DUDDON VALLEY

11.02.2005

Duddon Valley is located in the "Lake District"-which is on the WEST ( I apologize for my earlier mistake of calling it east) coast, north of Lancaster. Not only does it have a lot of lakes..it has A LOT of mountains! As we drove in the pitch black over the hills on the ever so narrow one way roads, I could just feel I was in for something fabulous! It took about 3 hrs. to get there b/c of the curvy roads, and when we finally arrived it reminded me of the SMCSU retreat again! We were in these 2 small cabin like houses, that looked like Little House on the Prairie. The ceilings were extremely low, that all the guys kept banging their heads on the beams..haha. One said that you need a helmet to cross the kitchen! (it had lots a cups hanging from it) Once the bags and boxes were put away everyone started drinking! And soon enough..duh duh duh, beam traversing! This is what it looks like:

It was REALLY HARD. You had to pull yourself up and around the beam. I got so many cuts on my arms, battle scars--as I like to call them! Only a few people could do it. Knowing NO ONE there, I spent most of the night trying to mingle and get to meet as many as I could. I couldn't exactly go to sleep b/c my mattress was the lucky one picked to lie underneath the beam traverse. I eventually moved my stuff to the quiet house. The outhouses were another thing. SCARY! Emma, the girl I spoke to the whole bus ride, and I went looking for it. It was around back and basically a square bucket w/ a lid. Thankfully, there was one closer to my house but it still creeped me out to find in the dark!

I woke up to the wind HOWLING! I thought it was thunder it was so loud! 7am. we were woken up to get a move on. Remarkably even the drunk ones from the previous night managed to get up and even hike up massive mountains! And I did NOT expect a mountain. Cathryn, Harriet, Mark and me conquered the "old man Coniston" on the first day. I broke into such a sweat, heart pounding and loss of breath and lost the will to live 1/4 of the way up! OH MY! The fog rolled in and you could no longer see 15 ft. in front of you! My group was very nice and stopped everytime I needed to catch my breath! Of course at the top, you would want to be rewarded with a magnificent view, but alas, FOG AND WIND.

even sheep can cross a bridge with grace! HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!
Cathryn on the top of 'Old Man Coniston'
"the never-ending mountain of doom!"-me

After 6 hours of non stop hiking we planted our butts in a pub in the town of Coniston. RELIEF! I could not feel my toes b/c they were numb with pain by climbing down the steep mountain side (and my feet would slide forward in my boot). NO blisters though :) That night we played the most RANDOM, yet funny games!!! The can game..I don't know what it's called. YOu basically have to mount a person doing a push up, shimmy out using only one hand and place a can as far a possible. THen you have to shimmy back and pull your partner back behind the line (w/o falling!) OH MY! I did not even attempt this. It got really interesting and further than I thought possible!:

And then there was table traversing.....OWWWWWWWWW
Mark table traversing.
My sad attempt. I have the WORST bruises ever now on my forearms and thighs! Holy crap! They keep getting worse too!
And then, sock wrestling. Two people were harnessed form the ceiling beam and had a go at each others feet and try and get the other's sock off. Sooooo funny. Oz's frog socks made it more amusing to watch! But it's hard work, don't be deceived! Marina, the girl I went against, was absolutely vicious and kept kicking my head. I did not stoop to her level... so lost.

DUDDON VALLEY DAY 2

Me on my second day hike. This was much easier and more at my pace. Ossian, Ed, Matt, Bjorn, and Rich were in my group. They were all quite amusing! It's like I've known them for awhile. WE all looked so hardcore once the rain came with our waterproof gear and poles, and helmets! I felt like a real hiker!

