Day 250 - 30th November 2007

Home again today, after a nice train journey home I found that someone had bought me a Stoke hat; lovely.

Before that came the lessons of course, and I actually did some work for a change. Tomorrow it's time to play santa so I'm getting an early night.

Day 249 - 29th November 2007

Agh. Thursday. How I have grown to hate this day of the week, everything seems to go wrong on a Thursday. Today, as ever, was just like every other Thursday at uni; this morning there was no hot water, so I had an ice cold shower followed by a freezing cold walk up to my first lesson.

Next thing I know, it's film night, which means that the day ends very late, instead of just late.

Fortunately, there were some pancake makers in the bar tonight, so I had a rum and chocolate one; it tasted just like Christmas. This is theoretically a bad thing if you were to go by my 'Christmas starts in December rule', but it tasted so good that I just can't complain.

Anyway, it's home time tomorrow for me once lessons are over, I'm already preparing to slip into the Santa Claus role; I draw from all kinds of inspirations, Pacino, Bogart, Roberts, I think these could come n handy when it comes to present giving.

Day 248 - 28th November 2007

Nothing in the world could possibly destroy a Wednesday, and today nothing did. I've probably said this before, but my favourite lesson early in the morning, followed by sweet nothingness all day is sheer bliss.

Nothing much else went on today but that doesn't really matter, the sun shone (how couldn't it? It's Wednesday of course!) and all was well with the world.

Someone has just died their hair, from blonde to brown. It doesn't seem that interesting really, but I'd never seen anyone doing this before and I was fascinated. You can see the before and after picture; it's a good job I think, the girls managed to successfully avoid the deadly ginger colour you so often get with dying. Thursday lies ahead tomorrow, it's likely to been quite bad.

Day 247 - 27th November 2007

It's not been a bad day today, although I was really happy to receive a CD in the post. It's a Christmas disc by a Brighton guy who calls himself 'The Brigadier', and it's simply brilliant.

He added me on MySpace a year or so ago and I liked it so much I bought his CD. Now he's got a Christmas one out and when I got it, I was surprised at the quality of it.

Unlike so many modern Christmas discs, the songs are not at all sarcastic yet all completely original; I've never heard a Christmas album before which captures the spirit of the season and gives you a warm feeling inside, without a hint of Christmas cliché. You can get this at www.thebrigadier.co.uk ; the album's called '6 Christmas Tales'.

Talking of Christmas, the flat went out to buy some decorations today and came back with a 7 foot tree! Thank heavens it's not real, I'm ignoring it all until the 1st of December though, that's my rule; no Christmas until December starts.

Day 246 - 26th November 2007

Sleeping in is not a habit I usually get into, but today I just really wanted to to stay in bed when the alarm went off. What's great is that I could actually stay in for 1 1/2 hours, which I almost did.

When I started walking around at about 0945am, I noticed the sheer volume of propaganda posters and stained bedsheets strewn out of windows. Thursday is the day to vote for members to be on the college council.

By the end of the day I was rather fed up of seeing loads of posters everywhere, so I thought I'd make my own, posing as an alias, Dick Flannel. It's a bit strict maybe and yes, I know there's no position of 'emperor' available; in fact I don't know why I bothered, it seemed funny at the time. Anyway, there's one up on the main door and once I get hold of some sticky tape I'll put them around the college.

This evening all the candidates for each post presented themselves so that we can make our minds up on the day. I only went because a friend was doing a short speech; little did I know that the whole thing lasted over two hours, it's the dullest thing I've done for quite a while now.

Got a band practice tomorrow and I'm not looking forward to carrying the tuba up the hill again, but it'll be interesting to see if I managed to transpose the music right; the more I think about it the more I get paranoid about it being all wrong! Only time will tell...

Day 245 - 25th November 2007

I don't want to go on for long today, I've just done a brass band concert and my hands are bleeding from having to carry the tuba a huge distance to the venue.

