The Life Of Riley

I have a new blog. Hopefully you'll come visit at rileybean.blogspot.com

Take it easy.

We've been working insanely hard. We both had Religious Studies essays in today. We're so glad they're finished. We've been doing the damn things forever. Alongside other bits from our mountains of work. Last Monday I had to give a presentation. I spent practically all weekend on the thing, because it was to be given in front of Paul Heelas. Paul Heelas is a legend, I've known about him since I was doing my GSCE's, he's like the David Beckham of Religious Studies... Maybe that isn't the best analolgy, it's best not to be picturing a hunk, when you think of Paul Heelas - if you were to meet him you would be sorely disappointed. The man's very famous and well connected, though. He's worked with Evans-Pritchard, he's a Professor, and he's published more than pretty much the rest of the RS department put together! The presentation went really well. Although it was on one of his specialist subjects: New Age Shamanism, he thought it was 'first rate,' and in the lecture he came and sat with me during the break, and had a chat. We're going to be best friends in no time, I tell you;-)

A couple of weekends ago we had our friend Paul visiting. We all had a really great time. We cooked Chicken Caserole on the Saturday evening, which turned out really well. Then we went into town to watch 'Blood Diamond.' On the Sunday my parents came up here, briefly, and we all went out for Sunday Lunch, in Galgate - the place with all the strange people. I think you have to be a student to truly appreciate that pub, when you can afford more the £5 for a three course meal you tend to expect more. We should've gone up market, and taken everyone across the road to the place that charges £8.

Last Monday was our 500th day of living together. We celebrated it instead of Valentine's Day. We're not really Valentine's Day people. On the Monday I got Raine some flowers, a specially made bouquet from the university florist (We still can't figure out why you'd open a florist on campus, but it was handy this once). We went out for drinks, and a Chinese in the evening. We were going to come back and watch a film, but when we discovered that the computer has mysteriously decided to stop playing DVDs.

On Wednesday we discovered that a new cafe has opened in town, and it's seriously cool. It's called 'Juice Bar.' Inside they have bean bag seats, and games on every table, like Guess Who and Connect Four. There's a massive drinks menu, you can design your own smoothies, have milkshakes made with chocolate bars, or go for a Fairtrade tea, or herbal tea. It's just what Lancaster needs, stuffy Cafe Nero, and Costa Coffee don't really cut it. We offered to flyer for them, around campus, and they've given us lots vouchers for free drinks:-)

Our flatmates sunk to a new low this week - they stole some Champagne out of the fridge. One of the other girls had bought it as a surprise for her boyfriend, for both Valentine's Day and a celebration of his new job. I just can't believe that someone would steal really expensive champagne, it's one thing to steal some waffles, but to take Champagne really is wrong. Nothing says I love you more than some stolen Champagne, does it? If you go into Tesco and try and steal their alcohol you end up with a criminal record, I want to go and tell the Community Support officer and get them to come up and scare people - it'd be really funny, and would probably put a stop to it. When I'm in the kitchen and there's one or more of the guys I make really pointed comments. All the guys are friends, so I figure they know who stole it, and it'll get back to them. At the moment we're trying to think of ways to injure our flatmates, so far we've come up with putting laxative tablets out (they'll definitely steal them, they went through a whole box of our After Eights), rigging up a battery to electrocute them when they go into our drawer...

We found a weed dealer who lives on campus, which is very cool. I got a few numbers from a coursemate, and went to pick up some weed from a guy last night. I had a spliff when I finished my essay, it was cool... did a lot of giggling, which is always fun.

Other than that, we've just been doing the usual. We've seen a lot of films, been to a few special lectures, and worked insanely hard!

We went to Manchester almost as soon as we woke up on Sunday. We drove straight to Chetham Hill, where there's a shopping area. I spent almost the entirity of my vouchers at Borders, buying four books - I'm a very happy person:-D After coffee (which was drunk under a pile of books, out of which I picked the final four) Raine scampered to TKMaxx. She was hoping the selection of clothes there would be better than Blackpool's, but there were slim pickings. She tried on a shirt, which was really cool, white with embroidered flowers and birds, she was going to buy it, before we noticed it said something slightly provocative on the side, like Miss Mayhem, or something... in an ideal world she'd buy it and put a patch over it, but we both knew it'd just sit in the wardrobe for months.

