Day 67 - 31st May 2007

I wonder if my laptop is slowly turning into Noah's Ark nowadays, that's the second bug I found lurking in the keyboard! I hope there are no floods coming... At least I knew what it was this time.

Aside from the revision, which is going well but at a somewhat slower pace due to the presence of my brother (it's not personal, it's just that I get more done on my own), nothing has happened today. My dad got a new car actually, and I wanted a picture of that, but I thought that it could wait until it was in a better setting than in my drive. Oh, it's a Fiat Punto by the way.

It's a shame to see the Alfa go, it was such a lovely means of getting about, but it has to be said that it was falling apart at the edges, it seems that they only learned how to use a screwdriver in Italy last year, build quality has improved so much now (which explains the new Fiat). I love cars, I hate talking about them, so that's enough of that.

Oh poo, there's nothing else to talk about today. England play Brazil tomorrow, good luck to them, but that's tomorrow's news.

Day 66 - 30th May 2007

Ahoy me hearties! I went to see The Pirates Of The Caribbean part III today, so I'm all piratey. Arr! This was a good film, except it was far too long. I know it was meant to be an epic voyage to the end of the earth, but it felt like I could have done it for real by the time the film was over! Even I, who tends to enjoy big, expensive effects, was getting tired of all the swashbuckling and I didn't (I still don't really know) have a bloody clue what was going on, and why. That's not what I went for though, if I wanted deep plots that made sense I'd goo see something else, I wanted pirates and I got three hours of pirates; shiver me timbers.

Anyway, that was a harsh thing to say it is an OK film, it is the law though that trilogies always have weak endings, mainly because no film could possibly ever live up to the amount of hype these particular movies have had.

Otherwise (I did try to get a piratey picture), a friend of mine in America sent me the item in the picture; it's a key ring that counts down to the day that George Bush leaves as president, it made me kind of laugh really. As a result, and it's a cheap plug I know, I put the link to his site on the blog page, so look around on the page and you'll see the timer too!

Day 65 - 29th May 2007

Is Great Britain ironically named? Of course not, but I must say that its motorways are anything but bloody great. I was going to Manchester today, for no real reason. My plan was to traipse around for a while and go and see a Doctor Who exhibition in the evening. You may have already guessed that the aforementioned did not happen.

The traffic jams were so bad that we never even got to Manchester! I did manage to see the funny side of it thank God traffic jams have never bothered me, but I'm not sure anyone else did. I was with my Mum and my brother, and it was her only day off so I did have some sympathy for her; we did rather waste it on the motorway. Hey; we had a lovely lunch at the service station though (only £25 to feed the three of us), I must say that I'd never thought I'd see the day when I'd have to stop at Sandbach services; that is way too close to home!

As it happens, a friend of my mother's is seriously ill and she needed to get to the hospital in time for a critical operation (my mum that is, she wasn't having the operation, her friend was!) so me and my bro bailed out of the car in Newcastle when we got back and went home on the bus. I'm off to see the third instalment of the pirate film tomorrow, the precise name escapes me; let's hope that all goes to plan!

Day 64 - 28th May 2007

The theory that a boring day gets accompanied by a boring picture is turning out to be true. It was Bank Holiday Monday today and the guaranteed drizzle was quick to come, making going out to do something a rather unattractive option.

So, more revision on the cards provoked a picture of me in my sexiest pose. I'd never thought I'd see the day when I would have to type "fun" into Google to find something to do. I seemed to be quite lucky though, I just kept telling myself that I was having fun and hey presto; a boring day was suddenly more fun!

My brother was meant to be on parade for the last time with the army but it was called off due to the bad weather. I never thought that would be an issue for the army, but there you go; what do I know?

Honestly, I have never seen less stuff happen in a day ever, and everyone was on holiday! I will have better luck tomorrow, it's impossible not to.

Day 63 - 27th May 2007

I didn't really do much today, which is a bad thing because I've got exams coming up sooner than I think. To be fair though (to myself), I have revised every day up until today.

