Me's Birthday

Happy birthday to........ ME! Happy birthday to......... ME! Happy birthday to ME ME ME!! Happy birthday to................ ME!

Good evening followers!

Today's my birthday and I thought it was worth writing an article about hehe. It's the first time that I'm spending my birthday away from my family and friends. And Switzerland too! I thought I'd feel blue, but I actually don't. My parents are soon coming here so I guess it helps. I'm really looking forward to their visit =)

So yesterday, with Tatjana, we went to the cinema and then to the restaurant, in order to celebrate what I like to call my expatriate 22nd birthday. We saw The Lincoln Lawyer, a thriller with Matthew McConaughey (yum =P). I enjoyed it very much. It's about this lawyer who's tricked by his evil client. So the lawyer doesn't want to win, but he's threatened into winning anyway (by the evil client). It's full of twists and turns and I loved it. Really good film. I highly recommend it! Especially if you're into John Grisham's stories, such as A Time to Kill (film featuring the same main actor by the way! =P). Tatjana enjoyed the film too!

After that, we had dinner at "La Tasca", a Spanish restaurant (it's a chain, but still, it's really nice!). We had a seafood paella. I'm not sure it was a real paella, but it was DELICIOUS anyway. And we were so hungry. It made it even more enjoyable. Then I had a dessert (it was my birthday meal after all!!!). I chose a chocolate brownie & Seville orange cheesecake. Oh my god. It was heavenly. Luscious. To die for almost. My belly was full and swollen but I HAD to finish that dessert, and I enjoyed every mouthful of it. My birthday cake. Ok. Cheesecake. Whatever =P

Also, I got a really nice present from Tajtana! A cookery book. But not just ANY cookery book. I got Jamie's Italy by Jamie Oliver hehehe. The book itself is really nice; nice pictures, nice layout! The recipes look yummy, but quite complicated sometimes, with weird ingredients. I might want to start with easy things like salads or sandwiches mwa ha ha

So I had a lovely day out with Tatjana! The weather was not so good but who cares, we went to the cinema. And we each got a new umbrella from Paperchase. Yeah. Never leave your home without an brolly when you're in the UK!!

But my birthday is today, it wasn't yesterday. I woke up and I was greeted by a warm “happy birthday” from my host mum! When the little monster got up, I got my presents! Scarlett got me a 3D cardboard letter (an E obviously, for Emilie) covered with cow-skin paper. I love it!!! And from Kathy, guess what I got? Yet another cookery book hehe! Not by Jamie Oliver, but by another really famous English cook: Fast Food by Gorden Ramsay. My host mum knows that I'm an impatient cook; things need to be quick. I don't like waiting ages for my food to be ready haha. When I'm hungry, I like to EAT! So now I have two really nice cookery books. They're quite heavy too, I don't know how I'll get them home haha. But I'll figure it out.

Then I went to school and a birthday card was waiting for me on the staffroom table. All the teachers had signed it. Now it's on my wall of fame (just like the ones from Tatjana and my host family).

I was eager to get home though, because I wanted to skype with my family. I'd asked them to sing hehehehe. And they did!!! Then, my brother showed me what he got me: a zeba print cow parade cow (…). I LOVE it. I CAN'T wait to have it in my hands! My dad showed me the book he got me: the Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language. It looks amazing. Again, I can't WAIT to read through it! I think it's a wonderful book to have!

Then, the doorbell rang. So I went downstairs, opened the door and had a shock. The postman was there and he handed me a HUGE vertical box. With a flower design on it. I could see my name on the tag. God. Someone had got me flowers. In a huge box. I went upstairs and asked my mum: “is that from you?” and she had that knowing smile. It was from them. So I opened the box and inside was this huge orchid flower, in a pot. It's got big white flowers and it looks gorgeous! I love orchids; they're my favourite flowers! I felt like a film character, being delivered a massive flower arrangement! That's definitively one of the craziest thing that's been done for me! I was (and still am!) really pleased and touched. My parents wanted me to open something on my birthday and so my dad had that crazy idea.

So yeah, that's about it really! I don't know whether this article is of any interest to you, but I had fun writing it and I thought I had to write it!

And THANK YOU to all the people who wished me a happy birthday and to my family for their craziness!! =D

Red Nose Day

Today it's Red Nose Day!

It's a day when the country raises money for Africa. It's also a day when people get to do crazy and funny things. A lot of pupils were dressed up today, and I decided to wear a funky red top! I even bought a red nose, which is pretty cool. Here are the pictures (ignore the dates, they're wrong)!





That's me, my red nose and my crazy bomb-skull-and-dynamite waistcoat!


Scarlett and I, touching each other's red noses mwa ha ha


Three red noses who managed to escape secondscary school (the school which red noses attend - they don't like being called monsters, but really, they are, poor things!).

That's the end of this pointless article!

Farewell!