We arrived at the hotel at around 6pm. Our room was on the 11th floor and we had an amazing view of the city, it was really beautiful. We spent a lot of time gazing out, over a couple of drinks. Then we took a scenic route to the restaurant. We certainly worked up a hunger, having walked to the end of the *very* long street, only to find it was a couple of blocks over from the hotel, right at the other end. Still, it was worth it, we had a seven course Samari feast. The only disturbing part of the night was the sushi, the menu said you could choose between cooked and uncooked, but we weren't asked and an uncooked selection was bought to us. It included squid, and something we're still unable to put at name to - a big grey pocket type thing which covered the rice. I ate all the rice, sans fish, except the salmon - I can be painfully British. The rest was wonderful, though. Teriyaki salmon, marinaded chicken and leek bites, fillet of beef with sticky rice. Thoroughly enjoyable.

We wandered up and down Canal Street after dinner, intending to go to a bar there. We walked to one end and then ran away before a drop of drink touched our lips. It was just far too camp. Either big gangs of straight people out to see the gays, bitchy drag queens, or women who looked like men, most of whom were sporting mohicans...

We sought refuge in Jilly's. £10 to get in and very cheap drinks - amazing for Manchester, especially on New Year's Eve. We wandered through all the rooms before settling in room 1, which was kind of an oldie/freak room - hence very entertaining. It was full of woman heading for middle aged in full goth get-ups. One woman had very long hair and a black lace dress. She stood in the middle of the dance floor and for every song swung her head so her hair was a propella. You couldn't get within half a metre of her, for fear of it having your eye out. The clear winner of freak of the night award went to a woman who, for the first 20 minutes we thought was a man with no trousers on. She was walking around in the mini-est mini skirt on, and a peroxide, bowl-cut hairdo, clutching a del-boy jacket (which we originally assumed were her trousers as she had a fir lined coat on already). When I went to get drinks she tried to steal my chair, Raine wrestled it off her. She still sat nearby, where she blew her nose into her hand and smeared the contents of her hand on our table... we moved when I came back. She started dancing nearby, while dancing (and sticking her tongue down some guy's throat) it became clear she was pregnant. Through the course of the night she smoked, hit a guy in the face several times, and came to our table and poured the dregs from our finished bottles into a glass from which she was drinking, our drinks (poured into the same glass) included Newcastle Brown Ale and Dandilion and Burdock VHF, wonderfully nutritious for the baby. People watching's never been so interesting. I want to go back and do my anthropology project on it.

Back at the hotel we had a heavenly bubble bath, and snuggled up into the double bed.

After checking out we had a massive, very yummy, 'Full Carnivore' breakfast at KroBar. We were hoping to get lots of shopping done, but miserably most of the shops were closed. It was raining and a lot of disappointed people were milling about the streets. We did get some half price summer fruit, and ginseng tea from Whitards, and talked over massive coffees at Starbucks.

Yesterday we set about doing some uni work, whilst watching an amazing 'Magic Garden,' which Raine had bought from Urban Outfitters, grow - it's incredible - the trees are so, fluffy and tree like, the mountain has snow... When we were able to tear ourselves away from it we got some shopping in (I'd had a tea of Pringles the night before - we needed some food). We went to Asda, which is far more exciting than Sainsbury's, you can get them to make a pizza, to your own design, for the same price as Sainsbury's fairly crap frozen ones. They also have offers on everything, it's brilliant! My god, we're getting middle aged, aren't we!?! It's from sitting in that room at Jilly's!

Back at the room we played the dragon game. It wasn't great. Raine's got it out of her system now, so we're taking it back... that's middle aged too, isn't it?!?

OK, well we are having a party tonight, we're going to eat Indian food and watch celebrity Big Brother, whilst thinking twenty-something year old thoughts...

We've survived Christmas - yay! We woke up here in Lancaster and had a cool morning. We got some cool pressies - Raine got me some girly boxers, including more pineapple pants. She was delighted to have not received Trivial Pursuits, instead I'd gotten her 'Dragonology.' A game in which you travel the globe collecting information about dragons. Lindsay had bought us an ipod suffle - great pressie! We're not allowed to ask where she got it from, which it a little worrying... backs of lorries come to mind.

