End of Month Extravaganza 4#

As 2011 draws ever closer to the end it is time to look back on the penultimate month of the year. Ah, November 2011…

Everyone’s Talking About… “How to Speak Street”

At the beginning of the month I wrote a post teaching you how to speak like they do on the streets. Never before has a post I have written received such good feedback. Here’s what people have been saying.

Addman: You young 'uns and yer crazy words. Nice post btw.

Dannie (housemate): You know you basically just wrote half of Jaz's vocabulary down right? x

Yes, that was the point.

ishashime: haha. how entertaining. xD

Jay: Haha, my boyfriend is trying to teach me how to speak gangsta so I'll understand his hip hop music better. Do you know if these words are the same in American gangster as they are in British gangster?

Sorry, I don't know American gangster! Some of them might be the same I guess.

Tiff: I think reem should be added to this list tbh x

Added!

Jaz (housemate and the basis for the post): this is some sick stuff Daniel! U be jammin boy!

Thanks to everyone who commented and read it. And if you haven't read it, you can check it out here!

Comments…Best of the Rest

Here’s what people have been saying about other things:

Effie (on Bucket List): Just saying hi! Love the list aswell...and the whole blog actually. :)

Thanks Effie!

Reagen (on Crap Towns): Oh my God. A survivor. You are practically a god now to my mortal eyes. Give me tips. Tell me the ways of leaving to thee. I'll do. anything. But, anyway. I totally need to find this book. If nothing to pass the time, and rage about how we didn't make the top ten. All the important things in life. I'm gonna protest! Rile the chavs!

You just how to run at any opportunity you have!

Jay (on Lanterns and Rafts): You really need to see Nightmare Before Christmas. It's such a good movie. Of course, I'm a huge fan of Tim Burton movies. I even have a Nightmare Before Christmas purse, that's how big of a fan I am.

I've watched Nightmare Before Christmas now, thoughts in Friday Review #10!

Minion of the Month: Despite her technical difficulties she keeps coming back and keeps saying hello so the November 2011 Minion of the Month is the lovely Jay! Thank you for always popping by!

The One Post You Should Go Back And Read: Assuming you’ve already read How to Speak Street, the post you should read is “My Day in London” as it goes into a fair bit of detail about the lovely day I had a few weeks back. Me, in London by myself doing whatever the hell I wanted/could afford. It’s pretty awesome.

Blog of the Month: This goes to one of my fave blogs, Always Abbey Noel by, you guessed it, Abbey Noel. It’s fun and engaging and often makes me chuckle. You should go and read it.

And it comes to that time again to think about how the month went. Traditionally this bit is me reflecting that it was a pretty rubbish month. Rest assured, this tradition is continuing. Whilst November started and finished on a fairly high note, the rest of it has been awful. Something bad really bad happened and then life reached new levels of dull. Few exciting things happen anymore. Still, December can’t be too bad can it? A couple of easy weeks at uni with a few social things planned and my best mate visiting followed by the Christmas holidays involving work, time with the family and Christmas itself? How bad can that be…

As usual you will soon be able to see an overview of all the posts from the last month on the aptly named “Last Month” page. I hope you lot had a good November and let’s start looking forward to Christmas!

Political Ranting and Cider

Hello. I should start with a quick note to my Facebook readers. Due to Facebook, as ever, being a terrible social network, they are no longer allowing users to import notes. This means that the life updates post’s will appear on my profile as links to here. If you want to read things like Music Monday and Friday Review you should “like” the Facebook page where links to all blog posts will be posted. Sorry for the inconvenience but it’s Facebook’s fault.

Now that the admin’s over, time to get on with the post. I have done something a little out of character and applied for something which could well be life-changing. It’s a job running children’s activities during the summer holidays on a cruise ship. This would be an amazing job. It would fill up my otherwise fairly empty summer, I’d get extra experience with children, I’d get to see a few places (albeit briefly) and I’d earn some money. The company has replied and said that they have “identified me as someone who would be suitable” and will contact me nearer the time. In the past I have seen opportunities like this and not applied because of one silly reason or another. But it is time to stop living the shitty life I seem to be and start living it.

As you may have come to expect, my life has continued to drag on with little incident. This is my last full week of lectures and so all the modules are drawing slowly to a close, making the lecture largely unimportant. Still, I have a history assignment to write and the content is at least slightly interesting. Doing research in it has led me to have a massive dislike to the country’s education secretary Michael Gove. Despite their lack of popularity, I am fairly supportive of the current coalition government. The cuts are frustrating but necessary and it is only the education aspects that annoy me. The raising of university fees is one so such annoyance but I shan’t go on about that today. I’m training to be a primary school teacher so it’s that area I’ve been looking at. Recently Gove has criticised the teaching union strike that’s happening tomorrow. And then a photo of him in his youth picketing at a strike comes out. How can you have a message about striking being wrong and have already gone against it yourself? His opinions on the National Curriculum are also ridiculous. The labour government were within hours of making a new curriculum law which would have seen pretty much the end of traditional subjects with everything being taught in cross-curricular topics. This would have been fantastic. However, Mr. Gove would like to keep it pretty much how it is but change the importance of some subjects. He wants to make history a core subject (more important one). Now though this would be beneficial to me, seeing as though I would soon be a newly-qualified history specialist, I don’t think it’s right. All the subjects have the place but there is no way history is more important than science. And Gove wants to changed the content of the history curriculum by putting a massive emphasis on British history and seemingly paying little attention to source analysis. Source analysis is vitally important in modern history teaching and it is of course impossible to attempt to teach huge amount of content; there’s just not enough time to teach the entire history of the country.

Rant over. The point is, Michael Gove is a terrible education secretary and doesn't know what he’s talking about. Most teachers would agree with this statement. I think this begins a long career where us teachers know how things should be and the government occasionally but often doesn’t. That’s politics for you.

This evening was fairly enjoyable as I went on a “man’s night out” with housemates Josh and Jaz. This, as usual, mostly consisted of us going to various pubs, moaning about things, talking about things and losing money on the pub quiz machine. Jaz is actually addicted to them, which you wouldn’t think possible. Mind you I sometimes think I can learn more from a few games on that to a lot of my lectures. Of course we made a loss on the machine. I have recently been trying to decide what my favourite cider is. I usually go for the on-tap cider whenever I got to a pub as I don’t like beer (yes, I am a terrible man) and draught cider is nicer. The standard in many pubs is Strongbow, which is OK. Some pubs have Aspall, which I consider rather vile. And then my favourite is Stowford Press. I never know how you are supposed to describe drinks but the internet says Stowford Press cider is a “light, bitter sweet cider with a fruity character.  Lightly sparkling with a ripe, fresh aroma bursting with apples”. All in all, quite nice. Perhaps it suits me because I too have “a fruity character”. Whatever that means. 

