Nil points...but big love

 Bonjour mes amies! I thought it was ripe time for me to update ye olde blog with the latest headlines of my life. Today it is raining. For the first time in a week. An apt illustration of the rivers of tears I long to cry in relief that I have FINALLY done an exam!

Yesiree, I am officially on the map...or timetable as the case might be. A half hour exam which was the academic equivalent of Blind Man's Bluff....a multiple choice English exam!!! I got on the bus this morning and accidentally sat next to my professor for this class...luckily, she didn't have a clue who I was. Secret identity maintained *phew*

Tapas central!!!

Still, it's all over...and I am very happy about finishing it. I deleted all the documents for this module off my computer in a very laissez-faire wa- Long gone. Moved On.

Stupid Loreen...

In other news, my sister Suzanne came to visit for a few days as it is the last time we shall meet. Indefinitely. She is moving to California mid July while I am still in Barcelona so we shall not be at home together again for heck knows how long! It was all very final, seeing her off at the train station, sausage bap in tow. Wherefore art thou, sister friend?

She arrived on Saturday morning, where we indulged in Starbucks frappucinos before returning to the house for a spot of sun bathing. It was reaaaaallllly hot! In the evening, we ordered Chinese takeaway and the five of us watched Eurovision. I was cheering on Jedward because I love them and Roman from Germany because I love Germany too! Alas, Sweden won. I have nothing against Sweden...or even the song...but that Loreen woman dances worse than S Club 7 these days (Have you seen them? They're not in the best shape...)

Sunday we relaxed in the garden for most of the day, stopping for regular ice pop breaks and the odd shopping trip to Booths.

Our next door neighbours here are pretty annoying. The mother yells at her children. All the time. And she sounds like Howard Wallowitz's mother. I never really knew what she actually looked like though, as it was only ever the father who ventured outside. Anyway, thanks to my sister's excellent photography abilities, we now have the visual aid you are all dying to see. So here it is. John and Joleen.

Big Love.

                                                                                     Positioned next to their lovely bench, which I'm almost certain was hand-crafted by John in a wannabe Joseph move with his son, Jay. (Is it a coincidence that both their names begin with J like their predecessor carpenters? I think not...) So, we were all equally delighted and repulsed by this lovely picture so I thought it was necessary for me to share. Someday I hope I look like a fat angry baby and look so in pain when I hug my much smaller husband. Living. The. Dream.

On Monday, we again stayed mainly in the house, although we did go and walk a dog at the animal sanctuary where me and the girls are volunteers. We met Harry. A dog with a bit of a personality. It was more akin to taking a stroll with a friend than walking a dog. He was elegant and polite and never pulled on his lead. It makes a change from my own mentalist of a dog who sometimes hops with a bunny because she cuts off circulation to her back legs by choking herself with a lead.

His Lord, Harry, with Josie and me

On Tuesday, me and Suzanne went into town to watch 'What to Expect When You're Expecting', armed with pick and mix from W H Smith. This was my second time seeing this film. It's probably a bit weird that a young thing like me enjoys films about babies so much but it is genuinely a really funny film, treating things in an honest, interesting and often sad way, with a lovely balance of laughs to tears. After the cinema, we met up with Josie and went out for tapas in the lovely 1725, a favourite spot of ours in town. Such nice food and a really atmospheric location. We got 8 tapas between the three of us and got two of these for free, much to our delight. We washed it all down with delicious Sangria and good conversation.

Me and Suzanne- tigers grrrr!

Me and Suzanne...and Barbie.

As I waved away Suzanne on Wednesday morning, I felt very sad. I walked back to the bus stop in a daze of disbelief. No more friendly chats with my sister in our pjs. No more inside jokes. No more reminiscing. It's a really disturbing period of life to be entering. I know I should be used to it because I've been living away from home for three years but I always knew I'd be returning home for holidays and I'd get to catch up then but now....there's just nothingness. And loneliness.

Being a grown up is going to be really hard.


