Home!

As it happens, I am now home :D It's great to be back, I'm really enjoying seeing my family and friends again. I have been busy buying things (presents, wool etc), my best purchase to date being;

 

 

Yeah! It's a Stegosaurus piggybank, and I shall be using it to hold my £2 for the £2 coin challenge.

 

This inspired me to crochet some dinosaurs - maybe I'll be able to sell them to get some extra cash.

 

Also, the crochet gloves I started off earlier in the year? Well I've finally started to make some headway into them and they're starting to come on nicely. They are a little tight, but that's what you get for considering the pattern to be a mere guideline

The Sock Calendar

So, I know I haven't really been keeping up with the Sock Calendar - I have been busy procrastinating and  preparing to go home.

 

 

 

Results

So, today I received the results back from my Stats test - I got a first which I am very happy about. This is obviously preliminary marking, so my mark may go up or down but in the meantime here's a selfie of me looking intelligent and pensive

..oooh...so intelligent

 

I found Hazelnut Moser Roth. I'll repeat that for the hard of hearing. HAZELNUT MOSER ROTH. It's Nutella in a bar. mmm mm mmmmm

 

..oooh...hazelnut moser roth

 

 Also I found out that these exist. And holy moly I want one xD I am in the process of making a list to send my parents, so they can send a tesco or whatever delivery to my address to stock up my warchest, So lots of noodles and crackers :P

 

 

Secret Santa

I can't quite remember if I've done this yet, but here goes

 

So, Jess was my Secret Santa, and she got me a microwaveable hot water bottle in the shape of a dinosaur! I have yet to name him, but I think he looks kinda spanish

Pictured: Spanish

 

It was then time for the Edge Christmas Dinner, which as you can see was maHOOsive and I only managed to eat about a third of it. But it was very nice, but with far too many Brussels sprouts i.e. more than one.

 

 

The Sock Calendar - 12-13

I am aware that I haven't really been keeping up with things, but shush, no-one else knows :P

 

 

 

The sock for the 14th contains some apricot face scrub which I am very much looking forward to using

The Sock Calendar - Wherever we're up to now

So basically I've lost track of were we are, but here's what I've had the last few days

 

The Noodle Report:- Pot Noodle Chinese Chow Mein

The Noodle Report:- Pot Noodle Chinese Chow Mein

 

PEAS! WHY! EVEN MORE THAN LAST TIME! THE INHUMANITY! PEAS! THERE WAS, LIKE, SEVEN! IT TOOK ME MINUTES TO REMOVE THEM ALL! WHAT KIND OF NOODLE POT HAS PEAS IN IT! IT IS AN OFFENCE, AN ABOMINATION UNTO NUGGAN! PEAS!

So yeah, this was actually alright, apart from the aforementioned peas. (PEAS!). It was not as sweet as the British curry flavour, which was a marked improvement. I did feel it was grainy, almost quite powdery in a wet way. But I'd deffo have it again

Noodle Rating: 6/10

The Sock Calendar - Dec 6 & 7

 

 

 

Chocolate coins xD

 

You can never have enough Moser Roth

The Sock Calendar - Dec 5

This was a quite big and heavy present today, almost pulling the sock off its peg

 

So the fact there was moisturiser in it would explain that!

Corp

Yesterday was eventful; I took a fair few selfies on my way to work, and my shift went surprisingly ok - I've started getting the hang of working the till, and I've started to get to know the other people on the first floor which is always nice. And Sheff is lovely in the winter sun.

 

 I don't know who that guy is but he got in my shot

And after my shift, I went to Corp. For the uninitiated (ie me) it was a dark room with phenomenally sticky floors - like I'd tied my shoes tight and I STILL almost lost them on several occasions. The stickiness problem was solved by the copious amounts of puke and spilt drinks on the floor. You think that's disgusting? I was wearing canvas shoes! And the amount of drinks that were spilled down the back of my legs was frightening...especially with the smell of regurgitated alcohol all around.

Kate later tells me that Corp is infamous in Sheff for 'Blue Pints', I think vodka and alcopop type thing, the name of which eludes me now but it was blue and raspberry flavour; and vomit. The Blue Pint wasn't actually that bad though, but the amount of drunk people was hilarious - at 11pm (we'd got there early) there was a guy so drunk he was having trouble standing - at 11! Stay classy Sheff!

