The Into Geek Awards 3#

Hello and welcome to the Into Geek awards, my monthly feature that will essentially highlight my favourite things of the previous month. You’ve been given exclusive access to the Into Geek April 2011 awards because you are reading this blog. So let’s give away some awards shall we?

Best Day: I found this decision particularly tricky because April was such a dull month. However, I choose the 22nd April (reported about here) because it was a reunion with friends I hadn’t seen for a long time, many of them for about eight months. Despite the time it felt like little had changed and I had a good laugh and we all got to share our various uni experiences.

Geeky Exciting Thing: This easily goes to Doctor Who and it’s return to TV. The opening two episodes have been cracking and seem to promise an amazing series. I shall take a short break from the awards to review/discuss today’s episode, Day of the Moon.

WARNING: This review contains spoilers. If you don’t want to know what happens, STOP READING. Come back later when you’ve watched the episode!

OK so the story continues from The Impossible Astronaut. Canton looks as if he is going against the gang by leading the FBI to them. He traps the Doctor, "shoots" Amy and Rory and River jumps off a building to escape him. Turns out that Amy and Rory are fine and the TARDIS is in the prison with the Doctor. The Doctor then uses the TARDIS to catch River by having her land in the swimming pool. Amy is kidnapped by the Silence as her and Canton search for the girl. The five must hold a revolution against the Silence and do this by having Canton record the Silent telling him that they should kill all silence on sight. The Doctor merges this footage with that of the moon landing so that now every time a human sees a silent they kill them on sight. 

Oh and then there is that ending. The mysterious girl is in an alley in New York and tells someone who is there she is dying but is will be OK. She then regenerates meaning she must be a Time Lady, or at least part Time Lady.

The episode was brilliant again. The filming that was done in America was beautiful and the story was very clever. I really like the way the Doctor managed to defeat the silence and the final battle in the imitation TARDIS where River kills a whole bunch of silence is fantastic. As is her landing in the swimming pool moment.  Plus there were some lovely romantic moments between the Doctor and River with them kissing at the end. 

But there are still many unanswered questions, probably more than before! We still don't know about the Doctor's death, whether he actually dies or not. The relationship between the Doctor and River is still unclear. And most of all, who is that girl? I am thinking we won't find this out for a long,long time. Let the speculation begin!

And back to the awards!

Movie of the Month (this is the best movie I saw this month, not necessarily the best movie that came out this month): I haven't watched many movies this month but the award is definitely going to Disney’s Lilo and Stich. It’s such a brilliant film, partly because the whole family thing is so heart-warming and also because Stitch is a fantastic creation and I would love to have him as a pet and a friend. Not to mention the fact that the whole Hawaii setting and the Elvis soundtrack are brilliant!

Song of the Month (again, my fave song during the month, not necessarily one that came out during it): Without a doubt it’s Adele with Someone Like You. Adele has such a beautiful voice and sings this powerful song so well. It’s a very emotional song too what with it being about wanting to meet someone like that ex who has now moved on. The lyrics are important to me and having it playing on my iPod whilst walking around the local lake creates such a spectacular beautiful effect.

Website of the Month: This goes to Formspring due to it’s nature of being able to deliver bizarre anonymous messages to me. Some questions are hilarious, some really make me laugh whilst others are just plain weird. But I have been enjoying it a fair bit this month so that’s why it gets the award.

Person of the Month: This goes to my good friend Chris who greatly improved my Easter holidays whenever I saw him. We had some fun experiences such as our drunken night at the pub and the topless tour. I couldn’t wish for a better friend so thank you Chris for always being there and for making me laugh.

Minion of the Month: This month the prestigious award goes to Chasing Blue, who posted a lovely comment which was both in-depth and touching on my “year of singleness” post. It’s unexpected kindness from complete strangers like that which keeps my faith in humanity. So thank you Blue!

Blog of the Month: This goes to “Voice of a Nerd” by Fi. It’s one of the funniest blogs out there and is most certainly worth a read. Each post is short and a huge variety of topics are covered. In the last month it has been a haven of fun things so really, go visit!

 

And that’s this month’s awards done and dusted! You can see all of April’s post and what they are about on the “Last Month” page! Enjoy!

Royal Wedding and My Dream Car

God save our gracious Queen, Long live our noble Queen, God save the Queen Traditional: God Save the Queen

This morning there was some wedding on and the world went a little mad. I had little interest in the whole thing but realised it could be high on comedy value and watched a bit before heading to Wetherspoon’s for a breakfast. I watched people arrive at Westminster Abbey and when I left the house Kate Middleton was just walking up the aisle. By the time myself and my two housemates arrived at ‘spoon’s she appeared to have just made it to the front. It was a long, long walk.

I enjoyed a fabulous full English breakfast whilst the pub felt like a church as various bishops and commentator Huw Edwards echoed around the room. It was rather odd. But the breakfast was just beautiful! Fried eggs, sausages, toast, bacon and hash browns, perfect breakfast. I really, really like hash browns. They are AMAZING! And the wedding seemed to go well for the rest of the morning whilst I gradually lost interest in it. Apparently it all went well then. How nice and British it all was!

The rest of the day flew by without much interest. The wedding gave us a day off which was excellent news though I didn’t exactly do a lot with my day. Still, it was nice to relax. During a random walk into town I finally fell in love with a car.I have never had much interest in cars and driving. Most people have a dream car they would love to have and I never have done. Until today that is. If I win the lottery my first purchase will be one of these:

A Triumph Spitfire, in red. How gorgeous is that car! I can so imagine me driving round the British countryside with my music playing softly through out of the car. It would be amazing. If anyone has a lot of money to spare, please buy me one of these. Thank you.

It’s only a short entry today. Not a lot to say. But now is as good a time as ever to announce the return of Dear Dan. You comment anywhere on the blog and I shall put respond to it in a special post. Tell me your thoughts on the post or maybe ask me a random question, something you would like me to talk about maybe. I am waiting to award someone with Minion of the Month and no-one really stands out at the moment so write me a good comment and it could go to YOU! So get commenting!

The Hangover

…am I just hung over you? Or am I just hungover? Ke$ha: Hungover

Last night myself and my good friend Josh went to the usual Wednesday night entertainment at our student union that is Bop. The plan was to go and get very drunk and try and pull. Not that there was a much of a chance of us pulling though I like to think we did. A girl danced up to Josh and a different girl informed me her friend wanted my phone number. If I put it like that we sound fairly successful. However, I should mention that the first girl was going some weird drunken mocking and when I headed over to see the second girl’s friend the friend informed me she actually had a boyfriend. So that was complete nonsense. The trouble is you can never trust a drunk person. Not a drunk stranger anyway.

The getting drunk part of our plan however was a success. We quickly consumed copious amounts of alcohol and I’m not sure of exactly what I had but it included several jagerbombs and some weird cocktail which was blue. Goodness knows what was actually in it! Fortunately we managed to stay safe and not do anything too stupid. There was some drunk dancing and little things became hysterically funny for no obvious reasons. It seemed that no matter how drunk I got I couldn’t gain the confidence to go and talk to a girl I really liked but it turns out she has a boyfriend anyway so it wouldn’t have got me anywhere anyway.But apart from that we both had an excellent night.