We got a call while loading songs onto the ipod, to say that the time of Christmas dinner had been changed once more. We were then in a hurry. We packed and speeded to Raine's house, rapped some presents hurriedly and went to see my parents. We got some really cool stuff from my parents, I got a £20 Borders voucher, which I've added to a £5 I already had - £25 of books in Sale time - wahoo! Raine got a £20 Game voucher, I'm never going to see her again!;-( We also got a desk calender with a different poem for everyday (I *love* the idea of that), a mini bottle of Jack Daniels with a JD tumbler and some other bits and pieces. My parents really liked their presents, so all was well.

At Jane's we took immediate advantage of the alcohol. Champagne was cracked open, Grandma and Grandpa opened their presents and seemed happy (though whether my Grandma will read Zadie Smith remains to be seen, she often claims not to be able to understand the books I read (understand the very words, not subtext), like they're writen in ancient Greek or something. We're talking about a university educated woman with 4 children, 8 grandchildren, a tv, lots of friends and reguarly attended social events, not some strange hermit who still lives inside a 1950s themed bubble.

The food was a very long time coming. We kept people who wandered into our orbit entertained. It was really comfortable. When the food did come it was good, but we have to say our attempt earlier in the week was better, for real it was. When we live in our big, self designed house we'll invite them all, show them how it's done, though I doubt they'll come.

My dad didn't feel well after the main course, so he had to go home, which was sad. My Grandparents, and Martin's parents danced, and we all giggled over Coronation Street. It was pretty good fun.

Boxing Day meant one thing: sale shopping. I got some cord combat trousers, for half price from Topman, along with some tshirts I'd wanted for a while. We were going to go for coffee, but we had to wait until the next day for that, because Starbucks had run out of milk... we've decided it must be in the running for the worst run Starbucks in the world, you have to be a pretty awful coffee shop to run out of milk (and it wasn't the first time).

Wednesday evening we went to my Grandparents for a meal. That wasn't so comfortable. John and Michelle were there. It was the first time we'd seen them since someone told them about us. Unlike Christmas Day there was obvious tension (John is a complete homophobe) - my Grandparents were clearly stressed out, we came through the door and everybody scattered, pratcially running away from us. The whole night was a middle class nightmare. In a couple of hours they managed to make offensive comments about more demographics than you could imagine possible. John couldn't avoid homophobic comments, saying that James Bond sounds like a Nancy when dubbed into French. We left early... my new year's resolution is to never see John again...

We went to Borders in Preston with my dad on Thursday. It was a good outting. My dad got some books, and really kindly (since I had with me my vouchers) bought me a book: "We Need To Talk About Kevin." That book has been urging me to buy it for ages. I see it in every bookshop I go into, I turn on the TV and it's been reviewed. I broke, I can't take it any longer, I guess I need to talk about Kevin.

We came back to Lancaster yesterday. It's good to be back. Just one room, but it's ours - a duvet to hide under. We came back via Tesco (enormous Tesco, which swallows you and spits you out hours later with a trolley full of stuff which isn't the bread and milk you went in for). Got salmon, posh mash potato (which caramalised onion and dijon mustard) and cabbage for tea tonight.

Tomorrow we're off to Manchester for new year. I'm really excited. We're staying in a hotel right in the city centre, it's a high rise, so I'm hoping we have a room near the top floor. We have a Japanese Restaurant booked. We were going to the Comedy Store, but it's £55 each for a ticket, so that was a no. We might go to Jilly's Rock World, or just hit some random bars, without entrance fees. Hope everyone has a great new year.

We had Christmas dinner at Raine's house on Friday night. It went really well. We were running behind, because we had to go into Lancaster first. It was maddness, we clung to each other and ran in and out of the shops.

At Raine's house we put the turkey straight into the oven, and started chopping, with Neighbours on in the back ground. When Raine's mum got back from the pub she opened some presents, and then we served the starter: prawn cocktail. It went down well, but wasn't as good as the main course. We had tasty, tasty, tasty turkey, lots of veggies spilling off the plates, and great gravy. To finish we had chocolate cake - very yummy chocolate cake!

