the World according to Robbie

Lack of sleep

2011-10-29T18:22:00.001+01:00

Here it goes. Stunning girl, smarter than me as well. She's deprived me of two nights sleep and threatens to take many more.
That's just one of quite a few things that are going well this year: a couple of good, close mates, plenty of pub trips, fairly on top of my work, and enjoying both hockey and frisbee.
All in all Cambridge life is going quite well, we'll have to wait and see what happens when I get home.

Hmm

2011-10-04T22:53:00.002+01:00

Well that didn't work out too well.

I think I always knew that though, writing the last blog involved blocking out half my head, as does this one to be honest. Telling myself I do/don't want something just because I don't/do have it. Sleeping with your best friend probably isn't the best plan in the world so now it's a steady rebuild.

Anyway back to my quieter than average life at cambridge. Well that's what it's going to be this year, last year's get drunk and party attitude didn't work out great socially so instead going to try taking it slow and getting to know people.

In the meantime I'm single without anyone on the cards so just wait and see what happens.

Coldplay's "The Scientist" is definitely going to be the song of that fortnight of mistakes, at least I didn't tell her I was smarter than her. To be honest she seems to be smarter than me, which is just infuriating as it turns out.

Oh if only I could go back to the start, it was easily the best moment of that relationship.

Summer Love

2011-07-29T00:44:00.003+01:00

It's just wonderful when you meet that one person, or rather suddenly realise that person had been in front of you the whole time. Someone you can trust completely, thing's just click and there's that feeling of complete understanding and bewildering mystery, all at the same time.

Just got to remember not to point out too many times that I'm smarter than her, a fact she'll deny even though I have exam results (a 2.1 this year) to back me up.

It's not going to be easy, nothing worth doing ever is, but I'm happy with my results from Cambridge, I have a summer job, and now there's an amazing girl in my life. I really, really hope this lasts.

24 weeks

2011-06-15T08:14:00.002+01:00

So this is it. My final exam of the year starts in 45 minutes and then I'll have 3 hours to make all the work I've done this year count. I'll admit I haven't been the most diligent student but this year has taken a lot out of me, by far the hardest thing I've ever had to do. As for the next few hours, well the question guessing is over, just a few more minutes cramming (what I hope will be) useful facts then the same procedure, finding my seat, listening to the examiner's spiel, writing my candidate number on each cover sheet, and hopefully managing to do 3 hours of maths.

I've done four already, two went well, two didn't, but I could have predicted that. As a result this final exam may decide whether my results are a success or a failure. So many of life's decisions are decided by the finest of margins, right now I have 180 minutes to prove that 24 weeks of my life spent here was worthwhile.

Wish me luck.

Time Wasting

2011-05-10T17:13:00.003+01:00

Spent the last hour and a quarter reading through my old blogs instead of revising materials. Made me realise that many, many things never change. I think it can be considered by now that Maura and I are officially not talking. I have a date planned with someone who is in the other side of the country for 44 weeks a year so could be a while waiting for that one.

Term's being term, plenty of work that I never seem to want to do, plenty of ambition but still no real drive. Made my first revision timetable of the year today, one hour in and I'm already behind. My to do list is growing longer and longer, and the amount of time to my exams is decreasing rapidly.

It was amusing reading through my old posts, comments off the same two people, and constant apologies to my non-existant readers. It's nice having the record of what I did though, I can see why people keep diaries, even if I am the only person who will ever read it. I wonder what future me would want to know about the present moment. The girl who I've got a date with is called Molly by the way, if you (future me) are still with her you've done well my lad.

Of the things that never change:

Not doing enough revision

Waking up late

Being late for class/lectures

Skipping too many classes/lectures

Feeling down for no real reason occasionally

Feeling happy for no particular reason occasionally

Wanting to have a girlfriend, except when I have one

Spending my evenings flicking through random websites (what did people do with their time before the internet?)

That's a good enough list for now.

Things that do change:

I actually need to do some work right now.

Back in the bubble

2011-04-27T22:27:00.002+01:00

So it's back to Cambridge once again, for the dullest term of the year. I'm prepared this time round though so it can't really go any worse than I'm expecting it to. I think my expectations were too high last term, after all it is life in Cambridge, work dominates no matter who you are (possibly excluding the Art Historians who play rugby and have time to go out 5 times a week). But hopefully occasional pub trips and two series of the West Wing will make it bearable. The main thing is just getting down to work I guess, hence the procrastinating on here when I could be doing any number of useful things.

The real upside to this term is how much I enjoyed the Easter holidays and am looking forward to summer. My lack of work is nothing terrible as I'm in the same boat as many others, it's just a case of really getting into it between now and exams. Curiously my best mate from across the hall hasn't reappeared, wondering what's happened to them, if he's not back by Monday I'll start to get seriously worried.

In the meantime I have no interesting observations on life or anything else to make this blog worth reading so it really just me rambling to myself. If anyone else stumbles across it, sorry for wasting your time and hope the next one you find is more exciting.

Tchau for now.

Once more around the block

2011-04-11T01:05:00.002+01:00

It seems all the interesting things in life happen late at night, I can't remember the last time something fascinating at noon. It just seems that while the sun is no longer in the sky, deep conversations begin to happen and people just let their guard down a bit. I've had so many good chats on the way back from something that finished quite late and tonight was another one of those. A 5-minute walk home that ended lasting around an hour, and the discovery of a friend I'd almost forgotten I could count on. It's been a nice evening.

There's still a million things flying around my head, many the result of a confrontational conversation about the resurrection of Jesus Christ, and many more about a girl I like, which is of course the much more complicated and pressing issue.

I love the fact that there are so many blogs out there that I can rely on mine to remain hidden and hope that everyone I told about it has forgotten. I guess in a way I want my friends to know the things I write but I don't want to tell them then, this is a wonderfully unique way of getting my thoughts out into the world without actually having to say them out loud to anybody.

I think I've resolved my view on God, that just leaves understanding girls to deal with. I manage that as well I might just go down as the cleverest guy in history: disproved God and broke down the invisible language barrier between men and women. I get thinking and I might just manage both in the same night, wish me luck.

It really doesn't take much...

2011-03-30T01:32:00.003+01:00

Another term gone, this time it went by in a flash.

I can't pick much out of it for highlights, I got dumped (well sort of), dropped for the biggest hockey game of the year, failed to secure a good set of flatmates for next year, and then told off by my ex-best friend. If I did pick any highlights they would all lie on the same weekend, which wasn't spent in Cambridge. I was at the Newcastle game for the amazing 4-4 tie with Arsenal, had a great night out with my sister and Kirsty, followed by a fun night relaxing with Kirsty and her friend at uni, Saffron, who's kind of fun.

It was a big relief to finally reach the holidays and although my originally good work ethic has dropped off somewhat there is still plenty of time for that to change, also just being able to relax around people I've known for years and who I don't really care what judgements they make of me is nice.

And to be honest things were starting to look up, a nice pair of pub trips on Friday and Saturday night, another completion of Mass Effect, and one series of West Wing down, even a good check-up at the dentist's. I was finally starting to feel good about myself, then, I discover my ex-girlfriends blog through a couple of links that should have died out months ago, and suddenly I'm back on my ass.

One and a half years on

2011-01-16T11:32:00.002Z

So AS levels went well, A2s did as well. I went to Brazil for 10 weeks, broke up with my girlfriend of 15 months before I went, and most importantly I got into Cambridge University, the best university in the world, according to some sources.

The first term went well enough, few things I've promised to do differently, but on the whole not too bad. The trouble is I have mock exams in 2 days. Now over the last 2 years there's been one exam out of 14 that I got less than 90% on, if I get 70% on this one I'm doing brilliantly, anything over 50% and I'll be happy. It's very strange having to change mindset like that and I know that I'm going to feel like I've done really badly no matter how well I do so just staying positive for the later exams could be interesting.

Well better make the most of these 2 days, hard work here I come. Here's to the next year and a half, cheers.

Day one

2009-06-01T21:28:00.003+01:00

I had my final ever biology exam today. :D. I just wish I felt like that. In fact this evening feels a bit dead, despite everything: the wonderful weather we're having; the swim I went for this evening; the promise that soon exams will be over. It doesn't feel like it should. Maybe it's because I found the exam more difficult than I expected, or my girlfriend's blowing me off to play computer games this weekend, who knows.

Anyway as promised here is the beginning of the story of my great adventure, day one of my ride.

So I set off up the hill after the others. Most of them had left about 5 minutes before, with only John waiting for me to get my helmet, gloves and, of course, shades on. I managed to beat John up the first hill, which would have felt impressive if he wasn't in his fifties. I powered on nevertheless and caught up with a couple of the others at the next stop point, 5 miles down the road. There I pulled over for a drink as John went straight past, enjoying the downhill that the minibus had decided to stop halfway down, I wish they'd stopped at the top of hills more often.

Only David, the vicar from St Cleopas, the church I was helping raise money for, was with me when I left the first stop. He was struggling though, after a hard morning's ride that I missed, and told me to go on ahead to make sure I kept up with the others as he suspected he would be ending the day with a ride in the minibus. I wasn't too keen on the idea but didn't want to be left behind or hold the others up on the first day so pressed on. David kept up for a while but by the next stop was a few minutes behind me.

At the next stop I caught Gary and John as they were recovering from the huge hill we'd just been over. Only Tom remained out of my sight now, somewhere miles down the road. Pulling back onto the road I was just behind Gary but decided to overtake him at the top of yet another hill and raced down ahead in search of Tom.

I was feeling pretty good at this stage, my legs were hurting with the effort but nothing I hadn't expected and my fears of not being able to keep pace had been dispached, even if I did wonder if I could keep it up after my advantage of being 30 miles fresher wore off.

Over the next few hills the road was clear ahead of me, I never lost sight of Gary and John behind me for more than 30 seconds after each peak, but I kept a good distance and pace up. It must have been another 5 or so miles down the road before I first caught sight of Tom's fluorescent jersey just disappearing over yet another hill crest. I kept hammering on and managed to keep about a minute and a half behind him, which is actually quite a long distance on a bike, until he stopped to make sure we all went the right direction.

As you can probably tell up to this point I'd been going for the competitive angle to keep myself going, it was quite entertaining and kept my mind occupied, which is kind of necessary when all your body is doing is pushing your feet round in circles. I really don't know why I enjoy cycling so much thinking about it, I guess it's not so much about what you're doing but more what's around you that makes it what it is. Without the air rushing past, and the scenery, I guess it'd be actually quite boring. No wonder I don't like exercise bikes.

Anyway, enough abstract ranting, after Tom stopped to point us in the right direction we stuck together, minus David who was being accompanied by the minibus. So my competitive streak had to subside and I settled down into a rhythm with the others. Soon the hills flattened out as well as we headed into the Eden valley. That's not some crazy metaphor for how beautiful it was or anything, it was just the valley of the River Eden. We stopped for a while and stood on one of the few remaining parts of Hadrian's wall. John lay down which was a mistake. It took him 5 minutes to get up again.

We were waiting for the minubus but it was still a few miles back encouraging David along so we headed down to the river and across to the next town. It sounds a lot easier than it was. Hadrian's wall is quite high in parts and the River Eden is pretty low so heading down the hill was great fun, except for the blind corners at 30 odd miles an hour which were an ickle bit scary, but the hill on the other side was the biggest and steepest we'd had all day. We made it though, eventually, and stopped in the centre of Brampton for the bus to arrive.

