17. our animal friends

R.I.P Beesley

I felt I should write a post about my pets, as on Monday, one of my family's German Shepherd's passed away on the operating table due to having a ruptured splenic tumour (tumour of the spleen). It hit us all quite hard, as we'd got him via the German Shepherd Rescue place, (as his original owner would no longer be able to look after him) exactly a year before he died. His name was Beesley, and I honestly hoped that his year with us was brilliant. I felt quite bad, as I'm more if a cat person, and so I've never bonded as well with our dogs as the others. This Christmas I'd actually begun to bond with them, only to have bad luck take Beesley from us.

Beesley and Breeze together :)

We have another German Shepherd called Breeze, who is much older than Beesley was (he was around 8), and she suffers from arthritis. We got her a few months after Beesley, so we've had her for less than a year. She likes lying down a lot, but when she's about to go in walks, her high pitched barking begins - which can give you a headache.

KitKat I have to admit is my favourite pet. We took him under our wing, after his previous owners (who lived on our street) moved house, abandoning him. We'd begun to feed him, and we even paid his vet bills for when he had to have an abscess removed from one if his eyes. This means he only has one eye, but that doesn't stop him chasing after newspaper or playing with his toys. After he'd been to the vets, we still weren't allowed to own him until he'd been declared officially abandoned by the RSPCA. My mum didn't want to see the little fellow go, and to be honest, I don't think any of us did.

My boyfriend Rob, with my
one-eyed cat KitKat

My family have always had pets, even before I was born. In total we've had 8 cats (including KitKat), 2 dogs, 1 rabbit, 3 guinea-pigs over the years, and we may have even had some fish. We usually get out pets from rescue places, or if not, they're usually strays or the animals left in pet shops because no one wants them. When I'm living away from home, I'd love to have a couple of pets, because I think that they just make the house a happier place to be!

16. planning ahead

Well, for 2013 I have a few plans for what I want to do, and I hope that writing them down will make them become more definite, and that way I can keep track of my progress.

My new trainers :)

Prior to going to uni, I had plans that I'd join the gym there, go swimming or jog along the seafront - anything to keep me fit as in the past year I had put some weight on. I'm not fat or anything, but I'd like to get back to how I was before as I felt more confident then. However, due to my lack of trainers, I went for a jog once (in pumps) and it wasn't exactly comfortable. So mum purchased me some trainers, and therefore I hope to lose some weight by the summer!

I'm also planning on eating slightly healthier. Towards the end of last term I began to have some broccoli with most of my evening meals, and I have weetabix in the morning so I hope to continue that. I might buy some cheap pure orange juice so I can have a glass every morning to increase my vitamin C intake, and maybe get some chocolate milkshake powder to increase my calcium intake (I'm not a huge fan of milk on its own). Hopefully, I'll be able to keep this up because I know I'm not a mega-healthy person and I want to try and be a bit more healthy.

I also hope to keep up with my blogging. Unfortunately at university, nothing very interesting seems to happen, and I know I've blogged quite a lot over the Christmas period, but hopefully I shall find some interesting things to talk about. I also hope to update a couple of my posts by adding photos to them, which I haven't done yet, due to writing posts on my iPod and not my laptop.

'Dracula' by Bram Stoker,
my Kindle Touch,
'Captain Corelli's Mandolin'
by Louis de Bernieres 

Finally, I'd like to get back into reading. I always read a lot of books when I was younger, but the past couple of years I haven't had as much time just to read for leisure. Although I'd like to reread a lot if my 'teenage' books again, I'd also like to read some of the classics that I couldn't get into in the past. Currently I'm reading JRR Tolkien's Return of the King, having read the previous two books since the start of January. I'd like to make it my aim to read at least 100 'grown-up' books, or books that are quite long, before 2013 is out. I think having my kindle will help a bit, as it means that when I'm at uni I'll have a lot of books that are fairly accessible to me.

Tara

14. christmas and new year

So, here's the post I promised I'd write on my Christmas and New Year. I know that it's been a while since they happened, and I'll probably have another post to later as it's my little (and I say little in the sense that he's 2 and a half years younger than me) brother's birthday today, and we're going out to the cinema and for meal.

Christmas Day

My Nina Ricci 'Nina'
perfume

This year is the first year we've had dogs at our household for Christmas so instead of beginning to open at presents like previous years, we had to wait until 9. I'd woken up fairly early for once (half 7!!) so I made sure I had some coco pops for breakfast as our family tends to have mince pies for breakfast (which I think are disgusting). Just before 9 my older brother (Aidan), his girlfriend (Beth) and my nan turned up. This meant that unwrapping presents took way longer than usual as normally there are only 4 or 5 of us, and this year there were 7!! I got quite a few presents this year including: Nina Ricci 'Nina' perfume, some toiletries, an atlas and a jigsaw puzzle globe (in 3D - to increase my brilliantness at geography hahaa), some chocolate (of course!) and some money/New Look vouchers as well as other stuff! I didn't get any fictional books this year which is quite unusual but I'm guessing it's because I got a KindleTouch for my birthday in July.

