Retired Jam

Entertainment

2009-06-18T11:10:00.002+01:00

Oops, it's been a long time again, oh dear, what an upset, etc.

Three occasions coming up soon: Fathers' Day¹, Alice's birthday and Stephen's birthday. June is always such a busy time of year, what with their birthdays always being on the same date and everything. Pretty chuffed with myself because I thought to get cards and presents about a month ago so that I wouldn't have the standard panic around today.

This reminds me (because the thing I got for Alice came from it) that I went to the London International Music Show last Saturday, which was very hinteresting and henjoyable. As well as all the guitar/drum/keyboard/amplifier demonstrations throughout the day, there were a few live acts including Jan Akkerman of Focus and Nicko McBrain of Iron Maiden. Hurray! Both were very good, as was the band playing with Nicko and the other guitarist with Jan, Gareth Pearson, was excellent, I thought. Plenty of stalls around too with various themes to them, one of which was completely centred around plectrums. Got a highly amusing coaster in the shape of a plectrum with "Take your pick" written on it - har har har!

Been thinking about stuff I'm going to need to buy soon for university, which has resulted in several miniature heart-attacks and a light stroke. I'm not sure why I ever thought I'd be able to afford it ... in fact, I'm not sure I ever did think that; I think I just went ahead and applied for accommodation in a bizarrely cheerful devil-may-care mood. I've not exactly saved up a fortune, although I'm not broke either, and I keep thinking of things I have to spend money on. All I can say is it had better be bloody worth it, bugger the thing.

That's about it for another eventful month-and-a-half, I think. Oh, been a couple of times to see the Scat Pack's improv show, Lights! Camera! Improvise!, and that was very good indeed. Going again in July, I think. Got my driving test next week (yipe!) and not before time, I can tell you. Keeping the preverbial digits in perpendicular overlap, so to speak.

Not drinking any less tea, either, but possibly drinking more beer. Wahey! Time for one or the other now - whichever's easier to fetch.

¹Insert lengthy discussion regarding the placement of that apostrophe.

Prophecy

2009-05-08T11:03:00.003+01:00

Since I last made some scribblings on here, the fridge has got dramatically worse and then completely better again. Dad put a thermometer in there to see what was happening with the temperature and, one day, I noticed it said something like "1.4 degrees", then ten minutes later it said "-0.6" and a selection of items was frozen. But now it's all back to normal and nothing has been frozen for days. Drives you up the wall a bit, really.

Been doing a number of things recently that seem to be towards us moving house, which I think we might well be doing, probably in a year's time or so. Possibly. Perhaps. Maybe. We managed to make a huge difference in the garage, so now you can park the cars without needing a degree in Advanced Mechanics. Starting on the loft now, which is a project wrapped in a mission encased in an expedition. Bit by bit, though, perhaps we can actually make it tidy in there...

... DAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

I remembered the other day that this year is full of big anniversaries of things. We've had my dad's fiftieth already, but still to come is a big do by some of our friends, which is a joint party for about three different things. Later this year is mum and dad's twenty-fifth Wedding Anniversary, and my own twenty-first birthday, by Jove. It's even forty years since the moon landing in July.

Also, other friends of ours, who are brothers, are having a joint birthday bash, because they're ten years apart (their ages, not the parties), one being sixty and the other being fifty. The funny thing is, I can remember quite well going to a big party ten years ago where they were fifty and forty years old and it's amazing to think it's here again. I remember we chased Eric around the car park there for some reason and set off a car alarm. I wonder if in ten years' time we'll be doing it all again for their seventieth and sixtieth...

Ah, life. Wish I could say something prophetic and memorable about it, really, but I can't, because there it is, sort of thing. You just have to trundle along, drinking plenty of tea and making what you will of the best of it as it comes each day to the fullest, or something like that. And, at the end of the day ... you know ... know what I mean?

Spring 2

2009-04-28T13:07:00.003+01:00

Mine eyes have seen the horror of the coming of the Sun and, as a result, they're puffing up to the size of digestive biscuits and are exceedingly itchy. Nose is the same, running like mad and itching to buggery. Be jubilant, my foot: I really hate this time of year. It's nice to have lighter evenings and it's nice to sit outside and read or something, but it's not worth it for all the hay fever sufferers out there!

Having said that, I do have this odd contraption I bought from the chemist¹ that's supposed to help with hay fever and other allergies. Basically, it has two small "nasal probes" (that look like electrodes) that go up your nose - where else? - and loose some sort of fateful lighting up there. Apparently the "red light therapy" works by preventing certain cells from releasing histamine, which isn't meant to get released and causes the symptoms of hay fever when it does. I've used it a couple of times and I think it works, but I need to keep doing it twice a day to see the full effects. Fingers crossed, eh?

Talking of reading, though, I've taken to staying up fairly late recently, reading the Count of Monte Cristo by the dim and flaring lamps. It's getting really good, although when I look at where my bookmark is I don't seem to be advancing through it at all. I recommend it, though, if I haven't all ready, to anyone with a few months to spare.

The last week has seen an old problem coming back to haunt us: the fridge - where the grapes and broth are stored² - has been freezing the stuff inside again. But, naturally, it doesn't freeze everything in there; oh no, that would be far too simple a problem to solve. It freezes one carton of milk, but not the other ones; it freezes one bottle of coke, but not the other. In short, there's something wrong with it, but its too inconsistent for us to know what. It also doesn't matter that much, because it's fixed itself like it did before, but I expect it'll have another wave of it in a few months' time.

As for myself, everything appears to be in working order, even though I do barely any work, if you see what I mean, a-har-har-har. As I said before, I'm really starting to look forward to university now and finding it a bit harder to fill up all the time, but in truth I'm marching on³. Not long now. Perhaps I'll do a jigsaw while I wait.

¹Very funny. Don't be so childish.
²I'm going to stop doing that now because it's silly.
³Sorry - I am silly.

Rhythm

2009-04-16T16:10:00.004+01:00

Mid-April.

Been keeping myself busy recently doing this, that and the other. Started having driving lessons again the other week and my instructor says that he'll be putting in for the test shortly to aim for around mid-June, so that's pretty good. It'll be nice to get that out of the way, even if I don't drive again for yonks afterwards, what with going to university and so on.

Ah, university! I've started looking forward to that more and more recently, as I realized that it's a lot closer than ... well, than I'd realized, sort of thing. I keep feeling like I ought to be doing more towards it, but now that the loan and accommodation applications are sorted I'm not sure what else there is at this stage. I suppose I could think about optional modules ... might do that in a bit.

Yesterday we all went up to London for the day, which was quite a nice change in routine, but also horrendous. I always find that with going into the city: there are a lot of interesting things to do, but the simple act of getting there is hair-raising, whether you walk, cycle, drive or catch a train. Talking of interesting things, though, we did go into the British Museum and had a look at the Parthenon stuff, as well as the Egyptian mummies and whatnot. There's this one showcase with a body in it lying on sand, which dates from around 3,400bc (the body, not the sand). The fascinating thing is that the body isn't just a skeleton, there's still skin on it and even hair on some parts of the head, because it was preserved for so long in the hot desert sand. Awesome, eh? And not just awesome as in new-haircut-awesome, I mean actually awesome as in makes you full of awe.

