Well first off all, Merry Xmas to you all!
Today, at the ripe old age of 22 ( :-) ) I went sledding for the first time! When he was in high school, Colley pinched a couple of road signs (naughty naughty) and he's kept them ever since. Together we built a sled out of them (well he supervised and I tied it all together lol). Theres a nice steep sloping hill on the playing fields near our house and we took the sled there with the dog. On the first run, the bottle of water we used to weight it and curve the signs round at the front came off and Carla ran away with it.
It actually worked just as well without it as it did with it so it didn't matter. I never realised that sledding could be so fun! The rush of adrenalin and excitement as you go shooting down the hillside, and in my case, falling off the sled and skidding across the field at the bottom on my back and getting snow down the back of my hood.
I couldn't stop laughing and just kept wanting to go again and again. Even Colley had fun. He ran at the sled and went skidding. We weren't out for long as it was so cold, but so much fun. There was a bloke on the same hill practising snowboarding. We all figured the same, if we're gonna have so much snow we might as well have fun in it!
What I was surprised about was that there was absolutly no kids outside. No one but 3 fully grown 20-30 somethings playing in the snow. Snow can be great. Snowball fights, building igloos or snow walls and snow men.
I'm actually feeling christmassy today. It may be because we're going out tonight. Everyone's heading down to JB's for what may be their last xmas eve bash. I had so much fun when we went a few years ago and we're not missing this year.
Christmas has made me think about traditions. Every family has different christmas traditions and they're so varied. We're spending christmas this year at home with Colley's family. Their tradition is to get up at any point, eat xmas dinner at his uncles, and go to the pub. My family's traditions include getting up early, eating brekkie before opening presents. Xmas dinner is eaten at nans or my aunt's, we play games in the afternoon and watch crummy xmas tv.
But thinking about all this lead me to thinking about what I would consider to be my perfect christmas. I'd love to spend all day in my PJ's. Get up about 7-8ish, eat brekkie, open presents (the way I've always done it growing up), and slouch about all day drinking, eating and watching new dvds, and playing with all my new goodies. But where would this perfect day be? I'd love somewhere quiet and homely, snow outside and a fire inside, snug and warm on a comfy sofa with a thick blanket, Colley and Carla. I'd love all this to be in my perfect house, which I havent found yet and have no idea where this could be. Christmas should be a day when everyone stays at home. Nothing should be open, no-one working, but everyone happy at home.
What about you? Where and what would your perfect christmas be?
Hope you all have a good holiday anyway, enjoy the unusually seasonal weather. I'll speak to you in the new year!
xxx
Little ol' me
Friday 24 December 2010
Thursday 16 December 2010
Exams and xmas
I know I promised a pic and story about the whole Harry Potter ghost walk thing in Dudley Castle but I still havent uploaded the picture.
I've been busy recently with revision and exams, my last one is tomorrow, woohoo! If there's one thing I suck at it's revision and unseen essay style exams. The information just doesn't want to stay in my head. I spent the cognitive psychology exam with the words "violation of independence" floating in my head, knowing they were relelvant but could not for the life of me remember what it was. I get very nervous and anxious before an exam, and fidgety once i'm in there. Considering we don't take exams in the work place but have to do boring things such as report writing, I don't see the relevance of exams. Just set more reports and coursework and get us used to doing what we're going to have to do for the rest of our careers!
I did come out of the exam quite angry. We had exam preperation seminars with each of the three lecturers, who each had taught us two topics. Ken promised one question on judgement and one on decision making, Anke promised one question on attention and one on problem solving and Neil promised one question on emotional stroop and one on human real time processing. I know this probably means nothing to the rest of you but please bear with me. They told us it would be perfectly acceptable if we revised one topic per lecturer as we had to chose one question from each to answer. Yippee! Made our life easier. Got into the exam and, as promised, Ken had one question on judgement and one on decision making, good, I revised decision making. Anke had one question on attention and one on problem solving, good, I revised attention. Neil however, one question on real time processing, and one on the Cognitive Failures Questionnaire....which i DIDN'T revise. I dedicated my revision to the emotional Stroop. He went on and on about the Stroop and one paper in particular in both lectures and the seminar. Emphasised we had to read this paper, it was vital and important work in relation to the emotional Stroop. Bastard. Emotional Stroop? I nearly had an emotional strop!
