The Important Election

There was the trifling matter of a few councils, the Scottish Parliament and the Welsh Assembly a couple of days ago, but who cares about that? I was indifferent enough not to vote. What does matter is that Nicholas Sarkozy is the new president of France, in an election I would definitely have voted in. Possibly Bayrou, the third placed centrist eliminated in the first round, might have caught my fancy, but of the two finalists I'd definitely have backed Sarko. Break down the ridiculous French labour laws and generally overlarge state which will actually free up job opportunities for the immigrants he's hated by. Come down hard on crime. All good stuff.

On the topic of important, which T-shirt should I get?

The 600

Go tell the Spartans we made a sequel...

600 posts. Woohoo. Yes, this is one of those "I don't really have anything to say but I've been bullied into blogging" posts. I can't steal something from PostSecret because they're all Valentines themed cards this week, mostly bleak and mopey, and I can't identify with any of them. Sucks to be them. Although it sucks to be me too because I've got a 2k rowing test tomorrow and I haven't been on a rowing machine seriously in a month. It's going to be bad. Possibly horrific. In fact, it had better be. I need more bad stuff to balance out my reason to brave the overly commercialised sickeningly red and pink Valentines displays...

"I Grill with George"

This grill is automatic
It's systematic
It's hydromatic
Why it's a George Foreman!

My mum was moaning in the holidays about how she thought I wasn't eating enough proper meat. Apparently the occasional offerings of the Fortune House (free prawn crackers if you spend over £10) or even Mr Hong's Three Jolly Luck Takeaway Fish Bar are insufficient, as are sausages, even Lidl's finest spiced Bratwurst. I have therefore taken the revolutionary step of buying "a George", mostly because I saw it was half price in Tesco Extra when I was on my way to buy yet more weight discs. I also purchased a selection of grillable looking things (pork and chicken) that were on half price in the food section. Let the culinary laissez-faire commence.

Pillage

Major Christmas spoils: A couple of shirts, a pair of walking boots, 15 novels, a tome on bridges with pretty pictures, a huge painting by my sister that she was very offended to hear me describe as looking like pieces of pizza and a head torch.

I went shopping today to acquire something else for me on my parents behalf:


I also picked up a rather fine rugby shirt. Hurrah for sales.


Well, you know how I love putting up pictures of my shopping...

Happy Shopper

New trainers from Freeport today have destroyed my excuse not to go running. D'oh!

Total Shopping

Quote of the moment:
"Please stop your nipples staring at my eyes" - a t-shirt that walked past me in Bluewater.

Did some more very exciting shopping... USB Game Pad, PES 5 and Medieval Total War... even they're maxing out the laptop spec. Total War's winning on time commited thus far though. It's also retro enough for the cut scenes not to shudder.

Even more revolutionary, however, than me finally playing something other than Cossacks, is that I tidied my room today. Stuff had been accumulating on my desk, at least, since before I left for the USA last summer.

Danger! Danger!

Quote of the moment:
"Can you go here?" Jimmy, Will T and I can... 10 days left til Coillegillie :D

I got a spanky new tennis racket today (and promptly beat my long suffering Mother 6-4 7-5) and also this masterpiece: The Dangerous Book for Boys.

We Move Along...

Quote of the moment:
I dont want to talk
About the things we've gone through
Though it's hurting me
Now it's history
I've played all my cards
And thats what you've done too
Nothing more to say
No more ace to play

The winner takes it all... #

St Hildas College, Oxford, is becoming the final all female Oxford college to open its doors to men. What I noticed about the story, however, was that the photo included Liz Daplyn. She was whatever being my uncle's niece made her. Resquiescat in pace, Liz.

Speak to me, when all you got to keep is strong
Move along, move along like I know you do
And even when your hope is gone
Move along, move along just to make it through
Move along
Move along

Went shopping earlier, because I owed Paul a rugby ball for his one that I kicked backwards over my head and into an overgrown and ball-hiding garden. Oops. Also got some t-shirts (to horrify my mum, because I have about 50 already). Retail therapy. What a girl. Anyway, I can now fit quite easily into a medium, so I've found something to be positive about :D

Shopping Without Photos

Quote of the moment:
"Fruitcakes, loonies and closet racists" - David Campbell on UKIP.

Lucky you. Due to the lack of a connector cable, I didn't bother taking photos of my shopping. It was more interesting but less extreme than the 90 litre backpack of shopping. Two pairs of Nike trainers and two pairs of trousers (jeans and cords). One pair of blue/silver chunky trainers to replace my wrecked sports ones and one thin lightweight pair for dossing around, as a contrast to my beefy Vans. New trousers were needed because even the ones from September need roping in around the waist now. Hurrah for that.

The Road Map to War

Quote of the moment:
...
If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood
Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,
Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud
Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,--
My friend, you would not tell with such high zest
To children ardent for some desperate glory,
The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est
Pro patria mori.

