Saturday, November 27, 2004

t3hkr3w-opoly!

Quote of the moment: "The Lion King is David Beckham's favourite film. Bless." - The Ultimate Film

Robin Hood is blatantly better, right Jimmy?!

Also: while watching Casualty over supper, Vicky said she thought she'd seen a previous episode with a guy impaled on a fence the exact same way.

You know what comes next :D

I reply: "They've changed something!"

OMG There was an actual guy called Kenny Baker inside R2D2! Sorry Will T, you probably knew that, but I didn't. WOW!

Christmas/New Year Plans:

I'm working in Tesco on Christmas Eve. Bumclouds! I then have to go cross-country on Christmas Day with my grandparents, to join the rest of my family in Monmouthshire. On the 27th (probably) I return here, so I'm around for any kr3w shenanigens on Tuesday the 28th. Then, while Prill, Jimbo and Kaz are flying up on the 29th, I'm doing an extra shift in Tesco. Then the usual one on Friday the 31st, which I couldn't get out of, but moved to the morning. Then taking the train up to Edinburgh for at least 4 days (unlike the full hardcore week for everyone else) of hardcore partying, and hopefully more Monopoly. Which reminds me: somehow we need to give someone/everyone a Make-your-own-opoly set, to be made into t3hkr3w-opoly! It's as cunning as a fox who's the Regius Professor of Cunning at Oxford University!

Thursday, November 25, 2004

Medical Students

Quote of the moment: "MSN Hotmail Plus is Here! 2GB of storage, 20MB attachment size and more." At last!

This evening I had a First Aid mini-course. Which was alright... the guy taking it works as the on-site first aider for the Cambridge University Rugby Club, which was quite cool! According to him, getting concussed even once significantly increases your chances of senile dementia! D'oh! He was very confused when I said the only time I'd got concussed was in a hockey match, being hit by someone's hip! Oh dear! So no probs there, apart from his slight lack of control.

The problem was the wannabe medical students! They kept asking niggly questions, mostly regarding what they'd seen in hospitals while on work experience. The teacher guy was just like: "As I have already said, when you find yourself in an emergency situation, you don't normally have a surgical theatre full of equipment, or even a first aid box!"

Sigh. Medical students, honestly. Though I suppose these are the ones who didn't make it. Oh dear.

P.S. I finished reading The Lord Of The Rings on Monday, so it took me 10 days, including reading all the appendices. Go me!

Tuesday, November 23, 2004

Edinburgh Update

Quote of the moment: "You taught me baseball Tim, and how to laugh!"... The real Rambo: First Blood Part II is on now, Vietnamese chick and all!

Since I am n00 and only realised last week that New Year's Eve is a Friday, I can't book me holiday cos the people who've got it booked for then have had it booked for a year. D'OH! So the only thing I could do was move my shift from starting at 1pm to starting at 9am, finishing at 2pm, then travelling up after that. I might move it back to 8am if necessary, but on the current train timetable I can arrive around 9/10-ish. Should be fine, except that because I'm n00 I also forgot to book the street party tickets, and thus may need to go sit in Burger King well in advance to get in!

Monday, November 22, 2004

Heroes (of the Old Republic)

Quote of the moment: "What is thy bidding my master?..."

Another early morning effort. Yesterday afternoon I went to Will T's. Then went with his 'rents, little brother and Jimmy to see "The Incredibles", which was most excellent! Plus we had the fortunate excuse of little Edward in case of questions about watching a U rated cartoon. A good thing too, because in the cinema I spotted none other than Mr Christmas, legendary hero himself, with 3 small boys in tow. At the end of the film Will insisted on trying to walk right past them, even though that meant crossing over to the far aisle so he could cross back in front of them. When this failed, Mr Thorne resorted to waiting outside the doors and saying "Oh look, there's Mr Christmas" loudly in case he tried to avoid us. Oh dear... Strange thing, hero worship! :P

