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March - December 2010

Wow, it really has been a very long time since I posted on this thing. I had almost forgotten about my little blog's existence until somebody mentioned it the other day. After a while of not posting anything on here you start to think that it'll be a little overwhelming filling in all the goings on between now and the last post... But I'll give it a shot none the less!


Needless to say, a lot has happened between now and my last update in March. The main news, I suppose, is that I'm now studying for a degree in English at the University of Winchester. I've been here since September and thus far am thoroughly enjoying it! But more on that a little later...



So, where were we?
Ah yes! March was the last time I posted on here so it would seem fitting to pick things up where I left off. The most immediate thing that springs to mind when I strain my mind thinking back that far would be going interailing around Europe in June/July.
Jack, Big K, Elliot, Carl and myself set off mid-June (as far as I can remember) for a month of travelling around Europe by train and, without going into too much detail, it was amazing! Although I ended up having to meet the guys in Prague (interesting getting the train there by myself!), we managed to visit a lot of really amazing places, and met some great people on the way.



Our journey took us through Prague, Bratislava, Krakow, Budapest, Zagreb, Split, Ljubljana, Lesse Bled, and finally Munich. The things that stood out the most for me were visiting Auschwitz and the world's largest underground salt mine in Poland, getting lost for eight hours on my own with no money or phone overnight in Budapest, and how beautiful Split and Lake Bled were... Not to mention the endless drunken antics and very strange people you bump into in Eastern Europe. We spent a lot of time sleeping on specialized 'sleeper trains', which usually hold a couple of sets of triple bunk-beds. They were so much fun!
Anyway I could write a whole essay on all the things we got up to, but instead I've included a few of my favourite photos from the trip to give you an idea of where we were and what we saw. They don't do it justice, mind you...







The reason for my late departure to the continent, I forgot to mention, was because of my new found employment at the Odeon cinema in Aylesbury. I can safely say it's the best job I've ever had. A few of my friends already worked there and the rest of the staff are all friendly and funny in their own ways, plus the free cinema tickets for me and my friends are nothing to be scoffed at. I've even managed to get my job back there over the impending Christmas holidays which is an absolute godsend given my current financial situation!




After our travels in Europe it was soon time for Reading festival to rear it's ugly, filthy head again at the end of August. With an even larger crew going than last year, plus an even better line-up it was set to be a banger... And it didn't disappoint. Other than the torrential rain flooding half of the campsite and the gale-force winds blowing away the other, it was an incredible weekend. Suffice to say, lots of drinking and getting up to no good went down. But the real highlight for me was the line-up; my favourite artists being Arcade Fire who headlined on the Saturday. Again, I've included a few of my favourite photos...







On returning from Reading it began to dawn on me that I would be starting university in a month. Although a little apprehensive, I was definitely looking forward to it as I really liked the look of Winchester university and I was longing for a change of scenery. After moving in mid-September, I fell in love with the place instantly. All the people I've met are really nice, and the city itself has a great feel to it and isn't a bad night out either. Although I've had more work than I anticipated in the first term, I've made a lot of new friends so far and we've had some great nights out.















Although most nights are spent going out, Halloween/Bonfire Night and the build up to Christmas have stood out for me as some of the best times so far.
Halloween involved us dressing up for four days straight and going to a few really good parties. The best of these probably being a house party not far from the uni, which was decorated really well and saw the transformation of my good friend Zen into 'the punch king', an alias he's managed to keep up to this day... Even though his punch cocktails have been known to contain nasty ingredients, and even vibrators!



Bonfire night in Winchester was really nice. The whole city seemed to attend the official firework display, which was surprisingly impressive! The fireworks were a lot bigger than I thought they'd be, and the descending smoke gave the field a sort of 'Reading' atmosphere, which I really enjoyed. It goes without saying that everybody went out for drinks afterwards...







Although this first term has seen it's fair share of parties and even more drunken nights out, the build up to Christmas has been particularly enjoyable. There's been some good parties including my friends Jake and Hena's house party the other night, which was really really fun. But what's made the last few weeks for me is how festive the uni has become and, what with all the snow of late, it's been getting me very excited about going home for Christmas and seeing my friends and family!





Anyway, like I say I could have gone into a lot more detail about the last few month's happenings but my hands are starting to hurt from all this typing and I've got a film that needs watching. Hopefully this post will give you a little insight into my moderately interesting life of late, if anyone even reads this. But really I'm doing this blog for myself more than anyone else, so hopefully I'll be able to start updating it a little more now that I've got the burden of this long update out of the way! I'm off home for Christmas the day after tomorrow which will be great, I could do with a break from all this work. But no doubt I'll start missing uni a lot sooner than I expect. Right, time to stop rambling. Adios! X

Spring!!!

Hello rudeboys/rudegirls.

