I buy Some Stuff

A Sunday with not much promise turned out pretty decent in the end. My mum and dad decided to take me to shop for most of the things I need for Uni. We went to a supermarket of all places, but it was one of those superstores so had everything. I now have pots and pans, plates, cutlery, towels and various other necessities. I of course have to pay for all of this but being a supermarket it was pretty reasonable. I managed to pay only £3.84 for an iron. My mum and dad were kind enough to buy a TV for me, though it’s only an ickle 18.5 inches- but hey I’m happy with anything.

I have cooked my own dinner the last couple of days in preparation for going. It was quite amusing as my dad thought I wouldn’t be able to do anything but I managed perfectly well. I can cook perfectly fine.

On the TV today was Bond film Moonraker. It’s one of the worst Bond films but the presence of giant assassin Jaws does improve it a little. And the line at the end “I think he’s trying for re-entry…” is one of the best double-entendres ever!

Tomorrow is going to be a good day as I’m going with a bunch of mates to Cardiff in Wales. It will probably be a very random day but an excellent one all the same.

Accommodation and Aliens

Wow, it’s been a fairly eventful day so it’s time to try and condense it into words and put it into a blog. “On y va” as they say in France.

I was awoken fairly early this morning by my mother, who was brandishing the morning’s post. It was information about my accommodation at Uni for the next year. It turns out I am at the site I wanted though I do have to share a bathroom rather than having an en-suite which is annoying but I guess I’ll live with it. It’s in the quiet area of the campus which is also good because though I like a bit of clubbing occasionally it’s not going to be that often and I will get pissed off if people wake me up in the night.

The other information the letter contained was a bit of a shock- I move in a week earlier than we previously had thought. I move out of my parent’s house in just over three weeks. I am rather excited about this though living somewhere where I know no-one is quite daunting but I guess I will have to put on my Dan charm and meet some people and make some friends. Fingers crossed.

Much of the day was spent organising various things for moving out and also watching the cricket. England scored a ridiculous number of runs and then got Pakistan out really quickly. It’s lovely to see us doing well and I think the chances of winning the Ashes are pretty high this year.

This evening was a “horror night” at my friend Lloyd’s house. We randomly watched Brainiac: Science Abuse for a bit and then put on a film. The chosen film was Aliens (as in the sequel to Alien). It took annoyingly long to get going and actually I didn’t think much of it when it did. The whole scenario is so unlikely it’s not scary and it wasn’t really jumpy either. Most of the “gore” was seen through blurred video screens so there wasn’t much of that. Also I didn’t think you got much chance to like most of the characters except Ellen of course. Don’t get me wrong, it’s OK but it doesn’t make me want to rush out and see any other Alien films. It just didn’t have that special something for me.

Random comments and discussions passed between me and Mike during the film and after it we pulled out House of the Dead: Overkill (only available on Wii) and shot a load of mutants. Other people had goes whilst I chatted and stuffed myself with sweets. I must have had near enough two packets of Haribo tonight and I had such a sugar rush. My mouth feels horrible now, even after brushing my teeth. No sweets for a while I think…

My blog entry yesterday started a small argument about whether I was right to say “coffee sucks”. Emily agreed with me and Coffee Bean described it as near to blasphemy. What do you think? I have 49 followers on this blog now so the next new follower will be a very special number fifty. I look forward to having you on board!

I Actually Drink Some Coffee

So how was I feeling this morning after a reasonably large amount of alcohol last night? Well actually not too bad. I don’t seem to get hangovers, which must be good, and I remembered everything from last night. I did feel pretty tired though and I guess this was due to the several hours of lying in bed with my head swirling.

I was actually awoken pretty early by my dad as we were going to see my granddad this morning. I was so tired I actually had a coffee in the coffee shop. I don’t drink coffee, or tea, and this makes typical social situations even more awkward for me. But coffee does contain caffeine of course and in times when I need waking up I will force myself through the horrible taste. I had a Latte and the froth made me bare the taste a bit longer. But I still think coffee sucks.

So the three generations wandered around a place called Poole for a few hours. Nothing exciting happened there. I didn’t even see a train go through the level crossing! But on return to my granddad’s I was fortunate to witness something quite amusing: my dad putting together a piece of flat-pack furniture. Of course as the young man I am now this probably should be my job but I am useless with anything practical like that. I just sat on the sofa and watched my dad curse and generally make a hash of putting a display cabinet together.

This afternoon gave me time to listen/read things on the internet. Taio Cruz is such a nice guy and I’m starting to love his new song “Dynamite”. Also I am enjoying the ranking system on Bejewelled Blitz, my fave Facebook game. I really have an addiction of that.

The proof of age card that I only sent off for two days ago arrived today. I didn’t even pay extra to have it done quickly! So now I have a card with my age and a picture of me looking like a convict on it rather than having to take my passport everywhere. It’s rather handy.

This is a bank holiday weekend in the UK (except for Scotland) meaning we get Monday off work. I’m actually having a fairly busy weekend as there is a “Horror Night” at Lloyd’s house tomorrow and I’m going to Cardiff, Wales on Monday with a bunch of friends. It’s going to be boss!

Chris’ 18th

Hello people, it’s been a couple of days I know. That’s because little happened on Wednesday other than work. Today has been a decent day, though I was asleep for the entire morning. Lazy me.

In general news, the weather here has been pretty rubbish over the last few days. There have been some really heavy showers and it doesn’t ever seem to stop raining. My mate Chris failed his driving test this morning, which must be rubbish for him. It doesn’t take a lot to fail. That’s partly why I still haven't even started to learn yet- I don’t think I will be able to drive. I don’t know anything about cars whatsoever. No idea how to drive one. Let alone avoiding other cars and generally not getting killed. I think I shall leave driving for a few years.

