The Duck Pond
Monday, June 30, 2003
What the bloody nora is the film "Dune" all about? It was good to watch once for spotting several fairly well known actors as they were all those years ago (did Patrick Stewart ever have hair?) and seeing the cheesy special effects, the silly costumes and the evil Anthony Worral Thompson lookalike but I did not have the foggiest what was going on through pretty much the entire film. I'll probably have to watch it again at some stage and keep stopping it and rewinding it at several key plot points, if there are any. I suspect those bits where the actor stares off longingly into the distance and there is a voice over of them (representing their thoughts, I presume) are quite important but I missed a few because the volume always went right down. Splendid fun anyway.
I've moved! My new flat is adorable and even though I've only been there a few days I feel really settled already. My dad helped me move and it was good to see him again because I hadn't seen him for a fair bit before then which is terrible really. My shoulders are still aching slightly from all the lugging of heavy boxes and me stupidly carrying a bookcase singlehandedly half a mile from Craft to the flat (my dad had gone by this point) but it's well worth it. I was determined to get the move all finished in a day because I hate it when these things drag out and out.
For the first two mornings after moving, I awoke wondering where the hell I was but I seem to have got past that phase now and it's so wonderful to have a kitchen, albeit a very small one, that is mine and mine alone. It was a bit sad moving out of the old place even though I was always complaining about it and it was weird when I walked past it yesterday and the door was open - I just wanted to go in and have a look around.
Handing my key back was rather amusing because the landlord's secretary (and also the landlord's sister, making it difficult to complain about her) is the dumbest, most useless bint in the whole planet and I have had several problems when wanting to discuss things and having to go through her. Explaining anything to her was a real chore. Anyway the conversation when handing my key over went something like this:
Me: Well here are the keys for the house. Also what's going to happen to my deposit? Is it going to be paid directly into my bank account or is a cheque going to be sent
Her: [after looking blankly at me for a few seconds] Probably a cheque, yes a cheque.
Me: [wondering where the hell they were planning to send the cheque to] Well I guess I should leave my forwarding address with you then.
Her: Oh you have a new address?
Me: [disbelief] um..er...yes
...and so on. Absolutely ridiculous.
Had a splendid weekend except for all the aching muscles. Now the aching is surpassed by horrific sunburn as I went to Clarach market for the first time in years and forgot to put suncream on. Silly me. Oh well it seems to be tradition to get bad sunburn when going to Clarach market as the last time I went I put suncream on but was out for 7 hours as opposed to the expected one or two so I was a tad crispy when I got back and vaguely remember having to have several cold showers to try to take away some of the unbearable heat. I also went paddling in the sea which was lovely as the sea for once was quite a mild temperature. It made me want to swim but I suspected that my summer dress would get a bit too revealing when wet so I refrained although I did get a bit soaked when I misjudged the height of a wave. Matt laughed at me lots but he wouldn't come into the sea at all because of his feet so it was amusing to see him running away from the tiniest waves like a big girl.
Tuesday, June 24, 2003
Packing, packing, packing, work and more packing. Oh and sometimes some work and packing. This describes my life at the moment. I'll be so glad when this move is over. Not least because once again I was woken several times in the night by flatmates slamming doors, whistling, "playing" harmonica and talking loudly outside my room, the latest time being 5.30am. Considerate eh?
Although that said, I had a bit of a welcome break from packing when John came round as he was a bit bored and offered to cook some dinner for me. We ended up watching a film called "Harold and Maude" which is totally splendid, if not a bit surreal. Especially as the Harold who was supposed to be 18 I think, looked more like 13.
I'm really looking forward to the weekend. I'm taking Thursday off so I'm planning to have a mad day getting everything sorted in one big go so that my flat is all as I like it for the weekend. Matt's visiting from Friday and I'm sure we'll have better ways to occupy our time than sort out the flat and trip over half empty suitcases!
Also my birthday dress-wearing escapades have rubbed off on me as I decided to add some nice flouncy summer dresses to my current wardrobe, being sick of wearing jeans and random top all the time. I went into town at lunchtime to buy one or two and looked around all the usual shops. I thought it'd be easy to find some but no, it would appear that they aren't really in fashion at the moment. The only thing close was this red dress in DP which hung funnily on the hips. I then made the mistake of going into monsoon, who had a few nice summery dresses - at a whopping price of £85 for the cheapest. I stood there in shock for a bit, not quite knowing what to do. Obviously if I'd have walked out right after looking at a price tag, everyone would have smirked at me for being a simple, poverty stricken peasant, who had wandered into the shop mistakenly so I kind of mooched around looking at the tops with a disapproving look on my face for a bit and then left. I then went to a couple of charidee shops and found 3 acceptable dresses for 13 quid. Bonza.
