What an Epic Year.

It has been a good one eh?.. For me anyway…soz if you’ve had a shitter.

New Years Eve has arrived and I’m excited to see in 2012. But first, let’s rewind to way before today, Christmas or even before I headed north for the break… Let’s go back to Tuesday 20^th December. 7pm. The O2 arena. And the awesomeness that was Rihanna.

This last minute trip to the O2 all came about thanks to Rosie (THANKS LOVE!) who sent me the tickets a few days before. But…I missed the post man and had to find my nearest sorting office. That, in itself was a mission and when they told me three times that they had no record of receiving anything for me I thought it was game over and I’d not get to see Rihanna after all… And then, just two hours before the doors opened I made one last ditch attempt to get the tickets and the FANTASTIC and lovely Royal Mail staff told me they had got the letter and I could collect it immediately. And that’s what I did. I jumped off the tube I was on, sprinted to the other platform (actually quite a distance, up and down several flights) just before the doors closed – result! I got the tickets, found out they were STANDING and that Calvin Harris was supporting – amazeballs. Becca met me at the front doors, we grabbed some beers and danced our way towards the front. WHAT A SHOW. I’ve put some photos at the bottom of this post but, to summarise, the whole night  was great and I’d definitely recommend that if anyone gets the chance to go see her, do!

And so onto Christmas.

Christmas Snooze

Dad. And cats.

You know when you go to see stand up comedy?... and you come out wanting to tell all the jokes and realise you can’t because they weren’t really jokes, the person was just…funny. Well that’s what’s happened. I wanted to tell you about a typical Brennan family Christmas, but I can’t because there isn’t anything I can tell you about. It’s a ‘you’d have to have been there’ sort of situation. There are obviously story type topics…burnt food, board game rules debates, spilt booze, waltzing around the kitchen, cross-world Skyping, screaming at EastEnders, and I could go on. But I won’t. To summarise, Christmas was well great – the best in ages. And I loved being home for a whole week. I got to see family and friends and have a proper giggle with the sisters and mum and dad.

And so onto today and the past couple of days.

DINNER

I’ve been in Manchester for a while and had the best night out and worst hangover already. We’ve decided that our 20’s should be sponsored by Carlsberg and Dominoes/Pizza Hut (I still can’t decide). What an ace crowd of mates – simple fabulous. Tonight brings the now traditional House Party of The Year courtesy of JenLa and other hosts and  homies.

Strawpedoooooo!

This year has been crazy. I’ve finished uni, moved to the Big Smoke and started my proper-adult-grown-up job, said farewell (for now) to lots of friends and made new ones. I definitely get the feeling that 2012 will be totally brilliant; my trip to New Zealand/Australia in April (Which I have now booked flights for!!), the Olympics in my back garden (pretty much), my New Years resolution, and generally having a great time.

In a few short (hungover) days I’ll be back down south ready to start my second placement, in a new office, with a new team. And now I’ve had a while at home I feel totally recharged and ready to get going.

Christmas Skype from Chile!

Lots of thank yous to all the people who have made 2011 the brilliant year it has been…so many I couldn’t list you all individually but know that I’m so grateful to have a great group of friends, mates, pals, family peeps, people I don’t see nearly enough, pets cats, etc etc… Thank you all.

Have a great night everyone, wishing you all the very best start to the new year and look forward to seeing you all soon.

Until then,

Bren x

PS,

SONG(S) OF THE YEAR: Pitbull, Give Me Everything // Lady Gaga, Edge of Glory

EVENT OF THE YEAR: Graduation (and the days and days of subsequent partying)

WEIRDEST MOMENT OF THE YEAR: I moved to London………….weeeeird.

PHOTO OF THE YEAR: Pet Cemetery, Anglesey.

PPS, More from Rihanna..

Merry Actual Christmas

SANTA'S BEEN!

Finally, the day is here!... Racing downstairs at the crack of dawn, tearing open the presents, scoffing our faces and playing in all the snow.

