But I am up in space

Now if you've been reading a while, you have probably noticed that one of my favourite pastimes seems to be taking photographs of the view from my skylight. Hobbies also include stargazing from said skylight, and breathing in the air up there.

But now I am gone, out of Lampyland until my graduation next month and then for good! It's been nice, Asgard Wizard Camp, but boy was I ready to leave. My housemates moved out a couple of weeks before I did and actually I quite enjoyed the quiet, but home was calling me. This does mean I now face the monstrous task of unpacking everything. Eurgh. Thankfully my brother is away for another few weeks yet so it can live in his room but, effort. I'm going to have to sort my room and wardrobe out before any of it can go anywhere...

So that is why I have been absent for a wee while, and whilst I try to arrange my life here it may stay that way for a bit, though there are some things I hope to line up at some point. Whilst I'm back living with my parents and sister (genuine yay - I love being home), it usually ends up that I spend every other night and day round at the manfriend's which means my life is kind of not-so-flowing at the minute: no routine what so ever! I've done the 30DS twice since finishing (yep, I finished!) a week and a bit ago, as it seems hard to slot in. I have to do it in the lounge but don't want to have to kick any of my family out if they are in there, or thump around once they are in bed, so working on solving that one. I don't intend to do it daily anymore, just keep it up. You can almost see abs! Though at a glance nothing much has changed. More importantly, I feel a bit fitter, although the riding helped loads with that too.

In other news, my sister has her final GCSE exam tomorrow, her birthday the day after, and her prom the day after that, and then is off to sixth form college next school year. That makes me feel old! Another thing that does that is that on Sunday, the manfriend and I had been going out five years. Blimey. Admittedly it does feel like forever, but in that most excellent way where it is because you love them very very much. With that, these appeared for me:

And Mum actually had to buy a bigger vase than we owned!

Roses are my favourite flower, closely followed my daisies (the small lawn ones, not the huge ones!), so there you have it.

When I'm around my sister, who happens to be the funniest person I know, we tend to bounce off each other into hilarity, but today had the issue that we both were wandering around the house whistling/humming/singing the same song and so it never got out of our heads. How it got in to start with, who knows?..

Oh, and also I've had a fiddle with the design here, so if there are any glaring issues let me know, like if anything is harder to read etc. than it was before, for example. I'm not enamoured with the header, but was getting fed up of having the text come up with its HTML codes sometimes, so that may not be here to stay but most stuff isn't radically different.

K.

(+ Level 3 Day 4)

So a quick 30 Day Shred update: Technically I should have finished by now but A. lost track of the day we were on and so did more than ten of level 2, and B. skipped a couple of days here and there for reasons totally not entailing having to recover from alcohol consumed the evening prior... Sometimes it just didn't seem to fit in either as we were trying to do as much as possible before all my housemates left for good, plus the manfriend was across for the week, and it was birthday week too (more to come on that).

Anyway, it is hard. As is, HARD. Level 1 was tiring to start with, and level 2 had its tricky points, but level 3 hurts and is so exhausting whilst you do it that so many times I've been on the verge of giving up. By the time that I finished today, the way I was breathing was something akin to crying; not so nice. It is really pushing me but I know that I am achieving something every time that I almost stop but don't, so I'm keeping at it! Just one week left, and then I think I'm going to go back to level 1 and begin again but with 3kg weights for everything rather than the puny .5kg ones that I've been using for most of the exercises, though maybe alternating the levels so it doesn't become tedious. I feel a bit fitter, but part of it is the willpower that I seem to be developing too!


Peace out!

Though my soul may set in darkness

it will rise in perfect light; 

I have loved the stars too fondly 

to be fearful of the night.

