MSNation

I've not been too well these last couple of days so I've spent today at home, I would have been extremely bored but for the fact that I got to spend time talking to some great friends. One is in the states, two in Sheffield, some in London and one in Greece. Now, if I'd spent the ammount of time talking to these people on the phone that I did, I would now own telewest more money than I have in my account. Instead, I owe nothing. Well nothing more than the broadband line rental. MSN is a wonderful thing. True you can't actually hear or see the person (unless you use a mic, a webcam and don't use a mac) but you can spend as long as you want talking, remeniscing, learning, advising (hope you like the film Jo), joking and having as good a conversation with your friends, with the added bonus that you get to distract each other from the things that you should actually be doing, like work.

On a seperate note, had possibly the most bizarre phone conversation with Sam and Hannah today:
[the phone rings, I answer]
Me: Hello?
Sam: Hi, it's me. Where do Nuts come from?
Me: The grow on trees
Sam [to Hannah]: they grow on trees.
Hannah [in background]: really?
Sam: really?
Me: yes, have you not heard of acorns, or chestnut trees?
Sam: of course, chestnut trees.
hannah [in background]: what about Peanuts?
Sam: what about peanuts?
Me: tree
Sam: ok
Me: why?
Sam: we were just talking about it. bye
[phone goes dead]

There's simpy nothing I can say to follow this.

The Beginning of the End

I'm now into my last week in Scotland and I'm really not sure how I feel.
Today was the last youth club I'll work at in Granton. We had a barbeque and the young people, as usual, tried to kill each other. I was kind of dreading today, wasn't sure how I'd feel and now that it's over, I'm still not sure how I feel. If anything I just feel numb. You see, when I started work at this youth club, I really wanted to make a difference to the young people here. I wanted to help them move forward with their lives, help them learn that kicking each other isn't necessarily the best way of showing their friendship. Looking back over the two years that I've been there, I'm not sure I've done any of that, not sure I've made the difference that I wanted to. I just hope that in the future, someone will be able to.

Of course, I've still got a week before I leave. Which means that I still need to sort out and pack all my stuff. Still need to catch up and say bye to everyone here. And I still have some stuff to do at Granton, there's the kids club I help at on Wednesday, and the big community Barbeque on Sunday before I leave at the beginning of next week.

Right now though, there's a hollow feeling in my chest, like I should be feeling something, I'm just not sure what.

Glastonbury

The last three days I've spent all my evenings sat watching the tv wishing I was somewhere else, and for a change the somewhere else wasn't somewhere sunny by the sea, it was a muddy field in Somerset. I've not been to Glastonbury since 1997, and that seems a long time ago at the moment. 1997 was the year that got so muddy there were actually cases of trench foot, the year that Radiohead played the gig of their lives and it was still in the time where you just showed up, chucked your stuff over the fence, went under the fence and didn't worry about tickets. Since then, Glastonbury has had to tighten up on security, now the fence is 10 foot tall and patrolled by professional security rather than the off work farm hands that I'm sure used to do it. This means that the only way to get to Glastonbury is, quite fairly I suppose, by buying a ticket. 122'000 tickets went on sale and within three hours they were sold out as 2 million people were left disappointed. I was one of the disappointed ones. Just to rub my nose in this, I've had three texts today from three separate friends who are all there enjoying themselves and seeing all the bands that I want to see.
Luckily, the bbc's coverage this year has been fantastic and I've got to see nearly all the bands I wanted to. To be honest, I wasn't very impressed with the first day. The Killers were excellent but the white stripes (who were headlining), as good as they were, just didn't seem to fit into the huge Glastonbury stage and atmosphere. Yesterday however, was brilliant. The Kaiser Chiefs played an incredible set, they're the new band everyone will be talking about like Snow Patrol and the Scissor Sisters were last year. Athlete played a nice set, although it seemed a bit jaded to me. Ash were as excellent as ever playing a greatest hits set including my personal favourite 'Girl From Mars'. Keane spoilt it a bit by showing up and singing their nicely dull songs, I love Noel Galagher's comment about Keane 'the biggest three twats in a band are always the drummer, the keyboard player and the lead singer, need I say more?'. But keane left and Coldplay came on and blew everyone else away. The Coldplay set was immense, Chris Martin was on top form messing about with the lyrics and getting the crowd singing along with every song. they even did a cover of Kylie's 'can't get you out of my head' since she was supposed to be headlining today, but had to pull out because of her breast cancer, which she is now recovering from. At the same time on the other stage, Razorlight were showing that despite having only one album they were worthy of a headline spot.
Today's lineup wasn't quite as good. The Bravery, from the two tracks I saw, were excellent. Brian Wilson sang the Beach Boys greatest hits, which is always going to be good to listen to (if you like the beach boys). The recently reformed La's played 'there she goes' and it sounded as good as ever. Other than that today's been fairly disappointing so far, with only primal scream (who I'm not a huge fan of) and Ian Brown (who will be great if he plays some old Stone Roses stuff) to go. It's been great to watch though.
There's something wonderful about live music, even when you're watching it on the tv. I love the look on bands like the Kaiser Chiefs face when they suddenly realise there are 30'000 people singing along to the songs they wrote. Music somehow manages to draw people together in a way no other art form, or anything else I can think of for that matter, can. That's why the U2 gig was so powerful, and why Coldplay and whatever other band you happen to love listening to are so special, because they draw people together and just for a couple of minutes, remind you that there's other people in the world that think and feel like you do.

