Pub Quiz o'clock.

Last night's pub quiz was a-go = The Demon Headmasters, extreme excitement/tension, good team-work, free wine, free pizza, "well, it's the largest castle I've been to", picture round and clown car cram the second, oh yeah.

+ meet George. This is what I do for a living ♥.

Cum-bay-ah.

Spent a lovely few hours at the Rhos Fynach this evening, anticipating a pub quiz that never arrived and contemplating the highs and lows of back in the day (including but not restricted to the Demon Headmaster and school discos), Christmas jumpers and Eggnog, and girl stuffs (including and restricted to) Nicholas Hoult stalking and subjects that make Sam wince. Finished off the night with a round of gospel hymn singing in the gym and a seven-man cram in Dolly, the extraordinary clown car. ♥ these summery spontaneous rendezvous.

Chris Floyd.

Apparently there are photo-shoot photos of the W.I. girls frolicking in flour and toasting with tea-cups (see what I did there) on Chris Floyd's website. Rumour has it that I look happy beyond belief. However, thanks to Internet malfunctions of one kind or another I am unable to view these pictures myself. Let me know if you have better luck and tell me how they look :)

Play Scheme.

My first week of play scheme has been jam-packed; full of ball games and 'Duck, duck, goose' and 'Octopuses and fishies', and the jaunty rhyme "Detective, Detective, there's gonna be a murder" has long since become lodged in my head. I have moved sites, interrupted children in the throes of eating glue and drawing on the floor, instructed in the construction of hand puppets and animal masks and giant bric-a-brac robots and cut out more cardboard teeth than I care to mention. On Wednesday I walked into Colwyn Bay with Ceri, discovered that there is a +side to living in a charity shop haven and in the process spent a fraction of my wages on chips and second hand books and an old 35mm Halina camera that I have no idea how to operate (suggestions welcome).

And now I am at home again, feeling absolutely exhausted and wondering why-oh-why I agreed to babysit tonight. All I can say is, hurray and hurrah for the three day weekend.

Sectumsempra.

I went to see Harry Potter this evening with Charlotte and Harry. Charlotte and I arrived at the cinema at 8 o'clock, hoping to see the 8:45 showing, stood in a line that was literally out of the door and had multiple fits of anticipation until we realised that the next three screenings were fully booked. Fast-forward two and a half hours, a toffee sundae and a trip to Tescos and we made it into another large queue. ETA: 11pm.

Half Blood Prince was good. I managed to forgo my literary criticism (read: nit pickings) for the most part and got a little overexcited in the face of the Ron/Hermione sexual tensions a-brewing. Oh, and Helena Bonham Carter & Alan Rickman = the best. Oh, and I'm going back on Friday. Also, there were trailers. Lots of tantalising trailers :) I actually cannot wait for Where the Wild Things Are. And although I'm anxious I look forward to seeing this too:

Sorry about the incomplete/overly pop-culture-Harry-Potter-peppered entries of late. I will try and post and update as soon as I have a moment to sit down and think clearly.

Days & Nights.

But mostly nights.

So far this summer I've been doing a little here, a little there. I went to the Eirias Summer Showcase with Charlotte to watch Josh bass it up to Valerie. We took Sparkle Motion to the Wheatsheaf Pub Quiz, where to our surprise (and probably because we eavesdropped) we did not come last. I helped run Tom's book and origami stall; the origami was in danger of blowing away though, so mostly it was books. I watched Torchwood and Ice Age 3 and played card games at Catrin's house. Emily and I shared pitchers in Wethers and were sober cats.

Yesterday I began a week of training in preparation for the playscheme summer job I so willingly acquired. ¬.¬ In all fairness it has not been a bad start: there were face paints and exuberant games of duck, duck, goose and yes, I made a panda mask and a collage. Hard money it was not. In the evening I attempted to organise an outdoor gym evening, but the weather gods were very much against me (read: torrential rain). Instead we went to the Pen-y-Bryn for a drink and a chat, to Tescos for croissants and a lopsided fight with Gaz, Paris and Sam, to the Conwy Morfa for frights, horn honking/light flashing and synchronised enter/exit fun and finally to the Conwy Castle car park, where we finished the night with a miniature Sports Day. There were drunken people watching, I almost fell out of my chair during the slow song contest and Hannah and I came second in the three-legged race. Go us. :)

Some noteworthy photographs:



This one in particular makes me smile. Happyslapping in the Lake District. Score!

