boo!

It's been an exciting weekend!

I took my medicine, and it wasnt too bad! I fell asleep as soon as I felt ill so it was ok!

I got an email inviting me to England U21 lacrosse trials!!! But I can't go because I am in slapton on compulsory field trip. So that made me very upset. And the department won't let me skip a day of slapton! Meanies! But at least I got invited to the trials!

So what with those things and other events it has been an exciting weekend!!!

Wow I haven't written anything on here for ages! My life just hasn't been particularly interesting!

The first weekend back here I had a bit of a blitz on my coursework, managed to get it in by the deadline. Just about.
Have started new courses, all of which are quite interesting, especially environmental change - at the moment we are doing the beginning of the world and evolution. International Problems is a pain in the bum, as we have to answer single answer questions in the exam like 'who is the president of new zealand?' 'what languages do they speak in South Africa?' and lots of politics andd current affairs stuff. Methinks I may fail that section of the exam!

I have got test results back for schistosomiasis - it is present in my blood stream but not my urine or stool, so I can take the drugs and then it will be all ok. I took them yesterday, the side effects weren't as bad as I was expecting!

Lacrosse: We have only had one match so far, but I got to play the whole of it in goal. I played really well, and enjoyed it lots - we won 12-4. We have a big match coming up against cardiff soon - can't wait!

Other than that, not much has happened. We did really well in the quiz on monday. Ooh I nearly forgot toad in the hole night! Sonia wanted to try some proper english food, so clare and xiaoxi cooked us all a meal of strange names - toad in the hole and spotted dick. Much hilarity at their cooking skills as we watched them, but was very tasty in the end. Had a great night!

And the other exciting thing was a night out in Camden where we were apparently in the same bar as Pete Doherty - I had no clue who he was and was far more interested in the guy stood next to him who had sexy dreeadlocks!

Methinks that is all to report!


Clare and Xiaoxi cooking


Evil chef


The finished product

Well, as I haven't been able to get on the internet at home home, I have rather a lot to write!

The weekend after the last day of term, I met Lawrie in London. We had a FANTASTIC weekend, sleeping late, wandering aimlessly around town, drinking, and going to the theatre. We managed somehow to get tickets to see Spamalot, and we were both wetting ourselves with laughter - it was brilliant! I'd love to see it again!

I went home with him on the slowest train ever,and Del oicked us up from the station - 4 people in a car that was really only designed for one, with all of our luggage. Not particularly comfortable. And from then on I spent as much time as possible with Lawrie, which I think is fair enough given that he left for Australia on tuesday and I now won't see him until June.

Christmas was almost as normal as usual. I went carol singing around the village, which is always fun. Christms eve is Granny's birthday, so they came to our house and we had an okish lunch. Christmas eve evening, me, mum, dad and katie went to the pub at neen sollars (where i used to work before Bennetts) for a quiz, at which we did fairly abysmally.

Christmas day was the usual - stockings in the morning, then presents under the tree, turkey dinner and afternoon nap. Mum and dad got all of my photos from my travels put onto CD - a rather good present methink
s. Then, Christmas night, I went down to the pub tpo see Lawrie. I bought him a nice jacket and earring, and he, after i told him not to spend money on me, bought me a digital camera, webcam, some nice earrings and a weeny little cute amber penguin. Stoopid man. But now I can get pictures on here really easily!!! I may have accidently got a wee bit pissed on that night, and accidentally stayed at pub woth Lawrie when i really shouldn;t have, and accidentally puked on Pauli's carpeted bathroom floor. She's not going to let me live it down and I feel awful!!!

Saturday, andy and sharon did a farewell dinner for lawrie. was all very nice, and another drunken, and very full of food, day.

I didn't really have a sober night after that, but new year was the best. Karaeoke. And drink. I stayed up till 9am new year's day, to witness welsh john hit lawrie over the head with a plant...very funny to watch.

