"I'd rather die on my two feet than live down on my knees"

That's a great quote, don't even know exactly why but when I first heard it I thought 'Bloody hell, that's great!'

My life's been a bit topsy turvy recently, some good stuff and some bad stuff. Most of all it's been quite eventful, and top of it all was The End. This is the biggest event of the year at the University of Essex, it's where everybody and their friend attends the big party out in the squares, drinking, listening to live gigs and the big DJ booth, all the while people are crowding every crevice where they can squeeze into. The picture doesn't even cover half of the space, and you'd really have to attend to realise how amazing it is. It's also a lot of peoples last times seeing each other before splitting up for the summer break, or even worse, forever. It's very emotional, and intense, but overall quite incredible.

I wrote about my possible trip to Europe before, and I bring it up again because I'm in a situation at the moment where I am definitely going, like I was at the beginning of Summer two years ago. The plan was the same then as it is now, except this time I'm not counting on people to come with me as they never do. Nobody seems to be as financially responsible as me, and even I'm not that good, so it's up to me to travel around and make the most of my time. I want to hit Poland now, after reading some really good stuff about it, and of course the obvious France and Italy highlights. Believe it or not, never been to latter before in my entire life. Mum booked a couple of family holidays there, the first time right smack bang in the middle of my GCSE's, and subsequent ones at moments in my life where I have been unable or not really fancied going due to the cramped and very long car journey there. I've had this travellers book to Europe since 2005, and only now do I get to use it. I'm about to freak out now because I just realised my planned cost for the Interrail ticket was calculated in Euros and not GBP, meaning it costs much less than I thought it would. A couple of extra days in some country might be my treat! I want to extend an open offer to anybody who wants to come with me, I know the likely takeup will be very low, but if you do have no other plans for the summer other than boring work, do think about taking a week off to have some fun. British people work too hard and don't have enough fun, so seriously consider doing something, even if it isn't with me.

I pick some of the most awkward times to ring people; one time I rung somebody as they were in the shower, another time somebody was in a changing room and many others have involved some sort of mid-public action. I don't know how many times in the last couple of days I've heard 'Can I ring you back in two minutes?' Quite funny actually!

I know I blabbed on about the lyrics earlier, but I'm not usually content to sit down and really listen to songs. I will happily chill out with my mp3 player and hum out the tune and only take a little notice of what the people are actually saying. Until that is I bring it to work with me. Oh yeah, my job is pretty sweet, I can bring it in with me and listen to it, while getting paid probably more than I should to do work hours of my choosing to do what amounts to easy if a little boring work sometimes. I love my colleagues, despite not being quite within my age range, and overall I will be gutted to leave it in a couple of weeks time. As I was saying, when you have to take in the words by not being able to hum over them, you really begin to appreciate the genius in them. I previously only ever enjoyed songs on their music, but now I can add a few albums to my list where the words stand out as much as everything else in them. It is also only now that I realise a lot of music talks about the same old stuff; cheating on people, being cheated on, falling for somebody, lusting for someone, having sex, kissing, longing for a girl/guy, missing a person, dumping someone etc ad nauseum. I don't mind it, but sometimes wish for something a little more unique. I don't remember exactly where it was I heard it, but a recent song ended with the guy simply saying how he liked a girl and that was pretty much the gist of the song. I think that has been my favourite so far.

Hot Fuzz is out on DVD and I bought it on Monday. Can't emphasise how great it still is a few months after having seen the original in the cinema. If you haven't seen it, go forth and purchase it for it not only is a great spoof of some classic action films, and other not so actiony films, and while it still maintains a lot of the style its unofficial predecessor Shaun of the Dead and TV comedy Spaced has, it is a brilliant film in its own right. I know Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright wrote it, and spent a good few years on it, and to me its about as finely crafted as it gets. My flatmate harked on about it being 'too long' and while I argue about his point that films that are longer than two hours aren't automatically too long and awful, this film doesn't even hit that mark, ten minutes short of it I believe so he can eat his own hat on that I believe. I am gushing over this film, but until you've seen it you can't judge me for liking it so much.

I've also finally taken up reading again after a prolonged absence from the art. I'm reading 'One Hundred Years of Solitude' by Gabriel Garcia Marquez and so far I'm very entertained by it. It's a bit difficult to follow all the similar sounding names but after you bookmark the very handy Family Tree at the beginning, you get used to it and begin to enjoy it.

Smug

A pre-blog warning: Don't even attempt to read this if you suffer from any of the following; bad luck, jealousy, seething hate for humankind (general or otherwise), extreme tiredness, mild susceptibility and your own opinions.

Here goes. If you've been reading, you'll know that a couple of days previously, I tried to buy some tickets to see one of my favourite artists in Brighton. The person in question is Jason Mraz and he is amazing. Personally, I'd say he has a bit of a spontaneous rocky style, playing with lyrics while jamming on his guitar, a good melody present in the background. This results in some fantastic songs, and my admiration for his creativity is only surpassed by my desire since over a year ago to see him play live. If you had to check out only one song by him, and this is a very tough decision, I would say 'Plane' or 'On Love, In Sadness' with the former being a slower meaningful song and the latter being an upbeat joyful song. But you'd have to check out his whole library to really understand how great he is. This continuous praise will cease now so I can get back to the real story. I missed out on tickets, and the only options I had left were to pay for an expensive festival ticket or buy from the touts on ebay, neither of which was an option.

However, due to a completely luck based series of events, I am now the proud owner of two tickets to see him in the Concorde on the 25 June. It started when I logged into myspace for no reason other than I was bored, and saw he had posted another bulletin. 'Second date added' it said, and to my complete surprise he had added another date to the calendar! This was already after I'd heard a bit more about how the venue was actually quite small and intimate, so I was following the link he provided and getting my credit card out. However, from the site, there was no working link at all to the ticket buying page. All it did was send me to another ticket based site that had no listings for Mr Mraz. I figured this was karma screwing with me, proverbially giving me a sniff of a delicious pie and snatching it right out from my nose when I went to take a bite.

I hovered around a bit, dejected, and told my friend Cat who was also a big fan and fellow gig buddy that I'd give them a ring tomorrow and see if they had any tickets left. After the call ended, I stumbled into my housemate Chris' room and told him the story. 'What ticket site did you use?' he asked, to which I replied with the site. 'Right, let me have a look for you.' he continued, and spent a good few minutes toying with Google and its associated search engines. Not long afterwards, he found some web page and to my utter delight, he had gotten me a pair of tickets! I won't go quite into detail about how excited I was, and neither will I bore/brag to you about how much luck there was involved, but I thought it was a nice end to that little story.

