Hello friends and neighbours, it's been nearly a week and so very much has happened lol, that's right mega blog time baby.

I woke up Wednesday and it was a late waking up, but I managed to drag myself to the shower and assemble a semblance of humanity. I had been at a meeting the night before until way past 10pm meaning I didn't get home until well after 11. So I was thoroughly and justifiably knackered beyond belief. The meeting itself was a valuable one and I think we achieved a lot of what we needed to do as far as it goes which was useful. Just some things that I can't go into are really getting frustrating.

The working day itself was fairly uneventful really, not a lot happened really. I sneakily read a bit more of my book which I had been trying to get finished. It really is a good one so I don't feel too bad about it on the whole. I was also sorting out a few of the loose ends that had come up on Tuesday. Namely that we hadn't sent out the invites for an event on the 22nd, with good reason but the staff member in charge wasn't too happy.

Managed to sort it out but there was information missing which made it a little more awkward, like for example sending an email out to someone you don't have an email address for. I managed to find generic ones but I doubt they got to their intended locations. Otherwise I headed home eventually and died for the rest of the evening as was only appropriate to my level of overall tiredness.

Well this is partly true; I did manage to sort out getting a pizza from a new local takeaway that was particularly delicious. Called a Meatador and covered in lots of lovely meat. They even gave us a bottle of coke free which tasted a bit odd to me at first, it was only after I looked at the label that I found out it was Vietnamese coke. It wasn't bad but it was definitely more syrupy. So now my knowledge of foreign coke has expanded once again lol.

Thursday looked likely to be another slow day and was from the start. Then it hit...

Hello friends and neighbours, it's been nearly a week and so very much has happened lol, that's right mega blog time baby.

I woke up Wednesday and it was a late waking up, but I managed to drag myself to the shower and assemble a semblance of humanity. I had been at a meeting the night before until way past 10pm meaning I didn't get home until well after 11. So I was thoroughly and justifiably knackered beyond belief. The meeting itself was a valuable one and I think we achieved a lot of what we needed to do as far as it goes which was useful. Just some things that I can't go into are really getting frustrating.

The working day itself was fairly uneventful really, not a lot happened really. I sneakily read a bit more of my book which I had been trying to get finished. It really is a good one so I don't feel too bad about it on the whole. I was also sorting out a few of the loose ends that had come up on Tuesday. Namely that we hadn't sent out the invites for an event on the 22nd, with good reason but the staff member in charge wasn't too happy.

Managed to sort it out but there was information missing which made it a little more awkward, like for example sending an email out to someone you don't have an email address for. I managed to find generic ones but I doubt they got to their intended locations. Otherwise I headed home eventually and died for the rest of the evening as was only appropriate to my level of overall tiredness.

Well this is partly true; I did manage to sort out getting a pizza from a new local takeaway that was particularly delicious. Called a Meatador and covered in lots of lovely meat. They even gave us a bottle of coke free which tasted a bit odd to me at first, it was only after I looked at the label that I found out it was Vietnamese coke. It wasn't bad but it was definitely more syrupy. So now my knowledge of foreign coke has expanded once again lol.

Thursday looked likely to be another slow day and was from the start. Then it hit lunch time and the shit hit the fan with something. I discovered a payment that we were waiting to send had not been sent through yet and it was overdue. So I loudly yelled bugger and ran around like a loon trying to get it sorted. I think I did it now just depends on those stupid buggers at Uni Finance to get the payment across there before I lose my marbles.

I decided to nick out a little early and see if I could find a cheap pistol to go with my pirate costume for Saturday. The minute I decided to walk out the door the heavens literally opened and there was thunder and lighting, awesome. So I got to wander through Leeds in the pissing rain trying to find a pistol. Woolworths had a lovely one that was far too expensive but luckily I found one in the Fancy Dress Shop for £1. Bad note here is there was a woman bending over in front of me in the queue to put things in her bag and I think I ended up looking a right perv even though I was trying to see the stuff on the shelf beneath the counter.

Got to the train and literally got passed over for the earlier one which was a touch annoying to me let me tell you. The conductor shut the doors two seconds after I asked if it was going soon and left me there. So I sat down and waited for the next one as the other train I could get wasn't going to Halifax, wankers. Anyway I got on the newly arrived one and it didn't go anywhere for ages. Apparently there was no train crew! Eventually we set off about 30 minutes late. By the time I got into Halifax I met up with my mate Jimmy who had finished work and hour after me.

