A typical night out

This is what happens when Lola gets tipsy and there are poles about. We should try to not let this happen in future as it leaves very painful bruises and aching muscles.

Hello all

This will be the last time I post as a 21 year old. In half an hours time it will be my 22nd birthday, now hands up who thinks I'm old *puts hand up*.

Anyway tomorrow I'm off to London with my family for a birthday weekend to remember. Shopping, theatre and drinking. You can't beat it with a bouncer.

Finally there's still a tiny bit of time left to vote for your favourite blogs in the 2007 Blog Awards vote for me, it's my birthday! I'm kidding, vote for your favourites while there's still a chance to.

Right all, enjoy your weekend, I shall be enjoying mine, even if I will be 22.

Bloggies

Just came across this: 2007 Weblog Awards. So vote for your favourite blogs as I know I will be.

As for how I'm doing right now, I had a bit of an upsetting night last night. Nothing I can't handle in the cold light of day, I just get on with it and put my brave face back on. But suffice to say I don't think discussing it further would help any. That includes the people who know me outside of the world wide web, I don't want to talk about it.

Anyhow, before the night turned bad I managed to learn a few new poledancing moves. I actually went upside down (with the help of a poledancing randomer), it didn't look good but it'll improve in time... Here's someone who's a lot better at me at poledancing, although I just learnt how to do the move she does at about 1 min 3 seconds, enjoy.

Happy New Year!

Well it's now 2007 and I'm still left wondering where the heck 2006 went. So I decided to find out where the year disappeared by thinking over what were the highlights for 2006 for me, the best times, the worst times and the plain odd times. Carmelo inspired me to write this after I saw his post on the topic sorry for robbing off with your idea, Carmelo!

This day one year ago started off with me at a friends house celebrating the beginning of 2006. By about 2am I had managed to fall asleep on the floor using my best friends leg as a pillow, I don't think he minded too much. I didn't sleep for long and soon headed back to my house.
Note: This is a strange parallel of this year, where I stayed at home, fell asleep on the sofa in the early hours and woke up and went to bed at 6am.

As I'm a january baby the next highlight for me was my birthday. I was 21 years old and for the first time ever I had an exam on my birthday! I survived evil exams but only just, and made a resolution to study harder for my next exams (which I did). The fun came roughly two weeks after my birthday, when exams were over and a group of my friends and I painted the town red. It was the first time I'd ever been into Reflex, and although I didn't swing round the pole on this occasion, I did pose on it, leading to a rather infamous picture... Later in the year I would play on the pole and it would lead to bruises and an incomprehensible urge to play some more.

In 2006 I was chairperson for Links (up until the summer anyway) and therefore had all the stress associated with running a division, plus that of being in my last year at University. My hair was slowly coming out in rather worrying clumps in the shower. However 2006 was the year I managed to get it together, and not only did the unit survive me running it, but I managed to cope with my last exams and dissertation reasonably well.

In Jan 2006 my Dad started the job of decorating the hallway and dining room, and I'm pleased to report it was finally finished in October/November 2006. Only several months behind schedule.

I attended the Grand National, one of the biggest horse racing events in the world. I went with St John, as there was no way I'd be able to afford a ticket. The first day of it I was paired with a friend of mine by the parade circle. Highlights include us standing still too long in the cold and then being unable to move our legs, getting a cuppa while a race was on and having to gulp it down as we had to get back to our post before they cordoned off the area for the horses to come back in, getting soaked in the torrential rain while talking to some police officers (they were wondering why they were doing this, but at least they were getting paid, damn them), and returning to the first aid post after aforementioned drenching, looking a bit frostbitten and getting a nice sit down and a cup of tea in there. Good stuff.

The second day I was on the other end of the grounds and was with the now current chair of Links (my vice chair at the time), we were given an AED and when we got called to a something where we would have to use it, I was nearly pooing myself. We couldn't find the casualty and we were running like hell while I tried to get a more definite location from control over our radio. We ran into my best friend (a paramedic) and then we found the casualty, the ambulance service were already working on him, and we got stood down, thank goodness for that. My mate was laughing at me later on saying he'd never seen me move so fast in his life. This was also the day when I "got arrested". We were walking a casualty back to the first aid post when all of a sudden I felt something stop me, I looked behind me to find that the strap of my first aid kit had somehow brushed against the handcuffs of a policeman and the handcuffs had snapped shut on the strap. The policeman seemed as embarrassed as I was, and handed the handcuffs to his female colleague while he searched for the key. Other St John members who passed by stopped to take pictures... (excuse the edited picture, I just thought it would not be a good idea to post a pic on the web of the police officer). The final day wasn't as eventful, which is surprising considering the actual race is on that day. Alas I had forgotten to put a bet on as usual. The winner was Numbersixvalverde, which to be honest I don't think I would have bet on anyhow.

