*Shocked*

Today began as another nothingy day. It began as most Fridays do, with grammar. Eesh the imperative is just such a useless tense. Although, the lesson was somewhat livened up by me breaking my pencil. I just felt enraged by a certain thing, and next thing I knew, I had snapped my pencil. It shocked me, and enraged me further, at which point, I began to throw the tables and chairs out of the window. Well, that last bit is a lie. I only snapped my pencil. But still.

I also had my Spanish group presentation today, which went better than anticipated. No more botellón-ing for me. Not until my year abroad at least.

Never, ever, buy a 'Caramel Shortbread' thing from Greggs. It's proper shortbread. Not like the nice things Sainsbury's sell. Eugh.

If you type 'google' into Google, you can break the internet, so, please, noone try it, even for a joke.

Wise advice indeed. I am still feeling 'nothingy'. It is not good.

Today I met with my presentation group, which was good. I'm less scared about tomorrow now. Whilst still being quite scared. I feel I really should learn the imperative in Spanish. It is a silly tense, very arbitrary. I want to go somewhere at Easter. But I lack the funds, and indeed time. I will probably end up slaving away at Barnes for Easter. Not fun.

Faire bouiller l'eau.

*Sighs* Another nothingy day...

I did however, get my French translation back, and got 62 for it, which surprised me. I thought it was terrible, but not as terrible as I previously thought. One day I shall learn all about tenses in French, and apply them correctly. One day...

My new Converse came today, which was exciting. I now need some yellow laces to match the pattern of the shoe... What else... Erm...

Nada. Res. Cap. Rien. Zilch. Nothing.

Che cosa scrivo?

"Che cosa scrivo?" Indeed...

Well, today, like alot of days recently, has become a day of nothingyness. Since we don't have Céline for a while, there is no point in getting up before noon, but I did. And now I am bored. I may shower, then wander to campus and pick up my presentation texts before Catanyol. This is all that my day involves. C'est dure la vie que je mene...

Mystery Solved.

The Latin word for such vernaculars was theodisce. On the British Islands it was used as a name for Old English. In Old High German there was the term diutisc, in Middle High German tiutsch or diutsch. Therefore, “Deutsch” can be translated to “the language, spoken by the (common) population”, in opposition to Latin. Later on, the term was used to differentiate between romanic and germanic languages. In the 10th and 11th century Diutisc and tiutsch were used as a name for the germanic languages spoken on the continent. Even dutch dialects were called “Deutsch”. The Englisch word Dutch is a relict of those days. Today German and Dutch are different but similar languages.
But why are the words for German so different? In the list above you can discern four different groups. Some are related to the word deutsch. For instance Italian tedesco, Dutch duits or Swedisch tysk . Those languages use a form of the self-designation german speakers use.The English word German comes form Latin. Julius Caesar used the word Germani to speak about tribes in the north-east of Gaul. The precise origin of the word is unknown. It might have been the name of a particular tribe.The French and Spanish words are derived from another group of tribes, called Allemanni. They lived in the region we call Alsace today.The forth group of words ( like Czeck německy and Polish niemiecki) might have been derived from the name of another germanic tribe. The Nemeter lived in the region of Lake Constance. But this explanation is not uncontested.

This is where 'Tedesco' comes from...

Non sono tedesco...

This is what I learned the other day, as I randomly opened my 'Teach Yourself Italian' book. It means 'I am not German'. This puzzled me greatly, as Italian is normally linked to the other silly Latin languages, but this word 'tedesco' (Tesco with a de in the middle), is so unsimilar to the other words like "Alemand", or "Alemán"... Molt extrany. I will research it and update with what I find.

Wordreference.com has informed me that Germany in Italian is "Germania" so I have actually no idea where it comes from now. Very odd. I have given up. When I find out, I will inform you all.