However, I don't want to finish my blog on a negative point so I'll conclude by saying this.

In 11 days time I will be done with my exams. In 24 days time I will be in Barcelona. Everything is happening from now on. It's important some times that I can just sit back and try and relax. I am glad to still be with my friends for the next 20 days. I am happy I have had the chance to see both my sisters for a final time recently. I am excited for all that is going to happen soon.

Sisters are good. Next door are strange. I have wet hair.

QOTR

'William Wallace was watching'- my trip to Edinburgh

Howdy!
I just returned from Edinburgh last night and it was so friggin' cold that it should have been renamed Edin-brrrrrr....a poor pun, I'm sorry. I woke up in the middle of the night last night with my light on and my kindle still in my hand, I must have been very tired, it freaked me out a bit, I slept like a dead person until 10 this morning and this whole day has proceeded to fly by, I can't catch a breath at all! Anyway, this is not the purpose of my entry today.

This review comes from INFINITY AND BEYOND!

That leads me to this. The Al Capone of the review world. My 'unique' perspective on all things Edinburgh and this weekend. I'm sure there will be many blogs written about Edinburgh, many photos shared, as it was PACKED FULL of tourists from every which country in the world. It is one of my true pleasures in life to try and work out where people are from, by a wonderful thing called observation. Well, what can I say? I had a blast! I seen a lot of things. All of them interesting. A lot of them funny. It was great to be back with my sister again, we hadn't seen each other since my last trip to the North of Scotland, so it was glorious to catch up!

After meeting at the train station, where we dressed almost identically unintentionally, we sojourned into the city for a breakfast. That first Flat White (best coffee EVER!) was blissful after the ridiculously early start we'd both had that morning. I had some gorgeous granola and yoghurt and compote which fuelled me for the morning. I heard my first pipes of the stay once we breached the centre of the city and that part, I'm glad to say, is certainly not a myth. Every which way you turned there was another piper hiding in a crevice. I never thought I'd hear the Highland Fling so very often in such quick succession. There was a bit of a legendary piper who attempted to play what sounded like the Foo Fighters- it was GLORIOUS!

Girls just wanna....WELD?

We headed off to the National Museum of Scotland which was reaaaaallllly good, seriously the best museum I've been to! There was just SO MUCH, all in one place: history, science, geography, food, art, fashion, modernity- *pause for breath* and lots of things to play with and try on- ALWAYS A PLUS! here I am, learning about welding, learning about ship building, learning that I really suit having a hat that'll literally cover up my face...

We spent several giddy hours playing with the museum and learning lots (because learning is fun!) and it was a heck of a nice change from sitting in the house doing not much of anything. After all of these revels, it was time for lunch. We feasted in a lovely vegetarian deli called Hendersons where I had a lovely cheese and potato and brocolli pie and my sister learnt the joys of being able to finally try a wee bit of someone else's food and it wouldn't be meat. After this, we went to leave our bags in the hotel, after briefly stopping for a 99 at an ice cream van, because Saturday was blissfully warm-ish weather. The hotel room was loooooovely, really comfy, and the bathroom was very spacious and white and I had visions of a man dressed as an angel singing 'Beauty School Dropout' emerging from the harrowed doorway.

Our room....with an eskimo in the corner.

We proceeded to lie like beached whales on the bed for a while, relishing finally ditching our back packs and being freeeee. Enjoying a beverage made with our mini room kettle and the generously provided Viennese Swirls, we watched 'Come Dine With Me' and chilled. After reading some hotel recommendations, we headed out for dinner in an Indian Tapas-style restaurant were we indulged in a huge garlic naan, poppadoms, lentils, samosas etc. We were STUFFED and rolled our way back to the hotel heavier ladies. It seemed, the only way to soothe our stuffed bellies....was to put up our gilet hoods and pretend to be eskimos.

