I thought that I'd just write a quick post now because I will probably not have another chance before I go jetting off to the USA.
I finished my exams yesterday and am now back in Darlo. My parents came to pick up my stuff on Monday and were very helpful in tidying my flat!! lol! I'm relieved to be home but I just don't seem to have a lot of time. We are leaving at 4am on Friday so I've only really got tomorrow left to do everything. I guess that I don't have that much to do but there just seems to be an endless list of little bits and bobs that need to be done. In reality it probably won't take too long! One thing that I need to do is clean Zinzan out as he is going on his holidays to the Ainscoughs' (THANK YOU!!). Hattie is also going on her hols to Arthur and Margaret's.
I'm kinda sad just now cos Megan isn't going to be finished school when we are there. The teachers went on a week long strike and they have to make up the time. Personally I think that it defeats the point of the strike if you are going to make up the time but never mind. It is such a shame though because it would have been lovely to spend more time with her!! Anyway, I guess that there isn't a lot that can be done about it!
I've been trying to load all of my CDs onto my MP3 player which is proving to be slightly annoying because it doesn't recognise the names of all the Summit lecturers and their lectures so over a hundred items get labelled 'unknown' which is not helpful at all. I managed to get all my photos and videos onto it though and I'm quite pleased.
I hope that everyone has a wonderful month of June. Sorry that I probably won't be posting on my blog for a month but maybe I'll get a chance to. You'll just have to keep checking and see!

I have just been listening to Overtone, one of my favourite bands. I thought I would put some of the lyrics from one of the songs up:

Unconditional

Shattered dreams lie at your feet
Like broken mirror glass
Reflections of society
They never look behind the mask
Changing faces with the times
So transitional
It leaves you longing for a love
That's unconditional

You are loved and accepted
The way you are
He won't reject
You are loved there's no mistaking
Come be His child
He won't forsake you

Shattered dreams can be remade
Hope can live again
If you leave the masquerade
You can learn to love again
For the past does not compare
With His reality
Come and live for evermore
In eternity

There is then a little random rappy bit but part of it goes like this:

It's really all about the heart so get a fresh start
It might seem bizarre but it's true God loves you as you are!

Fantastic!!!!!

I'm just going to apologise cos I go on about football so much. I can't help it, it makes either so happy that I can't shut up about it or so angry that I just wanna scream and shout and hit Barry Conlon! Plus to be honest at the moment there isn't a great deal else going on in my life so all I can talk about is something like football. It is far more interesting than my own life!
Can't believe that this time next week I will be in the USA!!!!! Fantastic!

P.S. How dumb is the spell checker for this thing? It brings up words like 'it', 'fun' and 'was'. I'm pretty sure that I spelled them right!

Today makes it a whole year since I got the keys to my flat! I can't believe that I have been here for a year already - it has just flown by (granted I did spend at least 5 months of the year in Darlington!). I really like my flat - it is probably about the only thing that I like about Glasgow. It is such a haven compared to living in halls last year which I hated so much! Where my flat is it is pretty quiet which I like but recently some one has started playing some kind of brass instrument (I'm thinking French Horn) really loudly. They are really not good - Mary Had A Little Lamb has never sounded so terrible. It took me a while to actually work out what tune they were trying to play! Hopefully they will get very good very quickly!
I am kind of annoyed this morning because I really don't know what David Hodgeson, the Darlington manager, is thinking. We have made two new signings. The first is Michael Cummins, a midfielder from Port Vale. The second, which I am really fuming about, is striker Barry Conlon. WHY??????? Barry Conlon used to play for Darlo. He left to go to Barnsley two seasons ago and I was so happy!! It seemed as if everyone really loved him when he played for Darlo - I certainly did not. Neither did Cath. He was the most frustrating player ever. He never put in any effort. The only time I saw him put in any effort was in his last game for Darlo when we were playing Scunthorpe and he clearly wanted a new club so he made an effort to look good. Even that didn't last for the whole match. The most annoying thing that he did, and I don't think I can express how annoying this was, was during a match and the ball was played into the box by one of our players and there was Barry Conlon lying down in the middle of the box doing nothing, not even making an effort to get up (he wasn't injured by the way). Good effort Barry! Totally sums him up.
I hope that he plays better for us this time - and granted he did get more goals than our whole team did this year - but I am not holding my breath. Gareth thinks that he will play better with a better team - well he didn't exactly play better with Barnsley who are in the league above us so I don't have much hope.
It is just so annoying because he is the only Darlo player who I REALLY don't like! I would stick a picture of him on here but just the thought of him makes me want to scream!

