All at Sea - with a bucket and spade!

Me and Emma spent some quality time together this week. We don’t often do that. That’s the thing when you live with people. You don’t always make the effort to have a laugh or even have proper conversations. We dressed up a bit smarter than usual and went to Tarsus. I love Tarsus. Especially the meze. It’s fun. You’re actually supposed to get your fingers all messy. I love playing with my food. Being a student and all, we didn’t go for the meze on this occasion. I alsways end up wanting dessert. Even though I’m stuffed. And dessert isn’t included. So it ends up a bit pricey. We had the buffet. It’s 12.50 per person. And desserts are provided.

I took a photo of my first starter. The nice waiter man brought us a basket of warm pitta aswell. Warm pitta and hummus is delicious. I also had rather large helpings of both taramasalata and cacik. Oh, and mozerralla on slices of beef tomato. Lovely. And lots of salad. I ate this twice.

Emma is a rather more delicate eater than my good self. For various reasons. One being that she doesn’t really like much flavour in her food. Unless it’s from the tomato ketchup she adds to everything. So she has considerably less choice in the first place. The main courses were really mouth wateringly good. Much nicer than the starters. I was already full but I didn’t let this deter me. The best bit - which I had about seven of - was barbeque pork ribs. Not like the usual scrawny bones. Full of meat. Tender meat that fell off the bone as you bit into it. Yummy. I also tried at least a small bit of everything else. Well you have to don’t you? Chicken curry. Magic mushrooms. Moussaka. Chicken kebabs. A rice dish? Something a bit like lasagne. But nicer. Roasted vegetables. Spicy potato wedges. Roast beef. Feta cheese pie. More salads. I had two large platefuls. And began to feel a little bit green if I’m honest. But still I soldiered on. I don’t wish to disclose which desserts I tried. But they were all yummy.

Anyway. A fun time was had by all. Lots of good conversation. A little wine. Lots of coke and lemon. I would definately recommend it to my friends. And we will be going again. The staff are very pleasant. The decor is unusual. I had to take a picture of the garden. Because it’s so lovely.

Her and Emma had a great time sleeping in a tent in the garden while I slept soundly in my lovely warm bed. I blogged about it here.

This is currently my favourite range at Paperchase and I bought quite a lot in it. Although I would like to buy more. And may well do so.

I bought:

wrapping paper. To wrap presents with. To make origami stuff out of. To look at.

A4 Ring binder. To store Uni work in. To look at. To smile about.

Notebook. I actually already had one but I didn’t realise. I now have two. I may write stuff in one of them one day. Probably.

A set of two exercise books. This one. And this one. I’ll never use them. I like them too much. I’ll keep them. Look at them. Photograph them. Feel inspired by them. Am I wierd? Notebooks inspire me. Is that okay?

A set of two bookmarks. To use as bookmarks when I’m studying. They’re fantastic.

Sticky notes. Almost £4. I would never have bought these if it wasn’t for birthday money. Even though I love them. I’ve contemplated buying them lots of times. I’ll use them as bookmarks. Disposable bookmarks. I always end up with loads of scrap bits of paper stuck inbetween the pages of textbooks. Especially as deadlines are approaching.

Stationery set. I only wanted the pencil. But I like the ruler too. The sharpener is okay but I’ve got a few others I like more. The rubber is a bit naff. But it’s pretty.

Pencil sharpener. I had this one already and it works really well. So clearly I needed another one of the same design. That goes without saying.

All together, it looks very pretty. Don’t you think? (I bought the little blue notebook ages and ages ago) I love pretty things. 

I also bought other stuff, feline friend sticky labels, a funky postcard, a little cord bunny, two lovely notebooks and a phone charm for adorning my next memory stick).

I have decided that University is going to be very stressful at certain points. I think this is one of them. We have an essay due in next Friday and two exams on Thursday. But, if this is as bad as it gets, it will be do-able.

Two nice things happened yesterday. I met Rebecca Habberley at Uni. I haven’t seen her for years. We were at Valley House together in the good old days. And (partly promted by having seen Rebecca who I later stalked on facebook ), I found my first ever schoolfriend. I was 5 and a 1/2 and the teacher asked me to look after the new girl. For some reason she’d gone to another school for the first year. I was very proud to be asked to look after her. And she was a really nice girl. She went to a different secondary school and we lost touch. But I always remembered her: Nita Nandha. She’s not Nandha any more on account that she’s all grown up and married. But she does have a facebook account. It was nice to see her picture and say hi. She remembered me too. Aaah.

