Love Poem To A Town

The sea moves beneath
me, within me, filling
me with this place. Ever
changing skies, different
moment to moment.
My greatest love affair
is this wind-swept,
rain-battered town. This nothing
place entangles me, holds
me closer than any before.
It calls to me, pulls
back, envelops. It is peace.
Contentment.
A safety net.

All Quiet on the Western Front

Apologies for the radio silence on my part, both here and on blog comments, but I’m having giant internet issues at the moment which renders it pretty much unusable. Trouble shooting is in progress. If that doesn’t sort it out, I’ll be on the phone to my service provider, demanding it gets sorted or I’ll be taking my money elsewhere.

I’ll be back ASAP, promise!

Intern

• Blouse from Next
• Skirt from Matalan
• Shoes from Shoe Zone

Well! What a few days I’ve had!
I had a great time in Frome the last couple of days with MrKiss and his friends. We didn’t do very much, but it was nice to have a few days of doing not very much. I’ve been so well fed too; MrKiss’s family grow loads of their own veg and his mum makes her own apple juice, chutneys and jams, which are delicious. We also made a vegetable curry one night made almost entirely from home-grown veg! Lush! I quite like the idea of growing my own food, but I’m not terribly green-fingered. I think if I ever live somewhere with a decent sized garden I’d like to have a go though.

In big news, I had a meeting today with the marketing manager of The Courtyard, our local theatre. I was hoping to apply for a marketing internship there, and because my mum has worked there for years, the manager said I could come in for an ‘informal chat’ about the place and perhaps bypass the formal interview process. I went in, expecting to talk for a while and then have to wait until the official closing date to hear anything. But after chatting for a few minutes, he suddenly said he was offering me the place! I was so surprised, but so pleased. I need to have a chat with my Wetherspoons manager to arrange compressing my hours, but then I’ll be ready to start pretty soon. I’m excited!

This outfit was what I wore for my meeting. I wanted to look smart, but not over-dressed and I think this struck the balance right. I’m quite looking forward to experimenting with office wear actually. I’ve never worked in that kind of environment; I’ve either had a uniform or been able to very casual. What do you wear to work?

Blah

I was going to take outfit pictures today, but I’m not feeling great so I don’t feel like it. Sorry.  I am back in Hereford now and slightly unpacked. I miss Aber already. There is something soul destroying about Hereford. There is less and less here everytime I come back. Fingers crossed I’ll be out of here soon.

I’ve transferred over to Hereford Wetherspoons and worked my first shift there yesterday. Most of the staff are different, but there are still as disorganised as ever, or so it seemed yesterday. Here’s hoping it gets better from here.

I had a cracking night out on Friday with my two best friends. It was great to see them, and we were laughing so hard and loud I was sure we were going to be thrown out of one quiet pub we went into. We also found a pub where the bar was a pirate ship. A pirate ship. It was awesome. Two of us finished up in Manhattans, the bar I’ve raved about on here before, where a group of old men tried to chat to us up before deciding we were lesbians. Entertaining, but very strange.
We found out that Manhattans is closing for good soon, which is an absolute tragedy. I don’t know where I am expected to go out in Hereford now. I will miss that place, but I guess we have the pirate ship bar to console us.

I’m off down to Frome to see MrKiss tomorrow before I start work properly. There’s going to a couple of other Aberystwythians there too, so it should be a good couple of days.

What are you all doing with yourselves?

Fresher

I’m beyond heartbroken I’m not going to back to university this September. I loved uni so much and I’ll miss it. I’m so jealous of all the people getting to start for the first time with all that fun in front of them.

So I can relive my student days, I thought I’d put together a post of tips for freshers. Here we go!

• Shop around for a good student account. Pick one that has good account for you, offers a good freebie (my bank paid for my 16-25 railcard) and find out what happens when you graduate. A lot of my friends were caught out when their accounts switched to normal ones as soon as our exam results were out, meaning they were charged for being over-drawn. My account became a graduate account, so no overdraft horrors for me.
• Take a doorstop. When you’re unpacking, prop your door open. Then you can chat to your flatmates as they arrive and walk past your door. Makes friends fast. Taking lots of tea and cake also makes you friends.
• Actually go to lectures. I know the first year doesn’t count, but you will need that knowledge later, and it’s good to get into the habit in your first year.
• Go to the Fresher’s Fair if your uni has one. You can see what societies and sports teams there are, get vouchers and offers from local businesses, and if nothing else you’ll get enough free pens to last you the whole year of lectures.
• Make a cleaning rota in your flat. Seriously, no matter how tidy everyone claims to be, it will not get cleaned otherwise.
• Don’t get a credit card. You do not need anymore debt than you’ll have already. It is entirely possible to live on loans and grants alone. I did.
• Learn to cook if you can’t already. It’s cheaper than take-out, healthier than ready meals and a good skill for life.
• Pre-drink. If you’re going out, invite some friends round to have some drinks in the flat. You’ll be nicely merry, have fun, and spend less on expensive drink when you’re out. As a barmaid though, I beg of you, do NOT take your own alcohol out with you and sneakily drink it in the pub. You aren’t that broke, ok?
• Don’t be scared of talking to people. Nobody else knows anybody either, they’re just as terrified as you. Start chatting. You’ll make friends in no time.
• Check the inventory when you move in. Add any damage that isn’t listed, and take pictures. Then you can keep your deposit. If you do break anything, report it immediately, then it can get fixed, rather than you be charged for it at the end.
• Do not drink and cook. It’s always a bad idea. It sets off fire alarms at 3am and will make your entire block hate you. Plus, dangerous.
• If the fire alarm goes off in the night, make sure you put on something warm before you go out. You’ll probably be stuck out there for a while. And make sure you take your keys out with you.