I suppose it goes to show the wide range of things that can inspire you with awe, because something I was equally impressed with was quite different indeed: when we had had dinner and were walking to the bus stop, there was this bloke playing the drums in the street along to another bloke playing guitar. Sound uninteresting? It would be, if it wasn't for the fact that this guy, a Rasta, was in a t-shirt and shorts at ten o'clock at night, playing the drums with a bunch of upturned buckets and a couple of glass jars. Not sure whether the effect was enhanced more by the buckets or the fact that he was Rasta, but it was fantastic nonetheless. The interesting thing about it was that everyone who went past, even if they didn't stop to listen or take photos as some people were, walked off with a smile on their face. To me, that's a reason far above any other for giving those musicians money, as I really think they cheered up a lot of people and even made the evening for some.

On another note entirely, I bought three David Crystal books in Foyle's bookshop and I don't know which to read first. Whichever it is, I'll be reading it alongside the Count of Monte Cristo, which I started recently and am really enjoying. So far I'm only on page 131 of about 1200, but I'll get there! I recommend it: it's a good read and well-translated, I think.

Soooooooo. Been playing a lot of D&D recently too what with Antony being back for Easter. It's been nice to see him again; now that he's at Bristol it's rare that he comes back. Funnily enough, though, we might soon end up closer to him than we are now: my parents (particularly my mum) have been thinking quite seriously about moving to Devon in the near future, perhaps within a year or so. Difficult to know what to think there. On the one hand, I'd love to, and I think each of us would be happier there for his or her own reasons, as well as the general fact that it's such a great place. Yet I can't help but think that there are a lot of things here it would be a shame to move away from, friends being at the top of the list (not just mine, but family friends as well). Having said that, it may well not make much difference to me at first, because I'll be up at Reading at university for a few years. Dartmoor would be a fantastic place to come back to in the holidays, though...

Weeeeeell, we'll have to see what happens there when it happens. We have been doing some things towards moving, though: last weekend me and dad painted the hall, turning it from a disgusting green and red situation into a nice blue one. It looks pretty good, if I do say so myself, which I do, since I did just then.

After typing quite fluently for a few minutes there I've suddenly run out of things to say, so I won't bother saying anyting else. At all.

Concord(e)

2009-03-31T16:00:00.005+01:00

Here I am again, ho-hum.

Last Saturday was the big Kumalia concert and it was flippin' good. As far as I know everyone enjoyed it and we raised over £1200 for the charities Dreamflight and Christopher's Smile. I say "we", but I guess I'm the only member of the family who neither is in the band nor helped out with organizing in any way, aren't I? It's a bit like the "we" used by a football club manager when referring to how well the players did when he didn't do a bloody thing. Still, I did buy lots of raffle tickets, so it's not totally without contribution from me. And I would've done more if I could've. But I couldn't. So I didn't.

Anyway, it was a bloomin' good evening all round and, as I say, everyone seemed to really enjoy themselves, even the girl sitting listening to her iPod throughout the whole thing, because, even though the concert itself was clearly far too boring for someone as thoroughly interesting as her, at least she found something to do that was much more worth her while. And no hard feelings at all.

Dum-de-do, what else? Looking forward to this weekend, because dear ol' Antony's coming back from Bristol for Easter and we'll hopefully be fitting in many a D&D session with he as Special Guest Star. Should hopefully see him quite a lot aside from D&D too, as we'd be as well to make the most of it what with him being away so much. Good old Ant!

Also - that scratchcard I won a quid on? Took it back and bought another with it and won sod all. It did say that if I uncovered a little piggy bank symbol I could win the amount shown in the middle, which was £400. But no piggy bank. Ah well, perhaps it ensures some sort of essential balance in the universe, the absence of which could start a chain reaction that would obliterate all mankind in a sea of fiery doom. But I did lose a quid, so we're all right for now.

Nearly finished reading the Remorseful Day now and pondering over what to go for next. It is quite a three-pipe problem, and I beg that you won't speak to me for fifty minutes.

Diversity?

2009-03-20T11:41:00.003Z

Well, I didn't manage to raise any more than the twelve quid for Comic Relief, but fortunately it was mum who won the Celebrity Poster doodah and she said not to bother with her winnings, effectively doubling the donation. Twenty-four quid isn't bad, I suppose. Better than a bump on the noggin, anyway.

Talking of money and stuff, I bought a scratchcard yesterday for a pound and won a pound on it. Isn't life hilarious? Maybe I'll buy another and win fifty thousand this time.

Been back from Portmeirion for a bit now and just about recovering from the late nights, I think. It was a really good weekend, as usual, with lots of superb weather, during which we were indoors playing board games. Perfect! Met lots of ... intriguing people of all shapes and sizes, as well as possibly the Stupidest Woman in the Entire World. At a Mensa weekend. Again, life hilarious, etc.

Just finished Lords and Ladies, the fourteenth Discworld novel, and not sure what to read next. I started the next one, Men At Arms, but I don't know if I really want to read another one of those straight away. Also started the Remorseful Day, the last Inspector Morse novel, and I'm getting quite into that, but I have a list as long as my arm - no, longer - of things I'd like to read and I'm in danger of starting the whole lot at once in true Sherwood-Smith fashion. Fairly long sentence, that one just there.

Incidentally, have you ever noticed how most of my closing paragraphs start with the word "anyway" and finish off with some sort of mumbling about tea? Don't really know why that is. I mean, usually I get a cup of tea before I start a blog entry and drink it while I write, then want another afterwards. But the use of the word "anyway"? I suppose it smacks of moving-on-ness, a little bit like the way you always see the ship flying off into the distance at the end of an episode of Star Trek: Voyager to indicate that feeling of "Ah well, that's that for another episode, all done now, off they go carrying on towards the Alpha Quadrant". Quite effective, really.

Anyway, tea.

Relief

2009-03-12T17:44:00.004Z

Ohoho, it's been a bit since the last one, hasn't it? Things have happened, and that's meant to be Things with a capital "T" to indicate a level of importance detectable only through this subtle literary technique, only it didn't show up properly because it was also at the start of the sentence.

For one thing, we went to Devon for a week - the day after, in fact, I posted my last blog wossname, but I forgot to mention it what with being too preoccupied with what had been previously, which is not a good thing to do, as we should know from the Buddha. Nevertheless, go we did and had a pretty good time of it. In a mad explosion of irony, we had far better weather for all of that week than we did at any point on our two-week holiday there last summer. Ah, England, the fun thou hast with thy climate.

Then what happened? Oh yeah: Dad's fiftieth birthday has been and gone and we had a big do to celebrate with all the family and friends. It was a good night; I didn't drink much, which was because I forgot to, what with talking to people all evening and trying to look younger than the son of a fifty-year-old.