Just one exam to go now! History today wasn't too bad - the first question (on the opposition to the Union of 1707) was really great so I hope that I answered it ok! The second question (on the Jacobites) was alright but I'm not sure that I did as well on that one. I've got to say that I am so relieved that it is over because I think that this is the one that I was dreading the most!
Now I just need to give my flat a good tidy - it is so messy! I'll also have to do some revision for my Biblical Studies exam on Tuesday. It is just fun, fun, fun!!
I'm really missing Zinzan just now. My flat is so quiet without him! I don't know how I will cope when I am in the USA and I won't get to see him for a whole month! I know that it sounds utterly ridiculous because he is just a hamster but I've got so used to having him around. He is a real character and is so funny!

He is so small in this picture - he is a big, beefy hamster now!! He loves his chocolate (hamster chocolate) and is pretty fat!! lol I can't wait to see him on Tuesday. I felt so sick when he went missing the other week. If I had been in Darlington when he escaped I would have ripped the house apart to find him. I felt so helpless cos I was in Glasgow!

I know that you all think that I am crazy but I DON'T CARE!!!! Sorry about going on so much though!

Today hasn't been too bad a day so far - it has been quite sunny which is a nice change from the continuous rain that we have been having over the past few days. I've been attempting some revision for my History exam tomorrow but have been listening to The Corrs as well so I think I've probably done more singing than revision! It is nearly a year since I saw them in concert in Bonn, Germany. They were so, so amazing!! Definitely the best concert I have been to - although having said that the only other band that I have seen is Busted so there is not really any comparison there!! The concert was a standing one and we had queued for ages and ages on the hottest day that we were in Germany with no shade - but we ended up on the 2nd row right in front of Jim Corr so that was great! I would totally recommend them for anyone to go and see in concert. I would jump at the chance to go again!

I had another driving lesson today. This is my last one for about six weeks so it is a bit annoying. Today we did some 'controlled stops' i.e. emergency stops. They aren't exactly difficult but I always put the clutch down too quickly but I was starting to alter that by the end. My instructor said that my general driving is excellent - it is just the manoeuvers that I need to work on. Well, mainly reversing round a corner - I JUST CANNOT DO IT!!!!!! IT JUST DOESN'T HAPPEN!!! This has been a plague in my life for nearly three years now (on and off I'll just add - I have been a bit stop/start with my driving lessons) and it is really bugging me.
Tomorrow I head back to Glasgow. I have my second exam on Thursday and then my last on Tuesday. My parents are coming up to Glasgow next Monday hopefully to come and pick up most of my stuff and then I will get a train home on Tuesday after my exam. I'll be listening to more of the lectures from Summit on the train (via my laptop) so actually I'm looking forward to the train journeys. I've listened to so many of them already and they are SOOOOO good!! I always put one onto a CD (I'm not with the technology!!) and listen to one last thing at night. I was telling my driving instructor about my trip to America today and when I was trying to explain about Summit he was like, 'Oh like happy clappy?' when I said that it was a Christian thing. lol it made me laugh A LOT!!! It just made me think of Keswick!! lol So funny!

P.S. Beth - Jonathan sent me a pic of you with your hair short - it is very nice (from what I could tell of the very blurry pic) and Sophie with her straight hair - also very nice!

I just want to say.... Yay!!!! Someone else other than Beth reads my blog!! Thanks for posting a comment Adam, hope the revision is going well!! Actually I do know that Sophie has been on a few times so if anyone views my blog PLEEEEEAAAAASSSSSEEEE leave a comment even if it just says hey!!

Firstly here are just a few photos of the players who were let go by Darlington today. Generally I think that they were expected but I am gutted about Jonjo!! He was one of my favourites. I know Cath'll be gutted about Matty Appleby..... the dream is finally over! These are pictures of Guy Bates, Jonjo Dickman, Joe Kendrick, Adrian Webster and Matty Appleby:

Unfortunately Matt Clark is still a Darlo player (actually he can be good sometimes).

