The nutters have found me

Do you remember when I wrote this post?

You were all mentioning the hilariously naughty and twisted queries that brought people of deviant dispositions to your blog. They really made me laugh. Sadly though, by mentioning those queries, all the nutters are now finding me! I mention Ms Mya and Ms Beaufoix in particular. Or do I mean testicular?

Haha. I’m so funny. I’m also so drunk. I’ve just been out with my bestestest friend in the world and we went in El Rincon and drank wine and had a great time! And then tomorrow I’m off out with Jez’s uni friends, who only have a matter of days left to take the piss out of Jez for having a 21 year old girlfriend! But 21 or 22, I will always be crap at ten pin bowling.

Who invented a sport where you stick your arse in everyone’s face? I mean, really, who? I need beer tomorrow, and lots of it.

Ciao ciao e buona notte xxx 

Posted: September 22, 2007 Comments (4)

Partying like an 18 year old

Hello my loves.

I have to warn you that I’m not making a great deal of sense. My mind is full of little spaces.

The reason why I’ve not been around much recently, is because I’ve been recruiting freshers to join my singing society, and partying like an 18 year old. I’m 22 in about a week and I have to say, I can feel the difference between myself and the 18 year old freshers. At a rather nice wine evening a few days ago I suddenly realised I was meant to be setting an example and being sophisticated. And what was I doing? Drinking red wine out of a bottle, cocktails out of a goldfish bowl, and doing the Despina dance - which believe me, you don’t want to see. All was saved the morning after, when my lovely friend who I stayed with made me the best hangover breakfast in the world: water, paracetamol, double espresso, sticky rice, and an orange / banana / strawberry smoothie. I’d recommend it to anyone!

Then last night we went out with some friends who we’d not seen since our paella night, and quite spontaneously got rather drunk, oops. I don’t do this, I don’t drink, I’m meant to be responsible! But it is such fun though. And it’s even more fun to share good times with Jez, who is so quiet but so funny, so demonstrative and so cute! I don’t tell him all the compliments my friends pay him when he’s not around, but it’s wonderful for me to be with someone who is very much admired.

So, what else have I been getting up to?

Last weekend I sang in two different churches just down the road from my house. One was a gig for the Society of Mary - yes, seriously. (In no way am I slamming the Catholic Church, by the way. Despite my atheism I really enjoy and respect Catholic worship.) I sang the solos and it was dead lovely. The other was for the feast of St Norbert, and it was very high church. All was going well until the priests were processing ceremoniously out of the church. As they passed us, my friend decided to jab me in the left buttock with a very sharp pencil. How I managed not to shriek is nothing short of a miracle. I got him back by throwing cheese at him whilst we were all having drinks in the priests’ house!

I’ve also been applying for jobs. Crappy shop jobs. But oh well, I need the cash and I don’t mind doing something brainless.

Then I registered at uni, and handed in a form that was six months overdue, something to do with a project I’m meant to be doing.

Then I went to the doctor who refused to give me happy pills because I don’t need them, apparently it’s just my personality type. So we’ll see how it goes. More like her personality type ie Sceptical. I wasn’t going to go in there and start wailing and try to throw myself out of her window just to prove a point. I just wished she’d trusted my judgement a bit more. I told her my symptoms and my history, but because I didn’t break down, because I kept it together, I just don’t think she believed me. As I said, we’ll see. I’m going to see a counsellor in university on Monday.

I also went to the hippy co-operative cafe and supermarket with a friend I’ve not seen for a year. She’s a veterinary medicine student, we spent hours talking about Tescopoly and the state of British farming, folk music, Scotland, rowing, gigging, Gilbert and Sullivan, everything! We’re growing more and more alike, I hope I actually get to Cambridge to see her this year.

Oh yes, and I tried to cut off my thumb with a vegetable peeler. I was peeling a butternut squash so as you can imagine I was putting in a lot of effort. And when the accident happened, I wasn’t brave at all, I cried my eyes out! It just hurt so much. Jez TCPed me and put a plaster on, and then the nurse stuck it back together the next day and put a stupid bandage on it. Silly Despina.

I think that’s just about it really. I’m going out now. We have to find the car.

Bottoms up! 

Posted: September 21, 2007 Comments (8)

A fun few days

It’s been a great few days!

On Thursday I took the Student Agency bus to Olomouc, which was a great journey by the way, I’d recommend them. Cheap too!

Olomouc is just gorgeous. I’ll post some photos when I’m back. It’s not too big, you can see everything in two days, but it’s just so quiet and unspoilt! I went in the house where Mozart survived the plague or chicken pox or something when he was on his travels, I went in the cafe in the house where Mahler lived for a few years - whilst reading Milan Kundera’s Immortality, and the actual chapter about Mahler! I climbed the tower of the gothic cathedral and looked out over all the gorgeous squares and churches there. I went in three cathedrals and they were all unbelievably beautiful. I got some high gothic art (which I’ve fallen in love with) and saw a locally created copy of the Bayeux tapestry. At lunchtime I hid from the heat in a jazz club where Yann Tiersen was on the stereo. At night I walked around the outside of the city walls, and then had a gin and tonic in a pavement café, whilst ignoring the rock concert on the main square! I ate local food and generally wandered around and enjoyed the relaxed pace of the city. I have fallen in love with Olomouc and hope I will return one day - sadly we don’t have time to do it between Prague and Krakow as we’ve already booked our time there, but I think next time I come to the Czech Republic, I will defeinitely spend some time there showing Jez around!

