Tuesday 30th March - Happy Birthday Andi! 21 today. Other recent 21st birthdays on my course were Glenn on the 17th, Mario and John on the 23rd, and Rick on the 26th! Happy birthday all, and can't wait for the massive night out this Thursday.
I was in Loughborough to see people this weekend, was very good! FND was really good - so many people there and it didn't feel busy. We all got happily pissed, especially Hud who was telling everyone how much he loved them! Me and him agreed to be each others best man, hehe! Just need to find wives now... He tried to rugby tackle Eddy and found the brick wall instead! Domino's let us down big style, I'm very angry with them. Me and Glen had ordered one to share at 8:15 and it was due to arrive at 9pm. First bad news was they've completely stopped doing the fabled and well used loyalty card, and then they didn't deliver the pizza at all. Both me and Glen phoned them quite a few times and they just kept lying to us. We drew the line at 10 and phoned up very hungry and angry and they said it would still be another half an hour and we could have a second one for "only £4.99". NO! Cancelled that and wolfed some burger shop food on the way to the union.
Me and Glen stayed on Hud's floor and Max on Craig's, but Craig puked all over Max's pillow/head while he was on it!! Max didn't seem to mind too much either - was not nice though!! Saturday we only made it out of hall at 10pm to get some beer from an off licence. All of them were shut - just after 10pm. We felt robbed!
Sunday Glen and Hud left at lunchtime for London and I went into town to finally go to the orange tree with Matt (minge!). He recently got gold in the UK destruction trials (breaking wood) so he's going to Korea to compete for England!! Pretty good...
Still no replacement digital camera, but I did only send the receipts off yesterday.
Wednesday 24th March - OK I'm back in Preston with all limbs in tact if very achy! The skiing holiday was amazing - thank you so much to Matt and Mike (and Matt's dad) for making it a good one! I got myself to Preston station last Wednesday to get the 6:49 to Blackpool Squires Gate station, which is a 5 min walk from the airport. The airport terminal building itself is a tiny little hangar, which is actually better described as a shed. It was quite laughable cos I'm used to airports that take weeks to walk around! Anyway, Ryanair were fantastic, we took off and landed early (30 mins flight - amazing!) and I waited around at Stansted for Mike, who joined me just at the front of the check in queue I'd been waiting in for 30 mins. The easyjet flight was fine, and we got ourselves to Matt's house in Munich via a train, an underground train, a bus and a 10-min walk. Matt's house is amazing; I'd call it a small mansion! A very rich doctor who lets out his rooms owns it. Mike and I stayed in the basement which in itself is a fairly large apartment! It even had a nuclear bomb shelter... We all went out to the Olympic Park and spent an hour ice skating there.
Matt had to work on the Thursday so Mike and I went on the official bus tour of Munich, which was quite expensive and not that great (I fell asleep!) but we did get to have a look around the Olympic park again and go up the Olympic tower. Munich is not the most inspiring of cities, especially not looking down from 240m and it was very hot and hazy so we couldn't even see the mountains. After looking around for somewhere cheap and filling to eat for lunch and dinner we settled on pizza hut both times - not quite German food but good value and very tasty!!
We went to bed before Matt and his dad got back cos we had to be up on Friday morning at 5. We only just made our train from Munich and changed in Innsbruck. Freaky story: While we were in Innsbruck, I got a text from my cousin Anna who I've hardly heard from in a year, saying she'd had a dream about me that I had a girlfriend and 2 young kids! Not sure where that came from but the freaky thing is that I went skiing with her last year, at about the same time, and we went via Innsbruck too! Anyway, whilst waiting for the second train I finished "Life of Pi", which I recommend to anyone, It's an excellent book and it certainly left me in a daze.
We got to St Anton at lunchtime and spent most of the afternoon looking for a place to stay. St Anton and the surrounding area is very expensive and we hadn't booked anything up in advance, so after running round in the crazy heat for ages we finally found somewhere for 40 euros a night each, not bad compared to some of the offers we got! Matt had his skis and boots with him so went up the slopes for a couple of hours, but there wasn't time for us to get back to the apartment and hire skis so we took our stuff to the accommodation and then walked back to the town to have a look around. We were able to hire good skis and boots for a good price at the apartment.
