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x we are thee hopeless mistakes.. x - LiveJournal.com
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ducks = evil
Today, i learnt that ducks are very evil bastards. Dean and i were walking by a river/stream in Great Ayton when we noticed a lone duckling struggling in the fast flowing water. It was being dragged by the current towards a big dip, almost like a waterfall to a tiny bird. We watched in horror as it got swept in, but managed to eventually swim onto a ledge.
The embankment was quite steep so we knew there was nowhere for it to go, so Dean dangled his arm down and scooped it up using a cardboard tray i got when i bought some cupcakes. We put the little thing on the grass in the hope it would acquiant itself with other ducks. It was shivering, scared and exhausted from its ordeal.
By now, a lady and her young daughter had come along to help and they tried to get it to join other ducklings, only for it to be attacked on severel occasions. At one point, i nearly kicked a big duck in the face as it violently pecked at the duckling. Not knowing what to do and fearing it would suffer the same fate as the dead duckling on the enbankment (which looked like it had been attacked by ducks), i rang Saltholme, a RSPB reserve that we have visited a few times, for advice.
While waiting for them to return my call, the woman had thought she'd found its family, but they rejected it. She decided to take it to the RSPCA centre nearby and a callback from Saltholme confirmed we had done the right thing. I just hope the RSPCA centre was still open, i might ring them in the morning to see if she handed the duckling in and if its ok, as those ducks were vicious bastards. Mother Nature is so mean.
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noah & the whale @ newc / rare sunny times
Nothing new or interesting in my life at the mo, just been doing a few articles for the charidee, and making the most of the week or so of the summer rareness that came early. Well, it's gone again now so thank goodness i did.
Things Dean and i did in the sunny period included:
1) take pics of birds at a place near Billingham,
2) had a long walk at Sutton Bank, a hill in the North Yorks Moors,
3) visited Rievaulx Abbey (also in the moors), where we observed a cottage with a fully thatched roof (hazard to sky lanterns),
4) had a bbq and played pre and post bbq badminton,
5) finally attracted birds to our bird feeder and homemade bird table,
6) saw Noah & the Whale play Newcastle Academy (Wed 23 Mar), supported by Emmy the Great.
So yeah, fairly busy week or two.
The Noah & the Whale gig was cool - Dean had managed to blag some photo passes so found himself in the press pit, which i decided not to join him in as i felt stupid with a little red camera when all the photographers had huge Nikons lol. I spoke to a couple of the guys and they seemed really friendly; we expected many gig photographers to be clichey or pretentious, but they seemed welcoming.
I last saw Noah & the Whale at Leeds Fest, where i felt they were completely lost on the huge main stage. I'd seen them before they got big, supporting Broken Social Scene, and they were amazing then. Thankfully, they sounded as good as they were that first time i saw them.
Emmy the Great was cool too, i was pretty pleased when i heard she was supporting. It was a good evening and fairly cheap as our passes got us in free, hurrah!
Though i didn't realise the band had so many young fans; there were so many kids accompanied by their parents...i thought i'd wandered into a Justin Bieber gig by accident lol.
~ ~ ~
Not got much on this week, back to boring life now it's gone cold again. Must apply for jobs tomoz, then probs back to work at the charity after two weeks working from home. Girls night out on Saturday should be epic though!
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graduation, the 80s, and winter.
Wow, it's been quiet on here these days. A few things to update i suppose, though not much due to my uninteresting life.
Got a swanky new phone, woop. This is the reason i'm able to go on here while at work and bored. Job situation here is still dire, gonna book an appointment at the careers dept at uni this week, best get it done before the snow starts.
The other week was a busy one. I had graduation, which was ok. I finally got to don the lovely red masters gown, yay! Bumped into Gary and we spent about an hour getting photos done in weird places in our gowns. The jobcentre would've been ideal if it wasnt so faraway from the uni!
Friday was Mike's 80s party, which was a good laugh. If this wasn't enough parties for the week, the day after was Dean's nana's surprise birthday party, which i had to bake 61 cakes for. Think i'm good for cakes for a while now!
Now it's Dec, am just putting the finishing touches to my xmas present pile (which was nearly completed by Nov, epic win!) and moaning about the cold. As if another new year is upon us...
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Today, my (not so) little brother went off to uni. He is attending Essex Uni in Colchester, which is supposed to be lovely and a bit further away from the vajazzles and shit like that lol. Then Dean starts his first day as an Engineering Master tomoz, studying MSc Advanced Manufacturing Systems at Teesside. It's all new on the education front here. Kinda wish i was still a postgrad student, despite my hatred of students.
