Halloween Parteh

Manasi and I went for an epic run in the morning (Summertown to Hertford without stopping and back) and then followed out super-healthy day with cereal and lots of fruit. I then went to meet Robin (Alice's friend from home) at Hertford and waited for Amelia and Alice to finish their interviews before we walked back to the house. Spent ages getting ready and eating before the party (applying make -up to Robin who was supposed to be a sophisticated zombie and Alice). Cycled to Ab for a pre-lash and then walked to the Hertford bar for tequila shots with Manasi. Then headed to Baby Love for the Hertford Halloween Party which was really fun as there was loads of people from College - woot! Stayed the night in Sarah's room as Marja was going to do a huge brunch on Sunday.

Pub Crawl Friday

Did an outing in the afternoon which was followed buy an hour of core stability work-out at the boat house - I felt so fit afterwards! Started off the pub crawl at The Dew Drop Inn at Summertown (we're a bit confused as to whether its meant to be a cute or clever name...)and them The Turf. It ended at The Turf as we were all to comfortable once we'd gained a spot among the busy friday night pub-goers. Was great to see Marja, Sarah, Emily and her boyfriend Mikey.

Seeing them made me feel so grounded and happy - I love them.

Mum and Chesca came to visit after my lectures today. We had lunch in the coffee tables outside M&S while chatting and catching up on everything. Seeing them made me incredibly happy and I felt like a had a new fresh perspective on life in Summertown. It was also brilliant to swap gossip from home and Oxford - a truly girly time indeed! We later went to Bicester for a bit of shopping but spent most of the time in the Cath Kidston shop where mum bought me a cute blue apron with stars for Christmas. Once we'd grown tired of looking round the over-priced shops we headed back to my room in Summertown where we ate some hot M&S chocolate fudge gooey cake. yum yum :p
I didn't have time to take a picture today but thought of using this one as, to be honest, the most significant part of today was seeing them. Their visit made me appreciate just how much I love them. I took this on our holiday to the North this Summer..

All I do is wait

Amelia: "My ovaries would be jealous"

The day Alice and I went to a talk by the president of Ecuador

In the late evening we went with Talia to see the Oxford Imps (Improv. Comedy) at the Wheatsheaf. I was so happy to finally be able to see them seeing as I had to choose between them and Out of the Blue when we were at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. It was a great way to end the day!

Alice Plaits Manasi's Hair

and we discuss us travelling to India, Japan and Mexico...

The day I ripped my jeans...

In the late morning I met up with Annabelle, Martin and Elizabeth who are staying in Oxford for the weekend. I was really lucky to have seen Martin in the zoology library last Thursday as they'd been trying to contact me for the past week! Although it was a pretty rainy start to the day we headed to the Pitt River's Museum and had a look around at the various interesting artefacts for a couple of hours. We then drove to the Perch pub where we had a delicious lunch of fish and tarte au citron for pudding *drool*. It was brilliant to have been able to see Annabelle after such a long times especially seeing as she had really inspired me to study Biology at University. After the dropped me off back home I quickly got changed as I was meeting James at port Meadow. However, I managed to lock myself out so had to walk all the way there rather than cycle.....
At first I didn't see him and got a pretty big shock when he crept up behind me ¬_¬ We walked for AGES around the WHOLE of the meadow including past The Trout and Wolvercote. By the end we were both cold, tried and I think he was pretty hungry! So we went back to the delicatessen for some tasty chicken wraps. We then headed back to Hertford and Planes, Trains and Automobiles in his room. I returned to Summertown but had to go abck to Hertford to return my spare key so I met James at the lodge.
We walked around Oxford in the dark and I told him that I really wanted to jump the fence round the Rad. Cam one day and lie on the grass looking up at the stars. So, he jumped the fence and offered to help me over but I was WAY too chicken. It was dark and around 11pm but there were still people around and I was so scared we'd get caught! Eventually, after a lot of indecisiveness on my behalf, I decided to do it. He jumped first and offered to help me over but I told him I'd be fine. I lifted one leg over the gate but couldn't get my other leg over. I was sitting (VERY uncomfortably) on the spike and then, as I swung my other leg round, heard a "riiiiip". shit. I'd ripped my jeans. On the fence to the Rad. Cam. I was MORTIFIED. Not only was I standing on the wrong side of the fence, sure that the University Bulldogs would be after us at any moment, but I had also ripped my jeans. Great, just great.
James thought it was pretty funny and proceeded to knock on the door of the building, joking that there wasn't anyone in. I couldn't wait to get back over that fence! Finally, we climbed back over and I went to get my bike. The first thing I said to Amelia as I got back to Summertown was "I am such a weirdo".

