A week's disappearance and a year's end

This past week has been the longest stretch of inactivity I've experienced on Air Nice-to-Livelands to date. At the end of Christmas Day, my laptop developed a problem and has been out of action since then, although one of my uncles was able to sort it out over the weekend after I left the device at my grandparents' house.

In addition to my laptop's problems, I've been at my girlfriend's house for the past couple of nights and since I've been busy spending time with her, I've not paid much attention to updating my blog.

And so, 2017 ends. For me, this year has broken major ground in that during it, I completed my first year of university, attended a wedding (two, if you include the reception I went to back in July for the first time since California and I started a relationship. As it stands, I am nearly halfway through my time at university.

Happy New Year, everyone; I hope 2018 brings you all much good luck and success.

Return to Clifton December 2017

I'm now back in Clifton after spending the past few days at my girlfriend's house. I enjoyed my time there with her and will be back again on the 29th but for the next two days, I shall be at my mother's house, although I'll still be sleeping at my university accommodation. Tomorrow morning, I shall be taking a walk to the city centre and back, provided that I do not oversleep.

Her old college

This afternoon, my girlfriend and I visited where she went to college several years ago. We weren't able to go inside, obviously, as the place was closed and because we are not students there. Still, just being able to see the building and the grounds gave me insight about my girlfriend's personal history with respect to her education; I talk a lot about Central and so it was good to see and hear about her college.

Christmas preparations 2017

This afternoon, my girlfriend and her mother needed to shop to pick up a few items for the Christmas activities they have planned for the next few days. They had asked if I would come along to help and I said yes but even if they hadn't, I'd have volunteered. I'm happy to help but more than that, it's time spent with them both and it gave more chance for us all to talk, as well as good exercise for me. Overall, a delightful and productive afternoon!

Five days in Newark

I shall be spending today until the 24th of December at my girlfriend's house in Newark. She and her mother wanted me over for some of the winter break and so that's where I will be travelling to after we meet up for an event in Nottingham's city centre.

"Star Wars: The Last Jedi"

I travelled to Newark today to watch Star Wars: The Last Jedi with my girlfriend. This marks the first time that my girlfriend and I have been to the cinema together but not the first time we've watched a Star Wars film together. We watched the prequels and Star Wars: The Force Awakens not too long ago because she wanted to catch up on all those films, having seen only the originals.

As for The Last Jedi itself, it's a great film. When it began I was extremely worried it was about to return into a repeat of Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back but I was pleased when that turned out to not be the case. My girlfriend and I highly enjoyed it.

Only me for now

And just like that, I'm now the only person currently living in my student house! Everyone else has either moved out, gone home for the holidays or is at a partner's house. As for me, I remain. With the exception of a few nights at my girlfriend's house, I shall stay at my student house. There is no need for me to go anywhere else for the time being.

It is odd the house being so...inactive. I'm used to hearing my housemates' various movements. It's so silent here!

Most (Christmas) shopping done

Nearly all of my Christmas shopping is complete, save for a handful of small items that I shall be purchasing, as well as something extra for Mum. This year, I've had more Christmas shopping to do since I'm now in a relationship but that's okay: It's been good going out to purchase gifts for my girlfriend and her mother.

My girlfriend's birthday is next month and she prefers birthdays to Christmas. While I've bought her some nice items for the holiday season, I have something more special in mind to purchase for her in January.

End-of-term dinner 2017

My girlfriend, her mother and I attended an end-of-term meal yesterday, which was hosted by NTU's society for mature students (my girlfriend's mother is a student and the reason why my girlfriend and I met in the first place). The meetups usually take place at a pub near to the NTU city campus but this particular meet was held in one next to the city centre.

Besides us, there were some 11 other people, with most of them being the usual attendees of the mature student meetups. Not that that's a problem - they're a fun bunch to be around!

The BB-8s

Until a couple of weeks or so ago, the only Star Wars material I had in my room was a Darth Vader figurine. For my birthday, my girlfriend's mother me a BB-8 plush toy (at the request of my girlfriend) whereas my girlfriend herself bought me a BB-8 cushion.

I like both items, of course! BB-8 is cool and, as a droid who looks like a beach ball, he is regarded as one of the cutest characters in all of Star Wars. You can't go wrong with BB-8! As the plush toy is small, he is next to my Vader on a shelf whereas the cushion is on my bed.

Winter break 2017

As term 1 ended yesterday, students at NTU again have a month-long break, spanning exactly from the 8th of December until the 8th of January. Last winter break, I didn't have a lot to do; my assignments weren't terribly complicated and many of the plans I'd made that month were cancelled when people annoyingly backed out.

This year, it will be different. The biggest change is my girlfriend, as I will be spending quite a bit of it with her; both of us want to spend time with each other over the break. The other difference is that while my essays aren't much more complicated, they are larger, which will mean I will need to complete some of them during this break.

Another diet attempt

Over the course of this year I've made a few attempts at dieting. While I've lost a few pounds or halted weight gain throughout 2017, in the past two or three weeks I've regained some weight. My girlfriend and I have talked about this and I have more motivation than before to lose weight and slim down a little. Ideally, I'd like to return to the weight I was at during Pre-Access; I was much more comfortable at that weight.

I am no longer caring only for myself and need to consider that my girlfriend is part of my life; as such, losing weight is more important to me than ever.

Filming day December 2017

With advice and observations from my girlfriend, my video production group and I filmed most of the scenes we need for our Media creation. The only problem we encountered was that we thought we had permission to film at one of our locations but when I double checked, it turned out we did not and so I am now properly seeking that permission.

My girlfriend helped because she is a Media student herself - a year ahead of me and is working on her dissertation. Since one member of the group has had to temporarily return to her home country, my girlfriend offered to support me to help us get back on track.