Me at my competition today!!! i came first overall for the individuals AND our team came first even though we were in last place after the dressage!! what a comeback :D

heya. just thought i’d stick in a short post before heading to sleep :)
The week has been nice so far! last two days i’ve ate great, and i did a bunch of pop pilates last night which has me feeling quite sore today. I really enjoyed it and it was a nice break off doing the Ri30 videos! so i’m definitely gonna do it some more in the days to come :) it’s the dreaded pms week so i’m feeling really demotivated cardio-wise, but i find i can always stick on some strength stuff and be happy with it so i’ll humor myself.
I had riding today for an hour and most of the lesson was flat work- and i was on this mare that was making my arms wanna fall off :L she was a sweetheart, dont get me wrong, just very…strong :P I’m actually quite glad for it cause i broke a good sweat during my lesson and felt like i worked extra hard! We jumped a few fences at the end and she was fantastic :) i have another competition next week yay!!! i will let you guys know how it goes :D if i didnt mention, i had a competition last week and our team won and i got third in the individual bit :)
Tomorrow i’ve got to go to this short meeting at 12 and then i suspect i will be spending much of the day in the library working on a paper that’s due in next week, and sorting out my online assessments as well as catching up on lectures. Then on friday i get to go to the museum and play with the amazing frogs that live in the vivarium!!!!!!!!!!! [/zoologygeek]

i’ve been eating well, sticking to the plan for the most part :) my “treat” is a raspberry and blueberry soya yoghurt, and i gotta say, lent has given me a new appreciation for what we can consider “dessert”/”treats”:P my mouth waters at the sight of these bad boys. They are so delicious. I think being off all sweets and sugary type things has allowed me to appreciate things like yoghurt and even just plain old fruit a lot more than i did before. I’ve been trying some new berries, raspberries last week and blueberries at my boyfriends house this past weekend :) for some reason growing up i didnt like either of these things. what a strange and crazy child i was o_O next on the list is blackberries! and eventually i’d quite like to try a pomegranate…i know iot’s not a berry but it’s a new fruit :L now i’ve got a craving for strawberries. curse you, expensive fruit!!!
but yes, all that said, my lent challenge has been going really well.  Not to say i’m horribly, tortuously tempted much of the time when i’m at the supermarket or passing by a bakery or and ice cream shop or eyeing up all the sweets at the self checkout :L of course a couple weeks in i was really in the mood to have a nice night in with some malibu and a big 2 litre bottle of coke , and i still would be happy to indulge in that xD but it’s been a good experience nonetheless. i DO have the willpower and the capability to live without all these frivolous but delicious extra things in my diet, and i’m healthier for it. When lent is over i will probably have a day or two where i just mow on chocolate and vegan ice cream and french fries and pizza and cake and SEA SALT AND CIDER VINEGAR KETTLE CHIPS avec le boyfriend (we often dream of this day when we’re together, it’s a little sad xD) as disgusting as that sounds. but afterwards i plan to be certain to heavily moderate these things. i’ll still have them, but in small controlled portions and savour the hell out of it. i hope! 
i’m not expecting a lot out of my weigh in this coming weekend due to the fact that that special time will be approaching so i’ll probably be all bloated and feeling disgusting. Alas, i push on to fight chocolate cravings!
have a good week everyone :)
peace 

So, after a rather uneasy start to things, i finally feel like i’m just about settled back into my life in Manchester. My room is sorted, i’ve just done my first week of lectures, and i’m feeling good! 