We went to the pub after the epic task of washing up. Chris, Raine and I all washed up, whilst conducting a lively discussion about Lindsay's washing up allergies, and the various ways she has avoided washing up through the years. When Lindsay re-emerged (she must be psychic, we were sitting round drinking having just finished the washing up) we set off for the pub... We had invited Lindsay and Chris to the new pub, which we have been waiting to open for months. It was nice, it had a good feel to it, and the food is apparently really good. We thought it was going to be a relaxing end to the evening, it was not to be. Lindsay had invited the world famous Matt. Matt is Chris' best friend, who Lindsay has a blatent crush on, Chris knows this, we know this, Matt seems to know this... They started flirting from the moment we walked into the pub, it was incredibly uncomfortable. Especially because Tara, who Chris has allegedly kissed, was there too. We we expecting something other than we got - some engaging, beautiful people. Instead Tara looked like a super trendy/dressed up chav, aged about 7, with an inability to communicate (especially to Lindsay, to whom she was fairly rude). Matt was cocky, dull, and not at all good looking (Chris had earlier told us he looked like Dennis the Menace, I didn't see it, but he didn't look any better, on a scale of looks, than Dennis). Chris and Lindsay spent a lot of time bickering, Matt was very interested in whether Raine and I ever bickered, he asked this shortly before or after he took a picture of us hugging. Surprisingly we don't want Lindsay and Matt to get together.

We left the pub after drinking up time (having acquired free pints from a group who had to leave quickly, we think their taxi must've arrived in record time). Lindsay, Chris and Matt went to the dodgy club in the hotel next door.

We watched 'Fight Club' back at the house. Well, most of it, before we drifted off to sleep. It was good, lying in the massive comfy bed, with the enormous warm duvet, watching the wide screen tv... it was paradise until a big rock hammered against the window and we jumped a mile - Lindsay and Chris returned sometime after 2am with no keys...

On Saturday I braved Cleveleys town centre and spent a small fortune on chocolate for my extended family - bah humbug! I got some lovely cards, though, including one which Raine really liked.

In the afternoon we saw my parents, which was good, I haven't seen them nearly as much as I'd have liked this year. We had coffee in Starbucks. Then my mum and Raine went one way, my dad and I the other, to shop. I think we've gotten everything now. We wanted to get Lindsay 'Buena Vista Social Club' but it was sold out everywhere, an unexpected Christmas hit! I've gotten Raine something she's hoping isn't Trivial Pursuits, she'll find out tomorrow...

Today we went to Manchester. I had to get books from the library there, since this library is crap. I now have 7 cheery books on the Islam and the Iranian state to read over the holiday season - ho ho ho. After the library we went into town. We were meeting Nic in Starbucks at 3.30. At 5 she wandered in, full of apologies - her bus had taken ages longer than it should've. We didn't have much choice but to leave 10 minutes later, feeling guilty - we had a ton of shopping to do.

We went everywhere, and shopped 'til we dropped. First was Primark on the search for pants. There was a distinct lack of girly boxers in sizes 10-12. We think there's been some kind of grand warehouse pant theft, because Blackpool also had no sizes 10-12, in any style. Raine managed to find girly y-fronts in that size, so it seems they have ressumed production in their most popular size, thankfully - bring back girly boxers! We went to M&S and got an enormous turkey for tomorrow, when we're cooking an early Christmas dinner for Raine's side of the family. We're having a proper Christmas day tomorrow because it's Raine's mum's birthday, and it means she can go to Gordon's for Christmas day proper, Lindsay can go to Chris's and Raine has the joy of hanging out with my extended family! Our coping strategy for Christmas day is going to be to stick to my parents, and we're going to get drunk! Not falling over drunk, but merry. I've never been drunk with my extended family, it'll be funny, I think, or an adventure, at least:-D

We got books for my Grandma and Grandpa. Robert Fisk: The Great War For Civilisation, which is a must read for everyone. It's amazing. We heard Robert Fisk speaking, at the start of the university year, here in Lancaster. He was a wonderful speaker, very powerfully telling about his thirty years reporting from the middle east. His work has taken him through every major middle eastern war zone, and to interview Bin Laden three times. The simplest thing he said, but which has stuck with me the most was, "I will not let sixteen people [the hi-jackers] change my entire way of life" in reference to 9/11, and in relation to what Bush and Blair were trying to get us to do.

