Tuesday, July 30, 2013

Uni nostalgia...

I’ve just spent a bloody lovely weekend with old friends from uni. I love the fact we still keep in contact and all make an effort to get together now, but the annual reconvening of us all as a wider group is a relatively recent thing.
I went to university in a very small town in the middle of Wales. Chances are you won’t have heard of the town, Lampeter (unless you’re a peer of my time there!). But I can guarantee you’ll heard of a nearby town, Llanddewi Brefi, yes, as in the Little Britain “Only gay in the village” sketch. When I was at uni Little Britain as a show didn’t exist, and I never had cause to visit Llanddewi Brefi, kinda wish I had though.

The town itself is tiny, although having just looked it up on Wikipedia it tells me that Lampeter “is the third largest urban area in Ceredigion after Aberystwyth and Cardigan”. This surprises me greatly, and actually made me laugh out loud. But, now I think about it, although the town centre itself is tiny, the outer lying areas are quite sprawling so it’s probably bigger than I give it credit for! The university is a large part of the town, and adds a significant amount of people to the population between October and June each year. Sadly the university as I knew it no longer exists, it’s still there as an academic institution but owing to its incredibly small size, it was merged with Trinity University College and the subjects and facilities have changed somewhat since my time there.
But, the purpose of my post today isn’t to give you a history lesson of the university, the Wikipedia page gives you that! My point of reference here is the people I met, the friendships I built, the overall experience I had, and the legacy Lampeter has left with me.

I started uni in Sept 2000, to study English Literature and Classical Studies. The choice of subject was simple for me really, I loved English at school, always had done, and I’d having chosen Classics as an A-Level I was enjoying it and it was one of my strongest subjects. I hadn’t a clue what I wanted to do with my life career wise, but had a genuine interest in studying the subjects further (and move away from home) so when my Head of Year (who I had a great relationship with and was almost a friend to me, well as much as a teacher can be!) mentioned Lampeter as having a great Classics department, I checked it out. I made a quick visit, fell in love with the place, made the entry requirements in my exams and I was off.

All my friends who were also going to to uni were off to big city ones, Sheffield, Manchester, York, De Montford etc, and I was heading to the smallest one in the country. Lampeter Uni was smaller in terms of numbers than my high school. But sure, that was part of its appeal?  I wasn’t a city dweller, never had been, and I was looking forward to a small community of students. What I didn’t factor in was just how small the community was…!
I’m a friendly person and will talk to just about anyone. (Yes, I know, you’re all shocked by this and thought me the quiet, retiring type)  As such I didn’t have any issues making friends with the people in my hall, but as my first year progressed and my personal circumstances changed, I realised I needed a job to be able to survive. The union bar recruited every year, so having some bar experience before coming to uni I applied for a bar job and got it.
The acquisition of this job significantly increased my social circle, although I didn’t realise it at the time. Although I got on well with everyone I worked with, other than Jo, I didn’t hang around with anyone I worked with beyond work itself.  Yeah we used to have a wind down after work and have a good few drinks together in the small hours of the morning after we’d cleaned up etc, but my main socialising remained with those I lived with. Looking back, I’m not really sure why this was. I graduated in 2003, and kept in close contact with those I’d lived with for my time at uni, but I lost contact with those I worked behind the bar.

Fast forward to 2006/7 and the emergence of Facebook.  I re-connected with a few of the people I’d worked with behind the bar in Lampeter, and the relationships grew. Then in 2009, 2 of them (who’d met at uni) announced their engagement and the wedding would be back in Lampeter.  I was honoured (and genuinely surprised) to be invited. Surprised for the main reason that although I’d gotten on well with both of them, and we’d reconnected through Facebook, I’d not seen them since leaving uni in 2003. My acceptance of the invitation was an easy one, the only thing I was a bit wary of was the fact that I was returning to Lampeter, essentially on my own, and this worried me slightly. Yes, there’d be a good few people there I knew from my days behind the bar, but again, we’d not seen each other since 2003. We might hate other now!
I needn’t have worried, the wedding served to remind us all just how much we all got on, and I think the weekend made us all wonder why we hadn’t kept in contact as a larger group. Sure, there were pockets of people who’d kept in contact over the years, but not as a wider group. We had an amazing weekend and got up to some good old Lampeter mischief, much to the chagrin of the townsfolk, and we all walked away from the weekend promising we’d get together again soon. It’s easy to make promises to keep in touch but for it then to fall by the wayside, but we were all true to our word and since the wedding we’ve met up at least once a year.
Possible aformentioned mischief. Yes, that's a fountain, and those are bubbles..
 I’ve changed a lot since university, but one thing I realised at the wedding was that the others had changed too, and I was glad we’d had the chance to reconnect. We’ve all split off and done very different things with our lives and 3 of the couples are still together (there are actually a significant number of couples who I knew from Lampeter that are still together!).
Some of us did the same course, but we weren’t all in the same year.  The common demoninator between us all is working behind the bar, or for the door security. We had our own little community and we all have great memories of various shifts, events, clientele and of the university in general.