The picture has nothing to do with this, at lunch time I made a lovely pasta, egg and bacon concoction and I took a picture of it; that is until someone managed to cook a perfectly square plate of spag bol, appetising...

Day 244 - 24th November 2007

From a weather point of view, today was pretty crap. Otherwise, it was an OK day for me, nothing much happened though.

I noticed that I had a lot of downloaded shows to watch so I did that, still got about 20 hours of footage left!

When we went to the shop tonight, it really shat it down, luckily it stopped by the time we were out, so I took a picture of a big uni building; still don't know what the hell goes on in there.

Spoke to Mum on skype successfully, free calls at last. Tomorrow I'm filling in the bass part in a brass band concert, I'm a bit nervous; I haven't played in months! We've only got a supporting role so it shouldn't be too bad, wish I'd had a bit more time to practice the parts though, I only got them today! Nobody is to blame though, I'm just happy to be playing...

Day 243 - 23rd November 2007

What a better way to start the day than checking through a translation about, what else, Napoleon. Typical French I suppose.

Nothing much else went on, but it was a very good day; the sun was shining and all was well with the world.

There's not much more I can say, I suppose it's been a dull day; nonetheless a good one. What is it makes me feel good I wonder? Why does doing exciting things sometimes still not cheer me up, and yet a crisp sunny morning and a bacon and egg sandwich made the day. Odd.

Day 242 - 22nd November 2007

The new flats have now been booked, and we're all happy with how it panned out. This, however, did not come easily.

My whole day was wasted queuing to sign my contract, some flat members had gone very early to reserve some places and pay the deposit, but we still needed to all be there in person eventually.

A friend and I started to queue at 10:30am; we got out at 3pm. This four and a half hour marathon queue was pushing for a record. I didn't like the prospect of it, we were moving about four feet an hour, but the actual experience was rather different to what I expected.

In the true British fashion, we made sure the line was straight and started talking between ourselves, finding common ground at every instant. We made 'queue buddies', sharing our boredom between ourselves; we even noticed an odd leaflet entitled 'rules of good badge care', which at the time seemed quite funny.

It's not that interesting to talk about really, but it did get me thinking about queues. They're funny things really, especially in Britain or with Britons abroad. Today's wasn't a queuing record in my life, but it made me think back to other ones. I remember once in Italy I spent a day waiting for a train, Italy being Italy, everyone rushed in a strange bunch to the ticket desk, you could tell the British tourists apart; they formed a strange line behind the crowd. Sure enough, we stuck at it while the others went; after almost 24 hours in the same place together, we developed a real relationship with each other. Looking back on it now, there was a certain romance in our situation which never comes to light until afterwards. I'm still in touch with three of those people.

This could be seen to a lesser extent today, we went back for sausage butties in someone's flat afterwards! I'm not sad at all that I'm not standing in that long never ending line of people anymore, but why is it I wish I could do it again somewhere else?

Day 241 - 21st November 2007

Where to start; it's been an exciting day. After my Italian test and a meeting with my French tutor, I went out to lunch with mum; always quite nice. In the car, I saw a business card with Spiderman's name on it, so I took a picture.

Then came the play I went to see, which was pretty interesting; it had a different setup to most, I won't go into detail but it did involve having quite in depth conversations with the cast.

Now, for the horrible news. England failed in their attempts to qualify for the European championships. This is the worst thing that has happened to England in my lifetime.

We lost 2-3 to Croatia in a win or draw game. At half time, we were 0-2 down, then Beckham came on after half time which boosted everyone up a bit. We got a penalty which Lampard scored followed by Beckham setting up Peter Crouch to make it even. Croatia scored a good goal and we couldn't catch up. It's worrying really, but on our performances we didn't even deserve to get through. I don't know where we're going to go now, Beckham said he won't retire; but will we really be seeing him at the world cup in two years? In fact, what will happen for the world cup? Are we going to be this bad when it comes to the cup? All I know is that something needs to change, it'll be interesting to see how long it takes for McLaren to get fired; how can we have such brilliant players and lose all the time?