I'm worried about Ryan though. Apparently he has an opportunity to return to Wales which he always said that he would do if he got the chance. DON'T GO RYAN!!!!!!!

I'm just going to have a World Cup rant now so be warned. I am so glad that I am in the States when it is on. English people become insufferable when it is World Cup time. Every four years they win the World Cup before they have even kicked a ball! The hype is just too much and then they feel absolutely crushed when things don't turn out the way that they planned. I know that Scotland hardly ever get passed the qualifiers but at least we know that there isn't a chance of us winning it! We don't have that false hope.
Maybe I will support the USA during the World Cup. They were really good when they played Scotland in a friendly (although you could say that any team would look good when playing Scotland - the Faroe Islands for instance - why do they get put in our group for every single qualifying round!). I don't think very much of the USA players' personalities though - they seem like idiots so maybe Sweden is the team for me. I have kind of followed Sweden through supporting Celtic!

If only he played for Darlo!! One funny thing though was that when Bobby Petta came to Darlo he was on my wall in a Celtic poster (I know, I'm the coolest person in the whole world!!). That was really awesome! He wasn't very good though!!

So in answer to Adam's question (see comment in previous post) I'm going to Colorado on a Christian camp thingy. They called it a Christian leadership camp and it looks at world views and covers such things as cults, environment and science and so on. It is just basically on the Christian arguments about these kinds of things. Am I making any sense? If you want a better explanation then it might be better to go to the website:
http://www.summit.org/conference/summer/
I'm going on the end of my family holiday to Pennsylvania/New York/Washington D.C. So I'm going to be in the US for a whole month (2nd June - 1st July, actually arrive back home in Darlo on 2nd!!) and I am so, so excited about it!! I have been buying lots of modest clothes - I'm not allowed to show too much leg or shoulder (seriously!!). Actually I have been in need of some new clothes for a while so this was a great opportunity to get some!!
Well, got to go and have some tea (it is sooooo good to be home!!).

One exam down - two to go!! I'm glad that my Classical Civilisation one is over now because I think that this is the subject that I'm worst at (although overall I my grades are better in it than in any of my other subjects!). Anyway it is over now so I'm really happy. My next exam is on the 25th May so I've got a wee while. I'm going to see the nurse this afternoon to discuss all the injections that I need updating before I go to the US - Mum gave me a huge long list which I've got to ask her about and I can't remember them all so I guess I'd better give her a quick call. I handed in my History honours application today -so I'm hoping that I get in and get the courses which I liked the look of.
Tomorrow I go home again. I've got a driving lesson on Thursday which I won't forget about like last week!! I get nearly a week at home which is good.
Here's a picture or two of Adam Rundle - my former Darlington favourite who was released by Mansfield last week. I'm still bitter about the football shirt to be honest!

At the moment I'm in Glasgow. I was home at the weekend because all my lectures have finished now (just exams left). I was meant to be staying down there until my first exam but the History department decided that it would be a good idea to put the compulsary Honours meeting on Monday at 4pm after everyone had been planning to go home before their exams. Typical!
I had to go home this weekend because it was the last game of the 2005/2006 football season so, of course, was unmissable. We were playing Wrexham and Ryan was captain for the match (clearly should be captain all the time as he is Darlo's most consistent player!). To be fair, the game wasn't the most exciting ever. Wrexham went 1-0 up before half time although I thought we were better. In the second half Darlo were just starting to pick it up and looked slightly more threatening when Dave Hodgeson made a triple substitution - what a bad idea!!!! The only one of those subs who brought anything to the game was Wainy (who is clearly genius!) - he just isn't scared to run at people. With 5 minutes to go until the 90 mins were up, all the kids started congregating at the edge of the pitch - no guessing what they were planning on doing. Darlo equalised in injury time and all the kids ran on the pitch! YOU IDIOTS! THERE'S STILL TIME LEFT TO PLAY IN THE MATCH!! LOSERS!!! Finally all the kids (and some stupid adults) were ushered off the pitch and the match restarted only to finish a couple of seconds later so all the kids ran on again. It made me so angry! It actually made me a little scared as well because people could so easily get injured! One good thing about the match though was that Ryan was finally named Man of the Match - how he doesn't get that every week I don't know!! Cath and I probably sounded a bit stupid because we started cheering this news before everyone else in the crowd did!!!
I hate this part of the season because it means that players will leave the club or be forced to leave. I never like that bit. I feel so bad for the players who are released and the manager always seems to include at least one of my favourites!
Well, after the football James picked up Beth and I, and then Paul, and we all went through to Middlesbrough where everyone was meeting for a meal and then a DVD at Jon Plant's. For tea we went to a restaurant called the China Buffet King which was really nice - good food! Then Jon, Beth and I had to choose the DVD. We ended up with The Brothers Grimm (Jon's choice). It wouldn't work in the DVD player so Israel had to go to his house and get his Play Station 2 to play it in. So after a disasterous start the film was quite good - a bit weird and I probably wouldn't go out of my way to watch it again but it wasn't bad!
Sunday was Sunday. We had a fellowship tea at church where Mark showed slides of the trip that he, Abigail and Luke made to Cyprus to visit the Swansons. It was quite interesting. After church Beth and I played hide and seek with Luke and Fiona which was quite amusing!
Yesterday I came back to Glasgow on the train which seemed to take forever. At 3.20pm I had a meeting with my History tutor to go over my essay. I got a B so I was pretty pleased! Then I went to the Honours meeting. I have to take 6 history courses (or modules I guess) next year and there was quite a big choice. It was annoying though because a lot of the courses that I wanted to do clashed times. I have chosen my favourites (I can't remember them all just now) but I will hand in my Honours application very soon! Hopefully I will be accepted on the courses that I want to do.
Today I am going shopping to buy 1 or 2 things for my holiday to America!!!