Unfortunately today I suffered for my good night. This was partly due to a lack of sleep. Yesterday I was awake between the hours of 6AM and 3AM this morning. I then had to get up at 8AM this morning so I didn’t exactly gets tons of sleep. However it was the alcohol that was the worst thing. Though I didn’t feel sick my head hurt and my stomach was suffering dearly from some of the things I consumed last night. Let’s just say I don’t envy the job our cleaner had this morning…

I had to drag myself to an IT session, one known for it’s tedious nature. So I sat there feeling the worse for where attempting to listen to a less-than-exciting lecturer. It was a relief that I could escape into my computer screen. There was one highlight of the session though when we were shown a website where children can compete with each other in doing calculations and spellings. I had a good and managed to thrash some small children from across the world. It will be a good learning experience for them to lose. And I felt somehow good winning, even if I was only beating little kids.

Fortunately for me we finished really early so I came home and slept for a few hours. When I awoke I was confused and thought that I had slept in really late and had missed the day’s lectures. It took me a good few minutes before I realised that I had just had a nap. My hangover didn’t seem to have got better during this sleep so I thought it would be a good idea to walk it off. It wasn’t. I put my headphones on and virtually staggered all the way through Winchester with my wobbly walking meaning I could barely navigate my way through crowds and how I managed to cross all the roads I have no idea! When I arrived home I was actually worse if anything.

The hangover finally wore off by about 6PM but even now at midnight I still don’t feel 100%. In some ways it’s the worst hangover I have ever had. At least I wasn’t violently sick this time but it has lasted for a ridiculously long time. And that kids, is the just one negative effect that alcohol gives you. Be careful minions and stay safe!

Guest Post: Meme Diary

Today's guest post is a little different. It's by Wiessy from Meme Diary!

 

Eye-Eye

Cos my eyes, eyes, eyes are not dry, dry, dry Jack Peñate: Torn on the Platform

So yesterday I returned to uni. Hurrah. Stop reading over my shoulder Josh. Go back to whatever highly entertaining thing you have to do. He’s attempting to “spy” through a newspaper. *Takes picture with webcam*

Lovely. Anyways. So yes I returned to uni and it’s rather lovely. It’s almost like a family reunion but with friends. They are sort of like my uni family really. It only took a few hours before I found myself in a pub, typically student-like.

There wasn’t really much to report from yesterday. I returned, hugged people and that was about it. Oh but there is the eye thing. Hence the title and the song lyric. Well the right side of my face has gone a bit weird, the bit just below my eye. I think it is just a spot that has sort of mutated into some evil erm…thing. As yesterday progressed it seemed to get bigger until I looked like I have suffered some horrible accident. And because it’s close to my eye the vision in it even went quite hazy and my eye keeps watering randomly.

I was hoping I would awake to find some normality in the mirror (well normal for my reflection) but found no improvement. So my first day walking around campus was walking around like some mutant. This was just the beginning of my day of misfortunate. I went to have my daily shower to find I had forgotten to bring any shampoo back to uni. I gave up on that idea and soon headed down to my first lecture of the day. A short while passed without much excitement but then my bad day started to turn worse.

I suddenly discovered that I had a lecture I didn’t know I had. During this rather uninteresting lecture I think I managed to upset somehow (quite what I did I’m not sure). We were then supposed to hand in the assignment I have been toiling on for the few weeks and get the last ones returned to us. Thanks to some unknown reason we did not get the promised marked assignments back.

As you can imagine this collection of minor inconvenience's didn’t put me in the best mood. But I returned home and we headed to Tesco for a BIG shop. I came back with all sorts of lovely things to eat and my mood has significantly improved. I had a lovely pizza to eat and it cooked and was smelling delicious when this happened:

I was mortified. My lovely and relatively expensive dinner was ruined. The second pizza was nowhere near as nice as the first and was a truly disappointing dinner. I thought my day of misfortunate had hit a highlight here (or rather a lowlight) but it turns out I was wrong.

We all planned to go to the pub but on arrival we discovered it was packed. Myself and Josh went for a little walk and planned to meet with the others later. After something of a wild goose chase we still hadn’t found them and headed home. Not very successful evening. In fact all in all in was just one of those days. Let’s hope my eye at least heals before I go on school placement tomorrow.

Easter Blog Hop

Welcome to my first Blog Hop. The premise is simple. You can put your blog here and then visit the other blogs that are here. Everyone does it and we get to visit a load of new blogs. Lovely! Do it now and visit all the blogs that are there!

This Stuff is So Cool!

A room full of all off my friends dancing round and round,And I thought hello new shoes, Bye bye them blues- Paulo Nutini: New Shoes

A Party

Last night I spent the night at my good friend Matt’s house with a whole bunch of my friends, many who I haven't seen before I went to university. So it was a reunion of sorts. We sat and shared our various uni experiences to begin with and I realised that these experiences are actually pretty similar for all of us. Apart from the actual location and other people there the stories were mostly about things that happened when we were drunk with the odd one about lectures. I think we all fit the typical uni student stereotype pretty well. It was also nice to hear that those who are just going to uni in September seem to have things pretty much worked out. It’s rather lovely.

After some time of general antics a few people left and we consumed a little alcohol. We then spent a long time watching things on Youtube, most of them things that made us laugh. It’s amazing how long you can do that for. Literally forever I think. College Humor creates many hilarious videos and we were just going through their entire playlist.

Eventually, after an age of watching Matt tackle the TV, we put Inception on and settled into our sleeping bags. This was getting on for 4AM. All but one of us fell asleep fairly early on though the film kept being repeated so every time I woke up it was on. It was still going when I left at 10AM.

It was a really nice night in all. Catching up with friends I hadn’t spoken to in a while is awesome and I had a nice laugh which was what I needed yesterday. Thanks to Matt for putting the whole thing on.

Other News

• I now have 118 followers on this blog. I now think all my minions look like this:

• I have had my haircut. My hair is now fairly short but this cut has to last until the summer holidays. I also have quite a beard growing. It’s longer then it ever has been before. Which actually isn’t that long. But still. It’s new. I shall keeping it for a while and we shall see how it actually turns out. The best thing so far is being able to stroke it.
• Last night my friend sent me a text and it was rather clear that she was drunk. Here’s what it said:

Is that even English?

Doctor Who: The Impossible Astronaut

WARNING: This review-thing contains spoilers. If you don’t want to know what happens, STOP READING. Come back later when you’ve watched the episode!

Amy, Rory and River each get a letter telling them to go to the middle of the Utah desert. There they meet the Doctor who takes them for a picnic by a lake. All seems well until an Apollo astronaut walks out of the lake and kills the Doctor before he has chance to regenerate. His companions are of course devastated but then get rather confused when they meet the Doctor again. This is a younger version of the Doctor they had seen die and he takes them to 1969 to investigate a small child who keeps phoning President Nixon. During this investigation Amy meets a Silent and then forget about it but due to the Silent she tells the Doctor she is pregnant. The episode ends with Rory and River finding the TARDIS from “The Lodger” full of silence (how the plural works I don’t know yet!) and Amy shoots the astronaut only to discover a young girl appears to be inside. Roll credits.

