Nico Space

Allo,
It was a great weekend. Luke and I just hung out most of the time but it was really fun. Friday night we went out to a comedy club for my flatmate Abi's birthday and we had a great time. Being a comedian would be a tough profession though. One got quite upset with a table of women for talking and it put a bit of a damper on things. I think you have to be able to keep your cool.

Last night we went out for supper with Des. The waiter is quite funny at the chinese around the corner and very, very slow. But you feel as though he puts a lot of care in everything he does.

School today was really good. I love how critical my profs are because I really feel as though they care about how we turn out as journalists. Sometimes it's tough to take the criticism, even though I know it will only make me better at my job. When things go well and they tell you it's good, like today, it feels fantastic.

I called Luke and he is staying in a hotel in Swansea. It sounds like an interesting site and he knows one guy on it from his old job at Heathrow, Small world. He sounded really tired on the phone so I am sure he will sleep better tonight. He said they may find different, 7 day a week accomodation in Swansea but he is not sure.

The minutes have officially turned into hours. Luckily I left jobs to do. Good thing Luke didn't secretly plan to arrive early cause he wouldn't have been able to walk into my office due to heaps of clothes on the floor.
I cleaned my room and my office because Luke knows how tidy I am and I must keep up appearances.

I bought tickets for Luke and I do go to Birmingham and Cadbury World with the graduate centre day trips. I think I got the last 2 tickets. I had forgotten to get them yesterday so I am lucky there were a few left. We will go on March 10th, so the jet lag should be over by then.
Cadbury lost 30 million pounds this year due to a recall on all their chocolate bars in the UK because some may have been infected with salmonella. I have faith the problem is taken care of and will eat some chocolate when we go.

The photos are of Luke and I in Swansea where he will be working starting monday.

JASON WEBLEY IS COMING TO CARDIFF ON MARCH 5th!!!!!!

I cannot believe it!!!
He is the guy who plays under the broadway bridge the last night of the fringe every year.

I am a HUGE fan.








Last Song
(c)1999 by Jason Webley

One day,
The snow began to fall,
And slowly, inch by inch,
Covered up the earth.
'Til finally,
The top of the tallest building,
Was lost beneath a powdered sea,
As quiet as a shadow's grave.

And we say that the world isn't dying.
And we pray that the world isn't dying.
And just maybe the world isn't dying.
Maybe she's heavy with child.

One night,
A woman took my hand.
I left my home and followed her
Into an icy field.
When I wanted to go back,
I'd lost the way.
So she beckoned me to lie beneath
The stone that always bore my name.

One morning,
We woke up in an alley.
To the smell of urine, alcohol,
Trash and gasoline,
With a dim sense of a notion
We'd held something in our hands,
That was bigger than us or God,
And we can never touch again.

I've been looking at the symptoms for a while,
Maybe she's heavy with child.

I love fridays now that I have no classes. It is such a great day to sleep in a little, catch up on work and still know that I have the weekend to do more work. I feel like I am really on top of things this semester and it's thanks to Fridays.

I spoke with my prof yesterday about my dissertation and she suggested I do a radio documentary rather then a TV one. I didn't like the idea at first but have been listening to quite a few really great readio documentaries and am quite excited about it. There is a richness to radio that you cannot get with TV.

When I listen to the radio on my walk to school in the morning I take in the sights around me and get lost in my imagination and the voices floating into my ears.

Man, I can talk myself into anything.

Tonight we are having a chinese new year party at school. We are all supposed to bring food from our country. I made some maple fudge last night but it was a little runny this morning. I put it back on the burner (not sure if I can cook fudge twice) and it seemed pretty thick when I left the house this morning. I hope it doesn't become hard as a rock. If it does I will tell people it is maple candy.

The day of love, hearts and sweet little words. I think I am going to buy a chocolate bar at the school canteen to celebrate. That is not a sad thing. That is a VERY exciting thing. I eye up those chocolate bars every day.

May cupid get you all!

I know I was hit and it's the best thing ever!

http://www.travelbuddiesworldwide.com/TravelHumor.htm

I just wrote an opinion piece on my school blog saying that the US was not prepared to attack Iran anytime soon. I just checked out the BBC website and read 2 articles that make it seem as if they will. The US is blaming Iran for supplying arms to Iraq and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is defending Iran's nuclear activities. I hope I end up being right but it looks grim.

I had a fantastic weekend despite my volunteering plans falling apart due to a few snowflakes (it has been bright and sunny today, by the way). Do they realize what Saskatchewan has had to plug along through this winter?

I went to see a play yesterday. It was nice to get a little culture in. it was a matinee performance of To Kill a Mockingbird. Overall it was a good performance. The accents were a touch off and ne of the children had the most irritating voice.

Last night I went to see the movie Music and Lyrics. Good solid cheese. There is something about Hugh Grant shaking his hips that makes an audience crack up.

Today I have been writing falsities and hanging out at home.

I heard a rattle at the door tonight and then the doorbell rang. I thought it was my flatmate but when I answered it was a guy asking me if I owned the car out front. I told him I didn't. He then asked me if I knew who owned it and I said I didn't. He then left. I should have asked him why he was asking.