this is called scrambling--more like rock climbing w/o the steepness and ropes/harnesses. It's intense, but sooooo much fun! Eric would LOVE this! I led some of the way up and every like 20 min. I would turn to Ossian (Oz) and ask if we really had to climb that. He nodded of course and I somehow managed to get up some big steep rocks w/o falling! YEAHHHH!
Bjorn scrambling. I can't put my finger on who he reminds me of, but I kept laughing at things he did, hopefully he wasn't offended. So this is basically what we climbed for 2 hrs. By the end our boots were filled with water b/c it was raining so hard I trudged right through the puddles. I also managed to fall quite a bit and one time fell right in a large puddle! Ed said he was pissing himself laughing when I fell...good thing I didn't notice at the time b/c 'd have pulled him in w/ me! My waterproof pants had open pockets that did not zip up, so my thermal underwear got soaked. Not a comfortable feeling!
The wind got tooooooooo strong and so we headed up over a hill and walk down what we had just walked up. VERY STEEP AND SLIPPERY. People were falling in front of me and I couldn't help but laugh! Rich managed to do a nice face plant. You really have to watch your hands though, b/c there's sheep poo EVERYWHERE and you will fall in some. It still ceases to amaze me how sheep crap is like every square metre in the most random and steepest places!! It looks like chocolate covered raisins...so you can imagine why I did not end up finishing the ones I had by the end of the weekend :)

Our cute hut(s): The white one is where we slept and had a drying room, and the one on the left where we ate and congregated.
What I first looked out to on the first morning.--spectacular! I was pinching myself again that I'm really in this remote place, because it's exactly how I wanted to see the countryside. I really couldn't ask for a better weekend. The people were great! Friendly, adventurous, really homey and comfortable and fun!!! I can't wait to see everyone again!

1 Comment

Jenna Rocca said...

I don't know if you'll get this blog but its here anyway. Let me just say I am severely jealous of you for being in a fabulous land. And let me just say that I didn't realize who the hell you were talking about when you say "Phil" until I saw a picture today.

HALLOWEEN!!!

11.03.2005

Faye working hard carving our super cool pumpkin!

Me, Eugene, and the finished result.
Don't ask me what I'm doing...I don't know

Some of my housemates: Eugene, Aleks, Matt, Tom and me behind.

Most nights are halloween here to say the least. People dress up silly and get really drunk on Otley runs..it's the name of the main street where people basically bar hop. You never know what weird costumes you'll see! Although, here, they call is "fancy dress" and it always throws me off b/c I think they are talking about tuxedos/formal attire. Needless to say, it's not the popular here and when Faye and I carved out pumpkin for the "bop" at Tetley, she admitted she'd never carved a pumpkin before! Ohhh what a sad childhood! haha. I had to sit at the head table on stage with other Execs from my council. We sat with the wardens, and manager, and sub-wardens...but the plus was that we got more wine up there! People started leaving after the games b/c the DJ had not shown up yet!! The council and I were running around looking for him, and trying to tell others to come back! The downstairs eventually started to fill, but I think it could've been much better executed on the whole. Oh well, it was lots of fun :) I'm pretty proud of my costume that I pulled together in like one hour. I even managed to spray paint cardboard gold for my "necklace". The only down fall is that now I have a big scrap on my neck. More battle scars :)

socials, fireworks, and cheesy music!

It was awesome to see everyone at the hiking social and reminisce over the weekend. After being kicked out of the pub (i know! crazy!) at 11:30 because it was closing we headed to this sketchy "Fab Cafe" which seemed a bit on the gothic side. It played loud music you couldn't dance to, so no one did. The night ended in a long walk home--I can't believe I walked from the city centre to Tetley!! especialy in my boots! And of course it had to start raining. I really should remember to bring my umbrella, which happens to be bent b/c someone stepped on it! :(

Friday night was the annual bonfire and fireworks!! It really should have been on Saturday, Guy Fawkes night. Guy Fawkes tried to blow up Britain's parliament in 1605. Fortunately, he was caught before doing so, and so on the 5th. of Novebember for the past 400yrs. people celebrate by blowing off their own fireworks! LOVELY! lol. I'd been hearing small fireworks going off from my room for about a month now! Though, I predict they'll still be going off and annoying me for another month! Laura, Anna, Faye and I headed down to Hyde Park to the most massive bonfire I have ever seen! The fireworks went on for a good 15-20 min and were quite nice!! Really funny sounds they made, and a bunch of ones I'd never seen before.

After the fireworks we went to the Student Union, where unbeknownst to me it had a gigantic club--actually it was like 3 b/c there were 3 different dance rooms! OMG, and the music they played was absolute cheese! I love it!! For instance, they had a compilation of ABBA songs put together!!! The song from Dirty Dancing "I've had the time of my life" MC Hammer! "Saturday Night"-from Dance mix '95, lots of "oldies" music and of course, my favourite that so far embodies my experience in the UK, "Don't Stop me Now" by Queen! THAT SONG IS ABSOLUTELY HUGE HERE! i love it! It's like a big sing along!

Saturday night Chris's sister from Southampton came up and I went on my first Otley run!! It's a long pub crawl down the main road (Otley). We started in the city centre as to work our way back toward Headingley. I must have been buying watered down drinks or something, because Faye and I really didn't feel anything! The guys on the otherhand were absolutely pissed. It was good fun! It's a good way to get a feel of all the pubs, the ones you like, and which are cheapest! lol,,,that's if you can remember them all! As we were walking past a large park/valley I just had to stop and look at the sky. In the near distance all you saw were fireworks going off from people's home. It was beautiful, truly memorable!

the bonfire
me and Will, with Tom behind Will's glass! hahahaha!
Will, Faye, Laura, and Chris at the New Inn (the pub a stone's throw away from Tetley...the end of the run)
Mr. Muscles and Mrs. Bulge. haha. I call Faye Mrs. B because she always has her mobile in her pocket and it creates this massive bulge.
Seeing as I am in Fine Art here, I thought it was a fitting picture!
My girls!!!! :D I think there were 6 people in my room that night..what a record!

ROBIN HOOD'S BAY -- Nov.6th

This Sunday hike was not as popular as the last...possibly because of the crap weather. We were booted off the bus in the middle of nowhere and expected to walk to the coastal area of Robin Hood's Bay. I didn't know my walk would start before the others so I didn't even have time to put my contacts on. We got off the bus in the most howling winds and rain. It actually felt like 1'000 ice pellets hitting your face because we were walking into the wind which just slapped the rain at you. It was brutal. I was so upset I didn't get to go to Whitby and see the Abbey there, a ruined cathedral type structure. Those hikes filled up first and being at the back of the bus, I got last choice. THe skies eventually cleared up, after we were soaking wet! It was a pretty flat and straight forward walk..no hills! WE frolicked in fields of heather and pretended to mud wrestle. When we got to Robin Hood's Bay, the tide was out and we walked on the "beach." In the pub, it got dark real fast and next thing you knew the water was pounding against side of the pub down below. It was nice to get back and have a nice HOT shower!

The cabbage patch kids!
My hiking group! Standing on the "standing stones"--which was really just 3 large rocks.
Louise and me mud wrestling! I totally won! haha. She started kicking mud. not cool.
Pretty flat landscape with random lonely trees. It reminded me of Africa.
Aleks the tantalizing tiger! hahaha.


Me and Ralph (German exchange student who lives across from me)

3-legged OTLEY RUN!

11.12.2005

This past Wednesday, Nov.9th, the hiking society put on a 3 legged Otley Run! You must tie your leg to another person's legs for the night! We all met north of Headingley at the famous start of the Otley Run in a pub called Woodies. Ossian and I were paired together. He was smart enough to bring a tie, because the rope other people were using looked like it would cut into the ankle. We eventually got the rhythm of it and got quite competitive to pass other pairs along the way. I couldn't stop giggling and he couldn't stop stepping on my baby toe. It was probably my fault b/c I think I was pulling my leg toward me when we walked. It was soooo funny to see some of the guys paired together trying to walk. We managed to hit up 10 pubs that night! It was such a good time!

Go to: www.leedshike.co.uk

There are some good pictures of the night if you click on the right hand side. There's also a lot of others hikes I've been on and posted more pictures there. Oh and click on Cairngorns and Fort Williams! These are the hikes in Scotland I REALLY want to do in Jan/Feb. They require a better quality boot so that crampons (devices with spikes you attach to your boot to help you stick in the snow) won't fall off. Pretty exciting stuff!

nice tappered pants! Just how I love it! hahaha NOT! Ozz's lovely socks again.

Dave came as a banana... and Martin was hungry. lol.
Bob, Cathryn, Francois (Belgium), and Dave
mmmmmmmmm, boooots! Me and Ozz.
Dom's talent!

a ceilidh, chocolate cake, and shisha

I know, random outing for a Friday night in Leeds, but it was done!!! The ceilidh (pronounced kaley), an Irish dance/music extravaganza one could say, was good fun! There was a lively band, an older man singing songs as well as teaching dances, and of course food and drinks--that's where the chocolate cake comes in. It looks at bit like a very peppy line dance, where there was a lot of swinging of the partners and holding hands while jumping around. Good idea for a first date! ;) Except that weird girl that didn't speak to her date at the last ceilidh I went to!! hahaha, Chloe knows what I"m talking about if you're reading this! You really work up a sweat, and you also can't help but laugh b/c you look quite ridiculous bobbing around making so many mistakes! The Catholic society put it on, and the perfect amount of people showed up for the size of the "dance floor."

