Hey again!

Well, I did it! I managed to blog all about my trip to Italy and it only took me 3 and a half weeks. I guess that's better than the five months it took me to write the second part of my 100 memories of my first semester...

The reason (and it isn't even laziness) is that I finally found myself a job! I now work at my local cinema. It's so much fun that I've managed to last 3 and a half weeks longer than I did at my second job. While this is fantastic news (I can finally afford stuff!) it has meant that this poor little blog has been left neglected. I'm always bad at re-finding balance when something new is added to my life. I'm working on it though!

I'm using this post to catch you up on what I've been doing over the last few weeks. Between interviews, induction days, shadow shifts and starting shifts properly, my free time has been laid out very weirdly. Despite this, I've still managed to fit quite a bit in!

A friend I made on one of our bike rides!

Britain is currently going through a heat wave. This means that the entire country is complaining vigorously about how hot it is while walking around in bikinis, having BBQ's and skipping work. Personally, I can't stand being too hot. I can't sleep, think or eat if I'm too hot and that makes it a bad experience for anyone who's near me. Thankfully, there is one major upside to having weather this glorious... Bike rides!

I have been spending as much time as I can on my bike over the last few days. Anthony and I cycled 13 miles over two days even though the heat was verging on unbearable. I am enjoying it so much though! I'd forgotten how much I enjoy riding my bike, especially when I have such a cute riding partner.

You'll notice from the photos that my bike has a new bicycle basket! It took my sister almost a full year but she finally bought me a basket as a birthday present. I'm in love with it! It's so useful, I've been cycling to the shop almost daily just because I can conveniently carry my shopping home.

As you'll know if you read my post about my University room, I moved back home a couple of weeks ago! Adjusting to being back home was a bit difficult at first. I've gotten very used to just going out whenever I want without needing to tell anyone where I'm going or when I'll be back and so I keep forgetting I can't just decide I'm going out at 7pm and have no idea when or how I'm getting home. It's so nice being home with my family, Anthony and real food though that I don't really care about the other stuff.

Being home from University has also meant that there has been a lot of catching up to do. It feels like we've had a house party or some form of big group gathering at least once a week since we all moved back home. It has been wonderfully weird seeing everyone again. There are people I haven't seen in three weeks, three months and even some people I haven't seen since last September that I've been catching up with. I've missed them all so much!

One very important person I've been catching up with is Sophie. I'm not going to go in to how completely awesome she is (cause she really is) or why we've had so much to catch up on. All I'm going to say is that I have missed this girl more than I realised. It's felt like a piece of my puzzle was missing and I can't actually believe she's moving away next Friday. I'm not sure what I'm going to do without my Sophadoph..

This dog sat by us for such a long time, he was so cute!

I don't just have to catch up with my home-friends either. Going from living with people and seeing them everyday to being scattered across the country (there's even one of us in Italy!) is just as hard as it sounds. I miss my University friends everyday. I'm finding myself looking forward to September simply because it means I'll have them all in one place again. Until then, we're making do with Google+ hangouts. This turned out to be absolutely hilarious thanks to the weird "extras" we found. I can't wait for our next hangout!

Wednesday last week saw me, my Mum and my sister drive the 3 hour journey to Aberystwyth University for their University Open Day. I still can't believe that Lottie is old enough to be looking at Universities. She's making me feel so old!!

I love Aberystwyth and I was extremely impressed by their open day. The course that Lottie wants to do sounds great and the University has so much more to offer than I realised. It reminded me why it was one of my own choices before I decided on Swansea.

We also popped in to the town centre for lunch. When Anthony turned 18, the two of us drove to Aberystwyth to stay with his sister for a night. Not only did we have a surprisingly good night out (Aber isn't the biggest place in the world) but we had the best hangover food I've ever had the day after. Ant's sister took us to a place called "The Upper Limit", a popular hangover food spot for local students. I am not ashamed to admit that my breakfast consisted of some incredible chicken nuggets and chips. I have waited 2 years for those chicken nuggets and last Wednesday I finally had them again. I'm not exaggerating when I say it was a pretty fantastic moment.

Finally, I spent this last weekend in Willey, Rugby attending the wedding of Anthony's cousin. It was slightly terrifying to meet his entire family all in one place but I think I handled it very well. I didn't freak out and I only said 3 stupid things. I'm proud of myself!

The wedding was gorgeous. There was a 20 minute service in the small field behind their home which was followed by scones, strawberries and English tea in the marquee in the field. The day was spent playing croquet, bowls, talking, drinking, dancing and enjoying the BBQ cooked by the groom's father and uncle. It was such a sweet day, you couldn't help but smile and laugh all the way through.

You're almost caught up now! Other than Lottie turning 17, there's a couple more posts to come and boom. You know what been going on in my life while you've been reading about Italy. Exciting, isn't it?

Actually... Don't answer that!