Playing catch-up with the (cyber world) family

I apologise. It's been busy. You do stuff, and then suddenly there's too much to update on, so this is going to be a greatest hits type thing.

At Easter Raine and I went away, for one night to an amazing, otherworldly place: La Rosa (http://www.larosa.co.uk/). It's a campsite, filled with gypsy caravans and all things magical. Each van is themed. Ours was a wooden van, with a wood burning stove. A family of travellers live in there, before it came to La Rosa, and it was meant to reflect this - lots of books and little trinkets. A double bed was raised up, and hidden away at one end, at the other there was a kitchen. We had a meal provided by the owners, it was great - soup, cheese, bread, strawberries, heavenly fairy cakes. Unfortunately it rained quite a bit while we were there, so we didn't get to explore too much. We're going back in the summer, though.

Exciting news on the Uni front. My MA funding application got through the University (which is the most competitive part, I'm told). Still got to get through the Arts Council, but it's there. I finish my BA a week on Wednesday. Holding it together, had a blip midweek - really freaked out, but back together now.

Chris is gone:-D We had two parties to celebrate his leaving. He's been gone a month now, and the house is transformed (happy, clean, energy efficient). Loving living here and on our own - we never want to share again, we've had too many nightmares. We had a major shuffle round, we now have a study/double guest room on the middle floor. I managed to get a double futon/sofa bunk bed from Freecycle (a wonderful Yahoo family of groups - you sign up to your local one, and individuals send messages offering household items to a good home), which is perfect for the room.

We've started brewing our own beer. The plan is that it'll be ready in time for the Champion's League Final (Manchester United vs. Chelsea). Currently it's in the primary fermentation stage, and the whole house has a faint smell of beer, which is (perhaps worryingly) not entirely unpleasant.