dinsdag 13 november 2007

halloween pictures!

Emilie and me


Emilie, Evan and me


Allan



Emilie, Rob, Smith, Freddie and Evan


Smith

Nedia & Smith

Rob

Phina

Tom & Flora

Farrah & Jaime

Judith

Heleen

Annika

Daniel, me & Kim

Me & Phina

Kim & Heleen

Fergus

Shawn

Farrah & me

Grant, Fergus & Luke

Irene & Evan

Evan, Jaime & Phina

Machiek, Phina & Abhi

Phina & Daniel

Me & Emilie

maandag 12 november 2007

PHINA en lair

After an amazing pre Halloween party (you'll see MiniMouse, Catwoman, a V-for-Vendetta kinda guy and an elf/Peter Pan on the pictures) on Tuesday at Hannah's place which of course got continued at the Bay, Delphine - a high school friend studying in Gent but still one of my best friends - arrived on Wednesday. She fell in love with my Aber and my sea right away. She was preeeeeetty jealous, as you all would be.
We spent the afternoon shopping, of course it's Phina come on, and she fell in love with the shops right away as well. We both made some very nice purchases we both agreed, including my incredibly hip shoes (see pictures later!). In the evening, we got ready for the real Halloween party at the Union. It took us... some time, but eventually I got to introduce Phina to the Aber nightlife (well, more evening life according to my standards since everything is done so early!). But I'm sure I speak for the both of us: it was a good night! The costumes were of course worth seeing, but most importantly: we danced the night away! She also got to know my friends and they got to know her, and some new friendships blossomed (isn't that nice :)!).
When we left the Union, the plan was to go to the Bay, but there was a queue like I've never seen before. None of us were drunk enough to face it. So we decided to have some nice Stella's in our kitchen, to finish up. This was just as nice.
On Thursday, we were kinda beat. We slept, ate, I went to class and Phina courageously went up the Constitution Hill, and then we decided we would be lazy for the rest of the night and decently catch up with our chatting. And, I hit Phina's weak spot: I offered her 'Becoming Jane', a costume drama about Jane Austen's life, one of her favourite authors. Of course, she didn't refuse. So we spent a cosy girly night, because I knew, Friday is party night!
On Friday we slept again, ate, and went to my American Popular Television class. She enjoyed this as well, who doesn't enjoy Glen Creeber come on?! In the evening, we had a little tour around the pub circuit of Aber. We all met up at Varsity, present: Sara, Colleen, Elva and her boyfriend, Bryan, Farrah, Jamie, Adam, Daniel, Maarten, Laura, Delphine and me. We continued to Rummers, if you ask me that nicest pub in town. We had a few drinks there, and when the time was right... we head off for the Bay of course, where we again, danced the night away. I am pretty sure Phina had lots of fun, didn't you girl ;)?! It was a perfect happy ending. Unfortunately, this kinda got disturbed since we went to sleep at 4 and Phina had to get up at 6 to catch her trains. Phina actually did get up, and made it! Again, congrats for that hon'!

So, this visitor and I had loads of fun, and we'll never forget out Aber get together. Thx for coming Phina, I had a blast!

I'll post some Halloween pictures tomorrow, I bet you're curious to see them right?! Have a good night!

Update

On request of darling-almost-sister-in-law Tine, I will now finally blog. I realise it has been quite a while. Here's what happened...
On Saturday 27th of November, I left before dawn for Birmingham. I was planning to spend my day there, and welcome my parents in the evening who were driving up there. I am happy to give you my general impression of Birmingham... I must say I was a bit disappointed. Birmingham is the second largest town in the UK, so you would expect a pretty nice city. And in some way it was. That is if you wanted to shop. For shopping, by all means go to Birmingham! Too bad that at that time I already spent too much in the fantastic Puss in Boots and Polly shops in Aber... so yeah, walking around while you see hundreds of people carrying around loads of bags and while you know you shouldn't spend anything is not my idea of a fun afternoon. I did walk around a lot, but I soon reached the point where you realise you're walking around in circles. Plus, a major plus, I already checked in to the hotel and saw my room. A cosy hip room, with a fairly nice bed and most of all... a huge flatscreen TV with British channels!!!!! This was the first time in more than 1 month time that I was in the same as a TV. It felt pretty good (I'm a Film and Television Studies student, I'm allowed to love TV!). So when my feet started hurting, I decided I deserved a treat: watching TV!!!! Old habits die hard I guess. So I did just that and enjoyed Friends more than I ever did before. Of course, I had to get out to have dinner. This was quite an awkward feeling, since I never had dinner by myself in a restaurant. It's an interesting experience. Of course - you know me - I was prepared: a book on Television Studies got me through it, and in the end I actually did not mind at all and the pizza was good! I walked around some more and took some 'Birmingham by night pictures' that you can see below, and I got settled back in my 'lay back and watch' position. When I found out that 'Elizabeth' was being broadcast that night, I was thrilled - I absolutely love this film and when I was enjoying it this freaky thing happened... there was a knock at my door... not really a surprise but there were my mom and dad! My dad mangaged to get from Oudenaarde to Birmingham in 6h time!!! Let's not go in to how he did it. Since we were leaving the morning after for Cardiff, we had to go out and have a drink so they at least saw something. And they did. My mom and especially my dad now fully understood what I meant by 'British dress style'. At least 10 times in 10 minutes, one of them uttered a sigh, a comment or a shocked sound. So trust me, everyone, you don't know what I'm talking about until you saw it with your own eyes. How these girls don't get pneumonia's, don't ask me and I swear I wouldn't be caught dead in some of their outfits. But this is Britain!
The next day we drove up to Cardiff. We all agreed afterwards that this was very much worth it; Cardiff is a very beautiful city. We took a busdrive on one of those typicle tourist buses without a roof top. It was a beautiful day with autumn sunshine, so perfect for a trip along the historical, modern and hip city. We took a short stop at the harbor, which is fantastic (check the pictures!) and after the trip we visited the castle. Unfortunately we couldn't make pictures in the castle, but it was a very peculiar castle with for example an Arab room, so very fascinating. The hotel was again (thx daddy!) very hip and nice. I never expected me to get so excited about a bath tub! It was big! With bubbles! This again was a good way to recharge my batteries. By then, Emilie and Evan had arrived. If you remember, Emilie is my super cool unbelievably fantastic Belgian flatmate and wingwoman, and she had her friend over for a visit. They visited Cardiff on Monday, but on Sunday evening all of us had dinner in a very tasty Spanish restaurant (tapas and paella!!!!) and afterwards 'the youth' (yeah, that still means you too Evan ;)!) went out for cocktails! Mmjammie!
The next morning, after a brilliant breakfast, we head off for Swansea. A smaller city in Wales, but with a legendary beach - again, just look at the pictures, it was a perfect day to spend on that beach! We spend a couple of hours there and then head back to Aberystwyth! I must say, honestly, I already missed Aber and my flat and my flatmates and other friends, and I had been gone for only 2,5 days! So leaving Aber for 3 weeks of christmas holiday or definitely, is gonna be heart breaking...
My parents staid for 1 more day, at Aberystwyth, enjoying one of Daniel's famous wok dishes! They left, and I got ready for my next visitor... PHINAAAAAAA !!!!

birmingham - cardiff - swansea

Here is just a selection of the pics I took in Birmingham, Cardiff and Swansea. Unfortunately they got mixed up. But, they're worth it...
Birmingham:


Cardiff:

Birmingham:



Cardiff:












Swansea beach:

Some more Cardiff:




Swansea beach again: