Proms Take 2

This year we headed up to the BBC Last Night of the Proms in Hyde Park. Last year I vowed I would make more of an effort with my flag, so bought an Essex flag and a flag pole on the interwebs.

Well I broke the flag pole, so I went to Tesco instead and bought a £2.49 mop and just unscrewed the mop end. Job done :D

I packed up my flag in my backpack. but had to carry the make-shift flag pole. But on the underground I suddenly noticed people were just moving out the way to let me through. A sort of parting of the Red Sea scenario. Then I realised, I was holding the pole out in front of me with both hands. They thought I was blind!!!

Question is, why would a blind person be wearing glasses?

We got to Hyde Park around 1pm, and despite the weather forecast we only had a little drop of rain and lots of sun :)

When we got inside we got a prime position behind a group of German ladies and a Chinese family. There was some interesting dancing going on lets just say that :P

It was a really great evening, but I was a little disappointed with the second half. Where the hell were all the sea shanties? The same last night spirit was just lost. It just seemed so rushed, too structured and the conductor in the Hall just seemed so nervous and unenthusiatic. Also, the National Athem was just made into even more of a durge and I found it very difficult to sing along.

Don't get me wrong, it was an awesome evening, and overall I had a great time with some great company, but I did feel the last spirit was lost somewhat in the second half.

Was a great night :)

Clearing

Whilst browsing UCAS Clearing... one of the courses offered was....

KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT!!!

Hahaha

Crunchy Nut Advert filmed in Dartford

http://www.visit4info.com/advert/Ludicrously-Tasty-Diversions-Kelloggs-Crunchy-Nut-Range/85183

It's the little things that make you smile.

Well... in some circumstances :P

/shutup

Friday the 13th

I had a very close call this evening when driving from work to Guildford. The petrol station I use next to work was closed, and took the wrong turning onto the M25. I called 118118 and they said there was a petrol station in 11 miles. The petrol light came on and 15 miles passed, tensions rose. Luckily I managed to reach Clacket Lane services just as the car started to sputter, and there was a traffic queue up ahead!!!

It really was a typical Friday 13th. Woke up late, was late for work. Kept knocking things over all day in the lab! Although it wasn't until lunch time it was pointed out to me that it was the famously known unlucky day.

Tomorrow is a new day :) Hopefully the weather will brighten up, I won't get caught in any more flash floods, and I will have a great time training my replacement LINKS committee.

One Week Down...

One week of work over, and it's actually gone by like a flash! My week has been full of reading health and safety documents, learning about lab machinery and attempting to remember everyone's names (and I'm not doing very well...)

But the highlight of my week was seeing my boyfriend again. He was meant to be leaving Guildford at half 1, and meeting me back at my parents house after I left work. I had a peak at the Dartford bridge at lunch, and I couldn't see any traffic, so I sent him a quick text to tell him there wasn't a problem with the traffic and he should set off now.

Fail.

The reason the bridge was clear is because just out of my view was a lorry on fire, and they had shut the bridge, resulting in 27 mile queues on a Friday evening during rush hour. I didn't see Dan until half 7 :(

Oops

At least we made it to Colchester Zoo on the Saturday. :D

And I'm back....

OK, final year kinda got a hold of me, and I had no time AT ALL to blog. But now... I'v graduated (with a modest 2:1) and I'm back out in the big wide working world.

I'm back into the lab, but this time with a different company.

As the job is close to home, I am living back with parents in Essex. I also now have a car, a silver fiesta called Pedro, who is my new faithful companion on my travels. No more depressing bus rides for me in the near future. But adjusting to Essex commuter drivers is tough, and I think I am slowly (very slowly) becoming one of them. Sorry!!

This also means that I have left my very good friends and my boyfriend in Guildford, which is fairly upsetting. As I am working in Kent, I will be half way there, so many trips to Guildford will happen I'm sure.

The first weekend of me moving home involved clearing out my room. I'm still doing it. Parents managed to aquire a double bed from a friend who is relocating, so we had to squeeze it into my room. Much to my parents' disgust, I have also chucked out all their stuff, and claimed some space for myself. I think the total was 7 clothes bags, 10 recycling bags, 12 black bags and three car loads (my parents have an estate) to the rubbish tip. I haven't finished yet.

Needless to say, there was a lot of crap in here :P

The hamster is adjusting well to her new home. She spent the whole journey here running up and down her cage, and didn't settle for the whole day and night. I think she wore herself out so much she hasn't got up much since. She is loving having a wooden floor to roll around on and lots of new things to crash into :D

Another task in the room clearing was buying new furniture. IKEA!!!! You can fit a surprising amount in a Ford Fiesta :P

That's it for now!!

My Birthday

Look what Dan got me for my Birthday...

http://spyclub.dyndns.org/hamcam.html

New Year, New Post

Hello everyone!

I'm back!

And I promise to keep my blog up to date from now on. Honest.

I spend New Years Eve on the Embankment, as I have the past two years and it was as awesome as ever :D

We got to London for about 1900, and met in Leicester Square. We had ordered pizza earlier in the day so it would be ready for us to collect so we could dash down to the river side and munch on it there.

I was surprised at how many people were already there at 1930 this year, last year it was empty, but it was about 2-3 people deep already by the time we turned up. Maybe we need to get there earlier next year :(

There were hardly any animations projected onto the Shell Building this year, just a few dots that looked strangely like a Windows Standard screensaver about 2300. No Boris this year :(

As midnight approached, the London Eye was illuminated and the light show got more and more complex the closer to midnight we got. It was obvious that the organisers had a tight budget this year.

The fireworks were not stingey, however. They may have been shorter this year, but they were still impressive. At one point, the sky looked like it was full of golden rain, which was beautiful. I am always impressed with the way that they launch the fireworks from the Eye, it always looked good.

The plan for after the fireworks was to stay put on the Embankment and wait for the crowds to disappear, then head towards the park. This plan worked fairly well...

Until the blizzards. I was absolutely freezing. We were planning on making bacon, but it was too cold. According to the met office, the temperature didn't fall below 0.2oC, but there must have been a very powerful wind chill factor, which we didn't feel until we left the crowd. It's amazing how warm 200,000 people can keep you :P It's the penguin effect.

So we gave up about 0300, and headed towards the station where we jumped on a train and headed home.

It was a good night, and it was a shame that it was soooo cold. We did avoid the crowds, however, which was the main aim, so I think we should do this again next year.