In Hoose Entertainment

Spent some time at work on Wednesday before heading down to Platt Fields for the penultimate Hockey session.

The only downside to this one is that it had been raining since about 2pm, and the fields were soaking wet, and before long, so were we!

Mahinda, Rosy, Gareth, Paul, Barney and myself braved the lashing torrent to set up a wee 3 on 3. It turned out to be a top game, albeit with plenty of slippage, we lost but not heavily. I scored lots but that’s not important . At one point we re-orienteered the pitch as it was becoming a mud bath!

We headed on down to the Welcome just off Dickinson road for a few pints and the Liverpool v Chelsea match - unfortunately upon getting there we found that they weren’t showing the game so after warding off the less-than-lucid attempts of the resident drunk to get us to go to Blackpool, and promising the Landlady that we’d be back someday, we headed down to the Victoria in Withington.

I haven’t been in the Victoria since Beerenteering which I think was back in June. There’s a guy behind the bar there who I used to be in a band with. Unfortunately they wanted to play Abba covers in a Punk Rock style. I only ever went to one practice.

Watched the game in the pub, an exciting 0-0 draw for me (though if you were a neutral you may not agree) and headed out to get some chicken to fill the belly. I’d got changed by this point into some thankfully drier clothes.

Arranged to meet Linden and her friend, Corin, up from London and based fairly close to where my sister lives, in the Font bar by the BBC.

Here we played a game of “Spin the coin around a pint glass” (easier with a 2p!) a quick game of table footie and table rugby and such chitter chatter, as you might expect. Mark and Alsion joined us at a later time but didn’t stay long when we revealed that we’d all been individually pounced upon by the ticker tape flyer brigade and had all managed to pick up fliers for 42nd Street.

So Mahinda, Rosy, Linden, Corin and I moseyed on down to forty-twos.

Being the same night as the one we went last week I couldn’t help but notice that the place seem to be using the same CD to play us music. No matter, we got to hear the original “Hard To Handle” (a favourite) and had a decent time.

memories of the night are hazy, though I remember Corin dancing against a rather large pole and meeting up with Chris of “Leeds Festival” fame.

Taxi back to Linden’s and a brief chat ’til Linden fell asleep. Rosy and I walked home down the - now familiar - Yew Tree Road route.

Decent night, though I’m now very very very very tired.

… I love it.

People who don’t want to read about cricket; skip the next 5 paragraphs.

So I went down to the cricket practice yesterday evening, I’d checked on the website before hand and was there at 9pm as stated.

Unfortunately most of the group had arrived at 8 and left before 9 (for unknown reasons) the court was booked out until 10 and had already been paid for, so the few of us that were there went in and had a few nets.

It’s been a long time since I’ve faced proper bowling, and it’s difficult! suddenly having people bowl at you at 70mph + found me playing and missing more often than not before being bowled by a slower ball. I need the practice though, and I reckon in a month or so I’ll be able to see the ball again I was definitely getting better towards the end.

Bowling wise, it’s funny bowling on a 22 yard track when you’re used to the 12-15 yard tracks we usually set up on platt fields, but I found my length fairly early. Spin is always tough on the flat mat track but I extracted some despite - as I realised this morning - using an incorrect grip for the entire session. Later on I bowled medium pace and that seemed decent enough. Accurate considering how long I’ve been out.

I’ll certainly not be challenging for the team but the nets will make me a much better player (It’s often said that you can only improve by playing with people better than you, and I agree) so perhaps I can go and find a 3rd XI somewhere to go and join next summer

I also had my first demonstration group of the year on Tuesday.

My demonstration class is slightly different to the typical demonstration class in that I’m the only person in the room and I’m officially a “Facilitator” rather than a “Demonstrator” the difference basically meaning that I’m supposed to lead the groups in their work, and get them working together.

My three groups seem fairly decent.

One of them were quiet and surly, the guy who did their presentation at the end (we always finish with a presentation!) looked about as happy as a bean smothered in tomato ketchup when he stood up to talk about the work in the most dreary monotone I’ve ever heard.

The next group were really chatty (which is good for group work) and also contain the only “fit” girl in the group (It’s always nice to have at least one in the room).

The last group were fairly quiet until their presentation, and then got this guy to stand up and take the lead. He immediately jumped up off his seat and stood there with his arms outstreached (as though he’d just scored a goal) :

(in an excited tone)

“We were studying the exciting world of Magic Squares and we conquered it! Hurray!”

and proceeded in a wall thumping manner to give one of the best (and funniest!) mathematical presentations I’ve ever seen. brilliant.

Anyway that was Tuesday. Tarra!

Otherwise known as “What I’ve done over the weekend”

Saturday:

Saturday was a bit of a nothing day really. I spent most of it in work (yes I *do* do some!) and finally finished off my first year report at 7pm.