Bristol

I visited some bits of Bristol on Friday and on Sunday. I had some time left when I came back from Bath so I thought it'd be nice to have a look around. I saw St Mary Redcliffe church, Bristol cathedral, the library, the university, the harbour... It was nice!


I know the picture is crap, but this is Temple Meads train station, and I think it looks cool, hence the *crappy* picture.


St Mary Redcliffe church.



Then basically, I just went to where my steps would take me. There are signs everywhere so I just followed those which inspired me haha. Random pictures:






That's the cathedral!







That huge tower you can see here is part of the University of Bristol.




Above, two pictures of a really nice house that belonged to a certain John Foster, mayor of Bristol in the 15th century. This house is at the top of the Christmas Steps, a historic street. Pretty cool huh? Here are the steps:


So that's what I saw on Friday. But I still had a lot to see and we went for a nice walk on Sunday with my friend. The weather was glorious. It was perfect. I didn't feel like I was in England at all. In fact, the places we saw reminded me a lot of Italy. The sunny weather added to that impression!

First, we went back to the harbour and walked around.


That's next to @Bristol, a museum for kids, science related I reckon. That weird twisted thing points to the Sun. It can point to the Moon, or to Mars if you want it to! All you have to do is type the name of the planet you want the twisted thing to point towards! I made it point to Mars and wanted to take a picture, but as some of you may know, it's kinda hard to take a picture of a screen.... -->




Here's me pointing Cambridge hehehehehe


Nice coloured houses =)


SS Great Britain. You can go on it but we didn't. It's not free of charge...


The Royal York Crescent, believed to be the longest crescent in Europe! That's in Clifton. Really pretty isn't it?


Random - yet super cute - terrace in Clifton.



That's Clifton Suspension Bridge. Ok. Not as impressive as the Golden Gate Bridge or the Brooklyn Bridge, but still quite nice, don't you think?


View from the bridge.


Cute little houses, still in Clifton.


Cute little arcade.

To finish with, here is the picture of a picture. A painting rather. Or fresco. Whatever. Here it is:


Ignore the blue stains. Some moron thought it'd be funny to throw blue paint at this fresco. Some people are unbelievable!!! Anyway, this is one of many Banksy artworks in the city. He's a graffiti artist. But my friend has only ever seen that one. She told me there are plenty though.

Ok! That's the end of this article! I hope you've enjoyed reading it! My weekend in the south-west of Britain was a good one. It was interesting and a lot of fun too! Besides, I've learned a new expression, which, in my opinion, fits me like a glove: to get itchy feet (meaning that you start to want to travel or do something different (Cambridge Dictionaries Online)). I definitively have itchy feet. I love to travel and to discover new and exciting things!

=D

Cardiff / Caerdydd, Wales

On Saturday, I went to Cardiff with my friend and two other French assistants who work in Bristol. We arrived there at around 11pm, so quite late, and went back to Bristol at 18pm. But we still had time to see everything we wanted to!

We started with the castle. It's quite expensive, but I'm happy we went in. It's quite cool and the interior is beautiful; full of decorations and gold. Quite flashy in fact, but I liked it. I couldn't live in such a place though. Too much going on, it would do my head in eventually!

Here are the pictures!

A gargoyle! That's the Animal Wall (I think). I found it pretty cool!




You can notice that the castle combines several different architectural styles. It's nice! It reminds me of a castle I visited in Portugal; a real Disney castle. Ok, I know, that was a random comment. But for the sake of it, and because I feel like adding a bit of colour to this greyness (if I had to assign a colour to the UK, it would be grey. Or red - the bricks you see?), I'll show you a picture!



That's Cardiff castle again, in case you hadn't noticed.




That's a trebuchet. Mwa ha ha the ancestor of the bazooka. Maybe. Hihi


Oh my god! What's that? Well, that's ME, messing around the Welsh dragon. Graaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaawwwwrrrrr (ok, that's supposed to imitate the cry of a dragon). I don't look like it, but trust me, I was freaking out. He's very scary, that dragon.


View from the tower. That funky building there is the Civic Hall.

The following pictures are from the interior of the castle. Enjoy!






Then we went down town to have a look. The city was animated because a rugby match took place on Saturday: Wales against Ireland. Apparently, people are quite fond of rugby there. So the streets were filled with supporters, crazy dressed and made up people, carrying crazy stuff around, and drinking like fish!




After that, we went to the National Museum Gallery of Wales. It's free and it's quite a nice museum! It tells the story of Wales and there is an art exhibition as well!


Here it is.


Next to the museum is the Civic Hall (you know, the funky building!).


Some random (but cool) thing in the middle of a street.



After that, we walked to Cardiff Bay, the modern district of the city. It's hip, it's where young people go. It was quiet though, as everyone was down town in pubs, watching THE match! But it was still nice!



Pierhead building.


Millennium Centre.


And then we headed back to the centre to take the train back to Bristol! I had a really nice day with my friend and the two assistants! And I'm really happy to have visited the capital city of Wales! One more capital off my list!! =D

Hope you enjoyed the article!