Oh, I do like to be by the seaside

I'm slowly trying to catch up with the blog posts I said that I'd write in more detail as well as maybe keep up to date with what I'm doing at the moment. However, these may end up out of chronological order - I started a draft post about my fieldtrip to Ireland but it never saved, and so that one will probably be up after a couple of other posts.

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This post is going to be about the first week in June - both Alex and I had finished our exams which meant that we had a week until I had to move out of my university accommodation to be able to do things in and around Aberystwyth. As we got together in November, this meant that we hadn't really been able to do things together out and about as living by the sea meant that we get cold, windy weather and unfortunately, it's not very easy to do things in Aberystwyth in the horrible weather. We kept checking the weather forecast as we all know, it is prone to change, and thankfully although a couple of days didn't look to be too promising, the rest of the week didn't look to be too bad and we planned to make the most of the sunshine.

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Borth Animalarium is the local zoo, about 5 miles away from Aberystwyth and although I've been twice before, I love going to zoos and so Alex agreed to go with me as he hadn't been before. At Borth Animalarium they have a mixture of animals, none particularly large like tigers or elephants but smaller animals, meerkats and numerous species of monkey. You get to feed the animals too, something which I don't think happen oftens in larger zoos. Although you can buy 'feed pots' at the zoo, there isn't a lot of food in them and seem to be aimed more at the children who visit, so they can experience feeding the animals. This doesn't mean that I wasn't going to feed them though. Before going, we bought some peanuts from Lidl to feed the monkeys when we got there as this way we could feed all of the monkeys instead of just a couple before running out of food. My favourite monkey at Borth is a capuchin called Mango - he's fatter than the other ones in his enclosure and I think he is probably the dominant male.Often, when you try to feed the other monkeys, he scares them off in order to get the food. Alex and I managed to feed the others some peanuts though by one of us keeping Mango occupied with food. We also watched the reptile show which wasn't as good as I remember. Previously, they showed us 4 or 5 reptiles including a Bearded Dragon, a tortoise and a variety of snakes; however, this time they only showed a couple. We were also unable to have the 13 stone Bermuda Python put around our necks as it was having to be taken out of its tank again for another show later on in the day.

After we'd finished at the zoo, we still had a good half day left and as the weather had brightened up, it seemed pointless to go back to Aberystwyth just yet. We headed north along the coast, aiming to get toYnyslas beach which, unlike the beaches at Aber and Borth, is sandy. Although we didn't go all the way to the sandy dunes at Ynyslas, we did make it to a patch of sandy beach which was pretty deserted, and we plonked ourselves down on the beach there. And then, for the first time since coming to Aberystwyth, I properly went in the sea (well, kind of - I went up to my knees, but the waves went higher). The water was freezing (well, not literally, but it was very cold), and my feet felt numb at first but it was fun, and I really enjoyed myself. We headed back to Borth about an hour and a half before the last bus, so that we knew that we'd be back in time, and we'd also have time to get something to eat. We went into a pub/hotel that I'd been to once before with the geography society (GeogSoc) in my first year, and we got some cheesy chips. I can remember I used to think that the concept of cheesy chips was weird, but they are so nice - especially when the cheese has melted properly and is all stringy- yummy!

As we were walking along the sea wall, waiting for our bus, a car had hooted at us - we looked down (the sea wall is raised above the road) to see that the new rector at St. Mike's Church and his wife were waving to us. I think that this was really lovely of them, as they had only met us for the first time the previous week, so it was nice to see that they recognised us.
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Another main day trip that we did (taking place on the Thursday) was our walk to Borth which happened by accident. Our original plan had been to walk to the next bay to Aberystwyth at Clarach, have a little rest, then walk back over Constitution Hill. However, when we got to Clarach, there wasn't really anywhere to sit (the beach isn't that nice), and Alex had said to me 'I saw a sign saying this was Clarach's South Beach, so there must be a North Beach.' I wasn't completely sure having walked further last summer when my parents came to pick me up at the end of first year, but I figured I may have been mistaken. So we continued on our journey, and up ahead we soon realised that the beach we initially thought could have been Clarach's 'North Beach' was in fact Ynyslas, where we'd been a couple of days previously. By this time, we'd walked about half way to Borth so we didn't see the point in turning round, especially as we were beginning to get hungry. So in the end, we walked the 6 miles that it was to Borth. 