Not much happening at my end now uni is over, just job hunting really. Had a few days of warm warm weather, which i HATED lol. Was ill with a cold the first day, alright for the second but felt tired all the way through due to the intense heat. Last few days, the heat was starting to give me headaches and dizziness. Just as well the UK doesn't get much summer coz my body appears to be rejecting the sun!
On Saturday, i was cooling myself down, having a drink in the shade of Dean's house under a parasol. Then i saw something fly and perch on one of the trees at the back of the garden. I knew it wasn't a normal bird from the way it flew onto the tree, but my eyes couldn't see far enough to see what it was. I asked Dean, who was playing guitar, what it was and it was apparently a sparrow hawk!
It flew away before i could get my camera out and take a pic, but Dean had snapped one a few weeks earlier at his nan's. One had caught a pigeon and decided to have his feast in his nan's garden (see below). Pretty cool eh? It appears these little fellas are ruling the skies of Hartburn and Fairfield! 
Dean's photography blog: http://87photography.blogspot.com/
trip to the lakes
I am currently in the uni library, back on the case of the big diss since coming back off my short holidays. Think I have about 2,700 words done now, only 12,300 to go...
Last week, Dean and I went on a short three day break to the Lake District. We started off popping to the carvery at Bowness on Windermere then having a nice walk around the lake, before booking into our hotel in Kendal. Our hotel was the best we'd stayed in - the room was cosy and they had a swimming pool plus free wifi!!
I had a bit of a swim around (i had to put a bikini in use, since i don't ever plan on going abroad and own quite a few lol), uploaded our pics onto my laptop (lack of sd card space) and returned to Windermere to photograph the sunset. It was getting a bit cold, so we decided to have tea at a snazzy olde look restaurant where I ordered lamb and they weren't joking - it was a HUGE piece of lamb. I suffered greatly after managing to finish it lol.
The next day, we made our way to Keswick, stopping off at several points on the way to lake in the scenary. We randomnely stopped off at Ambleside on Windermere for a toilet break at a garden centre and what did they happen to have but an owl display!! What a wonderful coincidence, I am so glad we happened to wander in as i got to hold a giant owl (my version of the old thing of swimming with dolphins, zzz).
After Ambleside, we continued on our journey and stopped off again at Lake Grassmere very briefly, before arriving at our hotel in Braithwaite, near Keswick. The hotel was, unlike our previous hotel stays, a family run B&B which was set in the most fantastic country house overlooking stunning scenary. This was the view from the hallway window:
After booking in and having a shower, we went to Lake Bassentwaite nearby, which was so peaceful and did not have loads of tourists like Windermere did. We then had tea and moved onto Derwent Waters for the sunset.
The last day, the heavens had opened after two days of nice weather. We had decided to go to the Pencil Museum, a place we often joke about after Dean got a Blue Peter badge that allows him to get in free (though we did not use this, since he did say he was six in it and at the time he got it, he definitely wasn't). If i'm honest, i wasn't too impressed with it, the shop seemed to be bigger than the museum itself, which is probably a good thing since it was rubbish anyway.
We left this after, like, 20 mins, grabbed some leaflets and decided to go to a zoo that was on the way home anyway. The zoo was cool (despite the rain) and apart from the owls and eagles, which i always appreciate, I also liked the talking parrots. They sounded so humanlike, I was wondering who on earth was shouting "OI!" and "HELLO!" for a short while.
Alas, back to diss. It was a great break and it'll probs be another year until we have chance to make another similar trip again :(
Lou and Mike's wedding photos
Had a great time at Louise and Mike's long-awaited wedding on Saturday. It was nice seeing everyone all glammed up and having a drink and boogie. Shame 'Gold' by Spandeu Ballet and '3 Lions' weren't played at the disco though!
Everyone looked amazing and I can't wait til the next wedding, whoever that'll be...
I will have to do a longer entry about this at a later stage as I have an exam and a job to apply for on Wednesday but here are the pics by me:
[ MY PHOTOS ]
And these are Dean's pics on Facebook:
[ DEAN'S PHOTOS ]
Enjoy!
I'M ON FIRE
I have to tell the story of my colleague's visit to the NCTJ conference, absolutely hilarious.
Michael is our course rep and get sent on a conference in London. He was surrounded by course reps from other unis and lots of journalists from respectable news outlets, such as the Independant, Guardian, etc.
They went to a pub afterwards and while chatting to other students, he leaned against a wall which was adorned with a ambient light. Or what he thought was an ambient light. It was a candle.
His hair caught fire and he was tackled to the ground by a journalist, who began twatting him over the head with a file.
Upon hearing this story, I obviously showed my concern... by promptly bursting into hysterical laughter. Only Michael would manage to burst into flames in front of possible future employees, it is the funniest story I have ever heard! At least they'll remember him...
winning!!