Amelia's Birthday Tea

Helped Amelia organise her birthday tea which was supposed to be at 4pm. It was just like being 5yrs old again. There were tiny little cucmber sandwiches as well as ones filled with jam, peanut butter, cheese, ham or tune. Colourful plates with party rings (my favourite!), chocolate fingers, cake squares, french fancies, chip-sticks, sausages, grapes and even one of those oranges covered in foil with cheese and pineapple on cocktail sticks! However, we also had a couple of bottles of cava to add a little "grown-up sophistication" to the event. As people from the Summertown house began to arrive we invited them to eat with us and it ended up being like a cute house tea party. This was pretty good seeing as its quite difficult to have everyone in one place at the same time seeing as we all have work, lectures, labs at differet times. Later Sam, Talia, Emily, Felecity and Marja arrived to help us finish off the rest of the food. We brought out the wine and finished off the cava....

Dinner with James

Today I went out with James for dinner at Jamie Oliver's before going to watcha debate at the Union. It was raining as I cycled into Hertford but luckily he brought an umbrella from his room so we didn't get too wet on our walk down George st. Here we ate some of their home-made pasta (although the "chicken cooked under a brick" sounded quite interesting..) and chatted about our families, friends etc. Afterwards, we went to the delicatessen which sells these huge chocolate chip cookies and bought some almond slices. I hadn't been in there since mum and dad took me and Chesca to Oxford for the first time in year 8 to see President Fox (then President of Mexico) speak in the Sheldonian. My first memories of Oxford are from that cold, drizzly night we waited outside for him to come out after the talk. I remember being so proud as he gave both me and Chesc a kiss on the cheek. Afterwards, we walked through the little side street near St. Mary's and got some supper in the very same delicatessen James and I bought our almond slices from.
Anyway, James and I still had a bit of time before the debate we were hoping to see at the Union started. So we walked around looking for a POTD and went to the Rad. Cam., into the Bod., up Queen street but couldn't find anything good enough. Plus my Nikon was being really fussy and didn't like the fact that it was too dark and cold to take a decent pic. It was never the less pretty fun as we got to explore the Bod at night when there are hardly any people. We managed to get to the top where, among random filling cabinets and drawers, James took this picture out of one of the windows.
Later we continued to the debate which was on whether we trusted Politicians or the media more (to be honest, I think it was a debate on the lesser of two evils). Afterwards, we went back to Hertford and had tea in James' room where I got to see some of his family photos (squee!) as well as one he'd taken at a local nature reserve that had won him a prize in a photography competition at home.

Amelia's Birthday

Stayed up last night until 12am to celebrate Amelia's coming of 20. This evening Marja arrives and Tom, Manasi, Amelia and I all went to the chinese restaurant one door down from the house. We ate a variety of dishes ranging from sweet adn sour tofu to crisp seaweed, rice and duck (all of which are my favourties!). Half way through the meal I rushed back to the house to fetch the cake and candles after having said that I was going to the toilte. mwahaha. The waiter was pretty cool and started singing "Happy Birthday" to Amelia as he carried the cake into the room after our meal. I think it's safe to say that she was pretty shocked and didn't suspecct anything which made it all even better! Afterwards we headed back home (I got a wink from my friend the waiter as we left ;D )for tea and watched all the old videos from last year (yes, including the one when I was eating an orange and didn't notice Marja filming ¬_¬).

The day I made cookies

For some reason the raw cookie dough pics came out better than the "after" shots. The cookies were pretty amazing though...

There's something quite satisfying about doing the washing...

Chocolatey Indulgence Cake

"How do I love thee?
Let me count the ways..."
Sarah came round for tea with me and Amelia. We ate cake.

Anna, Gabriel, Nabs, Eustace, Pirate eye-patches, The Mission, Moo Moo's and a confused first year historian...

