SUMMER ADVENTURES // CARDIFF, GBK & IPHONE

It has happened guys. I knew the day was going to come but you are never really ready for it are you. Yes, you guessed it - my iphone has broken. I can happily live without a phone for a long while and I don't suffer from text withdrawal symptoms but the camera. I use the iphone camera for the majority of my blog posts and just as a way to capture daily events. It wouldn't be that bad if I lived close to an apple shop but as I live in the middle of nowhere I have to do a 200 mile round trip to Cardiff to get it fixed. Yup - 200 miles! Well anywho, Carwen, Ruth and myself had planned to go to the capital on Tuesday to get my phone fixed but we were late in deciding train times and by the time I went to book an appointment at the Genius Bar there was none left - nooooo! Although I couldn't get my phone fixed we still went and had a lovely day.

First thing was first - we had to go and get lunch because we were starvin' marvin. Having been reading the Burgers and Bruce blog recently I really wanted a burger and, well, there is only one place to go and that is Gourmet Burger Kitchen by the Library in town. I had the beef burger with bacon and avocado. Wooow - delish. Also, I have no idea what's in their relish but it's the best I've ever had. Once we were energised we did a bit of shopping. I've been searching for some records recently and they are so expensive everywhere - £24 for a Justin Timberlake vinyl anyone? Crazy. The only time I've been willing to pay £20 for a record was when I found Springsteen's Darkness on the Edge of Town album in Portobello Market. Anywho, Urban Outfitters currently have an amazing collection of old school records which is just awesome. 2 albums for £10!! I picked up U2's Rattle & Hum and a 50's rock 'n' roll album with artists such as Jerry Lee Lewis. Yaaaay. I also picked up a Beatles and a Guns 'n' roses  tee before heading home.

We had such a cool time together and sometimes when you're away at uni in different parts of the country you start to forget how awesome it is to be around people you've been friends with since you were 10/11 years old (gosh, almost 10 years! whaaat?!). Diolch Carwen a Ruth :)

Apologies: I have only got pictures of our meal at the GBK because as I stated earlier I have no camera at the moment. These were taken by Ruth. 

Me trying to create an artistic background for the photo . . . yeah . . . 

SUMMER ADVENTURES // Cooling down in the sea

The relentless hot weather we've been having recently called for one thing - the beach. On Thursday Carwen and I decided to hit New Quay beach for a nice chillaxed day. Before arriving at the sea side we stopped in a little hilarious village shop where we bought our food for the day, after being stuck in a Welsh traffic jam (sheep not cars). We literally had a box full of stuff for £6! 14p Curly Wurlys anyone?! As it was a weekday the beach was relatively empty which was awesome. After setting up camp we headed towards the sea, and jee wiz the sand was boiling but sadly the sea wasn't! Despite the ice cold temperature of the sea we headed in and had a good swim for about 20 minutes before I heard Carwen scream. I looked over and the look of terror on her face was, although it shouldn't have been, hilarious! I think she touched the stomach of a jelly fish (there were loads on the beach) and in all the commotion she broke her sunglasses and swam to the shore as the glasses sunk to the bottom of the sea! 

After that incident we shortly packed our things up and went for a little walk to the other side of the beach where we sat on the harbour looking out towards the horizon in the scorching sun. Awesome. 

If Thursday wasn't enough, my mum and I headed to Mwnt on Saturday for another beach day. Mwnt is an actually awesome place which not many people (i.e tourists) know of so it's quite quiet there. I forced mam in to the sea and after some complaining she eventually jumped in and actually really enjoyed it. The sea was so calm, although I think it was colder than New Quay's, and it was perfect just to be able to lie there :) I also managed a good swim while in the big blue ocean and was absolutely shattered after arriving home because of it. I'd really love to do some open water swimming, I'm currently looking in to it to see if there are any clubs around where I live. 

I love the sea although I think the heat needs to calm down a bit because it's really tiring me out. Not that I'm complaining or anything! :)

 

SUMMER ADVENTURES // CARDIFF

Thursday afternoon after a morning of exercising, blogging and getting myself together, I drove down to Carmarthen with Ruth to meet my mam. We then changed cars and three of us made our way to Cardiff. With mam having to be in the Vale hotel by 7:30am with work, I decided to tag along to have a day or two in the capital. We were staying in our friend's house as she is currently in Australia watching the Lions. After we dropped our stuff off in the house we caught the bus in to central and had a delish Wagamamas for dinner. We watched Horrible Bosses and made our way up to bed.

I woke up early the next day to order Arctic Monkeys tickets that were being released at 9am. I was trying for Earls Court tickets just because EC is so much nearer to me while I'm at university but within a matter of seconds they were sold out. I then immediately tried for tickets for their Cardiff gig and got them instantly. Therefore, in October myself and Nicola will be seeing the AC! woohoo. I first saw the Arctic Monkeys around seven years ago in the CIA for their Favourite Worst Nightmare tour and they were superb so I'm super excited to see them again! Nicola and myself have so many gigs planned for this summer together - Reading fest, Kaiser chiefs, Arctic Monkeys and Stereophonics! It's going to be awesomeeee!

