Flying Visit

Quote: This 9 year old on the train: daddy, what’s a Virgin?
Rest of the carriage in hearing distance starts laughing. The poor dad is completely speechless.
Random guy on the train: A train no-one has ridden on before.
Rest of the carriage: more giggling.
Bless her.

Album#1- 3 Doors Down- Away from the Sun
Album#2- Anna Nalick- Wreak of the Day

Song#1- 3 Doors Down- Here Without You
Song#2- Anna Nalick- In the Rough

So I haven't updated in a while… but it’s me, were you really expecting me to?!

Just to inform you all on my current virus state of my laptop… it’s spread to the printer setup or something, cos I tried to print a document earlier, and it won’t print it. Or delete the pending jobs. Oh, and now the title bar of Word is in its usually deactivated shade rather than its normal deeper blue activated shade.

What else… oh yeah, my iTunes is screwed. I mean, it plays the songs well enough, with minor skipping, but that’s about it at the moment. I was copying a CD for Mark and Mike, but it was late, so I put the CD on my laptop on the Friday night to copy it on the Saturday morning to pass on later that day. Turned my laptop on, and yeah, the CD tracks I put on the night before weren't there. At all. I put on oh, 5 albums I think on the Friday. None of which are there now. So, Saturday when I re-imported them, I thought I’d update my iPod then, cos if they then didn’t stay on my laptop at least they’d be on my iPod, and yeah, it wouldn’t update. So I spent all that time putting the CD tracks on my laptop and now they ain't there.

Um yeah, I think that’s all on the laptop front…

So I had a tkd grading on Thursday. And you know how I say I had a grading and then go on about how shit I was and how I don’t think I’d pass etc etc? Well this time, the EXAMINER thought we were crap… and told us so. Oh yeah, we suck! Lol. I mean, it WAS only one little bit of the grading. There was the odd thing he was correcting later on, but then that’s what normally happens. So we were expecting that. And because of the way we’d been lined up at the start of the grading, when it came for his comments and pointers, he used the person at the front of the middle row to demonstrate the correct position. And it just so happened to be me.

I got a bruise from the grading. And yeah, ok, it IS tkd, you normally get them. It comes with the sport. Only this is kinda strange. Someone, not sure who, stood on my foot for all of, oh, a second maybe? And yeah, at the time it sorta hurt, but was more a surprise than anything. So after the grading, we all head out to the pub. And I’m walking over and thinking actually my foot is still a little sore. Ah well, it’ll be fine in the morning.

Yeah… in the morning woke up, totally forgot about my foot until it came to put my shoe on, and realised my foot was actually a little swollen. Had a look, and there was the beginning of a nice big bruise covering half my foot. But hey, it happens. Again, didn’t think too much of it, went to uni.

It was only later that night when I got home and took my shoe off that I realised that the guy must have stood on the ligament joining the metatarsal to the toe. Because my foot was purple. It’s now an interesting shade of blue/green. And less swollen, even though I've been walking an awful lot over the weekend.

So… I came home at the weekend. And I'm sorry for those who I didn’t tell, but it was literally a spur of the moment thing. I woke up on Friday morning, sent a text to my mum asking if I could go home, and when she said yes I got on the first train I could get to Newcastle after my lectures. Incidentally, it’s costing me the exact same to book the tickets to come home in 2 weeks 2 months in advance as it was to turn up on the day. So um, yeah, not sure how the heck that works out, but it did.

I didn’t realise till I had arranged everything that I actually had a 2000-3000 report to write this weekend. So the plan was to write it on the train going up to Newcastle, then work in the evening when I was there until it was finished, because then it would be out of the way. So I wrote it on the Sunday afternoon/evening and on the train back to Birmingham this morning. But I got the word count to something like 2,750, and it actually sounded pretty good if I do say so myself. I apparently work best under pressure…

So anyway, yeah, I was home over the weekend. And it was what I needed. Uni has been sorta getting to me a bit. And it’s not one thing in particular really; just lots of things that on their own are about manageable, but on mass just make me feel down. So I went home to cheer myself up.