Thursday, June 19, 2003
All this Harry Potter new book stuff is really pissing me off at the moment. It's only a book for heaven's sake. Ok so fair enough, it's Rowling's intellectual property and she should get control over what happens to it and the information within it, I'll go along with that much, however call me cynical but look at what's happened. They cleverly made an excuse to get the information across that a character dies ("Oh no, I've killed off one of the main characters, boo hoo, schniffle schniffle" - GOOD, they should all die) but then suddenly did a u-turn saying that giving any information on the book would "spoil it for the children". My arse. It's all a big money-spinning plot drawn up by the same ones who spent 3 million dollars on the marketing campaign. Of course the information is going to get leaked if that much of a fuss is made about it. Perhaps they shouldn't have said anything about the book at all and just left people to find out for themselves. So I think it serves them all right. I'll admit the hype was working on me a little and I was going to get the book at first because I was mildly curious as to which character snuffed it but now I'm strictly not going to buy any of the books on principle o_|/ Not that my little boycott will make much difference of course but it'll make me feel better. If you want me I'll be sat here waving my placard.
Wednesday, June 18, 2003
Missing Matt terribly, wish he hadn't fucked off.
Well not long to go now before I'm out on my arse. I'm fairly sure I have somewhere to go now but I've been messed about so much now that I'm not going to count my chickens until the contract's signed and everything which hopefully shall be soon. I have started packing anyway so that I have ample time to sort through my junk so I don't have much crap to carry around. I have currently 2 suitcases, a washing machine and a bin bag full of clothes so I'm feeling like a right girl. That's about as far as I've got.
oh and FUCK OFF DAVID BECKHAM.
Sunday, June 15, 2003
The other night was a mad kind of non-meet thing in aid of someone's stag do and it was cool because I got to see lots of people who I haven't seen in quite some time. Drank far too much of course and too much money was spent and I am generally feeling unhealthy now but it was all terribly good fun. Bit geeky as a couple of people had those types of phones that have all kinds of functions that phones don't need like internet, camera abilities and they even cook your lunch and wipe your arse for you so there was lots of showing off and olololing. I didn't attend the actual stag do even though I was curious as not many women get the chance to experience those except in the role of stripper/prostitute etc. and I am planning to take up neither position any time soon. I mainly missed it because I was a bit scared about being with such a mass of rowdy men although that usually doesn't bother me but also because by the time I got round to being able to go it was probably a bit late.
** Attention easily offended, nice, normal people who happen to holiday in aber (all 4 of you) - derogatory tourist comments aren't about you ok? **
Had a perfect day yesterday but it ended up on a bittersweet note. Spent the day with Matt down on the beach, paddling in the sea, skimming stones (my arm bloody well hurts today), rockpooling, cuddling, scoffing icecream, smirking at absurd tourists doing absurd touristy things and generally having fun and enjoying the great weather. Dinner was mussels and crusty bread as when we were rockpooling we saw loads of the buggers and although we didn't pick any because they were too small and probably riddled with pollution, it made me really fancy some. Then we watched two films, one of which was Dungeons and Dragons which was splendid although we didn't follow the plot very well as we were too busy mirthing at the rather gay arch mage and his blue-lipsticked sidekick, not to mention the breastplate of the elf-woman which was an absolute scream. Anyone who has seen it will know what I mean. Top marks for the actress to be able to wear it and still act out her part with a straight face. The day ended with me saying goodbye to Matt who has buggered off to Nottingham for the summer which left me feeling very morose and mopey, especially after having such an awesome day, hence the miserable blog I posted at that obscene hour this morning. Feeling a bit perkier now but it's another lovely day, weatherwise, and it's just not the same.
It's that weird time of year when university term ends and lots of people leave, never to return and I hate it. Just thinking about some of the good friends who have left this time makes me really miserable and it's the same every year. Just said a rather sad goodbye to my boyfriend who I have no idea when I will see again and several really cool people have gone and I don't know if I will ever see them again. One of the downsides to living in Aber I guess.
Another worrying thing is I'm being kicked out in 2 weeks and have nowhere to go yet. It's going to be one mad week of househunting next week.
I went to a non-meet last night but I am tired and unhappy so will blog about it all tomorrow or Monday.
Tuesday, June 10, 2003
I was in the process of removing my nail varnish last night when I got distracted by I can’t remember what. Anyway I now look like a complete pillock as three of my nails have (rather chipped) nail varnish on them and the rest don’t. As I type they seem to be mocking me, saying “hahaha - look what an utter fool you are” and it’s really pissing me off. Must remember to remove the rest at lunchtime.
MATT has recently read part of my blog and has been teasing me about the number of times I have written a little story concerning “my friend” and that friend has been him. I tend not to put names most of the time for anonymity purposes. It’s hard to explain really but I just feel weird naming names when other people read it, kind of like gossiping about people behind their back. Now I rarely say anything bad, revealing or embarrassing about people and if I did I certainly wouldn’t give names then but even though it isn’t negative stuff, it still feels weird. If people read this and I’m talking about them then well YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE. Noone else need know really. Maybe I should mention names occasionally though so that in twenty or so years time I can still remember who I’m talking about. If people have a problem with me naming them with respect to a particular thing then they can always let me know and I’ll remove/adapt it.
Blimey, a long ramble that doesn’t say anything much at all really. Hurrah.
I have been bitten by the cooking bug recently. Spent ages with “a friend” cleaning the kitchen so I feel that I should make proper use of it now. I cooked veggie enchiladas on Sunday which is a totally new recipe for me but it came out absolutely splendidly. Well I thought so anyway. Lots of hard work though but then recipes generally are, the first time you cook them. I also walked to borth and back that day and my legs are paying for it now because I’ve done bugger all exercise recently.