It had been a beautiful afternoon but the clouds were starting to gather as the minibus pulled up, informing us that David was still more than 5 miles behind us and we should just go on and supplying us with sandwiches and drinks. We carried on down towards the church we were staying at, just a few miles down the A69, but of course there was time for one last detour, up a hill. For the rest of the weekend we would spend quite a lot of time finding ways around the A roads but this was the first one we'd come across today. We decided to head up through the village of Hayton so that we weren't holding up the lorries.

We reached a turning for Hayton quite quickly, only a mile down the road, unfortunately it was one to early and we took it anyway. It took us up over another hill and down into Hayton. We had only been 2 miles away from the end of the days ride, this pushed it up to 4 or 5 but we reached it eventually, by which time I just wanted to collapse.

We unloaded the minibus and David turned up about 20 minutes later, having made some serious ground up while we were stopped in Brampton. The minibus had gone looking for him, but had gone the wrong way and returned 10 minutes after his arrival. We put the lasagne that we had been given for tea in the oven then the curate of the church we were staying in turned up and offered us showers at his place. These were galdly accepted and an hour later after all 5 cyclists and the 2 drivers had had a shower we returned to a beautifully cooked lasange with boiled potatoes and garlic bread.

After tea we unpacked our blow-up beds of various sizes: from John's huge double mattress that was about 2 foot high and about 6 foot wide to Tom's blow up roll matt that was about an inch deep, then pumped them up using Graham's (one of the drivers) electric pump, well Tom blew his up. We then had a worryingly competitive game of Uno, Tom got really into it, and I taught the oldies what decent music sounded like before we all curled up into our beds around half past ten. That was the quickest I've fallen asleep in years, despite Graham's snoring.

2 weeks

2009-05-27T21:51:00.006+01:00

I've just realised how long it's been since I last did a blog, I would blame exam pressure and how busy my life is at the moment, but that would be a load of rubbish. The fact is I'm on exam leave and making the most of my days off mainly by sitting around and doing... nothing really. At least by leaving it 2 weeks I should have some interesting things to say, that's if I can remember anything.

Between completing several games of Civilisation 4 I have managed to find time to revise for and sit a couple of exams, maths and physics. Physics was 6 days ago and was an interesting experience. I had to guess my way through it, more than usual, but everybody else said it was impossible so I still have hope. Maths, last friday, ran as smoothly as every maths exam seem to does, lucky for some hey :P.

I have managed to have a life outside of exams as well. I was at a party about ten days ago with quite a lot of people I don't know. I survived by not getting too drunk while most other people seemed to be drinking until they no longer could and chatting to the more sober ones. I had a nice walk round Aughton while on my way home via 4 other people's houses and on the whole it was quite a fun night.

The next day I played hockey on a hangover for the first time, which was made more interesting by me playing outfield for the first time in 3 years. It was great fun though, even if we did come 5th out of 6, and at the awards evening afterwards I got to stuff myself with pizza and laugh as my captain got really quite drunk.

Then there was my first week of real exams as mentioned above. The fun really started after my maths exam. Ok so some people are going to call me crazy for thinking that this weekend was fun, but it really was. Starts off straight after my exam, after a quick run round college checking what other people thought of the exam, reassuring them they'd done fine etc. etc., I get in the car and my dad drives us up to carlisle.

We stop twice on the way so my dad can pick up his cups of coffee and I can get some food down me before the hard day ahead. Eventually we left the M6 near Carlisle and headed along the road that runs along side Hadrian's Wall. It started off hilly, then got worse. I got more and more anxious as we drove along the road, losing my stomach every couple of minutes as we went over another crest, and getting especially worried as the road took a definate downhill direction. This was going to be an interesting day.

Eventually about 20 miles along the road we met the group of cyclists we had been looking for. I unloaded my bike from the back of the car, put my helmet, shades and gloves on and followed the cyclists up the hill while my dad unloaded my stuff from the car into the minibus that was our support vehicle for the weekend.

I'm going to have to break the rest up into individual entries for each day, otherwise this is going to go on for page after page, and you'll get bored quite quickly so watch this space.

It didn't do much did it. :P

Lol

2009-05-17T23:26:00.000+01:00

Some people just aren't cut out for what they do.

WWJKD (What would James Kirk Do?)

2009-05-14T18:34:00.005+01:00

It's been a good day, it's been a good week.

After the doss that is general studies on monday I spent a very enjoyable tuesday at Maura's. Wednesday was spent "revising", I'm not quite sure what happened to it, and today was just great.

I got woken up ridiculously early by my parents again, they're determined that I will start working before 9, and refuse to listen to my arguements that that's earlier than college starts. I did do some work but soon inspiration faded and I started off on the hour long journey to Kirsty's a bit early. After stopping by Morrison's to buy a 50p pack of Jaffa Cakes (bargain) I got the bus without hassel and was only slightly later than I had guessed arriving at Kirsty's.

We spent an hour or so talking, catching up with gossip since I'd not been in college for a whole 3 days, we set off for Wigan. McDonald's was the first port of call where we met up with the others and got lunch. Double cheeseburger and a Big Mac meal, that's what I'm talking about! Then headed off to the cinema via Asda to get more snacks.

Star Trek was awesome, I know I sound like such a geek saying that but it was fantastic in my opinion. After that we all headed home. I got back on my bus just before it started to rain. It still hasn't stopped.

Now normally rain is no big deal but I had a half hour walk from bus stop to my home ahead of me. At some point I decided just screw it I'll get wet, and I did. But there was something brilliant about deciding just screw it. My whole attitude changed, I couldn't give a damn about anything, at all. The best thing was nothing could worsen my mood, which would have probably seemed terrible to anyone I bumped into, just because I didn't care. I was prepared to ignore anything I didn't like, or couldn't be bothered dealing with, and just get on with the things I did like. I kinda hope it sticks.

Float on

2009-05-09T21:11:00.005+01:00

I had my first serious revision session today for my summer AS modules, it's maybe a bit late to get started since my first exam is monday (it's general studies though and that so doesn't count) but better late than never.

I think I might actually be going crazy, I'm kinda enjoying it. All my notes are in very pretty colours and my music gets gradually louder as I turn it up when yet another amazing song comes on. However I still can't keep at it for very long, my brain just runs out of energy to put the words on the page. I got about an hour done.

Speaking of lack of energy, I've cycled to college 5 times now. It's about 14 miles each way according to google maps, takes me between an hour and 1 hour 15 minutes. The first time I got a little bit lost on the way, but cleverly left myself plenty of time anticipating such problems. By about the third attempt I'd found my final route.

The most recent journey went less smoothly however. I was on my way up to bed, still unsure whether to cycle the next day or not, and as I was saying goodnight to my parents (like a good little boy :-P) I spotted the weather forcast on tv. I waited for a couple of minutes to see how the next day was going to pan out before heading up to bed. The prediction was dry but windy. I hate wind when I'm cycling, so I decided that if it looked as bad as predicted in the morning I'd get the bus.

I woke up the next day and it was as calm as I am before a general studies exam (ridiculously). So I packed my rucksack, unchained my bike, and headed off. I made it to college in record time, one hour dead, so had plenty of time for my shower before physics despite setting off ten minutes late. Or I would have had if the changing rooms had been open. As it turned out I ended up making do with a spray of deodorant and getting changed in the toilets.

Turns out the weather forcast isn't always wrong, and the wind picked up during the day. I wasn't too worried. From my previous experiences it hindered on the way there and helped on the way home. That wasn't the case that day though.

I got out of biology 10 minutes early and was out the college car park before the queue formed by the exit. I made it up the mahussive hill not far from college and was speeding down the far side. Well I should have been. Even with the steep slope that typically took me 10 minutes on the way there and 2 minutes on the way home, I was going suprising slowly. The air was whistling through my ears, but my wheels were barely moving.

Ahh.

It was going to be a long ride home.

By the time I'd made it through Skem I was ready to throw my bike on a bus and take the easy way home. Unfortunately there were none. By the time I got to Long Lane, the last stretch before I reach home, I was pratically swearing at the wind and seriously considering sitting in a ditch by the road and waiting for the wind to drop.

One hour 20 minutes I made it in, normally the home journey's quicker since it's mainly downhill. I lost the race against the bus, which I've actually won once, by miles, literally.

Since then it's been a good weekend though. I've finished all my AS lessons, I'll never have to pay attention in Biology EVER again, had a very enjoyable evening last night and a fun day of procrastination today. As always the real work will start tomorrow. I wish.

It's been one of those days

2009-04-27T15:16:00.002+01:00

I woke up this morning, that was my first mistake. I don't know where the weekend disappeared to, it took me a few moments to work out that it was Monday and another couple of moments to realise how crap that fact was. But I dutifully rolled out of bed and opened my curtain so I could see the glorious sunshine that we had been having ever since I got back from Peru. It had disappeared, the sky was as grey as an elephant's backside and the typical British drizzle had returned.

It was one of those mornings when I should have rushed through everything to get out the door as quick as possible, but couldn't be bothered, so ended up running for the bus through the rain. I made it, just.

The bus journey took forever, yet we still managed to get in ridiculously early. Both Biology and Physics dragged but fortunately I got sent out of maths for being a genius, whoop :). Other than that its been a long and tiring day. I'm not even looking forward to going home thanks to the huge pile of homework I couldn't be bothered doing at the weekend.

On the bright side the sun is starting to shine, and tomorrow's new day, I just wish it would be here already.

Weather to Fly

2009-04-22T18:53:00.002+01:00

I got back from Peru last Friday, the journey was long and tiring and lasted near enough 24 hours but there was just a short while, on the plane, that was incredible.

It was getting late Peruvian time, and early English time, so the cabin lights were turned down and most people were asleep. We'd been told to close the window blinds so that we didn't get woken up by the sunrise, but I kept looking out every now and then to check what I could see.

I'd been trying to sleep for a few hours, while listening to Elbow on my iPod, but had had no luck so far. It must hav been about 2am when I glanced out the window to see a deep red moon rising over the cloudy horizon and the stars in the sky shining away. The moon continued to rise, and spin, as we raced Northwards over the Atlantic and I saw a shooting star out the corner of my eye at one point. With the darkness and almost silence on the plane it felt majestic.

Anyway I made it home without hassle and I'd loved the last few days in Peru. I'm back into routine at college with exams looming and, well, I miss Peru. But that's life, and life goes on.

Strike

2009-04-13T15:13:00.002+01:00

Not the ten-pin bowling kind either.
There's not a lot to do when all transport stops, so here I am stuck in the hotel, with only the internet for my entertainment.
It could be a long day.

Sol y Luna

2009-04-13T01:15:00.002+01:00

Yesterday was tiring, today was exhausting.

Yesterday morning my sister, Katrina, decided that she wanted to go see Los Salineras (the salt-mines) as well, and only wanted me to come with her since she was meeting her friends (in our family parents and friends aren't generally allowed to mix). So once again I set off down the road then up the hillside.

Unfortunately yesterday was a hell of a lot warmer than the day before, I'd been sat outside with the laptop for five minutes and the keyboard got too hot to touch, so the walk was even more torturous than before. We eventually made it to the top of the Salineras, with sweat not quite dripping off us, and stocked up on water before making our way down again. On the way we bumped into my sister friends. They seemed nice but we couldn't stay and chat for long as we had to get to Calca for lunch with my sister's host family.

Lunch was an interesting experience. My sister's host brother, who was a little older than me, spoke good English but refused to talk in anything but Spanish in front of my sister, for some obscure reason, so my sister was stuck translating for my mum while me and my dad attempted to make conversation with our bad Spanish.

After lunch we went for another walk up another hill. It had cooled off by now and my sister was certain that it was going to pour down any minute now, but we proceeded upwards nevertheless. All that happened was a brief shower that had unusually big raindrops. I spent most the walking keeping track of a game of football taking place on one of the many, many pitches in Calca and the view from the top of the hill was definately worth the effort even if it wasn't in the same league as some of the sights we've seen.