45 minutes of amazing television summarised into four and a bit lines. This episode was certainly fast-paced and extremely exciting, much more than a usual opener of a series. But I guess this is the first time in New Who where we know all the characters at the start of the series. There are some really funny moments in it too with Matt Smith’s Doctor still having his child-like fun as well as a little flirting with River. The Silence are actually pretty scary, mostly because they can make people forget they ever saw them.

All in all, it was incredible. So many questions arise it’s ridiculous. Why is the TARDIS from “The Lodger” there? What happened to Rory? Did Amy really shoot a child? Is the Doctor really dead? And how did he age so much? And of course the series-spanning question, who is River Song? In the middle of a good two-parter you want to be able to watch the second half straight away and this episode certainly makes you want to! Just…wow!

A Year of Singleness

Never mind, I’ll find someone like you- Adele: Someone Like You

A year ago today the world as I knew it was ripped apart. My girlfriend of two years split up with me unexpectedly. It was this event that triggered the worst part of my life so far. My summer was horrible. I showed little emotion to anyone and that was probably a huge mistake because inside there was a lot of pain and hurt. My exams provided a distraction to begin with but when they were over I had nothing to do except keep going over the thought and emotions. To make things worse the news that my ex now had a new boyfriend made matters worse and I was in quite a state. Yet still no-one really knew.

But I got over it. You do that. I had to look up the date that we split up because I only knew the month and that is surely evidence that I am over it. So I don’t see today as an anniversary of the break-up but an anniversary of being single. An entire year without a single love interest of any kind. It also marks the longest time of being single since I was fifteen which is a bit weird really. One has to wonder why that is. I guess partly because it was a big break up and took a while before I was really even considering having a new girlfriend. But then beyond that it’s a bit of a mystery. I’ve met more girls over the last year than I probably have done in the rest of my life. And I guess it just comes down to one thing: I haven't met the right person yet.

I like to think that there is someone out there just waiting to meet me. I may have had contact with them or they may live very close but it just hasn’t happened yet. One day it will. I think that my next girlfriend will be “the one”. With my last two girlfriends putting up with me for nine month and twenty-one months respectively I feel that the next one could be the one I spend the rest of my life with. You know, marriage and children and that. That sounds nice. I could be totally wrong of course and end up having a string of short-lived relationships but you never really know what fate will bring.

There was a time when I desperately craved the presence of a woman in my life. But not so much at the moment. Whilst I would quite happily go out with someone if the right person came along, I can survive without one. In fact there are lots of positives in being single or “ridin’ solo” as Mr. J. Derluo would put it. It would take up a lot of time and with uni being so hectic around the times of assignments and when I’m on placement I would struggle to find that time. Being in a relationship costs money. The Beatles said that “money can’t buy me love” and that is certainly true but being in a relationship, particularly as the male in it, can be expensive. There’s paying in restaurants, buying presents, travel to see them and all sorts of other costs. Heck, I rarely go into a restaurant at all at the moment. Plus you can look at girls can not feel guilty!

I wonder what the future holds for me, relationship-wise. Where will I meet Mrs. Hough? I would imagine it is likely to either be at uni or at a school I end up teaching in. Perhaps she will be a teaching assistant, I can imagine that. What will she look like? I really have no idea on that one. Perhaps a redhead as I seem to be finding myself more attracted to them lately. What will our relationship be like? Maybe we will know each other for ages before we hit it off or perhaps it will be a case of love at first sight.

I’m babbling now. A quick visit to Formspring unbelievably shows that someone knows about the significance of today’s date and actually cares. It’s either good guess work from yesterday’s entry or a conspiracy. I’m going conspiracy. I quite like that idea. Anyway, we’ve come to the end of my slightly emotional ramblings. A reflection on romance if you will. Tonight I plan to go out and get drunk to celebrate. That is all.

The Topless Tour

Gotta get down to the bus stop. Gotta catch my bus, I see my friends Rebecca Black: Friday

I couldn’t resist putting some of the lyrics of the Worst Song Ever ^TM when I realised they fit today’s entry!

The Topless Tour

Today was the day of the Topless Tour which me and Chris went on. It wasn’t named that because we were around lots of topless people or that we were topless ourselves. It was actually because most of it was on an open-top bus or a topless one. Hence “the topless tour”.

Anyway, the plan was for me, Mike and Chris to get a bus to Bournemouth and then from their get an open-top bus to the beautiful Purbecks and go to Swanage. This plan didn’t exactly work that well. Firstly Mike was busy and couldn’t come so it was just me and Chris. Because of the lovely weather the bus was packed, resulting in us having to stand on the bus for the whole journey there. It was not the most pleasant journey ever to say the least and after an hour of clinging on for dear life as the bus went round corners and braked, we did finally arrive in Swanage.

Pretty much the first thing we did was go to a chip shop and buy some chips for lunch. We then wandered around the lovely little town and eventually sat down and had an ice cream. The weather continues to be ridiculously warm and sunny for this time of year and we were treated to some lovely views out to sea.

The return journey on the open top bus was much better than the outward one as we actually managed to get seats on the open top bit (even if we did have to fight off a queue of people for the seats) Going through the Purbecks and over on the chain ferry on top of an open top bus is a lovely experience though your hair does get properly messed up. I think this journey was worth the rubbish one on the way out.

RIP Elisabeth Sladen

I was sad to learn the other day that Elisabeth Sladen, Sarah Jane Smith in Doctor Who and it’s spin-off The Sarah Jane Adventures, had passed away. My words can’t really say much but what Russell T Davies said sums it up:

The universe was lucky to have Sarah Jane Smith; the world was lucky to have Lis.

Never has the death of someone I have never met upset me as much as that of Elisabeth Sladen. She was a fantastic actress and a wonderful woman. Goodbye, my Sarah Jane.

Allotment Produce

We have been fortunate enough to have had our first produce from the allotment this year and it’s some rhubarb. My dad made it into a rhubarb crumble and it was lovely. These were just a few sticks of rhubarb though and it appears we will have new rhubarb every week until about October. Good job my Mum really likes rhubarb!

 

Tomorrow is going to be an emotional day for me. There’ll be a blog about why tomorrow and in a way I am quite looking forward to writing it. Also the hell that is the Easter bank holiday weekend begins. Thanks to the royal wedding (don’t get me started on how much I  DON’T CARE) many people are taking days of work so they can have a full eleven days off. The unusual warm spell means all of these people are going out and doing things and living in the South of England sadly means everywhere will be packed. Bournemouth beach is expecting to have 10,000 visitors a day over the weekend. And temperatures are still increasing with it possibly reaching 27 degrees Celsius on Sunday. In April! This weekend will either be a very warm one at home or one where we go somewhere and get all flustered thanks to the hundreds of people which will be everywhere. ARGH!

Guest Post: Summer of Music

It’s guest post day! Every week someone different will write a post and I’ll put it up. If you want to submit a blog post visit here. Today’s blog is by Dan Phillips and is about the upcoming summer of music.

Every Summer we are greeted with a new, different, engrossing, fascinating song. A new style of music perhaps, completely individual to anything we have ever heard before. Last year it was "I Gotta Feeling" by the Black Eyed Pea's. In 2008 we had "I Kissed a Girl" by Katy Perry and in 2007 "Umbrella" by Rhianna. If time has told us anything then we are set on due course for another amazing track this upcoming Summer.