There were no real landmark events to go down in the annals of time. It was the day of the Monaco Grand Prix though. Lewis Hamilton was 'hot and cold' but finished second. I would have said that this was a good result, but everybody clearly wanted him to win; none more than himself though. That's the problem with Monaco, you can't overtake. He qualified second and that's where he finished. I think he's got more of a chance next race, on a proper circuit.

Otherwise, my teletubby massacre movie is coming along nicely, or at least the script is. Also, I wrote a new song today about stubbing your toe on the same step every day (which explains the picture, that notebook is where I wrote it); it's temporarily called 'That Sodding Step' but I think there's a wittier title out there waiting to be thought of.

Day 62 - 26th May 2007

I got a picture of that crazy space bug today. Yes, I know that yesterday it was evil; but it somehow managed to escape and reappear today so now it's crazy. It looks a bit like something off Doctor Who, in a few days time it'll be changing my dreams and I'll have an urge to perform the great adjustment. Or something along those lines anyway...

My brother came home today for half term which is nice. We didn't get up to much together really, the internet (especially MSN) and mobile phones have left us with little or nothing to catch up on when he gets back; any news and you know about it within the hour.

I just heard that England have included David Beckham in the squad for next week when we play Brazil then Estonia (which, although easier, is a must-win qualifier game). Fancy picking Brazil to be the first game ever to be played by England at the new Wembley; we could win I suppose, but on current form, is it really possibly to even beat Estonia? I suppose that's why saint Beckham is back. If you're wondering, I'm all for it by the way, and I know that there are loads of Beckham sceptics out there so I'm treading carefully!

The internet is back on after a long phone call to downtown New Delhi. I'd love to give you a story about 'my call-centre hell' but it was fine; the guy was really helpful and I was dead chuffed that he fixed it. I still don't know why it went wrong in the first place though...

Day 61 - 25th May 2007

Today marked the end of a seven year period of lessons for me. Most of my friends, I will see again; some I will not. Yes, that’s right folks, it’s my last day. I didn’t say any goodbyes just yet though, as I’ve still to come in for exams and results day. We had a bit of a party in languages, more of a feast really; followed by a lovely trip down to the pub with all the language students (that means my Spanish class +1) and teachers who were free for an hour.

I also spotted an evil space bug which had been lurking in my laptop, I took a picture of it and any other day it would have got to be the picture of the day; but not today, oh no, today had to be my last glimpse of college; a beautiful building in beautiful sunshine, full of beautiful people. If university is ever this good then I’ll be in for a fantastic four years.

Day 60 - 24th May 2007

Today was a sunny day, it was very hot. It was also marred by the slow realisation that my educational career is coming to an end. I had my last ever biology lesson today, I got a picture with the teacher. I also had my last ever geography lesson.

This seemed strange to me, as in the seven years of my stay at the school, I have only ever had one geography teacher. This means that my views, my way of thinking about the subject are down entirely to one person. Now it's all over. It's my last day tomorrow, my last ever lesson will be Spanish. I can't stop thinking about it all, everything I have known for a huge part of my short life goes after 2pm tomorrow.

I think that I'll say my final farewell on the day if my last exam though, so it's not quite all over yet however, I still can't understand what life could possibly be like without having to go to lessons ever again. More tomorrow...

Day 59 - 23rd May 2007

A lot happened today, starting with the most boring day ever. It was my Spanish oral exam in the afternoon and I sat there with a load of panicking women for hours waiting for mine to start; fun, fun, fun. Anyway, the exam went fine.

Next was the Champions League final where Liverpool were robbed of a victory to AC Milan who scored a flukey goal to win 2-1, despite being the worst side.

Finally though, and my picture shows this, my great pranking triumph. I was on the funny games website poaching for some perverts to prank in the chatbox. I've got a fake address, I pretend to be a woman and bingo, as soon as you leave it; hundreds of adds on MSN! Then you play an 'interesting' video of a large breasted lady followed by stock footage of a fat bastard. The result are usually quite entertaining, however today I cam across somebody I know. I won't mention who it was, but I did lead him along for a bit then logged on to the real MSN to tell him he'd been caught. It was all fine afterwards, but I still can't help thinking that he was on there for real...

