Last night was the first French Cricket social of the season, and apparently everything went really well. I didn't actually manage to get there until about half an hour from the end, but what I did see of it was pretty good stuff and everyone was in high spirits. There has been a fairly good subscribership this year and it filled out the bar.

The reason I didn't get in as early as I would have liked was due to a separate social that started at our house unintentionally. I wasn't going to ruin everyone else's fun by dragging people off, and it was a good laugh anyway. Swede, Irish Johnny, Duffy, Chicken and Tongy joined us for a few bottle of that revolting stuff called Zeppelin cider. I can't believe I even touch that stuff. Yes it's cheap. Yes, we're students. Yes it's alcoholic. No it's not drinkable. The taste reminds me of Echos house vodka mixed with lemonade.

Some poker and tower's bar later we got to the union where the fun continued. I saw a lot of people that I've not seen in a long while, some of them I'm sure I can't remember. Most randomly, Ritchie, Swan's mate from home, just turned up at one point. Swan lives in Essex.

The night before had been spent in Tower's Bar as well. Being elections time at the uni, hustings had been arranged for 6pm. Jono and I cruised over with some questions to poke at the prospective candidates. It's a good thing too. Nobody else really had anything to ask, and it gave me an opportunity to stand up and make people laugh (in a non-pointing and staring way), which I really get a buzz from.

Tonight Ibs and I are going off to see Jack Johnson. Lacking tickets as of yet is a concern, but we're looking to buy there. Should be a good if not slightly expensive night.

I need to crack on with MDP2, my washing and buying food as I'm going to starve soon.

So tonight was Jack Johnson night, and how pleased am I that I went? Ecstatic. That's how pleased I am.

Ibs was my accomplice for the evening, and at 6ish we met at Towers Bar from where we set off to the Union to get the cab to the station. The train took some time, and during the wait Zoe popped in for a chat (on her way back from Nottingham). At ten to seven we boarded and as soon as we'd finished the 15 minute journey we started the critical part of the mission; locating some tickets.

I had tried this morning to purchase some standing tickets, but the website had been misleading so we took our chances and tried to find a tout instead. I've never bought from a tout (for music, or at least in this country - Inter Milan vs. Brescia at San Siro springs to mind) but the first guy we ran into sold us a pair of genuines (or at least genuine enough) at the very reasonable price of 50 quid for two. Considering face value was 23 pounds, we were not concerned in the slightest. In fact I had come prepared to pay upto fifty, although I was hoping it wouldn't be more than 40. Bargain.

It was a bit of a Loughborough social inside. I knew Nature, Emz and Duffy were all in attendance, but was surprised to see A-Saus and Caz. Ibs also bumped into some people he knew.

We were a distance back, but close enough to get a good photo and see the stage constantly, so no complaints there. The support act was a guy called Matt Costa who I had checked out prior to the event and was incredibly impressed. Go buy his music.

Then came the main act, and it was frickin awesome. There are no other words. It has been a long time since I was introduced to Jack Johnson (out in Taiwan, summer 2004) and it was very cool to get to a live performance, especially since I wouldn't have made it otherwise if Ibs hadn't told me his plans.

Everything worth playing was played. Badfish Boss DJ, Bad News, Bubble Toes, Times Like These, Good People, Flake, Mudfootball, Brushfire Fairytales, Taylor, Belle, Banana Pancakes, Inaudible Melodies, Rodeo Clowns (no G-Love though - Zac Gill piano accompaniment all through though), The Horizon Has Been Defeated, Symbol In My Driveway, Staple It Together, a cover of White Stripes' My Doorbell, F-Stop Blues. Everything. There might have been more, but I can't recall off the top of my head.

Once everything had finished we tried to get a train back, but as they don't run past 9.30pm (and it was 11.05pm) it was quite tricky. The buses also were not doing their job properly so we ended up grabbing a cab with some other random Lufbra-types from the bus stop. Ibs spent most of the time regaling his time as social sec (the guy had just been voted on as Rigg/Rutt social sec) and how you do shots/Reef (yes, Reef) through your eyeball. Hope he wasn't too mentally anguished by the thought of the coming year.

