Review of the Year

It’s New Year’s Eve and in a few hours it shall be 2011. Tomorrow I shall talk about how I saw the year in and what I shall look forward to in the year but first, in chronological order, I am going to reflect on the most important events, for me, of 2010, with links to the relevant blog entries..

February: Interviews. Three Wednesdays running I had interviews for Uni and this was unlike anything I’d ever done before. Even my job hadn’t involved an interview. At various universities I told them how brilliant I was, somehow overcoming my shy nature to do this and even do a small presentation at one them. I was thrilled when I discovered all three has offered me a place and this was a lovely boost of self-esteem.

15th March: Coming of Age. It was my eighteenth birthday and I officially became a man. Never before had I felt so loved as my girlfriend, friends and family were all so amazing to me and I felt so happy.I will always remember that birthday fondly. I also reached legal drinking age but little did I know how many bizarre situations this would lead to.

April: It’s Over. My girlfriend decided she’d had enough and became my ex. I was destroyed. I had done nothing wrong and had lost someone I truly fallen in love with. The number of times this year where those few minutes have been replayed in my mind. Now I can see it was for the best but I was in such a state back then.

May: Dark Place. By the time study leave  for my A-levels began I was having a nightmare. The recent suggestions that I might get back with my ex were destroyed when she found someone else already. I was faced with the difficult task of rebuilding my life and to do quite well in some really tough exams I was struggling with. It was the worst time of my life ever and lasted most of the Summer.

August: I’m in. I received my A-level results to discover I was one grade short of the offer I has been given. This meant I faced a scary walk home where I didn’t know if I was in Uni. Fortunately I was lucky and was still offered a place. It was such a brilliant moment.

September: Uni here I am. Arriving at university was absolutely terrifying what with the thought of making new friends, looking after myself and working hard. Turned out I managed all of those fairly well. I made a few friends that first evening and after a few drinks was laying on a pavement with two of them. At that moment we saw a shooting star. It really felt like it meant something and I took it to mean that Uni was going to be good. And so far it has been.

October: Bleurgh. I had an extremely good night where I consumed a ridiculous amount of alcohol without having had any food. I also mixed wine, vodka and cider leading to a horrible feeling the next morning. I was violently sick a lot of times. Though not massively important in my life it taught me what my limits are and I shall never again feel that bad after drinking alcohol.

November:A visit. My bestest mate Chris came to stay at me at Uni and we had an awesome time. It made me realised that just because I had moved away and made new friends I could still stay friends with the old ones that matter most, Chris being one of them.

December: Teaching Practice. My first teaching practice of the course was always going to be an important one. I could have done it and decided it was not for me. But I loved every minute of it and felt like I truly belong in the profession. It taught me a lot about myself and was an awesome experience.

December: Christmas. First at Uni then at home, I experience the best Christmas ever. I was reminded of how amazing both my family and friends are. So lovely.

There you go, 2010, what a year:mostly bad but with some amazing moments. Thank you for reading this blog during 2010 and I shall see you in 2011!

Sociable Me

In what I shall describe as a “turn-up for the blog”, I have spent the last two days with friends. That’s actual being sociable, in the holidays! Who’d have thought?

Yesterday I spent yesterday with my good mate Chris. We went for a coffee in Caffe Nero where I experience something rather delightful. Due my hatred of coffee I chose to have a hot chocolate instead and the “Hot Chocolate Milano” with it’s extra thick chocolate in it sounded like it was a good idea. And it was absolutely amazing!

After wandering around the town in the rain (Chris’ idea and a poor one at that!) we returned to Chris’ house which contains his PS3 and mini pool table. We played Gran Turismo 5 against each other on various tracks including the Top Gear test track (that’s pretty epic). We also did one race in old Fiat 500’s which was possibly the slowest race ever. Next we took it in turns to race online on F1 2010 where we mostly pissed off the other players by crashing into them and knocking them off the track.Hearing there reactions to this through there microphones is hugely entertaining.

Today I once again met up with Chris and we headed to Bournemouth where we met out good friend Mike. Back in the days of Sixth Form (which seem much more than six months ago) it was always us three who would hang out together and it’s the first time we’ve been together since the Summer. We continued where we left off and generally abused each other (that’s what friends are for!) We hit a few shops and then went for a Subway followed by a coffee. Chris was slightly concerned that his had a love heart in and the lady serving him wasn’t exactly young or indeed attractive.

Throughout the day I took advantage of the abilities of my Blackberry and checked-in at various places on Facebook. Just because I could really. Mike and I also spent a fair bit of time exchanging various stories about our respective uni experiences, mostly drunken ones. There are plans for us to have a minor touring weekend where we out in Winchester where I am one day, then out in Southampton the next day where Mike is and then somewhere else on a third day. (Chris doesn’t go to Uni yet and going out in Ringwood is awful).