Day 58 - 22nd May 2007

Last night I stuck my goo to my name plaque and what did I get; my name printed in reverse in it! Brilliant fun!

Today, if you can believe it, was weirder than yesterday. At about 0745 my dad woke me up so I could get ready to catch the bus at around 0835. I don't normally need waking up anymore really, I just like one parent to make sure I'm not going to be late. As soon as he knocked on the door, he went to work and I fell straight back to sleep again; something which has never happened to me before. When I woke up I thought, oh poo, I'm going to have to rush now. That wasn't the case as it was 1045 and I had five minutes to get the bus in for my last lesson; I had already missed two! I missed the bus and basically never quite woke up until lunchtime. All this business has made me really quite nervous; I don't usually sleep (and I mean deep sleep) that long ever! What if it happens at an important time? On an exam day?

SO at lunch I went to the Co-op to get something to eat and in the shop was a man getting a top-up for his phone. When I walked in, I heard him say:

"What, what do you mean? What are you saying?"

The girl behind the counter replied:

"You definitely asked for Three, not T-Mobile."

"No I bloody didn't you slag!"

"I'm afraid you did sir, I even confirmed it with you; twice."

"Agh! You just lost me £30! You can't reverse it?"

"No, it's impossible to.."

"You cow! Are you doing this because I'm Irish? It's because I'm Irish innit? Look, I know you're having a bad day but..."

"I wasn't having a bad day until..."

"Until what? Me?"

"Yes."

I really wanted to say something to the guy, the queue was to the back of the shop now because all of her colleagues had stopped to help her out. We all eventually managed to talk the guy out of arguing and to stand aside and wait for the manager to come back from his lunch break. Suddenly, the worst happened. We all got the giggles, first the cashier, then the people in the queue, then me and the others in the shop; it couldn't be helped really, what numpty would say he'd been discriminated against because he's Irish over a Top-up in the Loggerheads Co-op!

"Why are you laughing? What's funny? Come on!"

Someone pulled themselves together and said "It's you!"

At this point I left the shop; I'm begging to wonder if it was all a wind up now. It was so weird, I was already quite hazy and suddenly I walk into a shop with a guy who says everyone hates him because he's Irish whilst topping up his phone. I can't helping asking myself; why on Earth did I leave? I suppose I couldn't have got a picture of him, the thought did cross my mind though!

Day 57 - 21st May 2007

Revision is taking over my life. Well not quite, I did manage to find my favourite piece of goo. Isn't it lovely? It's a pretty gross picture, not one for the ladies then!

I went on a walk in the woods today, nothing happened though which was a shame because I wanted a good picture for today. Otherwise, I tried again at my radio/podcast and I wasn't very happy with it. If you look at the production side of things, it was fine and I didn't sound like I was reading off a script but when I listened back to it before saving, I realised that it simply wasn't entertaining. Not for me anyway. Back to square one then for that... Good job I'm not afraid to scrap two hours work in the click of a button then, eh? Ooh, that sounded a tad on the bitter side!

Wednesday is my Spanish oral exam and I just finished writing out the answers to my questions; I never use them though, I actually enjoy busking it a bit.

Day 56 - 20th May 2007

It is clear to all from this picture that I am a sex god. However, I'm not looking to be a sex deity, not today anyway. That's right folks, I've gone into radio! I have recorded a fifteen minute podcast to come out every Sunday. Unfortunately, I sound like a numpty over dramatising a script, so I'm gonna spend my spare moments in the week making a half hour 'show' with jingles and music etc... which might make it more original.

The thing about the internet is that any old fat bastard with a headset can 'broadcast' himself, and I'm exploiting this fact. I am slightly worried that although the whole "Artiste" thing is a joke, I really am starting to take it seriously. After all, it's not funny anymore so I might as well put some effort into it all! Anyway, the radio thing sounded OK, but real entertainment comes from conversation, so I'll find myself a sidekick. I find that I don't often like to listen to a guy telling anecdotes and jokes to himself; why should anyone else be different? Next Sunday, I will have made something I am proud of, once I've got the hang of sounding like I'm talking to somebody, and not trying to make a TV ad!