Myself and Ruth ate our breakfast in the garden as it was sooo hot and it was only around half 9! We eventually got ourselves together and we headed in to town. We browsed around a few shops and both of us treated ourselves to a new pair of Urban Outfitter sunnies - in preparation for this heat wave we have been promised :) For lunch we ate at Madame Fromage which is an awesome deli down Castle Arcade in town. They have the best baguettes, cheese and also they have some heavenly cakes - wowza! Having been filled to the brim with deliciousness I headed in to the Apple store and bought myself a brand spanking new Macbook Pro with retina display :) I've always had second hand laptops that have been passed down through family members so I thought I'd treat myself and buy a new one for uni work and for my blogging. So far it is awesome - and because I'm a student I got a £70 iTunes voucher! If I was on twitter right now I'd be saying #winning.

The sun was beaming down on the city and with no wind I thought I was melting! Ruth and I caught the bus to the train station and then a train to Newport where my brother was picking us up to take us back home.

I love Cardiff. The uni wasn't for me when I went on an open day there but the city itself is just beautiful. It's more like a town than a city really, well if you compare it to London it is. I would love to live there one day. It looks ever more awesome in the sun.

GLASTONBURY WEEKEND // BBQing in the sun

This weekend is Glastonbury weekend and oh how I wish I was in Worthy farm listening to the Stones, Arctic Monkeys, Primal Scream, Elvis Castello, and the list goes on and on but alas I'm home in Wales. It's not all bad though because the sun has been beaming down on us here in the countryside and that calls for one thing and one thing only - BBQ! We turned the radio on outside so we could listen to Glasto while enjoying the sun. We made awesome salads, had loads of burgers and had the chiminea going to keep us all warm. Before we began our food we had a bottle of Bollinger to celebrate Owen getting a 2:1 in History from Aberystwyth university. Radio 2's coverage of Glasto was sounding as we ate our food just as the sun went down. After being filled to the brim with BBQ food I had a little skating session around the house which is always fun. I genuinely think that my Penny Nickel board is one, if not the, best present I have ever received!

We went in side just in time to watch the Rolling Stones absolutely rock Glastonbury. They were superb, even though at time is thought Keith Richards was on his way out! Mark Radcliffe (whom I absolutely love!) said that he has never seen such a big crowd congregating around the Pyramid stage to watch a band before. It was crazy - well over 100,000 I'd say. Satisfaction, Sympathy for the Devil and Brown Sugar were just some of the amazing songs they had in their set. Once they were off stage we watches some more highlights. I first heard The Strypes play on Jools Holland a few months back and I though they were superb, I even wrote their name down so I could include them in a future Super Song Sunday. Their set on the John Peel stage was incredible. Some have been saying that they are as good, or even better, than the Stones were at their age. To think that they are only 15,16 and 17 year old is mental but exciting. They are also playing in Reading and I will definitely be there to watch them.

 

 

 

 

SUN FOR DAYS

Last week was soooo sunny and hot. Most days I would revise in the morning and then I'd go for a walk before lunch and continuing my revision and every time when I'd arrive home I had to change in to my shorts because it was just so warm outside. Everyone was wearing their shorts, dresses and vest tops and sunbathing! It was a nice distraction from uni work and a nice way to spend my revision break out in the sun! Our whole block took our blankets out and spent the afternoons in the sun reading magazines, revising and drinking some Pimms.

 We also went to watch Iron Man 3 after my exam on Wednesday Evening. It was awesome! Like really awesome! I love Robert Downey Jr. On the way out of the cinema I saw Sulley and Mike. Love these guys! Looking forward to the new film!!!

LISA IT'S YOUR BIRTHDAY . . .

'Sup. The last few days have been quite busy.
On Friday night myself and the famalam went out for my birthday dinner in Ludo's in Newcastle Emlyn. The food was awesome and even though there were hardly any people there it was good. I had one of the most amazing starters ever and sitting here right now writing this so close to dinner time it's making me super hungry! It was a pear, bacon and Perl Las salad which sounds a bit odd but is so awesome. For mains I had duck and for pudding I had panna cotta :) yummm.

By birthday was on Saturday and I had booked to have my hair done so that's what I did. I've had my hair cut in Andrew Price since I was veeeery young and while I was there I changed the colour of my hair a bit and went for like a dip dye (brown to blonde) look. I really like it. After that I grabbed some stuff from town, we went to visit my grandparents and we headed home. All of my friends had gone back to uni a couple of weeks previously so I didn't really do much on my birthday but it was nice.Instead of a cake I had loads of cupcakes with surfboards and flowers on them but I only had one because I was going to bring them back to uni and share them with everyone but someone (dad) forgot them at home which I wasn't too pleased about but they're just cakes at the end of the day.

Sunday I made my way back to uni and to Block J. Because we've all been away from here for so long it's actually quite nice to be back even though we're all in our rooms most of the day revising! It has been sooooo sunny here this week and I hope it continues. I've been waking up at 7am and it looks like the middle of the day outside it's so sunny and bright :)
Yes I did bring Sulley with me :)

 These are just the things that wouldn't fit in the boot!

 

Last night because myself and our house mate Alex were having our birthdays the flat sang happy birthday to us and gave us cake and cards :) We have the best block everrrrrrr. :)