I then arranged to meet rosy on the way back so we could do some shopping at sainsbury’s. However due to traffic and stuff I didn’t get there til 745. This was too late as when we got there they decided to eschew their previous policy of closing at 1000 for a new, more radical, policy of shutting at 8. Obviously this meant that we did not have time to do any shopping.

I don’t remember what I did saturday evening so it obviously was not interesting.

Sunday :
Sunday morning I went and did the shopping and had a nice trouty dinner with salad and the like. Spent a few hours killing time and relaxing before heading off to the bowling thing in Didsbury.

What had originally started out as a small group of 6 had turned into a gargantuan fest involving (eventually) 19 of us. 15 of us bowled and had fun. I did crap and was generally amused by Lindens Antics on the lane next to me.

By virtue of fate, it seemed, I was always bowling at the same time as Miss W, which was always worthwhile in terms of entertainment since she fell over at least 4 times (her first strike involved her falling flat on her ass after bowling it from between her legs) and the “Bowling through peoples legs” stunt was achieved with due aplomb.

We finished bowling after two enjoyable games and went off to Nando’s - only their queue was large and they suggested it might take 20 minutes before 4 of us could go in. there were more than 4 of us, so we went to Pizza hut instead.

Also Kate_s had arranged for a group of the lasses (and Mahinda) to go and watch Pride and Prejudice. Having been forever rendered insensible to the charms of said drama by my sister and mothers ubiquitous breakfast viewing feasts featuring the BBC version, Luc, Jen, Rosy, Adrian, Sarah, Si and I decided to watch something else.

The couples went for that prison film that I can’t remember the name of whilst Rosy, Adrian and I went for the zombie film “Land of the Dead”. Adrian, predictably, wussing out at the last moment.

Land of the Dead - a decent zombie flick. enjoyable but not the best one I’ve ever seen. 3/5. Recommended to fans on the genre.

Upon coming out of the cinema we went to the bus stop only to be deluged by UK North. No less than 6 of the red beast’s past us by before we decided to leg it down to the next stop down.

It was a good job we did because that meant we were only waiting 40 minutes instead of over an hour. We didn’t have any change to get a UKN, and had I known it would’ve been so long in the first place I’d have just walked home. ah well! we got home eventually.

And bed.

Monday:

Went into work late, but then I had nothing to do since I’d already handed in my report, and my meeting with Jeff (my supervisor) was at 3pm. so I messed around for a bit.

Went home after a pretty unproductive day and arranged a bunch of people to meet for the quiz.

Went down at 815 ish and set up residence with Adrian, Adrians Dad, Alsion, Jamie, Benn, Alsions friend Clair, and eventually, rosy. Linden was on an opposing team.

Linden was wearing one of those sweet necklace things which lead to a modicom of amusement…

Around 1030ish the quiz finished (we came third - good fun!, Linden’s team somehow lucked their way into 2nd) and we hung around to drink a bit more before trapsing outside at closing time.

At this point Linden made her intentions clear (”I want to drink more! let’s drink more! I shouldn’t be so irresponsible! but I want to Drink More!!”)

Eventually we decide to go to our place since we have drink and her bike.

Mahinda, Rosy, Linden and I were the ones who made the trip. upon arriving back wine was opened and a game of “I have never” ensued til Linden fell asleep and Mahinda left.

Bed far later than it should’ve been.

and that was my weekend!

Not a great deal happened on either day really. A brief summary follows:

Thursday:
Hockey ; 7 people turned up, we lost but had a good game. quick pint down hardy’s and then back home. I was slightly late getting there because of ridiculous traffic.
Work ; did quite a bit.
That’s it.

Friday:
Work ; lots and lots and lots.
Football ; saw the last ten minutes of luton v sheff wed
Goonies ; The most interesting part of the last two days.

After the football had finished Adrian, Rosy and I sat around drinking for a bit and then Linden, Alsion and Emma joined us.

We started off the Goonies on tv, an event organised after we discovered that Alsion had never seen it!

Linden & Emma were convinced by the power of text, and Adrian wasn’t leaving til he’d worked through all the beer he’d brought with him.

we quickly instigated a few drinking games including whenever they said the word “willie” (The pirate whose treasure they go after is called one-eyed-Willie with classic 80s humour - it is repeated often) and whenever something was broken.

It all went a bit hectic when we instigated special new rules for the last couple of minutes including:

“Whenever Andi’s legs became visible” (Adrian)
“Whenever water is seen” (Alsion - particularly nasty this one!)
“Vertical Movement” (Rosy)
“Swords” (Me)
“Hats” (Linden)

Anyone who has seen the lsat 20 minutes of the film will realise how hectic it then became.

Adrian & Emma left.

Spaced was next on the roster, having recently returned from vacation, and four episodes later Alsion and Linden made their taxi based move and went home.

Good night in.

’twas the mugss wine evening last night. A very good way to get fairly drunk for not much money.

Went to the Jabez for around 900pm, arriving literally seconds after Alsion texted us to let us know that we were required. My first impression was “Well it’s definitely more succesful than last year!” there were quite a few people there.

