Christmas!

I didn't post a blog post last week, for which I apologise. The only event worth noting is me visiting Christina in Attleborough on the Saturday, it was a great day. I've missed not seeing her since we've been back home for Christmas. She showed me around Attleborough and then we sat and watched a movie. It was great to see her again, it had been too long.

Christmas! Yay! Had a great Christmas this year. Had my sister, brother in law and the kids round for it. It was loud as always but kinda used to that now. I got a sexy new camera from santa this year! The Nikon D5100. I've wanted a proper camera for a while now and finally have one, although since the weather has been pretty lame recently I haven't been able to use it. I'm probably going to go on a walk around Lincoln with it when I get back on Friday. I don't have much to say really about Christmas....it was a while ago now.

Went to see Christina again on Saturday which was awesome. We went to Norwich and spent the day there. I managed to finish The Two Towers the night before so I could start Return of the King on the way there. I do love me a 3hr train journey. We went and saw The Hobbit which was awesome! I thoroughly enjoyed that film, even though parts of it were different from the book but no film is going to follow its source book. Filli and Killi are still my favourite characters, probably even more so after seeing the movie. Christina said she enjoyed it aswell, just gotta show her the Lord of the Rings trilogy! I'm kinda skeptical about how they're going to turn the short book into 3 films...They did expand on Gandalf's part in the book which might add enough to it, but I hope they do it well otherwise it's just gunna seem like padding and shit but I'm sure they'll be fine.

We also went to play bowling but the less said about that the better.

Back to Lincoln on Friday to see Christina and for LSD on Saturday which should be awesome. I'm looking forward to getting back on pitch again, although after eating so much and doing next to no excersise since I've been off means that I'm probably not going to be quite up to scratch but hopefully since everyone's been off for Christmas they'll be in a similar state. I can't wait to get back for both the tournament and getting to see Christina again for more than a few hours.

I have surprisingly little to say considering the events of the past couple weeks.

Catch ya later folks

Reading week...

The title might be a little mis-leading this week as Lincoln Uni don't do the whole reading week thing, however since this week has mostly consisted of catching up with friends I've got nothing to really talk about so instead I'm going to talk about something I take great interest in, reading.

I've spent much of this week reading Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers and well it has been a battle. I started it around the time I was at regionals back in October and just haven't really put any time into it. I mean over summer before first year I finished around 13 books in about 3 months, I'm barely half way through two towers and it's been about the same time. However I have been fully enjoying reading it when I've gotten into it. I have noticed how different to the books the films are though. The battle for Helm's Deep is a very key moment in the film but in the book it seems quite short and almost as if it doesn't matter, despite it being the Rohirim's final stand against the armies of Isengard. I mean I can understand why the film heavily dramatised the moment as it makes for an interesting scene, like the other differences between the films and books, I can understand why they've done it and I'm not complaining they both work brilliantly. The films are still some of my favourite movies and the books are climbing my list of good books.

I think my favourite trilogy of books will forever be The Night Angel Trilogy by Brent Weeks as they are just fantastically well written, well paced books. I've read the trilogy at least 6 times over as when I start with one I just can't put them down until I've finished all 3. The way the story develops over the three books is just incredible, it drew me in instantly. Considering I bought the trilogy having never heard of it before, as part of a deal Waterstones were doing (something like buy two get one free) I was not disappointed by them in the slightest. I was kinda disappointed (if that's the right word to use) when I finished the last one and found out that was it. Brent has said that he might be writing another trilogy in the same world following on some years later however he is working on the Lightbringer trilogy at the moment. I've read the first one of that trilogy and I loved it, it was different to The Night Angel books but still a gripping story that I struggled to put down, I've got the second book laying under my bed waiting to be read after I finish Lord of the Rings.

My favourite on going book series has to go to the Dresden Files by Jim Butcher. So many consistently good books with a captivating storyline and plot with multiple over arching elements that even after 13 books haven't all entirely come to light yet. I'm dying to get my hands on a copy of Cold Days however it's only in hardback right now and since I've got all the others in paper back I kinda cant start getting hardbacks now, but since I prefer paperbacks anyway I don't mind waiting a while.

I don't know why but I've always had a love of reading. There's just something about it that I find really relaxing. Maybe it's the way you can pick up a book and start reading about another world and just detach from this one. It's amazing the way you can become so taken in by a few words on a page that somehow manage to paint a vivid image in your mind of the events transpiring. Some books even have the ability to make you feel the tension as if you're there to experience it. Books manage to contain so much in so little space its amazing. They have the ability to make you laugh or (depending on who you are) cry with just a few words or pages.

E-books and E-readers will never appeal to me, I can see their pros and cons but I'll never be able to substitute a proper solid book. The idea of staring at a screen for even more hours of the day when we already spend so much of our time looking at them throughout our everyday live be it TV or computer. I can see why commuters use them, they're light and compact and easy to pick up and put down, automatically bookmarking your last page so you don't have to fiddle with a bookmark or whatever other scheme you use to mark your page.

I guess that's all I've got to say, I could talk for alot longer about books and reading but I guess I should call it for now. The weekend ahead should be awesome, traveling up to Attleborough to visit Christina, which I can't wait for, it's only been a week so far but it feels like a helluva lot longer.

Catch ya later folks

Home for Christmas

Monday again, after an awesome week I'm now back in Billericay. Highlights of the week? Blood Spatter analysis practical, Frisbee Christmas meal, spending the weekend with Christina and coming home for Christmas.

This week we had two practicals this week, but one of them I spoke about in last week's post so I'll tell you about the other one. This one was on blood spatter analysis. Cool right? Well it would have helped if I'd have attended the lecture on blood spatter patterns but it was the day after Frank Turner and I was still in bed and so I missed it. I was tired okay? Anyways the practical itself involved going round to 3 different mock scenarios and examining the spatter to try and determine what happened. The first one we went to was a bathroom sink scene with red wall paper and a carpet with flecks of red in it, this meant that you wouldn't be able to see any of the blood easily. Normally the application of luminol would be used, however that would require re-building the scene after each time so the lecturers cheated a little and mixed the blood with a fluorescent dye so that you could examine it time and time again with a UV crime light and a filter. The second one however was a white room with spatter everywhere and a chair in one corner. This scenario we had to actually try and figure out what happened by looking at the patterns of the spatter. The scenario was that a man attacked a woman who was seated, cutting her arm and causing spatter to be projected along the walls and floor, that's the long and short of it anyways. The third one was a bit more fun and involved a mannequin laying on the floor as a corpse. This time someone had bludgeoned the victim with a hammer, causing impact spatter on the wall and the person to stumble around then fall over and bleed out. The weapon was supposedly a claw hammer, which I spotted due to the pattern on the floor where the assailant had placed the hammer down to rifle through the victim's pockets.

Ellis was thoroughly enjoying herself.

So the Christmas meal was a great laugh with some great food and even better people. I'd post some photos of it but Adam hasn't uploaded them yet, but I'll upload some of them when I can. Anyways it was a good laugh as it always is with the Frisbee family. Wetty said that it was a smart casual event so everyone dressed up for the occasion, even me but I was more casual than smart as I turned up in a Santa onesie. It was a Christmas party so why not? Not everyone was fully on board with it but hey ho, I checked with Wetty and he said it was fine. We did secret santa which was good laugh too. Some people got some ridiculous gifts such as an escort magazine and some got some serious gifts, I personally got an LED flashing tankard and it is awesome. You push a button on the base to make the lights...light up and its got a couple different settings from strobe to set and well it looks awesome. I personally really enjoyed the night and from what I've heard so did everyone else. There were a couple moments where things got a little tense but otherwise it was a really good fun night.