One thing we are guaranteed this Summer is a rather spectacular music festival called Oxegen being held from the 7th-11th of July in Punchestown, Co Kildare, Ireland.

Headlining acts include such names as The Black Eyed Peas, The Script, Foo Fighters, Arctic Monkeys, Coldplay, The Strokes, Paolo Nutini, Brandon Flowers, Tinie Tempah, Bruno Mars and Calvin Harris.

One thing for sure is that the eight annual Oxegen festival is going to be as astonishingly amazing as the last seven. It is going to be as drunk and as messy, and as usual the music is going to unbelievably spectacularly amazing. The words top bands will go on stage one after another as the 100,000 intoxicated people go crazy for them.

Among Oxegen their are a number of music festivals in the UK on a similar scale, such as 'Glastonbury' and  'T in the park' which will attract similar bands and numbers of people, so realistically you do not have an excuse to be rocking it out in your wellies this Summer!

Although none of us can predict the future we can be certain that we can expect a lot from Music in the upcoming months this Summer as we do every year, and whether you are chilling out your back garden with a few cold ones, blaring the stereo and irritating your neighbours or rocking it out at a top music festival I am certain that you will be bopping your head, feeling the vibe and letting all your troubles melt away.

-- Dan.

---

Dan’s blog Different Thoughts, Different Day can be found here.

Cliffs, Pubs and Dreams

A Family Walk

So yesterday I accompanied my mother and father on a rather lovely walk along a bit of Dorset’s amazing Jurassic coast. My brother was unbelievably tied up doing revision in school during the holidays, an event I never predicted would happen with his work ethic which is generally “don’t work”. We went to the tiny village of Worth Matravers which was a proper small country village. After lunch in the only place we could find (more on that shortly) we went for a walk. Eventually the signs with their unique way of measuring distances (everything was 1 and a half miles away) took us to the clifftop and we followed a path along said clifftop until we eventually found a way back to the village. It was all very nice with lovely views of the dramatic cliff scenery although the geologist in me was rather disappointed that we didn’t go to any beaches so I could look for fossils. Here are a couple of pics I took:

Things in Pubs

On Saturday night I went with Chris to our local pub for a few drinks. It’s a fairly normal thing which we do occasionally though there was a bizarre interaction today. Someone I knew came up to us, let’s call her V, who was in our year at school. I knew both her first name and surname but she wasn’t entirely sure if we even went to the same school! I know it’s been a few years now but we were in the same class for two years, how can she have forgotten me. Am I that easy to forget? I feel slightly hurt at this. She was also a little drunk which made the conversation even more weird as she was talking about mixing cider with blackberry juice or something. Quite why I don’t know.

Yesterday in Worth Matravers we went to the only place in the village that sold food a small pub. And it really was small. The bar was perhaps five feet long and the menu was as follows: Steak Pasty, Sausage Pie, Vegetable Pie. That’s it. The food was perfectly edible though and I also had a pint of a home brewed cider called “Kiss me Kate”. Who Kate is I don’t know. If her kiss is anything like the taste of the cider then she’ll be quite something. The cider was strong, very strong. It was fortunate that it was only a lunchtime drink rather than something I was going to have a few of and get drunk from. My body would not have forgiven me for a few days I think if that had been the case!

To make up for the tiny lunch we went to our local pub for dinner last night. I had a lovely chicken New Yorker followed by a chocolate brownie sundae which was absolutely divine. As ever I have to look at the desserts menu and see which name is the longest and has chocolate in it and this was today’s winner. It was so, so good.

Dreams

I have yet more bizarre dreams to share. Both of these are from the same night actually. The first is a little hazy but it involves the cybermen from Doctor Who. I think I was being chased by a few of them but the weird thing was that they were shouting “Die” in their robotic-like voices rather than “delete” like they do on the show. I think I do actually have a genuine fear of the cybermen, they always have terrified me…

And then the second was even more bizarre. I was taking my cat Sherbet to the vets. Now quite why I would be the one responsible for this I don’t know. But it wasn’t the usual vets I went to. In fact it was a garage and a few men were busy trying to fix a car. But it turns out that one of the mechanics was actually the vet and they showed me to a normal vets room and told me to wait whilst they finished fixing the car. He also instructed me to stare at Sherbet for some reason. I did this but then Sherbet opened her mouth and blew really hard. It was like I was being blown at by a vacuum cleaner on blow but ten times as powerful because the force of the blow sent me hurtling across the room in the air. Then I woke up. I would quite like to have these bizarre dreams interpreted by a physiologist at some point, it would be pretty interesting.

End

I guess that’s it for today. A random combo of stuff really. Oh but I should report the mysterious anon on Formspring is back with this little pick me-up :

^{smile ur awesome :D}

Whoever they are, they are lovely. And on that note I shall end. Some crazy stuff happening tomorrow so come back to see what I get up to!

The Emotion Cake

Why do you bite the hand that feeds you? The Kooks: Shine On

I wasn’t going to blog today. But there are some many things whizzing around my head right now that I want to spill them out, mix them around and hopefully come to a nice outcome. Like making a cake. Except I’m not really a big fan of cake. But anyway.

Well the day began quite oddly as I just happened to end up looking up my Formspring shortly after getting up to find this rather long anonymous comment:

This is a little note rather than a question, but this is the only place where I can speak anonymously. Dan, you are not a horrible nor unlovable person. I know this from experience as a friend of yours. However lately I’ve noticed your growing self-loathing + your glum or non-existent interactions with us, your friends. This needs to stop if you want to be happy again. By continually rejecting people, even those you do not like, you are hurting them + in the long run yourself. People rarely cross burnt bridges to help the arsonist. But if you learn to listen, smile + make an effort for others bridges will be mended. For when they are happy they will see what a brilliant, lovable person you are. And they will want to make you happy. Love Anon. x

It’s all a little odd really. I get the impression this person actually knows me pretty well though I haven't the faintest idea who it could be. It’s rather poetic and well put-together and I wouldn’t expect that from most people. But it does make me wonder whether I’ve really been as bad as this person describes lately. Maybe I have. But then again the past winter has probably been the hardest time in my life so far apart from the terrible breakup blues I had early last summer.

Over the last few days I have realised that it’s about time this all stopped. The sadness and tiny things being blown up into massive stressful situations. And then all of a sudden the sort of thing that has lately turned into a massive stressful situation occurred on text today. Details are not important and not fair to the person involved. But in the end I said something I probably should have said a long time ago and the conversation abruptly ended. There was little else I could do and in the end I was honest, fair and empathetic. Best of all for me, I managed to calmly deal with a situation without letting it kick off out of proportion. So I feel like I have done the right thing for once and am actually functioning in a way which is somewhere at least near normal behaviour.

And as if my day of having emotional challenges thrown at me wasn’t enough, this evening I received another Formspring message:

Is there any one at your university you have a crush on or did have and why ? What’s your type ? Or do you not have one ?

Now one must assume this was from the same person who wrote the first message. But the nature of this question is somewhat bewildering. Either the person is extremely nosy or they have a reason to want to know such information which would likely be a good thing for me. The internal speculation on this one is wild but there isn’t really a way of knowing the truth behind it. Maybe I shall find it out one day.