I know it's all been said before, but this time England have really messed it up; even with the lifeline Israel threw us by beating Russia, we didn't take the chance. England are in a bad way, the global humiliation has only just begun; God help us all.

Day 240 - 20th November 2007

In a day when there's not much to talk about, what do you say? I've got an Italian test tomorrow which explains the picture (I can't explain why it's red though), so I've been revising for that since the early evening.

Prior to that there was a boring housing talk of which I got a picture but it wasn't too clear; hence today's choice for a photo.

Otherwise we have started talking about where we want to live next year; scary stuff considering it's only week 7. Everyone has decided that we should stick together, a decision which I'm happy with, mind you, I wouldn't really care if I ended up in a flat full of strangers, the only thing would be that I would miss the lot I'm with now so I'd rather not have to change. Looks like it'll all be sorted soon and everyone is happy so what more is there to say? Nothing except goodnight.

Day 239 - 19th November 2007

This particular culinary masterpiece looks and smells good in the flesh even though the picture isn't that appetising. Behold, the ommburger! Yes ladies and gentlemen, I have successfully combined the wonders of two butcher-made burgers with your everyday eggy favourite, the omelette.

I need to be careful, I have already caught wind of foreign secret services attempting to purloin my classified recipe; with this ommburger we must tread carefully my friends.

So maybe I overdid the whole burger-omelette story somewhat, but the only other story of the day is that with the blowing gales, an ariel is loose on a building and a barrier has been put up around the walkway; right in my daily path. I agree that this isn't entirely health and safety gone mad, the gable seems to be collapsing too and I don't particularly want a brick falling on my head, but as I walked on the grass around the sides I slipped and nearly broke my neck. It's irony at work isn't it?

Day 238 - 18th November 2007

After an almost sleepless night back home today, I was ready to go back to uni this morning. The train wasn't until the night though so I had to wait a bit.

Today really made me think about what I call home though and I realised that after having been in this place after only seven weeks, this is my home. At home in Loggerheads, much as I still love my family, I felt like a guest in a B+B.

In the afternoon, it started snowing! This only made me want to be in Lancaster even more, in the snow with my friends... Luckily I wasn't, from what I hear, it's been dull and grey up here all day so I was in the right place.

The train back took twice as long as coming up, although I willingly paid the bus fare home this time from the station! After a cramped train journey, I walked in, I think, in a bit of a grumpy mood. I don't know why, because it was an OK trip, just stressful I suppose...

Day 237 - 17th November 2007

Ah, home sweet home. Getting there wasn't so sweet though. I don't want to bang on about it, but I did have to walk for an hour and forty five minutes to get to the station! The train journey only lasted an hour! What's more is, it was 0630am!

It was good to see my old bed though, and the family. Like I said, I'm not going to go on about what felt like my epic journey to Shropshire which leaves me with nothing else to talk about.

Until tomorrow then, I'll just play some more playstation with my brother...

Day 236 - 16th November 2007

Fridays mark the end of the week, which can't be that bad. England beat Austria in a dull friendly and we'll all be watching Russia and Israel tomorrow, if the Russians win, then we're out.

Otherwise, the day was pretty dull; there was a slight panic over my mum being ill away on business in Germany; but my dad got there and I think she's back in the UK now.

This is handy as I'm off home tomorrow, there wasn't any change of plan from my side, but my brother might have had to come up and spend the might with me; nothing came of it in the end, so everything is as normal.

That's about it really, all is normal. There was yet another nice sunset, which came in handy for a picture of the day. It's children in need night tonight; the line up seems pretty horrible, I'd rather go to bed than watch Westlife cover a two year old Michael Buble song. Why have they released a cover of such a recent song? The answer is simple, they are shite and yet, nothing seems to be able to end their sodding careers; despite the fact that practically everyone hates them now.