He left me a little worried because I wondered why he was shaking the knob. Why hadn't he just rung the doorbell? I have a feeling it may have been our robber since all the lights were out at the front of the house. Creepy stuff.

My exciting volunteer weekend was canceled due to snow...too bad. I didnt know a little slush could cause such a disturbance. However, it sure is cold when it snows here. The humind chill goes right to the bones. Kinda like Montreal weather.

Thanks for all the birthday wishes I received from everyone, I really appreciated it.

I had a great night. I went out with my roomates to the Funky Buddha for supper and then we went salsa dancing. Can't wait to go to the Funky Buddha with you when you come Luke. It's a very cool little bar.

Salsa dancing was fun and entertaining. I was a man for half the class and I realized that there are just as many bad female dancers as men.

I delight in dancing. I get so entertained by it. I had a few laugh attacks with some partners. I love how everyone has a different approach to dancing. One guy lifted up his eyebrows and made his eyes as wide as possible every time we changed moves.




I woud like to introduce you all to my brand new picnic backpack I got from Luke. I think it's one of the coolest things I have ever owned:

Hola amigos,

I was pressured into blogging.
It's ok I would rather do this then read.

Volunteering
I am going away this weekend to volunteer with the UNA exchange in Dare Valley. The UNA have volunteer projects all over the world and weekend projects in Wales. My workload is piling up a little but isn't as much as it will be later and it's a good opportunity to meet some new people. It only costs £5 and all the accomodation and food is covered for the weekend. It may be cheaper for me to be there then stay here. I understand I will be working on a garden to attract more birds to the park. They asked us to bring something to do in the evenings. Any ideas??

The photo above is where I believe I am going.

Birthday
In other news tomorrow I will be 26 years old. I am now closer to 30 then I am to 20 and that's ok. I am deciding today to not worry about age too much and focus more on what I am doing and the quality of my life. Not that 26 is anything to panic about.

It is supposed to snow here tomorrow. I heard people go a little nutso when it snows here. It has not snowed yet this year. It is quite fitting for it to snow tomorrow since I was born during a blizzard. As for birthday plans, I think I am going to for supper with my roomies and a few people from school to the Funky Buddha and then we will go to salsa.

Facebook
I have joined Facebook which is taking up way too much of my time. It is kinda fun and I have had contact with people I have not spoken to in a while but it is kind of ridiculous at the same time. There is something very odd about having someone as your friend on facebook but never actually talking to them in person. I think these programs give us a false sense of happiness. Look at me, I have 7200 internet friends, aren't I cool?

Today I sat beside someone in my class who is one of my supposed friends on the account and we did not say a word to each other. We wouldn't usually say a word to each other so why would we start now?? On the other hand I did talk to a few people that I don't usually talk to about Facebook and maybe we will talk more often. Perhaps it has broken the ice.

All I know is that I spend too much time at my computer doing ridiculous things. I might be pretty lonely without my computer since I have become so used to it. Sad prospect.

I was about to cross the street today and suddenly a motorcade of police on motorbikes with all the lights flashing came through and waved at me and a few others not to cross the street. I wondered who it was when a car came by without tinted windows and there were four men in it. Two of them looked quite young in the back. I asked the woman beside me who it was and she said, "Prince William." Sure enough, it must have been because I saw in the paper he would be here as the vice royal patron to the Welsh Rugby Union.
The hours I spent thinking about Prince William as a child...
Then when I am years past the point where I am dead sure I don't want to marry Prince William anymore, there he is.
I spent so much time wanting sugary cereal SO BAD. Now I buy my own groceries and have the freedom to buy all the Captain Crunch I want and I eat oatmeal in the morning???
I suppose I still don't have the freedom to have Prince William but if he were to ask I would decline.

There is a scheduled outage on blogger. So I am writing this blog on word and I can post it when they are sorted. I find it is a good practice to write blogs on word first anyway. One, for the spell check and two, because it is easier to lose a post on blogger then it is on word.

The weather is fantastic in Cardiff today and it was equally as beautiful yesterday. The weather seemed even better then it was because I found out that Luke is coming to Cardiff on February 22nd!!! I hope the weather continues to be nice so it’s not too miserable for him digging. He got a job offer a few days before I left Sk. It’s for a job he applied for over 6 months ago. I like the way the world works sometimes.

I now have almost all my marks back from school and it looks like I am going to pass. I got three fantastic marks, two mediocre marks and one mark which I am not happy with at all. In one sense it is good that the mark has pissed me off because it really has made me want to improve my writing.

I often do my work quite quickly and once it has passed the good enough test of me reading it through once or twice I hand it in. Bad, bad Nicole. Sometimes it really does end up being quite good but sometimes it ends up being mediocre.

There is nothing worse then mediocre. I like things to be great or terrible. Mediocre is so average and stale and doesn’t require me to take extreme measures. You can’t yell or cry with mediocre. You can’t get crazy drunk and have an excuse. You can’t go buy a pack of cigarettes and sit in a dimly lit bar soaking in your misery. You can't lock yourself in your room for three days and refuse to eat. Mediocre is good for me but mediocre makes me feel trapped.