A New Year, A New you.... yeah cheesy I know but it really does happen, I'm not talking about the 12 month calender I'm talking the academic year. My second year at university really has made all the difference & I have so many people to thank, so this is my way of doing it, you guys may never read it but at least I know I've said thank you. So if you don't like the whole *slushy & emotional crap* then stop reading now....''Kicking off is the hardest part, nothings certain at the start...''
I started this year as unsure of myself as ever, with little confidence, bundles of doubt & filled with fears that have shadowed me for years and I believe that at least a degree of this showed in my first month and a half at uni....
September-December 2009
Like I said I was very much unseen & unheard in the first month and a half, that doesn't mean that I didn't enjoy it however, I never felt left out or that I wasn't wanted around. One of the hardest things to do in any big place like uni is to find your niche, I very quickly established myself as the 'mummy' of the flat. I'd make sure everyone went out and came back together and that they all returned safely if somewhat squiffy, the first small step towards my "new me" was probably Laura's Birthday.
Laura's 19th Birthday Oct 16th-17th.
No I'm not confused as to the date, her birthday pretty much lasted the whole weekend, it took a lot of planning and we managed to keep it a secret. The Thursday before we all went to JC's for a few drinks & Laura began telling me how she really wanted to have another ear piercing & I joked that if she did then I'd go with her and get my tragus (tiny part of the ear) pierced. A few hours and texts later and it was less of a joke and more of a mission, so a few hours before we were due to go to China China, we headed into town and both got our piercings, it didn't hurt very much but it was the first nail in the coffin of my dull, old self. The second came when I decided to wear a dress for the meal, this may sound stupid but you have to remember that I'd only known these guys a few weeks and am quite self conscious. I was nervous but I had a great night & I don't regret either decision I made that weekend.
October 31st. Halloween.This isn't my favourite time of year if I'm honest, I'm afraid of clowns! But the rest of my flat were off out and we had plenty of fun decorating the flat, we put a lot of effect into it buying decorations as well as craving our very own pumpkin (Kieren did an awesome job!) the main reason this date is important to me is because it was the night I met Leah (the second of my 3 adopted daughters)
and like the rest of my flatmates she's been a constant ever since.
Bonfire Night, Nader's 21st & it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...
2 months in and random events like taking a flat trip down to the beach at 1:30am and having curly fries and chicken dippers at stupid o'clock were becoming the thing to do.
Come Bonfire night I had also become a regular in the flat outings (:
December 8th was Nader's 21st and we arranged to surprise him by turning up for a meal at Nandos, when he thought it was originally just going to be him and a friend.
Much like all the other big calender events we celebrated Christmas as a flat we exchanged gifts and cards (snippets of wrapping paper, cards and gift tags are all kept safe in a little box as a memento of the year)... We also managed to fit round that small kitchen table altogether for our flat Christmas dinner - Laura did a great job, Bryony's roast potatoes were lovely and most of the stuffing made it to the oven (those packets are tricky to open Okay!!!)
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2010 a new year, full of new adventures...
January-March 2010.
22nd/23rd January: my first 'Tooters' experience (:
for those of you who may be reading this (firstly well done on getting this far) and seconding Tooters is a student night where drinks are two pound and you buy them in twos hence the name. Up until this point I'd never really been the type to go out, so this was quite a scary night and I was sooo Nervous!! But we got in safe and found a corner where we could dance and that is exactly what we did till the early hours of the morning!!!
Jenny's birthday, the start of the 6 Nations and Leah's Birthday: The end of January Jenny turned 19, the flat bought a cake and a card & then Jenny, Leah and Ros (the 3rd of my adopted daughters) headed into town to for a meal and to spoil jenny just a little.
Early February always marks a very important few weeks of events, namely the RBS 6 Nations!! I think Laura enjoyed this just as much as me as she once told me 'I watch you, watch the rugby' apparently I can be quite animated! 0_O ....jpg)
Leah's birthday fell on a weekend when the Rugby was taking a break, the day before her birthday was a Friday so a group of us celebrated her birthday Tooters style, something I was getting used to by now, this time opting to wear a dress! I don't know who's bright idea it was but early afternoon on the Saturday a smaller group of us went to a Japanese restaurant to continue the birthday celebrations (some of us were still recovering!) It was the first time I'd been to a Japanese restaurant, I'm just glad that chop sticks weren't compulsory -we would have been there a long time!
"The next stop isn't where you think it is..." Early on an Monday morning at the very beginning of March saw myself Dave & Laura queue for 4, yes 4 hours for Varsity tickets, it was a cold and long day but it was anything but boring, It was the day that we began planning tooter birthday celebrations and the day I meet Zahid, who's answer for everything as far was i was concern was 'awwwhhh you're so small & tiny!" something that has now stuck & is my general greeting whenever we see each other.