That was a bit of a weird post wasn’t it? Such a bizarre combination of things. There can’t be many blogs that give you political rants and cider reviews in the same post. I am gladly providing said service. And on that note, it’s time for me to watch some TV and go to bed. Goodnight.

Music Monday 4#

After an unexpected week off Music Monday is back! Once again it’s time to take a look what’s rocking my music world this week!

As usual I shall begin with a golden old ‘un. This week is pure pop cheese from Denmark thanks to Alphabeat. With lines such as “I was not looking for arty farty love” and somehow getting the word elevator to rhyme with “solitude eraser” (whatever that is), it’s so bad it’s somehow good. This is 10,000 Nights!

I am so up to date with the music world that this next track isn’t even finished yet! It’s a demo by the amazing Marina and the Diamonds called Starring Role and I already love it. Marina’s first album was incredible and this track gives me high hopes that the second will be too. No video as it’s only a demo but listen and enjoy!

One of my new favourite bands recently is Rizzle Kicks and housemate Jaz has fallen in love with their music and rightly so, because it’s brilliant. This song is called Prophet (Better Watch It) and has the rather amusing opening lines “I’m lurking in your pocket. Better watch it”. We laughed about this for ages.

Our fourth song today is The One That Got Away by Katy Perry. Yes, I know this one has appeared here before but I still love it and it’s got a video now. My blog, my choices hahaha!

iTunes have recently changed their settings so that you can now redownload any songs you previously downloaded. I lost a load ages ago but now that I have them back I have rediscovered lots of old favourites. This week’s record of the week is much less of a pop song than some of today’s other songs and is a few years old now. It’s Fall Out Boy with Don’t Care.

I hope you liked some or maybe all of today’s tracks and as usual feel free to add a comment sharing your opinion. Next week’s Music Monday will be something a little different so watch this space! And if you haven’t already (you probably haven't) join my Facebook group to get blog posts on your Facebook feed.

Thoughts From the Dungeon 5#

This week I think about getting older and briefly speculate what the future may hold.

Lanterns and Rafts

It’s Saturday! I hope you are all enjoying your weekend. A post on a Saturday is unusual these days but due to the lack of internet it’s been a quiet week on the posting front. I think it’s time for me to share with you my last few days.

Thursday night was the grand opening of the Winchester Christmas Market (which is basically some sheds that sell things). It began with a lantern parade from the top of town down to where the Christmas market is. Pictured below are some examples, including the winning Jack and Sally from A Nightmare Before Christmas lanterns (a film I really need to see).

We took the back alleys and raced the parade down to the Christmas Market (and won). After an age of waiting the mayor officially opened the market by cutting a red ribbon on the ice rink. The effect isn’t quite the same when you have to watch them put the red ribbon up. Surely they could have done that some hours beforehand? Then two professional ice skaters from ITV’s Dancing on Ice did their thing (i.e. ice dancing) and it was rather impressive. The poor woman was thrown all over the place but fortunately the man managed to catch her ok. It was a new experience but an enjoyable one. As soon as they finished there was a massive bang and the fireworks started. They were rather impressive and I would go as far to say they were better than the Bonfire Night fireworks. At least there was no man on a PA talking over them. Mind you, there may have been but the PA system around the ice rink was dreadful and you couldn’t hear anything. I also liked the fact that they set some fireworks off from the cathedral rooftop, though our previous idea of standing up there to get a good view would have gone a bit wrong as we would have all been blown up. So we were quite fortunate in the end.

Yesterday was one of the more interesting lectures as we had to produce a lesson plan and do some of it, loosely based on the fable “Anansi and the Turtle” (Youtube here if you want). We decided to do a lesson about floating which led us to make small rafts in the lectures. Well the people we were demonstrating the lesson to made a perfectly good raft by tying straws together but we decided to be a little more adventurous and attached some cardboard to two toilet roll tubes. Our raft then promptly sank. It was fortunate that we were not actually teaching this lesson as that would have been rather embarrassing! The people that demonstrated their lesson plan to us had a similar idea as I believe a fair chunk of the group had, though there’s involved making Anansi and then putting things in his coat pockets so he would sink, like in the story. I of course took the opportunity to make something completely seriously so here is the Anansi I made (and when I say “made” I mean “stuck some pipe cleaners into a polystyrene ball”):

I realise it would look cooler with a face but the paint is still a bit wet.

Last night I went out once again. Two nights out of the house in a row, what is happening? We went for dinner at Pizza Hut and as usual they a fair majority of the menu was not available. If you wanted a pizza you could only have a large one. Fortunately I didn’t consider this an issue as I had been waiting around to go to Pizza Hut for some time and was very hungry. I polished off the entire pizza and then it was dessert time. Two of my friends decided they were going to see who could eat more ice cream factory. Ice cream factory is where you have unlimited bowls of ice cream but of course most people don’t have more than one. Having eaten the entire large pizza I felt like I was at something of a disadvantage. Four bowls of ice cream factory later and I was declared the winner, though I could probably have forced down another bowl or two. It was on the way home though that I realised just how much I had eaten and felt so stuffed. Still, I’ve not been hungry for most of the day so that’s good.

Today is somewhat less exciting but still rather pleasing. I am having a duvet day whereby I stay in bed and watch various TV shows and films. A fair chunk of it so far has been episodes of Classic Doctor Who but I’m sure I will be watching lots of other things too as the day progresses. And I’m having a curry for tea which should be pretty awesome. All this adds up to a pretty good day. I do feel a bit lazy though. Mind you, I’m preparing to spend the majority of the week writing my history assignment so this day will be worth it!

Friday Review 9#

It’s Friday and it’s time to review various things that I’ve watched, read and played recently. Will anything get those much desired five stars today? (hint:yes!)