It’s interesting to speak to other friends about their experiences at their different universities, as although they all speak of those 3 or 4 years with fond memories, and some are still close friends with people they met there, my experiences at Lampeter are somewhat different. I’m not saying my experiences were better, just very different. My busiest week of my 3 years of uni contained a whopping 11hours of lectures….11 hours! There were only approx 1500 people in the entire uni. We had one bar, and one ‘extension’ (the clubby bit). We had about 4 buses a day through the town if we wanted to visit the wider world of Camarthen or Aberystwyth. The nearest cinema was in Aberystwyth, (about 40 miles away). You’d groan at the thought of having to walk ALL the way from your hall of residence to the supermarket, because it was all of a 5 minute walk but in Lampeter terms that was MILES away. We had films screened in the Arts Hall most weeks because the cinema in Aber wasn’t accessible for everyone. But they wouldn’t be the most recent ones, a few months old generally. The phone signal was abysmal; you’d change networks once you arrived to be on the best one (O2 or Orange if I remember rightly). If you stayed in town accommodation you could just about guarantee that Mr Jones was your landlord, and it was the same guy, smelt very strongly of farm manure, wife owned the cafĂ© on the High Street. There were no real clothes shops to speak of, one kind of hippy place, and one that got random bits of clothes but nothing really suitable for students! And if you wanted videos, DVDs, CDs or records you went to Hags on Bridge Street, a shop run by the town Mayor that acted  as a lending library for DVDs etc.  I could go on but you get the general idea.

In its own little way Lampeter was awesome. You knew everyone, everyone knew you (not necessarily a good thing!). You were never more than a 5 walk from home, unless you ventured up to the Cwmann Tavern or the Quarry (and even then they were only 15 mins!). And a vodka and coke in the union bar cost you £1. When we went back in 2010 for a wedding, it was still only £1.20. No joke. I think there were 7 of us in the group before the round in the pub cost more than £10.

The same fountain 12 hours later....
The town itself hasn’t changed much, same people, same format. The university itself is very different though. I genuinely think we were one of the last good sets to attend. A few of us in the circle stayed on for a few years because of work for the uni itself and they said it changed. The merger with Trinity college has been a big contributor to this, with less students staying on campus. As such, the union isn’t open every night like in our day, and the social scene is very different, also contributed to by the fact that all rooms have wifi now. We didn’t have this luxury, to use the internet we trudged to the computer building then it seemed only right you’d stick your head in the union and see who was in. If no-one was, you’d chat to whoever was working. That’s just the way things were. It was awesome.
I have very fond memories of Lampeter, and always will have. I built some very strong friendships there, as did a lot of my peers. And I’m very glad that the little bar community has gotten together again. Since the wedding in 2010 we’ve not been back to Lampeter in our group….we need volunteers for the next wedding there! Otherwise we’ll just head back and cause some more havoc, amid the crys of “Bloody Students!”, said in a very thick Welsh accent.  Oh the memories!

Am with a different set of uni mates this weekend, one of whose son I’m godmother to. See, strong connections...

Until next time, take it easy.
Much love.
Sandra.

x

Monday, July 22, 2013

A fun filled family weekend.

It seems to be a theme of my summers that they're taken up with continuous weekends of plans, meaning I'm often away from Dublin for 3-4 weekends in a row. Although I hadn't initially planned it that way, this summer is no different.  This weekend was the big family meal for Sarah's 40th. It's become a bit of a tradition that for a big birthday we all gather together and have some food and a few drinks.  We did it 4 years ago for Dad's 60th,  last year for my 30th and our stepmum's 60th and now this year for Sarah's 40th.
But, due to us all having rather hectic lives, it's not always possible to do the meal close to the actual birthday.  Explaining why Sarah's birthday meal happened over a month after the actual event.