We continued to visit lots of shops and I purchased a rather bizarre collection of items. First a new duvet cover for Uni. It’s a Toy Story one and will look awesome on my uni bed (I shall of course share a pic with you). Next was a bingo dabber for use at Rock and Roll bingo and Tine Tempah’s album was the third item. We spent a rather long time in HMV thanks to Chris’ inability to find what he was looking for but we eventually made it out.

Our day out pretty much ended with us hitting the amusement arcades and doing some Nascar racing. We chose the classic Daytona track and raced away. I love proper arcade racing games with wheels and pedals. I did my usual gaming racing style and attempted to take out anyone that got it my way, with great success. I came second both times but after crossing the line mine and Chris’ cars sort of exploded and spun round and round in circles a lot.

All it all it was a brilliant day. For most of today it didn't even feel like I’ve been at uni for three months and hardly seen my two best friends at all. It’s great that we still get on so well despite our lack of seeing each other. Makes me a happy little Dan!

With 2010 drawing to a close the last entry of the year shall be me reviewing it! But before then check out a guest post I did for Jodie’s blog entitled “The Next Generation” here!

Books, Fockers and World Record Attempts

This time of year is horribly dull. Christmas is over but New Year still has a short while before it arrives. Still, I have been doing my best to enjoy it, despite facing the extreme grumpiness of my younger sibling and my lack of foresight of not bringing my Wii back home.

Yesterday I accompanied the family into Bournemouth in order to spend some Christmas money. We headed to entertainment store HMV first which was a nightmare. I’m not exactly a massive fan of shopping and neither am I a fan of small crowded spaces. It’s safe to say the experience was nothing less than hellish.

After following my brother doggedly around the town as he looked for a new phone we went into book store Waterstones. I had plenty of Christmas money and hadn’t bought any books for a while so there was only really one outcome. I wandered round the store finding book after book, in the end purchasing four (saving £7 odd too!). Here is the slightly bizarre selection I chose:

As ever I will report my thoughts on these various books as and when I read them. So far crime novel “Sleep Head” by Mark Billingham is awesome, I just hope it continues and end satisfactorily.

Today, as always seems to happen at least once this time of year, I once again went out with my family, this time to the cinema. We went to see the third film in the Meet the Parents series, entitled Little Fockers. I can hardly say it was amazing but there were some hilarious parts. It’s a decent enough movie, which I would give three stars. Robert de Niro plays his character so well and a certain scene in a bathroom involving an erectile dysfunction pill and a shot of adrenaline is one of the funniest things I have seen this year. Well worth a watch.

I have one last thing to share with you today, something a little different but rather amusing. This evening I attempted to break a world record. Yes, for someone with no special talents whatsoever that seems ridiculous. The outcome was inevitable but anyway, here’s me giving it a try.

December Q and A

Once a month I take the best of my questions on Formspring, and any questions that may have appeared as comments, and answer them in one go. And it’s that time of the month again.

Are you growing a beard or is it designer stubble? (My Aunt) Well at the time this was asked I was indeed growing a beard but it began to get a bit annoying. I am now keeping some stubble as it makes me look older and more mature but only a bit.

What song makes you cry and why? The Script- “The Man who Can't be Moved” always brings a slight tear to the eye. It was once so special to me as it reminded me of my ex. But since she became my ex is only reminds me of happier times.

Are you friends with anyone significantly older than you (a year, not like a month)? Yes I am, being on a teaching course at Uni means many of my friends have taken a year or two gap years.

What was the most boring thing you have done recently? My Professional studies assignment. My goodness it was dull.

Chocolate or ice-cream? ^^ Chocolate, I’m such a chocoholic it’s ridiculous. I ate that 1KG dairy milk bar in four days!

What’s your biggest phobia? Death. I don’t fancy dying. I’m not the type.

What is your favourite Midnight Beast song? Are you jealous I saw them last year? (Dani, housemate) My fave song is “Lez be Friends”. I am slightly jealous but I will live.

South Park or Family Guy? Family Guy. I love it

Have you ever fancied someone so much that you couldn’t look at them, talk to them or even be in the same room as them?  Nope. When I fancy someone all I do is look at them, talk to them and go out of my way to be in the same room as them.

Why did you ask me if I like cheese? Because I wanted to know. And readers I would like to ask you the same thing too, please spend two minutes filling out my cheese survey

Is Santa real? You know the answer to that question. I’m not giving anything away.

What did you get for Christmas? Nothing major, just a few CDs and DVDs.

Thanks to everyone for there questions and remember that if you ask a question in the comments I will answer it next month!

Super Scribblenauts and Songs of 2010

So, Boxing day. We continued the family tradition of going to country park called Moors Valley where they do a festive trail, which is basically a walk with quiz questions about the year on the way. This year was the first time we have had to contend with the such icy conditions which saw me nearly fall over many times. We got 17/20 on the quiz, losing out on how long Chilean miners were underground and the dead fashion designer. We thought it was Versace but it wasn’t. I suggested that Versace was called Archie. Archie Versace. Imagine that.