So I get on the train, and it’s running about 15 minutes late. But hey, it happens. So I’m standing at the back of the crowd, when it comes over the tannery that the train has had a platform alteration, and is now departing from the next platform over. But it’s on the same strip of concrete that we’re already at, just on the other side. So then everyone who was at the back of the crowd was at the front of the crowd. And the platform is heaving with people. The train that left before was going to Nottingham via Derby, but they couldn’t fit everyone onto it. So people travelling to Derby got on the next rain that stopped there, which just so happened to be ours. So this train is jammed full of people.

Now because I was one of the first on the train, I was lucky enough to get a seat. So I’m sitting opposite this dad with his two kids of 9 and 7 sitting across the isle from me. And we’re all chatting on. And I find out that they’ve been on a train since 10 that morning, cos they were going home to Harrogate from Penzance. But you wouldn’t have thought they’d been on a train for 6 hours with another 2 hours to go by their behaviour. They were little angels.

So the journey’s going ok, and we catch up the 15 minutes we were down by Sheffield. And then someone comes and kicks me out the seat I was in, which is fair enough cos they had reserved it and I hadn’t. So I’m going to say goodbye, when the dad says that he’s fine with me sitting with the girls. So I'm sitting with these 2 lasses, and then one of them asks to sit on my knee. So I check with the dad, and he’s fine with it, so I'm sitting with this lass on my knee. And then, because things like to break down when I'm around, we stop, about 5 minutes outside Wakefield Westgate. And that’s about 10 minutes from Leeds where the 3 of them are getting off. So, sitting, chatting on, and I take my iPod out my pocket cos it was starting to dig into my hip. The kids see it, and we end up going through the music I have on it.

And I have basically EVERYTHING on it. So I’m scrolling through the artists I have, and get to Bon Jovi. The 9 year old goes “Oh, Bon Jovi, I like his stuff!” I swear to god, I wanted to keep her. She was 9 years old, and not only had heard of Bon Jovi, but liked him too!

So, after about 20 minutes, the train manager comes on over the tannery to explain the situation. Apparently there was a red signal on the stretch of line cos someone had stolen a signalling cable. Um… WTF?! They stole a SIGNALLING CABLE?! How the hell did they steal it? More to the point… Why the hell would they steal it?! We were told that it was the whole line that had been affected. So get into Leeds, and usually Leeds is one of the busiest stations, due to all the business trips etc that go there. So a load of people get off, but only a few people get on. Came to the conclusion other trains must have come through, thus not many people left to get the hour late train.

Anyway, the kids I've been sitting with are standing in the aisle waiting for the train to pull into the station, and you get the quote at the top of the post. Bless her.

So from there train heads on time an hour late… if that makes sense… at least it did as far as York. Pull into the station, happen to look out the window, and the train on the next platform over is the Virgin train to Edinburgh… and I happen to know that that train would have left Birmingham at 17.03, cos the 16.30 train only goes as far as Newcastle. So we watch this train pulling into the station, and then we watch the train leave the station. Ahead of us. Yeah… cos the rest of the line was affected… sure…

Anyway, once I finally got home I got caught up on the micro-soap that is my family life. See, I hadn’t heard from my mum for about 2 ½ weeks, and bar a 10 minute MSN convo, I hadn’t spoken to my dad since coming down. So it felt like I was cut off. And apparently I was!

My dad has been seeing Jan for oh, about 18 months, possibly longer. And now she’s looking to call it off, because of some other issues with her kids or something… I don’t know the whole story there. Meanwhile, my mum has been seeing this guy for god knows how many years, and has been looking to call it off for a few months, but has then always backed down. So he was round my mum’s a couple of weeks ago, and my mum’s mate Penny phoned up about going to their 25th graduation party. My, being mum, decided to wind up her guy a bit by joking that she was looking for a guy. It’s nothing that he hasn’t done to her in the past sorta thing.

