Freshers Fool

Quote of the moment:
"You wish to join the Sci-Fi society" - Costumed Jedi at the societies fair. Perhaps not.

I did, however, join the Film soc, plus RAG and the student newspaper because they're free. :D No Indie soc to be found... perhaps I went before they'd got out of bed.

I signed up for the OTC yesterday outside the "companies fair" which was a mix of hiring and deals, plus an HMV stand giving away posters which was the most popular by miles. I walked up to a uniformed girl who was eyeing up potential recruits and said "Where do I sign up?" which threw her quite a bit! Mwahaha... Unfortunately I have to parade at the barracks (20 to 25 minute walk) at 9am on Saturday for the selection day. How unhandy!

Sports fair is tomorrow: fencing, swimming (possibly), badminton (possibly) and rowing, which by some fluke seems to be the sport of choice for 2 of the small gang of neighbours I've been going out with this week. How handy!

My accomodation is pretty ok, apart from a broken underbed drawer ('fixed' by being screwed into place and the front taken off, since the unattached runner wouldn't actually fit into the gap) and a door latch that drops when the door is shut, potentially locking my keys in my room. My flatmates are all pretty quiet (apart from when trying to do late night munchies-induced cooking). There are three welsh and one english, all boys, called Richard, Jonny, Dai and Mauri(sp?). The last is, bizarrely, the english one! They're doing Civil Engineering, Maths, Physics and Chemistry respectively (obvious if you look at a campus map) so there'll be no idle arts students lying about the place :p

I've done most of my induction stuff, with only the IT and maths induction test tomorrow to go. Scary. My halls was networked over the summer holidays and only connected up gradually, house by house, this week, hence my lack of posting.

There was no need for Jim's dire warnings about females, since the only person I know who's done anything at all this week is the one with a girlfriend at home. SIGH. A girlfriend of 3 weeks, no less, since the night before she left for Liverpool Uni. I pity the fool.

I must be going - Jason Donovan is appearing at the weekly retro-fest union club night tonight. Essential stuff.

Pie slice out.

Will

To Boldly Go...

Quote of the moment:
The next time I blog, I'll be a fully paid up University Undergraduate, with all the debts, social problems and smelly socks that that entails. - Will T

What he said. His mum presented me with a copy of "Talk Tidy - The art of speaking Wenglish" to help me with the dialect of those Walesians from less anglicised places than Cardiff, which wull be most handy by thurr. 'nk 'oo.

In honour of the occasion, I have this:


Nabbed from the bizarrely named "Look At His Butt"

What can I say but...

N00 Year

Quote of the moment:
"Jim m8, I have a cunning plan..."

What with Prill m8 being in a touch of trouble with her rents and all and Jim wanting people to come see his flat, I proposed to him that we should have the n00 year gathering at Jim's bachelor pad. He has no flatmates (apart from his Alienware, which might demand the sole use of the second bedroom) and plenty of space, so we're in there, especially since he plans to get a huge TV. Ideal for gaming :D

Bloated Gloating

Quote of the moment:
"Out of my way, you fat turd!"

I got a little carried away playing Double Dash. Oops. Between me, Jimmy and Will T it was completed, however, before they left this yesterday afternoon. Hurrah! Thank'ee kindly, Rob matey.

Will T is officially odd(er than I'd previously realised) for eating Oat Crunch cereal with all the nuts and raisins carefully sifted out, WITH APPLE JUICE POURED ON. How rare!

Before they arrived on the previous day I pared my running time down to 10min 51s, which was as handy as a preloaded pie cannon.

Today I managed to achieve something by cashing my unspent travellers cheques just too late to make bank closing time, so I returned home particularly flush. How handy! Anyone for a wager, chaps?

Essex Vicky Is Dead... Arise, Brummie Vicky

Quote of the moment:
"Now in 2005, you can look forward to seeing Supergrass, 2 Many DJ's, Ian Brown, Bloc Party, The Magic Numbers, The Coral, The Ordinary Boys, Kt Tunstall and Motorhead." - Cardiff Union Ents page. Lolathon.


It's undeniable...

Prill's ginger. Not that it's necessarily a bad thing: redheads are fiery in bed, legend has it...

Vicky has finally departed for the University of Birmingham. Hurrah for me being able to use the car at last!

The most important news, however, is that while shopping for smaller jeans (size 36 Vans - score :D) in Freeport today I bought The Colour and The Shape for £5.

WHEEEEEEEEEE!

