Studying Again

I went to college again today starting my 8th consecutive year at FTC (or Kaplan Financial as they now want to call it) in Leeds. There's only nine in my ACCA class which i'm quite sure is the smallest i've ever been in. I'm quite impressed with the new premises too but will always have memories of the old place.

The training materials have seriously improved now having online assessments where you can compare against other class members and access additional explanations should you need it. However it does seem to have gone all American. I was disgusted to find i'm learning in dollars rather than pounds! Back to the homework...

A Kick In The Face(book) For MySpace!

It was reported today (yesterday now as i've been working so bloody late) that in the last month Facebook overtook MySpace as the most popular social networking site in the UK with 6.5 million log-ins to 6.3 million. Personally I think this is because Facebook attracts a wider demographic with the majority of users being between the ages of 18 and 30 whereas MySpace seems a younger place to be, maybe between 13 and 23. Facebook grows while MySpace stands still. Already a bank has changed their mind about charges on accounts for students solely due to Facebook. Maybe one day it will take over the world!

Another New Record!

Since last week i've been working - a lot. Me and Kate did the quiz and her mum came adding 25 points to our score from last week but still only making us finish 6th out of 11. We've still not been in the prizes since New Year's Day!

I was out with Rob and Ann on Friday but Ann was ill so it was just me and Rob in Halifax for the 2nd week running. Things were just going normal, drinking in Jaks as usual. The gents toilets were flooded so we had to use the ladies while the ladies used... the other ladies toilets! Ryan Thomas (Jason from Coronation Street) came and commented how busy it was compared to Manchester's Jumpin Jaks. It won't be that busy for some time as next week the Coliseum reopens as Club Liquid while Maine Street still remains the same (i think).

My brother turned up and bought me a drink. Then more drink. Then this woman who'd spoken to me earlier was talking to Rob so I stayed with Phil and drank. Suddenly it was 3:30 and i'd had 11 SI and a couple of VK Oranges. I felt quite sick all Saturday but wasn't ill. I guess I must be a hardcore drinker now (not)!

Mixed News About Franchitti And McRae

Dario Franchitti and Colin McRae are two of Scotland's biggest motor racing stars and two of my favourite racers.

Franchitti won the Indy 500 earlier in the year (I think I wrote about this in May) and clinched the Indycar Series title last Sunday after his title rival who was leading the race at the time, ran out of fuel on the penultimate corner of the last lap. He had let a big championship lead slip after being involved in a number of accidents in the last couple of months including being turned upside down twice in two races. He almost won the CART championship in 1997 (i think) but lost it on number of races won after finishing level with Juan Pablo Montoya so to finally win a championship is very good for the nicest man in motorsport, who, incidentally, is married to actress Ashley Judd. He is now set to join Montoya in NASCAR next season.

Colin McRae was denied a full season drive for next year's World Rally Championship on Friday and announced his retirement from full time rallying. He's not done a full championship since 2003 so it's not a huge surprise. He has been doing the odd rally here and there and also tried his hand at other forms of motorsport such as Le Mans 24 Hour and ASCAR and also has his own computer game francise.

Sadly at 4:10 today he was piloting his helicopter when it crashed, bursting into flames, killing him, his son and two others. RIP Colin McRae.

BBQ In The Dark, D Becomes S

The last two quizzes have been as expected really. 84 out of 137 for 7th out of 9 with Kate, JJ and Caroline joining me and yesterday there was only Kate and myself getting 69 (haven't had one of those for a while) out of 136 coming 9th out of 10 which was very respectable as we didn't receive any outside help either (yeah I know that's how it should be but it's not)!

Summer has arrived. It seemed to start when Rihanna's "Umbrella" (ella ella eh eh eh)got knocked off number one. Maybe i'll write about crappy music in another post. Anyway, it's mid September and still warm and sunny so JJ, Caroline, Kate and I went for a walk erm somewhere! It was near West End golf club I think. That was Thursday.

On Friday with the fiancees off on a dirty weekend (or something) it was just me and Kate to have a BBQ. It was a crappy little BBQ and we didn't start cooking until 7:30. Sausages were done by 8:00 then it was burger time. These took about 50 minutes to cook by which time it was dark (so dark my phone light had to be used to check the colour of the meat). The BBQ was quite dead by now so we drank lots of wine.

In work news I don't really know where I am now. I've been at a clients for the last eight working days and sat at nine different desks in my short time in the office. I don't think there are any more desks I could possibly sit at.

Other news - Sarah D got married. There's plenty pictures on Facebook and she'll be now known as Sarah S in the sidebar!

New Laptop, 20 Beers, Strange Shop

It's not been an exciting week by any means. I have bought a new laptop as some of you are aware which is proving reliable so far. This coincidentally means I've started playing poker again a bit. I was meant to tidy the house up in my week off work but haven't really got round to it taking chilling out to the extreme. It's back to it tomorrow though as I start officially in my new role auditing half of the time and also move my desk if it hasn't been moved already. It should be ok but will require focus and also I will have to learn to say no. It's an important word in life and work as doing too much too often will see me being taken advantage of without any reward - and I don't want that.

On a less serious note, I was out with Rob on Friday and had five pints taking my total number of beers drunk in August to 20 which must be a new record. I'm still not exactly a drinking machine though and to be honest I think it's unlikely that this fairly mediocre feat will be achieved again.

Phil and I went to Tesco yesterday for another weekly shop. On our way out there were a group of lads surrounding my car who appeared to have just jumped out of a minibus. We got closer and a guy had collapsed next to my car so I couldn't leave. I think he'd had a bit too much to drink but was also diabetic and low on sugar so although he was breathing, he was unconscious (in a coma according to a Tesco medic). Anyway after five minutes or so an ambulance came and he was taken away and that was the last we saw of him. I think he'll be ok though.