Otherwise, it was yet another dull day of revision, revision and more revision. Everybody always complains "ooh, my brains are saturated" even I have said it before, if you are one of these people then you know full well that this is not true; it is a simple yet cunning excuse to not revise for a while. Of course! You think, as I did, that it's foolproof, no adult can possibly remember the run up to the exams and no colleague would dare say anything against it, after all, they are using the same excuse; so who's there to say you're wrong? The examiner is I suppose.

This is what I have always believed until today, where it dawned on me that I have no attention span (otherwise known as "my brain is saturated"). That's why I'm trying to do radio as well as picture blogs, CD's, film scripts and spoof autobiographies. To my credit, I do work on all of these, the fact you're reading this now is a testament to this. On the other hand when I was revising, I got to a point where I could no longer think about anything, I couldn't even read the book; it all turned into a bunch of words, but no meaning; that's the other reason why I do all this "Artiste" stuff and why I'm learning Japanese, I simply need something to do when I can no longer revise (either that or severe insecurity). In a way, I'm glad I've started all of this, now I'll have a great holiday finishing it all (although maybe not the Japanese, that's really bloody hard)!

Day 55 - 19th May 2007

I was in quite a good mood today, and although this picture is boring and irrelevant, I like it. It's surprising that I was in a good mood actually, I got to my rehearsal this morning to find that I was the only Tuba player which sounded fun at first but it meant that I had to spend three hours trying to compensate for three of us; I nearly fainted during James Bond! Also I found out that the band tour has been postponed a year, so I might not be able to go.

On the way back, I had a quasi argument with my Mum about what I'm going to do in the summer. Actually, I said about fifteen words all the way, so it was rather one sided. Despite my silence, I did manage to get told that "I didn't know I was born" amongst other things. As always, I just shut up, listened to what she said and thought about what I'd say to her in response if I actually felt that strongly about it, which I don't.

I have been thinking about it a lot though, I've got a job secured for after results day, but do I get one and earn some money before that? I could go locally, or I was thinking of working abroad; maybe somewhere other than my dad's office. Who knows? What I do know is, and what my parents don't seem to understand (just my mother really) is that I will do something, I don't intend on spending all that free time sitting around doing nothing whatsoever.

I won't go on too much about this, I'm started to get worried by my own vagueness and my parents could maybe be reading this! It was the FA cup final today at the new Wembley. This had to be one of the most boring games I've ever seen. Everybody just cancelled each other out. Final score 0-0, Chelsea scored in extra-time. I wanted Man U to win, which is another reason why I'm surprised I'm in such a good mood; maybe I subconsciously love crap football matches, I do support Stoke after all.

Day 54 - 18th May 2007

It was the last day for the Year 11's and 12's today, do there was a funny feel about college. For instance, I came across a man wearing a skirt and lipstick today which is a rare sight in downtown Market Drayton; never mind in the college itself!

It got me thinking of course, as I was sitting contemplating life in my Biology lesson before I went home, I've only got a week in school ever again ever. That's it, it's the end and I honestly thought I'd never see the day; next Friday will be weirder than I anticipated. It had never occurred to me that the end of my seven years in the same establishment would be spent nervously anticipating exams and wondering what I have and haven't done to get into uni...

Tomorrow I go and practise with the brass band, It hasn't been on for ages so it'll be nice to get back and playing again. Afterwards though, there is the FA cup final. That's right, the mighty Manchester United face the football colossals that are Chelsea. It's going to go one way or another, either the 3-0/3-1 victory for whoever or it'll go down to penalties. Man U are a stronger side in my eyes but Chelsea haven't won anything yet this season and they've never one the FA cup under Morinho's rule. It's gonna be good, even if it's just because it's at the new Wembley stadium. It's not the biggest, it's not the flashiest, but it is one of the greatest stadiums ever built; worth the debt and delay? I think so.