Saturday was the first day we all went skiing, and we stuck together most of the day. It was quite cloudy and was raining, sleeting and snowing at various parts of the day. The snow was quite wet as well, so we had to keep stopping to wipe our goggles cos we just couldn't see! We had a good day skiing though; Matt pushed us all a bit too hard I think, so we were all fairly exhausted. I was disappointed with my fitness level though, my thighs were screaming at me from quite early on! I must have produced several pints of lactic acid... Most annoyingly Matt's phone started ringing halfway up a lift and it was me calling, but I couldn't find my phone (I thought it was ringing from my pocket). I must have dropped it at the bottom of the lift. Fortunately someone had picked it up, so we met them at the top of the lift and I got my phone back. I was very lucky!
Later on that day though coming down one of the runs, Mike had stopped halfway for a rest and I went past. At the bottom he gave me back my camera which must have jumped out of my pocket on the way down and I was lucky enough that he saw it and picked it up! After nearly losing 2 important things on the first day I spent the rest of the holiday tirelessly checking all my pockets were done up!! I didn't take any pictures on Saturday cos the weather wasn't great. Mid afternoon my legs were getting really quite dead, and it wasn't helped by the fact that we were forced to come down a black run (the hardest rating) because the nice easy blue one was shut due to an avalanche. That was my first black and it wouldn't have been so bad had it not been so moguley - I finally got down it through a mixture of skiing, sliding and falling! It was very tough though, and when we got down to the bottom at 3:30pm I had to call it a day, so I had a couple of pints and an ice cream waiting for the others to finish.
The weather on the second day of skiing was much nicer - the sky was completely cloudless at the beginning of the day and the sky was very blue! We started off taking 2 massive cable cars to the very top and coming all the way down from 2700m up to the town level at 1300m, it was a fantastic descent! We spent the rest of the morning doing various runs, including a much nicer black! The plan was to ski all the way down to the road away from St Anton and get the free bus to the neighbouring resort of Zurs, but I missed the turning for the run so got lost! After looking at my map for about 10 minutes and working out where I needed to go, Mike showed up and I was able to get him to phone Matt and his dad to tell them to wait for me by the bus area. What I should have done was arranged to meet them later that day, cos I was about to embark on a stupid, tiring and generally painful climb of what looked like a fairly small bit of run back to the turning I missed. Oh dear me...
Mike only came my way cos his boots and skis weren't feeling quite right, so he had to go all the way back to the apartment and swap them. Anyway, up I climbed in the searing heat, carrying my skis and poles to the amusement of everyone else going the right way down the slope! I finally got to the turning, exhausted, and skied down it to meet Matt and his dad, who had given up on me and were just leaving. It was so hot that Matt had been sunbathing topless on the snow! After a quick rest we were off again and got the bus to Zurs where we had our packed lunches (but I still paid 5 euros for a coke - what a rip off!). We skied around Zurs all afternoon, which I thought was a much tougher resort than St Anton. The blues felt like reds and the reds like blacks... but we kept going! One of the red runs was particularly interesting cos it kind of just stopped, and continued down a very steep cliff of snow! Even Matt was surprised at how steep it was. No way was I attempting to ski down it so I slid down it but it was very funny! Hopefully the photos will show the craziness of it. Later on that day I finished at Zurs on a red, and as we approached it Matt's dad said something along the lines of "look at those crazy people going down that run there, it's madness!", and it turned out of course to be the one we were going down. The start of it was ridiculously steep! Matt and his dad went down and I took my time but finally got to the bottom, absolutely exhausted! We met up with Mike back at St Anton, and by comparison he'd had a nice easy afternoon taking the blue runs at his own pace! This was the day that I took Barnaby Bear up for some photos (see the photo gallery for an explanation!). We made good use of the sauna and steam room in our apartment that night!