Anyway, cheers Ibs, couldn't have got there on my own.

I never dream at uni. A strange observation I made over Christmas this year when I was back at home and noticed the only times I ever dream are when I am in my 'real' bed. However, last night broke the rule, and it did so spectacularly.

Last night my particularly vivid imagination conjured up me sitting at a street bar or cafe at the top of a hill with my family. Suddenly I see a strange elephant-headed animal run across the street. It disappears out of view behind the back of one of the people at the table, then reappears to scurry up a fairly concealed pathway amongst some greenery. If this isn't strange enough, another two appear, just as before and do exactly the same thing.

Next I'm inside with everyone (inside what, I don't know) and there is a crocodile, or it could be an alligator sitting on the floor. Naturally no one is too pleased to see it and there is a lot of running about and jumping on furniture to avoid it. It's chasing us all around until I find a very large kitchen knife. The crocodile gets up on its hind legs briefly and lunges at me. Towering above me, I hold the knife out in front of me with both hands (which now looks smaller, but sharper) and the croc drops forward and would have landed right on top of me if it hadn't fallen onto the outstretched knife, skewering itself completely.

I woke up in a cold sweat, two seconds before my alarm went off. What's that all about then? Anyone understand dreams? Am I regailing a previous life as Saint George?

To try and break the deadlock between me, my pen and my major project I tried to move things on yesterday using force. Unfortunately the morning was written off due to a lecture followed by a one hour wait for a degree show booklet mugshot followed by a McDonalds lunch (this is becoming far to regular, but Jon insists every Tuesday, and it does become an opportunity for a DT social).

After lunch I tried to get some other stuff out the way in anticipation that after my tutorial at 4pm I would be fired up enough to get a move on. In actual fact I turned up to the tutorial and signed up for 4.15pm then hung around outside while my tutor talked to someone else. 4.15 passed, as did 4.30, as did 4.45. Eventually Plev and Sophie turned up. They suggested I should knock and when I did, I found he was hoping to be holding group sessions anyway, so I had read every map and poster along the whole length of the Matthew Arbold building for no reason whatsoever.

It did help, but last night didn't really see much progression, therefore today is the big push to meet the preliminary deadlines. I've got a damn hand in this time next week. How the hell is this going to work out? I'm meant to be going home tomorrow night for the careers convention at OSH then French Cricket Friday and Jack Johnson on Saturday. How am I going to prioritise?

I've also got to pick the images I want to go into the degree show booklet from my past three years worth of work. I remember thinking last year that I would be struggling to select three items I was happy to publish, but this year when it comes down to it, I've got a lot more than I'm allowed to submit.

It's time to knuckle down.

It has been a busy couple of days. DDS and I have pressed ahead with the course clothing, and despite encountering a set back today (e.g. the degree show committee launched their stash too) everything appears to be going swimmingly, if not becoming far too time consuming.

In terms of Major Project, things are going far too slowly. I haven't really got my teeth into the necessary developments needed to pull it up to scratch, and the idea of a dissertation tutorial on Thursday made me groan even more.

On a slightly more enjoyable note, I'm going to see Jack Johnson on Saturday. Well it is factors permitting but I'm hopeful. I really wanted to go before but tickets were not available, however Ibs and his 'serps' have a plan which could see me enjoying the Hawaiian lifestyle by the end of the week.

Yesterday the rest of the house tried to drag me out, but it didn't really work and all that happened was I got drunk then went to bed early. Clearly my stubbornness was worthwhile as I did get up as early as I had hoped, unfortunately other events took over and I still haven't achieved what I set out to do yesterday evening.

Tongy was involved in a pretty bad car accident the other day. Thankfully he wasn't hurt, but he was fairly shaken up, so Sean & I went over for a couple of beers. I think he's had a fairly horrific month so far, and this didn't really make things any better. Hopefully everything will settle for him in the next few days.