I cannot be bothered at present. With anything. I got hit with a brief pang of it last night, and it has returned today, but worse and has lingered. No es bueno. I want Ben & Jerrys and wine. Mucho vino... Today has been uneventful, apart from the internet going off. BT told us to ring them, and we did. We got a robot woman telling us to go on the internet to check manage our account online. I shouted down the phone, yes, to a robot, WE HAVE NO INTERNET! I was not impressed. My brownies I made yesterday did not turn out good either. I burnt the base of them :(

Call this Weetabix? Pshhhh

The weekend has been fairly uneventful so far... Friday night involved watching a French & Saunders DVD with wine. This was a bad idea, as French & Saunders were not as funny as anticipated, and I appeared to get quite tipsy whilst watching. This was improved however as Lauren (that smell is back again...) was partaking in the great British tradition that is 'Drunken Texting'. She informed me of "Hehe my mate Do Nna shes c6in week 8", referring to her friend Donna who is coming week 8 lol. This was followed by "Goin pout tuddesdawmwmw now" which I think was referring to going out on tuesday instead of monday, something she had previously informed me whilst sober. Ahhh Alcohol.

Saturday was equally uneventful. It involved a trip to the Bury of Sains, which wasn't as mental as I'd anticipated. On the fun side, someone went out the emergency exit and set the alarm off. The panic that ensued. Many security, all 2 of their security guards infact, ran towards the exit, whilst the checkout drones mindlessly scanned the customers goods. Even a fire alarm does not stop them. What does? I also made the fatal error of buying Sainsbury's Basics Weetabix. "Different shape, same great taste". The only truth in that slogan is 'different shape'. That in itself is an issue, but the taste was actually awful. I'm so not impressed.

I also found a cheque I've not cashed yet. Hurrah for relatives.

To blog or not to blog, that is the question...

One involves avoiding attempting a Spanish translation. One does not.

...

...

...

I decided on the former. Another awkwardly small Spanish grammar lesson was had today, after narrowly missing two buses to campus, and then unfortunately another turned up just after we got to the bus stop. Typical. But anyway, it gave me time before my Spanish speaking lesson to a. blog, b. do the homework for it and c. attempt my Spanish coursework. Fridays are always nothing-y. They're too spread out, and what there is never quite merits my full attention. I suppose it's my fault for getting bored, but still. Mmmm. Jammy Dodgers. Sian has got me excited and now I want a Jammy Dodger.

I also recommend you all watch 'The Orphanage' or El Orfanto as it's called in Spanish. It's very good, very Spanish. It's like 'The Others', which I suppose gives the ending away, but still, it's a very, very good film. My brain age at present is 23, in case you wanted to know.

MART WANTS WASH

It appears I still haven't moved my suspiciously well placed apron, so as it happens, I am still pointing at myself demanding a wash...

Yesterday was a suspiciously pleasant day... It began like most Wednesdays do, by ignoring my alarm clock. I then got a later bus than usual, which is now something I intend to do every Wednesday and Friday, cos I can. Then upon leaving a silly french seminar, I got to the underpass just in time for an EMPTY 3. Let me explain the significance of this. The 3 is the only bus that stops outside my street. It is normally full of lazy bastards who can't wait an extra 10 minutes to go round Bowerham. As such, it is almost impossible to get a seat on the 3. Never, ever, sit near the back. You will not survive. Following this rare occurence, I watched Volver, meaning 'to return', which was a suspiciously good film. I also felt proud, because all the stuff we have learned in Spanish is true! It feels like more happened yesterday... Apparently not...

Mmmm... Brownies...

Today I felt an overwhelming urge to bake. I think it's because I felt mysteriously happy at the lack of Céline on a tuesday now. It meant I didn't wake up in a cold sweat dreading the hour of 'french', in which we spoke little of said language. I trapsed to sainsburys and returned to discover that what I had bought was of little sustinence, and was mostly infact just stuff to make chocolate brownies! By this time, my lamb and mint burgers had defrosted, so I made them with mash, and felt very full, but satisfied that I had once again, not exploded. After another double session in 'eye-rolling', I returned home, and fulfilled by urge to bake. Well, almost. I made the brownies (which are yummy by the way), but now I feel I want to bake more! Plus it meant I got to wear the apron Naomi and Katie got me for my birthday, which is currently staring at me saying:

'MAR
WANTS
WASH'

This is part of the fuller sentence 'Martin wants you to wash', accompanied by a picture of me pointing. Scary.

