Something a bit wrong Susan?

Now Britain's has never been more talented than this year but all along, despite the heightened competition, I still thought that Susan Boyle would win it in the end. Even though I was wowed at all the other performances (especially Diversity's 'three x's' move), I could just imagine her winning....but no!?! It kind of feels strange despite me knowing that Diversity are worthy winners...

I feel that all her publicity and press was actually a bad thing; perhaps people thought other people deserved more limelight (admittedly true). Ah well, hopefully she'll be successful still! If not, I'm sure the Americans will have her (they'll be shocked by the result for sure....)

A new companion for the Doctor....

So it's been announced! Not the fanfare that the Doctor got but the casting of the assistant is equally as important...mmm....I guess all we've got to work on is the picture so not much to go on yet! But still, all this makes me really excited about the new series of Doctor Who when it *finally* returns to our screens in half a years time! Both will be little known actors at the beginning but, I'm certain, household names by the end of the next series!

Check this out: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/8073734.stm

Rowing on(wards!

Whoop! On Friday we raced in the 'rowing on' qualifying stages for Summer VIIIs and we've since found out we qualified with a time of 2 minutes and 56seconds for a 1.5km course which is pretty good (apparently...I don't really know much about the timings).

Anyhow, so yesterday and today, we had more training sessions...v. manic as yesterday I had the international festival OXCIA stall to run as well as rowing in the middle of the festival. However, was really glad as it was the last event for this term (as most my committee have finals)...hopefully this will free up time for work, esp. my dissertation research which I've done zilch on :( (yet managed to blag my abstract submission...)

Today is equally busy with rowing, the Synthesis concert (which we'll be prepping for before the 7.30pm start) with Sphere....and sometime during the concert, have to squeeze in peer supporting as well. Manic and no time to study chaos (really!) for our next essay as I'm experiencing it right now :/

P.S. Guess what the picture is meant to represent...

Europe loves us again!

Eurovision makes me feel good about being European...more so last Saturday because we actually came 5th! Woop go Jade! Does this spell the end for political bloc voting then...?


Mmm....not quite! This year, 50% of the vote went to professional 'music people' and although it didn't get rid of all political voting, Eurovision became a singing contest once more! Kinda :)

I felt that last Saturday was a case of traditions continued and traditions discontinued....

Traditions continued included:

- key changes, jumping and fireworks
- satirical commentary (I thought Wogan would be sorely missed but Norton did the job admirably)
- intro videos before each song which doesn't seem to relate to much

Traditions discontinued included:

- camp songs/performances
- bloc voting (nearly!)
- nil points (no country got this accolade!?)
- bad songs

On the latter point, I honestly thought all the songs were pretty good. We had a Eurovision party in one of the two flats that had a tv and we all agreed that the results were generally correct. I liked all the top 5 (though I thought we should have beaten Turkey to claim the 4th spot...).

I especially can't get Norway's or Iceland's songs out of my head but as the former won, I'll only post up his link....what an *awesome* song:
Alexander Rybak with "Fairytale"

I'm going to add it to my list of "songs to play when I can play the violin". Pure Eurovision! No wonder it broke the record for number of points with 387 points!

College envy....but only a bit!

Today was a day of non-productivity...was supposed to make a start on our philosophy essay but nope didn't happen.

Anyhow, started the day by going through my inbox + some grocery shopping which of course took hours (literally) as 1) silly OXCIA troubles that need to be sorted out 2) I've realised that a lot of what I buy are time-dependent offers so the shopping list has to be edited each time to take advantage of the offers available today. I'm such a cheapo.

Then I had to dash off for a mammoth rowing session (without any lunch as it's at the inconvenient time of 12.45pm where you'd have to eat pretty early in order not to get cramps) which went on till around 3pm. Woah...we were pretty crap at the beginning (boat rocking all over the place, people catching crabs - guess what that means!?!) but then towards the end we were definately in our stride - very fast and steady racing. Good stuff! Ha ha..I enjoy actual rowing so much better than the prep/fitness for it which I'm not good at anyway!

Then (a bit smelly as the person in front kept splashing me) I went straight to Corpus Christi's tortoise race. It's an annual event but this was my first time. It was sooo cool! Though I missed the actual race (yeah I know, how can you miss a *tortoise* race!) - mainly because I couldn't see anything - I did do other stuff.

Firstly it was a chance to meet my corpus christi crew (I just said that for alliteration..!) which was made up of my counselling friends (I don't go to counselling, I mean training!) and people I met in China last year and people who I'm going to China with this year! It was brilliant just to be around them and all the other friendly Corpus Christi folk. And their college was gorgeous! Lots of greenery, a conservatory and that grand quad at the front! Sigh....one of my friends said "why is Jesus so ( )".....she said it half jokingly of course! Our loyalties are tested....not broken :)

Oooohh and burgers for a £1!! As well as raffles, put-your-face-in-the-painting-hole-and-get-splashed-by-your-friends thing (what IS that called?), second hand book stalls, sweet/cake stalls and more! Ah...the weather was good too! Oh yeah and Blue Peter was filming there too! The winning tortoise (from Corpus Christi...fixed anyone? :P) will race on their show...alas, the presenters weren't there. Could have got my foot in the door perhaps.......

I have to admit. This was one of those brilliant Oxford days. I've always said, Oxford's like marmite..well..kind of. You can't really dislike then really like marmite can you?!?

Anyhow, sorry Karl. You'll have to wait.

MAY DAY !!! (missed again)

Today is May Day...I'd like to say that I stayed up all night having all sorts of fun and may-day related frolics, gone to Magdalen bridge at 5am then hear the choir boys sings from the tower at 6am and then back to hear the college choir at 7pm on our lawn with champagne and strawberries and finally enjoy a May Day breakfast at any of the pubs, cafes that opened mega early today to the sounds of Morris dancers....

Alas...all I heard was the Morris dancers jingling their way past my window :( Yep...the tradition of the all-nighter has started. Darn neoliberalism essay...quite interesting but I just don't have time to read all the sources! Anyhow, wasn't *quite* an all nighter as I went to bed at 5am though got woken up about 5.30am by a call asking why I wasn't at Magdalen....*sigh*, why did I have to have a morning tute? Anyhow, actually got to my tute 10 mins late then spent another 10 mins trying to print off my essay (silly versions of Microsoft Word)....tutor wasn't best pleased but meh.

So yeah, not a great May Day...I guess it at least gives me something to look forward to for next year! I must remember to get all my work done before May Day of 2010..... :O