I spent the weekend in Cirencester and Cricklade with Chantal. Went down on Thursday and came back on Sunday. It was nice spending some time away from Walsall… Getting to see a bit more of the country and having some company on a weekend for once.

On Friday we went into Cirencester and had dinner at a lovely Italian restaurant called Piazza Fontana. I had linguini with pesto and king prawns for a starter and halibut with lemon sauce for my main course. It was really good! The only thing I can really mark them down on is the creme brulé that they served me for dessert, which seemed like instant microwave-made and was still cold at the centre. Should have had the tiramisú, probably.

On Saturday we went to Fairford to feed the ducks, and then Chantal took me to the Roman Amphietheatre in Cirencester, which was completely overgrown with grass, but really interesting.

Chantal has two cats and a dog. The cats are called Billy and Squeaker, and the dog is called Treacle. It was so nice to have pets around! I love animals, and I miss having something living for company when I’m by myself. Would be so nice to have a cat or something just about now…

One of the nights I slept in Chantal’s brother’s room as he was out of town. That room was like a library! All the shelves were stacked to the limit with fantasy books and sci-fi and videogames and stuff. I took the liberty of ripping his Dune box-set to my computer (the sci-fi channel miniseries from 2000). Haven’t quite finished watching it yet.

Since I got back I’ve done precious little. I’m so bored now, cause I finished the last two leadsheets for my dissertation over the weekend, and I’ve done everything I can at the moment for my E&E case study and my Untold Stories assignment. The next step in both of those are dependent on other people. I have a bit of a cold, so I can’t practice any singing right now… So I’ve been watching anime and playing The Sims Medieval and just generally been bored out of my skull. The most interesting thing that’s happened since I got back is the fire alarm going off at 4 in the morning last night/this morning/whatever you want to call it. Was stood outside for 45 minutes in my dressing gown. It was cold, and I was sleepy, and everyone else was drunk.

Today I just feel lazy and tired. Haven’t done anything at all so far… Feel like I should go for a walk, but the weather’s all grey. To be honest, this would be the perfect time to get some writing done, but I haven’t heard from my beta since before Christmas and that’s kind of stifled my creativity a bit…

I guess we’ll see.