All the best stories to tell...

Wow! Wow! Wow! What an AMAZING week!

First things first...got my grades back from my papers I worked ever so hard on. I scored two A's for the semester...not too shabby! I was pretty excited! The finger-crossing must have really worked, so thanks! Therein lies good news no. 1!

Good news no. 2 - I found out The Briggs are opening up for the Dropkick Murphy's on their British tour in February!! I couldn't be more excited about this! I will see The Briggs/Dropkick and The Smashing Pumpkins twice each all in the same week! So EXCITED!

So, Tuesday night I went out with the rest of the folks in the criminology department for a nice dinner and drinks. We had an absolute blast! The food was amazing and I experienced my first ever Christmas crackers. We were lucky enough to crack out some pretty fun toys (ie. yo-yos) and some pretty corny jokes...along with some super cool party crowns!

Yesterday, I caught the train to London...leaving a little later than I had planned, surprise, surprise! Anyway, I checked into a really posh hostel in a nice part of town. A little more than I wanted to pay, but after my last London hostel experience I figured it was worth it...and they include breakfast and dinner! Not to mention they're really close to a tube station. What a bargain!

So after getting checked in, I rushed over to the record shop, still hoping to catch some of Frank Turner's set. Lucky for me, I got to hear half a dozen or so songs! So I waited until the crowd cleared to say hi to Frank. He said, "Oh my gosh! Hey! How are you? Weird to see familiar faces in different places than you met them!" Then he invited me to the pub! So we legged it to the pub, chatting the whole way. Frank then proceeded to introduce me to his mates at the pub and told the story about how we met in Leeds! So strange to hear him telling people that he saved me from having to watch the show from outside a window in an alleyway!

We spent the rest of the night hanging with Frank's mates, before moving on to a trendy London nightclub, called Punk, in Soho. They had indie/punk karaoke happening. Yes, I actually watched Frank Turner sing karaoke! It was quite a laugh! We stayed out way too late! It was an absolute blast though! Very strange to be playing pool, sharing drinks, taking the underground, dancing, etc. with a guy who's cd's I listen to daily...

Tonight...possibly meeting back up with Frank, but not staying out so late!

Tomorrow...collecting my mom/sister from the airport! Yay! I can't wait. We have a whole week of fun planned, so I'll post again after it's finished I would imagine!

Oh, here's a few miscellaneous photos (had to start a new album!). They're from Christmas decorating of the house, Faith's birthday, BOG Christmas dinner, and a few from last night and today...more to follow!

Cheers and Happy Holidays!
Best wishes to everyone in the New Year!!

Come on Barbie let's go party...

Well it's the last few days of work before the Christmas holidays...

Last week I finished my two papers due for my profs back home. The first one was a complete success. I'm still waiting on the results from the second one...so cross your fingers! I'm so relieved to have those done and out of the way. On to more pressing matters! I have to get organized and fill out my paperwork for application to the PhD program. I also have to get signed up for next semester's courses. Hopefully I won't have to do anymore really intensive school work here though...it can wait until I return home!

The weekend was super fun! We had a girls' night out on Friday night and went pub crawling before ending up at a house party. I also attended a 6 year old's birthday party yesterday! Oh man, I've never seen so many kids running around, popping balloons, and dancing! I know nothing of High School Musical and I could have done without EVER hearing the "Barbie Girl" song again, however, it was highly amusing!

I finish at the university on Wednesday for a few weeks. We are having our work Christmas dinner tomorrow night, then it's time to get packing! I'm headed to London on Thursday for an in-store gig at Puregroove Records...starring none other than, Frank Turner! The long awaited for arrival of my mom and sister will be over early Saturday morning when I go and collect them from Gatwick airport. Then it's off on our week o' fun! We've got more things packed into eight days than may be possible, but we've got to give it a bash don't we? Pictures and fun stories to come I'm sure!

I've also got my ticket booked for Italy! I leave January 4th! I absolutely can not wait! The next few weeks will fly by so quickly and then it's only two months until I come home...the new year will bring much to look forward to though!

Also, I will get some pics from our Christmas decorating up sometime this week, so stand by!

Oh where, oh where has all the time gone??

Well I've been here almost three months...this journey is half over and I can hardly believe it! This will be a short one....seeing as I have TONS of stuff to get accomplished this week and next. I have two papers to turn in by early next week and a whole calendar full of events to attend over the next couple of weeks before the holidays, then I'll be seeing my mom and my sister and new parts of Britain I have yet to explore!

I have finally sorted out my camera issues....I think! I got some charger/adaptor thing at the store for about $7 (compared to the one the camera specialists tried to sell me for $45) and it seems to have done the job. I charged my camera and was actually able to take pictures over the weekend at night! How exciting! (You can see them by clicking HERE...sorry the album's getting so long! The new pics are from Saturday night out, as well as some older ones from Bonfire Night, featuring the view from my co-worker/friend Katy's house in Penarth, which is just across Cardiff Bay.) So, who knows how long the charge will last, but it seems this magical charger/adaptor has done the trick. I can finally use my new camera!

Saturday night we went out for my housemate Adele's friend Sarah's birthday. 20 of us went for an Indian feast and then on for drinks in a pub. It was really a lot of fun! One of the guys told me I had the Welshest accent he'd ever heard! Yeah right...

So that's all for now...I'll post more after I stop procrastinating and get my work finished!

Miss u.

XO