I knew about half of them and chatted to people here and there. Alsion kept my glass full of white and my memories of this part of the evening are:

1) When Leila shouts, it sounds ALOT like when Linden shouts. Upon arriving I was walking to the other end of the bar to get some wine when Leila shouts “PETE!” my first thought was “Lindens not here for another hour and a half” and then I realised…

2) Luc was “otherwise engaged” for most of the evening, at least from the moment I walked in until we all moved on.

3) “Guelke’s Beard” provides a good curse\exclamation. Unless overused (Rosy : take note)

4) People wanting to snog each other should be left alone (Rosy : Take Note) (this may or may not be related to point 2)

5) Man City lost to Doncaster! Hah!

6) I met “New Pam”. His actual name is Ben, and the reason is because he’s moved into Pam’s old room. Didn’t seem to object to being called Pam.

Linden turned up around 1020, and after several aborted attempts Johnny G got us all to move towards 42 and free entry.

we were the last ones out, but also one of the first to arrive at the club. (honing our abilities) we babysat a couple of freshers all the way there, though it’s funny when 18 year olds get drunk.

Linden whipped the group into shape using her PFE abilities and when Johnny G arrived we all queued for a few minutes before being allowed in for free.

Rosy got the first round in and somehow managed to lose a bottle of beer along the way. We apparently talked about Trout.

We danced a bit, but I find it’s more comfortable in smaller, more intimate groups (unless they include 19 year old mike-a-likes or vest-wearing ex-Linden-workmate people).

Most of the interesting people had left by 1am, so when Linden and her new German pal (I’m not going to attempt to spell her name having heard it once and knowing that it begins with a G and has a Z in it somewhere) announced they were to make a move, we joined them.

We decided to take the cablicious route home and stopped off at Lindens for a couple of pints of water and a bit of chit chat.

Rosy and I walked home down Yew Tree, a pleasant nighttime walk (I never thought I’d say that about moss side!) and when I got home I had a pot noodle and watched an episode of shameless that I hadn’t seen before.

Went to bed at 430am.

I’m not entirely sure how I managed to leave the club early and still only get to bed at 430! D’oh!

On Monday not a lot happened.

On Tuesday I arranged with Adrian to go and see the Sheff Weds v West Ham game at Hillsborough - it was only a tenner.

Unfortunately a bit of heavy traffic meant that as we pulled into Thoresby Avenue we realised that running would be the order of the day, so we paced down into Hillsborough and through the park when we heard a loud cheer… wondering what we’d missed we made our way into the stadium and sat ourselves down.

West Ham 1-0 Sheff Wed 5 mins

we’d missed the first 5 mins and it was already 1 nil to the hammers. :/ still the game was lively and, try as they might, west ham couldn’t keep sheff wed quiet. The Wednesday were having a good game and they definitely didn’t look like a team bottom of the championship.

West Ham 1-0 Sheff Wed H-T.

H-T lead us to the refreshments counter. A Standard meat pie and bovril later from the flirty look-at-me counter assistant (clearly enjoying all the attention she was getting) and we were back out watching the game.

Wednesday continued to press for an equaliser, but all too quickly West Ham showed their quality in front of goal.

West Ham 3-0 Sheff Wed 75 mins

I recieved a text from Linden about this point saying that the current comedian was naff, I texted back the score, but no sooner had I done so than:

West Ham 3-2 Sheff Wed 80 mins

And then (Chris Brunt?) was through, nicked it over the keeper and…… hit the crossbar! Sheff Wed continue to look dangerous, but David Bellion (who we last saw playing for man utd reserves against sheff wed reserves!) killed the game off.

West Ham 4-2 Sheff Wed F-T

A very entertaining game, glad I went. Wycombe 3-8 Aston Villa also raised a few eyebrows around the stadium!

So made our slow way home eventually arriving back at 1130. Linden is trying to convince me to carry on drinking and a text conversation ensues that variously involves: (Plenty edited out)

L : “I’m a bit hammered … ”
P : “… Go to bed, lass, there’ll be more beer tomorrow, I promise”
L : “I want more. Now.”
P : “… I may have a beer from the cabinet … ”
L : “… I’m leaving now. I’ll be at yours by 1210 or I’ll go home”

there was plenty more, but that gives the gist of it. Either way Linden turned up at 1210, her excuse:

“The taxi driver turned around and I didn’t want to tell him to turn around again so that I’d go back home, so I said ‘A road beginning with ‘w’ in Withington’, and then he said ‘whitchurch road?’ when we got there, I said ‘YES!’ and then halway down the road ‘82!!!’ and here I am. I should be home…”

I won’t include all the quotes from last night, but upon being asked what she’d drunk that evening the tale went something like:

L :”3 ciders and 4 shandies”
P :”how come you’re so drunk then?!”
L :”I’m only ickle, like a little Gnome … (pause) … Hang on! half a bottle of archers!”
P :”That’d explain it!”