I had a really nice weekend. On Saturday I didn't do much, just cleaned my flat up a bit while listening to the Darlington match on the internet on TFM. We won the game (against Wycombe Wanderers) even though we only had 10 men for the second half. Unfortuneatly Lincoln City also won and so are still 3 points ahead of us with one game to go. This means that to get into the play offs Lincoln would have to lose on Saturday and we would have to win and make up 6 goals because Lincoln's goal difference is so much better than ours. Oh well - someday it'll happen!!!
In the evening Graeme and Christine came over (followed by Esther later in the evening). We ate pizza and watched Christine's New York video. Then we played the Cluedo card game that Christine gave me for my birthday. It was a lot of fun and it was only when we were nearing the end that we realised that Christine had dealt out the cards that would tell us who did it etc - so we all had different answers. It was really funny! Graeme gave me back my first Alias DVD which he's had for nearly a year so I was really happy - just watching it now - genius!!
Yesterday (Sunday) I went to Partick Baptist as usual in the morning. There were quite a few visitors there which was really great - hopefully they will come back! I also got a tour of the church cos I had only seen the main bits of it. It is such a huge building!! There is a balcony with loads of seats (used at the moment for storage) - I would love to see that full on a week to week basis. Saw the baptism pool thing, then went round the back and saw the vestry and prayer meeting room. There is an oraganisation that has its offices there and then there is also a two bedroom flat. There were loads of rooms that is didn't see as well!! I couldn't believe it! In the evening I went to Gardner St as usual.
Today is Monday and is a Bank Holiday - this doesn't really affect me though because I have Mondays off anyway! I'm not planning on doing very much!

Yay!! I got accepted for the Colorado Summer Conference!!!!!! SO excited!!!

Well the last few days haven't been too bad surprisingly! Yesterday I just had 2 lectures and a tutorial. The tutorial was for Biblical Studies which was really bad cos only 2 of us turned up - me and a guy who was clearly still drunk from the night before. Disaster! So our tutor decided that we would go and join the other tutorial group of whom there was only one!!!!!! So we didn't exactly do a lot in that tutorial!! Then I had History and then went for lunch with Fiona which was nice. After that I had Classical Civilisation and that was me finished for the day.
At around 4.30pm I went round to Fiona's flat for tea. I hadn't been to her flat before so it was interesting. It isn't too far away from my flat really, just a 15 minute walk. She shares with 2 girls who study at Jordanhill and are from Lewis. They were really nice and very friendly. They are Christians who go to Free Churches in Glasgow (one to Dowanvale, the other to St Vincent St). It was slightly bizarre cos they had a lot of photos up on their kitchen wall and I recognised quite a few of the people in them, including my cousins' cousin. Anyway, we had a really nice tea of pasta and then fruit salad - good job Fiona! We then watched a DVD. After that I was speaking to one of Fiona's flatmates, Annabel. It was so strange because we then realised that we'd been to a Free Church camp together when we were younger, and not only that but we were in the same dorm!! It is a very small world! Crazy!
Well today I had the usual 3 lectures. After C.Civ I went for a coffee (well, hot chocolate) with Laura. It was so great - we got into a very good discussion about all things Christianity etc. She gave me her views and I gave her mine as well as I could. I don't really want to go into what precisely we talked about because I don't think that is right or appropriate to but it was very interesting. It was a shame that we weren't able to carry on the conversation, though, because she had to go to an Italian Literature lecture.

