How do I adult?

First things first, we finally have (very fast) internet in my house, so hopefully there won't be any more extended periods of absence.

This week has been pretty hectic. I went to London on Tuesday to meet two of my lovely friends, and had a great time drinking cocktails and generally wandering around London. It was a belated birthday get together and the two of them also spoiled me rotten! (I think I have enough Fireball Whiskey to last at least a year!)

On Wednesday, I graduated! I was expecting this to be sitting through hours of speeches in unbearable heat, but it was actually really great. Afterwards I went out for a meal with my parents and boyfriend, which was nice, and went to the pub with friends afterwards. I am now officially not a student, but that's more of an inconvenience than anything else since I will be one again in about two months and I'm in an annoying state of limbo. Oh well. Having now received my degree the prospect of starting my Masters course is becoming very real, and I'm so excited!

Those hats are sharp.

While I was still at graduation, I also had a phone call asking me to come for an interview for a job I applied for at the start of June and had basically given up on ever hearing back from. I went to the interview this morning and got it! I won't be starting until August but I'm pretty excited. It's in a shop that I'm very familiar with since it's the nearest one to my house (and prior to that my boyfriend's house), so I'm really looking forward to working there!

Birthday Post!

There's still no internet at my house hence the intermittent posting, but I'm presently at my boyfriend's so I thought I'd take the opportunity to do a post. I have a few things I want to write about but I'll do them a post at a time so that I don't wind up writing some obscenely long essay.

So, 7th July was my 21st birthday! I had a great time despite the celebrations being a little all over the place - I didn't fancy a big party so I spent the weekend before with my brother and parents (resulting in me receiving most of my presents early), and then spent the actual day with my boyfriend. Tomorrow I'm having a belated birthday meal in London with my two closest friends who don't live here in Southampton, so that should be fun :)

My friends and relatives were all incredibly generous, particularly those who sent me money which amounted to enough to almost pay off my entire overdraft! Aside from money, I received the following:

Spoilt rotten.

From my boyfriend: a nice floral handbag, which is exactly the right size to carry all the things I'll need to take between lectures next year (because I'm super keen and have done all my 'back to school' shopping already).

From my Aunt: the pink scarf on top of the bag in the picture, pink isn't normally a colour I like but this is gorgeous. It's also not too thick so I won't have to wait too long before I can wear it!

From my brother: a silver bracelet (you can't really see it in the picture but it's balanced on top of one of the books). My brother has always been really good at picking out presents!

From my parents: More jewellery which you also can't see, a necklace and a pair of earrings which have celtic knotwork patterns which I love. They also match a ring that I got from my boyfriend some time ago. Also an oil burner to go in my new room, a new pair of converse (my old ones were getting a bit tatty and I'd gone off the colour), and two books which were on the suggested reading list for my course next year! I also received a really lovely top from them but it was already in the laundry by the time I got round to taking this picture! I'll add a picture of that when I get round to it.

So yes, I'm a very happy bunny and thankful to have so many kind friends and relatives (including of course those who sent me birthday wishes but didn't get me anything!)

Moving is exhausting.

I've moved house!
The last five or so days have been impossibly hectic and I am mentally and physically exhausted. Friday was just my day for packing. This is no mean feat when you're a) as untidy as I am and b) barely awake because you thought it would be a fantastic idea to stay out until 4am the night before to watch your boyfriend and friend play beer pong, culminating in them using cups of diluted salsa because they ran out of alcohol. The packing took around six hours in total. Saturday saw my parents coming to take all the stuff I didn't need any more back to the family home, which also took way longer than I was expecting, so long that there was no time to clean the house. This also meant that I had nowhere to sleep (since I've moved from a double to a single room), so I then took the rest of my belonging's to my boyfriend's house, where I was to stay for a few days.

All of my belongings, unceremoniously dumped in the corner of my boyfriend's room.

On Sunday, therefore, my housemate and I returned to clean the house from top to bottom. In that time we also discovered conclusive evidence that the mould that plagued the house is due to a structural problem and not due to any lack of maintenance on our part. We took a bit of time out to draft an angry email to send the letting agency about this in the event that they take any money out of our deposit in order to paint over the problem again. On Monday my boyfriend and his housemates were all moving, so since they'd been kind enough to let me stay I decided to help. This proved a lot more time consuming than expected as the previous tenants hadn't cleaned ANYTHING. On Tuesday, I was finally able to move into my new house!

This house too is a bit of a state and there's quite a lot of stuff that needs replacing, not to mention that we were left sitting outside for ages with all our stuff because the landlord turned up three and a half hours late. However, at this point I'm just thankful to have somewhere to call my own! On account of my being a postgraduate who isn't eligible for student loans, I'm not in the best financial state in the world so I basically picked my room on the basis that it was really cheap (less than £230 a month)! So it's basically a cupboard. Once I'd moved my things in though I found that I actually really liked the room. It's nice and cosy, and actually had double glazing and central heating unlike the house I moved out of.

Some pictures of my new living space.

Unfortunately there are a couple of problems - the mattress is on its last legs and the blind is broken and won't go all the way down. Looks like I'll need to wait a little longer for that good night's sleep! We also forgot to sort out our internet provider before we arrived - currently the previous tenant's internet is still connected, but I expect that'll cut off soon so there may be a long absence from the blog while we get it sorted.

Today I think the plan is to have a big cleaning day, and I'll hopefully be able to pop to Ikea and get some bits for my room. Maybe the new mattress will be delivered too!

Old English

At a loss for what to do since I'm between courses and still unemployed, I've been revisiting some notes and books that might come in handy for my Masters course.

Celtic loanwords in Old English

At the start of June I revisited a module I did last semester about sacred music of the 16th Century, but I've finished that now so I've moved on to Old English. I started studying Old English last summer when I was staying with my boyfriend while he was doing an internship, so I needed something to do while he was gone. I found myself really enjoying it, so I thought I'd go over it again now. Yes, this is the sort of thing that I find exciting these days.

My love of dead languages aside, my continued unemployment is becoming a fairly big worry since I'm no longer eligible for student loans and thus have no source of income. I got a bit of a cash injection early because I got the money from selling my ticket to Hellfest, but that and my approaching 21st birthday are all I've got in the near future. I'm going to go job hunting again this week but this time I'll also see if any charity shops want volunteers, so that I can at least get some experience.

New Leaves...

... Are a thing, apparently.

My life is currently undergoing a great deal of change. I'm moving house in a little over a week (and living with new people), I'm searching for a job (thus far unsuccessfully), I've just received a 2:1 degree in music and in September I'm starting a Masters course in Medieval and Renaissance Culture.

Aw yiss.

I kept a blog from the ages of about 15 - 17 when things were also rapidly changing around me as I finished my GCSEs, started A Levels, and did a great deal of growing up. It's fairly embarrassing to look back on now but it helped me get through all the upheaval then, so I figured I might give it another bash.

I started that blog with an introduction so I'll do the same now: I'm Sophie, 20 (although birthday is rapidly approaching) and I live in Southampton. I'm interested in the culture and history of the Anglo - Saxon and Medieval periods. Aside from that, I love metal music (often of the extreme variety) as well as classical music, textiles and knitting, piercings, fantasy literature, pretty stationery and herbal tea.