Been trying to raise a bit of money for Comic Relief, with slightly disappointing results: I was doing one of those Celebrity Poster things you can send off for, but so far I've only got twelve quid out of a possible thirty. Still, it's twelve quid they wouldn't have had otherwise, isn't it? Plus, I'll be happy knowing I've done at least something; Comic Relief is something I support a great deal. Whoever came up with the idea¹ of making people laugh AND raising money for charity is a complete genius.

Also, I've had some stuff through from Reading University telling me it's time to apply for accommodation and loans. The accommodation bit was OK - I just filled in the form and sent it off - but this Student Loan business is driving me mad, mainly because IT'S SO OVERLY FUCKING COMPLICATED, but also because I'm not going to get as much as I thought I was, which means more work later on. Ah well, stop being so lazy, Stanley.

Anyway, so that I don't make the same mistake twice, which is a terrible habit to get into (rather like one belonging to a monk that never washes, ho ho ho), and to keep our friend Buddha happy, here's what I'm doing tomorrow: I'm off to Portmeirion with Rowan et al. As usual I'm really looking forward to it and, also as usual, I've left all the Sorting Out (aforesaid literary technique in full swing) till today. Got to go up in the loft to get a bag and then find everything that needs to go in it. Ought to do that now, actually.

¹Actually, it was Jane Tewson in conjunction with Richard Curtis. Well done, them!

Water

2009-02-13T15:12:00.003Z

Snow!

And that pretty much sums up last week.

The stuff's been all over the country, as I think everyone knows by now. Despite all the hoo-hah it's caused to transport and so on, it's been a nice change to the usual No Weather Whasoever that we normally have throughout the year. Went out in it, threw a couple of snowballs at my sister and one at my bedroom window for comic effect.

Rain!

And that pretty much sums up this week.

We still seem to be getting all the warnings of snow - which, incidenally, all the weather forecasters refer to as "bad" weather, which is a load of rhubarb - but it's not following through. It's rain instead. I do tell a small fib there because we did get a light dusting of snow last night, but chiefly it's been rain, retaining all the plan-cancelling features of the snow, but without any of the fun benefits.

I say all that, o ho ho, but really I don't mind the rain at all. I don't understand all the harp rain being bad and sun being good. In fact, I think Billy Connolly talks about that at one stage, comparing it to things like "fuck" being bad language. Total crap, there's some language and there's some more language, just like there's some weather and there's some more weather. Besides, rain and snow gives us all a good excuse to sit in our Newly-Improved Super-Cosy Living Rooms With New Carpets with a nice cup of tea.

'Ere, did I mention the new carpet? I don't think I did mention the new carpet.

We've got a new carpet. In the living room. This is because the shower is right above the living room and, for some time now, we've had a bit of a problem with leaks, resulting in a wet carpet underneath. This apparently had gone through to the underlay (ee-ha!) and was making it smell rather odd. So, a bloke from the insurace wossmecall came and took that particular section of carpet and underlay (ee-ha!) away and we got a free brand-new carpet. Which is blue.

Anyway, the point is that at the same time as doing all of that, we decided it was the perfect moment to try a different furniture arrangement, since all of it was out in the garage anyway. The sofas are now closer together and nearer the telly, creating a warm and cosy atmosphere, while the lamppost-cum-trombone thing we had standing in the corner has been replaced with nifty ceiling spotlights.

Now then. Seem to remember there being talk of tea and a sit-down just now.

Winter

2009-02-01T14:01:00.005Z

Apparently there's a pretty good chance it's going to snow tonight - not the sort of snow that makes excuses to leave before the fish course has arrived, but the sort that sticks around not only for wine and cheese but for the polishing off of the After Eights and thanking the organizer - and I think it's about bloody time. It's been cold enough, why shouldn't it snow into the bargain so that people can at least enjoy it? Because of this, however, yesterday was involved in buying certain cold-weather clothes (+5 bonus to fort saves vs. cold).

In fact, yesterday was a bitch of a day. Work in the morning, then two or three hours plodding around Uxbridge. In some ways it was fruitless, because the most important thing I had to make sure I got was a birthday present for dad and I didn't. On the other hand, I got a new jumper, so that the one I've been living in for the past few weeks can be put in the wash without me freezing to death in the interregnum, and several pairs of socks. I got two packs of the day-by-day socks (buy one get one half price or something and they'll wear away eventually) and - the most amazing thing of all - Pac Socks! They have little embroidered images either of Pac-Man or one out of Inky, Blinky, Pinky and Clyde. Fantastic!

It's flippin' windy today; enough so that the cover thing that goes of the washing line-pole-doodah has been flapping about all morning and driving me up the wall. Playing Ayreon to try and drown it out.

Say, that reminds me - I was very pleased indeed with a woman who came into the library yesterday. She owed £6.12 in fines - I know, that seems like quite a lot, doesn't it? That's nothing; several times people have come in owing more than ten or even twenty quid. The most I've ever seen is someone who had to give us a cheque for over £80 because they'd had a DVD for so long and DVDs clock up the fines faster. There's a little trick there, though, because renewing the item means you have to pay the week's rental charge again and that costs more than returning the DVD two or three days late, so don't bother renewing it if you don't want it for another full week.

Um ... so anyway, this woman came in and owed £6.12 and, to my sheer delight, she paid with a £10 note. Know why that was so amazing? Might leave that a bit and see if anyone guesses. Suffice it to say, though, that I was probably too cheerful about it than I should have been.

Anyway, that about wraps up this blog entry, just like my new jumper is doing to me right now. Hahahahaha! Do you see?

Time for tea.

Auld

2009-01-20T11:04:00.003Z

Great Scott, I haven't writen anything here since the new year! Well, a very happy one to the lot o' ya.

I think my tinnitus is getting worse. Went to the hospital about the dizziness the other day and they reckon my hearing's fine (they should try talking to me on the phone) but they have no idea what's causing the dizziness, so I'm going back for a proper balance test thing. In April.

Anyway: the tinnitus. They reckon that's nothing to do with the dizzinesss either, but I'm sure it's getting worse. I lie in bed awake for quite some time these days, or more specifically these nights, and I think it's because there's a flaming great ringing in each ear. And the quiter it is, the louder it is, sort of thing. Last night, for instance, I had to turn on my ceiling fan despite the chills of the winter night because to have it turned on was quieter than to have it turned off, as it makes a low humming noise that drowns out the tremendous racket made by complete silence.

And my foot's been hurting for the last couple of days.

MEANWHILE:

Barack H. Obama gets inaugurated today as forty-fourth, I think it is, President of the United States of America. It's going to seem strange after eight years of George Dubya, because I only really started paying attention when Clinton was on his way out, but I have to admit I reckon he'll be quite good. There's no doubt he'll be better - he could hardly be much worse - but I think he'll actually be quite good over the top of that. Still, you never know.

Sunday, as far as I'm aware, is Burns Night, which, although not an English thing, I know will interest one person that reads this, which is a significant enough percentage to warrant mentioning it. Not that I base by blogs on what will interest anyone but me - not long ago I was talking about socks for Christ's sake. So, Burns Night. I won't be having any special supper or anything over it, but perhaps I might have a read of a couple of his thumpers just to feel like I'm getting into the spirit of the thing.

