I got back at about 11am yesterday and Broomy sorted
me and Sean out. I was actually surprised by the number of people in the hall considering we were led to believe no
one was allowed into the tower until today.
Sean and I grabbed some food at Lloyds with his Dad and then had a
scout around the town before heading over to Tongy's pad. Tongy wasn't there, but Si let us in and we ended up
watching TV for an hour or so. It was some apparently childhood legend of a film called All Dogs Go To Heaven, but I
must have been somewhere else the day that was released as I'd never heard of it. Great light entertainment for a
Saturday afternoon, however scarily Sean knew all the words the songs. Was (and still am) slightly
scared.
After that we sorted ourselves out with pizza round Broomy's. He was looking a little worse for wear
- probably due to all the marking he was doing (which is alternatively known as playing Final Fantasy with a load of
thirteen year old Yanks).
Later Ryan turned up and we decided to go for a drink, which naturally turned into a
full blown night in Echos. I noticed Matt's Bar have now either increased their range of bevoirs, or run out of red
and green drinks, as yesterday when I asked for a 'Bastard' I got a 'Bitch'. These former drink has earned
Matt's Bar a legendary status amongst us students, and a couple of them will see you well on your way. The Bitch is
a new concoction, a luminous green drink made from a cocktail of shots and a blue and yellow unbranded bottle. I
thought it was actually nicer than the Bastard, but then again, not much isn't.
We later headed to the curry
house (Mugal's - which I still maintain best in Lufbra despite fierce oposition) and proceeded to order Chicken
Kormas at 3am. Lovely, except for a barrage of abuse I was getting from the other two regarding my brief encounter
with a Finnish bird in Echos. I don't think I'm going to live it down.
Ryan turned up about 10 minutes ago
clutching a handful of Maccy D's promotional coupons so I think lunch is going to
be there, despite my intense dislike of the place. Oh the other thing is Fred has launched his website now, so go to
FredHorlock.co.uk for some
fun.
And so the preparations for going back to uni are
underway. Well, sort of. I'll do it tommorow, except I won't be having a lie in as I need to be back up there by
11am so Broomy can let me back into the
Tower before he goes of footballing. This means no lie in, which is more than annoying considering it's a
Saturday.
It's been a good day. I rose late and James called to finalise plans for our trip this summer
although he did extort a large amount of money from me (thats shorthand for a grand and a third) but that literally
is the price you pay. See what I did there?
I also swung a golf club for the first time in over a
year and a half. Surprisingly I hit the ball well. In fact I was so surprised I might even consider taking it up
again. I think I became despondant the first time around due to my frustration that I couldn't pack enough power
behind the ball, but now I'm as big as everyone else this isn't appearing to be such a problem. However, I do
realise I now have totally jinxed the situation by saying I hit the ball better than I ever have, but I'm hoping
God is looking kindly on me generally and it wasn't just a one off today. Maybe I should just wait 18 months
between each round I play.
Another brilliant thing that has occured is this, the Creative Class 05/06,
which I am going to jump on with much vigour. It's been a while since I've entered anything, but this is right up
my street and so I'm really pleased it came along as I've been tapping my fingers waiting for things to get stuck
into. Funnily enough I already have had contact with IDEASFACTORY, they asked to interview me for one of their features a few
years back. The article makes me look like a total egotistical bastard but it was still great exposure for me that
wasn't related to my academic work at the end of my A-Level year.
Then there is this. Now I would never,
ever, not in a million years consider myself intimidating, but I found out that was the impression I left upon my
sister's new boyfriend when we met for the first time. I couldn't stop grinning the whole day once I found out.
The moment I heard this I will cherish forever as I think it maybe the last time I ever hear anything similar again.
The guy seems nice enough anyway, and I am already indebted to him as he lent me a good whack of CDs the other week
before I had even met him.
Yesterday afternoon I drove (the last time before the insurance ran out) to
Worcester with mother in order to purchase new clothing. I returned with cut-offs, sandals and a few summer tops so
am extremely pleased as I began to realise my entire wardrobe previously consisted of 90% clothes I had designed or
been 'Loughborough Stash'.