Friday 12th March: A little bit of Wonderland magic!
As part of my uni birthday celebrations we were all heading to Tooters (yes once again (: ...) and it make it that little bit more interesting I'd chosen a fancy dress theme of Alice in Wonderland. I was sooo excited as everyone seemed as enthusiastic about it as I was & the costumes were amazing!.jpg)
Wednesday 17th March: My very Welsh Birthday! Yes I did have two uni birthdays and they were both very special, this one however I didn't know very much about, the effort the guys went too still amazes me. Making Cawl from scratch (for the first & only time) decorating the kitchen with a welsh flag and daffodils. My birthday cake was constructed from Welsh cakes -which I thought was quite clever - and lots of other lovely finger food including a very yummy welsh cheese!
I had lots of lovely presents too, a fab t-shirts that proclaims that I'm "Bootiful and Welsh" a collection of mini glass perfume bottles, a beautiful new bag from River Island and my second Charlie Bear. It really was the best birthday ever!!
The power of Twitter, Cai Griffiths, Edd Shervington, The Slee's & a trip to HQ!
Twitter is one of my addictions along with Ebay and Facebook, Twitter is probably the top of the three simply because a lot of welsh Rugby players use it & Some of them have 'tweeted me' some of you may think this is rather trivial but I live & breathe Rugby so every time they do It really does mean alot! (If any of you ever stumble across this - THANK YOU!)
My actual birthday actually fell during the Easter break my family bought me the newest Ospreys liquid Pro shirt which I then had embroidered with my favourite players name and number..jpg)
Now besides the Rugby Players, I have made some good friends on Twitter Kate & Lizi are the perfect example, my fellow Rugby fanatics, Lizi even made sure Cai remembered to 'tweet' me on my birthday - It made turning 20 just that little bit better-
So yes back to the point (some of you, if your still here may have noticed I like to ramble...) I bought the shirt and with most things I proclaimed my intentions of having it embroidered to anyone who would listen on Twitter. I still remember logging in on my phone to check my @Replies to find a message from Gareth I'm pretty sure it said something along the lines of "wouldn't it be really cool if you could get that signed" to which I obviously agreed to have another reply informing me that he'd "speak to his wife" (Poor Jane hasn't been able to get rid of me ever since!)
So to cut a long story slightly shorter the date was set, I was actually going to get to meet Cai Griffiths and get my shirt signed.
Monday April 5th (Possibly the BESTEST day of my life!!): It's been roughly 2 and a half months and yet as I'm sat here typing this I'm still smiling to myself. We arrived at about 12:15pm met Jane in reception & sat down nervously awaiting Cai (as I originally thought he was going to come to reception, sign my shirt then go back to training & fitness & stuff -- that didn't happen) *Note to readers YES I do remember every little detail..jpg)
Ok so yes sat in reception half wishing I could go home (I got very nervous)! when a silver car pulls up and out gets Edd Shervington, (this was rather exciting in itself as I wasn't expecting to see any of the other players) excitement quickly turned to dread when I heard him say my name and walk towards reception, why/how did he know my name/ know why I was there??
I was then informed that Edd was going to take me over to the Pavilion to meet Cai. Nerves now sky-rocketed (for those of you who have absolutely no Idea what I'm talking about the pavilion is the place in HQ where the squad go to chill in between training and stuff)
A bit more editing of the story here as those of you who are still awake, may just give up. I finally got to meet Cai, he signed my shirt, asked me If I wanted a picture (stupid question really) and had a chat with my Dad, I managed to string a sentence or two together then Dad translated the rest & I did a lot of nodding & shaking of my head. He really was lovely, even nicer than I imagined plus I had the added bonus of meeting Edd, who now ties for first place with Cai as my favourite player!!
I've since been up to HQ It's becoming a bit of a second home. Even managed to get Edd to sign an Egg for my Dad's birthday! - Edd is my Dad's favourite player and the Shervington family own a dairy farm from which they produce Eggs. They are the only eggs my family -my dad calls them "Edd's Eggs" buy and I've also converted all of my flatmates (& some poor women in Tesco) to buying them - Well they are Welsh & Free Range!!
Yes so I went off on yet another tangent but on the plus side, some free advertising for Edd
8th April 2010: I become an Auntie for the 1st time!