I can now review the first of my Christmas presents, Super Scribblenauts for DS since I have been playing it all day. It follows on from Scribblenauts where you had to solve puzzles by writing an object which would then appear, only this time you can describe the object with adjectives too. This means the gameplay is pretty varied although some puzzled require ridiculously specific words that are hard to work out. They have fixed the control issues of the original by allowing you to use the D-pad, thank goodness. So overall it is great fun and deals with many of the problems with the original. Oh and half the fun is writing in random creatures and then let them fight. By fave creature so far is undead hedgehog.

I was listening to Radio One’s chart of the year which discovered the top selling songs of 2010. I decided I would work out my top ten fave songs of 2010 and after much deliberation, here they are and why:

10) Tinie Tempah-Pass Out: Tinie is a lovely bloke for a rapper and Pass Out contains best lyric of the year: “I’ve been to Southampton but never been to Scunthorpe” followed closely by “I’ve got so many clothes I keep some in my Aunt’s house”. It was also an incredible moment when everyone yelled the word “fresher” when it was played on the first night of Uni.

9) Jason Derulo-Ridin’ Solo: So many things to love about this track. The high-pitched “Derulo” at the start, the catchy tune and the fact it was about being single made me love this song.

8)Example-Kickstarts: Example claims to be a rapper but he mostly sings. Kickstarts was an incredibly tune and the image of him chain-sawing a heart in half on the cover was very striking.

7) Marina and the Diamonds-Oh No!: Marina, as well as being a very attractive woman, produced an incredible album and my fave on it was Oh No!

6) Taio Cruz-Dynamite: Every time I hear this song I want to dance. It’s so epic!

5) Katy Perry-California Gurls: Song of the Summer! It has such a catchy tune and contains the word “popsicle” which I love.

4) Owl City-Fireflies: I can’t really describe why I like this song. I shouldn’t as it’s very electronic and I’m not normally into that. But it has some lovely imagery and is an awesome song.

3) Muse-Neutron Star Collision: A brilliant song with very meaningful lyrics about how love was supposed to be for ever. That touched home for me. Shame it was the soundtrack to Eclipse though…

2)The Hoosiers-Choices: In my mind The Hoosiers’ album was the best of the year and Choices is the best track of the album, therefore putting it in second place.

1)Cee Lo Green- FU: Song of the year without a doubt. Cee Lo has an incredible voice and singing this song about heartbreak it sounds incredible. Plus you can sing along with the words “F**K You” which is highly entertaining.

That probably demonstrates what many would consider my rubbish taste in music but there you go. Let me know your thoughts on that, any of those your faves?

Christmas 2010

First of all I wish you all a wonderful Christmas, I hope it’s been good!

I begin writing this late on Christmas Eve to reflect on things. This used to be the time I would be sat listening out for Santa until I realised it was just my dad. But I would still sit up listening to my dad wrap last minute presents because I was too excited to sleep and was still excited about the following day.

But no longer. There is little to be excited about. I am not expecting many or any particular amazing presents, I’m past that shallow stage of growing up. I am spending the day with people, though all lovely, that I see a fair bit anyway. If only I could have all my friends and all my family together for one massive Christmas lunch. At least this year shouldn’t turn out as bad as previous Christmases such as having the cat put down and arguing with my girlfriend that the last years brought. We shall see.

SOME SLEEP, LOADS OF FOOD AND THE OCCASIONAL PRESENT LATER

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Well I have to say this has to have been the best Christmas in several years. Not perfect but pretty damn good. Once our grandfather arrived we were allowed to open our presents. I didn’t really get anything exciting but then I didn’t expect to. My gifts mostly consisted of various DVDs, CDs and games which I shall gradually blog about as I watch/listen/play them. I also received an inflatable ten pin bowling set which will be perfect for playing in the corridor of our house at Uni. I shall video that and some time in the near future I shall be attempting to break a world record on film, so be on the look out for that.

My presents to the family went down well which was the most important thing from my point of view. I stuck with things I know they like and you can’t go wrong by doing that.

As the day progressed and one granddad left and another arrived we all had a go with my brother’s present which is a puzzle called “Addict A Ball”. It is a plastic sphere with a maze running through it and the idea is to guide a small metal ball around all 138 points of the maze without it falling off. The furthest anyone has managed so far is 29 and it is very frustrating but quite amusing at the same time.

Christmas lunch was enjoyable as ever (a good roast is always amazing) though unfortunately my fave part, the parsnips, were a bit burnt but hey they were still amazing. The roast was followed by the traditional Christmas pudding which was gorgeous. We pulled a few crackers which contained various packs of trivia cards which we then asked and answered.