In other news [Yes I bolded that bit for emphasis, to draw your attention away from the boring bits], I read there was going to be a news story a few days back about how one of our students who got mugged by geese. While I won't doubt that there is some truth to the series of events that have been portrayed in the news, and yes it has hit the news, I must say that I was entertained by how exaggerated it has become. From what I know at the source of it all, a certain group made by the 'victim', the attack was much less a case of being mugged and more like him dropping his phone and a goose picking it up and running away. I guess you could say that was the technical version of mugging, but they've added so much more to the story in order to increase the light relief people will feel when reading it. They added in a piece of how the geese 'ganged up' on him, and also touched upon a bit of the aftermath wherein he can still ring his phone but as its on silent he cannot locate it in the nest! I find it all incredibly amusing, but some people don't. These people have instead used the incident to ridicule the person involved, and even used it as a piece of political down-talking! The wonders never cease...

My running is still going strong. My route as it stands begins at my house in Mascot Square, goes to the Quays path bus stop, then goes up the North Towers hill, and down through the car park, down the bicycle path into the Quays path and all the way along it over the bridge and into the quays. From there, we walk through the quays and come back around from behind it to Lightship Way, and continue along that, beside B&Q and all the way back to my house. We estimate that whole journey equals approx 2 miles, which is quite an achievement to somebody who isn't very active usually. I know, this constitutes bragging, but I've had a chance to contemplate why it is people who increase their own health and physical fitness seem anxious to share their successes and I've come to a conclusion; that is, people who do this only have themselves to share their joy with. If they can't feel a little proud of themselves for keeping in shape, which is difficult to do in today's society of office jobs and increased convenience, then what's there to help them to keep doing it? People can be driven by their own willpower, but when those days arrive when they just don't feel up to anything, they need that little boost of confidence. So this is why I will continue to update you on my achievements, though the next one won't nearly be as long as this!

And onto something that isn't a state of the world today or some jiffy about me for a change. And that is this, absolutely bog all. Oh yeah, Charlie Brooker, what a legend. He has this show on BBC4 and a column and is a regular reviewer in The Guardian, and honestly, I think this man is one of the most bitter and critical people in britain, and his show Screenwipe can only be described as a TV Burp but with added bleeped out swearing and a lot more social commentary and informative features included. If you can check it out, please do, the series he does are extremely short but come out a few times a year so please do keep an eye out for it. And by that, I don't mean removing your eyeball from your skull until you see it, that would result in me being sued. Except I've already warned you, so nye! Oh yes, and in the words of the man himself, here's a f____ng picture for you, you t__ts!

Attune

I have just realised that though nobody comments on my blog, that at least a few people actually read it. I mean, actually read it! This means I may have to stop writing down some of my neuroticisms in here, as people must genuinely think I'm crazy. I know neuroticisms isn't a word, don't worry, it's just that I'm a neologist.

I'm quite disappointed in the past two days of my music world. I bought a great album, Beverley Knight's 'Music City Soul' on Saturday evening, so at least something went right, but just before that, I had learned about where my favourite artist was playing a gig in the UK over the summer. This all spans back to a couple of weekends ago, when I went to visit my sister in her University. The time there was excellent, and during the evening in their SU bar which is about twice the size of ours, I met a friend of mine who I hadn't seen in years. She and I started talking about music, and I told her how I liked this artist Jason Mraz. She remembered her flatmate had got tickets to see him in the UK in June, so she was going to tell me where once she had gone home and found out.

So, cut to Saturday, and I'd read a message from her telling me that he was playing in Brighton. 'Great!' I yelled, quite excited I'd finally get to see him as I'd just missed his tour from 2005 as I'd only recently started listening to him. Tickets were £13, and a quick google search found me a site I could buy them from. This was about 5pm in the afternoon. I get through the search results, and when it gets to the actual ticket purchase page, it says 'Sorry we're currently undergoing problems. Please try again later.' 'Fine' I said, instead I texted my friend to see if she wanted to join me, as we're official gig buddies, thinking I could buy them the next day. Next morning, I get a text saying she would like to come, reminding me to go to the ticket page. Tickets all sold out. I pull my hair out, not literally, and get inwardly annoyed at myself. Later on, I check my myspace and lo and behold, Mr Mraz has posted a bulletin at 9pm advertising a slew of European shows, the one of two UK ones being the Brighton gig.

This may be a case of the tickets being sold out way before I got there, but its never knowing if I'd missed out on tickets that gets to me. And before you [don't] ask, the other gig is a £50 day ticket festival in Hyde Park, with only a relatively small interest in the artists appearing aside from Jason. And there's a couple of times he'll be in Amsterdam, but I hadn't really planned on going there.

I have renewed my interest in going to Europe this summer though, because of hearing so many people organising holidays of their own. Strangely, it never even occurs to me to think about booking a holiday during the holidays, mainly because up until now I've only ever gone away with my own plans once, to that big old country called the USA. Before that, everything was parentally booked for me, or organised by a school. I do love being independent, as witnessed by my going away solo to America, but I forget how much stuff you can do for yourself. Now that I've had a chance to contemplate it though [I have a job and more money than I had last year], the summer holidays looks less like a place to look for, and inevitably not get, a job and bum around, and more like a chance to do something quite exciting. Inter-railing my way around Europe for a few weeks seems like the best choice so far. The real question is, who'd be brave enough to want to come with me? At under £300 for unlimited train ticket round Europe for a month, its going to be within a reasonable budget assuming you haven't blown all your money on a dress for the summer ball or an Xbox. Trust me and everyone else when they say you'll get your moneys worth with these experiences!

Also, while this blog has been reasonably full of music already, I'll finish it off by expressing my joy at Maroon 5's return to form. There's something about the guys voice that gets me hooked on their songs. In a completely un-gay way of course.

Show

Live from Colchester on a muggy Saturday night, comes a new blog post from the desk of your wonderful host, Russell Chapman! *applause* Thank you, you're all so kind! Well, let's take a look and see what we've got coming up for you in tonight's show...

First up we have the most up to date news concerning my hectic life, the ups, the downs, and the lengthy middles where not much happens [But don't worry kids, we'll skip right on over those *winks to camera*]. Then, I'll have a sparkling review of the latest movie I was fortunate enough to see, the big, the bad, the British 28 Weeks Later! And finally, we'll end with a few random thoughts I like to call my own. Will they make you laugh? Might they make you cry? I haven't a clue, but you'll get them if you really want them. So, without further ado, let's get this show on the road!