So anyway. This is a rather random post. It’s quite late and my mind has lots of things floating round it. But I can tell you something. I am actually looking forward to returning to uni in a week. It will be nice to be back with my friends and I want to have a good, fun term this time rather than a shit one like I just had. It’s time to break away from my former emotional strains and live life to the full. Bring it on.

And I guess that statement is the cake that resulting in all the mixing!

Tomorrow’s post will be more normal I assure you and will contain  what I actually spent most of today doing, which I managed to not mention today as well as random snippets from the last few days. See you then.

Sunday Story: The Kinkajou

This will be the last Sunday story unless there is a call for more. This is a short children’s story which I can imagine with lots of lovely pictures in it. It’s actually an award-winning story too! It’s about a South American Mammal called a kinkajou and there’s a picture to show you what one of those is.

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Cheeky, a Kinkajou living in the forests of North Brazil was awoken by a loud THUD! Kinkajous are nocturnal creatures so Cheeky was not happy to be woken at Noon. Sleepily, Cheeky peered out of his hole to see what all the fuss was about. He stared in horror. For what it was making the racket was a pair of loggers out to make some money. They had terrifying machinery and they looked like they meant business.

The loggers looked around and decided to cut down Cheeky’s tree. Cheeky didn’t know what the loggers were saying but he did know he had to get out the way of them. Very quietly, he sneaked out of his nest. When he was halfway down the tree, he was spotted.

“Oy look here, Fred,” said one of the loggers. Fred looked up. Cheeky was rooted to the spot.

“Just get rid of it,” Fred said.

“We can’t cut down its home” complained the first logger, whose name was George.

“Look, if every logger worried about destroying stupid creatures homes there would be a whole world covered in trees!” yelled Fred. The arguing went on and on. Cheeky was still frozen on the spot. Luckily, after an age of arguing, a ranger of the park came along on his daily round.

“What have we here then?” he said. The loggers looked up and they knew the game was up.

“You’ll come quietly I suppose?” laughed the ranger.

“What’ll happen to our machinery – it costs a lot y’know?” Fred asked. The ranger just grunted. As the loggers were taken away, Cheeky climbed back up to his nest. He had a lot of sleep to catch up on. Meanwhile the loggers were given an extremely large fine that they couldn’t afford to pay.

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There you go, that one is very short but quite sweet I think. Remember that there will be no more Sunday stories unless you ask for more. And don’t forget to comment with what your perfect sandwich is for a chance to become Minion of the Month!

My Alien Encounters

Boy, you’re an alien, Your touch so foreign it’s supernatural, Extra-terrestrial. Katy Perry: E.T.

Lilo And Stitch

Last night I watched my newly purchased DVD of Lilo and Stich, one of my fave Disney films ever. There are many reasons why it is good. It is a sci-fi film and as far as I’m aware the only Disney Classic which is sci-fi. Stitch, the alien, is so cute. I used to have a plushie Stitch year’s ago and it was literally the cutest toy I ever had. The film also has some Elvis music in it which is awesome. And the idea that “family means no-one gets left behind” is such a lovely idea and what I feel is really important in life. I love Lilo and Stich so much. I want my own Stitch. It would be amazing.

Postcrossing

I have discovered an exciting new website called Postcrossing. It’s an exciting way of getting more interesting post. Basically you can send up to five postcards to addresses they give you. When they arrive your address is given to random people who then send you a postcard from wherever they are in the world. It’s all very exciting and I’ve got my first postcards ready to send. I shall let you know when I get some postcards delivered. I don’t really know what to expect and that makes it even more fun :)

Health and Safety

Yesterday I actually went and earnt some money, something which is becoming ever rarer this year. My work needs less staff and I can’t do half-term holidays any more so actually being available for a time when they need more staff is quite tricky. Hopefully I shall get to work a bit more in the summer. Anyway, today they had a training session about health and safety. I wasn’t exactly looking forward to it but actually it turned out to be OK. There were some good stories told including supposedly unconscious people actually being asleep and a person coming to a sticky end in a paper shredder. Annoyingly though I did have to fill out a risk assessment. I already despise risk assessments and as a teacher I will have to do them all the time. Whilst they are important they are time consuming and dull. And when you start filling them out everything you do seems really dangerous because you start over-analysing it. The world is dangerous when you think about it.

My Alien Encounters

OK, time to explain today’s slightly odd title. Well it’s all in this little video I made where I begin filming some strange goings-on and then get abducted by aliens. May or may not be influenced by the Doctor Who episode “Love and Monsters”. Here it is:

I hope you liked that. Let me know. In fact comment with something random if you have no opinion. What’s would be your dream sandwich? Best answer will be awarded with Minion of the Month. Do it! Now!

30 Photos: First Half

Look at this photograph, every time I do it makes me laugh Nickelback: Photograph

I’m doing one of those “meme” things on Facebook where you have to post a certain picture every day. I thought this would be good to put in the blog but I didn’t want it taking up 30 whole days so instead I will do it over two posts. Here is the first half!

Day 01 - A picture of yourself with ten facts

1) My name is Daniel Hough. I have no middle name.
2) I grew up in a town called Ringwood which is on the edge of the New Forest. Can also be described as "near Bournemouth" for anyone who doesn't know where the New Forest is.
3) I go to the University of Winchester studying Primary Education.
4) Things I'm into: Doctor Who, Nintendo, music (all/any).
5) I can pick things up with my feet. Who needs hands when you have feet?
6) I am something of a cheese connoisseur.
7) I like going for walks, especially in nice quiet, pretty places.
8) I write a blog most days. I'm sad like that. www.intogeek.net But you lot know that…
9) I have recently turned 19.
10) Most people don't get on with me. Not sure why. But hey, who needs them?

Day 02 - A picture of you and the person you have been closest with the longest

That's me and Chris, my BFF. We went to the same playgroup, infant school, junior school, secondary school and 6th Form.

Day 03 - A picture of the cast from your favourite show

Doctor Who! (Of course)

Day 04 - A picture of your night

I just sat in front on either the laptop or the TV for most of it, as usual :(

Day 05 - A picture of your favourite memory

This is one of the best days I had with my friends, at the local country park in July 2009.We had such a laugh and it's a day I won't ever forget.

Day 06 - A picture of a person you'd love to trade places with for a day

Matt Smith. I so could be the 12th Doctor :p

Day 07 - A picture of your most treasured item

I don't care much for possessions, it's people that are important hence the white space.

Day 08 - A picture that makes you laugh

Me, Chris and Mike laughing hysterically when jelly fell on the floor because we were drunk.

Day 09 - A picture of the person who has gotten you through the most

It's me again. We fight our own battles in this life. If it wasn't for me, I wouldn't be here now...

Day 10 - A picture of the person you do the most ****** up things with

Of course this has to be Josh. In the half a year we have known each other we have done some crazy stuff such as running round the student village wearing elf hats. Good times!

Day 11 - A picture of something you hate

Live News Reports when there is no point in a reporter being at a location when nothing is happening there! It just winds me up.

Day 12 - A picture of something you love

Cheese! LOVE LOVE LOVE it.