The evening was mostly spend watching TV. Of course Doctor Who was the main event. I can’t possibly resist writing about it. It was a futuristic version of A Christmas Carol featuring a shark. Matt Smith has now confirmed in my view he is one of the top three actors to play the Doctor ever (probably second after the legendary David Tennant though Tom Baker was also fantastic). I cannot rave about it enough. Brilliant. It ended with a preview of series 6, which looks amazing. The Doctor in the US (including the president’s office), the return of River Song and of the Ood (my fave aliens) are just some of the things that look amazing. Looking forward to April now.

Also brilliant were comedies The Royale Family (as per usual) and Come Fly With Me. The second of those is the new creation from Little Britain creators David Wailliams and  Matt Lucas, which I thought to be pretty good. I laughed a fair bit and that must be a good thing.

So there you go. Christmas is over. I hope it was good for you. I have enjoyed it this year, being with family is much more special when you live away from home most of the time. I hope next year I will have someone extra special to spend Christmas with but still, this year was fantastic.

I shall have various posts about what I’ve been up to and discussing some of my presents over the next few days before reviewing 2010 and looking forward to 2011. See you soon!

Christmas Eve Eve

It’s like the old days again. My life over the last few days has been an echo of what it was most of the Summer. I worked a little but have mostly been at home trying to occupy myself. I am also STILL full of cold which is immensely frustrating. Every item of clothing I own that has a pocket contains at least one tissue at the moment as I try to conquer the pathogen which has infected me. Please leave me alone nasty germs.

It has been fortunate that I have had my new Blackberry to occupy myself with. It is now set up to everything I want. That meant adding all contacts, connecting e-mails, getting Facebook and Twitter apps, connecting to Wi-Fi and sending everyone my new number. Annoyingly I forgot to do the one thing I wanted to say in the new number message- who I was. It is lucky I have 3000 texts a month because I had to message everyone in my inbox at least twice to sort it all out.

Anyway, the Blackberry does the job. I can tweet and FB on the go which is excellent and it’s a much more convenient way of checking my e-mails. I’m not sure I like calling it “the Blackberry” though, I feel it is one of those cases where an inanimate object needs a name. Going with the alliteration I shall name it Boris the Blackberry.

Other than work my only trip out has been for a walk round the lake. Whilst the snow is gradually vanishing, there is still a lot of ice around. This was great fun as I found various frozen puddles that I could walk on, causing great big cracks to form (and my foot to get wet and cold in one case). However the ice isn’t all fun as I slipped numerous times during the walk, including one occasion where I ended up lying on the floor. Weirdly my only thought was to get up and hope nobody saw.

Now whilst this blog is very wordy and I fancied doing something a little different so I have created a Tumblr. This doesn’t mean I’m giving up here, far from it. My Tumblr will be full of pictures and videos I have discovered which I like as well as another place my Formspring answers will appear. You can go take a look here.

The day pretty much ended with me and my brother playing Mario Power Tennis on the family Wii. It’s a Gamecube game converted for Wii is actually much more fun in multiplayer than I had imagined. Special courts make it fun, especially one where there are various conveyor belts which make playing difficult. And there’s nothing more frustrating than going for a shot only to be held back my a crocodile which has it’s teeth round your backside.

It’s about time I had some more comment on this blog so if you are reading this there is no excuse! Ask me something for my December question and answer (coming soon) or even better tell me what your favourite type of cheese is. All will become clear why I would like to know that. And if neither of those gives you something to say, just say hello and give one interesting fact about yourself. DO IT. NOW!

I Get a Blackberry

Sometimes I find myself writing a more geeky entry than usual. One where I talk about little else than certain TV shows, technology and gaming. Today is one of those times.

It begins yesterday when there was lots of snow around and it wasn’t particularly sensible to go anywhere. I had an appointment for the dentist which was fortunately cancelled due to the weather and so I had a lot of free time. I ended up watching “Dirk Gently” on BBC iPlayer, which was loosely based on Douglas Adam’s “Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency”. Stephen Mangan stars as the detective who works by following the fundamental interconnectedness of things. His search for a lost cat leads to an exploding warehouse and a missing billionaire. Here’s a short clip, courtesy of the lovely BBC (UK only I presume, sorry):

I thought it was amazing! Stephen Mangan plays the character brilliantly. It’s amusing and the outcome is ridiculously unpredictable. It’s apparently not that close to the book but forget it’s origin and it’s a lovely watch, still available for a short time here.

Several hours later and I found myself at a loss of things to do once again. I have stupidly left my Wii at uni for the holidays but in the mood for some gaming I fished out the Nintendo 64 and played on that. Goldeneye is such a brilliant game. OK, graphically awful and the odd issue with camera angles but otherwise it’s so flipping good.

This morning I accompanied my father on a shopping trip as he searched for obscure items that he was clearly never going to find. Of course this wasn’t my main reason for going. Said reason was to go and get my new phone. After walking round the entire shopping centre we eventually found the location of the phone shop and I wandered in. My criteria were simple: I wanted a contract that was £15 a month giving me a free phone (preferably not a touch screen), unlimited texts/internet and a reasonable number of calls. After explaining this to the sales assistant he sat at his computer, scratched his head a lot and eventually began the inevitable spiel.