Anyway, talking of Chris, it was his 18th birthday gathering tonight at the local pub. There were nine of us in total and we all sat and had a laugh. One of our friends turned up with a roast chicken to eat for dinner. It was lucky we were sitting outside as otherwise he would have got chucked out. I planned to avoid drinking much alcohol tonight. Five bottles of cider and a vodka shot later and I was rather drunk. Actually it was my second vodka shot but I spilt the first so that doesn’t really count. It was me, Chris and Mike, the terrible threesome left at the end which was nice. We were all quite drunk but we were having an awesome laugh.

When the time came for Mike to be picked up myself and Chris went for a short, drunken walk around the streets of Ringwood. It was raining a fair bit at this time and I was pretty soaked by the time I finally ended up home. All in all a wonderful night.

I’ve been thinking about myself a bit lately. I’ve become a bit more confident with people I don’t know lately and I plan to keep this up when I go to Uni. But I’ve also come up with something else I’m going to change. I’m not exactly what you would call “cool” but that’s just who I am. After years of being teased and abused over my tastes and personality I have become quite self-conscious. But I am going to stop that now. I am me. I shouldn’t care what people think of me, I should just be myself and I will be fine. So that’s what I am doing now.

Banks, Buying Stuff and Baking

Tuesday. Tuesdays are good. The weather seems to be a little better than other days and it’s always a day off. As much as I love working, it is nice to know that Tuesday will be free. So how was this particular Tuesday?

It started well with a decent lie-in, which I haven't had in a week. After a few hours of not doing anything particularly, it was time to tick a few things off the “Things to do before going to Uni” list. The first of these was getting a student bank account. The poor woman at Natwest had loads to set up that day and rushed me through the process in just over ten minutes. (I chose Natwest because you get a free railcard, which will come in handy). Annoyingly I had to spend fifteen minutes queuing to give a form in. Queues in banks move ridiculously slowly.

The next thing was buying some stationary. I already have a fair bit but I bought a few things that I thought I may well need, like colouring pencils. Also I like buying stationary. Not sure why really, it’s just nice to have new stuff. It only cost 50p because I used the voucher I got for being “Most Improved in Geology”, which is ironically really as I ended up with the same grade two years running.

Next was taking a passport-style photo for various things. Using those photo machines is always really annoying. I had to lower the stool by miles and it took three attempts before I got an “OK” picture. The second of these I looked like I was about to kill someone. I still look pretty scary in the best one but I suppose it will have to go. Now my sinister face will be on a student card (which will get me money off things) and a proof of age card- I need one because the only proof of age I have is my passport and it’s a pain to take around, plus the photo is from when I was fifteen.

The evening was fairly quiet other than a visit to a family friend who is a police officer who could sign the form for the proof of age card. I went for my walk as usual and watched some TV. I ended up watching “The Great British Bake-Off” where people have to bake things like scones and meringues. At the end it asked if you had been inspired to cook and my answer was no, but I had been inspired to eat. I also saw the penultimate episode of submarine drama “The Deep” which was pretty good though unnecessarily sad I thought. Then again it is wise to never believe someone is dead until you see their body on screen. It may turn out well. We will have to see.

That was quite a long entry, I apologise, especially as the contents was pretty much drivel. Maybe I made you chuckle at some point. Anyway, time to go. Over and out.

A New Pet Hate

I worked today, which was pretty enjoyable. It’s hard to believe that the school Summer holidays are nearly over, with only this week and next week left. At least I won’t be going anywhere for a few weeks beyond that. I have been enjoying Summer hols since June!

Some music and a bit of sun (which is a rarity at the moment here) put me in an excellent mood when I went for my usual evening walk. It’s been so wet the last week I haven't been for days, so it was nice to get back out there. Here’s a couple of random but rather nice pictures I took:

That’s a plum by the way if you’re wondering.

I have developed a new pet hate recently. Why do news programmes insist on having a live report on most stories? For example they will have a story about the economy and then there will be a live broadcast from outside the Bank of England. What’s the point in them being there? There is nothing going on there and we already know the story! It’s a waste of money and bad for the environment. If they really need to have someone talking about a news report, why can’t they do it in the studio, making the whole thing much cheaper? The pointless live on location reports add nothing to the story and you get distracted by passing traffic and people and don’t really listen to the story. End of rant. BBC: take note.

Before I go, I just want to say thank you to all the lovely people who have been reading this blog recently. It’s nice to have you on board, and don’t forget that I love your comments so type one below!

A Snapshot of My Future

This morning I went with my parents to Winchester, my home-town when I start Uni there in a month. The purpose of this visit was to help me to find my way around the town and to see what shops there are.

Getting from the Uni to the town is pretty easy and I have the route in my head right now, so it shouldn’t be a problem when I get there. Clearly the place I will buy most of my food will be Sainsbury’s, with the odd thing coming from Iceland maybe. I may also visit coffee shops occasionally (there are loads of them) and maybe the Shakeaway (a shop that makes amazing milkshakes). We also found the railway station, which is important as it’s the way I’ll be coming into and out of the town.

The town itself it pretty nice. I’ve not really looked around it much before but I liked what I saw today. Winchester is really old and is famous for it’s connection with King Alfred the Great, who died in 899AD. That’s shows just how old the city is and this means there are loads of old building scattered around it. There’s rarely a modern build in sight!

