Super Busy

The past few weeks have been a total blur really. I've been so busy and I just haven't had time to sit and update. I've hardly been online at all.

On the 27th I failed my EU exam, and to de-stress went on this. It didn't exactly work. I ripped my toenail in half backwards and had to spend 3 hours having it sorted/pushed back into place in A&E, sending my stress levels through the roof. So much for a fun surfing session.
Wednesday and Thursday were revision and do very little due to pain days. Friday however was much better. It started with a 3 hour Criminal exam, that I think I failed, but at least it was better than I expected. From there it was food, nap and tidying before Lowri arrived. A quick trip to Siro's was had before we popped home to change and get ready for the big night out. Seeing as Danielle and Rachel were visiting, and quite a few of us finished exams that day, it always was going to be a drunken affair. Starting at Siro's then heading to all you can drink at Jak's and finishing at Monkey made it really good fun. The only downside was the awful queues at Jak's for the first half of the night. They really need to get more staff and open both bars on nights like that. With the amount of pain I was in (toe is more painful than it sounds) I really didn't want to be queuing for ages. Luckily they eventually died down somewhat as most people moved towards the dancefloor, having drunk as much as they could early on. This left me the opportunity to grab as much to drink as I could. The tiny amounts of lemonade used allowed me to down an Archers & lemonade without it even touching the sides and going straight back for another. This = fairly drunk Amie. You know it's been a good night when you're totally hyperdrunk and hobbling down the road at 4.30am as it gets light.

The weekend started with a café breakfast before Lowri and I headed to Swindon. It was nice to see everyone for the first time in 8 weeks. Having relatives visiting from Melbourne was good too. I haven't seen them in 5 years so it was nice to go out for a big family meal. I'll definitely be heading out to see them next Summer. The weekend was fairly quiet really, but gave us all a good opportunity to catch up. I spent a few days recharging before coming back to uni for the madness that is the end of year.

On the 3rd I spent 4 hours on trains. Or at least that was the plan. Two lots of delays and a broken train pushed it to over 5. I would have got quite pissy about it, but I saw Black Kids so that made everything good. Grabbing my usual spot at Clwb Ifor Bach helped as I could lean on an unused speaker stack, but wearing shoes for the first time in a week HURT. A fantastic set by them and a surprisingly good opener in Collapsing Cities (who were better live than on myspace) made me smile. I was in the perfect position to sing and half-dance and grab my first setlist at the end. Spending the nightmare journey home on a train full of hyperactive Girls Aloud fans was...interesting.

The 5th was Playzone! After going there for the CIN Dance social, I'd been looking forward to going back, even with an injury. As long as I didn't overdo it with the toe and start it bleeding again I thought I'd be fine. Thought being the key word there. James came running towards me, we collided and I flew through the air. In true Amie style, I was left in a ball on the floor, half struggling to breathe and half trying not to laugh and make it worse. Being badly winded is not fun. Whoever thought of opening a kids play area to adults is a genius though. Loads of drunk students, some sober students and a kids play area is a recipe for organised mayhem. It's quite tempting to do something there for my birthday party. I'm v proud of myself too. I overcame my severe dislike of heights and went down the big red slide. I was too scared to do it the first time I went, but this time I was determined and got on with it. I'm so glad I did, just so that I can say I did it. It really wasn't as bad as I thought it'd be, but then again things like that never are.

The 7th was the yearly village carnival. Going back to where I lived last year was slightly surreal, and I knew it could never be as good as it was last year, when i could run in and out of my house for supplies all day. It was still a good day though. There was a bouncy castle, drunk students (when are there not in Swansea!), sun, some semi-decent bands, a doughnut stand, general fun stuff... If it had rained it wouldn't have been anywhere nearly as good, but luckily the weather was kind to us for the day.

Monday 9th for everyone else was spent on the beach, in most cases getting sunburnt. Seeing as I have PLE and Lowri was arriving that night I thought it would be a good idea to stay out of the blazing sun and tidy my room. I swear my room has never been so tidy. After picking Lowri up from the train station, we had a fab beach BBQ. I love living so close to the beach. I also love taking pictures of fire. I'm quite proud of some of them. There are far worse ways to spend a Monday night than with food, a fire and friends.

Tuesday was chilling in town, getting nails done, last minute ball shopping and drinking wine on the beach. Luckily the heat had dropped since the day before so I could enjoy it a lot more. Sunbathing on the beach in the late afternoon with a bottle of wine is a good way to do things.

Wednesday was THE day...Ball day. I always love getting dressed up for a big event with my friends. Sadly it poured. I got some good photos before the rain started, but nowhere near as many as I'd have liked. I ended up very cold and very wet. Luckily I'm happy with the photos I got of me in my dress. I did my first spot of drink-driving on the dodgems and proved that I am definitely better at driving than Paul. We had a good few goes on there. By the time it had been raining an hour I was bored and ventured out to the main stage. Killa Kela was surprisingly good. It's not my sort of music at all but he was definitely worth seeing. The announcement that Mutya Buena was on next instead of The Vengaboys was time for a toilet/jagermeister bar run, and I arrived back at the front of the stage a couple of songs into her set. By this time most people had disappeared as everyone fought for space inside the tents. I braved it out with Matt, James and Emily right to the end. Dancing to The Wombats in pouring rain is probably even more fun than doing it in the sun. I was quite surprised by the number of crowdsurfers, even girls in dresses. There's no way I'd have done it in mine. It was bad enough being on the barrier in a silk dress.

Since then I've just been chilling really. This update has been somewhat delayed by the fact that I've just been busy doing not much so I've not massively been online and the laptop has been off for repair. Yes, even this one has problems. My phone is away at the moment too, but I've been borrowing one, so that's not been so much of a problem.