Tough snow to you, sir

 What did you say, sir? That's a bit weird? Frankly my dear, I don't give a damn! We had a blast pulling faces and hiding behind doors and generally acting a little bit foolish. We filmed crime scene photos and shower paparazzi shots and my sister hid in the wardrobe and behind a curtain and tried to scare me. 

After all of these shenanigans, we retired to bed, where we tried to watch 'The Proposal' and feel asleep before it got too far (although some of us survived longer than others *cough*)


As the sun rose over the Edinburgh city-side...Escape to the Country, eat your heart out... we proceeded to the dining room in the hotel for a delightful binge eat. I had yoghurt and pastries and cooked breakfast- even a SQUARE sausage!- but still did not try haggis or black pudding, although they were both on offer for my perusal. There were even free refills of coffee- one of life's true pleasures! 

That's the castle...up there behind my huge head!

Of course, there's lots to see in Edinburgh so we jolly well got our move on.  We went to see the castle but it cost a fortune to get inside so we just took a picture and left again. We proceeded to go to the Musuem of Surgery where my sister, the dentist, fell in love. Her eyes lit up like it was Christmas morning and someone had commented on her Youtube video of her riding a pony to the sound of 'I Love Horses'. She revelled over all of the tools and all of the old techniques and poured over things in jars while I tried to control my absolute terror of dummies re-enacting medical scenarios (a fear which has haunted me since my first visit as a 6 year old to the Underground Hospital in Jersey).

We finished our trip with one last lunch out, this time in the gorgeous David Bann restaurant. I feasted on more vegetarian dishes, this time with humus and bread and pear and passionfruit tarts and perfectly cooked celeriac and puff pastry. It was all delicious! We parted ways at the train station and made our lonely way homes. A train journey in which I tried unsuccessfully to strike up conversation with a handsome boy, nearly missed my stop, and told a taxi driver he was 'awful young' for being a taxi driver (I swear my fare was lower than usual!) When we shall meet again Edinburgh, I do not know.  Someday I'll look out of my little thatched cottage window and I'll know, oh yes I'll know, that this is not goodbye but a see you later! Edinburgh, you've been a blast!

QOTR                                                           

Mum's the word

Me, dressed as Cinderella. Why? All will be revealed in a later post...

As it was long overdue for me to write a new post, I decided that now was as good a time as any. So, since my last post, I've been working hard (or hardly working) at revision, gloriously intercepting the long boring-ness with random whimsies with my housemates. I've begun to feel very despondent about my exams because on Facebook everybody else seems to be saying 'Done for summer! Finished exams! I'm amazing!' yadda yadda yadda and I've found myself thinking 'Well, great, I won't be done for another 5 and a half weeks, this is gonna be a-maz-ing!'



Anyway, the purpose of this post is
basically to praise my wonderful mother, Hezza, for running a frigging marathon yesterday! I feel

My mum and me

so incredibly proud of her. She hasn't run a marathon in 30 years but managed to only be 15 minutes slower than she was then- 30 years older! I love my mother, she's the best friend a girl could ask for: kind, caring, funny, clever. She gives such amazing advice and always lends a listening ear. She never complains about the many stresses of her multiple-jobbed lifestyle and she is just a wonderful role model. I've often been called Mini-Hezz and I for one take that to be a compliment, I'd love to end up like her.

At the finish line

I know she reads my blog so I wanted her to know that I think she's top bananas. When she completed the race yesterday, my dad and sister were there to see her finish- my sister Suzanne had made chicken enchilada soup (yum!) and gotten Mum fresh flowers and I can predict exactly what Hezza will have responded. 'Ahhh, bliss!' Her trademark phrase, if you will.

She's such an inspiration. How did she manage to run for TWENTY SIX MILES??? I can barely run after a bus! She really puts all of us youngsters to shame, doesn't she?



In other news, apparently there was a tornado through mid England yesterday. Good to see the weather improving, eh?

You're just too good to be true, can't take my eyes offa you!