TV

Life’s Too Short

This is a tricky review to write. I however am going to be confident and share my own views. The press have hugely slated this new show written by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant. It’s a mockumentary following around dwarf actor Warwick Davis, though he plays an angrier and generally less nice man than himself. Some critics say it isn’t funny. I disagree. The gags aren’t constant and obvious like sitcoms these days but when one comes along it is often hilarious. Other critics say it’s offensive to small people. I disagree again and think these critics have missed the point. The comedy comes from the point of this version of Davis having small man syndrome and the way people react to dwarves. In this pretend world Johnny Depp has Warwick doing all sorts of silly things because Depp thinks it is funny. It’s not a dwarf being silly that is the funny bit, it’s the fact that Depp forces him to do these things and finds them funny. His appearance is hilarious as was Liam Neeson’s in the first episode. Helena Bonham-Carter appearance is dwarfed (sorry) by how badly Warwick David is treated yet again. Half way through this series and despite everything, I am quite enjoying it. Perhaps it’s not the best of Gervais and Merchant’s work but it’s still better than a lot of “comedy” that comes around at the moment and it’s certainly original. Of course it’s up to you to decide but don’t be put off by the critics. Personally,I quite like it. But then maybe there’s no accounting for taste… ★★★★☆

Movies

E.T.(The Extra Terrestrial)

The classic Spielberg movie featuring a friendly alien stranded on Earth who befriends a small boy. And though there are sci-fi elements to the film it’s the friendship element which I consider the most important theme. Elliott and E.T become very close and lots of silly things happen due to a psychic link between them. But then things get serious when E.T. starts dying and due to the psychic link so does Elliott. Fortunately there are no deaths in the film but inevitably E.T. has to go home. Elliott saying “I love you E.T.” is ridiculously heart-wrenching. It’s a fun film with some really emotional moments and I think there’s something for everyone, whether it be in the humour, the emotion, the sci-fi or the chance to see Drew Barrymore as a little girl. ★★★★☆

Stardust

This is based on a Neil Gaimon story and that got me excited before I even started watching the film. The plot is actually rather complicated for a film which I guess is described as a fairy tale. A star lands in the fantasy world of Stormhold, clutching a locket. Tristan from the real world, the other side of a wall, promises to catch the star to prove his love to a woman whilst a witch wants the star’s heart to keep young and four princes want the locket as whoever finds it becomes king. So an epic race across the magical land ensues and all sorts of ridiculous things happen. In the end Tristan ends up with his true love, though it’s not who he thought it was. The story is amazing and I’m a sucker for a happy ending and you cannot have a happier ending than this one. With the exception of Ricky Gervais, every performance is flawless and Robert de Nero’s camp pirate captain is true brilliance. It looks like a girly sort of film that I wouldn’t like much but I think it caters for everyone. I love this film so much. ★★★★★

Books

Muddle Earth Too by Paul Stewart and Chris Ridell

This children’s book is a sequel to what I would call the modern classic that is Muddle Earth. Ordinary schoolboy Joe Jefferson is transported to Muddle Earth once again, this time with his older sister Ella. So many children’s fantasy books are hilariously parodied in this. Randalf now runs Stinkyhogs school for wizards who play a broom game which involves brushing cheese into chimneys for a mouse to catch. Ella falls in love with a barbarian called Edward, who is a thumb-sucking vampire. The self-proclaimed rulers of Muddle Earth are King Peter, Queen Susan, King Edmund and Queen Lucy. King Edmund doesn’t say a word in the whole book because he’s too buy eating Turkish delight. Even His Dark Materials are parodied, with the teachers at the university all having an animals they can’t be separated from. Instead of being called daemons like in Pullman’s work, all the animals are called Damian. It’s silly and there is a whole host of madcap mishaps. I’m not sure it’s quite as good as it’s predecessor but if you liked that this is a must read. ★★★★☆

Games

Let’s Golf 3D (Nintendo 3DS, Available on Nintendo e-Shop Only)

I talked extensively about the ridiculous locations used in this game in my last post, but this is my no means a bad game. It’s never going to win any prizes for realism but it’s fun and that’s the important thing. For a game that costs less than most meals, it’s rather generous with it’s content. There are five courses, each with a load of different modes and it will take a fair while to achieve all the medals. The putting is a bit dodgy though. The whole idea about adjusting your aim based on the green’s incline is there but the execution is awful. On many green’s it is near impossible for you to tell what the incline is like due all sorts of lines and tables attempting to help you. If this was a full-priced game it would get a lower rating but it’s only a cheap 3DS download, the first piece of original software for the console on the e-shop I may add. It’s my no means perfect but for a cheap and fun golf game you can’t go far wrong. ★★★★☆

Ridiculous Golf

Hello. Much to my annoyance I am writing this from my library. Virgin’s useless internet went down at our house yesterday morning and still hasn’t started working again. So I am now sat in the library on my laptop. Still, it’s got me out the house. If was for this frustrating reason that no music Monday post appeared yesterday. I’m afraid you’ll have to wait another week for that.

As ever my life continues to be non-existent outside of uni work. Our lectures yesterday morning were about catering for a classroom with children of different races and ethnic groups in. The seminar for this was pretty much two hours of heated discussion with relatively simple questions like “define race” turning into full-on debates. This area is something I might have difficulties with in the future, depending on where I end up teaching. In my upbringing in rural Southern England, anyway of a different race or even religion was very rare. In a school of around three hundred pupils there were only three children that weren’t white British and two of them were siblings. Ten years on and things are still not really that different. Outside of cities in the South of England there is hardly any diversity, though perhaps a small increase since my childhood. I wonder how long it will take before my homestead becomes anywhere like as diverse as most of the rest of the country.

For some unknown reason I had no history seminar this morning, which as you can imagine led to me sleeping for quite a long time. But today so far has been rather productive, with lots of reading towards by incredibly challenging history assignment. The question is “Are skills or content more important in history?” Umm… I have read lots of useful documents this morning which have helped my understanding considerably. Almost all of them were written by important Professors and discuss various methodologies of historiography and spent lots of time trying to decided what history is, with none of them really reaching much of a conclusion. This meant it was all very complicated and in some of the articles I had to read sentences several times before I had any idea what the hell they were actually talking about. My general thoughts on the essay are thus: History used to be about getting facts about the past. Now it is more about reading sources which present these facts and deciding to what extent they are reliable. Therefore whilst content has a significant place in the teaching of history, skills are probably more important. That’s my assignment right there, once I’ve added another thousand-odd words. Simples.

With a lack of internet and even when I had internet a willingness to spend all my time on there, I’ve been having to find other things to entertain myself with. One of these things was Let’s Golf 3D, which I downloaded onto by 3DS using the Nintendo e-shop (I am so down with the kids). This is a golf game which just relies on timing to hit the ball at the right time. My favourite part is how stereotypical each course is of the country they are supposed to be in. The England course is very sunny and green and set amongst stately homes and the like. Clearly the makers have never been to an English golf course. There is also a fox which wanders around some of the greens which I was also going to say was stereotypical but then realised I’ve known two different golf courses which have foxes wandering around the golf greens on regular occasions. Fortunately this stop being realistic when the fox barks exactly like a dog. Foxes do bark but the do not sound like any random dog down the park. Other stereotypical courses include one in Greece, set amongst various bits of Ancient Greek architecture of course, and Mexico, set among Mayan temples. In fact you play on Mayan Temples at times which I’m sure isn’t allowed. There is also the most impractical golf course in the world, in the Arctic Fjords of Greenland. At least they had a sense to make the ball orange so you don’t lose it in the snow. A full review of this fun but incredibly unrealistic game will be here on Friday.