After the ceilidh we went to a shisha cafe called L'oragnise. It felt like I was onthe Aladin film set--exotic fabrics and pillows, lamps, candles, Middle Eastern artwork etc. Shisha is flavoured tobacco you smoke (but not inhale....kind of like a cigar) through a tube connected to this tall lamp type thing. Sorry no pics. It really did taste like apple! And after a long, invigorating walk home I slept like a baby to end my fabulous night! :D

What do vintage clothes and lip enhancement have in common?

11.15.2005

The answer is my Sunday afternoon in the city centre. First, I'd just like to mention that my house had a bonding moment on Saturday. After much kerfuffle about smelly lettuce in the fridge, we all helped clean the fridge (ok, me and Anna) but the others were encouraging us! lol. We found this really smelly chicken so we chucked it without asking whose it was b/c we were saving their health. Other than that disgusting factor, people were in the kitchen cleaning and chatting and cooking. I love dinner time on the weekends when we have to fend for ourselves, it's like a little family! Sunday we were lazy and bought a family meal from KFC. I mentioned that Colonel Saunders lived across the street from me (well before I was born) and they seemed amused for a few seconds! hahaa. I don't think they understood he started the KFC chain in America..and eventually bought a house in the suburbs in Canada (or at least I've been told that!)

Right, on to Sunday! I went with Anna to a vintage fashion fair at this swanky hotel downtown. You had to pay to get in! eghhhh! But I did b/c it looked really cute. Little did I know it was practically all dresses from like the 1920s onwards. Old, stuffy, heavy, tackey, crazy, yet some very stylish dresses. Needless to say, I didn't buy anything. My allergies were soooo bad at the end, I couldn't wait to get out of there! Stuffiness and me don't get along very well.

Anna and I headed over to do some "normal" shopping at H&M. Can I just say I love that store!! It's so eclectic, as in carries so much different, neat things! I only managed to buy some pants (what they call underwear here in England) for like 1 pound! woooo hoooo!

Bringing me to my final point, lip enhancement. Anna and I put on this lip enhancement cream at the body shop. It was funny b/c every 5min. we kept joking to each other, commenting on our voluptuous lips and how they were growing! hahaha. Supposedly it brings the water to the surface of your lips and that is what gives you the "enhanced" look. We even took a picture! lol. See the difference?
(btw, I was trying soooo hard not to laugh in this picture! I'm a horrible actress. :(

That night (Sunday Nov.13th) Tetley Hall had an open mic night! It reminded me of Kelly's Korner!! It was reallly cute! lights, and hot chocolate, and muffins, and good music!! It was fabulous! What a weekend! :D

1 Comment
Anonymous said...
na I can get the same effect by eating peppered steak. My lips swell up and I have swollen lips that don't look very sexy . Martha

THE HYPNOTIST

My week was pretty straight forward...I'm not a big drinker/clubber as it is, so my few going out stories aren't that important or worth mentioning b/c it's not like I can re-itterate my conversations on my blog...I don't have that great of a memory! I know Joy always tells me my memory is horrible! Anywayyyy, the hypnotist on Wednesday (16th) wE had at Tetley was awesome! I was very skeptical, thinking people would laugh and not go under...but it did happen! I couldn't believe it!! At first, it looked really weird and a few girls woke up and went back to their seats, but those that stayed went to "sleep" and actually woke up and pretended to drive a car the next minute! It was kind of scary, but I've never laughed soooo hard in my life! One guy kept laughing and doing the actions before everyone else, we called him "the faker" But when the hypnotist said that someone stole his 'knob' let us say, he was so believable and didn't even crack a smile. He was like "please sir, may I have my knob back? I'll be really cross if you don't give me my knob back" hahaha. oh my. The guys also pretended to give birth! One guy's face went sooo red, that the veins were popping out of his head and neck! He also started pouring sweat! omg, and then he gave birth to 7 puppies and looked absolutely JOYFUL! it was unbelievable. A lot of crude and sex related skits were done, but I won't get into that, funny as hell nonetheless. It was so funny when one guy couldn't go to "sleep" when the hypnotist said so, and so he raised his hand like "umm, I'm not asleep" hahaha, that happened a lot, and then the hypnotist would come over and put his hand on the student's head and say sleep---and he did!! :O I forget a bunch of what was done, but it's really not as funny unless you see it in person, so I'll stop there.

