Birthday Bash

Just returned from sis's B'day






















Happy B'day Gem!
not the best picture, sure she'll kill me.

And got to hang out with my parents
















Ah, what a lovely couple!

Well, better get on with the dredded coursework.

Vix

Sunshine

The house has worryingly become a picture of quiet domesticity. The kitchen and lounge were cleaned thoroughly yesterday and Mim is baking bread. With two members of the house away it seems unusually quiet and empty. Vix is away this evening as well so Mim and I will be the rejects left behind.

Since our beach trip on Wednesday (which I'll leave Mim to write about as she knows how to put pictures on this thing) nothing much has happened. Vix has been doing lots of work, she's at the library at the moment supposedly studying. The plethora of emails from her tell a slightly different story.

xx

Miracles

The Sun is shinning in Cardiff!
And
Franny is cleaning the kitchen!















What a day!

Vix.

Well its me again - i've been a bit obssessed with blogging this week!
I have returned again to the little Cafenescu which supplies lush coffees and friendly people (who don't laugh at me too much when i mistakedly asked for two journey's instead of two computers the other night - oops!) and internet!
It is early in the morning (well 11:30) Why am i not in the hospital with smelly Mr-Doctor man i hear you cry?? I've been banned for the rest of the week!!! Hehe!! Freedom!! I have a cold and temperature and sore throat and am coughing and spluttering and sniffiling and smelly doctor man has banished me. Unfortunately for zoezoe she doesn't have the described cold so has braved the world of the hospital on her lone-some!Meanwhile i am here, taking up residence in the internet cafe for the day!

Thankyou has to be said to the Fobbit who serenaded me beautifully the other night - was much appreciated. I was very sad when the phone cut me and vix off mid conversation..apparently when the phone card speaks to me and says i have 30 minutes credit left to use, this means you can only talk for 21.27mins and the first warning you get is when the phone goes dead - no warning beeps or anything. Nightmare!!


Last night zoezoe read to me from her story book in a north waleian (walian?Walesian?) accent! It was a beautiful moment! However her soothing story reading voice wasn't enough to get me to sleep...i heard her gentle sleep breathing sounds as i was tossing and turning....

....Why i couldn't sleep:

Cold making me alternate between boiling hot and freezing cold every 30secs

Mosquitos dive bombing me (they may have had their fun last night - i've got 4 new bites this morning - but i killed 2 of them with my bare hands! HAha!)

Cars zooming down the street ALL night (they actually never stop)

Fridge (BANG....clatter clatter clatter HHHHHHHHHHUUUUUUUUUMMMMMMMMMM....BANG...clatter clatter clatter...silence it goes ...then starts again....BANG)

Bladder did NOT appreciate the 2litres of water i drank (the cold made me do it!) just before bedtime! Nigntmare! (but i did encounter another cockroach and sprayed it to death HA!)

Anyway eventually sleep came and then so did morning...why is it on days when you can actually lie in you always wake up early?

Hannah

Heathfield girls to the rescue!

This evening we had an adventure truely worthy of a Famous Five story, except that it was more fabulous four. The night unfolded thus:

After a lovely evening spent enjoying gentil conversation and delicious food (cooked by Beth) in the house of Jonesy, Beth and Katie with Marjorie and Mueni we were wandering homewards.

As it is a mild night we were meandering down Whitchurch Road and minding our own business. Suddenly out of nowhere just as we were crossing a road a group of boys (reckless hooligans) crossed our path. They continued along the street perpendicular to us when they happened upon a blue van. One of them put his fist through the window and a loud "crash" of smashing glass was heard. The four (the second lot of 4 things in this story) then wandered down the road before turning down one of the alleys which Cardiff is riddled with.

We all looked at each other groggily having been awoken from our reveries and finally decided that the police should be called. Vix phoned 999 and informed the operator that it was not an emergency. This was very unusual for us, we never phone the emergency services even when we have emergencies.

Wikipedia defines an emergency as: a situation that poses an immediate threat to human life or serious damage to property. A false report of an emergency is usually a crime.