We then returned to Will's house, where we gamed, had a humoungous home-cooked Chinese for supper, gamed some more, watched Bean: The Ultimate Disaster Movie and then got distracted... I'm not sure exactly how that happened, but it might have been something to do with Will T obsessing over the Star Wars: Episode III advert he saw when he went to Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason with Kaz. Apparently that made it all worthwhile :P Whatever the cause, we spent the next 3 hours using Jimmy's new video phone to record our own Star Wars Special Edition Trilogy, with deleted scenes, a trailer, lots of bad cuts that were vetoed by the perfectionist director, cast profiles and more... It has now gone into the post-production phase, and will soon be released to a select few for screen testing, before being set loose to maul box offices the world over. More news soon, or ask Jimmy, the director, producer, camera-man and now editor!

Sunday, November 21, 2004

Is yesterday tomorrow, today?

Quote of the moment: "If any of the departments is taken out, the whole tower falls down. Or it should do...."

I think I shall have to write this in the past tense, even though I haven't slept since it happened.

Yesterday's shift at Tesco was the best so far. Why? Because I spent an hour and a half being educated in the "Living Service" programme. This involved free chocolate. I would like any Tesco personnel programme for this one advantage alone! But it also involved stickers, playmats, videos, a room with a mini theatre curtain across the door, and most importantly, wooden building blocks. These were cubic, and so when at the start we were instructed to sit on the floor in a circle and use the blocks, each labelled with the name of a store department, the majority response was to put one on another in a column with a base of 4 (2 x 2). Logs are not involved, Vince/Rob/Anyone who might think this was challenging :P However, this obviously proved unstable due to a lack of interlinking, so I set each layer at a 45 degree angle/rotation from the previous one, so that all blocks both supported and rested on two other blocks. This meant that when the time came for the "Without all of these departments, the store would collapse" soundbite, there was a disapointing failure of the "store" to do anything other than wobble. It was rather like Jenga :D

Upon returning home from Tesco I was informed that Paddy had only just left, having stopped by to give me my orders regarding a cinema trip. When I eventually got hold of him, he, Rob and Dan Haustrup were in the foyer at Cineworld, tickets bought, film "beginning" then. How handy! I thus skidded there pronto on the lovely icy roads, and saw the Manchurian Candidate. Which was cool. When we left I got my first full view of Rob's hair, which is cooler!

Thereafter ensued a trip to Pizza Hut, where the Eastern European waitress flirted with Paddy. When I made a comment about "Nadia", he thought I was referring to the Portugese one... SIGH. We then made our way to Paddy's house, where we ate, drank coke, and admired Rob's Hair (It's so cool it's become a proper noun :P). Xbox obviously followed. Rob was delivered home at midnight by Paddy, and in the intervening hour I vastly inflated his Xbox live death count (and added to the kills by 5) while Dan tried to argue with confused Americans via the microphone. Sometimes in Danish, just for extra effect.

Dan departed around 2am, whereupon we set to Halo 2, co-operative. By 5.45, when I left, it was (apparently) nearing completion! Hurrah! And hence the rather early time of this post... I'm off to catch some sleep before meeting up for Gamecube action at Will T's at 3pm! Super-turbo-hardcore-games-fest-action-marathon!

Thursday, November 18, 2004

Pompous Politics

A muddle of random occurences, beginning with things seen yesterday:

  1. On the way to college I got stuck behind a Land-Rover Freelander. On the spare wheel cover on the boot door was printed in large letters: Park Lane Land Rover, 17 Park Lane, Mayfair! The Monopoly car is now a Freelander, it seems.
  2. While walking back from college to where I park my car - in the lane behind St Faiths Prep School 10 minutes down the road - I passed a Dons of Dunmow coach parked by the school entrance, disgorging the Felsted Prep School Rugby teams, including William Gwyther.
  3. In the afternoon, I got a text message from my dear sister (Vicky) saying she passed her driving test, first time, with 3 minors. Absolutely daft, isn't it!? She even hit the curb at one point, but she's a girl, so she passed. No doubt her ample assets distracted the examiner. How handy!