 

I have now been informed that the blue alcopop is actually WKD - thanks to Kie for the clarification

 

 

The Sock Calendar - Dec 3 & 4

Yeah yeah, I know I was meant to post one of these yesterday but whatever

Yeah buddy! Moser Roth!

 

 

This bar went in 3 seconds I swear

 

 

The Sock Calendar - Dec 2

TA DAAAAAA

 

MOSER ROTH!

The Sock Calendar - Dec 1

It's that time of year again and that time of year is SOCK CALENDAR

 

 

Same drill as usual, 24 socks with 24 small gifts, to be opened like an advent calendar. The main difference this year being that I'm in Sheffield and everyone else is at home :(

 

 

So....Sock number 1....

 

 

5 Mini Snowmen!

I GOT A JOB

Woop! TJ Hughes have given me a job! I am working an 8 hour contract, which gets me around £40 a week, so yeah. Happy Jo-Jo xD

Travelling Abroad

At some point, before I settle down or have to be too boring, I would like to travel abroad, especially around Europe. I would go on the ERASMUS scheme at university, where you spend your second year in a partner university (Copenhagen would have been my favourite choice). However, because I want (read: NEED) a placement year in a financial institution to help my job prospects.

It's sad that I've had to give up so much just to work towards a job I have a very slim chance of getting. I wanted to study palaeontology (http://motherboard.vice.com/en_au/blog/a-day-in-the-life-of-a-first-year-paleontology-phd-student - this gave me serious FOMO) and travel abroad - better that, study palaeontology in a foreign university, but I can't, because I have to spend money to get a better chance at earning the money I need to do that. But, if I'm earning money I have no time to do that stuff, to live my life. It's all very unsatisfying. There's got to be more than this.

To counter this, I have decided to learn a language, notably Dutch on Duolingo. Not only do I really want to travel but my third favourite band, Orange Skyline (first place is The Heartbreaks, second place is the now defunct This Modern Youth) tweet and do their press releases and status updates in Dutch as they are from Groningen (I think. I'm sure it's not German). So it's not the worst reason to learn a language, the worst I find learning French to increase your chances of getting laid, but it's not the best.

I'm also using my £2 Challenge tin to maybe help fund a summer in Europe one year. The £2 Challenge is where you collect £2 coins, because it's a decent denomination - 5 coins is £10, so it's easy to build a large sum.

 

 

My £2 Challenge tin is an old truffle box which fits those coins perfectly - I now have 10 £2 coins, well on my way to the however-much-it-costs trip around Europe.

So...

I went out to buy shoes, a rucksack and Christmas presents the other day

Lexi & I lookin' super fly xD

 

I found this natty hat in Claires

 

I went out to get shoes!!

Oh yeah :D

So this happened

 

 

I'm sure my nose isn't that wonky

YEAH THAT'S RIGHT!! CHRISTMAS JUMPERS BABY!

 

I got this from the Village Store on my GeniUS card for £12

Crochet Gloves

It's started to get chilly, so I thought I'd make myself a pair of gloves. Brief searching on the internet did not bring up any patterns that I liked, so I've decided to make my own. I quite liked the look of Hopeful Honey's Puff Stitch Fingerless Gloves (http://www.hopefulhoney.com/2012/04/perfect-solutions.html) so I thought I'd do something that looks kinda like that. The first hill I reached was that I only had DK wool, and I also had no buttons. I started making these gloves and felt the bobble pattern was too holey for a British winter, so I scrapped that design. Instead I decided to make a Crochet Mag pattern for fingerless gloves that I have made before.

I have a Christmas Santa Hat (of my own design) and as it is getting colder round here I chose to do my fingerless gloves in dark red and white.

I don't know why this is upside down, but roll with it

 

By the end I hope these will be warm and won't fall apart like the first pair I ever made did :P

The Noodle Report:- Pot Noodle Original Curry

The Noodle Report

Pot Noodle - Original Curry

 

This was fairly simple to make - remove lid, remove sachet of sauce (sachet is an overstatement, it was about the size and volume of a postage stamp) and add water to the line. That was where it got tricky. There were two lines to start off with, and compounded to this befuddlement was the fact that the water was being absorbed quite quickly, leading me to assume that I had to keep pouring water until the water level stopped going down. This seemed to work, however, and it didn't smell half bad. The taste though, was curious. Then I realised...