I have ended up with a lovely Blackberry Curve 9300 with unlimited texts and internet and 100 minutes for £20 a month. The guy persuaded me that it was worth the extra £5 a month from what I wanted. Here is what my lovely new phone is like:

Having made my decision I had to then stand in front of a desk for a long time whilst the guy (sat in a nice comfy chair) asked me for so many ridiculous details. Name, address, DOB, where I work, bank details etc etc. My head was beginning to hurt as I gave out reams of information and received loads in return like warranty, what happens when contract is done, how phone works etc etc. I was glad to finally walk out of there with the phone.

Now I have to wait ‘til the network set me up which will happen at midnight tonight so I shall be up working out my new phone which will be very exciting. I am so sad but it is nice to not need the annoying touch screen thing anymore!

I have babbled on a lot today about very little. Impressive. On my return I shall tell you even more about my new phone until you are sick to death of it (which may well have already happened) and may even write my first post “on the move”! Woo!

My Blogs of the Year

As the snow continues to tumble down outside I decided it’s about time I finally wrote this post. 2010 has been a big year for me in terms of blogging. Not only have I received literally thousands of hits and gained (so far) 78 followers and numerous other readers, I have also discovered some amazing blogs created by other people. Now I thought I should honour them in some way and have created a blogging award entitled “Dan’s Blog of the Year 2010”. These are the best five blogs of the year which I think truly deserve the award.

Just A Small Town Girl by SJ: Lovely blog about a teenage girl in college. It often followers the drama in SJ’s life and she is not afraid to share her feelings on it. Also SJ’s dedication to her boyfriend is inspirational and everyone should be prepared to show that much dedication to their partner.

Life is Beautiful if you look Very Close by Amie: It’s quite difficult to actually describe this blog in a quick few sentences as it is so diverse. Amie describes herself as “a very positive teenage girl” and her blog is full of all sorts of things including experiences, thoughts, likes/dislikes and the odd bit of fashion stuff too.

Nataliee: Natalie is in college and this has caused her difficulty in updating her blog as regularly as she would have wanted but she still writes when she can. There’s a fair bit on Natalie’s life and a lot of clothes/fashion stuff too. Somehow she writes in a way that this still interests me, despite my lack of interest for such things.

Ramblings of a Lonely Girl by Emily: This is a truly brilliant blog. As well as all the drama of becoming a fresher and trying to figure out who she is, there are some completely random posts that are often hilarious.

The Run-on Sentences of Life by Jodie-Ann: With the occasional story from her life and whole hosts of hilarious random posts Jodie’s description “basically where you have no idea what I’m talking about but go along with it anyway” is brilliantly perfect.

Now there were several conditions to win this award. For Blog of the Year it had to be a blog I have been following for a fair chunk of 2010. The posts had to be fairly regular and mostly of interest to me and the design of the blog has to be pretty good too. All five of these blogs, in my opinion, fit that bill perfectly. In my descriptions I have used UK meaning of college and things as that’s the sense I would use it in.

As is traditional with blogging awards I have created something for these winners to put on their blog if they so wish. It’s not compulsory but if you won and you want to, put it up! And well done for creating such fabulous blogs! Everyone else should check these blogs out and work on there own blogs, this could be you next year!

Friends Reunited

So a blog for the weekend, my first weekend entirely at home since September. It’s been pretty relaxing.

I awoke yesterday morning to discover my lovely home town covered in a fairly thick layer of snow. Twice in one season! Snow down here in the South of England is rare and to have two proper flourishes in nearly as many weeks is unheard off. Whilst many complain about the snow, I do not as I appreciate the rare times we have it. It makes the world look stunning and is brilliant fun. Our news is filled with stories of stranded people at airports and “travel chaos”. That’s not news! We all know it’s been snowing, we can look outside! And live reports from airports is just ridiculous and a complete waste of the license fee.

Anyway, rather spontaneously I ended up going into Bournemouth for some Christmas shopping with my mate Paul. I hadn’t seen Paul since before uni (hence the title) and it was slightly awkward to begin with but soon returned to normality. We had a good laugh about a few things, discussed events in our lives since we last saw each other and got a good deal of shopping done too.I have now bought Christmas presents for the family, which led to me wrapping them this afternoon. Wrapping presents is on the list of things I fail at. It always begins so well, with the present placed on the paper and what looks like the right amount of paper cut off the roll. Every time I find myself with far too much paper and my only solution to this is to fold it right round the present and use loads of sellotape. It works but it hardly looks neat.

Today, after some sleep and watching the film “Elf” (one of the best Christmas films ever!) I decided to take a little trip out into the snow. I took the route I walked every evening before I left this place and it looks so beautiful in the snow. Of course my camera was on hand so I could share the experience with the world!

A lovely wintery sunset.

