Hullo all! Sorry about [another] leave of absence from this place, but I am now mostly settled at home, and have a shiny shiny new Acer lappy with a star-trek-esque media control thingy down the side More importantly, it can cope with this site, so I can begin the mass gallery browsing that is long overdue.

Friday night was the long-awaited Magdalen College Commemoration Ball - at my uni each college holds their own summer ball, and the big colleges, like mine, rotate so they're every three years. Since I have a three year course, that means I only get one ball at my own college, so this was pretty special. I pulled out all the stops, with a dress in my college colours, splashing out for the dining ticket, and dragging ~AdmiralRob along with me. It's a white tie do, so he was all dressed up too in a tail coat and his pocket watch. Looking stunning of course

~AdmiralRob and I arrived early, so had the president's garden, the string quartet, and the champagne all to ourselves for narly half an hour, before everyone else turned up. The dinner was in the Hall and was superb - an 8 course extravaganza with 4 separate wines. Sadly we weren't sitting next to anyone I knew, but hey. The menu was spectacular: mock turtle soup, prawn cocktail and a whole crayfish, rabbit tureen, guineafowl and pork ragout, followed by rose petal water ice to clear the palate, before a venison main course, and a victorian cherry jelly for pudding, with chocolate dipped cherries, and the cheese platter to finish. We were so full! It was such a posh event - each course was announced and then paraded around the hall by a chef to applause, things like the antlers, or the large crayfish for the top table, and there were 4 separate toasts. Though we didn't get the full sung 4 part latin grace like we do on Sunday formals! *rolls eyes*

After dinner we wandered out into college, to join the other 1,500 guests, amongst the flowers and the smells and sounds, and the buildings drenched in coloured light. There was so much to do, we just didn't have time for it all! There was a circus of acrobats, with slack-rope walkers, crazy chinese jugglers, an aerial silk artist just to begin with. There was a whole lineup of comedians, culminating in Reginald D Hunter, who although I dislike on Have I Got News For You, is quite a good standup, and I know is pretty popular. There were more bars than we knew what to do with, with champagne at every turn. There was more food than we could possibly have eaten [especially after that dinner!] - doughnuts and icecream, oysters, chocolate fountains [including chilli chocolate!], truffles, cupcakes, and all the usual "mains". We had the traditional ball fayre too, with a casino, a photographer, and shisha. On top of that, we had dodgems too! The music was superb - jazz and bands all night long, even with a silent disco to end the night. And we were unbelieavbly lucky with the main band we got - t'was Feeder! ~AdmiralRob and I made it right to the front row, in all our finery, me in my 3 inch, ribbon-tied high heels somehow, and my ears are still ringing from being so close to the speaker stack. They were so good - I've seen them 4 times now and they're awesome every time. Then we had The Pipettes, who were good fun too. Oh and halfway through the night we also had the most spectacular fireworks display, accompanied by the 1812 Overture - played by a full live orchestra of course

By the end of the night we were exhausted, but breakfast was served at 3.30, as the sun was beginning to rise. Salmon on canapé bagels, bacon butties, coffee, tea, pastries, all the usual, and we sat in front of the pink-lit New Building, by the colonnade, before moving to Cloisters to chat and listen to the remains of the jazz band, until the Survivors' Photo at 5am. It was a really misty morning, but weather-wise we'd been really lucky, 'cos earlier that day there'd been a massive downpour of a thunderstorm, which poor ~AdmiralRob and I got caught in on our run to the bus stop that morning I was so worried that I had got my dress wet and ruined it but somehow it was ok. We were soaked to the skin, and still so wet an hour and a half later when we arrived in Oxford that we had to buy new clothes in Primark. Not good. Thankfully, as the song goes: "things could only get better" [and yes I know that's a misquote, sh ].

So I now have another 2 wristbands to add to my collection, hurrah

Anyhoo, I have to run now. New series of Top Gear on in 5 minutes
See you all soon!

Dweia xhxhx