Coffee and TV

It's sort of disconcerting when you suddenly find out that more than the three or four people that you know are reading your blog.
For a long time, ok let's not get too carried away here, for the few months I've been writing this blog thinking, probably quite rightly, that there are about four friends of mine who actually read it. In fact, the only reason I started writing this blog in the first place was because one of my best friends had moved to the states, was writing one of her own and told me I should too. However, somewhere in the back of your mind you have this vague idea that maybe, possibly in one of those million to one chances, someone has stumbled across your blog. They've read it and, if not enjoyed it more than anything they've ever read ever, at least found it mildly amusing, interesting or just the right side of weird to be fun to read. However, when you suddenly get comments, then e-mails from someone in an entirely different country that has not only been 'following your blog for a while' but had apparently been slightly evangelical about your blog to the point where there are other people that I've never even heard of reading it, it comes as a bit of a surprise. What makes it more surprising is when the person who has somehow stumbled across your blog happens to be a professional writer, so should be able to recognise the nonsense that is written here for what it is and yet somehow manages to enjoy it anyway. This is all a fairly long winded way of saying a couple of things.

Firstly, as I have probably already mentioned, it's sort of disconcerting to discover that there are other people reading this inane drivel. Since I've found out about this I've been very aware when writing that there should be something of interest or at least something fairly funny to write. Unfortunately, my life is neither particularly interesting or funny at the moment.
I've actually spent the majority of the last couple of days sat watching wimbledon on the tv with a cup of coffee and while this has been perfectly pleasent, hardly classes as interesting and certainly doesn't come close to being funny. When I've not been watching wimbledon, I've been watching Glastonbury. I tried to get tickets this year, but wasn't one of the lucky 112'000 that got tickets out of the 2'000'000 that tried to get them. What I saw of the first day was good, but not mindblowingly so like the last couple of years have been. The Killers were excellent a great set with one of those great moments where the whole crowd take over the singing. The White Stripes were there usual brilliant selves, and the one song (yes, only one, what's wrong with the bbc?) that we got to see from Babyshambles was excellent. Other than that though, and a great couple of songs from The Tears who were the day one headliners of the John Peel (whose comments I missed on the BBC coverage, it's not the same without him) stage, there was nothing aprticularly strong or good. Today should be much better though, I've already seen the highlghts of a great set by the Kaiser Chiefs and a couple of songs from Athlete and KT Tunstall, and Coldplay are eadlining this evening so there's still a chance that it will be another great Glastonbury.
Anyway, back to the point. So now as I write this, I find myself slightly nervous about posting it knowing that there are people who have very little idea who I am reading it and actually hoping it will entertain them, hope I don't let them down.

Secondly, since my Greek friend first commented on my post, I've had the priveledge of chatting on msn a couple of times and now of reading her blog (Froth on the Daydream) since she's now translated it into English. It's very bizarre getting to know someone over the internet, but despite that, it's been great to talk to someone new and someone with such great taste, I'm talking about films and music at this point, not her choice in blog which can only be described as slightly odd.

