Jessica Lau and Jenni King

So this blog is just a short one...For my beloved ladies, Jenni & Jess. (See abov)

After coming to visit me in Sunderland last week they have insisted I give them a dedicated blog, or more specifically Jess anyway.

And this is it, just to show my appreciation for coming to visit me, getting drunk and eating all my cake decorations. Oh, and talking about old times, getting the letters and photos out.

I love these two all the world, and miss them as Jess is in London and Jenni is ALWAYS bloody working!

Thanks for sharing a good night, and my bed with me.

Lots of love to you both.

Ashley

A car for everyday of the week...

So in my year and a half of living in Sunderland I have managed to get myself on to car number four. This is the lowdown on all of my babies, I loved them all, some more than others and some I may learn to love
Thursday 18th October 2007 - My first car - 1993 Honda Civic.


Her name was Lulu. I owned this car for around 9 months, the only car I've dared to floor, and she quite easily hit 120 mph, not sensible I know, but I wanted to know.

Lulu survived a crash in the uni car park, and her MOT, but unfortunately living in Sunderland some scumbags decided they would try to steal it. They couldn't figure out how to hot wire it, so trashed it instead, effectively writing it off. I still miss this car and the only photos I have are of two idiots moving it while I was sleeping!

Monday 28th July 2008 - numero deux - 1998 Fiat Punto.

His name was Mr. Parsons (a character from Scream Bloody Murder) I had this car for about 6 1/2 months, by far the most troublesome.

I broke down on the A19 with a broken head gasket and broken radiator, I actually broke down all over the North East in this car, but it managed to get us to Leeds Festival and back, comfortably so I loved it, not as much as Lulu though.

I replaced almost everything under the bonnet in this car, and had a few scares of the back door opening whilst I was driving round a roundabout and so on. I eventually passed this car on - I sold it to my Daddy!

Saturday 28th February 2009 - number 3 - 2001 Mercedes Benz A-class (or something)

This car was named Arbuthnut, no idea if this is a real name, but it stuck, we only had this car for a month, but it was lovely.

It felt great to say "I drive a Merc" considering i'm a student and the last car had been so much trouble! However, us being us an accident had to happen, apparently women who drive 4x4's don't like it when you accidently scratch their big ass cars...

I loved almost everything about this car, apart from the feeling that I was driving a tank at times. It was the first diesel car I'd driven since taking lessons! But this one was short lived, we had to take it back home.

Sunday 22nd March 2009 - number 4 - 2000 Ford Fiesta.

This one as of yet doesn't really have a name, and I've only driven it once, in which I stalled it three times! Just from uni to home. Not much to say about this one yet, it has air con, which is a first, but no electric windows, also a first!

So there you have it, my four cars, i'm working on a rap song based around Craig David - 7 Days.

I'll let you all know how that goes, but any lyric suggestions are welcome!

Ashley

\m/

My version of Desert Island Discs

So after reading Our Rutland Correspondents earlier blog on his ideal eight tracks he would choose if stuck on a desert island, I thought I would do a smilar type blog post.

So here it goes my 8 songs:


1. Head Automatica - Beating Heart Baby - If I was on a desert island this is my way of taking Alex with me.

2. Radiohead - High and Dry - This band were awesome live, and this song could make me sleep anytime, anywhere, slightly reminds me of pints of wine, and a really loud man who 'outspoke Radiohead'.

3. The Clash - Should I Stay or Should I Go? - Year 11 leavers day and my best friends on stage playing this! Such a cliche, but still brilliant.

4. Lonestar - Amazed - Just because I secretly love this song, but I can manage to annoy each and everyone of my housemates by singing this to them.

5. Wings - Band On The Run - I have no idea why I would take this, it makes me smile a little inside and seeing as though I may have heard it a hundred times in the last month, I like it.

6. Panic! At The Disco - Nine In The Afternoon - This song reminds me of my first year at uni, my first ever car, and again generally annoying everyone with it, loudly.

7. Donny Osmond - Would I Lie To You - Again, first year uni, cooking, cleaning, pre-party. This song was a pretty good all round cheer up song. CD stolen courtesy of Ian & Neils Mum, who did corner us in the biscuit isle in Tesco. I am not ashamed that I like this song.

8. Hot Hot Heat - Middle Of Nowhere - This is just one song off the album that is pretty much THE album I get ready to, always. Make-up can be a problem when dancing to this...


So there you have it, my choice of songs that would keep me sane if on a desert island, most of them just make me smile and dance, which I'm sure I'd have an awful lot of time to do.

Our house, in the middle of our street...

So, the landlord came round yesterday morning, told us he was getting a cleaner in to do a ‘Spring Clean’ of the house, I don’t think she was a real cleaner, she left it in a worse state than it originally was – which wasn’t actually messy in the first place.

She just seemed to wander around with Mr. Muscle in her hand spraying erratically around the house and not wiping it up! If she was getting paid I would have happily done her job for the day, or if the landlord mentioned he wanted the place cleaning up a little for house viewings why didn’t he say!? We do clean our house; I don’t think he gets it.

