I'm writing this in my living room at home in Magor with Dad watching the news and Mum reading her book. I'm warmer than I've been in weeks (I'm walking barefoot in a house as well!) and I can smell the Briam Mum and I have just prepared cooking in the oven. I've come home for a quick recuperate and pampering session before all the stress of deadlines descends. These are the last two weeks of freedom before I have one 2,000 word case study, a 5 minute poster presentation (the poster for which is due in the week before my presentation), a 2,000 word essay and my complete 7,000 word final year research project due in... And freedom is simply a useless word here because I'll be spending most of my time in the library trying to get it all done on time.
I've been treated immensely by my Mum; we had a mini shopping trip, a coffee stop, a full leg wax, an eyebrow wax, and a hair cut. I am fully prepared to handle what's about to hit! I also had a quick dentist trip to sort out my chipped front tooth I very clumsily ended up with yesterday... Only me right?!
Life up until now has been a lot of fun. I am immensely enjoying this semester, even with regular library trips/days of work it's been so so much fun! To catch you up:
(1) Meryn and I took the train in to Cardiff a couple of weeks ago to attend a postgraduate fair in Cardiff University. Getting the train ended up being a typical Cho-and-Meryn-fail. We got to the station in the nick of time, bought our tickets, and ran on to the train that was stopped on one of the platforms. We were walking through trying to find a seat when the ticket man came through and told us we had to get off the train, it had only just arrived and wouldn't be ready for another 20 minutes. There was another train on platform 1 going to Cardiff though. We then turned to look out of the window and watched the train we had been rushing to get on leave the station... We literally managed to miss our train despite being in the train station with it. We ended up sat in Costa, where Meryn took the worst photos of me that have been taken in a while ((11) is the only nice one she took). We've nicknamed them the goblin photos (a nickname Meryn insists on using on me as well).
The fair itself (when we eventually got there) was really good! We had our travel reimbursed as well which was a nice bonus! We were given a lot of information about the various Universities, courses and application processes. There was funding information and advice as well which was super helpful. We were both feeling lost about the whole process!
Other than a 2 hour stop in Port Talbot, the journey home was perfectly uneventful. Made up for the morning!
(2 + 3) These are the official race selfies taken at Llandow Circuit for Tom Vale Coaching... haha! I drive me, Meryn and Anna to the circuit (it's only a 50 minute drive) so that we could watch Tom race. The weather was horrific. It was pouring down with rain, the wind was awful and it was so cold! Tom could not stop shivering when he got in the car after his first race. The poor boy was frozen! He didn't end up racing in his second race which set all of our minds at ease - we got him in to his dry clothes and had all the heaters on to try and warm him up!
It was nice being the three of us girls again as well. 4 1/2 hours in the car was definitely a great way to all be together again, haha! Poor Anna was not happy with the weather but we were tucked away from it in the car which was better than nothing! Oh until I accidentally left Meryn out in the rain while I turned the car around. She was not happy with that (understandably so) - sorry Merv!
(4 + 5 + 6) Last Wednesday I drove Tom up to Builth Wells to pick up his new bike. He woke me up early (on my day off!) when he found out his bike was ready to pick up. "Chooooo, get up Cho, the bike Cho! Cho shower! You don't need your quilt to drive Cho, the bike! Chooo!" he whined, jumping up and down and eventually pulling my quilt off me to force me to get up. Not only that, he didn't let me stop for a coffee on the way there. An hour and a half of driving early in the morning on my day off and not a cup of coffee in sight! How he survived I'll never know...
After a really cute (and tasty!) lunch with his family, we finally went to the bike shop so he could pick up his new bike. He was like a kid at Christmas. These photos are him just after he took the bike out of the shop. (6) is my absolute fave, look at how happy he is!
(7 + 8) Tom wants to make a tradition out of taking a picture at each of the races I go to see him in (we'll ignore that that didn't happen for the first time I saw him race, or the first time I saw him win) so here's our two from this particular race!
(9 + 10) These are some of the photos from the Wales v England Six Nations match on the 6th. Me, Tom, Soph, Meryn and Benj watched the game in the Potter's Wheel where I bought 2 jugs of cider, suggested shots, and made sure I was drunk enough to numb the pain of losing. It was a really really good night (for lots of different reasons!) but there is not one sober-looking photo of me from that night. Not one.
(11) I love this photo - the only good one from the goblin collection. Here I am trying new pasta (which I ultimately discovered I can't eat, despite really enjoying it) and enjoying my coffee. On the whole coffee front... The addiction hasn't disappeared, despite the onset of lactose intolerance. Instead, it's got so bad Tom has limited me to one cup a day. Purely for financial reasons (although I think my blood is now 80% caffeine)... In retaliation, I very rarely drink smaller than a medium now. One coffee means one cup right...?
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