We got a bus home in the dark and I was almost falling asleep. The moonlight here is so much brighter than at home, it's incredible, and the constellations above are strange but majestic.

I woke up this morning, not feeling all that refreshed, and wishing that I didn't have to be out of bed quite so early. After breakfast we caught an other bus, this one to Pisac. Well most of us did. My sister had stayed the night in Calca and was supposed to meet us on the way and my mother, well she forgot the tickets for the ruins and had to go back to get them.

So there we were me, my dad and my brother sat on the bus. Naturally Calca came and went with no sign of Katrina, so we proceeded to Pisac alone. On arrival we found the market, that's apparently famous in this part of Peru. My brother objected to it as yet another tourist trap and my dad was slightly tentative and possibly getting lost. I however loved it.

Going from stall to stall bargaining for the best price on gifts for my friends at home. I don't know how many times I was told that "is real Alpaca wool" in a way that implied I was asking too cheap but I managaed to get cheaper prices than my sister, who had eventually arrived, despite her having the advantage of being able to speak Spanish. My mum and dad were fairly hopeless at bartering, and my brother still refused to accept the fact that he is actually a tourist despite what he may imagine and wouldn't indulge in such activities.

After yet another delicious lunch we caught a taxi up to the ruins. On arrival a girl of 7 or 8 took a break from selling bracelets and asked me for some popcorn, which I was holding in my hand. When I said she could have some she tried to take the whole bag off me. I quickly explained "un poco, un poco," and she took a small handful. I scarpered before she could tell all her friends who she'd got it off.

The ruins were fantastic. Situated up a decent sized hill, which would probably be called a mountain in England, I couldn't help but wonder how the Incas had managed to get the stone up there without so much as a wheel. It was incredible, and it only got better.

We climbed on upwards past set after set of incomplete stone buildings, many still half-buried, until we reached the top of the ridge. We walked, scrambled and climbed along, until we reached the end. And there we found yet another breath-taking view. This one was in a league of it's own though. Down beneath us lay a valley filled with towns and fields. The drop must have been atleast 1000 metres and me and my brother were sat on the edge loving every second of it.

My mum turned out to be not so keen on heights and so had hurried on. It was some time before my brother noticed pointed this out to me but eventually we began to make our way down the hill. It took us over an hour of passing more incredible ruins and stunning view points before we reached Pisac again. I was exhausted by the end of it. That clearly wasn't the route the American tourists took, there was one narrow cave that was a squeeze for us. (I should say by American Tourist I don't mean your average American rather the ones who get noticed for being very stereotypically large with more money than sense.)

It's been a thoroughly exhausting 2 days so my spelling and punctuation is a bit off you know why, but it's been exhillarating at the same time. I'm falling in love with Peru and going home on Thursday is looking all too soon.

Los ninos (Peru part 3)

2009-04-11T15:01:00.003+01:00

Ok so yesterday I went out for a huge walk. Well 2 and a half hours, maybe not exactly huge but when you're almost 3000 metres above sea level and can't walk up the gentlest of hills without running out of breath it felt like an acheivement.

The path we took led us down a track with Peruvian houses on either side, I got to see some aspects of Peruvian life that are hidden to most tourists.

The first unusual thing was a kids, no older than 2 or 3, sitting on the front of a motorbike while his big brother rode along the track. Now I've heard people talk about kids saying they could ride as soon as they could walk but a) I've never taken it to be quite that literal, and b) I've never heard it when they were talking about a motorbike.

But on we went past the farm animals that were tied to trees and fences all over the place, and one group of Peruvian teenagers hanging around (Not tied to anything), one of the girls in the group was so checking me out :-P. Eventually after about an hour of walking along a fairly flat footpath we reached the bridge that led across the river and up to the salt-mines.

My brother, whose currently quite ill, decided he didn't feel up to it and turned back with my Dad. Me and my mum marched onwards. Soon after the bridge the path began to wind upwards, both of us soon ran out of breath. My mum told me to go on and she'd catch up, so I walked on by myself.

After maybe half an hour of a fairly steep climb I reached the top and the view was spectacular. Hundreds of pits, each a few metres across, dug into the hillside, with a stream running far below. There wasn't another person within sight. It was breath-taking. I sat there for maybe 10 minutes before I decided it was time to turn back.

It was an amazing climax to another fantastic day in Peru. I can't wait to see what today brings.

¿Donde estamos? (Peru part 2)

2009-04-09T00:02:00.007+01:00

I realised that in my eagerness to get to bed last night I forgot to mention where the title came from.

My favourite description of Inca Kola so far is "It tastes like butterflies and rainbows and childhood memories." Basically it's a drink made by the one and only Coca-Cola company (who also sell most the water in Peru) that tastes vaguely like Irn-Bru but is fluorescent yellow. Delicious.

Anyway today brought more clouds and rain. Although when the sun did shine it was boiling hot. I don't think I've ever been that hot and then that cold in a single day without there being a fire present. That's a surprisingly complex sentence to translate into Spanish as I proved today while talking to 3 travellers, two from Lima and one from Italy, who were touring the country separately but together for the day.

I also got talking to a girl who, although I was sure she was a couple of years younger, turned out to be my age. She lived in Argentina but had been born in Holland and went to an American school so spoke good, American English. She, like me, had ditched the parents and started off ahead down the 500 odd steps back to the boat. We talked for a while and she gave me her full name so I could track her down on facebook. We parted ways after our abandoned families eventually made it down the steps and she slept or read most of the long boat journey back.

I probably at this point should explain what the majority of my day consisted off. Most of my time was spent transversing waves that were big enough to soak the windscreen on the boat and wake most the passengers but although they made reading more of a challenge they didn't manage to stop me plowing my way through Dostoyevsky's Crime and Punishment. The rather annoying tour guide whose English I understood little better than his Spanish almost did though but he shut up after 20 minutes or so when it became clear that only one or two out of the 28 on the boat were paying any attention.

We were on Lake Titicaca, the highest navigable lake in the World. I have no idea what is defined as navigable, but I do know it's beautiful, with the clear blue water shimmering under the Peruvian sunshine and mountains surrounding the lake. I still can't get over how everyday here something I see stuns me completely. Anyway while on the lake we visited some local communities that lived on the island of Takile (with the 500 odd steps) and on some man-made floating islands.

Now when I first heard man-made floating islands I assumed plastic blocks with planks of wood covering the surface, but in fact these islands pre-dated the Incan Empire. Built by a tribe trying to escape enslavement by the marauding Incas, these islands were built out of reeds and some variety of floating root. Unfortunately as with most "native" tourist attractions they had been tainted by the tourism trade but there was definately still a traditional charm about the islands, that had to be constantly built up as the reeds rotted, and it was an interesting experience.

We took a brief trip, despite the rain, on what was supposedly a traditional reed boat, which I doubted considering the blue tarpauling was showing through were the reeds wore thin. We got another sheet of blue plastic to cover our heads but unfortunately it wasn't large enough to cover everybody sat on the boat so us brave Brits (my family) endured the rain that we were so used to until everyone had bunched up sufficiently for us to squeeze under.

However the taint of tourism was most obvious when, as we were leaving the island, they sang first "twinkle, twinkle little star" followed by "alouette, bonje alouette" for the English and French tourists respectively. My brother did not approve and continued to make comments about the way that tourists visited different cultures out of interest but by doing so turned all the wonderful cultures into the same old tourist trap and so removed the whole reason that tourists visit. I couldn't help but agree with him.

Following this was the trip to Takile, which included a lunch of either trout or omelette, I like neither fish nor eggs but decided that the trout was the lesser of 2 evils as altitude sickness had reminded me of why I dislike eggs (they actually taste like sick to me) and was rather pleased when on eating the trout I could detect only the faintest taste of fish.

The boat ride back to the mainland was much smoother than the one on the way out and the clouds had disappeared while we were on Takile so I sat on the roof of the boat enjoying the view and the sunshine, possibly even tanning slightly despite my mother deciding to slap factor 50 suncream on any bare bit of skin. 2 and a half hours later we were back 0n dry land.

We went out for tea at a pizza restaurant around the corner that played an acoustic mix CD repeatably while we waited, for longer than expected, for our food. I didn't mind the wait though and the food was delicious when it came. My main complaint was with the music. The acoustic cover of bleeding love was barely bearable and Don't Stop Me Now was clearly never meant to be played acoustically and bordered on depressing. Even this though seems reasonable compared to the music played constantly through the speakers in the hotel lobby, all on panpipes, and contains not only House of the Rising Sun but also a ridiculous version of Hotel California. Panpipes and The Eagles were never meant to be mixed.

While I´m complaining I thought I'd mention the Peruvian keyboards, where it is nearly impossible to work out the combination of buttons you have to press to achieve an @ sign, and I appear to have acquired some form of insect bite or sting on my arm that is becoming quite irritating.

But considering that those are my major complaints everything here is wonderful. I only hope that I don't miss it too much when I eventually have to drag myself home and back to a world of college and exams.

I plan to find another computer during the next week but for now it's adios y buenas noches.

Inca Kola

2009-04-08T02:54:00.004+01:00

It actually rained today, for a good ten minutes, it was the first time since I left my house in a frantic rush just five days ago. Unfortunately I wasn't outside at the time to appreciate it but ten minutes was more than enough to remind me of all the advantages of being in Peru.

I can´t believe how much I've seen over the last five days, from the enormous canyons to the baby llamas it's all amazing.

Let me start at the beginning, last Thursday 3 something AM. We left the house for the second time that morning in a mad rush after we'd had to turn back 20 minutes into the journey when my Dad realised he'd forgotten his coat (and I realised I'd forgotten mine). I had to answer my Dad's phone half-way to the airport when the company we were leaving our car with asked to ask where we were. Amazingly after several years of having a mobile phone my father seems to lack to ability to receive a call.

After that was sorted it all ran quite smoothly. Our plane was slightly delayed which made for an interesting transfer in Amsterdam but we, and our luggage, safely made the next flight. I probably should say at this point that "we" refers to me, both my parents, and at this moment in time only one of my siblings, my older brother Jamie, as my sister was already in Peru and had been for several months.

After arriving in Lima however many hours later we got a taxi to our hotel. It was only five minutes away but even so the journey was terrifying. Our hotel was situated on the outskirts of Lima in what I considered a fairly run-down area but by Lima's standards was half decent. As it was still daylight we went for a walk round the block, I felt incredibly conspicuous having white skin and we seemed to attract a few looks and even a series of friendly greetings of one particularly drunk looking group of girls.

The rest of the night past uneventfully, all of us going to sleep early since Peruvian time is 6 hours behind GMT. The next morning we flew onto Arequippa where my sister, Katrina, met us
at the hotel. Arequippa is stunning. It's known as the white city as nearly all the buildings are made out of white volcanic rock, and they basically glow in the sunlight. On arrival there wasn't a cloud in the sky and it remained that way for most of the following days.

We visited the sites, managed to avoid being pickpocketed at the market and I ate my first, and quite possibly my last, Alpaca steak (Alpaca's are basically llama's but more useful for wool and meat). After a few days we hired a driver who drove us to a town, which I can't remember the name of, but the location was... I don't have the word's to describe it. Just thinking of the canyon it lay next to blows my mind. There aren't enough superlatives in the dictionary to describe quite how awe-inspiring this place was.

Even suffering from altitude sickness as I was the day we arrived, my body didn't seem to agree that being over 4000 metres above sea level was a good idea, I still managed to admire the incredible beauty of the scenery, and after many cups of Coca tea (made from the same leaves as cocaine) I was feeling more able to appreciate it fully.