My new slippers!

After opening presents I got ready to go to Rob's as this year I was having Christmas dinner there. I always feel bad when it comes to dinner time as I don't like the traditional Christmas dinner as such, so I have to have something different. This year Rob's family was having to cook me some chicken (as I don't like turkey), so I had that with some broccoli, parsnips (I love parsnips - why do they only seem to appear at Christmas-time?), chipolatas, roast potatoes with gravy! Yummy! Even for pudding I have to be different as I ding like fruit cake (and therefore Christmas pudding). I had some mini Melt-in-the-middle chocolate puddings with custard! Rob's step-dad actually managed to do that thing where you set the Christmas pudding alight (something which never happens at home! I think mum always uses too much brandy), so that was pretty cool to watch. I got some more presents whilst I was at Rob's - from him and his parents - which was good cos I like it when presents are spread out throughout the day. I got some DVDs including War Horse (when I watched it, I cried - lots!) and Rob also got me a really pretty necklace :D

My 3D Globe Puzzle

The rest of Christmas Day was spent relaxing really, watching the Doctor Who special (which compared to the previous episodes this series was really really good! Actually looking forward to watching it when it returns) and just eating some chocolate!

Boxing Day

One of the games we
played

Boxing Day morning and afternoon were spent at Rob's just chilling and watching one of his comedy DVDs that he got. But around 4pm we got picked up in order to go to my Nan's house for Boxing Day tea and games. My nan always does a little buffet with sausage rolls and breadsticks (which is what I usually eat when I'm there!) This year, both of my brothers and Rob got these games which are easy to play with large numbers (there was 8 of us, so madness often occurs) so we played some of those in teams of 2. At 9 the Christmas special (and start of series 3) of Miranda was on, and as the majority of us watch it normally we watched that. I enjoy going round my nan's because it's a chance for the whole family just to have fun!

New Year's Day
As I said in my previous post, I was ill over the new year, so instead of seeing the year in at midnight I was fast asleep in my bed. I'd originally been planning on spending it at Rob's but I'd felt so awful New Year's Eve, I went home in the hope I'd feel better for the next day. Luckily I did feel better to an extent. The headache I'd had continuously since the Friday (28th) had lessened so I felt that so long as I had paracetamol with me, I should be okay. Rob's parents picked me up at around half 10 and we headed north to the Keighley & Worth Railway (in Yorkshire) for the Mince Pie Special train. One of the stations along the line (I think it's Oakworth) is where The Railway Children was filmed (the one filmed in the 80s?). I was tempted to do the whole 'Daddy! My Daddy!' thing but it'd probably have looked a bit weird. We were also in Bronte Country so when we got off at Haworth station, people could go and see where the Bronte sisters used to live. The day out was good, and in the evening we went out for a meal at The Charnwood Arms. Luckily, if I cut up my food into tiny pieces I was able to swallow it without too much difficulty as I'd been struggling to eat with a swollen throat.

So, there you go. My Christmas/Boxing Day as well as my New Year's Day. I'm quite surprised that I've managed to write it so soon after I'd said I would. I'm usually hopeless when it comes to things like that!

Tara

12. returning to middle earth

The Hobbit, for those of you who don't know, is the prequel to the Lord of the Rings Trilogy by J.R.Tolkien. Unfortunately, I've not read any of the books (when I get home for Christmas, I plan on reading the Hobbit) but I've seen all of the LOTR films, and today I went to see The Hobbit.

The film, directed by Peter Jackson, sees the return to Middle Earth, in a story about Bilbo Baggins, Frodo's (from LOTR) uncle, who goes on an unexpected adventure. It stars Martin Freeman (who plays John Watson in BBC's Sherlock) as Bilbo Baggins and Richard Armitage (he's Guy of Gisbourne in BBC's Robin Hood) as Thorin (a dwarf) who is one of the key characters. It also sees the return of some characters that we've seen before in LOTR, such as Gandalf, Galadriel and Lord Elrond. Unfortunately Legolas doesn't make an appearance until the last installment (according to IMDB), which is a shame, cos Orlando Bloom is pretty nice ;) Luckily, I think Aidan Turner who plays Kili is gorgeous, so I'll have to make do with him for now. Especially as there's no Aragorn (Viggo Mortenson). Anyway, this isn't supposed to be a post about the good-looking actors in the film, but I'm not sure what the point is... probably just to go on about the amazingness of the film! (I love it, in case you couldn't tell).