Oh, I'm also back to playing World of WarCraft, which I seem to say far too often. Got Wrath of the Lich King for Christmas, though, so I wanted to see the changes and so on. Level 73, yah-boo stick that in your pipe and rent it a caravan. Going to go and play it now, after getting some replacement biscuits: I think these ones have been open since November.

Swag

2008-12-30T11:51:00.003Z

Well, Christmas has come and gone and to show for it I have a lot less money, but also some neat stuff, including a snazzy bass guitar so I don't have to keep using dad's ones. Also got Wrath of the Lich King, so I'm back on WoW again with a vengeance. Not even level seventy yet though.

This morning the kettle was being de-scaled so I had to make a cup of tea by boiling the water in a saucepan. I'm drinking it now and, d'you know, I think it tastes a lot nicer than when it's done in the kettle. I'd do it all the time if it wasn't a load of poncing about.

I seem to get through an unearthly amount of socks, which I noticed this morning when I put on Tuesday and my foot came out the other end. I don't think I've had this lot very long, and now Tuesday, Friday and Sunday all have holes in. Might buy some titanium ones this time.

Ooh, I also got a bunch of CDs ... actually, I'm not happy with that collective term for CDs. How about "an audience of CDs"? No? Suggestions on a postcard.

Got five CDs for Christmas, all of which are stonking. I was particularly impressed with the Killers' Day & Age and Deep Purple's House of Blue Light, but the others are great too. Also also also, I got an ISIHAC DVD where they've filmed a recording session of one of the episodes. Hurrah!

Off now to play World of Warcraft, because that's the way the day's going. Going to kick arse.

Yule

2008-12-21T21:03:00.003Z

Oi moi, I've been a little lazy regarding the old thingamablog recently, haven't I?

Well, it's jolly close to Christmas - so near, in fact, that the date is hyphenated. The good news is I've done all my shopping; in fact, I'd done it all by the tenth and was pretty proud of myself for it. It would fulfill expectations if I started the next sentence with "The bad news is", but, actually, I don't think there is any; I put "The good news is" before I'd planned far ahead enough to realize that there is no bad news. And, as I remember from philosophy, with no news to be bad news, the good news is no longer good news but just news, like the left glove thing.

Talking of philosophy, I popped back to school on their last day of term on Friday to say howdo to a few of the teachers, and Miss Sharpe said that this year's philosophy group is far better than we were. She must have been joking, of course, because obviously it's impossible for anyone to have been better than us. We were amazing. The Bike Example. 'Nuff said.

There was this thing in the news the other day about a woman who's been taken to court for describing some bloke as "fat". Sounds crazy enough as it is, let alone the fact that she was describing the bloke to the police because the fat sod had just stolen her handbag. I mean, for Heaven's sake! If the man is fat, so it be said till he loses weight. It's only a flippin' word used to distinguish him from those that are thin. Where would we be if we couldn't use the word "fat"?

Christmas is coming, the geese are getting dimensionally disproportionate.

I dunno.

Anyway, coming back neatly to the subject of Christmas, I would like to say now that I wish all of you - and I mean every single one of my readers - a very merry Christmas and that you both get what you want. Here's a cheerful song to be getting on with:

We wish you a merry Fridge Day,
We wish you a merry Fridge Day,
We wish you a merry Fridge Day,
So come in and buy paint.

Darkness

2008-12-08T15:47:00.000Z

The bulb has gone in our fridge.

Stockings

2008-11-27T13:10:00.003Z

All things considered, November has gone quite slowly in comparison to the violent zoom with which the rest of the year has gone by. This is probably because sod-all has happened, apart from Henry's twentieth birthday do last weekend, which was jolly good fun. Nevertheless, it is but four days to the opening of the first door on the advent calendar.

And I do have an advent calendar. Oh yes. I know I'm too old for the excitement of counting down to Christmas Day, but we're talking about a piece of chocolate every day for three and a half weeks here. This is serious stuff. Which reminds me, I've had a few ideas for Christmas stuff for people, all except dad. Ideas are appreciated. One of the millions of readers out there must be able to think of something.

In other news, this morning was a sock-rotating morning. Let me explain.

I have seven pairs of socks, each one with a different day of the week on it. That's right, I do. It made me laugh and, because I forget what day it is, a quick glance down at my feet is a great way of remembering.

Anyway, since I wear them in order on the right days (got to do these things properly), they get washed and put back in my sock drawer at some point the day after. So, for instance, on a Saturday afternoon, I would be putting Friday's socks in the drawer. However, because then the next day I would be putting Saturday's socks in the drawer on top of the ones I put in there yesterday, they end up in the drawer in reverse order. So, once a week, let's say on Thursday, I have to rotate the socks in the drawer because the one on top that morning is Tuesday (Wednesday's not having been washed completely yet) and Thursday's socks are on the bottom. This enables me to have my socks in the right order again for the rest of the week.

The fascinating thing, of course, is that, because when I put my socks on in the morning I don't yet have the previous day's socks back in the drawer, sock-rotating day moves steadily back in the week. So, this week Thursday was on the bottom so Thursday was sock-rotating day, but I've since put my Wednesday socks in the drawer today and they are the first in there. Next week, Wednesday will be sock-rotating day.

Simple, yet ingenious, I feel.

Die

2008-11-05T15:37:00.006Z

Went to see the new James Bond film - Quantum of Solace - the other day. To be honest, it was a bit of a disappointment, but perhaps that's because Casino Royale was so good and I was hoping this one would be the same. Also, the only seats we could get were right in the front row, so you couldn't so much watch the screen as watch one particular bit of the screen at a time, so I often got lost during the action scenes. So maybe it wasn't that bad.

But I'll tell you what was: the theme song, "Another Way to Die". Thank you very much Jack White and Alicia Keys. I could try the whole Casino-Royale's-theme-was-awesome-maybe-I'm-just-judging-it-too-much-by-that-one's-standards thing again, but frankly I don't think it'll work here. It's shit. It's the type of thing that would make me turn off the radio and vow to think twice before tuning into that station again.

Still, there you are.

On a completely unrelated note, Donia the Pleasant Polish Lady told me about an interesting expression she sometimes uses to describe how she's feeling or how someone else is acting: feeling "German". She says it means being in a particular mood where you feel you must get your point across and have the last word no matter what. She says sometimes she'll be doing this to her daughter, who'll say, "Mum, you're being German again" and it diffuses the situation somewhat. It's a colourful phrase, considering that when the Germans actually felt this way themselves they exploded across Europe. I might try and use it more in conversation.

What else has happened since my last collection of noises? I notice that tonight is Guy Fawkes Night, not that you'd be able to distinguish it from any other night for two weeks either side of it. Still, I shouldn't complain, because once they've died down it will be time to start thinking seriously about what to get people for Christmas, and I have no ideas whatsoever for anybody.

On the other hand, once Christmas is truly upon us (with all the subtlety of a lob wedge in the eye), Antony should be coming home from university and we can invite him over for a D&D Christmas Special or something. It'll be nice to see him again; I miss the old sod. Shame he can't come to the Christmas Dinner thing.

