My goodness it’s windy – on my walk today I could barely move! It’s getting slightly dangerous though, there are panels off building sites blowing around the place, and when I got back I found the drainpipe hanging off the porch.
There’s been snow predicted too – times are tough indeed.
It’s been freezing again today, the wind has been howling through the campus all day.
I went on a walk tonight, and noticed that some people were still working away in their offices, at twenty past nine in the evening on a Friday night – does the world ever stop?
It’s so windy outside that nothing, and I mean nothing, is still enough to get a picture that isn’t blurry.
I think today can be summed up in three simple words – absolutely bloody freezing.
Walking along on my way back from seeing a friend, I got asked to do an interview about bars on campus for the uni TV – LUTube.
The people were nice, and I spouted some bollocks on camera, although I have to apologise to the girl on the sound there, as I did ask her to wear the headphones and look into the screen for the picture!
Anyone interested can find LUTube (‘LU’ standing for Lancaster University) at : http://lutube.tv/
As I type, there is no power in the stairwell – so I took this long exposure shot looking down to the ground floor. I know you can see my feet here, but it was pitch black and I couldn’t be bothered to hold the camera perfectly still for another long time. Maybe I should have taken it further towards the middle too, but I had to use the rail to steady the camera as I couldn’t keep my arms perfectly still for thirty seconds in mid air.
This is no power cut though, well it is technically as there is no electricity, but power remains in all the bedrooms, and stairwells in all other buildings are lit as usual. We believe that a fuse has blown in the main stairwell lighting system, and the power has switched to the reserve battery, which has subsequently run out. It’s a bit dangerous if I’m honest, some people are going to try and navigate several flights of stairs pissed, in complete darkness. I wouldn’t be surprised if we found some stuck at the bottom at sunrise…
So, I can go to bed satisfied that I got a picture of the day that will probably not be possible for a long long time again barring all disaster – the day the lights went off in the place where they never do.
Yesterday’s essay bonanza took me to a point of tiredness I have rarely been to before – this was probably the reason why I woke up an hour late this morning, something which frankly rarely happens. This didn’t give me much time to have breakfast, none in fact, which can only make for a bad start to the day.
The rest of the day wasn’t much better, I don’t want to sound too depressing so I won’t go on. There was one positive point though, I received 300 free text messages this month, so I’ve started to go apeshit, sending out random words to people – perhaps I’ll lose friends with these texts rather than make any…
That’s right folks, it’s two pizzas, with a makeshift pizza on top – a culinary work of art if there ever was one. I call it the ‘Benzone’. It’s like a calzone, except, well, with Ben in the title.
I’ve been up all night writing an essay, actually, I’ve been doing it all day, but it’s finally done – just a bibliography left to do tomorrow then I’m fine. I’m really really tired right now, I’m not even looking at what I’m typing, so I think I should get off to bed…
Went to the pictures tonight to see Tom Cruise in his new film, Valkyrie, based on the true story of the German resistance who came so close to killing Hitler and claiming power. It was good, clearly never going to be a happy ending, although a fascinating perspective on World War Two we so rarely see.
The sun shone over Lancaster today – an occasion so rare I think little else should be said. Too late, it’s raining again…
This all looks very nerdy indeed, but actually it’s just a way of saying that I’ve been doing voiceovers today without having to get yet another picture of the microphone.
It’s been a busy nonetheless boring day – lessons at all hours of the day have practically done for me. There was one high point though, I got given a top grade for my presentation about hot air balloons last term. It’s something I can be proud of, but I’ve got to think of another topic for this term now!
It’s been a while since we’ve had an instrument as picture of the day – so here’s one for you now, the melodica.
It’s like a mini-keyboard, except you have to blow down that tube to play it – cool as well as classy, not to mention hygienic.
Tack aside, not much to mention today – looks like I’m still getting screwed around about my timetable, but that’s just life…
That guy on my chocolate wrapper is happy because I bought his stuff, look at the smile on his face – a picture taken mid-work of course, no posing here…
Anyway, looks like Obama hit the ground running on his first day today – all trials at Guantanamo bay have been requested to be put on hold, pending a review for the whole place; could this mark the end of that illegal hell hole? Let’s hope so.
America has a new president as of today.
It’s a grainy picture, I know, but it’s all I saw of this little piece of history. How ever blurred the image may be – you’d recognise this man anywhere. Hopefully president Obama shall do his all to bring about the change so needed in these hard times.
Hard times for some in finance, clearly, but not so hard for others at the moment – I’ve just been out for a meal! It’s was a friend’s birthday today, 20 years old, so congratulations – you know who you are.
Snow?!? No. Hail.
Oh well, hopefully the white stuff shall flutter from the heavens some day.
Talking of heaven, or the exact opposite, it’s day 666 today. It was inevitable that this day would come but it got me thinking – why am I even counting from the day I started anyway? It’s not like I intend to stop!
Whatever, I’ll carry on as it is – although I will admit that numbering the days makes it seem like there’s been a story to follow; which means there must be an end. If I had started on New Year’s day it wouldn’t have been so bad, but I didn’t, day 1 is in March sometime – it’s not as if the first day was of any importance, it’s just when I had the idea, that’s all.
Like I said, I won’t stop though, however logically flawed it may be.
My parents came up to see me today, which was somewhat effortless on my part considering it was my mother’s birthday.
We went to Cartmel for lunch, which was somewhat poncy – but the great taste made up for any pretentiousness on the chef’s part. After lunch, it shat it down so we went to Tesco and went home.
It’s not often you get to end up being in a car for 3 hours, then buying your kid some food on your birthday but that’s what mum did today – good on her!
