Birthdays/Ankle/Friend

Happy Birthday doseybat and dwarrowchild!

Yesterday night I was watering my maranta, whilst standing on the computer chair. Unfortunately when I was getting back down, I misjudged the small jump and landed in a pile of newly-polished shoes (luckily the polish had, by then, dried) and twisted my ankle. Consequently, woke this morning with ankle still rather stiff and somewhat on the swollen and painful side. Was walking with an interesting limp for a while, until the ibuprofen kicked in *loves ibuprofen for such ailments* This improved things considerably.

Then got an unexpected text message from a friend. "Train arrives just after 2 - want to meet up?"

WTF?

I knew he was in Cambidge for his interview this week, but he had led me to think that it was tomorrow he was coming, not today. (By opening an earlier conversation with, "So, what are you doing on the 8th?")

However, apparently he was coming today. Realising I was likely to be playing hostess some, I did a frantic, insane tidying thing, followed by frantic, insane vaccuuming. Room looked mostly tidy when I got out of the door and headed to meet him. Train came sufficiently late to permit the purchase of chips - which were OK but not as good as Death's.

So I toured friend round Cambridge. Showed him Clare and King's and Catz and Trinity and pointed to Emma. Will show him more tomorrow after his interview. Luckily, Trinity sorted him a room for the night, so I don't have to worry about him sleeping on my floor or me having to be up early to let him out. We went to Café Nero for dinner and I got yummy soup and then chocolate orange cake (which disturbingly listed 'mayonnaise' in the ingredients...). Allowed him to munch my bourbon creams, so new pack is on tomorrow's shopping list ;) However, did not let him near the last pack of White Maltesers.

Oh, I got a couple of piccies of Cambridge being pretty. Will post when can be bothered to upload. The ones that should have been best came out blurred though (camera shake with a digital camera is possible!).

Unfortunately, Uli went to bed before friend left, so didn't get much time to talk.
On a lighter note, ibuprofen did a wonderful job of keeping ankle quiet so I could comfortably walk all afternoon :)

Plan now: wash up, write, sleep.

More friend-visits, colour coordination and Trivial Pursuit.

Ankle much better and continues to improve. Is barely sore now, and certainly not stiff or swollen. No painkillers needed/wanted at any point today. So I think I'm OK and I don't think it counts as a 'proper' sprain. :)

Met up with friend and his gf again today, showed them more of Cambridge. Introduced him to Sam Smiley's, the most wonderful sandwich shop in Cambridge. Was intrigued to Mikhail too. Mikhail was at my secondary school - he'd already done all his A-levels and things in Russia, and was spending 3 years in the 6th form at an English school for some reason that was never properly explained to us but seemed to have something to do with him learning English. While I knew him, however, he seemed to have little interest in doing so.

I get the impression that he actually understood far more than he let on. Certainly, he pretended not to understand a word the teacher was saying fairly often in order to get out of doing work. People who can do that intrigue me, as I admit putting up that act would frustrate me almost as much as geninely not understanding would.

He seems to have picked up a LOT of English since I last saw him, is now pretty much fluent and is applying to Trinity. Go him! *wishes she spoke a second language anywhere near remotely well* You guys on LJ who speak English as your second (or third, etc!) language: I am in awe of you. You guys rule.

Also, I think I have invented the whackiest colour combination ever. Bright yellow EOAS T-shirt combined with 'claret and rose' (=maroon and pink) college scarf. Oh, the clash! The clash!

Oh, yes...and in shameless pimpage. The lovely ilyusha_a has been suggesting the wonderful idea of online LOTR Trivial Pursuit, as advertised in her post here. If the idea appeals, do leave a comment on her post cos this could make for a wonderful occasion. Probably an incredibly funny one, I should think :D *is pleased*