Je peux pas parler anglais...

For the less learned of you, that means 'I can't speak English'. It was established today that, after 20 years of living a lie, 'fit' is not the past form of 'to fit', it is, in fact, fitted, ex. the tin fit in the cupboard is wrong, so i'm told...

I had an exciting weekend. I went to see Little Shop of Horrors at my sisters school/my old school, which was much better than expected. Le samedi, I went to Teff in her mansion-like accomodation at Leeds. Twas fun and I was initiated into this 'ring of fire' nonsense. I don't see the fuss about it, it's fun, but I don't understand why so many blame it for hang overs. That said, since staying at Teffs, I have developped achey upper arms/shoulders, making pushing the doors into the library the hardest challenge of the day. Not fun.

Our french tutor today arrived with a tea cosey on her head. Last week she came dressed as a Fimble. Presumably it's to liven students days...

Feed me, Seymour...

So today I'm going home, for the sole purpose to see my sister in her school play, 'Little Shop of Horrors'. OK so she's in the chorus (not the film version of the three black girls going 'da-doo', she 'look i'm a plant' chorus), but still I love it, so it should be good. Hopefully the dastardly snow will not hamper my journey home, or infact my return journey on Monday. It probably will. Snow. Causes. Chaos. But, there. Is. Nothing. Jeez. I'm also writing this as I miss a Spanish grammar lesson - I do hope she's not made another preposition cake, or something more exciting like an imperfect subjunctive cake...

Also. To get you in the mood for 'Little Shop of Horrors' (not like you're going, but still) you should watch http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q_A50V0WOgE&feature=related . Those of you who know Family Guy will know this song. Family guy copied it.

Wonderously Wilko's...

... learning that aforementioned Barcelona, was infact, a lie. A link won't be established until 2010. Boo. As such, I have now decided I want to go to Barcelona in the summer. So it collides with the Royal Welsh Show (just incase I end up back at Barnes'). Having said that, I could do with the money for my year abroad. I think it's time to ask Catherine's mother if she could get me a job at wonderous Wilko's...

Today was made better by...

... learning that I may have the oppurtunity to go to Barcelona as part of my year abroad :)

I'm a bit unsure about how to feel towards going to the Vagina Monologues (or VagiMon as I call it). We're going to see Jess, Ruth and Lowri tell us all about the vaginas and periods and such (I think). When I informed my mother I couldn't come home tonight cos I was going to see it, she wished me luck. Apparently it's just a load of women slagging off men. Jess has reassured me I will not get lynched. Much. (Also, if vagimon was a pokemon, what would it evolve into? Clitimon?)

Also, it seems farm animals are much more complicated than first estimated. Spanish became rather philosophical, discussing the difference between 'Hens' and 'Chickens' and 'Cocks'. All very odd. We didn't know. Olga the Spaniard didn't know either. All a kerfuffle.

So I wrote another one beginning with 'So...'...

...I should stop really. It's like Friends.

I bought The Guardian today, and was disturbed with what I found. "Margaret Beckett, page 3". Thankfully, I then remembered I was reading The Guardian, and not The Sun. Also in today's Guardian was a story about some nutter wanting to build a 50m high HORSE in Kent. I mean a horse. It's already been described as 'The Angel of the South'. The south just weren't happy that the North had something cool. Personally, it just sounds like a big horse and a waste of the Southern taxpayers money. Why are fire engines here orange? And why was a man going round Greaves Park picking up rubbish? Why is everyone still blaming the government for the 'Credit Crunch' when the bankers have actually said 'Sorry'?

So today was a bit meh...

... Not alot happened.

