My Week In Photos the 3rd

19/9/11-25/9/11

Welcome to Intro Week

Well I just survived Intro Week (Fresher's Week for all you alcoholics) at my University, which was busy busy but very fun.

Monday

Unpacking shot number 1: I think I need a pen holder

Tuesday

Unpacking shot 2: I had SO much fun making my earrings look this pretty.

Wednesday

Cream Tea in the Leopold Hotel following a city centre tour. Yum.

Thursday

That would be me sorting out David's boobs for him.
In other words, a perfectly normal USLES activities fair. 

Friday

Little bit gutted I didn't get to have a go on this..but I was in charge of the Top Gear-style score board!!

Saturday

I watched two of my favourite people get married today. It was AWESOME.
Wedding of the Year, no doubt about it.

Sunday

No photo, but first Little Show costume rehearsal. I wouldn't want to spoil the surprise!

Until next time then, 

Have a marvellous week!
Jenni x

Intro Week 2011

You know, I had forgotten just how much fun you can have in an Intro Week. Sure, they're busybusy times, but I am rather enjoying myself despite this. And although some people will find it hard to believe, I am enjoying it without having had a drop of alcohol, or going out once!

This is Felicity. Isn't she lovely?

I'm enjoying being around people again-I am in a house of brand new housemates, so it feels a bit like Fresher's week all over again as I am still getting to know them all. Not to mention there is 7 of them, so it's a busy house, but a nice one. 

As I mentioned in my coming home post, I enjoy the moving in to a new house experience. I still haven't got everything completely unpacked, mainly due to No More Nails related mishaps, (It doesn't do what it says on the tin.) but my room definitely has my own personal stamp on it and it makes me smile so much to spend time amongst the wonderful things people have given me. When it's completely done, I will take some photos to show it off.

I started my university job this week, working for Give It A Go. So far, it's been pretty good-especially the tour around Sheffield which took me to some places I didn't even know about, and ended with a scrumptious Cream Tea in the Leopold Hotel. Tomorrow I am supervising people racing a simulation of an F1 car, and I am really hoping I get to have a go myself, coz it sounds like it's going to be pretty fun!!

I bought two pairs of jeans for £20 (did I mention I LOVE Student Discount?), and some other bits and pieces and spent a nice afternoon retail therapying without really buying much. I did get a penguin T-Shirt that says Chill Out though, because it makes me jolly.

Today was the Activities Fair, and I was there with my society USLES trying to recruit new members for the coming term. I would say we did fairly well, as at the end of the day there were over a hundred new names on our sign up list. It was massively busy but I had lots of amazing helpers there with me, and I really enjoyed myself, as I always do when in USLES-company. 

This evening was an odd one-an Ann Summers party with the housemates I have barely begun to live with. It could have been very awkward, but ended up being quite fun and silly overall. However, I don't think the day will come where it won't still feel awkward to be encouraged to rub goo on your nipples in front of people, however close friends you may be. 

And so tomorrow rolls around, and I shall be heading straight home after work for a busy busy weekend, that promises to be just as fun as the rest of this week.

For now then,
Goodnight x x

Oh, about the duck. If you look very closely, you will see it says 'Intro Week 2011' on its front. My Union was giving these away for free today. That's how awesome it is. Sheffield SU FTW. And now to bed.

Books Vs E-Readers.

Yesterday I came across this rather interesting article, posted on Twitter. Reading it, I realised there were so many more reasons for and against E-Readers than I had ever considered. The author raises some valid points, that they are very useful for people who cannot physically hold up a book long enough to read it without being in considerable pain, which I had never even thought about before. On the flip side though, I think it would be a pretty disastrous  thing if they suddenly stopped publishing books properly (as I see it), and only "published" them in an E-Book format. Not only would they limit the number of people who could access and read their books, as the article points out, but I personally think it would take all the enjoyment out of reading. Holding a piece of electronic wonder in your hand would never be the same as holding a never-before-opened paperback, knowing that as you turned the cover you were the first person ever to be doing so. Books have a certain smell, a certain feel. Shelves full of books look so appealing, you want to run your finger over the spine, you want to pull them out and examine them, and curl up in front of a fire reading one. I love to get lost in books-when a book is so good that you have to read it without stopping, and whenever you have to put it down, all you want to do is start again. With an E-Reader you can't flick through the pages to see how long before the next chapter, when you really should go to bed. You can't easily flick back to a page where something was previously mentioned to make sure you get it. To me, it seems like you are one step removed from the book-reading process-almost like someone else is holding a book in front of you and turning the pages for you. It just seems so strange, such an alien concept to not have the physical thing, and I am sure it's much more easy to get lost in your imagination from a book than from a computerised version. My house is FULL of books. If anything we have too many, they are everywhere and so few of them get read nowadays. But I would never swap the mess and the clutter, and the simple lack of being able to find that one book that you really want to read for a tiny computer that held the same books. It just wouldn't be right, it wouldn't be home.
So no, an E-Reader most definitely isn't for me.
How about you?