Day 235 - 15th November 2007

After a pretty uneventful day, I decided to go out and find something to take a picture of. Obviously the gods were on my side, look what I came across; a fire! Well, the picture looks all action packed and fast paced, but actually someone burnt some bacon which set the smoke alarms off; calling the fire service to immediate action.

Fireman Sam clearly wasn't happy with being there over such a banal issue, so I thought I'd make his day by taking a childish picture of his lorry with flashing blue lights.

Anyway, life goes on and tomorrow is Friday; always a nice thought.

Day 234 - 14th November 2007

Wednesdays are quickly becoming my favourite day of the week. Yes, it's an early start, but the one lesson at 9am is my favourite and the teacher is just what you need to give you a gentle start to the day.

Then I have the rest of the day off, which from ten in the morning can't be too bad! Today especially was a fantastic day. I didn't do much, but the sun was out, the sky was blue and off we went to watch the sunset.

I like this picture, although others managed to get really orange picture; like off a cowboy film! The cloud seems to hang low at night which just blocks that perfect view everyone wants; one day it'll be fantastic...

Day 233 - 13th November 2007

The birthday ego trip continued today with a trip to Bella Italia for a meal, including a birthday song and special sparkling iced cream. I don't normally like using people's faces as a picture of the day, to avoid any embarrassment; but it's a nice shot and it would be a shame for such a lovely night out to be forgotten.

Earlier on, I was given a mug with a picture of everyone on it, and an inscription which reads 'George Fox; rapper!' I really liked it actually, I don't know what it was about it but I was touched.

Hopefully the birthday stuff ends here, before my head gets so big it explodes! So we all had a lovely night out together; great!

Otherwise, nothing much happened today; the others are watching a film but I'm off to bed, early start tomorrow.

Day 232 - 12th November 2007

Yesterday was strangely inspiration and deep, today consisted of making 'playboy tart' out of used birthday candles.

I think I forgot to mention that it was my birthday yesterday, I'm now nineteen. I was talking to one of my flat mates about this before; birthdays are odd things really. I really loved the effort that the flat made, they gave me balloons, baked me a cake and put a great sign on my door; which is the kind of thing I like. What I don't like is sitting in a room full of people opening presents one by one, and nobody else gets anything, surely no one likes to have their egos massaged that much.

This year was different though, I felt good; I got cards in the post and various phone calls, and, being at uni, I didn't feel like I was being stared at all day, or that there was any pressure on me to actually do anything. We are, however, going out to the restaurant tomorrow night; but there's loads going so it'll be a nice might out.

That's enough talk about birthdays, it's all late anyway! If any of my old Spanish teachers are reading this (you know who you are), then I'd like to thank you so much for giving us a great head start. Today's culture lecture was all about Franco which is what I'd been studying for a long long time at A level; the talk even mentioned one of my references in my coursework!

I'm going to have to be honest now though; I'm finding Spanish really quite dull at the moment. The language and grammar teacher is so boring and the culture seminars are unbearable; the oral classes are generally OK and the woman is really nice, but today was just so mind numbing that I'm really beginning to change my mind now. I actually drew a picture of my old rapper friend George Fox in my book, in the hope that she'd spot it and talk to me about it! Thankfully, she did and with that, the topic changed at last. Phew.

Day 231 - 11th November 2007

I don't know what to say about today. This morning, I stopped at eleven o'clock for two minutes to remember those who died for the nation, lest we forget.

Then I went to church where the vicar completely deviated from his plans to tell us the story of his child, Peter.

We got a pictorial story of his poor child who was found to have a tumour at 7 years old and had to have an emergency operation. He told us of his recovery and how life has changed since, but what was most striking were the pictures that he showed us. Throughout the whole tragedy, the news of the tumour being benign and his subsequent recovery, he put up these pictures of them; pictures filled with an emotion like you've never seen them before.