On return home from this little excursion I made a list of all the things I have to do before I go to Uni. It’s a pretty long list. Bank accounts, things to take with me, student card etc. The initial excitement about having my place confirmed has been a little reduced now. I’m quite anxious about it. The idea of going to a new place and knowing next to no-one is terrifying, as is the idea of living on my own and buying food, cooking, washing clothes and generally fending for myself. I know it will all be fine but the first couple of weeks are going to be quite scary. But then I guess that’s all part of the experience.

So I’m rather full of a combination of both excitement and anxiety. Everything will be fine in the end, it’s just I have to get there first. It’ll be an adventure.

Oh, and before I go I shall just mention a little thing about this blog. (If you’re reading on Facebook this doesn’t affect you, so stop reading.) I shall now be adding labels to all my posts meaning that it will become easier to read all my posts on a certain topic. Boring but useful. End of blog. Continue with your life.

The Air Show That Never Was

Myself and my good friend Chris headed into Bournemouth to see the annual air show. Last year it was really warm and everyone got sunburnt but this year it was windy and rainy. We arrived in time to see a helicopter fly around a bit but that was as much of the air show that actually happened. The clouds were too low and the visibility was too poor so nothing else could fly, which was a shame. I would have liked to see the spectacular Red Arrows once again but sadly this was not possible.

Chris and I decided that we would enjoy the day despite the lack of aircraft and the rubbish weather. During the air show many stalls line Bournemouth seafront and are companies and charities trying to promote themselves. This means there tends to be some freebies, which I love. I got two small boxes of Nestle cereal and two cereal bars (fruit and nut). There was also a fun-fair bit and me and Chris went on the dodgems. Chris drove as we figured it would be good practice for his driving test whilst I kept my foot on the accelerator (gas for all you foreign types). If he drives like he did on the dodgems in his test he will fail, but then again you are supposed to crash in the dodgems. It was rather entertaining or “boss” as Chris would describe it.

Further along the beach was a bike show. There were a load of ramps and things and two world-champion bikers did all sorts of tricks. It was put together on the spot and one of the guys front wheel fell off, but he carried on and hopped all round the mini-stadium on only one wheel. It was incredible and those guys were completely insane! I managed to take a couple of pics too:

We then went to McDonalds for lunch. I had my favourite, a Fillet-O-Fish- fish in a burger- Ronald is a genius! I was given a free Coca-Cola glass too randomly, which shall come to Uni with me. We popped into the bookshop and I bought a book called “Eleven” by the comedian Mark Watson, which I shall report on when I’ve read it. Actually bought isn’t really the word because I used a book-token I found in my wallet. So essentially that was free too.

All in all it was an enjoyable day despite the weather and the lack of planes. I got a bunch of free stuff and had a good laugh with my mate. Excellent.

A Fantastic Friday

I should begin today’s entry my everyone that congratulated me on getting into Uni. That made the whole thing even better. At first when people said “well done” I felt that I hadn’t really done much. But when I thought about it I realised how much work I put in to get those grades. So actually it was well done by me.

Anyhows, today I was working at a place called Adventure Wonderland which is a theme park for kids. I had a wonderful time as always though two staff rides on the swinging pirate ship straight after lunch was not the best of ideas. I felt quite sick.

I was rather good at the usual Friday night badminton sesh. I was winning points by diving on the ground and everything. This is another thing I will miss when I go to Uni but hopefully I will be able to play over there.

That’s all I’m writing today. Very short I know. Tomorrow I am going with my friend Chris to see the Bournemouth Air Show, which should be awesome.

Results Day

Today was the day that changed my life.

I was up early, after having an awful night’s sleep, to go into school and pick up my A-level results. I required a certain level of grades to get into the university I wanted to go into. If you are a regular follower of this blog you know how much this means to me and how worried I have been about it. Opening the envelope was perhaps the most nerve-racking thing I’ve ever done. After some confusion about which letters were actually my grades, I discovered I was one grade short of the offer I’d been given. But there was still a chance that I would be accepted so I had to endure the most nerve-racking forty minutes of my life where I walked home and logged onto my laptop, which was being slower than usual. I finally made it onto the university site to find, to my delight, that I have been given a place.

On September 27th I start a course in Primary Education at Winchester University. My dream has come true. After a few joyous hours of being at home the post arrived and there was a letter from the uni with loads of information about it and when I start. It got me even more excited if that was possible.

I had to return to school again to pick up the official statement of results which I will eventually have to give to uni. There were no nerves this time though. On the way in I saw my history teacher who was very pleased with my result and shook me firmly by the hand. Mr R was the best teacher I ever had in my entire school life and he is one of the people responsible for getting me into Uni. The other person was my English teacher who helped me to improve my coursework, Mr L. It turns out that the grade for the coursework was boosted by a grade which affected the overall grade quite a lot. Without that help I would probably have achieved lower and would not have been accepted. Of course the rest of my teachers also played an important part it getting me to this position.

As a treat for getting into Uni we had a family meal out at Nando’s, my fave restaurant. As usual the spicy chicken did begin to make my eyes water (I always end up having a really spicy meal). It was nice to sit and eat lunch with the family as this doesn’t happen very often and will become rarer and rarer as my life progresses.

This afternoon was the afternoon my mum got her new car. The lease on her beloved Mini had run out and she bought a brand new car. It’s a Fiat 500 in bright pink. The car itself is pretty cool though the extreme pinkness is a bit much. It looks like this:

It certainly sparks a lot of comments, from neighbours and people passing by.

