The results are in...

I got a 2:1!


It feels a bit anti-climatic to be honest...

What a Week

I have returned from an awesome week in Slovenia. Vid was the best tour guide I could have asked for. He drove me all over the country and filled me in on all (well most) of the history and taught me a lot about the nature and culture. And of course it was lovely to spend time with Mira again. She was my closest friend in Finland, and still is one of my closest friends - i just feel so comfortable with her. I will have numerous photo's and abridged diaries to follow in due course.

After my return, I bought a car! I had a ford fiesta when I first passed my test 4 years ago, but gave him (his name was Freddy) up when I came to uni and have shared my mums Peurgot ever since (which has it in for me btw). I was hoping to get another ford fiesta once I graduated and was lucky enough to find one so soon! A friend of my mum has got to the age where he needs a medical to renew his licence and has decided not to bother, and so wanted to sell his little ford fiesta... the timing could not have been better. Its a purple one this time, and 10 years old, but its in such good condition (he only did 700 miles between MOTs last year!). Its gonna be a shock for the little thing with me bombing about in it all over the place.

And one of the places I'll be bombing off to a lot is work! Yes, thats right, I have found a job. Had an interview at 11am on monday, and by 12 they had offered me the job... I start monday! Super fast. Its not the best job, but its with a good company - a name to be respected on a CV. Plus its still lab based, and only 15mins from home in Herts, so pretty convenient. Its only till April, but its a start, so lets see what comes of it.

All things considered its been a blooming good week :)

Let The Summer Begin!

Exams are over, uni is finished and the summer is here! I had my last exam on tuesday, and all things considered, I think it went quite well. Fingers crossed I get the 2:1 I'm hoping for. I find out on the 22nd July, so watch this space :)
I starting moving some stuff home yesterday. I had a car-full and there is still plenty left. I am still mentoring, so will go back this weekend to do my shift before the final (?) Sounds of Europe show on monday :( After that though, I shall hopefully be jetting off to Slovenia to spend a few days with a good friend of mine from Finland. Hoping for good weather so that we can spend plenty of time outside in the sunshine, and do a spot of swimming in some of the lakes :)

After that though, the job hunting starts with a vengeance. In fact it already has, I have two job interviews lined up for the next few weeks (one tomorrow and one for after Slovenia). Both are only temporary contracts, but I'm happy with anything science-related at the minute really.

I might have time for a bit of blogging this weekend, but if not, I shall return with some Slovenia diaries after my trip.

Remember that game when you were a kid where you'd draw a head on a bit of paper, and fold it over and have a friend draw the next bit, and fold it again and so on until you completed it and unfolded it to reveal a bizzare construction. Well there's an online version. My friend had only the feet left to go, so I thought I'd finish it off. This is what we ended up with.

Final Weekly Weight Update!

Thats right, the last weekly weight update. Thats because I did it! I reached my 3 stone target weight loss. I'm still not in my 'healthy' BMI (I have reservations about the use of BMI to dictate everything about your health), but this is the lowest weight I have been since I was 17, and I'm happy to try and maintain this weight for 6 months or so while I get everything else in my life sorted first. Not to mention I've dropped 2 dress sizes, and just in general feel so much healthier. Happy girl :D

Eurovision Song Contest - Semi Final 1

So I just posted a little review of the first esc semi on the GU2 blog website, so thought I'd go ahead and copy it into a post for this rather neglected blog. One week of exams left :)

Tuesday saw the first semi final of the 2010 Eurovision song contest in Oslo. Widely agreed to be the weaker of the two semi's, there were still a lot of surprises. The 10 qualifiers, along with my thoughts, were (in no particular order);

Belgium: My favourites of this semi. A simple acoustic style song, with autobiographical lyrics. A refreshing song in a contest of gimmicks.

Iceland: Got the biggest cheer from the crowd. One of the few Schlager songs of this years contest.

Russia: The joke entry. Except most people don't realise. Which to the Russian's probably just makes it even funnier. I liked it, but it was a shock qualifier.

Bosnia & Herzegovia: Talking of shock qualifiers. Rock songs rarely do well at eurovision, so why this poor attempt got through is anyones guess.

Belarus: Only the second time Belarus have made it to the final. And well deserved (even if the gimmick was a love/hate divider). Another simple but classic song style.

Serbia: Quite an usual look this singer has gone for, and an usual style of song (to western ears at least), but insanely catching. Also quite a nice change for a country still relatively new to the contest.

Moldova: The opener of the contest, and apparently you cant go wrong with a dry-humping saxsophonist. Catchy, and I quite like it, but there probably were better one's that should have gone through in its place.

Albania: Another that doesnt deserve its place in the final. This is run of the mill, and rather dated, pop. With vocals and a melody that are equally mediocre. Dissapointing.

Greece: Eugh. Thats all.

Portugal: A pretty little ballad. Not very catchy, but pleasant enough at the time. Will probably get lost in the final though, unless its lucky enough to have a late placing.

And comiserations to those who didnt qualify: Estonia (very dissapointing, this was a great song), Malta (perhaps the gimmick was too much), FYR Macedonia (perhaps the semi naked girls were too much), Slovakia (perhaps the whole sherade was too much), Finland (shame, this was starting to grow on me), Poland (what a voice! Strangling your backing singers is definitely too much though), Latvia (again... eugh).

The second semi is live tonight from 8pm on BBC3. It promises to be an exciting and tense show.

Exam, Revise, Eurovision, Repeat

This coming week I have my final (final!) exams of my undergraduate degree. Big deal then. Sadly, after both eurovision semi-finals I have an exam the following morning. So this is gonna be a busy, mixed bag of a week... After all my exams are over though, I have some nice holidays lined up. Firstly, a trip to Slovenia to visit my dear Finnish friend who is spending the summer there, and then a second weekend trip to Butlins in Bognor Regis with my family. A kind of nostalgic trip, as this is where I spent many a happy summer holiday as a kid :)