After driving along the edge of it on the way to the town, we went horse-riding the next day. It'd been a few years since I'd last ridden a horse and the 2 hour ride was, well, interesting. I was impressed by my horses ability to climb a dried up river bed that I would have struggled with, let alone with someone on my back. But we trotted and cantered along admiring the scenery and although I ached by the end it was a lot of fun.

The following day we drove back along the canyon, the road seemed even bumpier, especially to my brother who had succumbed to a mysterious illness, before heading to Puno. We saw Condors, some of the largest birds in the world, and wild flamingoes, some of the strangest, on the way so my Dad (a keen birdwatcher) was very content.

Arrival in Puno was interesting. We drove around for a while searching for our hotel and at one point the police decided it was time to pull our driver over, for what reason I do not know as a) I don't speak Spanish and b) I had my iPod in. But I watched him hand over several documents before sending us on our way. Whatever the offence had been our driver felt it necessary to indicate using hand signals until out of sight of the policeman who had, helpfully, given us directions.

Eventually we found the hotel where I am sat now typing this. I tried to keep it as short as possible (and failed apparently) but even after just 5 days there are enough stories to keep me going for hours. So well done if you got this far and thanks for reading. I imagine I will have tales of the rest of my time here up as soon as I get access to another computer but for now farewell.

Trees and Chavs

2009-03-31T17:08:00.004+01:00

That's all there is in Aughton. Anywhere you walk, just for a few minutes, you'll see as many trees as you care to mention and at least one group of male chavs, dressed in back hanging around either on their bikes or smoking if they're over 14.

That used to be pretty much all you saw but a new group has been added, female joggers. Aged fifteen to fifty, in various outfits, some looking like they need the exercise and others looking more like they're just showing off. I don't know if it's their latest way of socialising or there's just some health obsession going on with women in Aughton, but either way they're everywhere. I can't remember the last time I went on a walk and didn't see one of them jogging along the pavement. I ain't complaining or anything it's just weird the way the craze seems to be spreading.

The reason I mention this is that I saw atleast 3 while I was going to the dentist and coming back home again, which was an utter waste of time as far as I can tell.

I had just said goodbye to Maura and knew I was running a few minutes late, so I half-walk, half-run down the road and arrive just 2 minutes later after my appointment was supposed to start. I shouldn't have bothered. I sat there for half an hour, while other patients came and went, waiting for the dentist my appointment was with to finish with what must have been a particularly difficult patient.

Finally she came out and called my name. After some general chat about how my family was doing, she got down to the business of open wide while she pokes around. It must have taken all of 30 seconds.
"Ok that's fine, see you in 6 months."
Out I walk.

Utterly pointless, I had wasted near enough an hour getting there, back, and waiting around. Only to sit in a chair for half a minute and be told something I already had a strong suspicion of. I'm not like my brother, I don't have any particular dislike of dentists, but now I realise how much of a waste of time it actually was.

Oh well that's life.

It's Friday!

2009-03-20T15:50:00.002Z

At last.

It's been a long week. The rare bit of sunshine we've had has helped but it's still dragged on and on. Between a Biology test and my Chemistry practical exam I managed to spend some much needed time in the sun, even played some football for the first time since I left Merchants.

The only thing is, even though I've finished all my lessons and can't wait to get out of here, I still don't want to go home. It's a Friday! I don't spend time at home on Fridays but oh well. I'll probably end up going round to a mates house for a while and doing the usual kinda stuff, but there are things I'ld much rather be doing, well, one thing in particular.

Time to go I guess, try and make the most of the sunshine while its here. I'll be blogging again soon I'm sure.

It's been a bad day

2009-03-17T18:05:00.002Z

For starters my beautiful girlfriend is all the way across the English Channel in sunny France. I wouldn't mind except I'm far too used to seeing her everyday and her cheering me up whenever I'm feeling down. Also I'm insanely jealous as she sounds like she's having an amazing time. I wanna be in France! :(

Just to make things worse I stopped after Chemistry today to ask my teacher if she knew anything about A*s at A2, she couldn't tell me anything I didn't know but decided to go on and tell me that my mere 93% on the last exam was cutting it a bit fine and I was slacking lately. I was not impressed.

So after that I was generally in a bad mood for the rest of the day. I spent my half free lesson before maths annoying Emma with my generally grumpiness and my lunchtime was spent at a meeting about Extended Project. After that I decided I needed a break when I got home.

So I arrive home and sit down and start playing Mass Effect (my latest obsession) but then about 20 minutes later my mum gets home, much earlier than usual and sits down in the chair next to me. Now this may not seem like a big problem but to me it's very annoying. I wouldn't mind if she wanted to talk but she just sat there on her laptop. I tried to help with one problem she was having but she eventually managed to solve that herself.

At that point I was hoping that my part was gone and she would go sit in the kitchen or the other lounge were she normally does. But no, she stayed there, clicking and typing. I decided that Mass Effect was unplayable with her sat there so I left the Xbox on, hoping she would get the hint, and went to cook my tea. But 20 minutes later she's still sat there and I don't get why, today of all days, she's decided to sit in THIS room. Honestly it's the first time in ages she's been sat in here and its infuriating me.

The ironic thing is just yesterday I was saying how I'd missed my parents since they worked so much of the time. But oh well. I'm off to hockey now so I'll take my anger out on some strikers who get too close. :-p

Victory!

2009-03-11T20:58:00.003Z

I finally completed Medieval 2: Total War, a computer game that I've been playing for a considerable amount of time since Christmas. It feels good but now I need some new obsession to waste away the excess hours I have in my day to day life.

I've considered a few things: playing Halo 3 or Call of Duty on xbox live; watching some films that I've had lying around for ages; trying to become dedicated to revision; learning a new language; or even practicing my clarinet the amount I should. I'll just have to wait and see where my time disappears to over the next few weeks.

While on the topic of victory I thought I'd mention that Man Utd, my football team of choice, are 2-0 up against Inter. Punches the air.

Anyway, back to me. Oh crap, just remembered I have my AS modules results tomorrow. That's going to be fun. I'm not worried about what I'm going to get too much, I'll only be bothered once I get them, but tomorrow is going to be a drag. Results days are nasty. Some people are literally bouncing with excitement while others are practically crying. It's always an awkward mix, and it's probably going to be even worse being stuck in college. Oh well it only happens a couple of times a year, thank goodness.

So I probably should be off for a good night's sleep now. So nanite and I'll be blogging again soon, :)

Blinking in the morning sun

2009-03-09T19:42:00.004Z

I woke up before six this morning, I wasn't impressed.
I'd also clearly been having quite a nice dream since I woke up kissing my pillow. (Maybe I shouldn't have told the whole world that... well the 2 and a half dust mites that read my blog, but oh well I'm sure they'll find it amusing)

After that I wasn't in the best of moods when it finally came to getting out of bed at 10 past 7. It took me a while to decide whether college was worth going to today, going won a narrow victory eventually, and I'm glad it did.

My day could only get better and it did. Lessons ran smoothly and didn't drag as much as I'd expected, plus Maura got her afternoon lesson cancelled on my free afternoon, which was an unexpected bonus.

However that meant I didn't get done my usual hour's worth of work done, so I must go do that now :(. I'll be back!

I thought I'd just add:
Apparently Guinea Pig tastes like fish. *shrugs*

Today

2009-03-04T22:10:00.002Z

It's been a good day.
I decided that only one lesson out of three was worth attending and instead spent most of my day relaxing, which I think I needed after yesterday's trauma. I still ache all over from hockey, the bruises elsewhere are now causing me the most trouble though.

Tonight I watched a musical at college called The Last Five Years. There was a cast of 4, only 2 had lines, with piano, bass and violin backing. It was a very good performance, and I got to spend several hours with my beautiful girlfriend. Win.

I now need to go sleep and hopefully in the morning I'll feel up to going to a few more lessons.

Ouch

2009-03-03T23:05:00.004Z

It's amazing how much you feel gravity as water drains away from a bath you've been lying in for the past hour.
For the reason I'd been lying in a bath. and for the reason why gravity was causing me pain you have to go back 2 hours.

1 hour and 59 minutes earlier (9:31PM)
I managed to get up and move over to the edge of the pitch before deciding that the floor was the best placed to be, looking back on it I was impressed I got that far. Cries of "Are you okay?" came from the rest of the team, stood on the 25 yard line.
"Yeah I just need a few minutes." My first answer sounded quite strong.
"You sure?"
"Ye..." My voice came out much weaker and higher pitched than I expected. "Yes, just let me lie here for a bit." I reinforced more convincingly.

So the other keeper went back in goal and they continued with the drill for a bit while I stared up past the floodlights. I kept switching from lying on my side, and suffering the physical discomfort that brought me, to lying on my back, and feeling like I was going to throw up. At the edge of my vision I could see absolute darkness with the odd patch of flashing lights. I couldn't help but wonder if I was going to pass out.

About 10 minutes later, long after the rest of the team had gone for a warm-down, I managed to stand up and stumble over to the fence, where I stood anticipating the taste of vomit that I could feel coming. It never came.

Eventually I started to take off my pads, throwing them in the general direction of my bag. I saw my Dad's car pull up into the car park and so, gradually, packed them away and zipped the bag up. I pulled the bag over to the car where my Dad through it into the boot for me.

"Are you okay?" He asked.
I explained the situation to him and he suggested a warm bath when I got home. Slowly he drove off, the speed-bumps in the driveway causing me great discomfort. 25 minutes later I arrived home and managed to get myself a drink before running a warm bath, with bubbles, that I collapsed into. For the first time in about an hour I felt comfortable, getting out was going to be interesting though.

I almost forgot:
9:30PM
I lined up to take on the first of the one-on-one. Boothy dribbled towards the top of the area. As he lifted his stick up to shoot I dived across, covering the goal.

Crack! He connected well with it. For a moment I saw the ball hurtling towards me.

Smack! It caught me right in the box.

That one was going to hurt.

09:12

2009-02-25T18:28:00.001Z

I'm in such a good mood, I think my mouth is starting to hurt from smiling.

It started this morning, waking up at 12 minutes past 9, knowing that other people would already be sat in lessons, it was such a good feeling.
And it just kept getting better. Turn on my speakers and this comes on:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z93VYGvGM5Q
My smile just started growing. There may have been something in my bowl of Crunchy Nut as well, I’m not sure.

The reason I got up 2 hours later than usual was that I was getting a lift in with James, so shortly after ten he turns up. I grab my bag and run out the door. 30 minutes and several great tunes later we arrive at college.

Not only did I have first lesson off but biology, my second lesson, was cancelled. So I was sat with the others in the canteen, distracting Kirsty from her maths work, while flicking through my folder.

I can’t remember how we started annoying each other but I remember from the point when I flicked her with my ruler. She flicked me back and kept the ruler. In retaliation I stole her pencil and rubber. She then started grabbing bits of my biology work and hiding them down her sleeve.

I eventually tickled her until she gave me my stuff back, but my biology was screwed up beyond any use. This wasn’t fair so I started picking apart her rubber and throwing it at her. This continued for a while her screwing up successive pieces of my work and me destroying her rubber.

My true revenge came when she suddenly realised she had missed the start of her lesson and it was now too late to go. 1-0.

Eventually we apologised and the whole thing reminded me of primary school arguments, it was quite fun.

Anyway after that little incident I went off to Chemistry and for some reason I was in a real chemistry mood. I was sharp and awake and just took everything in my stride, unable to stop asking questions.

Even D of E training at lunch, followed by an hour and a half of maths couldn’t dampen my mood. Anyway it’s now time for me to go out. I hope my mood is contagious.

