Midge bytes

Ummm, sorry everyone, I have been a bit of a dingbat as far as comments go…never actually looked in the ‘for moderation’ box, just thought people were only commenting via facebook for some odd reason…sorry!  I’ll try and switch on the comments so I don’t have to moderate them, thus allowing you all to abuse me about apostrophes and such whenever you fancy in the future. 

Ps. I avoid apostrophes at almost all costs so I may be safe  

Pps. It’s really nice to see that some people have actually read my blog!  Thanks, I’ll respond to comments from now on, now I can see them.

I heard back from Lincoln Uni, originally they sent me a conditional offer, but after I rang up and reasoned with them a little about not all solicitors having official stamps they (I am starting to have interesting thoughts about what constitutes proof of ID nowadays, why do signatures and rubber stamps mean anything?) have offered me a place without me having to resend my certificates.  Yay!  So, all I have to do now is apply for a student visa, buy a plane ticket and pay my tuition fees…argh. 

So,  I’m off to see mount Doom and everything else of interest in NZ…I have four months to raise a little more money and try and figure out just how many pairs of shoes to take.  So far my packing plans go:  Climbing harness and sticky shoes, hiking boots and a bikini for the couple of weeks I’m planning to spend in Oz first…that’ll probably do won’t it!  I expect I’ll take a few study implements too.  It’s going to be quite a contrast to my first year at uni though, when I turned up with everything and the kitchen sink, how am I going to survive as a student without my pressure cooker?

Packing aside, I really am very excited!  Moving with purpose now, which makes me a happy bunny.

In addition to the visa etc. list  I wish to learn to drive a tractor before I get there, I feel I would be letting the Devon side down if I turned up at agricultural college without having driven one.  I expect  I can get a young farmer to teach me, there are several who are regulars at the pub

I had a lovely day at the Sidmouth Folk Festival.  I went there by bus, which was a first for me, probably a good thing to do once!  Met up with Justin on the seafront with very little difficulty and we both admired each others hair, he’s had his all cut off!  He looks very dashing of course, but had a rather sunburnt neck.

Spent the day joining in with the festival as a tourist, the Sidmouth I know and love was replaced with a heaving crowd of morris dancers, street vendors, entertainers and every pub is packed full of fevered musicians strumming and plucking, squeezing and blowing in sessions, only disrupted by the occasional slightly irritating person daring to join in vocally and keep them from making their respective sounds for the length of a folk song (and those babies are LONG!)  People-watching from the middle of a pub session was great fun,  I enjoyed watching the concentration and cameraderie, along with the various eccentric outfits.  I did rather long for an instrument, but don’t feel any of mine are up to scratch…maybe if I go to sessions for the next ten years and sit there quietly some of the tunes will start coming out of my fingers when I play my sax or flute.

We went along to a Gregorian chant workshop, which was actually great as the chap running it (I’ll endeavour to find out his name) taught us to read dot notation.  He also reminded us of the Gregorian modes, which surfaced from the depths of my memory from GCSE music, so I obviously did learn something then!  It was quite hard combining sight reading in two new languages (dot notation and Latin, as I’ve never done any Latin) but I think I did pretty well.  The really tough bit was choosing an octave, as I’m not naturally Gregorian monk pitch, but there were a few sopranos there and I think we made rather a good sound, if not the traditional plainsong pitch.

In the evening we went to the global dance party, with ‘What Weasel’ playing (I can’t find them online, so I may have the name wrong).  They were brilliant, entirely instrumental and very bouncy and fun, definitely appealed to everyone.  I ended up bouncing up and down for the solid two and a half hour set, quite literally dancing until my feet bled (eww, I know)! 

Also spent most of the day putting the world to rights with Justin, which was cathartic, and talking about all our mutual friends, which made me feel less out of things.  I feel much more positive and tied to the moment than I did, I have spent the last few months really living for the next big thing, but I think I need to stop doing that as it’s not a very happy outlook.  So, in the spirit of living for the moment, I’m going to make sure fun is top of my list for the next few months!

I posted my application form to Lincoln University in Canterbury, New Zealand yesterday. Hopefully that will result in me going there next year!  I really do hope it works because I’m excited about it now!  Two hours away from pistes, twenty minutes away from Christchurch and surrounded by fields with mountains in the distance…looks like a Sarah kind of place!  Of course the course looks good too, I’m not just going for the scenery.  The plan is, assuming I get in, to spend a few weeks in Australia with Lou and Mike in January, then pop over to NZ for the start of term (I say ‘pop’, turns out there’s quite a bit of geography going on between the two countries, somewhat like flying from England to Russia).  My parents are contemplating a combined Oz and NZ trip in April to see everyone, which would be lovely.

I am also hoping to come home via Fiji at the end of the year…because there’s no reason not to!  I had a look at round the world tickets and I think one would actually make it more expensive…I’ll do a bit more price comparison before deciding, but I think I like my life a bit too A la carte to fit it to a set menu.  Too long in a gastro pub, obviously.

On the home front, all is going quite well, Lou and Mike are coming home for a bit next week, which is exciting.  I’ve had a really good haircut, so you may call me bob, once. Kate and I went to Timepiece in Exeter last week to see what clubbing without smoke is like…it was easier to breathe and much nicer coming home not stinking but we didn’t last very long as it was absolutely packed, being a Saturday night.  Some dancing happened though and fun was had.  I also went climbing for the first time in a year, James very kindly set up a top rope for me on a nice slabby bit of granite and I pootled up and down getting some confidence back.  It was delightful sitting on a warm bit of rock with the sun on our backs and moorland stretching out as far as the eye could see.  We saw lots of skylarks, and pregnant cows and Dartmoor ponies.  Also saw some cows that looked a lot like giant pandas, which was a bit odd!

I spent the rest of the week at work, joy, and now have two days off.   I’m going along to the Sidmouth folk festival to say hi to Justin, which should be entertaining, he claims he only really enjoys sitting in pub sessions with his mandolin now, but might be up for a ceilidh if pushed.  Yay!  Although if it’s as hot as today I don’t expect I’ll be dancing very seriously!