So that's been my last couple of days. Wimbledon, Glastonbury, cups of coffee and a new friend. Not particularly interesting or funny, but I'm sure I'll think of something for tomorrow.

Like a long summer day

Now that's been a proper summers day, you know, like the ones that you had in those long summers between A-levels and uni holidays? Ok, it didn't involve a party or a bbq or an evening in the pub like those summers invariably did, but the day itself, well... Got up early in the afternoon, sat talking to some friends in Sheffield, who I'd spent those long summers with, on msn while I watched Tim Henman go out of Wimbledon and listend to the BBC cricket commentary as Australia destroyed England. Went for a walk in the sun then went out with my friends to the cinema to see Batman Begins.

Really enjoyed the film. It's a REAL batman film, the batman from the comics. The batman that is truly scary to the criminals. The batman that moves in the shadows and you never see unless he wants you to see him. In the fight scenes, you didn't see batman, you just watched the thugs as they were picked off one, two or seven at a time. The story grounded what batman was capable of in reality. For once you actually believed that someone could do the things that a superhero is doing on screen without having to completely suspend your sense of reality. Maybe that's why when I came out of the cinema I wasn't sure how I felt. I'm used to having to justify a film in terms of it's version of reality, this film didn't need me to do that, it just needed me to accept that someone would go to immense lengths to make the world a better place, and luckily that someone happened to be a multi-billionaire with a company that happened to make state of the art weapons. Ok might have just ruined my own argument there, but maybe not. Either way, it was a good film and one that will make its way into my DVD collection.

And just so that the day had even more echoes to those long summers, I got home and watched an old episode of Shooting Stars that happened to be on tv.
Weird how things repeat themselves eh.

U2

It's 2:30 in the afternoon and I've just woken up with legs that feel as if all the tissue apart from the nerves have been replaced with lead. The nerves are obviously still working since they're repeatedly telling me that they hate me for the abuse they've had over the last few days, the football, the long walks and now a whole evening standing and a lot of jumping about. It was worth falling out with my legs though, because last nights U2 gig was incredibly, wonderfully awesome.

I've been lucky enough to see some great live bands. I've seen Coldplay, Oasis, the Manics, the Vines, Radiohead, Blur, even seen Paul McCartney sing 3 hours of Beatles songs (which was also wonderful), but last nights gig was possibly the best gig I will ever go to. The sound that these four people manage to create is truly incredible. The music was wonderful, U2 have some amazing songs and they sound even more powerful and beautiful live. As I stood 6 foot from Bono, the Edge, Adam Clayton and Larry Mullen you could see the relationship between them, see as they worked together and how Bono led them through the set. There were little moments when Bono or the Edge would improvise at the end of a song, and the rest of the band responded and went with it. And they played pretty much every song that you'd want them to play. This was the set list:-

'Vertigo'
'All Because Of You'
'The Electric Co.'
'Elevation'
'New Year's Day'
'Beautiful Day'
'I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For'
'Who's Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses'
'City Of Blinding Lights'
'Miracle Drug'
'Sometimes You Can't Make It On Your Own'
'Love And Peace Or Else'
'Sunday Bloody Sunday'
'Bullet The Blue Sky'
'Running To Stand Still/Walk On'
'Pride (In The Name Of Love)'
'Where The Streets Have No Name'
'One'
'Zoo Station'
'The Fly'
'With Or Without You'
'Yahweh'
'Vertigo'

The music was incredible, but that wasn't what made this gig so special. There was a power behind the music that wasn't just the quality, there was a real honety behind what they said and sing. As they dedicated 'running to stand still' to Daw Aung San Suu Kyi (the democratically elected president of Burmah who this week celebrated her 60th birthday and her 2,523rd day under military detention, under house arrest) and 40'000 people cheered as the UN statement of human rights appeared on the screen, then later as Bono told us "This is the year and this is the moment. Make Poverty History is only a slogan, but behind it is sense. This is the start of the twenty-first century, we can eliminate apartheid, slavery and poverty, and make sure that the journey to equality goes on." and the crowd cheered, and the band kicked into 'Where the streets have no name' it felt like a moment that could change history. Not the concert, but the idea that there were 40'000 people that agreed with Bono, with me, made me feel like maybe the whole Make Poverty History thing could actually make a difference. As the band sang about love, about peace, about co-existence, there was a real truth and depth to what they sang and how the crowd responded. It was a spiritual experience, an emotional experience (yes, there were definite tears in my eyes as they went from 'walk on', through the human rights and into 'pride in the name of love') and that made the concert really stand out from others.



