Hello everyone,
I know, I know, it's been AGES since my last post....sorry about that, time just seems to have gotten away from me. I'm currently supposed to be writing a first draft of an essay on Tim Burton and the influence of German film and literature on his work....suffice to say, I thought writing my blog would be a little bit more fun and a huge bit of procrastination....I mean, I've got to write it haven't I, I have people counting on me! :)
Unfortunately it's been a while so this is probably going to be a bit of a mammoth post...I don't even know where to start!
Ohhhhh ok, now I know. My family came to Flordia! well, half of it anyway! My sister, her partner and my two nieces, Jess and Nell, came out last month. It was great to see them, especially considering we went to Disneyworld!! Finally! I've wanted to go to the real deal Florida Disney since I was like, what, 5?!?
So yeah, as you can see from the look on my face, I was pretty happy to be there...and with my 2 favourite humans too! Doesn't get much better than that.
we had a great day, even getting my Mum and Dad to go on a few rides :)
Other than Disneyland we basically spent the entire time in the pool, Jess really made the most of it before she had to go back to rainy Scotland!
Nell seemed to enjoy herself too! We certainly are a family of water-babies.
Jess also got to meet and ride my special friend the Colonel! She had her first western style riding lesson and seemed to love every minute of i. Ornan thinks she's a natural.
I'm not going to lie, I was very sad to see them go, it's going to be a long time before I see them again :(
The end of October and the start of Novemeber has seemed to have presented me with some full on American experiences. 1st of all - Halloween! We grow up in England seeing images of how much Americans celebrate Halloween, we all remember watching Hocus Pocus and wishing our trick or treating was more like that. We were lucky if any one actually opened their doors, let alone gave you anything you'd actually want to eat! Well I can say, in Gainesville it's not quite as crazy as we would expect BUT when they do celebrate it, they definitely go ALL out. Luckily for me I didn't have to search out a celebration, Madeline had decided to throw a party, which was great. She went all out with spooky themed food and drinks. There was a pumpkin puking guacamole, a cheese ball made to look like a pumpkin and punch with eye balls floating in it just to mention a few. Oh and she even had dry ice coming out of the carved pumpkins around the house!
I contributed with some bat shaped shortbread....
As well as the amazing decor, the costumes were GREAT. I stayed within the fancy dress law as set down by my very good friend Miss Annie Loftus and did not partake in sexy fancy dress, in fact, I went as a man....not only a man....a deranged, make-up clad man.
It's scarily convincing don't you think?? At least I didn't need to worry about getting hit on! :) Oh and that is Madeline in her fantastic Skeleton costume! She did the make up herself, looks good right?!
Along with us there was Angel, the broken doll. again all self applied make-up, no professionals in sight! Who needs em!
And her boyfriend Seth as the Lipstick-Face Demon from Insidious - creepy or WHAT!
pretty impressive bunch right?
Oh and as well as the brilliant costumes, they were actually playing beer pong too! - that's right folks, it's not just in the films and they do have those red cups! (although in-keeping with Madeline's epic decorating skills the cups were orange and green for the party)
Halloween weekend was a pretty spectacular one if I'm honest, as well as the Halloween party, Gainesville was hosting it's annual Punk and alternative music festival. Yes that's right folks, I moved to a town where they have a whole weekend dedicated to my kinda music. As you can imagine it was a lot of fun. It was also slightly surreal as the temperature dropped to 12 degrees and there were bearded at heavily tattooed guys in black skinny jeans everywhere....I felt like I'd woken up and someone had flown me home to Birmingham!
As well as oggling the guys I got to see some great bands, my roommate Cassandra has a friend who owns a local restaurant who's roof over looks one of the venues, so as well as great bands, I got a great view! (unusual at a festival for someone who's 5ft 2"!)
That surprisingly was not the best part of the weekend. That honour goes to finally getting to see a band I love, the Melvins.! After missing out on seeing them repeatedly in the last few years for various reasons and then being unable to get a ticket for them that weekend, I stood outside the venue like a little loser listening through the door. The doorman took pity on me and let me in for free for the last 1/2 an hour. I was SO happy! :) And they were worth the wait, i can tell you!
So I should probably update you on the man himself. He's pretty much the same as usual. He seemed to enjoy Halloween....once he got used to all the decorations and stopped barking at them that is....
Do you remember the rubber duck incident? Well every time we went to the pool area he would 1/2 play 1/2 hide from the ducks, then, shock horror, the other day, the ducks were gone :( Soooo me being me, I made a trip to Walmart and bought him his very own duck :) And I can tell you all this...it was the best 98 cents I've ever spent! He LOVES it! all his other toys he will only play with them with me and eventually they get broken, this duck is still completely as new and he plays with it alone for ages! SO RANDOM....it get's even more random....when he's had enough and lays down and sucks the ducks head like a dummy!...He just gets weirder and weirder.....
We've both been spending a bit more time with my roommate and she's been taking us to nice places to dog walk. We went out to a trail the other day. It's so flat out here you get some amazing views of the sunset.
Unfortunately for Randle he has to stay on a lead on this trail, normally I just ignore the ridiculous American rules but this time I stick to it.....there's some pretty scary company on this walk......
Last weekend saw the Gainesville Art Festival. I went along with Natalie, Cassandra and my fellow German TA, Larrissa. There were lots of stalls selling art work and crafts, again making me feel like I'd gone back to Birmingham! I was instructed by Natalie and Cassandra that I had to take part in an American institution.....that being, eat a funnel cake. It's basically deep fried dough covered in icing sugar....similar to our fun fair donuts. It was pretty darn good.
That evening I went out and took part in some more Americanisms - I played Foosball....and won! Man that game is frustrating! I think there would be violence if we had them in our bars! :)
Unfortunately I have been unable to find any postbox porn recently, hopefully I'll go somewhere new soon and find some more for you all.
Well I think that's about it for now. I probably won't post for a while as I have two 5000 word essays to write so I'm going to be pretty much chained to my room :( sad times!
Hope you are all well and coping with the coming cold weather. it's very weird being here in 25 degree heat and seeing everyone preparing for Christmas! If you want to escape the cold you know where to find us, we'd love to have you!
Love & Slobber
Us
xxx