This evening one of my friends randomly decided to get a few of us together for a meet-up in the pub. It was a little different to be in a social situation without both Chris and Mike but was still very enjoyable. We sat and chatted for a few hours about various things including Chatroulette, Ice Age 3, people we hate and going to university. Pretty much everyone I know has been given some sort of place at Uni which is great news. It was nice sitting and chatting to my friends. Whatever happens in the future, I know that we will see less and less of each other. And this made me think about the whole going to university thing. Getting a place isn’t the end, it’s the beginning. A whole new life is starting, in a new place, with new people. I have to make sure I am outgoing and make new friends. And of course I will be doing the thing I love, teaching.

This has actually been the best day of my life so far. My dream has come true. I am very lucky and very happy. The coming months bring all sorts of new challenges and I can’t wait to take them on. It’s perfect.

The Illusion of Safety

This feels weird. It’s the first time all day I’ve been on my laptop so as to avoid gossip about/universities decision on results. I spend so much time every day surfing the internet, looking at random things. I read in someone’s blog post recently about how they thought that we are too reliant on technology these days and I have to agree. People survived for thousands of years without electricity, let alone TVs, mobile phones, the internet and Facebook. Yet most of us use them every day of our lives. It’s quite disturbing in a way. But then again technology is wonderful. I can contact pretty much anyone I want from nearly anywhere in the world. So technology is both good and bad. That’s the sort of conclusion you always get in a history exam.

Anyway, about my day. Well the most interesting thing was my walk into town to purchase a random selection of items. In the supermarket I made the mistake of heading to the till with the shortest queue. As is customary the person in front was awkward and pretty much every other queue in the shop moved faster. The person in front was paying with a £50 note (I don’t think I’ve even ever seen one before) and the checkout-lady had to get someone over to check it wasn’t fake, but no-one came.I eventually got to the front and discovered she was a pretty cheerless women which annoyed me. People whose job it is to deal with customers should be at least friendly to the customers. On my return from town I had the following things:

• Official Nintendo Magazine August 2010 Issue
• New album by the Hoosiers called “The Illusion of Safety”
• Some Sure for Men (an antiperspirant/deodorant combo, I was fed up of having two separate things)
• Money to give to my friend for train tickets for our trip in a few weeks
• Twice as many points on my points card than before I came

I have spent some time listening to The Hoosiers album already. I am a big fan of the band and this meant I was a little worried about the content of the album. What if it was rubbish apart from the song they’ve already released (Choices)? Well I didn’t have to worry as every track was excellent on first listen and I know I will be really loving most of them after several more listens. The track called “Glorious” is amazing and I also enjoyed the slowed paced “The Devil’s in the Detail” (with the drummer’s vocals rather than the usual) despite the fact it reminded me of my old geology teacher (it was her fave phrase). Overall, a brilliant little package. If you’ve never heard any songs by The Hoosiers before then you really are missing out, I suggest you go onto the internet and have a listen to some of their stuff.

This afternoon there was an immensely heavy shower before. When an English person says “heavy shower” they normally mean it was quite wet for a bit. English people like to make out that we have extreme weather but actually our maximum and minimum temperatures are nothing compared to many other parts of the world, as is our rain. There is a fair bit of it but it is rarely heavy. But this time it was. Actual heavy rain that the drains were struggling to cope with and was accumulating on the lawn. I love rain like this as it is wonderful to watch and to be able to see the little streams running down the edges of the roads. Also the wonderful smell of recent rain is fantastic. I love that smell.

It amuses me that some people are going to read this. The events described are pretty dull though perhaps made mildly more exciting by the way they are written. But thanks for reading and I hope I didn’t bore you too much. I’ll see you tomorrow for The Day Before Results (note unnecessary capital letters for effect).

Nervous Anticipation

Evening. It’s all a little weird in my household at the moment. My mother is staying in Brighton for business and my brother’s boredom has been relived by the return of his best friend from holiday meaning he’s hardly been around. Even Sherbet the cat has not been inside today other than for five minutes at lunchtime. So since I arrived home from work I’ve been with my Dad, the Dad who has the power to make supermarket check-out girls cry by asking how they are (this happened this morning apparently). Meanwhile the tension of my future being decided by my exam results looms over the household with everyone knowing there is a certainly of either major stress or me solely lowering the family accounts by going to Uni.

That was a little different wasn’t it? A nice round-up of what’s been going on. I didn’t write a blog yesterday due to the lack of interesting things, other than a visit from a family friend and her granddaughter. Plus I was feeling a little down yesterday due to realising once again how empty (other than work) and lonely my life is at the moment. But hey, sad moods come and go.

I was working today and had a very fulfilling time. I surprised myself with my own abilities and that’s always fantastic. It was also lovely weather to be outside in.

I was rather pleased to see upon checking my e-mails that my poem “Reasons Why I Love You” came 5th in a contest on Writer’s Cafe. Though a minor achievement it is still nice to see that people like my poetry. Also I can now technically claim I am an award-winning writer!

And now I have to write the inevitable. With my results coming out in three days and therefore my future being decided, I am seriously nervous. You probably don’t care but it is pretty much filling my life up right now so I may as well report on it. I can’t forget about and wait ‘til it comes any longer. It’s here. Right now Winchester Uni have my results and will soon be decided whether they are satisfactory. The chances of getting in with lower grades are perhaps slightly than I originally thought as they are keen to get more male teachers but I can’t really rely on this. But then again it does give me a little extra hope.

I am avoiding being online after today. In theory the Uni could tell me their decision via e-mail as early as tomorrow. Whilst this is unlikely I don’t want to find out. If it’s bad news and I’ve been rejected than I will face a day or two or stress without being able to do anything due to not having my results. So I will wait for my results and get their decision only then. Various chatter on the matter on Facebook and Twitter and even the news makes me even more nervous so I shall avoid them too. The only online thing I am doing is this blog as it can be written without having to view any internet pages.

