Sunday #6

1. March has been tough, really tough. Mainly consisting of the above picture all day every day. It is getting scarily close to the end of uni now and people just don't warn you about final year. Or maybe they do and we just think 'pft, I can do that!' Boy oh boy, it is hard work. So here's a little update as to what has been happening in these past few weeks of blog silence, it's not quite all libraries and tests, I promise. 

2. Last weekend, it was Mothering Sunday and I went home to spend the day with my mum. We didn't do anything particularly special but I don't think I have seen my mum properly since the Christmas holidays so it was nice to be able to have a proper catch up with her. She was spoiled with cards, flowers, chocolates and perfume so I think she had a nice day. Visits home always seem so short, I really do miss it a lot. 

3. So a fair few weeks ago now (heck, it's nearly Easter already) I decided to give up meat for Lent. And, I am proud to say that I haven't fallen off the bandwagon once! Did any of you give anything up? Any success? I'm quite surprised at how little I have been craving meat, mostly only when I've had an alcoholic beverage or drive past KFC. Although, going to my Mum's last weekend was killer. Seeing everybody else's plates piled high with roast pork and knowing that I couldn't have any of it was the toughest test, let me tell you. My mum cooks THE best roast dinners imaginable, it must be her magic Filipino touch. My 16374658 extra roast potatoes very nearly made up for it though. It is definitely not a life choice for me, pass the T-bone. 

4. On Thursday I got an email confirming that the summer language school that I worked for last summer had accepted my application to work for them again. This is a huge relief as not only do I love the job (it's basically being paid to play in the sun/go sight seeing/ party), but job hunting is so stressful. It is nice to know that I will be spending my summer outdoors once again and for a good chunk of my time off I will be earning a half decent wage. 

5. Next weekend I will be going home again to celebrate not only my mum's birthday but my sister's 18th. My mum is throwing a huge party for her, her friends and all our family so it is sure to be a wonderful occasion. It is something to look forward to after what seems like endless days of watching others play in the sun while I bury my head in  books. And, what makes it even more exciting is that I will finally be meeting my half sister for the first time since I was little! She has 3 beautiful children too, so I can't wait to meet my niece and nephews. If that isn't motivation to get through this work load, then I don't know what is! 

Sunday #5

1. I've finally cracked the 150 follower mark after what feels like forever! I feel like my blog's been moving really slowly recently, I haven't had my memory card and uni is my world right now so to those of you who continue to read and the influx of newbies who have started to read, ta very, very much! I still keep going to type in my old url, so I'm glad people are managing to find the new one and sticking around! 

2. I have spent an awful lot of time in the library this week and after another near on 8 hour stint with my head submerged in books, I was quite looking forward to blowing off some steam and going out last night. Waking up yesterday morning there was a very thin blanket of snow covering the city of Canterbury. Come yesterday early evening and most of it had melted away. All glammed up and with a glass of wine or 3 inside me, we headed to the uni club. Now, I don't know what overcame this club during my year out, but it's queuing policy is an absolute joke. Every time I have been I have been forced to queue for at least half an hour no matter how early or late. Last night, massive queue. Then it started to snow. And it didn't stop. Over an hour of huddling like penguins soaking up every ounce of body heat that we could find and pretty much being at the front of the queue, the bouncers had some sort of mental breakdown turning them all into utter morons and decided to move us all, in no particular order (cue stampede and me landing in a heap of people in the snow), to the opposite side of the club to queue. WHAT? Back to square one where we had started and with the possibility of nearly another hour's wait we went home grumpy and shivering in a taxi with more steam to blow than when we had arrived. Shame on you Venue, shame on you. 

3. On a prettier, brighter note, I did wake up to this beautiful scene today. Canterbury is completely blanketed in thick, white snow and it looks so beautiful. There is something that always gets me really excited when it snows, I feel like I'm six again. And as long as it doesn't hang around for too long, ie. past Tuesday, then snow and I will have a great relationship. Somebody take me to the South Downs with a sledge please and thank you? Excuse the repeated photos in different effects, I have been playing around with  a new app called Molome which is like an Instagram-type-thing for those of us who made the cursed choice of opting for a blackberry rather than an iPhone, FOOLS. 