It snowed quite a bit on Sunday night, which was very welcome! The snow was generally very good but was so much better on Monday. It being our last day skiing and our legs being dead, Mike and I went off and let Matt and his Dad "hardcore it". We had a really good day of going down blue and red runs, and I was able to devote my energy to improving my technique as opposed to just keeping up with Matt! Towards the end of the day though, Mike's skis and boots were giving him hell so I was waiting for him for ages at the bottom of the run where Matt and his dad were waiting for me the day before. He was in lots of pain by the time he got down and had to call it a day, not the best way to end the skiing for him. He got the bus back to St Anton but I went back up to ski down to the town. When I got to the nice easy fun blue that gets you to the bottom I found it had been shut, but everyone was ducking through the barrier and skiing it anyway, so faced with the choice of being caught in an avalanche with loads of other people and going down the horrible black again, I chose to jump the fence and get down the quick and easy way! It was fine, and I got down to St Anton very happy to be injury free from 22 hours of hard skiing over 3 days! We left St Anton in a bit of a rush cos Matt was late back as usual, but got back to his house in Munich by 11pm.
Mike and I said goodbye to Matt then cos we were flying back the next day and he'd be in work long before we'd wake up! The journey home was fine, apart from the very last leg of my journey from Blackpool airport to Preston. I went back to Squires Gate station, which I realised consisted of only 1 track and 3 seats. No trains at all! Waiting for the non-existent train I missed the bus that would have got me home, so after an hour and a half of waiting in the freezing in the cold staring at Blackpool tower I phoned Tara and Dave and they very kindly came and rescued me!
All in all it was a very good holiday, but I now feel like I need another holiday to recover from it!
I'm going down to Loughborough this weekend to see everyone, dissertations are finished and handed in (well done everyone!) so it's a good time for a lot of getting pissed. I think that's officially the longest entry in the random rant ever. My hands hurt from typing think I'll stop!
Tuesday 16th March - Quite a bit gone on recently, Aberystwyth at the weekend was quality, despite delayed trains. Me, Elle and Egg went to visit Pete at uni, and we all went out and got pissed at the union Friday night, and I passed out when we got home beyond the point of being woken, despite the valient efforts of the guys! Saturday we slept in till lunch time and then went exploring Aber. It is truly tiny and took about 20 mins to walk around! I bought a nice new pair of jeans and a t-shirt. We drove to the next town along the coast, and went and played on the sand dunes! Literally played - games I haven't played in several years (anyone remember 40-40!!). After throwing ourselves down the steep sand dunes in various different entertaining ways, we went to the beach and me and Elle waded into the sea, except our feet were developing frost bite just from the coldness of the sand! That water must've been about 0.1 degrees! Sufficed to say we didn't go in very far and didn't hang around too long! Saturday night we got some fish and chips, then headed out for a bar crawl round town. Unfortunately due to being tired and not having drunk much in the last few weeks, I got pissed quicker than usual and passed out in the last bar, basically making a tit of myself as usual! I'm quite concerned about my lapses into unconsciousness - I think I must be working too hard and not getting enough rest! Anyway, I had an excellent weekend - thanks Pete - and me and Egg left on the train at lunch time. The photos from the weekend were supposed to be back today but weren't - so it'll be a week tomorrow untill they're online.
Monday my brand spanking expensive new digital camera was delivered, so after it had charged in the evening I played with it for a couple of hours, it's very nice. Tuesday my house was broken into through the kitchen door at the side of the house and the camera was stolen. My housemates lost a bike, about 30 DVDs, an MP3 player, cash, and a digital video camera. Our amazing land lord came round instantly and secured the door for the night, and will replace it tomorrow with a much stronger one. He'll also put an alarm system in. The policeman eventually came round and did his thing, and CSI are coming back tomorrow to dust for prints. It's just one major pain in the arse really, the insurance should cover it all but I didn't need this right now. Anyway, I am flying out from Blackpool to London to Munich tomorrow morning (up at 5!) to go skiing for a few days with Matt and Mike - can't wait! I'd better get packing... I've wasted most of this evening sorting out the burglary and writing this rant! Oh and one more thing - I've just watched Alias series 3 episode 15, you'll never guess who the special guest star baddy was... Ricky Gervais a.k.a. David Brent from the Office! He wasn't bad either! He's apparantly a massive Alias fan, and the Alias producer is a massive Office fan, so he got himself a part. It brightened up my evening!
Friday 12th March - Been a while since I've updated the rant. Thanks to my terrible memory I've forgotten what I've done over the last couple of weeks, which is the main reason for me even bothering regularly writing this rant so that one day many years from now I'll look back and have some form of idea of how I spent my time in the past. Hello to me if I'm reading this in the future!!