So there you have it. My life is filled with nervous anticipation right now and will be until Thursday. I shall attempt to avoid blogging about it too much until then.Tomorrow I have a nice walk planned so I shall write about that as well as my thoughts on the new album from The Hoosiers. So I shall see you all then.

A Country Show

Today I accompanied my mother on a visit to the local country show, “The Ellingham and Ringwood Agricultural Society Annual Show”. In simple terms it’s a farm show with livestock, animal parades, tractors, vegetable competitions and a whole load of stalls, all in the grounds of the local Lord’s house.

When we were arrived we came pretty much straight across the donkeys. My mum is obsessed with donkeys and has had the life dream of owning one so we spent a little while having a look of them, with lots of “aw”s coming from my mums direction. A short while later we saw some Shetland pony racing which is always pretty comical. Next we went over to the animal’s section and saw sheep, pigs (with cute lil piglets), cows and even some alpacas. Dad and I have decided we are going to buy an alpaca when (or rather if) we become millionaires.

We then spent a fair bit of time wandering around the various stalls, after pretty much ignoring the tractor section. Tractors are boring. There were a lot of country clothes stalls (if I wanted a leather hat this would be the place) and craft stalls. There was also a whole marquee with food stalls in it. We bought, from various different stalls, some cakes,some fudge, a jar of jam and some cheese.

Ah, yes, cheese. Actually I was disappointed at the rarity of cheese stalls but of course I visited one and bought a whole load of cheese including Danish blue and Peri-Peri Cheddar. Danish blue (picture below) is Denmark’s entry into the blue cheese world and is incidentally one of my faves. Cheddar is of course a classic English cheese but filled with mixed with spicy peri-peri sauce (they use that in the restaurant Nando’s) makes it a lot more interesting. Spicy cheese is good.

Also blue cheese apparently contains penicillin and the large amounts of blue cheese I’ve eaten recently could be the reason I am the only one in the family to not have had a nasty Summer cold.

Anyway, back to the show. We visited the competition marquee where vegetables and cakes get judged. The cakes looked delicious and I would have happily dug into a fair few of them. We actually thought that we could compete in some classes of the vegetable competition  with items from our allotment though we wouldn’t win with the carrots as sat on the table were the longest carrots I have ever seen in my life.

Lunch consisted of a bacon roll from one of the meat stands and a chocolate sauce pancake, which I struggled to eat with only a plastic fork. Plastic cutlery is so rubbish, a cocktail stick would probably be a better tool! Whilst eating we headed to the dog show where they have a little obstacle course a bit like Crufts and visitors are invited to get their dog to go round it. Most of the attempts we saw were with tiny dogs which made it all the more amusing. None of them looked like they had a clue what was going on but were happy to follow their owner for treats.

I then went into a tent with reptiles in. Mum stayed outside due to her fear of snakes,which was just as well as there were several large boa constrictors in there. Amongst other things there was a large green iguana called Dave. I was disappointed at their lack of imagination when it came to that name.

Eventually we decided we had seen everything and negotiated our way out of the car park. I spent a fair bit of the afternoon and evening watching sport. I can’t believe I am saying that considering I pretty much refused to watch any sport up until a few months ago. First was football where my team Bournemouth won 5-1, which was excellent. Then tennis, in which British player Andy Murray beat world number one Rafa Nadal and then the twenty-twenty version of cricket where my county, Hampshire, won the cup in the closest final I have ever seen in anything.

So there we go, a rather odd but enjoyable day. Hopefully soon I will have collected a fortieth follower and then I will feel proud of this blog. Remember, I love your comments and I reply most of the time so feel free to share your thoughts, say nice things to me or just say hi. See you tomorrow!

This Little Piggy Went to Market...

Hello dear reader. I didn’t write a post yesterday because literally nothing happened. I was going to write about and take some photos of the meteor shower that happened last night and put it in a post called either “Wishing on a Shooting Star” or “Nice to Meteor”. Sadly neither of these posts exist because the cloud refused to move despite the forecast and I didn't see any stars at all, let alone a meteor shower. I even how someone on Twitter informing me she couldn’t see any where she was, in Leicester. So it wasn’t just me.

Today was a little more interesting. I went with my father and my grandfather to Wimborne Market. As market’s go, this is probably the biggest in the area. My Granddad collects paperweights and uses my Dad as his chief barterer. Looking at paperweights and stalls mostly full of junk becomes rather dull after a while but I was cheered up when my Granddad said he would buy me some cheese.

I am obsessed with cheese. It is one of my favourite foods but unlike chocolate and parsnips there are thousands of different varieties. I like blue cheese best as I love the strong flavours. So when I saw a blue cheese that is English and “similar to Roquefort” (one of my faves), I couldn’t resist. Lanark is a blue cheese that is made from the ewe’s milk in Lancashire. It’s too strong for most people but for blue cheese lovers like myself it is lovely. It does taste very similarly to Roquefort actually but it’s better because it’s English!

I also got a cheese called Dunsyre. It’s another blue cheese and is made at the same farm as Lanark but from cow’s milk, as is traditional. I was actually quite disappointed in this one as it seems very mild for a blue cheese.

 

As well as these cheeses I have some supermarket bought Stilton and Emmental in the fridge. It’s becoming a bit of an addiction.

This afternoon it was time for a haircut. Once again I needed one as my hair was beginning to go out of control. I swear it grows quicker after every cut. 