Oh, and I was stood 6 foot from Bono, the Edge, Adam Clayton and Larry Mullen and they rock harder and truer than any other band I've ever seen.

Contrasts

The last couple of days have been days of real contrast. Had a bbq on the beach, which was both unusual and great fun. Other than that though I've been feeling in a real state of limbo. Not really any use here anymore since we're down to our last week of youthclubs. Just really ready to get out of here, but can't go for another couple of weeks. Plus, the number of essays I still have to do is ridiculous. Admittedly that's mainly due to my more relaxed attitude to deadlines (I love the Douglas Adam's attitude to deadlines, he said that he 'loves deadline, especially the whooshing noise they make as they go by').
On Sunday night I got dropped off from a Make Poverty History thing (where I played plugged in for the first time in ages and it didn't go too bad). Still feeling pretty lousy, but there was an incredible sunset, so I decided to go for a walk along the coast with my ipod. As I walked along, listening to the Abbey Road finale (which everyone should try and do this week, tracks 14,15&16 of the Beatles Abbey Road) on one side of the road I was looking at this:



Sorry if you can't make it out but the only camera I had with me (or actually have for that matter) is a crappy phone camera. If you can't make it out, it's a dump with a burnt out caravan. It's a horrible mess.

However on the other side of the road was this:



An amazing sunset! And there was how I was feeling, somewhere on the horizon I can see something good, I'm just stuck in a horrible mess at the moment.

By the way... I'm going to see U2 tomorrow, it's a beautiful day! (sorry for that, I promise no bad uses of lyrics ever again).

Dull Days

Ok. So you know how I was telling you about the football match? Well, I survived, just. My asthma kicked in after about 5 minutes of playing so had to sit out for a bit so I could get on with that pesky breathing thing that's supposed to be so easy. Luckily we had a couple of extra players so I didn't cause a problem for the team as I sat, sadly gasping for breath. After about 10 minutes, and a bit of the magic ventolin, I got up, got back on the pitch and amazingly didn't completely embarrass myself. Even managed a couple of good touches, passes, tackles and to set up a goal. Actually really enjoyed it, despite the way it managed to prove exactly how unfit I am.

Apart from that I've had two extremely dull days. Tried to do some work on my next essay, but couldn't be bothered so have spent the last couple of days watching scrubs at the same time as staring at my essay. Other than that, I've spent a bit of time learning how to use unicode, got sucked into a food fight (I mean, seriously, a food fight, what am I 5? I hate that I get sucked into that stuff) and discovered, through another blogger who has for some unknown reason decided that reading my blog is actually entertaining, a wonderful photographer. His name is Michael Kenna, check out his website.

Also, just downloaded the new Tears album. I was never the biggest Suede fan, I liked the first couple of albums but haven't listened to them (apart from 'the beautiful ones' which is a song I really love) for ages. The Tears were formed by the lead singer and original lead guitarist of Suede in case you were wondering where the Suede thing came from. Their new, and debut album is brilliant. It sounds like as couple of guys that grew up writing and playing together that have finally got together to write about their lives. Beautiful.

Lazy Days

I've been incredibly lazy today. Ok, I'd had a VERY late night on Tuesday, but had a lie in Wednesday before getting back here for club, but still didn't get up today til gone midday. The plan was to work on the next of my gazillion essays, but after a coffee and 20 min sat at my computer, gave in and headed to Sam and Hannah's to do (and these are Sam's words) 'something fun'. Apparently what this translates as is me sitting on the settee watching re-runs of 'all creatures great and small', which I loved as a kid and made me want to be a vet until I realised you had to know stuff about science, while Sam played a version of arkanoid on the computer. Not complaining really, actually enjoyed a day of doing nothing. Got home about 40 minutes ago so I could watch the highlights of England beating Bangladesh by 10 wickets at cricket today, and yes I realise that I'm the only person I know that cares about cricket, let alone England winning at it.

