This weekend has been filled with so many favourites my head wants to explode.

Friday we had a BYOB (bring your own burger) party at Omid and Amy's flat and attempted (but mostly failed) a giant game of charades. As a Cleasby this game is ingrained within my very being, however, other members of attendees were not so familiar with the game, and so very African. Which had hilarious consequences. We also played Jungle Speed, a fast-paced card game designed to blow your mind and your nerves.

Saturday morning I met Josh for a brew in Nero, complained about how the universe is seriously messing up my plans right now (blog post about that to come), and watched on of Bangor's treasures dance around and sing along to his boom box in the centre of town. He's amazing, if a wee bit delusional.

After this I met Amy, Shirin and Lua and went back to Nero (we love our coffee) after a failed venture to get Amy's eyebrows threaded! Here we made our evening plans: to go to Noodle One for some awesome dinner, then to borrow a projector, set it up in the living room and watch Django Unchained on the wall. It was a second time watch for me (definitely recommend watching it more than once, such a cracking film, and Jamie Foxx is bad ass), made interesting by the rule of eating a chocolate every time the N word was said. And it was said a lot. This concluded Saturday.

Sunday, we played badminton and made glorious salads. My evening was already spoken for with the return of Thomas from his weekend in Spain, and of Professor Brian Cox to our telly boxes in The Wonders of Life. Oh, how I adore his brain and dulcet northern tones.

a long walk.

Today Tom and I took the longest walk ever over the Menai bridge to have an explore around Anglesey. I took two of my cameras to try and get some nice pictures, but unfortunately I can't show them yet as they're both film cameras! I'm excited to get them developed once I've snapped a few more.

We set off at half two and made our way over the bridge and far away to a small beach/seaweed covered expanse of pebbles at the waterfront of a beautiful castle-like hotel. En route we passed an adorable knitting shop in Menai Bridge that I'm going to make a special trip back to rummage around next week.

After taking pictures of wintery mountains and lavender skies on a variety of contraptions, we shimmied back up the steps to have a meal at Dylan's. As we got closer to the restaurant I noticed a new shop by its side that looked like it would sell some yummy jams for me to purchase, but to my surprise, when we walked through the door we were greeted by a slightly portly man who almost instantly proceeded to elaborate on all of the obscure bottles of beer he was peddling! I had to hand it to him, he knew a lot about his products and some of them really were unusually interesting. Beer, however, is not for me, so I stood back and perused the coffee and tea while Tom was engrossed.

After buying a bottle of 'Lion' stout (which was supposed to be like Guinness, but better), we pottered round the corner to take a pew at Dylan's and have some delicious food. Which it was, especially the Caerphilly and Quinoa salad. It had pomegranate in it which was a real treat for my taste buds. Amazing. I don't usually get this excited about salads, but this one was tip top. Another salad I couldn't stop thinking about for months was one that seemed very in vogue in Dublin at the time we visited: butternut squash, beetroot and goat's cheese salad. You should try it.

By the time we were ready to leave it was after 8 o'clock and very dark outside, and as the brave kids we are, we took the forest route back to the bridge. I made the mistake of accidentally scaring Tom with a brief Slender Man comment (the most terrifying computer game out there, I urge you to try it, it's a right hoot). After that we shuffled quite quickly through the woods.

It was a very long walk, but so much more exciting than a session at the gym. I have a few photos to share that I took on my phone, so feast your eye balls on the beauty that is North Wales (and the side of my boyfriend's head).

something interesting i read today.

"...it has been suggested that while adult second language learners may become perfectly proficient in their use of syntax, typically these people retain a persistent foreign accent in the second language, suggesting that the critical age for mastering the phonological system may be earlier than for syntax."

Taken from Developmental Disorders of Language and Learning, by Charles Hulme and Margaret J. Snowling.

what a busy bee i'll be.

So, 2013 looks like its going to become a very busy year for me. I'm going to need more than my diary to keep up with all these commitments; I'll need an entire file scheduling my life down to the hour.

I currently have two jobs: I work in a Japanese restaurant as a waitress/ food prep girl, and at Bangor university as a note-taker for disabled students. Managing those two has been interesting enough, but now I'm adding voluntary work at a school with a speech and language therapist, and possibly a 10-week course in British Sign Language. All this, plus a relationship, is going to get messy. But, as my good friend said to me last night, all things will fall into place, and confirmations will come. And looking at a few emails I received today, it sure seems that way.