Jenni

My Week In Photos the 2nd

12/9/11-18/9/11

Monday

eBay parcels going out to make my fortune (?)

Tuesday

I have spent most of my day reading this book. It's very dark, and very good.

Wednesday

I spent an awesome day at White Post Farm with Rara.
I want a piglet. That sleepy one just there.

Thursday

Met with team GIAG today in preparation for Intro Week starting Mon. Exciting =)

Friday

Choir Rehearsal for Kaye and Lloyd's wedding was pretty much my day today.
We sounded AWESOME.

Saturday
No photo for you today folks.
I have packed up my life into hundreds of bags and I am going back to Sheffield tomorrow =D

Sunday

Lotsa stuff headed for home =)

Blue Skies Through The Tears In My Eyes...

...and I realise

I'm going home.

Extra Brownie points to anyone who gets the quote.

So. I am all moved in to my new shiny paint-smelling bedroom, and for good this time. I say all moved in, and I mean in physical proximity only- I have yet to unpack the thousands of bags that seem to have journeyed with me up here and find homes for all of the things that I doubtless need but brought anyway. This is what I should be doing with my evening. Instead, I intend to have a shower and then watch Doctor Who, after moving enough rammel* off my bed for me to get into it. Tomorrow I shall do the sensible unpacking things, and to be honest I am rather looking forward to the part where I get to make things have a place to live in my room-it makes it more mine. 

I love the whole process of moving in to a new student room, even though this is the third time I have done so and I seem to accumulate more stuff every semester. It's the claiming of the space as your own, turning it from that drab and dreary plain room into something that has your stamp on it, that is full of familiar things that are put in the places exactly where you wanted them to go. It's very therapeutic, and personally makes me feel quite proud at the end of it-when I can look around and marvel at what I have created. Once it's done, once it's finished, I will take some photos of it to show you and you can decide what you would have done differently. That's the best bit, it's entirely my own and no-one else would do it quite the same.
Until then, I am going to just enjoy being home again.

Night, 

Jenni x

*Rammel is a word my mother uses to describe general clutter and stuff.

My Life Changing Moments

Inspired by the lovely Amycakes's post, I decided I too wanted to challenge myself to pinpoint the 5 moments that have made me who I am today. I love getting lost in memories from time to time, and whether they be happy or sad they all affect us somehow. But how to choose only 5 that have shaped me into, well, me? I am, after all, only 21, I haven't finished university yet and I don't even consider myself to be a proper 'adult'. Even so, once I thought about it, and really thought about it, I could find those defining moments that put me on the path I am walking today.
So my 5 Life Changing Moments are:

- 7th July 2002
The day before my 12th birthday I had a fairly unique opportunity. Thanks to my drama school Theatretrain, I was standing at the front of the stage of Her Majesty's Theatre, London, belting my heart out at singing 'Do You Hear The People Sing' with 2 other girls. I realised how amazing I felt, and how much I wanted to do this forever. It sparked my desire to be on a stage, and gave me the best feeling in the world-that of being in a spotlight doing what you love. I've been in at least one performance every year since. I have a lot to thank them for.

-5th-19th November 2005
Simply put, I fell in love for the first time. Everyone remembers their first love, the magic, the fireworks, the constant desire to be near them etc etc. It was all that and more, and at the time was all I had ever wanted. It started me off in the right direction to becoming me, but I had a long way to go.

-14th August 2008
This was my A-Level results day, and things didn't quite go as I had wanted them to...That day and the next couple of weeks led to me, one way or another, having a gap year. At first I was a bit upset that I hadn't gone to uni that year, but looking back I am glad I did it, because it made me grow up a lot, in all sorts of ways. A lot of things would be very different now if I had got the grades I had originally wanted.

-7th-25th March 2009
This was a crazy couple of weeks. I learned that I was stronger than I thought and that I could stand on my own, which I hadn't known how to before. I realised that I had gone and fallen in love again, and I was so grateful to find out the feeling was mutual. I realised I wasn't happy, and what I needed to do about it, and most importantly what would make me happy again. What's been making me happy ever since. Best decision I ever made.

-24th September 2009
I was wandering around the Activities Fair on my own, a new university student still a little in awe of everything. I stopped in front of the theatre stalls, and asked what the difference was between the three of them. A strange man with long hair wearing a cape thrust a leaflet at me and began talking very animatedly to me. I liked him straight away, he was honest and funny. And so I joined USLES, and found my home at uni. We have the best of times.

And here I am, better for all of these times. I wouldn't be me without them, and then who would I be?
Can you pick out your five??