That's the other thing. I've been organizing this Christmas Dinner thing for mid-December for a few mates and did you know that you're supposed to tell them what you want for dinner weeks in advance? "ASAP," they said. I have no idea how I'm supposed to know what I want for dinner in six weeks' time, do I? I've put myself down for turkey though, thinking that the 14th is close enough to Christmas to warrant it and far away enough not to be sick of it by Christmas Day.

Anyway, ho-hum.

Autumn

2008-10-24T11:56:00.001+01:00

Bloody fireworks, that's what.

Once again they seem to have started ridiculously early, simply because the shops let people. The whole point, I always thought, was to celebrate the foiling of the Gunpowder Plot in 1605, which, unless I'm very much mistaken, was on 5th November of that year. The 5th November only. It wouldn't have done old Guy Fawkes much good if, for a couple of weeks leading up to the big night, he had set off a load of fireworks above the Houses of Parliament, would it? No, indeed. King Jimmy would simply have gone "Ho, that's a bit peculiar" and sent someone to investigate even earlier.

Anyway, that's my argument for not setting off fireworks so early and I think it's quite sound, thank you very much.

Another joyous festival of the season is, of course, Hallowe'en, a week from today. I suppose its not that bad, but it's more annoying in this country largely because we didn't decide properly whether or not we were going to celebrate it. I know we may have done at one time ages ago - it was a Celtic thing at first, I think - but now we're not sure. Either it should be forgotten altogether in this country, or enough effort should be put into it such that everyone can enjoy it and have a laugh. At the moment, you get a couple of small groups of children arrive at your door asking for free stuff, then you get egged by their older brothers and sisters. No fun in that at all.

And while all this stuff is going on, the afternoons are becoming darker and darker and it's getting perilously close to Christmas. It doesn't really help that the Advent calendars go up on 1st December, because then it seems that Christmas starts even sooner than it does. 1st December isn't really very close to Christmas, all things considered; it's still practically a month away.

Don't get me wrong: despite these slight annoyances, I much prefer this time of year. The cold is far more preferable to the heat, plus there's something cosy about sitting indoors while the dark and the wind and the rain are outside. Plus plus, we're back on GMT this weekend, which means an extra hour in bed and that time resets itself to coincide once again with the events of the day, as it was always meant to.

Which means that now, it's actually just in time for elevenses.

Trademark

2008-10-20T13:04:00.004+01:00

I saw Focus live the other night!

Huzzah!

I met Thijs van Leer afterwards and got him to sign my Into the Electric Castle booklet, right on the page with the lyrics to "Amazing Flight" and "Time Beyond Time", two tracks on which he plays the flute kickassly.

Huzzah!

We also saw a band called Wishbone Ash, who I'd never heard before, but they were bloody good and I bought a CD and got that signed by Martin Turner too.

Huzzah!

What's more, I've just invented the word "kickassly" and I think it's going to come in handy very often.

Three cheers for that!

Balances

2008-10-16T15:22:00.002+01:00

You know, despite what I said before, the thing I had done to my ears hasn't helped at all. Although I thought the knuckle-cracking sounded different, I haven't noticed the slightest difference in hearing since then, plus I still get the tinnitus and, last Friday, I had a terrible dizzy spell again while just sitting eating my dinner.

Soooo I went to the doctor and he's referred me to the hospital for a proper hearing and balance test, which should be a lark. In my mind, I keep imagining the balance test to be similar to that thing police are supposed to make you do when you get stopped for possibly drink-driving, but somehow I'm guessing it'll be different. We shall see...

I've started playing a bit of online poker recently at Rowan's recommendation. It's all freeroll stuff - i.e. you don't have to pay anything to enter - and I don't feel tempted at all to start putting my own money into it, so it's quite safe and I've already won €5.25 so far, most of it last night when I came 6th out of 130 or so. You never know, perhaps my savings will go up slightly because of it. Jolly good show, what!

Also, I entered the twentieth century the other day (and I do mean that one, not the twenty-first) by finally watching the Matrix. It's a film I always intended on seeing, but for some reason it just never happened and then it got forgotten about. It was fairly good, certainly an interesting premise, but I suppose I was slightly underwhelmed given the way people always reacted when I said I hadn't seen it: "What? The Matrix? You haven't seen the Matrix?! What's wrong with you?!" and so on.

Also also wik, I seem to keep feeling Christmassy recently. I know, I know, we haven't even had Hallowe'en yet, but for some reason things keep reminding me of Christmas, as much as I wish they wouldn't. The year zips by fast enough as it is without my brain pretending it's time to deck the halls already.

Anyway, that's that for another few days or so.

Caledfwlch

2008-10-06T10:36:00.003+01:00

I had to put new batteries in my alarm clock this morning because it was becoming impossible to read and the light didn't work. I was astonished at how much of a difference it made; I didn't realize just how desperately it needed batteries until after the new ones were in. It was an enlightening experience and I learnt much.

By coincidence, though not much of one, the bulb in my bedroom light went on Saturday. Annoyingly, I didn't remember to replace it yesterday, so I spent the evening in the dark again. It's like I said before: you're only going to remember to replace it when you try to turn it on, which you do when you need it, which is when it's dark, which means you can't see to replace the lightbulb. It's stupid. Of course, I have remembered right now, but I couldn't possibly change it right now because I can't be bothered.

I've been listening to Gary Hughes' Once and Future King Parts I & II over the last few days and it's bloody terrific. Got Part II for my birthday, y'see, but Part I didn't arrive in the post until a couple of days ago. I recommend it to anyone who's into progressive rock and metal stuff like I am. And to think it all started with an erroneously named IM track...

Anyway, I've ended a paragraph with three dots, so perhaps it's time to wrap things up. From the slightly odd grainy taste in my cup of tea, I strongly suspect the bag opened at one stage and I may need to go and make a new one.

Inertia

2008-09-25T11:34:00.007+01:00

The fridge problem seems to be developing somewhat, as now most of the milk refroze and so did a bottle of coke. The odd thing is that not all the milk and not all the soft drinks froze despite being in the same place in the fridge (bottom shelf; door; etc.). The general opinion is that it's finally packing up.

That led to some discussion about when we got the thing and it turns out that it was probably about fifteen years ago. Fifteen years! Oodafortit.

It always seems that things have been around for far longer than they haven't. Our car, the Rover, for example, still seems new to me, but we must have had it for nearly ten years now. The same goes for the piano, my room being painted green, the oven, the living room cabinet and the garden furniture. All pretty mundane things, but it's funny how some things remain new for ages.

Having said that, it's also funny how quickly you can get used to things being around and it surprises you how new they are. The biggest example of this (and my favourite) is my sister, Alice: she's twelve now and, despite living life without her existence for eight years, by the time she was one I couldn't imagine life without her being there.

There's probably some fascinating psychological study that can be done into why some things seem new but are old and others seem old but are new, involving the impressions things make on me, how often I interact with it and so forth. If you ask me, however, I think I'm just getting older and going funny.