4. This week holds some exciting prospects. Once I have my final ever presentation (with the exception of my oral exam presentation) out of the way on Tuesday, I have  visit from Rob to look forward to on Wednesday for a couple of days as I will be going to TOWIB on Saturday! I must admit that I'm just as nervous as I am excited but am looking forward to meeting new people, learning new things and hopefully putting some real faces to the pictures and words I so frequently muse over. Will any of you be there on Saturday?  

Sunday #4

1. I said I would do these Sunday posts to keep things up and coming a tad more regularly, but I am so far not doing a very job at keeping up with them. This week has consisted of your usual uni work overload leading to unhealthy amounts of procrastination and dissertation panics etc. etc. You now the drill by now. Get it together, Melita!

2. After a rather stressful detour to Basildon (how?!) from Brighton, Rob finally made it to Canterbury and we spent Friday night perving over the all too beautiful Zooey Deschanel in New Girl. If you haven't yet watched it, go and do it now! She is delightfully funny as are all the other characters and being the impatient couple that we are we ended up having a marathon and have finished the series. Now, if you would just hand over your hair Zooey, I'll be on my way...

3. The weather turned against us on Saturday night and a dinner date out turned into a dinner date in with Rob cooking up what can only be described as...half a cow! Cue steak with home cooked chilli potato wedges, pimento parmigiano salad topped off with hot Belgian chocolate fudge brownie pudding with vanilla ice cream, hoegaarden and rosé wine. A feast of kings, to say the least!

4. Today's plan was to adventure like the adventurers we are to Whitstable for the first time, but British weather being dependable as ever resulted in one too many showers so those plans were saved for a sunny day. Plan B was to go to a café in Canterbury and drink cups of tea whilst painting pottery but we didn't realise that we had to make reservations so that was plan B out the window. Plan C? More food! Lunch in one of my favourite places in Canterbury, Boho Café. 

5. Now, hopefully you will have by now noticed the new blog header and with that, the new blog name, Hyper Heart. I had been pondering changing it for a while now and Rob once again leant a huge helping hand in designing and creating me a new header, which I am extremely grateful for! I took the name from lyrics by The National, which I had posted a while ago here. Hopefully it doesn't cause too much confusion as my blog URL has now also changed, so I must apologise in advance for the spamming via twitter/facebook and the blog just to get the message across to any readers! You likey or no lighty? Too far...

Sunday (Monday) #3

1. The first week of 2012 seems to have flown by, doesn't it? I celebrated New Year's Eve with some wonderful friends in Brighton at a couple of house parties. With everybody disappearing back to uni very soon, it was a lovely chance to get a good group of us together to welcome in 2012. We then nursed our hangovers (some of us worse than others) with the magic of a fry up. After trudging through the pouring rain to the train station, missing our train and therefore enduring a 40 minute wait for the next one, we ventured back to Eastbourne to be welcomed by more rain. It has been a long time since I have been so relieved to get into my PJs and slippers!

2. My brother turned 20 at the beginning of December but due to both him and myself being at uni, we were never really able to mark the occasion as a family, so my mum decided to round up the troops this week before we disappeared again and take us to Buffet Time! Not so good for resolutions, but who cares when they bring you cake like this (see below) for your birthday? 

With lights turned down and music turned up, Happy Birthday was sung and rapturous applause followed. Embarrassed much, little brother? 

3. On Thursday I went to The Argus in Brighton for an interview and aptitude test for a journalism course that I want to start in September. I had to do a written exam which included proof reading for spelling and grammar, summarising an article in only 70 words and then writing an article using some information given. After being given a tour and an interview, myself and the other two applicants there were told that the exams would be marked that afternoon and an email would swiftly follow. So, as you can imagine an evening full of constant phone and email checking followed to no avail. 