Until next time,
Jenni

My Week In Photos the 1st

My Week In Photos (MWIP if I am feeling lazy) is a photo snap shot of my life for the previous week, as a sort of diary for myself. I am aiming to post one every Monday, although I cannot promise that there will be 7 photos each week. I have imported them here from my other blog because I feel this is a better home for them. GIAG Diaries is about doing new things and trying new experiences, Life and Times is more about me, about my life, about the ordinary adventures. Because every day IS an adventure really, so what better way to remember them?
I give you then, My Week In Photos.

5/9/11-11/9/11

Monday

This is my 'Before' Hair shot. Ignore the dodgy light and tired eyes.

 Tuesday

I was meant to get my hair cut today but the hairdresser was ill, so that didn't happen...

This is not an 'After' hair shot. Fright Night at the cinema. I didn't rate it.

Wednesday

I saw my Nate. No photo, coz I forgot!

Thursday
Ditto for Thursday! It was spent tidying Nate's room.

Friday

Trev's Leaving Party, for she is going to London to be dancey and stuff

Saturday

Spent the whole day with these lovelies! It was very giggly.

Sunday

I spend all my Sundays with these weirdos. It's quite fun.
(Little Show 2011)

And there you have it!
I will see you next week,
Jenni x

Lovely, rainy, crazy Edinburgh II

To start with let me apologise for these posts taking SOOOO long, I started them the day I got home but have slowly managed to forget about them due to the 5 resits I have just had to complete. Boo. However, they are now behind me (Woo!) so it is time to party on and get down to doing all the things on my to do list. Including finishing these somewhat delayed blog posts...so here I am!

We awoke on the morning of the 3rd August to see the sun shining brightly for the first time that week. We donned our summery clothes, and dug out our sunglasses from the bottom of our bags, and set off to climb this:

What that is is the Scott Monument which is a towering 200ft tall monument dedicated to the writer Walter Scott. It has 287 steps, the top set of which are decidedly narrow. So narrow in fact that I had to squeeze through almost sideways, and bring my right arm through afterwards...eech! However, it was VERY worth the uncomfortable climb because you could see for MILES due to the gorgeous weather. There were some absolutely beautiful views! We also found some graffiti from 1884 scratched into the walls, which we both thought was rather cool as vandalism goes.

Just look at this gorgeous city!

After climbing back down all those steps (and collecting a certificate for being awesome) we decided we had earned an ice cream, and went to sit outside the Scottish National Gallery to eat them. Rara promptly fell in love with a "Sexy Bagpipe Man" and sat there squeaking as he smiled at her, it was rather cute!
We spent much of the rest of the day awandering, sitting in the sunshine, and watching people rehearse in silly make-up for the Edinburgh Fringe. Oh and eventually we found this rather disappointing dog:

It was NOT worth it. Not at all.

That evening, we set about the near-impossible task of finding an Indian takeaway for our dinner. In the end we gave in, and resorting to getting the very lovely Elita to Google one for us. We ate our £25 tea at half past 10 that evening, with aching feet and hungry tummies. (Note to self: Next time just settle for the stuff you can find in restaurants, K?).

And so our final morning rolled around, with pendulous black clouds and heavy rain. We packed our bags and said our goodbyes to the lovely Travelodge, and set out to buy the last of our souvenirs and make the most of the short time we had left. We decided, as it was the day before the Fringe proper began, to indulge ourselves with some free comedy shows, just to say that we had. The first of these were the excellent Office Girls Gone Crazy, who made us laugh rather a lot with their naughty poems! Not sure Rara enjoyed being sat next to my over-loud laugh in the pub with only 5 other people in, but I can't help being loud and embarrassing, can I?! They even challenged us to a Limerick competition, and once I saw the first line, (There were some comedians at the Edinburgh Fringe...) I knew what had to be done. This was my effort:

There were some comedians at the Edinburgh Fringe,
With jokes that would make people cringe,
The blokes spoke of their poo

And the language turned blue, 

And the ladies all talked about Minge!

It was received rather well I thought, it's always fun making people snort because you used a naughty word ;)

After a very nice pub lunch for me, and lots of souvenirs for Rara, we found a nice man in the street with an umbrella, so we took a flyer from him and decided to go and watch him (and his friends) be funny too. They were the absolutely fabulous Three Blokes Tell Jokes , and they were so very good. We laughed until our sides hurt, I twitched and knocked a bottle of water over and got heckled by one of them, and it was a very amusing and enjoyable hour. Look out for them, because they are rising stars!

Then it was time for our very last few rainy hours in the beautiful Edinburgh, before boarding a train and heading homeward. I was very sad to leave, and I will be definitely be going back again! Who knows, I might even be performing there some day-watch this space!

So for now, from Edinburgh, from me, Goodbye. I will be seeing you soon, I don't doubt.

J x x