Not much has been happening with me. I've been trying to write revision notes, realising I haven't remembered diddily squat from the last year, I made a list of my top ten favourite celebrity men, as did my three housemates, and we basically just shared our choices and dissed each others selections. Every evening we watch Pointless (which if you aren't familiar, is an obscure quiz show where you try and answer the most obscure answers possible) and Eggheads (mostly to make fun of Daphne) and I've also recently started reading and watching 'Game of Thrones' which is pretty amazingly epic and I would definitely recommend it.



Saturday morning, at 7am, I am heading up on the train to Edinburgh to have a weekend with my sister Katherine, who is coming down on a train from Inverness. There'll be a new blog by next Monday, showing the highlights of the trip (most of which will be food!)

To conclude: Mum- you're a speedy gonzalos superhero who I am very proud of. Myself- you need to get a life!

QOTR

Fun things to do during the revision period (definitely not including revision)

As I reach the last day of April, it appears some sort of alarm bell has gone off in everybody's head regarding the upcoming nuptials of exams and students. (I thought a wedding reference would lighten up the laborious process of exams). So exams, what are they? I would define them as being agonizing hand-cramping hours of trying to remember every little detail of every little thing you've learnt all year, with the added pressure of a clock ticking down your minutes and the added threat of failing out of life if you fail a uni exam. Regretfully, the only sign of revision in my room has been setting out the books I will eventually have to re-read. I also skim read a past paper. ONE. Well, I don't see the point of rushing into revising to be honest. My first exam is still a MONTH away- yes, when everybody else is finished within the next few weeks, I won't even have started. Botheration!

So, as I have no intention of over-exerting myself with revising, particularly when I have to answer questions that'll have no impact whatsoever on my life, anybody else's life, or the world as a whole, but rather ludicrous things like 'How did Shakespeare's beard length influence his Elizabethan plays compared with his Jacobean plays?' All I can think is 'WHO CARES???' And I suppose this is a bad way to be for an English Lit student but I'm sooooooo close to being finished and getting out of education that I've just reached that inevitable point. Anyway, before I get carried away on a tangent, here's a few things to do INSTEAD of revision.

1) Learn a new hobby/skill/language. This is a favourite of mine. What better time can there be than when you're finally succeeding at focusing your mind for the first time in the academic year to learn something new? Over the past two years, I've self-taught myself Spanish, improved my German and taken up amateur photography. This year I might become a sculptor, who knows!

2) Eat. There's no better time to eat like Henry VIII (or insert other fat monarch here) than when you're stuck indoors gaining a grey pallour and not getting much exercise. It'll give you an excellent opportunity in the future to get annoyed with yourself for ruining your long-sought but never obtained holiday body. I find myself turning into Barefoot Contessa (or insert other plump TV chef here) and creating elaborate meals and exclaiming things like 'The added rosemary was genius- GENIUS!' and 'This definitely needs a little chilli powder.'

3) Exercise. This kind of counteracts all the hard work of the second idea but if you're as lucky as I am to have incredibly slow metabolism, it's probably won't cut down your king-ly love handles that much. Go outside. Go to the gym. Go swimming (haha NOT a chance after what happened in my last post!!!). Wind or rain- be out there. Scorn the buses of peasants. You're better than transport. You have legs! Unless you don't....ohhh, awkward! Even if it just means lifting a tiny tiny dungbell half-heartedly while watching a talkshow, it still counts! And let's face it, you got out of revising just a little bit, right?

4)Become a secret operative. You are James Bond, baby. Twitch those curtains. Rock in a chair in front of your window. Your neighbours are DEFINITELY going to be doing something interesting. Even if they're at work. Strain your eyes for a glimpse of something suspicious in the neighbourhood. Report it to your friends. Your enemies. Whoever will listen. Wear dark glasses. Roll across the floor holding a pretend gun. Listen to the theme from Mission Impossible on your iPod. That's it. You'll catch the great garden gnome stealer if you just keep watching. Or whoever it is that keeps sending us the SAME TAKEAWAY MENU!!!!