After a long and cold winter, it seems that Spring may finally be upon us! The days are getting longer and the sky is getting a bit more blue, and this means that we've been out skating a fair bit more. A few weeks ago there was a 'jam' at the Milton Keynes bus station, which basically means that the council hire a DJ (who usually plays inappropriately loud music) and host a skate competition. It was good fun as per usual, and everybody there enjoyed themselves. My fellow blogger Jamie (AKA Swampy) made this little edit of the days antics... Look out for Caleb after a Redbull too many!



A couple of weeks ago Big K, Freshie, Aaron and myself headed over to London to see the GZA from the Wu-Tang Clan. If you're unfamiliar with hip-hop then you probably wont know who this guy is, so just to explain: He is one of the founding members of the group, and has arguably the most impressive solo career out of all nine members... And he is sick live! We found ourselves in a very crowded Jazz Cafe in Camden, filled with a variety of hip-hop fans. They were playing really good music and it wasn't long at all before the GZA made his appearance. He was probably more fucked than anyone else in the gig, but this didn't stop him from giving a great performance! Everything got a bit live-o when he jumped into the crowd, but it was really fun. In his own words 'He was just there to have a good time'. After playing some classics from 'Liquid Swords' and even some '36th Chambers' stuff, he ended the set and everyone tried to get on stage. I just about got to shake the guy's hand, but Aaron somehow managed to get his shoe signed! After that we jumped straight on a train and headed home. I ended up staying round K's with Freshie, playing N64 late into the night...
Here's a link to a video that Freshie filmed of the GZA himself.




Not much happened last week, but last weekend a few of us took a road trip over to Cardiff to visit Duncan and Dixon at their uni. This was my first time visiting the guys since they left so I was pretty excited. I met Edel and Danielle on Friday afternoon and, after loading up Edel's car, we drove over to Winslow to pick up Jack and Caleb. The drive was really funny, and the amazing weather kept us all in a pretty good mood. After reaching Cardiff we met up with Dunc and Dixon and dumped our stuff in Chris's flat. It was Caleb's birthday on the Thursday so we all intended to celebrate it that night. Everyone had got tickets to see an indie band called the 'Ex Lovers' in Bristol that night, so it wasn't long before we were all on the train from Cardiff. Edel and Duncan both managed to get kicked out of the club straight away, but then both proceeded to get back in again somehow. The gig was actually really good, and the band played a great set. We got chatting to a few of the band afterwards and they were all really safe, one of them even skated and knew some of the guys from Barcelona! Speaking of coincidences, the gig was only round the corner from where we saw the Motive premiere a few months back! (See previous post!)
We ended up meeting Edel's brother, Martin (who goes to uni in Bristol) and hung out with him for a bit. We considered hitting up a Shy-FX gig, but after realising the last train was at one, we made our way back to the train station and headed back to Cardiff. Pretty much everyone went to bed, apart from Duncan and Dixon who seemed to stay up all night talking about how they were L.A.D. Positive.



The majority of Saturday was spent recovering in Dixon's room. Dani, Caleb and I got a fry-up from a cafe round the corner which nicely sorted out any hangovers we were experiencing. There was a free party at a club that night, which was conveniently down the road from the guys flats, so we all decided to check it out. The venue was pretty sick; it had a huge outdoor smoking area on the roof, and there was a live dubstep set going on on the first floor. It was a pretty good night, other than the fact that I'm not really into dubstep and I managed to lose everyone half way through. After realising nobody had their phones on them, I headed back to the uni flats. Dixon had shown me how to get through the door using just a stone, so luckily I got out of the cold and fell asleep on the airbed in Dixon's room.
We left at lunchtime on Sunday, and everyone felt a little worse for wear. The weather was really nice again, and the car journey ended up being really funny. The road between Swindon and Oxford was closed, which meant we ended up going on a huge diversion through some very quaint Cotswold villages. Bibury was one such village that fell victim to a car full of lost teenagers, playing Wu-Tang clan at full volume. We weren't welcome.



We made it home in one piece and I pretty much slept all day yesterday. That's about all that I can remember from the last few weeks. This weekend is my good friend Ruben's party, so I shall try and inform you/anyone out there of what goes down. Adios amigos X

What the February?!

Yo! Yet again it has been a very long time since I last updated this, apologies are in order... I'll try my best to fill you in on the last few months events (that's if anybody is actually reading this!).



The first thing that springs to mind would be going to Chew the Fat back in November. This one was held in Matter, which is inside the O2 Arena. I got an early train up to London to do a bit of shopping before meeting everyone else later on. Luckily my good friend Malcolm came up early and we proceeded to get nice and drunk in a bar around the corner from Matter. After meeting everyone else we headed inside... Only for a few of us to be thrown out straight away for being too drunk! Luckily I got in! The venue was pretty sick, as was the soundsystem, and everyone had a good time dancing for the first few hours. The only problem with these things is that they finish at 6am, by which time you've usually sobered up! This night was no exception and I ended up leaving around 4am to go and meet Edel, Dunc and Dixon who (after being kicked out at the start) had been waiting inside the train station all night! Somehow they were all still super crunk? We all ended up getting the first train back to Aylesbury and went straight to bed.