Anyway, that totally backfired. So mum got Penny to send him a text saying she was only joking etc. But penny has never really liked the whole situation anyway. So along with this text saying she was only joking, she added on this whole essay about how he treats her like dirt, he isn't fit to shine her shoes etc etc, really upsetting him. So now their relationship is on the rocks. And not only did Penny do this to the guy she has met all of once, but she gave my mum an ultimatum. Either she goes to Bristol with her and lets the text go, or she doesn’t and that’s the end of their friendship.

Now, ultimatums at the best of times are one of the worse things you can have. But when one of the options is to lose the friend you’ve had since you were 19, I mean, we’re talking about 30 years of friendship here, that’s tough. So I don’t know what’s going to happen there. And normally Penny s lovely. She’s like my honouree aunt or something. But apparently this isn't the only thing that has been discussed by her and my mum over the last 2 years. Penny doesn’t seem to like the fact that my parents are still on talking terms and help each other out. I'm sorry; she wants the 3 of us to choose between our parents?! I mean what the hell?! Just because her marriage dissolved in a god awful way doesn’t mean that our family is the same. I mean, her kids haven't seen their father in over a year. My parents live 3 miles away from each other!

So yeah, much drama happening with them. And I finally found out why Judi didn’t like Jan. And a load of other stuff that I ain't posting, cos it was confidential. But I have to say I'm impressed with the sheer amount of crap that she’s found out about over the last few years. Apparently we ain't as good as hiding things from her as we thought we were, but she’s better at hiding what she does know from us.

Met up with people on Saturday. Um, got yelled at by this wanna be charv on the bus. Stupid cow. Went to the pub. Met up with more people. Stopped over at dads, cos Judi was having a Halloween party, and then went to town to meet up with yet more people on the Sunday. So yeah, actually, now that I think bout it, for it to be a total spur of the moment thing I got to see a load of people!

And those who I didn’t see, and hey, maybe some that I did, I am coming back up in 2 weeks anyway, so I’ll try to meet up with ya’ll then, k?

My room is a shit tip. I'm not surprised, I mean, it was on Friday, and apparently there isn't such a thing as a cleaning fairy in Birmingham… at home its great, I come back and my room is clean… maybe I left a Hoover under my pillow there or something… So yeah, I think I’m gonna head off and try to make something akin to headway in this room, whilst listening to my new CD. Thanks mark for that btw.

Oh, one last thing. I was wondering if people could have a look and see if they have any photos of me from recent years. See, I came up with an idea for my parents Christmas gift. I am extremely poor this year, and as such don’t expect anything more than a card really from me, cos I cant afford presents. Sorry. Anyway, to save a little bit of money I decided to make my parents a calendar. Cos I know you can get these kits where you draw the pics on them yourself. So I thought of making one for each parent using photos of me and Judi and Mark from various ages, in singles and as a groups of us. But the thing is, I don’t have all that many pics of me from recent years. I've got enough of me from when I was younger, but I need some more older ones. If you do find some, can you drop me a line? Thanks.

Yeah… that’s definitely it now.

Bowling

Quote#1- Alun- It’s Karma. You get a strike, the next time you go they don’t fall down. (Proceeds to get a spare-strike-strike run…)

Quote#2- Alun- I wanna start a fight.
- Me (slightly worried) why?
- Alun- Just to see what the reaction would be.

Link #1- http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendID=48353898
Click on any of the songs and listen to the lyrics! Personal favourites are “Carrot juice is murder”, and the “Happy Happy Birthday song” If you’re not in tears after listening to them, then you’re more crazy than I am!

Hey there. Please bear with me, as I am suffering the effects of eating way too much sugar in way too short a time, and am currently extremely hyper. God help me when the sugar wears off…

How do I know I’m on a sugar high? Something tells me that eating a ½ pint of jelly in about 10 minutes isn't the most sensible thing to do. Hehehe… I can’t stop giggling!! I was eating it, laughing as it kept falling off my spoon! There’s just something about jelly that makes me worse than a 3 year old. At Disneyland. With ADD.