Over the last few days I decided I wanted to use Facebook a bit more and added a load of people, mostly from my work. It’s quite weird finding things out about people and the mutual friends box reminded me once again what a small world we live in. My number of friends on Facebook has gone up to 142 which is still really low compared to some people. How can you possibly know over a thousand people who have Facebook? You clearly don’t know them all!

So, cheese, hair and Facebook friends all dealt with in one blog entry. That’s a random combination even for me. Tomorrow, unless it rains too much, I am going to a local country fair where I hope to purchase some more cheese. I know, I’m obsessed.

All These Things That I’ve Done

Another day working today, a day which went fairly OK but I wouldn’t exactly call it exciting. The weather was pretty reasonable though with some actual sunshine at times!

My evening walk has become more important to me lately. Every evening at 7PM I leave the house with my earphones in my ears and walk around the lake, normally stopping somewhere along the way. I see beautiful scenery, lovely wildlife, get to sing to myself and most importantly I get to be alone. An hour of complete isolation every day where I can seriously think about things, plan things and make decisions. I always pass people on these walks and this annoys me. I want it to be my private space. Of course it’s a public space and anyone can go there, but I would prefer it if they went earlier in the day. Anyway, here are a couple of photos from tonight’s walk:

 

On said walk the song “All these things that I’ve done” by The Killers came on and it got me thinking. What would the Dan of a year ago have thought if could have he seen into the future, i.e. now? I never expected to be single now. I’m still unsure whether I am better off like this or not. I couldn’t have imagined coping with three interviews at Universities. Except I did it and was given an offer by all three. I would never have expected to have become more outgoing. Sitting and eating lunch with other members of staff would have been terrifying to the Dan of a year ago. I wouldn’t have even expected to have 35 followers reading this drivel I call a blog.

So in summary, my life has changed dramatically. The only change that I guess is for the worse is becoming single. Perhaps though it will turn out to be good in the long-run. Right now though my teenage hormones are going crazy and every girl I see within three years of my age is a potential girlfriend. That’s what the desire part of my brain thinks anyway. The realistic part of my brain knows I have a chance with exactly none of these. But hey, I’m hoping the right person will appear sometime in the not-so-far future. If you fancy me, now would be a good time to make a move. That was the desire part of my brain speaking. The realistic part knows absolutely no-one will read that who is attracted to me whatsoever. The conflict in my head right now is crazy…

Tipping-it-down Tuesday

So another Tuesday and another day of pretty much nothing for me. But there is something special about Tuesday isn’t there? Because it’s video Tuesday:

Things That Annoy Me2#

I hope you enjoyed that, let me know in the comments!

It has been raining pretty much all day today so I haven't ventured very far. I progressed a little further on Super Mario Galaxy 2 and messed about with Miis on my Wii. I also had a fight with my brother. I was winding him up and he lost it and charged at me. He always thinks he can beat me up, forgetting he is nearly a foot smaller than me. I slammed him on the floor and that was pretty much the end of that. I also spent some time sorting out the huge amount of paperwork in my room. I discovered letters dating back to 2006. I’m such a hoarder. I plan to recycle or maybe even burn all my Sixth Form work once I am sure I have got into Uni and no longer need it!

This evening I discovered a pain coming from my left wisdom tooth finally beginning to emerge. I thought they were emerging a little while ago but my dentist informed me it was actually the teeth in front of the wisdom teeth that are emerging. That means this little blighter is defo a wisdom tooth. No sign of the right one yet. As expected it is rather painful but nothing I can’t handle. Not yet anyway. *Expects a comment from Emily regarding wisdom teeth*.

This is my 600th post on this blog! How amazing is that! The way my life has changed since this whole thing began. Wow.

I am working again tomorrow but I expect tomorrow’s blog to be particularly good…

Nerves Begin to Strain

Evening! Time for a blog I think! Today I was working and spent many an hour running around after various children in the basking sun. Thus I arrived home exhausted and gasping for a drink. It was not until some time later, after drinking most of the liquid in our fridge, that I was no longer thirsty.

It’s been a long while since I wrote any poems. In fact most of my followers probably don’t even know I write poems. But yesterday I wrote a new one called “Horizon and Future” which you can read here. In fact my best poems are now on a different site to where they used to be and can be seen on Writer’s Cafe.

By this time next week Winchester Uni will have my exam results and will be deciding whether they are good enough or not. I will find out their decision sometime before I get given the results on Thursday next week. My entire life plans hang in the balance now. If I’m not accepted by Winchester I don’t really know what I will do. I don’t want to go anywhere else but the thought of not going to Uni at all is even worse. I am getting stressed about my results already so goodness knows what I will be like by the time I actually get them.

How should I go about preparing for getting these results? Should I be optimistic and assume I will get into Uni but then have the risk of feeling really down if I don’t? Should I be pessimistic and assume the worst and then feel elated if I do get in? Or how about realistic. I think my chance are about 60% for getting in. Not much more than fifty-fifty. I genuinely don’t know whether I achieved the grades I needed or not.

I haven't mentioned pen-pals on here for a while. I am now regularly sending and receiving e-mails from a fair number of people from across the world, such as America, Holland and Russia. They are all really nice people and I love talking to them. I would like to keep talking to these people for years and perhaps eventually meet some or all of them. Maybe one day.

That’s all you're getting from me today. Short but sweet I think you’ll agree. And so what if you don’t?

Laterz!

Sunday Shenanigans

It feels like ages since I’ve been sat here writing a “normal” blog entry. I guess it has been a few days since I wrote one. Before I do though it was lovely to get the brilliant comments from the bloggers I featured yesterday and it made me smile that they were all so chuffed. Also a special thank you to Kala for making me feel happy about my blog. If anyone else wants to make me feel happy, just comment.