And I have also been going through my box set of Frasier at quite a rate, though I am still only on the second of eleven seasons. By season two the series had really found it’s feet and is utterly hilarious. Frasier’s brother Niles is completely in love with the housekeeper Daphne, despite being married himself, and this brings in some many funny moments. Regularly Frasier returns to his flat to find Niles doing something slightly inappropriate with Daphne, although there is always a perfectly innocent excuse. And that’s just one of hundreds of reasons the show is so funny, but unlike many sitcoms it has lots of serious bits about relationships, romantic and otherwise, which make it more realistic and in fact more enjoyable. I love it.

That’s enough random chatter for now. It depends to when our internet returns to when I next post but, as ever, watch this space. Thanks for reading, come and say hello and have a lovely time until we speak again.

Thoughts From the Dungeon 4#: London

In this week’s video I talk about my visit to London, using the occasional bit of video I filmed there to help. This week’s technical fault is the bizarre green fuzz on my chair.

My Day in London

Today, in a bid to do something vaguely interesting in my life, I hopped on a train and headed to our lovely capital city that is London. I love London lots. Partly because I’ve had some amazing experiences there with friends and even girlfriends in the past so being there always brings in that happiness element. But it’s also because of the hussle and bussle and the fact that crazy things happen all over the city every single day.

After arriving in Waterloo train station I quickly got on the tube and headed towards the Oxford Street. I wandered around this area for a fair while and eventually got to Regent Street were Hamleys is. Hamleys is a massive toy shop which has six floors and is amazing. It has all the best toys and some amazing displays. I particularly liked the little Harry Potter section and wished I had lots of money to spend on replica wands and other great things like a marauder’s map. I spent far more time than someone my age should have wandering around the store but my low finances meant I couldn’t afford to buy anything, though I would have happily purchased most of the shop if I could. It was even better than usual because they are gearing up for Christmas and the staff were being immense.

A while later I was in Leicester Square where the new M&M’s World is. Last time I was in London they were just finishing this. It’s just a huge store that sells M&M goodies. Surprisingly actually M&Ms take up very little of the store but lots of models and bowls and things you can buy. I purchased a Christmas present for my brother there and it’s a lively and fun shop.

Next up on my agenda was Covent Garden. The piazza there is one of my favourite parts of London. All the buildings are old and there is a fantastic little market there. Also, there are always street performers there and I stood and watched one guy for ages. The guy was called Pete Dobbing and he was pretty good, especially considering there wasn’t much of a crowd and so building up an atmosphere was nigh on impossible. He began by juggling some massive knives which was very impressive. In the next bit he solved a Rubik’s Cube in about 1 minute and fifteen seconds which is also pretty impressive. And finally he juggled the knives again. But this time he was on a ladder. He climbed the ladder and walked it around a little bit. Then next thing I knew his clothes were coming off. I imagined he would stop once topless but then he whipped his kilt off. Fortunately he was wearing a pair of bright blue underwear but it still wasn’t a sight I would have chosen to see. Then he juggles the knives on top of the ladder. I found this picture online which sort of demonstrates what he was doing:

He was really rather good and full of wit and jokes. Very entertaining.

I then wandered around the market for a bit, which wasn’t really that exciting today. But the central bit in one of the halls was pretty awesome. I had a slice of pizza whilst listening to a quintet playing some truly beautiful music.

I love the fact that there are people all over the city playing music, whether it’s on a street, on a bridge or in a tube tunnel. In fact there are special places for buskers to stand/sit and play from. The sound of music echoing down an underground tunnel is magical. I doubt all the locals that rush a everywhere, running up every escalator appreciate this sort of thing. I don’t think I could ever grow tired of that magical sound. As much as the underground is criticised, it’s such a good transport system. Although it did let me down today. Pretty much everything I planned to do was on the Piccadilly line around Coven Garden station, and guess where the only closures on the underground were today? Some dodgy track I think. I ended up having to do far more walking than I planned to and my feet are killing me now.

Anyway, back to my day. Having wandered around Covent Garden for a while I realised I had more time then I planned so I decided to pay the South Bank a visit, the bank of the Thames that the London Eye is on. Along there are always a load of crazy things happening. I saw a Caribbean band, some living statues (including the best one I have ever seen, it was incredibly realistic), Mickey and Minnie Mouse and Papa Smurf. That’s a combination of words I will never ever use in the same sentence again! Also the Christmas market had started there and there were really interesting stalls (and some really weird ones).

Next up was Trafalgar Square. On arrival I saw a line of people dressed as blue dragons, each holding the previous dragon’s tail. This is the sort of crazy London thing I was talking about earlier. I found out later that I missed a big event there this morning which the Mayor of London Boris Johnson attended. It would have been very funny if I’d been able to see him. He’s more of a comedian than a politician. I got to see the Olympic Countdown clock for the first and more likely only time which I guess is pretty cool.

I then headed to my final stop of the day, the British Museum. It opens later on a Friday evening so the plan was to go there whilst London was experiencing rush hour and avoid it. The British Museum is a terribly named museum. It’s full of historical artefacts, many of which we have nicked from other countries. After going through the impressive entrance pictured below, I decided to get an multimedia guide.

The multimedia guide was pretty cool. It told you about the artefacts and put extra pictures and even videos on the screen to help. There was also the option to go some guided tours which I did. I did an Egyptian one, followed by a Medieval Britain one and then some of the Parthenon one. Here are some things I learnt during my tours:

- The Rosetta Stone is the thing that taught us to read hieroglyphs. It’s a stone written in three sections, hieroglyphs, written Egyptian and Ancient Greek.

- Hieroglyphs with a blue circle around them is the name of a King.

- Mummies were buried with little model people, which they believed would come to life in the Afterlife. They thought you had to go farming in the afterlife and so the little people were supposed to act as servants.

- Most people find dried out dead bodies disgusting, whilst I find them incredibly fascinating.

- Ramesses II had more than one name. They didn’t say what his other name was. Here’s a statue of him:

- Hadrian’s Wall wasn’t the only wall the Romans built. There were others at other edges of the empire.