Friday was like any other Friday during the day. The evening was alot different though. Me and Christina exchanged Christmas presents as we're not going to see each other over the Christmas holidays (it's going to suck!). She got me an awesome Space Invaders t-shirt which I love because Space Invaders are awesome and everyone knows it and I got her the sound track from the movie Spirited Away because she loves that movie. Me, Lex and Amy later went up steep hill to try and raise some money for the club but we did a pitiful job of it, it was pretty pointless standing there for an hour. Really we just got cold and bored so we called it a night and headed for home after raising just 3 quid. So much for the spirit of giving eh? I then headed back to Christina's to chill at hers for the night and relax over the weekend, just enjoying the time before we had to leave Lincoln for Christmas. I met her parents, which I was terrified about seeing as I've never met a girlfriend's parents before but apparently they thought I was lovely....clearly don't know me well enough. She met my folks too, who thought she was lovely and they aren't wrong. It's going to suck not seeing her all over christmas but we'll do our best to be in touch as much as possible.

Well that's pretty much it for now really. Time to settle in back home for a couple weeks before heading back to the hustle and bustle of city life with a couple exams the first week back....can I get a hell yeah? Least when I get back to Lincoln I'm straight back into Frisbee for out home warm up tournament. I'm just hoping I play well and don't get injured....

Catch ya later folks

21 days and change.....

So it's 21days until Christmas, can I get a hell yeah? No? Fine then. As I've said multiple times its my favourite time of year and I can't wait to get back to Billericay! It's been too long since I've been back there and I kinda miss the place and people. That's not to say I'm not going to miss some of the people from here while I'm back home (Christina most importantly) but I'll be seeing them after a few short weeks and I see them for most of the year anyway. It'll be great to be back home and seeing everyone again, especially since we've all been away for ages and it'll be good to catch up over how the term has gone.

It won't all be fun and games though, got a couple exams on the first week back after Christmas, one of which we are massively under-prepared for as we haven't covered all the content for it yet and we only have two lectures left on it but hey ho, hopefully we can get by on a wing and insane amount of luck.

Had a pretty awesome weekend this week, spent the majority of the time with Christina and then had a pretty good training session followed by playing Halo 4 with a couple friends. The week had its moments too but the weekend was the best part (goes without saying thought really...). I'm really looking forward to this Thursday and the weekend though. Thursday is the Christmas meal with the Frisbee family and this weekend I'm exchanging gifts with Christina as we aren't going to see each other over Christmas. To say I'm excited would be understating it just a little bit. Oh and of course I'm going home on Sunday! How could I forget that....? Long day today.

Spent the whole day in the Lab doing a PCR reaction. The PCR reaction is used to amplify DNA fragments, copying it millions of times over so that it can be put through an electrophoresis gel and identified. In theory you could start with a single hair follicle and end up with a billion copies of that DNA to analyse. It's mainly used in identification and sequencing, however that wasn't going to happen today as the reaction failed and nobody got anything to show up on their gels. So at least it wasn't just our gel that didn't work. We ended up pretty much wasting the day in the lab, I mean yeah it was nice to see the process in practice after working all the theory behind it but it felt a waste to have not gotten any results from it. I did however get to find out my blood type during this practical by doing a simple little home test kit thing, basically a quick prick on the finger and a couple drops of blood onto this card in 4 spots, give it a quick stir and leave to develop. Then you compare it to a little chart thing that shows what each thing would mean and as it turns out I have O+ blood, which isn't all that surprising since something like 46% of the British population has it.

Anyone who reads this on Facebook will probably have noticed that I'm posting a different Christmas song a day again just like I did last year. More often then not I'm taking requests however there are a couple I have saved for specific occasions, so if you've got one you'd like me to dedicate to you then let me know and I'll add it to the list.

That's pretty much it for now....

Catch ya later folks

It's beginning to look alot like Christmas.

So I'm a week late, excuse me while I give a fuck. Had an all day practical on Monday followed by LaserTag with the Frisbee guys and Ant and well it was a very busy day so I didn't exactly get time to write my post.

So I'll start with this Monday as I can't honestly remember much of the week before. Like I said, Monday was a busy ass day. Electrophoresis practical in the labs took all day and wasn't exactly the most fun way to spend a day. Electrophoresis is used in DNA sequencing and matching. It was interesting but did it really need to take all day? Anyways that finished without much of a hitch.

Then it was on to Laser Tag with the Frisbee family and Ant because the more the merrier right? Laser Tag was awesome last time we played it outdoors, tiring but I absolutely loved it. This time was indoors which was new, I've always wanted to try something like this indoors as I've only paintballed outdoors and the Laser Tag place back home is kinda small and lack-luster so being let loose in an area not designed for it was new and exciting. So you add laser beams and 12 ultimate frisbee guys (plus Ant making 13) to a big room full of inflatable obstacles and you're set for an awesome evening. Admittedly the "map" was kinda unbalanced and required better cover/spawn placements but other than that it was a great laugh. Then I spent the night with Christina, which was awesome as always (not in that way....), I think we watching Madagascar 3 although I think I fell asleep during it as I remember next to none of it other than a knife throwing tiger that literally jumps through hoops.

Wednesday was great as I was in a Mario Kart tournament with the Frisbee family, 2 socials in a week? What is going on? It was fun anyways, we played in groups, top two go forward and so on until the final 4. Guess who got into the final 4? If you guessed me then give yourself a cookie, you earned it champ. It was set to be a laugh riot anyway, you put any of us Frisbee folks together in a room and hilarity will ensue. Add Mario Kart to the mix and you don't need any other entertainment. It was hilarious watching everyone get over aggressive about it and the cheers when things heat up, who'd have thought that Mario Kart was a spectator's sport? We ordered pizza and played some heated Mario Kart. I didn't deserve to make it to the final 4, not by a longshot but there you have it. I got lucky, massively lucky. I used to be amazing at Mario Kart, but I swear Mario Kart Wii hates me. I would do well then get absolutely annihilated and end up in 12th then have to climb back up through the ranks again. Somehow my luck held out and I managed to scrape into the final 4 and take 3rd overall. However I was in danger of being taken out of the running entirely when I got screwed by a technicality and a tiny time difference by Jack, although I had the last laugh as I won the knockout round and kicked Jack's ass for almost knocking me out.

Oh speaking of Wednesday we had an absolutely awesome outdoor training session. Recently we've been hammered with some insane rain here in the Shire and it's become a little ridiculous. However with rain comes mud and mud is always fun right? So West Commons got turned into a mud bath, literally. It was insane, the disc caused water to splash up from the ground whenever it hit and it got slowly more and more covered in mud making it harder to throw and catch. The session was hilarious fun because you couldn't really play properly and because of my lack of football boots I was sliding all over the shot. Needless to say I went over at least once, it was great, my combats have mud caked up one leg and the long sleeved t-shirt I was wearing was a brilliant white before I started, it's now a lovely brown colour.

Christmas lights

The Christmas decorations in Lincoln city centre got turned on Thursday evening and now I feel completely justified in singing Christmas songs and wearing my Santa hat. I'm loving the fact everything's getting all Christmas-ified, yet some haters are still saying it's too early for songs and for the hat. Yeah the hat is back, you think I'd lay off my Christmas crusade just because I'm at Uni? I didn't last year and I don't plan to next year, it's pretty much tradition now. For readers that haven't known me since 6th Form won't know what I'm talking about, well it all started in Year 12. I noticed that no-one was really in the christmas mood even as december started so I took to wearing a santa hat everyday in an effort to spread the Christmas cheer, as you can imagine I got ribbed intensely for it and well me being me, I didn't give a fuck. Christmas is my favourite time of year as it should be for everyone but hey ho. I didn't and don't care what people think of me and my hat. I enjoy wearing it and trying to spread the joy, you got a problem then good for you, I couldn't give a fuck. I apologise for all the swears but I get passionate about Christmas okay?