I stayed at the pub until tuesday, helping with all of the non-existant packing. On monday night, monty python was showing on channel 4, which was very apt for our last night together, seeing as python is one thing we both love.
Pauli drove to the airport, and i went to to say goodbye. all very sad, but I'll see him again in june. But now I miss him lots. Spoke to him and his sister Bev online today, using the webcam. was fantastic!!!

so I'm back at uni now, contemplatig coursework that's due in on monday!! aaargh!!!


Caz and Jenna, New Year



Lawrie and Welsh John, Xmas day



Me and Lawrie



Me and Steve singing do wah diddy diddy

Tuesday night was a lot of fun. Me and Jackie cooked a full blown christmas dinner for everyone, and we ate lots, drank more and exchanged secret santa presents. Clare bought me the BEST PRESENT EVER!!!! A rubber duck that lights up in water! and a thing that makes toasties with farmyard animals on!!!!! wowey!!!

So that was christmas party number 1. Last night is a bit of a blur. I think I went bowling, for pizza and out to a clubby thing with lacrosse people. And i think i got a wee bit flirty with everyone there ands made an arse out of myself. Very glad I can't remember!!!!! Ha!

So, friday night I went with Flo, Jen and Viv (all London Lacrosse players) up to Liverpool to play in the most important and highest level tournament I've ever played in, the territorial reserves. There were 2 keepers representing South so Ionly got to play 3 out pf the 6 games, but I really enjoyed them. (although I am originally from the midlands (as jackie puts it, I am neither north or south but have a hand in both pies) I can play for south because I study in London). I got really psyched up for all the games, and played really well in all of them.

On the saturday, we drew one game and won two, so we thought we were in with a good chance. But we slipped today, and lost against midlands and england U19s. We ended up 4th, which wasn't bad really! I had a great weekend anyways!

Now that that is over, all of my excitable attention is focussed on this friday, when I get to see Lawrie! YAY!!!!!!!

well it's been a rather busy weekend! I think it may even be necessary to split it into two posts!

I'll start with the FANTASTIC Geogsoc ball. Geogsoc is the most active subject related society in the university, which means that most geographers know each other really well. The society was disaffiliated from the union 50 years ago for being too drunk and disorderly, and its a well held tradition! So far we have had the fresher's pub crawl at the start of term, the bad taste pub crawl, and the 4 horsemen of the apocaly[e pub crawl (which I missed). But by far the best event is the Very Merry Christmas Ball, which happened last thurday.

We all got dressed up, and for once I really enjoyed getting all girly! Caz helped me to choose a beautiful dress, and jackie helped me to buy make up (a fairly foreign concept for me), and I did enjoy doing my hair and even wearing heels all night! The £40 tocket included a 3 course (yummy) christmas dinner, LOTS of wine, and a very good rasta-looking DJ. The music was FANTASTIC and super cheesy! The macarena, YMCA, we even had everyone down on the floor for boom shake the room! It would have been one of the best nights ever if it just ended there, but.....

.....I met a man in a kilt! And i managed to get him to demontrate how to do up a bow tie around my neck! He was soooooooo yummy! Unfortunely he ran away when I said I had a boyfriend. But i can't wait to see Lawrie in his kilt! BIG YUMMY!!! But that moment was like a dream come true. I have a BIG thing for kilts and scots. Definately one of the best nights EVER!!!!!


(nicola, clare and me all dressed up)


(party hats!)


(sexy dancing)




(yummy kilt man!)

So I have moved! I started packing monday night...well I was supposed to. Nicola came to help, and this was the result:







I can't say that I didn't enjoy lying on my bed creating photos using post-it notes, a hat (from a smoothy bottle) and my big bunny (called hippy, a 13th birthday present!)

But I am now moved! downstairs, into flat 21. The room is pretty much exactly the same, but my flatmates are lovely.
I have spoken a lot to Martin, who is a swedish pole, and very funny. Extremely well-travelled, and was very welcoming.
Then there is Becy, who also does geography, but I didn't say much to her because she had to do her lovely presentation thing, so I let her get on with it.
Ben seems nice, as does the other girl (whose name i will remember eventually!) but they havn't been around much yet.

Its so nice to have a messy kitchen! it shows that my stuff won't get trashed if I don't lock it away!!!

