Dirty Thirty

On Friday Emma and I set off for Leeds in Emma's car. We left at about 5pm, just as it started to snow, and battling blizzards, traffic jams and bad directions, finally arrived at 10pm-ish, joining Bex's other friends from around the country. We were there to celebrate her 30th.
This involved eating fajitas and drinking wine on Friday night, hitting the German market on Saturday, which smells better than it tastes, and heading back to Bex's house in the afternoon to dress up. Bex had decided to embrace the northern spirit, and we had been told to dress in 'Hollyoaks Glamour'. Cue the leopard print, fake eyelashes, hair extensions, false nails, fake tan, high heels and bling! A few hours and bottles of bubbly later, we no longer resembled our former selves, and some even found new voices and personalities to go with their dress.
We had dinner at Pizza Express, then went to Boutique, where we blended in a treat, sipping cocktails and strutting our stuff on the dancefloor. Though the DJ did ask us to tone it down as we were knocking his equipment off his table in our vigour! We ended the night in a nearby bar, where things went very WAG for a while - lost girls, upset girls, drunk girls and some boys...
It was a fun weekend, but as the taxi refused to take us up the icy hill, and we found ourselves tottering through the snow in our high heels, I felt relieved that I would never have to go through all this hassle for a night out again!

Cross country

In a week, I have travelled from Penzance, to Bristol, to London, to Brighton, and back to Bristol. During this week I saw my parents, sister and nephews in Penzance, where I babysat, stayed awake as children coughed, hunted bears and caught up with friends. I also briefly saw my boyfriend, who was visiting his sister, niece and nephew in Cornwall, made invitations for my mum's birthday, helped develop a plotline for a new novel and had a Skype interview for a job in a place I love: Peru.
Then I had a brief stop in Bristol where I changed beds (having left in a rush after entertaining visitors the previous weekend), washed clothes, applied for jobs, had meetings and supported a hardworking artist on a deadline. I also learned I had passed the interview and was on to round two, and prepared the tasks set for it.
I then headed to London, where I saw two more sisters, a niece and my mum again, played a lot of 'row row row your boat', and ate a birthday tea. I also saw my best friend for birthday lunch and visited the V and A museum with her, went to a party and caught up with two more precious friends, and worried about whether I even wanted the job.
Then I went to Brighton. In Brighton I waited for my boyfriend, shopped, ate lovely food, walked a lot, relaxed in my favourite flat in the world, and attended the round two interview.
I'm now back in Bristol. It has been a busy week. One in which I feel I've fulfilled my sister/ aunty/ friend/ girlfriend duties well. I've also come to some important decisions about where I want to be heading. It's not to Peru, unbelievably. But when my life is so rich with people here, I just can't see myself leaving again.
So, despite leaving the sunny East of the country and returning once more to the windy West, for now, I'm sticking to Bristol.

The Heart of Bristol

I had three friends visiting, and needed to entertain them, but I knew that the combination of Halloween weekend and living in Bristol would work out well. Friday night saw endless rounds of veggie chilli as various friends dropped by to see me or my visitors. We watched Night of The Living Dead to get us in the mood as Bex was determined that on Saturday we should join Bristol's famous Zombie Walk.
So we got up on Saturday morning and hit the charity shops, emerging with pretty black dresses, blood and plenty of talcum powder. We ate the rest of the chilli for lunch then popped open some sparkling wine and dressed ourselves down, messing our hair, faces and clothes up until we looked dead. By 3ish we were on our way to College Green, joining thousands of other zombies, including dead Jedward, Ronald McDonald and Michael Jackson. It was too much fun, as zombies aren't supposed to smile, so when we caught sight of a camera we tried to pose as dead...
By 6pm were were well into the cider and Jagerbombs at the Canteen, dancing, chatting and zombie spotting the evening away. Food in Biblos, an X Factor break at mine and we were off again to a short shorts party...
Not a bad Halloween... I think my guests were suitably entertained.