Yay for English Summer.

I am SO WET.

My trousers are sodden, my shoes, which are sadly made out of cloth, are like little puddles, and I am wearing a white shirt in an office full of men so I can't take off my damp jumper.

This is not summer!! I feel like gathering some buckets of rainwater, wrapping them in brown paper and and shipping them to Kenya.

What Fun You Can Have with Umbrellas, Ben and Jerries and a British Seaside

My two insane housemates and one insane banana-girl (Amy) who I was in Kenya with came to stay with me :) It was SO exciting to go and pick Annie up from the airport, Rebecca already sitting in the seat next to me and mocking my driving, and drive back to Bristol with them both in the car and bickering and laughing away at stupid things every few seconds.

The week:

-- Bath. A lot of sitting in a queue waiting for the carpark and trying to forget about the massive detour we made on the way, but also a lot of eating pizza, looking at Bath's nice grey architecture, 1/2 a litre of Ben and Jerries each, and then the resulting sugar high and a few hours of posing with umbrellas like Jane Austen.

-- Weston-Super-Mare. The day was sunny! We walked out almost until we could see the actual sea, and Rebecca discovered that bouncing around Baywatch style in Weston's lovely 'sand' is not such a great idea. She ended up with mud up to her knee. We ate chips and did the Kenyan shuffle dance on the sand :)

-- BANKSY and PRIMARK. Annie desperately wanted to see the Banksy exhibition, Rebecca desperately wanted to see the UK's second largest Primark. So we got up at 7am, sat on the street doing sudokus for two hours, then went around the Banksy exhibition (really, really good, I loved it), ate a tasty burger at Nandos for lunch, and then spent several hours in the new four-floor Primark! I bought clothes for the first time since being in England, because they were so wonderfully cheap that it felt like a good investment.

-- Getting mocked by comedians. We went to a comedy club on Friday night and I was mocked for being a vegetarian. Annie was mocked because the comedian asked if anyone was from far away places, and she's from Holland. Rebecca was mocked because when the comedian asked if anyone was from further away than Holland, Rebecca offered 'CAMBRIDGE!' Bless her.

-- Curling up in giant duvets watching Cinderella at midnight, eating dutch-snacks on toast, leaping on Annie simultaneously, teasing everyone for everything, fruit salad, and general LOVE.

I had such a good time. I really liked being able to show them where I worked, where I lived, what my friends and family were like, so that there felt like there was some kind of connection between my life in Kenya and my life here. To be able to talk about the last 6 months of my life, and KENYA in proper detail again was so good, and just to see them and sit around laughing with them again. I missed waking up and seeing them.

And the Similarities to Apes Continue...

A photo Amy took of a gorilla whilst trekking in Uganda:

A photo Sid took of me whilst eating sugar-cane in Nakuru:

The gorilla looks ultimately cooler than I do.

It's a Job a Monkey Could Do...

But unfortunately I am that monkey.

Work is boring. I have to get out of bed, and it's COLD, and sleeping in a giant jumper and a masai blanket doesn't help. I sit at a computer mindlessly clicking things all day. BUT it's money and that money will be made into a classroom roof and so that makes me happy :) Plus, it's something to do all day (as mindless as it is).

I did some much more exciting 'work' on Saturday, waitressing at this beautiful wedding in a big white marquee with all my friends :) We dressed up all posh, in black-and-white, and wandered around balancing plates of canapes ("chilli pineapple?"), serving huge white plates of guinea fowl, and trying to minimise the number of shiny forks sliding onto the floor every time we had to clear everything. There was a ton of pudding left over so we all ate some AMAZING chocolate torte and fruit tiramisu, and gleefully harvested all the posh chocolates the guests had abandoned. Then, when we finished at 10pm, we joined the dancefloor with the live band, bouncing up and down and screaming the lyrics to 'Mr Brightside'. It was awesome, and we got paid.

Then yesterday there was much excitement as it was SUNNY for the first time anyone could ever remember in the history of being in Bristol, SO, we all went up to the downs and played ultimate frisbee, with the setting sun casting long tree shadows over us all :) We gained a player from the Bristol University Ultimate Frisbee Team, who stopped, stared, asked "do you know what you're playing?" and thankfully joined our team. We're useless, all running around and knocking each other over, but it was hilarious.