Anyway I had a couple of beers (as did Rosy) and we watched 12 Angry Men when Linden fell asleep at 1am. We decided that we’d put the spare bed out for her (we have two in our front room) and then carry her to it when the film finished at 2am.

Linden had other plans though.

She woke at 155am, and went to the bathroom. Rosy and I started to make up the spare bed. I went upstairs and found Linden and she gave me some sort of riddle involving drunkeness and tiredness (I can’t remember it) but the next time I went upstairs she’d nicked my bed! She said that that’s why I had to get the drunkeness and tiredness riddle…

I considered shifting her, but couldn’t be arsed (I was pretty tired by this point and she was pretty much asleep) so I went to the spare bed instead… nowt I’m not used to, it’s the bed I used to sleep in when I visited my parents in Hull…!

and that was that! woke up this morning and went to two freshers fairs (they’re just not what they used to be, though we did get some free beer - allbeit it tasted funny) and I joined the cricket club at long last.

Got some free food at lunch, and it’s the mugss wine evening tonight which is sure to be fun - especially as Johnny G (Who looks more and more like a philosopher everytime I see him - he’s now grown a beard) has free tickets for 42’s for us all. Linden, Alsion, Rosy will all be in attendence!

But now : Work!

So a quick update on the weekend.

Saturday was a nice relaxing day spent listening to the footie, shopping and the like. At one point bowling was mooted but it didn’t work out in the end (I REALLY want to go bowling at some point … who’d be up for that?) so Rosy and I decided to pop down to the cinema.

We watched “Wolf Creek” and all I can say is “Don’t Go There” either to the place or the film. It’s quite brutal, but not in a “Texas Chainsaw Massacre” way, it is just not a very nice film (and this is from someone who tends to like horror films, and all that).

About half way through quite a few people left, and I don’t blame them. It wasn’t a very enjoyable saturday night experience, but I suppose some people will like it and the film itself is not without merit.

Besides that, went home watched some crap (*not* literally) and fell asleep.

Sunday rolled around and I was up early to tidy the house with the able assistance of rosy. It took a little longer than expected and I missed the first 20 mins or so of the Liverpool v Man Utd game which was Not. Very. Good. (at least it ended 0-0!)

At half time I put the roast on.

two and a half hours of cooking, sweating, peeling, slicing, boiling, stirring and hospitality later and it was ready.

I served up:

Roast Pork (6 lb’s)
mashed carrot \ swede
yorkshire pud
sage & onion stuffing
Honey glazed roasted parsnips
Seseme Roast Tatties
buttered carrot
broccoli
boiled tatties
buttered green beans
Partly roast onions in pork sauce
Courgette
Gravy

I think that’s it.

It was lovely.

People enjoying the feast were: Linden, Rosy, Adrian, Emma and myself.

We ended up sticking the radio on and listening whilst eating and drinking. Adrian and Emma had to leave fairly early, and the rest of us couldn’t really move due to our earlier gluttony.

Every now and again Someone would get up and we’d have a few beers. Alex joined us for an hour or two making him late for a rugby club dinner (repeatedly calling to say he was at the bus-stop whilst the simpsons was clearly playing in the background was funny )

Luc joined us a bit later - prompting a bit of a jam with myself and Linden. Highlights from this include some cranberries song, ermmm talking random crap (though I can’t remember any of the specifics!) and Linden reading her workbook (something to do with imagination and drama, I think) over the music to the Pixies’ “Where is my Mind” the classic line at the end of one of the verse’s “It’s all in my mind” became the defining moment I think (It’s the defining moment because it’s the one I remember)

We carried on until we’d drunk the entire case we bought yesterday and had moved onto the Leeds Leftovers, around 1am Linden and Luc bade their farewells and climbed aboard a cab whose driver probably didn’t know what he was letting himself in for.

A thoroughly resplendent weekend, I’m sure you’ll agree.

Had a good day yesterday.

Spent most of the day doing all the dull administrative stuff associated with registering for another year, the bonus being that you always feel good when you’ve finished doing all that tat, I then went off to the supermarket and then home.

We then went out to the old Font Bar, I’ve been there once or twice before but couldn’t remember where it was so I had to ask Mahinda, we found it alright in the end.

In attendence this evening were : Mark, Linden, Kate s, Mahinda, Rosy, Me … and later … Adam, Luc, Random People, Alsion.

Had a few pints in the Font and had great amusement when Mahinda spotted that they had a poster advertising the showing of “The Goonies” those of you who know what that means will know what that means

Also had fun when Benn mentioned (via text) that he’d pulled one of the girls who works there in his first year… took only about 5 mins before I found her! not bad!

the seats were comfortable and the beer was flowing, but this was not enough for us, so we discussed whether we should move onto the Bop (for the uninitiated the bop is one of my least favourite clubs) or subspace. We decided in the end to look at the queue for subspace (it’s next door to font!) and decide from that.