There was one heart-attack inducing incident today when, as I sat watching the Simpsons, the window directly (as in 20cms behind my head) smashed when a kid outside through a stone through it. Luckily I wasn't hurt, but it certainly got the adrenaline going, in the same way as when you have a bit of an accident in a car, so was a bit shaky for a bit.

I also arranged for what could be a heart-attack inducing event tomorrow when a friend called to ask me to play football for his workplace tomorrow afternoon. Couldn't think of a good excuse other than 'I'm crap and unfit' which I was never going to say, so tomorrow at 4:30 I'll be playing a competitive football match for the first time in about 10 years. If I survive, I'll tell you about it tomorrow.

A Hello Goodbye Kind of Day

Just got back from Glasgow. Yesterday was full of goodbyes to people and places, although I got to meet a couple of new people and places as well. I had my last lecture yesterday afternoon, which I was extremely happy about as I was able to say goodbye to college. In the evening I celebrated with some of the third years that were also leaving, then went out with Pete and Michaela. Pete has been a really good friend over the last couple of years and he's heading to London tomorrow to work at Wimbledon and brush shorts with, he hopes, Maria Sharapova, but which is much more likely to be Sir Cliff Richard, so it was a chance to say goodbye and have a good night out. Actually, I had a wonderful night.
Went to Bar Go, which has been a regular haunt of mine and Petes for two years. It's very chilled and they usually play some funky background music. They also project films (without the sound) and last night, for the first, and probably last time, Pete managed to beat me to working out what film it was (Silence of the Lambs if you're at all interested). After Bar Go we headed across town to go to a club called 'the garage' which promised us free entry and good music, and surprisingly delivered on both.
On the way there though we stopped off at 'nice 'n' sleazy's' which is a place AJ, a friend of ours from college, is always telling us we should go. As we were walking in, AJ was walking out, so he came back in to join us for a drink. Asked how his day had been, AJ came out with the best quote we'd heard for ages when he said "I got up way too early in the afternoon". Nice 'n' sleazy's turned out to be a great bar. Full of life and excellent music. Just sorry I found it on my last night out in Glasgow for a while.
The club was good fun, me, Pete and Michaela dancing away to Pulp, Ash, the Libertines, Kaiser Chiefs, Franz Ferdinand, the Killers, Oasis, why had I not been there before? Anyway, ended up there til about 3:30 then got a kebab on the way to Petes where I collapsed in a knackered, happy pile and woke up way too early in the afternoon.

An Evening of Sin

No, it's not what you think. I just got back from seeing Sin City and WOW!
First thing to say is that this is a beautiful looking film. It's based on a comic book and it looks like a comic in a way no film has managed before. But we're not dealing with a bright spandex filled comic, this comic book film is all about darkness. It's nearly all in black and white but every now and again there's a splash of colour, a red tail light, blue eyes, yellow bastard (the character's name as well as a description), a character to fall in love with. It's all just so visually stunning and, well, beautiful, which is in stark contrast to the film itself.
Sin City is a place of deprevation, depression and desperation. The Old Town is run by the hookers, the rest of the city by the mob and the overly corrupt police. As the film goes on we see snapshots of lives as we follow three main storylines through the streets of the city. The three main storylines all get their heroes, but these aren't heroes like you'll find in a superman comic, this film is all about shades of grey, and the heroes are just the people that kill and torture for honourable reasons. They're flawed, short sighted and in at least one case probably psychotic, but in the violent world of sin city violence needs to be met with violence. And it is violent. Hyper-realistic, white, yellow and red blood splatted violence that at times made me cringe, laugh and cheer, sometimes all at once. The film is brilliantly cast. The lines, taken straight from the comic, could easily have sounded cheesey or just plain crap, but this cast pulls them off and they just feel right.
Ultimately, this film isn't for everyone. I saw this with Hannah and Sam, who both hated it. Maybe it's a boys film, there's certainly a large amount of guns and flesh on display, but I think whether you like this film or not will come down to the films, books and comics you have or haven't loved before.

A Couple of Happy Things.