On Friday, I returned to The Argus for a journalism taster workshop and was once again welcomed by Paula, who informed me that I had passed both the interview and test and offered me a place on the course! I am so happy and incredibly excited to start this September, although I cannot yet quite imagine how hard it will be to have lessons from 9-5 Monday to Friday. 

I hope everyone's 2012 has got off to a wonderful start.

Sunday #2

1. So, as promised I shall shamefully share some snaps (how about that for some alliteration!) from Friday night  where my house mates and I aged about 50 years or so. As you can see from the top photo, one birthday boy took the theme a tad too far and broke his collar bone a couple of days before the big event! Injuries aside, it was an incredibly fun night and everyone's costumes looked fabulous! The boys took to their dresses and skirts like ducks to water, happily swishing and swaying at any given opportunity. After a hilarious game of articulate and a few beverages we headed up to to the club and most certainly painted the town red. For some of us, the excitement was all too much and sadly the night called for an early end. I for one, may or may not have fallen asleep in a cosy corner of the club... (Apologies for the spotty top photo, dirty camera lens tut tut). 

2. It is officially 2 weeks today until Christmas and I have done zero Christmas shopping, uh oh. We are having a house Christmas dinner on Tuesday and exchanging our Secret Santa gifts so that is top of my list of things to do tomorrow, post exam of course (wish me luck). I pretty much know what I want to get people I just haven't had the time spare to look for them so it's not worrying me too much. People seem to gasp in horror when I tell them I haven't yet started, but 2 weeks is plenty of time people! I always manage it and my gifts are always fabulous, OTT is my middle name. 

3. Speaking of exams, there are just 3 of them plus an extra seminar that stand between me and the Christmas holidays and I canny bloomin' wait! I will be over the moon to be able to go home and see some familiar faces and spend more than just a snatched afternoon with some pretty amazing folks. 

Sunday #1

1. I am finding it increasingly difficult to find the time to keep this blog running, so I am taking inspiration from some other blogs that I read and starting a new Sunday feature to sum up my week. That way I can edit and add to it as I go and if nothing else should get blogged, at least Sunday will! 

2. The turning from November to December means that even for the most Scrooge like among us there is no reason to not get excited about Christmas. This amazing advent calendar (pictured above) arrived in the post a few days before December. My mum never fails to get us an advent calendar and for the past few years she has got us personalised ones! (Probably to stop the bickering between us siblings, Annalisa, I'm looking at you). Not the best photo above, but the only one I have I'm afraid. The coca-cola advert is once again up and running and everywhere I look lights and tinsel are in full swing! My uni house is no exception, our 3ft synthetic tree, complete with lights, baubles, tinsel and a star, is something to envy. As are our copious amounts of paper chains! More tackiness please and thank you. 

3. It was also my house mate Matt's birthday this week, which I got just a little excited about. I'm a sucker for birthdays! To celebrate we went for our first outing as a whole house (only took 10 weeks!) Then after some amazing food and a glass of wine at the Brewery Tavern in Canterbury, we headed home where birthday celebrations turned into Christmas cheer and Elf was watched with caterpillar cake dessert. 

4. To end the week I went home to visit Rob and my family for the first time in what felt like an absolute age. I spent Friday and Saturday at Rob's then today we went to see my family and had the most amazing roast; my mum is THE best cook in the world, incredible woman. Topped off with not just any melt in the middle chocolate cake pudding and ice cream, but M&S melt in the middle chocolate cake pudding and ice cream. All too soon though I had to leave to catch my train back to Canterbury and sadly missed out on helping put up the Christmas decorations, so I am all the more excited to go home in two weeks and join in the family festivities! 

5. I am however looking forward to another house birthday this week and their joint OAP themed birthday shindig on Friday night! So prepare yourselves for some (if not too embarrassing) granny photos this time next week!

6. And last but by no means least I owe a huge thank you to the lovely Lauryn from Bracelets and Bangles who awarded me the Versatile Blogger award! She has a lovely blog and is currently doing the 100 day challenge which consists of her taking a photo of her outfits for 100 days! It's quite the challenge and she has posted some lovely photos so be sure to pay her a visit!