Avada Kedavra.

I have been let down before. Four out of five times before, in fact. Experience tells me that I should prepare for disappointment again. But all the same I can't help but feel excited about this*. Especially when there's a countdown.

Two more days, then it's Harry Potter glasses a-go-go :)

*EDIT: This makes less sense now that the countdown has been and gone. Suffice to say however, I was talking about the forthcoming arrival of the Half Blood Prince, which is now here, Charlotte, here, or possibly gone completely. Bad David, link-breaker.

Team Groucho Marx.

Last night witnessed the birth of the Car Hide and Seek Championship: Summer Season 2009. And a highly organised affair it was too.

We met our rivals in the MFI car park at 10pm precisely, following a quick trip to ASDA for hide & seek supplies. There were five teams in total; Groucho Marx (Hannah, Jess, Grace), Arrogance (Gaz, Simon), P.S. I Love You (Paris, Sam), Loose Women (Emma, Emily, Nia) and Wild Cats/HSM (Catrin, Amber). Team Groucho Marx had comedy glasses and therefore were the undeniable best from the start. Even if they did say so themselves. The game itself was long beyond belief and we didn't go home until the early hours of the morning. In the meantime however, there were cryptic clues abound, a harrowing trip up Pydew Hill, a long wait at the Arc car wash, a 12p book of plots, clues and detectivcy, 2x run ins with the police (on Emma's part and thankfully not our own), an unbeatable code-hatching/ breaking streak, OSBOURNE HOUSE! and ultimately victory muffins back at the MFI car park. :)

The only downside to the whole thing is the fact that I completely overslept today and as a result missed my one opportunity of returning to Lit Headquarters this summer. Waking up at half past three when you are due in at twelve is not a pleasant feeling, at all.

Ronny Reindeer, baby.

Slowly but surely I am clearing my room of post-university debris and slotting myself back into pre-university life. Or, alternatively I am shifting things around in lieu of putting them away, making more mess and procrastinating to the best of my abilities. Today for example, I piled an assortment of bags and boxes onto my bed, opened and closed a couple of drawers and then sat down to read a colourful farmyard scrapbook I found on top of my parents' wardrobe. Inside I found such gems as christening cards, newspaper clippings and this, the original word-processed manuscript to all my authorial ambitions:

A STORY BY JESSICA, AGED 3 AND A BIT

Dear Noddy, he went to the supermarket and his friend Martha was there. He said to Martha, I just came to see you at the supermarket and I came to do my shopping. He met his other friend called Jumbo and he said to Jumbo, you're my friend aren't you. He just walked on and then he saw Miss Fluffy Cat and Tessy Bear. Hailey went to school on Tuesday and it was the ballet day and she put on a lovely dress, a lovely necklace, lovely shoes and Jessica was there with her pretty dress on and shoes and socks and her ribbon and hair band and some bracelets and a necklace. Big Ears was anxious to find a crying little Noddy.

Tessy Bear, we're going to have a lovely party feast tonight and a cake. Please Tessy Bear, can you come to our feast and Peter Rabbit come as well with Flopsy, Mopsy and Cottontail and their mummy (their daddy was put in the pie by Mr McGregor). Miss Fluffy Cat, please can you come to our tea?

Tessy Bear, please one day, one summer's afternoon, when it was sunny, when the sun was up and Bumpy and Tessy Bear and Tubby Bear and the baby bears were out playing in the garden, inside the tent, Tubby Bear looked under the tent and there was a reindeer! 'Hey go away! You're not supposed to be here. Go back to the north pole!' 'Yeah, but I don't live at the north pole, I'm Ronny Reindeer, baby' he said.

THE END.

(Hereby, the page descends into an anarchy of repeatedly typed letters, numbers and symbols as I expect, my dad relinquishes control of the keyboard)

© 1993, Jessica Cripps. Except of course the countless references to Noddy and Peter Rabbit. Those bits probably belong to the estates of Enid Blyton and Beatrix Potter :)

Pass.

No sign of a grade yet, though.