The only thing about not having school, is that we don't get given meals. This results in us being very stingy and scrapping together the cheapest meal possible-beans on toast (get given bread from the kitchen and can get 4 tins of beans for a pound) or cereal (get milk and weetbix from the boarding house) On the Monday evening, we had run out of milk, which lead to me having weetbix with water...wasn't too bad when mixed with sugar. We end up finding all sorts of new mixtures which actually don't taste too bad-Kate had peanut butter and phillidalphia on weetbix (we'd run out of bread)
WALES
Nicole, Kate, Lynne and I had organised to visit Cardiff on the Saturday. We'd wanted to stay the night, but because of the rugby league that was on, all the (cheap) accomodation was booked out about 2 months in advance. Luckily it's only about an hour and a half train trip so we could make a day trip out of it.
Unfortunalty, we didn't manage to hear anyone speaking Welsh, but we did see a lot of Welsh written everywhere.
First stop was the Millenium Stadium of course! It is HUGE!! We couldn't go into the actual stadium and see the grounds because of the matches later on in the day, but we went into the gift shop and took photo's of the outside and all.
Then the Castle which Kate's mom had highly recommended and I double that recommendation. It really is a beautiful castle and what makes it more interesting is that it wasn't actually lived in by Royalty...just a really really rich family. It's different from other castles because of it's decoration which is very detailed and everything has a story/theme behind it. Like in the nursery, the lampshades are decorated with different nursery rhymes while the walls are painted with different fairytales. In one of the other rooms which is used for drinking afternoon tea, the ceiling is decorated with all the zodiac signs, then the walls have the days of the week and the 4 corners are the seasons (having time as it's theme) It really is stunning!
Coming out of the castle, back onto the streets, we were suddenly surrounded by loads of Rugby fans. (Quite nice having a change from football mania to rugby mania.) There were people all dressed up as smurfs and wigs and bright colours-it was so cool!! We were all kinda jealous that we weren't going to the match.
Stopping at Sainsbury's was not a good idea! Besides the fact that I managed to find a yoghurt which only cost 9pence!!! While Lynne was finding something for lunch, Kate and I were drooling over the deals they had with possible suppers...macaroni cheese, lasagne, curry's, the list went on and it was all reasonably priced! We were brought back down to Earth when we remembered our beans and tinned soup that was waiting for us instead...
We had a nice picnic (of soggy jam sandwhiches made earlier that morning) in the gardens outside the city hall, even though it started drizzling on us. Followed by a rather enjoyable walk through Bute Park (a park just for me-having Beaut as my nickname from Dad) which is just behind the Castle grounds. Coming out of the park, lead us straight to the other side of the stadium, overlooking the Bay which was gorgeous!!
We still had quite a bit of time before having to catch our train, so we decided a movie would be a good idea :) Being girls, it was a sobby one too :) Made of Honour with Patrick Dempsey in it...
There was a pick and mix shop which is deadly when you have coins to spare! I only had enough coins for 4/5 sweets, but its better than nothing. I'm pretty sure Kate ended up eating more sweets than I had bought while she waited for us to chose tings-dodgy australian!! (She's not even South African...)
Kate was hilarious on the way home, acting like a train with the sounds and arm actions etc! Something you have to see to laugh at though. It had been a very nice day in Wales and it's quite cool being able to say that I've now been to England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales.
GAP FORCE
We started this new thing called the Gap Force, where we go to other members of staff houses and do little jobs for them. These could include painting, mowing lawns, dog walking, sanding, weeding etc etc etc. Basically any odd jobs that need doing. Today was our 1st job :) We got fetched from school by Angie (PE teacher) in the morning in our lovely baggy tracksuit pants and old shirts which were left in the flat by previous gaps. Painting was on the agenda for today. She's moving into a new house which has just been replastered, so there was a living room, a kitchen and a bathroom (ceilings included) which needed doing.