5)Gossip. There's no better time to make a few new enemies than when you should be keeping quiet and reading your books. Just keep talking. Talk to anyone who wants to talk to you. Talk about anyone. Become your own downfall. If you just keep talking eventually you'll find a topic you haven't discussed before. Everybody does it. Why revise and be quiet when you can not revise and be a terrible gossip??

So, there you have it. That's what I'll be doing rather than revising. What'll you be doing? Better go, I just heard a car door slam and those curtains aren't going to twitch themselves!

QOTR

Here comes the sun?

Weather in Greece

This entry is from an utterly miserable windy, rainy tragedy of a country. While I listen to the delightful sound of rain ricocheting off my windows, I think to myself 'Ah, Bliss! I'm so very blessed to live in a country which offers such a wide range of weather conditions: if our days aren't filled with hailstones, it's hair-tangling wind, or snow storms, or heaven forbid some hazy clouds where, if one should squint way up into the distance, might spy a spot of actual blue skies. Blessed are we indeed!' When you are as blessed as I am to have hair resplendent of William Wallace (you can take my lands, but you cannae control my hair!) you really come to wish that you lived in a country that wasn't quite so windy!

Weather in Italy

So, being an inquisitive sort- and an all-around legend (although that's neither here nor there!), I've taken it upon myself to make a study of some current temperatures across our glorious range of European countries. That's how fair my study is, not even stepping out of the continent, keeping it only two hours maximum time difference.

Weather in Malta

As I'm sure you can see, by my beautiful print-screening abilities, it's all looking nice and sunny. Everybody is well and truly loving life, up in the 20 something degrees. Nothing like a nice bit of clean, hot, humid free air, right? That's something else I have noticed about the so called warmer temperatures (wherever they've gone now I couldn't possibly say) of our so called country. When it does feel warm, it's not the nice warm of other countries that feels clean and pure and comforting. Ohhhhhhhh no! It's more akin to being in a huge invisible jar which someone has burped into. Dirty, trapped, germ-ridden air.

Weather in Cyprus

I'm terribly sorry for the graphic image above but that's the exact thought I had while I was walking earlier on. That's another story though. Walked to the sports centre to go for a nice swim. As soon as I left the front door it literally started raining. I just thought 'Today is going to be a perpetually moist day, isn't it?' and got on with things, not being one to wimp out of extreme weather. Of course, by the time I experienced burp jar syndrome, I was already incredibly damp and longing for dryness. Somehow swimming wasn't as fun when you couldn't dry off in the sun afterwards. When you have to return to the 4 degree cold and mizzle it's downright fantastic. That's another thing. When you go to an actual sports centre swimming pool, there

Weather in Switzerland

's an unspoken expectation that you have to swim length after length after length. In Barcelona I was more likely to be found happily mushroom floating or carrying children around singing like Barney the Dinosaur (although he had the whole short arm syndrome so don't know if he was able to carry anyone. Safet to say, in Barcelona, I didn't find myself having to walk home with my arms bent like wings because they siezed up somewhere between getting out of the pool and attempting to put clothes on. My friend Josie and I have spent the remainder of today whimpering in pain, watching day time tv, our arms curled up in weird contortions to get comfy, thinking with extreme dread of trying to get out of bed tomorrow morning.

Weather where I am...

So here we are, our weather. The one thing I'll say in it's favour, if you still desire to stock up on sun cream or summer clothes, there's probably some good discounts, because let's face it: nobody's getting a real tan in this country. Unless you're a tennis player, somehow in Wimbledon, they always get tanned!

Here's looking at you, last week in March. You were a brief summer....but you were awesome. Highlight of my summer was watching my dog trip over one of my shoes and then look back in confusion. I did chortle. That one day of sitting outside was magnificent. That temporary smell of everybody in the neighbourhood BBQ-ing was just what the doctor ordered.

Meanwhile in the U.K...