WALL·E

2009-02-24T21:49:00.003Z

I miss being a little kid.
Life was simple back then:
No A-levels to worry about, ok I still don't really worry but college work takes up much more of my time now;
Girls had cooties, made life so much simpler, and well I didn't know what I was missing out on so I didn't care;
Making friends simply involved saying "Will you be my friend?" and there was never any complicated issues;
And Disney films were just plain amazing.

What brought this on?
Last night I watched WALL·E. It felt so good.
Sat in front of the TV, big duvet wrapped around me, watching Disney. It reminded me of the good old days when I really appreciated the wonder that is Toy Story, that was my favourite film for so many years, along with The Fox and the Hound. Damn, I miss them.

Ah well that's life, my bodies gotten older, and I've had to grow up with it. If only time was reversible, you could really appreciate life then.

Well that's life, and there are many many perks to being older I must admit but still, would be nice to be ickle again, just for a while.

42.

2009-02-17T15:43:00.007Z

1) The meaning of Life, the Universe and Everything.
2) Full days I've been going out with Maura.
3) six times 7 (nine times six for special people)
4) Minutes past 7 that it is currently
(Okay I got bored of that so it's just random sentances from now on)
5) "The rule is perfect: in all matters of opinion our adversaries are insane." Mark Twain
6) Have you ever wondered?
7) Those who are dead are not dead, they're just living in my head (Coldplay - 42)
8) I think I must be quite sadistic, I just laughed all the way through Fight Club.
9) It's now half 11 and I'm realising this is gonna take a while.
10) This evening I realised I haven't been home alone for more than 2 hours since the Christmas holidays.
11) It's quite ridiculous, we live in this beautiful world, and yet no one ever lives long enough to see it all. What a shame.
12) "Forget but not forgive," and now I've really got to stop quoting Coldplay.
13) There are times when I wish I could just be one of those people who just lived their life and never wondered on what it all means or what they're missing out on. Surely it would be so much easier to lay back and appreciate it.
14) Ok sorry if this is starting to drag, I'm only up to number 14 and I'm fairly sure that I'm just repeating myself but rephrasing it each time.
15) What's the most beautiful thing in the world? Words on a page, a painting, maybe music, a sunrise, a still valley, a violent storm, so many possibilities.
16) Weird things, they're not normal. But who decides they're not?
17) I think that's enough questions I really should move onto something better, but I only seem to have questions.
18) "Are you an optimist?"
"I hope so."
19) Bill Bailey has got to be one of the greatest comedians of all time.
20) Watch the Marx brothers, it's pure genius from start to finish.
21) Woooah we're half way there.... you know the rest.
22) People must waste so much time sleeping, how cool would it be if we didn't have to.
23) Actually to be fair people waste enough time when they're awake as it is, we probably wouldn't put the extra hours to good use.
24) Speaking of sleep I could really do with some, I didn't get all that much last night and it's starting to get late.
25) I can't stop trying to work out what makes a person good/bad, I guess the problem is that the bad people just don't care what others think of them. (Bad makes it sound like I'm in primary school but oh well)
26) This positive/negative thing has got me hooked now. We seem to apply it to everything from the ground we stand on to every little thing inside us. The thing is it's never that simple, I guess it's just easier to look at it as black and white, it's either good or it's bad, all along one clear grey-scale.
27) Wow my ramblings have really started to become non-sensical.
28) There's something satisfying about being up past midnight, it's like you're making 2 days out of one.
29) I think there's a reason I normally keep these thoughts inside my head. I'm not crazy, honest, just different.
30) Polarization, 'tis well fun.
31) I want to live abroad at some point in my life, at least for a few years, who knows I may never come back.
32) Why is everything so temporary? Even life itself, nothing seems to last.
33) 7 deadly sins: Lust, Gluttony, Greed, Sloth, Wrath, Envy and last, but no means least, Pride.
34) "Now three things remain: faith, hope, and love. But the greatest of these is love."
35) Trust: Hard to form, easy to break.
36) Everything dies, but first everything lives.
37) Simplicity is beautiful.
38) Sarcasm really is the lowest form of wit, but it's still a form.
39) I always thought there was something strange about the association of love with the heart rather than the brain, but it still seems to fit better.
40) So many questions, so little time.
41) Life is just amazing.
42) 00:23, bedtime. Goodnight, and thanks for all the fish.

Heads or Tails

2009-02-12T23:08:00.004Z

Ok so I thought of a title before I’d actually thought of anything to blog about, but it got me thinking about a conversation I’d had earlier in the day. It’s amazing how some things work out against the odds, well most things work out against the odds.

On the basic level there’s the whole life on Earth, one in a million chance (well one in 10 to the power of 282 according to some website I found), that’s pretty improbably in itself. It goes further, the actual probability that I would be born will be infinitely smaller than that, given the exact pairings that had to get together during the existence of life for me to have my exact genetic make-up. You get my point I exist against all odds.

But given that I am here, on earth, born on 15th July 1992, why is my life the way it is? The number of choices I’ve made along the way, it’s quite weird that it’s ended up the way it has, and this brings me back to the conversation I had earlier, sort of.

It was with my girlfriend, Maura, saying how if we hadn’t spent so long talking on MSN we might not even be going out yet. It would have been quite different if we'd only been able to speak to each other when there were people around, so I of course thought about this further and pieced together all the little things, that I remember, that had to happen so things ended up the way they are. I’m not saying if they hadn’t all happened we wouldn’t be together, but it wouldn’t have worked out in the same way it did.

So what’s my point? I’m just thankful, I guess, that things worked out the way they did, that all the little pieces fell into place for me to exist, and for my life to be the way it is. It wasn’t perfect, it still isn’t (my main complaint is that Maura lives miles away), but it’s good enough. More than that, it’s amazing. So thank you fate/God/chance, I owe you one.

Ok so...

2009-02-10T20:04:00.002Z

I would blog about how boring my day has been but, ironically, I gave that impression yesterday despite how good a day it was.
So instead I am going to write about something else... I've just got to think what.

I think I've got it.
How many places have you been?
I'm talking abroad here, over atleast one ocean; so England, Wales and Scotland don't count. Well not if you live in Great Britain.

10, I think, 10 countries I've visited.
That's not bad considering I'm only 16.

It's weird though:
By Easter I'll have been to every continent;
I've seen the wonderful Autumn colours of New Hampshire, the stunning Skyline of Manhatten, the enormous Rollercoasters of Florida, the Great Wall of China, the beauty of Paris from the Eiffel Tower, the gracefulness of Cape Town from Table Mountain and the awe-inspiring Copper Canyon in Mexico;
I've been swimming with dolphins, Paragliding in Switzerland, Parasailing in the Florida Keys, Snorkelling on the Great Barrier Reef, Skiing in the French and Austrian Alps, and Sailing in the Mediterranean;

But somehow holidays in the UK have been just as good. Venture camps at Windermere when I was in my early teens were fantastic, going to Hoylake when I was even younger was great fun, and in the last couple of years Min-Y-Don and Soul Survivor were amazing.

Anyway I was thinking about this because I was trying to choose my favourite holiday, but I honestly couldn't tell you. From the Lake District to Sydney, I've had so many good ones.

There's been a few great ones: the first year at Windermere, Orlando when I was 8, Mexico and Australia, and Menorca has got to be in there even if not for one particular year. But I have no chance of picking a favourite.

Maybe one day I will, if so I can't wait.

All roads lead to Rome

2009-02-09T21:17:00.003Z

Today I have spent:
12 hours in bed
2 hours 30 minutes on various buses
1 hour 45 minutes walking
1 hour watching rubbishy TV
1 hour cooking and eating
And 3 hours generally lazing about at home

(Oh and about 5 minutes counting up how long I've spent doing stuff)

Its been an excellent day.

“I’ve actually died twice”

2009-02-08T12:54:00.001Z

Some people are just amazing. I’m not talking about the child geniuses or inventors or presidents, they’re amazing for what they are, not who they are. No, I’m talking about the people who just live there lives and receive no extraordinary attention, but when you look closer there really is something amazing there, inside them.

There’s the guy who didn’t let anyone tell him what to do or where to go. He dared to stand up for his own interests and lived out his own dreams.

There’s the woman who takes in different foster kids every year or so, and takes care of them, mothers them until they’re ready to move on. I don’t know why she does it, all I know is that she’s making a difference in an extraordinary way.

And there’s the girl, who’s only 16, but is still willing to give up her Saturdays to take care of old people. She’s not doing it to look good on her CV, she’s not doing it so people will think she’s a nice person, she does it out of respect and a genuine care towards the people she’s caring for.

These people don’t let other people decide what they should do. They don’t conform to peer pressure or what anyone tells them. No ones making them live this way, they just do it because of who they are, amazing people.

Is it my imagination…

2009-02-06T17:28:00.001Z

Or have I finally found something worth living for? (Gotta love Oasis lyrics)

It’s going good, life that is:

I’ve been going out with Maura for 4 weeks (as she pointed out today… I had to then explain the difference between four weeks and a month but oh well :P (she’s probably going to kill me for putting that on here so shhh)) and it’s been fantastic, days at college just seem to fly by now.

My mates are good as always, Trafford Centre last weekend was great fun as I mentioned, as well as playing in the snow this week and plans for half-term sound like they’re going to be good as well. Got my old crew coming round this evening as well which should be good; Poker and sweets, what could be better?

College is going well also: Maths is challenging but actually interesting at last; Chemistry is… well its Chemistry, need I say more? (For those who don’t know I’m a total Chemistry nerd); We’re playing with electricity in Physics; and I don’t hate the Biology we’re doing at the moment, which is a good sign.

In terms of family, things are quite different now my sister’s gone to South America, I’m kind of an only child now. I don’t mind it though, I can sit at home now and know that I’m not going to be bothered by her asking me to do favour (I was checking that I spelt that right and this came up: http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=favour) so I can actually relax now.

So all life is good, I don’t really want anything to change, and Half-Term… should be fantastic.

Whoop Whoop

2009-02-04T17:53:00.001Z

I don’t know why I’m so happy at this particular moment, I just am. It’s great.

I really should do my biology work that’s been piling up over the last week or so, but where’s the fun in that?

Instead I’m going to kick back, eat some chocolate, and relax… at least until I have to go to Orchestra.

Oh yeah just to rub that in… I have chocolate :D

Well…

2009-02-02T17:32:00.001Z

I had an amazing weekend:

Friday night I watched some strangers steal a pint of my girlfriends blood but they gave us tea afterwards so that’s ok. Then we (me and Maura… not the the strangers) went out for a meal afterwards. All in all a very good evening.

Then Saturday me and my mates from college went to the Trafford Centre for Becky’s birthday. After an hour or so of shopping and such like, we went to play 2 games of Laserquest.

The first game we were mixed into 2 teams with some random kids and it was fun, although I was on the losing side, but the second game was just hilarious. All of us lot (16 and 17 year olds) got put on one team against a bunch of little kids (7 and 8 year olds I guess). Whoever decided to do that was being very mean on the kids.
At the start most of my team were stood on the upper floor sniping the kids from above, while I ran around shooting them all in the back as they searched hopelessly for where we all were.
Eventually they found us and after the guy who worked there (nicknamed hero) joined in to even the odds it was a closer game. I still kicked ass though :P.

After that we went and ate some good old junk food in the food court, before heading home. I got a lift with Becky’s parents as far as Jess’ house in Mawdesley, where I had arranged for my parents to pick me up. I started wondering after being sat at Jess’ house for near enough an hour where my lift home had got to.