- Wilfred Owen, Dulce et Decorum Est. The UK death toll in Iraq has now reached 100 in just under 3 years. To be perfectly honest, that's a lot less than it could be. The IRA killed 33 soldiers in a single blast in 1979. A woman going postal killed 6 ex-colleagues today.

I went on a bit of a shopping spree today... we were meant to have a 3 hour (yes, THREE HOUR) lecture on "Soil Mechanics" this afternoon but the lecturer hadn't turned up after half an hour, so everyone left and I went into town to look for something "80's cartoon character"-ish. I failed to find anything obvious, but I did get 3 tshirts from Primark (not shoes, Rob m8), U2's The Best of 1980-1990 from HMV (£7) and, from Fopp for £3 each, The Thrills' Lets Bottle Bohemia and Tom Macrae's new album (that I wasn't aware existed) All Maps Welcome:



Awesome cover art. Jealous, Podgy m8? First listening was ok, the second was better. Really need to try it without talking on MSN at the same time, but the omens are good...

Shopping!

Quote of the moment:
"Pwetty shoes!" - http://www.weebl.jolt.co.uk/shoes.htm

Went swimming in Chelmsford to work off some turkey. After that it was sales time. I got books, spanky new shoes and black tracky B's. My Felsted ones are getting holey and apparently have a german flag on. Red and yellow bands on DARK BLUE. Fools.


Spot the difference

Meanwhile my mum got me a toastie maker in Comet. Victory is mine!

Jolly Hockeysticks

Quote of the moment:
Runs are good. If you don’t have access to a gym run up a hill. If you don’t have acess to a hill buy one.

- Fitness plan for Christmas by Sex Pest.

Finally got some Christmas shopping done. Everyone's done apart from my dad, unless I just give my mum's present to both jointly. It's pretty awesome: a St Trinians box-set.



"You see, in other schools, girls are sent out quite unprepared into a merciless world ... but ... when our girls leave here, it is the merciless world which has to be prepared."

How to Shop Like a Man

Quote of the moment:
"The requested URL was not found on this server..." - Podgy is missing (neither here nor here), presumed snatched by the Thought Police. I went to the extreme lengths of a comic strip to illustrate my theory.

In other news, Claire brought homemade flapjacks to our final lecture today. I had 4. This granted me "loved" status for appreciating her cooking. Lol. Might also have been to do with me losing abysmally in a Gair Rhydd Su Doku race with her. She's promised chocolate muffins next week. Woohoo!

I went hardcore shopping today, cycling to Tesco Extra armed with my CCF backpack:


How to shop like a real man: no quiche here...


There was a bag of apples that I omitted in my decorative unpacking effect and were lurking behind the Rice Krispies.

Just for starters, the cider (on offer, w00t!), excluding cans, weighed 10.5 kilograms... another 3.5 for the tins, 3 for the squash, 6 for the apple juice... all in in all it was about 35kg, plus a few bits (bread, eggs, salad(!) etc) for Steve. In exchange I was using Steve's bike (my back wheel needs spanners, it's so out of line it's lodged against the frame) which was set just a touch low for me... At least I worked out where the icy patch in the carpark was on the way in, by doing an awesome (unintentional) motocross-style slide round the corner it was on!

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!

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.

Icecream Coneheads

Quote of the moment:
"Pie is SO SO SO SOOOO Gay!" - R.I.P. Bob Wants Pie, 12th June 2005. I hope it rises from the dead. It's tinged with zombie green anyway.

I forgot to mention that when in Chelmsford on Saturday we saw various performing groups, including the Coneheads, pictured below:


How many are there really?...

They came into the opticians when I was trying on some glasses (since my old ones are knackered and falling apart) and all lined up next to me to try on a pair each, then stood around me while one of them 'took a picture' with his prop camera. If only I'd had my camera...

I have selected an MP3 player, but my dad refused to let me buy it from a shop for £99 and prowled the internet for a better deal. Eventually he ordered it from Amazon for £89 (inc. p&p), but it's due to arrive on Friday or Saturday, leaving me with plenty of time to load it up, obviously! How handy!


Full size image

It has 1GB of flash memory, which is easily enough for my needs. The (optimistic, obviously) quote was 45 CDs worth, and my music collection can easily be whittled down to less than that. The clincher, though, was that it can run for (up to) 70 hours on a single AAA battery, when the average is about 10 hours. Hurrah!

God Bless America Britain

Quote of the moment:
PWETTY DWESS! - Vicky's Leaver's dress, a snip at £205.

I went to Chelmsford as part of a family shopping expedition today. Sigh. The inevitable failed phone batteries and missed meet-ups ensued, from 11am all the way to 5.30pm. I did, however, manage to get my dad to buy me dollars and travellers cheques, while I ogled the fittie behind the counter in the Co-op travel bureau.

I bagged a hugely baggy pair of jeans in TK Maxx with cool stitching. Instead of twin lines of gold stitching, one's gold and one's light blue. As Prill would say, 'FUNKY!'. I also got two spankingly good t-shirts in Matalan, including one with ENGLAND written across a "Lion Passant Guardant".


