Planned visit

Quote#1
Mark (brother) (I’ve just realised how often I have to distinguish between all the Marks I know… Why cant ONE of you have a less common name… like Connor?! I mean, Sheesh!) – (talking about Star Wars)- I fell asleep in Episode 1!

Quote#2
Sarah- (to Mark (mate)) (SEE?!)- calm down. You’re almost as bad as Nikki!
Me- HEY!! I’m not that bad!
Sarah- (looks)
Me- Yeah, ok, I am…

Quote#3
This lass behind us at the concert I went to Friday to the security guy: Can you make people sit down? We paid for a seat and can’t see.
Security guy: (Looks at her like she’s insane and walks away)

Album#1: (I'm trying really hard not to put Pink down as one of them…) Faithless- Greatest Hits
Album#2: Garden State Soundtrack
Album#3: (and failing…) Pink- I’m Not Dead

Song#1: (Again I’m trying really hard not to make then all Pink…) The Beautiful South- Meanwhile
Song#2: Frou Frou- Let Go
Song#3: 3 Doors Down- Kryptonite

Lyrics#1: If this is true to life, give me fantasy instead- Meanwhile- The Beautiful South

Lyrics#2: There’s Dallas too, the library
The place they ended Kennedy
I stood where Oswald took his shot
In my opinion there’s a bigger plot- Nice to be out- Stereophonics

Lyrics#3: But that ticket to heaven said to lie in the bed that you make- Ticket to Heaven- 3 Doors Down

So mark (mate) was complaining that I hadn’t updated, so here we go. I have just under 3 ½ hours to write this, cos that’s how long the train journey should take. And depending how long this takes, what I think to write and the rest of it, I may have to finish it off when I get back to Birmingham. Of course if I finish it within an hour, I do have some DVDs to watch too, so we’ll see how it goes.

(As it turns out, it’s jumping all over the place. I may put it into some sort of chronological order before I post, but then again I may not…)

So been to uni. Had lectures. Had practicals. Found out my Thursday practical doesn’t start till week 8, meaning I have another 2 Thursday’s off… well, 1 left now…

Um, been to TKD. The pub after TKD. Found out that guys cannot break for pool, well, ok, Killer. At all. You’ve got me, Emma, Gerard and Alun out, with Neil coming out once he’d sorted stuff out. So racked the balls, and Gerard goes to break. Hits the cue ball… over the triangle of balls, it flies off the table and hits the window pane, about an inch from the glass, and about 6 feet from Emma. So he mutters on about the table, Emma moves over to where I am, in fits with Alun. Gerard breaks again, and the exact same thing happens! So at this point I take to cue off Gerard, cos I don’t wanna risk being bared cos he wants to make a new exit through the window! And I break, and actually hit the triangle, and off we go.

By the next game, Neil has shown up. And we don’t let Gerard break. So we give Alun the cue, letting him break. And I and Emma cannot stand up for laughing so hard when he chips the ball off the table. Granted, not as violently as Gerard, at least he didn’t hit the window. Neil looks at Alun like he’s crazy, and takes the cue from him. Lies up to break, and when HE chips it off the table, Emma and I can’t stand up straight cos we’re laughing so hard. So Neil looks at Emma and says “Lets see you do it then!” so she takes the cue, breaks, and hits the triangle of balls. The look on the faces of the 3 guys! Priceless.

So yeah, I was home this weekend. And unlike the trip home I made a couple weeks ago this trip was actually planned back in, oh, July-ish? About then anyway. So is it ironic that the spur of the moment trip home meant I saw more people than the planned one?!

Don’t you love it when you get a cancelled lecture? An extra hour or so off. Except my lecture was the only on I had between Wednesday 1pm and 2pm Monday, so that makes the equivalent of 5 days off. Of course, because my ticket was only valid on Friday, I couldn’t come home on the Wednesday night. Well, I could have I guess. If I was willing to spend another £40. And well, I wasn’t… I may have done so if I had the cheapest ticket I can buy at the moment.

Train ticket prices are CRAZY! The cheapest Birmingham-Newcastle single Y-P railcard is £7.90!! But yet a saver return is £49.50... Anyone get that?! My mum is going to London in January, standard open return £68. First class open return £120 (I think). Newcastle-London standard open single £10. First class open single £32 (or something like that). You can get 2 single 1st class tickets for less than the standard open return!!

So anyway, I stayed in Brum till Friday, and caught the train up about 6 ½ hours earlier than the one I was booked on. But it wasn’t a “Valid only as advertised” ticket; I was a valid on this day ticket. So Thursday night, I pack and think about getting up at about 9 ish, and getting the 10:30 train to Newcastle from New Street. And then woke up on Friday morning and was on the 9.03 train from New Street.

I ain't been sleeping right for the past month. Not entirely sure why. Maybe cos I grew accustomed to waking up 2 or 3 times in the night, and so to try to avoid that staying up till some stupid time in the morning. Though I did have a couple interesting conversations at that time, so it all pays off I guess. Anyway, it’s getting to the point where average nights sleep is about 4-5 hours. Max. Take Friday for example. I went to sleep at about half 3, and was awake, up and showered for 8. Couldn’t be bothered to wait around for a couple hours, so caught the 8:40 train to New Street to get the 9.03 train home.

