‘Sup With Pete

Me and Rich at the Pimm’s Party before the ball

This is the dinner marquee at the Wills Hall Ball

This is the Counterfiet Beetles and the Ferris Wheel from the ball

The Wills Hall Ball

Monday, 19 June 2006

Hello,

I’ll be coming home to Canada, this Saturday June 24th in the evening. I’ll only be come for a couple of days because I’m going back to work at Camp Wayne for the summer. I’m really looking forward to it, and I’ll be home for most of August and September to visit my family.

So what have I been up to since the start of June? Not much really. I had my last exam on June 15th, so basically I’ve been just studying these last few weeks. When I went to the beach at the end of may, that was sort of my last day out.

My exam went pretty well. I was expecting the usual 30 multiple choice questions with short and long answers. Instead, there was only short answer questions and they were all done on the computerized marking sheets (ie. Fill in the blank/text matching questions) – so I was a little over-prepared. I can’t really complain though. So, I’m definitely anticipating a pass. We’re also getting the marks back from our last exam from April, that was postponed marking until the lecturer’s finished their strike. If I should fail (hope not) then I will not be coming home, and staying to do re-sits (keep your finger’s crossed!).

Just before the exam, I was invited up to my friend Rich’s house in North Wales. Because most of the people in my hall had finished exams – it was quite noisy. So we headed out (as did most Medics). Rich’s house is in a place called Pantymwyn, just in from the English-Welsh border near the city of Chester. It was a beautiful house, a great place to study and Rich’s parents were just great – they gave us loads of time to study and cooked us some amazing food (steak, salmon, lasagne, chicken pie, desserts, etc). We also took a few good breaks to watch some of the World Cup Soccer on TV.

After finishing our exams last Thursday, a bunch of the medic’s went to a pub for a few drinks and celebration of finally finishing. Then, I met up with some friends for a BBQ. We were at one of the Halls in Clifton that has wonderful ground (garden’s and hills, etc) and hung out in the rare British sun. Then, I went back to Wills and watched the England vs. Trinidad-Tobago in the world cup, then out to a club with medics and friends.

This Friday was the Wills Hall Ball. It was the big final event for the end of the year. It wasn’t just for Wills, but for anyone who was up for coming (ie. Really big). There’s two big ones here at Bristol, the other one is in the Clifton Halls, which is pretty similar, and it was last night – I just didn’t have the strength to attend 2 of these, or the funds.

We started off at 5:45. It was a Pimm’s party (cocktails) and entertainment (Morris Dancers). Then we headed in for the meal. It started with a champagne reception, then a 3 course dinner of Tomato and Mozzarella Salad some fancy salad, roast guinea fowl and Vanilla Terine for dessert. Very good. Also included was our wine. They had things going on at dinner such as a Jazz band and a string quartet.

At 9:00 the hall opened up for entertainment. So, them meal was mostly for Wills, the Ents were for the other 800 people attending. There was basically 2 big rooms with live music and a huge outdoor tent with bands. They had an awesome headline band called ‘the mackabees’ and the counterfeit beetles. There was also many other Ents such as a Casino, Cotton Candy, Bumper-Cars, a Ferris Wheel, Fire Eaters and a Chip-Wagon. I had one of the best nights of the year – saw loads of people and had tons of fun. I stayed up until 6am, and got to watch the sun come up, and even when I went to bed some of my friends were heading over to play some football until 7am!

So as you can assume, I spent most of Saturday and today recovering. I’m mostly just spending these last few days with friends that are still out and about in Bristol, until we’re all kicked out of Wills this Saturday. I played some tennis yesterday, laid in the sun, and today we had a huge BBQ.

It’s a day late, but I hope all the father’s I know enjoyed father’s day yesterday.

I’ll let you know when I’m home!!!!

Hope all is well,
-Pete

The Grounds at the Wills Hall Ball (outside)

This is us after the sunrise at 6am and a pic of the dining hall before the meal

Me in my suit

Me and Kate on the Ferris Wheel.