It turned out that my Dad had the wrong house name (it appears that in Mawdesley house numbers haven’t been invented yet) and so had spent close enough to half an hour driving up and down this road, knocking on random doors, and asking if I was there. Whoops.
But eventually he found me and I got home highly amused.

Sunday, I had a good lazy day. I did at talk at Revive in the morning, which didn’t seem to go too badly, and then just sat around all afternoon and did nothing.

And Today:

It Snowed!!!!

It was awesome. I ended up only having one lesson thanks to teachers not being in and instead of lessons I got to push Kirsty, Mike and Steph into the snow. I ended up a bit wet and cold but it was great fun!

Everybody… Needs Somebody

2009-01-29T21:59:00.001Z

2nd show out of 2 tonight. It was fantastic! Annoyed Kirsty once again, this time by dragging her up on stage at the end with everybody else to dance to the last song, great fun.

It’s been an amazing few days, and tomorrow could be even better, I love life :D.

Jazz Rocks

2009-01-28T22:13:00.003Z

At Winstanley I play Tenor sax in Jazz band (for those who didn't know) and tonight we had the first of two performances this week. It rocked.

Started off with an emergency rehersal 3 hours before the concert to restore everybody's convidence after the dress rehersal yesterday went a bit pear-shaped. The rehersal went well and was very entertaining:
"That was a bit Sociology!"
No idea what that means exactly but I could tell from the way Paul (our conductor) said it that it wasn't a good thing, but he seemed pleased second time round. (There's many more fantastic quotes that escape my memory at the moment.)

After rehersal I got a chicken burger and chips from the chippie down the road (delicious) and then me and Maura disappeared off the face of the earth for an hour or so, which is always good.

When it finally got to concert time I was pumped up and ready to go, although the nerves were starting to creep in. Fortunately at the last minute Martin, the other Tenor, finally decided to show up which gave my confidence a boost. We did our usual set of 3 songs. It ran smoothly, for a change, and was really really good fun. I then got to sit and watch the rest of the show with Kirsty and Chris. Me and Chris tried to deafen Kirsty with our clapping, Chris was better at it than me but Kirsty was complaining that her ears hurted so I was happy (yes I'm evil I know :p).

The show ended about 20 past 9, which was far too soon as far as I was concerned, but tomorrow we get to do it all again. I can't wait.

No Woman, No cry

2009-01-26T22:53:00.001Z

I remember when we used to sit…

It’s odd looking back on life, the longer ago things happened the more polished the events seem to be. I always seem to remember the most random moments and I always enjoy looking back on how I’ve changed since then, I think that’s a good sign.

Observing the hypocrites as they would meet…

I think everybody is a hypocrite at times, it’s something I try to avoid, but it’s really quite hard to as no one has perfect control of how they act and what they say, it seems odd that but it’s true.

Good friends we have, good friends we lost along the way…

I have one friend I miss the most. My best mate all the way through Primary School, I’ve never had such a close mate since, well not for as long anyway. I’ve had other good mates that I’ve lost and I miss, but I have good friends now so I don’t tend to look back all that much.

In this great future, you can't forget your past;

You can do a pretty good job of it though, I think I’ve managed to prove that at times. I’ve no real reason to, my past is what it is, my past, it doesn’t define me, it doesn’t make me who I am, I guess I just don’t like looking back on some parts of it, from times when I was a very different person to who I am now.

No, woman, no cry;
No, woman, no cry.
ere, little darling, don’t shed no tears:
No, woman, no cry.

I never get why girls cry quite so much compared to lads, I guess it’s just a different way of dealing with situations, still strange how different lads and girls are though. I ain’t complaining mind you, it makes life more interesting, unpredictable.

And then Georgie would make the fire light
As it was logwood burning through the night

I love real wood fires, they have a certain quality that a radiator lacks and the smell is wonderful. Its been ages since I was sat around an open campfire, but Maura has a wood-burning stove at her house that kinda makes up for it.

Then we would cook cornmeal porridge,
Of which bits I'll share with you;

Love porridge, its fantastic, especially on those cold, winter mornings when you’ve dragged yourself out of bed its some concellation to have a nice steaming hot bowl of porridge. And well I’ve never been too keen on sharing food but I guess I’ll make exceptions to that for certain people.

Everything's gonna be all right!

I really feel like it is, =)

Never an honest word...

2009-01-25T16:45:00.002Z

I'm tired, it's been a long (and amazing) week, but I still need to do all my homework and some clarinet practice... oops.

But yeah, I'm about to go out to MAD and won't be home until about 10:30, which is bit too late to start doing homework, so I'm thinking it's going to be another fun bus journey.

3 hours later:

I got a bit distracted earlier. It's now almost 11pm and I've only just got in. So I'm going to bed before my parents get annoyed. The rest of what I was planing to write, and my biology, will have to wait until morning

I cant stop smiling

2009-01-19T21:34:00.002Z

One word:
Maura

Arrgggghhhh

2009-01-19T17:09:00.004Z

My weekend kinda sucked.

Starts off Friday night, I was tired and hungry and waiting for chinese take-away. Eventually after an hour or so of hinting at my mum she finally agrees to order. So I get the menu, go ask my dad if he's feeling well enough to eat, he is, and then my sister interupts.

How is it that siblings have this amazing ability to do exactly what would annoy you the most at any given moment?

So she naturally slows the whole thing down.

"Hey Kat, What do you want from the Chinese?"
"What are we ordering now?"
"Yes, hence the menu."
"Have you talked to mum?"
"Yes, she gave me the menu"
"Where is she?"
"She's talking to Pete in the kitchen."
"Go get her."
"Why? She's busy can't we just order."
"Just go get her"
"No, just tell me what you want and I'll order."
"But it's MY meal, I need to talk to mum."
"Why the hell do you need to talk to mum?"
"Cause I want to order starters and stuff."
"Well tell me what you want and I'll order it."
"I want to talk to mum."
I gave up and went and sat back down on the computer.
10 minutes later:
"Robbie, What do you want to order?"
"Finally, can I have a look at the menu?"
"No we're sharing what would you like?"
"Can't I pick what I want?"
"FINE!!"
I look at the menu and pick some random chicken dish.
"Actually I don't want you at MY meal if you're being stroppy, you can cook yourself something."
"Fine I'll cook myself some pasta."
I go boil the kettle then pour myself a cup of hot ribena so as to not waste the energy.
"Robbie you can eat with us just stop being so stroppy."
"How was I being stroppy?"
"Why did you boil the kettle just now then?" She walks off.
"I wanted some hot ribena." (To the closed door)

Eventually I got my chinese and it was very nice but that wasn't the end of my sister's last run of annoyance.
Saturday we went to watch Australia, on her demand, it was honestly the most boring film in existance. Then Sunday lunch, our last meal together, she spends most of it accusing me of being snobby and generally being in a really bad mood.

So I know I should miss her and all, but honestly I am slightly glad she's gone.

I’ve had such a good day :D

2009-01-15T17:42:00.000Z

Yesterday’s Biology disaster already seems like a distant memory.

It was just one of those days where everything seemed to run smoothly and anything that didn’t just seemed so manageable.

First of all my lessons today just didn’t seem to exist. Both physics and biology were experiments which makes the lessons go so much quicker :). Add in a half chemistry lesson and a free and its a good day of lessons.

Secondly I got thanked even though I didn’t do anything, which is always good, and well other stuff that’s not going up here… yet.

Thirdly (and finally) my room is finally starting to change :D. After ~~months~~ years of asking to get it redone its finally happening:

I’m actually getting quite excited about it now… its gonna look awesome.

There’s probably other things that helped my day be so awesome but they’re the biggies well the biggies that I can put on here

:(

2009-01-14T21:44:00.002Z

Today kinda sucked.

Well it didn't really most the day was good, fantastic even, but then my biology exam arrived.
Now most the time exams don't bother me that much, and when I say that much I mean at all.
But today, I don't know what happened, I opened the paper and it was just infuriating. I knew the answers I just couldn't think of them at the time. It wasn't nerves or anything I just forgot.

You're probably sat there thinking sheesh moaning about exams how unoriginal but this kind of stuff just doesn't happen to me. Exams are my thing! Anyway, it's over, it's done with, I don't have to worry about it for 2 more months. Doesn't stop me being annoyed though.

Anyway, in other news, my sister's boyfriend has just gone back to Ireland after spending a week staying with us and my sister is off to Peru on Monday. With my bro back at Uni it's going to be strange being the only child again, this time for 3 months instead of 1, but the advantage is I get my new computer and the xbox all to myself :P. Hockey season resumes this Saturday, I'm playin 2nds :D. Should be good fun.

I wanna put something sooo much more interesting up here, but I think its gonna have to wait... maybe at the weekend.

Rain :(

2009-01-12T18:20:00.001Z

It sucks when people give you a hard time, even if you do deserve it.

Its all worth it though.

Anyway last night I got caught in the rain for the first time in ages, I mean proper heavy rain, my coat still isn't dry. But yeah it got me thinking about how stuff has changed. Its odd since September more has changed over these 4 months than did over 4 years before hand. My life is so different at college, and it doesn’t stop changing.

Just in a month’s time the room where I spend a third of my life will look totally different and I imagine a lot of other stuff besides that will have changed.

Maybe I’ll look back then and tell you what’s different.

There’s so many stories

2009-01-10T12:23:00.001Z

But so little that I can say.

So instead:

This is what happens when I get bored :p

(I just downloaded new version of messenger and it had this blogging application attached so you may see some weird stuff as I play around with it… but its well good :D)

Life is...

2009-01-08T15:07:00.005Z

Funny.
I mean absolutely, fantastically, and above all else ironically, hilarious. Just at times when I look back on certain times I can't help but giggle (even if I look like an absolute weirdo cause I'm sat in the middle of an exam hall).

It doesn't often seem it at the time but looking back whatever is in control (if anything) has a wonderful sense of irony as far as I can tell.

Just thought I'ld share that with you.

Wow

2009-01-06T20:46:00.002Z

Amazing how much difference a day can make.

Has been a kind of strange day but a good one. College ran much smoother today, I've suddenly remembered why my day seemed such shorter, maybe that's not such a good thing (just for those that are wondering I missed 2 half lessons as I revise better outside the classroom (those lessons are actually pointless) but I kinda got a bit distracted both times, once was more my own fault than the other time).

But anyway it was a good day, I enjoyed it, and now I have a big smile on my face :D (like that). I'm also kinda relieved as I just found out I don't have hockey this Saturday so I will have some time to relax.

But yeah life is good, bring on the exams!

Erm so yeah

2009-01-05T17:12:00.005Z

~~Interesting~~ stuff (not about me):

There was this girl that 2 lads liked. Another lad, who said he didn't like her, found this out and then, I'm sure this is unconnected to the other lads liking her, asked her out. She said yes and they're now going out, which I find kind of hilarious.

Different girl has asked out probably 4 lads since September, one finally said yes at some point over christmas.

Another person is gutted that their old group of mates have drifted away since they started college, I'm guessing they're one of many feeling that way, and is determined to bring them back together.

2 lads, one plays guitar and one raps but wasn't fantastic at making up lyrics, joined together and started writing songs. They added a bassist and a drummer and now are becoming moderately famous, I'm still not a big fan of their music but will support them as it'll be cool to know someone famous.

One lad who was dreading turning seventeen for a reason that I still have no idea about now seems to have accepted it and he can't wait to learn to drive.

Someone once fell in love at the seaside and now wants to take his girlfriend back to the seaside, and for some reason won't shut up about the frickin seaside.

There was once a person who had dreams to travel the world and live abroad. They went on a world tour then came back home and settled for a low pay job but they say they enjoy it so who are we to judge them.