- That a seemingly dull gold cup and tell a brilliant story. The pictures tell a story where a man asks a woman to marry him but she refuses. The man sells the woman to a brothel and tries to rape her but a demon comes and kills him. The woman resurrects the man and is then accused of being a witch by everyone else. She is burned at the stake but the flames split apart and she doesn’t burn. Turns out there is no happy ending though because they stab her through the throat with a spear. Bizarre and rather gruesome.

- The artefacts from the Sutton Hoo burial site I am really interested in are not on display at the moment. Not happy about that.

- The Greeks cleverly built statues on the Parthenon in a triangular shape that fitted with the shape of the roof. The carvings were amazing and they even bothered to carve the backs which no-one could see.

- Modern Greece wants the bits of the Parthenon back but if Elgin hadn’t brought them here back in the day they would have been pretty much destroyed.

- That the Parthenon was actually a temple for Athena and there was a large statue of her in the middle, but it got destroyed in an explosion.

- That some of the carvings tell some crazy stories too. There’s lots of carvings where a human race called Lapiths battle centaurs. The story behind this is that the centaurs were invited to a party and weren’t used to wine. So they got drunk and starting fighting with the lapiths.

I rather loved the British Museum, being the history geek I am. There are still parts of it I didn’t get to see which I would have quite liked too. And do the kids tour at some point as well. One day maybe.

I hoped you enjoyed this post, a bit more interesting than the usual stuff I talk about. My Thoughts From the Dungeon video on Sunday will be a London edition featuring me talking about the day in more detail, complete with various bits of video footage I recorded during the day. Look out for that, it will be a good one. See you then!

Camembert and Other Things

Hello everyone. I am rather tired after something of an eventful day but before I get onto that, I’ve lots of other things to talk about. It’s been a bizarre few days really with one thing or another.

Back on Monday was the culmination of my first assignment of the year, a group presentation about the inclusion of special needs children in mainstream classrooms. We were fairly well-prepared and it all went rather smoothly, though I was a little disappointed with my performance. Doing presentations is one of the few things I am actually good at and my little bit on Monday was a average to say the least. I wasn’t nervous at all until I suddenly found myself stood there ready to give the presentation. Still, several people said I did a good job so I guess I must have been OK. I’m not sure how well we have done on this assignment, it’s tricky to tell. I imagine it’s towards the higher end of the marks but quite how good it was I’m not sure. I guess we shall just have to wait and see.

I have had major trouble sleeping at the moment. I need more sleep than most people otherwise I don’t really function properly. But for some reason I keep being awake until at least 2AM. When you have to get up at about 7:30AM, this isn’t really much sleep and no where near the amount I need. Yesterday I was so tired I had to have a nap in the middle of the afternoon but I think this caused me to struggle to sleep last night. Yesterday a man was supposed to come and check our boiler and he didn’t come. Although there was a point where everyone else was out and I was asleep so the man might have come in that time. And because the water meter is in my room he may even have had to come in here. I was so exhausted though I suspect I could have slept through this if that was the case. I can only imagine what the guy was thinking if he saw me fast asleep! Fingers crossed he didn’t actually come!

Today my Dad brought my Granddad along to come and visit me. This was nice as it’s been a while since I have seen any of my family. I took them through the many side streets of Winchester which was quite fun and then had to accompany by Dad back home. I had to pop into work to fill in a form so I can work during the Christmas holidays. This was frustrating but unavoidable, though it was fortunate my Dad had planned to come today anyway. I had planned to get the train back but my Dad decided he was happy to drive me back. I spent a few hours at home which was good but a bit weird. At least I got to see my Mum as well and got a free dinner so I can’t complain about it. As usual, my Dad left me with a few goodies and this time these consisted of an advent calendar in preparation for December and all the post from the last month and a bit, which was mostly rubbish but did contain a few magazine.

As usual it was brilliant to see the family again. Bizarrely I have become closer to my family since moving out last September. I guess it’s because I don’t seem them that often so the time I have with them is that bit more special. I have also grown up a lot since I started uni and I guess I can have adult conversations with my parents that I might not have been able to have before. The thing that I find weird is when I’m told how much they miss me. As a family unit we don’t exactly throw love around and I’m not really used to being appreciated by anyone. It makes me warm inside.

I also had a brilliant conversation with my best mate Chris last night. We shared our various problems and had a bit of a laugh. I am so glad that I still have my two best mates, Chris and Mike, and feel that the world would be a much less happy place without them.

Anyway, enough soppy stuff. My cheese obsession has suddenly come back with a vengeance. It died down a little recently but I have found several new places which sell cheese in Winchester including a tiny little shop down a tiny little road some considerable distance from the town centre. It is soft cheese’s that I’m loving at the moment, particularly camembert. It’s such a brilliant cheese, creamy yet still pretty strong. I love it so much. In fact I think I am going to go and have some right now.

And on that cheesy note, it’s time to end the post. I need cheese and sleep. This may cause odd dreams but I don’t really care. I shall post again soon. Goodnight! x

Music Monday 3#

Hello and welcome to another music Monday. This week my selections are a bit more unusual which is partly because someone complained last week (you know who you are) but also because these are all songs I happen to be loving at the moment.

The first track is this week’s “Golden Olden”, a song which is getting on a bit now but is still rather awesome. This is something of a one-hit wonder by the never heard of again Fountains of Wayne with Stacy’s Mom. I rather like the fact that the video pretty much plays out like the song. Not enough videos do that, they often seem to be completely separate from the lyrics.

Next up is a track by a man called Miles Kane. I first discovered him on Breakfast TV, which is a bit odd. It means at some point I must have been awake during the time breakfast TV was on!  He is the lead singer of the band The Last Shadow Puppets so if you recognise the voice it might be because of that. This track is the brilliant Come Closer.

Our third track today has found fame thanks to an advert for tea. It’s a version of the song Wherever You Will Go originally by The Calling. This version has turned it into a full power ballad and it is sung by a lady with a lovely voice called Charlene Soraia. It really is a beautiful rendition of the song.

The next track is Cage the Elephant’s latest song Aberdeen. I quite like the song but the video is the saddest video involving a dragon/dinosaur thing you will ever witness. Really.

And finally it’s time for my record of the week. It’s a few years old but I’ve rediscovered it this week and love it all over again. It has a very 80s sound and they even made the video look like it’s from the 80s. I love this track so much and I hope you do too! Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Mystery Jets with Two Doors Down!

I hope you enjoyed this week’s selection and as always let me know your thoughts, good or bad, and suggest any songs I should listen to. See you soon!