Things seen in the news today:

  1. Fox hunting will be illegal in 3 months time. It seems absolutely daft that an act designed to enable the swift declaration of war when under attack has been hijacked (again) by New Labour for something actually rather trivial. The control of the Fox population is now carried out largely by cars, as can be seen by the number of corpses on rural roads around here. Hunting with hounds has been shown to be kinder to foxes than shooting them, the only viable alternative (apart from to the saboteurs, who would obviously like to see them running happily around like innocent little bunnies - reality check, they rip little bunnies to shreds). This issue only actually matters to a few dedicated people on either side, but its symbolism has meant that it has been used by the Labour backbenchers to attack the House of Lords - The only political institution left that talks sense, not spin. Hunting with hounds doesn't actually do any real harm, and there is no real justification for banning it. This will hopefully be the decision arrived at by the appeal courts.
  2. A former secretary in the household of Prince Charles is suing for unfair dismissal and sexual discrimination, after she was sacked for being a hyper-politically-correct lefty. Up to Charles to pick people he gets on with, surely? She has produced as evidence a private letter from Charles to a senior member of his staff, in which he puts forward the opinion that annoying people like her are the product of a society that is afraid to tell people that they aren't good enough to be pop stars or prime ministers, and that in order to achieve these aims actually requires a lot of hard work and talent/suitability for the job. Shocking! Every Private can't become a Sergeant Major?! Every Second Lieutenant can't become Chief of the Defense Staff!? Surely not! Bear in mind, too, that this was not a public statement, but private correspondance.
    None the less, Education Secretary Charles Clark attacked the Prince for being out of touch with modern youth and teaching. What hypocrasy! This same Charles Clark today announced that pupils who have been expelled for disruptive behaviour should be distributed equally among the other schools in that region equally, even if that means putting those who fall far below the entry standard into grammar schools. Congratulations, everyone is now equal. Or not. Placing someone into classes where the content and speed is far beyond their grasp is hardly likely to encourage them to pay attention and become model pupils. Making the class slow down to the level of the weakest, however, means that all the others will be twiddling their thumbs, messing around and becoming disruptive. Well done, Mr Clarke. No one, surely, could be more short sighted and out of touch, or more of a prime example of what the Prince referred to in his letter: Overreactionary politically correct nitwits (My words, not his) who condemn anyone who dares to be less than totally optimistic.
  3. I watched the news and saw, at the opening of his presidential library (built to hold the records and paperwork of his goverment) and in the prescence of Bush Sr and Jr, as well as Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton displaying again the oratory skills that made him outshine both candidates in the recent election during his brief rally appearance. Putting John Kerry in the shade might have proved rather unhelpful...
  4. In the local paper today: 3 men breaking into the office of of an Ongar businessman were shocked to find him still there. The black-belt martial arts enthusiast was practising with his Samurai sword while working late. He heard the glass smash in the back door, and then, said the 58 year old: "I was confronted by three men with an iron bar. I let out a massive Kiai(sic) shout holding this sword and the look of terror on theirfaces was unbelievable." He chased them, still screaming, out to their car. PMSL.

Other things that happened today: It snowed! Hehehe!


Wednesday, November 17, 2004

The Landlord's Daughter

Due to intense boredom I changed all the names on my blog links on Monday. Most of the references are obvious, but I though I should explain one:

Kaz - The Landlord's Daughter

Obviously Kaz is currently residing in her mansion in Edinburgh, as bought by her dad, but this is also alluding to the cult (camp) Scottish 'horror' movie The Wickerman, in which the patrons of the local pub perform the following ditty en masse:

THE LANDLORD'S DAUGHTER
Much has been said of the strumpets of yore

Of wenches and bawdy house queens by the score
But I sing of the baggage that we all adore,
The Landlord's Daughter ...
You'll never love another
Although she's not the kind of girl
To take home to your mother ...
The Landlord's Daughter ...
Her ale it is lively and strong to the taste
It is brewed with discretion and never with haste
You can have all you like
If you swear not to waste
The Landlord's Daughter ...
... And, when her name is mentioned

The parts of every gentleman
Do stand up at attention ...
The Landlord's Daughter ...
Oh, nothing can delight so
As does the part that lies between
Her left toe
And her right toe ...
The Landlord's Daughter ...

