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.