Race Night, Treasurer

On Saturday night Amanda had helped organise a race night at Atlantic Studios. Not been there for ages and it was a nice chance to see Lucy, Dave and Amanda again (JJ as well but I'd only seen him 2 weeks ago but don't want him to feel left out). Anyone the night started well with Amanda's horse winning the first race which we all (except Dave) had a bet on. No more of my horses won in the remaining six races :-(

One of the 'riders' didn't turn up for his race so I pulled a horse (no not a munter, the horses were wooden and on bits of string with black tabs on to show how far they'd moved down the track marked out by sellotape) and Amanda was throwing the dice at people and shouting the numbers out all night. She was a bit worried about her voice ut didn't end up too (oh it's just too obvious) hoarse! You could tell she was get more and more tipsy by the end as she was going crazy every time her horse got to move but it lost by 2 black tabs :-(

Dave showed us a weird thing that Lucy does with her ring finger. Try this at home readers:-

1. Put your palm down flat on the table
2. Pull your middle finger back under so the top of it is touching the table
3. Then lift your thumb (tumb as Dave says), down again
4. Follow that procedure for little finger, index finger and then ring finger
5. Go on then lift your ring finger!

Amanda then sung to us about what each finger is called which was quite amusing. It was a fun night and raised lots for charity so well worth it.

It then became clear she was more than a bit tipsy when we were the only ones left in the place and had been told twice by the barman he was closing. Eric Clapton's guitar on the wall worth £20,000 according to the barman but he'd of let us have t for £1,000! We couldn't afford it though. Then Amanda piped up, "It's only fifteen minutes past twenty three, you can't close yetWithth that we left taking glass of wine with us which was soon thrown down on the pavement outside. We were now realising she was in fact very drunk. It then took us about half an hour to walk to a curry place as only Amanda knew where it was and she didn't really know where she was but we found it in the end. Then we all had some water and went home after a bit.

In other news, my mum's car got ran into the back of at traffic lights on Sunday causing a bit of damage. She's ok though. I became treasurer of the Huddersfield Student Society at my debut meeting yesterday. It's all good for the CV! Not that I want to move as I've only been there a year (exactly, today which was the whole point of writing now). It's been an ok year. I haven't really got any friends in my department but maybe that will come in the future. Sam leaves next week :-(

Anyway early night tonight (oops) - College all week.

Bonfire Night

After posting last Friday I went out with Rob and he didn't moan for two hours - just complained. His words not mine. As I was driving and Ann was ill we went from Huddersfield to Halifax and met up with Louise and her mum for the first time since she has had her baby boy. It was nice to hear that her and Jayden were both in good health.

On bonfire night JJ, Kate, Laura (Kate's friend) and me went to Elland bonfire but it had finished by yhe time we got there and everything was being packed away. We used our sparklers and then were rudely told not to throw them on the bonfire as kids play on the field and they take more sweeping up! This was after originally being told to put them on the bonfire. Maybe he was practicing at being Scrooge for Christmas. I could imagine him saying, "Here you go children here's your present." as they open their well packed big pressie and find nothing but a melon inside. Hmmm back to the night...

We then went into town where I learned that Barracuda is actually a South African theme bar. We then went to Maine Street where I met my old AAT tutor Nicola who is now working in London so that was a bit of a surprise but it was nice to catch up with her. All in all a decent evening though the weather was a bit poor!

Goodbye 98, Hello XP

So to the third and final of my recent daily afternoon updates. The reasons I've not been postingmuch recently are threefold:-

1. Studying
2. After getting back from Kate's I've been playing Pro Evolution Soccer 5 a lot for PS2 online. So much so this week that I am now ranked 207th in Europe!
3. The computer died on Sunday. It reset itself to August 2004 and then would not let us reinstall broadband. This was really annoying as I've had the week off work and no computer to make use of. I also missed out on £40 of poker bonuses (hmmm haven't played for over two weeks now) (did I mention my biggest win ever on 8th October? After deducting entry fees it came to £239!

Anyways the death of the computer led to a long phone call to Ed (thanks for your efforts) and we concluded that something was missing. So last night we bought a new 80GB hard drive and Windows XP which my brother has since fitted. There is the slight problem that the computer is now not reading the old hard drive so literally all I have is the internet as he was still trying to fix it when I went to bed at 1:15 this morning. At least it's quick.

I'm out with Rob and Ann tonight no doubt lstening to Rob moan about his holiday and how he has been used etc etc. Best not say anymore but it's good that he's now shaken them off. Kate is coming back today too so we may go to a bonfire tomorrow with JJ. I don't really like bonfires due to lots of smoke and general darkness but I suppose it's only once a year and it is the 400th anniversary this year so perhaps it's worth celebrating.

How To Make Orange Squash

Tread on one perhaps or put one in a food processor thingy? Nah I mean like Robinsons Orange Squash. Never done it before? Here's how:-

DILUTE ONE PART CONCENTRATE (that's the stuff in the bottle) WITH FOUR PARTS WATER

That's what it says on the bottle anyway. I find that a little weak and tend to go for about three parts water depending on the squash flavour.

Which brings me on to my next question - How do you make a Swiss Roll? Push him down a hill of course!