On another note, I really felt bloody awful yesterday. I just felt weak all day and I wasn't sure whether to blame the fact that I got up a lot earlier than I normally would. The final evidence came this morning: I got up at my usual half ten and feel absolutely oojah-cum-spiff. I guess that, even with years of getting up early to go to school, I'm still one of those people that likes to be up late and to bed late.

Some things never change.

Ertia

2008-09-24T09:22:00.004+01:00

On my desk I have one of those stacks of small bits of paper that change colour as you go down it and this morning I finally finished the peach and started the green. It's only a matter of time now before I move on to yellow.

Also, something went wrong with our fridge the other day and all the milk froze. While inconvenient in terms of tea, it was quite funny to look inside because it looked just like a giant milk lolly thing. Which, I suppose, is because it was one.

Fortunately, however, the thaw came, which is marginally ironic since autumn has just begun. I was going to say "I really have no idea where the time goes", but then, I thought, I guess that's exactly where it goes: people's memory. Everyone's always saying that time seems to disappear quickly these days, yet everyone's saying it so much that it's pretty much being immortalized by conversation.

If none of that made much sense I apologize now, but I got up at early o'clock this morning because I couldn't sleep: there seems to be a certain combination of windows open during the night that makes my bedroom door rattle something chronic and it kept waking me up last night. I haven't found the answer yet, but I'll be putting the best research teams on it imminently.

Now, why did I go into all that? Oh yeah, it's because of that that this morning I may be talking bollocks, or at least more bollocks than usual (although I can't be sure, because I can't be bothered to check it over for the same reasons).

Good day.

Age

2008-09-16T20:30:00.003+01:00

I've thought of a fun trick to play on people, but sadly it's something you can only try on one day of the year.

When it's your birthday, it's a fact of life that all the people you live with will be reminding themselves that, the moment they see you that morning, they're to say "happy birthday". What you have to do is try to creep up on them and frighten them out of their wits. A conflict will instantly occur inside them between the message they've ingrained in themselves to say that morning and the thousands of years' worth of instinct to cry out in terror, causing them to make a noise along the lines of "Aaaaaaglegargggghhhhappybirthday!"

It worked for me, anyway.

So, another year has come and gone, and other thoughtful phrases like that. Got a few great books, including David Crystal's the Encyclopedia of the English Language. Well, you may think so, but tough, I wanted it. And it's grand.

I've also managed to get an illness (not as a birthday present), perhaps as a subtle sign that, despite being young, we are all slaves to Father Time, or perhaps because dad, Alice and Antony have all been ill recently and one of them's passed it on to me.

Nothing a cup of tea can't put right, at any rate.

Unlimited

2008-09-09T10:38:00.007+01:00

I woke up this morning thinking that today was a perfectly ordinary day, only to find out a short while later that it's Open A New Box Of Teabags Day and I had no idea. What a pleasant surprise! I celebrated by having a cup of tea in a see-through mug.

On a completely different topic, why is it that men's toiletries always have ridiculous names? They've always got to be important and powerful things that have no relevance to the product whatsoever, like the Lynx ones called "Gravity" and "Dimension" and "Phoenix". Well, two can play at that game; I might start my own men's-deodorant-manufacturer and give my products names like "Monopoly" and "Borg Cube" and "Authoritarian Society". And anyway, we men are clearly important and powerful without it being pointed out.

In other news, Antony has just had his last D&D session with the rest of us last Saturday, as he's off to university in a couple of weeks' time. Well, he's said he'll be back a fair few times, so he'll still be making guest appearances, but as far as him being a fully-fledged regular member of the group goes, that's it. Everyone got really emotional and wept for hours¹.

Radically changing the subject again, I've noticed that my day-to-day Countdown calendar isn't as good at the number puzzles as I am. My method is always more efficient; the calendar answer seems to try to use all the numbers every time ... you're not supposed to, are you? If so, I've been doing it wrongly for years.

Anyway, clever concluding remark that nicely sums up the entire blog entry.

¹Actually, we all went up the pub.

What?

2008-09-05T09:57:00.004+01:00

I think I may have found a way to stop myself from cracking my knuckles all the time. This morning I went to have my ears syringed (all right, wipe that look off your face, it's not that disgusting) and I can now hear things again. That is to say, I can hear things at the regular level of someone who's getting on a bit and possibly going a bit deaf anyway. Anyway, out of habit, one of the first things I did when coming out of the surgery was give the old knuckles a good crack and immediately thought "Crumbs, what a noise that is". So I might stop.

On the other hand, I might just carry on. Swings and roundabouts, really.

Incidentally, I've been drinking Earl Grey tea more often these days. I wasn't a huge fan before, but after having a few mugs in recent evenings I've decided it's growing on me¹.

Not much else to say today in the old thingamablog; just thought I'd share that about the ears. Time for a cup of tea, I think. Regular, I mean.

¹That is to say, of course, that I'm finding I like it more than I used to; I don't mean I'm sprouting bergamot oranges or anything. That reminds me of that fellow who looked like a tree because he had something up with his skin. Can't remember what it was, or who it was for that matter. Shame, really.

Money

2008-09-02T17:21:00.002+01:00

'Ere, get this. On the back cover of a magazine I bought today, there's an advertisement for various chairs and loungers (which are over-priced), and at the top it says, "Make sitting, rising and relaxing easier". Wha? Make relaxing easier? It must be some really lazy sod that goes into a furniture shop and says, "I'm looking for something to take away that irritating strain of sitting down and putting my feet up".

There are some people that seem to resolve to start a business before they've sat down on an over-priced chair and really thought about their IQ, which brings me neatly on to the fact that I have now finally closed my account with Abbey National forever and ever. After all the fuming arguments, someone rang me (on bank holiday Monday) to agree that it was all Abbey's fault and that the problem should have been resolved months ago. So I got my thirty quid and left them. Huzzah!

Also, I was planning to steal some time on a foreign computer to say here that my computer had been taken away for repair, but instead I'm pleased to say that it arrived back this morning with a new video card (as we thought) and it's all ship-shape. Further huzzah!

Et finalement, I've been doing lots of overtime recently which, although tiring, should leave my bank account (the good, non-closed, non-Abbey one) looking very healthy indeed. Continual huzzah!

No

2008-08-23T20:48:00.000+01:00

Why is it that I haven't had any dinner even though it's half past eight? More to the point, why are there not even any mealtime preparations underway?

I don't mean to be rude or presumtious: since I'm nearing my third decade in the care of my parents, I should be pretty grateful. There are people, one might point out, far worse-off than I. But to someone who's used to his dinner arriving at around half six every evening, it's somewhat discombobulating.

In any case, it's not a matter of being rude or presumtious: it's a matter of instincts. My body wants some food and it hasn't got any, so it's cross. If I was worse-off, I probably wouldn't be complaining about it, because I'd be used to it (not that I mean to suggest the worse-off are better-off for it, you understand).