Day 13 - A picture of your favourite band or artist

The Hoosiers :)

Day 14 - A picture of something you could never imagine your life without

Feet. Life would be extremely difficult without them

Day 15 - A picture of something you want to do before you die

I have a whole list but one of them is to be at an important sporting final. Full list here if you're really interested.

Part two will appear here in 15 days time. Didn’t take a genius to work that out.

Explosions

I got that boom boom pow, How the beat bang, boom,boom, pow- The Black Eyed Peas: Boom Boom Pow

That’s my new thing right there. I shall start of most of my blog posts with a relevant song lyric. Soon it will become so seamless you won’t notice anything other than the pleasant effect it has. And I assure that most lyrics will be somewhat more high brow than that but that one has relevance to today’s entry. Let’s get on with it then.

The Big Bournemouth Bonanza

Today myself and my friend Chris had planned to go on an open top bus tour of the local area. It turned out that last week’s lovely weather had stopped which should have been expected really seeing as though it’s April and weather like we were having was unusual. So in today’s overcast weather we once again headed to the seaside town of Bournemouth in an attempt to have some way of entertaining ourselves. We wandered around many a shop to begin with and as per usual I managed to find various items to spend my every-decreasing money on. The first was Volume 1 of The Walking Dead. I watched the first episode of the TV adaptation the other day and really liked it and my latest geeky inclinations have been towards comics and graphic novels so I couldn’t resist. Plus it was really cheap! I also finally found the DVD that has been top of my most wanted list for about a month: Lilo and Stich. I love that Disney movie and shall no doubt talk about it a bit more when I watch it.

After this shopping we had lunch and then we decided we would walk the mile along the beach to the district of Boscombe. Let’s get one thing straight: Boscombe is not a nice place. You sort of get that impression by the number of shady-looking shops there are as well a cheap shops like Poundland. It has become a hive of crime lately with a murder there just last week and is certainly the most dangerous place in the local area. So quite why myself and Chris decided it would be a good place to travel to I have no idea. We literally went there, looked at the odd shop, and the walked all the back again. But the most important fact was that we were two friends together having a laugh about anything and everything and that makes any day worthwhile (Though we had accidently worn matching hoodies so looked like the members of some gang with a rather odd uniform).

On return home, to my delight, I discovered that my 3DS had picked up another five people of Streetpass. That doubled the total number of Mii’s I had on it so I was pretty chuffed. This little feature of the 3DS is so fun and you really never know what to expect as you can bump into literally anyone on it, it’s so fun!

Explosions

A large cup of coca-cola is rather tricky to balance on a McDonald’s tray, particularly when the restaurant is really busy and has people swarming all over it. The last thing you need is for some clumsy woman to bash you with your elbow so that the tray jerks violently forward. My poor cup of coke had little chance of surviving and me and Chris had a moment where reality turned into slow motion. We watched as the cup hurtled towards the ground, the lid popped of and the entire contents of the cup spilled across the McDonald’s floor. There was then a moment of silence as we stood still, mouths wide open with surprise with all the people on the nearby tables staring. The woman who bashed me apologised, which I satisfyingly ignored and we decided we should go and sit down. I couldn’t help but feel guilty but there really wasn’t anything I could have done. By the time we had finished and went to leave the mess had been cleaned up but our shoes stuck to the floor a little where the incident had occurred. It was a rather embarrassing event and I shall forever learn to clutch tightly to McDonald’s cups.

This wasn’t the most dramatic “explosion” that is connected to me that has happened recently. Apparently on Sunday an explosion happened in my university town of Winchester. It happened in the middle of the high street outside a clothing store. Fortunately no-one was injured and the only evidence of the event was some cracked paving slabs. The newspaper I read said that it was a gas explosion. But surely that shouldn’t happen? You would have thought gas pipes would be safer than that. So when the new term starts and I’m walking along the high street with the week’s shopping am I going to be blown apart? I don’t really fancy that.

Emotions

My mind is messed up. I keep having random periods where I am really sad for no obvious reason and life just seems rather pointless. The last week though has been really good and I’ve enjoyed myself although right now I feel that I may be heading for a low period again. I don’t mean to be melodramatic but I genuinely think I may have bipolar. Mild bipolar anyway. So it’s about time to stop letting it get on top of me and actually attempt to make things better and get my life back to the amazing thing it could be. So when I return to uni I shall be booking an appointment with the uni counsellor. It’s worth a try at the very least to make me feel a bit happier and could actually make a massive difference. We shall have to see. But I am fed up of feeling like this.

Anyway, on that note it’s time to end this post. Remember that you can now access this blog simply by visiting www.intogeek.net . Thank You!

Guest Post: Best Movies of All Time

From today onwards Wednesday is guest post day! Every week someone different will write a post and I’ll put it up. If you want to submit a blog post visit here. Today’s blog is by Laura Hartley and is about the best movies of all time.

So here are some of my favourite movies. It’s not an entirely accurate list as I have to admit I have often fallen victim to the rom-coms which lack originality and the action movies with no purpose but to display the protagonists newly toned body. However, here is a list of some of my favourite movies which I think are actual works of cinematic greatness that everyone will like.

Jaws

This is the film that really launched Steven Spielberg’s career and into the eyes of the public. Jaws thrived on one thing: fear. Possibly one of the greatest and certainly one of the most famous thriller/horror stories of all time, Jaws is about a small coastal town terrorised by a great white shark. What really enhances the suspense and tension throughout the movie is the fact that we do not see the shark until the very end and instead we hear the infamous Jaws theme tune in its place. When you hear those two notes, you just know what’s about to happen. Not to mention the fact that the infamous Jaws theme tune is instantly recognisable all over the world, and that’s pretty impressive for a mere two notes. John Williams, the composer, has a career spanning over seven decades, and he’s written the music for some of the greatest films: Jaws, Superman, Indiana Jones, E.T., Jurassic Park and Harry Potter, all of which are famous worldwide. There have been several sequels to the Jaws movie, none of which have been as successful as the first; however Jaws sparked dozens and dozens of new dangerous fish related horror movies, sort of like (I hate to say it) Twilight has done in today’s world (sparking hundreds of new vampire-related books and films).

Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring

This is the first of three pieces of pure cinematic genius, one of the best fantasy films in motion picture history. This movie is brilliantly translated from page to screen whilst some parts perhaps even improving upon Tolkien's original story. Admittedly all three of the Lord of the Rings movies are extremely long, with not one of them under three hours, but trust me, it is well worth your time. Each film leaves you gripping the edge of your seat, begging for more. Nothing is lost is this movie, the depth, the emotional intensity, is all portrayed expertly by a well-chosen cast. The Fellowship of the Ring is just the beginning as we embark on an epic quest along with Frodo and the Ring. This is not a movie for those who like all things cute and fluffy; this movie is dark, as Frodo faces an unimaginable journey into the deep and mystical lands outside the Shire. This film is so realistic that you believe it could be true, you travel with Frodo on his adventures, battling against goblins and orcs. I’m not sure that this movie is for everyone, but you should definitely give it a try if you haven’t already seen it, and experience the fantastical lands of Middle-Earth for yourself.