Not sure that i mentioned that i’m taking a formal french class with the uni. Hopefully this will speed up my french basics, and get me speaking more coherently. I think it’ll mostly be helpful with my accent, which is a bit painful to the ear for anyone who actually knows french :P seven years of spanish will do that to you i suppose. When i can’t say something in french i usually end up speaking spanish instead by mistake, which is mildly amusing yet frustrating. I’m sure with more practice i’ll be able to draw more of a line between the two in my mind. I will hopefully be going to Paris in the spring with Luke and his family :)

Meanwhile, i just had my riding tryouts this past week. I got stuck with a tough unresponsive mare for my trial which was disappointing, but i ended up making the development team. It certainly is better than no team at all, so i’m quite excited for training to start this week! There’s still time for teams to be shuffled around, so if i prove myself over the next few weeks i could be moved up. i wouldnt be upset if i stayed where i am though. Means things will be more relaxed. Also i know a couple of my teammates pretty well already so i’d be happy to stick with them :) Another girl that is in the riding club has invited me to ireland to come try cross country riding on one of her ponies. I’d really like to work that out with her, if it was only for a weekend or something. How amazing would that be!!

This past weekend my lovely boyfriend came for a visit after an unfortunately long two weeks of separation! It’s his birthday tomorrow so we celebrated it while he was here, as you probably will see from the previous post. I got him a vinyl copy of an album he very much enjoys, and i will post the album art here for everyone to enjoy-

Which he loved more than i anticipated :) Now to think of what to get him for our anniversary next week…. 

I also made him a vegan cake which you can see in one of my previous posts (we’re both veggie and he’s working on being more vegan :P leading the way) And a card, but i always do that :P

We had a really great couple of days! Friday we went to see the one and only Sam Duckworth (Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly.) which is ironic because we saw him on exactly the same date last year :) And that night was the night when it started to become clear that we were going to be more than friends. And there we were a year later, a week away from our first anniversary! awwwwww we’re so cute :P

It was a really great concert, my only complaint being that the three opening acts kinda ate up most of the night and we didnt get that much time with actual get cape :P when he was on though it was amazing as usual, and he played some new songs which will hopefully be on the upcoming get cape album! Also, the most awesome thing happened when we arrived. After being grilled by security and the ticket window people (Luke didnt bring ID and it was an 18+ thing :P)  we strolled into the venue. It was completely dead. But then, a guy walks past us, and it was no other than Sam Duckworth himself!!!!!!!  He looked at me briefly, and i was just like :O i never imagined myself to be the star-struck kinda girl, but i was in shock for a moment. Took Luke a bit longer to notice but when he did his reaction was similar xD

Yesterday we enjoyed the unseasonably warm Manchester weather for a little while before checking out the Whitworth Art Gallery. I’ve been meaning to visit it for the past year or so, but never got on with it. I’m sure we ended up spening a couple hours in there, cause  it was fantastic! There were some undescribably cool interactive pieces, as well as some trippy short films, strange abstract pieces, and more straightforward amazingly detailed works. A few that particularly caught my eye were some abstract pieces which we found out were pictures or prints of radioactive materials left behind from the atomic bomb that was dropped on Hiroshima. There were three of them i believe, all of them very minimalistic and seemingly meaningless until you read the title. They were really beautiful, and i thought it was a great tribute to the disastrous event without being graphic and overstated. The Artist was Elin O’Hara Slavick, and i’ve just looked it up and found a couple photos of them.

It was a great experience overall, and Luke enjoyed it much more than i ever imagined he would. As far as i had known he was a bit skeptical of this ‘art’ business, and i think rightfully so in some cases (especially with the more abstract pieces. It’s hard even for me to take that seriously at times and try to see any depth). But after exploring the Whitworth we are both eager to explore whatever else is on offer!
 Sadly Luke had to leave earlier than usual as he was going to head home to spend some time with his family. It felt good to see him again though, and has really refreshed me. I think the week will go by quickly :) I can’t wait to go visit him in Sheffield and see the city! It sounds pretty amazing if i go off what he says. I think i’ll also be meeting his flatmates, which is a nervewracking yet exciting thought. Finally, there’s a mod night every saturday night which i’m looking forward to checking out with him eventually :D i’m looking for my very own 60’s mod dress for the occassion. I will of course, post a photo when i procure such a thing.
that’s it from me for now! :) 
peace