I have to mention Psycho Steve's visit the other day as he specifically requested a mention. Unfortunately we kept on missing each other on nights out, well sort of. When each of us was sober the other was drunk so it didn't really make for easy conversation. In need of better co-ordination next time.

The French Cricket social this coming Friday got some much needed attention today and it sounds like people are motivated to drive it forward which is a good sign, rather than me propping the thing up. I'm looking forward to it.

Tomorrow I will work on MDP2. I will. I will.

Some of the funniest times I ever experience in Loughborough are when our house get together with Irish Johnny, Duffy, Swede and Chrisday's house. Last night was an example of this.

Despite being some doubt about people going out earlier in the day, it ended up that Swan and Devito were up for FND and so we headed over to the meet up with the others for a pre-Union game of poker. It was decided that cider would be the tipple of the night, and so we carted over a crate. By the time we got there, they were already well stuck into things, but we joined in and spent the next two or three hours playing drinking poker, enjoying Chris cheat and generally in hysterics. Geordie even got his head totally shaved at one point (by his own instruction but admittedly probably not in the best state to be around anything vaguely electrical). Needless to say the night was fun, long and a contributor to my tiredness today.

I have been receiving feedback about the course shirts in dribs and drabs all day, with a ratio of 48:3 people like to people dislike. This is good enough for us and so DDS and I are going to get shifting on printing them up.

As a change we had an IDT social at lunch. Rosie picked up Jim, DDS and myself and took us of to Quorn for some posh pub nosh. I was absolutely starving, but the tenner spent was definitely worth every penny. I will definitely be taking the parents there next time they're up.

I also got my marks back today from my exams and I can't say I'm unhappy. I scored a 90 on my Internet and Interface (putting my final grade at 88) and a 74 in Enterprise and Innovation. This has clearly left me in high spirits - the highest marks all year. It's just unfortunate they don't count for more in the greater scheme of things. Swanny worked out for me today that I would need a 77.5% average in MDP2, my dissertation and RSA/DesignWeek in order to scrape a first, and that really isn't likely. Shame, but just one of those things - I knew from the first year getting a top degree was unlikely on this course without sacrificing my social life, and I'd rather be balanced than obsessed.

Yesterday was not remarkable. One tutorial was cancelled due to my tutor being away on jury duty and the tutorial was early afternoon, so the main chunk of the day was left open for me to get on with my own devices. I opted to make a go of those course shirts I've been wanting to push for so long and sent an email to the department asking for feedback. It's not been forwarded yet.

I've also been on tenterhooks for my exam marks from two or three weeks back. While all the other modules, and indeed the rest of the uni have received theirs, I am still awaiting on any news at all. It's annoying, but I can't do much about it.

Today I had to get my asthma reviewed at the doctors. It's strange really, how a lot of people don't like doctors waiting rooms or surgeries, but I like the sterile smell and the total quiet. It's like a sanctuary. It got me thinking how often I actually just sit. Sit and do nothing. It's hardly ever. I'm constantly thinking, but not generally in a calm chillout way. There is always something important to contemplate. Last night for example, as I lay in bed trying to get to sleep, there was nothing but girls in my head and I could not drift off for the life of me. This may partially be due to the can of RedBull I had at about 10pm. In the end I read some Clarkson and finally passed out at about 3.30am.

I've had a play with AJAX. This is partially because I feel I'm missing something if I don't understand it, and partially because I can't use ASP with it at the moment as it's not a generally supported language (any more), so I need to work out my own engine. If you don't know what AJAX or ASP are, don't worry your cotton socks about it.

I had hoped to see Daniel Kitson at the Loughborough Town Hall last night, but I only set the reminder for 5 minutes before and it totally slipped my mind until the computer reminded me of where I was supposed to be. I might go and see Sue Perkins on Saturday instead.

IDT pub lunch tomorrow. Looking forward to it.