Hey Jude

Watch this... The metamorphasis of a perfectly innocent Beatles classic to a WW2 Nazi propaganda song by pointing out that Jew in German, is in fact "Jude". Use your imagination a bit...

"Hey Jude, dont make it bad.
Take a sad song and make it better.
Remember to let her into your heart,
Then you can start to make it better.

Hey Jude, dont be afraid.
You were made to go out and get her.
The minute you let her under your skin,
Then you begin to make it better.

And anytime you feel the pain, hey Jude, refrain,
Dont carry the world upon your shoulders.
For well you know that its a fool who plays it cool
By making his world a little colder.

Hey Jude, dont let me down.
You have found her, now go and get her.
Remember to let her into your heart,
Then you can start to make it better.

So let it out and let it in, hey Jude, begin,
Youre waiting for someone to perform with.
And dont you know that its just you, hey Jude, youll do,
The movement you need is on your shoulder.

Hey Jude, dont make it bad.
Take a sad song and make it better.
Remember to let her under your skin,
Then youll begin to make it
Better better better better better better, oh."

V Festival

As I was in Essex, I thought why not... lets pay a visit to the Festival of V in Hylands Park.

Not as a punter, I would like to point out... that would be a bit hardcore! But with the ol' Johners.

I was posted on a medical post, which was right opposite the 4Music stage. This meant that I got to see people such as Fat Boy Slim, Pendulum, Dizzee Rascal, Jet, Keane, The Enemy, Paolo Nutini, Katie Perry, Alisha Dixon and Lightning Seeds.

By see, I meant I either caught a glimpse of them from the corner of my eye or heard them whilst filling out paperwork. It was quite a busy day for us, especially as the weather was amazing...

One thing that I appreciated very much, due to the sheer number of customers we had over the two days was the presence of a pharmacy right next door. :D Only other Johners would appreciate this, a pharmacy that sold plasters, sun cream, anti histamines and paracetamol. :D

One good thing about being so busy is that I got to get a lot of casualty experience. Especially as I was on a Medical Centre post, this meant I got a lot of experience of shadowing doctors and nurses, which all adds to the UCAS personal statement. :P

I was very grateful for the people giving out free chocolate :D Thanks Aero Mint...

Also thanks to Vitamin water who came and gave us cool drinks during the day :D Mucho Appreciated!

For whole weekend, it perplexed me as to why there were people walking around carrying hundreds of cups in towers that stretched higher than their hats :P Turns out they were doing an exchange a number of used cups for money off more drinks, to help the place tidy. Good thinking V Fest!

Good weekend!

Home Bound

So after finally leaving Portsmouth, I'm back at home for a week or so to spend some time with my family.

I'm also having a full health check up. Opticians Monday, Dentist tuesday! Turns out my eyes are fine but I may need a tooth out soon. Meh... cross that bridge when I get to it. Damn Wisdom teeth.

Monday was pub quiz! We came last but we sure nibbled on Nobby's Nuts.

Dan came to visit on the Tuesday, and we went out for dinner to a Thai restaurant in Tarpots, which was really nice :)

Thursday I went to visit Keira in Hertforshire! Went to the Rye House pub and had many drinks and the biggest ice cream sundae ever! nom nom nom nom nom....

Friday I popped into London to pick something up for Dad, and had a random stroll along the North bank from Southwark to Tower Hill. It was a nice day, but suddenly changed dramatically just as I got to Tower Hill. Woop!

So I managed to fill my week quite easily :D

Last Day at Work

I have now finished work, this means I can leave Portsmouth.

HHHHHOOOOOORRRRRAAAAAAYYYYYY

I was actually quite sad to leave work. Happy to hand over to my replacement, but I think I am going to miss the people and the place. My last day was basically chatting to people, saying goodbye and people making the same joke over and over again...

"doing much are we???"

dear lord.

I also got presented with a few leaving gifts from my boss. Some electric candles, a money tree, and a dissertation for dummies book :)

I also got a card, which everyone signed, which was nice.

Broom Broom Broom

I PASSED MY DRIVING TEST

BRRRROOOOOOOOMMM

Couldn't have had a better test! 7 minors.