Overall a good two days, and hopefully tommorow will be as well, and assuming the
rain holds off it will be. It'll be due time to catch up with the lads.
It was good to catch up again last night. Unfortunately it wasn't as
larger crowd as I had hoped, a few people couldn't make it, but it was still a really good time reminissing over
the old days. For a large portion of the time we discussed the OSH
legend that was 'Placid Neurotik' - the original band from our year which I think must have surfaced around year
11. Needless to say, with such a stunning name (courtesy of Tom), it didn't survive very long. Just thinking back -
I think I helped them out with getting their site up and running - I'd forgotten about that.
Then the talk
turned to the gig that never was at the end of the GCSE year (where the school crashed our party and cancelled it
before it even started). Then it of course led on to Peat Bog Man. This was a more stable foundation that actually had some
mild success in the ska genre. In fact, they have had more success after they disbanded than when they were
together, as they have just had one of their tracks featured in the soundtrack of an Indie film called Soulsearcher which I think is a
pretty cool achievement. They didn't get paid for it and it's never going to be a blockbuster (check out the trailer), but I'm hoping to get hold of a
copy just to experience it.
Today I began on my next project (which is a bit wrong
considering I have sooo much on at the moment). Basically my uncle needs a site for his disability/mobility
company, Dolphin Lifts, so I've spent the past few hours playing around sorting that out while simulataneously
making prompted changes to the Dynamic
Teamwear website prototype.
Aside from the usual web chaos I have taken a multitude of calls today ranging
from sorting out when and how I'm going to get back to uni (which definitely is going to be Saturday now) through
to where I'm staying this weekend and how to solve problems with iTunes. Apparently people have this misconception
that I am a cheap call centre - and when I come to think of it, I pretty much am. At least there are always a hell
of a lot of people out there who owe me drinks. Keeps my costs down.
James sent me another itinary today. I'm
glas he is doing most of the organising this year, not as he thinks because I've always done it in the past, but
actually, because I don't have any time. The plan now looks like we are flying into San Franscisco late August,
spending a few days there, then jumping on a tour of the western seaboard for a week. This is a new concept for us
as previously we have arranged everything for our trips, but the benefits here are that we can try some of that
thing everyone else talks about… erm… relaxing… that's it.
Once the tour is
done we've deceided to chop San Diego as although it's a ridiculously cheap flight (GBP 14!) we need to lose some
days. So we will carry on via Chicago (We don't know if we are stopping there yet) then heading on up to Toronto.
I'm detecting James is a little unhappy with the extra GBP 80 we are spending here, but I've been a bit firm here
as I really would like to see the Canadians again (the family) including Joel who is the new arrival since I last
travelled there.
Then on from Toronto to D.C. and N.Y.C. and finally home. Originally we were going to be
doing one of our internals on September 11th, which I was a bit uncomfortable about. It's not the fear of something
happening, but more just it feels wrong to do that. I don't know.
So the summer is coming together nicely,
unlike my work now - I really am going to have to put some graft in, but I've got to go to the pub now, so it'll
have to be tommorow...
Today I managed embarked on two missions. Mission A:
mixing concrete for a new path in the garden, and Mission B: starting university work. The path is finished; the
same cannot be said for the latter. I also managed to close a couple of deals and produce some groundwork for a
future project, so all-in-all I have been very productive.
If I wish to maintain this brilliant form I will
have to sort out my sleeping issues. At uni I would consider it a miracle to sleep this long when it isn't a
weekend (sometimes even if it is a weekend), but at home I've been getting 12hrs sleep nearly every night. The only
thing I can complain about is I lose half the day, and so I wish I could force myself to retire earlier, but as you
can see, I manage to entertain myself with other things until the wee small hours of the morning.
