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.
Why is it that these things aren't simple? Maybe I should
give up today and start tommorow.
Ever since I got up this morning I've been trying to sort out the problem
with Nick's and the Echos' domain name, but it appears that GoDaddy.com is offline and I can't figure out the controls for the other host company.
Grr.
Last night the news came through about MG
Rover collapsing, which is going to have a devastating affect around here (most of the West Midlands). To be
honest, I don't think I ever saw it pulling through but the company has now offically commenced insolvancy
proceedings so it does truly look like the end of the road for the last great british car manufacturer.
I seem
to recall I was sceptical about them pulling through originally when they were bought by Phoenix holdings in the
mid-to-late ninties, and they have done well to get this far. However despite years of personal doubt, I still
don't think it's quite sunk in how profound it is for them to have been here yesterday, and not today.
The
company has some family history for me as well. I believe my great-grandfather was one of the original company
managers at the beginning of the C20th after his line of work in coach building dried up. Thankfully his skills were
transferable and he ended up working for Lord Austin overseeing the body construction of the first Rovers at
Longbridge. The only other connection we have is my dad owns an MGB, but to be honest its hardly got as much life in
it as MG Rover does.
I only hope that something positive comes from all this, as with 18,000 jobs dependant on
the Longbridge plant, this isn't exactly a minor problem.
So here is the blog. I didn't know if I'd ever set one
of these up, but apparently everyone is doing it, so here's the bandwagon and here's me jumping on it.
This
morning I dropped my biggest web project as I think I've taken on too much. Considering the new term and all those
exams grinning at me from the horizon I should really do some work, and I think this is the only way of appeasing
myself.
A direct corellation to the lack of university work being done is that my social exploits haven't
held up too badly considering it's a holiday. Socially, things tend to dry up a bit a home as most of my friends
from school don't live in this area, but during this Easter I've got around to seeing quite a few people (out of
the ones who haven't buggered off to Cypress or Malta).
Last night I managed to catch up with some old school
friends at Liam's 20th birthday. It was only a simple thing - a balti then the pub, butconsidering I'd not seen
Ian or Tom-Bell since I left school it was a good catch up. Tom and John were also there which always makes for a
good and informed conversation about the world today - I can't think of anyone at uni with whom I have heated
conversations about the state of the union. Interesting considering university is meant to be some hotbed of
political discussion and revolution. All except Loughborough.
Currently I am contending with wireless
networking. This is a totally new concept to me as I've never had to network much at all before and I am spending
most of my time wrestling with acronyms and abbreviations trying to figure out why it cuts me off every so often. I
hope it all settles down as it damn annoying.