I had a driving lesson before hand, when my driving instructor decided it was a good time to show me under the bonnet. As soon as he lifted up the bonnet however, the burst of smoke wasn't a good sign, and the engine was chucking out heat like it was the Albert Hall...

Never mind, I drove home, then was picked up again after a short lunch. I have never been so scared in my life. My instructor gave me all this "well if you don't pass then..." advice, which didn't help things. Pulled into the test centre, and my driving tester got into the car. He slammed the door, and said very sharply... "RIGHT DIANA, DRIVE ON...BAY PARK FIRST"

AHHHHH, of course I did what he said out of pure fear, and pulled out of the bay, then back in.

Success!

Next, to drive out of the test centre. Not only is the junction to the test centre on a hill (so hill start) but its onto a 40 limit narrow country road on a blind corner. As you can imagine, a lot of people fail driving out the test centre :P

BUT I DIDN'T HAHA!

(but I did get a minor....meh....)

As soon as we got out of the test centre, the tester suddenly lightened up a bit and he attempted to clear up the whole Essex/Portsmouth/Surrey confusion. He failed... and probably went away more confused than before...

My test was at 1402, and for some reason, there was noone on the road, the Cosham roundabout was empty, and I got green lights pretty much all the route!

I did, however, get stuck behind a cyclist. Not any cyclist, this cyclist had a dodgy back wheel. I'm sure it was about to fall off, and this guy was swerving all over the road. Now, as the road was narrow, I decided to hang back, and not overtake until the road opened up a bit, but the tester got a bit edgy.

"JUST OVERTAKE" he boomed, and after argument I did as he instructed and we zoomed back to the test centre.

Phew...

A few minors for not driving eco-friendly and a few signalling issues, apart from that, :D

Proms

Dan came to the proms with me :D

:D

:D

We decided to go to prom 31, an evening with the National Youth Orchestra. We heard Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No.1 in B Flat minor, Lutoslawski's Concerto for Orchestra and Respighi's Roman Festivals.

Before that we decided to head up to London early, grab some food in Leicester Square and head to Hyde Park, to enjoy the sunshine and chill out for a bit before entering the Royal Albert Inferno...

The Albert Hall was looking as splendid as ever, but was also as baking as ever... Although being strictly frowned upon, we had to choice but to fan ourselves with a leaflet or suffer slowly cooking.

The performance was awesome, a brilliant performance by the NYO!

Same again next year?

We're going to take a short meal break....

Nom nom nom nom nom nom nom nom

London Film and Comic Convention

Off to Earls Court 2 we trotted....

We knew we were heading in the right direction when we saw the stormtroopers....

We definately knew we were in the right place when we saw Spiderman....

Yep, all geeks unite for the London Film and Comic Convention. YAAAY. Earls Court 2 full of stalls selling geeky stuff and people in all kindsa Sci-Fi costume. Truely awesome.

I got to hug a Stormtrooper and watch random people from Heroes, Star Wars and Harry Potter be questionned by the audience.

There were many Darleks, and the odd remote control R2D2 hanging around, as well as hundreds of Jedi Knights and Stargate Soldiers.

If I hadn't reached my blog photo limit there would be many pictures.... :(

We got badges that said "Team Jacob", and I got a beautiful copper notebook for Mum for her birthday, which was Harry Potter themed. I think she will really like it :)

Next year anyone??

UKCAT

I'm planning on applying for medicine for next year, so this means apitutude test time!

Most of the universities I'm planning on applying for want the UKCAT, so I decided to take this one.

So off I trotted, down to the Pearson Education education centres, which happened to also be the DSA testing centre, which I had visited a few weeks ago to do my Driving Theory Test. I can't imagine many people end up on the 5th floor of the Venture tower in Portsmouth twice in a month :P

To be honest, I didn't do much preparation for the test, you wern't supposed to. I had done a practise on the net but thats about it (and they don't give you the answers :(... not useful). Some people are given months of private tuition and study for weeks beforehand, but I think this is just unecessary. Either you got it, or you don't....