Day 53 - 17th May 2007

Exam season is on the way and revision is in full swing, so I had to rush a photoshop image today. What's worst is that I know that if I were just to include a bit of sky in the bottom picture, then it would look good. Sadly, even I am not proud of the result.

Otherwise, nothing much happened today, there certainly wasn't anything worth taking a picture of. I did a bit more Japanese though, and I won a great old Super 8 camera on Ebay for a total of £6 inc. P+P! I don't know if it works, apparently all the parts turn like they should, but there is no guarantee it records. I'm also bidding on a cheap projector; which is what I originally set out for to play some old spools I have.

I keep flitting between getting and not getting a new laptop. This one froze badly today, the only I could turn it off was to take the battery out. Still, I could really do with saving my money. I think I'll reformat this one and see what happens then. There's no way I can sell this one on EBay, the CD drive doesn't even work!

I'm tired now, I did have other things to type about but I have already forgotten them so they can wait. Time for bed I think.

Day 52 - 16th May 2007

A good friend of mine has had a tattoo done and I thought It'd be nice to take a picture of me with it. I don't really like tattoos and I have sent a barrage of abuse in his direction but hey, it's his choice. I'm not going to linger on it for too long; you might actually like it!

Otherwise, nothing much has happened today really although I think I really will be getting a laptop soon. This one just keeps crashing on me and it is getting too slow to support any programs coming out these days. Obviously it still works though, apart from the CD drive so I think I might keep it and hook it up to my TV; use it as a media player. I did look to sell it on EBay but they were all going dead cheap and mine can't even read a CD! The problem is that it'd probably set me back around £520 which is still cheap, but not for me it isn't! This one has lasted me five years now, so I'll guess (or hope) that a new one might last that long too in which case it'll get me through uni and more.

Oh how the complications of life can be so boring, I wonder why I write about it all sometimes, but I suppose that one day I'll look back and laugh at it all. Talking of which, I bid on a stretch limo today on EBay, my £150 bid didn't quite reach the reserve, probably not by a long chalk. So I went for a hearse (I just freaked out on novelty cars); seems like that one was maybe too pricey as well. I suppose there's always that £31.50 Trabant for sale...

Day 51 - 15th May 2007

I was thinking (when sadly my dad took a picture) about money today. I could have let's say £3000 in the bank right now, I wish, but is it really all mine; is it really there to spend? For example, with the money I actually have, I could buy my list of CD's I always wanted, but I couldn't because I still have to pay for my tour with the band, then possibly a new computer (which won't happen if I go on a trip this summer); surely the rest needs to go towards actually living at university, so what is left? The truth is; not much. In fact, I suddenly realised that when I think I've got loads I've got nothing at all.

On a lighter note, I heard a great line today in geography. We were doing about the Mojave desert around Las Vegas today. I was just wondering what kind of wildlife there might be around there, if there was more than just snakes and skinny dogs. We started discussing the subject and someone suggested that there might be bald eagles around the desert, which I thought sounded plausible, seeing as though it's the symbol of the USA. Anyway, the teacher was on the Internet looking stuff up and she typed into Google 'Bald Eagles'. When she opened a page the first thing she said was 'Right, OK, so for starters, bald eagles aren't actually bald.' Oh how we laughed. Laughed inside, of course.

Day 50 - 14th May 2007

As you can see, I'm really getting into this photoshop business; I went for a 70's look today. I've been doing this project for 50 days now, and I don't think there is much to be said about it. 50 days isn't really enough to notice any significant changes and I reckon it'll be a long time before I can think about getting nostalgic about anything.

The exams are looming now, the year 12's leave for the exams at the end of this week and I leave for mine a week later. The year 11's will be gone too, what a week to look forward to, peace at last!