 

 

IT WAS BRITISH CURRY

 

 

 

That's right, not Indian curry, not even Indian takeaway curry, but straight-from-the-pot school-dinner 'curry' flavour. I was not expecting that! There were also peas - PEAS - who puts peas in curry? Peas are disgusting! I had to flick them out before I could pour the water in. Still, I was starving and had a football match instead of dinner time so I ate as much as I could. There was a decent amount of noodles as well, but eventually I found the taste to be too sweet to eat with noodles.

Overall Score :- 3/10 (PEAS!!)

Alton Towers

On October 30th I went to Alton Towers with EconSoc, because the members of my football team were going and it would be nice to see them. It was great, I fully enjoyed it and would go again, though at £30 I think I'll have to save up for it.

Me and my buddy

This ride was the Sonic Pinball. We went on this one first (queue time 40 mins) because it looked like a good warm-up rollercoaster, something which was close to the kids area but also close to the adults. And jesus was it fast. It didn't look it from the ground, but my eyes were pressed into my head the whole way round

 This was Oblivion. I didn't go on this one, the drop looked terrifying

This was Air. It was the first big ride I'd been on that day and it was excellent. The different with this one, is when you sat in your seat, it tilted forward, so you were on your front. I had to take my glasses off for this one, so I couldn't see anything, but the girl next to me was screaming and screaming. The photo after showed her absolutely terrified and me grinning like a dummy because I had absolutely no idea what was going on. It was dark, I didn't have my glasses, so all I could see was black and all I could feel was the wind. So when the girl next to me (I didn't know her name, we just partnered) started screaming I was like 'what's going on'. It was great, I would definitely recommend this ride.

 

I didn't get any pictures of the next ride, Nemesis, because it was all well hidden, and in most places underground. This was the fastest rollercoaster i went on that day, and it was great. Again, I didn't have my glasses, so all I was experiencing was random flashes of light and the screaming of my fellow passengers. Cue me smiling like a muggins the whole way through. There was a loop in this ride, but I wasn't aware how dizzy I was until I got off, and then I looked like a drunk pirate on the poopdeck in a storm.

Someone pooped in my pumpkin

Films with the girls

Last night, I asked the girls in my flat if they wanted to come into my room to watch a film on my new monitor. It sounds creepier written down but I assure you I didn't sound creepy. Kate and Lexi joined me and we decided to watch Hunger Games - Catching Fire, which on the whole was quite a good film. I felt there was too much kissing and not enough 'DOWN WITH THE MAN RAAAAARRGHH'

Here is the list of films that Lexi and Kate, and myself have decided to watch. Most of these are on Netflix, the ones that are starred are not

• The Hobbit
• The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug
• Safe Haven
• Skyfall
  Forrest Gump
• I am Number 4
• Defiance
  Brave
  The Last Song
• Angels & Demons
• The Da Vinci Cpde
  Snatch
• Princess Diaries
• Pirates of the Caribbean (all 4)
• Other Guys
• Snitch
• Cowboys vs Aliens
• The Expendables
• Hancock
• Stepbrothers
  Rango
  Hoodwinked
• Meet the Fockers
  Mean Girls
• Freaky Friday
• School of Rock
• Chocolat
  Groundhog Day *
• Cloudy with a chance of Meatballs
• Ghostbusters 1 + 2 **
• Spaceballs
  Frozen Planet
• The Last Nazis
• Avengers Assemble
• Tangled

Economics Test

Today I sat my ECN105 Economic Analysis and Policy test. Yeah I had no idea what I was doing, there was a question on expansionary fiscal policy which I hopelessly messed up but I have the potential to get 2 marks from it (It's out of 50).

In other news, Costas appears to have stopped doing it's hazelnut hot chocolate, for shame. And if they still do it, it was almost impossible to read the board, I swear they've made it tinier - there was just  a line of people squinting at the board so I know it's not just me.

And, check these out! Don't they look awesome? they're about twice the price of noodles, but about 5 times the weight so it costs in

It was very autumnal today, utterly beautiful and not quite cold enough that I would need my coat

 Weston Park when I first arrived

Weston Park now