Day 220 - 31st October 2007

Halloween; yet another holiday which has been blown hideously out of all proportion. Of course, I don't like the evil pagan aspect that goes with it; but it's the fake scaryness which gets me. The proof is that I'm here writing this up, while the others are in the kitchen playing drinking games.

I've never even noticed Halloween before, and I don't ever think I missed out on much.

Anyhow, the flat 1 pumpkin is pictured, and I have tried to be as nice as I can; but it's something I really struggled to enjoy. What kind of activity is it where you have to be pissed to enjoy it? Well, I suppose that goes for most, but there we are.

I've got to read another play, so it's time to stop typing again; I really should try to expand more one day, time is just so tight that this is becoming a rushed task...

Day 219 - 30th October 2007

Yesterday's short burst of sleep in a lecture was confirmed today; it appears I was very wrong when I said that I don't think anyone noticed, a girl told me that she saw me and that she knew how I felt...

Everyone usually goes out on a Tuesday, although I sit out due to an early Wednesday start; it was Halloween party night, even though it's actually tomorrow night. The flat next door decided to dress up as someone in our flat; finally, a funny and original idea! He shall freak out completely when he sees it I think, he's dressed up as a zombie!

I really, really need to go to bed now; someone gave me some organic bitter and, nice as it was, I'm quite sleepy!

Day 218 - 29th October 2007

Oh my, what a horrible day. Firstly, after an OK French grammar session, my Italian lesson got stopped by a fire alarm! Thankfully, it was not a false alarm, and I got to see some firemen!

After this came the most irritating Spanish teacher I have ever seen; the poor woman seems to have planned her life around YouTube, and then spends hours trying to get it to work to no avail. I won't go into details, but the classroom computer doesn't have flash player; someone told her the problem but I don't think she got it, she just carried on and on...

As if the most annoying hour wasn't enough, it simply had to be followed by the most boring one. Once again, the Spanish culture lecture was really dull; only this time I actually fell asleep! When I woke up, five minutes had passed and nobody seemed to have noticed, so I think I got away with it.

The day had left me stressed, so off I went to the library late at night to find a book I needed; I found it, after half an hour of searching! Anyway, I got the picture I wanted out of it then stuck it back on the shelf. It's late but I simply cannot rest; my thoughts are just racing, maybe a cup of tea is required here...

Day 217 - 28th October 2007

Work, work and more work; this is quickly becoming the keyword to my life. Tonight I did some laundry and watched Top Gear, then a bit more reading and work.

Some of the flat went off to a quiz, but I passed; apparently I was wise to. My past experience with quizzes has never been particularly favourable; usually it consists of loads of waiting around and amateur questions with incorrect answers which cause arguments with the organisers. Life is too short.

I really should be going off to bed now maybe, it's late and I could do with sorting out my washing.

Day 216 - 27th October 2007

As planned, my family came round today and bearing gifts too. That would be because it's my birthday soon and I won't be seeing them before; I got a new razor, a plant, a dictionary and some jumpers.

We went for lunch in a local pub, 'The Plough Inn'; it's such a good place I'm not afraid to give it a plug, what a great meal we all had.

When they had gone I worked for a while, then I went to drop off a library book in the dark; it was raining hard. It was in these rather wet and morbid conditions where I came across the role-players having a wild night out; there were all sorts, although I couldn't quite get a good picture, they tended to be hidden by capes which served many purposes. A good cape can make you the laughing stock in some people's eyes, but it can fend off wind and rain, it enables you to fly and it can conceal you in any situation using a simple 'swish' technique.

I need a cape.

Day 215 - 26th October 2007

We went out tonight and that was about it really. Work levels are really reaching quite high levels. Tomorrow, the family are popping in on their way back down from Scotland, so it'll be nice to see them; time to start cleaning.

It's really late so I had better get off to bed; what a boring day it has been!

Day 214 - 25th October 2007

Work is starting to build up now, so nights like these are quickly becoming quite scarce.

What, you may ask, are nights like these? Ones where I play a game called 'counterstrike' and I try to annoy some Internet people. It's great because you can actually talk down it, so I was doing some songs from the shows and you know what; I really think that my fellow Internet team mates appreciated it.

Paul McCartney is on TV now, and he's doing a great job so I'm gonna stop typing!

Day 213 - 24th October 2007

It's been a while since I remembered just how fun life can be. We thought it'd be a good idea to prank people on the intercom, and that's exactly what we did! When a tour came around to look at some residences, I thought it'd be a great idea to pretend we were in the big brother house.