For my Grandma I got Zadie Smith's "On Beauty." Well, as Raine said, I've been going on about it so much I had to get it for someone. It's not a completely selfish gift, I think she might like it, and my dad agrees. I also got two books for my dad, and a Hopper art calender for my mum and dad to share.

We're back in Lancaster cooking Raine-pie. That being shepherd's pie to Raine's super tasty recipie. It's late, but we wanted tasty comfort food, and Raine-pie is always worth the wait.

Tomorrow we have to go into Lancaster to do yet more shopping! Veggies for the meal, present's for Raine's mum, and chocolates for my extended family. Christmas can be such a nightmare. Birthdays can be about gifts, Christmas should be about love, relaxation and merriment... soon it'll be like that for us - we have tasty food, and good company, planned for tomorrow, and Monday is going to be about drinking, eating and socialising... bring it on!

We went into town yesterday. To shop for our meal, and hunt for more presents. We got the cutest little model tent with beer in from BHS. Then, we got pork with crackling from M&S, tons of fresh veggies from the greengrocers (we have become middle aged, and have decided that no good comes from buying your veg from the supermarket), roast potatoes, and stuffing. Back at uni we got everything cooking and made the tastiest tea you can imagine - a plate bursting with four types of veg, gorgeous pork and perfect gravy. The stuffing was excellent. We dabbled in making our own last year, but it wasn't that great (especially the 'space' stuffing that Raine made with left over weed...), the one from the meat counter at Sainsbury's is so good, though - I could eat it on its own. We couldn't fit in the Christmas puddings we bought, so they're saved for another day.

After the meal we played drinking scrabble, you had to take a shot if you couldn't make a word and if you made a word with 3 or less letters. It's not that hard to avoid those drinking rules, so not much extra alcohol was consumed. Raine won one game, I won the second. We opened our M&S 'Ruby Wine.' It's fortified wine with chocolate essence and it's *really* good. You can't drink it like wine, though, it's way too rich - a couple of shots max in a night, we reckon.

Today we went to Lancaster's vast antique place. It's an amazing place. Up out of town in a sprawling building, with everything from smurfs to cigarette cases, to kitchens! We spent a while there, saw some furniture we'd love, if we were loaded, and lived in more than one room. We bought a Gonk for 50p, a little wooden and metal guy, he has a massive beard, with a nose peaking out, and a metal helmet, shield and sword. He's going to protect us from our evil flatmates! We also got my mum her Christmas presents, a necklace and matching earrings from a craft stall. I think she's going to love them.

Tonight we're watching 'Fight Club.' I finished reading it last night, so I'm going to see how the film matches up before I forget the book.

Raine's been kidnapped by computer games. It was inevitable, from the moment we stepped into 'Game,' but still it's hard to take, who knows what the ransom is going to be - larger memory, better sound card???...

Today we slept til late (Raine later than I, all cute and curled up in the duvet while I huggled her and read). We watched some crappy daytime TV (well, it was crappy until 'Neighbours' came on, then it was supreme - we pay our license fee for that show, being the archetypal students we are), and looked up library books. The search for books was accompanied by regular expletives. Of nearly all the books I want the library has 1 copy, and they're all in the bookable short loan section. This means I can have the damn thing for three hours, even in the holidays. I can take 1 out over the two weeks the library is closed between Christmas and new year - damn library! I'm going to Manchester on Thursday, getting my dad to get them out of the library there.

I met with Paul Heelas part way through the afternoon. The guy is a religious studies legend. He's just back from living in Islamabad, where he's been on sabattical. He flew in on Saturday and agreed to see me today, because I'd emailed him asking for info on his course: Religion and The Self, which I'm taking next term. It sounds like it's going to be really interesting. All about indigenous psychologies, and constructions of the self.