Crap Towns

Hello darlings. I am rather happy this evening, which makes a change compared to the rest of the week. I have once again been bombarded with various things to upset me and Thursday night particularly was rather unpleasant. I shall not go into reasons why this was but some people may know or have an idea. Anyway, the whole things blown over now and my life is back to it’s normal dull self.

So everyone else see,s to be busily doing work of some time but I have done all of mine. So whilst everyone else is busy, I’m sat on my bottom not doing a lot. At least today I have had the opportunity to live up to the student stereotype. My sleep pattern is severely messed up and I’m not feeling tired ‘til at least 2AM yet I still require lots of sleep. This means I don’t end up getting up until the middle of the day. When I finally did drag myself out of bed, I realised that I had no plans for the day. So I decided to stay in my pyjamas and put on a DVD (E.T. which is such an emotional film). After that I decided to watch the football. England were playing Spain, the world and European champions, in a friendly match. And they won, which is a brilliant result. Towards the end of the first half I decided I may as well continue with the way the day was going and instead of cooking something for tea, ordered a pizza. I ate it during half time and it was a amazing. I had Mozzarella Sticks too and they are brilliant. After writing this entry I shall ring my Mum and then watch at least one but maybe some more than one other film. This is the life.

There as recently a news story about crap towns, where rubbish towns were slated terribly. I have found the entries for my home town Ringwood and they amuse me greatly. Here a couple of extracts:

“On the streets everyone is either 60+ or under 16. Anyone who hasn’t either not yet matured into an adult or gone senile has long ago deserted this barren wasteland.”

 

“But in defence of Ringwood, I should point out that there is actually a pretty and historic side. If you can look past the small-minded people and the odd small town attitude that hangs in the air like the smell of death, the town itself has some wonderfully charming features:
1 – The Cobbled High Street, a … wonderfully charming feature.
2 – Blokes in the Pizza place; only words they know are ‘you’, ‘me’ and ‘bed’.
3- The Sports Centre where ‘Brittas Empire’ was filmed – still the most exciting thing to happen since King Henry III granted Ringwood the right to hold a market.
5 – The church.
6 – The public toilet building; a great piece of architecture (look out for the fourteen year olds who aspire one day to be druggies, proudly showing off their first step on the ladder by smoking cigarettes).
7 – The New Forest Owl Sanctuary – great if you like Owls.
10 – The Millennium clock. A clock with the word Millennium written on it.”

Those are so brilliant and mostly accurate. I think Ringwood is a nice enough place to retire to or commute from but as a young person, especially one without transportation, it’s a terrible place to live in. I’m rather glad I escaped. Weirdly Winchester was voted the 5th crappest town in 2003. I know that actually they’ve changed the town’s looks loads since then and our university has become a university since then and livened things up a little. Either way, it’s not that rubbish compared to Ringwood.

And one last thing to talk about before I finish. And that is to say I have made a wonderful new pen pal called Lauren who reads all the rubbish that I write to her and then replies with her something far more interesting. She reads this so hello Lauren. *Waves*

That’s it for today. Usual video nonsense will be here tomorrow.See you then.

Friday Review 8#

It’s Friday, Friday, gotta do some reviews on Friday! Everybody's looking forward to the ratings,ratings! Yes, I just did that. As usual, ★ is the number of stars each item got out of five and a ☆ is an empty star, showing how many away the item was from getting top stars.

Movies

Top Gun

So Tom Cruise gets to go to the top flying school in America. He has to deal with the loss of a friend and falls in love and all this stuff means he isn’t keen to fly anymore. But what do you know, he manages to sort himself out and save the day. It’s not a bad film but I’m not really sure it particularly inspired me or that I loved it. If you prefer romantic stuff, it’s got some of that and if you prefer action stuff, it’s got some warplanes battling. I found it very middle of the road. I don’t really have any reason to slag it off but equally I have nothing to rave about. Watch if you want but you know what, I don’t really care either way. ★★★☆☆

Games

Doctor Who Adventure Games: The Gunpowder Plot

Last year the BBC created four Doctor Who PC games which were pretty good. The biggest issue was that they were rather short. This one is much more expansive though and sees the Doctor, Amy and Rory infiltrate the infamous gunpowder plot as the Sontarans and their enemies the Rutans get up to all sorts of trouble. Essentially it’s a Doctor Who episode you play. The story can’t really be faulted- Guy Fawkes is great, as is whole Sontaran regiment is equally as good. Plus we get to see what the Rutan actually look like (they’ve only ever appeared in the show where they were possessing humans). The gameplay is varied with a few puzzles and a lot of running around finding things. The biggest issue I have is that computerised Rory doesn’t look much like actual Rory but that’s fairly insignificant in the grand scheme of things. Quite simply this is the best Doctor Who game ever released. ★★★★☆ (Download for free here, UK only though I think)

Books

Heroes of Olympus: The Lost Hero by Rick Riordan

This first book of a new series throws us straight back into the world of Percy Jackson, where the Greek Gods and indeed monsters are still alive in modern times. Percy Jackson is missing though and we are introduced to three new demigods: Jason, who seems to be Roman, Piper, beauty queen and much more besides and Leo, engineer and fire breather. I loved the Percy Jackson series but actually I think this is better. Having three main characters rather than one and written in the third person rather than the first, the format may have changed but the style doesn’t much. It’s still very funny and there are still some epic battles. Gaia is rising once again as are the giants and as you can imagine, this isn’t good. Riordan has cleverly come up with a way to bring back some famous ancient Greek humans like Midas. There are so many ways in which this could have gone wrong but he manages to avoid them all. And with Percy Jackson returning in the next book, I think I may be hooked once again. Utter perfection.And there’s a giant metal dragon. ★★★★★

TV

Death in Paradise

This is a murder mystery series set on the Caribbean island of St. Marie and stars comedian Ben Miller as a policeman involuntarily transferred from London. The first three episodes have aired so far and I’m quite enjoying it. The first episodes reminds me of the film Hot Fuzz with the series London policeman forced to move to a different location, though this being a tropical island rather than the west country. It then turns into a tropical Midsummer Murders, where every week someone is murdered and the detective sorts it all out in the end. It’s not exactly groundbreaking but I am really enjoying it. Miller plays the role well and it’s not actually a comedic role- the laughs we get are from this series character being out of his comfort zone. The murders are not unnecessarily gruesome like many often are on TV shows these days and I like the style. The flashbacks to during or just after the murder have a great look about them. It’s a light-hearted murder mystery show and if that sounds like something you’d like, you probably will. But watch out for the CGI lizard. ★★★★☆

Magazines

SciFiNow

I’ve never reviewed a magazine here before and I guess that’s partly because the only magazines I get are ones I’ve always got. This one looked good though and I wanted something to read. If you’re a bit of a geek like me and like sci-fi and similar things, you’ll probably like this. The enjoyment probably varies depending on how many things in it you watch/read. I thought I would end up skipping huge chunks but actually I read most of it. There was an article about season two of The Walking Dead, one about DC’s New 52 comics, an interview with Terry Pratchett and a bit about Neil Gaimon. I liked all of those things and a few other bits so was pleasantly surprised. It’s a decent little magazine and unusually I actually felt I got my money’s worth. Some magazines are expensive for what they are but this one felt OK. Fully recommend it for people like me and I will probably buy it again. ★★★★☆

 

As always readers, let me know your thoughts on any of the above things! I shall see you soon!

