Seachain an duine a bhíonn ina thost

The ball was superb. I love getting dressed up in all my finery (although it's less fine now Sam has spilt wine on it: dry cleaners here I come). My gloves added a touch of class to the occasion, and my jacket was very welcome as the night got colder. My feet are still sore from my shoes, though, and I seem to have done something to my knee. It was a bit sore yesterday, and now aches quite a lot.

I spent most of Saturday afternoon getting ready for the ball. I went for breakfast in 'Spoons, then had a very pleasant stroll back down the High Street, waltzing to accordion music with Chris (it was just so French) and stopping in Thorntons for a delicious lemon and mint ice-cream cone. My dress need alteration (I've lost weight since I last wore it three years ago), so I spent some time getting that right. I think I did it quite well, although I'm going to go take the stitching out in a minute so the dress doesn't get marked. Gran could probably alter it better next time it needs doing. I taught Robbie how to use a curling tongs so he could do the back of my hair: it was far too complicated trying to do it in a mirror.

The pre-ball reception was lovely. A big buffet (always my favourite part), lots of wine and all sorts of people to chat to. I had a nice chat with the Vice-Chancellor about radio, then inadvertently called him old. Oops. I also spoke to one of the Pro-Vice Chancellors who seemed quite nice. We had an in-depth chat about something-or-other, I can't remember. Oh, Seren. He's a lecturer in the English department, you see.

The ball itself was a flurry of chatting to people, going on the big wheel, and sitting on the balcony while Sam fell over repeatedly. I stayed until the end, but felt quite zombie-like. Breakfast was disappointing: Mike's was full (my fault for being so slow and forgetting to get my bag from the balcony) so we went to Dylan's where we had a pretty boring bap with sausage and bacon. It was too boring to finish.

But this is something I want to rant about briefly. Ball night in Bangor is a pretty big night out. Like it or not, there are a lot of very drunk people and a minority of people taking drugs. There are drunken ladies walking through University Park on their own in the dark. All sorts of things. So what do Bangor police do with their van? They park it outside Mike's Bites to stop both Mike's and Dylan's serving hot food before 5am (they'd advertised that they would be serving food from 3am onwards, apparently a breach of their licence). Really now, who cares if they serve food two hours early? Isn't hot food a good thing to serve to people who are a little the worse for wear? And is that really, truly the best use of police resources on ball night?