 So wrap up warm, folks. Summer is 'coming'. The 'sun' has got his hat on. Here comes the 'sun'. I'm feeling 'hot, hot, hot.'

Olé. Olé. Oléolé!

Brrrrr-illiant
QOTR

Sights and sounds of Scotland

So I've just arrived back last night at my house in Lancaster after a delightful week in Scotland with my sister. This is a little review of what I encountered.

 I was right up at the very north north east of Scotland, near Inverness, and some might argue that there's not much up there. That's fair enough. What was there, though, were plenty of RAF men, a top notch dentist (my sister) and some beautiful beaches.

The beach at Lossiemouth

 I really got a taste of what life was like for my sister. I met the people she works with, lived in her lovely house, we cooked together each night, she showed me all the local sights.

The people on the roads up there drive however the heng they like. I've never met such impatient drivers. The sheer capacity of overtakers was really quite startling.  We were following Paul the satnav man in the car and on the little map thing, as we crossed the bridge to the left, it looked like we were driving straight through the sea! It was terribly cool!

We made our way towards Inverness to see dolphins. I was really terribly excited at the prospect of spotting some lovely little dolphins and we raced towards the viewing point at the cusp of high tide. We parked the car next to several groups of old people with cameras on tripods and binoculars. This appeared to be a good sign that we might yet see some dolphins. However, the sea appeared to be rather turbulent, the rain was mizzling and we were sitting in our anoraks,straining our eyes desperately for a sighting. Quite a crowd was assembling around us, most over 60, and occasionally one elderly man would take a few pictures and we'd wonder whether we were about to meet the dolphins. Usually it was just a bird. Exciting! But as the crowd dispersed in frustration, something amazing happened: the dolphins legitimately showed up!! When my sister shouted, 'Look, dolphins!' I hurriedly jammed on my glasses to see them. Alas, although she pointed and said 'There's loads of them!' I just couldn't see them at all! So very frustrating...they were there, but I didn't see them!

The coast near Inverness

In other news, though, there were some very good times to be had in Scotland. I managed to resist eating haggis or anything battered, although there were opportunities a plenty! 

I met some very nice people along the way, as well as getting a free dental check up WIN!
I invented, refereed and commentated the entirety of the first ever doll version of WWE Smackdown for the entertainment of some children: I'm nothing if not original!

I learnt that trash TV is still a true love of mine, especially in the company of someone who knows you so well that you can reminisce with. 

Where the dolphins were...

Most of what I learnt on my trip to Scotland was that, in actuality, I am not entirely incapable of understanding Scottish accents, it is only Glaswegians who I can't understand apparently!

Whilst in a garden centre I seen a really funny moment. An old couple, I'm talking 70s at least, were sitting nearby. When the husband asked if they were leaving for tesco yet, his wife replied, 'I can't get up, we'll have to stay here.' The husband laughed and replied, 'I'm afraid you're getting old.' For some reason, this just really struck me as hilarious.

My sister and I, waiting for dolphins and laughing at the old people with tripods

It was really great to see my sister again as we haven't seen each other that much lately. When everybody moves away from home it's really sad. When you go from seeing your siblings every day to only by chance, or strategic planning, meeting up a couple of times a year, it's tough! I miss all the times you get to hang around and just watch TV and do nothing much. It's never the same when you meet up anymore because you know you're going to be parting ways but it's nice that you can just get back to your natural rhythm and you can do stupid things and your sister will help you out. It's nice, you know? 

I found my trip to Scotland to be all I dreamed and more. Aside from the expectations of a trip to the Highlands i.e. tartan, haggis, bagpipes, I found that it was a lot more (and not really any) of that. There were lots of really pretty things to be seen and there's definitely a lot to be said for small town living. Hearing RAF planes going overhead your house every morning gives a lovely sense of authenticity and action. Being wolf whistled at by dodgy grass cutters is just an unfortunate aside from pleasant trips around Norman castle ruins, old and beautiful. This was a lovely prelude to the beginning of my last EVER term of university.