What's so great about the intercom is that when you talk, it gets broadcasted to anyone standing outside; my favourite way to get smokers to bugger off from the window! Oh how we laughed until the novelty wore off; maybe tomorrow once more we can continue our evil plans...

I just noticed a problem with the picture; let me reassure you that I do not have anything to do with Interpol, or with the promotion of their new album 'Our Love To Admire', which is available for around £9 from all good retailers.

Day 212 - 23rd October 2007

The girls went out on the town tonight, the boys stayed in and went for a pizza. This included me, and very nice it was too.

Otherwise, I can't say much happened; it's another early start tomorrow but I think I'll wait to see if the girls get back OK...

Day 211 - 22nd October 2007

I opted out of tonight's 'pirates and fairies' bar crawl on the town; I wonder why...

This is about as public as things can get, and I really hope that the lecturer I am about to mention does not read the blog, but the truth must be told. The French culture lecture I attended this evening was quite possibly the most boring talk I have ever had to go to; I could honestly feel the impending spectre of sleep creeping over me, tapping at my shoulder, begging me to drop off.

I did, however, survive and the day could only really be described as really, really dull. Oh, although I did get to see a fire engine, but they sent me away before I could get a picture; I think it was a false alarm anyway...

Day 210 - 21st October 2007

In a moment of boredom I thought it would be maybe be a good idea to fashion a pipe out of a carrot. This divine inspiration let me to a rather healthy lunch, which can only be a good thing.

Something that's not quite so good is the state of Britain right now: the poor old rugby players lost narrowly yesterday in the final, the footballers probably won't qualify for the European cup and the latest addition to the near-misses of the United Kingdom is Lewis Hamilton, who missed out to Raikkonen in the formula one by 1 point; better luck next year Lewis.

The times are changing, and so am I; I'm actually getting into the work here! It starts again tomorrow though, some lectures are interesting and sometimes you feel like you're going nowhere with it; luck of the draw I guess...

Day 209 - 20th October 2007

England lost the world cup final today. It wasn't disgraceful, but the look on Johnny Wilkinson's face was truly unforgettable. I wasn't particularly disappointed myself, I think we did well enough to get this far; it's just such a shame. Maybe we were robbed, having a try disallowed is never very nice; but South Africa were the better side in the second half really.

Enough is enough, before that, I went to Morecambe to see the sea. I shall try everything in my power never to have to set foot there again. We had so much fun, for all the wrong reasons; everywhere was boarded up, I took pictures but they all looked so depressing, like the place that would sell you a jug of tea.

Behind this place lies an abandoned fun fair, with kids sitting on the roof of a public toilet, throwing things at us before the police get to them. Amongst the arcades and the miserable residents playing bingo all day lies a statue of Eric Morecambe, a western themed place (boarded up of course), a stone jetty with a dingy cafe at the end of it and a brilliant 'entertainment dome', which was, as ever, abandoned.

We felt like we got to Morecambe thirty years too late, and that the people who were there all those years ago haven't moved at all since then. Tomorrow Lewis Hamilton goes for the Formula One driver's championship, with the defeats in Football and Rugby; can Lewis give the UK the glory it has come so close to?

Day 208 - 19th October 2007

Cereal is pretty boring and so was today. Yes, it's a crap link and a crap idea for a picture, but I was out of options. Nothing happened of any interest to anyone today, but it's the weekend tomorrow and I want to go to the seaside!

It's not been a good day for France today, who lost to Argentina again; this time in the third place play-off. What's more is that they lost by a huge score, I can almost feel their shame.

Shame, however, is not something England are familiar with; it's more anticipation and nerves nowadays. What with the world cup final tomorrow against South Africa, then on Sunday it's time for Lewis Hamilton to finally clinch the F1 driver's championship; exciting times lie ahead I'm sure!

In typical university fashion, I've stayed up way too late again; once more my bed beckons...

Day 207 - 18th October 2007

Finally, I managed to find a book I wanted in the library! I'd been on three trips up there and the place is so vast that it's incredibly hard to find that one essential book you need, but all that changed today!

Thursday is a crap day on my timetable, and I'm really tired after spending all day in lessons. This evening, I watched an interesting film called 'Raise Your Voice' starring Hilary Duff. I thought that its comments on society as a whole were unprecedented in the world of cinema; actually it was pretty crap but harmless, I won't pan it too much 'cos the girls like it, everyone's different I suppose!

I think it's high time to regain my bed, I can't believe that my third week here is coming to an end, this week just flew by; feels like we're still doing introductions in lessons though...