The test comprised of 5 sections, the first four tested the way you thought, so there was a pattern recognition, a mathematical one, verbal reasoning and a decision analysis. The fifth was a non-cognitive test, and gave you a print out with an analysis of your personality.

It turns out im good with numbers, and making decisions (although a number of people would argue this), but sometimes I can be overconfident... meh....

The test wasn't as bad as I thought, and I found sticking to the time limit the most hardest part of the whole test.

Lets hope it's good enough for Medical Schoo huh??

Top Gear

Another interesting duty to really top up this week's duty hours, providing first aid duty at a recording of Top Gear.

Sitting in a hanger in Dunsfold Aerodrome (which I drove to...YEH!!) we watched the three boys do their thang!

In the morning we watched the rehearsals, and watched the Stig and celebrity go round the track numerous times, then, after lunch of course, we watched the show being recorded. Unfortunately we didn't make it onto the show or get to talk to any stars, but it was still a good experience!

I'm still finding the packets of biscuits lying around everywhere :P

Guilfest 2009

I am a member of St John Surrey, therefore I went to Guilfest :P

Instead of doing nightshifts, as I did last year, I decided this year I would do the earlier shifts. So for three days I was there 1000-1800. It was a pretty uneventful duty for us really, so it was a good opportunity to catch up with other members, and also to see some random bands and to look around the stalls.

One thing I did see however was a Abba tribute band, a heavy metal Abba tribute band, which was special. I also saw Toploader, which was awesome!

Same again next year??

My Review of the SDU

[I'm catching up on blogs, so these are a bit over-due]

As a member of St John Ambulance in Hampshire (somewhat temporarily..but meh) I got picked to trial a new uniform for duties. I had three months to trial it, and I did my best to wear it out and test it to the max. It was an interesting experience. I've never had so many people stare at me, point out there was no writing on my arse and fondle me in public (especially when my flies were undone on Southend Sea Front). And I'm from Essex...

So, after three months, this is my opinion -

Shirt - I like the green shirt, especially as it is to be worn open collar with no tie. Its a good colour, but the material was a bit thick and hot during the long day duties. I couldn't bring myself to wear the long sleeve version much, it was mainly worn just for trial purposes. The pockets were useful, and I got used to having a pen pocket on my sleeve. As for the printed writing, it didn't seem to come off like the new white shirts but then I only had it for 3 months.

Overall - Thumbs up!

Trousers - I liked the pockets and the design, but unfortunately I don't think they were cut right for my body shape. They could have been longer, and not up to above my belly button, but I guess these are just fashion preferences. The top pockets, however did go all the way down to my knees, which could have been cut better. I liked the side pockets, with the pockets within them, and think its a great alternative to a belt pouch. However, one major flaw. When tuff cuts are in the designed pocket, and I knelt down, the tuff cuts poked their way out the top of the pockets and fell out when I stood up. Fial.

Overall - Good design, maybe a bit more style guys!!

Belt - Belt was good, nice design but had one major design flaw. When the plastic/leather/black stuff heated up it became safe, and the adjustable teeth design failed and the belt fell apart. This nearly resulted in casualties being knocked out, so this one needs a re-think.

Overall - After a re-design, thumbs up!

High Vis Hat - I can see the practical use for this, but no, just no.... After a few uses on the black side the high vis side became dull, and the front visor bent into shape.

Overall - No

Beenie Hat - I liked the design, but unfortunately didn't get to wear it much, as the trial took place during the spring, but I would have worn it during the winter, so all is good :)

Overall - Good :)

Reversible Fleece - LOVE IT - I miss it so much. Was lovely and fleecy on one side and waterproof on the other, with zip pockets. They better keep this in the uniform!!!

Overall - WOOP

Parker Jacket - Again, I didn't get to wear this much, but it was a nice thick coat, which will do anyone well for those artic condition winter duties! With hundreds of pockets on the left side, and 2 on the other, I thought it was kinda swung towards the righties but they were very useful!

Overall - Good for winter :)

Jumper - I didn't get a jumper in my pack, but I'm not sure I liked the round neck jumper look, I would much prefer just the fleece with a shirt.