Thursday night Chris, Will, Anna and Faye attempted the centurian--where you drink 100 shots of beer a minute for 100 mins. Faye stopped after like 7 min, hehe, Will after 60 b/c he had class the next morning at 9am, Anna was doing really well until she couldn't hold it all down..enough said. Chris being the TANK of a drinker finished the 100! I would've have partaken, but I also had class at 9am. Not cool. I spoke to my mom that night, I hadn't in ages! Her email mentioned something like "I'll try to see if you're online tonight, so I can get to hear your voice" I thought that was the sweetest thing ever, I alsmot cried. hehe, I'm such a sap!

I've been a good girl this week and buckled down and was in the library all afternoon tues-thurs. I was absolutely exhausted at night!! my goodness, how reading sucks the life out of me!! GAHHH. my brain was dead by the end, I don't know if I can even remember what I read! NOT COOL.

SNOWDONIA, WALES -- SATURDAY NOV.19

11.22.2005

After over a week of anticipation, Friday FINALLY came! My class finished at 11am, so no worries, I had lots of time to get ready...WRONG! I managed to waste my day once again and rush to get my stuff together around 3:30 in order to leave just after 4 to be at the Union by 5pm departure. It was quite anti-climatic the first night. I recognized most of the people, but they were busy loading the buses and such, that I just stood around with the newbies that didn't know what to do but continue to stand. What I was told would take 5 hrs. only to 3hrs., so I was pleasantly surprised to arrive there just before 9pm. It gets dark by 4:30pm now, so we arrived in darkness in this parking lots next to a nice looking cabin. Only, little did I know that our lodging was at the top of the hill and not nearly as nice looking.

After a trek up the steep hill, making sure I didn't step in a pothole, we all had to wait in the cold b/c the person with the key was still at the bottom of the hill! It was a rectangular brick building and looked to me like an army barracks or something. There was a long line of connected bunk beds on the bottom floor, connected beds on the top, and a small kitchen. Not nearly as cozy and welcoming as Duddon. But that didn't matter because once the food was brought up, we all went to the pub which was a 5 min. walk down the road. I talked to the new girls--OHHHH, one of whom was on my "Meet and Greet" service shuttle bus to the Uni when I first arrived in Leeds with my dad!! Her name is Lauren and she's also from Toronto! She even remembered I was from Mississauga! Then there was Willa, a very peppy, giggly (very similar to me) American, another from Alaska named Alison, Marina (also very giggly) from Brazil--I knew her from Duddon, and a postgrad from the UK named Elaine. We walked together on the Saturday and it was soooo much fun! There were 9 of us girls.

I can't pronounce, rather remember the name of the mountain we climbed, but the day was absolutely PERFECT and clear, and no wind and good company! I think this time around climbing a 3000ft. my mind was more prepared and I wasn't so tired by the end. We had great fun playing around on all the rocks at the top of the mountain. It was also really cold up there, because once you stop walking, you really start to feel the cold. We were teasing the boys later saying we were strip hiking--which we kind of were, because every 10 min. you would get so hot you had to peel off another layer. We were in t-shirts and shorts by the top..and then you'd have to hurry to put your layers back on before you froze to death.

Marina itching her butt. haha, well it looks like it!!
Although it's called Snowdonia there was no snow--thank goodness! They was a bit of ice that crystallized and looked like snow.
a reflection..sigh.
Cathryn and her crazy rock climbing skills! yikes!
ommmmm (that's me)
Marina and me. Marina has this great picture of us where I'm taking one of the both of us, only it was set as "movie ", so we have 10 sec. of us smiling cheesely for the camera wondering why the picture wasn't being taken! It's realllly funny!