Day 206 - 17th October 2007

I know what you're thinking, 'wow, this guy is a god of cooking'. Well I roasted Charles, my first chicken, tonight; boy did Charles taste good.

Let this event go down in the annals of time; I already ate a leg before I took the picture so don't panic, it wasn't a peg leg one!

England bloody England. After five 3-0 victories in a row, England broke the run with a loss to Russia today. We weren't playing that well, and it took a wonder goal by Rooney to put us ahead, then a penalty and a Russian goal lost the match for us. To be fair to England, everyone was extremely reluctant to blame the Russian plastic pitch, but it did have a very poor effect on the game; someone made a tackle at the half way line and it went out for a corner!

Despite the unfair penalty and the pitch, a defeat is a defeat and now we're in the shite. Russia have two games left to play, and if they win both then we're out, regardless whether we win or not. The games are against Andorra and Israel, so we're all behind Israel for the last few games; Andorra have pretty much already lost. England's qualifying hopes no longer lie in their own hands...

Day 205 - 16th October 2007

So what if I did forget to take any pictures today? There's nothing wrong with this lovely picture of a gangster on a poster, apart from the fact that it's completely irrelevant to what I did today...

Oh, well actually I didn't do anything much today apart from work; I did make my first omelette though, very nice it was too. I think omelettes and toasties are quickly becoming a staple, so easy yet so tasty.

Tonight, at about 09:30pm I went on a night time walk to the library. It's massive! I couldn't actually find the right floor for my book, never mind the right shelf! What I really went for was the walk though, my thoughts were just whizzing round my head; I just couldn't stop myself. The walk helped a lot, and I think I'll get a good night's sleep now. If I do it again I'll wear a coat though, it's freezing outside!

Day 204 - 15th October 2007

I, for the first time, wrote about something I wanted to all for a good cause! A portion of my course requires me to come up with something completely original, which have always loved doing but it's never got me anywhere. Finally, I don't feel like I'm wasting my time anymore, and that bringing all those books actually was a good idea.

There were no surprises when two of our flatmates announced that they are rather more intimate towards each other than the rest of us, the tension had been there almost since the start...

No more needs to be said on that; I hope it lasts for a long long time, mainly because we don't all want to have to live with a messy break up!

Last night I was drifting off towards a pretty good night's sleep, the first for a long time, when some arsehole decided to ring my land phone on the internal number and hang up. I wondered about whether it could have been someone from the flat, but they all denied it and I believe them, so I tried to find out how easy it could be to randomly dial a number. I picked up my phone, dialled a random five digit number and sure enough, someone picked up. I hope that this means the chances of me getting dialled again are extremely slim; I haven't given anyone my internal number at all, so I must have been really unlucky.

Day 203 - 14th October 2007

There they are ladies and gentlemen, my first two toasties; doubtless the first of many.

What else can I say about today really, I worked and so did everyone else! Looks like England shall be playing South Africa in the world cup final; it'll be the second game in the cup then!

I just watched the guys off Top Gear try and cross the channel in their crappy 'amphibious' vehicles. Amazingly, Jeremy Clarkson actually made it! It looked like a death wish, but I was so wrong; they pulled it off!

It's an early start for me tomorrow morning, again!

Day 202 - 13th October 2007

Oh man; England beat France and are through to the final of the rugby world cup, again! This time it seemed so unlikely, we really came up from nothing; even I didn't really fancy our chances, but now, it really can be done...

Of course let's not forget who scored the winning points, Wilkinson saved England once more but so much is owed to the forwards. The game itself was pretty dull, but who cares; we're through to the final!

Our opponents will either be South Africa or Argentina; the next semi-final has yet to be decided.

So otherwise we all went to a freshers dinner which cost £18 and tasted like hospital food; unimpressed as we were, we ran off to watch the rugby. Before that we managed to beat Estonia 3-0 which is always nice, if we beat Russia on Wednesday we'll be through to the European cup; good luck to all the England players then, in all sports!

My parents came today on their way up to Scotland, and I was rather embarrassingly still in bed; I even got up to turn my alarm off and still I fell back to sleep again! After the rather abrupt start we went off to the supermarket and stoked up on food; parents really are a Godsend sometimes!

Day 201 - 12th October 2007

Tonight we went out to the uni night club in town. It was 'ministry of sound' night, I don't know who the minister for sound is under Gordon Brown...

The problem with it being a uni run club is that you get the bus into town, just to go and spend the night with more students! As it happens, I didn't really enjoy it that much, so I left quite early to get a bus; which came an hour late. I'm typing this at 2am in the morning, waiting for the others to come back. It's not bed I crave, it's just peace.