Did NO work at all today - very bad indeed! However, did have a pretty surreal discussion with Nabs and Gabriel for four hours which led up to a bet that we couldn't get Steven, a first year historian, to come round and ask about Gabriel's imaginery pet dog called Eustace. As you can see from the pic taken on Nabs' phone we won the bet. Gabriel now owes us a burrito from The Mission and Moo Moo's. Ok, so in retrospect, it wasn't such an unproductive day after all!

Port Meadow

Walked down towards Port Meadow around 9pm with Tom, Alice and Amelia for a huge bonfire organised by a univeristy society. On the way, I split off from the group and went to meet James (who was walking up from Hertford) and went to the bonfire together. They had bouncers at the gates to check our Bod-cards which was a bit wierd as it is just a big field (with marquees and The Mission food for the night). We got some drinks and sat with Talia, Nabs, Sam and Amelia on the muddy-ish grass. Later our group wandered down to the canal (using our bikelights to prevent stepping in cow pat..)where I got my camera out and took pics of people lying on the bridge star-gazing. It looked asif I had lined up some bodies of victims before throwing them into the river.....hm...
Anyway, had the *genius* idea of getting everyone to use the bike light to draw while I put the camera on a slow shutter speed. Ta-daa!
James came back to Summertown and had tea :)

North Parade, Oxford

Stopped by North Parade on the way home as I noticed these fairylights snaking their way above the cars and shops. I love all the hidden parts of Oxford that you wouldn't normally notice - apparently there's a South Parade somewhere nearby too. Maybe I'll go and explore that sometime.

I love my bike

There is nothing so pleasing in life than gliding with my bike past a long queue of cars stuck in traffic.

Oxford Wanderings

No lectures today! I've never been able to have a lie-in during usual term time so I was a bit angry to wake up when the fire alarm was set off and people were shouting "fire! FIRE!!!". I jumped out of bed grabbed my camera and dressing gown to run downstairs along with everyone else to find that it was only the housekeepers doing a drill. We were then subjected to a half-hour long schpiel about keeping the house clean and safe, not having visitors over or house parties. Great. During the WHOLE TIME I was just standing there feeling like an idiot clutching my Nikon.
In the afternoon I went into Oxford and found James (first year Historian who defered a year) and Ben. James and I helped Ben make his Dad's birthday present (which is where this slightly odd picture comes in..). He wanted to spell out "Happy Birthday" by doing different letters around Oxford. So we spent the afternoon and early evening walking around Oxford in the sunshine and taking pictures of James and Ben in odd positions...
We then wandered down to the river where James and I walked past the boat houses, making up the colleges we thought they belonged too, while Ben sat on the river bank. After he went home James and I were left to happily amble up Christchurch meadows in the direction of Hertford.

ah, the joys of first lectures of the year..

went out into the garden today while Amelia and Alice burnt an AI (Amelia's secret for her blog ameliais.blogspot.com). The sun was flickering through the leaves of the trees at the back so I got this pic - I love the detail of the veins in the leaf. I'm sure it could have some sort of meaning "new beginnings" or something....

howsh parteh

Spent the morning in the Botanic Gardens with Rosanna and Clara doing the BBSRC exhibition which we'd organised with the University after Gatsby. Mum and dad came to visit from london as they were seeing Hila Patel who's mum's old boss. This evening we're having a house party at Sommertown but I'm not sure how many people will turn up as everyone is under the impression that its quite far away............hm. I did however tell everyone that we should drink the Babychams I bought just because they've got a cute deer on them (doesn't matter if they're chavy and cheap!). Marja just came up and brought some chocolate Pepernoten with her (last year we were totally addicated to them). I love this pic I got of Alice as its so creepy and has had me in hysterics everytime I zoom into it on my camera!