OK before the men in white coats come to take me away, let me see what I've been getting up to. In the last weekend of February, Tara, Dave and I went on a day visit to Manchester, it;s less than a fiver to get there on the train. After wondering around a bit and not spending any money due to not having any we ended up in the science and industry museum where we spent a while in the "hands on" section. I spent a good long time trying to make a cube out of 6 interlocking foam sides, and eventually managed it with a bit of help from one of the curators! My "engineering brain" was obviously switched of that day. We also found ourselves in the air and space part of the museum and got to look around the massive Avro Shakleton aircraft, from the early 1950s. It was actually really interesting in a work related way because it was the first maritime reconnisance aircraft and I'm now working on the current one, so I've seen the past and the future! Saturday night a few of us went out to Roper Hall, including Gemma who had just got back from 2 great weeks in San Fran and LA. I leant my coat to Tara on the walk home, and found myself beyond freezing, so decided to keep myself warm by sprinting home. This worked wonders and I was quite stunned at how fast I got home. The only problem was I'd forgotten to tell everyone what I was doing, so (in their words) I went all "Forrest Gump" on them! No idea what I did on Sunday, probably swimming!
I can't have done much last week cos I can't remember any of it, but Friday night a few of us went round to Andy and Dwayne's house for a piss up. Saturday I was busy getting ripped off for a haircut and running round town finding nothing I was looking for. We shot a few hoops on the basketball court next to our house and threw a frisbee around for a bit, trying to avoid the dog crap. Again with the random, I just climbed a tree for no reason. Sunday was a bit more interesting... Tara came round in the morning and we baked gingerbread cookies! I am the daddy of gingerbread biscuits, and my special recipe is simply to add loads of chocolte chips! Tara however questioned my compentency when she saw the state of the dough (OK it was fairly crumbly) but she doubted my ability to fix it! She went off to the supermarket to buy some packet cookie and muffin cooking sets, and I recovered the gingerbread situation perfectly thank you very much!! She came back with Dave and they cooked their stuff, but mine was obviously better! ;-) Why do all this though you ask? That's nothing. The real question you will be asking now is why did we spend 3pm - 5pm staring at a cow's arse in a cold field?!
Yes, we stood in a cold muddy smelly field on a farm for 2 hours waiting for a cow to do it's business, ...for charity (before the men in white coats get any closer)...! Phil is raising money to go on an expedition to Greenland in the summer so he had the great idea of selling metre squares of land in this field for £1 each, and wherever the cow did a crap that square's owner would win £200! Phil raised over £800 doing this, excellent work, but I neither won, nor saw the actual pooing action. We left after 2 hours cos we had better things to do (i.e. go to the pub!). The cow ("Sweet Lips") did its dirty work half an hour after we left and some old guy won the cash. Why the cookies though? To sell to the spectators. Only problem... only about 6 people crazy enough to spectate! I sold them at work the next day.
Speaking of work, I have had the best work week ever, I was in at 6am Monday morning (first in my office - really weird!) and I observed and recorded 5 hours of testing on the Nimrod WSIR (click here to see what it is), and I finished at 6pm. 12 hour day! I then played football with the undergraduates, got back home and got pissed with my housemates and Gemma! I think in total that was a 20 hour day of non-stop activity! I slept well... I've been writing the test report up all week. I got to go on the real aircraft down at Woodford on Wednesday too (see all about it here). When it flies later this year for the first time I can say I've been on it! More interesting than most office jobs...
Today I am leaving work at lunchtime and getting the train down to Aberystwyth to see Pete. Egg and Elle are coming too! Can't wait to see everyone again. I have bought myself a brand new digital camera (the canon ixus 430). So new it won't be delivered for another few days, which is a problem because I wanted it for skiing! I'm flying out from Blackpool to London to Munich on Wednesday with Mike to meet Matt and go skiing for 4 days! Can't wait for that!! I'll be back on Tuesday 23rd, in time for 4 21st birthdays in 1 week. I'll then be going down to Loughborough the weekend of 27th/28th March, after everyone has handed their dissertations in (big sigh of relief). I'm also planning on being home for Easter from Thursday 8th - Sunday 18th April, in time for another 4 21st's (including 3 on one day!!).
That will do for now! Until next time...
2003: August - September - October - November - December - 2004: January - February - March - April - May