And.... CUT! Enough of the clichés, I have enough trouble capturing myself an audience, and this isn't doing anything to help it. But what i wrote was true, I will be doing all those things in that order, so skip ahead, read it in order, do whatever the hell you want.

We'll start off with my life. It's been a little hectic if I'm honest. It all began this week with a spontaneous and yet beneficial idea I've been wanting to do for a long time; a run. I've always been one to really ignore my fitness levels. I used to never do any exercise, and stayed within a reasonable weight and never even took a second look at what I was plowing into my gut. I think having a sweet tooth too was probably a disadvantage I wish I didn't have, though looking across the room and seeing a packet of tescos jam doughnuts or Finest Triple Choc shortbread [A recent addition to the roster] has always made me thirst for the sweetness inside. But, coming to Uni has really changed my perception. I got to meet a very enthusiastic gym going buddy during my first year, and spent the next three months approximately with him going to the gym and doing all these weights and workouts that I'd never even considered doing before. It worked, as slowly I built myself into a more defined shape, and was pleased with it. Sadly, after I broke away from Uni and stayed at home for the Xmas holidays, the gym was simply too expensive and too far away for me to continue to commit to, and even joining a local gym didn't really get me enthused, so I slowly but surely lost my interest in it. So, for the past year and a bit, I have been quite content ignoring any healthy options.

This has led me to now, where I can finally admit that I'm not in the shape I want to be in, but how do you solve that when the gym is not for you anymore [I had a few cracks at it in between now and then, most recently about five weeks ago for three weeks, but I still don't feel for it]? Simple, do something else. And that's why I've started running. Yes, it's only been a very recent thing [6 days and counting] but I must say that the thing that strikes me most about it is how quickly you can see a difference. Not in weight loss terms [Thats not the reason I want to do this anyway] but in how quickly you can find yourself improving. Starting last Monday, I could run from my house near Tesco up to the Quays path, down it, across the bridge and through B&Q to the road leading to the Tesco roundabout and then to my house in 13 1/2 minutes. At the end, I felt like dying, and spent a good fifteen minutes recovering. How unhealthy! That sounds pretty lame I'll admit, but yesterday, my last run [I've been doing it 6 days on the trot excepting tonight, for I'd lost my house keys and found them only when it was a bit late for running] I added extra metres onto my run, by taking the long way around the B&Q car park, walking down the disabled/bike path instead of the stairs by the bus stop and walking the longer way into Mascot Square, and I still manage to beat my first time by about 20 seconds. And the best bit? While I still felt quite exhausted [and my legs still aching, which is good!] I felt nowhere near as bad as I did the first time. I think I might stick to this plan, this time.

Elsewhere, I've had issues with trying to conquer my fears over not being able to revise properly, and on top of that a piece of coursework to finish for friday. I won't go into details, but suffice to say the issue that arose on Friday itself has been put to rest for now, and hopefully I will get the marks I deserve. And today, I have been revising and feeling extremely confident with one of my topics. This is a complete U turn to the past week, where everything seemed quite tall and overwhelming and unattainable. Seems things can seem much worse than they really are, and I was always the one who never had that problem. Now I feel empathy to all those people who stress out during exam time. All I can say, that worked for me, is to take it a step at a time. Things have a funny way of working out themselves sometime.

Review: 28 Weeks Later.

This film, a creation born by Juan Carlos Fresnadillo from the corpse of its quite gritty prequel 28 Days Later, is an intense journey from beginning to end. It has all that you really wanted from the first film, the classy but not overpowering gore, the simple but elegant storyline and the premise that borders on the sides of being believable and ridiculous. This has all been carried over plus the extra stuff that comes from a bigger budget; greater special effects, a more scenic area covering more parts of London than the first resulting in some spectacular shots and more actors and extras. All wrapped up, this becomes a film that may well stand above its older counterpart.

The plot sees Robert Carlyle as a father of two, beginning the film in a smallholding somewhere in the countryside of Britain. Seeking refuge with his wife and some strangers, it isn't long before the Rage virus makes its first appearance, leaving just enough screen time for us to care about what happens to one of the characters in particular. Six months later, Britain is declared safe and he is reunited with his kids, played often convincingly by Mackintosh Muggleton and Imogen Poots. What follows isn't very close to that of a regular Zombie film, but in the best of ways possible. What we get instead is some of the grittiness that makes this series stand out, and plot twists that will shock you. The quiet moments that hogged the prequel are less frequent in this installment, and will mostly leave you nervous, awaiting the next sequence.

As I said before, the effects are amazing, from the zombies [Though they're never referred to as such] to the explosions, it's all a big step up from the original, and while some may worry that the film becomes too americanised, you need not fear. It retains the same feel even with the extra cash flying around on screen. There is emotion, and tension, and fear, and you'll find this movie flies by and at 100 minutes, it's quite an achievement. Overall, definitely something you should see, but maybe not best for you if you're not a zombie fanatic.

I wholeheartedly retain the right to alter this review as I see fit, as I'm quite tired now and my writing suffers because of it, but tomorrow daytime is revision time so no blogging then!

Also, while I'm leaving you a bit short on the end comments I promised you, here's a brilliant picture I think you will like. It's hot of the press, a ticket for a comedy film about a heavily pregnant lady. One of those things that made me smile when I saw it :)



And thats it folks, show's over, no refunds, no autographs, just get on out of here. I'll see you next time, on Who Wants- wrong show. Goodnight!

Blarghshhzzzzlen!

Gah! That is the word to describe everything right now. Okay, first of all, I'm having major issues with my writing style just now. Not only with the novel I am working on, but with the way I come across in these blogs, so excuse me for the moment while I go absolutely nuts and just write things as they come into my head, literally.

Ok, you know what isn't fun? Trying to create this damn blog post and the page taking nearly a whole minute to load. It's quite sad because the days of yore I used to be happy when a page loaded in under a minute, and now apparently the average time an internet user is expected to wait patiently for a page to load before getting really furstrated is 4 seconds! Have we become an impatient people? Hell no, it's just when you are provided with a service or item that you are subject to for a good while and you get used to it, when its suddenly taken away from you or temporarily unable, you will go crazy because I think humans like regularity.

In fact, when I was in work today, I spoke about how people like routines to my coworker Emily, and she seemed to agree. I like it when I find out something vaguely interesting, and then store it away in my brain for months before finally getting to use it in a conversation and come across like I know all about the subject. But that wouldn't work all the time, not without the followup, which is what I like to call the divert. You are talking about something, and then you can finally join into the conversation with this cool little tidbit, and as soon as you've exhausted your knowledge with that impressive line, you are then in charge of the conversation and you MUST steer it away towards something you DO know about else you will look quite the fool.