Overall - hmmmm

So thats it, I miss it already, and I wait with anticipation as to what national have to say! Bring it on, I think it's going to be a great improvement for the image of St John Ambulance, with a much smarter uniform (thats actually a uniform) which is much more practical for the work we do.

MJ (the lack of)

The death of Micheal Jackson, very unfortunate, and I wish his family all the best at this tough time. He will be sorely missed.

However, why are people so shocked that he has died young?? He gave his body so much abuse, no wonder! OK, I'm surprised he died THIS young, but still!!!

Also, I don't really understand why it is so necessary to play MJ excessively on the radio. EVERY OTHER SONG!!!! I love MJ's music, and don't mind hearing his songs frequently, but seriously...

On Tuesday I was listening to the radio (Heart, formally Ocean FM) for 5 hours....bet you can't guess how many MJ songs I heard... Answers on a postcard....

In True British Style...

I've had a truly awesome weekend. As per usual, none of it took part in Portsmouth, but for a change the weather was hot!

Friday I bombed it up to Bristol to visit my boyfriend, who had dinner waiting for me. I've not had tastier mash that the one I had that evening :D

Saturday we got up, had bacon sandwiches, said hello to snaky and headed off into the town. First stop, The Bristol Museum, to see the mighty works of Banksy. For those of you who haven't heard of Banksy, he does lots of graffiti-art...

Unfortunately there was a bit of a queue, about 45 mins, but the weather was good, and we managed to grab dragonfruit juice from people random giving out bottles of it in the street. The exhibition was worth it, so it didn't bother us.

Bristol is quite a pretty city, and isn't bad just to wander around for a while :) We bought random picnic foods from tesco and sat in a park for lunch, then headed home.

A few errands later and off to Guildford we went... where much mars bar and snickers cake suddenly got produced so we had plenty of sugary snacks for...

Biggin Hill Airshow :D

Again, much queuing occured to get in and out of the site, but the air show was worth the wait! There was an awesome fly over with both a 747 and the red arrows, and also an appearance from the Red Bull Matadors, which are always good for entertainment :D

There were lots of displays on the ground as well, from people such as the police, air force, air ambulance etc etc...

Although some of the displays did concern me somewhat...

Explosive search dogs????? How do they make them explosive???

Genetic modification to the max :P

Beach Trip

Tis the time of year, when the duties stopped again,

We pile in a bus and head straight down to the beach...

*cough*

Well we nearly all piled into a minibus. The glorious 12 seater we had broke down :( So we were stuck with tiny mini bus and luckily someone else had a car to drive the stragglers down :D

So, from Guildford, we headed down (not necessarly straight down :P) to West Wittering beach. The sun was shining, and the water was warm....eventually :P Spent much of the day in the water or lying on the sand soaking in tooooo much sun :( Cripsy Di.

After the tide hid all the sand from us we decided to head to a camp site and pitch a marquee, for us all to sleep in, then have a BBQ for dinner :D See we ain't half organised :D The sun went down and the rain came, so there was a swift retreat to the marquee for tea and biscuits before the torches and sleeping bags came out.

Once everyone had woken up (not necessarily in the place they fell asleep) breakfast :D

Breakfast was fabulous, baps chocka block full of sausages, bacon, eggs, mushrooms and cheese :D See we know how to eat at LINKS.

Back to beach, when the cripsyness continued. The 8ft bin bag came out and terrified most people on the beach, but definately got people to notice us :D The kids certainly loved it. Not good to jump on though :P Once that epically failed, we just chilled (HA) with ice cream and a kite until time to head back to Guildford and straight to the pub :D

BROWNIES ALL ROUND

And when all else fails theres always spooning, forking, and cheese weaponary....

I'll be good from now on...Honest

Need to start blogging again.

Been a bit busy recently....

So I'll start again from here :D But first...the excuses...

1) Since the beginning of March I've been chair of Surrey LINKS. Work. Mucho. Nothing more to be said, but it's been great :D

2) Since the end of March I have been trialling a new uniform for St John Ambulance. There is no rest when you're a trialler. None at all... I've been everywhere, done everything, and to be honest, touched in ways I will probably be touched before... Including having my zip undone at the Southend Festival of the Air. I know I'm from Essex but this kinda thing doesn't happen very frequently.