After Chew the Fat I discovered that a few of the other guys were given a CD on the train by a rapping butcher who goes by the name: 'Da Meatman'. I recommend the album to anybody, it's literally the funniest thing I've listened to in years!

The only thing I really remember about December was landing myself a full-time job! Somehow I found myself employed by the Slug & Lettuce in Aylesbury, working as a chef? Anyway, I was soon to realise that this was far from the best job in the world. I was working thirteen hour shifts on Fridays and Saturdays which was far from nice... Anyway I'm no longer working there, it was horrible and screw working full-time! Other than working, the only other thing I really remember about December was how much it snowed. There must have been about 6 inches of snow, which is prety mental before Christmas!



New Years eve was a bit of an anti-climax compared to last year. I still had a sick night but missed out on going to a house party in London with the others... Me and Big K ended up meeting some people in Wendover, it was pretty jamming but not nearly as mental as it could/should have been!

January wasn't a particularly exciting month because of how much I was working at the SLug & Lettuce... We did have a really good night in Milton Keynes for Freshie's birthday though. It was nice having a night out with both the Aylesbury guys and the MK guys! Everybody got reeeal drunk and I ended up getting a train home in the early hours of the morning.



And that brings me up to this month, February! Yet again it's been snowing a lot, particularly at the start of the month. On one of the very snowy days Big K and I decided to walk up Coombe Hill for some reason. It was like a blizzard and we could hardly see anything! After reaching the top K was attacked by a horse, which proceeded to steal his drink and chew it up. It was so funny at the time, he was absolutely terrified!
Later that night I watched Barak Obama's state of the union speech. I hope he delivers!

I somehow ended up taking three trips to Oxford in the space of six days earlier this month. A couple of these were just for shopping; I bought a new board and some new SB's, standard. I managed to convince Elliot and Edel to come out in Oxford purely just for a fun night out, and we ended up having a pretty good time! We sat in McDonalds getting crunk in the warm for an hour or so, then headed to a club which I still can't remember the name of! It was a really funny night and we met some jokes people... And some wankers, but these things are to be expected. I managed to 'find' a hoody, which I had to donate to Edel afterwards because she was so fucked. We ended up getting a cab back, which was alright because the cab driver was pretty safe. I ended up going back to Edel's and had the best sleep ever!



After a recent trip to Tring train station I noticed a new multi-storey car park had been built there. This might not sound like much to most people, but if you skate then it could be a godsend! After investigating I found out that Tring now has a legitimate place to skate in Winter. The car park has a super smooth floor, is dry, and even has a skateable rail! Sweet!



We went to see a new film called 'The Road' the other week. It's the best film I've seen in ages, and I am now reading the book. It's by Cormac McCarthy, the same guy who wrote 'No Country For Old Men'. Anyway, I recommend the film to anyone. Albeit very depressing, it's one of the best shot and moving films I've seen in a while. It's Vigo Mortensen's best performance in my opinion and beats Avatar any day!



The Friday before last was Liam's party. A few guys and girls headed to Jessy's house in Wendover to have some pre-drinks before the actual party. Even though Jessy's dad interrogated almost everyone there befre he went out, we all had a really funny time. We got a couple of Taxi's over to Prince's Risborough and enetered the party. The bouncers were complete dicks and poured my alcohol away before I even got inside! Not only that, they threw Matt and T-bone out after about half an hour! Other than that we all had a good time at the party and I saw a lot of people I hadn't seen in a while which was nice. We got a cab home which was so much fun; we wrestled in the back and Jess was lying on the floor the whole time, but the taxi driver didn't seem to mind? We got back to Aylesbury and a few of us headed over to Edel's house to carry on the fun. I got super tired at about four and ended up sleeping on Edel's camp bed... Again.



Earlier this week I went on a little trip to Wales. I had an interview at Trinity university which went really well. It's in Carmarthen, which is SUPER Welsh. There were people actually talking in Welsh there which was a bit weird, but the uni itself was really nice. I stayed at my nan's in Swansea which was chilling, and then we drove back home the next morning.

The next day I found this amazing documentary on Swansea!



Last night we went to Lauren's party at the aristocrat in Aylesbury. Pretty much everyone is either in Cardiff or Edinburgh at the moment so it was just Carl, Jason, Enda and myself who ended up attending. It was actually quite a funny night, we just watched Lauren's 'interesting' family get really drunk and dance! Elz turned up too which was nice, and we ended up spending most of the night chilling outside in the smoking area.





Anyway, that leads me up to today! That's pretty much all I can remember of the last few months... If I have forgotten anything then just let me know! I will leave you with a few tunes and funny videos which have been keeping me entertained of late X