The best worst night ever :)

Jonny and George *grin* I've missed them so much!

Ella in Prezzo

Oh she's just so sexy :p

We had such a lovely meal out, and Ella took me up to date with her love life, about which I've heard little since I visited her in late October! The food was also really lovely. In fact, considering I was in tears about 10 minutes before I met up with her, it was a truly fastastic evening!

As we were eating our starters I saw a man approaching the door, and he was looking directly at me in a really intense manner. Having just seen Crash last night I was half expecting him to pull a gun on me. And then I recognised him - Jonny!! Who I hadn't seen for almost a year! He came and sat and chatted with us briefly, and then left on the promise of seeing him later at The Duke.

Ella and I enjoyed the rest of our meal and, with a bottle of wine inside us, headed up to The Duke.

Me, looking drunk.. God, how am I gonna wake up tomorrow..?

So overall I had a nice night. The reason I was depressed was due to someone telling me that there were only 5 people he liked dancing with, only 2 of which he found fun to dance with.

Me: is there anything I can change about the way I dance to make you enjoy it?
Him: no

I don't think he has any idea how hurtful that is - I couldn't be more upset / angry. Dance means so much to me, and I've been trying so hard for so many months to be a smooth dancer, so that the people I dance with enjoy it! I always try to be smiley and make each dance as fun as possible - even when I'm tired, or upset, or dizzy. Hell, even on a comedown I put everything I had into it! I've done everything I could to be fun to dance with, and the idea that he's just been putting up with dancing with me all this time hurts more than anything I can think of. I'm hugely offended and I have a lot of anger going on right now.

Ian, Nathan, I demand you come and dance with me on Wednesday! Because I know you love each track and you understand that dancing is FUN!

Barn with 2 cigars and 3 drinks :) good man! 

Finally...

*grin*

...I've found a kindred spirit!

I got into work this morning to find Jonny's large hardback copy of "Principles of Neural Science" on my desk with the above note attached. I immediately resolved to read it as quickly as possible.

I discovered it had 1360 ish pages, and calculated how long it would take me to read it if I averaged on 50 pages a week, and other possible amounts (not as modest as it sounds considering the size of a page, the size of the font, and the fact I'm dedicating the second half of the week to reading a different book on pharmacology).

[Tegwen is sitting at her desk pawing over page 3, Jonny enters stage right]

Jonny: [sitting down in his swivel chair, Scottish accent:] you planning on reading all of that?
Me: [internally panicking based on years of being teased for such pursuits, carefully clearing calculator screen showing estimated weeks to finish book, over confident voice:] Oh I don't know - it's well over a thousand pages!
Jonny: [leaning back in chair, hands behind head] I'm definitely going to try and get through it by the end of the year I reckon
Me: [complete shock, almost falling off swivel chair] cool, good idea..

So yay! But he did stop me from doing Maths during my lunch break yesterday, so perhaps he's not quite as obsessive as me - but it's all good!

Aside from Jonny I've met a hell of a lot of other great people - everyone there is brilliant, and friendly, and very interesting. This is going to be such a good year.

Results Day

So, does this mean I'm in then?

Tom says:
been enjoying the non-stress?
Spin says:
yes I have
Spin says:
lots of Champagne and cards and that sort of thing
Tom says:
sounds good although probably less significant than just not having it hanging over you I'd guess?
Spin says:
well obviously.. I've been worrying about this at some stage every day since January 1st
Spin says:
and now I don't have to any more
Tom says:
:)

These are the 64 past papers I took during the revision period. 

In a tent pitched on the middle of the common, because. 

Sophie, aka Soap, Full Pint, Medici Face & O'Lemon

She's great. I mean she really really is. If I'm feeling even slightly down - even if I'm just feeling slightly frustrated, or restless, or whatever - she always cheers me up!

I went over this afternoon and we had tea and cake and generally chatted about everything and stressed about exam results. Even though I've been feeling a bit tense one way and another Soap did all the clawing for both of us, leaving me feeling lighthearted.

She also had me in giggles with her description of the bathroom in the place where she'd been staying in France. "If your Dad had seen it he'd have had a heart attack, I mean seriously, he would have burst something. The bath was just huge and limescaley and there was this disgusting carpet and the walls were blue painted over peeling old wallpaper. It was ghastly - I know only old people use words like "ghastly" but there really isn't another word to describe how horrid it was - I mean it was completely minging"... etc.

And her description of the old Dutch people having sex in the river right where they and another 8 or so canoes were going past was also, ahem, entertaining. "And my Mum being my Mum just waved and called out "Hello!" at them, because seriously, they were so obviously there you just couldn't pretend you hadn't seen them"... etc.

And as if cheering me up, giving me tea and cake and amusing me with her more harrassing life wasn't enough, she then told me I was looking much healthier than exam times ("you're not haggered anymore") and gave me a pot of jam she'd just made.

So, in conclusion, Soap rules.

Three Hot Dancers

Ok, I know entries like this one just make Ian laugh at me but I'm going to do it anyway.

Dance last night was so brilliant! I had blisters before I got there (long story) and took plasters with me - but never got a chance to put them on because every time I got off the dancefloor someone took me back on........or I saw someone I really wanted to dance with and pounced on them :) So my feet were in shreds this morning! Nevermind!

The wigs were hilarious. My only effort was to plait a couple of ribbons into my hair, but that's because I don't have a wig. Oh! And my fiance was all sparkly! And Keri's class was really fun, although I had to do the lady-led-lean with a guy who weighed 18 stone. He said "crumple" to me at a really critical moment, and that put us both into hysterics.

I had so many brilliant dances! First off - my fiance is getting so damn good! I shouldn't be surprised, because he always was a very good dancer (I noticed the other week that when learning the man part I'm trying to imitate his lead, so I must like it) but he's seriously taken off in the last few months.

