Entertainment

I know it's only Thursday tomorrow, but for a student with as little hours as me it's the beginning of the weekend. I have a lecture from 12.15 until 2.15 and that is the end of having to be in college. Now on any other week I would go home and do work and continue to do work over the weekend provided I wasn't either going out or feeling hungover, but this weekend a very old and good friend from Edinburgh is coming down to visit. This means that I have been trying desperately to get my flat clean, do as much work as possible so that I can take the weekend off guilt free and, the most exciting and most challenging, find enough to entertain her for an evening, a morning and two full days. Her flight is due to arrive at 6.45 tomorrow evening which means that she'll probably arrive in Carmarthen train station between 9.30 and 10. The length of her journey depends on the terrible bus system between Cardiff airport and train station/town centre. There is no internet access, as far as I am aware, for bus times to and from the airport so it really is a matter of arriving in enough time to be able to miss the bus and catch the next one. When this bus comes hourly, as it does Saturdays and Sundays, this requires leaving a lot of time. It's every half hour on weekdays which isn't much better. And with Arriva trains fixing the tracks, or whatever they've been doing for the past 2 and a half years or more, on a Sunday it means that Sunday is a write off for travelling. It is impossible to go anywhere on a Sunday. So if I was getting a flight at 3 in the afternoon on a Friday, one of the easiest days in the week as the bus comes every half hour, I would have to leave hours. I would have to arrive an hour, an hour and a half early, so let's say 1.30. This means the latest bus I could get from the train station, which takes half an hour to get there, would be at 1. The bus comes every half hour, but I don't know when exactly so I would have to get there to catch a 12.30 bus so that it would definitely come in between then and 1 and I would get there on time. Of course once my friend did this and the bus didn't turn up at all and she had to catch a £30 taxi, but in this hypothetical situation let's imagine the bus, as useless as it is, at least arrives on time. In order to get to the station at 12.30 I would have to get a train from Carmarthen at around 10.15. So for a 3 o'clock flight I would have to leave my house at 9.45. And this is on a quick day. The maths is far too much for me on a slow Sunday. And forget travelling in the morning as the bus is not 24 hour. At all. So in general it is completely useless so if it's winter wrap up warm and make sure you have something to keep you entertained and away from frustration.
As I was saying, she arrives at 6.45pm, it will probably take up at 3 hours to get home, so let's amend my original time to between half 9 and half 10. That seems reasonable.

So there won't be too much to do that evening. It is a shame she isn't arriving earlier as it is the last performance of 'From Morn till Midnight' by the non touring half of BA3 Theatre and Performance. I live with two theatre girls; one Acting and one Theatre Studies and they have been in two separate groups over the first terms back and so far until the week after next when they join together to do one main production of 'Alice through the Looking Glass'. The 3rd year splits up into two groups; one goes on tour and the other does main house at the college's Halliwell Theatre. Then they change over. Before Christmas they did 'The Handmaid's Tale' as a touring piece and 'Playhouse Creatures' for main house. Last week there was a performance of 'Be my Baby' which has been on tour for almost two weeks now and yesterday I went to see 'From Morn till Midnight' which is also on tonight and tomorrow evening at the Halliwell Theatre. I saw it last night and although there are places which need working on there are moments of brilliance. It is a shame that my friend will arrive far too late to take her to it. We will probably just go for a drink.
We have the whole day on Friday however so I plan to take her out in town, show her around in the day. If it is a nice day maybe take a train to the beach which is also a possibility for Saturday although the weather doesn't look too great, showers and clouds have been forecast. Friday evening will probably be spent drinking, either heading down to town or going to the union as always. I haven't been to the union for almost a month however so as long as there are a lot of people out then I will be there. Otherwise town. Or maybe both. On Saturday I was thinking a day trip to Swansea to have a hungover lunch and watch a movie. This was only my plan as of yesterday when I found out that 'Be Kind Rewind' comes out in the cinemas this weekend. I highly suggest visiting the site by the way as it's very entertaining which bodes well for the film. Michel Gondry, the director of 'Be Kind Rewind' also directed 'The Science of Sleep' and 'Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind'; two absolutely stunning films. This one stars Jack Black which has put me off a little bit as although I have nothing against Jack Black as a slapstick type comedian I don't see him up there with Gabriel Garcia Marquez and other kooky actors. But then I have never rated Jim Carey and his performance in 'Eternal Sunshine...' is wonderful. Regardless of my preconceptions I honestly believe this film will be incredibly entertaining.

In the middle of writing this blog I was interrupted by the friend that is visiting me and after reeling off various plans she seemed to agree with the aforementioned one. This is excellent. I do hope the beach works out at some point although I did go to Tenby last Saturday once is just not enough.

More sun I say.