The Matrix

Is this where it all began? Perhaps it was the Matrix that inspired the films Inception and Source Code. Movies where dream, reality and a computer generated existence are created and mixed together. Prepare to be amazed by the sheer awesomeness of the plot, the acting and the computer effects of this movie. Ever seen people entirely glad in black leather bend over backwards in slow-mo to dodge some well-aimed bullets? Was that a no? Then Matrix you must see! (Yoda-talk in reference to the fact that The Matrix supposedly stole Star Wars’ ‘thunder’). This lunatic idea of fighting aliens inside a ‘Matrix’ inside your mind has given birth to many other sci-fi films over the years in addition to its own sequels. Strangely, in this movie I actually noticed how brilliantly the camera effects were, something I’ve never noticed in any movie before. The effect of speed, sound and action in this movie knit together this closely woven tale of a virtual reality. Your jaw will drop at some moments as you wonder at the brilliance that is ‘The Matrix’.

Edward Scissorhands

Edward Scissorhands is made brilliant by the joining of two of Hollywood’s finest: Tim Burton and Johnny Depp. Both are equally incredible at creating and portraying strange and misunderstood characters, it’s what they do best. This film can be seen as a comedy, a romance and a tragedy. It is almost a fairy-tale, revolving around Edward, an invention who looks exactly like a normal person apart from the fact he has scissors instead of fingers. At first it seems too good to be true, he is persuaded to leave his gloomy mansion and is welcomed into the neighbourhood, with much praise for his ‘talents’. However, tragedy strikes when Edward falls in love, and commits a crime, turning everybody against him. This is an emotional movie with superb acting, particularly from Johnny Depp (as always). This film is original, there is nothing else like it and that makes it special.

Toy Story

Yes, Toy Story has made it onto my list. Don’t try to pretend that you weren’t thinking it too, and don’t be ashamed! Toy Story has brought joy to adults and children since its release in 1995 and its subsequent sequels have also been popular. For those of you that don’t know, Toy Story was the first ever full length Disney/Pixar computer animated film. Toy Story is hilarious and original, and the fact that this 16 year old film is still hugely popular in 2011 proves this. I was so excited when I heard that a Toy Story 3 was being made, despite the fact that the last Toy Story had been released 11 years prior. I can still remember the plot fondly and even though that now I am perhaps seen as ‘too old’ to be watching Disney animations, I rushed down on the day of release to see Woody and his friends continue their adventures. This movie proves that some movies directed at children can be better works than those aimed at adults. Toy Story is timeless, ageless and fabulous; if you haven’t already seen it you must’ve been hiding under a rock for the past 16 years and I suggest you get your skates on and rush to your nearest DVD store!

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Now this is nowhere near a complete list of movies that you must, must, must see during your lifetime, but it’s a start. Now get watching!

Written by Laura Hartley

Read more reviews at: http://whats--hot.blogspot.com

Ridge Racer 3D Review and Other Stuff

A whole bunch of random stuff in today’s blog, just the way you like it.

Ridge Racer 3D Review

Now I have had this 3DS racing game for a couple of weeks now but until recently I haven't had much chance to play it. It purchased it for a very reasonable £29.99 at a supermarket so it was going to be worth it either way. I love a good racing game and decided there were a couple of things I wanted from this one.

• Controls. You control the game by using either the circle-pad or the D-pad, though the circle-pad seems better. You then just need to use X or B for acceleration and occasionally press R and L for nitro boosts. Works very well once you get used to it.
• Graphics. This is the first ever racing game I have played in 3D and I was suitably impressed. The car’s look amazing, the tracks look amazing and the whole thing is beautiful. Plus the extra nifty thing of having confetti and leaves flying at the screen is also really good.
• Longevity. Well I have spent a fair amount of time playing the game now but I feel that I’ve barely scratched the surface. I feel that this game is going to keep me occupied for a very long time.
• Use of 3DS features. It manages to use the camera by taking a picture for your profile picture which then appears above your car which is a nice touch. It also gathers data through Street Pass for ghost races and the like though I have yet to pass anyone else with Ridge Racer 3D.

All in all, it’s awesome. Certainly the best racing game on the 3DS at the moment and will probably hold that title for a long, long time. Well worth purchasing if you have a 3DS and like racing games. 9/10.

“Scorpia Rising” by Anthony Horowitz Review

Scorpia Rising is the ninth and final book in the best-selling Alex Rider series. For those who don’t know, Alex Rider is a reluctant teenage spy and by the time this novel starts he has supposedly given up working for MI6. In this finale criminal organisation Scorpia plans to kill their enemy Alex Rider and use it as part of a plan to get lots of money. Whilst thrilling, I had a few issues:

• The first quarter of the book focuses on Scorpia and it’s plans. As well written as this section is, we are reading a book about Alex Rider and want to see Alex Rider appear ASAP.
• Though the series was released over ten years it is supposed take place over the course of one year. On Alex’s first mission in 2001 he was given a Game Boy Advance and a Sony Walkman but by this novel he has an iPhone, a Nintendo DS and uses Facebook. That’s a continuity error if ever I saw one. But I guess only geek’s like me would notice that one.
• Though the ending is satisfying, it feels like Horowitz didn’t know when to finish the series and decided now was as a good as anytime. He could have carried on for longer and prepared the ending over a few books.

Don’t get me wrong, I liked it. Of course it is supposed to be a children’s book and many readers won’t find the issues I did because of this but then again people like me having been reading the series for ten years. Still, it has all the action we have come to expect from the series and has some brilliant twists to end the series with. The one involving gadget man Smithers is amazing. A good book but not as good as most of it’s predecessors. 6/10

Another dream

I have got into the habit of sharing the dreams I remember on my blog. They are usually pretty exciting and odd but this one was a little different. I was at some kind of party thing, not quite sure what, wearing this shirt and tie:

^{Quality Picture…}

In this dream I was generally wandering the party and it seemed that virtually every girl was telling me I looked “hot” or “attractive” or something along those lines. I guess I dreamt this partly because at one party I wore that at two girls said I looked really good but mainly because I would really like someone to find me attractive again. I have been single nearly a year and am not particularly pleased with that fact. I shall probably write a whole blog about this at some point…

Procrastination

I have an assignment that is due in the day I return to university after the holidays. It’s a really hard assignment which involves lots of work so naturally I keep leaving it. I should have started it by now really but I have actually only read a few bits for it. I still need to read a load more, plan it and of course write it. After the last assignment in this subject was nearly a fail I can’t help but feel really anxious about this one. So I keep putting it off, which makes it worse. And the more I put it off , the worse I feel about it and therefore I put it off more. It’s a vicious circle which I can’t get out of. Someone help!

End

That was quite a nice blog entry, I liked that one. Before I go I have an announcement: Into Geek now has it’s own domain. You can get to this blog by visiting www.intogeek.net from now on! How cool is that?

Allotment 2011

Some of my longer term readers may remember that around this time last year our family got an allotment and all last summer I blogged about it’s progress. We got loads and loads of vegetables and even won an award for how good it was. Then of course the autumn came, I went off to university and the allotment didn’t really do much over the winter. But it is of course now spring and I’m at home so it’s time to see what’s happening down at the allotment!

So I arrived there yesterday morning with my Mum and Dad so we could plant some things and we were all surprised to find that the rhubarb looked like this:

Thanks to the unusually warm April we have had so far the rhubarb that we planted months and months ago shot up over the last few weeks and now it’s ready to harvest. You’re not normally supposed to harvest rhubarb until at least May but it’s a variety which you have to harvest earlier and the weather must have made it grow quicker.