Somebody mentioned (can’t remember who!) that I probably wouldn’t like subspace either, but they were wrong, it’s a top night out!

We went to subspace.

beers were £1.50 which is decent for a club and the music was mostly classical 60s fare moving onto funkier choons as the night progressed. Lots of talking and not much dancing took place, that’s the wrong way around, but we still all* had fun (* mostly all).

Went home and ate a pot noodle. yum yum. Pot Noodles have definitely fallen into that area of my diet market “When Drunk Only” along with dirty burgers, Kebabs etc etc…. it did a job.

went to bed.

nothing that interesting just a generally good day!

I’ve been out 7 times in the last 9 days which I *do* think is probably too much - but I’ll have to slow down now as I’m running out of money anyway. I guess when you’re a student you *HAVE* to take advantage of all hedonistic opportunities because you don’t get as many when you’re working (unless you’re Mahinda )

See ya!

And no, I don’t mean the ones culled to make Alsion’s boots.

Last night I worked late (more on that later) and Rosy and I met up with Mahinda around 820 or so outside the student’s union. Mahinda was slightly late due to his buses seeming inability to move - particularly with reference to the withington library. Perhaps the driver thought it were a mobile library and he was cruising at 30mph, or perhaps he was reading a book. No matter we still got to see the support act…

Goodo - Is what I think their name was. We came in during an awful dirge of a song (imo!) and so went to get some beers. the bar was still not too busy and we came back to find that song coming to an end. What followed was more upbeat - almost 50/60s style rock n roll racked up a few notches. It was very Beach Boys in fact. decent, but they sounded like a cover band.

Then the main event… the super furry animals.

I’ve never actually heard any of their stuff before (it later transpires I know one or two tracks, but literally only one or two) and I was basically there on the recommendation of my two partners in crime.

I have to say, they really impressed me. They played for around two hours with the first hour being mainly newer atmospheric-sounding stuff that Rosy didn’t know and the latter hour being anthemic poppy stuff that rosy did know. I liked both hours, though I think I preferred the first, Atmospheric stuff is something I seem to have a penchant (sic?) for!

They finished with “The Man Don’t Give A….” and then about 10 minutes of dance type music with their “Credits” rolling through the projector screen, including little video’s of all the crew etc etc… it was pretty weird, but pretty cool end to a gig! top drawer!

We left the Academy and Mahinda immediately asked “Pub, Bus, Food” I was up for “Any of the above” though I didn’t really fancy going home yet as I knew that after a gig you get pretty wired, so I wouldn’t have been able to go to sleep anyway.

A brief visit to the office (acting as a cloakroom today) and then onto babylon for a dirty burger. then home.

All in all a good night.

Today I’ve been sorting lots of stuff out.

I’m now registered so it looks as though i’m definitely in for another two years of this (yay!) and I’ve also sorted out lots of little administrative things, as well as arranging a big more on the go-karting event (31 people now!!!)

for those of you who are interested there follows a brief update on my working life, I know some of you will be (erm, mum!, because you’re always asking about it!) but I equally know some of you won’t be. You can stop reading at this point.

Basically I’ve just about finished my first year report, it’s a 40-page 3-section report so far (I need to add two very small sections (intro \ what I’m doing next) references (may take a while!) and contents)) and includes two main proofs for the year.

It’s on the relationships between the probabilities of seeing certain events in the future based only upon what you have observed in the past. My main two theories are along the lines of:

(I’m trying to put it in real English, but I may fail to get the idea’s across, ah well!)

1) showing that there is only one rule that defines which events you’re always more likely to see, no matter which of the “Acceptable” probability functions you use.

2) That if we’re given, for every pair of possible observations, which one will have the greater probability (or if they’re equal!), then we can completely define a probability function, except in one specialist situation when you cannot. (this was the very long one)

so that’s the long and the short of it, and you either understand that or you don’t But you can’t say I didn’t try!

Tarra!

Righty-o two days to catch up on.

Tuesday I woke up hungover (that’s a guess as I don’t remember, but I’m pretty sure it’ll be right) and made my way into university. I got plenty of work done and then watched the Liverpool match at home, a 2-1 victory over Real Betis. Early Night. I booked the Go-Karting. Hurray!

Wednesday was more interesting

Went into work as usual did a fair bit (got a bit stuck on a proof at the end - that irritated me, but I’ll fix it on Thursday (i.e. today!)) then went off to hockey.

Got a late message from Mahinda “Running late, bring cricket stuff” so we did and played a wee bit of cricket for an hour or so. It was a good game, I especially enjoyed my innings at the end where I tried to play “Round the Clock” some well timed strokes meant the ball went for miles - I even hit a tree halfway up at one point. My bowling was less impressive, but I don’t bowl enough to get the consistency required.

Hockey was ok. we lost by many (though we scored the “Next goals a winner goal!”) there were lots of people there which was pretty cool.