But for today, I’ve just this minute set myself up in the garden with laptop and stuff. And I’m going to start revision. I’ll break off for little bits and work on the last bits of my essay. I think I might just about get it all done in time! But it ain’t really what you would call fun!

At least it’s sunny. I like sunny

Blogging my yesterday….

Fantastic start. Peanut nestled into me while I was doing a bit of revision in my bedroom. Peanut just makes the whole ugly study type affair that little bit brighter.

Then I created myself a lovely little study spot in the garden. I put the rabbits out in the run and watched their antics while I sorted my revision noted out and put the last bits of the essay plan together.

This is Oscar and Bess all cuddled up in their tunnel - which is actually a cat toy from Aunty Sue and Uncle Baz that Peanut grew out of! One pic from either end. Ha ha ha 

And this is funny. A half-and-half, extremely long rabbit. Sandy and the top and silver at the base

And I really did actually get some work done

Not so today though. But that’s another story. Perhaps for tomorrow. Tonight I’m partying with friends and relatives.  Cousin Linda is here from Canada so we’re having a do at our house. I’m excited. I’ve cleaned up and everything. I even bleached the sink. The usual crowd - the Burnetts, Enisa, Jeanette and Ian, Leah, My mum, Me and Emma. And obviously Cousin Linda!

Some people off my course have lovely colourful revision cards. I don’t. I did, however, have some white lined index cards and a boring black box in which to house them. They’ve been lying around untouched for six months.

This morning, to avoid getting on with my essay (which incidently I did manage to ignore pretty much all day), I sat down to watch Mr Kyle (by the by, the bloke at the end was a lying toerag in my opinion) with a tub full of paperchase stickers and some sticky ribbon and had a little bit of a play…….

There was a bit of writing on the top that wouldn’t come off. I ripped one of the cards to size and stuck it on with double-sided tape. Now I have absolutley no idea what to write on it. Suggestions???

Unfortunately, there is still nothing to revise on any of the cards - that’s a job for another day - but the box is pretty

I then had a three hour bath. Yes, really. Eventually, when I could put it off no more, I did manage a spot of reading and note-taking.

At the Pooles tonight for a sleepover. Emma’s away tonight in Birmingham with her old work colleagues :) I debated sleeping in the house on my own. But I thought ‘why on earth would I do that when my lovely sister lives across the street?’

I’m just waiting for the phone call…..Did you feed the bunnies? Are the cats in? Is the back door locked? Did you leave a light on? etc etc etc. She thinks I’m totally incompetent. Bless her! I hope she’s having fun.

I just ate a huge huge bowl of cereal with……..rice krispies, alpen, crunchy nut cornflakes, maple crunch, choc squares and weetabix. Drowning in milk. Seriously, it was like four bowls in one. I think I might be sick. I like it at the Pooles

Half past ten, Emma says “I’m going to bed at eleven.” I say “Yeah, me too. I’m really tired.”

Five to eleven, Emma says “Right I’m off to bed.” I say “Yeah, me too. I think I’ll take the laptop up cos I just want to finish what I’m doing. It won’t take long.”

Eleven-ish. Emma says “Night then.” I say “Night then.” She goes off to bed. I climb into my bed, switch the laptop on, drink my hot chocolate, eat a few sweets and maybe a small square of lindt chocolate, reading online journal articles, typing in quotes from books. [see pic]

Quarter past two. Struggling to keep my eyes open, I think ‘must stop soon.’

Ten past four. Eyes keep closing of their own accord. I switch the laptop off and put it on the floor. Asleep within seconds.

Quarter past eight. I get up. Start reading again.

No wonder I was knackered!

(last night I went to bed at eleven on the dot and was asleep at 10 seconds past eleven - beginning to feel human again)

I made a card using some scrapbooking papers, adhesive ribbons and other stuff. And wrapped the little prezzie in matching paper and ribbon

We went to Weatherspoons. I had steak. It was rather lovely.

Below: Laura, aka the birthday girl. Emma Special and Claire.

Below: Lindsey with scary hair. Actually I like it! And red wine. We shan’t be seeing each other for a while

It was very nice putting posh clothes on and being all civilised with each other. For a little while anyway. As opposed to being rowdy and acting like children at Uni day after day. No. Really. You’d be surprised…