Or, in reality…

Being roughly awoken by sister number 2 (who is 21 years old) at 10.30am as she impatiently waits (or not!) for everyone to get their acts together and get downstairs. Oh, and it’s pissing it down, not a snowflake in sight.  But no matter! We pop on a Christmas DVD (The Inbetweeners Movie – don’t ever watch this with parents. Or children.), crack out the booze and play the Aladdin (ITV 1pm) drinking game (OK, that was just me), sort out Christmas brunch (we’ve done the same breakfast every year for as long as I can remember) and by 2pm we’re ready for present opening. Lovely.

And I got some cracking presents!...

A kindle(!), the Rough Guide book ‘Make the Most of Your Time on Earth’, a book about how cool maths is (not even kidding), a tent (I *heart* camping), and lots and lots of smellies!


Cheers, Santa lad!

Beautifully Decorated.

This is just a quick Christmas day blog, to say hello and

Merry Christmas

and I hope that everyone is suitably tipsy, had a bloody good dinner and is about to enjoy the traditional Christmas nap.
We're about to eat; I can smell the roasties and pigs in blankets and mum has had to banish us all from the kitchen...

I’ll be doing the normal weekly blog in a few days with loads to tell you about! My last minute dash to see Rhianna in concert, strange Brennan household Christmas traditions and the results of Boxing Day Board Game Bedlam…

Until then,

Bren x

PS, The BEST moment of Christmas day so far has been dad, laughing himself to tears, whilst reading my *Web Page of the Week*...College Humour Facebook's History of the World. Enjoy!

I Want Snow…But Not ‘til Friday.

Where the flippin’ ‘ek has 2011 gone?!...
One week until Christmas and another until the New Year! It has certainly been a busy one. Lots of changes and I’m still getting used to all this new-ness…but luckily I’ve got a couple of weeks off work and back up north to get back to what I know best: family, friends and too much food and booze. Which is why, when I heard the reports of all the snow this week I was:

A) totally confused because we approximately 0mm of snow in East London and

B) slightly panicked because I know how the UK can grind to a halt when we ‘unexpectedly’ have 3cm of snow…the trains go crazy and if I can’t get home on Thursday evening I’ll be ringing dad and getting him to jump in the car and collect me!

To say I’m excited to get home is a massive understatement. I love a good Snow Day, but not before Friday!!

Note to self: Really Rachel, it’s high time you learnt to drive, BOTH of your little sisters can and it’s getting a tad embarrassing.

This week I’ve had an exam, been on a boat, fallen over…twice and braved the biggest shopping centre in Europe.

Mr Brook

Let’s start with this exam. I’ve mentioned it a couple of times before; it’s the APM IC exam. 1 hour, 60 multiple choice questions… Sounds easy right? Wrong! Well, it probably could have been easier but I was a bit underprepared but I did my best and I’ll have to wait for the results to come through in the post in a few weeks. Fingers crossed folks!

Messes

I felt really unwell during the early part of this week, but I perked up enough to attend the event of the year!...well maybe not but it was a bloody good knees up: The TfL Grads Christmas Party 2011! Mr Brook very kindly travelled the length(ish) of the country and back to accompany me upon the Golden Flame for a night of boozing and dancing down the Thames and back. It was a great night but after finding myself face down on the floor of Walkabout for the second time, I thought it was about time to call it a night and James and I headed for the night bus…and from there my memory is pretty hazy.

The Golden Flame (not my picture)

After saying goodbye to James (not that I remember that very clearly) early on Saturday morning I did absolutely nothing. All day. In fact the only times I spoke were to say thanks to the Pizza Hut delivery man and a muttered ‘afternoon’ to one of the housemates (have no idea which one, I barely had my eyes open). No, after a night on the cheap white wine, shots of SoCo and Captain Morgans (because ‘it’s Christmas so we might as well’) all I could manage was a solid 24hrs in bed. And I’m OK with that.

Today I was fully prepared to do the same but that really would have left me with very little to write about (and I’m pushing it as it is..). So, reluctantly, I headed to Stratford Westfield to get the Christmas shopping out of the way. And it was quite possibly the most successful shopping trip ever. Armed with my list and a pen I headed from shop to shop like a professional. I would love to name one of the shops for being particularly helpful but I’m afraid that’d give the game away so maybe I’ll publically thank them after Christmas, but realistically probably not. Really great customer service, especially once I made it clear that I had no idea what I was buying…

 

All in all a very successful week! Now, just four short days in work and then, home. Before then.......wrapping!