Last night I went to my first Ceilidh (a sort of Scottish dance thing). It was a friend from colleges 21st and it was suprisingly really fun. I only got up for a couple of dances, but the first will be memorable as I danced with Michalea (another Ceilidh virgin). During the seemingly endless dance we proved that not only were we unsure exactly what a Docy-do[sp?] is, we also had no understanding of how to do one without banging our backs together and apologising to, or blaming the other person, for getting it wrong. It was a great night though, and anyone interested in seeing a couple of pictures should check out Michaela's blog. Another reason that this was such a good night was to see Pete and Michaela together. Pete is one of the few people that has made this last couple of years bearable, he's a good friend, and a good laugh. He got together with Micheala (and I could be a bit dodgy with my timescale here) about 3 weeks ago, but for a lot of that I've been away. Seeing Pete looking so pleased with the world as he sat and drank wine with Micheala was fantastic. There's something great about seeing your friends happy, and happily I've seen a lot of my friends look that way this past couple of years.

On a completely seperate and even more joyful note, it was announced yesterday by Gordon Brown that $55 billion of Third World debt has been wiped clean! This is incredible and wonderful news. Gordon Brown actually said that "the deal would not have been possible without the pressure that has been put on finance ministers by churches, campaign groups and the public" which is exactly what I, and a lot of my friends have been doing for the last few years so it's amazing to see something begin to happen. There's still lots to do, but lets hope that this momentum carries on to the G8 summit in July.

Doing the Right Thing

Do you ever get that feeling that no matter what you do, it's wrong?
I've got that feeling a lot at the moment. In deciding to move from Edinburgh, back to London I have, I hope, made the right choice. However, in making that choice, there are some things that have suffered (college, Granton, my friends) and that sucks. You try and do your best by everyone, but eventually you have to end up getting it wrong somewhere so that you can get it right in the end (again, I hope).
Now the worst part of these sort of decisions for me, is when the decision I want to make isn't neccesarily the right decision over all. You end up doing the 'right thing' but feeling like that's the last thing in the world you actually want to do, and the longer you live with that decision the more it annoys you that you've had to make that decision in the first place.
I guess it's all part of this whole selfless thing. I sometimes wish that I could be completely selfish for a bit.

Holiday Photo's and a New Look

The more visually astute of you will by now have noticed that there's a new look to my blog today. There's two reasons for this. Firstly that I was bored with the dull black thing I had before, and secondly because I'm supposed to be essay writing today and so have been procrastinating by messing about with my blog and learning how to put photo's onto my blog so I could show you a few of my holiday photo's that I got through from Em today.

I know holiday photo's are generally boring to people that weren't there, but basically just wanted to show you a few of them becasue Em took some of them and they're really good, and also (in the case of the first one only) to rub all your collective non-holiday going noses in the fact that this is how I spent the majority of last week:

On the Beach:


Ok, that's it for the gloating. Here's just some nice photo's that you can click on if you want to see bigger (I did a lot of procrastinating today!):

Snorkelling (we saw an octupus you know):


Si and Jo at Sunset:


The Fool on the Hill:

Cute!

I got called 'cute' twice today. Let me make something clear. If there's one thing a guy (in the non-generic sense this time) does not want to be called, it's cute! Baby's are cute. Kids can, when they're not doing their best impression of satan on a bad day, be cute. Your girlfriend (if you're lucky enough to have one), when she does that shy smile thing when you embarrass her, is cute. I am not cute. I can be good looking, although this is completely reliant on a girl having bad taste and probably having drunk a bit too. I can be 'kind of attractive in a non-attractive way' (a direct quote from an ex!). But I am not cute. Cute to a guy (or at least to me) means 'you're someone I find in no-way attractive and think you look kind of comical in a puppy sat in it's own urine type way'.

And another thing. Had a coffee today with Rosie, the friend who complains when I say I don't like Edinburgh. We were talking about guys and girls, and inpaticular about the whole actually finding out if someone likes you or not thing. I'd told her the other night about a girl I'd been texting, and how, after three days of us both sending texts she'd stopped. I told her this thinking that she'd be able to give me a female perspective on the situation. Was she any help? Well, eventually yes. But first had to go through being called cute (for the first time today), AND THEN being called a girl because I was actually worrying (well, maybe not worrying but certainly very interested) about what was going on with this girl. Just let me make something else clear. Guys actually think about these things too. Sure there are some guys that don't, just like there are some girls that don't, but the majority of us who are actually looking for a girlfriend, rather than a quick snog/shag, are absolutely as clueless about girls ways of showing whether they do (or more often don't) like you as girls are about guys. It's true. We just dont talk about it as much as girls do, but then that's probably true about most things.