So my exam was not too bad, although I can't guess how I fared. It already feels like weeks ago when it was only Monday! We just chilled out for the rest of the day, paying a visit to the bar and the coffee shop and various places around town, and then yesterday was pretty much the same lazy day. Today though we merrily trotted off to Carmarthen, the nearest town with a cinema and real shops (about an hour away on the bus, eurgh!) and went to see the new Star Trek and take a gander in some clothes shops, trying on clothes varying from nice to ridiculous. Monsoon never fails to make me reaaally want at least one dress and the most recent was a beautiful multicoloured maxi dress that fitted just right. Sadly the need nor the money are actually there, but trying them on is very entertaining (and our sole purpose for setting foot in there! I don't understand it when people don't enjoy trying clothes on if they can't afford them, it is just like dressing up to me. I was saying today that I reckon the reason I can walk in high heels at all is from many hours spent trying shoes on in New Look. 

Speaking of New Look, there were a couple of notable items I tried on but left behind - a white (eep) skirt, and a cute little blouse that looked rather good with the jeans I picked up in the sale; they are just a black pair of skinnies with a vague waxed effect thing going on. I wore through my normal pair and replaced them with straight legs for a bit of a change but decided that I really was missing having a dark skinny pair. I have yet to adjust to my straight leg pair because it feels a bit like they aren't actually mine, since I've lived in skinnies for so long. The feeling is somewhere between early-high-school-wear-whatever jeans and jeans-my-mother-would-wear and just plain somebody-else's-jeans, which I'm hoping will go away soon!

Moving to Star Trek: it was a really good film. Plenty of action (in fact, mostly action) and lots of emotions (my housemate and I nearly flooded the cinema with our tears), with some real cracking lines. Another that all you lot should go and watch. The Great Gatsby comes out tomorrow, so that is the next on the list.

In other news, I made a coffee cake on Monday night and it is actually amazingly delicious! I've been meaning to try for ages but never got around to it, and then the freedom went to my head and I cooked one up. It is perfectly moist and the icing is amazing, and I'm trying to be modest here but am so impressed that it is impossible. I had some leftover icing on a slice of vanilla cheesecake (Sainsbury's does an amazing New York one) and that too was wonderful. I very rarely drink coffee, but coffee cake has always been a favourite, even if it was relegated whenever chocolate was available...


Also, thanks to the person who bought my shiny shoes! I hope your daughter has a great prom in them.

But if you close your eyes (+ Level 2 Day 4)

Does it almost feel like
Nothing changed at all?
And if you close your eyes,
Does it almost feel like
You've been here before?

Procrastinating again whilst the weather cannot decide between sun and rain, whilst I'm thinking how much I'll miss this view and this room, whilst I'm thinking how little I'll miss some of the other things.

Technically I'm busy revising for my Rome exam on Monday morning, which is the end, the final thing I have to do before the end, fin. In reality I'm doing very little whilst getting ready to DJ tonight.

When I started here almost three years ago, there would not have been a chance that I would enjoy being on the dance floor, let alone being the DJ, and I can truly say that I've changed, in the sort of evolving way, the good way. 

I'm not panicking or sad yet, but I think that it is like when we reached the end of high school, and college- it's time to go, to move on, to fly.

I belong with you, you belong with me (+ Day 4)

So, update with the 30 Day Shred: I'm on day 4, having skipped a day yesterday because we happened to go to the bar instead... Two of my housemates happen to be doing it too and started it the day before I did, entirely coincidentally, so I join them and we sweat it out together. Some bits are killer, like the lunge exercises, but it really has got easier since the first time! Shows how much regular exercise does for you, doesn't it?! Also got a chance to head to the stables on Sunday and got Milly (~5 year old fluffy little grey arab) going much better than she has been previously and she actually felt willing, which in itself felt like a bit of a breakthrough.

In other news, went to see Iron Man 3, which you (whoever you are) should watch. Brilliant film and some excellent unexpected bits. We went and had a meal too, making a day of it to celebrate dissertations being in. Now to do this bloomin' archives assignment involving writing about a document I can find no information about: argh. Meanwhile it has actually started being sunny, finally! Chilly still, but sun makes getting out of bed that much easier in the morning.