Anyway, after stating the non-emergency reason for the call she discoved that the police considered it urgent/ an emergency and she gave him some details. We were asked to hang around the street corner for a bit for the police. TWO police cars sped to our location ( two people in each so another 4 group) and got a brief description before deciding to play at driving fast in all of the aforementioned alleys.

While they were gone the owner of the van turned up. His own van had been stolen a few weeks before and the now-smashed van was a hire van. He was not particularly impressed.

The police returned empty handed and one of the girls took some details. For some reason everyone else looked at me when she asked who talked the best so I had to try and describe in detail all the boys. It's been a long time since I looked with any great interest at young teenage boys so the desciptions went along the line of erm well... one was probably my height with a black jumper and a cap, the others were shorter and wore teenage boy clothes, would I recognise them again, haha, no!

After a little while the police let us go and we continued on our way home, knowing that we had done our bit this evening to make Cardiff a safer place and a happier community.

Fran
xx

Disaster and Joy

DISASTER:
Well as already explained in comments - i thought i had lost yesterdays blog to wherever all the work goes that computers loose!
Last night on way home from Whitters house, random guy number 5 (men 1-4 were encountered up the mountain but their stories will never reach this blogspot - though random man number 4 did nearly catch zoezoe and me weeing behind a bush at the top of the mountain which was quite funny - especially considering he was the only person we saw on top of the mountain that day!!)
Man 5 was staring at us cos we were talking english i asked him (in Romanian) "what are you looking at?" He said "you are english girls?....(then after some thought, with a slightly distressing glint in his eye)...I like english girls" Zoezoe and i ran for the underground train(that was just approaching the station) fast so we got in a different carriage from him!!

I was happily reading my bible this morning, when suddenly there was a shout from zoezoe...half the crown of her front tooth had fallen out (the nice crusty bread was all too much for her poor little teeth this morning!) So we had slight panic this morning, checking to see whether dental treatment was covered by insurance (its not, unless you are in pain and the tooth is a "natural" tooth). Anyways we decided after much deliberation to go into the hospital and ask the smelly doctorman if he knew of any good dentists.
Doctor man was in a BAD mood this morning, quite stressy, but he phoned the dentist that works in the hospital for us (we were quite scared - dentist in local scabby Romanian hospital...hmm), she wasn't there but someone took a message and we were informed that she would "phone back" - possibility of another lengthy stay in the hospital brought fear to our hearts!

Refer to Joy section for the end of this story!

JOY (part 1)
On seeing yesterdays blog typing efforts there today disaster has be turned to joy !!
After we ran away from man5 on the metrou(i resisted temptation to wave at him through the window on our way past!), we arrived safely at our stop and got off the train, as we were ascending the escalator, man number 6 sat opposite the bottom of the escalator, he was a gypsy guy (probably a bit special) but he was eating a big hunk of bread and had what looked like several bags of food infront of him and he looked soooooo happy, he waved at zoezoe and i and we waved back and shouted "pofta buna!!" (equivelent of bon appetit) He smiled even more- it was soooo cool!)
Smelly doctor man does have three junior(ish) doctors who are lovely who look after us! They teach us relevant stuff that we can understand - and their english is not as good so it means i get to practice Romanian at last!! Hurrah!! (and beth's now no longer the only one chatting to fitties)
At 11am the dentist lady rung back and we got taken to see her. She was really really lovely and looked at zoezoe tooth and broken bit of crown and explained how she would fix it! (i'm sure vic and lou would have loved her little room, which looked more like a workshop than a dentist's room and it was covered from floor to ceiling in horrible tacky plastic toys! Comedy) Dentist lady kept saying things were sterile, and apologising for lack of equipment ( no little suction thing to suck saliva from poor zoezoe's throat, and no little assistent to make the cement-y paste thing to stick tooth back together again!) But despite this lack of certain items, zoezoe's tooth is now mended and looks good!! Yay!!
The even happier ending to this story is that we didn't have to pay her anything at all! We asked twice if she wanted anything and she was completly and sincerely like "no no, you are my collegues and i am doing you a favour" She is lovely lovely! God is good - He answered the prayers i was shooting up this morning!
And even better than not having to pay any money...it meant that we could run away from smelly doctor man for the rest of the day!! Hurrah!!
We have even managed to find the cases for our project this week!! WOW! Miracle!