Closer look at the lights

Brings me to my next point, what the hell is up with Christmas TV? I remember back in the day all the classics were on every year. You know all the greats? Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer? The Santa Claus? Shrek? I know Shrek isn't exactly a Christmas movie but it was always on around Christmas and now it's not and it sucks! Christmas TV is just like any other freaking day of the week, 'cept in Eastenders some one will inevitably get killed or arrested or something equally as stupid. It's ridiculous...kids today don't know the great Christmas films aside from Muppet's Christmas Carol. It is and will forever be my favourite Christmas movie because it is absolutely flawless, I genuinely think it would be a crime for it not to be shown on TV over Christmas.

Blurry but you get the idea

Me and Frank

Frank Turner and the Sleeping Souls

A while back we found out that Frank Turner was playing a gig in Lincoln and Alex being the fan that he is suggested that we all buy tickets. That gig was last night and it was fucking fantastic! We started queuing around 18:15 and got given some free cookies by two girls next to us in the queue, then we went inside for what turned out to be an amazing show. Both of the support acts were great and Frank was just something else. The crowd roared when he came onto the stage and started playing. I know its the done thing to sing along to the songs you know at a gig but never before have I seen anything like this, it was incredible. Everyone was singing/shouting the words at the top of their lungs and it was amazing. It was such an energetic concert from both the band and the crowd. Being the first time that I'd seen him live I was blown away, from never having heard of him before moving into courts last year and meeting Alex I wasn't sure what to expect as I'd only heard his studio albums but he was amazing live. We went to the bar after the show for a drink to rehydrate before deciding to hit the road and head for home, but before we did that Alex insisted on seeing if Frank was about outside signing autographs and stuff.....which he was and we all got to meet Frank and the band, have our photos taken with him and our tickets signed ('cept for Dolbear-o who forgot about it....). We massively jumped the queue and after taking all the other guys photos with Frank I felt kinda bad saying "Is it my turn now?" just as some girl stepped forward, but both her and frank were happy to let me go and after a technical mishap with Mack-o and the camera, I got my photo with Frank as well as my ticket signed. We then headed for home after what we all agreed was an awesome night. Pretty sure Alex is going to have his Facebook photo as him and Frank for at least a year now.

Woke up this morning to find pictures like this on my Facebook news feed:

Courtesy of Shrink (Alana)

 Lincoln is slowly being invaded by the Brayford....I mean yeah it was pretty bad when I went to sleep, only a foot or so from bursting but wow.....things really went to shit over night. Apparently things are only going to get worse for a while. Living in Lincoln seems to have been a bad call right now....although I live halfway up a hill....on the second floor so I think I'm safe.....famous last words right?

Well that's pretty much all for now folks, just glad I got some photos to add to this week's post as it's been quite a while. Next week will be back to working properly I guess as I have a lab report due in just before I leave....it's not all fun and games.

Catch ya later

So that's what Sam does....

Went to see my first lacrosse match this week. It was definitely different. I don't really understand all that much about it and if you asked me about it I wouldn't be able to tell you much other than the scoreline....other than that? It's been a pretty standard and uneventful week.

The match was good to watch, it's nice to finally know what it is Sam spends most of his time doing. It seemed pretty brutal, I can now understand why Sam is always so battered and bruised after a match. It was fast paced in places but when you get nearer the goal things seemed to slow right down and take ages to get moving again although I guess that's the same for every sport with similar play. Like I said it was good to watch but I would never think to pick up a stick and play it properly. I've thrown about with Sam and co. a couple times but nothing particularly organised or serious. Think I'll be sticking to Ultimate, it seems faster paced and well much more suited to me. I wouldn't be able to play lacrosse without constantly apologising to whoever I hit. Sadly Lincoln lost the match but it was hard fought, or at least seemed to be pretty hard fought.

Oh! I just remembered went down to the river on Sunday to watch Dan race. Well I say watch Dan race, there was about 30secs of him and his crew rowing past and us shouting encouragement and that was about all there was to see really. Dan looked absolutely dead which is understandable since we were about 300m from the finish line when he went past going hell for leather. From what I've heard his boat did really well, didn't win but was up there in the rankings so that's good. 

Christmas is slowly creeping closer which means I get to break out my Santa hat and start singing Christmas songs again. They've already put up most of the lights in the town centre which is awesome, can't wait for them to be lit up. I can't wait for it to finally get here, it's my favourite time of year. The nights draw in and the morning air seems kind of crisp and fresh. You don't need more than a step outside to wake you up in the morning although it's a chore to get out of bed....Although thinking about it Mum, Dad and the rest of the family will have probably put all the decorations up by the time I get back home...that sucks, it's one of my favourite parts. However I do get to walk in to see the place all Christmas-ified since the last time I saw it was the end of Summer where things were no different to any other day of the year so that'll be nice. It'll also be great to see everyone from back home again and catch up. It's been far to freaking long since I saw everyone.

Well that pretty much covers it for the week...been up to my usual stuff other than those couple things. Hopefully this week will have a little more in store but only time will tell I guess.

Catch ya later

Regionals!

Yeah I know this is a week late but I was waiting on Skip to upload the photos from the weekend but he hasn't yet so they'll follow at a later date (when I can get hold of them).

The highlight of my week kinda lies in this weekend. Not alot really happened this week so I'm just going to  go ahead and talk about the weekend.

So if you've been reading this regularly (or recently) you'll know that I spent last weekend at a Frisbee tournament in Wolverhampton as a warm up for the regional tournament this weekend. To sum up the weekend in a word? Awesome. I could use several other one word answers to describe it but I'm going to stick with that one. Although before I start on the actual tournament I should tell the story of how we ended up arriving 3hrs later than we had originally planned.

The plan was to get the half 7 train from Lincoln and arrive in Wolves around 10/half 10. We all arrived at the train station and caught the half 7 train out without a problem...however we got about 30yards out of Swinderby (I'd never heard of it either) which is about 10mins away from Lincoln when the train stops. Thinking nothing of it since trains occasionally stop so that others can pass or whatever we all carried on doing whatever til you hear the driver say something about a cracked rail and we'll have to go back. So we get off the relatively warm train and step into the arctic cold (the first snow had fallen the night before) and walk over to the next platform and wait for the train coming the opposite way to head back to Lincoln which took a while to arrive. We headed back into Lincoln where we were told we would meet a bus replacement service for us....there wasn't. So we waited around and told to go to Sheffield then to Nottingham to Birmingham to Wolves, which we did without any further problems but arriving at 1 instead of 10. We got there after our first match but literally just in time for our second match. We literally had to jump from a moving vehicle and sprint onto pitch two in order to play and minimise the head start our opponent, Fling 4, would get for us being late.

So we make it onto pitch and Fling are always great teams and despite this one being a fourth team with a 2-0 head start and us without warming up they really gave us a good run around, however we managed to come back and win something like 9-4. It was one of those matches where things were intense and people had unlucky drops/throws on both sides but in the end we came out as either the luckier or more skilled of the two.

We then went on to win our next match, I can't remember much about it....might have been our game against NTU 2. Despite being a team of freshers led by one experienced player they put out a very strong game however I think we won 13 - 4 or something like that.

Our last game of the day was less successful...I think....pretty sure it was our first real loss. This might have been our most poorly played game of the tournament....I honestly don't remember, all I know is we lost.

Coming into Sunday we were reasonably confident. Our cross over match was the most important of the day and we went out to win. We played well but the other team played that little bit better and so we lost.

I remember winning our match against seed 25 holding our position in 24 but losing our last match against 23 so ultimately we finished up 24 and maintained our seeding for the tournament.