Went to the pub. Hardy’s had a few there. around 9pm Linden phones to say that shes on her way. She arrives around 930pm, at the time Adrian, Me, Rosy, Luc were all that remained of the hockey troupe. Adrian disapeared sharply and we were left with the four of us.

The conversation quickly took a turn for the “wrong”.

Before long we found ourselves in the Punjab. Linden and I shared a Dosa (nice, not a lot of food) we all had a drink, though they refused to serve us one last cider before leaving, and they brought water - which we didn’t ask for! I think they thought we may have been a little drunk.

and, you know what, we may have been.

Anyway I relate how you can get beers from sangam down the end of the road until fairly late in the evening, so we go in there and order takeout.

We trapse into the park and sit down (in the dark) and drink like chav’s. It was a lot of fun actually! at one point a random bloke turned up and spouted three bad poems at us. He asked us all our names, I became Colin, from Aylesbury.

Went back to Lindens and kipped over when it became apparent that Rosy was falling asleep.

The following morning, Miss Wint gave us all a lift home where we found we’d missed the bin men. I had a monster hangover which was only relieved by a shower and some ibuprofen.

And then it was down to the dentist. An expertly done filling was performed and I went home.

I currently look as though I’m wearing eyeshadow. and I’m off to a gig tonight - it never ends!

It’s also been a day full of deja vu, but I have my own opinions on that!

t’ra!

Yup, that’s right, I’ve lost.

And now, so have you!

If you don’t want to read about the cricket, skip to about half way down. If you do want to read about the cricket, there’s a large post on exactly that directly beneath this one

So I arrived home some time after 9 and had a shower. Feeling half human I settled down to watch the opening session of the fifth day of the fifth test.

By 11am I knew that there was no way I was going into work. this match was far too exciting, and had I gone in I would’ve spent the day intently watching the guardian scoreboard instead of doing any work.

Of course, I had the fact that my supervisor meeting takes place on a Monday to contend with, but a quick e-mail sorted that one out. I also cancelled my part in the Monday footie match, but that’s more due to a foot bone injury picked up at Hockey last week.

Finally settled into my position for the day, surrounded by tea and tracker bars, I watched as we seemingly through the game down the pan.

All we needed to do was bat out the whole day. We’d lost Andrew Strauss - the top scorer in the first innings, early doors last night but Mickey Vaughan was looking in top form and Tresco was solid as a rock.

Until the drinks interval.

By Lunch it was 125-5, Pietersen and Collingwood at the wicket.

Tea was the session that won us the game. Pietersen cracked open the bat (literally) and stormed into his first ever England century. Collingwood played brilliantly for 10 off 51, and was then more than matched by Ashley Giles who ended up with a 50, more importantly both of them hung around and allowed Pietersen to flow.

By Tea the aussies would’ve required 5 an over, if they got the three English batsmen out in the next three balls. Of course they didn’t, and in the end 350 off 4 balls was a tough ask. Still enough time for Jones to give away 4 byes though (as pointed out by Brian) heh!

no matter. Ashes lifted and what are you going to do on the back of great sporting success? Well you’ll do what any decent Andrew Flintoff would do, and you go drinking.

A rather small group of Linden, Adrian (who later morphed into Rosy), Alsion and myself. we met in the union and moved onto the big hands.

The big hands saw the invention of a new drinking game : “Mats”, I’m still not entirely sure what the rules are but they’re something like this:

Everyone starts with a pile of mats under their drinks. The idea is to place your mats under other peoples pints. The rules are:

1) You must lift up your pint when you want to take a drink
2) You cannot touch any mat when your drink is grounded
3) You must take a drink if you lift up your pint
4) you can only move 1 or 2 mats with every movement.
5) you can only place mats on unprotected piles (i.e. no pint on top of them)

hence riotous swapping of mats whenever anyone took a drink.

It was brilliant until we all got a little drunk and Linden’s fruity beer ended up… well all over her legs and the table (flat thing) (cue mass innuendo’ing - like we needed any prompt!)

Other things we did which made us unpopular with the staff include -

1. mat tipping - the art of flicking the mats up and catching with the same hand before they hit the table. Linden seems to have the knack of being ambidextrous at this. Where as I can only do it one-handed.
2. Falling off the seat whilst climbing over to go to the toilet and kicking your shoe across the other side of that section of the bar. oh! it was only alsion who did that!
3. Playing “I Have Never”. This included much drinking whilst I was thinking as my brain had ceased to function. Possibly due to the alcoholic nature of the weekend past.
4. Tearing mats up into tiny dogs and people.

I also enjoyed my card trick where I sucessfully picked lindens mobile from a pile of beer mats.

At the end of the evening it was pointed out that the group out entirely consisted of the goonie group whilst lacking a mahinda. All of you people read this blog and I was wondering… Have the five of us ever been out together - i.e. - *Just* the five of us ??