Or to put it more succinctly:

"Above the pub, the landlord's daughter ... depucelates young male virgins brought to her by the laird of the isle." - http://www.imomus.com/wickermeetsman.html

Isn't that so, Kaz m8?!

Tuesday, November 16, 2004

Enslaved!

Quote of the moment: "Your starter for 10: what does this emoticon depict?" - Emoticons on University Challenge! Hurrah!

Have just seen an advert for La Coste perfume stuff. For guys. Featuring a guy getting out of bed naked, walking past his huge trophy cabinet, then sitting down with a cup of tea of a saucer. White china. A real man's man, obviously!

Now, be warned. Rob in particular should be scared. I am about to embark on a contraversial on possibly emo topic. If you are pregnant, have a heart condition, are epileptic, or are Rob, please look away now!

I was watching Moira Stewart on the BBC 2 "Who Do You Think You Are?" series. Most of it was pretty good, including the bit when she went to a small Scottish town where her grandfather worked in a hospital, and where we used to stay overnight on the way to the Northwest coast for holidays. How rare! What did remind me of something rather daft was what she said at the end. When she found out that an ancestor of hers was a slave-master, she said she felt disgusted that she was descended from some involved in slavery.

Fair enough you might think. It wasn't actually that which I was objecting to, it was the way she talked about "slavery", in the same way as many people do. As if slavery was something invented and implemented by Europeans, including those who colonised North America, and was exclusively practised upon Africans. Much like the idea of "ethnic cleansing" was an exclusively Nazi thing, practised only upon Jews.

6 million Jews died during the Second World War, under the Nazi regime. But so did 5 million others; Romany gypsies, homosexuals, communists, and many more. Ethnic cleansing has happened all through history. For example, the Kurds and the Sunni Muslims: 30,000 Kurds died in Iraq between the two Gulf Wars. Rwanda: an estimated 1 million people died in 3 years of genocide, mostly under machete blades.

Slavery has been common practice in at least 4 continents that I know of, in the last couple of millenia. In Europe: Obviously common in Rome and in Ancient Greece. The Vikings had thralls (the origin of 'enthrall'), the Normans had serfs. When Europeans colonised Africa and took black African slaves home, and later to North (and South) America, they weren't doing anything new, especially because the African tribes had a tradition of slavery too. The Zulus, the most organised and effective of the warrior tribes, that conquered an empire for themselves, took whole tribes in slavery. Such is the traditional method of the conqueror. In South and Central America, the Inca, Maya and especially the Aztecs took slaves in war. They were a vital and normal part of society.

The major difference, it seems to me, is that the scale involved increased. It started with tribe to tribe, only a few miles apart. It increased to being nation-states, then to countries. When the Africans were shipped en masse to Europe and America, it became intercontinental, and more importantly, it's the only time it happened in the memory of most Americans (of the white variety, slavery was also common among the American Indian tribes) and thus the only one that counts against the guilty consciences of those of liberal (emo) sensibilities.

Rant over.

Also on my hitlist today: my rents, for yelling at me for spending all evening on the internet.

  1. It's a prepaid account, of the £12.99 per month dial-up variety. Thus it is costing them nothing extra for me to do so.
  2. Since I work on Saturdays, Tuesday is my second day off per week (which is vital for health reasons, according to Rob).
  3. I was harassed for messing around when I should be doing something useful. I did an hour and a half of maths and walked the dogs today. Plus I spent a hour before supper printing off emails from admissions tutors and my UCAS application, and checking on the track thing (which still doesn't show anything, though I have apparently recieved two offers already).
  4. They also had a go at me for waking them up at half twelve last night, by opening the back door and turning the outdoor light on. That would be because the puppy was whining because he needed a leak, so I took him out into the garden so he wouldn't piss on the floor.
  5. They were only moody because Zulu (the puppy) tried to chew the carpet in the sitting room!