Um, what have I been up to? Oh. Went bowling. Was sorta fun. We were meeting in the pub at half 6, and because I’m me, I got there for about 20 past or so I guess. Had a drink, and then at about 25 to 7 or so, Alun arrives. And we’re sitting, having a chat, looking at the time, wondering where the hell everyone else is! So then at about quarter to, we wonder up to the gym to see if anyone didn’t get the amended meeting place and time. But no-one was there, so we wandered back. By which time, Craig and Emma had appeared at the pub.

Craig was the one who had organised it, and so at least knew who we were still waiting for and who was going to meet us there. Turned out that we were only waiting for a couple more people, and then everyone else who was going was going to meet us there. So had another drink while we waited, and then once we all arrived we headed for a taxi.

Now here is the crazy thing. We were going bowling at Star City. This big complex of a casino, a cinema, a bowling alley, a few other things, and restaurants. And it’s about a 10 minute walk away from my house. So I’ve left the house, caught the train into town, walked to uni where the pub is, waited for everyone else to show, only to get a taxi to the place 10 mins walk away from where I live… yup, I can see the logic…

And not only that, but the common taxi’s we can get from the uni are only 5 seater ones, and there’s 6 of us. So we have t get 2 taxi’s, cos the driver wouldn’t let one of the lasses sit on one of the guys laps. M’eh. Probably a good thing I guess.

Anyway, once we all got there, bowling to a back seat to the arcade-y bit. So, after watching everyone losing money on various machines, and another drink, we headed bowling. Which was kinda fun. We had the barriers up, when the other team didn’t, and they got all put out, calling us cheats, until they found the switch that pulled the barrier up on their lane!

Craig is an interesting fellow. He’s the one who doesn’t quite get the whole concept of “no-contact” in sparring, and has a very strange bowling technique. You all know the discus at the Olympics? Replace the big beefy guy with an average 5’11 ish guy. Replace the nice big field with a bowling alley. Finally replace the discus with a light bowling ball, and you have the technique. It was pretty good the few times he did it that way, bouncing along the barrier, knocking over, oh, 1 skittle… until this time that he did it, it went down the next lane over, totally missed the skittles but it registered it as a go on their game. You should have seen his face!

The ironic thing I, Alun, when he first arrived at the pub, had told me that he wanted to start a fight that night. (Fills you with confidence really, doesn’t it? “Me 6”6 man. Me black belt. Me fight!” Only not like that, cos he’s lovely really…) so this guy comes over to Craig in a whole “What do you think you’re doing?!” way, and Alun, calm as you like, stands up next to him and asks Craig if he’s coming to tkd training the next day. Suddenly the guy is all “Ah don’t worry about it mate. That was really funny. Hahaha”

The rest of us by this time have told the other team what happened, and we’re all in various stages of laughing our asses off! Ah bless.


So had a couple games bowling. Yelled at inanimate objects that failed to fall down. Drank some more. Finished bowling, went back to the arcade-y bit… drank some more… and then headed back. Now, like I said before, there was 6 of us for the taxi, so this time we phone us and book one for 6. And we wait. And wait. And wait some more. Eventually, Craig gets fed up of waiting, and goes in search of a taxi. Comes back with a 5 seater, only this driver is perfectly happy for the 6 of us to squeeze into a 5 seater. I point out just how close I am to home at this point, saying I’ll just walk, there’s no point in me getting it etc. Only Alun and Craig wouldn’t hear of it. (There is a chance at this point that I am slightly tipsy, what with the doubles and no food aspect of the drink’s I had.)

So I ended up getting a taxi back to uni with everyone else. And then I had to walk about 10 mins or so through the middle of Birmingham at 11 at night to catch the last train home. By myself. Yes, cos that’s MUCH safer than me walking the 10 mins home from Star City…

But overall it was a cool night. And now it feels like I’m about to crash, so I’m posting this bit now. And I’ll post the rest when I write it sometime tomorrow… Or I would have posted it, but Blogger wont load up… so I’ll post the rest of this later on today!

Filling in Time

Song#1- River's Dance- Firefly Soundtrack
Song#2- Hit The Road Jack- Ray Charles
Song#3- Chicken Wings- The Beautiful South

Album#1- Firefly Soundtrack
Album#2- Serenity Soundtrack
Album#3- Garden State Soundtrack

Link#1 http://www.i-am-bored.com/bored_link.cfm?link_id=15082
(Ok... so i don't know how to change the format to say what it is like i know other people can...) Just seriously, go here. And make sure you have the volume on. But not too loud...

