Against some pretty large odds, my work placement has transcended from being bearable at best to being borderline enjoyable. I'm actually trying really hard and it's paying off - quite like Calvin Harris' decision to retire from pop music. I've had a couple of emailed high fives from happy customers, not least a message of thanks from the university Director of Finance who likes his new under-budget office. Spiceworld.
The Estates Services Christmas 'party' definitely helped break down a few walls and aided my acceptance. Copious amounts of alcohol (free and otherwise) resulted in the following sequence of events:
• agreeing to run the Leeds Half Marathon next May
• telling the engineers that I want to be an engineer
• putting kisses on the end of texts to my boss (male)
• getting to the Vox Warehouse and 'seeing' Pulled Apart By Horses and Fucked Up
• falling asleep on the bus home and waking up on the way to Adel
It was probably for the best that I crashed rather than making it back through the snow to Hyde Park for a party.
I had a very merry happy time at the Royal Park Terrace girls' Christmas Party, where we drank, spoke of Dan's glorious glazed sausage and met some nice new people. My night was, of course, cut short by work commitments. Judging by Tom Speed's dancing tekkers which were caught on camera, I missed out on further laughter later that night.
Other Christmas shindigs of note included a d-lish meal with the Acad-army at Little Tokyo where I ate some jellyfish, made a funny joke about 'Octopus Prime' and had a few drinks on Call Lane prior to loitering outside Hifi for an hour.
Before severe loneliness set in at Hogwarts in the week leading up to the religious festivities, me and Si National Expressed it down to Nottingham to visit Sophie Goswami on her 21st birthday. Having checked in to our hostel, breaking a bed and shaking off a rather large hangover (from Cockpitting with Si, Becca and Phil the night before), Alan took us to So Go's for some champagne, Cee-Lo and cheer.
Stealth/Rescue Rooms was our destination for the night, which was up there with the best British clubs I've been to. Soph introduced me to her friend Rosamund Hanson who plays 'Smell' in 'This is England' where she proceeded to attack me with glitter. I've always had a bit of a thing for Smell, so having a slow dance with Ros towards the night's end made me particularly happy.
Yey.
So. Christmas. Christmas Steve itself is always (and was) a good night in our native Halifax. There's many a face from yesteryear to greet and being dragged to 'Liquid' is all part of the fun. The night ended with me and Steph eating marmite on toast on the kitchen floor chatting what can only be described as 'utter bollocks'.
Only nursing a slight hangover, Christmas Day turned out to be ever so nice. My mum's side of the family play their part in some terrific, actual, Yorkshire banter which is always most welcome. Gift-wise, I got a bad ass uber-zoomy camera from the rentals - which I'm very pleased with.
For the first time in a long time, I've had no academic or paid work to do from Christmas Steve to going back on the 4th January - so filling time has proved tricky. I've kept well on top with music and film, downloading and attempting to discover.
Musically, I've been listening to a lot of Janelle Monae and The Joy Formidable, whilst I'm absol... no, ABSOLUTELY loving a band called Phantogram.
Phantogram - When I'm Small (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CBwFPOJGCT0)
Film-wise, I finally got round to watching 'Battle Royale' which, of course, messed me up for a few days after (if you haven't seen it, a class of students are captured by the Japanese Government and forced to kill each other). I've also enjoyed 'The A-Team' (I know, right?!), 'Grown Ups', the new Family Guy Star Wars film, 'It's a Trap', 'How to Train Your Dragon' (ama-ZING) and a cracking little Irish animation called 'The Secret of Kells' (where you'll recognise the voice of Brendan Gleeson from In Bruges and being Mad-Eye Moody).
The Secret of Kells (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tMPhHTtKZ8Q)
I wish you all a very happy and pwosperous new year - I'm very much looking forward to bringing in the new year with some legendary Leedsies at Wax On.
Peas and Dove
x