3 x Lion Passant Guardant

The perfect choice for Independance Day.

Our Chief Weapon Is...

Quote of the moment:
"Are you gonna pull those pistols or whistle Dixie?" - Josey Wales (Clint Eastwood) to four Union soldiers.



That would be the film in which, instead of smoking cigars, he chews spit tobacco and every time he spits at someone's feet, they get angry and then get shot. It's kind of inevitable and thus couldn't be stretched to a trilogy, unlike the cigars.

Today I went into Chelmsford to visit my agency. Sadly I don't qualify for the three weeks paid holiday during the refit, so I'm being reassigned. Since I managed to turn up on time to The Waterfront for a month, they sent me for an interview at a firm looking for reliable temps. It was a pretty cool job, assembling cooler covers for British Aerospace equipment, involving mostly nut'n'bolting or screwing pieces together. The distinctive green colour gave away the contractee's identity rather easily, but unlike most of their part I suspect it was for a portable satellite phone battery or something more aggressive of that ilk, because of the strapping that would be attatched last. Whatever, it would be more interesting what with some bits of soldering to be done and the technical drawings to be read.

They didn't show any obvious unhappiness with me, while I managed to mention my future engineering studies and my spankingly good DT A*, so if they can't find anyone to work for longer then I might be taken on for the 6 weeks until I leave, which mean I was sorted. It seemed quite a relaxed place, with most of the assemblers (at benches resembling a quality DT lab with seats) about my age. They also had music playing, which helps pass the time nicely. The downside would be having to be there at 8am, like Jimmy was doing. Alas, poor late nights - I knew them well.

Between going to Bell and getting phoned with the interview time ("as soon as you can drive there") I went shopping. You may have thought I couldn't need anything more, so you'd be spared any more dull pictures of my acquisitions.


Un-pwetty deck-shoes for canoeing & a patriotic non-hacky sack

Nobody expects my Spanish Acquisitions!

Short Shorts

Quote of the moment:
Had first exam yesterday. went quite well, apart from put wrong title on it. - Will T. Bless... what a fool.

Shopping in Chelmsford this afternoon produced a sleeping bag liner from Black's (having pulled it upside down over my head to look like a ghost while checking it fitted my shoulders) and a couple of pairs of shorts from Matalan to strike off my packing list. I also saw three out of five of the Russians, all separately and two with another Russian each. Somewhere there must be a building full of them, probably with a huge store of vodka.


Left: £4 cheapos. Right: £16 tougher pair with pocketssess.


The sleeping bag liner.

I had a random little notion while driving home: in addition to the full-size Union Jack I'm packing for Independance Day, I should find the little Jolly Roger from my childhood holidays in Scotland and fix it to my canoe in America, pour encourager les enfants:



It would also give me an excuse to say "YARRRR!" lots.

Big Cakes Please Small Minds

Quote of the moment:
Will: "You look really mature."
Prill: [Gasps in theatrical horror, with hands clasped to face]
Will: "No, I meant you don't look like a school-girl any more. Well, not until you did that, anyway."
Prill: [Pouts]
Will: "Exactly."

Went into Chelmsford today, to purchase a present for Prill. Had a look in Game, but they still don't have any GameCubes in, damn them. They're listed on the site as out of stock, too.

Having found the present, Vicky (who was clothes shopping) and I headed to Tesco to buy £5 worth of stuff to get out of the carpark. I rang Jimmy to see if there was any party food they wanted, and since they were in Chelmsford too we agreed to meet up. Half an hour later we had a trolley full of party food and no sight of Prill and Jimmy. The lure of the pwetty shoes was obviously too strong. When they did turn up we spent ages trying to persuade Prill to make a decision on what cake to buy. [Sighs]

The eventual party food list is:
1 tub, Haribo Starmix
1 tub, Haribo Tangfastic
1 large packet, BBQ Doritos
1 large packet, Cheese Doritos
1 large packet, Chili Doritos
1 large packet, Lime Doritos
1 triple packet, Jaffa Cakes
2 packets, Party Rings
2 bottles, Coca Cola
1 packet, Iced Gems
1 cake, large sponge
1 cake, medium chocolate

For those of a more visual inclination, that's this much:



Yes, the indecision was solved by having both kinds of cake, including one huge one with nice thick icing for Prill. Accordong to the boxes that's 32(20 + 12) people's worth of cake, but given that one is a kid's cake and the other a fancy one, and that portions are always stingy, we halved that to about 16 decent slices. That's enough for everyone and thirds for me!

We also got eggs, bacon and bread for bacon and egg sarnies in the morning(or afternoon, depending on when we get up). All alcohol concerns should be amply furnished from the house stock, which includes a full litre of Smirnoff Red Vodka and a fair few Smirnoff Black Ices, as well as a diverse assortment of beer.

Any queries?!