Everybody was at home for lunch today and it felt strange having a roast dinner on a Monday, but that's what happened. Mum went to Germany in the afternoon to go and see some open heart surgery, she'll be back on Wednesday. She seemed rather nervous and I don't think she saw the funny side of my beating heart noises. Me and Chris finally got round to telling her that she doesn't have to make six cakes for us to eat whilst she's away as this is only two nights. Mum saw our point and we breathed a sigh of relief. Finally! We won't have to get told off just because we haven't managed to eat an apple pie, six Eccles cakes, a trifle and a sticky toffee pudding in two nights!

Day 49 - 13th May 2007

Everybody was quite ill today, which was poo. I sat and watched the F1, Hamilton came second and he now leads the championship; he is a racing god!

Otherwise, revision aside, I went back on to photoshop today and taught myself about layers etc... I had always dreamed of me flying in the hall way, slightly red with my background slightly blue and the picture on the wall stays normal. Now, I have been able to realise that dream! It wasn't easy mind, it took ages to cut me out of the picture for recolouring, maybe I should lose weight; there would be less to cut!

In football today, with the title long gone it was Sheffield Utd who went down in the last game of the season. Now we wait for the Shrewsbury town play-offs and the FA cup final, not to mention the champions league. It's nearly all over, just like my time in 6th form... I can't quite get leaving off my mind. If I fail, well I'll cross that bridge when I come to it. I mean, if I come to it.

Day 48 - 12th May 2007

I cheated a bit with the picture today. I learnt how to use photoshop and how to erase stuff; this is one I took of a kid jumping into the sea in Malta last year. I erased his head, his right leg, a big blue tower on the left-hand horizon and a whole pier which covered up the right-hand side of the picture. I was stunned by the result!

What's more is that there wasn't anything to take pictures of today. Yeah, I revised a load, but how's that any good? There was one event though, it was Eurovision day. As usual the whole contest would not be worth watching if it wasn't for Sir Terry Wogan. Those 'crazy' monsters of rock Lordi won in last year so it took place in Helsinki. Before the contest, I didn't think that our entry 'Flying The Flag' by Scooch was any good at all. When it got to the end of all the acts, it turned out that we were the best! Guess what though, Serbia won closely followed by Russia, Belarus etc... in no particular order. The freak show didn't get it this time, the winner was very, very bland. It all looked set for us to get nil points until those saints from Ireland gave us 7. Then, our friends from Malta gave us the whole 12 points, how predictable; they are the only ones who'll vote for us! Anyway, that was all of them, so we finished second from bottom tied with France (who had an awful song) and Ireland came last, with only five points. The worst man did actually lose though, which makes a change; Ireland were unbearable.

That was that done for another year; next it'll be children in need then comic relief then what do you know; back to Eurovision!

Day 47 - 11th May 2007

It was an interesting day today, but there was nothing really worth taking a picture of. Instead, when I was absorbing some more Japanese, I thought I'd make a nice little light flag as an homage. Great! It didn't quite turn out to be what I wanted though... I hope I didn't offend too many Japanese people with it.

Day 46 - 10th May 2007

I can't quite believe it but nothing happened again today. I mean, yeah I revised loads, how interesting is that? I learnt some more Japanese and I'm thinking about what to do in the summer. That's it. Dull, just like my picture.

The reason I can't believe it is that I actually went to some lengths to try and make something happen or to see something worth taking a picture of. I wet on a walk around Loggerheads for one and a half hours! Nothing. How uninspiring.

I did think though, whilst revising, is there any way of making revision more interesting, instead of just reading books and making notes? I thought about a PlayStation game but that could be borderline lame ad anyway, nobody likes to ix fun and school together. My teacher said that if you were to put all this stuff into a popular song then everyone would remember wouldn't they? This was semi-joking, but it got me started, what if I wrote a rock opera; about Geography! Sounds great doesn't it? It'll go down on the list after finishing my CD, finishing my autobiography and writing the script to "The teletubbie massacre". The one floor is of course that I loathe musicals, and everyone knows that "Rock Opera" is basically a musical trying to be less camp, but actually ending up being pure gay instead of camp. If I were to write this, I would never listen to it ever again which would be such a shame.