By the time graduation came around for me last July, I hadn't a scooby of what I wanted to do next, and I felt like I was in graduation limbo. I hadn't found a job yet (then lo' and behold, months later, three came along at once, mental!), and I wasn't prepared to rush into a post-grad course just for the sake of feeling like I had direction. I also wasn't prepared to go home. With fewer opportunities for finding myself back in Burnley, I stuck it out in my wonky student house, and kept somewhat busy by doing paid psychology experiments (that may seem weird, but it's actually very educational and you help out a fellow student). It was a very difficult few months for me, being in limbo, and I'm determined to never go back. And so, manic schedule and new learning opportunities, I welcome you with open arms. I have a feeling we're going to get along just fine.

This is completely irrelevant, it's just a picture I took of my rug while I was writing this. Ciao for now.

the time has come for colds and overcoats.

Frozen feet in hand knitted socks. Hands clasped around a steaming cup of tea. Even inside I can see my breath. And while memory of the pain and bruised back legs finds its way back, I still hear myself say it's welly time; bring on the snow. For the first fall of snow is not only an event, it is a magical event. You go to bed in one kind of a world and wake up in another quite different, and if this is not enchantment then where is it to be found?

girls day out.

Today Hannah, Jess, Lily (Jess's niece) and I went to Thompson's Park, one of my family's favourite haunts as a child. The sky was miserable and the air was frosty, but spending a few hours enjoying simple pleasures with my girls was lovely. I left with frozen fingers, a wet bum and with sand in my shoes, and I felt great.

old as she was, she still missed her daddy sometimes.

"I think it's good for children to be able to accept that their parents are prats...and still be okay despite it."

making myself cooler.

Inspired by my dear friend Nicola and her book-list of resolutions, I have decided that (although I think I'm already quite a hoot) this year I want to set myself some personal goals to make me just a wee bit more of an interesting person. I'm not the type of person to make new year's resolutions, as the acknowledgement and implementation of self improvement can happen at any time of the year, and i'm not exactly known to be dictated by social norms and conventions! But lately, I've been feeling a little down about Becky. So, instead of wallowing in my own sadness of how I'm nothing like the person I want/expected myself to be, which is completely counterproductive, I'm going to make some very positive changes and shimmy myself into a better, more fascinating and successful me. 

Here we go...

1. Improve my diabolical time management skills. I'm pretty sure me and my brother Phil got the runt of the time-management genes, being born with no concept of time; everyone else is a stickler for timeliness, and no one more so than my dad. I can make myself be on time when it really counts, like for work and meetings. But just because other commitments aren't as do or die, doesn't mean I shouldn't put just as much effort in, as I can imagine it begins to get very tedious waiting for me. 

2. Find relevant work experience, get a reference and whack it on my masters application. This one has already been set in motion, I'm due to start volunteering at a local school to work with a speech and language therapist and special needs children. 

3. Re-acquaint myself with the language of love. I actually lived in France for a while on my gap year! But I never really got to practice my French, so since leaving school I've kind of lost it. Now I think is a good time to pick it back up again, starting with the basics. And I'm pretty sure it's good for my brain too.

4. Learn sign language. When my dad was a social worker, he worked with a lot of deaf people and so had to learn BSL (British Sign Language). Over the years he's taught me bits and bobs (I can say 'cheeky bugger' and 'I want cake'), and I think sign language is a skill that would definitely benefit me in my career as a speech and language therapist. Plus, how many people do you know that can speak sign language? 

5. Read more books. I read quite a few books anyway, but I've found that my problem is I buy a book, read a few chapters, then find another I like the look of and completely forget about the first one. And this goes on until I've bought ten books. So I'd like to be more organised with my reading, I'll not buy any more books until I've made a significant dent in the massive pile of unread ones dotted around my room.

6. Be healthier. Linked to this is losing a bit of weight, I'm not massive (I'm only a size 12), but losing a few pounds can only do me good! I've been swimming every day this week, drinking more freshly squeezed orange juice lately (also in a bid to try and get over my fear of textured food), eating fresh fruit and cutting out chocolate and other unhealthy snacks. Not completely though, life would be boring without cake.

7. Make some new friends. I need someone to share my newly-made coolness with. I have a (new) friend from uni who I've started meeting up with to knit, drink coffee and talk Psychology. She's cool and I like her lots. My main aim with this is to make new friends who I can experience new things with, or just do the normal old things with a fresh pair of eyes. 

Welcome to my list. So life, COME AT ME.