In the afternoon we went into Lancaster. We were looking for presents. We got Lindsay come cute fairy lights, which are actually little fairies. My extended family are all getting chocolate oranges, my cousins selection boxes, except maybe the eldest, who's at high school now and might have outgrown selection boxes (not that you ever really could, but as a tweenager she might think she has!). I treated Raine to a ginger bread latte, while I drank innocent smoothie. It was nice to sit and chat in the coffee shop, except for the screaming child directly behind me who ended up putting my nerves on edge! Raine spied 'Game' outside the shop window, that's where she went and got caught by two games, which have proceeded to kidnap her.

We went and did our weekly shopping in Sainsburys. Except we're going to have to go back because they'd run out of pork mince. We got lots of tasty things, and marvelled at the special Christmas stuff - Pate in super delux glass pots, with extravagant metal opening systems. If we had lots of money we'd buy so much stuff! We got two little christmas puddings for the Christmas dinner we're doing just for us tomorrow.

We just logged into the journal and saw that Karen Cooke was our friend. Hello! I haven't seen you since we were 12! Message me if you're reading this, we'll have to catch up. I'll be back in Blackpool over Christmas.

OK, so, today. We went out for Sunday lunch in Galgate. To the wierd pub, with the strange people. It does a three course meal for £5.50 a head, though, and it's actually good, yummy in fact. We scoffed, and felt healthy after eating lots of veggies. We read the paper afterwards, until the woman came up and said, "That paper must be really interesting," took our ice cream bowls and walked away. We didn't really understand, her expression gave nothing away. Still, we went there expecting good food and strangeness, and we got it...

Afterwards we decided to go for a drive. Several hours later we ended up back at uni, via North Yorkshire. We got lost, driving through unchartered territory. Sometimes there wasn't a house or car to be seen. It was really beautiful, streams, mountains, froliking pheasants. There was also a distinct lack of road signs. We got back in the end, thanks to sightings of the sea, and the sun setting, so we knew which way was West...

What I forgot to mention, when I wrote the journal early this morning, was that I had my hair dreaded in a drugs den... The woman was there smoking joints, with her very wasted friend (though not as wasted as it seemed he should be)... He rolled at least five while she dreaded, and not little things - double rizzla affairs. When we were walking around the Trafford Centre Raine found some weed which had dropped out on me while she was dreading. Lindsay had a puff, Raine and I were driving and so didn't - I wouldn't dare anyway, I get so wasted it could've been very embarassing, giggling away while she tried to dread me. Lindsay did a very good job of seeming sober, though she later said that she was very wasted for a while, and it was hard to hear anything. She had two puffs - the guy must have a serious problem. The woman's house was cool. A little terrace in a dodgy area. Inside all the walls were covered in posters, and she told us straight off that she was a Pagan. She seemed interested that I was taking RS because she supposed I'd know all about religious conspiracy theories. Turned out she was an Ani DiFranco fan, so she played me some, and a track by The Waifs, which I liked, though it was hard to give it my full attention whilst holding back the dread induced tears. It was a great experience - I love it when we stumble across places like that, story worthy places.

Tonight we booked a hotel in Manchester on New Years Eve. We're going to go to the comedy store and have a meal, it should be really cool.

We've survived until the end of term - just. There have been some casulties along the way - Lindsay's dropped out - but we've made it in one piece. We had such crazy workloads in the end. We were working 50+ hour weeks. This term's meant to be the easiest for me - I have 10 000 more words to write next term! Still, all the essays are in now, and I even managed to write an inspried Hinduism essay for Raine. My last essay was in on Wednesday, but Raine's RS and History essays were in on Friday. In a night, I wrote an essay on the difficulties in defining Hinduism. About 80% of it was stuff they'd never imagine people in their first year would know (largely because the first year RS course here is so crap).

I got my dreadies back yesterday! I went to a woman in Manchester who put them back in for me. I'm so happy to be a dreadhead again. They're not as good as the ones Raine put in for me, though, and it might take some fiddling on our parts before they're perfect. After the hairdressing we went to the Trafford Centre, where we window shopped to the max!

We went on a end of work celebratory bar crawl on Friday night. We started here, with chinese food and drinks. Then we went to Fylde, Pendle, GradBar, Cartmel and Lonsdale bars. We would have done more, but they closed before we could finish! A good night was had by all, though, and I managed to beat Raine at pool - a historic moment!

Today is a super relaxing 'duvet day.' Which is just us taking it easy.