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

Oops...I did it again!

No...it's not Britney's best known hit but my recent post omissions :P Ha ha...though this time it hasn't been because I've enjoyed myself too much at..Oxford *sigh* can't believe I'm back here again.

What made it worse was the revision for collections we had to do plus the fact that I was *still* distraught over my 2nd place at the AIESEC leadership tournament. However, I think (in the long time since the event!) I have gotten over it so there's no need for several blog posts bemoaning about losing! What helped was when I came across the phrase:

"life is 10% what happens to you and 90% how you respond to it"

...mmm...wise words as if from the proverbial Chinese wise man himself (or woman I guess!)

Anyhow, also you don't need to write endless posts about work and revision...although I do still have a lot of the former, the latter is done (well, for the collection which went ok - I managed to finish all my essays for once!).

I really do hope this term flies past - last Sunday I went to London to meet 'Jimmy' (the person sorting out our OCEP placement) at his brothers restaurant where I had the joys of delicious food and fantastic company - ah, I love meeting new people! I can already tell that I'm going to have an awesome time with the group that we've got together! Bring on the end of Trinity and bring on China!!

Oops no post for a while!

Yep yep...it's been a while but that's because I've enjoyed being back at home - reading, playing games; hobbies I don't get to indulge in during term time! Too be honest, my 'dossy' period didn't actually last that long because for the first time in my life, I decided to do a little work and not leave it till 3 days before collections (or indeed never!). However, it's not going to last very long...I can see myself going back to play Fire Emblem 2 soon enough! :)

Anyhow, hopefully whatever work I do get done will make up for the appalling lack of notes made during term time where I tackled each essay seemingly the night before the deadline....*shudder* bad times.

Well, since the end of term, I've been up to Leeds to see some old friends (yeah!) and go to a youth conference. Oh yeah, and I went to the House of Lords for some leadership thing - it was kinda just like Oxford to be honest which wasn't *that* much of a plus...ha ha..jokes...maybe. The buildings were pretty old and cool looking...mmm...I'm thinking more and more about potential career choices and if Blue Peter doesn't work out, perhaps life as an MP? Though suppose they're getting a bad rep right now for expenses and whatnot....I feel sorry for Jacqui Smith though....

Oh yeah, some cultural teachings - don't say I never say anything mildly educational :) We've just had one of the 5 main Chinese festivals though this one wasn't particularly 'festive' to be honest. It was grave sweeping day :/ Mmm..nonetheless I still hope that such traditions will be kept up when I grow up...suppose I should learn mandarin properly first!