Everyone in the room was either crying or really holding back the tears; especially when he told us of the girl in the same ward as Peter, whose tumour was malignant. You could honestly see the eternal struggle in his eyes, asking himself why one had to go over another; it was a question no one could answer, and it really made you think.

Seeing someone having this kind of experience first hand really puts things into perspective; much of my family have died, but I simply couldn't imagine coming that close to losing a son, and watching another family in the same situation, literally alongside you, lose a child.

It's a sad story I know, but life isn't all about studying and pissing about.

Day 230 - 10th November 2007

Today was a typical night in, watching DVDs and playing on the Wii. What else has been done? Nothing.

Well, actually I did transpose a piece for some band I'll be playing with which took a while, no one noticed though; everyone was up at about 1pm!

The weather is, how can you put it, 'turning to shite'; it's been very wet and windy for a long time and now the cold has set in. Reports of people freezing to death are coming in thick and fast.

Tomorrow is remembrance day (on a Sunday this year), so I'll be off to a memorial I guess. It's one of those things I still like to do, even though I don't necessarily agree with the current war in Iraq, I think that simply remembering those who gave their lives to make this nation what it is today is beyond politics; they still fought, whether we like it or not.

Day 229 - 9th November 2007

Ah Friday, who doesn't like it? I felt compelled to try a silly hat on and it slipped over my head; this is a picture of me posing somewhat trying to get it off.

Here at Lancaster there is a building called the 'George Fox' building, named after the famous founder of the Quakers. I, however, seemed to think that George Fox must be a rapper or alternative funk/jazz player of some sort. This is the inspiration for my new MySpace character, coming very soon.

George Fox has his own instrument, the 'foxophone'; he doesn't send E-mails, just George Faxes. He's too cool for this world, which is why I made him up for MySpace. Forget Ben Oliver 'Artiste', George Fox is the future! Not that I'm gonna dump the 'Artiste', I just don't think people quite get it, it was a silly idea using my own name; people are sure that I really think I'm an 'Artiste'!

Tomorrow is Saturday, which is when the others will get back from clubbing. I would have gone with them, but I have no money and Booty Luv were playing; a band I have only just heard of. From what I see it's just two girls who dance a lot to a dance track. I'm sure I'll be proved wrong tomorrow when they come back and tell me how good it was...

Day 228 - 8th November 2007

Well, if I complained about yesterday, it simply doesn't come near to the awful weather of today. Just as I stepped outside, the heavens opened. I don't really want to exaggerate things but as you can see; I got very wet indeed.

Thursday is horrible enough as it is, the weather simply made me miserable. I was cold, wet and really, really hungry all day.

Thanks to my flat for cheering me up afterwards though, I'm in the good mood I'd never thought I'd be in tonight. I just really wanted to collapse in bed, and that's exactly what I'm off to do now. Goodnight.

Day 227 - 7th November 2007

When you wake up in the morning and draw open the curtains and the first thing you see is a sheet of windswept rain out in the freezing cold; it doesn't give you the drive you might otherwise have at 7:30am to walk for 15 minutes to a lesson.

Nevertheless I did, and then that was the end of Wednesday. Sadly, this means that tomorrow is Thursday; the worst day ever. Oh well, life goes on.

I got my train tickets to go home today, I'm off the weekend after my birthday because my brother will be there. The more time I spend without my family the more I realise not how much I miss them, but how much I like them; sometimes it's only when you lose something that you realise that it's gone. Maybe that's a bit profound, I'm not feeling at all homesick, just grateful.

Day 226 - 6th November 2007

Wow. If you ever wondered what happens to milk when left in the fridge for a long long time, then look no further; no one has yet put their name to this bio hazard, but I'm sure we'll find the culprit soon. The picture was taken after I had shaken it up, initially it was basically cheese on top. You can see the 'matter' through the light though; not a nice sight I'm sure you'll agree.