Oooooh... Look what I found looking at Foo Fighters stuff: Noise and Confusion. It's like a one day festival in the Millenium Stadium on Saturday the 10th of December. That's a week from the end of my term, but Vicky finishes the day before, so peeps might be free. I reckon I'll be going anyway!

Proper Bo, I Tell Thee

Quote of the moment:
"ARGH! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" - Me, upon failing to get the 150cc All-cup Gold cup after a cruel twist of fate knocked me from 1st to 7th. Bah.

Le Will T is over 'spending time with Vicky before she goes'. For that, read Vicky is packing and yelling gossip through from the dining room while Will and I play Double Dash.

I was persuaded out for a run when Will arrived (in a driving instructor's car - shock horror!) since I needed to get up anyway. I ran an absolute blinder (compared to the the traditional out-of-puff shuffle) and finished the 1.5 miles in 11 minutes 9 seconds, a highly sexual 21 seconds under the Army test standard.

GABORA!

The Big Guns

Quote of the moment:
Still.. There are no FIT FIT fitties:P They're all too blonde and stuff. - Maybe you had to meet him, but for some reason all the US and Canadian chicks adored 'English Lee' (On the right below).


Still "too blonde and stuff"? :p

Also, for the benefit of Rob, there's Rachel in the red swimsuit.

Had an entertaining evening... Went to Aroma with Paddy, Hawwy, Rob, Jim, Fergie, Pete Vernon and Paddy's mate John. Everyone stuffed themselves at the buffet. Then hit the arcade in the bowling place and everyone was awed by John's immense DDR skills, honed on his mat at home. He actually had an audience of about 15 (including us). Impressive stuff. Got a pint, then chugged it (against Rob m8) before going next door to Chicago's.

Unfortunately the Grolsch burps combined with my straining stomach made me barf to release the pressure and when I emerged from the bogs I got escorted off the premises by a bouncer who thought I was slaughtered! How unhandy! I then walked home, thinking Vicky was still out with the car, only to be passed by her just as I got to the house. Unhandy again! However, my luck increased when Rob and Jim came to play on Jimmy's cube. Jim, the sneaky git, then ran off home leaving me with a tired and befuddled Rob m8. All in all a most random evening!

Just For Prill...

Quote of the moment:
"However I do not spot any fitties. Well, no fit fit fitties." - Prill m8 on my photos.


Mostly English counselors on a day off at Skinners Falls.

Better now, Prill m8?

A Photographic Trip Synopsis

Quote of the moment:
"Are you the real Will or the twin?" - Shaun from the Westmont climbing tower, encountering me on the Broadstairs high street.

I cba to resize the photos, partly because some of them have important detail and also I'm not wasting my time on something that could still be deleted. In chronological order:


My division of campers, the Rangers.


Me making a superb block in the GaGa court.


Near the start of a chaotic division-sized GaGa game.


The baseball game (followed by fireworks) on the 4th of July.


The boys side flagpole on the 7th of July (the Union Jack is mine).


The post-evening-activity fire from my first camp-out.


The fireplace, storage hut and 2 of the 3 tents at the campsite.


My hut, with mattress and mosquito net.


The winning lower camp 'sing'.


Jared, one of the kids in my bunk, in my rucksack on packing day.


Shaun and Kirstie, the other two climbing tower staff, in NYC.


Awesome upwards shot on the Empire State Building at sunset.


My dug and dammed filling pool at a spring in Shenandoah N.P.


Me upon my return, 2 stone lighter and beard-faced.

The Countdown Begins

Quote of the moment:
"Excuse me Mrs Poyntz, but I can't find my blue games socks and I've looked absolutely everywhere for them. - One of the terribly, terribly posh boys at Wellesley House.

I've just returned from Kent. Last night I stayed on one of the spanky new futons in the upstairs TV room/bedroom for Vicky/me. Sarah's the only one who gets her own room, since she'll be there the most. The house is actually about the same size as ours though, just with fewer, larger rooms. Both the formal downstairs sitting room and the TV room/bedroom upstairs are huge, plus my dad has a study the size of the sitting room here, complete with one door to the Housemaster's house and one to the boarding house, naturally.

On the shopping trip this morning I bought (on the parental credit card) a very important potato masher, a new pair of trousers and some new t-shirts which are a mere size L, because most of my current ones are rather baggy (both t-shirts and trousers). I also met Shaun, who I worked with on the climbing tower at camp, on the high street in Broadstairs. How rare!

I have discovered a handy Freshers Checklist to consult. It's overly huge but some bits might be handy.

Excellent

Quote of the moment:
"Party on, Wayne!"
"Party on, Garth!"



Guess what I got in Braintree today...