Go me! Longest... Rant... Ever... (By Will - obviously Podgy ones are at least quadruple the size).

Sunday, November 14, 2004

Emo, Canada

Quote of the moment: "...it was just gorgeous. I wanted to cry."

Applicable to everything. Honest. For example:

"That Tesco Christmas jingle is just so gorgeous, it made me want to cry."

"Rob's new hair is just 1337. I wanted to cry."

"I saw the length of Podgy's latest post... it was just ridiculous. I wanted to cry."

Harsh, but SO deserved! I hope she does visit Emo during her Canada trip!

In other news, I went to the Rememberance Sunday service in Felsted today. It was suitably peace-loving, being taken by "Jolly John", the village vicar. And that was suitably countered by Mr Christmas' sermon about encouraging cadets to join the Army... LOL. The bugling was rubbish too. Plus: I took my camera. Joules was in full dress uniform. I zoomed in, hit the button, and the battery died. Poor Prill! Hehe!

[Edit 21:57 - Have just seen a advert with Destiny's Child promoting World Children's Day. 50p given to Ronald MacDonald charities for each meal (of some sort that I can't remember) purchased. Cue rant from Podgy :P]

Saturday, November 13, 2004

Missed me!

Quote of the moment: "We looked for you when we came in to do the shopping. Several times, actually!"

Hurrah! Go me! I managed to take my 15 minute break at the same time my mum and sisters came in to Tescos!

Friday, November 12, 2004

You killed Phil's mum!

Quote of the moment: "Yes Mum, I ate lots of fruit this week." - Phil, my Essex University attending colleague, talking to his mum when she appeared in Tescos doing her shopping...

Also: at the college there's a short guy in Yr 11 called Kenny. Really, apparently. I haven't ever seen him with his hood up, but it's a start! :p

P.S. I've started reading The Lord of the Rings, for the fourth time! Perhaps I'll get past the first book of the six this time!

Wednesday, November 10, 2004

Blogs Are Dangerous!

Quote of the moment: "Psychologists at Staffordshire University have been monitoring their students, and asking them about their diary addiction and health problems. The study seems to suggest that students who kept diaries were worryingly prone to mental and physical illness, compared to the diary teetotallers... ...The study suggests people who re-read entries in their diaries suffer the worst, adding social dysfunction to their list of ailments."

However, it seems like it's actually the other way around: messed-up people are more likely to keep diaries! That, by the way, was a quote from an article in Student Times - a free paper I got given in college on Monday (rather out of date - from Thursday 7th October) - which also included an advert for a band called Reuben, "On Tour with Biffy Clyro 12 - 19 October." Hmm... why does that sound familiar?!

Tuesday, November 09, 2004

Oops!

Quote of the moment: "Oh. Should I have woken you up?"

That was my dad, upon seeing me come down the stairs, at 2.30pm. When I was supposed to be starting my Maths Challenge paper... Sighage...

When my dear mother harassed him about it this evening, he said he'd forgetten I was even here, what with my sisters having just gone back to school after half term and all. THANKS!

Fitness Report: Erm, that would have been the 1pm sports session? Oops to that too...

Monday, November 08, 2004

Disney Top 5

Quote of the moment: "Sorry mate, no idea!" - The captain of the Portsmouth team on University Challenge, to Jeremy Paxman.

Hurrah! Met up with Jimmy and Prillo in Chelmsford this afternoon, which was most entertaining. I even managed to get birthday presents for both Jimmy (belated) and Podge (almost on time!). Go me! Only a couple behind now!