That night we all went to the pub again. It was a lot of fun because we played BALDERDASH!!! First it was 4 of us girls, and then it was like 15 people playing! Willa and I gave ourselves a pat on the back for starting a trend! haha. It was so funny, some of the answers were so random. Willa's always had something to do with royalty or far away lands, that I couldn't help but laugh when reading hers out. I never seen so many board games in a pub, but it was good fun! 3 guys who were dropped of the night before to hike 3 massive 1000m/3000ft. peaks in 20 hrs. (over night and w/o sleep!) finally returned and joined us at the pub. I don't know how they were still standing and awake, but that's the thing about beer and pubs in England, you can never be too tired to go! I, on the other hand, was exhausted and couldn't keep my eyes open so left with a group fairly early. The first night I didn't sleep more than 2 hrs. and to much of people's gossip, it was because I was cold and don't sleep well in new places! So you can imagine I was very happy to sleep and wake up to the alarm in the morning, knowing I got a full night's sleep.

SNOWDONIA -- SUNDAY NOV. 20

Sunday was the most amazing day! I know I say that a lot, but then you're climbing on your hands and knees up a steep and exposed mountain side, with nothing but a helmet and your grip of the rocks, it's pretty thrilling. Also nerve-racking, terrifying, and heart-wrenching at points--but still an unbelievable feeling! My group was 8 different people, me being the 9th, and they were sooo funny! I don't remember anything of what was said, but I remember laughing so hard at the random jokes and comments. Mark kept standing on these sticking out rocks like in the Lion King and posing. I said he was like Leoglas and laughed my head off at my own joke, which in turn made Sam think I'm crazy!! But he had a holey ass so it's ok. hahaha. I was walking behind him most of the time so I have a lot of pictures of his butt! I was trying to get a feel for the angle we were climbing, but the pictures just don't capture it and how terrifying it was to look down.

The guys kept saying lines from movies, as all guys have a gift for memorizing lines from movies. But I'd have to say half the conversation of the day was taking the piss out of me, my accent, my North American culture, and my loud giggling. So many questions! geeesh! I felt like I was being grilled from everyone about how things differ in Canada and how we say certain words. To me, it's not that interesting in Toronto--b/c it's just a big metropolitan city. I hate when people say "oh, you're from Canada, you should be used to the cold"!!! I HATE THAT! I DO NOT live in an igloo, I DO NOT go for long walks in -20 weather, nor does it get THAT cold all the time. I also had to tell them that there's really not a lot of mountains in Canada, except for the West coast, And seeing as I don't even live close to there, I'm still a novice when it comes to climbing mountains.

Someone kept passing horrible stenches, and I always seemed to be downwind of them. yuck! Mickey, our leader, was like a speeding bullet! On the way down I tried to keep up with him, but he was too fast, and it's not fun walking by yourself. After having an emotional goodbye to the Cantelever (hehe, not really, but I did really think it was fabulous) we ended up climbing the same mountain as the day before, just a steeper--scramble--way up. That means I climbed 2 mountains peaks of 3000ft. each in 1 day!! WOO HOOOO!

Tryfan -- I climbed that!!

A closer-up -STEEPER- view of Tryfan.
Taking a much needed break...


Mark jumping across "Adam and Eve" --two large boulders on the top of Tryffen.

Sadly this is not me, but I took it! This is Rachel and I absolutely LOVE this picture! I'm telling you, it was serious scrambling in some parts!
Sam's holey ass! I kept saying the hole in his trousers kept getting bigger!
Another break...haha.


Sam, steepness, and Dave at the bottom.
Herdie (that's his nickname--it's came from a type of sheep) on the Cantelever. I love this picture! That rock held all 9 of us! It was like magic! hehe.
living on the edge :)

For some reason the part I keep laughing about is on the drive home when Andy, who was sitting beside me eating pizza, all of a sudden dropped his head and his pizza fell out of his hand. I turned to look and asked if he just fell asleep eating pizza?? HAHAHHA. He denied it, but it sure looked like it! lol. And of course you can't have a proper drive back without Ozz's cheesey upbeat music and someone dying to use the toilet. Dave P ran so fast out of the car we just all sat and laughed at him running before getting out ourselves. Someone said "I think he doesn't need a nickname anymore, Dave P is just fine" HAHAHAHA. GOOD TIMES, GOOD TIMES! :D