Thank'ee

Quote of the moment:
"Happy Birthday"

Thank'ee Prill matey (and Jimmy matey) for: "The Curious Incident of the WMD in Iraq"

Twas very good. I got so distracted by reading it (can be ready in 45 minutes) that I forgot to say thank'ee. So thank'ee.

Tears Stream... Down Your Face...

Quote of the moment:
Lights will guide you home
And ignite your bones
And I will try to fix you

- Coldplay, Fix You. Best Coldplay song ever. The rest of the album's ok, but this is... it's like listening to "Wake Me Up When September Ends" before it was released as a single and overhyped and overplayed. Even that hasn't stopped me loving Fix You yet.

Took Sarah to school to get her bus to the airport for the Malta netball tour, at 3am (4am BST). Maybe staying up til then playing ISS 98 wasn't such a good plan.

Rents dropped me and Vicky off at the station today in tome for the 2 o'clock to Liverpool Street. Vicky was crying and kept saying she didn't want to go back! We went together as far as London, then split to go our seperate ways on the Tube. Amazing how she didn't cry at leaving me! I scared someone into hurrying to the other end of the tube carriage when I took my backpack off and started opening the top. Lol. How else am I supposed to take my washing back with me!?

Been doing my best for rowing club communication this weekend via text message. Tonight, however, I'm staying in with my lovely "Environmental Fluid Mechanics" notes. Argh. 9am tests. We hatesss them we doesss.

Stop All The Clocks

Quote of the moment:
"Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone,
Prevent the dog from barking with a juicy bone,
Silence the pianos and with muffled drum
Bring out the coffin, let the mourners come.

Let aeroplanes circle moaning overhead
Scribbling on the sky the message He Is Dead,
Put crepe bows round the white necks of the public doves,
Let the traffic policemen wear black cotton gloves.

He was my North, my South, my East and West,
My working week and my Sunday rest,
My noon, my midnight, my talk, my song;
I thought that love would last for ever: I was wrong.

The stars are not wanted now: put out every one;
Pack up the moon and dismantle the sun;
Pour away the ocean and sweep up the wood.
For nothing now can ever come to any good."

- W H Smith Auden.

The clocks have gone back. I'm waiting until 2.30am (which used to be 3.30am) to take Sarah into school to get the bus to the airport for her Malta netball tour. My dad had his maps spread out on the table to tell her about it. Lol. I'm sure he'd love to go back, but despite his British birth certificate (my grandpa was a Royal Marine) he's still liable for national service there. I wonder if that's expired yet?! Perhaps they'll call up Sarah instead...

Erm...?

Quote of the moment:
N/A

Amazingly dull day. Waiting for Sarah to land at Stansted in about half an hour's time. Will probs go in the car to pick her up, just because there's nothing to do here (and she'll probably object to having to tell the same stories twice).

The Fake Sound Of Progress

Quote of the moment:
"A new government has been announced in southern Sudan." - BBC News.

Hurrah for progress.

Am now at home. My fluid mechanics lecture finished on time for the first time this term, allowing me to scurry out at 4pm as asked for by the parents, but various accidents still made for a 4 1/2 hour trip home (instead of about 3). I slept through most of it, so no worries! Vicky was collected from the station about 10.30pm, so there's only Sarah's return from Dublin tomorrow to complete the family reunion.

Oh... er... yay.

:p

Reasons Today Was Awesome

Quote of the moment:
"Would you like my number?" - someone who understands my lack of speaking ability.

1. I turned up to rowing expecting a 5k, only to do a 1k plus evil circuits. Mmmm, medicine balls, my favourite.

2. Met my parents afterwards at Tesco Extra (which is near and on the way to/from the rowing club) and got my shopping done. Even after a £10 phone top-up I hadn't neared Vicky's demands given on Tuesday when they visited her, so I added a litre of Smirnoff. Well, it was £2.50 off.