Until next time,

Bren x

PS, I’m not proud of this but feel the need to get it off my chest. First, mum…I can only apologise. I’ve never done this before but I got a craving and just couldn’t stop myself:

I ate all the chocolates in my advent calendar :’( SORRY!

PPS, Not sure I’ll blog over Christmas. I’ll have nothing to say because all I do at Christmas is sit on the couch eating too many chocolates and far too many roasties. But we’ll see. - Oh I just remembered, I will blog...because I need to tell you about my trip to see Rihanna!!!

PPPS, Some other pictures from the boat party:

County Hall..?

Cruising on the Thames

Illuminating!

Christmas Came Early

Not my photo..

Hello to you, and welcome to the pub quiz I went to at the Simon The Tanner pub, last Tuesday…

Question 1: What poison was the Greek philosopher Socrates forced to drink when he was sentenced to death in 399 BC?

No I hadn’t a clue either. Turns out its hemlock. No, I had never heard of it either. And as several similar questions were asked I began to wonder if I’d come to a pub quiz that was a bit out of my league. Things took a turn for the better (mainly due to the picture round) and the team came 4^th out of 7 (I’m happy with that) and won the £10 bonus question (I'm hugely happy about that) which I answered correctly:

Bonus Question: In which year did the footballing term ‘Linesman’ officially become ‘Lines Person’?

It was 1996.

We spent our winnings on shots of whiskey which we sipped (no, really!) triumphantly.

On Thursday and Friday I wasn’t in the office. Instead, I was at the West Kensington building for a Presentation Skills course which, on the whole, was excellent. Except for one thing… ‘breathing exercises’. I breath just fine, thanks and I certainly don’t need to be stood in a circle with strangers, eyes closed, swaying forwards and backwards to do it. Apparently it was supposed to make us feel ‘relaxed and comfortable’. Well, I for one felt neither, in fact I felt the exact opposite and my 8 year old self took over and I giggled myself all the way through the exercise.

Unexpected Friday Outing

Around lunchtime of day 2 I was rather willing the weekend to hurry up but I made it to the end of the day (even if my colleagues did keep asking unnecessary question meaning we finished at 5pm!) and headed straight for Euston.

'They play a lot of Elvis
in here don't they...'

Yes, it was another Manchester weekend (sorry dad). This weekend had been planned for ages. Friday night involved an unexpected night out (who am I kidding?) where I met up with friends and bumped into others. Feeling a tad delicate, I had to drag myself through Saturday, but couldn’t so dragged Naomi round to cook for me instead. After a lunch of cheesy Super Noodles (she’s no Nigella…) I did manage to pull myself together and head out for a trip to the Manchester Christmas Markets for a Bratwurst with the actual oldest of old school girls followed by a night out on the town (including an accidental encounter with an Elvis Night), a Popolino’s and a bus journey home that I can’t particularly remember but we can all* relive via the magic of phone-videoing at the bottom of this post.

DINNER!..finally.

Crackers!

Then came Sunday, aka Colgate Crescent Christmas Day. Lovely! So we peeled and chopped and prepared the dinner (read: we did as we were told and generally kept out of Jen’s way in the kitchen) and along the way avoided a potentially disastrous Secret Santa related incident. Guests arrived around 4pm and dinner was served at 4.30, no 5pm… no no, about half an hour, in 20 minutes I promise, OK definitely before 6.30pm… I was so close to passing out** from hunger when we ate so I’m not 100% sure what time it was, and I really didn’t care because IT WAS DELICIOUS!


Then came the aforementioned Secret Santa gift-giving, an X-Factor Final Party, Pass-the-Parcel (or is it ‘Parcel Parcel’, Cam??), a Christmas Quiz, Ring of Fire, too many desserts, Articulate, Elton John and bed (not so much a bed as a couch, damp from wine spillage). 3 hours later I had to get up, into a taxi and straight down to London on the 5.55am train and into work! I was exhausted but it was worth it – such a great day.

Colgate Christmas

Troffee Trio - Jen, Soph, Rose

In between all of that, we all said our final goodbyes to Sophie who is heading back home to Kenya for a while and will be hugely missed by all. GOOD LUCK SOPH!