I genuinely think it was brilliant though, and I really want to see it again - hopefully, I'll get to if I meet up with my friends Natalie and Steph (we all LOVE Lord of the Rings - when we were all at band together, we kept asking if we could play LOTR music... it never happened *sadface*). I actually want to go and see it again now! I don't know how I'm going to be able to cope for the next week or however long (unfortunately, I can't compare it to the book - but it was an amazing film even without the prior knowledge of the plot!) I can't wait until next December, and then the following July when the 2nd and 3rd parts come out! I want to watch all of them now! And then have a LOTR marathon... and then possibly watch The Hobbit trilogy again... I know I'm babbling... but it's AWESOME!

I don't want to say too much about it, as I don't want to spoil it for those who haven't seen it yet (crazy people - you should go and see it IMMEDIATELY... and I mean it even more than when I told people to go and watch Skyfall)! 

PICTURE TIME NOW... (these screenshots were up on digitalspy, so I don't think they count as spoilers - well, too much anyway :P)

MARTIN FREEMAN as BILBO BAGGINS - he's excellent as Bilbo!!! 

DEAN O'GORMAN as FILI and AIDAN TURNER as KILI... Aidan Turner is gorgeous!! Even as a dwarf!!  I'm going all fangirlish (something I haven't done in ages... well, not for a while anyway :L) over him! When I was watching the premiere at Leicester Square, I saw him with Prince William and was like, 'nice ;)'

ANDY SERKIS returns as GOLLUM - which means there are loads more phrases that Steph can now imitate. The Gollum moment in The Hobbit was great! Loved it :D

Some dwarves at Bilbo's hobbit-hole... I chose the picture with Aidan Turner in to put on here (who wouldn't?!?!)

Anyway, apologies for this post being very random, and fangirlish. But.. it is THE HOBBIT! I think Natalie will understand... :)

Tara

11. comedy at aber

Since moving to Aber, I've been to a lot of comedy events. Every two weeks the student union holds a comedy event called ComedyWorks which is great - especially as it's only £4 a ticket!! With ComedyWorks I've seen a variety of different comedians, many of whom have been on Russell Howard's Good News, which makes me feel pretty privileged to have seen them live!! :D

I think I mentioned the first comedy works gig I went to where Nathan Caton and Matt Rees performed with the MC being Andrew Ryan. Since then me and Rob have been to three more where we've seen Marcel Lucont, Paddy Lennox, (MC Clint Edwards), Andrew O'Neill, Fin Taylor, (MC Suzi Ruffell)
Eric Lampaert, Jessica Fostekew, (MC Jim Smallman), Elis James, Matt Rihcardson, (MC Tom Webb) and at the last comedy gig of this semester we'll get tos ee Ryan McDonnell, ,(MC Chris Turner).  At the Eric Lampaert gig, we sat right next to the stage and Rob got spoken to twice!! The first time was because he knew the capital of Azerbaijan (very embarrassing!!) and I can't remember why the second time! It was all good fun though!

As well as being to comedy gigs at the union, me and Rob have also gone to the Aberystwyth Arts Centre (also located on the campus - very fortunate) to see Mark Watson, Josh Widdicombe and Seann Walsh - all who were brilliant! And now Rob's bought tickets for us to go and see Chris Addison and Lloyd Langford :D

Mark Watson's gig was back in October, and his mum had bought us tickets as result presents. Although I'd heard some of his material before (having watched a few youtube clips - mainly to check I actually found him funny), a lot of it was related to audience participation. He put a mobile number up, and his twitter username so that people could text/tweet him throughout the show, and he used a lot of that as material. He even mentioned a conversation I'd had on twitter with Natalie about sleep, that he'd seen prior to the show, after me having mentioned him in a tweet! It was embarrassing, but all good laughs!

Seann Walsh and Josh Widdicombe did a joint gig, but that didn't matter as they both did their usual material, as well as doing some joint towards the end! Me and Rob had front row seats (thankfully not in the centre!) and they were brilliant! Seann Walsh's impressions of people really make up part of his material, and I have to say, I love his Michael McIntyre impression! They're both just amazing comedians, and they both relate well to the audience - especially as a lot of the audience are younger people and they're younger comedians.

Anyway, I think everyone should go see a live comedy gig at some point in their lives, because it's so much better than just seeing a recorded one on the TV. I think that if it's not being recorded then the comedians tend to be a bit more outgoing, and they can appeal to that particular audience! It's weird to think that I was never really bothered by watching comedy on the telly, or even going to see it, but now, I think it's great!