A question for everyone who had Disney cartoon films as part of their childhood: What are your Top 5 Disney films? Everything from Snow White up to Toy Story - which is borderline, since it's CGI and not traditional :P

My top 5:

  1. Robin Hood
    The whole animals thing - It's awesome! Plus Prince John is hilarious.
  2. The Sword in the Stone
    Archimedes (the owl) is my hero! Also Mad Madam Mim - like Prill?!
  3. Aladdin
    Robin Williams as the Genie.
  4. The Lion King
    Timone and Pumba - especially the "In the Jungle" singing.
  5. Beauty and the Beast
    For the awesome cutlery/pottery, and because I want to have my own castle!

Fitness Report: I'm going to sports tomorrow as well, since it's just before The Maths Challenge! Twice in one week, and physio' on Wednesday! Yikes!

[Edit 23:38 - I just went outside to look at a meteor shower, as suggested by Prillo. It was raining. Outside sucks :P]

[Edit 00:23 - New Weebl and Bob! It's awesome! "This not the sphinx! It the sphinxter!"]

Saturday, November 06, 2004

Politics

Quote of the moment: "Canadian immigration officials cited by Reuters said that the number of US citizens visiting their website went up six-fold on Wednesday."

See here for details!

I wrote all of this as commentary on Podgy's latest marathon update. I thought I'd show it off, as it's actually coherent! How rare!

Bush makes people feel safe. This should not be the case, but from the small glimpse of his activities they get, thats what they think...

Kerry sucked. If, for example, George Clooney had run for President against Bush, he'd have won. He'd never have been chosen by the Democrats as their representative, because they choose on the basis of intelligent policies, not charisma. Kerry didn't, at any point, capture the moment, or hold the crowd's attention. The Republicans have known the power of charm since at least Ronald Reagan - a former (minor) Hollywood star. Bill Clinton won the nomination for his policies and the election for his charm, his twinkly eyes and his saxophone playing.

If George Clooney had run for President, he'd have captured the group that really decided the election: the "security moms". The ones who were charmed by Clinton. The ones who voted for Bush because his eyes twinkled more than Kerry's.

Also: The number of U.S. citizens visiting the Canadian Government's immigration website went up by six times on Wednesday - the day the election result was announced.

In other news, I actually got my uniform today! Hurrah! It's awesome:

  • The shirts don't have tails, so they come untucked really easily when I bend down to put things on bottom shelves (and shirts always have to be tucked in).
  • The trousers are too narrow around the thighs so my humoungous tree-trunk legs are gripped too tightly to allow me to crouch down (I wore my own blue baggy ones).
  • The jumper is V-necked, which is for women and golfers.

Fitness Report: Cycled to work and back, again! Am also planning to sit in front of either Apocalypse Now or The Untouchables, playing with my weights... Go me!


Friday, November 05, 2004

First day at work

Quote of the moment: "I really liked that cutter"

Today was my first day working at Tescos... Go me! 1 til 6pm, Fridays and Saturdays. It was bit weird... I never actually got my uniform! I spent the whole time with a badge pinned onto my rugby shirt! How rare!

The first hour I was supervised by my section manager. At some point I managed to mislay his "cutter"... Which is a like a safety bladed thing for cutting (obvs) open boxes and plastic wrapping. Oops... Good start, no? After that I was with a guy who's been working there 2 days... Very experienced! Plus the section manager turns up and presents me with my own cutter, complete with curly keyring thing so I couldn't possibly leave it anywhere... Sighage...

It wasn't too bad though! Time flies when you're pretending to be an Italian waiter with a box of Daz :D

Fitness Report: Cycled to work and back :D

Hail to the Thief

Quote of the moment: Kerry calls Bush to concede...

Two days ago, but unmentioned as yet. I thought it was quite impressive that Kerry didn't go into the courtroom battles, despite being a lawyer!