News Review 2#

It’s all happening been in the Eurozone this week. The Eurozone means “countries that have the Euro” which essentially means Europe apart from the UK and Switzerland. First the Greek prime minister George Papandreou was forced out of his post first and any day now it will be bye bye Mr. Berlusconi, the Italian prime minister. Creepy old Silvio no longer being in charge had got to be a good thing, as well as sleeping with all sorts of considerably younger women he has been in court for a whole number of things. Being an Italian prime minister is perhaps not the respected position it is in this country. I recently found out that a stupidly high percentage of prime minsters were found to be corrupt, with many having to force resign due to it. And if you weren’t found to corrupt you would probably be found dead instead it would seem. My top tip of the day: stay out of Italian politics.

Whilst the other members of the Eurozone argue internally, apparently France and Germany are busy trying to sort the whole thing out. Better late than never I guess. The radio said something about making a smaller Eurozone and it seems a lot like France and Germany deciding to ditch the less economically stable countries. It’s not like the French have not been known for running away from their problems is it? I just hope this economic slump, or whatever “technical” word the media decides it should be called next, is sorted out soon. Apparently the UK is back to 1992 levels of unhappiness. It was around that time when a special baby was born and everyone cheered up again. (That was me by the way). As far as I can see things won’t get better until I have a child, which I can promise you won’t be anytime soon. I know, I’m selfish.

Here’s a creepy thought for you: what if the credit crunch never really happened and none of it’s really real. All this debt the various governments are in: how do we know they really are in debt? They tell us they are and that’s why they are making cuts, but what if it’s all a massive lie. In 1984 the government tells the people what to think and changes history to suit this. And the scary thing is that it could actually be happening. Think about it. Almost anything about the economic slump could be made up or orchestrated by someone.

That’s conspiracy theory of the day done with now. The CIA will probably come and get me for that. Onto another story now and it’s News of the World Hackgate time. It turned out that the Sunday newspaper had hacked pretty much everyone’s phone, whether they were a celeb or family of a murder victim and there are various suggestions that they bribed the police and the like.The hearing is ongoing and whether they ever find someone to blame is questionable but we all know that it was a pretty horrible organisation. A fairly unknown MP called Tom Watson today said to the former boss James Murdoch “You must be the first mafia boss in history who didn't know he was running a criminal enterprise." Brilliant! We’re supposed to go “But he can’t say that” but actually we are all going “Nice one mate”. It seems likely that News International acted in many ways like the mafia and like the mafia, most of the people involved will probably get away with it.

Most disturbing story of the week: that some mothers in America are buying lollies purposely infected by chickenpox in an attempt to give their children chicken pox early to avoid them getting it later in life when it could be more serious. It’s just so wrong. How can making your children ill possibly ever be justified? Most children will end up getting it anyway and it’s rubbish that you can only get it once. Plenty of people get it more than once and in America they even vaccinate against it too. Ever since that Doctor linked the MMR vaccine to autism (he’s been struck off now) people across the world have been overly wary of them. The best thing is do what you are told to. Loads of experts are involved in making these decisions so do as they tell you. Chickenpox lollies indeed! Worst flavour ever!

And finally, Dr. Conrad Murray was convicted of involuntary manslaughter over the death of Michael Jackson. One wonders if he’s just become the one to blame. Or maybe he did massively mess up. Either way, perhaps the Jackson family and the world can finally move on now. Jackson should be remembered for his brilliant voice and the creator of modern pop music. Tracks like Thriller, Billie Jean and Beat It are so brilliant yet the poor man’s memory is being tainted by the way he died. Let’s let it go now, it’s sorted.

Living The Dream

Hello! This week so far has been unusually productive. Well I say this week, I pretty much mean yesterday. My horrible English assignment is done and dusted and I’m rather pleased with it. It’s the best assignment I’ve written so far so I should get a decent grade unless I’ve somehow done something completely opposite to the mark scheme. As well as finishing this monstrosity I spent nearly three hours doing the resource audit bit of out group assignment. I had to review various resources that support inclusion of children with special educational needs in the classroom. It sounds vaguely interesting but turns out it really isn’t. But at least it looks like we are pretty much ready for our presentation on Monday. Today’s title is sarcastic based on all this. It would be a rubbish dream

In other news, I saw on the Uni website and opportunity to volunteer at the Olympics next summer and one of the positions was called “costume wearer”. Being one of the Olympic mascots walking around London would be amazing but it turns out the uni were talking out of their backside. Positions were only for lighting and production or costume making, both of which you need to be studying or have qualifications in. My mega-excitement was ripped apart.

However, I am doing something fairly exciting, although not exactly in Olympic levels. Myself and my housemate Dannie have signed up to do Superseed Challenge. They send you a seed and then you have to trade it for something better, and that trade that for something better. After four weeks you sell whatever you have at that point and the money goes to charity. Quite how we are going to go about this I don’t yet know but I will of course keep you updated with our progress. And if you’re friends with me on any social networks I may well be asking for your help so keep and eye out!

After all that work yesterday I went a bit crazy and decided to move my room around. I have a brand new layout which has created a bit more space. The desk is now under the shelves, where it looks like it belongs and the bed is now against a wall rather than stuck out in the middle of the room. It looks something like this. Well actually exactly like this:

It feels so much easier to live in than how it used to be set out.

It’s a bit rubbish when there is little more to life than doing essay writing. So little things become rather exciting. A new Co-op convenience store has been opened just round the corner from our house. In theory I can do most of my weekly shopping there. This cannot be a good thing for my already rather high laziness levels. And talking of new places, on Monday we went to a pub we’d not been to before. It was quite nice but had odd decorations. There were loads of keys hanging from the ceiling in one place and there was also a stuffed monkey wearing a tie and a kilt. We called him Nigel. You just couldn’t make it up. But apart from being weird the pub was ok with nice cider and a warm fire. If a pub’s got that perfect combination I will never complain that much.