Man, I'm typing really fast today, I really don't know why I'm letting myself write and/or publish this [Well, publishing is yet to be seen but if I type fast enough I'm sure not to think about it too much and do it anyway] but I will because I fancy a bit of a change from the normal.

Those of you into music, and yes there are people out there who like it, should do well and follow my advice and follow this absolutely incredible link which will lead you to this artist on Myspace [Or Myretardedsitethatsnowbeenovershadowedbyfacebook] which IS crap but still holds it own for getting new artists heard. Anyway, as I was saying, this guy is awesome; he released a song or two a couple of years ago which I thought were quite good if a little poppy, but he disappeared, only to resurface quite recently and unnoticeably with a song in the film 'Step Up' called 'Made' but now he's back, with a brand new accompanying band called 'The Town' with a pretty damn amazing song called 'Weeping Willow' which is only a demo but is incredibly moving and peaceful without being boring or monotonous. Please, it's only 4 minutes of your life but you'll either love me for it or never have to trust another link of mine again, both which will benefit you in the long run. And of course, the guys name, is Jamie Scott, here is his link Music dat good stuff

And also, talking of Step Up [You'll get the reference after you watched it], here's a stupidly criminal piece of youtube viewing that even though its terrible, made me laugh for the girls humour contained inside it. It's a spoofed doll enacted version of Final Destination 4. Give it a bit of a try, listen through the first quarter, as only then does it get more funny. It's also a bit slapstick too, but in a good way.



I did some good stuff today. I did nearly 2 hours of solid revision. Then I donated to my friends Race for Life fund. And then thats it, but I also really want to donate some blood too after reading a friends blog post. He said how it made him feel ever so slightly special, which it does, but I have already given blood from my college days, and I know it wasn't the least bit horrible. The only thing that bugged me was not being able to bend my freaking arm until they got the blood out of me, which was about 10 minutes and the only thing I wanted to do that whole time was bend it so badly, and I couldn't cos the needle would have snapped inside me or spilt out or ripped my vein... ACK even thinking about it gives me the creeps, but still I would do it again. So I'm not in that blood type which is so special but my blood still matters! I hope I saved a life with mine, and just knowing in the back of your mind that somebody actually relied on your donation to survive gives me and everyone who does it a satisfying feeling. Anybody up for doing a donation, even after I made it sound so cool?

Last

This weeks issue of The Rabbit came out today [As long as we're talking generally, I know its after 12, I know, shut up!] and its got to be said that the front page looked absolutely brilliant. I flick through the pages casually, reading that which picks up my interest from scanning over, and when I finally get to page 10...

Well it's a sad state of affairs. Not only does one of my pages turn out really pixellated and quite nasty, but strangely it was the one that seemed absolutely crystal clear when Zak our lovely designer printed them on a test run, compared to the other page which was a bit blurry. I don't know how that happened, but I guess it must be karmic balance for being annoying maybe, I don't know. Aside from them, the rest of the paper looks great and I was actually there for a good chunk of time during the design process, offering no input of course, but I did design my own this time around, a fact I am not ashamed of bragging about, and it did save Zak from about an hours work [She was kind and exaggeratedly equated it to 2 hours work :)] Lets try talking in shorter sentences from now on.

I have taken this opportunity in the past to present great finds from the internet, and now I present to you another one. It's a photographic based competition for those who would be willing to travel to either Glasgow or Cardiff on the 16th June. Sounds generic, a little boring possibly? Well here's the twist. Everyone who enters gets given a cheap disposable camera with twelve exposures on the film. Then, when the competition begins, you are given a list of twelve different topics. With these, you must produce in the same order as they are listed, a photo representing in as abstract or concrete way as you like the topics given. And to make it slightly more interesting, you have only 12 hours to hand in your completed film roll. Sound like fun? This is for all those manic creative people out there, and those who like me are not afraid to try something new and exciting and love the idea. I'll be going to Cardiff, does anybody fancy joining me for the day? Anyway, here is the link: PhotoMarathon

I am two full days away from beginning my final term here with a lot of you. I will be hopefully travelling across the pond to the USA for my next academic year, while those of you who have brought me joy and companionship and great company these past two years will be sticking around to finish up their degrees. I will miss every goddamn one of you, and you won't even realise it. I keep joking around like it's no big deal and you'll all forget me by the first term, but I seriously hope you don't. If I can't leave this country in the summer without having your continued and lasting friendship [And you should know who you are :)] then I can't truly be happy over there. I don't say it enough to you all, but you make me extremely happy to be around here and even though Shaun beat me to being the sappy git this month, I concur with everything he said; you're all bastards but I love you! [Not verbatim]

Now where's that torrential rainstorm we are due?

London

I had the most fortunate luck yesterday to have a) a free day, b) some cash and c) a good friend of mine with the same previously mentioned situation, all of which resulted in a planned trip to London, capital of our home and our hearts [Unless like me, you live in Wales, in which case that would be Cardiff. On second thoughts, I'm not that fond of the place. Swansea forever!] It was an amazing day, when all was said and done, and I think it cemented a few things down that I already knew beforehand. Let me run you through what happened.

It started with me waking up quite a bit late, and soon followed a hasty transformation from smelly and undressed to clean and smart with me as the star. I bounded out of the doorway just a little after the time I planned, hoping that I would still get to London Kings Cross by 12PM as Curty had said she would be waiting there. I waited for the bus, and one came in less than 5 minutes. "Yes!" I shouted to myself, "Some luck!" I stepped aboard, and asked the driver for a ticket to the North Station, when he replied "Sorry mate, that's the 61." Backstory: I caught the 61 a while back, and he told me the 61 doesn't go to North Station anymore, that it was the 78 that went there now. I wish they would make up their minds. After it stopped, I walked an extra 15 minutes to the station, and had a whole train drama episode!

Anyway, boring travel aside, I turned up a little late to the station, but Curty had already travelled to Liverpool Street, so the next task was to find her. Easy right? "I'm at Starbucks." "Okay, I'll come find you." silence "I'm at Starbucks, where are you?" "I'm in Starbucks." "You're not here!" "I am!" "Wait where you are, I'll come and find you." "But we're apparently in the same place!" "Wait there, I'll come look for you!" "No don't, it'll take ages in this place, tell me what's next to you..." "Pret A Manger." "I don't see one, what else is there?" That carried on for a couple of minutes, until we found each outside... Starbucks. But it wasn't the same one the whole time.