3. Rents took me on tour of Cardiff Bay in search of Argos, so I wouldn't have to lug my shelves for my overflowing room back from the one in town. Failed, so went to the one in town and I lugged them back anyway.

4. Using the new inner tyre, with working valve (part of the Tesco shopping list) my Dad fixed my bike. I was just standing by and holding stuff occasionally.

5. I went to "Rubber Duck", the regular Wednesday club night, dominated by sports clubs. The rowing people were there, merry as ever. There are 3 reasons this was particularly awesome:

• i) I caught a Rubber Duck (yes, as in a mini bath one) with a VIP free entrance etc pass for next week's "Duck" attatched. Lineout skills demonstrated.
  


• ii) I also caught a Rubber Duck T-shirt. Got a hand to it, as did 3 other guys. Ripped and rolled like a pro, but it was a size "9-11"... kids/womens, I have no idea. I donated it to Steve's girlfriend (visiting from Liverpool) because it fitted her.
  


• iii) I spent the last 2 hours of the night in the company of a certain novice women's squad member, gradually being robbed of my collection of green glow bracelet things (it was a Traffic Light night). Number, name, halls, course, next training & social she's at, plus... filled the rest of the time.

No Rain, No Pain

Quote of the moment:
Well it's been a while hasn't it?

How are you doing? Have you done something different with your hair?



IT LOOKS CRAP!!!

"New post" emails from Weebl (which are merely the website notice reproduced) are almost as good as The Mighty Ten, which is apparently a new feature. The proof is displayed below:

"I like my women like I like my coffee – black, imported from the 3rd world, and at an exploitedly(sic) low price."

I'm willing to forgive the failed attempt at "exploitatively" for that.

In other news, my rents are coming to see me tomorrow, meeting me in Tesco Extra carpark (yeah baby!) after my rowing appointment. I'm unlikely to go rowing due to the overly high river (funny thing, it rains lots in Cardiff. Wales + Atlantic Ocean. Good combo) but I'll be doing a 5k "ergo". Ergo is slang for session on the rowing machine, aka an "ergometer". Tis only one version of an ergometer, which is a machine desinged to test muscular performance, but that's why it's called slang.

But I digress. A 5k ergo indeed, which should be great fun. I estimate around 20 minutes, but it'll probably be more once the "I feel dead, can I have a break?" factor kicks in. On the plus side, it'll make my next 2k seem fun.

Unrelated but also positive: my rents concurred that it was daft for me to go home a day after seeing them, especially because they're staying the night at my granny's nearby and going home the same day as me. So I've scored a free ride home. Hurrah!

P.S. I saw Dougie coming out of the union when in the ticket queue at lunchtime. He looked slightly less emaciated, which was shocking. That makes 3 so far: Paddy (obviously), Dougie and Inger Nag, from Vicky's year, who I spoke to half way around a pub crawl when slightly merry. Plus Anthony, of course.

An Equation For Comedy?

Quote of the moment:
"You seem like a nice, polite crowd, so I think I'll talk about rape." - Lloyd Lambeth.

Went to the BBC New Comedy Awards semifinals tonight. It was supposedly a Civil Engineering Society social, but basically involved the secretary getting an allocation of the free but guest-listed tickets and us meeting outside to get in.

Some went down better than others, there was a mix of storytellers, punchliners and audience interaction. My personal favourite was Lloyd Lambeth, who, according to the CV Google just gave me is the "regular compere for Warwick University's Comedy society". Yes Rob m8, you probably told us so a year ago.

The first semi was, however, won by Sarah Millican, who did a routine based on getting divorced. It had more of a continuous mutter of laughter than loud outbursts, but was funny in a painful "The Office"-like manner.