The local lake, frozen.

The day pretty much ended with watching the final of The Apprentice in which the two finalists how to create a new alcoholic drink. Both were good but in the end blonde thirty year old Stella won. I can see her working well for Lord Sugar. I love this show so much and am slightly sad to see the series end. Oh well, another bunch of morons will be in it next series.

It’s been a pretty good weekend despite the fact I am full off illness. I have the sniffles, sore throat and cough and constant headaches. This is not good but hopefully the worst is nearly over.

I shall see you very soon people, stay safe in the mean time!

All Time High

Hear that? That’s the silence that home brings, with no drunken students tottering around outside and windows that actually block out sound. It is also warm and there is lots of food. It’s nice to be back.

Yesterday was my final day of placement in school and what an eventful day it was. Thanks to the efforts of the other student at the school I ended up singing “Don’t Stop Believin” along with her and the class teachers in front of the entirety of key stage 2. As terrifying as this was it was actually really fun. I am naturally quite a shy person and if one thing has come out of my placement is that I need this to change and this had to be a step in the right direction. It also means I have achieved another one of the things of the list to do before I die (number 27), sing to an audience. Yes the audience was relatively small (about 150) and young but hey that’s still an audience. Another one crossed of the list.

My final moments in the classroom were filled with groans at the news it was my last day and cheers that I am returning in April. I guess that means I made an impression, and at least it was a positive one. The review from the teacher was mostly positive and I feel the experience has been fantastic. I’m now looking forward to returning to the school in April.

Today saw a whole load of admin stuff to do at uni as well as a lead lecture. I had to hand in my PS assignment and was returned my science assignment. It was the first written assignment but I was pleased with the result. The marker even informed me they “enjoyed reading” it. I must say that is one comment I would never expect on an assignment. According to my friend I actually did better than the majority which is really pleasing.

After what can only be described as a through cleaning session involving cleaning my sink, washing my bedding, hoovering the floor (once all the crap was off it) and doing the washing up it was finally time for me to return home. In a strange way it’s rather emotional. I have met some amazing people during the past three and a bit months and haven't been apart from them for longer than a few days. 

But as much I shall miss them, it’s lovely to be home for a reasonable amount of time. I can relax and spend Christmas with my lovely family. I discovered on return that this term I have lost nearly a stone (around 6Kg) in weight, which is brilliant news. Apparently it is fairly noticeable and I look more of a normal size. I could probably do with losing some more though and the Christmas period won’t help but hopefully by the summer I will be significantly lighter and thinner. Properly healthy for once.

It’s hard to describe how happy I am right now. I’ve always been very negative about myself but it’s actually pretty difficult to be right now. I have proved to myself that my teaching potential is really there, I wrote a damn good essay and physically I’m in pretty good shape.Self-esteem has never been this high!

And one more thing before I stop wittering on! It’s amazing to have an incredible 78 followers on this blog. I aim to reach 80 before Christmas so I just need to more to join in the fun. The blog will now return to being more regular as I now have spare time to write it in and don’t have to censor out what I’m doing due to professionalism. Here’s hoping for an amazing Christmas!

There Goes Mr. Humbug!

Evening. I’m here for an entry on various things including A Christmas Carol!

Everyone who celebrates Christmas knows the story of Dickens' A Christmas Carol though few have actually read the original written text. Being a fairly keen reader and slightly obsessed with The Muppet’s version I decided I would actually read it. I thought it would be a tricky read, it being Charles Dickens and everything, but I was actually pleasantly surprised. The language wasn’t too Victorian and it read fairly well. On the plus side it’s also really short. I enjoyed it and did find out a few things that don’t come across in the film versions. One of these is the description of the ghost of Christmas past, which is described something along the lines as “always looking the same but always looking different at the same time”. Pretty much impossible to portray on screen.

After reading that I felt very Christmassy and this was continued today when the school I’m on placement with went to a special concert my an army band. They did several Christmas songs and were absolutely fantastic. My placement continues to be hugely enjoyable though the early start and hour in a taxi each day are getting rather tiring. I’m not quite sure what’s keeping me going, I think I may well collapse from exhaustion by the end of the week. I’m so lazy usually and actually working all day is something my poor little body isn’t used to!

This evening was the last book club meeting of 2010 and was held in an actual bookshop which was nice. We discussed various books and this led to many conversations on a wide variety of topics. The good thing about book club is that it’s a group of like-minded people sat around discussing something, which is really lovely. And having a meeting in a bookshop was really cool!

I should post the latest news of my life really. First of all is the physical thing. I am growing a beard. This has happened on several occasions before but this time it’s happening properly. By the end of my placement I will have some pretty substantial facial hair which will be interesting. The likelihood is that the majority of people will dislike it but I shall put it up for a vote soon. You decided what I look like! Blimey I’ll let people decided anything for me. Also and probably more important is the news that we now have the house for next year. There’s still money to pay but no-one else will take it now so for my second year of uni I shall be living in a lovely number 39 with a blue front door. And finally I have met a really lovely girl.But enough of that for now…

Next time will be a little bit different as I shall be giving away some “awards” to what I think have been the best blogs of 2010 so if you are a fellow blogger and know I follow you, cross your fingers!