And by the way, 24 hours now without any Big Brother. Cold Turkey is the only way to go.

Big Brother - and an apology

I hate Big Brother.
It started again whilst I was in Cyprus. Have completely avoided any sort of news or sight of it until tonight at Hannah and Sam's. It's rubbish. A house full of self important idiots that think their discussions on how easily they can go to to the toilet makes them relaxed and interesting people. A tv format that was interesting for most of one series (although I'm still annoyed that Anna 'pack away all your fun', the lesbian nun didn't win!) but has spawned so many annoying sequals and copycats that I've lost count. IT"S JUST NOT INTERESTING ANYMORE! so... why, having only caught 15 minutes of the evil thing, do I want to know what's happening now? I'm hooked after 15 minutes!!!
I'm sure Big Brother is the tv equivalent of smoking 40 cigs a day. once you have one, you just want the next. I'm determined not to get addicted again, but it's just so tempting... maybe if I just watch one episode the desperation will go away.

Finally, an apology. I'm sorry (again to those of you who complained already) that I said 'I hate this place' in connection to Edinburgh. Let me say that Edinburgh us a lovely city and that I have some very good friends here, it's just that I don't want to be here anymore and am not happy here. Because I feel like that and because I was coming back from holiday, I just felt like I hate the place. Sorry for any offence caused (Rosie, who by the way has a new blog).

A holiday, a wedding and a decision.

Wow, that's been a great couple of weeks. Hope your lives haven't been too empty without updates to my blog to read, but if it has, bad luck, cos I've had a great couple of weeks, so I apologise if this post gets a bit long, but it's really three posts. I'm going to do this in chronological order so...


Holiday in Cyprus

After a rather hectic journey to the airport everything was just completely chilled. Landed at Larnaca airport at 4:30 in the morning (Cypriot time, so we'd gained a couple of hours) and was met by a taxi (although it was a brand new merc) and taken to Em's families house in Nicocea. Slept til about 10:00 then spent the morning lounging by and in the pool, enjoying the 35C sun. Had a siesta in the afternoon before heading into the centre of Nicocea to show Jo and Simon (the second married couple) around as it was their first time there. Shocked to find a Costa Coffee but Steve and Em had already made it their local haunt and we sat and had iced coffee's sat on the outdoor sofas.

The next morning we headed to the beach house in the Papadouris' (Em's family) new 4x4 BMW, which is a car I would covet immediately if it wasn't a bmw. Spent the next 5 days lounging on various beaches and the evenings eating and drinking out. The beaches are beautiful. The only drawback is the number of pink british tourists lying on them and the number of topless sunbathers that you really wish you'd never have to see topless. Spent a couple more days on Nissi beach in Agia Napa this time round. A truly beautiful beach with the added bonus of a bar to have a cold beer from in the afternoon, which felt like a real luxuary. Did a lot of snorkelling too, saw an octopus, which was good, but what was even funnier was watching Steve dive down and wave his snorkel at it in an attempt to make it move at the same time as trying to swim away from it in fear.

I'd been aware of a possible problem during the holiday. Sheffield Wednesday (the football team I support, not a day of the week like shrove Tuesday) were playing in their play off final on the Sunday I was in Cyprus and I was scared stiff that I wouldn't see it. I needen't have worried though. Found a sports bar that was showing it. Got there (on my own, the others were, possibly sensibly, not the least bit interested in football) to find about another 20 wednesday fans already singing and shouting along so I joined in. Was a wonderful way to watch a great game of football (although my accent slowly digressed as the evening went on). Had arranged to meet the others at 7:15 (15 minutes after the match finished) but hadn't counted on extra time! At full time it was 2-2, so that meant an extra 30 minutes. I ended up stood in the road outside, watching through what would have been the window, if it had glass on it, at the same time as trying to keep an eye on the road so that I could flag down Steve when he came past. Luckily he saw me, pulled over so I could shout at him 'extra time, give me half an hour' and run back into the bar. We eventually won 4-2, so all was right with the world.