I've been to lots of duties, to name a few, London Marathon, Fratton Park Football Games, Wheels, FA Referee Trials in Portsmouth, Festival of Steam in Portsmouth, Southend Festival of the Air, University of Surrey Students' Union End of Year Show.

3) I'm having driving lessons...BRROOOOMMM. My driving instructor still hasn't got past the clutch on to the side stage yet... this worries me...

4) Been to Bristol too :D

5) I discovered the brilliance of Mars Bar Cake.

So from now on, I pledge to be a good blogger... and you shall hear all :D

Finland Part 3

The third day of our Finland adventure saw another early start with Nesquick and tea. Although as we were clearing up the room we found Nesquick everywhere.... what we were doing we have no idea!Our first stop of the day was to a rather unusual church in Helsinki, which was circular and built into a pile of granite, with a large domed roof. 

We had a wander up over the roof, which was still completely covered in snow, then headed inside. The roof had a large bronze disc, which meant the acoustics inside were amazing. 

After this it was time to head back to the Hotel to pick up our bags and head to the station (with a quick stop for train snacks of course!) for our journey down to Turku, where Keira lives. Helsinki station is another awesome building, I wish more stations in England would look as good :(

Standing in the queue to buy tickets we witnessed the police coming to pick a drunk up in the station, using poking sticks!! Haha!! Although the uniform isn't nearly as nice as over here :P

We got Keira to buy our tickets, then jumped on the train. The train was two-tiered, but we decided to sit on the bottom. 

We also managed to buy the wrong tickets, and when the Finnish-only guard tried to communicate this, we had to enlist the help from a lady on the train who happened to speak English. Language failure 4.

The train journey was 2 hours from Helsinki to Turku, but we had plenty to keep us occupied. Somehow I managed to pick up a Soviet paper, which I thought was a Metro type affair, and we had snacks. O yes we had snacks. One one thing, we had shed loads of Nesquick left. But we also had a giant bag of crisps, Geisha chocolate (dribbles), and sweets....

Haha

Also, everytime Sarah decided to take a picture out the window, there would be a tunnel...hahaha 

Upon the arrival to turku, we jumped on a bus to Keira's accommodation. She has a nice room in a building with a lift that doesn't get stuck :D Though this doesn't mean I particularly liked it any more :P

We dumped our bags and headed straight out to explore the town. We stopped off at the Catherdral first of all. It was more of what I would expect a Cathedral to look like, made of stone, had tombs inside and of course boats hanging from the ceiling :D

We didn't hang around for long, mainly because some kind of service was about to start, but we thought we would continue our travels to a pub. A pub that used to be a public toilet. Oh yes...

Classy these Finnish...

Dinner up next, and we had a feast! 

Took us a while to decide whether or to tip the waitress though, the guidebook was NO HELP WHATSOEVER!!

Anyway we decided to throw in a couple of Euros and the waitress was so thankful I think we made her year! So make sure you tip in Turku :P

Absolutely knackered, we just decided to take it easy and head back to Keira's flat for hot chocolate and much catching up!

Finland Part 2

The next morning involved an early start, and breakfast! Now we didn't have any cutlery, or plates. So.....

Apple juice, Nesquick, and tea in plastic cups and spoons provided in the room :D. It's a bit random that the hotel provided a microwave and kettle, but only giving cups and spoons to eat anything from.

Also had a shower using "All Over Shampoo". I thought this was sweet. So heres a picture....

Sarah L was also creeped out, and she could see someone staring at her through the window...

Turned out to be this strapping fellow...

Onto things you probably care more about... Our first stop of the day was Senate Square. This is a big town square in the middle of Helsinki, accessible by only small roads, with a Lutherin Church at the top. 

The square looked as if it should have had a market in the middle, but it didn't :( The square was also surrounded by the University buildings, but better looking than any of the buildings on campus at home.

We decided to venture up the icy stairs of death and into the Church for a peek. It was strangely warm inside, and was very very plain. The walls were white, and hardly decorated at all, which is a huge difference to what you would see in a Church in Britain. Da Vinci should be twitching in his grave.