Before that, I went for a walk between lessons on campus; I had never realised just how big this place was! To go around the perimeter road just once, it took me the whole hour at a fast walking pace; I did stop for the loo once though...

Since then, I switch the TV on tonight and Liverpool were drawing 0-0 in their crucial home champions league game. I had it on whilst working, then the goal bonanza arrived. They scored not one, not two, not three, not four; I could go on for a long time, the final score was 8-0! It's a record breaker of course, scores like that are hard to come by; especially in Europe.

Day 225 - 5th November 2007

Remember, remember the 5th of November, gunpowder, treason and plot; yakkity yak yak...

That's right folks, it's officially bonfire night, but why do I have a picture of a pumpkin? Well we saw some fireworks on Saturday, and I went for the gross out factor. How gross can this be? Well, that white stuff between the eyes and nose is pure bacteria, along with everything you can see inside it; not the hair though, that's cotton wool.

Otherwise, aside from the freezing cold late night lecture, nothing much else went on today; which means that tomorrow will be fantastic!

Day 224 - 4th November 2007

Considering that it's the weekend today was surprisingly boring. When I went to check my post, I found a CD waiting for me, which I assume is from my parents, I haven't spoken to them yet though.

This would have been the highlight of my day had it not been Top Gear night, followed by another nice walk in the dark; on campus this time though, and without the fireworks!

So there we are, if it wasn't for the walk I would have not stepped out of the building all day; I wouldn't have had reason to! Work starts up again tomorrow, but I've got the new Coral album to listen to whilst doing it now; great stuff.

Day 223 - 3rd November 2007

What a day. This morning, a flat mate, out of the goodness of his heart, made us some cooked breakfast; I was first up, just look at that plate! You may think that I'm a greedy monster, but it wasn't all for me; unsurprisingly.

That done, the fireworks displays were on today (even though the 5th is on Monday), so we went into town to look at the free one at the castle. Well, we tried to; all the buses were full so we ended up walking around for miles and seeing loads of different shows instead!

Fireworks night is something I still really like; somehow it's in no way commercial, the sense of community and fun you get on bonfire night standing up in the mud in the freezing cold is irreplaceable. It's what Britain used to be all about, and I think it shows that that sense of spirit we all used to have hasn't quite faded away.

Day 222 - 2nd November 2007

I had completely forgotten to mention that November has now started. November for me is a weird month, yes it's my birthday month but also it's a time of fireworks, winter and remembrance. I've got my poppy, which will stay on until the 11th, incidentally my birthday.

It's pretty amazing that autumn has passed; that good old commercial calendar which I so cynically stick to comes into force here. About now, it's bonfire night, then followed shortly by children in need, then Christmas, then Eurovision and Easter, summer, back to school and hey presto; we're back to where we started.

Things are starting to get quite Christmassy, mercifully later than last year's October start; still too early for me though. I think there should be a law which bans all mention of Christmas and any playing of Christmas songs until December 1st. That way, we'd have a great month and we wouldn't be tired of it on the actual day!

The picture relates to my recent connection with "Skype", an online call program; I think I might try to get the parents onto it, save money on some calls.

All the flat went out tonight, but I am officially penniless; well not quite but not enough to actually go out on all the time anyway. I really don't have any money at all, and it doesn't feel too bad; I've got food and friends I suppose...

Day 221 - 1st November 2007

Early this morning as I stepped into the kitchen I waded through a whole load of Halloween mess; I really wanted to clean it up and surprise the flat. Unfortunately I had a play to read, and I managed to do so this morning before the lesson. This is because of its small size, which still cost me £13! I still can't get over those huge prices for just 60 pages of a play about people arguing!

Thursdays are always full, and today was a real jam packed 9-5 job. I'm shattered and it's time for bed now; we were watching youtube videos for quite a long time...

Looks like more work is lined up for tomorrow, although I don't mind; it was strangely satisfying this morning.