It was Grandma and Baboon's birthday today, and every year the whole of Mum's side of the family get together for the weekend. This year was special (grandma's 80th, Baboons 50th), so we stayed in a hotel in Warwick last night. I really enjoyed it, because I don't get to see Mum's side of the family (who I am very much alike) very often because Dad doesn't get on with them.

They are:
Me
Katie: My sister
Mum
Dad
Grandma: totally crazy - goes camping for four weeks every summer despite being 80!
Clare (mum's sister): also totally crazy, and looks very similar to Mum
Bob (clare's husband): Lovely, if a little boring (I shouldn't say things like that!)
Geoffrey (clare's eldest son - aged 10): very sarcastic!
Christopher (clare's youngest - aged 8): should be on the stage!
Baboon (mum's brother Paul, who I named baboon when I was 2): HUMONGOUS, very funny, a small child at heart
Debbie (baboon's wife): tiny! Very funny looking couple! Also very funny though!

We ate a LOT of food on saturday night, and then Warwick castle for the boys today. There was a very fun ice slide! But other than that, it was definately far too commercialised for my liking. But I had a good weekend! I love to see them all!

Last night me, Sonia, Xiaoxi and Jackie went to see the UCL producttion of Jeckyll and Hyde the musical (mainly to support Clare and Nicola who were crewing, and have given up over 60 hours if their time this week to be involved). I was stunned at how incredible it was! Especially considering it was a student amateur production! I'm willing to put it up in the list of the top 3 productions I have ever seen, along with Blood Brothers and ...erm...I'm sure there is another! The guy who played Jeckyll and Hyde did this amazing song where he had to be both characters, sometimes in the same sentence, having an arguement with each other. He did it so well!!! Basically the whole production was INCREDIBLE!!!!!

Caz, me and her friend Lucy went to potions (have I mentioned potions before? Its a really nice cocktail bar) after that...was yummy :)

So that was giddy, now for horny!

I have recently discovered two of the cutest penguin emoticons! So this entry and the next will be solely to show them off!!! I don't see when I will get to use them!

Shopping is not fun! My legs ache, I'm hungry and I am £350 into my overdraft. Poooooo.

Ok, time to edit this entry as I have recovered a bit after a film (Coyote Ugly, borrowed off Jackie, FANTASTIC!!!) and a LOT of chocolate ice cream!

Me and Jackie left after our lecture at 1pm. I loved lectures today...we had Richard Taylor for both, and he is a fantastic lecturer...or at least I think so. Methinks maybe the Canadian accent and sense of humour help! Anyways, we began in paperchase on Tottenham Court Road, and headed to Covent Garden (Jackie had never been before). Then to Piccadilly Circus and Trocadero (where I have never been before!) and up Regent's Street. By this time I was nearly all done and exhausted, and had got my present for my secret santa (I'll tell you who it is after she has found out!) and for Whaz, Katie and Rachel.Then I found something in Carnaby Street that cheered me up. It is something that I have been searching for for Lawrie for ages (again, I'll tell you what when he knows!) and I found it in a very strange gothic jewellery shop. It almost had the feel of what I would imagine an S&M dungeon to be like, but it had some really nice jewellery in it (if you looked hard enough!). So we happily trotted off up Oxford street, stopping in Topshop for Jackie...4 floors of clothes...my worst nightmare! and finally home! Phew!!!

I am being a very boring person at the moment, but loving it. I have been sleeping for over 10hours every night and its really not good for me!

The first bit of not-news is that I am moving next week at some point into Laura's room - YAY!!!!!!!!! Very excited, but I know that I won't pack until the last minute!

I seem to have loads of work to do :( so I'm trying to get through lots of books at the moment, all on either ecotourism or the growth of Londo. So even though I'm boring, I have been a busy bean!

Only thing that has really happened has been another lacrosse match today. Again I played a decent game, and we won against Oxford 12-6...not bad given that last time they beat us 20-1!!!

And I think that's it!