And here is what our whole allotment looks like now, with handy labels about where different vegetables are.

So what did we do today? Well first we weeded the far quadrant as it was a bit wild. Apparently my Mum and Dad planted this special plant over the winter which rots down and makes the soil really fertile. Some of this was left over so we had to pull that out. We then dug the soil over and made a couple of raised rows and planted the potatoes in them. Last year we had literally hundreds of potatoes and so fingers crossed we should have a whole load again this year.

Next up we weeded and dug over the section in the next quadrant along and planted carrots and parsnips in it. These are planted in shallow grooves and have tiny little seeds. We’re hoping that the carrots will be as successful as last year but parsnips are a new experiment. They are my favourite vegetable but apparently they are really hard to grow so we shall just have to see what happens there.

This year we are going to grow even more vegetables than last year but of course we only have limited space. That is why we have used grow bag things, those green bags you can see on the picture. We have put leeks in one and peas in another, though we will need to build a net thing round the peas as the birds love to eat them. There is also another grow bag thing behind the rhubarb but I cannot for the life of me remember what we put in it.

The quadrant at the front of the picture is empty at the moment but our conservatory is full of various plants which are growing a little until they can be planted and virtually all of them will be planted in the remaining quadrant. I will continue to blog about the allotment when I can and when there are things to say about it.Hopefully we will have another good year!

Sunday Story: Finn and the Ghosthunters Part 2

Hello and welcome to something I am quite excited about, my Sunday story. Every Sunday,if all goes to plan, I shall post a short story for your pleasure. Today is the second half of a story called “Finn and the Ghosthunters” and you can read the first half here.

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“Gary.” Finn yelled. “C’mon. Jimmy’s been taken to hospital- sounds like trouble.” Being adults in every way other than the law, Finn and Gary had to take the bus as usual. It was a complicated route and seemed to take five times as long as it normally would. The ghost hunting duo hopped off the bus and rushed across the road, getting an angry horn from an annoyed sixty-five year old driving a red Seat. Eventually, Finn and Gary found their way into A and E and then to Jimmy’s bedside.

“Jimmy, it’s Finn,” Finn announced, quietly but urgently. “Can you tell me what happened?”

“The ghost,” Jimmy began croakily. “It was speaking inside my head”

“Hmmm...Ecto-telepathation,” Finn murmured. “Did the ghost identify itself?”

“Yeah, it’s Mr. Slazzler, my former maths teacher. My childish prank blew up his car and killed him.” Finn was surprised by this, Jimmy had seemed so perfect other that the drugs thing.

“What can you do Finn?” Jimmy continued. “He’s already done this to me with the ecto-telepathy thing, what can you do to stop him?”

“I need to lure him to where he died, probably where he first started haunting- and we know where that is don’t we?” Finn smirked, pleased to see Jimmy smiling for once. “But there is one problem- Neither Gary or I can drive. Will you do it?”

“If it gets rid of old Slazzler once and for all then I will,” Jimmy replied instantly. “Dr. Singh reckons I’ll be out in about half an hour.”

“We’ll see you outside in about 30 minutes then,” Finn announced. “Come along, Gary”.

 

“How do we know this is true?” Gary asked as Finn found a sturdy wall to lean on. “He’s on drugs”.

“He took LSD once,” Finn pointed out.

“Yeah, but once is enough”.

AH, FINN I’VE HEARD SO MUCH ABOUT YOU a voice said in Finn’s head.

“Are you alright?” Gary asked Finn, seeing the expression on his face.

GARY NOLAN TOO the voice said, this time to both of them. THE GHOSTHUNTERS MEET THE GHOST...

“Listen Slazzler,” Finn yelled. “We’re sending you and your lorry to deepest darkest Hades, where you belong”.

EVEN IF THE WOMAN JIMMY LOOOOOOOOOOVES IS IN THE BACK OF MY LORRY?

“You wouldn’t,” Gary whispered.

TOO LATE, GARY. A CERTAIN LUCY MACKINTOSH IS ALREADY GAGGED AND TIED UP. OOPS, WE WEREN’T EXPECTING THAT, WERE WE?

“She’s not part of this,” Finn said coldly. “Play fair. Let her go”.

GHOST’S DON’T PLAY FAIR Slazzler replied and the voice became silent.

“We’ve got to tell Jimmy,” Gary declared.

“No, we haven’t,” Finn replied icily. “There’s nothing we can do for Lucy. We can stop Slazzler’s ghost and save Jimmy”.

“But Jimmy’s life won’t be worth living without her,” Gary argued. “You can’t do it.”

“I’m in charge,” Finn muttered sternly. “So I can and I will.”

[Continues After Break]

Grand National 2011

So today was the day of the biggest horse races of the year and it seemed the perfect opportunity to tick another thing of my list of things to do before I die:number 11, bet on a horse/dog race. I decided that the best way to do this was online as it would save me having to walk into town to the nearest betting shop and also avoided the fact that I have no idea what you say/do in a betting shop. The next decision was which horse to back. I found a list online of all forty horses, each with their odds and a little summary about them. It made little sense to bet on a horse with low odds because then even if I won then I wouldn’t get much money. I also figured that going for a horse with high odds was a bad idea because the chance of it winning was so miniscule. So I looked at the odds in the middle and with a read of the brief summaries I chose this horse, Bluestar Cracker.

I bet on it with the odds being 20/1, meaning that if it won I would make £100 back from a £5 bet. The rest of the morning passed by as the sun shone down over the country and I read most of a book (review coming soon). But eventually the time came and it was nearly time for the race. As they listed all the horses I discovered that my horse was a mare, as in a female horse. This would mean the horse I backed would have to become the first ever mare to win the Grand National for me to make some money, making the chance of winning slimmer. But the odds were still 20/1 so it seemed to have a reasonable chance.

All the horses gathered at the starting line and I found it amusing that the starter yelled “NOT YET…NOT YET…NOT YET…NOT YET…GO!” One horse randomly decided to jump the starting tape and this was the best jump it made as it ended up falling at the first fence. As I watched the race I couldn’t help but feel a little excited about it. If my horse (I have now claimed ownership since I bet on it) won I would be £100 better off. I watched as at most fences horses and jockeys fell down in spectacular style, each time listening out to check that it wasn’t my horse that had fallen. As the race drew ever closer to it’s end I realised that Bluestar Cracker had barely been mentioned at all and watched as horse after horse crossed the finishing line, eventually followed by the horse I had backed. Turns out Bluestar Cracker finished in 14th place. I tried to console myself with the fact that 14th is not bad out of 40 and at least it finished, so many horses had not even done that. But then I realised that I was not the owner,jockey or anything to do with the actual horse and in fact my horse may have well fallen at the first hurdle as it made no difference.

So what do I think about my first betting experience? Well it was a waste of time and I lost £5. Still, the thrill of watching was quite a good feeling I have to say. I felt sad to see that two horses had died in the race though, it’s such a shame. Everyone in horse racing seems really friendly though and I watched jockeys,owners,trainers and people that work with the horses show friendship,sportsmanship and real love and care for both their own horses and each other’s. And that’s what a sport should be like…