I have to give massive credit to the 4 freshers we brought with us, Tom, Amy, Will and Dan played fantastically all weekend. Amy had a way of sneaking into space just when you needed her to, saving you from a stall out. Dan had some fantastic D and brilliant end zone grabs, backed up by Tom who could seemingly gain an extra 2 metres in the air somehow. Will came on leaps and bounds as a handler, now learning to use Hammers and Blades to go over or sometimes through his mark. He said a number of times that he keeps forgetting they're a pass since the fresher's had spent the first couple weeks not being told about them...

Of course I have to say thanks to our skipper Lex who did a fantastic job keeping us organised and generally being an awesome captain, I hope I get to play with him again some time soon. Sayer gets credit for sideline motivation and shouts when needed. He was also a great help on pitch with some great offence and long range discs.


This week? Not much really happened. Went to see the Lincoln fireworks display with Christina (My girlfriend for those that don't know) and then went to see Skyfall on Sunday with her too. Added up to a pretty awesome weekend really. The movie wasn't too bad, not exactly what I'd call a Bond movie but I've never been a fan of Daniel Craig as Bond. Admittedly after the travesty that was Quantum of Solace this was a step back in the right direction which is good, lets just hope they get back to Bond being Bond and taking on diabolical plots from masterminds in secret island bases with badass henchmen...you know like the good old days.

If you're wondering why I haven't mentioned Christina before it's because we've only just made things "facebook" official. She's great, met her a couple weeks back. One of those chance encounters really. Sat next to her in a lecture one time and things kinda went from there. Not much to tell really, we've got alot in common and get along really well so that's that.

Catch ya later folks

You call "that" a warm up?

I call it fucking knackering. So it's the day after the Midland's Regional Warm Up tournament.....the phrase "Dog tired" comes pretty freaking close.

If you've been reading this and keeping up to date then you'll know I've been selected to play on Lincoln's 2nd Team for Ultimate Frisbee in the up coming regional tournament (which is next weekend). So this weekend there was an open tournament in order for us to warm up for the actual regionals. It sounds silly but it makes sense. So how'd this weekend go? Well....

We got on the train for Wolverhampton (where the tourney was) around half 6 Saturday night and began our journey to one of the most exciting (and nerve racking) events I'm likely to experience in a while. We got to Wolverhampton at around 10pm give or take and headed into town to get some dinner. We then grabbed a taxi to the scout hut we would be calling home for the weekend. We got there and explored for a little while and claimed the upstairs room as our own, clustering around plug sockets because smart phone batteries are stupid and don't last anywhere near as long as they should. Some of the guys went off looking for a pub while the rest of us hung out playing the worlds longest and most bullshit game of Uno known to man. I said that I'd be hitting the hay around 12 considering we needed to be up and mobile by 8.....1:30am rolls by and there's still 5 of us playing the same damn game of Uno...it was a battle and went abandoned as we all thought fuck it and went to bed.

Brings us to the start of the tournament! 9am bright and early at Aldersley Stadium to play some ultimate against the best teams in the region. This includes both Uni and Open teams, which makes life bloody difficult because some of the Open teams are brilliant. Their presence this weekend made things far harder than next weekend should be as then it will just be Uni teams playing us. We were one of (if not the) only clubs to enter a second team to this weekend meaning we were likely to get battered from the get go but the experience and pitch time would do us good. So we went into the tournament flying high from Lex's result last weekend in Manchester where the freshers lead by himself and Roofie absolutely dominated and since we had 2 of those freshers with us and Amy who'd been at another tournament with some of our other players we were feeling like we'd put up a good fight. I've forgotten who our first match was against but I remember it being difficult. We were all bleary eyed and having never played properly together before then we weren't exactly great. We put up a fight and scored a couple points if I remember rightly but we lost in the end. However, Lex (skipper for both this weekend and the actual regionals) was pretty pleased with our performance and said that for a first game we worked well and we'd tighten up as a team as we progressed.

Saturday as a whole was pretty disappointing if you look simply at our match outcomes and not how we played or anything else. We lost every game but we put up a helluva fight in each match and learned alot on how to work together as a team as well as where we were strongest and where our weaknesses lie. We tried a variety of different tactics against a variety of different things and didn't really come up with anything solid to really back us up and work with. However, as I've said, we learnt alot about how to play together and where people prefer to be in formations.

Saturday night is usually a night of partying and heavy drinking at frisbee tournaments and the guys had fully intended on it until we went to the pub for dinner and stumbled upon The Flaming Challenge. A few of the guys couldn't resist it and went for it, Me and Will split one because it was damned good value. Of all of them that attempted it single handedly only Lex got close to finishing it, he was around 3 or 4 bites from done when he threw in the towel. He gave it his all and paid the price, he could barely move afterwards and gave birth to a food baby worthy of Mordor. He behaved almost as if he had spent the night drinking heavily in the way he was walking, talking and the stuff he was doing.Its a shame really considering if he had done it then his picture would have gone up on the "Wall of Flame", and there was a little kid on that....this kid couldn't have been more than 10 years old.

Sunday! We started off against a team called Bears. These guys are really good and masters of a technique called Triangle which we've never really learnt in training, let alone the freshers, so this match was going to be tough from the get go. Needless to say we lost, but I think we managed to score a couple points however I'm not too sure. Pretty sure this is also the match where I took a guy out because he thought it'd be a good idea to stop and change direction right into me....He got a black eye for his troubles and I got a bruised shoulder but it's really the guys fault for being an idiot and trying to dodge through me even though I was right behind him....Anyways we finished this game then went on to lose all the others except our last one. We tried throwing out a Triangle play and we actually managed to do really well with it in a few games, we still lost but we were doing better than we had done all weekend. Our last game was possibly the most intense game I've played. It was crazy. We took an early 2 point lead using our newly developed triangle and some awesome D from Will and Dan. We then went on to trade points til equalising at 5 all. We then managed to score one last point and spent the last 3 minutes fighting off the attacks of the opposition. Dan and Will really came into their own in that last game with some amazing D and fantastic scoring runs. I ran my heart out playing both one of the runners on attack and chase on D. All in all it was the hardest fought game of the tournament and possibly the most fun. There were a couple unlucky moments for both teams but I feel like we earned that win. Best way to end the day, tournament and weekend.

Even though we didn't do fantastically well in wins/loses, Lex feels like we did brilliantly and the warm up has done what it was meant to do and warmed us up as a team. By the end we were really working well as a team and we're going to go in strong for next weekend. With the addition of Sayer and Tom to the team we can only play better.

In other news I have finally finished The Fellowship of the Ring. It was a battle in itself. Thoroughly enjoyed reading it though, there're a few things they didn't put in the film that they could have included, not that they were exactly key but still, they would have added something to the story.

Well that's it for now. I'm gunna spend the week recovering ready for the weekend ahead.

Catch ya later folks

Anyone for a little Mass Spectrometry?

So I'm writing this weeks post in my Monday morning lecture because smartphones are awesome and this lecture sucks. Although I'm bound to say that now we've finished firearms...

So what's happened this week? Some stuff and things. The regional teams got confirmed, I hung out with some friends and the Lincoln beginners team absolutely owned the Manchester Beginners tournament. I was unable to attend but my weekend was still pretty awesome anyways.

So I'm gunna be spending the next couple weekends in Wolverhampton for regionals which should be awesome. I'm really looking forward to the two tournaments, should be a great laugh and hopefully we'll be able to do quite well which leads me to talk about....

Lincoln's beginner team running away with the Manchester tournament under the captaincy of Lex and Roofie. Lex's report sings the praises of the untested rookies who seem to have taken to the sportive a duck to water and are looking really damn promising. These guys took Lincoln's first straight up tournament victory since our club began and I've got the pleasure of playing with some of these guys over the next two weeks on Lincoln 2. Hopefully they'll be able to bring the same energy and enthusiasm to regionals! Needless to say I'm optimistic about the outcome, we may need a little while to gel as a team but hopefully once we do we'll kick some ass and take some names!