Take a chance

At the Fresher's Fayre I felt pretty confident and signed up to an audition with the Oxford Belles (a female A Cappella group in the Univoersity). Ok , so I don't sing in public but I love to sing and I figured that it would be good to give it a go. I mean it wouldn't matter if I mucked it up as atleast I tried. Anyway, after going to Balliol rather than Worcester (where the audition was) I managed to arrive and had the audition. Earlier than morning I'd prepared the first verse and chorus of "Failure" by Laura Marling as I LOVE this song and its in my range. I guess the audition went pretty good as the girls were friendly and I wasn't nervous. However, I'm not sure if I was good enough but they'll let me know if I get a call-back by today. Later I went for the Hertford rowing tryouts down by the boathouse. I really regret not having done rowing last year but I think this year I'm far more prepared (esp. after my "interesting" experience coxing! The outing was BRILLIANT, the rowing blade would almost effortlessly glide through the water and it wasn't too hard to keep in with the rythm of the boat. It almost felt natural and I was really proud when the coach complimented my rowing and asked whether I'd done it before. Maybe all those years sitting and watching the race on the TV with dad really did pay off other than the general joys of watching Oxford win. I'd definitely love to continue with this sport as Its the only one I've ever genuinly enjoyed.
Later in the evening Tom Davies and I had a family meal with our college children, Steven and Gabi, at Wagamama's together with Nabs and her family. This was a pretty good way to get to know each other and I really enjoyed talking to Gabi. While going to fetch my bike back in Hertford I also bumped into Kate who is another 1st year Biologist which I have semi-adopted as her parents don't do her subject. We started chatting about the subject and I answered all the questions she had - it was so nice to see that they were really similar to the ones I had at the same time last year! I really want her and Gabi to feel asif they can chat to me about anything as I sometimes feel that my college mum didn't help me out all that much when I was a fresher. I really felt asif I was not being resourceful enough during my first year but wasn't aware about just how similar my problems where to everyone else who starts the subject! I hope to help both of them have a good start and enjoy their time at Hertford just like I would have. I can't wait to star rowing this term as I'm sure being part of the college team will be really fun (plus I get to go on more crew dates - squee!!)

Alice and Marja's Birthday

Spent the morning at the Fresher's Fayre where I signed up to loads of clubs and societies. It was so much better than last year as this time round I was far more objective and knew what I was looking for. Amelia and I started off by getting free pizza from the Dominoe's stall near the exit and we then went aroudn the Fayre before getting another slice at the end along with some Morton's coffee - joy! I then met up with James Scargill at the union for lunch (a delicious goat's cheese adn mushroom tarte with salad and potatoes). We headed off to thereading room where they were selling the usual poster's and bought some for our rooms. I then headed towards Talia and Sam's where I got ready for Alice and Marja's evening cocktails at House. This was pretty good as House is, in my current opinion, one of the best cocktail bars in Oxford - they do the BEST raspberry margharita in the world! We then all walked back to Ab for some pizza before going DTB in Hertford for drinks. The night was finished off by joining the freshers at Escape for some seriously bad music and cheesy dancing - classic.

My new room, Sommertown

I feel so much more settled into my room than before (probably due to the good night's sleep). Its just so relaxing to be sitting at my desk with the sun delicatly coming in through the window onto the wardrobe. So here's a picture of the room (note the rock family on my chest of drawers - I'm trying to start a tradition where I'll bring them with me each term, no matter what). You can just about see the vintage wardrobe built into the wall - this is probably my favourite feature! It feels pretty cosy here with a slanted ceiling that gives it a sort of cubby-hole atmosphere. Its also pretty tucked away down the corridor so I don't have any neighbours (although the lunge is downstairs and sometimes you can hear people talking through the floor). You can't see it in the picture but I also have a sink, some bookshelves and some room to put more of my stuff! Sommertown is secluded and away from the hustle and bustle of the city - perfect when you want to escape the Oxford bubble. I saw James today and he mentioned this, I totally agree with him.

Bubbles UV party

Rushed to central London for some last minute Uniqlo and H&M shopping before leaving for Oxford in the evening. We had to fit in some more stuff along with my bike in the abck of the boot so it was pretty squashed in the back seat! Once there, Alice and Tom helped me unpack and we dumped everything into my room before getting stuff ready for the night out at Coven. We all cycled from Sommertown to Warnock where we got changed in Talia and Sam's room and waited for everyone else to arrive. I was so happy to finally go to this night as last year, during Fresher's week, Talia Jonny and I left early before the bubbles started as we thought it was really rubbish! Anyway, I really regretted doing this so it was great to re-live it and change what I had missed! Like all other club nights the music was pretty good (and REALLY loud) but the bubbles really made it! Fun times :) Alice, Tom and I then cycled back (slightly tipsy) back to Sommertown!