We left and walked the two girls home (well we carried one part of the way). Rosy and I then walked down Yew Tree Road (didn’t seem that far a walk) and went home. I went to bed; I guess maybe 130am?

and that was that!

In keeping with tradition the second “Commentary” post will be the second one about sport.

I’ve spent around 20 days watching, and 5 days listening to cricket this summer, and it’s all been worthwhile - and not just because at the end of it all we picked up that little urn and watched Freddie struggle through an interview clearly smashed off his face during todays celebrations.

First, a history lesson. I’ve been interested in Cricket since the early 90s, when me dad first took me to see Yorkshire play a world invitational. Though I didn’t realise it at the time the game contained several modern day cricketing legends, like Sachin Tendulkar, then a prodigous 19 year old, and Richie Richardson, later to be captain of the West Indies. At that time the England team had just seen many of it’s best players retire, or about to retire. The likes of Gooch, Botham, Gower, Gatting and the rest were on their way out and we were scratching around to find replacements.

It was a bad time for English cricket, we’d just lost the ashes and were getting tonked by half the countries in the cricketing world - and things got worse - until we reached some kind of nadir around the time that Nasser Hussain took over the captaincy.

All this time I’d watch the odd match, my youthful impatience however meant that I had not fully realised the sheer theatre of the test arena, and I preffered One-Day games. I remember going to watch an England v Australia test day, at Headingly, sometime around 97 (it wasn’t later than 97!). The ground was half-empty and it rained for most of the day, but it was still a good experience. Despite the fact that this is when Australia were at the top of their game, and we were at the bottom I think we eked out a draw in this game.

Test Cricket really came home to me when I was working in London. Watching the weekends play and keeping up via the guardian, BBC or cricinfo websites became a regular feature of the summer, and highlights packages became the norm during winter (I didn’t have sky back then). We were still losing, but we were looking better. I remember the England tour of Australia, when Harmison first broke through into the team and couldn’t seem to stop bowling wides and Jones came in, looked good and then got injured for a year and a half.

We were stuffed 4-1 in that series (I think! - I’m not checking any facts here just going off my memory) but by this point I was back into watching the sport in a big way. It wasn’t long until a trip was arranged to a test series, West Indies at Old Trafford. A wonderful days cricket, and I wouldn’t have missed the opportunity to go to the ashes for love nor money. Fortunately Mahinda came through with some tickets and we were there for the 4th day of Old Trafford. Another great experience.

So that brings me to this series, and what a magical series. The majesty of the theatre surrounding cricket was entirely present. The series had everything. and we won it.

Lords : The first day which went from delight to despair. Getting pounded and all the papers wanting to replace have the team.

Edgbaston : I watched almost the whole match in Turkey, I’ll never forget that dramatic 2 run victory sealed only after a heart-stopping 90 minute spell from the aussie tail.

Old Trafford : Mickey Vaughans 165, the agonising wait for that last wicket and the despair of that final Harmison over.

Trent Bridge : my favourite, the one of the follow on blues, Mickey Vaughans Dancing, run out by a sub and Ashley Giles’ regal 7. I listened to this on TMS at the leeds Festival, and the result came through in the middle of a field of thousands of drunk festival goers, surrounded by a selection of mates with Razorlight about to hit the main stage (it turns out their set was delayed 2 minutes so the lead singer could hear the result before going on!) Fantastic.

and, of course, the Oval : where we looked to have thrown it away twice, once when Hayden and Langers imperious stand threatened to tear us apart, and again when Flintoff fell just before lunch with the score on 125-5 on the final day. Warnes dropped catch (and 3 foot spinner!) will live with me for a while, as will Pietersen’s 6-a-thon. Absolute brilliant.

The final session where we knew we were going to win, and the unconfined joy started to spread through the stadium and seemed to seep through the television and into our front room was magical. The whole nation pulled together for a sport that 5 years ago was regarded as a joke.

For those of us who watched England through the bad times this was all the more special, you’ve got to have tasted the lows to fully appreciate the highs and I don’t think there’ll ever be another series as brilliant as the one we’ve just witnessed…

Fantastic

OK, so I figured out why there were so few comments, (well Linden told me!) apparently it was asking you for all manner of detail to be able to post one - and then I had to moderate it.

Well I’ve tinkered with the settings and it should be much easier to post them now. If I start getting lots of spam I’ll turn some of them back on, but til then it’s a free-for-all!

Sunday :
Cricket - Roast - Michael Vaughan Dancing - a bad football match - Pub - Curry House (I didn’t have a curry!) - Staying up til 2am and kipping over Lindens place.

Whilst we were in the pub we used the “Coin-Toss” method of deciding whether to continue on to the curry house. Despite allowing for a best of 17 (from an original “1 toss”) Tails (for “Going to the curry house”) never actually won. Of course, we went anyway

Today I am mostly “Made of Ming” - I’m soooooo looking forward to my shower!

Thought I’d better update you on my week. Now where did I leave you?

ah Wednesday I guess!

