmas is all the smoked salmon and my mum always makes a really nice effort with food and drinks. Instead of cooking a big meal which takes loads of effort and time she goes to marks and spencers and gets all the most delicious things and puts a big buffet on which was fabulous and we had bucks fizz and kir royales in the morning, don’t think it gets better than that :) my mum got me some really nice stuff for xmas, got some beautiful boots from river island which is just what I needed, a jumper, a new charm for my Pandora, some slippers and lots of other things, she spoilt us all. Maxs friend harry came round and we played some games then we went out to wigan town to party. Its like a boxing day tradition everyone, and seriously everyone goes to wigan in fancy dress so we had to partake. Me and may were supergirls, max forgot to get a costume so he went as a nerd (which didn’t require any dressing up har har har), oliver was pharaoh and Austin put a Christmas hat on, weaksauce. We all got super drunk before we went, we wanted jagerbombs but had no jagerbomb kit so I fashioned some from mugs and eggcups. Right at the start of the night we lost may and harry right til the end but apart from that it was a really fun night, we met some very strange people. Saw one guy dressed as Mr T who threw snickers at us just like the real thing! (seen above)

max is probably off chatting up some boys somewhere

New Year

So I was back in Cardiff for new year, ben’s friend Ben has just bought a new house and he was having a party. I reckon on new years eve house parties are def the way forward, town is way too busy and expensive. Was an awesome night, there were lots of good people there who make me laugh a lot, lots of banter and alcohol in excess. Don’t remember so much, just snippets of pretending to know the words to auld lang syne and yelling at everyone to link arms and being told to get a room and trying to initiate a threesome and playing wii golf? Crazy kids.
This is the london fireworks from this year, they are possibly the most amazing fireworks iv ever seen, i would like to be there one year to see it for myself:

Some of the girls I live with are doing a year in industry next year so we have to split up and find a new house but coincidently ben is moving to leeds around that time too and i wouldnt want him being all sad and lonely so in summer we are going to try find a nice flat in the city centre somewhere I think :) so that will be fun and also means a trip or 2 to ikea!

Until then im still loving headingley, even if it is cold and we are having a party next week for lottie and rosies birthday and on Thursday our exams finish at 11 so we are going straight to the bar then everyone wants to go to town for some shopping for a bit but il probs just follow them round with a bottle of vodka then we are getting more drunk and probably going out to mission which is the Thursday place where you can get a beach bucket of mojito if you want to.

Have a nice week,

Peace out yo.