If you get a chance please have a look at this video (hope it works). It Bury's Chris Brass scoring a howler of an own goal at the 96.6 TFM Darlington Arena on Saturday . Shame they made up for it and won but this video really is funny:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1csQG0ZciFQ

Yay!! All my coursework for second year is handed in. The end is in sight!!! I've only got two more weeks of lectures left (only a week of Biblical Studies). I was so relieved to hand in those two essays today. After I handed them in I took the subway into the city centre and got some volunteer forms for camp this summer. Camp last year was so good so I'm looking forward to it again this year. After I got my forms I came back home, cleaned Zinzan out and then just relaxed. I am so tired still!!!!
Hopefully this week'll be a lot more interesting! I wish there was more news!!

Only one more essay to write!! I will be so relieved tomorrow afternoon when that essay is done. I have two essays to hand in tomorrow but I've already finished one of them. After this there is no more coursework for this year - YAY!! Only exams - BOO!!!!! I am feeling really tired right now so I can't wait until I have done all my work. I don't really have any news since all I have been doing recently is working, so very boring!!

Yay!!! My favourites!! These were taken from the Cheltenham game which was played on Monday (the result = 1-1 but we are still in the play off race!!) Not my pictures by the way - I got them from the Darlo website.

Well, I'm going to go back in time from my last post and tell you about my birthday which was on Friday (14th).
The day started off not so well. The daughter of our elderly neighbour called to say that he had sadly passed away that morning. He was 95 years old and was a really nice man so it was very sad news.
For most of the day I didn't do very much, only going to Sainsbury's with my mum. At 4.30pm I went round to the Hackers' house for my party. It was really so much fun. We played lots of party games (Pass the Parcel, Egg Hunt, Jigsaw Game, Musical Foam Squares (a variation of Musical Chairs), Musical Bumps and Pin the Tail on The Donkey), ate lots of party food and even got party bags!!! There were many laughs too!! It was such a good birthday in the end. The party was so much fun,I enjoyed it a great deal! Thank you to Clair and Simon for holding this party for me!!! You're fab!!
I've got one or two pictures of it:
Playing Pass the Parcel - Cath and James

Ben

Bethan

CAKE!!!!

I'm not really going to write a whole lot today. Just to say Happy Easter. Such a good day!!
I am planning to put up some pictures from my birthday up but will do that when I go back to Glasgow tomorrow and I have my laptop. Just for now though I'll post a picture of two of my favourite Darlo players, Ryan Valentine (of course) and Clark Keltie (I honestly don't know why he is one of my favourites!!). Its taken from yesterdays match which we lost 1-0. Both of them did some really stupid but funny things yesterday and it was really quite amusing!!! I wish we had won that match but we still have a good chance of making the playoffs, especially if we beat Cheltenham tomorrow.
Yesterday morning Mum, Dad and I made a trip to Durham to meet a man who is one of the speakers who does the Summit Summer Conferences (www.summit.org). I am hoping to attend one of these conferences this year in Colorado. They are also held in Ohio and Tennessee. I had e-mailed Mr Bywater because I thought that he would be a good contact seeing as he and his family are staying in Durham just now while he is doing a PhD. So we went to meet him and his family (his wife and 3 daughters). They were really very nice people and very enthusiastic about the Conferences and were really encouraging about it. Now I just have to get my act together and get it booked!!!
So I will fill you in about my birthday very soon when I sort out the pictures!!!!!

Just to update you quickly...... Had the greatest birthday ever, quite unlike how I thought that it was going to be. It really couldn't have been better!!!! Can't believe I'm 20!! Ancient!

Yay, going home today!!!! Just finishing off my essay just now! So excited! Can't wait to be at home again!

Happy Birthday Tig!!!!