We got straight to work with rollers which turned us into Dalmations with it's spraying of paint and paintbrushes to get into the corners-luckily it was just an undercoat, so it didn't have to be all proffesional or anything. After doing all 3 rooms, a lunch break was very welcome! All that painting had built up a healthy appetite...
Felt like a real workman sitting on beach chairs, using pots of paint and a wooden plank for a table and drinking out of mugs which had little specks of paint in them :)
We all started again on a second coat of undercoat before moving on to do a coat of Magnolia. It's wierd how much of a difference a colour can make-we were just all revived while using the Magnolia instead of the boring white which was the original undercoat. Kate and I did the bathroom's second undercoat which we were very proud of!! We thought it had to be immaculate (the vibe we were getting while being instructed) and so, it was :) there were all sorts of grunts and mutterings coming from the bathroom while we were busy, but it was said to be 'Dazzling' which made all our hard work worthwhile.
Braai time :) after a good day of work, we all went off to Angie's parents' home for a lekker braai. This house was beautiful!! A mansion for England in the most stunning area with a little stream running infront of the house and surrounded by other stone houses. It was really fun jamming with other staff members and meeting their partners etc.
We had an awesome time just chilling around the braai, chatting, eating and joking with eachother. When it started to get a bit drizzly, we all went inside to play the cereal box game. This was hilarious!! The object of the game is to bend down with only your feet touching the floor and pick up a cereal box, using your mouth. Once you had done that, you could tear off a piece of the box and the next person has a turn. Those people like nicole and Greg who are blessed with long legs had a bit of a problem, but those of us with short legs, like myself and Katie ended up lasting past all the others, calling it a draw in the end when the box was nothing but a flat piece of cardboard on the floor.
It had been a really good night with a great bunch of people! Hopefully there'll be many more of those nights to come this summer!
OXFORD
4 hours of sleep is not a good idea!!
The fact that it was raining didn't help the mood much either, but we caught our train into Oxford to see what we could see see see.
We spent quite a bit of time hoping from Souvenir shop to Souvenir shop looking at hoodies, badges, postcards etc. I had always planned on getting an Oxford hoodie cus of the Rowing obviously and managed to find a nice grey one which was perfect!!
Unfortunatly, being a bank holiday, the covered market was closed, which sucked! Markets are always the bomb-guess we're just going to HAVE to make another trip out to Oxford someday :)
Thorntons just called to us as we walked past-bit like 'Gappies-get off your feet for a moment and enjoy one of our breath-taking hot chocolates' How could anyone resist? Naturally, I had the white hot chocolate which was sooo good!! Highly recommended, but don't go after a big meal cus they are very fulling and rich...
We took a nice walk around the gardens of one of the colleges because the sun had actually started to do it's job and shine! The gardens and buildings are huge and beautiful!! Such a stunning university to go to.
Then we headed off to Alice in Wonderland's shop which was pretty cool. Basically a bit souvenir shop of Alice in Wonderland things like bookmarks, games, books, glasses, cards, key rings, stationery etc etc
The rest of the day was spent wandering around the streets of Oxford, soaking in the atmopshere and getting a feel of what it's gona be like when we get accepted to study there next year-NOT!!
We had the worst drama on the way home!! We had booked a late night train, but had decided to go home early because we'd seen what we wanted to, were tired from a busy weekend and Nicole needed to be back for boarding duty. Anyway, we thought we could get away with getting an earlier train without too much hassle. We were very wrong!! When the guy came around to check tickets, he so kindly informed us that we were indeed on the wrong train and continued to tell us that we would need to buy another ticket because our's weren't valid...At first he said it would be £30 but we managed to have a chat and find a cheaper way which cost us £15 and a further £4 to get home. We were all really annoyed with that because it was basically the money we had earned yesterday that was almost gone. Anyway, shit happens and there's only one way to learn...
It was a fantastic weekend all in all!!