After we rejoiced in our meeting up, we headed outside, me with a Pain Au Chocolat. I saw that Sezer bloke off Big Brother walking past me into the station, something that took me five minutes to figure out who it was before letting Curty take the picture of me. [See Exhibit A!] Man do I look goofy. We decided our first trip would be to Covent Garden, cos I couldn't ever remember going there before. Why is it that whenever I see a place name, I take it literally? I expected an actual garden, lush and green and all I got was some stone market, though it was excellent in all fairness. Turns out I'd been there before, when there used to be a smaller Hamleys store there. We saw the very end of some street act [Who must be making a mint there] and some woman singing in front of a cafe patio. It was possible she was just some lady who decided to stop and sing in front of them, something that seemed only more possible when the cheap tattered suitcase full of CD's at a ridiculous cost was spotted behind her. We moved on.

After a quick venture around the local space, we figured we'd walk to Charing Cross. Somehow we ended up in Trafalgar Square where we spent a whole bunch of time just standing around looking lost. We must have interrupted protest season, as there were not only some seal loving people outside the Canadian Embassy, but also some Clothing brand had hired people to walk around London wearing some sings resembling protest placards in thick black and green coats. I hope they're getting paid a lot for that. They were also walking around in perfect pairs with dead straight faces. It was definitely weird, and I should have taken a picture of it really.

We were actually looking for the Trocadero, an awesome gaming establishment in which all your dreams come true! Well, it has a big arcade and a plentiful pick and mix shop so that's half the population satisfied. We went in, and the only thing that really intrigued us was the dancing machines, despite the absolutely boiling weather [Saying this, we sure did pick a brilliant day to go out for the day] but just as we figured we were ready to embarrass ourselves we saw some psychopathic dancing nuts on the metal dancefloors, knocking up absolutely insane scores on some distant level, so we backed up and decided not to humiliate ourselves... We instead opted for the camp, mystery island type shooting/love match game, which is harder to describe than I have attempted to make it look. We didn't last that long. Needless to say, we had our fill, and Curty was pleased with the place as she'd never been there before.

Next stop was food, so we trotted locally to a restaurant. However, after we had sat down outside and been given our menus, we were aware we'd chosen badly. The prices were too rich for our blood! So, I got the quite embarrassing task of going back in with the menus and saying we didn't fancy it here anymore. Curty owes me for that. We found a cheaper cafe type setting, which suited us both financially and comfortably. I had a vanilla milkshake due to Roxie letting me have some of hers yesterday, and it was amazing! Also, the food was really good. I also brought up the fact that I tipped the woman in the cafe, who was a good hostess to us, as I believe in the laws of Karma, and how bad things you can come round and bite you in the ass eventually. Of course, the same going for good things.

We had a little spare time so we went down to some internet cafe where my computer was broken, and managed to locate a restaurant we'd try if we had time later on. Next thing we had already decided to do was go in search of Krispy Kreme donuts. We already knew they did them in Harrods, so we headed straight there on the Tube. Except when we got off one station and realised we'd have to get back on the crowded Green Park stop [Actually, I'm not sure if I even remember this part of the story correctly, there was some reason why we couldn't go via tube...] we figured we'd walk there.

A little sidenote: I read today somewhere on the web how people in London aren't very friendly, but we were a bit stuck with exactly which direction we were supposed to be heading in post-subway exiting, but we had an abundance of people willing to help us on the way! Go London folk!

On the way, we hit a split path on some kind of underground pathway, a pedestrian subway if you will, and Curty thought we should head one way, and me the other. What did we do to resolve this? Both walked our own ways of course! Only I just hid around the corner and waited five minutes until Curty came back with her tail between her legs, which was when we headed the right way [My way I'll have you know! >:D] After we came out, Curty spotted this family, and her exact words verbatim were "Did you see that girl in the green top? She looked like a young version of Ugly Betty!" Oh Curty, you are a one aren't you :p

We got to Krispy Krem- I mean Harrods and had the best donuts in the world ever, which is a fact, and shortly afterwards, headed for a place to stop and rest. This was when we realised there aren't whole bunch of nice areas in London where you can sit and rest without them being locked and blocked from people like us :( Common folk! Damn you private gardens! We took rest on the nearest thing that looked like we could sit down on, and it happened to be outside a church, which was probably a big, subconscious reason why we decided to spend the next half hour having a big chat, bonding session maybe, including that age old topic of religion. Man, I don't ever remember having a conversation about that before, but we did and I think we really learned a lot about each other. Which was amazing :)

Another little sidenote: We were sitting down having a heavy old discussion, and some more friendly London folk asked us for the time. What's so special about that you ask? Well, they were really happy and thankful when we offered something which can hardly be called a big favour, and that stood out for me. Go London folk again!

We knew that we would have to get back to the gig now, so we headed to the tube station and went to Picadilly Circus. We got to the nearby area, figuring that the place would be getting a line outside of it in eager anticipation of the event that would be opening its doors in half hours time, but as we neared it, we found it was in the unusual part of Soho... the Red Light district. We even got to the gig and Curty wondered if it was the right place because there was nobody outside! However, we weren't doubtful at all as I knew the place we were headed used to be a strip club, so the location matched [As did the handy 'Sign' above the doors ;)] and we killed a bit of time by wandering around and finding things to do, like looking at fish tanks on the sides of bar/restaurants.

We got back, and at about 5 minutes to, there were three people waiting by the doors and the guys inside were starting to pull all the crap from the lobby out so it actually looked like it was open, so we were quite relieved. We got chatting to these people behind us, and one of them had a boyfriend who was playing the drums for the main act, Mr Ross Copperman, and we found out there was potential sound problems. When we got into the place, and paid our meagre £6, we were surprised and confused by the venue. It seemed confusing and we had to be directed the right way, and when we got inside...

The venue was much smaller than we imagined, and was almost full of chairs and booths meaning this would indeed be a sit down gig as predicted! This was going to be brilliant, we already knew. We picked a pretty big booth at the front end of the room, only a few feet away from the stage, and got comfortable. They even had little personalised match books, for which is still a novelty to a non London born citizen such as me. I snagged one for myself. We were getting comfortable, and just about an hour after the doors opened, some woman tapped me on the shoulder. She asked us if we could swap booths. I looked at ours, and figured we did have a little bit too much space here, but the venue was filling up and I liked our spot, but overall me and Curty agreed she could have it. What did she and her many friends do in kind response? Bought me and Curty a beer! I personally think this is brilliant, because Curty didn't tip and I did, and I got the beer to drink while she had a beer sat in front of her which she couldn't drink due to Lent! So I got two beers! This is why I love Karma :)

Overall, the gig was especially awesome, the two cover bands are quite new, with them being three and six months old respectively, called Selfservice and Bo Pepper, and both were amazing! However, the main act came on, and me and Curty both were blown away with how good he was, as we had been witness before but he seemed so much better this time round. So yep, it was an amazing day.