A few months back Sophie and I were having a chat in the pub and we'd decided we wanted to get something personal to us for Sarah's birthday. She'd asked for money towards something for a present, which of course we gave her, but we wanted to do something a little extra.  Something really special, just from us.  They did the same with my 30th, turning up to Dublin for the weekend of my birthday, when I had no idea they were coming over. (read more about that here)
Sophie, Sarah and I are incredibly close. We're all very different but then in some ways we're incredibly alike.  Anyone who knows me knows how much my sisters mean to me.  We've all been through a lot, both together and separately. I cannot, and do not want to, imagine life without them.

So back in the pub in April, over a few packets of pork scratchings and a few pints of rather strong Tadcaster beer, we came up with the idea of doing a photo book for her. We said we'd fill it pictures of us and the family members and we'd crack on with it quite soon.
Fast forward to the end of June and no progress having been made on the book, I panicked slightly and so Soph and I pulled pics together and starting collating the book on the Asda photo website. We both underestimated the effort involved, and although it was an enjoyable process, trying to get some semblance of organisation to the pics and weeding out the duplicates took some time. But we managed it, and after ten days of to-ing and fro-ing, we had a 40 page book, containing approx 120 pics. I've added a selection below.
Sophie & Sarah (aren't they cute?!)

Sophie, Sarah & I at Sophie's wedding

Our paternal grandparents


Lesley and the kids on her 60th last year
We'd managed a good mix of everyone; us, the kids, parents and grandparents and were pleased with the results. There was a slight moment when we worried it wouldn't be delivered in time, but it arrived with a few days to spare and Sophie said the final outcome looked good. 

Then there was the subject of the cake. For Sarah's 21st she'd had a cake with dolphins on it, her favourite animal, and she kept the sugar craft dolphins for a good few years.
Sarah's fiancee and Dad had decided to do something similar, something that was personal to Sarah for the cake. But various circumstances meant that it fell to Sophie to organise. Sarah is very spiritual and does Tarot readings. Sophie had the great idea to get a tarot card done for the cake, but was quite right to admit that doing the card decoration herself would be difficult, given the intricacies of the cards. She found a place online the would transfer any image you wanted onto icing, so she found a meaningful card and sent the image off. She then set about making the cake and planning the periphery decoration. When we discussed it she mentioned that we'd tell people she'd had the cake professionally made and see who bought it. 
Sophie is creative, much more so than I, or Sarah to a point. She has a lot of patience and I knew she'd do a great job. The finished article blew me away, it really did look professional and Sarah loved it. The cake itself was delicous, a madeira sponge with a hint of lemon, buttercream and raspberry jam. Nom nom nom nom!
I think she's happy with the cake!


Isn't it awesome?!


Sarah was over the moon with both the cake and the photo book, and was incredibly moved by both. 

There were 16 of us for the meal, and a great time was had by all. The kids were in their element, with new additions to the brood in the form of my step-brothers 2 daughters. Both lovely girls, and I'd say it can't have been easy for them not knowing many of us, but by the end of the night it seemed that firm friendships had been made.
Big family get togethers can be stressful sometimes, especially with my family, but I couldn't have asked for a better evening for Sarah, and I know she had a wonderful time, which was the main thing. 

Next weekend is a get together with college friends, always good fun when we get together, and I'll report back as appropriate!

Much love!

S
xx

Sunday, July 14, 2013

Viva Espana!

I've been meaning to write this post about my trip to Spain for the last two weeks, but true to form, I've just not had the time. But my day today has worked out quieter than planned so I thought I'd take the time to regale you all about the wonderfulness of my holiday, whilst I sit here watching The Jungle Book; a film I'd forgotten how much I loved. Might watch Dumbo next..but, I digress. 

Sometime last year my best friend Jo and I decided we'd like to do a roadtrip of Europe in 2013. We looked at the places we'd like to go and did a bit of planning. But, a few things changed and we realised that it wasn't feasible. Jo's parents have a villa on the Costa Blanca with relatively easy access to Valencia and Granada, both places Jo and I wanted to see. So, back in January we decided that we'd take ten days, hire a car, and do a mini road trip around the south west of Spain. We sorted flights etc and an itinerary of where we'd go, Granada and The Alhambra being an absolute must see. Admittedly more on Jo's part than mine but I was happy enough to go, having heard a little about it. But I'll get to that later. 

Jo and I have been best friends since a fateful night at college when we worked a shift together at the Presidents Ball in our first year (May 2001). I won't go into details but we bonded over something and have pretty much been inseparable since. Having said that, we don't see each other too often. I live in Dublin, she lives in Dubai, and has lived in Bermuda previously. We talk over email or text almost every day though, so even though we might not have seen each other since Aug last year, when we met up in Alicante airport it was as if we'd only seen each other 2 days previously. 

