moving house (so - packing, cleaning, driving all over Birmingham, unpacking, etc)
actually doing some uni work
hacking the firmware on my camera (more on that at a later date) and playing around with photo editing
joining various 'trendy' websites (twitter? eww. last.fm? better.)
I have managed to find time to go paddling. Phew. (I do have other hobbies, honest!)
Last weekend was the annual BUKC Bude surf trip - apparently famed for never having any surf. Not this time! There was surf, and we had fun in it! Until I swam and twisted my ankle, anyway. oops. But it's ok because I did have a very yummy ice cream afterwards.
Yesterday I did the Lower Tryweryn, which was good Two words to best describe the trip: rocky and swimmy. With some correlation - Katy does something daft like paddling into a rock and inevitably ends up upside down. Anyway, the actual number of swims is unimportant right now, because I was trying to roll (difficult to do when you're trying to roll up into a rock...) and eventually I did successfully roll back up Not done that on moving water before! woo.
It's quite possible that everyone I know has already been informed of this triumph by now. But I'd also like to add that my dry trousers were a very good investment, even if I did empty about 5 pints of water out of them when we got off the river...
Possibly coming up in the not-too-distant future - rants about Specsavers, Twitter and linux/MIDI/Java issues.
Because it would take far too long to properly write up the two weeks I've just spent in the French Alps, here's a random photo and a list:
two ferries
32 hours of driving (at least)
many euros
one river paddled (l'Argentiere Slalom course, and a bit beyond due to missing the eddy)
half of the Chateau Q via ferrata (because it started raining and got quite slippery)
one glacier and ice cave
one funfair
two books
several bottles of wine
two very yummy crepes
many croissants/pain au chocolat
various bits of sunburn
about 160 photos (using up 6 sets of batteries!! not impressed!)
large quantities of faff
a general lack of sleep
I'm probably missing lots of things, but nevermind. Obviously other (better) people did more kayaking than I did! We also watched SlopeJam and the Student BoaterX, which were quite entertaining. Much carnage
Lovely clear blue water in rivers is so much more appealing than muddy brown stuff. But freezing cold (and lots of it, although levels had dropped a lot)! I spent quite a bit of time paddling around and rolling in the lake by the campsite/slalom course. Brrr! Didn't get very far with actual swimming in it, as even on a boiling hot sunny day it was far too cold, hehe.
Back in the 'real' world, I've comfortably passed all my exams Just the project to go now, and it's still quite feasible that I could get a distinction overall, which is exciting!
tags: paddling 
Two words to best describe the trip: rocky and swimmy. With some correlation - Katy does something daft like paddling into a rock and inevitably ends up upside down. Anyway, the actual number of swims is unimportant right now, because I was trying to roll (difficult to do when you're trying to roll up into a rock...) and eventually I did successfully roll back up 
Not done that on moving water before! woo.