You could say that I should simply go and make myself some dinner; what with nearing that afore-mentioned decade, I should be quite capable of doing so. Well, if I'd known how late dinner was going to be, I would have done, but now it's got to the stage that if I get anything for myself, it'll look even more rude. If I'd known at six o'clock, I would have sorted it and everyone would be happy. But I couldn't have known then, because I first knew that dinner is going to be late once dinner was late.

It's like lightbulbs. You only know that a lightbulb has come to the end of its useful life when you try to turn a light on and, since you only try to turn a light on when the room is too dark to see properly, it will always be the case that you'll have to replace lightbulbs in the dark without being able to see properly. Someone should have thought of this when they invented lightbulbs, just as someone should have thought to tell me that today's dinner will double-up as a midnight snack and would I like perhaps to have something earlier before I do something silly like write a blog entry about it.

Now, then, typing all that lot has completely taken my mind off being hungry, so you may as well attribute the lot to "hungry-talk". In fact, since it's taken me a good few minutes to write, I expect dinner's well on the way to being bunged on a plate in front of me, so I'm perfectly chipper again and I'd like to point out that "discombobulate" is one of my all-time favourite words.

Might watch a film tonight.

Yes

2008-08-18T12:48:00.007+01:00

To cut a long story short, I received the grades I needed for the course I want to do at university - Applied English Language Studies - and I've got an entire year of relaxation to look forward to it in, stupid¹. Huzzah!

Spent most of yesterday in the garden: we dismantled our garden shed, then mantled a table and chairs to go in its place. I think they look pretty good, which is nothing compared to the difference in the view from the windows at the back of the house - it's ... well, it's a heap, but slightly more picturesque than it was when the shed was there. And the chairs are comfy.

The other day I discovered David Crystal's blog on this very website, so I've been giving that a read during a lot of my spare time. I'm very pleased because I find it as fascinating as the rest of his literature - I'm reading his "How Language Works" at the moment - and I think I might end up reading all the past entries as far back as Decemeber 2006.

I've also been listening to the Yes Album, which dad gave me the other day, but not the same other day as the other day when I discovered David Crystal's blog, which was another other day. It's quite good so far, but I can't say I'd rank it as high as some other progressive rock music I could mention!

Anyway, I seem to have had only good news to report today, which calls for a cup of tea.

¹Someone told me off recently for finishing a sentence with a preposition, so I made sure that I didn't here. I think they probably meant "clause" instead of "sentence", but it doesn't do to be pedantic.

Summer

2008-08-10T20:04:00.003+01:00

Well, here I am, back from the good old West Country, where it good old rained the whole bloody time. I don't really mind the rain, but it's a shame when you're on a holiday where you expect to be walking up and down the moors a lot.

We did seem to find plenty to do to fill the time up though. We walked on the floors of several places, including:

the House of Marbles, home to an enormous marble run that must have wasted the same amount of time to design as the amount of noise it puts out;
Buckfast Abbey, which was fortunately not the home of the Reverend Spooner in one of his creative moods;
the Eden Project, better known as the Place With the Widest Variety of Temperatures the World Has Ever Known; and
Tintagel Castle, where you can climb up a huge cliff and look down on the beach at all the people that look like ants, then climb up some more cliff and look down on the place where you were looking down on the beach at the people that look like ants at the people that look like ants.

On the whole it was all very interesting, although I did notice that everywhere we went had a gift shop with the same merchandise as all the other gift shops, just with a different place name printed on it. Very handy if you collect pencil sharpeners or little A7 notebooks.

We now, of course, have large swathes of holiday video to inflict upon unsuspecting visitors over the next month or so, so I wouldn't advise popping in for a cuppa unless you've already done your Christmas shopping.

Memory?

2008-07-26T08:24:00.002+01:00

Several days ago I had a really good idea for something I could talk about here, but I've forgotten what it was. Bugger.

I'm off on holiday tomorrow, so I thought I'd better say so here so that the millions of fans that read this aren't disappointed that the constant flow of banter stops suddenly.

And if they can cope with that, they can cope with anything.

Eternity

2008-07-09T10:50:00.003+01:00

During the last few days, the people over the road have been giving me a large amount of grief, albeit that they have no idea whatsoever. Basically, there is ALWAYS some kind of noise coming from one of the houses on the other side of the road and I've noticed it's usually one of these sounds:

1) A vacuum cleaner
2) A lawn mower
3) A car engine running but not actually going anywhere
4) A small household drill such as you might use to hang up pictures with

Whichever one it is, the common factor is that is goes on NON-FUCKING-STOP. It is best heard when the window is open either in my room or the bathroom and it is the most irritating thing in the world. The most common of them is the Eternal Hoover, which leads to the question of why anyone needs floors that clean.

Notice that I maintain hyphen control even when angry.

On the bright side, with this last bout of pouring rain, I think the hay fever season has finally come to an end (for me, at least). This calls for a celebratory cup of tea.

Rock

2008-07-06T11:25:00.000+01:00

I saw Iron Maiden live yesterday.

Fuck yeah!

Mulholland

2008-06-25T15:53:00.004+01:00

Well, that's that: no more exams. This calls for a song..

♫ Cause I'm freeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!
♫ Free faaaaaaalling!
♫ Yeah I'm freeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

And so forth.

So, then. Gap year. Not sure how I'm going to find enough things to do throughout the year to prevent myself being bored, but I still want to take one all the same. Really looking forward to university, but why not enjoy months and months of Sod-All first?

Exactly.

I suppose, for one thing, I'll be carrying on with this for once. Usually comes to a sorry end when I stop writing in it the thing and delete it three months down the line, but now I'll have so little to do I'll just have to come on here and write all about it.

♫ I wanna gliiiiiide down...

Philosophy

2008-06-17T10:11:00.002+01:00

Shout "Huzzah!", for the Great Big Week With Lots of Exams in It is finally over. I now have to contend with philosophy tomorrow and the AEA English next Tuesday and by thunder I'll be finished.

Having a bit of trouble gathering up my philosophy notes at the moment, because I picked up the ring binder and the whole lot fell out. It wasn't exactly what I would call over-filled, but it didn't seem to be able to hold them all anyway. Looks like another fine product from the Ministry of Crap Design. I'm definitely going to make some stickers with a fictitious company logo for the MCD and stick them on things that just don't bloody work.

Found an annual national poetry competition with a prize of £5000 the other day. I think I might have a go: it's only £5 to enter and what's the worst that could happen? It's definitely not going to be about Love though. Poems everywhere are about Love. I'll probably give it a silly theme.

That'll have to wait, though, as for now I must begin the day's philosophy revision by picking up the notes. That should be plenty until lunchtime.

News

2008-06-09T11:19:00.003+01:00

That's better, the hay fever's calmed down a bit this morning.

As I was saying, been doing a bit of revising for the five exams I have this week, but I've found that there's not really that much to do: I know all the maths stuff, I don't really know what I can do for English and I'm certainly not doing any revision for Critical Thinking. Philosophy's next week.

I wonder if, at degree level English, I might actually have to start learning something...

Was talking to mum this morning and at one stage she said "Huey Lewis" and I thought she said "Chewits" (as in those crappy sweets) and when I asked about it she said, "No, I said Huey Lewis - about as far from Chewits as you can get."

