three years. twelve pieces of coursework. nine exams. fifty-four essays.
In the immortal words of Jesus himself, 'It is finished!'
This week's selfies make up for a month of absense - here i am soaked in Champagne after my last exam ever (well, unless i go crazy and become a postgrad.)
For today's 'lately' post i'm linking up with the salad days blog.
In the build up to exams, reading the Salad days blog posts is quite literally one of the highlights of my day. Sarah is an american expat living just outside Oxford with the most adorable little girl, a great sense of music and a real gift for making you feel as if you're living her life alongside her. Check the blog out, i promise you'll enjoy it!
So here is my first entry to her 'Catch yourself' portrait club. The idea is to take a photo that offers a glimpse of your life. So here i am; curled up on my window seat in sweatpants, studying and watching the world go by. Its not the most exciting picture, but then again my life is not the most exciting right now :)
Apologises for my lack of blogging recently. I have so many half finished entries clogging up my post board, i promise i will get round to them eventually. Things are still hectic here. Life is still a mess, and i now have the added pressure of 20,000 words to write in the next two weeks.. stressed is not the word.
But regardless, here are some snaps from some of the happier times from the last two weeks. They were few and far between, but here they are - little gems on an otherwise bleak horizon.
1. Summer is finally here. The Flip flops have been retrieved from the very back of the wardrobe.
2. A celebration in honour of our last lecture ever!
3. Some idiot broke our wing mirror. But i fixed it, alone. Superwoman.
4. Working at all hours of the day. My productive hours are from 4am until sunrise ha.
5. St Paddy's day with my wonderful daddy.
6. My beautiful mum on Mother's day. Lunch at the Beauport was gorgeous.
7. Rye in the sunshine. I love this cottage, it makes my heart skip.
8. Piggies ordering dessert.
9. My lovely brother and his girl on a family day out. I've missed these guys.
10. Saturday nights in with the man and trashy TV. Emotional recovery.
1. The final push toward Coursework deadlines means long days in the UL reading room.
2. This snap was taken at 6.30am on a very misty morning on the river. Stunning, but treacherous to steer through.
3. Dismantling and trailering 'Sarah' and 'John' for WEHORR (see previous post!)
4. Some much needed girl time, with some much needed ice-cream.
5. I am so lazy when it comes to hair. Here's me attempting a new style. I got bored, it didn't last more than five minutes after this photo was taken.
6. Lunch today with Pia. You guessed it, Giraffe's deli lunch burger. I swear i alone could keep that restaurant in profit.. (if it wasn't already always packed out!)
Last weekend i had the immense privilege of coxing the 'Woman's eights head of the river race' on the Thames. It was without a doubt THE most terrifying, but most fulfilling moment of my short coxing experience.
For those of you who don't know what it entails, the race is a 7.5 km (15k there and back!!) international competition along the river Thames. It follows the route of the Oxford/Cambridge boat race but instead of just two crews, the river is littered with over three hundred woman's boats. Its a logistical nightmare but an incredible experience.
For you to get a flavour, heres a short clip from the Thames rowing club this year:
As the cox, i am the feisty lady steering and motivating those poor exhausted woman in the boat and, trust me, by 6km rowing against the Thames' choppy waters those girls were tired.
Our day started at 5am. It did not start particularly well. In my sleepy state i grabbed a bag of raw bacon out of the fridge, instead of my sandwich! I felt very silly come lunchtime when, instead of my lovingly prepared chorizo sandwich, all i had to eat was raw back rashers that had been sitting in the sun ha!
Nonetheless, after very nearly missing our taxi we made it to the station and started the long journey to the river. Typically, the whole victoria line was out of action so after some nifty iphone route-planning, we finally made it to the WRONG boathouse where all our boats and coach nowhere to be seen.
We assumed that at this point, all our misfortune would have been used up and went about rigging the boats for the race. Unfortunately, no one connected the two wires that connected the microphone to the speakers. Cue some very panicked fumbling about in the boat moments before the race was due to start, and some very difficult marshalling.
Despite all the set backs, my girls raced beautifully. Here they are in all their glory:
Copyright: Jet photographic, Cambridge.
(and there's me, in my bright pink waterproofs and some bedraggled wet hair!)
Amazingly, we managed to complete the course in 25mins!!! And jumped up nine rankings in the process. (thats a big deal!) I honestly could not be more proud of these ladies and their dedication.
We rowed home completely unaccompanied. There were no marshalls and no instructions, just the calm abandoned waters of the river Thames. Naturally we sang disney songs and took it in turns dropping out of the stroke to eat mint cake.
Heres a glimpse of our journey home:
Unfortunately, we couldn't rest for long. Saturday night marked the end of the woman's racing season and so we had to scrub up in record time to attend Boat Club Dinner. For the most part it was a civilised affair, with profiterole swans and plenty of port.
Excuse the iphone quality. Blame a very drunk captain of the boats.
However, soon the lack of sleep and wine caught up with us and our night descended into this. It was unfortunate, but somewhat inevitable ;)
Recently, i've been running around like a wild thing. There never seems enough minutes in the day - to live, let alone to document all the memories.
So here it is, my weekly thursday catch up (a couple of hours late!).
Friday night: Pizza Express with the girls. Every time i go to this place, i order the same salad. Boring i know, but i have an ongoing love affair with honey and mustard sauce (it started with McDonalds in South Africa, why oh why England do you not serve H&M sauce with your nuggets!) . So imagine my devastation, when i realised Pizza express had changed their menu! Luckily, after some negotiation with the waiter, crisis was averted :)
Saturday: Pembroke regatta, and Bow showing off the beautiful mud marks from an unplanned trip into the river bank.. oops!!
Sunday: My local traditional sweet shop have put up this AMAZING window display. It's good ol' Will and Kate made of jellybeans. Beyond cool.
Tuesday: Feeding the five thousand Pie at Life group. Followed by a Pancake party!
Thursday: A beautiful summer's day in Cambridge... in february. It was a freak 19'C today, warm enough to get out of the winter boots i've been living in the last few months, and don some more sparkle :) Followed by a lovely meal with two very good friends, one of whom is putting the glamour into washing up. The other who made these chocolate/salted caramel pots and meringue. I am blessed, i tell you.
Apologies for the lack of real posts this week. Its pretty much just been a show of my instagram feed. This will be put right soon, i promise.
So this 'Lately' post is becoming a bit of a regular thing. I like it. Its nice for me to put together a record of all the things i've done that week, mundane or exciting. I'm more appreciative of my life because of it.
So here's a little recap:
1. This man needs a haircut.
2. Watching the Liverpool vs. Man United match at the pub - wife duty!
3. FINALLY back on the river. For two weeks the weather has meant no rowing, and with race season upon us it felt awesome to be back at training. Even if it means starting each day at the ungodly hour of 6am.
4. A love letter from my gorgeous man.
5 & 6. Our termly wine and cheese night. Awesome, love these people.
(note: picture 5 features Matt's vodka jelly. Jelly shots = inconvenient. Especially given said 6am rowing outing the next morning.)