I was looking forward to the holiday for a number of reasons;
1: I love spending time with Jo. It's always hilarious and we're so alike that spending lengths of time together is very easy. 
2: We both desperately needed a break from various things. 
3: I'd never been to any of the places we were going to so it was all new and exciting.
4: I love sunshine (who doesn't!), and although I don't deal well with heat I needed some top up on my freckles!
5: Jo and I going on holiday together has become a bit of a tradition ever since our trip to Egypt in 2007. 

After meeting in the airport, we collected the car and with a bit of a slight detour (no sat nav with the car, thank god for Google Maps on my phone!) we made it to the villa, just outside Torrevieja and so started our ten days of awesomeness. I'm not going to tell you every little detail, but I will run down the highlights of our visits. 

Valencia:
Valencia is about 2 hours north of where we were staying, but again, we took a bit of a detour and ended up driving up the coast, past Benidorm. No biggie, it was a lovely drive and we were in no rush. We found our hotel and headed out to explore after checking in. We were staying right in the centre, close to the Silk Exchange and the Cathedral. I'd not read much about Valencia, and Jo knew more than I did. But, we did the touristy thing and bought a hop on hop off bus ticket. We were both significantly more interested in the older history of the city rather than the newer stuff (a theme with us!), and had picked out some museums we wanted to see. We had a wander round the Silk Exchange, a lovely building, and then headed for the tourist bus. 
Valencia Silk Exchange
What Jo and I didn't factor in was that we'd arrived on a Sunday, and the museum we wanted to see was closed on a Sunday. But, we didn't realise this until we'd gotten off the bus. So we had a 20 min wait for the next bus, before we headed back to the centre and took a wander round the Cathedral. I'm not a religious person, but I quite like visiting churches etc in different parts of the world. Coupled with the fact that The Holy Grail is reportedly housed in Valencia we were eager to take a look. We failed to locate it in the Cathedral, although Jo did find a severed arm! Later that night we headed to one of the big squares to see the Super Moon, but were thwarted by clouds; what are the chances?!
As we headed for the bus the next morning we took a different route and pretty much fell across this little chapel behind the main cathedral. We decided to take a peek inside and discovered it was the Chapel of the Holy Grail! There was a service going on though so we didn't feel comfortable being all touristy with cameras. Decided to head off on the bus and come back later. Bus tour continued...but, we couldn't find one of the museums we wanted and with the same museum we'd tried to visit on Sunday also being closed on Monday, we were losing patience! Topping this off was our return to the Chapel of the Holy Grail only to discover it was also closed. Valencia it seemed, was against us. 
There was nothing else we wanted to do so we collected the car and drove back to the villa. 
Valencia is a beautiful city, with some stunning architecture and some real character. I was slightly disappointed we didn't get to see all the stuff we wanted to. But, it was enjoyable nonetheless. 
We had one day back in the villa before heading to Granada on Tuesday. 

Granada:
Granada was the biggest thing we were doing on the trip and we'd planned it well. We'd booked the tickets for the Alhambra for the Weds morning and wanted to explore the city on the Tues afternoon/evening.  It was a fair drive from the villa, 3.5 hours so we knew we'd have to leave earlyish to make sure we had enough time to do what we wanted. The drive was a long one but it was stunning, genuinely stunning. Driving through 2 national parks, one being Sierra Nevada, I was continually aghast at the scenery and taking lots of pics from the car as Jo drove. 
Sierra Nevada mountains (excuse the bug spatters on the windscreen!)
Arriving in Granada we tracked down our hotel (which I'd highly recommend by the way! http://www.hotelzaguan.com/indexingles.html), and went a-wandering. We'd booked a walking tour in the evening at 8pm and figured we'd do the bus tour and have a wander round the Cathedral. 
I came to Granada knowing very very little about the history, so when Jo  and I entered a little chapel and she let out a little squeal of excitement on reading the pamplet, I wondered what was going on. In very hushed and excited tones she told me that the chapel we were in was the final resting place of Ferdinand and Isabella. I admit I looked at her blankly but she explained who they were and I realised her excitement. Although not as excited myself I could understand why she was excited and there was a certain atmosphere in the chapel which I found rather emotive. The chapel itself is simple enough but quite beautiful at the same time. We weren't allowed to take pics so I have none to show you. 

