2:1

So I'm officially a graduate. I got an upper second-class degree which is exactly what I had been hoping for so I'm happy.

Also, I'm in Malta (sorry for the silence since leaving the UK) and have been for a week and a half now. In that time Mark and I have celebrated our anniversary and Ash has come over to spend a week here. He's leaving tomorrow. Part of me is happy about that and part of me is sad. On the one hand it will mean that Mark and I can spend some time relaxing and not running around everywhere, we can go on a well overdue shopping trip that wouldn't have been able to happen with Ash here. But the time with Ash has been a lot of fun, we've been to loads of places, enjoyed nights out and cooking for ourselves. I guess it's also a great benefit to working out how it will be when Mark and Ash move in together in a month and a half's time.

Our anniversary was one of fairly normal proportions. We spent time relaxing, which was something neither of us had been able to do since I arrived. We went out to a couple of places, shopping a little bit, then out for dinner that night. And what a dinner it was! We went to a Thai restaurant called "The Blue Elephant". This has special significance as the first of the collectible glass animals (that Mark got me) from Mdina glass was a blue elephant. The place was like walking into a different world where the staff make you feel like a queen and the food is divine. I guess that's no surprise, though, when the place has been given 5 stars for years and the "most romantic restaurant in Malta" award on top of that.

At the end they even gave me an orchid sprig.

I bought a small blue elephant from their gift-shop.

Plans For Summer

As the title suggests, in this post I am going to talk about what I'm doing this summer and what I plan to have done by the end of it.

Truth be told, I am far far behind on my summer writing project, but I am going to try and make headway with it while in Malta this year. I'm hoping that the change of scenery will help clear and focus my mind. This room is so small now, and, though adorned in all sorts of decoration, seems to have a little left to offer me in way of inspiration. I wonder if my imagination has grown small, or has been sucked dry by my Uni work. The latter is more likely, my imagination would be hard-pushed to wither at this stage of development, and my dreams are as vivid as ever.

Consequently, this summer, I have a whole load of books set up to be read. I also plan to have one on the go all the time from now on. If I'm honest I'll say that being told what to read and when to read it by has had a negative effect on me. I get the same thing with films, if people say I need to see something I immediately do not want to see it; however, this state of mind only lasts if I get told I need to see it often (this is what happened with the film Fight Club as well as the Uni books). For two years I have only been able to read in the summer, if at all. Last year I read The Timetraveler's Wife which was forced upon me by Hayley, possibly the only exception to the "Need to do" rule.

Here is the list of books I would like to read this summer:

• Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
• The Hunger Games - Suzanne Collins
• Watership Down - Richard Adams (this will be a multiple re-read, I love this book, it's probably my favourite).
• Ghosts of Ascalon - Matt Forbeck and Jeff Grubb (seriously, I should've read this one already being the Guild Wars whore I am).
• Assassin's Apprentice - Robin Hobb

Hopefully with this much reading going on (and a change of scenery) I'll gain enough inspiration to start writing again.

I leave for Malta in three days. Hopefully I'll have a fair amount to post about from then on. I may not have time to post it though. 

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