Well that's pretty much it for now...

Catch ya later folks

And I thought it was Thursday....

Some pretty awesome stuff has happened since Wednesday but I'm not quite sure how it's going to play out, it's early days and anything could happen but the outlook is promising.

Nothing much really happened this week before Wednesday...it was an ordinary Wednesday except I thought it was Thursday and was expecting an incredibly dull morning lecture on anatomy and squishy stuff, instead I was pleasantly surprised to find that it was Wednesday and the lecture was on Firearms. Considering I want to go into ballistics when I leave Uni, my day got a whole lot better from there. The lecture turned out to be quite a good laugh and I learnt some stuff I didn't already know (which is good since that's kinda why I'm here right?). Then I went to outdoor training as always on a Wednesday. Pretty standard session, nothing spectacular happened really. The weather was surprisingly fine for the time of year we're in, I mean clear blue skies with brilliant sunshine in September? It wasn't exactly a warm sun though which sucked, I guess it was the chilly wind that was kinda relentless.

Thursday (the real one) was ridiculous. We're meant to be sharing our Physiology and Anatomy lectures with the first year biomed students which is understandable, however as there are about 400 of us collectively, it becomes a bit of a pain in the ass to seat us all in one place. So they booked out two lecture theatres, one where the actual lecturer will be and the other to overflow into if there aren't enough seats in the original. They'd set up a stream of the first lecture theatre onto the screen in the second, makes sense right? So why the hell would you not set it up? You've booked the two theatres out because you're expecting more people than the first can hold, and yet you don't actually set up the stream? What kind of sense does that make? I mean what if too many turn up? You gotta spend ages setting it all up because lets be honest, wherever you go in the world the institute's IT is going to be shocking, so you waste lecture time setting it all up. I turn up in the overflow theatre because it's quieter and I don't really want to have to listen to the guy talk when I could just read the lecture notes and they haven't set up the stream. No-one came in to set it up in the 5mins I was sitting there so I left. So did everyone else.

Friday I felt kinda ill so I didn't go in, however I did wake up to find a message on my Facebook from one of my captains. First thought was "Fuck, what have I done?" but after actually reading it then I've been asked to play on Lincoln 2 in the indoor regionals tournament! I feel honoured. I mean this time last year I could barely do anything on pitch, let alone do it well. I mean I still don't think I'm good enough to warrant a place on one of our regional teams! I'm still not the most confident player when I'm on the disc and my catches are far from perfect. I know I'm only Lincoln 2 but still it's a big responsibility playing in regionals, if we did well then we might be going to nationals and that would be incredible! But it's kind of a long way off yet and anything could happen right? I'm looking forward to it regardless, it'll be great experience and I may learn a couple things.

The weekend has been pretty cool, training was knackering but I'm still not quite back up to fitness. I got some good advice from Lex about my technique when I'm on the disc. His words were "You could set a metronome by your fakes." Which I didn't even notice but once he said it then I couldn't help but notice it. I'm glad he said something about it, so now I can work on adapting to change my technique. Like most of us Lex is really coming into his own, it's great to see although he needs to stop being so hard on himself. We all throw crap discs at times, no need to let it get you down (that's aimed specifically at Lex, I don't expect him to read this). I tend to panic when I'm on the disc and rush my pass, causing me to fuck it up, but I'm working on calming down and taking my time a bit more. 8 seconds is longer than you think.

Well I'm pretty much done for now, might have something more to say next week but we'll see.

Catch ya later folks

Borderline Addictions

So Borderlands 2 came out recently and well.....for a sequel it's great! It's literally just borderlands one but with everything on roids. It's funnier, harder, more action packed and it'll still keep you guessing. Me and the guys have started a four man co-op. we haven't really gotten all that far since its a very rare occasion we're all together in the house and awake. I could talk at great length about this game but then I'd start giving away spoilers and that's just not cool. All I'll say is that Handsome Jack is a heartless and devious bastard. I both love and hate him.

On another note I recently watched Dr. Horrible's Sing Along Blog. I'm not quite sure how to describe it other than awesome. It's Neil Patrick Harris as a failing super villain Dr. Horrible and Nathan Fillion as Captain Hammer, his nemesis. It's a strange story of love, loss and one villain's failing dreams of joining the Evil League of Evil. The songs were catchy and hilarious and the normal dialogue was pretty good too. The one disappointing thing about it is that it's only 42mins long but in a way it kinda works. If it was any longer really it would have been quite drawn out. The ending was fantastic. It's not often I can say I enjoyed an ending that much. I heard that they were thinking of making a new one but I think that if they do it might spoil it. It could go one of two ways really....

I started writing a short story the other day in a lecture...I thought it was quite constructive use of my time although its not finished yet. I'm gunna crack on with it when I get a spare couple moments.

Haven't really got all that much else to say so....

Catch ya later folks

Holy hellfire it's early!

Yeah, I'm writing this one early (still publish it in the morning) as my Monday timetable for tomorrow (and the next few weeks) appears to have been spawned by Satan himself. I mean who in their right mind thinks that a 9am start on the first day back is a good idea? And then to finish said day at 5pm? Seriously, are you trying to melt our brains in the first day? We've been outta the game for 3months and you think the best way to break us back into this whole "learning" things is with a 7hr day on some topics that are less than pleasant? I know I said last year that I wanted things to liven up and be a bit more interesting but don't you think this is taking things to the extreme? All I can say is that if I didn't have some addiction to caffeine before this, I sure as hell will afterwards.

Anyways, enough with the rhetorics. As you can guess I'm a little less than pleased with my timetable. It's not the best thing I've ever seen but Alex's is far far worse. I've got the odd 9-5 here and there, he's got them pretty much permanently. Poor bastard, no wonder engineers tend to go insane and invent killer robots. I don't appreciate the lecturers lying to us and saying that 9am starts were just for first years, what a load of crap. Pretty much everyday I'm in Uni has a 9am start and quite often it's 9-10 and that's it. There is nothing more annoying than waking up for a lecture for an hour and that's it, we all know that once you get up and dressed and all that stuff then there's no real going back to sleep....freaking pain in the ass if you ask me, I mean why can't they put a bunch of our lectures on the same day? (Crap there's another rhetoric...) Yeah we'd probably still complain but I personally would prefer having nothing on 3 other days of the week and having the 4 other hours in one day!

Okay, rant over....for now. The Frisbee taster session for all the newbies was Saturday (yesterday at time of writing). It was alot of fun and we met a lot of new and friendly faces. The weather was bright, clear and calm so the conditions were almost ideal if there wasn't such a chill in the air but otherwise it was pretty good. The freshers seemed to enjoy themselves, it'll be nice to see how many of them actually make a return although most of them seemed like they would. The one thing that was slightly disappointing is the lack of female freshers, after losing a couple of our experienced female players last year we don't have a full team of girls which is a shame. Of course there's still time for more people to turn up (couple weeks) so some more might join.

Other reasonably important news? Borderlands 2 came out this week. So far it's awesome (from what little I've played) it's just like the original Borderlands but they have improved the things that needed improving and have made it a helluva lot more fun, I mean the first one was pretty funny but this one has a load more hilarious moments. I would write a bit more about it but this post is already a wall of text (I really need to get out and take a few pictures) so I will save the more indepth review until later.

Catch ya later folks

Fresh eyes?

Another late one....I did fully intend on writing it earlier I just kinda forgot...although it's not like any readers of this thing complain about it being late, even if it is by a day.....

Anyways, been back in Lincs for 2 weeks now, without any luck on the job front.......oh well. Not like I haven't looked, but everywhere I've been so far is just looking for Christmas temp work and that would mean having to stay in Lincoln over Christmas.....Needless to say, that's not going to happen. Christmas is my favourite time of year as I'm sure I've mentioned but I couldn't stay in Lincoln for the whole thing...