Day 45 - 9th May 2007

Due to the oral exams on at school, my lesson which breaks up the day was cancelled. This meant that I had one at the start and one at the end with nothing to do in between. I was bored, but I did manage to start learning Japanese as I was having trouble revising at school. I know the numbers and a few phrases, great! It's not easy though!

When I got home, I did do some revision and I also played with my PG tips monkey. It was the apprentice today, so I tried to make him look like a stressed out businessman. Good eh?

Day 44 - 8th May 2007

Looking at that picture you're probably thinking, what could it be? Is it some kind of monument, some kind of mark in history? If you did think that then you weren't far wrong. Ladies and gentlemen, I give to you: The Double Fishcake belly basher! It looks horrible and it tastes even worse, don't even get me started on the smell. I have some advice for you all, I did actually eat this and I must warn you now before it's too late; never, ever, make a fishcake sandwich. It's just inedible, the mix of bread and goo is really quite repulsive. I did manage to finish it (the bin was already full) however I felt like I had poisoned myself for life. Oh what have I done? It's probably upset some weird DNA imbalance in me and all my kids will be deformed albinos who only grow sideburns!

I finally submitted my coursework today, it went in the post so there's no going back. On a more serious note I have come across a few silly names of late. First of all, some minister in India I saw on teletext talking about a possible F1 race there; Sheila Dikshit. Great name, I would have maybe changed it to something like buseyu... Also, in the credits of a film I was watching today: Paul Bender. The best of all though, the name (well, real name anyway) to top all names: Luscious Pusey. Ouch, this guy is some kind of college American football player, what a name, I bet he gets a right spanking in the showers.

I'm hoping that I might take a picture of something good soon instead of a stonehenge-like sandwich it took me an hour to swallow.

Day 43 - 7th May 2007

Yes! It's a bank holiday; so what else better to do than go through coursework all day? That just about sums it all up really. I wanted to go to bed but I had forgotten that I left loads of stuff on it. Anyway, here's me hoping to slob around all weekend but instead I was a good boy and some work. The fruits of my labour? A successful plan, unfortunately I managed to send the wrong one to my teacher. It's too late to send the right one back, I checked my E-Mails too far too late at night.

Now I feel slightly miserable and slightly stressed, but people around me seem much worse so I can't complain. Whoops I just did.

Day 42 - 6th May 2007

I spent most of my time tweaking coursework today, which was a pain because I didn't quite get it finished. It's a bank holiday tomorrow though so I'll do it then.

Nicolas Sarkozy won the French elections, so he's the new president over the channel. Seems like he's quite hard line really, wait and see what happens. He's given himself 100 days to make radical change; never mind how many protests there may be. I suppose there will have to be a cull on the French public if he wants to stop riots. In France, someone sneezes and they attack police stations.

Manchester United have finally won the league, thanks to Arsenal who managed to draw 1-1 to Chelsea today. Stoke did not make the play-offs and instead finished 8th. Oh well, better luck next year.

Day 41 - 5th May 2007

Just take a look at some of this quality clock action. That's right, my Ben Oliver "Artiste" clock arrived this morning. Early this morning, but who cares when it's this good?

Mum got back from France today and brought me some lovely sweets. At least they looked lovely until I tried one. I must say, they do have a 'unique' flavour.

Stoke are playing QPR tomorrow, and we're one place out of the playoffs. We've got the same points as Southampton (who are 6th) and we've even got the same goal difference as them! It's just that they have won one more game than us. That hurts. What's more, it's the last game of the season! The good thing is that with a win, we could easily go up as places 5-7 are very open to change with only a point between them. Man U beat Man City today with one penalty, keeping them in the championship title running. They would have to seriously cock up to lose it now, as of today Chelsea are eight points behind. Surely they can't win it now? I'm just watching West Ham use their dodgy Argentine signing Teves to keep them in the premiership on match of the day; it's so ironic that the one that cost them a £5m record fine is the one keeping them up now!