One of those maniacs driving I was talking about...just kidding, it's even better: a dog with his paws on a steering wheel, legitimately giving me a 'Let's race' expression!

Airport soulmate

So, here's a bit of a story for you all.

I thought I should record it down before I begin to truly believe it never actually happened. I'd already be dubious, except for the fact that I've saved my plane ticket from the day along with a name and date so I know that there was a day. There was me. There was him. We did meet.

Now, this happens quite a lot to me that I only seem to meet really quality men when I'm travelling somewhere, never when I'm in one place. Only the poorer selections in my life seem to occur on dry land. Anyway, this occasion was different than all of the others! I truly believe that this was meant to be.

So here it goes, I'm going to chronicle the event, so I never forget.

The date was Saturday 24th March. I was travelling home to Ireland for my easter holidays. I got the train from Lancaster, where it was Saturday crazy and everybody was standing like sardines. Except for me. I found a little nook on the edge of first class where I propped up my suitcase and perched atop it. (That's right, atop!) The journey flew by, I had just had another job rejection letter and given up all hope, so I was reading some Jack London and inwardly growling. The lists of ways that civilisation had killed and been extinct were very soothing to my soul. I was just about to get off the train, upon arrival at the airport, and we were all assembling with our suitcases waiting for the doors to open. A young man, of about my age, stood next to me with his suitcase. He glanced at me and then said, in a delectable French accent, "Are you German?" The attention of the carriage all snapped towards me as I replied "No, I'm Irish" but I was flattered, and took it as a compliment about my long blonde hair.

As we got off the train, it seemed natural that we fell into easy conversation and walked together from the train station, getting an elevator up towards the terminals. I asked which Terminal he was flying from and he answered 3, much to my delight, as he was flying to Paris and therefore I assumed he'd be going from 1 or 2 as 3 is domestic flights. So, we progressed together towards check in, learning along the way that we both loved rugby, skiing, travelling, learning languages, that he was well travelled which I was envious of and that he desired to learn poetry and history and literature and was therefore envious of my degree.

I had never met someone who I was so in sync with. Everything one of us said, the other would reply "Me too!" It was like we were the same person. We were both scared of security. Neither of us could eat spaghetti. We were awkward jokers, misunderstood by our friends. I couldn't help but be delighted.

Of course, time was racing, when it usually dragged when I was alone in the airport. I felt a little thrill when I was waiting for him to check in, and seen him smile and thank me for waiting. We went through security and the security man knew we were together. I loved seeing his brown eyes beautifully crease while we talked. He talked about how he got bullied in school for being half-French, half Brazilian, I was quick to say I couldn't think of many things better. He talked about the unromantic side of Paris. I watched him talk. I'd never met a man with so much to say. It was dazzlingly refreshing!

Eventually, after having our lunch together, I had to go board my plane. Not wanting to stop talking, he walked me to my gate. It felt like a rom-com. But, ALAS!

He would happen to know another boy getting my plane. This boy would meander over and monopolise my dear boy's conversation. The crowd was hearding us home, home, home, away! I couldn't get in a word and they were talking of finances and markets and business and I wanted to make him smile one more time or make him declare "Me too!" with an amazed smile. I couldn't just let him slip away, when I only knew his first name, his degree, and that he went to my university (which is HUGE). I quickly scrolled my number on a piece of paper, along with my full name, and handed it to him, while the other boy continued talking on and on and on. I exchanged a brief longing look with the dear dear boy and then I had to board. His parting words were "Have a nice Easter!" I didn't even get a chance to say "Call me!" as so many girls have done before. I had to convey the sentiment with just one last glance and a smile. Will I ever hear from him? Probably not! There's nothing I can do about it, I cannot contact him. I can only hope he still remembers me after these few weeks of holidays.

One thing is for certain: with regards to the existence of soulmates, I've never been more convinced that they exist. And doubt I will be so beautifully convinced again.

QOTR