So today was a pretty early start in order to go and visit the allotment. My sleeping pattern has been messed up for a few days after not going to bed ‘til after 2AM and then getting up just before 12PM. Hopefully today will break this bad pattern. The first job at the allotment was pulling out all the weeds that have begun to accumulate round the edge, which caused my fingers to smell of earth all day despite a shower and numerous hand washes. We then did some harvesting. First the last of the potatoes and some carrots:

And secondly some garlic, which needs to be left outside to dry apparently:

We popped into Cafe Nero on the way home and I had another frapacino type thing. They are cold ice drink that all coffee shops seem to do. I’ve become a little obsessed this week and have had three this week. Costa Coffee have done the best one so far but I shall continue to research this subject wherever possible.

For once I am actually quite pleased with a picture of myself. I don’t look ugly, the expression is fairly normal and I think in it I nearly look attractive. Which never happens with me. What do you think of it?

The final episode of the short series Sherlock aired tonight and as expected it was fantastic, with a brilliant cliff-hanger to end. I really hope they commission another series as it has been the best thing on TV for a while. It’s right up there with Doctor Who in my opinion. And that really is saying something!

My August Blogs of Note

I have had two incredibly dull days where next to nothing has happened. I even raced all 32 Mario Kart Wii tracks this afternoon to keep myself entertained. Anyway, I thought I would do what I normally do early on in the month and share some blogs that I like with you. They tend to be ones that are similar to mine and I really do read everything these people write!

The Run-On Sentences of Life by Jodie-Ann: This is a blog by a 14 year-old Canadian girl and unusually for a 14 year-old she talks sense and is actually quite funny. There’s a fair variety of subjects discussed here so I guess there’s something for most people. You can tell she has worked hard on this blog and that makes it good!

Christelicious by Christel: This is a new blog by new Dutch friend Christel. Literally brand new, but I expect some good things to come. The one slight problem is that it is written in Dutch but if you use Google Chrome it will translate automatically or copy and paste it into a translator if you don’t. I look forward to seeing what wondrous things Christel will share with us all!

Demi’s Daily Dabs by Demi: A blog by 16-year old Demi who posts most days and writes about a load of random stuff. I never know what to expect when I see she has written a new entry and that makes it all the better!

Kalasaur Roar by Kala: I have only recently discovered this blog but I really like it. It is really funny sometimes and Kala seems a lovely person. I struggle to know what to say when I get this far down the list for fear of repeating myself but all these blogs are brilliant, no matter how much or little I have written about them!

Life is Beautiful if you look very close by Amie: Another fantastic blog which often talks about things I have thought about myself.Amie is on holiday at the moment but I expect great things to be posted here on her return!

As always I will let all these people know I featured them and I want you lovely readers to go and check them out, because they are amazing. Sorry that I have written little of any excitement for a few days but that’s just the way my life is right now. Exciting stuff coming up fairly soon though! To end I will share another amusing diagram with you and this ones pretty much sums me up:

In the Summer Time…

Sometimes, we have good days. Other days we have bad ones. Recently I’ve been having a lot less bad and a lot more good. And today was certainly a good one.

I was working today at Moors Valley Country Park, where I spent a lot of time watching (and riding) the tiny little steam trains. I had some rather nice chats with various people which is a thing that is happening increasingly often to me. I also ended up discussing the best and worst ways to die. We figured dying in your sleep would be a good way though drowning is supposedly relaxing once your lungs are full of water- though we had doubts of where this idea came from. The worst way to die was being burnt alive. Not nice.

After a quick visit home for a change of clothes, it was down to Bournemouth for Mike’s birthday gathering. It was just me, Chris and Mike but we had a brilliant time. We went into Costa Coffee for some frapacinos which make us rather hyper and we then wandered around Bournemouth considering who was hot, doing sick one-liners and having a laugh. We eventually ended up in the arcade where Chris and Mike had a virtual race:

 

We all decided to have a go on a claw machine with a guaranteed prize every time. Me and Mike won immediately but Chris took several attempts. Here is the bizarre prize:

We also went on the simulator on the seafront and had a wild (virtual) ride through a test-crash dummy factory, which was actually pretty realistic and fairly moderately priced. It was a brilliant afternoon with my two best mates.

It’s been a pretty exciting day when it comes to this blog too, what with comments (you made me smile, mysterious person) and being mentioned in another blog (thanks Emily). After a comment on here and a discussion on a forum, I can now reveal the results of what people think the age boundaries should be for relationships with me, and 18-year old. Most people agreed too young is sick and suggested no younger than 15/16, which I agree with. My brother is 15 so going out with someone the same age as him would be a bit weird so I’m sticking to 16 for the lower boundary. And upwards most people said the middle twenties though I can’t really imagine going out with a girl considerably older than me. I shall bear all this in mind as I make my way in the world. Thanks for all your comments, and keep them coming, remember, they make me smile!

This remainder of this Summer is starting to look pretty good now what with Chris’s 18th BBQ, some clubbing, a visit to the Ellingham Show, Bournemouth Air Festival and a potential day out to Cardiff. I just hope that my results don’t ruin it!

Hornets and Allotment Update

Today I worked an enjoyable couple of sessions. I met a girl who has just finished her first year doing the course I want to do at the same Uni. If I do end up going there then I may well see this girl around. She informed me that other than the hard assignments the first year is fantastic, which made me pretty excited about going. Also, I had a proper “man-moment”. As the only guy around I was called to sort out a wasp that had entered the building, which all the girls were too frightened to deal with. I soon discovered it was actually a hornet and I was handed an empty coffee pot to deal with it. Fortunately I stood on a chair and opened a window right near it and it went away. For a moment I was a proper man and a hero (albeit for a minor event). This was a rather pleasing feeling.