I did the best I could do so fingers crossed.
Right now I'm waiting for a delivery man. There's plenty of housework to be done but I don't dare move from the window as the buzzer doesn't work and I don't want to miss him. Hoping the dog will let me know when he arrives but she's to busy watching school children play. As soon as he's arrived I can get on with housework and start manically xmas shopping. I'm useless at doing that in plenty of time. Always left til the last minute. But when you spend every minute of the day revising or going to work when do you have time to shop? That's my excuse at least.
I'm a bit of a scrooge at xmas if I'm honest. It doesn't hold the enjoyment and sparkle to me that everyone else seems to experience at this time of year. At least it's a day where I don't have to go to work. Ideally, I'd start the day with a slap up fry up breakfast, then lounge around all day under the duvet on the sofa in my pjs. Xmas day everyone should stay at home, but this year I'm being dragged round people's house and I don't remember who they are and then being dragged to the pub. Joy of joys. I'm not a pub person if I'm not with people I know and feel comfortable with. Yes my fiance will be there, but he knows these people, and apparently I do but don't remember them. Fun all round.
Enough of the bah humbug stuff, I'm going to risk a quick trip to the kitchen for some lunch before the delivery arrives. Watch him arrive as I make my sandwich and drive off just as I'm coming back to sit down.
Bye!
I've been busy recently with revision and exams, my last one is tomorrow, woohoo! If there's one thing I suck at it's revision and unseen essay style exams. The information just doesn't want to stay in my head. I spent the cognitive psychology exam with the words "violation of independence" floating in my head, knowing they were relelvant but could not for the life of me remember what it was. I get very nervous and anxious before an exam, and fidgety once i'm in there. Considering we don't take exams in the work place but have to do boring things such as report writing, I don't see the relevance of exams. Just set more reports and coursework and get us used to doing what we're going to have to do for the rest of our careers!
I did come out of the exam quite angry. We had exam preperation seminars with each of the three lecturers, who each had taught us two topics. Ken promised one question on judgement and one on decision making, Anke promised one question on attention and one on problem solving and Neil promised one question on emotional stroop and one on human real time processing. I know this probably means nothing to the rest of you but please bear with me. They told us it would be perfectly acceptable if we revised one topic per lecturer as we had to chose one question from each to answer. Yippee! Made our life easier. Got into the exam and, as promised, Ken had one question on judgement and one on decision making, good, I revised decision making. Anke had one question on attention and one on problem solving, good, I revised attention. Neil however, one question on real time processing, and one on the Cognitive Failures Questionnaire....which i DIDN'T revise. I dedicated my revision to the emotional Stroop. He went on and on about the Stroop and one paper in particular in both lectures and the seminar. Emphasised we had to read this paper, it was vital and important work in relation to the emotional Stroop. Bastard. Emotional Stroop? I nearly had an emotional strop!
I did the best I could do so fingers crossed.
Right now I'm waiting for a delivery man. There's plenty of housework to be done but I don't dare move from the window as the buzzer doesn't work and I don't want to miss him. Hoping the dog will let me know when he arrives but she's to busy watching school children play. As soon as he's arrived I can get on with housework and start manically xmas shopping. I'm useless at doing that in plenty of time. Always left til the last minute. But when you spend every minute of the day revising or going to work when do you have time to shop? That's my excuse at least.
I'm a bit of a scrooge at xmas if I'm honest. It doesn't hold the enjoyment and sparkle to me that everyone else seems to experience at this time of year. At least it's a day where I don't have to go to work. Ideally, I'd start the day with a slap up fry up breakfast, then lounge around all day under the duvet on the sofa in my pjs. Xmas day everyone should stay at home, but this year I'm being dragged round people's house and I don't remember who they are and then being dragged to the pub. Joy of joys. I'm not a pub person if I'm not with people I know and feel comfortable with. Yes my fiance will be there, but he knows these people, and apparently I do but don't remember them. Fun all round.
Enough of the bah humbug stuff, I'm going to risk a quick trip to the kitchen for some lunch before the delivery arrives. Watch him arrive as I make my sandwich and drive off just as I'm coming back to sit down.
Bye!
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