Sigh

As I'm writing this, I cannot think of a title for this post that will accurately portray everything contained inside it, that is, something that has a relevance to most of it. I thought 'Hate' because it's a post I regret to say is full of ranting [Some not even mine], but figured that might be too harsh. There was also 'Unite' because I would hope that many of you out there would feel the same way about me as some of these things, but that's too 'up myself' so I threw that one away too. So i decided, I would just write the entry, then put a title in at the end. Of course, you'll already have seen it, quite a paradoxical thought [In case you didn't realise, paradox has to be one of my favourite words of late, can't stop using it, even when it doesn't fit :|]

Private jokes are a part of life, and yet I hate them so. Correction, I don't hate them, though they are completely pointless [I'll explain later], but I don't really accept those people who guard them as if they're government secrets, fearing that should they tell anyone else, and spoil the whole thing, the world might collapse or *shock* *horror* somebody else will be in on the joke! I'm not one to be affected by simply not knowing what hilarious event on minor/major scales happen to individuals or groups. I like those little moments in life where something happens to you or your friends, which surprise and entertain you for unexplained reasons, and I love that it can bring a wave of laughter up by simply mentioning it somewhere in the future. Doesn't it just twist your knickers [Oh dear, that came out wrong!] when somebody uses it as a way to abstain you from the conversation, albeit temporarily, and they seem to think that's a great thing? I've been in this situation many a time, where somebody says something 'SNEEZE!' or 'Yeah, like the last time we had BANANA BREAD!' purely to eliminate your whole presence in the conversation. What do they think it achieves? Not only does it wind me up [Again, I must clarify that it is not the fact that I don't know what happened, but for the way these jerks go about avoiding bringing anyone else into a joke they needn't even bring up], but if it is a necessity to bring to the fray, then please go about explaining it, or else keep the information to yourself. It's about as annoying as a punch in the throat. I will also let you in on a little secret though, those of you have such private jokes i.e everyone : Even if you explain the joke, it doesn't mean you can't still enjoy it. Only you and your friend will truly appreciate it if that's what you care about, but if you're only using it as an object to show how awesome you are because you share these private moments with everyone, then please don't. It doesn't make us think 'Wow, they must be so cool, they have lots of adventure wherever they go! Let me admire you!', it makes us think 'Wow, what a douche/moron/insert word here.' So please, for the love of God, share or don't bring up, or at least don't make it so obvious it's something you don't wish to share.

Whew, rant over temporarily, and now for something completely different. I was on the internet today [Really? On the internet today? What a surprising turn of events!] and came across this website that you may know of, but have never visited. It's called 10 Downing Street. Some of you may know where this is, but others of you, possibly those of you with only a few percent brain capacity left or those unacquainted with some of the most basic knowledges of Politics and Government [Oh, I'm included in that last group, but I did know this at least. Thank god.] To reassure you though, it is the residence of the Prime Minister of our fine country, Great Britain. [Clarification: Mr Tony Blair, said Prime Minister, does not live in a website.] From here he does all his handiwork, when he's not broadcasting his TV programmes from inside the room with all the green benches of course. Yes, as you may know, he handles all stuff to do with Politics, as it's his job. Moving on to the point of this topic though, on his website, there is a section all about petitioning, and it has now been setup so that members of the public may create and sign petitions on anything, from 'Stop hassling pigeons' to 'Please sign this to prevent 2% postage costs on our packages which don't contain bombs to our troops in Iraq, or any place in Iraq, or hell, anywhere in the world.' It's a very widely accessible site, and as such, has warranted quite a few popular petitions. At the moment, one of the top ones is that explaining how student loan payments, those going from our bank accounts back to the SLC to pay off our loans, are being taken out monthly, kept in the IR's bank accounts earning them interest on our payments, meanwhile the SLC are charging us for interest on non payments, while the IR eventually gives it to the SLC on April of each year. It might not all be truthful, but I also thought it may merit some kind of investigation, hence why I did sign up to the petition eventually. If you are interested in signing this petition [All it takes is an email address and an address which they won't share with anyone], please follow the following link:
Student Loans Petition
To visit the home of the petitions site, please click the following link:
Petitions Home
The completely open accessibility of this site though, has led to some pretty stupid, infeasible and odd petitions to be created, such as this one, petitioning for 'Monkeys to be made available on the NHS' >_< Monkeys and this one which is most likely a joke by some youth somewhere on this planet Plague

This past week, despite what it may look like from my previous rant, has been one of the best weeks ever, and here's why. It was obvious that many people were going to be heading home for the holidays, unavoidable in fact, and I had already almost sworn I was going to be up here in Uni for the whole time due to me getting a new job [Which is good btw B-)]. I didn't realise that so many people were going to be sticking around with me though. This small but awesome group of people are Jamie, Louise, Shaun, Tom, Roxie, Stuart, Cat, Ian and CJ [I don't believe I'm missing anyone?] and they have been here for the past week [Though now some of them have dispersed back to respective homes :(] with me, and overall we've been having an eventful week! Starting on Sunday at Toms, then going to the bar on Monday, a party at mine on Tuesday, a BBQ on wednesday and finally a night out in town on Thursday [Which I didn't make, unfortunately]. During the time we spent together, we all had such a brilliant tike and created a whole bunch of memories that will hopefully stick with me, and the rest of us, for a long while. I have put up a couple of photos on Facebook for you to peruse if you feel like, and the fun seems like it might not be over just yet, for there are certain gigs to attend and big 21st parties to journey to Reading for ;) And these of course, will continue to be documented via camera and of course, the new kid on the blog, the handycam! Oh yes, the youtube video will get onto the internet eventually, expect laughs a plenty :)

I just want to end this on a high note, I have had a lot fo fun this week, thanks a lot for making it so awesome, I really feel [Clichés ahead! Turn back now!] like we bonded a lot and got to know each other just that little bit better! Thanks loads for being friends of mine, maybe one day the pleasure will be mutual!

Signing off. I think I just got my perfect title...


[CLICK FOR BIG]

Scarlett

Scarlett is a word that I have come across a lot recently. Most of you will associate it with the famous actress of the Johansson variety, star of several films including The Girl With The Pearl Earring and The Prestige. My favourite film of all time has her in it, Lost In Translation. I don't even know why I like that film so much, it just has a place in my heart because it feels like you're watching something perfectly happy and perfectly sad at the same time, and it's a lot more real than most films, it has less of a Hollywood sheen. Even she is good in it, despite most peoples criticisms of her acting, which I've never had a problem with.

