One of the great things about being at uni is the summer holidays. My last exam was on 20th May, and my first day back is 22nd September. 4 months and 2 days of holidays :)
In June, my friends and I flew out to Spain, to a holiday town called Salou. The six of us stayed in a cheap and cheerful hotel, in a 2 bedroom appartment (the couch was folded out into a bed), for a week of fun in the sun. Various antic ensued, including a day trip to the theme park Port Aventura, about an hour's cramped bus ride away, lounging by the pool, shopping, arguing, getting free glasses from McDonald's, and several nights out.
And Jennifer and I discovered we could fit between the two glass sliding doors out to the balcony :)
Later in the month, Chris came up from Guisborough to stay for a few nights, on two separate occasions, not for anything special though. We went to the cinema and we lunched and we went for walks. It was nice.
At the end of his second stay, our two friends from Germany, Sina and Anja, came back to visit for a week, so they could go to the Ball for the year that they joined at the high school. It was lovely to see them again after all those months, and to catch up on all the gossip. They really enjoyed the ball, and afterwards, we took them out to try the famous deep fried Mars bar! For any who are wondering, they just taste like warm Mars bars, with crunchy stuff on the outside (the same kind of batter they put the fish in in chip shops). Very sickly, but only as much as Mars bars are normally. I have yet to try a deep fried Easter egg, but i have heard they're similar.
In July I started working as a care assistant for NHS Lothian. It's a bit like being a nurse, but I don't have to deal with medicines, injections or dressins. Mostly my role consists of helping people to wash, to go to the bathroom, to eat and to get into bed. Because I'm with the staff bank, I can ring up and ask for shifts when I am available, but the converse of that means there aren't always shifts available at the preferred time in the preferred locations. However, I struggle through. I've only been working 2 months now, but I have seen my fair share of gross-ities for a life time!
I've spent a couple of weekends this summer at Chris's. The weather where he is has been, in general, much nicer than up here, so his tan is much better than mine. He had an operation on the 3rd July, on his ear, so he was recovering from that the first time I went up. The wad of bandages they'd put inside his skull made him grumpy and claustrophobic, but they weren't in for too long, and he was soon back to his normal cheerful self.
At the beginning of August, he took part in a Cathedral Singing Course with a lot of other young men and boys, in the beautiful cathedral in Ely, near Cambridge. I went down on the weekend with his dad, Peter, and his step-mum, Debbie, to hear the singing in the cathedral, and to celebrate our first anniversary. Chris got to sing in King's College at Cambridge University, earlier in the week, and he said it was one of the best experiences of his life.
Also that weekend, he and I got engaged! We found a ring that we liked in a jewellery shop in Guisborough, but unfortunately they had to order it in, because the one they had wasn't my size. That was just over a week ago, so perhaps it will arrive before he comes to vist me this weekend :)
So that's been my summer so far. It certainly doesn't feel much like summer any more, now that i'm sitting in the library again, and its raining outside. But I have another month before uni starts again, so i'll be working hard to pay my bills, and visiting Chris, and getting up to all sorts in this new flat of ours.
Thanks to Carolat for making this gorgeous page for Chris and I!
Yesterday (Wednesday) in Edinburgh 4 of the Scottish members of the Olympic Team GB treated us to a parade down the Royal Mile in an open topped-bus! The pavements on both sides were totally packed, with people balancing on top of bins and bollards, hundreds of press photographers, and a cavalcade of police on motorcycles and mountain bikes. We followed the bus down the lower half of the Mile, to the end of the parade in Holyrood Park. The carpark had been closed off and was filled with hundreds and hundreds of cheering supporters, including several groups of school children.
The 4 athletes were Chris Hoy (the triple-gold track cylist), David Florence (won silver in the Canoe slalom), Katherine Grainger (good name that - member of the silver-winning triple sculls ladies rowing team) and Ross Edgar (also a cyclist - won silver in the team sprint).