Hope that helps some of you out. The most important tip I can give is that the terror will ease, so relax and enjoy yourself!

Live Long and Prosper

• Shirt from New Look
• Tie from Claire’s Accessories
• Jumper from Matalan
• Wand from Olivanders Amazon

I don’t seem to have any full pictures of my Hermione costume, but I was also wearing a black pleated skirt, grey knee socks and black ballet shoes. Not bad, considering I already owned everything but the wand. The member of Star Fleet beside me is my housemate. It was her 21st birthday, so we all went out dressed as sci-fi and fantasy characters. We had Wash from Firefly, Cat Woman, a fairy, some aliens, Men in Black, some Red Dwarf style holograms, Elphaba from Wicked and all kinds of other great costumes.

The night was so much fun. We finished up at the pub on the pier where there was karaoke going on. I now have some hilarious video of my drunken workmates singing Don’t Stop Believin’. So funny.

I have some news too. KissHQ is relocating back home to Hereford. I’ve left the pub here, and will be transferring back to the Wetherspoons in Hereford. The decision to leave both the job and this town was a difficult one. I’ve loved living in Aberystwyth. I love this house. I love my workmates, if not the work, and I’m going to miss them all so much. But I do think the choice is the right one. It’ll be cheaper to be living at home, and there’s a couple of different work opportunities which there aren’t here.

Tonight I’m going out for leaving drinks with some friends from work. Should be a good night.
Live long and prosper!

Serenity

• Top from Next
• Belt from New Look (I think)
• Skirt from Topshop
• Tights from Dorothy Perkins
• Boots from New Look

Another simple look for doing not very much in.
MrKiss is here now and we’ve had a nice few days of chilling out , walking, and watching a lot of Joss Whedon. Right now, we’re re-watching Firefly and have just started watching Dollhouse online. Dollhouse is the only Joss Whedon show I haven’t already seen, but I’m enjoying it so far. I think Buffy will always be my special favourite though.

Today, we’ve been gathering bits of costume for my housemate’s birthday night out (sci-fi and fantasy theme). Costume pics will up after the event I’m sure.

Tonight we’re planning a quiet night in with more TV, and we’re going to make a Red Pepper soup and some bruschetta. Yum! What are you up to tonight?

Confirmation

• Dress from Matalan
• Cardigan from Peacocks
• Shoes from H&M

This picture looked way better on my camera display screen. Sorry about that.

Yesterday, me and some other work friends went to the confirmation of my housemate. She’d asked a few of us to go along, expecting no turn-out, but there we all were to offer our support for something that obviously matters to her. She spoke a bit about how she came to that church, and was very funny and touching. She spoke about friendship and feeling included and finding a church that she enjoyed instead of going through the motions. I can safely say that church-going isn’t for me, but I’m glad I went for her.

Her church friends invited us to join them for lunch after the service, and we had a fantastic Sunday roast at the restaurant on the pier. It was so tasty, and not bad value. I have honestly never seen such enormous Yorkshire puddings. They were massive. Our table decided that the Yorkshires would make charming hats for Ascot, as they were so huge. 

I’m about to go out for lunch with some friends to say goodbye to one of the summer staff from work before she goes back to uni. After that, MrKiss is arriving. Yay!

RAGE

I haven’t done an outfit post in about a thousand years. I’m so sorry. Trouble is, I work so much, I mostly wear my work uniform and that isn’t exactly blog worthy. I used to make it ‘me’ by wearing headbands and jewellery, but now I am too lazy and just fling it on. On my days off, I am too tired to bother.

However, I am now off until Saturday (YES!) so interesting outfits will be back. Work is a touch mental right now. We’re at the tail end of the holiday season and are so full. In our pub, we have a queue system. There are support pillars just in front of the bar, which somehow makes people automatically form a queue. Now, we just go with it. At the moment, we’re trying having a seperate till with its own queue for drinks. And man, does that cause rows. Normally, works great, but some people get beyond stroppy when you send them back for trying to order the wrong thing at the wrong till, despite the signs. As tonight was a Saturday, nobody much was ordering food, so we had one queue. Mahoosive rows about that one. It never ceases to amaze me how aggressive some people get towards staff and how quickly. I was serving at the drinks till, and had so many people shouting at me when I asked them to queue. Before working for Spoons, I had honestly never been spoken to in such an awful way on quite such a regular basis. Don’t get me wrong, most of our customers are great, but some…good God. Anger management seriously needed. Perhaps bar rage is a thing like road rage.

Apologies on the ramble there. In other news, MrKiss is arriving on Monday which is awesome as I haven’t seen him in two months. Beyond excited.
Tomorrow my housemate is being confirmed at her church. I’m going along to the service. I’m not religious, but it’s important to her, so I’d like to be there.

What have you have been up to? Do you suffer from bar rage?