Daisy

Yeah, I was referring to Britian. But really that's not fair either. We British are Very friendly . Just not in the south . Though, I think there is something to the idea of the 'stiff upper lip'. Just maybe its not about friendliness but something else, certain topics and such. Joking aside, there is a debate in England about the differences between the north and the south, with friendliness being one of the parameters. Northerners, at least a fair few, pride themselves on being friendly and larger than life and down to earth, which is compared to down south. There maybe some class stuff to this . London though is known for the idea that the people in the streets are unfriendly. People don't smile at each other or chat to strangers on the bus or tube. It's annoying, but it's something my friends cite as a reason I can't convince them to move down there with me. It's probably more to do with it being a big city than anything else. hmmmm ... I think there is something to the idea that French aren't friendly. If it's not 'friendly', there is something characteristic to them, or at least some. Or maybe it is just the tourist thing . The not-deigning to speak to you, or avoiding you, unless you speak fluent french is a tad annoying. Even if you are trying. And they Can speak english. I've heard enough stories from friends of times they've had trouble over there. One girl is living over there for the year, in the middle I think in the countryside, and they won't let her into the only club around because she's english. Or for example, , 2 canadians in a cafe in paris. the waitresses were just ignoring their attempts to get their attention and chatting away, thinking they couldn't understand, only one of the 2 could speak fluent french, and interrupted their flow by saying something in french. They had been slagging the two of them off. Only once they realised they could understand, they looked, then turned back to slagging them off regardless . Maybe they just have balls. And not stupidly polite like we are.

, not sure my sisters going to be happy with being the adorable one.

yeah, she's a jack russel. caused us quite a few problems of dissappearing down rabbit holes!

Wrong. That's my younger sister .

My dog's called Jet. He's the black lab of course, and he's an amazing 9. We didn't name him that though, he was a rescue dog, though it's always baffled us why someone would want to abandon him. The smaller one is called Perdy and was born pretty much exactly at the beginning of the millenium. My gran nursed her back to health as a puppy. My grans other dog Sally, a beautiful blue-merl minature shetland sheepdog, was put down a few days before christmas due to bladder cancer. Those cousins are all on the one side of the family as well. My mum was one of four children.

Yes, but which one am I?

Finally, I've decided to break the annoyminity thing . Here is one of me and my sister on holiday recently. And this is one of me and the rest of my cousins on christmas day. I warn you I haven't managed to master the attachment thing so they will likely be Huge when you click on them. Oh and this is my dog as well with my grans. Not the greatest picture, but again from christmas day .

I thought FB had procedures in how to deal with this. I had something similar with a friend 3 years ago. And I'm sure I read something about this recently. I thought they had a timelimit on how long they would leave it there. But goodluck with things.

Ahhh, it's the stiff english upper lip. We Seem not friendly, but it's just the exterior . People confuse it with snobbishness , when it's just reservedness. We're brilliant in a crisis though, even with strangers (well, the Nooorth anyway, can't comment on the South ), the cup of tea being the saviour and ice breaker.

you know, I've just realised we haven't put any decorations up yet. how embarrassing . We've been away though. We'll have to make sure that we do. I like your tree

There's plenty of barbers round by me . My granddad likes to laugh at how he gets his (almost non-existent) hair done for a fiver while I pay Way more than that at hairdressers.

Happy Birthday !!!!

the north not cool; bleh. and you're right, we are cheaper . Never heard of Roehampton before. I went to Durham first, there were plenty of posh people there too. But still we were in the north. But it was like an oasis in the north for southern people. so many southern and posh accents. In my college alone in first year I knew/lived with FIVE people from Eton, that's ridiculous. Everyone was great though no matter where they were from though, usually. There were many clones walking around though. Congrats on Bolton. Have you got in touch with the departments or the international offices' at the uni's? There could be a difference in how they get back to you maybe.

Have to say .... hairdresser. Or yes, your salon. Definitely not the barber.

the internet version anyway (well, the front page) and it's my version of procrastinating. actually, I remember most of the guys at my old department joking that too, in between typing a few lines. what do you do in your office all day?

hey all Just saw this, thought I'd share http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/dec/06/venezuela-gay-beauty-pageant

York's a good uni and a historic city. Lancaster, that was my 2nd choice when I applied. It's a market town in the northwest, but the campus is about 10mins away from the town I think. The town's nice but I'm not so sure about the campus itself. Bath, never been there, but heard it's lovely . Edge Hill, well that's near where I live and lots of old school mates went there. It's near Liverpool but away from it. It's less of a big uni though. Northumbria, I think that's where my step-brother is. It's in the north east, not the prettiest of locations and a smaller uni with a lower rep. I know someone from Bolton, be ready for thick accents , but apart from that I know nothing about the place. Westminster, at least you'd be in the heart of the country, if you can face living in London.

Goodluck . Applying for things is always tedious. Let us know which ones you narrow it down to. Under UCAS you can apply to 6 universities btw.

Maybe try one of the newspaper league tables. They could give you an idea of where is supposed to be good for english. I don't trust them entirely though, as reputations seem to be developed outside of it, at least from my experience from the subjects I've taken. But it's a starting point. I recomend visiting though if you can. And also thinking not just about the subject and how and what is taught. But also the type of place you want to live, for example on a campus that is nowhere near a city (e.g. Warwick), or in a city itself (Manchester). Or a town versus a city. All those sorts of things. They are just as important in determining whether you will like living there. http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/universityguide

make sure you don't drink too much water. that's a danger in itself when you take e. I've only done it once while I was staying with a friend, but one of her friends I think took it every weekend (and more than one). said he wasn't addicted, that you couldn't get addicted to e. that he did it because he wanted it. but I didn't really believe him, even if there is no physical link dragging you in, it was deeply into his routine and he would have missed the affect, seemed like it was a sure bet he would have trouble stopping. it was fun though when I did it . but then I get the horror story of another friends boyfriends best friend (someone they'd dated as well) dying while on holiday in Ibiza due to e. probably because they took far too many in one go though.

I'll think about it. My courses were anything but english so I'm not really sure about where is good and where's not. But first off, what type of grades are you expected to get and what type of qualification are they as that will narrow down where to look at. and are you going next year? Because there is a set path to apply and there are deadlines you need to make sure you meet. UCAS is the method everyone has to use to apply. But you'll likely have until next year sometime. celia

Happy Birthday

I've had similar experiences with other things. They just manage to come at the right time , and then you never forget them. But glad I wasn't the only one who noticed the silent part about it.

Unbelievable. I don't really hear of sales like that in the UK. Apart from maybe one of the women's clothes stores. Can't believe you were queuing from 7pm, that is madness . --and yeah shopping can be fun in itself . We have mega sales starting boxing day. But I presume you do too. They go over into new year sales. The biggest thing advertised on the tv then is sofa's! it is good to be reminded of the little (or rather big) things like that W.L at times.