Big News!

I really am rubbish at updating. I can only ever feel bad for that, but seeing as I've had a pretty decent reason, TOUGH.

Anyway...
See the title? Yes, that thing up there. It means I have news. On Thursday, I spent £25 and 3 hours travelling for so that I could spend more money. I have a yummy new laptop. I love it more than I should, but oh well. It means I can play The Sims 2 properly (I've never been able to before) so I've spent part of the last 2 days playing. I'll also be getting Spider-Man 3 on Blu-Ray disk in the next few days. The laptop has a Blu-Ray player built in so the nice people at Sony are sending me a free film to play on it.

Yay!

I got back to uni on Friday afternoon, just in time for Brownie's party. I couldn't decide at first whether to dress up as Jasmine from Aladdin, or a ladybird, but then I decided to go with Jasmine because everyone else was dressed as characters. I'm glad I chose that one. It took a few drinks before I was feeling brave enough to wear it, but by the end of the night I was definitely drunk. The sight of Jasmine, Little Red Riding Hood, Ariel, Snow White and Batman Walking down the road must have been slightly surreal. Most people bowed out before the end, but I was one of the 4 who made it to 4am at Sin City. Drinking cocktails for hours, followed by Tinto, then double Jagerbulls would have put a lot of people on the floor, but luckily I wasn't too bad. I like being able to handle my drink. On the way home I decided to polish off an onion bahji, garlic bread and a portion of chips. This is most unlike me. I can only blame the alcohol. While at the takeaway, I realised I'd left my keys at home so I stayed at Powell's house. The night ended at 5am with 4 people collapsing drunk in 2 single beds, glasses of water being knocked on the floor, and about 90 glowsticks being thrown in various places. I got home at 12.30 on Saturday, amazingly hangover free.

After the stress of coursework and all of the laptop problems, I really had fun. I'd been looking forward to it for ages, and it didn't disappoint. Spending a night with my friends, in my favourite club, listening to my favourite music was exactly what I needed.

Socks: One blue with rainbows, one grey with multicoloured spots.
Music: Air - Sexy Boy

Looking Back...Musically

I'm really missing my music. Having no laptop for a while is bad enough, but being unable to listen to most of my music collection at the moment isn't helping. To be honest, it's making me miserable. I've just been thinking about all the live music I've now seen. Moving away from home is one of the best things I've ever done. Even though I'm not where I wanted to be, I'm still a lot better off than I was, and I'm thankful for that.

Bands I've Seen (inc. supports, festivals & club nights where I can remember)...
Arcade Fire
Au Revoir Simone
Billy Talent
BRMC
Bloc Party
Blood Red Shoes (4)
Boy Least Likely To
CSS
Crystal Castles
Delays
Elle Milano
Fall Out Boy
Funeral For A Friend
Gym Class Heroes
Hellogoodbye
Jimmy Eat World
Kanye West
Kings Of Leon (2)
Klaxons (2)
Lostprophets (2)
Mates Of State
Maximo Park
Mika
New Young Pony Club
Paramore (2)
Pendulum (2)
Razorlight
Red Hot Chili Peppers (awful)
Reel Big Fish
Shy Child
Switches
The Automatic (2)
The Dead 60s
The Gossip
The Killers
The Like (worse than awful)
The Little Ones
The Pigeon Detectives
The Stills
The Subways (2)
The Sunshine Underground (2)
The Wallbirds
The Wombats (2)
We Are Scientists (2)

...and there's actually more than that. I can't remember many of the club night bands, or some of the supports. I've seen Nine Inch Nails too, but I didn't bother counting it because it was just the one song. Seeing as all of those 59 have been in the past 17 months, I'm quite pleased with my list. There's still 3 more I'd love to add to the list though...Air Traffic, Muse and The Strokes. I can't see any of them happening any time soon, but I've got a few more booked and a ticket to Reading again this year so that number is going to shoot up again by the end of 2008. I've missed out on seeing Air Traffic 4 times now, but hopefully they'll be on the list by this time next year.

Today's post was brought to you with the help of... last.fm, a borrowed laptop, insomnia and Amie's new colourful spotty socks.
Music was helpfully provided by Los Campesinos! (add them to the "I want" list too)

Good day

I got a 2 week extension for the coursework, plus I've managed to borrow a laptop from uni. Yay!

I can't wait for this weekend. Mucho partying and a trip to Cardiff :D

Today's socks: The other Snoopy and Penelope Pitstop ones.
Today's song: The Wombats - Moving To New York

Sadness

I'm really upset at the moment. I love my laptop to bits. It's the one thing I'd save from a burning building. I've had some amazing times and some horrible times since I started uni, and my laptop has got me through them. I was so excited when I got it. The 2 days that it sat in a box in my bedroom before I was allowed to open it once I got my A level results were horrible, but I have loved it dearly since.

8 hours time may be the last time I ever see it.

It's sad, but fingers crossed I'm getting a new one on my insurance. They're picking it up to have a look at it, and if the laptop person who looks at it is as nice as the one I spoke to on the phone, they'll write it off. It's broken so many times now, and after the serious system errors i've had over the last few days, I've had enough. It's so unreliable. I'm excited that i might be getting a new one, because shiny and new is always good, but at the same time I'm going to really miss it, and it might be a while before I can get a new one. The thought of my precious laptop being trashed is horrible. I can't see them being nice to it :(

A sad day indeed

In other news, I watched Juno for the 10th time while I can

Socks of the day: One Snoopy, one Penelope Pitstop