Anyway, it was a nice day out – if somewhat short-lived.
After what has been a slightly hellish first week back, I was hoping for a lie in on the first weekend back – no such thing. The dustman rudely awoke me at 8am, which isn’t a particularly early time, but it’s not exactly a lie in!
Today’s picture is of a pair of 3D glasses someone in the flat tried to make – they sort of work.
Am I glad that this week is over. We got hot water back, but, as I mentioned last night the radiators were making an extremely loud noise like a bloody lewis gun. This problem has been ‘fixed’; the noise has gone, the radiators now simply don’t work.
I should give a shout out to the guy I saw advertising the globe cafe, seemed pretty good but I couldn’t stop, and I think it was for foreign students; makes a change to actually have a human as picture of the day though!
The radiators have gone wild throughout the flat.
There’s a noise emanating from them sounding like a guy smacking it with a hammer, and it’s in every room – looks like we won’t be getting much sleep tonight then.
The noise can be toned down by turning them off, but this simply makes a hideous whoosh sound – as if we were being invaded by Tardises. Not good at all…
Bloody hell. There’s no hot water, and I’m taking a degree run by people who’ve never seen a timetable in their lives. Scholars; the brains of Britain – lacking somewhat in common sense.
These are not good times.
Today’s instrument is a rain stick – which means that nothing of note happened.
I did use the stick, though not for any purpose – I just wanted to make a rain noise.
There’s been no hot water in the building for a week now – hopefully this’ll get fixed soon, or I’m going to have to use the stick for somewhat less musical purposes.
It’s been a day of nothing once more – so I took a picture of the cowbell I got for Christmas.
There is an almost inexhaustible well of musical gifts I could take a picture of on days such as this. Handy.
It was the first day back at school today – nothing much else to say!
Avid readers and those with elephantine memories will recall that last term I suffered several umbrella fatalities and that I ended up trying reasonably hard to find a better, stronger model.
It appears I did not look hard enough, as pictured lies my latest, and final, casualty. No more umbrellas for me, I think I’ll just stick to putting my hood up or getting wet.
Term starts up again tomorrow – so I think it’s time for bed.
A couple of days ago I got a picture of my pan pipes – today it’s the turn of the mini bongo shakers, so here they are; yet another musical Christmas present.
People have been trickling in all day, coming back from the Christmas holidays, if I remember rightly only one remains to arrive tomorrow, then it’ll be a full house again. How jolly.
What ho chaps it appears there’s a new food product on the market, they call it Steakon. What on earth could this new substance be? By jove - it’s only a steak wrapped in bacon! Golly, whatever next?
That’s right ladies and gentlemen, due to the useless fridge having frozen my steak I was going to have for dinner, I needed to find a way to cook it without burning the outside yet ensuring that the innards were not still frosted. What better buffer than bacon?
So, as a result of this, I give to you Steakon. If I need to be remembered for anything in my time, I wouldn’t be too upset if it was this; one of the greatest meals in history.
Having eaten this has severely reduced my chances of living until thirty, actually, I’ll be lucky if I wake up in the morning…
I’ve not taken a picture of anything I’ve cooked recently, so here is my newest monster – the sausage and bacon mega-omelette.
Why it’s a mega omelette, I don’t know, but it makes it sound better. Having said that, looking at the picture now, there was quite a lot of filling compared to the average egg product.
That aside, I might also mention that I’m no longer alone in the flat; when my flat mate arrived, we talked for a long, long time…
Yesterday's instrument were the pipes of pan. We've all seen those before, so I fiddled with my picture to make it look perhaps slightly more interesting than it might otherwise have done.
Anyway, that and work aside - it's been a quiet and boring day once more.
It's been my first full day at uni, probably alone for the week, and it's been nice to have some peace and quiet.
I had little choice but to do some work then, but when I got fed up I decided to play my harmonica, then cook a chicken. The chicken, incidentally, was probably my finest one to date - ironic then that no one else should be here to get some; all the more for me I guess.
Snow snow snow snow snow snow SNOW!
Yep, I awoke this morning to find my street covered with a layer of the white stuff - the first time this year, or should I say this winter.
Anyway, work beckons and I'm back in Lancaster a week early to do some. It's a ghost town here - not much else to say!
Impressive looking, Paris CDG is also impressively badly run. Endless queues and crazy distances to get anywhere have made tiring work indeed of getting back home.
Tomorrow - back to uni.
And so the French leg of the Christmas holiday ends - in Spain.
My father and I went to Pamplona today - the place was teeming with life and, as ever, it was all a welcome change from the rather static French side of the mountains.
I won't talk long, I've got a plane to catch tomorrow - just a quick extra note to say that today's picture is of a statue depicting the famous annual bull run through the town; a race which is even crazier than in the sculpture!
A new year has brought new shoes.
Unlike the lovely ladies of this world, I don't often talk of footwear, but since nothing has been photo worthy, I thought I'd give my old pair a mention.
They've been everywhere I've been for the last four years, day in, day out, and now, as you can can see - they're worn. Worn to the point that when I step in a puddle, my foot gets soaked - not really much point in wearing shoes if that's going to happen.
So I am sad to see them go, but I am glad that I can walk about in a pair without holes, and with treads; hopefully this new pair shall last me just as long.
2009 started with Johnny Hallyday for me.
For those of you lucky enough not to know who he is - don't bother looking him up. Basically he's France's big star, their version of Cliff or Elvis - but more like Shakin' Stevens. I think that says enough right there.
Anyway, best wishes to everyone for the new year - can't wait to get home on Sunday.
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