After this we decided to visit the tourist information point, to buy a travel card. For 6 €  you can have unlimited travel on the trams, buses and ferries around Helsinki for 24 hours, which worked out really well for us.

Lunch next, and being students we couldn't go past the University without sampling the food in the student canteen. The choices were, Carrot and Nut Curry or Chicken and Cinnamon Stew, served with salad and bread. Was very nice, especially with the accompanying glass of milk :)

Our travels then took us towards the Harbour. Quite a comparison to Southend Sea Front for sure. The sea was still frozen, apart from a path of slushy ice that the ferry had left. Lots of ducks were quite contently sat on the ice, and only disturbed every now and then by the odd ferry engine noise. There was a little market place also just by the waters edge, selling fur and cakes :)

The ferry from the harbour took us to the islands of Suomenlinna (not Semolina...language fail 2). We past many little islands on the way, some just stranded out in the ice-sea with just one or two houses on them. That must be a strange place to live.

The islands themselves were beautiful and all connected by footbridges. Very quiet, hardly any people around, and it just looked so undisturbed. I don't think I could live there, but the peace and tranquility was overwhelming.

However this is where we encountered yet another major fail...

Footwear... Climbing up icy hills in normal English trainers doesn't work, and we found ourselves slipping and sliding all over the place. Typical English... :P

We explored the island for a bit, then caught the ferry back to Helsinki mainland were we needed a hot chocolate to warm up. We attempted to ask for it in Finnish, but then we encountered language fail 3 :P

Next on the Helsinki agenda was a quick jump on the tram and round to the Olympic stadium. Wasn't really much to this actually, just literally the stadium. It did, however, have a very high viewing tower, with a lift (grumble) up to the top, so you could see over Helsinki...

Unfortunately, our stomachs were screaming again, so we headed back on the busy tram round to central Helsinki and dived into a noodle bar! Yummy!

Before heading back to the Hotel, we stopped off at

 an ice bar for a quick cocktail. We were given coats to wear inside that looked like sleeping bags with holes in for the arms. Although, it wasn't that much colder in there than it was outside! It was -5oC and we were allowed to stay in there for 30 mins. Just enough time for one drink, many pictures, and even more puns about how "cool" it was....and the "chilling" music.... o dear o dear.

The evening was quite relaxing, we chilled out and watched some Finnish Tv, "Frenit" and "Simpsoni". The Finnish have some amazing adverts. Bananas are for monkeys. We also went to a bar for a quick drink with one of Keira's friends. We had the most expensive drink I think I've ever had. €7 for a vodka and orange... shocking...

However we did walk past an amusing bar on the way home....

Finland Part 1

Moi from Penguin!

This year one of my good friends from uni has trotted off to Finland for her placement. And that just screams visit, so off I went. And I took 2 Sarahs with me! We all met at London Gatwick airport and got a 3 hour sleasyjet flight to Helsinki Vantaa. 3 hours should have given us plenty of time to learn a few words of Finnish from Sarah L's guidebook and to learn some background information.

Fail.

However we was reassurred that it was ok to be nude on the beach and we learnt all about Gay Helsinki. So it wasn't an epic fail. Anyway we would have looked silly trying to pronounce all the Finnish words on the plane in front of all the Finnish people.

Anyway, I digress...

So we met Keira at the airport, and hopped on a bus to Helsinki city centre, and dragged our luggage through the snow to the hotel. 

It was an unusual hotel, with no reception. We were just given a door code to unlock the doors. Our room was on the 7th floor so we jumped into the lift (which I reluctantly agreed to cos I'm too lazy to climb 7 floors). I don't like lifts. At all. Finnish lifts did not at all help this hatred. No internal door to the lift, so only 3 walls to the lift. And what happened, of course, we got stuck between floor 3 and 4. So I excessively pressed the help button, and some Finnish person tried to help us...

In Finnish...

But we found that if we squished into the lift further, the lift moved again. THANK GOD!!!

We eventually got into our room, to find half the number of beds we should have. SOFA BED!!