I was actually there to look at the library in the medical faculty, but the librarian there decided that the majority of my time would be better spent sightseeing, and didn’t allow me to pay for anything. She was so lovely. I hope we’ll stay in touch, she was so kind and interesting. She’s also multilingual and as well as being a brilliant librarian and teacher, she has also published articles on pedagogy and medical information. I actually felt inspired by what she was saying about the library, and I think that thanks to her I’ve got a brilliant idea for my final year project, thank god! I was starting to get worried! I found her so enthusiastic about her subject, it was very refreshing for me to talk to her. I think for my project I’m going to observe medical students’ search behaviour, before training, immediately after training, and then a few months after training. I hope I can get backing for this!

I also stumbled into a small bookshop by the university and found loads of sheet music, mainly Czech opera arias and art songs. I was amazed - some of this music I have been looking for in the UK and it’s either out of print, or I’d have to buy a great big naff anthology just for the sake of one piece. This stuff just isn’t available in the UK, the editions are either Russian, Czech or German. I had to limit myself because I don’t want to have to pay too much extra for my suitcase, but I was still quite worried about how much this music would cost me. It was 153 crowns, that’s less than 4 quid. Couldn’t believe it! I told her in Czech just how happy I was, I was literally dancing!

Highlights include arias from Samson and Delilah (Printemps est commence, Mon coeur s’ouvre á ta voix) Rusalka’s Song to the Moon, a czech opera anthology, a battered copy of Conconne (thankfully with French instructions), a book of coloratura arias, a few songs by composers I’d never heard of, and a Handel’s Largo with Czech text - I’m sure it will come in handy (and it cost me 25p!)

Yesterday I went out with the lady who used to teach me music at school. Last time she saw me I was a spotty 18 year old, not very sociable and carrying a whopping inferiority complex. However all that was forgotten and we talked like old friends all day. She lives five minutes away from me, she has the same name as me, and her boyfriend is a translator - too many coincidences! I just wish I’d been able to get in touch earlier, but she only joined facebook about three weeks ago. still, better late than not at all. We drove to a lovely historical town, but instead of looking around we just drank wine and soaked up the sun in the main square, then we went back to her fiancé’s family house, where we managed to speak Czech, play with a very cute little girl called Natalya, and get absolutely hammered! Czech hospitality… Then we drove back to Prague, went to our local bar, and drank more, had a brilliant time, and I think I phoned Jez when I got home but you know, I can’t actually remember. Oops. But guess what?

I’m singing at a wedding in Bertramka! The very house where Mozart lived! Isn’t that wonderful!?!

Posted: August 26, 2007 Comments (3)

Padam, padam, padam!

I’ve just counted the amount of swear words in this post. Sorry Mum.
 
Health Check
 
(When we used to phone up my grandad, we’d say “hello, how are you?” then go and make a brew, hang out the washing, and then half an hour later, put the phone back up to our ears to hear the tail end of “…and it was like having an elephant standing on my ankle!”. He once phoned us up very concerned about what the “gynaecologist” had done to his toenails, and told his was seeing the “taxidermist” next week. He used to get a bit mixed up.) So regard this post as something of a family joke.)
 

Firstly, my eye is almost normal-looking now. Which means no more gravity-defying eye drops. (Have you ever tried to put drops inside your upper lid? I must have looked like such a sodding spanner.)
 
Secondly, I have a massive hangover. I feel like I’ve got caught between some poor bastard percussionist’s cymbals in the last movement of Pictures at an Exhibition! (Pom! - CRASH - Pom! -CRASH - pom, pa pa PAAM! - CRASH) you get the idea.
 
Thirdly, I am not going to be a mum. Not just yet anyway.
 
Fourthly, I have been having odd dreams. In one night I have been Oliver Hardy and Princess Diana - I kid you not. Then I was singing at another blogger’s wedding, even though I’ve never even met her (she did look lovely though. I think I should be blogging less!) Then last night I had a terribly naughty dream about a terribly sexy man, whose last words to me before I passed out for the night were “Make sure you drink lots of water dear. Love you!” I could just tell he was chuckling away, imagining my hangover today! Well dear, rest assured. I got what I deserved for trying to match a 6 foot New Zealander drink for drink.
 
I like culture don’t you know
 
I went to the communism museum yesterday. If you’re in the neighbourhood, really, don’t bother. It was quite crap and unimaginative, on the whole. By far the best bit was the footage from 1989 - at one point a newsreader read a statement denouncing protesting students as young hooligans led astray. He kept his head down as he read this, so the expression in his eyes could not be seen. A big Czech man sitting in front of me was crying as he watched the footage. I wanted to put my hand on his shoulder. He had watched the video go round at least three times.
 
But sadly, the place lacked atmosphere. Anyone who’s been to the Terror House museum in Budapest will know just how menacing places like this can be made. And I’m afraid, Prague, that your blackboards covered in tiny writing and a few photos just don’t cut it. Not well-designed or engaging at all. Good collection of statues and memorabilia though, and liked the photo and art exhibitions too.
 
There was a tour guide there who just would not shut up, his droning, droning voice was affecting my concentration. I pulled out my mp3 and wondered what music I could put on that would block him out, but not distract my mind too much. And I gave a half-smile when I found that Jez had uploaded Yann Tiersen’s complete soundtrack to Goodbye Lenin.
 
I really enjoy social history museums in any part of the world. In Manchester we are lucky to have the Imperial War Museum and the People’s History Museum (about Trade Unions and their role in
 everything from the Spanish Civil War to the forming of the Co-operative movement). Not everyone’s idea of a fun day out, I know, but we love it. We have a very good Jewish museum housed in a Spanish and Portugese synagogue, which also runs tours around Manchester concentrating on the Jewish history of the city.
 
Burning ears
 
Last night my Jez cooked dinner for my mum and dad. I dread to think what they were talking about all evening. I wish I could remember what he said later on the phone that made me laugh til I nearly fell off my bed. I think it was something about me being a numpty. It usually is.
Posted: July 30, 2007 Comments (4)