The Links weekend away was a good time, we went to county Durham, and as usual, had a little walk, drank a fair bit, and did activities. This years activities were archery (I rocked) and a tree-top rope course which scared the hell out of me at first and then led to me and a friend of mine referring to ourselves as "tree whores" as we were straddling every tree going. I also amused myself by hanging upside down on a wire suspended high above the ground. No pictures of that unfortunately. Other higlights include having to put on a play for the rest of the group, using a bag of props we got handed. This led to some bad chinese food puns, Scooby Doo, partial nudity and a monkey called Bubbles, that's all I'm going to say.

I got ill, for one of the first times ever. I had flu just as my dissertation was due in. I got a doctors note and an extention, and as a result I've now got a dissertation that makes sense.

I got offers from all of the schools of pharmacy I applied to, and chose Manchester as my first choice. I deferred entry until 2007.

I again survived exams, but the difference this time was that I knew what I was talking about on them.

I started my brief job as a lab technician at a college. The job held such highlights of getting hopelessly lost on my first day (my sat nav took me to the right road but in the wrong area), getting to make fake blood, microwaving hearts and denting my car.

As you can see my now linking to blog posts, this is when I first started my blog. I've chatted to some fabulous people through it, and as you can see from my first post, I never imagined that anyone other than my friends would read it. So thanks to everyone who's either read or commented on any of my entries on this blog (and thanks to anyone who's reading this doozy of a post, it is a bit long). I'm looking forwards to reading more blogs in this new year.

I graduated with a 2.1. It was my first degree and I loved doing it, even though I played harder than I worked for the first two years. I think in the last year I made up for it. I'm slowly losing my ability to remember all the drugs I learnt about, but hopefully my books, notes and vague memory of this degree should stand me in good stead for the next degree. I sometimes think that it would have been easier if I'd have applied for pharmacy in the first place, but although it would have saved me time and money I wouldn't be where I am now in terms of my emotional development. I wouldn't have met some of my best friends ever. So although it has taken me longer to do what I want to do I wouldn't change it.

I went on holiday to Turkey for the fourth year running. I wont say much here except it was an enjoyable holiday.

I had an interview for the pharmaceutical company I now work at. I thought I'd blown it with my jet lag related nattering, but for some unknown reason I was taken to work in the QC department.

I attended Creamfields as a member of St John, and I can't really say more than what I already posted here.

I went on the course I did to become a first aid trainer. It was hard work but fun, with lots of staying up late and drinking wine while planning our teaching sessions.

I placed third in the "So you think you can blog competition" on the blog Theory of Thought. Many thanks to Thethinker.

I went to London to see Wicked, and The Last Five Years.

I had fun dressing up for Halloween.

I got really bad tonsilitis and moaned a lot about it.

A friend of my sisters passed away.

I discovered baileys irish cream brownies, and ate way too many.

I had a good Christmas. I laughed at my sisters expression when she opened what she thought was a 25 quid bottle of champagne and turned out to be a bottle of bucks fizz. I then later got to see her face when she opened the real bottle of 25 quid champagne. I got dvds a-plenty, ate a huge meal and partied in the evening.

I got taken to a casino for the first time, didnt spend a single thing all night, and made 35 quid from a tenner, not bad for a first timer. We also had a meal in china town afterwards at about 2am with salty rice, yuck.

Then we come to New Years Eve. We had a chinese so big that I had to open my top jeans button. Then we saw in the new year at home and watched most of "2006 most annoying celebrities".

2006 has been a fast year, but eventful. I've done plenty of firsts. I've been hurt, and hurt others. I lost my temper on occasion. This was the first year I became a redhead, and right now the red is here to stay. I've partied hard, worked hard, and also been incredibly lazy. I have grown into a more mature, slightly sassy girl, who can be sensible when she tries, but most of the time she doesn't want to try.

Happy new year everyone, I hope 2007 will be a good year for all.

(Thanks to all who have read this far, why not post a comment just to say hi!)