Brighton Blues v Dunlop

A couple of Saturdays ago I spent the day up at Twickenham stadium watching Brighton rugby club destroy Dunlop in the championship final. Many people went up for the day as a couple of the old Sussex rugby boys now play for the Brighton team. My friend Nick was playing along with Alex Finch who I know, just not as well. Twickenham stadium is home to the England rugby team, and the boys were very excited to play on this important pitch.

A fair amount of Brightonions went up for the game as Nick and Alex are part of a very large and close group of friends, and of course there were fans for the other players. Tom and I took the train up to London where we met our friends Tom and Siobhan who just started renting a lovely flat near Greenwich where we were staying for the night. After dropping our overnight stuff it was across the city to Twickenham we went. We got off the train one stop early for a long walk in the sun across the Richmond bridge. The walk ended at the Cabbage Patch pub near the stadium where we met up with the group from Brighton.



After a drink or two at the pub it was time for the game. Brighton absolutely dominated Dunlop. Final score 32-3, not even a competition. It was a wonderful day in the sun, and always better when the right team wins.




Love

and the winner is....

David Cameron!

Cameron is the new Prime Minister after agreeing with the Liberal Democrats to form a coalition government. Nick Clegg is Deputy Prime Minister. These two will now work together to lead the United Kingdom into the future.

What lies ahead? We shall see.

Love

smelly birds and their white goo

Absolutely hilarious incident at the pub after work last Friday. My colleagues and I sat outside enjoying the almost warm enough weather. As I was about to make my way to the station Claire went in for another drink. I said goodbye and watched her go. All of the sudden, SPLAT! I heard it, and saw a bit of water fall next to Clare. I was confused. What just happened? Did someone through water? That's odd I thought. Then Claire turned around. Her nose was covered white, white with bird poo! Hahahahaha.


Fortunately Claire saw the funny side of being pooed on and started giggling uncontrollably. Plus, for some reason being pooed on by a bird is supposed to bring good luck, can't complain with that.

I admit I have experienced a similar situation. Last summer at my grandparents on Hood Canal I was initiated into the bird poo club. Relaxing on their patio I unfortunately found myself soiled with white goo. Luckily it landed on my top and not in my hair, and I wasn't in public, and I quickly got rid of the mess.

I highly recommend reading the bird poo guide. It is full of good advise about about what to do if you find yourself covered in smelly white goo. Especially useful if you are planning on going to the sea this summer where the wretched seagulls lurk.

What about you...Have you ever found yourself covered with bird poo? If so, please share your story and how you coped while covered in goo. You could be helping others.

Love

Home-made Houmous

I have been cooking now and then in attempt to fulfill my new years resolution. Despite failing to correctly read/ pay attention to the directions on the box of a frozen pizza which resulted in burnt supper the other night, I think my cooking skills are improving. My latest accomplishment is home made houmous. I was shocked at how simple it is! Its a bit of a stretch to call it cooking really as all I did was through a few ingredients in a blender, mix for a couple of minuets, and that was it. Seriously... one, two, three done. And absolutely delicious. Much better than the shop bought stuff. That night Tom made scrumptious lamb kebabs to enjoy with my houmous. I know his cooking is a bit more impressive, but as I'm an up and coming kitchen goddess I know I'll be able to compete with him soon.


I found the recipe I used on my most trusted cooking website Allrecipies.co.uk. Visit their site to try Authentic Houmous yourself!

Love

Results are in... Kind of

And the winner, the new Prime Minister of the UK is.......... ????

No one knows yet. For the first time in over three decades the elections have resulted in a hung parliament. Meaning no one party won majority. The results are as follows:
Conservative: 306 seats
Labour: 258 seats
Liberal Democrat: 58 seats

Now Cameron of the Conservative party is trying to make a deal with the LibDems to see if they can work together and come to agreement on issues. I don't quite understand (obviously) but the politicians will now negotiate and see if they can come to agreement and can work together which would mean the Conservatives would take power. While not an ideal situation, it does mean that the parties have to work together to come to agreement on issues which could actually benefit the country.

Stay tuned.... A new leader for this little island will come eventually.

Love

Election Day UK

Today is a big day in the UK. Election day! The future of the country relies on the actions of residents today. It is up in the air who will be leading this kingdom when I wake up in the morning. Three men are battling for the position of Prime Minister. Actually to be correct, three parties are fighting for control of the country. UK residents vote for a party rather than a person, and that party decides their leader. However, in my opinion as the party leaders are well known, its really one in the same. They contenders are:

Conservative: David Cameron

Labour: Gordon Brown (current PM)

Liberal Democrat: Nick Clegg



If I could vote I would vote for Nick Clegg. My decision is is pretty much based purely on their appearances during the televised political debate last week. I can easily seen how television hurt Nixon, looks are key. Gordon Brown is old news, David Cameron looked untrustworthy (although he has relatively good odds of winning) and Nick Clegg appeared genuine, a passionate leader. I also think my views fit well with the LibDems. Although to be completely honest, I don't actually know to much about their stance on issues.

As today's elections are such a big event in the UK I thought I must blog about them. But I'm not really that into politics, especially when I can't vote. So what is there to write about? Then I started thinking about people choosing to vote. I've read that the percentage of youths who vote in the UK was at a low during the last election. During the last couple of Presidential elections in the States there has been a big push to get young people to vote, which actually did create a slight increase in the last election. I've discussed this with friends and whilst some do see great importance in voting as a right, the general response is that voting doesn't matter enough, that a particular constituency will continue to vote the way it always has, so whats the point? Isn't that a problem, if the voices of the future don't see the point in contributing to the political future, to the future of the country they live in? I'm guilty myself of not paying much attention, just not that interested. Searching online I find that Obama and Clegg are popular amongst youth voters. It is the candidates that stand for change that young people are attracted to. Why is it change that is desired? After anything that is new and fresh perhaps? I'm not quite sure, I don't have all the answers. What I do know is that in today's world which is increasing ruled by social media, young people are used to a fast pace where everything is quickly and easily accessible. The world is literally at our fingertips. How this relates to politics? That is for the politicians to puzzle over.