 Ahhh the Scandinavian genius... Except now we were absolutely starving, so popped to the coop type job round the corner for some microwavable goodness. 

Fail...

Pizza it was then! After buying brekfast of course!

[NB] This blog was written on the flight home on the back of a vomit bag. I DO NOT have small handwriting. It's just compact for vomit bag convenience.

I'm Still Alive

I haven't posted in a few months....sorry guys and gals...

Will catch up soon promise...

I'm Still British, from Essex and living in Portsmouth...

So why am I surprized to see a King-of-the-Hill type arrangement in Buckland??

A whole family plus hundreds of other random children and all the adults either dressed in mucky boiler suits or pjs smoking and drinking cans of various alcohol sitting on a mouldy sofa outside their house.

Maybe living in Guildford has made a snob of me after all...

I'm British...

So I'm going to talk about the weather :D

It's been absolutely fabulous the past couple of day and it pains to have to work all day when I could be in the sunshine :(

However...

It's not that warm

Not like its even reaching 20 degrees

So why did I see someone out in a bikini today.... ???

And where did all the children in the street come from? Theres hundreds of them!!! Did they just come out of hibernation just so they can sit on street corners and kick footballers at passers by?

I think I'm getting grouchy in my old age....

sigh

BTW...Finland diary to follow....(as soon as I can get my pictures off my camera!)

Heres a quick summary...

- Nesquick is a lifesaver, and is also very addictive.

- I've never been to the toilet so many times in my life.

- Finland is cold. 

- Some footwear just isn't appropriate for said conditions.

- I look silly in wooly hats...but head warmth takes priority.

- Tipping in Finland gets you far :D

- Some simple ideas are just too clever and are quite easily overlooked

- Bananas are for Monkeys who have been running a marathon.

That Friday Feeling

Every Friday for the past few weeks has actually been the best day of the week... smiles and good moods all round!

Every morning I'm greated by my Chauffer Steph...

"ITS FRRIIIDDDAAAYYY!!!"

Always cheerful.... In fact it's almost scary sometimes :P

To accompany this...I made a banner for her dashboard (with the help from scrap paper and two different colour Sharpies) saying "It's Friday!"

So the trip to work wouldn't be complete with the ultimate Friday feeling music. Chris Moyles has an awesomely cheesy Friday song, but we couldn't find a version to listen to on the way to work, so we have been attempting to come up with the Ultimate Friday Feeling Music CD to sing along to whilst driving down the M275/M27 to work.

So far we have -
- Africa, Toto
- All Star, Smash Mouth
- Build Me Up Buttercup, Someone

But we must strive to reach perfection dammit!!!!

Give me your Friday Feeling music suggestions... so the Ford Puma morning rave can continue!!!

Happy Happy Happy

I've had a pretty damn fine weekend so far.

Friday night I went out to have pudding and cocktails :) Then to the cinema :) After a week of not eating, Creme Brulee and a Shampagne cocktail was very much appreciated.

Saturday was a nice relaxing day... went out bought a dress for various formal events coming up (i know....wait...) some new clothes, a train ticket for my dash to Guildford on Tuesday and some new steel toe capped boots for my PTA assessment

 (there we go :P). The rest of the day was finally cleaning up my room, going food shopping and revising for my assessments.

Also made me smile when I left the house without a coat or jumper on and saw this...

Spring is upon us people! 

Sunday, the dreaded day...but I passed :D I am now Miss Ambulance Lady :D

Whilst I recover from Norovirus...

Ok, I haven't written anything for a while, but I haven't actually had 5 minutes to myself...but I've picked out the highlights!

Recently Blue Peter have been doing a Mission Nutrition campaign, which involves huge Bring and Buy sales all over the country. Being the little fundraisers we are, myself and the rest of the Southend Youth Symphonic Wind Band decided to have a stall, and sell penny sweets and stuff!

We also were asked if we could appear on the show, and play something! WOOOWWEEEE fame here we come!

So there we were, brand new orange t-shirts, Blue Peter badges pinned to our chests (well...to our t-shirts) all tuned and ready to go, when one guy in the production team comes out and says "sorry no time for you..."