Test this morning wasn't great. Estimate around half marks. Couldn't get the intergration by parts to reach an end point, couldn't get started on another question. Both worth 10 marks out of 50. Sigh. Also one earlier question was far too easy. 4 marks for one step. I checked it against my copy of "A Calculus Refresher" though, so maybe it was a deliberate gift. Without that booklet and my resit notes I'd be bummed on pure maths, because the "lectures" are a crook of... poop.

We get notes with all the formulae and working removed, plus both rotating lecturers talk faster than Sheribum. One of them has a thick accent too, but it doesn't make much difference because as a non-multitasking male (like 90% of the audience) I spend my whole time frantically copying and don't have time to listen to the explanation. Without the explanation the notes are pretty useless anyway, since they explain things the same crap way as the incomprehensible A level text books.

On the plus side, my Dynamics lecturer is Anthony Huang's father, or at least relative of some sort. He has the posture, the walk, the talk, the glasses, the hair, the timidity and the suit which hangs off him in bags. In my last lecture with him I gleaned absolutely nothing from what he was saying, but his notes are good so I don't really care. I just have to concentrate on not remembering Vince's birthday, following Anthony as he drunkenly searched for Soho and "some girls".

Mmmm... Rice Krispies...

Quote of the moment:
"Mmmm... Rice Krispies..."

I'm now officially labelled a Rice Krispie fanatic. I sat in the "discussion room" by the library dreaming of them and making Homer-esque "Mmmmm" noises. My own fault for not getting up fast enough to have breakfast before going to revise with Richard and a couple of other people. Didn't get to eat until 6pm. I only got up at 2.30pm, but that's still obscene, especially when I was doing pure maths for most of that time.

I couldn't remember half the stuff but I still managed to explain intergration by parts to 3 people who did it half as long ago as I did. Hurrah!

In summary, a totally dull day. Going to attempt to do some weights now, for the first time since I got here, since the bruise on my spine from falling into a radiator the second night I was here is completely gone and the niggling pain has nearly gone. I wasn't too concerned, since the same's happened at least twice with my neck and it's cleared up after a while, but it's still annoying.

This post: 2/10. Mildy informative and devoid of entertainment.

The Old Man And The Sea

Quote of the moment:
"3 minutes and 23 seconds."

That was the time for my slightly altered version of "The Project" - no VK or Smirnoff Red, so Smirnoff Black, plus out of Strongbow -> both pints being Carling instead. Still, I did it in under 3 and a half minutes quite easily, with asides to the guys who were videoing me on their mobiles. That makes me think the slightly addled rowing guy meant 4 minutes average and Lewis managed 1 and a half. Hmmm. If not, I'm A) disappointed and B) well under the record. Oh, and C) reasonably well hammered. I didn't chunder afterwards either, although I did have to burp repeatedly to alleviate the intense pressure on my stomach.

I went a slightly different way home to K3, resulting in me waiting for them oustide their door. Rhodri got in, but Steve and "Little James" (as supposed to "Big James", who's on a Scouts and Guides camping weekend trying desperately to pull) were stuck outside while I waited by their door. After about half an hour of them circling the building and me dodging the view of the security patrols by hiding in the stairwell, they tried to get in and I jumped in behind them. This was after me tackling Steve and pinning him to the ground oustide (while my flatmate +friends walked past, returning from the same bar/club we'd been in. Lol. He then ran into the kitchen and grabbed a fork, which he proceeded to try and stab me in the arm with. Cue large graze. Ouch.

He then grabbed a rather sharp cooking knife, which, despite my swaying posture, I removed with a swipe of the K3 flat broom, followed by a twist of the wrist. Honestly. They though I was drunk! Anyway, I ended up going home with his knife, his fork and the K3 broom, which are all in my room at the moment. I would have given them back but Steve refused to say goodnight from within his locked door, unlike the other two (Rhodri and Little James). The other two occupants weren't present, due to scouting, as explained, and going back to Caerphilly for the weekend.

I'm old, and Cardiff's on the coast. You can hear the seagulls when you wake up in the morning. Hence the title. Sigh.