And one last thing before I go! It seems all the rage for blogs to have Facebook Pages these days and as I like to be trendy, this blog now has one too. A link to every post will appear in the feed so if you “like” the page, every post will pop up. So it’s a handy way to read my blog regularly without putting too much effort in. Click the big Facebook button below.

That’s all for now, I shall see you very soon though!

Music Monday 2#

It’s Monday and the new week has begun. It’s such a horrible feeling. But not to worry because I have five awesome tracks to cheer you up a little!

Let’s kick things off with a “classic”. Once upon a time I got pretty drunk and sang this song rather loudly and out of tune. The video of said dance has an embarrassing 300 views. It’s Shania Twain with That Don’t Impress Me Much. It’s the dance mix because it’s better and if you fancy the lyrics are there for a bit of a sing-song. Plus you can check out Shania’s hideous leopard print outfit.

Back to the modern day I think! This awesome little tracks is Gym Class Heroes and features Maroon 5 frontman Adam Levine. In fact Mr. Levine sings most of this song. It’s a catchy little number which sort of compares love and music. Or something. Worth playing the video just to here the “yeah” at the end. It’s a good “yeah”.

This next song has really grown on me over the last few weeks. I like the song as a whole but the “Wiggle,wiggle,wiggle,wiggle” bit is pure awesome. It is LMFAO with Sexy and I Know It. I have chosen to put the lyrics video here because the actual video disturbed me. You can go and check it out if you wish but don’t say I didn’t warn you!

 

Hurray, it’s David Guetta time! Him and Rihanna pretty much own the charts and this is one of the best tracks he has created recently. Usher gives us the vocals and it is called Without You. The video is a typical David Guetta video with some partying and Guetta not really doing a lot. It has a nice bit of tectonic movement though even if it goes against virtually everything I ever learnt in geology.

 

And finally it’s time for this week’s record of the week. And after loving their new album Mylo Xyloto, it has to be Coldplay. This song is Paradise and and the video is sheer brilliance. One of the best videos I have seen in a while. It features a man in an elephant costume. Perfect song and perfect video.

 

I hope you enjoyed this week’s selection, as always let me know and suggest any tracks for future editions. See you soon!

Thoughts From the Dungeon 3#

It’s a Sunday so it means it’s time for me to talk rubbish for around six minutes. This week I talk about shoes, a fireworks display and other things too. Enjoy!

November Miscellany

I would like to begin today by saying hello to the CIA. Apparently they have a team that read blog posts and tweets etc in order to learn about social situations across the world. So if the lovely people at the CIA are reading, I hope you are enjoying my work (by the way, secret services from other countries are just as welcome).

So, November continues to be fairly pleasant so far. It’s not exactly been packed full of exciting things but it’s not being awful, which is good enough for me. I’m quite surprised that I’m still in the positive mood I’m in after the frustrating day I’ve had. At half eight, shortly before I usually leave for lectures, it began to rain rather heavily. The only coat I had is not waterproof and the only available umbrellas were rather girly to say the least and not mine to take. Suffice to say I was something of a drowned rat by the time I arrived in my lecture and the several cars which splashed me. Three hours passed by whilst I was in lectures and I swear, almost the moment the tutor said “that’s it for the day” the heavens opened once more. For the second time today I was drenched and to make matters worse shortly after I’d dried off I discovered I had a waterproof coat hiding in my wardrobe after all. Typical!

All this walking in the rain finished off my already dying shoes. I get through shoes at a ridiculous rate, normally needing a new pair around every three months. These now dead shoes were the best shoes I have ever owned. They looked pretty cool with their blue and green colour and I got them at the start of July so they’ve lasted me relatively well. But they are now literally falling apart and water seeps straight into them. The best pair of shoes I have ever owned are no more. *Insert tears here*

My last walk in them was a bit if a shopping spree around town. Many things usually go wrong when I am shopping by myself though today was not to bad. Thanks to a convenient sale at the sports shop I got a replacement pair of shoes for a very reasonable price. And they are Nike ones, check me out with the brands!

I then purchased my second pair of shoes in a day, which I think may be a lifetime first. Seeing as though I am one of the big bosses of rambling society I thought I ought to have some vaguely decent walking shoes and this way my day shoes might actually last a bit longer too. In the outdoors shop entrance there were a load of walking shoes on sale and I quickly chose a pair I liked and could afford. It was only when I was stood in front of the till about to part with my money when the shop assistant (who was actually a woman despite first impression) informed me they are not actually waterproof. But I couldn’t go back on my decision now! These were the shoes I was buying. So sure enough, said shoes are now right here in my room. I’m hoping they will be ok and cannot help but internally justify my decision. Any walks I go on are relatively short and won’t involve crossing rivers or anything so do I even need them to be waterproof? They should keep most water out and it doesn’t matter if I destroy them because they were cheap and I can always by some more. So there you go, they are perfectly ok!

Yesterday was my mother’s birthday and I was a particularly good son. Not only did I text her as soon as I had signal, I arranged for a card and flowers to be delivered to the house. It was a big bouquet of flowers and the card had a picture of the dog she really wants on it, all of which was very expensive for a student who has little money. Then in the evening we had a conversation on Skype which was nice. How many son points must I have got for all that! I think I could probably forget her birthday for the next few years and still get away with it thanks to today. My sixteen year old brother on the other hand claimed he didn’t get her anything because he didn’t have money but when asked about the £100 he had been counting the other day said that was “different”. That makes me the good son I think!

One of the subjects that cropped up in the previously mentioned Skype conversation was that of relationships. There has been a lot of romantic feeling amongst my housemates lately with one thing or another and I then realised I am the only one in the house that has not been in a relationship of some kind since we started uni last September. Thoughts like this always make me feel a bit rubbish really. It’s not that I even mind anymore but it would be so nice to suddenly feel love again. It’s been oh so long. Dear me I sound like some kind of romantic. But you get the point, I don’t really like being Mr. “Single and not a chance of that changing any time soon”. It’s an annoyingly long name and makes form-filling a right pain.

I really am spurting complete nonsense tonight. Hopefully it reads quite entertainingly. And I shall finish with an interactive feature. I am terrible at making any kind of decision some every now and then I like to get you lot to help me out. This time it’s in regards to facial hair. You can all see what it did look like from my profile picture or the Twitter image on the sidebar depending on where you are reading this but what should it look like next? To help me decided, vote for an option in the poll below or write a comment if your opinion in something different. I shall then do whatever it says after allowing a couple of days voting. Thank you, my look is in your hands. Not literally you understand, because that would be weird.

(If you can’t see the poll above, click here.)