Yawn

I have to battle against my epic tiredness to get this blog entry written but I feel this one needs writing!

Sunday was the day I re-emerged into the real world after two days of sitting and watching TV. I did this in the form of a shopping trip with my friends Tiffany, Katie and Beth. This was probably a mistake. I know from past experiences that shopping with girls is a nightmare. Once again the trend was proven as Tiffany wandered round a fair selection of Winchester’s shops looking for one particular item for a present, though she didn’t have any idea what said present could be. Beth and I followed behind making sarcastic comments and generally moaning until we eventually found an item that fitted the bill as suitable present and we returned home.

The evening held the usual Sunday quiz. The team won last week the one time I wasn’t there and seeing as though that was the first of nine times chances seemed low. However some wise moments from us and my near-encyclopaedic knowledge of Christmas songs enabled us to score another victory. The seven of us won £25, meaning we gained £2.50 out of the experience (don’t question the maths, I just went along with it!).

Unfortunately my recent lack of activity and long lie-ins meant I couldn’t sleep and was still awake at 2AM this morning. Seeing as though I had to be up at 6AM this was not good. You see today I started my first teaching placement and had to be up and dressed smartly in time for a taxi to take me thirty odd miles away. I can’t really talk about the placement here, it would be unprofessional and we don’t want that do we? But suffice to say I really enjoyed my first day and I am now quite excited about spending another eight days there.

On arrival home I realised it was only fourteen hours before the taxi leaves the next morning. I was so exhausted and hungry on arrival home. Getting up at 6AM, doing a days work and returning home at 5PM is something my poor body can’t cope with. I’ve not been getting enough sleep as it is and I’m knackered after the first day. Attempting a reasonably early night tonight but whether that happens or not has to be seen. The next post will be my thoughts on Charles Dickens’ classic story A Christmas Carol, see you then!

Square Eyes

The title of today’s entry pretty much sums me up right now after two days of doing little else than watch films and TV shows. This is because we have now finished for the year other than placement and so there is no work to be getting along AND everyone has either been out, at home or sat in their rooms, leaving me nothing to do and no-one to do it with. Fortunately I had the internet and most of Josh’s DVD collection so that kept me entertained for a while. So here’s what I watched and my thoughts on them all.

The Italian Job: Class British film from 1969 starring the legendary Michael Caine. The tagline “four million dollars through a traffic jam” pretty much sums the film up. It’s all about a gold heist and sees three Mini Cooper rush round the streets of Turin. It’s a classic British film with a lovely soundtrack, some good stunts and the classic line “You’re only supposed to blow the bloody doors off”. 7/10

Monty Python and the Holy Grail: Monty Python were a British comedy troupe from back in the day that featured heroes such as Michael Palin and John Cleese. Somehow other than their classic sketches I have seen little of their material. I found the Holy grail a little odd. It seems like a load of sketches that vaguely go into a story. Many of them were very funny (my particular fave being the killer rabbit) but I found it a little too weird to really like it. 5/10.

I am Legend: This 2009 film sees Will Smith playing a lone surviror in post apocalyptic New York. Him and his dog Sam have to survive the mutant plague victims whilst he tries to create an antidote. I didn’t quite know what to expect from this film but it turns out it’s bloody good! Smith acts his socks off and the story is unpredictable. The character’s back story gradually develops over a few flashbacks and it’s full of awesome action. The ending is not as predictable as you think and overall it’s flipping awesome! Only cost me £3 too! 9/10

The Inbetweeners (Series 1) and some of series 2: This is a sitcom about four sixth-formers and their life trying to get girls and try and be cool. I watched series 3 when it was on TV but missed the first two, which is a shame I have discovered. It’s hilarious and as for painting a picture of sixth form life it’s fairly accurate : I’ve been there and I know. OK so it exaggerates a bit but the general point comes across. It reminds me so much of my sixth form experiences with Chris and Mike. Absolutely hilarious, looking forward to the upcoming film version. 9/10

I have also watched a raft of other things but I’m not going to talk about every single one, I’d be here forever. Two little bits to finish with now.

There is an application on Facebook which allows you to create a montage of your 2010 statuses. I created this one and was amazed at how much it sums up the year. It’s almost all about exam results and coming to university which I guess sums up the main goal of the year. I did it and here I am three months in and it’s gone fairly well.

Finally I have quite enjoyed the big NSPCC campaign on Facebook. The idea is to raise awareness of violence to children by everyone changing their profile picture to a cartoon character of their childhood. My Facebook is full of them including Looney Tunes, Disney films, Shrek,The Magic Roundabout, Pokémon and many many more. Mine had to be from one of my fave shows as a kid, Rugrats and the loveable character that was Chuckie!