Um... hey.

Welcome to Birmingham. Today's weather is Grey and Drizzly and down right deprressing. Ah, feels like home!

I have no idea what I'm writing in this post, but I have about an hour 20 mins to kill before my practical, so I might as well spend some of it telling you all what I've been up to. Um... Sleeping, Eating, almost throwing my laptop out of the window. Repeatedly... Um... yeah...

Actually I did go to town on Saturday. I needed some bread and milk, and I could have walked the 15 mins each way to the shops in Erdington, or I could catch the train into town for 10 mins where there is a huge Tesco about 2 mins walk from the station. And cos I now have a rail card that is actually IN DATE! I decided to do the latter... (OK... cos i was feeling lazy i decided to do the latter, happy now?!)

Yeah... maybe if I'd dome the former it would have saved me a bit of money... Cos I kinda sorta went into Virgin. And bought the Garden State soundtrack. And the Definitive Ray Charles.

(And as a side note... I know he is one of the best musicians ever. I'm not doubting that. What he did music wise was revolutionary. I just never really "got" it. And then Mark leant me "Ray", which I admit, I was in two minds to watch, but I did anyway, and am glad I did. Cos now I can't stop listening to it! Except when listening to other stuff...)

Anyway, to get to Tesco after leaving Virgin, the most direct route kinda sorta takes you through HMV... if you go the wrong way... And I may have sorta bought the Firefly and Serenity Soundtracks... Um... yeah...

I wish to take this oppotunity to blame Mark for this little spending spree!! Cos I remember him saying he'd copy them for me. In March or so. I got tired of waiting for them!!! So yeah... Totally his fault!! :P

I keep buying food. It's not good. I'm going to get fat!! Except I should be able to burn some of it off tonight at TKD, cos of the way my timetable plays out, I have a lab till 6 tonight, and then tkd starts at 6.30. So I wont be able to eat before heading to that tonight. So that should burn off some calories. Course I'll be putting then all back on as soon as it's finished cos we'll be heading to the pub straight after.

Oh, we're going bowling tomorrow. At some point. It was Neil's birthday on Sat, so it's a club celebration for him. Should be cool. Assuming it's actually a success and people show up... Yeah...

Got my next grading on Thursday week. And I found out last session (I think it was then...) that we're not doing breaking in it. Cos a couple fo months ago, this lass was kicking through an inch of wood, it splintered, and she got a piece in her eye. So until they work out how t stop that from happening, they ain't letting us break. Which is a shame, but in another way it's ok, cos I was neve all that confident about breaking anyway. So there's that.

My laptop is FUBAR. Well, maybe not FUBAR, but definately FU! I put the albums I bought onto it to copy for Lucy (See, I'm NICE! I do that!) and then the next day i went to play them, and it was like they were never on it in the first place. Was NOT impressed!!

And my messenger has decided on a new trick of signing me out without telling me that it's about to sign me out. So I think that whoever I'm talking to has gone quiet, and yeah, sometimes that happens so I don't read anything into it. Until I go to say somethign, and THEN it decides to tell me, Oh BTW, you can't write a message cos you ain't signed in!! It's VERY annoying!!

Right. I'm signing off here. I think that's everything...

Just a quicky

Ok... I'm blogging. No idea WHAT I'm blogging, but whatever it is is going to go up within the next hour, cos I gotta catch a train then. Not going anywhere exciting really. Just tkd. And I would catch the bus... except its more expensive, is further to walk to the stop (30 yards as apposed to 5) and they're less often than the trains. 'Course on the flip side they stop right outside uni whereas the train stops about a 10 minute walk from uni. And then you have to add on the walking to the other side of the campus...

Anyway...
Found out it's Neil's (my TKD instructor) birthday on Saturday. October is becoming almost as common as June is for birthdays! Got my mum's, sister, TKD instructors, Jeff, and I'm pretty sure I'm missing someone from that list, but I can't remember who.