Do you believe in love at first sight? I personally don't believe in love at first sight but first impressions can make a massive difference, as can the smallest details, you probably won't even notice them but someone else might and to them it can mean everything.

Life is what you make out of the chances you are given. The chances you are given depends on how you take earlier ones. That being true the earlier choices have a bigger impact than the later ones, so why wait?

This has been a fun set of random ramblings, I didn't want to talk about my thoughts on whats happening so these stories and abstract thoughts will do instead.

Oh yeah forgot to mention... no guessing who the people are.

Sorry I didn't blog yesterday but...

2009-01-04T13:08:00.004Z

I got beaten at Wii boxing by my little cousin, Abigail. (I saw little she's only a year younger than me and it was her Wii but still beaten by a girl!!!) So yeah I had curled up in a corner to cry instead of coming on here.

That may not be the real reason I didnt blog but its more interesting than it was late by the time we got home and my mum wouldn't let me use the laptop.

But yeah yesterday was certainly the most interesting day so far this year, thats not saying much mind you. I climbed Arthur's seat, and saw an amazing view over Edinburgh then we went and had an all you can eat Chinese buffet and I ate 7 courses, not a lot I know but more than enough to get my money's worth.

Afterwards we went back to my cousins house and had hours of fun playing on the Wii :), I kicked ass at snowboarding and it was hilarious watching my cousin "hula-hooping", I was gutted when we had to leave.

In the car on the way home my mind just kinda went crazy. I'ld finished reading my book (Prisoner of Birth by Jeffrey Archer, great book, loved it) so I was listening to my iPod and trying to get to sleep, never gonna happen I don't often sleep unless I'm in bed, and I started thinking about things.

But instead of it being the usual thoughts about what I'm gonna do in the near future (thought about that a lot recently it got sort of repetative) I was just thinking about random things. And yeah it was kind of crazy. Then I started thinking about what I was gonna put in my blog, then thinking about writing about how I was thinking what I was going to write. It got very very confusing but anyway. That was my day.

A new year, a new start

2009-01-01T18:15:00.002Z

So 2008 went out in a bit of a bang. 2009 is starting rather more gently.

At the moment I'm blogging from Scotland, where I feel very relaxed and laid back. I'm about to sit down and do some serious revision for the first time this holiday, which although won't be fun I'll feel better having done it. So I'm settling down back down into routine and preparing for returning to college on Monday, which shouldn't be too bad, I hope.

Anyway I should get on with some work, the blogs this week could be a bit boring, sorry.

Okay then

2008-12-31T13:15:00.001Z

I'm confused but glad.
First of all I should explain a few things, well one thing really. Monday evening I broke up with Hannah, I'd decided we were too different and wanted different things. She took it a lot worse than I expected.

Today Hannah asked me to go for a walk with her so we could talk, I agreed knowing I kinda had to if I wanted to stay mates with her. It was absolutely freezing which was a bit annoying and at first things were a bit awkward as I'ld expected to be honest. But then at some point while we were walking along something changed. Things weren't awkward anymore, they seemed to be just like they were before we were going out, apart from the odd, cold joke aimed in my direction but I deserve that.

So thats why I'm glad, I've got one on my best mates back, confused as to what changed in her thinking between Monday and today, but mainly glad.

I'll be glad when its over

2008-12-30T12:34:00.002Z

Theres nothing to write. I got nothing to say.

Things did change, rapidly. I ate, I put an extra hoodie on, time passed, and goodness did the happiness disappear. Sometimes I just wish that things mattered less, that I could get another chance but I can't. This is heavy, read the Unbearable Lightness of Being and you'll know what I mean.

So in the meantime I'm going to be philosophical. Weight was seen as negative, Lightness as positive. Maybe I should just not care it would make life so much easier. But I do, and I'm glad I do, but it makes things so much more difficult.

I'm happy

2008-12-29T16:03:00.002Z

Its freezing
I'm starving
I only woke up 2 hours ago
but I'm happy.

Somehow I suspect that this is all going to change :-s

Gulp

2008-12-28T22:43:00.002Z

The next few days/weeks could be.... erm.... interesting?
In the meantime I'm slightly annoyed as my itunes is now out of date (I uploaded a backup library off my old computer but its a few months old) :( so I'll have to reconnect the old computer sometime and get all my up to date files off it.

My phone is also annoyin me by flashin every ten minutes to say the battery's low. If it would just shut up I'm sure it'ld last twice as long.

Anyway I'm starving now, all I've eaten in the last 2 days is 2 pieces of toast and a small amount of roast dinner, so I'm gonna go eat something and wonder about the meaning of life.

Crap Crap Crap Crap....

2008-12-27T21:46:00.001Z

If you dont know why dont ask, all may become apparent later
In the meantime I love squiggle: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

:-D

2008-12-27T00:26:00.003Z

Well its been a good couple of days.

Christmas was fantastic, obviously. I did my usual xmas morning trick of waking up about 6 and not being able to get back to sleep. I'm such a kid :P. It was worth it though... I got guitar hero :), and a new computer :D. Its fantastic it takes literally seconds to start up compared to the five minutes on the old one and it can play awesome games like Medieval 2:Total War (which I also got by the way). So that was pretty cool.

I've spent most of today playing with my new computer, installing all the necessary programmes: msn, iTunes, etc. and taking over the medieval world. Oh funny story from yesterday, quite embarressing I must admit but oh well:

So I've got my new computer and I manage to plug it in turn it on alright (I'm boss at computers me :P) then after making back-up DVDs etc. I try and connect it to the internet. First of all the wireless thing won't work, so then I try good old fashioned cables. So I plug the first cable in, try again (repeatedly) and nothing happens. Not sure what the problem is at the moment, keeps coming up with an error message about service name. After about half an hour of playing around with that I try a different cable, still nothing.
Meanwhile, my mum was doing her usual family phone call and happened to have my uncle on the phone, who works with computers. So she puts me on the phone to try and sort it all out. He starts telling me stuff to do (Vista doesnt have an obvious link to Run... which is really quite stupid but oh well), while hes thinking it through and trying stuff on his computer and start clicking a few buttons that I hadn't noticed before and doing other little bits, one of which was pushing the cable firmly into both sockets... and voila. It starts working. I explain rather embarressed to my uncle that the cable wasn't in properly then wish him a Merry Christmas and quickly pass the phone back to my mum.

So that was rather embarressing but it could have been worse... somehow. Anyway I've forgetten what my point was so the basics are: Computer is amazing, as is guitar hero, and Merry Christmas everybody (even if it is a bit late)

Oh yeah forgot to mention: my computer has 4 processors, 4!!!! Thats more than the rest of the PCs in my house put together. So its awesomely quick :D.

2 hours til christmas

2008-12-24T22:05:00.003Z

Its finally here... almost.

I've had a good, if kinda strange, day. It was my mate's birthday and knowing her it was always gonna be slighty weird yet wonderful.

Spent most the day at her house, me with 4 girls, it's weird I kinda like being the only lad sometimes, at other times its just fricken annoying tho. Anyway it was good fun, we played guitar hero, pool, twister and spoons. Spoons ended kinda badly though :-S. And well then it was kinda weird being the only lad but thats someone elses story.

I've kinda been up and down the last few days, more so than usual (and only inside my head not on the outside, I think), but all is good now... I mean its christmas (almost) how could it not be good? (rhetorical for the people thinking of depressing answers right now)

So yeah the next few days should be good, and interesting, until I go back to college. I'm sure everything will settle back into its normal, rather boring, routine then. I guess I should only have a couple of weeks of excitement at a time :P

Its probably my own fault but...

2008-12-23T18:32:00.002Z

I hate people sometimes

This morning I only went to bed at 5am... probably not a good idea but I wasnt expecting to do anything the next day before noon so I thought I'ld survive.

Instead I got woken up at 9. Who on earth is up at that time?!? First of all its a call of my mum to check my sister has actually gone to work... shes 18 you would have thought she could look after herself by now, apparently not. So I climb out of bed and go look into my sisters room. The smell as I enter the room is horrendous! The alcohol she was drinking last night obviously didnt agree with her, it stinks of stale sick. Anyway I manage to look in, almost throwing up myself, and she wasnt there so I tell my mum that she has gone before going back to bed.

Then I have to let the guy decorating the bathroom in. I do that then crawl back to bed, only to have to fetch an extension cable for him, not really a big problem normally but I was absolutely dead. So I nick the extension cable that the christmas tree lights were plugged into and once again drag myself back into bed. Only to find out that the extension cable was to plug his drill into... and my bedroom is next to the bathroom.

After 10 minutes all goes quiet again and I slip back to sleep. Of course today would be the day he's finishing so about 20 minutes later I'm woken up again to let him out the house and lock the door behind him. So finally I think I can safely get a couple of hours sleep, but apparently it wasnt my day, as one of my sister's mates ring to ask if she's there. I explain, as politely as I possibly could in the state I was in, that she was at work and then hang up.

Eventually I get back into bed and set my alarm for a couple of hours time. I woke up about 4 hours later after my alarm failed to wake me, many many times.

Whoopdi F***ing Doo

2008-12-22T22:03:00.002Z

I'm not actually annoyed I just felt like putting that.

This evening I had a fairly average, but funny, christmas concert with JOY (the orchestra i play with). They seem to be the same every year. It was good fun though, even the incredibly obvious wrong note I played :p, somehow I got away with it!

I realised that I haven't actually done any revision yet this holiday, probably not a good plan since I have 5 modules in January but oh well... I'll start tomorrow... Honest! Also haven't touched either my clarinet or my saxophone (except for at JOY) in about 2 weeks or summit... oops.

So far these have been rather unproductive, but fun, holidays. Unfortunately that may have to change :(. But in the meantime I dont care.

Not sure what to put so... (but dont quote me on this)

2008-12-22T00:40:00.004Z

I'm tired... I should go to bed
The thoughts running through my head... they can't be good, they can't be right.

They just cant

But what if they are

Edit (29/12/08): I hate being right sometimes

The morning of the living dead

2008-12-20T11:41:00.002Z

I'm trying to find something to do for the next few hours until I go out to Manchester.
Unfortunately everybody else has some common sense and has stayed in bed unless they've got a very good reason to get out of bed. So I'm gonna end up sat here listenin to music and flicking through pointless web pages... fun, fun, fun.

Today has been:

2008-12-19T23:19:00.004Z

FANTASTIC

Life seems interesting again.
Christmas holidays have finally started
I had a great afternoon/evening out with friends
And I'm not gonna say anymore till morning :)

(alcohol has bad effects as well)

I've started sleeping less

2008-12-19T00:30:00.001Z

I don't go to bed for 2 reasons.
Don't want today to have ended as just been another day.
Don't want tomorrow to just be another day.
When did life become boring?

Weird Things...

2008-12-18T22:44:00.003Z

I forgot to mention this morning that I'd missed the bus for the first time since I started college... It was gonna happen eventually. I saw it drive past as I was walking down the road towards it and begain leggin it to try and catch it but I was never gonna catch it. Fortunately my dad was drivin past so I got a lift to the Bus Station in Ormskirk and got on the bus there so all was well.

I only had and hour and a half of lessons today, most of which was physics since we got let out of Biology an hour early, which was quite cool I have to say... Got even less tomorrow, especially since I'm not plannin to go to the one lesson I do have :).

I got quite annoyed today as someone blocked my phone cos I was ignorin them... I tell you I wasn't exactly pleased with that but its alright cos she let me use her phone to call Blyk and get the code to unlock it.

Its a week before christmas and I finally started my shopping :). I'ld already bought some stuff on the internet but I don't think I'ld been in a shop this month before today which is quite odd.