Chesca's Birthday

We have a tradition in our family where we all wake up really early and the birthday person sits in mum and dad's bed with the lights off. Everyone else then brings in the cake with candles and the presents and cards whilst singing "Happy Birthday" and "Las Mananitas" in Spanish. This is then followed by the usual candles being blown out and we all shout "tantiaguri!" (Italian). We've always got to be careful not to light the candles under the smoke alarm in the hallway as it's pretty sensitive! Anyway, this morning Fudge also decided to creep in and sat on Chesca's lap as we came into the room singing so I got this cute pic of them together as Chesc reads my birthday card - woot! Abu also rings from Mexico and theres then a rush to get to school on time after having cake for breakfast!

Chesca's Birthday Tea

This morning mum dad and I quickly drove up to Oxford with some of my things to drop them off in my new room in Summertown as we also need to bring the bike up on tuesday. In the afternoon we all went to Picadilly Circus to the Sofitel hotel in St. James' park for Francesca's birthday tea. Dad had reserved us a table at this hotel which has a tradition tea room. It was so beautiful when we arrived, with rose decor armchairs and squishy sofas. Chesc and I ordered rose tea which came in a clear glass teapot with dainty french china cups. We then all had a high tea which was laid out on those plates which are arranged one ontop of the other. There were finger sandwiches, tiny french pastries and scones with lemon curd or clotted cream and rose-infused strawberry jam. By the end of it we were all very full and couldn't handle seeing, smelling or eating anythign rose-related! We didn't want to take a picture in the tea room as it looks quite tacky so mum took this one outside Picadilly circus before we got the tube home.

Saturday Brunch

Dad and I were the only ones in the house this morning so we made ourselves brunch complete with eggs, bacon, croissant and orange juice. It was nice finally be able to sit down calmly and talk.

A Ditzy Day Out with Chesca

Chesca had a day off school today (target setting day) so we planned an expedition to London. Our first stop was to South Kensington where we bought a Red velvet cupcake from the Hummingbird Bakery and then proceeded towards the NHM chatting away in Spanish (we decided to be touristas for the day!). We then sat down in the gardens outside the museum and spent about 20 minutes taking pictures of our beloved cupcake before actually managing to eat it. Although it took us less time to consume this delicious delicasy of ours it was totally worth the wait!
Once inside the museum we headed towards to the Blue Whale via the mammals exhibit (this was, of course, after having spent sufficient time in the entrance hall taking pictures of the huge dinosaur!). It doesn't matter how much I've grown but the whale is still as large as I remember it - I'd love to visit the museum really early in the morning when theres no-one around...
We then had a look at the birds exhibit and I was especially drawn in by the hummingbirds and birds of paradise as I find their bright plummage so beautiful and delicate - as Chesca pointed out, its also easy to see where the fashion world gets it's inspiration from! Our day of amazing amazingness was then followed by a trip to the Earth's Treasures exhibit where they keep all the diamonds and precious stones including the collection above. I was wondering what it'd be like to just find the briefcase containing the collection on the tube or something....
When we felt a bit tired of the NHM we went across to the V&A where there was a short collection of art on the theme of surreal fairytale fantasy which included pieces like huge tulip vases made from stacked crockery - pretty good but some pieces were slightly disturbing. By now we were getting quite hungry so took the train quickly to Liverpool street viz High St. Ken. and found the Beigel Bakery Alice had shown me in Brick Lane. They had the best cream cheese and salmon bagel in the world! A quick 3 minute walk got us to Beyond retro which always feels like its your own secret gem hidden among the emptyness of Cheshire street. As I heard one guy comment, "this is dress-up heaven!". I love this shop with its strange assortment of mis-match clothes from different periods. However, I've always got to be careful when I buy stuff from there as its really easy to get something thats pretty average when you're there but very OTT in the real world. We finished our day off lazily walking back through Spitelfield's market and browsing the stores as they closed for the day. We were unlucky enough to hit the peak of rush-hour which was pretty rubbish as we didn't get to sit on the tube and rest our sore feet. It was so nice to finally get home and sit on the sofa. This day was so beautiful and inspired by www.theunicorndiaries.com which Chesca and I love for due to its dainty charm.

and I did what?

Another "relaxing" day spent lounging around the house and getting ready for Oxford.