Hmmm... Must remember to get tax exemption certificate tomorrow. Landlord has just called round to say he's been billed for it, and can we get the certificates to him ASAP... Meaning I have to actually GET the certificate to send to him ASAP... Yeah...

Ain't been sleeping well these last couple of weeks. Nightmares basically every night. It's strange, I can go months or years without any, and then I get them for a week-3 weeks everynight or so. But saying that I haven't had any for the past 2 nights, so I might be over them now. Which would be nice. Be able to get a decent night's sleep for once... Well, assuming you call going to bed at about 3am night...

Had a chat with my mum earlier. She went away to London a couple of weeks ago for the weekend. I think I mentioned this. I can't remember. If I have... I'm mentioning it again! :P Sounds like she's really enjoyed it. Apparently her A****** has booked them to go down around January time. What he doesnt realise is that unless he gets his head out of his butt, he aint going to be in the picture in January, and so there wouldn't have been any point in booking it. According to her, the only reason she ain't got rid of him yet is cos he aint got her a birthday present. I'm not sure how inclined I am to believe that she will get rid of him when the present never matierialises like they haven't for the past couple of years.

But that's her life I guess. And it's not like I have the final say in who she can and can't date.

So, it's my sister's birthday tomorrow. (That does NOT mean you get to take her out and get her drunk Mark!! Don't think I don't know what you were thinking!) I feel old. She's going to be 17. She'll be able to learn to drive. God... that's a scary thought!

'Course this year is the first year in a while that she hasn't been looking forward to her birthday, but more the day after it. She's going to Iowa. The exhange thing that school does. That I didn't get to do. (I'm not jealous... *turns green*) But she's really looking forward to it. Can't say I can blame her really. Apparently in that part of Iowa, the kids can learn to drive when they're 14, cos it's so rural. It makes it easier for them to get to school if they can just drive in. There was an information evening about the trip last week, and on the letter there was a list of do's/don't's. Things like "don't go off with some random person withoout telling anyone." "If you want to join in on some of the sports they have there you'll be allowed to, just ask." "Don't come back with an American accent." "Don't go off driving with anyone."

According to my mum, there is also a chance for them to join in with Cheerleading. I wish I was there to see her eyes light up at that. Cos she'll be doing that. No doubt about it. And she has the body and the attitude to do it. Again... I'm not jealous...

Anyway, enough about her. I'm sure you all care about what she's up to and the rest of it... But this is MY blog dammit! If you want more info about what she's up to... go ask her. Ok, don't... cos that'll be weird. lol.

What else have I been up to? Actually, come to think about it, not that much. I get up (eventually), I go to uni (except today, cos I have no lectures...) I come home, I go online, maybe watch a film, and go to bed. Um, yeah...

OH! Wait... I remember something I can say. About, oh, 8 months ago, Lucy found an online quiz called Qwyzzle. basically it's 100 levels of logic puzzles. And we introduced it to Mark. And we got kinda, um, obsessed is the word I think. Anyway, the clever people that they are (as far as I'm aware...) stopped trying to complete it in about February. I gave up in about March I think. Only cos I couldn't get a level. It was driving me crazy. And then I had little things like exams to deal with... Anyway, the other day, I was tiding up my laptop, deleting old favourites etc, and I came across it. And, like the idiot I am, I got sucked back in. And I finally got the level. And the remaining 8. And I'm finished it!! woohoo!!

I could put the link up to get everyone else addicted, but i'm not that mean so I wont. Just something I thought I'd mention. Course now it makes me sound completely sad... but wtf. I dont care!! However... I DO care that the site on Lucy's blog has picked on my size. I would like to take this oppotunity to say that yes, I am small. I have come to accept this fact of life and move on. That beong said, I am NOT smaller than an osterich's eye!! If I was, I'd be very very afraid of the size of the overall Osterich!

Crap... I gotta run or I'll be late for TKD. later peeps.

From Italy to now

Was hoping to have this up sooner, but well, you all know me. I was too busy hacking into other people’s accounts to be able to post anything… hehehe.