I went in to Céline's lesson. Oh you'll grow to love my rants about her. Or maybe you won't. We found out today was like the last Céline lesson for a fortnight, then we have our group presentation, which she even admits is too hard. Then a fun listening. This means no more Céline for a while. Which is good, cos I dislike her muchly. Although, Kirsty questionned "Why does Céline exist?" today, which made me chuckle. I managed to pester Kirsty enough and I went to hers and played Guitar Hero. I'm gonna be honest, and not lie. I actually sucked. I have gotten worse since Christmas. But never fear. I have the weekend in which to hijack my sisters Wii and improve.

Hmmmm. What else happened today? Ah yes. Catalan. Presentation time. Completely forgot to say anything... But hopefully it went OK. And. More subjunctivity in Spanish. Fun times.

Once again, LUSU did not turn up for their 'house inspection' or whatever it was. They are a bunch of sillybillys. Either that, or if they did, they left no trace of their prescence. Like the Borrowers. Eerie.

Apart from that, nothing actually happened today. Again.

Actually: more proud or prouder? Which is right?

So today was a letdown...

... in more ways than one.

Reason #1:
It was made known to me today that the aforementioned £1000 bursary is not due tomorrow, but is in fact, due around the 19th. This depressed me greatly.

Reason #2:
The aforementioned 'Catalan lecture' was infact cancelled, as the man did not turn up. We also discovered that we were in fact in a first year culture lecture - the kind that slowly destroyed our souls last year - with a bunch of first years. As we were free to leave when Frederic announced the no-show of the man, we did. Alas, this meant that the subsequent wine reception was also cancelled. A sign that drinking at 4 in the afternoon is not OK? Perhaps.

Reason #3:
I spent all day looking forward to cooking my carbonara tortelloni in a carbonara sauce. When I had it, i realised that I did not like the carbonara sauce. Back to ketchup with the tortelloni. Again.

Well, that would appear to be all the reasons I can think of for today's letdown. However, I got 63 in a presentation I did months ago. Actual months.

Eep! It's week 5 already!

Or week 15, depending on how you look at it. Either way, we're nearing the halfway mark to Lent Term. Surely Lent has to start soon? Anyway. Week 5 is an important week for all those Second Years who are beginning to feel the pinch. No. Not the actual pinch of that pervert on the bus. I'm meaning the pinch of the lack of pennies. For Tuesday brings a whole thousand of Her Majesties beautiful Pounds into their accounts. I am one of these. However, due to frivolous overspending in Michaelmas Term, I ended up £1000 in the red, £600 of it is going into bringing my overdraft back up to £0.

Week 15 also sees various lectures by an actual Catalan, about Catalunya. The first is erm... about... Catalunya? And the second... I'm feeling the diglotism... maybe... Either way, the first one is followed by a wine session, which is so important, it caused Maria to actually cancel class. Fun times. In case you didn't know, I'm a total language geek. My new-found love, at present, is Catalan - Latin's illegitimate lovechild. It's so good. I think it's the thrill of learning a new language which is the exciting part. But still. It's exciting to me.

So the snow went...

It stopped snowing, and now it's more or less gone. Typical. Every time. So annoying. But, I got photos of the snow that settled, before it melted. So there is proof it did snow. I'm unsure whether to watch Father Ted, or read more of the second Twilight book. I think I may watch Father Ted. I do hope Samantha keeps up with her blogging. I need somthing new to read. Lol. Oh dear. I just 'lolled'. Sorry.

So it started to snow...

Yes, I realise my blogs all being with 'So' followed by something of vague relevance to the blog. And yes, I am trying to stop. But, it's hard.

So yes, it has started to snow here, and, quite surprisingly, it is settling. I write this with the curtains shut in the living room, so as I'm writing this, the snow will have turned to rain, and the snow will be disappearing.

As I write this, I'm watching 'Come Dine With Me' and watching some man buying a live lobster to make Lobster Thermidor, which, as I've just realised means hot (thermidor not lobster). This poor woman just asked "what are suzettes?" in regards to Crepes Suzettes, which I'm assuming means sugary crepes, as well as their style of cooking. This programme has aged me greatly.

Today, I cleaned the living room. God it was fun. If you didn't know, I'm quite the clean freak, so it was nice and relaxing. (Apparently the Thermidor thing is from when Napoleon first ate lobster - in the French Revolutionary month of Thermidor (so called because it's hot in the summer)). I also hoovered, and washed up - always exciting.