Other News
i attacked our resident cockroach with the evil insect killer spray last night - i feel justified in this because it had left its agreed place of residence (under the washing machine - that sits taking up most of the floor space in the bathroom, which has absolutely no connection for water to get into the machine so is actually useless!!) and had entered the hallway...so i chased it spraying it quite abudantly until it disappeared into our shoe cupboard in the hall.
I found the cockroach this morning, lying flat on it back, legs twitching sporadically, under my sandal - i put it out of its misery and threw it in the plastic bag tied to the gas pipe that consitutes our bin in the kitchen.

JOY (part 2)
A wonderful man
There once was a wonderful man
Who knew how to cheer up Han,
He put in the post
the thing that pleased her most
A bar of chocolate made by the cadbury's man!!

To that man, who knows who he is...You are amazing! I love you! You brought me happiness and joy today! hehe!

A wonderful woman
there once was a wonderful woman
who decided to post a card to Han
upon the card was wrote
lots of splendiferous notes
from lots of people dear to Han!

To that woman, who knows who she is ( and the man who helped her in her task, who knows who he is, and to the people who wrote the little messages) Thankyou, you are amazing! I love you and miss you all! The card brought smiles to my little face today!!

Hope my "poetry" hasn't scared you all too much!

Here endeth the blog of today
xx

Tonsillitis update

Due to my timely use of antibiotics my tonsils this morning have begun to shrink back to their normal size. This is especially useful as the smell of Mim's cooking is pervading the whole house- she is baking cookies.

It is sunny again today, a very odd situation for Cardiff where a nice day is one where it hasn't rained for a few hours.

The dentists are currently out of the house as they are sitting their last written exam this morning. This should mean that the house returns to it's happy stress-free self and the neighbours are no longer disturbed by the odd noises that Lou has been making.

Mim and I have a seminar this afternoon on science fiction. I dislike science fiction, in fact I would rather stab myself in the eye with a fork than sit down to read or watch anything in the sci-fi genre (except Hitchhiker's Guide which is a parody) oh well, we'll see what happens this afternoon... maybe I'll just skive it.

I must go and get dressed.

Fran

House communication

We enjoyed house bond-age over your recent blog Hannah, thank you! And we love you!

We have together decided it is acceptable for Wittters to stay.

We have also probably/maybe found a new housemate. Not sure you're going to be included in the final decision! Her name is Sarah, hope this explains recent email-age.

Right well, back to the irrevision I say!

We love you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (Vixen, Louise-ige, Franny and stinker)

Here endeth house communication via blog

Smelliness

Well the joys of internet. I can't access my email account, therefore literally my only means of communication is this blog!! (genius idea)
Currently am at Whitney's house (american girl in Bucharest who i met on English camp last summer - who may be temporarily joining the heathfield house if anyone ever responds to the request and says ok!!)
We decided to give up on the hand-washing and have brought two rucksacks full of smelly clothes to Whitney's house to use her washing machine! This has the extra bonus of free dinner! Hurrah-yet another night i don't have to cook!
(Just to note that i logged on to blog just now to show zoezoe and whitney and the only two pictures that appeared were the two of me!! Bizarre!)

Zoezoe and I were most distressed this morning, we've moved wards this week (following our students "friends" on their rotation) and as we left with the students at 11am as per usual to our horror the doctor man said to zoezoe and i "come back in half an hour when i've had a chance to do some work" !!!!!!!!!!! Nightmare. Gone was our leisurely wander home and our meander round carrefour and any chance of afternoon nap-age! We didn't escape until 13h20!! And that was cos we ran away rather than because we were told to!!
Not sure what we'll do if this carries on! I'm a slacker I don't do placement!
The new doctor man stands way to close to us when he is talking...zoezoe and i were backing further and further away until we were trapped by the wall and the smelly doctor! Our brains were frazzled he spoke way to much about medicine type things!! Ugh!!