But I’ve been told off for that now, so it shouldn’t happen again.
:(

And I could have just posted this as 2 separate posts, but this way everything at least GET’S posted!

Song#1- Jack Johnson- Bubble Toes. (For no other reason than the lyrics La da da da da da... I’m easily pleased…)

Song#2- Pink- Dear Mr. President

Song#3- Red Hot Chili Peppers- Death Of A Martian

Album#1- Panic! At the Disco- A Fever You Can’t Sweat Out

Album#2- Feeder- Comfort In Sound

Album#3- Stereophonics- Just Enough Education To Perform

Film#1- Aliens. I am aware that in a pervious post I have made claims that I would never see this movie on account of its predecessor being, in my opinion, crap. However, they happened to be on as a double bill, and Judi wanted to see them, so I disked them. Then I got bored, so I watched it for the hell of it really. And now I have changed my mind. Yes, I still think Alien is crap. BUT, I now admit that Aliens is a good film.

Film#2- Mirror mask. After listening to Mike, Mark and Lorna quote this no-end in the pub, finally got to see it. And now I have a big desire to buy it, and watch it again. It’s one of those films that you HAVE to watch again to be able to fully grasp the whole situation. But yeah. Really liked it.

Film#3 K-Pax. It’s just one of those films that makes you think. Yeah, that’s all I have to say about it. To say more would ruin its beauty.

So, um, came back from Italy. Had some re-sits. Went to the pub a lot. Which is cool cos it meant I got to speak to people that I don’t normally speak to. Got to hear all about Mike’s idea to write a children’s story. Helped brainstorm.

Played a bit of pool. Singles and doubles. OH, potted the black off a rebound shot to win the game! That was a cool thing. Cos see, I suck at pool. And people were being really helpful, of “hit it about here” etc… which was nice of them and all, its just I never managed to get anything potted when I took their advice. In the black ball incident, for example, I was told to hit it at a certain point lightly. So I hit the cue ball hard towards the cushion. They all went on saying “what was the point of that?!” and I watched the black pot into the corner pocket, and said “something like that”. Yeah, they stopped “helping” me after that…

Had my birthday. Small thing. Just me and Lucy and Mark watching DVDs for the afternoon/night. Didn’t want anything big for it. Also meant Mark could kill 2 birds with one stone on some of the DVDs he’s been lending out to us over the past few months. Hence the film list at the top of the page.

What else? Oh, I worked. Um, yeah. Silver service, bar, plate service. Was kinda fun. Got to know a few people from Linden Hall, cos I got that shift a lot. Then one time they had a service on Thursday, and so I was working with people I don’t normally work with. And my god did they complain! And it wasn’t just the odd thing EVERYTHING that happened they complained about. And a couple of the elder people were saying “I'm not taking orders from some 18 year old punk. I don’t care if they work here!” Um, sorry love, but you’re going to have to take orders from some 18 year old punks, because they know how the system works there! You’ve been here for all of 10 minutes! So yeah, that was annoying.

Gone off wine. Suffice to say a bottle in an hour is not good. Um… what else?

Started uni again. I like my timetable this term. It’s so much better than last term. For the first 5 weeks I have Thursday off. As in completely. No lectures or practical or anything! Very strange. Last year it was once in a blue moon that we got a day off. Though I don't have nothing to do on Thursdays. I still have tkd.

Had first session tonight, and I'm a walking bruise! Why did I join up?! Why?! It wasn’t all that bad actually. Nice easy warm up, before doing a little bit of stretch work with the newbies. I'm not a newbie anymore! There are people a year below! WOOt!! Lol.

Then they all went off with Neil to do basics, like punching, kicking etc, the senior grades, (I’m a senior grade!!) went through the patterns. It was so much fun! I haven't been training for, oh, 4 months? So today I thought I’d better go through the patterns, just to remind myself what the heck we actually do! And I'm so glad I did. Alun was saying “lets go through Chon ji.” It’s the first proper pattern that we learn. Very simple. “Who here has been a lazy git this summer and has forgotten it?” About 5 people raised their hands. I would have if I hadn’t gone through them this afternoon!