The freshers are now about and getting in the way which means the freshers fayre is soon which should be great for the Ultimate guys, we need to recruit some newbies. We had a training session today which was......tiring to say the least. It was good to actually get back into some form of physical activity. Got another session on Friday which I'm really looking forward to although I expect it to be just as knackering.

Hard to think that this time a year ago I was one of the new guys both scared and excited in equal measure to see what the year would bring and how things were gunna pan out. Scared 'cause I'd never been away from home this long a time and having to survive on my own and excited to meet new people, start training for the job I want and all that other cool stuff you get to do while at Uni.

Now? I'm a grizzled 2nd year where things have begun to lose their novelty and the lame truth that the hard work starts now has begun to sink in. Would I go back and change anything I did last year? You know, I don't think I would actually. I mean don't get me wrong there were some experiences I'd rather not go through again but everything has it's ups and downs, there's nothing I'd like to inherently change. I've said it before and I'll say it again that the best choice I ever made last year was joining the Ultimate guys at the start of the year (Maybe that'll help draw in some freshers....I am sports personality after all!).

My timetable for the year is up....it is unpleasant in places. Nothing too bad but it's still not great, although when comparing it with Alex's engineering timetable it looks like a walk in the park compared to what he's gotta put up with.

There's still not all that much happening around here for the moment, but I guess when training and Uni start up again properly next week then things will liven up, 'til then there's not really all that much to say. House warming party on Friday should be a laugh although I'm not exactly ecstatic about going out clubbing afterwards....I always find it so boring and I think I'm beginning to come down with a cold but hey ho, pretty sure the guys' response would be "Man up!" so I'll just have to take it in stride.

Catch ya later folks

PS. Dad's Birthday on the 19th, Happy Birthday Pops, sorry I'm not able to be there for it.

Another late one, sue me

Yeah yeah I know it's kinda late considering I normally write this in the morning but I've been busy doing stuff okay?

Job hunting isn't exactly going well which isn't great but hey ho. There's time yet. What else has happened? Not alot to be honest. Mostly just been hanging out with the guys. Willis turned up (Finally...I've missed that little guy) although he wasn't here for long, he was only around for a couple hours 'cause he went to visit some friends in Cambridge. We sold the other fridge, the one that was too big and are waiting on the new one to be delivered.

Other than that? Had the first real frisbee session of the year the other day. It was great although knackering. Really showed how 3 months of inactivity can affect your performance. I ached more than I should have done after that session. It was great seeing some of the guys again, I didn't realise how much I missed them and the sport but now I can't wait for proper training to start up again.

...well I don't have anything else to say....like really nothing else.....here's hoping this week turns up a couple more interesting events.


Catch ya later folks

Nerf guns and new beginnings

Well it's come full circle. Now I'm back in Lincoln for my second year of Uni. First thoughts? I miss home. Anyone that knows me knows that I suffer from minor anxiety and well being back here for some reason has brought it on. I don't know why but it has, I mean I've done this all once before right? I dunno, just me being me. I lose the ability to sleep normally and lose my appetite (that's when you know something's wrong). I'm a creature of habit, I like to follow a routine and I haven't yet settled into one here...yet. Once training restarts and lectures begin again then I think I'll be fine. I know I'm boring as hell sometimes.....most of the time depending on who you talk to but I'm happy doing what I do. Like I say when I settle down and take up a routine I'll be fine, but 'til now it's alot of late nights and unpleasant dreams.

Half my room.

Anyway! New year in a new house with some new people should be awesome. My room is a little different but I've got a skylight and lets face it that's awesome. Get some kick ass views of the moon and some brilliant sunshine (when the sky is clear at least). Took a little creative thinking to organise everything and make it nice and neat but well my desk is already a mess and I've only been here 2 days! Now Alex, Dan and Sam (Oh and Annie of course) are here things are pretty lively but I always expected it to be with these guys. Sam 'cause he's crazy, Dan 'cause well...he's Dan and Alex because him and Dan can cause some right mayhem when they put their mind to it.

My Nerf Gun

This sort of leads me on to talk about Nerf Guns, you know those plastic guns that fire rubber-headed foam darts? Well we've kinda bought a load of them =P There are foam darts everywhere but they're a good laugh. I can see many hours of mischief being caused by them and our collection will only grow I assume (Mum/Dad, if you're reading this, money you enjoyed spending isn't money wasted).

Main reason I came back up here so early is to go job hunting, as of yet I haven't but that's a task for tomorrow (or maybe wednesday). I'll have to get my printer fired up and go hit the town, avoiding bar work if possible (sure I've said this before) but we'll have to wait and see what happens I guess and go from there.

Well I've said pretty much all I've got to say right now...I'll probably end up staying up til silly o'clock again watching Futurama or something. This is probably the latest Monday post I've made but I've been busy today okay?

Catch ya later folks

Call me Hawkeye.

So this week, I actually went out and did something with my life! Shocker right? First off I played tennis with Emma, Ben and Joe which was a laugh as always. Yeah we're not very good and we mostly spend out time talking and trying to find the tennis balls but still it was a good laugh. Then I went round Jake's for a BBQ to celebrate his birthday which was hilarious as always whenever Jake's nearby and then we come to today (and the reason this post is slightly later than usual).

I tried archery! It's a skill I've always wanted to learn and well now I've done it! Thanks to Lucy who's a member of the Mayflower Archery club, she let me know there was a come along and try weekend going on, so I went down there earlier and tried it out. As I arrived I got handed a wrist/arm guard to stop the bowstring shredding my forearm and told to go over to the guy by all the bows and arrows so I did. He looks at me, turns to the box of arrows draws out three of these long arrows and says "These look about right for you, but you'll have to share that guy's bow." I turn to look at this guy and the bow, it's almost as tall as me! I later found out that Recurve bows (such as this one was) are meant to be just shorter than you and the arrows are meant to be slightly longer than your draw length. Anyway as my turn to shoot comes up the guy tells me what to do and how to do it properly and then says I'm on my own. So I step up to the line and nock an arrow, draw the string back to my cheek (kinda heavy for me at 26/28 pounds) and aim down the shaft at the target, the guy says "Good, now let fly!" So I fire and hit the outer blue zone for like 4 points. Then I fire my other 2 arrows scoring successively better with each one and creeping closer to the bull. So after a couple more turns firing 3 arrows apiece I'm beginning to get the hang of it, hitting the inner 8, 9 and 10s. Sadly I had to leave 'cause well a guy's gotta eat right? But I thoroughly enjoyed the experience and hope that in the future I'll be able to take it up as a more active hobby. Maybe there's an archery club at Uni but I'll have to find that out later.

Speaking of Uni, this time next week I should be chillin' with my bros up in Lincoln! To say I can't wait is an understatement. I'm dying to get back on the Ultimate pitch and throw a disc about again, it's been far too long. Although my lectures and stuff don't start for a little while when I get back I'm heading up there to go job hunting. Need to be able to eat and do all those other things students do, and for those I need that money stuff. I'm hoping to avoid bar work where possible but if it's inevitable then I guess I'll have to learn to live with it, money is money after all right?

Although I can't wait to get back to Lincs, I'm gunna be sad to leave Billericay again so soon, it seems like I've hardly caught up with anyone while I've been back, guess I'll just have to make the most of this last week here. I could always head back later but as I've said, I really need to find myself a job while I'm there and the best time to do that would be before all the first years turn up I reckon.

That's all I've got to say for now, I should really start packing some of my gear for uni....

Catch ya later folks

Slow going.