Despite all my moans and grumbles about the hills we were climbing, I did enjoy myself; and when we arrived in Borth we treated ourselves to a massive lunch at The Victoria Inn. Before getting the bus back, we put the blanket I'd brought with me down on the beach (despite the pebbles, it wasn't too bad), and just lay there enjoying the sunshine for a couple of hours. I ended up getting sunburnt on the back of my neck because I hadn't been sensible and put suncream on, however, thankfully my sunburn usually turns to tan fairly quickly and by the Sunday I was brown. 

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Also, in this week, we went down to the seafront in Aberystwyth, and unfortunately as some days had bad weather, we did have to stay in for a lot of the day, making a break for it when the weather happened to brighten up to make the most of the week. I had a really lovely week though, and I'm glad that I got to see some more of the local area, particularly as I'll only have another year there as in September I'll be entering my third, and final, year.

13. being home

So, Christmas 2012 has passed, and we were all around to see it - so I guess that's a good thing. I came home from Aberystwyth on the 15th Dec, where my mum picked me and Rob up from Telford to save us changing trains etc in Birmingham. I was glad about this cos I hate changing trains especially with my luggage (I'd tried to pack sensibly but I always seem to pack way too much stuff!)

I had work on the Sunday as I was covering a shift for a friend - the communication at McDonalds is awful so I haven't been put on ANY shifts at all - quite annoying when I actually wanted to work to get some extra money over Christmas.

On the first Friday back, I went to Ashby (thankfully just the pub - although it was mega busy) with some of my friends from school, and it was good to see them again. I didn't drink very much and I had to go fairly early as due to living in the opposite direction my dad came to pick me up - which I thought was fairly good of him as he'd probably wanted to go to bed!

I went to a couple of church services over the Christmas period, one which was introduced by the new vicar - The Crib Service. This seemed to be aimed at really young children, but it still portrayed the story of Christmas well. The other one was a family service, that I've gone to as long as I can remember - Christingle. The Christingle service is always good, and we get given Christingles which symbolise different things. I play in the music group at our church, and normally when we ding one of the songs by candlelight, they leave some lights on so that the music group can see to play - this year they didn't so it was quite difficult to see the music. I always plan to go to Midnight Mass - the service that's held Christmas Eve night, and goes over into the morning but I think that I'd probably fall asleep as I'm not good at staying awake when I'm supposed to!

I'll probably write a separate post on my actual Christmas Day and Boxing Day as they were fairly packed, as I spent time with both my family and Rob's. After Christmas and Boxing Day had passed everything was slightly more relaxed. I went to see The Hobbit again, this time at the IMAX cinema in Birmingham - so it was on a much bigger screen. Unfortunately is begun to come down with something, so I found it difficult to watch as I had a huge headache throughout. This illness meant that I spent the New Year in bed asleep, instead of enjoying it with Rob.

I'll mention New Year's Day alongside Christmas and Boxing Day, but since the new year, I've met up with Natalie and Steph, (we were all at band together) when we went to the cinema to watch a film ( yes, it was The Hobbit again - this time in 2D so it was a different experience for me). We almost managed to get away with having three large tango ice blasters for free, but due to our honest nature, we paid for them. Watching The Hobbit with Nat was definitely an experience as she kept doing her fangirl squee, which in turn made me go hyper over it (even more so).

So, I go back to uni next week and in a way I'm looking forward to it although I'm dreading the exams - I have 5!! 2 essay based ones and 3 multiple choice ones. Hopefully will do a post on Christmas Day specifically soon! :)

Tara