Glasgow weekend

Quote: Me (to Lucy)- Walk down the street in Birmingham, and you're looking out for guys who could mug/murder you. Walk down the street in Glasgow and you get Bagpipes!

Song: Nice to be out- Sterophonics

Album: Evanescence- Fallen

Adding a new feature to my blog, Word of the day/week/month, depending on when I think up of them.

Word: Whumped. Pretty self explanatory really. Very onomatopoeic.

So, first of all, apologies for the huge delay between updates, but there hadn't really been much to report back on.

Went up to Glasgow at the weekend to see Lucy. I just needed to get out of the city for a few days. Clear my head. Think some things through. And sometimes you need someone to help you see what you want to do about certain aspects. So yeah, high-tailed it across the border to visit Lucy. And it was so much fun!

Virgin trains are really trying my patience. They keep going on strike! The train before the one that I got had been cancelled... Again... And so there was 2 train loads on one train. I.E it was extremely busy. People sitting in the doorways, in the corridors, couldn't move. But 1st class was pretty much empty. So by the time we got to just shy of Preston, baring in mind a lot of people got on at Crewe as the train didn't go via the midlands, the train was extremely busy in standard, and basically empty in 1st. So one of the train attendants was going down the doorways asking where people were getting off. The guy standing in the doorway was going to Carlisle, and they bumped him up to 1st class. So, naturally, when I said I was staying on the train until Glasgow, they bumped me up to 1st class too!

'Course that didn't really solve the number of people on the train. We got to Lancaster, and the train attendants were only letting people on the train if they were traveling to Glasgow. If they were going to any of the stops before that they were "advised" to wait until the next train. Don't they realise that because the train was full it would put pressure on the following services? And what about the people who had connecting trains at Carlisle? What were they meant to do?!

Oh, speaking of Lancaster, someone got off the train wearing an Aston Uni hoody. Ours is such a small world...

It's nice going up the west coast. Because all the train journeys I've done have either started or ended at Newcastle, bar the day trip to Scarborough, I've only ever gone up the east coast. Which, y'know, helps if looking for landmarks etc, and knowing how long the journey is going to take from what station you're at etc, but the Lake district is extremely nice to travel through. Especially in the evening as the sun is setting over the hills. And ok, I'm going all poetical now...

Got into Glasgow on time. Met up with Lucy. And got the first taste of Glasgow. Of course, the weather decided to pick on me. So whereas Birmingham had been extremely cold, but there hadn't been any snow to show for it, Glasgow had had snow. So I'm thinking, GREAT! Love snow. So when I leave Birmingham there's snow in the air. And when I get to Glasgow there is no snow anywhere. I'm doing the poetic thing again...

But anyway...

Lucy's mates were planning on going out Friday in the evening after I had gotten there, but that fell through in the end. Ah well, maybe next time. I did, however, meet the creepy caretaker dude. I never knew until I met him, however briefly, that he was Irish! And on St. Paddy's day too...

Went out to see the Royal Scottish National Orchestra on Saturday night. When we were "buying" the tickets, this really really cute guy was in the queue behind us. I say "buying" as we were 2 of the 1st 20 students, and so the tickets were free! Gotta love that price... Oh, and going off on a tangent for the moment, when you buy the tickets they take down your Postcode. Luckily they accepted both of them on Lucy's address, cos could you imagine their surprise if I was to give them a Birmingham postcode. I mean, hello, it's not even in the same country! Never mind the same city!

Back to the point... Really really cute guy ended up sitting in front of Lucy for the entire concert. And after the interval we found out that the really really cute guy had an even cuter friend! What?! It was a concert... we had to check out the talent!

Though, speaking of that, there was a solo violinist for a couple of the pieces. And these pieces are HARD! And nigh on near impossible to play on the violin. And this guy was playing the pieces from MEMORY!! I mean, M'UH?! How the fuck did he do it?! Was pretty impressive to see. We were reading his bio that was in the programme in the interval, and he was born in 1986. He's basically our age!! Ok... So more Lucy's age than my age... But still! To be that bloody good at his age is pretty damn impressive!

Saturday night was interesting... At least from my point of view... Went to bed facing the door. Fair enough, it was the way I was sleeping the night before too. I woke up in the morning, about 6ish, and nothing seems out of the ordinary. I'm still lying on the mattress on the floor. I've still got the blankets the right way round. I'm facing towards the wall with my head at the door. I've still got my pillow... I've got my head nearest the door?! WTF?! That wasn't the way I went to bed...

Yeah, somehow, during my sleep, I had re-arranged my bed, taking the blankets and pillows with me, to the other side of the bed. It wasn't that I'd just turned round or fallen off the mattress or any other "normal" thing... I'd sleep-rearranged my bed. That has to be pretty impressive, right?! I mean, it's pitch black, there is no external light at all, so even if I woke up and did it I wouldn't have seen anything. So that was kinda freaky...

Went to the cinema on Sunday. Saw Date Movie. It's the new Alyson Hannigan film. Was actually really good. Sorta a spoof movie of all date movies. And a few non-date movies. So yeah, that was fun. The cinema, by the way, is HUGE!! There's 18 screens, on 6 floors! You have to get the lift or escalator to the floor of the movie. And on the 1st floor there's a bar. Like a proper pub bar. Just there. Because apparently it's perfectly ok to have a pint or whatever in the cinema complex before the film starts if under licensing hours.

And the size of the screens! My god! Think of one of the big screens at the Gate. Then double it. And that's about the size of one of the small screens. We walked in, and I though, wow, this screen must be one of the main ones cos its so big. Lucy turns to me and says "ah, we're only in one of the small screens today." I mean, m'uh! Pretty damn big screens! And the seats were full back armchairs like at the gate too. So yeah... FUCKING BIG CINEMA! Just make sure you turn up well before the showing cos it takes a while to get to the top floor...

Went out to Weatherspoons in the evening before going round taking random photographs of us in Glasgow, sort of a tribute to my visit as it were. Which was cool. Was going to meet the Trio group, but they deferred their meeting till Tuesday, so I didn't get to meet them. Ah well.

Up at 6.30 today to be ready for the train at 7.50. Got back to Birmingham for about 12.10ish. And for the first time ever I needed my ticket to get out of the station. Yeah, I knew I had to have one to get onto the platform complex, but never before have we needed one to get off the platform complex. I mean, what's the point of it?! You've obviously had a ticket to get the train. What are they looking for exactly?!

Had a biochem practical today. Extremely dull. But easy cos it was on the PC, and so once we knew what we were doing it didn't take long. It just would have been nice to have come back and not have to worry about work about 90 minutes after getting into the station. But no matter. It's done now. And it was the last one. So I just gotta finish writing them up. Or, in some cases, start writing them up...Yeah...