Sorry about the kinda borin blog I think the tiredness from the not going to bed before midnight from the last week is beginning to set in. So I'm gonna end on a positive:

One Week till Christmas :)

Almost

2008-12-18T10:16:00.003Z

So nearly got out of bed on time this morning.
But then I decided that my bed was too comfy and didn't move for another 15 minutes.
My morning ran as usual after that... no time for breakfast but did manage to shave successfully this morning, my face feels nice and smooth.

Anyway just had Physics with Scrooge (Rob) and he actually let us out early... AND he gave Chloe a Crispy Cream Doughnut, maybe he does have a heart after all.

Anyway sat in the IT room now and Kirstys bein annoyin so I bet~~q2`1hn2~~ (that was Kirsty) so as I was saying I better go.

Twilight, Oversleeping and Facial Hair

2008-12-17T11:37:00.003Z

Well I started... and finished reading twilight last night, at about 3am, I have to admit it is a good book.
However it meant I was very tired this morning and after getting a quick shower and shaving, badly as anyone whos seen the right side of my face this morning will back up, it was time to go.
I got a lift to the bus stop again and was very glad of it. I've felt suprisingly awake all morning but I think the lack of sleep is beginning to catch up with me.
Everyone was giving out Christmas cards this morning and I'm starting to feel bad for not bothering with them but oh well.
I'm gonna go eat summit and hope that that will wake me up a bit. :)

10 Questions

2008-12-16T17:33:00.002Z

Is it bad that I'm excited about another evening sat at home... doing absolutely nothing? :)
What is so controversial about what someone has got me for Christmas that everybody else is talking about it?
What is the answer to life the universe and everything? (if its not 42)
Should I eat the Hula Hoops sat on my desk now or later?
Since when did I become the evil one at college?
Why did I decide to read Twilight?
Is there anything decent on TV on Tuesdays?
When did I become one of the confident people?
Why do blogs always seem to have cheesey titles?
Why do I always forget what I was gonna put as the last question?

Crash and Burn (brackets)

2008-12-15T18:03:00.004Z

It's been one of those days. On the bus I stuck my headphones in and revised biology to avoid having to talk to people... Good decision I may have killed someone otherwise, and the biology revision was actually quite sucessful.

Got to college and only a couple of my mates were around, which was probably a good thing. Loud noises that early in the morning would not have helped.
The rest of the morning was fairly normal, apart from a stronger than usual urge to kill Rob, my physics teacher (I say stronger than usual because its there almost every physics lesson, even though I quite like physics, its weird).

Anyway at lunch I was playing with the Jazz band at Winbalm (Winstanley Bands and Live Music (I think)) which was always going to be interesting. In the end it kinda crashed and burned. Hardly anyone was there and, in the end, that was probably a good thing. The first piece was hmm how to put this, well Paul called it a trainwreck as soon as we finished and that pretty much summed it up. It got slightly better for the next 2 pieces, but not much.

I have Monday afternoons off so I crashed in the library with a mixture of facebook, music, Emma and finishing off this mornings epic blog. The journey home was spent talking to James about music then politics, (can't believe I'm back to talking about politics but oh well).

When I got home I put on a big warm hoodie and grabbed a blanket, and talked to some people on msn, probably not a good idea in the mood I'm in but for now that's their problem (I sound really evil) and well that's how I'm going to stay for most the evening I imagine.

Sleep

2008-12-15T09:06:00.003Z

"Better stop dreaming of the quiet life
cos it's the one we'll never know
And quit running for that runaway bus
cos those rosey days are few
And stop apologising for the things you've never done,
Cos time is short and life is cruel
but it's up to us to change
This town called malice." Blared out his phone for the tenth time in 20 minutes.

At last he stirred and fumbled around, eyes still shut, trying to find . Rolling over, his eyes slowly flickering open, he hit a button, hoping it was the right one. The music stopped. Closing his eyes again he slowly drifted back to sleep.

"Better stop dreaming of the quiet life..."

He cursed having set his phone to 2 minute snooze. He flicked the light on and made sure he definately found the off button this time. He turned on his ipod and listened to Oasis play Cigarettes and Alcohol before finally crawling out of bed.

Climbing out the shower 15 minutes later he finally looked at the time on the phone: 7:32
He was running late again.
Not bothering to shave he quickly through on the first clothes he found, his hair still dripping.
He quickly brushed his teeth then he sprayed on his deodorant. Except only air came out. Quickly he begain searching through the drawer for a new can.

At that instant there was a knocking on his bedroom door.
"Don't forget to tidy your room, the cleaners are coming today." His mother's voice echoed through the wood.

He looked around at the mess on his floor and realised that he had no chance of managing to grab breakfast and still make the bus in time.
As he threw piles of clothes under his desk and picked his folders up of the floor he wondered, yet again, why he couldn't just clean his own room and why they had to get cleaners in to do it.

He stopped half way through to pick up his ipod, only realising then that it was almost out of battery. He turned the socket on and hoped that it would get enough charge to last the day

When his room was finally about tidy enough to avoid getting moaned at by his mother in the evening he looked at the clock again.
7:52... time to go.
He pulled his bag off the floor then ran down the stairs, before running straight back up to grab a belt as his jeans began to slip down.
He grabbed his shoes off the radiator, hoping that they'd dried over night, sprayed on some deodorant out the spare can he kept in his hockey bag before heading for the door.

"I can give you a lift to the bus stop if you like?"

Finally something was going his way. He grabbed a couple of biscuits and an orange to eat on the way before, moving much more slowly than before, climbing into the car.

He got dropped off opposite the bus stop and skated across the frosty road, narrowly avoiding an uncomfortable landing. Sat at the bus stop he put his headphones in his ears, and waited for the bus to arrive, and the next part of his day to begin.

2008-12-14T22:24:00.003Z

Well its been a good afternoon.
I went round to my mates house which was as much fun as I'ld hoped and then went off to encounter (the church service for students at our church) which was again quite good.

I really don't want to wake up for college tomorrow though :( college should start later on Mondays in my opinion.
But thats life for you.
So grrr at college and I'll probs be bloggin again tomoro

And all that jazz

2008-12-14T13:08:00.002Z

~~Yesterday was one of the strangest days in a long time.~~
Yesterday was fricken mental

We won at hockey, thats a rare event in itself.
2-1 and one of the opponents got sent off after he through his stick at the fence and started arguing with one of our players, I think I did alright at calming our player down.

Then we went out for a meal at Nando's in Southport, the food was nice and it was good fun hanging with my mates. We went back to my mates house afterwards and got a bit hyper off cheapo version of red bull. All the girls who went were stayin over and the other lads went off to their mates house to drink beer and watch the x-factor, so I ended up walking home alone, something I do a lot so I wasn't too worried.

But instead of taking me half and hour it took me an hour and a half:

"Hey do you have a phone with credit that I can borrow please? My boyfriends left me and I'm not from around here." The girl begged.

"I guess so," I replied handing over my phone.

The girl punched in a number and held the phone to her ear. "Crap! It's turned off, do you mind if I walk with you for a bit."

I wasn't about to leave a girl stranded in the middle of a place she didn't know, I've been in a similar situation so I was quite sympathetic.
So we started walking, me still heading home since I was supposed to be home within the next half hour.
Turns out her name was Jazz (hence the cheesy title) and she was from fazakerly. Although she was quite sober by that point she couldn't really remember much about why her boyfriend had walked off without her, or why she had decided to get off the last train, instead of going home.

Eventually after about 10 minutes it turned out that I knew her best mate, Craig, as he'ld been at Merchants with me. I made a phone call to a mate and got Craig's number, however his phone wasn't working so I could only text, not call him.

Jazz tried ringing some other numbers but all her mates were too drunk to help. By this point it was 12:20 and we were sat at the end of my road. I'ld given up on making it home by 12:30 and decided I would just have to explain to my parents.

Eventually Craig rang back and agreed to pay for a taxi if Jazz got one to his house, so we rang for a taxi and after about 4 attempts they finally picked up and said the taxi would be 20 minutes. They were idiots though, when we said the end of Ryder Crescent they asked which end. It goes round in a circle, there is only one way in and out.

Half an hour later, still no taxi despite what seemed like hundreds going past. So Jazz started ringing every taxi number she saw go past. There must have been about four on their way when the one we ordered originally finally turned up. Jazz got in the taxi and that was pretty much the end of my night.

I managed to sneak in without waking my parents... so no questions have been asked yet, and ignored the calls off the taxi firms, presumably asking why there was no one there.

That has honestly got to be the weirdest thing to happen to me since the summer. And it really is a very small world, a girl from Fazakerly who got lost in Aughton and randomly chose me to talk to, ended up being the best mate of someone I went to high school with... quite weird in my opinion.

As for today, well I'm about to head round to my mates house as her parents are out for the afternoon, so that should be fun, and hopefully I'll have more to talk about later.

I'm impressed if you have bothered to read all this.

Moods and food

2008-12-13T01:57:00.003Z

Well it sorted itself all our in the end
I had a feast: 133 square inches of soft dough covered in rich tomato sauce layered with mozarella cheese fresh from Italy topped off with juicy chunks of pineapple and succulent strips of chicken.
Ok it was a chicken and pineapple pizza but it was a good one, and good food can make all the difference.
In a better mood I text a few of my friends (five to be precise) and invite them over, it may not be an ideal Friday night but its better than nothing. 3 of them reply yes, 1 is busy and 1 just doesn't reply, I'll find out whats happened to him sometime.
But in the meantime my Friday night looks less gloomy.

I decide this is the time to appologize, so I send a text with suitable words of appology, and after a short period of confusion (8 hours) its all ok and looking back on it almost humorous.

So that was it, my friends came over we had a laugh, they left around 12, so I was left to chill out on here. Always good to relax.

So that was my evening and after 2 hours of msn, Judge Dread and music its probably about time I went to sleep. Tomorrow is another day.

Tic Tacs and Mocolate

2008-12-12T17:13:00.000Z

If your wondering about the background, its called tic tac, I like tic tacs, so I thought I might as well use that one

As for Mocolate, well what do you think of when asked for a food beginning with M?
I was eating chocolate (in chemistry where your not supposed to eat, ah well), and I watch far too much Friends, so Mocolate was the obvious answer.

As you can probably tell from that story I've had a pretty ordinary day.
I'm now in one of those moods where I'm incredibly bored and likely to offend/annoy, ask my mate who I managed to offend quite badly as she got off the bus. Worse thing is I have to make some appology and at the moment I just can't face up to doing that, what is happening to me?
Of course if I don't appologize this is going to come back and bite me in the ass one day, soon, quite possibly tomorrow.

But that's just life.

In the meantime I'm watching junk on TV, blogging away and just hoping something comes along to brighten my day.

Hopefully tomorrow will be better.

And so it begins

2008-12-11T17:36:00.000Z

First of all I'ld like to point out I'm only writing a blog for the sake of something to do
It'll probably die out within a few weeks if not a few days
I don't claim to be any good at writing
And I doubt anyone will ever read this
but here goes

The World according to Robbie:
Its mainly about Robbie to be honest but then no one blogs to write about other people.
Life is the most amazing thing ever and as things go mine ain't bad at all
I'm at a good college (2nd best in the country!)
I have a beautiful girlfriend (best in the country :p)
I have good mates
I'm part of a inspiring church
I still have so much free time that I bothered writing a blog
Best of all I'm 16 and can't wait for the rest of life to come and smack me full on in the face

I guess you can tell alot about me from the order they go in
I'm a bit of a nerd if I'm honest and I'm totally crazy about Hannah, everything else can take care of itself as far as I'm concerned.

And so it begins