Next, I had 2 of the best dances ever with Ian - they were just so fun! And I'm very glad I didn't land on my head, which did feel rather likely at one stage. I found the terrified faces of the women sitting watching us quite entertaining too :) What do you think Ian put the pure dancing skill down to? His improved lead? Inspiring music? My ability to spin and bend in unnatural directions? No. Jen. Who wasn't even there! But I've heard logic escapes those who are in love.. ;)

And finally Tom. I had probably my favourite dance with him ever on Monday - it was so smooth and cool and none of it felt hectic or rushed. All the drops were really elegant and gentle and it all flowed perfectly. So much of Ceroc seems to be about adapting to your partner - I've pretty much forced Tom to dance a minimum of one track with me everytime we've both been there since I started and, finally, I seem to have got the hang of it!

*bounce* - very happy Tegwen.

Emperor Augustus

Me with Emperor Augustus

Emperor Augustus

I made him from clay. First of all I made coils to make the neck and shoulders and basic shape. I cut out a piece for the chin and anchored it in with coils on the inside and continued to build up the shape of the skull. Then I scored out lines to help me position the features and added the nose and cut out hollows for the eyes and started to shape the lips and chin.

The ears were easily the hardest part. I kept making them either too big or too small, or they didn't look quite right - or they were too fat and didn't sit properly, or too thin and so too fragile. Got them sorted eventually though. The eyes were also very hard. I then scored the head all over very deeply and slipped it copiously and lay a rolled piece of clay over it, and cut it roughly so it looked like it was wearing a helmet. Then I carefully started cutting the shape of the fringe and round his ears, and then all the patterns in the hair. Whenever I got tired I took a kidney cutter thing and removed fine layers from the face and neck to help get the slightly sucken cheeks and make it the shape I wanted. Then I spent hours smoothing everything. Hours.

Finally I took a length of wire and cut the neck from the shoulders in a jagged 'I've just fallen off a statue' look and used a craft knife to cut a slight groove around the bottom of it. Then I fired it and glazed it in 3 layers of a cast iron glaze before firing it once more. Now I just need to make a nice stand for it!

Just another Friday night

Barn serving in The Duke :)

I didn't realise Barn was a Dukey boy now, was nice to see him, albeit briefly.

I spent my evening catching up with Geoff and Mark, and Rob (hilariously one of Ella's exs) was there too. I'm fairly sure this is the Rob who infamously fainted during Sex Ed. Twice. I also bumped into Ollie which was useful as it meant I could grill him about various Maths related things.

Being female was once again worth it as all my drinks were bought for me :) I wonder why I have so many more male friends than female ones. Or maybe I just spend more time with the male ones? *shrug* Anyway, they're all great and I had a lovely lovely evening.

It scared me a little talking to the guys though. They're all 21 now, and already from their year there's one dead (Gavin, as I remember he used to be a bit of an idiot at times, but a nice enough guy) and another one has just been jailed for drug dealing. Was caught with cocaine in his underpants apparently. I wonder what the fates of those in my year will be.. where they'll all be in 3 years time. I wonder where I'll be.

Oops

Spin says:
hey
Ian says:
guten abend
Spin says:
guess what I almost fucked up
Ian says:
rebuilding the leaning tower of pisa from scratch using only matchsticks and blu tac?
Spin says:
no, much worse - Nathan's first night as Venue Manager
Ian says:
i doubt that very much, what happened?

--

So, I took Jen to Ceroc on Monday and she loved it. Then tonight she saved my life.

I wasn't going to dance, but Jen rang saying she was 'enthused', and what she'd been planning on doing had been called off. So she drove us in early and we wandered up with plenty of time. When we were sitting down, and I was checking there were extra ladies so I could be a man, Nathan said "I'm glad you decided to show up, you're demo" and I said "no I'm not".

Well, Nathan (all hail the New Venue Manager) was right, I was demo. So Jen and I hastily swapped clothing - so I could be trousered - and I hopped up on stage! Woo hoo for Jen! And woot for me too, because I demoed evil footwork (evil for me) and I didn't screw it up!

Other nice things that have happened have included lunch and an afternoon with Ella, a meal out with my Dad, visiting Jess's new feline friends (and Jess of course!) and a walk with Phil :D

Meow..

Poppy with an exciting piece of string

My hands have lots of holes in them. But it was very worth it :)

Jen's 18th

Colin, Ruth, Kayleigh, Roo, Sarah, Jen, Ella & Paul

Again another brilliant party - I had such a good time! Phil drove me over (wow, I'm so impressed by all my friends who posess a skill I haven't even attempted to learn) and a very bouncy Jennie opened the door. She liked her present (yay!). There was about 3 times as much alcohol as people :) which is always, always a good start.

I sat outside with Phil, Roo and Kayleigh for a while and laughed at Roo's horrified expressions as Phil produced first large quantities of vodka, rum, tobacco and weed and then a blindfold and a roll of bondage tape from his bag. I then traumatised Roo further by telling him about the resonance of my earrings as they swung as I walked. Too much Physics, apparently.

Other highlights include:
-chatting to Ella
-Jen saying "ready steady go" before kissing me (?!)
-dancing with Jen (of which there is hilarious video evidence)
-seeing Phil in general
-being back with all my friends who I've missed so much
-reminding Colin about what had amused him
-Sarah in general
-my 8th drink

Hehe, when I arrived at Phil's I was greeted by his Dad..
David: Hello there Tegwen! Would you like a big gin to set the evening off?
Me: Yes please!

Which put me in mind of another brilliant quote..
David: I went to the fridge the other day, and in it I found a little pile of magic mushrooms! I said to Jan, 'what are these doing here?' and she said they were Phil's. And then I found out the blighter had stolen my gin!