The disappointment :(

But we stayed and played backstage instead, which seemed to drum up a lot of attention. 

Overall I think we raised about £70-80 for the cause, so it was definately worthwhile in the end.

Some of us even got on TV...

Haha...

Jake even got in on the action...

I think he was flirting....The saucy grab kit...

Anyway...

It was also Mark's birthday recently..Hoorrray!

To celebrate, we pottered up to London and had a private tour around Tower Bridge, which was all kinds of awesome! We had the nicest tour guide and the view from the bridge was amazing, it was such a clear night! Also went for a nice meal at Pizza Express near Tower Hill, who were very good, and postponed our meal until some more of Mark's friends turned up and also served mark the cake we bought for him :) Cheers guys.

Anyhoo...enough for now...must go practise being miss ambulance lady for my ambulance assessment on Sunday......

No Explanation Needed

Here is a list of topics that I really don't need to explain to you lot....but I just want to get them off my chest...

1) Snow and Rain...

2) Pompey FC on Saturday

3) Twitter...wtf?

4) Cadbury Adverts...

Pin Pricks

I ended up travelling to London briefly on Friday straight from work, and found myself on the 1635 train from Havant Rail Station.

I thought it was strange that stood next to be were two guys, both wearing pin striped suits, and both ended up in the same 6-seater section of the same busy carriage. 

Now

One of these guys was wearing a brown leather cowboy hat, which was rough round the edges shall I say. The other guy was much older, and carried with him a small black briefcase.

The guy with the cowboy hat also had a notebook and pen in his hand. He sat on the opposite side of the seats, and just stared at me. Then every now and then he would smile and write something. 

Now the other guy, the older guy, suddenly pulled out one of those cup-lid things from a thermos flask, so I thought he was pouring himself a mug of coffee or something.

No

He the pulled out the litre bottle of Smirmoff vodka he also had in this briefcase, and with my help, broke the seal, then poured himself a cup. He also spilled a fair amount on me too. By the time we got to waterloo he had actually downed the whole thing, and I was on drunk alert. 

Would have given me good recovery position practise for my first aid exam the following morning.

Anyway, we all stumbled off the train, and before I knew it I was back on the journey home.

Sitting opposite me on the four seater was, as predicted, a fairly attractive guy in a pinstripe suit. Then, his very attractive girlfriend came along. Bummer. They continued to be smug and perfect until the guard announced...

"Message for the guard, don't worry about that briefcase, its all just rubbish inside"

When the guy in the pinstripe decided he didn't like this information and started to as everyone if they had their belongings, and to find the owners of all the bags in the overhead baggage rack.

Ha...not so perfect now HUH....Her face closely resembled the red colour of the South West Train seat she was sunk into....

Some things are just difficult...

I've done some things that i've found very difficult recently... but this is very close to the top...

Ever tried to fit a mountain bike into a Ford Puma???

I'd never make a junkie...

Was my birthday....I'm now 21! Woop!

Opened some prezzies in the morning, ran to work, and pretty much sat at the computer all day and snacked on cakes, as most of my team were on a writing course all day! 

I got to leave work early though...to go and have my Hep B antibody test. Rather... an attempt to have my Hep B antibody test. After a number of attempts, and me passing out twice, they only had about 0.5mls of blood. I used up all their vacutainers, and apparently the phlebotomist has never seen anything like me before, deepest veins in 22 years of blood work! What an achievement.

So I stagger home, and find that my housemates have decorated the front of my house with happy birthday banners and balloons :D They also bought me a huge shiny badge and a cake with candles :D and some prezzies :D

So we went out for dinner at Las Iguanas and had cocktails and latin food :D

The return home saw me finally logging into facebook and being stunned by the 48 happy birthday messages. Thanks everyone :D

Today, I had a very productive day today...I bought a bike and booked a driving lesson. Ill be on the road in no time!!!

Bouncy Bouncy Bouncy Fun Fun Fun Fun Fun

Why do so many houses that back onto railway lines have trampolines?

I only know one person who has one, and admittedly she doesn't live anywhere near a train line. But still...

Is it some kinda way of jumping onto the train, thus getting free travel???