Sixties party last night at ULU was fantastic! (though methinks I was the only one who was really excited). I dressed up as a hippy, and the music was great. All you need to do is look at the music that I listen to to see how much I like sixties stuff. In fact, I think that everyone was right when they said that it's fairly obvious that I was born 30 years later than I was meant to be! I love the music, I love some of the hippy philosophy (ie enjoy life and don't upset anyone else), and I am seeing someone of the wrong generation (or wrong century as Nicola so kindly stated).
Dressed in hippy clothes (I could very easily turn hippy) I managed to convince myself I was stoned just by being really relaxed and enjoying the music so much - it was very strange! But what a great night! When the fire alarm went off at 4.30am, it was fine - I was still in such a happy mood, and so drunk, that I didn't care.

But this morning I was hungover. I woke up with a large peace symbol drawn on my cheek in eyeliner, which I was desperately trying to get off before I went to lacrosse. And I had to play on a hangover. we played Kings (UCL's arch rival...and Caz's college) and beat them 6-5! I played a decent game for once! It was a really enjoyable match!

I still have absolutely no inclination to do my el nino southern oscillation essay, and its due in tomorrow. O deary me.


(me as a hippy)

Last night I went to an ice hockey lesson with Nicola! It was fantastic! I'm not great on skates, but can do enough to move forwards and turn sharply, and almost stop. The best bit was learning how to tackle...I was put against quite a musscly bloke, who was scared of hurting me, so I was happily body checking, poking, hitting him with my stick, and he didn't touch me!
I am in a bit of pain now though...I fell over a lot! Some very impressive falls!
Lawrie used to be rather good at it...he is officially crazy and masochistic! But I'm going back again, I loved it!

Off shopping now. I hate shopping, but I gotta give people something for christmas!

Just got back from a rather fun night! We (Me, Nicola, Jackie, Clare, Xiaoxi and Sonia) went to see the medics annual panto, 'The Wizard of Obs'. It was absolutely hilarous and extremely dirty! More sex positions in a two minute scene than I've ever seen before, very few clothes, a gay hitler flirting with a brummie Jesus, and a final scene with men in tiny santa claus suspender belts from ann summers...unfortuately one guy (Jesus) was hanging out...all to obvious when he was doing the can can! Lovely!
Nicola (whose Mum lives in Turkey) decided to inform me that 'Isa' in turkish means 'jesus' and 'bel' means 'sperm'. That makes my name, Isabel, 'Jesus Sperm'. Great. So you can see what kind of night we had! Sexual innuendos left right and centre! Very funny!
Earlier today I found out some interesting facts...
Jackie has a disease (most common in middle aged men) which means tha she gets nightmares if she eats too much choclolate. She is also related to a witch. I wonder if the two are linked? An evil curse perhaps? And Clare had hypnotherapy when she was 11 to make her more organised. It seems to have worked!

When I got home, I went down to see one of Keiran's friend's flat. She wants to move out because her flat is too quiet...suits me! Her room seems nice, and I really want to move. I just have to wait for her to give a definate yay or nay...I may be out of here soon!

Ooh and something else exciting happened! At the beginning of one of our lectures today, we were given a questionnairre to fill in. It was things like 'do numbers have spatial patterns?' and 'are words linked to colours?'. So i filled it in, and got an email back saying that they think I may have synesthesia (ability to assossiate things with other things) and they will pay me to answar more questions. So now I am discovering why I see patterns for numbers and why I remember phone numbers well. It's interesting! A good example is the number 891582. This is split into two blocks: 891 582. This is because the first number of the second block is half the first number of the first block +1, the second numbers in the blocks have a difference of 2 and the last numbers in each block are in numerical order. I can point to these numbers in the air, as numbers are arranged (in this case) as:
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
So if I point to the numbers in order, the 9 and 8 'protect' (ie surround) the 8 and the 2.
So that's what I tried to describe to them, but in much more detail.

For some reason I am very lethargic at the moment, and can't get motivated to do anything. I need someone to give me a kick up the bum to do some work and some lacrosse training!

I AM ABSOLUTELY EXHAUSTED!!!