Day 40 - 4th May 2007

May the 4th be with you! Yes, it's extremely sad; it's official star wars day. It seems to be made up of a few nerds and a cheap pun, that's all I know about it. Otherwise, I saw a great weird kind of car today where the driver and passenger lean forwards. It was all spacy and cool. I didn't manage to get a picture of it though, I was on the bus and it was travelling quite fast in the opposite direction. Not that a guy taking pictures on the bus doesn't look freaky in any way at all.

Instead, I got home, switched my stereo on and it stuck open! Bollocks I thought, so I took a picture, kicked it and the problem solved itself really!

I'm beginning to wonder about these pictures. Is it worth taking one every day if I only really get a good one every now and again? I'll keep at it, just in case it might turn out to be good. When all that's happening is revision, things could be slightly more interesting... Oh how I wish I could have got a picture of that space car.

Day 39 - 3rd May 2007

I spent much of my afternoon reading a leaflet (pictured) about how good Europe is as part of my Spanish course. I'm slowly beginning to go off the EU. It's not that I'm a euro sceptic but it does seem that to be that on a language course you have to love the whole concept of 30+ countries which have to have the same banana curvature or butter measurements. Surely we can support our neighbours without having to make every single country the same? The whole EU concept makes me feel rather nauseous. Why? Just look at the front cover with that guy and his smug child who's happy because he's got some EU building blocks. To some it would seem like that grin is in fact an evil one, and that the brick in his left hand is about to be thrown in to the existing structure; metaphorically destroying the EU. To me (the first theory sounds so naughty), it shows that the only way it will all work is if we get badgered into it all by Belgians with fashioned stubble who think that chicken in a basket is a "wacky new idea" for a dish this summer.

I also got a comment on one of my YouTube videos. It started by saying "You ignorant piece of shit". Well, what can you say to that? I did maybe say that Liverpool is a dump in my video, but hey, I learn to live with the consequences. I sent him an answer basically saying that I'm sure this isn't the kind of behaviour you want scousers to be seen as having all the time etc... He said that I should do things that I am more "familiar" with. I told him that I would never have said such comments if I hadn't actually been to Liverpool and seen it before. Anyway, I rather nerdily picked apart his highly offensive comment and sent him a huge reply. After this, he replied to my reply and it's all no harm done now. Oh good, I do like it that way; although I don't really care about what he might say of me, the sheer thought that someone out there might actually hate me would have been too much!

Finally, I found out that I have to spend one of my exam days locked away in an office due to a clash on my timetable. I've got to take geography early and for some reason they don't want me to tell others what the questions are. I suggested that this would be a rather sportsmanlike thing to do but alas no, they wouldn't listen. Better luck next time I suppose. Oh wait, there isn't a next time!!

Day 38 - 2nd May 2007

Today should have been a good day. The sun was shining and everybody was happy. Unfortunately, I had two lessons cancelled and I forgot to go to the hospital on the first bus for my wrist check-up in the afternoon. Luckily I made the appointment on the second bus, but before that the day was so boring. The picture sums it all up really, empty; nobody there with nothing to do. We played football outside today again because of the artwork in the sports hall. The one time the ball came down my end, they hand balled it! I haven't been this bored in a long long time.

On the subject of football, Man U lost 3-0 to AC Milan today; such a big let down, they only had to draw to get through! So the champions league final is going to be Liverpool - Milan. The one bright point to my day was that I found out about a minister in India called Sheila Dikshit. What a name, you just can't make that kind of thing up can you?

Day 37 - 1st May 2007

Mayday, mayday! That's right folks, it's May and I'm already beginning to wonder where the year has gone! What a beautiful day it was too, a nice breeze, bright sunshine and not a cloud in the sky; brilliant! I handed in my Spanish coursework today, which is finally the end of coursework for this year!

Just watched Liverpool beat Chelsea in the Champions League semi final at Anfield on penalties, 1-1 on aggregate! It was a close game but I wanted Liverpool to win all along. I also hope that united manage to beat Milan tomorrow, even though they only have to draw to win. It would be nice to have two British sides in the final for the first time. Let's not forget that the greatest is still to come when Stoke get promoted then move on to the European Cup next year. It could happen I suppose, it's unlikely we'll even get promoted in the first place though!