Yesterday I foundout i had passed my 70wpm shorthand exam, which i was relieved about. Finally off the 60wpm mark after a year!!
Today, I have just done the 80wpm exam and i think it went well! I got it all down and although some words looked a little crazy, I think i have got less than the 2% errors you are allowed. I shall be refreshing the results site every hour next week, fingers crossed it is third time lucky (i have failed 80 twice, grr) and i have got it.
Just got my mark back for my four mini essays on research methods. I thought these were really quite terrible so i was quite shocked to see i got 64%. Maybe i am a little better at academia than i first thought.
However, doing these essays, albeit in a ramshackle last minute way, had a bad effect on my for revision for the Public Affairs 2: Local Government exam and i managed to fail by a margin of 6%. Annoying. So it's not all win as I have to pay to resit this and go through all that torturous revision again, but i'm getting there. Slowly but surely.
I am celebrating my shorthand and essay successes not by running around in the sunshine, but by trying to get a 3,500 word diss proposal done. Sigh.
* * * * *
Oh, and i think i will include my favourite quote from Shorthand lessons this week.
We were discussing the teeline for the word 'bush' and someone asked if it would be used much. Another person mentioned that you could be writing an article on George Bush. To which my favourite thicko replied;
Orange girl: "Who's George Bush?"
f**king hell.
decemberists/interpol @ leeds academy, plus farms and exams
It's been a while due to epic busy times, but here is an obligatory gig review and then boring account of my life so far for the two people who read it to bore themselves to death with lol.
Fri 11th March - Decemberists @ Leeds Academy
Dean and i drove down and booked outselves into the snazziest looking hotel in the city. Type 'queens hotel leeds' into Google... there was a red carpet and everything, we felt like right scruffers. The gig itself was at the Leeds Academy, which i have never been to before. It was nice to Sarah again afer a long while and also to finally meet Sam!
The support band were called Blind Pilot (wonder if it was Cooper Temple Clause inspired?) and they were ok but not that memorable. The Decemberists themselves were very good - the banter with the crowd was amusing. My only complaint was that they didn't play many old songs, instead they played most of the new album which i haven't heard yet and sounded rather country-based. It seemed good and that, though i prefer their old piratey sound better. It was a good fun gig overall.
Tues 22nd March - Interpol @ Leeds Academy
A gig intensive month, I know. No hotel this time as Dean had work in the morning and i had a exam (see later) but we did bump into Pete and his girlfriend Lisa there. The support was Matthew Dear, who i wasn't impressed with. His first song sounded like Interpol slowed down 10x, his other music sounded like the electronic 80's stuff you used to get, but less tuneful. It was different i guess.
Interpol were, as per, very good. They didn't play PDA and Roland AGAIN (as with the Newc gig last year), they have played them both at the previous gigs i went to so i think it's Dean cursing it. They played Say Hello to the Angels (i thought of you Claire!!) though, plus the other usual classics. There was also less new album songs than last time, thankfully, as i haven't listened to it properly. I love Interpol (if anyone hadn't noticed), they're great.
(photos coming soon)
On the way out, we followed a tall boy for a bit to determine how much taller than Dean he was lol. I would say 4 inches taller, making this mystery giant 6ft 9?!
* * * * * *
In news of other things i have/have not done, a few Thursday ago, the current uni crew went on a night out after our evening lecture, partially for Lucy's birthday and also as a leaving do for Hannah and Lucy (though Lucy was begged back onto the course by Bailey, who feared two drop outs in two days).
I was not planning to attend it, just the student union part as i am very poor. Nights out, just for entry into clubs and taxis, cost me about £15-£20 BEFORE drinks come into the picture and i really cannot afford it, so planned for Dean to pick me up early, about midnight. However, upon hearing the news Creeps (at Medicine Bar) were having a whole hour of interpol playback, i decided to go to this for the one hour just to dance to Interpol, then go home lol.
We started at the union, where pints are £1.50 (!!!) on a Thursday evening. Many got drank and by the time we got to Medicine Bar, we were all a bit tipsy. Interpol hour consisted of mostly myself and Michael singing enthusiastically and slightly flailing (nothing compared to my past standards) to anything off the first two albums.
More or less as soon as this finished, Dean picked me up lol. They should make all nights out with an Interpol/similarly epic band section lol. I was ok the next day but i think there were some sore heads...
~
On Sunday, Dean and i decided on impulse, to visit a farm as we wanted to take photos of animals. After some quick research, we ended up at a farm in Coulby Newham, which was pretty cool. Unfortunately, my camera decided to run out of power so i couldn't take any pics, so we plan to return in about a month as there may be some newborn baby animals then. My favourite photo that Dean (accidentely) took was of this goat pissing:
Childish, i know, but extremely funny... look at the happiness on his face!!
