Just back from a big family weekend in Dorset for a surprise party to celebrate my grandparents’ 50th wedding anniversary. Tasha has actually beaten me to the online publication of photos, but here we go anyway 
(She actually has put the whole lot up, so do check them out too.)
Waiting to surprise
Haha facial expression of joy
He was generally much more cool and collected about it
Nice group photo in la casual clothes
I get shoved at the back now
Aww then we dressed up
This is a Dominic tie photo first
Parents made an effort too
Formal group!
I like this photo of Dad and Josh too
Certainly a whirlwind few days… starting with Friday, my ‘fake Cambridge interview’ day. Robert, Promise and I trekked down to Harslesden for this event which included a workshop on interview skills and mock interviews to try and give us some idea how how it would go. My first interview was great – I made a point quite early on that he really liked, so everything flowed like a natural conversation that could have kept going for ages. The second interviewer was a bit tougher, asking a few questions I didn’t really know the answer to and damning my lack of knowledge on the history of the college but he said at the end it did go well and that I kept good eye contact, hehe.
Oh, and I met a Tory ‘Catholic but not really’ boy who has exactly the same voice as Alex Trafford! We argued jovially a bit, so shout-out to David Allen, wherever you are! A distinctly un-shout-out (a boo-out?) to the two pretentious boys in suits I sat next to for a bit who sneered at everyone else’s lack of preparation in not brining notepaper.
Friday evening saw the return of Quiz Night! (Remember that?) Fabio and I were on marking duties this time, after various people gave excellent and understandable excuses and a further person gave a lame one Oh, and Mr. Birch gave us a free QPCS Music CD! Well, better than getting chocolates that have gone off, Waseley crew?
Saturday was Lucccccccy day, which turned into House of Mase day as I got dinner and everything 
thank you! I returned to London by train, shunning the Megabus for leaving me stuck in a traffic jam in god-forsaken Coventry that morning. (Ask Lucy if you want to see the cartoons I hastily drew to relieve my frustrations with the residents of said town )
And the train was interesting to say the least – an ever-changing carriage of entertainment. From the group of kids with voices curiously like mine, to the fare-evading boys who tried to hide under chairs, to the girl who stopped me to ask “you don’t happen to know who was kicked out of X Factor tonight do you?” “No” I replied, but not wishing to sound boring, adding “it was probably the one with the most talent and potential though”.
My my my… MySpace. That’s the other thing. I finally caved in and submitted to intense peer pressure (OK Lucy told me to) and got a MySpace account. So, y’know, if you’ve done the same and fancy adding me… 
Though I’m already having the inevitable ethical dilemmas on how to manage the ‘Top Friends’ slot. Hehe addiction.
I guarantee you, at the end of this year when I have my extra-super-long summer holidays this blog will become so chock-a-block with posts that you can hardly move for ramblings, but until then my time is becoming increasingly finite
The big news news to mention, of course, is massively important and signals much hope for a better future. But I’m sure that you’ve all read already about Britney and Kevin’s divorce so I won’t say anything more. Oh, and yes, the US mid-terms. Hurrah! It’s great to see Democrats seizing control of both houses of Congress, and signals, finally, that one of the most disastrous presidents in US history is rapidly losing all semblance of power.
‘Most disastrous’? Really? Well maybe it is too early to judge, but there’s no doubt Bush has been presiding over a highly polarised country, and we should remember that for every American that voted for him two years ago there is (almost!) one that voted against him. So the celebrations now should be for them, and the tireless work put in to unset Bush over the past two years. 
Having said that, it is now important – now that they have some power and responsibility – that Democrats perform well in the eyes of the American public. And that means the American public; reconnecting with the rest of the world is all well and good but the urgent priority is to prove they can govern again. Else this victory could yet turn into a defeat two years down the line in the Presidential election, and we most certainly don’t want that!
Captain Jack in Torchwood
Brilliant so far and improving every week too, although not designed for the same family audience that Doctor Who is. (Not, it isn’t as good as Who but then what is? 
Great for building up anticipation for Series Three though!) Last week we had a pterodactyl attack a cyberwoman for goodness sake!
You can hardly turn down that.
Where we left off, Manchester had come in first with an early conditional offer of AAA. Since then, Nottingham have made up for second place by offering AAB and Reading have come in with a ‘we can’t be a simple as that – 300 points and a handstand’ effort. Cambridge sent me back my nice stamped return addressed postcard today saying ‘yeah yeah we got your pieces of submitted work, ta’ so the question is now – will Bristol or Birmingham talk to me next? Place your bets now…
Although I just spent a whole paragraph on it, I am really quite glad I don’t have to really worry about unis much at the moment. It’s back on with work, and presentations on the French Revolution for English Literature, for some reason. Oh – social-historical context. Got it
We actually had one of those nice studenty teachers in our lesson who told me “I’ll always remember the White Terror now as you described it – when the people killed the people who’d killed the other people.”
The trouble with being a compulsive blogger is that you do go around thinking ‘Ooh I must blog that’ and then you end up with big mega posts which skim over the first few lines and then wonder what they’re missing on YouTube. Having said that, it’s my blog, so deal with it
Firstly, if you’re using Internet Explorer 6 (it’s the big blue ‘e’ which you click on to go on the Internet dear) you should now upgrade to Internet Explorer 7 because it’ll make my life, and my cool web designer friends’ lives, a lot easier if you do. Honestly though, upgrade! It has tabbed browsing and printing that actually works and a few irresistible extensions like spell checking and Firefox-style searching which I encourage you all to check out, even if you plan to stick with Firefox as your main browser.
(Incidentally, what happens if you upgrade to IE7 and then want to test your websites in IE6? The official line is that you have to use Virtual PC, but stuff that – you can also swap in and out mshtml.dll files by searching your PC for them and then using the old IE6 ones… um… it’ll become clearer if you try it Still a pain though, unfortunately)
Stealth at Thorpe Park
and yes, I do have loads of work to do! Bit of a strange start too, since on Friday it seemed like all my friends were either having emotional traumas or dashing off to Scotland or Wales or other exotic places. But I got over that (saw Hoodwinked, yes really) and on Monday went to Thorpe Park with most of la family, which was a lot of fun! The highlight at the end was riding Stealth which Tash and I had been psyching ourselves up for all day, hehe. Hurrah for roller-coaster thrills!
Due to Ma Self’s gracious generosity I have also found myself with a sexy black executive IKEA office chair which I don’t want to get off, over. Mmmm thanks
This morning I had the rather brilliant surprise of a conditional offer from Manchester! (already!) Woooo! 
I’m really pleased about this because, with even more Cambridge forms piling up on my floor, it’s nice to know that if I get my 3 As I will definitely have somewhere to go next year. Good news!
And finally (phew, you intone) the rest of my morning consisted of a lovely hot chocolate and chat with Catherine in Roundwood Park Café, where we were rather worryingly mistaken for a couple by the staff who turned on a fountain for us 
(Worrying because this is the second time in a short while this has happened to me – Ms Taylor wondering why I was chatting to Clare so early in the morning! Honestly, it’s just a routine… I swap shifts with Joshua later!) Anyway, twas good to see her again after her birthday party which – shockingly – I seem to have neglected to blog about. Probably a good thing too since there are slightly… interesting photos floating about from that party where I look about 40. We’ll see if they ever reach the light of day then
OK, that’s it, I’m done. You can go back to YouTube now.
Rob Bell on Baby’s first blog: “Congratulations! Sounds like you are really enjoying the first few weeks which is great. Time flies!” Oct 13, 12:59