Well, I gave it some thought and decided that I had to disagree. Why are Chewits the furthest things from Huey Lewis? What exactly constitutes as the furthest thing from another thing? It's certainly not the opposite thing, because that thing is necessarily linked to the object by virtue of the fact that it's its opposite. I might give this a bit more thought later.

Anyway, after the farce with the Huey Lewis conversation, mum recommended relaxing today and not overdoing the revision, since I have a busy week ahead. Tea and WarCraft it is.

Spring

2008-06-08T17:15:00.003+01:00

Zbsasihjbthbyloywakfdmpwkjathy.

Have hay fever. Nose bunged. Eyes red raw. Feel awful. Can't use pronouns.

Been revising, playing WarCraft and kicking bottom. Still got eight exams left. Zurgle.

Roll on colder weather.

Surprise

2008-06-01T21:39:00.002+01:00

It's June!

Ha!

Something

2008-05-30T11:59:00.006+01:00

There are some word that I think should exist and they're all in this table here.

Now I know that some of the words and phrases there do already exist, but the point is to show that things should always match, so when asked a question such as those in the list you should always have the choice of two answers. After all, if you can say "somewhere", why can't you say "somewho"? However, you can also say "someone" or "some place". I've split the two kinds of answers into those that repeat the indicating word in the question (reiterative) and those that use a physical thing or concept based on the question indicator (responsive).

I urge rather assertively that people should use all of those new words and phrases in conversation if they can.

Got my overtime pay of about £150 through today, which is marvellous. All adds up to the savings kept for the horrors of University Expenses in a year's time. I hope.

On that note, I have eight more exams to go, but nothing until the week beginning Monday 9th, in which there are five all at once. Joy. Tea will be required in order to cope; it sounds to me to be in the region of a five-cupper.

Nothing

2008-05-26T20:35:00.002+01:00

I haven't posted for a few days and this is because nothing has happened.

Not entirely true - we did have D&D here on Saturday and Stephen has gone away for the week to Swansea, but that's all and it's nothing to write home about.

Two weeks off now before my next exam, so I'm expecting nothing to continue happening during this time.

Might get a haircut though.

Experiments

2008-05-20T10:55:00.004+01:00

I've discovered the art of playing around with the font on this thing now. I can make things bold or italic as well as changing the colour to red, pink, blue and many more. There's also the fun to be had in making things big or small.

The more observant amongst you may notice that each of those features I just listed are not matched at all with the font applied to them. This was on purpose. I started off making bold bold, italic italic and so on, then realized that this was the most predictable and boring thing imaginable. So I shuffled them about a bit. So there.

Absolutely ecstatic this morning because, out of the nine letters in today's letter puzzle on the Countdown Day-to-Day Calendar, I managed to make "ass-ferret". This could mean a cross between a donkey and a small rodent in this country, or something wildly more experimental in America.

Anyway, back to my cup of tea, Theory of Knowledge revision and appreciation of Kant's synthesis.

Books

2008-05-19T15:06:00.008+01:00

Today is Monday. I know because my socks tell me so.

Terry Pratchett is almost too good an author. Every time I start reading something by someone else, I feel like I want to be reading the next Discworld book instead, and so I may have to buy the lot and read them non-stop until that fateful day of doom when they finally come to an end. Last one I read was "Pyramids" and I'm currently reading Tom Sharpe's "Wilt" as a gap-filler before I start "Guards! Guards!".

I quite like the word "doom".

I also just hit Ctrl+S automatically as though saving a document in Word and was thrilled to find it saved my progess anyway. Many thanks to the thoughtful people at Blogger for that one!

Back, now, to the latest addiction of crafting world war in the World of WarCraft. And, as we know, no great historical general could wage war properly without a cup of tea by his side.

Cookery

2008-05-16T19:55:00.004+01:00

Parents are away today and tomorrow in Rome, doing as the Romans do, presumably. Dad said earlier that they'd gone of to visit the "big round thing", which I think means they're enjoying themselves. Which is jolly good.

Also, I managed to burn myself on the oven when making pizza, which I didn't notice at first, so it got left quite a while before I did anything about it. I'm sure it'll be fine; I'm more annoyed that I can't cook anything without making some kind of blunder. Except bacon sarnies.

Also also wik, I was cross today because the answer to yesterday's conundrum on my Countdown Day-to-Day Calendar was "singalong", which I refuse to accept as a proper word without a hyphen in it. It cheated. Got today's number puzzle really quickly though, so I had the last laugh.

Going to get a cup of tea now and watch a film, which is currently undecided. Any suggestions will be most fondly too late.

Graphs

2008-05-15T13:20:00.002+01:00

Just came back from doing my Statistics 1 exam, which went fairly well, though I think most of my marks were achieved in the last five minutes when I realized all the things I'd done wrong during the other eighty-five and had to rewrite everything.

I was looking at the Ceefax news this morning and was delighted to find two new BBC corkers: "Man charged with Oxford St. Murder" and "Man quizzed over bakery killing". Poor old Oxford Street and bakery. I guess that's two more to add to the List of Inanimate Object Murders.

My favourite one to date, however, is still "Man held over toilet killing". Well I think I'd be pretty miffed too if I'd been held over a toilet.

The weather's improved quite a lot, by which I mean it's worse. Less Sun, slight breeze, bit of rain - jolly marvellous, and far better weather for drinking tea.

Air

2008-05-12T16:00:00.005+01:00

Went to bed last night with every intention of going to school the next morning for a revision class with Mr Stone; woke up this morning with none, so stayed at home. Feeling outwardly guilty, yet secretly pleased as Punch.

Today's weather sees another violent assault from the Sun, so I put up the big umbrella to keep in the shade, but a surprising gust of wind blew it over the fence. Relieved I didn't put the gazebo up.

I've been trying to do some Statistics revision today, but any questions to do with the normal distribution still elude me completely. It was too hot to put the kettle on for comfort, so I had an ice-cream instead, one of those ones that looks exactly like a Cornetto but is inferior in every way. Enjoyed it though.

Also excited about the Iron Maiden concert, which I realized today is less than eight weeks away! Hip-hip!

Freedom

2008-05-11T17:38:00.006+01:00

Free!

As of last Friday, no longer am I an A-Level student. Well, unless you count the forthcoming exams, of which there are ten, totalling sixteen hours and spread across forty days from this Thursday to the 24th June, two of which are Critical Thinking, two Maths, three English and three Philosophy, but I never really think about them.

After that, however, I can properly say goodbye to fourteen years of schooling: quite a milestone, I'm sure you'll agree. Someone once said that one's school days are the best of one's life, but I feel I'm now in a position to be fully justified in smashing him over the head with a lob wedge.

I've also heard it said, somewhat more wisely, that when one thing comes to an end another should begin, so here is my contribution in blog form. I've started blogs before and deleted them after a week or two, so it's odds-on that no one will see this again come June.

So, got lots of exams to contend with in the near future, but so what? The word of the week is most definitely "huzzah" and it calls for a cup of tea.