Angus Lee!

Where to start. My Easter Weekend has been filled with hysterical laughter, barbecues, bonfires, jack Russell's, dog poo, private beaches, sun burn, chocolate, cheese, wine, cider, bacon sandwiches and traffic jams.

Me and three friends (Fowler, Hallas and Robson) decided to stay in the back end of nowhere in Anglesey, just outside of a little town called Beaumaris. The place we stayed, The Beach House, could only be described as a little piece of wooden heaven and when we arrived, we promptly started screaming at the sight of not just the lodge but at our own private beach complete with a rustic barbecue. We could not believe our luck and the fact that we had managed to find this remote, idyllic lodge down the dusty track from the main road.

I have to start with the shopping trip to Morrisons. We arrived completely over excited and combined with the need for chocolate (it was Easter), magazines (to read on the beach) and meat for the BBQ, we ended up spending £120 in the space of about 20 minutes. But we were going to be house bound for the next 3 days, relaxing and getting away from the hustle and bustle of everyday life and indeed the traffic which had caused some misery on the journey down. We did however run out of wine and cider on the first night so we did have to go back to Waitrose and spend a further £30 along with a special purchase of smoked cheese to celebrate the end of lent for me. (Giving up cheese was SO much harder than I first thought.)

I also have to mention the amount of chocolate that was consumed by Miss Hallas BEFORE the end of lent even though she had given this up. Did she break the rules of lent even though she specified on the first day what she was and wasn't allowed to eat? Answers on a postcard please!

The first day was fab. We had great weather and we sat out at the fire until late and chatted and drank a lot.
The second day- the Saturday was rather different. It was cloudy, overcast and just a bit miserable. But undeterred, we ventured out in the car for a little drive and came across different beaches and headed to the town of Beaumaris. The pier was packed with kids crab fishing and we couldn't get over the abundance of dogs (I'll go into further details of the dogs a little later). We collected fire wood for the fire that evening and headed home after a little trip to the souvenir/joke shop :-)

Tonight was the night that Fowler was going to be attempting to cook her first (and probably last) sit down dinner. The Jamie Oliver book had stated that we were going to have Cypriot Chicken (chicken breast stuffed with herbs and feta cheese) with asparagus and vine roasted tomatoes. Fowler's own twist was to add roast potatoes. It worked so well, apart from the scary moment where we discovered the chicken was a little frozen when it came out the fridge but this was easily fixed. Fowler ended up with 4 scraped plates and a wealth of compliments. Will she cook again?? Answers on a postcard again!

The evening was the best out of all three. As we had no BBQ, we sat around the fire wrapped in blankets, sleeping bags, drinking cider and looking at the stars which were amazing. So...onto the dog story. When we first arrived, we were surprised when we discovered three dogs casually roaming around out rustic BBQ area. A small jack Russell and two black labs. On discovering the dogs, Hallas jumped up and ran into the lodge, terrified by this little, yappy thing. Now, Hallas has a dog but doesn't like dogs because she doesn't know if they are going to attack her or not. I'm not a massive Jack Russell fan myself but he was so excitable and so cute that I just wanted to take him home! We found out later that his name was Derek!! Amazing name for a dog.

So, Saturday night, was probably also the funniest. I don't think I've ever laughed so much in all my 25 years. Fowler had bought a fake dog poo from the joke shop earlier in the day to place in the kitchen to scare Hallas. It didn't work as the first time she walked straight past it and the second time, Derek actually ran off with it in his mouth! One minute it was there and the next minute, we were looking for a fake dog poo with a torch in the garden trying not to let on to Hallas. It definitely was a 'you had to be there moment' but it was without a doubt the funniest moment ever.

Sunday, it was hot. And I mean hot. We spent all day from 10am to 5pm in the garden. As we had our own private beach, it got a bit fresh at times so the majority of the time we had our sleeping bags covering us over. Despite caking the sun cream on every ten minutes on my face, I still emerged (as Fowler puts so nicely) like a burns victim.

Monday, we packed up and were very reluctant to leave. It was peaceful, idyllic and only had each other, the dogs and the sound of sheep to keep us company and we were well and truly rested. To be honest, I couldn't do a whole week there. It's lovely, but by the end I was ready for a bit of hustle and bustle. Robson drove us back and we took the scenic route which was lovely. Although there was an incident with a family of ducks which we will take to our graves so don't get asking because it still haunts me :-(

Monday night when I got back, all I wanted was a shower, some food and to sleep. Dan accompanied me and we had an amazing pizza hut takeaway and watched a good film.

All in all, an amazing weekend. It has to be done again soon and I know the rest of them will agree. Oh and one last thing. The name of the post, Angus Lee? Hallas couldn't pronounce Anglesey so Angus Lee was the next best thing. Enough said! xx

Social butterfly!

I still can't get over how busy I am even though the exams are out the way! I seem to be working on the social side of my life at the moment which means accepting invitations left, right and centre to anything that's thrown my way. I feel like I haven't seen my flatmate in about a week...actually I don't think I have.

The Saturday just gone, I visited an old uni friend in Cheltenham where we went to uni and it was lovely. It was weird because I parked outside my old student house and it brought back some old memories I can tell you! The funny thing is that there are two brick pillars at the end of the path which leads to the front doors and on my 21st birthday when the party spilled out into the street, me and my housemate nathanial proceeded to knock the top half of this brick wall off. The next day was spent somehow trying to wedge it back on without the landlord noticing. (We really wanted our deposit back at the end of the year!) The funny thing was is that it was still wonky! Chances are future tenants found that it was broken but it was funny to see it. We had a great day and the weather was amazing. I always feel weird going back to Cheltenham. It reminds me of a time where I was 18, just moved out of home and found freedom! Good times.