This week I literally have nothing to write about. Seriously, nothing note worthy has happened. I finished reading The Hobbit and have now started reading The Fellowship of the Ring. Thought about starting to write short stories again, key word being "thought", I haven't actually put my mind to it yet. Some crazy ass heat wave going on which I hate, I've always been more of a wintery guy. Other than that there's really nothing going on back here in Billericay, which is it's own kind of hell....

Oh well only a couple more weeks til I'm back in Lincoln, should be awesome. I've missed that place and actually having things to do. Yeah lectures may be boring as sin but at least they gave me something to pretend to be doing. While I've been home I've pretty much spent all my time playing Battlefield 3 with Ali....

Some day I'll get a life, but it won't be today.

Hopefully next week I'll have something to talk about.

Catch ya later folks

There and back again...

Yeah, I just started reading "The Hobbit". Of all things I could write about this week, I'm going with possibly one of the greatest fantasy novels ever written. This piece of work inspired most (if not all) of modern day fantasy writing and so far, it's easy to see why. But before we get there lets start at the top. I'm surprised it's taken me this long to read it, considering how famous this particular book is and especially after the Lord of the Rings movies and the unveiling of The Hobbit movie development. Needless to say I'm reading it now to prepare for the upcoming trilogy (We'll get to this later). I haven't read the LotR books yet but they're my next targets after finishing The Hobbit. Okay, let's jam.

So when I first started reading it I noticed a couple things, first and foremost the way it's written. It's put quite strangely, I don't think I've read anything like it before...or I've just gotten used to the Noir style of The Dresden Files (Book 14 out soon, woop) and so it seems kinda unusual. Then I noticed that I was reading it in Sir Ian McKellan's voice....which is both strange and awesome in equal parts. I think I know why I'm reading it like that though, even though the story isn't written from Gandalf's point of view. I think it's because when you watch the LotR movies, Ian McKellan does a little narrator-y part at the beginning and that's kinda stuck somewhere in my head and so now I'm reading it in his voice. Like I said, strange but awesome. Then I noticed something I wasn't quite expecting to see.

Poems. Well....they're meant to be songs but they read more like poems. They're everywhere. Seriously everywhere. I'm not really complaining about them, they're well written and make sense (unlike some) and I think make quite a nice story telling device, but I wouldn't like to see them used more often in books. I think they work well in this book because of the setting, could you imagine a modern day book written with poems in every chapter while our Heroes go off on an adventure around the world? Okay....maybe you could but my point is that they wouldn't really fit. Here they do and like I said they're well written and make sense so overall I'm not complaining.

Like I said earlier, it's not hard to see how this book has inspired so many authors. Even though it's written in quite an odd way (or at least to me...) it's amazing how well Tolkien sets the scene and manages to help you really imagine the events that are going on. I mean the scene where Bilbo is trading riddles with Gollum? Brilliant. I could imagine the scene quite clearly with the two of them on the subterranean lake shore.

All in all The Hobbit is a fantastic piece of story telling and I'm not even halfway through! It's clear how easily it could be adapted into a movie and I'm sure Jackson will do a fantastic job....but I can't help but wonder how he's going to make it into 3 movies? It's only 300 or so pages long...the LotR books are huge and it shows in the 12hrs of movie they went on to become! I'm sure he'll manage to do it and probably turn out another 3 epic movies. I mean there are alot of opportunities to expand on some of the stuff written in the book but even so I find it hard to see a trilogy in it. Although I am expecting them to follow suit and be 3hrs long (possibly 4 with extended cuts) again. I'm sure when they're out then they'll be spectacular!

I don't use the word "epic" often when describing things but the LotR film trilogy were truly epic movies. They are 3 of the few movies I would describe as "epic". Others include Toy Story 1 and 3, Saving Private Ryan, Band of Brothers (Not a movie but....) and a couple others. There are good movies, great movies and the truly epic movies, movies done on such a scale and to such an awesome quality that it's hard to think of any other term that applies.

Well that's pretty much it for now, I'm gunna go back to reading.

Catch ya later folks

PS. Well done Team GB on your most successful Olympic Games to date.

Gold rush

Don't ya just hate it when Monday kinda sneaks up on you? I woke up this morning thinking it was still Sunday....no idea why. Anyways, last week I said I wasn't really following the Olympics and I'm still kinda not, I couldn't tell you who won what in what event for which countries other than Michael Phelps is pretty much the USA swimming team and destroying everyone at pretty much all the swimming events and that Team GB came from nowhere to end up 3rd on the medal table, seemingly taking all the golds they could in about 4days....Oh and Andy Murray took Olympic Gold yesterday from Roger Federer! Other then that? I got nothing.

Yeah. You read that right. Murray took the freaking Gold from Roger Federer! It was undoubtedly the best I've ever seen Murray play. He was incredible. Admittedly he had a bit of a shakey start but after the first few games he really picked himself up and went on to storm it, at one point he took 10 games in a row, one after another....that's almost unheard of, especially when talking about Murray and yet yesterday we all saw it happen. Federer was playing great, he always does, but he was definitely not at the top of his game. I kept thinking "Maybe he's holding back to let Murray get overconfident?" but as Murray took the first and second sets I began to wonder if Federer was injured or something. Then the third and final set rolled around, Federer seemed to rally himself (no pun intended) and fight back but it was a case of too little too late and Murray went on to secure a straight sets victory, 6-2, 6-1, 6-4. Truly was the best I've ever seen him play, he fully deserved the Gold medal.

In other news, I've decided to start running. After not doing anything for 3months I thought I'd better start doing something if I'm going to survive the first training session when I get back to Lincoln. First time I ran my 2.1mile lap I was aiming for 20mins, since that's standard length of an indoor frisbee match, and got 19:35 which I think was pretty damned good even though when I got back I didn't feel like moving again ever. Second time I got 18:26 and then today I got 16:52. It hurt. It hurt alot. Fastest time I've put down so far, I think I'm just gunna have to try and equal it for a while, since that was a battle. I was and still am knackered. But it's good practice for when I get back right?

Went to a BBQ round Matt's on Friday night. That was hilarious, although the next day everyone was complaining of gnat bites, I counted 11 on just my legs....wearing shorts seemed like such a good idea that morning but then the next day....bad move Spud. Oh well, live and learn right? Still the night was a good laugh. Spent a while air banding in his living room with Connor and Toby 'cause we're just that cool.

Well that's pretty much all I've got to say at the moment,

Catch ya later folks.

Passing the torch...

Thinking about it, maybe this title would have been better used for a later post, say after the Olympics or when I'm passing something on to someone but I didn't think of a topic for this week so I thought "What's hip and cool right now?" *Thanks to Sam for spotting the typo* ('cause people still talk like that right?) and decided on the Olympics.


I've never really followed the Olympics, other than the Winter Olympics, I've never really had an interest in them. I know that their supposed to be some great and patriotic time and everyone supporting the home team but....I don't even do that during the World Cup anymore. I don't enjoy watching/playing football, but I could rant about that for a post on its own. I'm interested in how we do, don't get me wrong but I'm not going to go out of my way to watch it or find out. 


Like I said, I've never really followed the Olympics, not while it's hosted in other countries and not even now that we're the host nation. I don't see why its such a big deal. "Well Spud, the whole world will be looking at us!" And you say that as if it's a good thing? The whole world is going to be looking at us and seeing what a shit country we really are. There are some nice parts of London but there are alot of shit ones and we aren't exactly the most beautiful country to explore. "What about the Royal Family?" Well yeah they are a massive tourist attraction, but that's all year round, I doubt that will change for the 3 weeks (?) the Olympics are raping our television broadcasts...."Well surely this will bring in alot of tourism...." Yes, it will but is that really going to offset the millions of pounds we've spent on the development of everything related to it? "It's not like the Olympic Stadium is only going to be used once." Well actually....yeah it is. Can you see us hosting the Olympics again anytime soon? And they've already made plans to sell the place to some football team or another, I don't know who because I stopped paying attention, so yeah that place is pretty much a one hit wonder. 