This is
going on my list of things I need to address before I get back, because 9am lectures are going to prove very cold
waters to cope with when I start them again (four days a week) on Monday. My resolution? Tommorow I will rise early
and shop for CDs and cut-offs. This will also encourage more sunny days.
Today was spent at Donington racetrack. This was my first
taste of 'live' motorsport and I can firmly say I intend to go back. I'm not entirely sure I how I've managed to
avoid attending all these years, but finally managed to make it to an event. It was the first meet of the season for
the British Touring Car Championship, and after starting off at stupid o'clock in the morning, we managed to see
most of the days events. I even caught a bit of sun. Which is nice.
We were being
"hospitalised" (not hospitalised) by a stairlift supplier to my uncle's company, which included free
tickets, free canapés and a free trackside box. We also were treated to free magazines and inside one I found this
photo.
The caption reads "Rolling Start. Stephen Campbell attempted a novel way to leap through the John
Cooper Challenge pack at Donington. Sadly for all concerned, it failed." Most of the time this would jsut
mildly amuse me, except I actually know Steve (my only link to the motoring world). He's a university friend of
mine and used to have a tendency to be very quiet and go unnoticed, hence we nicknamed him "Psycho".
Ironically, something has since occurred which we didn't bank on, which is Steve has actually began living up to his
role, which is very amusing. The guy is hilarious.This wasn't one of his crazy stunts however.
Steve races Mini Coopers (respect) and is actually pretty goddamn good.
Unfortunately for him he managed to roll his car (see photo) at a recent race at Donington. Being the holidays, I
didn't know about this, and so when I discovered the picture I was most amused. Poor old Steve. If you are worrying
- he wasn't injured, but his car was in a pretty bad state (see the photos here) Even so he raced the next day
and finished a respectable sixth.
Aside from this discovery, back at Donington, I was pleased to watch Matt
Neal seal two victories and several other trophies. Not that I can possibly have a legitimate reason to do this
after one race, but my father plays golf with his father, so that's my excuse for supporting the winner.
James came around today. We have been trying to
sort out all this travel malarkey for this summer, which has so far been very slow starting. This is our third major
expedition now and we seem to get more blaze about the whole thing every year. I'm sure it'll all get sorted (it
always does) but it would be great just to have it done and dusted already. Looks like James is now going to have to
sort it out when he gets down to Bath. The guys at STA must be getting
sick of the sight of him.
James and I tried to outline an itinerary, but ended up watching the Grand
National and Tony McCoy's unfortunate departure from the race. It was also unfortunate for James who had put money
on him. If only I'd know third place would go to a horse at 66/1, but unfortunately I've never picked a horse
that's ever paid out on the National so I've given up.
Tonight I have persuaded the folks to take us all
out for a curry and film which should be good as currently the site of the inside of my room is driving me insane.
Due to the wonders of technology I managed to watch most of that mundane coverage of the royal wedding this morning.
Despite my dislike of Piers Morgan, I thought his presence was quite good in the BBC studio. I particularly liked
his remark about the whole of the congregation of St. George's chapel making the prayer of penitence which was
along the lines of ...If there ever was a crowd that needed penitence it was this one.
I can't
see what all the fuss is about the wedding - for me it's just two people in love, getting married. Fair enough
protest before, but I thought it was out of order for the people who turned up on the day itself and made a nuisance
of themselves. Maybe they can't be the fairytale dream couple that Di & Charles were meant to live up to, but
really, give them a break on whats meant to be a their happy and special day. The best of luck to them - I can't
ever believe Camilla is the villainous woman that some of the press make her out to be. Also good on Steven Fry for
the top hat. This is the sort of British quirkiness we don't see enough of and expect at royal weddings (or
blessings). Top hats for everyone.
Tomorrow I'm off to Donnington raceway. Its actually a matter of
minutes from uni, but I can't return to halls until next Sunday so it'll just be up and back for the day. It's
the second of two days of BTCC racing, which will be my first visit to a
motorsport event (despite an interest I've held for years), so I'm looking forward to it.
After that I
really am going to have to start on the work.