This is the reason I like her so much in this new video of one of my current favourite songs. 'What Goes Around...' by Justin Timberlake. The link I have kindly posted for you below, and even if a) you have never liked a JT song or b) you don't like the guy, please give the video a watch, as not only is it completely different to almost anything he's done before, but it's quite interesting to see Scarlett Johansson in what is essentially a short film.



And as well as that awesome piece, the name Scarlett has also appeared quite frequently in my recent doings, all thanks to my little pet project The Towers. In case you don't know what that is, continue reading. If you do know what it is, feel free to skip this explanatory paragraph. The Towers is a University based drama/soap that is not only set around the lives of students, but written by, starring and filmed by students themselves, so it's quite a big feat. Especially since its a project I've not only started from scratch and held auditions for and gathered writers, but we are also going to be premièring it to the campus at the beginning of next term.

Now for the news. There was a bit of a recent update with regards to the script, as we had lost a couple of actors, and needed replacements, so as well as updating the script, part of the unofficial groups held an acting workshop, and a few people turned up. Enough so that as well as filling previously empty roles, we also had enough for some new characters. So, a bunch of new characters were written, and now we have Shane, Mark, Philippa and Scarlett to add to the now growing list. It's spread like wildfire since we started filming for it, and now it seems everybody wants a part! As filming goes, we've done everything except for one scene, which will be done on Friday, and thanks to my new home editing software the episode will be complete by the weekend, which has given everybody involved in the project something to look forward to! And script writing is also nearing the completion of episode 2, which gives all the newest actors their first starring roles, so as far as I'm concerned, things couldn't be better for us, those of you in my campus had better keep an eye out for the big premiere next term! Here's a little taster, a blooper reel from filming the first episode, enjoy!

Stereotype

I was on the phone the other day to somebody who was able to sort out a topup to my Pay as you Go phone. The thing is, I've heard all those complaints about how customer service people, especially in the telephone department, are terrible at dealing with their customers, and how it's very rare for you to get through to somebody who can help you quickly and efficiently. As I was saying though, I was on the phone, and was sorted completely within five minutes of ringing them up. There was a lot of information being given on my end, and a lot of numbers and names being heard on their end. So why am I telling you this? Because I was extremely satisfied with my service, and apparently that's rare.

I saw Hot Fuzz, the best comedy I have seen in such a long time, I am struggling to think of the last time I sat in a cinema and laughed so much. It was so great, I might have to go and see it again, a new milestone in cinema watching for me. I'm also playing a lot of Poker, which is extremely fun, and as of this moment have made a good profit from so far! However, the moment things start to look sour, I'm pulling out. And no Chris, I'm not an addict!

My birthday is on Monday, but until then I have a lot to do. Frist, there's a party tomorrow evening in a friends house, for it's her birthday. Then, another of my friends birthdays and yet another party, on the same night! One's turning 20 [Sam!] and one's turning 21 [Jo!] and of course, because I forgot his birthday when i was on the radio once, it's also another 20th birthday for Stuart, my house mate and classmate. Then, on Saturday, it's my party joint with Stuart and Jo, because we're all maths geeks who deserve a good serving of alcohol. Then Sunday is a day of rest. Monday, my actual birthday, and I'm planning a meal with some of my closest friends, somewhere cheap and cheerful. And of course, a good few drinks in the bar! Wednesday is a big day for The Towers, a self created soap for the University, as we're filming the first episode then. Editing should follow the next day. Then, the following weekend on Friday, it's time to go home and meet up with my family and Welsh friends! A big meetup in Wind Street followed by Jumpin Jaks sounds good, and then Sunday may be a family meal to celebrate my belated birthday. Finally, on the Monday I head back, where it is another day of lectures, and then the next day is Derby Day where my photographic/journalistic skills will be put to good use. Boy, I cannot wait!

Singing

Hahahah, you aren't going to believe what I've just done! That's a lie, it's not unbelievable, just unbelievably stupid. Ok, here's the story:

[It's worth pointing out, ironically in brackets, that this paragraph has a lot of brackets which might be confusing to read. You have been warned]

I am a member of a very popular forums on the internet. There's no real communal theme to it. It's not like a Furry fandom or Paedophile forums where everybody joins up with a common interest so they can discuss and talk absolute crap [Most certainly in the examples I mentioned]. No, the only thing that combines us all is our very vested to extremely obsessive love of a certain sense of humour [Think quite dark and possibly horrible] and the fact we spent $10 to join in. However, the community is now reaching 100,000 members and for the last couple of years when it has been so strong, there have been a lot of group based activities, such as 'meets' where a bunch of them who live in the same city/part of a country/continent meet up and get drunk [Dangerous, possibly, but no reported incidents ever so hooray!][Double bracket bonus, I have never done this] or compete in certain 'forum members only' competitions like 'Battle of the Bands' [You upload your bands songs on a site and compare etc] and 'Iron Chef' [Where you are given a certain theme/budget/ingredient for the contestants to create a meal with, most votes goes through to next round etc].

I don't enter these usually, because of lack of time and lack of skills. However, something caught my eye, and I'm afraid to say it was the forum equivalent of 'Pop Idol'. Oh dear! Oh dear.

I've never considered myself any good at signing, even though I can't help but sing along to certain songs when they pop onto my iTunes [Anyone who says they never sing is a lying s.o.b and if they aren't lying, they aren't enjoying music enough! :p]. A few weeks ago though, I went to a concert with a friend of mine, Catriona Reid, and after we came out and into Shepherds Bush, I enjoyed myself so much that I just burst out singing! That's when Cat did a terrible thing; she told me I 'wasn't bad' at singing. Gulp. I should have ignored her then, but it got stuck in my head, finally a compliment, and about something I've never considered to be one of my skills. If she'd said 'You're quite good at sums' I might not have let it into my brain. Same for 'You're quite good at walking' but oh no, she said the singing compliment and I will remember that moment in time from now on.

It was a few weeks ago, but when I saw this competition for singing, I figured I had nothing better to do today, so I grabbed my microphone [I should point out that I've had this microphone for ages, yet I've never used it, which was part of the selection of reasons I decided to do this :(] and sung a little song into it, recorded it, and turned the volume to the lowest point still audible so my house mates didn't hear. I didn't like it at all, but why I decided to send it anyway was beyond me. I didn't even practice, and quite possibly my life may be over now.