Friends what do you think... is voting important to you? Why?

If I could have voted today I would have I think, and I hope I would have paid a bit more attention to the parties ideals beforehand. After all, even though I don't get too into politics I do fill out my ballot. I voted in the last election I could... Obama, Yes I did!

Love

Coral Regency Final

Thanks to Dave from work who gave away his complementary tickets, last night Tom and I had a night out at the Dogs. Greyhound races that is. It was a big night too, the Coral Regency Final, televised and everything.

The Brighton & Hove Greyhound Stadium is about five minuets around the corner, very convenient. I have been to the dogs a couple of times before, but last night was the most crowded I have every seen the place. The night was a very big deal. We got there a bit late, but not too late for the most important race of the night. We put bets on for the Regency Final, a few one pound bets that is, then excitedly skipped outside for the race. Suddenly, the bell rang, the gates went down and they were off. All six dogs sprinting around the track. Shouting and cheering bellowed from the crowd. Then it was over. Dog number six, He Went Woosh, was the big winner. As were Tom and I! We actually bet on the winning dog, shocking. Really, it was Tom who decided to bet on dog six, I opted for number two, Bush Paddy who came third. We went up to redeem our prize, just under ten pounds. What a win! The next two races we also bet on the winner and in the final race we redeemed a couple of pounds from one of our dogs placing. The night was full of entertainment and something different to do on a work night. Tom and I were probably the smallest betters in the place as some people risk silly money on these skinny dogs, but we enjoyed it just as much I'm sure.

Love

Planet Turbo

Saturday night, oh what a night. For the first time in aaagggeess I went clubbing. Proper clubbing, not to some cheesy bad club, but to an amazing venue pumping wicked tunes from incredible DJ's. Not only that, it was a night out in London. I Never go out in London. The night was in celebration of Sam Eaton's birthday. Sam is one of Tom's friends from uni.

Sam -

That evening Tom and I took the train up to London Bridge where we met with friends Geno and Dilara. Geno lives in Brighton too, but his girlfriend Dilara lives in London and we were staying with her for the night (you might recognize them from our BBQ in January). Her flat was in the ideal location for the night. About a seven minuet walk to London Bridge station, two stops on the tube in one direction to the bar we were going to first then three stops back the other way to the club.

A quick change, few bites of pizza and couple of drinks meant we were ready for the night. The first bar was Music Bar Lounge, or Bar Music Lounge, something like that, and was very American to me. Meaning, music too loud to chat and no real dance floor. Drinks were a bit pricey too. Oh well, we weren't there long and that is where we initially joined Sam and his friends. After a drink or two everyone was ready for the club, so back towards the tube we went. Tom, Geno, Dilara and I left slightly before the rest of the group and were distracted by a hookah bar on the way to the tube. There was a great big umbrella in the outdoor area protecting us form the rain, and a friendly man who looked like he could be a bouncer eating a kebab. One strawberry shisha later and we really did move on to the club.

The Coronet Theatre. Incredible, Amazing, Outstanding venue! Bugged Out's Planet Turbo Tour featuring Tiga, Erol Alkan and Boys Noize, insane DJ set! This club is a renovated theatre, and I was instantly excited as soon as I was through the metal detectors and neared the dance floor. (Yes metal detectors. They freaked me out a little as I never experienced such strict security at a club, but guess its better to be safe and we weren't in Brighton anymore). The four of us quickly rejoined the rest of the group and danced, danced, danced the night away. In the wee small hours of the morning we returned to Dilara's and spent the next overcast day relaxing in front of films and Come Dine With Me. It was splendid!

Love

cricket is cool

The cricket Twenty20 World Cup is in full swing in the Caribbean at the moment. And I have been watching plenty of it. The thing is, I actually kind of enjoy it. As a girl who always enjoyed baseball, I find cricket similarly easy to watch. Granted it has taken forever for me to actually understand the sport, I can honestly say I now do understand what is happening on the pitch. My problem for ages was trying to compare it to baseball, that just doesn't quite work. But taken as a sport on its own, its fairly simple. A ball is bowled to the batter who hits it and runs back and forth between wickets to score runs. If the ball is hit outside the pitch, it is worth six runs, the most you can score. That is really all you need to know for it to make sense. And well, I won't try to explain any more because that would just get confusing. If your really interested to understand Wikepedia will tell you everything there is to know.

I am really enjoying the World Cup though. Especially as you get the Carribean ladies shaking their hips in tribal dance along with the bongo drums in support. I like the bit of culture. Tonight England is playing West Indies. In their turn at bat England scored 197ish runs, a very respectable score, and now West Indies is at bat attempting to beat that.

Hopefully I will go see live cricket again over the summer spending a relaxing day sitting and watching in the sun. That is what I always loved about baseball, along with men in tight pants. The Sussex County cricket ground is very near my place. I went once last year but that was when I was still clueless about the sport so I am sure I would have a lot more fun now. Seriously though, I have to say its becoming one of my new favourties.

Oh, breaking news... West Indies just won. Shame! Read all about the match, and see more pics on BBC News!

Love