I also bought these shoes today, a departure from my trainers and boots, but they feel like they'll need careful wearing in so they'll be house shoes for a while. I just wanted something a bit different and have never been a flats/dolly shoe kind of girl so we'll see how they go. Matching this idea, I'm after a bag which is just a bit more refined than my usual scruffy satchel or cheap totes. Under prime consideration at the moment is the Mari Tote from Accessorize, possibly in the cream or the mink, but they aren't real leather and I'm not sure the size is sensible for what I'm actually after (not that I know what I'm after...). It's unlikely that I'll need to lug as much around once I'm done here at uni, so having such a large bag may be pointless and encourage me to carry around more junk than I already do! I'm just going to keep on the lookout.


Watching: America's Next Top Model Season 7 - These people are insufferable, but I think that I'm in love with Nigel Barker; Doctor Who - Disappointed thus far by these episodes but entertaining enough; Game of Thrones - Not particularly enamoured with it but again, entertaining enough; Carries Diaries - Silly and overdramatic, but 80's fashion.
Eating: Leftover Creme Eggs. Nom.
Listening to: The Lumineers - Ho Hey
Also: Altering a bunch of the Manfriend's old tops that his mum made him get rid of, aka that I accepted as free clothes.
And: Trying to find a new pair of red cowboy boots out of concern that mine will pop their clogs soon.

 

30 Day Shred: Day -1

So over the past couple of years, whilst at uni, I've done very little in the scheme of exercise and rather more in the scheme of eating/drinking. This has left me a lot less fit than I was three year ago, funnily enough! I want that to change. I want to be fitter, and I want to be more content with my body, rather than feeling as though I've let myself go. Thus, starting tomorrow after my dissertation is in (eep!) I'm going to do the Jillian Michaels 30 Day Shred, inspired by Charlotte over at girlnextdoorfashion. Each workout is only 20 minutes, so I can easily fit it into my day without feeling like I have to dedicate an age to it, and it'll really make me push myself! Also, the DVD was only a fiver on Amazon.

Another aim is to go to more of the free student swims that happen four times a week at the pool here, as a. swimming is good for you, and b. more importantly, I want to get better at it so I can swim without flailing whilst on holiday in Mexico at the end of summer! This motivation is part fitness part vanity, which I think is alright - really I'm striving to be more content with myself. I'm not discontent, as such, but it could be better. Being fitter will also let me ride without getting as exhausted: huzzah!

Mr Blue Sky

a. I'm back in Lampeter. Not bad, but not home. 
b. Procrastinating lots, getting more and more stressed somewhere inside, I think, considering I flipped out at my housemate a couple of times today. Whoops. 
c. University term means I'm back with my housemates. Again, not bad, but sometimes I actually would like to verbally punch some of them in the face. Her response to me snapping the second time, 'what's got in your boots today? You're so snappy!'
d. I feel tired and grotty and not up for circular ranty conversations about faff all, and so it is my turn to be the one with emotions in this house. Fed up of tiptoeing around and acting the grown-up.
e. It'll pass. My dissertation will be done, and I'll be back to acting mature.
f. But perhaps if they considered the larger things in life rather than focusing on complaining about itty bitty things, they'd be much happier.
g. I mean seriously, I'm the type who goes with the idea that it'll be 'right (short for alright and prounounced 'reet in my head) crossed with (mostly) internal panic every now and then and a sort of lazy determination but they make me look like a cross between Happy and his bouncy cousins, Optimistic and Proactive.
h. I don't want to need a defensive Pollyanna demeanour again.
i. I won't need a defensive Pollyanna demeanour again.
j. It'll be 'right.
k. Apologies for the rant, but enjoy the picture.

l. Peace out, Grumpy.

m. Wish I'd made it an acrostic poem now.
n. Maybe next time.