Sighage... Looking on the bright side, at least the Armed Forces will be kept busy, and hopefully thus escape too many cuts as a result of "having too many troops". More likely, they'll have to go to war, but not have any budget increase, and thus be forced to make more cuts like those happening now. I think Bush should chuck 3 billion our way to pay for our assistance, since Gordon Brown won't - it's less than what gets spent each day on the US Armed Forces, apparently!

The political maps show America in terms of Red Republican states and Blue Democrat ones... But here's the proportional representation map: nearly Cadbury Purple, Podge m8!

America goes purple

Fitness Report: I got owned in Badminton doubles by a pair of females! Shocking! I blame my partner for being a short-ass... Short people are t3h sucky :P

Wednesday, November 03, 2004

Nice haircut, Marine!

Quote of the moment: While talking about watching The Ring last night with Jimmy, I was tres amused... Here are the edited highlights:

Hulk: I watched the ring last night
Jimmy: have you watched the hole thing yet?
Jimmy: *whole
Hulk: PMSL
Jimmy: huh?


Sigh... Oh, the irony!

Today I made what was possibly a huge blunder: I had a haircut! My lovely long Einsteinian locks have been shorn! It's not quite Vince level short, but close, no? Judge for yourselves...

Witness the amazing receeding hairline!

Also, for your delight and viewing pleasure (and to make Jim jealous), the window of the shop in Edinburgh:

Jim's spiritual home!

Mine's in the front row, one to the left of centre... However, I'm sure Jim will be more concerned with the beauty in the middle of the back row! And on the topic of making Jim jealous, I sat next to three Russian girls on the train down from Edinburgh on Monday, who were happily chattering away in accents that would have had Jim begging for more... :P

Fitness Report: Does walking around Braintree count? Nope, didn't think so...

Monday, November 01, 2004

Hallo, Ween!

Quote of the moment: Happy birthday Kez-yarrrr! (For yesterday)

The epic Halloween get-together was most excellent!
I agree my dear comrade Ted: totally bogus!

Ahem. (Y) Ya! It was though, tbh :D

Personal highlights:

  • Rob m8 trying to stroll into a nightclub on Kaz's arm, because he'd lost his wallet whilst mashed up on Thursday night.
  • Rob m8 seeing Nick's hair and feeling insecure.
  • Me being owned by Nick for implying Diet Coke was unmanly.
  • Prillo trying to use me as a ghost shield on the vaults tour, in case something came through the wall.
  • Rob's glow in the dark face.
  • Jimmy getting Klu Klux Klan comments from virtually everyone, when dressed in his white sheet.
  • Playing Monopoly while attempting to ply everyone with alcohol... and failing with all except myself!
  • Finding a souvenir shop selling swords... and armour, and helmets... Samurai sowrds up to a humoungous Braveheart style double-handed broadsword.
  • Being so impressed that I gave Kaz m8 the squids to buy me one, since I forgot about them on Sunday. (Only a compartively ickle one though!)
  • Eating Rob's supplies: Jaffa Cakes, Jaffa cake mini-rolls and chocolate oranges. Anyone else interested in the Rob-recommended diet?!
  • Going shopping with Rob, Kaz and Nick, and discovering that neither of the latter two are capable of making a decision on anything trivial (eg Vanilla Diet Coke vs Diet Coke, or chocolate cake vs sponge cake).
  • Decorating the sponge cakes we eventually bought with some awesome Tesco ready-made icing (rolled with a Smirnoff bottle, since the rolling pin had gone AWOL).
  • Embarrasing Kaz by singing Happy Birthday.
  • Sitting in a squished-up bundle on a bench in the park on Sunday night, watching some n00bs set off fireworks while Rob recanted comic tales.
  • Getting up at 6.25-ish on Monday morning - un peu later than planned - and striding/running to the station with my mahoosive backpack on (mostly full of mahoosive sleeping bag).
  • Arriving just in time to see my train leaving... D'oh!

Fitness Report: I'm super, thanks to Kaz, my new personal PT instructor :D