Whilst there, I also had a haircut and opened a student bank account with Natwest, thus securing a railcard. Since a haircut is slightly pointless without a shave, I did that before going, so the awesome 'bear(d)' is no longer.

Alas, poor B34RD.

Moving Day

Quote of the moment:
Oh, and I wanted to close with a stupid joke about the latest MOTO RAZR and MOTO ROKR fones. If you have been hiding in a hole for the last year, they are MOTO ROLA's latest sleek fones that come with Cingular's crappy calling plan. Anyway: I think I just came up with the next generation product idea... a mobile fone with high-powered vibrate functions, called the MOTO FUKR...

Even Cambridge (and MIT) can't get rid of the dirty sense of humour. Encouraging, yet tragic.

It's D-Day. The big one. The final seismic shift tearing a rift in the fabric of life. Is it a bird? Is it a plane? Is it going to university?

Not for another 12 days, no. It's the last day of my dearly beloved Felsted directory. It must be understood that there are some (totally unusable due to my lacking DRAW) files on there that I made 11 years ago in my first year at the prep school. At least, there might be. I can't actually remember.

Anyway, it's very emotional. I'm attempting to copy all the recent/relevant stuff now, before some evil computer monkey gets up in the morning and destroys my legacy forever.

Alas poor Y012121(|<...

Mind The Gap

Quote of the moment:
"You've seen combat? Where?"
"On the television."
- Mentioned by Paddy's local friends.



I had a plan for this evening involving tidying my room and other such useful things. I was going to watch some meaningful television (Dispatches on dyslexia) and possibly read for a bit.

After the boredom kicked in around 8.30 I started ringing. Jim and Jimmy both failed to reply (due to apparently separate and merely coincidental gaming) but Paddy was going to the Three Horseshoes in Felsted to meet some... local people. When he mentioned the possibility of seeing Anna's boyfriend Will, who I suspect looks like an extra from Braveheart since he has long ginger hair + beard, I was tempted. Since I said Vicky could take the car and stay the night in Little Baddow, I had to cycle.

One shower, Jimmy phoning back, phoning my dad to ask where he hid my bike-lock key, being subjected to interrogation about how little of my 'To Do' list is complete (he scored it as half an item - a completed but unreturned form and tyre pumping took a large chunk of time, but just as much was consumed by trying on every clean pair of trousers I own in the search for a pair that fit. They're either falling-down loose or a good 4 years old. Mwhahaha on the one hand, bollocks-I-spent-£20-on-those-jeans-and-never-wore-them-before-leaving on the other. I cut out the tags too. Bah. I'm back into normal shop-stocked sizes. Woo hoo!

That aside, I set out just before 10 and arrived around quarter past. No sign of Anna or the highlander but Desperate Dan (Haustrup) was there. When the pub closed shortly after my arrival we headed to Paddy's for some more online Halo 2 and a bizarre 3-way game of snooker.

The most revolutionary part of the evening, however, was that upon my return I cooked myself supper! (It makes sense on my US time-scale: 2.30am would only be 9.30pm) I made bangers, beans and mash. The mash had an over-liberal dash of salt in the water and the sausages were microwavable Frankfurters, but I was still impressed with myself. Getting around to doing the washing up is more of a challenge.

I Have A Cunning Plan, My Lord

Quote of the moment:
15st 4lb - Proof that the scales are bust. I am now 1lb short of losing 2 stone since I left. Cough cough bollocks cough cough.

Went to Paddy's the night before last to catch up on Mr Xbox. Cue reaquaintance with Halo 2.

Last night Jimmy came over, fully armed with Cube etc. No need. ISS 98 is all that is required, monsieur! When Jim appeared we switched to PD, watched Donnie Darko for variety and then more ISS 98 when Jim went home so he could get up and prepare for the return of his rents.

I then began an attempt to reorientate myself to British time in the wrong direction. Instead of going to bed early, I'm going to bed late. For example, last night yesterday morning I went to bed at about 9am. I'm now planning to go to bed at least past midday. The day after that I can go to bed in the early evening, if not later, and the day after that I'll be back in sync.

Of course, I could just go to bed now, but that wouldn't be as much fun.

Booze Schmooze

Quote of the moment:
"For future reference, right-handed men don't hold it with their left." - Gattica. Awesome stuff. Follow your dreams. You can meet your goals. I am living proof. Beefcake! BEEFCAKE!!!



I am officially le back, le beautiful and not wishing to get le bored. In an attempt to avoid said boredom there will be some kind of gathering centred on my (weirdly empty and hollow) house. Please submit your dates of availability below :p

P.S. Post 300 :D