Left London at 10 this morning to get to Bath to play lacrosse (missing a lecture...naughty Izzy!), and when we got there, half our team didn't show up for the first half. So we were 3 players down. Not good. And the pitch was a mudbath. But we actually did really well, and it was a surprisingly close match, given the circumstances, though I'm not sure of the final score. But I personally played an absolutely awful game. I seem to have very little motivation at the moment to do anything except eat and sleep! I need someone to come and make me do stuff!
The journey back was awful. Steph (the captain) drove. The first half was okay, and we kept ourselves occupied by playing 'I have never'...a drinking game that works surprisingly well when sober, where you find out who has done what, usually in their sex lives. We discovered a lot about each other, from who has acted out fantasies (yes but I'm not telling you what they are!) to who has had a threesome (no!), to who has the best masturbation techniques (no comment). Lacrosse players really are open woth each other, and I think it's great!...But then we ran out of 'I have nevers' and the traffic started to build up, until we were at a standstill on the M25. It took over 3 and a half hours to get home. I was shattered by the time I got here! I decided that the best plan was to head to the Chinese takeaway for some greasy food, and hibernate with a can of strongbow (my drink of choice most of the time) and a film. I'm even feeling too lazy to shower, which is awful because I am caked in mud!
Add to this exhaustion the 2 hour hardcore running in ultimate frisbee practise last night! I am shattered! But ultimate is very fun...you have to pass the frisbee between your team to get it into the other team's end zone. I have just started learning, but I think it's a great game!

I miss hot baths! With lots of bubbles!

We actually did okay at quiz night! Go us!!!

Other than that, not much is going on really. I am feeling totally unmotivated to do anything...I have lots of work to do, and I really need to do some training for lacrosse, but I just can't make myself do it! I am really very lazy!

Lawrie was rather nasty this morning, and asked me to look up flights to Australia for him because he can't do it from on the ship. So I told him that it's gonna cost him £6million to get there and that he can't afford it and should just stay here. Somehow I don't think he believes me.
But I did ditch him for lacrosse (he was going to come to see me on the weekend of the reserves tournament) so I suppose he is allowed to be mean back! Ha!

I wrote somewhere (it may have been on a private entry) that I'd write up a list of penguins. At the very beginning of our relationship, Lawrie texted me saying that he was bored. So I texted back saying 'see how long you can go without thinking of Penguins'. He then sent hundreds of texts about penguins in various situations, and penguins has now become our thing. Here are some (just try to picture them, some are very funny when you think about them!)...
page 3 penguin
killer penguin
goose stepping penguin
fireman calender shoot penguin
air guitar penguin
disco duck penguin
splatted penguin
gyrating penguin
hula dance penguins
penguins doing it 'kate moss in the movies' stylee
penguin jockey
penguin sneaking up on sheep and scaring them...in disguise
spaceman penguin
can-can penguin
penguin getting high from snorting snow
s&m penguin
puking penguin
lacrosse penguin
penguinistry of silly walks
sunburnt penguin
Albino Penguin (how do you find him on the ice?)
Penguin in 6 inch stilettos

...and I'll keep adding to the list! We come up with new penguins all the time! That's how strange we are!


(the back of a cushion cover bought for me by penguin man!)

I am rather bored, trying to research El Nino and the Southern Oscillation for an essay. Getting confused between East and West...when you are looking at the Pacific Ocean, Australia is in the west! Very discombobulated! So I have been looking through some pictures to clear my mind, and I really like this one!


(Xiaoxi is suprisingly good at photographing fireworks)

It is from when Clare, Xiaoxi, Jackie and I went to see the memorial day fireworks, that are set off from the middle of the Thames. I thought that they were rather fantastical, and I had a really nice evening that evening. I walked down to waterloo to meet them, and we watched the fireworks together and had a wonder, just chatting about nothing at all. They got the tube home, but I was feeling rather happy and contemplative, so I walked up and down South Bank, looking at the pretty skyline, and thinking about nothing much in particular. I felt like Pooh bear, and I really enjoyed it. Sometimes I do that, I get into a contemplative mood, and I wander around aimlessly thinking. It's one of the most relaxing things ever.


(Another firework)