I'm still at a loss as to what to do since I handed in my courseworks, that no doubt I'll be lucky if I get back before Easter. But, we shall see. I shall start reading 'New Moon' soon - the follow-up to 'Twilight' . Failing that I shall do extra reading about French Linguistics, which I'm looking forward to (don't judge my geekiness). More blogging no doubt later on...

So I'm part Irish...

... if the internet is to be believed. Google happily informed me that my particular branch of the healy/haly/heeley surname group is of unknown origin, but is definitely Irish/Gaelic. This is bad news. It means I shame Ireland every time I get drunk after a few drinks. I can cope with shaming them, in all fairness, they've had worse. But still. I feel I should embrace my heritage. Although, if I did that, I'd be eating rarebit, in a kilt, doing Riverdance, whilst smoking a joint. Actually, that's an interesting enough point. My great gran never thought it odd her mother having an odd maiden-name (Snook), living in Wiltshire (which infact says alot about strange surnames in Wiltshire). It took my grandad (her son-in-law) to figure out she was half Dutch - and she was genuinely surprised when he told her.

Gotta love the elderly.

Mister T, I summon thee...

...enough said.

So I survived Blackpool...

...but it came at a price: all feeling. So very cold.

I don't know if you've ever been up Blackpool Tower, but it's certainly an experience. The aquarium, well, I don't feel the need to bother describing it. The Jurassic Trail was infact the single most shittest thing I've seen. Ever. The views from the top weren't too bad - could see for quite a way which was cool. But cold. Then, well, we managed to end up at one of the worst football stadiums in the country. Blackpool FC's. To call it a stadium would infact be a lie, as stadiums tend to have 4 sides. This had 2, and a temporary stand for the away fans - no roof, nothing. 1h45 of freezing cold. Hovever, I ended up sat next to this old woman, who was proper getting into the match. Old people amuse me. Sport changes them beyond recognition. They become so involved and so angry. It's quite scary to be honest, but at the same time, quite humourous.

Demons is such a poor quality programme: "Beware of something nasty pretending to be something nice" is one example of poor quotes, "Death? It's very flat. At first I thought it was like Nebraska, but it turned out not to be." That being another.

On the topic of humourous quotes, local news stories to Lancaster: "Snow chaos on city roads" - If you saw the snow in Lancaster, you would know this headline clearly lied. Lancaster's snow was more or less gone by lunchtime on Monday, nada, zilch, rien, zip. And "Cabbie lets down police car's tyres". This made me chuckle, as I just had an image of a cabbie sneaking round the police HQ in a black and white stripey top (like a burglar, not a Frenchman) doing it. I wonder about the circumstances in which this came about.

That's all I can think to write about for now.

p.s. Crows-feet protecter - Is it like a big net thing that catches crows so their feet can't attack them?

I feel old...

I actually cannot work out how to add Samantha as a friend or whatever it's called on here. Stupid modern technology. Never works. Ever.

My first 'official' blog...

Wow. Look at me. I'm so Twenty-First Century. Blogs. I mean. Wow. Tomorrow is the day I brace the public transport system (which is still recovering from the non-existent snow Lancashire saw) to go to *dramatic pause* Blackpool. The original plan was Preston, but I fancied somewhere more 'exotic', if that's the right word, so Blackpool was agreed on. My friend suggested we go see the Rovers v. Blackpool match (yes, I know how generic 'Rovers' sounds - it's Doncaster Rovers), but it seems there are no more tickets. I'm almost happy about that, but a little bit gutted cos I wanted to go to my first footy match. Oh well, the Tower will do.

Is it just me that really really dislikes Paris Hilton? (I realised how off-topic this was after reading) Surely not, I mean she shows no expressions whatsoever. I merely make this judgement after having watched an hour of her searching for her 'British Best Friend', once again, only watching it because there is someone from Pontefract on there. Oh. The shame.

Fingers crossed it's sunny tomorrow!