I thought you should now. I expect ridicule on the forums, and ridicule for telling people about this, because technically I am a bit of a geek and now I've just proved it to everybody. please don't think any less of me for it! I'll make it up in Discord tomorrow! :D

Art

Poems, I just don't get. Surely I can't be the only one who just will never be able to truly appreciate them, or what is more likely the case, am I the only one to see they're actually not an art form at all? I was going to write one down here to propose what I'm saying, but figured I might put a load of people off by writing up some poetry at the start of this entry!

I've got to tread very carefully here, I know a bunch of my friends write poetry. They are also very good apparently, as one of my friends at least has had quite a few of theirs published. Something bugs me about them though, and it will need a very quick but thorough history. Bear with me, it won't be long.

Poems started off at a basic level I guess. Again, I don't quote this as the truth, but they must have started off like that as nearly everything has to begin at a starting point. Anyway, so you have the general rhyming pattern which is simple: aabb. Meaning the first line ends with a word that rhymes with a word that ends the second line. The same goes for the third and fourth line too. So for example, here's a poem I found off the internet:

The lizard is a timid thing

That cannot dance or fly or sing;

He hunts for bugs beneath the floor

And longs to be a dinosaur.

Funny ain't it? Well, that to me is a great poem, because it makes logical sense to me, and it is spoken quite nicely too. Something to do with the rhythm I think. What do I know though? (I just found out it's called a quatrain. There you go, I learned something!)

Moving on though, you get all sorts of different rhyming patterns. abba, ababcdab, abcdabcdefef, abacus, barbbq... etc you get the idea. While some of them of course make sense like the first one does, they then just go off the wall. But, at least in some distant logical manner, I guess you could still see them, as there is a rhyme there, though they sound nowhere near as nice. Then...

Oh god, I don't even know its name, but then it goes all KER-azy and things that flying out the window, things such as logic and form and RHYTHM! There are pentameters crying in their sleep, and sonnets jumping off cliffs over this stuff! Here is an example, off some random google search:

NOT MY POEM, THIS ISN'T MINE I FOUND IT ON THE INTERNET

Sometimes,
often these days
I feel like I am totally,
utterly
alone.

I am alone in a room
filled with people
chatting
greeting
saying hi

I am alone
unloved
unwanted
by any
save maybe...
[Continues on for miles]

I don't even get that, not at all. If you want to find that poem, here it is. As I was saying though, there's nothing about that poem I liked at all, and this is purely because because I do Maths, which means my brain is formed to do logical stuff and while I do have the capacity to be creative (I actually secretly feel it is one of my strengths, my imagination that is :) ) I can't see anything in these poems. However, I do have a wild theory regarding these things.

SUDOKU's for the logical are like POEM's for the illogical.

What I mean is that whereas the logical population like Sudoku's, because they have a logical answer, poem's exist purely so that budding poet's can 'apply' their own meanings to them. Take the lizard poem up there, and read it through again. Here's an example of a poet analysing it:

"Well, clearly the lizard has a longing to be a dinosaur, because of the superiority of the species. It feels like as it currently exists, the lizard has no recognition and is ashamed of itself. However, to become a dinosaur would bring about some meaning in its life, where people would look to it in fear and.."

See? And that's coming from somebody who knows nothing about analysing. So I think I have proven my point, and come to the conclusion that whereas some poem's are perfectly acceptable as a creative art, others... just aren't. Now, if anybody knows any good limerick, please do pass them on. Yes, I do love a good limerick and I AM aware of the funny rhyming pattern in them...

Vacation

Moving completely on from my previous subject, comes a brand new entry into the Story of Russell.

That's untrue, this is simply another concoction of tales and thoughts, and couldn't really be considered part of a story. This is just me nit picking, cos it's what I do.

I was talking to a friend earlier on MSN (I've got to stop being so mysterious on this thing, it drives me insane to read back things and find I never ever refer to people by their names, rather choosing to call them all under the generic title 'friends'). Let's start this again. I was talking to Phil earlier on, about something the people we both know aka Cat, Sam, Chloe, Shaun, Khalid, etc were also considering for Easter break. That being, a holiday. I've been away with friends recently, but only as far as London. I've been for school trips to Paris and Disneyland with friends but only for a couple of days and it was when I was young. And of course, I have been for a completely brilliant holiday, all the way to America for three and a half weeks, but completely alone (It was still awesome, some of the best times I've had, but I'll have to share them in another entry). Is it quite sad that I've never been for a proper holiday to somewhere nice, for more than a couple of days, with friends?

Thus, this year is going to be different. I don't think anything out there can quite make or break a friendship or a relationship like a holiday can. Such disasters usually occur with couples though. It's completely obvious when you think about it, you're stranded with them. You might as well be marooned on a desert island the size of, well, a very small island (There are no obviously small islands to my recollection, and I SUCK at Geography). Why do people do it? Of course, because it can work greatly. I think there has to be some certain rules about how you do it though, you know, not being too pushy about things, being willing to go somewhere and do some things you don't really want to for the sake of the group. In fact, the more people you factor into the equation, the more likely you'll end up with a relationship ending style fight between friends. Somebody is always going to push it too far or not be able to take it any longer, and flip out. Other rules could be to make sure you think carefully about sleeping arrangements, and book according to what you can handle. Can the light sleepers handle the heavy sleepers snoring? Can you really share with the opposite sex? Girls do make a lot of mess in their rooms, trust me. And guys, probably the same, but a different kind of mess. (Ok, that wasn't funny, just quite gross. Strike that from the record) But yes, pretty much, you have to be very careful about going on holiday. It is only when you consider the bad sides as well as the obvious good sides that you realise it's best not to go into it with a false sense of excitement. And for the record, I am an easygoing guy, and could quite handle anything, but even myself on holiday could be a different person! Which leads me to question whether I really want to go on holiday anymore. That whole month of not doing anything here except sleeping in and playing video games is starting to look quite good right about now...

Sorry

If you are reading this, and you know me but I either haven't been in touch with you for a while or you have tried to contact me but with no luck, then this is the blog for you.

It's official, I have become a really awful friend to lots of you out there. The worst thing is, it started out so well this year. However, some minor personal issues that I have shied away from dealing with (Nothing medical or gross, just mental anguish is what I would most accurately compare it to, should I have to) and thus has led me to become a recluse for the majority of the term so far. I really have to sort my life out, at the moment I am behind on everything but this years modules, so I just wanted to say a big sorry to you all. And also a big thank you to those who have dealt with me. I promise I will get myself fixed up properly in the next few days.