~
The remainder of the last two weeks has been taken up with revision and essay writing. I had four mini essays to be handed in on Thursday at a total of 4,000 words, which were pretty terrible.
I found out that day that my big 5,000 word essay about newspaper paywalls that i did during xmas got 68%, which is only 2% off a First/Distinction, and possibly the best mark i've ever got in a uni essay!! I was actually stunned... i did not expect to get such a good mark at MA level as i realise my strengths don't lie in essay writing. We had our last lecture for this module at the Dicken's Inn lol, that's the life.
As soon as that was handed in, i had to dive into revision for my second Public Affairs exam, which concerned itself with the fascinating matter of local government. I sit here not long after sitting this exam and i am unsure how i have done. Some of it was ok, but then some of it was extremely sketchy so i think i will be borderline pass/fail. I have my fingers crossed hoping it's on the right side of this line as i really cannot be bothered to pay another £40 to resit it and have to do the most boring revision ever known to man.
I am currently on a two week Spring break (i don't get Easter hols, argh) but when i thought i could rest, my dissertation proposal of 3,000 words is due in a couple of weeks!! I don't even know what i am doing it on yet so it's desperate times. Then when i think thats over, i then have a portfolio to hand in, then Shorthand exams throughout the end of April and all of May. Uni is ruining my life.
bull runs amok in stockton!
I don't know if anyone saw the Gazette yesterday as the front page had the most exciting story that has ever graced it!
A bull had escaped from the abbatoir and ran along Yarm Road and into Hartburn!! I mean, this is probably the most bizarre story I've ever heard. Just the thought of how you would react if you were just going about your business and a bull just ran past you in the street...
This story was amazing enough but then my sister received a text off my cousin, asking if dad had told us what had happened, with a photo of the Gazette front page attached. We did indeed ask dad but it took him a while to realise what we were on about. After what felt like an age, he said; "Oh, that. Andy was charged at by an escaped bull." How do you forget this sort of news?! Is this a regular situation for my father??
Anyway, it seems that my cousin had picked the exact wrong time to go to the abbatoir to buy some meat because as he pulled up in the car, a bull came charging towards him. Apparently it only stopped when it saw someone in the loading bay and instead, went for him. This person wasn't hurt thankfully, but the bull then went on to rampage the streets of Hartburn for nearly half an hour.
After injuring an old lady waiting at a bus stop, it was then knocked down by the abbatoir's van and shot, which isn't nice. Hopefully he can run around charging at people in cattle heaven. But it is definitely the story of the year, despite it only being February, it's just so surreal...
quiz of the year 2010, wooop
It is a little late but here nonetheless....
1. WHAT DID YOU DO IN 2010 THAT YOU'D NEVER DONE BEFORE?
I got an article published in the newspaper, wooo. I also worked fairly hard, which i haven't done much of before.
2. DID YOU KEEP YOUR NEW YEARS' RESOLUTIONS, AND WILL YOU MAKE MORE FOR NEXT YEAR?
I don't really do resolutions but i did say i would work harder at uni, which i did do. For this year i suppose i will do more of the same but it looks like i've broken that already and it's only the 2nd day of the year...
3. DID ANYONE CLOSE TO YOU GIVE BIRTH?
Another cousin who lives down south had a baby, bizarely named Bruce. Despite this, he is quite cute.
4. DID ANYONE CLOSE TO YOU DIE?
Nope, touch wood.
5. WHAT COUNTRIES DID YOU VISIT?
Nowhere at all.
6. WHAT WOULD YOU LIKE TO HAVE IN 2011 THAT YOU LACKED IN 2010?
As i say every single year, money. And the rest of my NCTJ qualifications.
7. WHAT DATES FROM 2010 WILL REMAIN ETCHED UPON YOUR MEMORY AND WHY?
I am no good with dates but i will try guess the period of time i am referring to. In mid Feb, my trip to Scotland with Dean was fun. In May, i got my 60wpm shorthand, which was a relief, but i subsequently didn't get my 80wpm in June, which will haunt me forever. August, Dean and i saw Arcade Fire, which i would class as a great date for us both.
8. WHAT WAS YOUR BIGGEST ACHIEVEMENT OF THE YEAR?
I passed my both my Law exams and my News Writing exam, too. I also got my 60wpm shorthand. Getting my article published was pretty immense too.
9. WHAT WAS YOUR BIGGEST FAILURE?
Failing my 80wpm exam twice, grrr.
10. DID YOU SUFFER ILLNESS OR INJURY?
I constantly had a cold in summer/autumn?
11. WHAT WAS THE BEST THING YOU BOUGHT?
I buy so many nice things that i can't remember...
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