After doing the bus tour we realised we only had 40 minutes before we had to be on the walking tour. It was a free tour and would have been 3 hours. But, we didn't fancy rushing dinner and decided to forego the walking tour and continue to wander at our own leisure before finding food. Directly opposite the royal chapel was a small entrance to something, we didn't know what, but we paid €2 each and wandered in. We were pleasantly surprised to find two utterly beautiful rooms in a stately home, shown to us by a local guide. The first room was very Arabian in its decoration and I was amazed at the intricacies of the decoration. The second room was now a lecture room used by the University but it had the most spectacular wooden ceiling. The photos of both these rooms do not do them justice. Jo and I both said that the viewing of that house alone made missing the walking tour worthwhile. 
Arabian decoration

Amazing wooden ceiling, it smelt incredible!
After sourcing some food and some utterly delicious churros, we headed to bed, knowing we'd have to be up bright and early for our trip up the Alhambra. We were leaving at 7.15am so needed rest. 
Churros!

I knew very little about the Alhambra, apart from the fact it was a Moorish fortress and had Catholic parts to it. I'd never even seen pictures of it, Jo had offered to show me some but I wanted to see it first hand. We collected our tickets and after waiting a bit were allowed into the complex. It was 8.15am when we walked through the gate and the temperature was just starting to rise. Although most of the complex is free for you to roam around, one part, the most restored part, the Nasrid Palaces, only allows a certain number of people so you have to go at your allocated time. Our time was 9am, so we strolled down and hung around before we entered the palaces. 
It's difficult to describe the utter beauty of the Nasrid palaces. Arabian in their decoration, the intricacy really has to be seen to be believed. Water is a common theme throughout, having been Muslim places of worship. I took a multitude of photographs and although you get the general gist from them, I recommend a visit. It's simply breathtaking. 




The rest of the Alhambra complex consists of the Alcazabar, the top of which offers gorgeous panoramic views of Granada and the Sierra Nevada mountains. And the Generalife Gardens and Palace. The Generalife palace is beautiful but in a very different way to the Nasrid palaces. It's Catholic in origin so very differently decorated but offers stunning views across to the Nasrid palaces and over the valley. 

Generalife Palace
View from the top of the Alcazabar
After 3 hours of wandering we headed back to the city centre on the bus. We'd been told to go up to Mirador San Nicolas by the lady in our hotel, as it offered amazing views of The Alhambra from the other side of the valley. So we got on another bus and headed up the other side of the valley. At the risk of sounding repetitive, oh my word, the views were stunning!! Standing in this little square, looking across the valley and seeing the entire Alhambra, where we'd been only 30mins before was rather emotive, helped also by the snow capped Sierra Nevada mountains in the background. Truly fabulous and a wonderful way to finish off our Granadian visit. 
The Alhambra from Mirador San Nicolas. Pic does not do it justice.
Because the trip back to the villa was a fair way, we'd arranged a stop off about half way, in a little coastal town called Almeria. Not much to see, it's a little off the beaten track and isn't known for tourists, but it allowed us to get a well needed rest after a fabulous but exhausting morning in Granada. I think we were both in bed by 9pm that night, and we slept until 9am the next morning. 
We took a trip up the Almeria Alcazabar, which offered lovely views over the town and was a mix of the restored gardens, the existing fortress and an archaeological site for the yet to be uncovered stuff. 
Almeria Alcazabar
Arriving back at the villa we had planned to take a trip to nearby Cartagena on the Friday for a trip to the Roman ruins but we were both so exhausted from the trip to Granada, and the knock on tiredness from Valencia that we sacked Cartagena off and spent 3 days resting by the pool and drinking in the local pub in the evening. A great way to end of the holiday, allowing us both to wind down and enjoy some quality relaxation time before we went our separate ways and traveled home. 

I loved every second of the holiday. It was great to see Jo and spend some time together and the sights we saw together just topped it off. 
I'd highly recommend Granada to anyone, it's full of character and the Alhambra really is breathtaking. 

As for upcoming plans, I'm home next weekend for a family dinner for Sarah's 40th, then I'm with college friends in Romford, then I'm seeing another very good friend, her baby, another close friend and my godson...then I have a friends wedding in Co Wicklow. 
All super exciting events coming up. Although I sometimes despair at the busyness of my social life, I love that I have it at the same time. 

So, until next time folks, stay happy, enjoy the summer, don't forget the suncream and don't do anything I wouldn't. 

Much love. 
Sandra. 
xx