I promised a little update on the allotment, so here it comes. The butternut squash has randomly got huge and is beginning to produce fruit, as you can see in the two pictures below.

Also, the sweetcorn has shot upwards and is now taller than me:

Everything else is going pretty well and we should have some more carrots and potatoes ready soon. 

Whilst I have the chance I would like to say hello and thank you to Kalasaur and Jodiee for commenting recently. I love getting comments so if you’re reading this, write a comment and you will put a smile on my face.

And if you want something to comment about then join in the thing I’ve been pondering lately. OK, I'm 18 so what are the upper and lower boundaries on what aged people I should be dating. What is socially acceptable and/or what would you consider acceptable? Too young is just wrong. And should a guy go out with a girl older than himself at all? Discuss.

Lastly, I want to share with you an amusing picture I found on t’internet the other day. It is awesome:

(Courtesy of www.graphjam.com )

Home Sweet Home

We wanted to make the most of our last day in Center Parcs so we were at the pool when it opened. This meant the rapids were really quiet to begin with and I had the most enjoyable ride down them that I have had for years. Unfortunately Mum fell up a step and hurt her foot meaning she got out early but the rest of us stayed in for a lot longer. We rode the rapids a few times until it got too busy. There is a “river” with a current attached to the main pool and we went round that a few times but it became more of a challenge when the wave simulator came on in the main pool, meaning we had to swim against the current. Rather fun though.

For our final lunch of the holiday we returned to The Pancake House. I had a meat feast pancake for my main course and a chocolate heaven pancake for my pudding. It was rather nice. I love pancakes, especially when they are made as well as they are in this particular restaurant.

Our final holiday activity was bowling. I somehow managed to play even worse than I did on Friday with awful scores of 74 and 86. For some unknown reason I seem to be getting worse rather than better at bowling.

Just over an hour later we were back home. It’s always nice to return home after a holiday, no matter how good it was. When we sorted through the post we discovered a letter from the council informing us we have won an award for our allotment! This is quite amusing but I guess it shows we have done a lot of work on it!

I downloaded the Hoosiers new single Choices today. Since their debut album in late 2007 The Hoosiers have been my fave band and I like their new song even better than their old stuff. You can listen to the song here if you so wish.

Talking about musicians, I am finding myself becoming ever more obsessed with Diana Vickers. She is hot and seems perfect in every way! Plus I love the accent! She’s taken over from Taylor Swift as my obsession.

I am beginning to worry about the friction burn that I got playing badminton on Saturday. Two days on and it is still painful and doesn’t really even look as if it’s healing. Because of it’s position on my knee I think the scab breaks every time I stand up after sitting down. Here is a nice (well pretty horrible actually) picture of it:

I don’t think much is planned for tomorrow but I currently have three ideas for blog entries so I have plenty to say!

En Garde!

I was up early this morning (this holiday lark is supposed to be relaxing!) so that mum and I could go to a fencing session. This is the sword-fighting sport, not putting a barrier around your garden type-fencing. Our mad instructor introduced himself and quickly taught us the position (an L-shape basically). We were then taught how to move both backwards and forwards. Next we were told to put on a load of protective clothing (an arm-thing, a jacket, a glove and a helmet) and were given a sword. The type of swords we used were the foil, which is commonly used for practising. After being taught how to both attack and defend (parry) we had a few fights. This was great fun and as expected I was rather rubbish but I did stab the shit out of one little kid. Well when I say “stab the shit out of”, I mean I touched him with my sword a few times. Fencing is actually not that violent and the movement of the sword is like a skewer rather than how you might think. I really enjoyed the session though, it was great fun. Here’s me during one of the fights avoiding an attack:

OK, not really. I will never be doing that sort of thing. Before today all my fencing knowledge came from Mario and Sonic!

It was a quick change and a quick walk to go to lunch. We had a rather lovely carvery consisting of pork, Yorkshire pudding, stuffing, roast potatoes and a load of parsnips. I love parsnips and it was a lovely feeling to realise they had some. I filled my plate with pretty much nothing but parsnips and I ate every one, because I love them so much!

After we had let our food go down we went swimming again. It has become tradition for use to go swimming every day whilst at Center Parcs. It was really busy today though, making the rapids rather scary. Being quite big I end up knocking various people over if they stand in the way (the currents are strong) but they deserve it. For the first time this holiday I went on the flume which was rather fun though less exhilarating than when I was younger. In my blog yesterday I didn’t mention the cold plunge pool. It’s a tiny but quite deep pool where the water is at a considerably lower temperature than the rest of the pools. It’s relatively not that cold but it feels really cold when you go in there. I stayed in for about thirty seconds yesterday which is the longest I’ve ever managed. It really is that cold.

Our evening activity today was table tennis. I discovered that I am worse at this than any other sport I have tried my hand at this weekend. We took it in turns to play singles games up ‘til 11 points and the most I scored in a game was two. My brother has improved from the days when he would manage to hit the ball onto everything except the table we were playing on.

We were fortunate to catch Sherlock on TV again tonight. Once again it was rather good and I look forward to the final part of the little series next week. It’s about time we discovered more about Moriaty! It’s one of the best things on TV at the moment and if you live in the UK I thoroughly recommend you check it out ASAP.

Tomorrow, after another morning here,we return home. That means I shall be blogging from the comfort of my own room and I will be able to respond to all the comments and e-mails that have been building up. See you then!