Yesterday I managed to get through the day on plenty of strong coffee and then slept for 12 hours last night - bliss. Today I feel I could probably sleep for 12 more but A) I have lots of revision for my APM IC exam which is tomorrow morning and B) Holby is on at 8 and who would miss that?!...not me, that’s for damn sure.

Until next time,

Bren x

* Well, all except me. Far, far too embarrassing.

** Probably an exaggeration.

PS, This weeks Website Of The Week is an easy one: Twitter. Get involved people. My top-tips on ones to check out would be HumbleBrag (very funny if you get it) and my all time favourite, FirstDateHell. To read the original First Date Hell tweets as they came in, visit the Crap Dates website. Enjoy!

PPS, Other photos from the weekend...

PICTURE OF THE WEEK

Only took 2 hours to get the
seating arrangements just right

PPPS, I'm kind of hoping you've forgotten about this by now............ A video of me, drunk and talking shit about things you can't do in London. 'Thanks' go to Rosie. Note to self: get better stories.

Onesie Weekend

NOTE: As I mentioned last week, I visited the Turner Prize exhibition. Turns out it was awarded Tonight and the prize was only £25k not £40k… Silly me.

This week I did something way cooler…

I VISITED THE LOST PROPERTY OFFICE!

As you may or may not be able to imagine. IT WAS AMAZING.

Regents Park

Yes, on Wednesday, since every bugger else was having a day off, I went along to the TfL Lost Property Office with the other IM Grads and Apprentices for a tour of the building and to have a nosey at all the weird and wonderful things they have there. We sold it as a IM related trip (and not just skiving) because the LPO is migrating over to the OneLondon system very soon (there are only around 300 users left on the old system, out of 25000+ users) and TfL IM is currently developing an upgrade for the lost property database and tracking system that is currently used, Holmes. Anyway, I absolutely wasn’t there to hear about systems stuff – show me the brollies!

Lunch buddy

HUNDREDS of them. Vans drive around to stations and depots collecting things that have been left on tubes, DLRs, buses and Overgrounds and bring them back to the LPO, just around the corner from Baker Street station. Everything gets sent down a shoot and sorted into 13 different categories (none of which I can remember). All items are logged in Holmes and tagged and sent down to the storage rooms. This is where the good stuff is... bikes, bags, single gloves, toys, shoes, keys, manikins, STUFF. And the LPO only keep items stored there for 3 months, after that they get sent down yet another shoot to the sub-sub-basement where things are sorted into 3 final categories – Give To Charity, Sell Covertly on EBay, or CHUCK (which involves recycling and sustainable good things….probably). Following the tour we headed to Regents Park for a spot of lunch and a slow dawdle back to the office.

December 1st

So that was fun!

Thursday (the first day of December and advent calendar fun!) drifted by in a non-eventful blur that involved…something and nothing or something else, followed by a night out with some current and ex IM Grads. And then, already, it was Friday again! Time for Onesie Weekend! And it’s a good job a Onesie Weekend had been agreed because in my hungover state my DANGER PACKing skills on Friday morning were somewhat lacking and I left London with very little else!

ONESIE!

Sarah

Me

I arrived in Westhoughton to rain (and then SNOW!) that didn’t let up for the entire weekend and so I didn't do much other than couch sitting, tea drinking, newspaper flicking and channel hopping all day Saturday but on Sunday I headed into to Manchester with mum to see Sarah Millican at Manchester Apollo!! We saw her last Tour (which is now out on DVD) in Bolton about a year ago and she was hilarious so I bought tickets for this tour way back in March this year – it was definitely worth the wait, she is brilliant!

On Monday I went into Manchester to meet up with people I haven’t seen in about 15 years – so that was weird – and of course all the old photos came out… and I made a pit stop by the Manchester German Markets which I’ll tell you more about next week.

Next week!

This week I’ll only be in the office Tuesday and Wednesday then I’m off on a course Thursday and Friday!... Easy this working lark ain’t it?!

Until next week,

Bren x

PS, I've loved this website for quite some time but it has made me laugh ++ this week so...

My Website of The Week: Damn You Auto Correct