Snow Time to Think Up a Witty Title…

Well, well, well what a fantastic little day today has been. Well I say little but it was a flipping long day.

It began for me at 6:45AM as I got up early to see whether Uni would be closed due to the large amount of snow we’d received. Well I say large but it was about 5 inches which is a lot more than we usually get. They eventually announced that it would indeed closed, leaving me awake at an early hour on what had become a day off.

Soon Dani appeared at my door and Josh emerged from his room. We were all in our pyjamas so decided to go out into the snow in our pyjamas. It was rather cold but really fun.

After some warming up and a visit from friends in house 26 (also in pyjamas) we decided to go into Winchester and experience the city in the snow. Cue a selection of photos from that:

After another quick warm up Dani, Louise and I made a snowman. Unfortunately the snow was really powdery so snowman construction was tricky but we did manage to make this little fellah:

Everyone then went inside so I went and found another friend to play with. I found Kate, who brought her friend out, and we had a rather big snowball fight, attempted to sledge using chairs (doesn’t work) and made some snow angels.

Next it was announced that my housemates and our friends were going sledging and I decided to join them. Unfortunately I didn’t realise they would be sledging down a hill fifty minutes away. After a considerable amount of walking a few of us decided to turn back. It was a nice little walk in the snow though.

The day ended as most Thursdays do with rock and roll bingo at our local pub. Seeing as though the uni had already announced I didn’t have to go in tomorrow I decided it was perfectly fine to get a bit drunk. This I did and I had a lovely time, though sadly didn’t win rock and roll bingo. On return to the house Josh and I sat in the kitchen and had a long, deep and varied conversation including religion, education and politics.

I managed to shorten such a large number of things into a relatively short entry, go me! Pictures made it a lot easier to write. I shall be back tomorrow discussing what I do on yet another day off but first I have to come up with a vaguely witty snow-based pun…

Houses, Cheese and Snow

Blimey, what a day. Considering Wednesday’s are normally my uneventful day off this was unexpected.

My father and grandfather came to visit me first thing. I had to meet them at half nine, which is not particularly enjoyable on a day where I normally get up a considerable time after lunch. We went for a coffee (well I had a hot chocolate, I’m not a coffee person). After that we wandered around Winchester’s many charity shops. My granddad collects paper-weights which is why we participated in such an activity. After we discovered that there were no good ones in any of the shops we went to take a look at the Christmas market. I was expecting something quite special considering it gets listed as one of the country’s top Christmas markets. It was nothing more than about forty people in sheds selling various crap that no-one would ever need or want. There was the occasional one that contained something of interest but not many. There is a lovely little ice rink in the middle of it though which I plan to go on at some point, though no-one else seems particularly keen. But I shall drag someone along…

I got back just in time to go and view another house. This one is perfect. The rooms are fairly sizeable, it’s quite cheap and is in a brilliant location. It’s right between the town centre and the uni so we can get to either really quickly. There was differing views from one of the group though. We viewed some houses that were OK but flipping miles away and most of us decided we wanted the first house we saw today. There was some drama I can tell you. We have had floods of tears and lots of frustration but eventually we all came to a decision and are planning to live in that house for the next year. The stress of the day vanished and I realised that I shall be soon renting my first proper house. That’s a scary thought.

In fact my life now scares me a little. I’ve grown up. For the past three months I have looked after myself, cooked, bought food and everything I need, cleaned and generally done things I never used to. I was so lazy back at home and didn’t do anything. But look at me now. I’ve made a decision without any input from my parents about where I am going to live for the next year. My recent clothes purchases have been a lot more grown-up to. Before I came to uni I didn’t believe I would ever do such things. But I am.

This evening Josh and I had a “Christmas” dinner seeing as though it’s the first day of December. This consisted of pigs in blankets (that’s a sausage wrapped in bacon if you don’t know) and roast vegetables consisting of carrots, swede, and my favourite, parsnips. Josh made us some party hats and we sat at our kitchen table and munched away. It was lovely.

To end today’s entry I shall talk about a new cheese I’ve tried, thanks to my granddad buying me it from Mark’s and Spencer. This one is called Saint Agur and is a French blue cheese which is like a creamier version of roquefort. Apparently it ages for sixty days in cellars. I really like this one, it could be my new favourite. It’s both strong and cheesy, making it delicious.

OK, one more thing. That reminds me of The Jackie Chan Adventures (what a show that was!). Anyway, I have seen this on the internet several times today and like it so much I am posting it here:

There are four stage of life: 1) You believe in Santa 2) You don’t believe in Santa 3) You are Santa 4) You look like Santa.

Oh and one more thing. Shortly before I was about to post this I realised we had had a fair bit of snow. This led to a massive snow playtime at 11PM which went on for a couple of hours. It was awesome and here are a few pics. Chances are I won’t have any lectures tomorrow!