On the other hand I don’t think he gets much – we have damp in the corner of our kitchen, so bad that there has been three mushrooms grow in it over the last few months, so what does he do? Paints over it, yes he paints the mouldy corner of the kitchen and leaves. After further complaints he figures it must be the glass door on the shower that’s letting water out and causing the mould. So, he glues it shut to the bath, we are aware it’s not the shower that’s leaking, but he won’t listen. Then figures buying us a new bathmat will also help, we already have two, but you know he must be right, yeah?

And then there is the case of the broken toilet, it’s been blocked for weeks, the drains are completely broken, but he thinks it’s okay because we have two toilets – there are however, seven people in this house, one toilet isn’t really good enough, and there’s always one who forgets it’s not been fixed yet – yeah you can imagine the results – similar to what we have to look at when it rains too heavy and the drains are blocked in the garden, I’m not even going into that one, it makes me feel sick.

It’s awful to see these new people looking around our house going “ohhh, ahhh” at the high ceilings and massive rooms, when really it’s an awful house, probably would be condemned if a real person came to look at it! But no, we’re still here, debating not paying our rent to get things done, I’d have to grow a pair first I think.

It took us almost two months to get a new boiler fitted; he wouldn’t believe that even though his ‘mate’ said it would be okay, as soon as we turned it on it sounded like a jet trying to take off, and then the fizzing noise that accompanied it. Safe then yeah? We had no heating in this time, you know when it was snowing and freezing? Yeah it was then, and hot water, well that was temperamental, I had to miss university a few times and drive home to get a shower, it was awful. But still we pay our £50 a week and deal with it, thinking it’s only till June we’ll be fine.

So there you have it the hell hole that we call a home, bah I’m going to spend my rent money on getting my hair dyed the brightest shade of red that I can.

Ashley

Rock on \m/

To Buy or Not to Buy?

So, anyway, why is it when you’re at university you don’t want to be there, but then when you’re at home, your house mates are busy and what are you? Bored, always bored – there are only so many ways to procrastinate from doing work, cleaning, washing clothes or tidying your room. Of which I managed to put all off apart from washing my clothes. We just got a new boiler fitted which means it doesn’t take four days for my clothes to dry after washing!


I’m sat for not the first time this week wondering what to do, I just cancelled the insurance policy on my car after only four months, so now I’m waiting for this money to be deposited back into my bank and mentally listing all the lovely things I’d like to buy. Which means it is more than likely already spent before it gets to my bank – not physically but mentally.


And that’s it, can I justify spending over £60 on a bag? That’s almost the same price as six months road tax on my old car! It’s crazy, but then I do remember just how much money I will be getting in a few days. It doesn’t seem right, I am after all a student, and surely I could spend £60 on some nice text books or.... No that’s just about all I can think of university related anyway, then this gorgeous bag just keeps popping back into my head.


Turns out I don’t want the one that costs £60 – a quite ghastly pink one; I want one of the yellow or turquoise ones – retailing about £100. Which to me is insane, I could justify it by not going out for a month, quitting smoking for about five weeks, or not driving – therefore not paying for diesel, but really I would never stick to any of these – ever.


I mean all of the above would be beneficial to me – not drinking, smoking and walking everywhere that would be fantastic and I could show off my new bag. However, where I live I would probably get mugged in the street if I walked anywhere after peak hours. If I took it out on a night out, it would probably get covered in someone else’s beer, knowing my track record, or I would lose it, and be mostly upset.


So here are my dream bags – opinions are welcome as to whether I deserve to buy this bag or not!



Ashley

Right, so having just discovered the wonders of blogging who wants to know the real student voice?

I plan to make this a weekly update – a diary if you will, of what I get up to whilst at university, studying Public Relations at Sunderland, a real representation of what student life is like.

I’m talking loan dates, deadlines and of course drunken antics because obviously that’s all students do – sleep all day, party all night, right?

For example I’ve been a student at Sunderland University for 18 months or so, I managed to last 17 days in student accommodation before there was too much oestrogen for me to physically cope with, so moved in with four boys’ one girl, its loads better and obviously in a house which is much more comfortable, and less clinical.

So anyway after 18 months of being a student in Sunderland I had my first real fight, or one that I can recall. “What gives the average male the right to pull me to the floor pouring his drink all over me and then question my reaction?” Of course if anyone who knows me is reading this they will know I clearly threw my drink over him, hit him with the glass (yes it was plastic, I’m not that crazy!), and then proceeded to punch him. That’s just if you know me – otherwise you learn something new every day – I look lovely, but I will stand up for myself, I don’t need a male in my life to fight for me, I can do it quite well on my own.

Obviously for us students this is nothing spectacular, but give it to your Mum, or Dad this is gold dust – see what your child does when they are away from home and what they are wasting their time and money on!

I’m not here to rat everyone out, but do you think your parents are interested in what you’re doing at university aside from what you tell them. My mum and Dad couldn’t learn any more from me through this blog, they know everything, so I’m fine, no secrets, no regrets and nothing to hide! In fact I actively tell them when I have done something like hitting a guy that hurt me – they should be proud – I can look after myself in this city, away from their guidance! They could however, be ashamed of what I get myself into, but at the end of the day, I know how to get out of it, so not too much to worry about.

So there you have it the first instalment of my life as a student!
Ashley