Cheltenham, and the rest of it.
another packed week… 
Let’s start with Friday
After a modicom of work I arrived at the train station raring to go, only to find that the ticket machine wouldn’t let me buy a normal priced ticket… and so I had to buy one which cost £20 more! Less than chuffed, I boarded the train with Adrian, and we were on our way.
We arrived at around ten pm, and caught a cab. Mike & Pam had the genius idea of a curry for dinner, so we stayed in, ate the take-away and ended up watching the Christopher Lee thriller “ The House that Dripped Blood” (interestingly, there was actually no blood in the film at all). All Good Fun.
Tiredness struck and sleep happened. Despite sleeping on a load of sofa cushions I caught up on several hours of sleep… much needed…. and before you knew it Saturday had reared it’s head.
Saturday started off with an episode of Quincy. Naturally.
It wasn’t long, however, until Mike made an appearance and let us know his plan of action:
Greasy Breakfast.
Pool.
Football.
Interspersed with drinking.
We then did:
Greasy Breakfast.
at a local greasy spoon. Pam failed to finish hers, though she ate everyone’s tomato.
Pool.
At the local pool bar. We played Killer (see “Reference” entry below, I wasn’t satisfied with the links I found) which is a great version of the game, and meant all of us could play at the same time. In other news - I now suck at pool.
Football.
The Germany v Sweden game kicked off whilst we were still playing pool, but we carried on ’til around the 60th minute… then we watched the game. Later the Argentina v Mexico game occurred, which provided the evenings entertainment with the additional presence of Jim, Mikes workmate.
Interspersed with drinking.
Lots of drinking occurred starting at 2pm (very slowly on my behalf) and ending up several hours later after the second footie match. I seem to remember lots of people in bumble bee outfits, but beyond that, not too much. I was seeing double when we went home and watched the naked gun (was it the Naked gun?)
We also ate a chinese.
Some of us would pay on Sunday.
Namely : Mike… who entered the front room swearing that he was going to convert to a religion where drinking was not allowed. He spent most of the day in such a state, whilst I wasn’t great I did manage to eat and was well (but tired) by the time we left.
The England Match was then watched on the TV and Adrian and I made a move soon afterwards.
The train home was beset by tiredness and an inability to use my phone.
Upon arriving back Mahinda calls saying he’s got a few people around his house, do I fancy popping over for an hour or so. I explain I’m tired, but but Mahinda, with the aid of Linden convinced me otherwise, the promise of footie highlights sways me.
I turn up and proceed to be tired for a couple of hours before going home after the footie finishes. Welcome sleep occurs.
Monday was upon me and I went in to meet my supervisor.
I left work at aroun 6pm, quickly showered and got myself over to Sarah’s for some fantastic food!
The loverly lady cooked an awesome fish stew, followed by sticky toffee pudding. I was full.
In the background the dullest match of the world cup. I was glad my attention was elsewhere.
Tuesday followed Monday, in time honoured fashion.
Tuesday was a rare night in, allowing me to catch up on washing, and the like, before Allan turned up around 9pm.
I ate a bit of food, watched the France v Spain travesty and popped out for a pint at solomon’s with Linden, Celia, Dan, Mahinda, Rosy, Nick & Allan.
Oh, and I was locked in my office by our porters.
Rather than switch the whole building onto “Card Lock” at 5pm, instead they just locked the front door! Not being able to get out (I quite fancied the second half of Brazil v Ghana) I called security.
Fortunately a lecturer turned up (Dr. Louise Walker) and let us out the back door (which I don’t have access to). I went down to the pub and caught the last 10 mins before heading home.
Wednesday turned out to be a decent day.
We went down to watch Sri Lanka v England at Old Trafford, the yearly pilgrimidge brought about by the lack of an O.T. Test match this summer.
Loads of us were there, so I won’t name them all. Highlights of the day include:
* Relaxing all day with a few pints and friends (the company was exceptional)
* The weather (it only rained for about 20 mins - and I caught the sun)
* The Banter (in general)
Lowlights of the day include:
* My empty cornish pasty!!!
* The irritating kids behind us! there were about 30 of them.
* The hornblower. Grrrr.
* The cost.
* England’s abject performance. Including:
— * Dalrymple’s Nurdling.
— * The Bowling.
Funnily enough the three postives more than outweighed the negatives, by quite some margin.
Afterwards we caught the 250 back to University and then headed into Rusholme. Sarah happily joined us and a quick (!) pint at Hardy’s was then followed by a pre-planned curry at King Cobras (owned by Sri Lankans, some of whom were at the game).
The food took a while to sort out (there were loads of us) but it was delicious as usual. We caught a bus home and watched some of the cricket highlights (yes, I’m that sad) before heading to bed.
When I woke up, it must’ve been Thursday (which is today).
I actually woke up quite early, say 730ish, in order to pick up my parents from the airport.
It took a little while to sort them out, but they arrived, tired of course, and we were back to my place by 1130.
Bacon Butties & Tea happened before they headed off to Hull to spend a few nights sorting themselves out on the eastside 
I’ve since come in to work and tried to sort loads of stuff out. Unfortunately I’ve been hampered by closing times of libraries, a lack of stamps & other minor stuff - But I’ve got a fair bit done so I thought I’d update this little fella before heading off home.
Which is what I plan to do right about now.
see ya!
