Adventures in studentland: Oxford

This weekend, I was away from home, visiting my dear friend Chloe who is at Oxford, doing Russian (we're all very proud of her). Chloe's the first person to put up with me invading their new world, and she was very gracious about it.
Oxford is a lovely place, though really quite odd - everyone there is a student or a tourist. On a Saturday in Cheltenham there are schoolkids in every direction and I think I saw four in Oxford. It's a strange one, but being with a student - mine's at New College and very proud of it - you get to see stuff the tourists don't, like the cloisters (featured in Harry Potter) at night.
As I expected, my favourite thing about the visit was getting to meet Chloe's new friends, and try to assess how they reacted to our dearest Lysha, who visited before Christmas.
I got to meet most of the gang, particularly her boyfriend - she did well - and they're a really great bunch. I wouldn't blame her if she suddenly ditched the school friends. I went in with the warning that they'd all been given the impression that I was... eccentric (apparently it was something to do with drownings) but I was welcomed, and had a damn good time. We went to see a show (the Oxford University Gilbert and Sullivan society's production of Ruddigore) which was fun, do a movie night and eat ice-cream (while bewildering one of her neighbours).
It was a wrench to come home really, but I have an invite to come back in the spring or summer and I am so taking her up on it.

The next adventure in studentland will probably be with Lysha and/or Martin after Easter.

Halloween!

I love Halloween. Aside from the fact that it tends to be one of those great Autumn days where it's windy and fresh and the foliage has all gone a glorious colour, it gives me a brilliant excuse for dressing up. I really enjoy dressing up.

It's probably part of that 'you can take the student out of the theatre but you can't take the theatre out of the student' thing. I'm like the metaphorical stick of rock with 'luvvie' written all the way through it - pretending to be someone else for a while is damn good fun.
This year, Halloween will be without all those friends who are off at university, but, since there is still a party (one of the remaining friends has the house to herself that weekend) I still get to dress up.

Looking at the 'pictures of me' thing on facebook, it seems I'll don a costume at the slightest provocation, and I do like to think I make the effort with it. Previous halloweens have seen me as bat, witch, werewolf, devil and so on and so on, while other opportunities have produced one of the original Charlie's Angels (raided my mum's old clothes bag), Prince Charming, schoolgirls, princesses...

This year, I was considering going as roadkill - using the furry bits from last years wolf costume, makeup bruises and cuts and a tyretrack across my chest, but I think I'll save that one (because it is a great idea). Instead I'm thinking bad fairy - all fishnet, thorns and wilted petals, like a flower fairy gone wrong. I'll have to make it of course, but I'm pretty sure I can do that.
It should be good fun. I will post pictures as we go along I think.

p.s. a friend has just started a blog for his uni course, go say hi: http://martin-baxter.blogspot.com/

It's been a while

I am a lazy person and I can't even blame school. so, in pictures, this is what has happened in the last month...

I went to a party, and drank several bacardi breezers

and wore quite a short dress.


I went to the Forest of dean in a mini

and did a maze in the rain

We threw a surprise birthday party for Jess (one of my most favourite people in the whole world)

Then went and drank excitingly flavoured vodka shots (I had a bakewell tart flavour one, it was gorgeous!)

I've got the house to myself for two weeks.
I went to Martins and we played mousetrap


The following night the girls came round for movies and a Chinese takeaway. We watched Moulin Rouge (and sang along), Bridget Jones's Diary, which just made the single girls (most of us) a little bit mopey, so we then put Some Like it Hot on before realising at five that it was getting light already, and it was probably time for bed.






















Oh, and Hanna stood on a slug in her bare feet.




so yeah. A fun few weeks certainly, during which I also got a job and ate far, far too much junk food. I will post something again soon (if I don't just tell me I ought to)