Monday night, Dan and I went for sushi again (it's cheaper on a Monday!) and it was lovely! Really enjoying spending time with him at the moment.

So last night, Hallas is back from Liverpool uni on half term break and she is making me homemade gnocchi. I'm really scared, although saying that, I don't think she can poison me with some potato. Will be nice to catch up with her.

Then bank hol Friday, we're off to Anglesey in Wales to go to the Beach House! The website actually calls it the Beach House! It's a one- story Scandinavian lodge with everything you need in it! Me and the girls generally tend to go away over Easter to recharge our batteries and drink a lot of wine :-) should be fun.

We're also thinking about going away to Amsterdam for my birthday at the end of May which will be massively fun!

More to come soon!

Sunny, Sunny, Sunny!

Had a really lovely, sunshine filled weekend this weekend! In amongst revising my socks off for the impending exam on Friday, I still managed to do lots of fun stuff!

Friday night, Dan and I went out for sushi which was something completely new to us but we had a fab time. We headed to Yo Sushi in Brindley Place and it was amazing! I'm not a massive fan of fish but there was plenty of other options to try including chicken, noodles, rice, and these amazing Japanese pumpkin croquettes. After that we headed to Walkabout and a few other bars and proceeded to get absolutely steaming..but we had an amazing night.

Saturday. Grand national day. While the world was basking in the glorious sunshine, I was stuck in the flat ALL day learning how to write snappy intros and short filler stories of 70- 80 words. (It was the newswriting exam today!) I felt very sorry for myself.

But Sunday,  it was my sisters boyfriends birthday so I headed to Leamington to have a piece of cake and a cup of tea! We ended up in a gorgeous beer garden with the whole family. There was beer, some good food, the game of buckaroo and yes, would you believe it...my revision  folder! If I couldn't revise inside, it would have to be done in the beer garden!

So today was the newswriting exam and I think it went ok. I didn't rush and tried to remember everything so fingers crossed it was a pass!

More to come soon :-) xx

Busy Busy Busy!

So I'm pretty much all better now after having the wisdom tooth out. Not a nice experience and still feel a bit run down which is not cool. I'm making up to Fowler this weekend for not being at her birthday do last weekend by going out for dinner with her which will be lovely. And also I'm very excited about going away for the Easter bank hols with the girls and Robson to a little Welsh cottage in Anglesey :-) It will be much needed by the time it rolls around in a few weeks time.

At the moment, I'm cramming. I have so much going on career wise. This week I'm designing and planning my own double page spread using Adobe InDesign as part of my coursework to hand in with my exam next week. I have a Newswriting exam next Tuesday (12th) at Staffordshire Uni and a Sub Editing exam next Friday 15th (the one which I submit the coursework for as well). Luckily, I can sit this exam at the place I work (the Birmingham Mail office at Fort Dunlop) instead of going down to London which is a relief. In between these exams, I'm working and we have a massive sales day on the Thursday (14th)  where there is a lot of pressure to sell our lovely digital products. They're generally quite fun but it will be hectic.

On top, of all this coursework, revision, working and getting ready for the sales day, I have a deadline on Monday (11th) for Living Magazine which I write a few pages a month for to help out (it helps me out too but not at the moment when I'm soooo busy!). And on top of THAT, I have a Smudge Magazine deadline on the Friday (15th)! Luckily, I already have the first draft of this done.

If that was confusing to you- it definitely is to me. This is my week next week-

Monday 11th- Deadline for Living        
Tuesday 12th- News Writing Exam        
Wednesday 13th - REVISION!
Thursday 14th- Sales Day at work
Friday 15th- Deadline for Smudge
                Sub Editing Exam

To top things off, my tutor has told me he has a 100% pass rate from his students on the Sub Editing exam! PRESSURE!!

On Sat 16th though, I'm going to Cheltenham for the day, my old uni stomping ground, to catch up with a very good uni friend of mine, Aimie. I haven't seen her in a few years but I'm really looking forward to it. Our usual catch up's in Chelt usually consist of us going for lunch, getting drunk on wine and going shopping for clothes. TOP TIP- Don't go clothes shopping when your drunk- it results in you going back to the shop to return the item because usually its a) hideous b) the wrong size or c) just a little bit slutty.

In amongst all this, I am going to try and see Dan. Bless him, he's being so patient. Saying that, he's very busy himself revising for his own exams which will hopefully see him accepted into Leeds Uni come results time in August.

Pics of Fernando to come soon I promise! Love love love xx

I'm missing out!

Tonight is one of my best friend's birthday nights out and where am I? Stuck in Birmingham, in bed, doing Sub Editing coursework. I'm still in pain from having the horrible wisdom tooth out and as I'm on the antibiotics, I can't partake in the odd glass of wine with them and can't generally have a good time because of the pain :-(

So here I am. I'm taking a break from doing the coursework (which is planning and designing a double page magazine spread) by writing this post and watching Bridget Jones Diary 2. There's also a half empty packet of Galaxy Counters next to me but I've found it's extremely hard to eat these with a sore jaw so I've given up!

Mothers Day tomorrow so I'm planning on having lunch with mum and my younger brother then tea at my grandparents with the rest of the family. Pix to come soon. In the meantime, check out my latest article in Smudge Magazine- I'm on page 18 & 19 :-)

http://content.yudu.com/Library/A1rnfo/IssueFiveApril2011/resources/index.htm?referrerUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.smudgemagazine.co.uk%2Fmagazine%2Fissue-five