Wednesday. ummm. Not much happened on Wednesday. we lost against Northern Ireland (and you can see what I thought about that below!) but not a lot else! so let’s leave it at that!

Thursday - the start of the last test match! COME ON ENGLAND! I did spend rather a lot of time watching the game but eventually made it into work and typed up a proof and a lemma (excitement!) then went out to play hockey.

Of course it started to rain about 530 and we started to play hockey at around 630, it was wet, we got wet, the light disappeared around 8pm but we played on til 830 for some reason (by which point we could no longer see the ball!) the rain made for slippy conditions and people kept falling over, which would’ve been comedy if you’d been watching it (though presumably in a nice warm house with a cup of tea… mmmmm tea) and sticks kept flying out of hands - memorably Lukes (whose stick slammed into my knee!) and Mahinda’s (who nearly knocked out Cathy) we made the right choice eventually and went down to Hardy’s for the post hockey pint.

the score? no idea, I’m pretty sure we won and I scored loads.

Friday:
Watched some cricket (though this was the first day of the rain, so not a great deal) and proved another lemma (the one I wrote down yesterday (more excitement!)) headed out to the footage for around 5pm and met Linden, Squiz, Rosy & Paddy; the latter three had been there since 2 and Squiz was soon to start on his second bottle (shared with Alsion who turned up around 6 (I think!))

Linden, Rosy and I went down to meet Mahinda at 7pm in the Square Albert only to find, when we got there, that

a) It was closed!
b) Mahinda hadn’t even left yet!

So Rosy espied “The Rising Sun” a small corridor type pub with a nice range of beer, and we went there for a couple whilst we waited.

Mahinda turned up with his friend, Jeanette, a dentist, whose probably thoroughly fed up of people talking to her about their impending fillings…. :s

On to Tampopo - a noodle bar - nice, very nice, but (imo!) not as nice as wagamamas which is *great*.

We left there and headed down to FAB café, where we met up with alsion again, and her sisters.

much dancing, drinking, cavorting took place.

On the way home Linden had the beezer idea of a kebab, I was the only one who agreed (the others all flaked away) and had a decent kebab in Rusholme before catching my bus home and arriving back for 4am or so.

good night out

Saturday
More cricket (of course) looking decent for us now as the darkness and rain has given us hope of the draw.

Spent most of the day recovering from a hangover (don’t do the crime… etc etc…) and went shopping at some point; Listened to the footie (Spurs 0-0 Liverpool) and wrote out some of my songs neatly (I figure that when I next form a band — soon — it’ll be easiest to teach my songs to people if they’re written down - I’m going to make some tapes as well). Linden wants to be in the band so it’s already started to shape up nicely.

Speaking of the GBOF PFE BAHONS etc etc….. She called around 7pm asking if we fancied another trip out. Still feeling a bit broken from yesterday I said “Yes!” - of course. one ibuprofen and nicely cooked dinner later and I’m ready to play.

We meet up with Linden and her friend Celia in the Paramount and drink whilst the PFE does her work (I’m on vodka today to avoid a hangover) and we decide to try Tribeca. Benn is also there, and we find him at the bar, he joins our group.

Tribeca is a nice bar and it has good seats. Unfortunately it’s a bit pricey. True they did accidentaly give me a triple, but I feel I paid for it .

Linden introduces us to the game of “Quarters” or “Ten P’s” and much coin bouncing ensues. The game only ends when we run out of drink and Linden breaks a glass (a few photo’s exist of this, and I’ll have to try and get me one!)

I’ll explain what “Quarters” is in a reference post after I’ve finished this one. It’s a fun game.

Due to the expense we agree to move on (oh, I almost forgot Sleazy Rich and Aussie Nath have joined us by this point!) but we can’t seem to agree on where.

Fifth Avenue is the choice of the cognicant but we’re not sure whether they will let us in so we consider Funkademia and the Baa Baa before I point out that fifth avenue is about a 2 minute walk away so we can go and check out whether they will let us in and if they don’t we can go 2 mins the other way to the baa baa.

Fifth Ave. let us in.

“So what do you like about this place”

-Sleazy Rich to Celia

Fifth A. Is packed, and they start with a good stream of indie, followed by a misguided section of dance and finishing off with another stream of indie. had a very good time.

Dancing took place on a large scale. the dancefloor was packed and there was plenty of push and shove, but nothing inappropriate (oo-er!) a game of beer popping takes place (hitting the top of a bottle to try and make beer gush out of it) Rosy is the overall loser until mahinda gets me with a doozy. D’oh!

home! no food today but I think that’s common consent! Tiredness has struck!

Sunday:
I got up; texted a few people, and now I’m typing here whilst listening to the cricket. 3 wickets have dropped today and that is largely responsible for the title of the post (I thought it was a good enough pun (that means it’s really bad, I know!).

Off for Sunday lunch around Adrians. Next week is my turn!

Anyway, I can’t stay to natter all day. Tarra!