I'm not really a huge clubber anyway, and everyone seems to love the uni place, but I like quieter places; like bars.

Anyway, that was the night out; fresher's dinner tomorrow which should be fun, but it means that I'll be missing England play France in one of the most exciting world cups ever. Oh well, at least I'll see the footballers play Estonia in the afternoon... Rooney's back!

Yesterday I was having a video made to commemorate the 200 day mark of this blog; well stuff went wrong so not quite all the pictures are in it but here it is anyway, in all its glory. Thanks to http://www.animoto.com/ for the work.

Day 200 - 11th October 2007

Being the dull person that I am, I really enjoy nights in, like tonight (especially after a solid 9-7 day of lectures), instead of hectic and tiring nights out; like tomorrow night will be!

It's day 200, which means that so much time has passed since I started doing this; I've been on holiday, twice; I've sat exams; I've even left home and packed up to go to university!

It all seems to go so quickly, yet last Monday felt like last year; in the flat we all feel like we've known each other for years, even though it's not yet two weeks. I hate the way the brain works; at least it's the same for everyone...

Anyway, to commemorate this landmark event in history of 200 pictures, I have put together a small compilation of every single picture ever used so far; it's taking a while to render, so it'll be on the site tomorrow; I need some sleep!

Day 199 - 10th October 2007

If there's one thing I dislike more than Phil Collins it's a tug of war. This crude, shameless, chauvinistic activity is something you always lose at. This was the case this afternoon, as we got hammered by a bunch of massive people from another college. The difference was that they'd been picked over the last week from their respective colleges; in our college the team consisted of one flat quickly rustled up to play i.e. 'Do you wanna be in a tug of war?' 'When?' 'Now.'

Otherwise I only had one lecture first thing this morning, then I worked for most of the day up until the tug. Then I went to see Mediterraneo, an Italian film which turned out to be not bad; worth watching anyway.

Tomorrow the day is packed with stuff, so I'd better get off to bed pretty sharpish; I'm so fed up of being constantly tired, I think it's all the walking...

Day 198 - 9th October 2007

It's very late tonight, and I have a lesson at 9am tomorrow, so it's no surprise that I opted out of going on yet another night on the town with most of the flat. Before they set off, we received a cry of help from flat 2 next doors, who seem to have been invaded by strangers.

As it happens the two Chinese students in the flat had decided to throw a house party, without asking the other six! The kitchen was jammed full of people, it really got quite nasty in there.

We just ordered a pizza with some coupons we had tonight, lovely; straight to the door!

I really want to go on about more things, but my bed beckons and time is tight; sleep is so essential for being able to focus on classes.

Day 197 - 8th October 2007

First day of lessons today, with four lectures it wasn't for the faint hearted. This was mainly intro talks which were OK, but quite dull; this doesn't exclude Spanish, where we actually had a proper lesson.

On my way back I saw a shop set up on the square, 'Silver Watch And Gift'; which spells SWAG. The merchandise really did look just like that, and they kept shooing me away when I wanted a picture of the sign; no wonders why then...

I saw Mum extremely briefly on her way up to Harrogate, I'll be seeing the whole family on Saturday when they go up to Scotland on holiday; I can see the motorway from here so it's not exactly a detour!

Tomorrow I've got more lectures obviously; thankfully it's a later start and an earlier finish than today, I worked 9 until 1830!

Day 196 - 7th October 2007

I went to church this morning for the first time at Lancaster University, which was nice. I met some new people and what not but I was really pleased to find that they like to play football quite often; just what I was looking for, a proper game every now and then in a relaxed atmosphere.

So I picked up the gloves again (which soon returned to their own pungent stink), and after getting in front of the goals, I felt like I could stay here forever; my life here is complete, I really love playing football!

Top gear is back on again, so I watched that and now I'm off to bed; lessons start tomorrow at last!

Day 195 - 6th October 2007

What a day. In chronological order, Lewis Hamilton is on pole position for tomorrow's race in China. If he beats Alonso, or finishes one place behind him; he will have won the drivers championship in his first season! I'll be getting up at 6am to watch it then...

Next came my trip into Lancaster, which was quite nice; I didn't know the place and I was pleasantly surprised by its size and general charm. I took a picture from the castle, on top of a hill.

Then came the big game, England versus Australia; a repeat of the magical final from four years ago. England have been decidedly average in the past few days and came into the game the clear underdogs; they came out the winners! Yes, by some miracle of God himself, we managed to beat the favourites! Once I'd recovered from that first quarter final, I then watched France beat New Zealand; both of the favourites are out of the cup in the quarters! Can England win it now? Who knows, it's wide open...