Tara

10. just some pictures

I felt that I should probably post some pictures of my room as I realised that in the posts about moving into my room at uni, there weren't really any photos of what my room looked like once everything was unpacked and sorted. So, here are just a few pictures :) 

My notice board - as a geography student I felt the need to have a world map on there, so Rob bought me one,. Along with it are some flyers for stuff and the fire safety notice (in both English and Welsh). Also, you can see my TV and freeview box (not the most exciting) but it means I get to watch programs live, which is always a bonus! And then some storage units, with books and work on top. All very exciting :L

Inside my wardrobe - as a built in wardrobe, I have plenty of space at the bottom, as well as a shelf at the top to put shoes and towels etc, which is good, and luckily, I can just about to fit all my clothes in the actual wardrobe - although I think my jumpers take up a lot of space, which isn't really ideal :(

My 4' bed - a brilliant bonus, as at home, I only have a single bed! I luckily, having read the emails off the uni before moving, knew that some rooms would have a 4' bed, and therefore didn't buy my bedspreads until I knew what size. Some people in my flat, brought single bedspreads with them, and had issues! MR Moose, the cuddly moose on the pillows, was a present from Rob from when he went to Sweden in 2011, for the 22nd World Scout Jamboree. 

Shelf in my room - kind of glad that I didn't bring more books and DVDs as I probably wouldn't have had enough room. Did bring the first three seasons of gossip girl though, so that's keeping me entertained. Chace Crawford - I forgot how much of a hottie he was :L Also, I've got my biscuit tin, and luckily lidl sells packets of biscuits pretty cheaply, so I'm always able to have a supply, just in case I'm in need of one. 

Desk, looking very neat and tidy for once. I brought a printer with me to uni, as my brother said that in the long run it'd be much cheaper, and I have to say, he's probably right. For some lectures, I don't mind taking notes, but others are much better to add notes to the already existing PowerPoints - especially if I'm not totally sure of a concept or the lecturer talks around photos. Also, have my rather cool stationery stuff (something I didn't buy new for uni!) that comes in very useful, especially as it means I don't have to go round asking if anyone has a hole punch or a stapler.

The next two pictures aren't of my room, but they were taken in Aberystwyth, so I thought I might as well put them up, as I'm not really sure if I'd write a blog about them :L

This was taken sometime mid-October, when the weather was really unpleasant.  Originally when I realised that although I was living on the seafront, I didn't get a sea view (the en-suites were in a more recently built area at the back of my halls - I don't really have a view) I was a bit disappointed, however, after seeing the waves that happen, and the about of stones and pebbles thrown up into the road, I'm glad I'm at the back. These waves were really something to watch though, they were pretty spectacular.

Sunset looking out over Cardigan Bay - I managed to capture this moment as me and Rob were walking back from one of our lectures, and it was just so beautiful, with the pastel pink and purple mixing into one another. I'm a sucker for picturesque moments. I just wish I was better at taking photos, so that these moments could be truly justified :)

09. skyfall

This post is a bit late, but better late than never in my opinion :)

Skyfall, the 3rd James bond film with Daniel Craig in, came out in cinemas on 26th October, and me and Rob were hoping to go and see it that night. However, due to Aberystwyth's cinema only having 1 screen, and our lectures finishing at 6, we were unable to make it in (especially as we didn't book tickets, mainly due to the fact it didn't specify that seats would be reserved - we're freshers, we didn't know what to expect! :L). 
However, we immediately booked tickets for the afternoon showing the next day, and I have to admit, it was amazing! I'm not a huge fan of Bond films usually, (until Skyfall I'd only seen The Man With The Golden Gun and Casino Royale and that was for my GCSE courseowrk, so our English class had to watch each film about 5 times - not my idea of fun!) but Skyfall was really good! Rob (a HUGE Bond fan) wants to see it again, and I think I'd be willing to go with him. They're were some unexpected twists, and I just found it different from the other Bond films - I think they kept it more intense, which was good! I'd definitely recommend it to EVERYONE! Even those people who don't claim to be Bond fans, because it was better than I expected. :D

Think the fact that part of Skyfall was set in Glencoe (hopefully this won't be a spoiler as it's shown in the trailer) where I've been helped, as I could actually relate to the place! It makes it more interesting. According to Rob, they were filming some of Skyfall, when I was there in the October of 2011 - I'm quite annoyed I didn't get to see Daniel Craig or Judi Dench!

At the actual cinema, it was really cool, and kind of like, old-movie style. We got our popcorn (and snuck two cans of pepsi in!) and went to our seats, and between the adverts/trailers and the film there was an intermission, so people who hadn't managed to get food could still go! It originally confused me, but I have to admit it was rather stylish. Plus, there was nobody talking/whispering loudly, or throwing popcorn, which made the whole experience way more enjoyable! So, even if Aber's cinema only has one screen, which does mean, there's usually only one film every two weeks, I really enjoyed going :)

So, go see Skyfall if you haven't already... and if you have, go see it again :)

Tara