Yep, was a pretty amazing week and I was still excited about the fact I'd meet Cai & Edd, when on the Thursday evening I had a phone call to tell me that my beautiful niece (we didn't know the sex at the time) had arrived safe and well! My week really couldn't have gone any better! For the latter I have the grace of god to thank. For the first I am and always will be extremely grateful to Gareth for putting the idea in my head in the first place and for making the whole thing possible and to Jane for making sure It all went along smoothly but also for continuing to put up with me. And Finally to Cai and Edd who made that hour one of the most memorable ever!
Back to uni, April-June 2010
Long distance Friends: Laura stuck in India. The first few weeks off being back were really very odd, the Icelandic Volcanic Eruption was something I had watched closely on TV more out of fascination than anything else, but it soon hit home when I realised that Laura was stuck in India & we didn't know when she would be getting back to the UK. The only communication we had was Skype which was really odd when she should have just been down the end of the corridor, she returned on the Monday -which was Meraj's birthday- (& a surprise, as she hadn't told anyone she'd finally got a flight home).
Varsity 2010
Both Meraj and Bryony's birthday were officially before this but we celebrated them at a later date.
We'd previously queued 4 hours to get tickets to this event, so we were praying it was good & it didn't disappoint ( and that's without all the streakers and any mention of drunken rowdy supporters) Swansea Uni, beat Cardiff Uni at the home of the Ospreys in a very good game of Rugby. I found the crowd far more intimidating - but it was an experience!
'X' marks the spot: Bryony and Meraj's birthday Treasure hunt & the meal.
Everyone's birthday celebration had been unique to them, the treasure hunt was Laura's Idea & it was perfect! It was also entertaining to watch, once they had completed the hunt we all headed to an Indian Resturant as Meraj had decided that's what he wanted to do for his birthday, it was a really nice place, very typical of meraj and we spent most of the evening laughing and joking & among other things trying to figure out who would be the first of us to get married....jpg)
A last minute decision, new friends & the 80s Party
Some of the most memorable things that have happened this year (finally getting my tragus pierced, fancy dress birthday parties, Going to HQ, varsity to name but a few..) Have just sort of happened with little real planning & they are also things I would never have done before the rest are no exception...
May 7th 2010: The Match. I've supported the Ospreys since the 26th March 2005 & I've been to several matches, this one however is different. It was Dragons V Ospreys at the liberty stadium, Dave had put on his status that he wanted to go & did anyone want to join him ( I thought he was joking) he wasn't - 40 minutes later we'd both booked tickets and were discussing travel arrangement. Come Friday 6:00pm I was sat on the bus with Dave, Rachel, Russell & Steve (all of whom were Dragons supporters & all with the exception of Dave I had never met before) It was a brilliant match and they were all fantastic company, even if their team did lose 42-10 :P
May 7th 2010: Bryony's 80s birthday celebration. This was a bit of a hectic night to say the least, got back from the match to get changed into 80s Fnacy dress to go to Tooters to celebrate Bryony's birthday, it was a brilliant night & the first time I'd worn a skirt in ages!!! Dave, Russell & Steve later joined the group ( I was good and didn't mention the game once!) I could say more but I think it's best to say that it was a night to remember & just leave it at that.....jpg)
The rest of May and early June passed a it like a Tumble weed through the desert, Exams meant the place was dead and many of us were simply looking ahead to freedom and the summer Ball!
End of Exams: June and the last few weeks. Tooters was off the cards that Friday otherwise we would have simply spent the night queuing with no promise of entry!
Wednesday June 9th: Summer Ball, Florence & the Machine.jpg)
I didn't attend this event last year, so I really didn't know what to expect but all I can say is wow! It was amazing my feet were throbbing by the end of the night but it was oh so worth it! It really is all about the company you keep, I spent the day split between Other Laura and Johnny & Laura and Dave or we were altogether.
Florence & the Machine were amazing live and I can now sleep soundly knowing that if I don't pass my history degree, I'll always have my jumping degree ( & I have that recorded as proof...)
June 1oth Kieren's birthday & my cupcake bakeathon: The flat kitchen was decorated with Banners & Balloons & the guys prepared a lot of Kieren's favourite 'junk food' they later went out to town while I stayed back at the flat. Because I knew I'd be waiting up for them, to make sure they got back ok (yes this year may have helped me come out of my shell but I am still 'mummy') I decided to make some cupcakes, well I had to do something to pass the time!! They don't seem to hang around long so they must be ok??
So, Meraj, Jenny, Ros, Leah, Laura , Dave, Nader, Bryony, Kieren & Other Laura Thank you all so much & here's to an even bigger & better adventure next year!Also thank you to everyone who joined us along the way, you probably don't know it but you made a massive difference to my year!
"Don't tell me what's gonna happen next,
I'm alright, I like the way this feels..."
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