So after Chon ji, we went through Dan Gun, then Do-San, and then through Won-Hyo. Which is the pattern we have to learn for our next grading. Which is in, oh, 3 weeks? Yeah, 3 weeks. I am so glad I went to training after Easter last yeah. We were doing grading stuff then, so I do actually know all that I need to know for the grading, unlike some people who haven't been since about March.

After patterns, did some non-contact free sparring. And I am so glad Craig was in the other half of the group for it. He doesn’t quite get this concept of no contact. So much so that Alun, who was in my group, noticed and make him to 25 knuckle push-ups. The number of times I've come away with bruises in non contact from him.

But instead I got to face nice people. Like Dan. And Jeff. And then nice people who accidentally hit me like Patrick. And then 6’6 instructor people who liked to perform jumping kicks to my head. He’s 1’3 taller than me! He DOESN’T NEED to do jumping ANYTHING to hit me. Heck, he needs to frigging crouch to punch me!! He could use me as a level to axe kick over. (Basically your leg does an arc, with the foot coming down on the shoulder or chest of the opponent.) And I KNOW how that kick is mean to go, because I’m getting a nice bruise on my shoulder from him!! Grrr.

We have a website! We’ve had one for the last however many years, but it was crap, and no-one ever went on it, and all the info was out of date. But over the past month or so, Alun has made a website. And put frigging pictures up on it. I was told I was in 2 of them. 2 my f***ing ass! I’m in 8! Ok, so that may not seem like a lot, and you do actually have to know where to look for me in 2, and know that it’s me in another 2, but come on! There are only 17 pics in total! SURELY there are better people to photograph than me?!

And in one I look like a complete Goomb. And I have LONG HAIR!!! Like really long. Down to my waist long. It’s freaky! So yeah, I could go and give you the address, but then you’d be able to SEE my Goomb-ness, and I really don’t want that. And then there are the photos from Liverpool… that I sorta remember being taken. Well, one I remember, the others not so much… Not that I can remember that night at all after about 10 or so. So it’s not that much of a surprise.

So I’ve got my new house all sorted out. And I've met all of my new housemates. And one of them nicked music from my iTunes within about a day of me moving in. and I could tell it was my music due to the albums. They were compilation albums I had made or that had been made for me. But I have been told how to do it myself now, so it’s all good.

My new house is about, oh, 10 yards from the train station! It’s great! I get the train everywhere now. Ok, so it’s an extra 15 minute walk or so to the lecture, so what? It’ll keep me fit. Course the later in the day it is the less the trains run. Like tonight for example. There was a 10.03 train I could catch, or a 10.33 train. People were headed to the pub after training, but I wasn’t sure. But when it got to 9.45, I figured I might as well go for one drink and catch the 10.33 rather than having to run, after a 2 hour session of tkd to get the 10.03. And I'm glad I did. I got to the station, to find that the 10.03 train had been delayed and was the next train due in. I could have been waiting for the first train for a half hour at the station, rather than having a nice chat with peeps from tkd for a bit.

Erm… Oh. I'm coming home for a long weekend! I love my timetable! I finish at 3 on Friday’s, and then don’t have any lectures on Monday morning, so I’m catching a train up Friday night and heading back on Monday morning, so I’m thinking a pub meet for those that are free. Oh yeah, date. Um, 10th-13th November. And I know it’s then cos it happens to be the one weekend I chose to come home this term, and it also happens to be the weekend the national group tkd championships are being held. So I can’t go. Again. But then again, I will be coming home, so it’s still all good.

Ok… I think that’s it for now. Assuming my laptop doesn’t eat this before I post it. I know it’s got a virus. Probably a whole frigging disease by now. And I’m pretty certain that if it continues to get worse, I'm going to have to format my hard-drive or something. Cos half my programmes ain't working. And the net is touch and go. And it’s beginning to annoy me. And of course it happens just as I start back at uni. Sheesh! The cheek!

Um yeah, that’s it. (Wow... I've caught up to the present! Be proud!)