Ah, Lancaster, we meet again...

Yes, I am once more back in the bosom of Lancaster, awaiting a bright and early start tomorrow. Well, 9.00. But that's pretty bright and early.

It rained as I came up the motorway, and since then we've had impressively heavy rain and thunder and lightening. But I'm not here to talk about the weather... instead I shall tell you about the last few weeks...

With swine flu over and done with, mum and I started painting yet another room. We now have a beautiful deep cherry pink study. It's absolutely gorgeous (and has 3 cream walls so isn't as overpowering as you'd think!) We also sorted a lot of paperwork out. It's frankly terrifying how much paper you need to lead a normal life... car insurance, house insurance, banks, mortgages, student finance, everything.

My wonderful boyfriend and I spent a hilarious week camping in Cornwall, near Perranporth, at a wonderful little campsite. We slept at a very strange angle, the campsite being on a hill and all... and enjoyed the main delights of Cornwall: cream teas, pasties, icecream and beaches. All pretty delicious if you ask me. Peanutbutter & chocolate orange icecream has definitely hit an all-time pudding high as far as I'm concerned. We didn't JUST eat, you understand. Really. Ahem. We did, however, get the chance to resurrect our brilliant camping pudding from last year - melted chocolate (due to hot sun + lack of fridge) with tinned fruit. Scrummy yummy.

Then one last, emotional week at home. Coming back was extremely hard, and I sobbed for a significant part of Sunday morning before leaving. I wasn't alone in this, either... mum had more than a couple of tears in her eye (you'd almost think they were going to miss me!). However, my glorious exit was one of laughter... when I realised (halfway to the motorway, thank goodness!) that I'd managed to pinch Dad's Blue Badge. Cue frantic turn around in petrol station...

And here I am now, back in Lancaster. My room is unpacked, my lovely housemate (ONE of my three lovely housemates) has moved in, and the energy company sent us chocolates! And I am released from dog-walking duties. Incidentally, our wonderful puppy who we have now had for an entire year (!!!) and who has given us NO trouble inside the house, got herself into trouble a couple of days ago. She has graduated over the year from sleeping in her basket to carte blanche on the sofas (i.e. we now get told off for disturbing her if we want to sit down, I'm sure there's something not right there...). I came downstairs one morning to find a certain young lady having jumped off the sofa most guiltily... only to notice that our sofa cushion was now, well, not entirely in existence. She has torn about half of it to shreds. So we have turned it over and not bothered to tell dad.

Oh, and delightful other half and I went and saw Bill Bailey on Friday, a slightly belated celebration of our year anniversary! Happy, happy days. Unfortunately beloved boyfriend heckled during the performance, prompting the unhappy nickname "massive dong guy". It's very hard to pretend you're not with someone when they've got their arm around you...

But for now, back to normality and reality. My room is tidy, my folder & notebook lie waiting for me, and, oh joy of joys, a student British Medical Journal was waiting for me on the doormat when I arrived. Welcome home.

Boating

A most enjoyable weekend, all in all.

Despite the tail end of swine flu (or something equally vile), we managed a lovely lovely weekend. Two "lovely"'s will tell you just how good it was.

My uncle, aunt and one cousin headed down to Bristol, and together with my parents, brother, fantastic boyfriend, and other aunt and uncle, spent some quality time "messing about in boats".

My uncle has a RIB (inflatable but with solid base) with a big engine so we spent Saturday evening pootling around Bristol harbour, watching the balloons launch over Bristol, checking out the locks for Sunday, and laughing at our daft dog who went bananas at the sight of so much water, and spent a good hour swimming in the end. And then got so overexcited in the boat we had to take her out before she combusted.

Saturday evening was spent in a wonderful, if chaotic, family meal at our house, with much laughter, beer, cheese, and noisiness. This was cut somewhat short by the thoughts of the next morning (not so much excitement as dread, really, with a 7.30 start. That's 7.30 IN THE BOAT)

But we managed it. Leaving the dog behind (she glowered at us from her basket), we spent the day cruising up the Avon to the river Severn and the Bristol Channel, passing under the suspension bridge with the balloons rising up around us, and reaching some pretty decent speeds, which made picture taking a challenge, at best.

THEN we went for breakfast. Yes, I know. But it was only about 10.00 by the time we'd been up and down the river. And going to Lockside really is a treat. For me, a cup of hot chocolate (more cream than chocolate, and more mini marshmallows than cream may have given me my entire days calories. But having not eaten with flu, I deserved it) and Eggs benedict with bubble and squeak. Delicious.

Then back to pack the boat up. It is amazing how much work packing a boat away is. Literally ages of faffing around and sorting and tidying and stuff. I remembered why I don't sail (other than lack of money, boat, ability, time, etc).

So, as I said, a lovely lovely weekend.

I like boats.

Birthdays, Swine flu, rain...

Well, it's been a (long) while since I posted, poor effort entirely on my part. So here goes...

France was lovely, very hot (except when it rained!) and full of delicious food. Unbelievably expensive however, due to the poor pound - euro exchange rate. There was a time when I didn't understand quite how this would affect us, it scares me a little to realise that I now completely understand just how rubbish it is when sterling is weak.

Anyway! After France I popped back down to Dorset for the weekend, and went to a fantastic street fair, everyone was dressed up in "olde tyme" clothes, and there were loads of fab stalls, and awesome displays. Came back for mum's birthday on the Monday, which involved a walk on Brandon Hill in the centre of Bristol... and so a VERY wet dog who swam without stopping for 20 minutes, oblivious to the rest of us!

We redecorated a room that week, and it looks absolutely beautiful, I am soo pleased we made ourselves do it! It's now cream with reds and yellows in it, and an American/boat theme to the decorations. And it still smells of fresh paint which is just delicious!

A week after mum's birthday is my birthday... and following a 21st where none of the family (barring parents and brother) bothered to show up (!!!) I decided a tea party for the relations would be rather nice, so on Sunday we had a lovely day full of cake and scones and cream, which was just fantastic, and I was more than spoilt with some lovely presents.

Monday, my actual birthday, was a very quiet day, relaxed and easy, spent with family and best friends (or "fuzzies"), and opening more presents, how nice. And finishing with several games of German rummy - our new favourite form of entertainment.

And now... it is Wednesday... and I appear to have swine flu. This is not a particularly pleasant experience, but I am far from death's door, so life could be worse. And I hope to be getting it out the way (and becoming immune) before I go back to uni and need to treat all the patients with swine flu... and maybe, maybe this will make me slightly more sympathetic to those with it?!

We shall see.

So, a brief run-down of the last month. Busy, but very nice...