On a happier note i bought even more expensive new batteries and my camera appears to have come back to life!! Phew!!

We were also strong girls today and carried 20litres of water back from carrefour!!

OOOhhh and i had a letter today and zoezoe didn't!! Heeheee

Keep up the blogging you crazy chickens
Love you
Hannah
xx
(ps is it me or is the blog turning into the house msn/email/communication system? We could start blogging all house decisions and vote via the blog, our money and bills owed could be posted on here on a name and shame basis?? the possibilities are endless)

Sunday

Ah well, another Sunday nearly over. I sense in general the day has been fully appreciated by all in the Heathfeld house. The Lord understands our need for rest and relaxation!

imps

Impish activities seem to be occuring on this blog. Last night an important blog regarding the meadow was posted but today it is no where to be seen.

To keep everyone up to date:
The before shot of Vic and Lou playing in the grass








Stinker doing the hard work








The final result

Tonsillitis

Tonsillitis is defined in the Oxford concise medical dictionary as

"inflammation of the tonsils due to bacterial or viral infection, causing a sore throat, fever, and difficulty swallowing."

Yes, I have again aquired this wonderful illness. My tonsils are swollen and the crypts on them are full of pus, yum yum. Luckily I have a fairly substantial collection of prescription only meds squirrelled away including some erythromicin now being put to good use.

Since I went away on Friday the lawn has been cut and the garden looks remarkably different. Everyone appears to have survived the weekend, it was all quite calm when I returned this afternoon.

I would write something more interesting but I'm quite ill. I can't just lie in bed because it's too hot and I can't sleep, last night I think I was hallucinating most of the night due to the fever.

Fran

Dracula, Dorothea, Lunch and Thunderstorms

As this seems to be the new method of house communication i shall re-tell the story of our weekend adventures, though in a far less interesting manner than other posts (i will never be an english student, nor will i ever understand the words that frannie uses!) and also due to apparent death of my new camera (which even new batteries can't revive) there will be no photos (not that i'd be able to work out how to get photos on the page anyway!)

So Zoezoe and i went to Sighisoara - which is the birth place of Dracula (he lived there in a house for the first 3yrs of his life apparently) (if you type in sighisoara to google pictures you get some pretty pictures). On the train journey i was sat next to a Pastor guy from Sighisoara who knew some people who rented accomodation there - so that was our roof for the night sorted.
Pastor guy had his daughter with him. She told me a story:

"There was a man walking in the town and somebody stole his trousers. The man went to the policeman and the police man found the theif and got the trousers back. That was a story from the mind of Dorothea" Dorothea is six. We also made dog sounds and she ate my fingers (Romanian dogs go "ham ham")

Oooh we also had a cultured moment when we went to listen to an organ concert in the church!

OOOOOhhhhhhh very exciting we found a cafe in Sighisoara which served Tetley's tea!! (they still only had UHT milk so it wasn't quite perfect) Just for information's sake - we've already made our way through more than half out tea-bag supply! Tricky!

Saturday we went to Sibiu, which is cultural capital of Europe for 2007, but it currently resembles a building site! We spent a morning there which mostly involved eating chocolate pancakes and finding caffeine and jumping over builders!
On the train home the woman sat next to me informed me that she thought zoezoe and i looked like we were sixteen!!! I was grossly offended by this comment (we all know i aspire to be about 35!) Zoezoe however took this as a compliment!

One of the CU staff workers here (who i know from last years english camp) fed zoezoe and I lunch today! It was fully yummy, there was lots and lots of food (and meat - to further boost my iron levels - which i am now paranoid about following recent measures of certain housemates Haemoglobin levels!)

Currently we are on our third consecuitive day of thunderstorms, all exciting - i'm getting to wear jeans and jumpers for the first time in a while!!

More random facts from the world of vodaphone:
We spend 450days playing sport in our lives (this one i definitely will never surpass - nor do i have any desire to!)

Aiming to start our project this week! Hmm we'll see how that goes.

The Hannah Lady (who is missing the Heathfield girls lots)