Trip To Kate's In Scarborough (October 2005)

In the week after the gig, it was the 20th anniversary edition of Neighbours where loads of old characters did snippets of film updating us on where they are now. So what better music to listen to than my Neighbours CD on the way to Scarborough! Of course playing the theme music to begin with would have spoilt the fun as JJ would have moaned all the way there so I played the rest of the compilation of background tracks etc and he admitted to liking some of them. Then came the theme music. Suddenly he didn't like it anymore and the moaning began! Fortuneately he fell asleep before long leaving me to concentrate on the wet, dark, unlit road to Scarborough. I was so scared I gripped my steering wheel so tight there is now a bit melted away in the shape of a hand! Don't really like dark driving.

When we got there we sat down for about an hour and then went into town and drank lots. I didn't feel too bad on my Smirnoff Ices but then was convinced an aftershock would be a good idea. Oh dear. At least I could walk downstairs unaided (in fact aiding someone else) so I can't have been too drunk. I did have a horrid hangover in the morning though. It was nice meeting Kate's friends who are mainly female as there are only 4 males on the course out of around 60 people!

On the Saturday, after being quite grumpy and moany about my hangover, we went onto the seafront and walked round the lighthouse and while JJ (never done this before) and Kate lost £2 on 2p machines I only lost 28p. I guess you better with experience. I then challenged Kate to our long awaited, much anticipated game of pool. I dominated to start with and we discovered that the table was sloping making difficult shots pretty much impossible. Kate then potted one of these "allowing for the slope!" and cleared to the black. Upon potting the black however she failed to allow for the white hitting one of my remaining balls and the slope nicely taking it into the pocket. Toph wins again! Maybe a rematch is on the cards. We then went to see The Corpse Bride which was a decent if very short film at The Futurist Theatre (wow great website sound!).

Kate then made us some tea while JJ and I watched The X Factor (come on Andy!). To my shock JJ was hooked after his many comments against such programmes! Then Bullseye was on. JJ had never seen Bullseye before. How?! Moooooooooooooooooo! Then came the intensity of X Factor results and then we went to a pub. We did look for more pubs but to after a 20 minute walk failed to find the one we were looking for and went back to the house!

On Sunday after getting up lunch was made and Kate's friend Carrie came round and that was a very tasty meal. JJ found something else he'd never done (explained in later post) and then it was home time when we listened to Chelsea v Everton. This was the first match this eason that Chelsea haven't won.

Big thanks to Kate for a wonderful weekend not that she'll read this anyway ;-(

Kaizer Chiefs, Traffic Light Danger

So, continuing since last time, Eppy had texted me on the Saturday morning (this being Saturday 15th October by the way, I seem to be a bit behind (explanations in future posts)) asking if I could go and see the Kaizer Chiefs at Manchester Apollo with him on the Sunday night. This was too good an opportunity to turn down and also showed that people at my old work weren't completely ignoring me since Town's victory over City (ok I won't mention it again).

The reason I was to regret having only two and a half hours sleep was that I was very tired by 4:00 when I set off for the coach in Bradford. Luckily it was a coach trip or I don't think arriving back alive would have been on the cards. In Bradford there are many traffic lights. One day I was bored and counted 50 sets on my home which will now have increased due to the new(ish) ones at Rooley Lane Manchester Road junction which are very complicated. Anyway I digress. There are so many traffic lights that often you can see a set ahead of you when waiting at another set. I was waiting at the weird roundabout set just before Jacobs Well when the set in front went green so I went. I looked in my mirror about 50 yards down the road and the cars behind were still sat in both lanes at the previous set of lights. Oops! Ah well no harm done.

Catching up with Eppy was nice on the coach and it was a weird journey. We made two toilet stops. One was in the middle of nowhere on the hard shoulder of the motorway just near the highest motorway point in England no less! The second was at a bus stop on the outskirts of Manchester where about 8 lads hopped off the bus and relieved themselves down an alley on the side of a house. The girls at the front of the coach seemed to enjoy this bit! When we got there we queued for a while to get in but it wasn't cold or wet so we didn't mind that.

The first act on were The Cribs who were a decent band and the drummer was exciting to watch as he kept climbing on his drums. Next up were Maximo Park who were excellent and the lead singer especially was very energetic jumping all round the stage. These two bands had just over half an hour each. Then came The Kaizer Chiefs who were headlining. It is of course the band I went to see, not the South African football team whom they are named after! They were bloody excellent and did most of the songs off their debut album Employment as well as some new material which sounded great. I Predict A Riot was probably my favourite of the evening. It was a really great gig and suddenly I was no longer tired!

This was not to last as tiredness set in on the coach home but somehow neither of us fell asleep. I took Eppy home and ran another red light in the process due to the fact that 2 junctions completely separate from each other were separated by about 50 yards (if that) and the first set were green and I didn't see the second set until late so I braked but I was pretty much already through them. Ah well nothing was coming so we survived (again)! I got home safely with my window down, air conditioning on, and Kaizer Chiefs on quite loud to ensure I stayed awake but all in all it was a great evening. Hope your mate has a speedy recovery Eppy and I was more than grateful to take his place!