Raindrops on Roses...

I'd forgotten what it felt like to be damp and shivery all the time! We didn't have the greatest summer, a month of a heatwave and then nothingness really. But I've been back in Durham since Saturday and already struggled getting to sleep 3 nights because it's been so cold! Case was proven when we went down to Chad's the other day for an all exec/fresher reps social. After showing our faces we left to go on to Walkabout. As we left Chad's it started to spit a bit. By the time we reached Walkabout (I'd say approx a 7 minute walk) we were so drenched we looked like we'd walked through a car wash to get there. In just a t-shirt it's no surprise that I didn't really warm up in the club and just shivered all that night. I did put a jacket on this morning to walk into town but felt I didn't need it. My first international student arrived this afternoon and just kept saying, is it always this cold in England?! Now to be fair, we do live on top of a hill, and we're at the end of September, but if it's not been cold and blustery it's been raining.
We're all trying to keep on top of things in anticipation of the freshers arriving on Sunday. All of us just hoping we can avoid the annual fresher's flu. Think I'm gonna wrap up more than usual these next few days as well cos I know that with everything going on, and the complete lack of sleep I'll get over the next week it will only take the slightest thing (and there's nothing slight about the weather!) to put me in bed just in time for lectures starting next Thursday!

one small step for me...

Went to London this weekend. I had a lot of doubts before I went but I went with the ideas of 'just accept' and enjoy. So had a couple of days to begin with sight-seeing in London. It was great to see the Aidan's crew. Very bizarre at the same time! They're all grown up, have full time jobs in the city, earning real money and EVEN deciding which newspaper they're gonna read for the rest of their lives!!!And yet it felt so natural staying in their house. The same cuttlery and toaster, the same mugs and plates that we had when I lived with them in Durham. However weird it was seeing this contrast it was amazing to see them again and sightseeing with Sarah just reminded me of our trip to Dublin last year.

Then after my couple of days with the Aidan's lot it was on to Slough for Camilla's wedding. Again an event in itself! Members of CathSoc exec from the last four years, all spending time together despite the lack of contact in the last two years particularly. Camilla looked beautiful and so happy and in love we were all wanting to find someone we loved that much to marry. It's crazy how much our lives have changed since we all met but with the joy Camilla glowed with we found it easy to relax and update each other on life.
On the Sunday I then met up with a friend from home, who's just moved to London, for lunch, which turned into a nine hour drinking session and catch up. We even made Mass, which is a privilage in itself for me these days, but I just had the best day relaxing and not thinking of the thousand and one things I had to sort out when I got home. London surprised me in a lot of ways. I was surprised at how comfortable I felt in the city, how much I found my way round without stress and being fraught! At how much more confident I felt with everything from chatting to friends I haven't seen in months to sorting things out and ordering drinks having made a decision, chosen a bar and walked into it! Every day I'm constantly amazed at how much confidence I've gained from my year abroad and although at the time I had no choice but to get on with it, looking back I realise just what a huge thing it was to do and how glad I am I did it.

Eurovision meets Finland

I was just looking for information on tickets for the Eurovision 2007 in Helsinki (hey, I can dream can't I??!) And found a website with up to date information on it all. Apparently they're ahead of schedule in organisation (typical Finns!) although there's been chaos caused by Eurovision 1964 winner Lasse Martenson who's had a lot of his work reproduced without his permission and says the new versions don't do his compositions any justice. Meanwhile, 2006 winners Lordi are still living in the limelight. Company Olvi are currently producing a cola brand, available with 6 different labels designed by the lead singer of Lordi, available in cola and cola light. There have also been two books released on Lordi and perhaps strangest of all a Lordi pattern was published in the knitting magazine Suuri Käsityöleht in August. Gotta get myself one of them! Anyway, tickets are due out around Christmas time so watch this space...

never be the same again...

Just walked home from work with Chloe and as usual had a good natter all the way back! Tonights discussion became, 'can you have a close friendship with someone of the opposite sex and not wonder at some point if there is something more than friendship there'. Immediately two things jump to mind. One, is watching neighbours when I was little, back in the days of Debbie Martin, and someone saying to her 'boys and girls can never be just friends'. Why on earth do I remember that? I seem to remember at the time thinking it was ridiculous, I played football with the boys every day at school and it was only ever friendship (naturally for a 10 year old!) but I really disagreed with it. The other thing is Mel C's song 'never be the same again'. So...is it true or not? Is it impossible to have a friendship and never, at some point, think, is there something going on here? If you can't does that mean that it's the same with people of the same sex? As soon as you develop a close friendship of any nature is it natural for doubts to creep in? hmmm. I'll let you guess how I argued on the matter!! :)

because of you....

So I did it. I got on a plane and went to Budapest to see Mis. However last minute it was, however unplanned, it was one of the best decisions I've made in a long, long time. Perhaps not the best picture me and Mis have had taken here but I think it just sums up the week. All we did was laugh, from the moment we met on Sunday night to when I had to leave Thursday morning. We laughed at all the memories from Helsinki, all the things that in the last twelve months made our year so amazing and we laughed at all the muppetish things we've done since, particularly when we were together in Budapest! The week was full of so many random things that was so much a part of our relationship it felt as though we hadn't seen each other in a day, not four months.


Really randomly one night we walked into the same bar that Eileen and Jen were in (friends from high school who I'd flown out to Budapest with but then left once we got to the airport) and so it was nice for Mis to meet a bit of my life and it was amazing for me to see so much of his life. Amazingly enough we didn't take any photos at all!!! We were too busy just spending the time we could together. I miss him so much again already and part of it feels like a backward step from how much I've come on since Helsinki, but it's not at all really. We've proved how strong our friendship is, and when we met up with Eni, David and Adri who were all in Helsinki with us we saw how natural it is to pick up where we left off. So, however much it hurts to leave, it just makes me more excited for the next time...whenever that may be!

Helsinki

One year ago tomorrow I got on a plane to Helsinki wondering what the Hell I was doing! In one way I was excited that I was gonna meet loads of people and that the experience would change my life forever. And part of me was terrified of exactly the same thing! I've been home nearly four months now and I've lost some very close friends here because of my choice to live abroad, I've had one of the loneliest summers in a long time. Friends tell me one of two things- some say they've never seen me so confident, so sure of myself, so happy. Others say they've never seen me so lost, so empty, so lifeless. Well Helsinki certainly changed me, and although I miss every one every day, I wouldn't take back any of it, not one single day. On Tuesday I get to spend the day with Misi in Budapest, one year on from the day we met- I feel like the luckiest person alive!