Anyway, good luck Lewis for tomorrow, Britain is thinking of you.

Day 194 - 5th October 2007

It wasn't another karaoke night tonight, but it might as well have been. The live band that came on basically murdered my favourite stones song 'paint it black', followed by trying to sound like Otis Readding then finishing with Pink Floyd.

They somehow managed to pick all the 'untouchables' which always sound awful; tonight was no exception. Whatever next? The Beatles?

As a result of this we headed home for the night and talked in the kitchen for hours on end; sometimes that's better than any night you could possibly plan.

During the day I went to a languages intro talk which was good, but long; the main speaker spoke like Tom Baker. Then I went to the second half of the freshers fair, where I put my name down for the scuba diving club, but I haven't signed up yet. I'm already trained, so it might not cost too much for me; I'll wait until the talk happens on Monday. Tomorrow I've got nothing on, so I think I'll go and get some books for my courses in the morning before lazing around a bit more; might as well make use of my last weekend without work...

Day 193 - 4th October 2007

Karaoke night tonight, whoopittee-sodding-do. We stayed for the free pizza, then left early and talked for the rest of the night. Finally, a quiet night in; there really is a God!

On the subject of God, I got a parcel today from the North Lancashire Methodists; a mug full of fair trade produce, I couldn't believe it, it cheered me up no end!

It was the freshers fair today and I came away with tons of free gifts, even a wooden spatula! I didn't find a society I desperatly wanted to join, but the fair goes on tomorrow with a different set of choices to pick from...

Off the topic now, today bloggers around the world have been asked to support the monks in Burma who are standing in the steets in a protest for democracy, many have already died in their plea. Everyone knows that Buddhist monks are a non-violent race, which makes the way they have been treated even more unjustified. So, for the first time ever; I'm going to post a second picture just for them.

Day 192 - 3rd October 2007

The constant barrage of nights out organised for freshers week had already left me tired and weary; this was before the 'big night out' planned tonight.

We started with a pub crawl through Lancaster city centre, having waited for the bus for two hours in the cold rain and piercing winds. The pubs and clubs here are OK; no more, no less, definitely not worth the torturous waiting time.

The tour finished at the student union run place, 'the sugarhouse', which was quite nice; I was so tired by then I only stayed just over an hour before catching the next free bus home!

I have always thought of myself as being 'British' but this obsession with trying to out drink yourself every night is simply not in my character, and I think it's not a particularly nice trait to have. One thing I have noticed on these nights out is that despite the obviously high levels of drunkenness there have not been many extreme cases; none at all near me. This contrasts a lot with college parties where so many people would get themselves in a state of unconsciousness!

Tomorrow it's the society fairs, I'm going to see if there's anything I like the look of or not. It's half past two in the morning right now, so I must really be getting off to bed; goodnight!

Day 191 - 2nd October 2007

Tonight was marked by, well, more drinking really. What's more is that tomorrow night is meant to be a 'big night out'; feel like I've been partying non-stop already!

Otherwise it was a quiet day in, with only a couple of talks to attend tomorrow; I've can't go on too long, it's late again and I've got yet another early start in the morning! I'm so far from having finished registering, it's all about course enrolment now; I think I'll go for Italian.

Day 190 - 1st October 2007

Piss ups have never really been my thing, but I went along tonight anyway. For those who don't know, Lancaster University is split into colleges, then into houses, then flats, which is basically the group of rooms that share a kitchen, in my case eight of us in flat one.

My biggest worry was of being isolated from the 'real' world because I'd be living on campus so much. This is even worse than I'd imagined, as I have only rarely seen people from other colleges, never mind other towns! In Cartmel college, where I am, it takes fifteen minutes to walk straight through to the other end of the campus; where my lessons are!

Anyway, I just got back from a huge campus pub crawl, but my flatmates and I broke off to do our own thing; then we split again and three of us, including me, went back to the flats, took a rest and a slash then went to get a pizza. I found out that the pizza place is open until 4am, so one day when I can't sleep I'll be off to get one at 3.30. The others have just got into the flat as I type, in a surprisingly good state. It's bang on midnight and the people in flat 2 next door have just got the bus into town; they're already completely wasted!

I also registered and went to some boring seminars along with getting the internet connected. What I'm most happy about is the way that the whole flat has just gelled, without friction or hesitation; everybody is completely different to one another, but hey, it's proof that opposites attract!

I've gone on for quite a while considering I've just had six pints of Guinness, it's very much past my bedtime now so until tomorrow; goodnight!