Although maybe we've regained our loses already from the insane prices of tickets for some of the events. I mean the prices for some event tickets was ridiculous, 3 grand just for one event? That's crazy! I could live for a year on that! I know there was a whole raffle system or something for people who applied to be awarded tickets but didn't that crash in like the first 20mins and then not really work properly afterwards? To me that just seemed like a little forewarning of the events to come if we can't even get the ticket distribution right, how the hell are we gunna actually cope with the real thing?


The opening ceremony is always something to behold right? Well I can't say that I've watched it, I started to then I couldn't take it seriously when I saw someone compare it to Lord of the Rings, but from what I've heard Sir Danny Boyle (If he's not a knight yet he probably should be....) did a fantastic job, but was it better then Beijing? 'cause those guys put on possibly the most impressive display *Again thanks Sam* we're ever going to see. I mean how can anyone beat the nation who's culture it is to have freaking dragons!? We did allegedly have the Queen parachute into the stadium for it....that would have been pretty cool if Daniel Craig was a half decent Bond and the Queen wasn't like 80yrs old and didn't jump out of that helicopter at all.


It's not even like we're going to do all that well. Last time I checked we were 16th, which is pretty impressive out of the like 100 countries competing but still, we're a long shot from the top and we're only any good in rowing and cycling really....

That's really all have to say this week. Like I said, I didn't come up with anything to say before writing this.....maybe I should have just left it.....but then what about my adoring fans?


Catch ya later folks

War and Peace Show 2012

One particularly heavy shower.

I'm back, who missed me? Just got back from the 30th War and Peace Show. If I could sum it up in one word? Different. It was definitely different this year. Normally you get there and the weather is fantastic for the duration of the show, you have the occasional rain shower but otherwise it's all blue skies and sunshine for two weeks. The place becomes so dry and dusty that if a heavy vehicle (there's usually alot of them) goes past you choke for about two minutes on the dust cloud it leaves behind. This year however was very different.

Hose pipe ban eh?

You know we recently had a hose pipe ban due to a water shortage? We don't now and I'm not surprised. The word "Monsoon" springs to mind when you think about the weather for this year's show. It was horrendous! The worst weather we've ever had down there at the Hop Farm. I'm normally a fan of a bit of rain while camping, I mean the sound of the rain hitting the canvas is one of the most soothing sounds I can think of, but this......this was something else entirely. The rain was torrential and not like a passing shower, it lingered for about 2 days without ever really letting up. Then when it did pass it didn't really pass for long and came back just as strong as when it left. A couple of years we've been worried that the river might burst its banks due to a heavy rainfall but this year it happened, and since the field is a floodplain, it was hell. Massive sections of the fields were underwater by at least 4 inches and I'm not even exaggerating when I say this. 

Our own personal lake.

I wouldn't of had a problem with the weather if the surface water wasn't such a huge problem. I like the rain as I've said but the surface water and eventual mud was hell. For the first time in a good few years I've had to wear wellies at the show. Due to the crappy ground conditions you can't really go and do anything, I didn't have my bike there with me but if i did I wouldn't have been able to use it. The mud was causing all kinds of chaos with vehicles rolling in. People were getting stuck in all manner of vehicles all over the shot and that was just on some of the regular camping grounds. If that was chaos then they need to come up with a whole knew word to describe what happened on the Stalls field.

Water, water everywhere, not a drop to drink.

Any other year, there wouldn't be much of a problem. The stall holders turn up, drive to their pitch and set up shop (the only time I can say that and mean it) without any problems. The pitches are marked out with white spray paint on the grass so everyone knows what kind of space they've got and everything, but this year, the rain kept washing the markings of and due to water-logging pitches people needed to be relocated to other places which is a chore at the best of times. Then the state of the field meant that vehicles were getting stuck all over the place and then chewing the area to shit so the officials decided it'd be easier to tow the stall holders to their pitches. However this took a helluva lot of time due to the lack of vehicles able to tow others without wrecking the place and so this caused mayhem in the form of incredible traffic jams. Ever seen Die Hard 2? The part where they say "Stack 'em and rack 'em"? Well that's what we ended up doing. Normally it's out of our jurisdiction (yeah that's right I just said that) as we're on the Big Monktons team but they needed help and we couldn't just sit there and do nothing. So we headed up there to help control traffic, Uncle Steven helped out for a while towing people to their pitches but the Land Rover got bogged down back at camp one night so he had to switch to traffic duty. It was crazy up there, we had multiple stacks of vehicles along 3 or 4 long roads and more backing up at Booking In. Eventually we managed to clear everyone and get everyone set up but it took ages, a couple late nights for some people and was a battle in its own but we (well they since I only helped for a day or two) got there in the end.

One of many storm fronts.

Stalls wasn't the only place hit hard by the weather, everywhere was affected pretty badly by the often impassable conditions on the ground, creating a need to pull vehicles out and around which in turn created traffic issues. The first week or so of the show was pretty hectic. Things began to ease off towards the actual show week, where it's open to the public, but by no means were things easy. Health and Safety changes caused alot of issues at first but we did our best to adapt to them. It wasn't easy but we were getting there. Dad and the rest of the "real" adults from our camp have been officials for a couple years now, I got drafted in times of need as an assistant official last year but that was fine by me, I don't mind mucking in when needed, but this year I got promoted to full time assistant official. I got called into the dining shelter after the official's shirts had been collected and Dad throws a bag of purple shirts at me. I caught them offhand (I was proud) and simply said "Ah crap..." as I noticed my name on the bag. Now I'm on the team's list it means I actually have to do things! I'm kidding, like I said I got no problem helping out. It's gotten to the point now that I've been there so many years I've pretty much seen everything. Very little changes from year to year so now I mostly spend my time minding camp and reading (which I enjoy) but it'll be a nice change to actually be doing something for once.

I could not be more impressed with this.

You remember a couple weeks back (I think my last post actually was 2 weeks ago....) I wrote about storms and said I'd never experienced an all guns blazing full on storm? Well now I think I've gotten as close to one as I'm going to get. It was stunning. Equally beautiful and terrifying, to quote 'Turn Coat' by Jim Butcher, "I can't decide if it's one of the most beautiful terrifying things or the most terrifying beautiful things I've ever seen". I was literally stunned by the storm that seemed to boil up out of nowhere. The clouds took on an angry looking air behind the tree line but we thought that it'd just blow past and not really amount to much, since most British storms never really do. One flash of lightning and it's over. This one? This one was different, much like the show this year. Thunder roared all round and lighting struck with a ferocity I'd never seen before. The strikes were so close together that the rolls of thunder blended together creating a furious cacophony that hammered at the ears and so bright that they burned into your vision for a good couple seconds, only clearing in time to be blinded by the next one. One photo I wish I could have captured was of a blast of sheet lightning consisting of 5 thick bolts all connected by an incandescent streak of lightning just under the clouds. It was both beautiful and terrifying, such a display of raw power. I didn't get to see where any of the bolts made landfall but I doubt they would have been pretty sights.

One of my favourites.

Despite the chaotic weather and conditions, that forced many other shows to close, the show was still fantastic. Although the atmosphere may have been a little strained but with things the way they were that was to be expected, there was still the regular fun and games and pranks. It just shows the grim determination, willpower and resilient spirit we can all display when facing adverse conditions, it was the 30th anniversary and come hell or high water the show was going to go on!


There was also some brilliant sunsets to see, I caught a few, missed a couple others but I'm not complaining. I managed to get some incredible photos while I was there and I'm happy with that.


Well that's pretty much all for now....


Catch ya later folks.