After our days on the beach, we headed into the mountains to spend a day at the Papadouris orchard and village (they don't own ALL of the village, they just run it!). Was a lovely day, walking through the orchards and looking round the monastry there (which has a secret room that they discovered full of old icons and feels exactly like an Indiana Jones movie). Unfortunately, John (Em's Dad) had to leave early so we had, as opposed to previous times, a bbq in the afternoon rather then the evening, which was lovely, but meant I missed the Hucka pipe (or hubbly buubly as we call it). That evening (our last before leaving) back in Nicocea, we went back to Costa Coffee and had a great chat and saw possibly the most beatuiful woman I've ever seen in real life (Steve and Si didn't agree too emphatically at the time as their respective wives were with them, but since the wives agreed, it was fine).

The last day it rained, alot. Spent most of it inside reading and watching the west wing, then headed for the airport.
Holiday Books: The Beach (read it before, but a real favourite, Richard reminds me scraily of myself). The Sparrow (Awful, only read 100 pages), Twelve Bar Blues (a wonderful book about 4 generations of African-Americans that leads from Africa, to London via New Orleans), The Lord of the Rings (I don't need to say anything about that) and The Blind Watchmaker by Richard Dawkins (a book about evolution, natural selection and the beauty of the planet which I'm still reading.
Holiday Music: Jamie Cullum - Twentysomething, Athlete - Tourist, Radiohead - The Bends, U2.


The Wedding

Landed in the UK to discover rather nice weather, which was, well, nice. Spent the night at Steve and Em's then headed straight to Sheffield for my sisters wedding, which to be honest, I'd been dreading. I don't know why cos it was a wonderful day, but we'll get to that. The wedding was on a Friday, but I got to Sheffield on the Thursday afternoon to find my Mum and Dad's full of women, and not in a good way. Emma's (the sister who was getting married) bridesmaids were all staying the night, as was the mum of two of the three young bridesmaids, and they were all getting ready already, which since it was the day BEFORE the wedding and possibly because I'm a bloke, I just didn't get. That evening was the wedding rehersal, which I had nothing to do with, so I took the opportunity to get away from the house as quickly as possible and meet one of my oldest (as in, known the longest, not age) friends (who's name is Tina) for a drink and a game of pool. Isn't it great when you see friends like thatm and even though you've not really spoken for 6 months, you can just carry on from where you left off the last time. So got home later that evening and hid in my old room from the chaos (and the Ronin Keating) that had engulfed the front room.

The wedding day itself was exactly what wedding day's are supposed to be. Emma looked stunningly beautiful in her wedding dress (which I don't even have the right vocabulary to describe, it was cream, it had no back and a veil if that's any sort of help?). Dan (who she was getting married too) looked nervous as he waited for my sister, who was a charactistically 25 minutes late. The service was fun, the three young bridesmaids (including my cousin, Macy) looked really cute, the older bridesmaids (my other sister and Emma's best friend) looked good. The reception was really nice, the speeches were generally dull but short, the wine was good. In the evening there was a disco, which was fun, then I went home with my little sister (not the one who'd just got married). Emma and Dan are now spending two weeks in Bali. They both had a great day they say, so that's all that really counts.


The Last Two Days and a decision.

Saturday night I went out with some of my old school friends, a great night was had, even if they did drag me to a couple of bars that were way too trendy and definitely too expensive. Travelled back to Scotland on Sunday. Didn't want to go back really. Realised that there's nothing here for me now and that no matter what happens, I'm leaving at the beginning of July and I can't wait to get out of here,
Today, I got up, did a bit of work then went into town to spend the vouchers my sister gave me as a wedding present from her and Dan, to me. I have no ideea why the bride and groom should buy me anything, but since it was a £20 gift voucher and the new Coldplay album and Oasis album are both now out, I'm not complaining. Listened to them both now. The Oasis one has, on first listening, 3 good songs, 5 average ones and 3 crap ones, how the mighty fall. Coldplay's album on the other hand, is awesome. Only listened to it twice so far and it's not as immediately likeable as the previous two, there's no obvious single like 'yellow' or 'in my place', but it's consistently brilliant and beautiful and I'm looking forward to getting to know the songs better.
Back to college tomorrow, so that should bring me down to earth with a bump after the good mood I've sustained since I took off for Cyprus. Going to bed now. that was a lonong post.