5 hours, 2 trains, a bus and a walk is pretty good going from stepping out the front door to stepping through the front door, considering that included a 15 minute wait for the bus home. And 15 minute wait at New Street before the train left. Much better than stepping on the train at New Street, getting picked up at the station and being driven home and it taking 5 hours.

So yeah, got in at my mums for about half 1, grabbed something that could be classed as a snack, and left to go round to dad’s to see if I could find the discs. Oh crap, haven't told that story yet. Ok, quick back-story. At pub after TKD on Tuesday. Just leaving and I see I have a voice message on my phone. “Hey Nikki. It’s dad here. You know how you got your laptop as an exchange for your laptop? Well that pc has exploded. So I bought a new one, and now I need some of the software for it, but I can’t find the discs. I assume they’re at your mums. Can you have a look? Thanks.”

So I’m walking down to the station laughing my ass off. Call him back. He answers the phone, and instead of saying hi etc, the first thing that comes out my mouth is “What do you mean, my computer exploded?!” turns out, Judi had switched it on last week, and smoke started pouring out the back of it. So yeah, my laptop may be a little screwed at the moment, but at least it hasn’t done that! So dad was after the discs that I had for some of the programmes. Now keep in mind the computer in question is actually the one I got for my 16th birthday. These discs could be ANYWHERE!!

So after getting home, I go over to dads to have a look where I think they are. See, I have a draw that locks on my desk at my dads, and when I was back last time, I accidentally took both keys to it back to Brum with me, so you couldn’t get into it. But they weren’t there anyway. Turns out dad was right; they were in my wardrobe at my mums. So he had a fun weekend restoring all his accounts etc back up to date.

It’s nice to know my technology influence is spreading. Oh talking of, I FINALLY met Ken, the guy my mum has been seeing for the past X years. He came to pick my mum up to go get the car that had just been in for its MOT on Saturday, and as I had an optician’s appointment at 11.20 he gave me a life up. So we’re sitting in the car, and he puts the radio on. Silence. Tries another station. Silence. Tries all the channels he’s got programmed into his stereo. Silence on all of them. Mum then starts joking on about my influence with technology. Ken turns the radio off, and about 5 minutes later turns it back on, and they’re playing again. I point out that it cannot be me, cos they’re working.

It’s sometimes amazing how some people can get to where they are and yet be completely stupid at the same time. The date on Saturday? The 11th. The time he picked us up? 11. Is it any wonder there wasn’t anything on the frigging radio?!

So the reason I was home was for a concert on the Friday night. Saw Pink. It was a pretty cool set. And she actually got through a load of songs. See, sometimes when you go to a concert you end up being talked to more than being sang to, but there was the minimum amount of talking. It was mostly singing. The only talking was for introducing the songs, or the reasons behind them etc.

(I’m getting blinded by the sun atm… its not fun… this’ll teach me to write on a train. Though actually come to think of it I was writing on my last train journey to Birmingham. Only that was actual coursework… and kinda important. Anyway, I digress.)

So aye, the concert. Absolutely amazing. The people behind us were a pain in the Mitka though. The sat down, and within about 5 mins of being there ad spilt half a pint of beer down my mum’s back… over her new top… She was not pleased! Seriously, those who have seen me mad, imagine that about 10 times worse, and you’ll still not be anywhere near how mad she can get. And as they kept getting up to buy more drinks, they were getting more and more pissed. And then complaining that they kept having to go to the loo and miss the concert. You would think that answer was simple… don’t drink anything! But the best thing must have been when they complained to the security guy that people were standing up in front of them and they couldn’t see. Um… it’s a ROCK/POP CONCERT!!!!! It’s not the bloody Opera! Idiots…

So yeah had a great time on Friday night.

Saturday was pretty cool. After oh, about 5 hours sleep, helped mum with the food shop. Then had the thing with Ken. Opticians. I'm going slightly blinder, but only by ¼ dioptre in my left eye. It’s just at the point where I'm noticing though. Discussed the possibility of me having contacts. Probably going to set up the trial when I'm back at Christmas. Oh, talking of opticians. My optometrist went to the same uni that I am! so we spent about 10 minutes discussing the differences between what was there with him and what's there now. So that was fun.

Mum took me and Judi shopping in the afternoon. Looking for Christmas presents. Got a cool top. Has sort of an Aimee Mann feel to it. Ish. But cos it’s a Christmas present I couldn’t wear it to the pub last night. :( I hate Coast… I’m about a size 13 in that shop, because we were looking for basks, but the 12’s were too tight, and the 14 were too gappy at the top. Which sucks.

Saturday night went round to Sarah’s. Haven't seen her properly since, um, Rocky Horror? Something like that. So that was cool. Spent about 7 hours or so watching anime. Had a good catch up. So fell asleep at about 3, and was up and chatting to Kev and Lynn for just after 8. Went back to mums briefly, before heading over to dads for the afternoon. Had a nice chat with him last night before heading out to the pub.

Met up with Sarah, Lorna and Mark (mate… obviously), who has lent me some more DVDs. Oh, and made me a CD. So yay. Thanks. And in exchange he got the beer I made. And I would like to take a second to point out I told him he didn’t have to drink it, but he insisted. So if he comes down with some disease or something, it’s his fault for drinking it! Though saying that the people who had some a week ago are still alive, so that has to count for something, right?

Ok, I think that’ll do for this post.