It was worth it for the chat with him, getting all the latest goss from him about what's going on with him and Charlie. But I still was a bit miffed I didn't get home until something ungodly after I set off early. What a pain in the arse, I almost couldn't be bothered to do anything when I got home. Luckily my bro was in a mood to cook tea so he did us some Cajun chicken. This was a big mistake; the chicken was manky and made me feel very unwell for the next couple of days. Woo hoo.

My first proper day off for a while was Friday. I had taken it off with the intention that I was going to get everything that needed doing for the party done in one go. This was a noble idea, however I was feeling really shitty thanks to that wonderfully bad chicken and I had a horrible stomach ache and a not particularly nice headache too. But I attempted to crack on with the work anyway. Did a bit of tidying up and sorted out what needed doing for the day in terms of food production.

I dragged my little bro out with me to town at 10am to get food bits. We wandered around Tesco looking for the relevant bits, early forgetting things again which was amusing. But I managed to get all the bits I needed and was quite pleased to find tins of mixed beans and vegan friendly veg stock cubes. We also got the bits to make jerk chicken mix, as those legs had been a bit bland and I saw this as the perfect solution.

We got home and had a bit of lunch (nothing but a coffee and don't tell me off I know I should not miss meals), then we proceeded with the manufacture of the first stage of the food. I also quickly fired off some mix cds for the party; I thought they were fairly well balanced as far as it goes. Anyway here is the process for the vegan chilli made especially for Conroy.

Firstly pan fry half an onion, with half a red pepper and a clove of garlic.



Once this has cooked through add a mix of 200ml water combined with a drop of garlic puree and tomato puree. Mix this together for a while and let simmer while adding in the first bit of chilli powder and a little cayenne pepper.



Add in a tin of chopped tomatoes, mix in well and add some more spices and herbs.



Next stage is the beans, firstly a tin of mixed beans. Then a tin of red kidney beans. Add further powders, peppers and herbs to taste and leave to simmer for a few minutes.



There you have my first vegan multi-bean chilli. I thought it was a good effort and took a little bit down for my Grandma to try.



Next on the list is the jerk mix, now this isn't my recipe so I will have to clarify the details with my brother.

But it had half an onion, and some fresh garlic.



Jalapeno peppers, various different herbs and allspice. Some other bits and bobs.



Then added in were white vinegar (a little malt too as the white ran out) and some soy sauce.



This was then blended together and the chicken was marinated and then left to sit in the sauce overnight.





After we had finished these two fine meals we got our shit together and headed off to my Grandmas. She has kindly offered to make us tea while the parents were away. She thought the Chilli I had brought down was good although it had a bit more of a bit than she usually likes. Not a big one for heavily spiced stuff she isn't, but to be fair both her and my Granddad tried it even though he hates peppers with a passion for some unknown reason. My stomach was being hellish (combined with the not eating) so my Grandma gave me an apple which was lovely, I do like braeburns. Tea was smashing too, pork loin, Yorkshire puddings and mashed potatoes followed by rice pudding, yummy.

Granddad dropped us back at home which was pretty awesome of him considering he hadn't been feeling too good either and we started on the next stage of the process, making the pizza.

Firstly I made the dough and left it to rise for an hour and a half. Then I came back and selected my four pans, floured the bottom of them to prevent stickage, then I cut up and rolled the dough to fit each pan, applying extra flour to prevent the dough being too sticky.





Then we added a layer of extra virgin olive oil to the dough, followed by the pasata, then added on the cheese.



Finally we added a mix of chopped sausage, bacon, pepperoni and salami to the meat feast pizzas and the job was done.





Ooh I also managed to finish reading Toll the Hounds while at my Grandmas. My goodness that book is just the sex of books. The ending was so beautifully crafted and so excellently played through I was actually crying by the end. I am also stupifyingly happy that even with his death one of the main characters has managed to redeem his race and now his son is taking over the reins of power. I now cannot wait for Dust of Dreams, I really cannot wait. In fact I am contemplating kidnapping Steven Eriksson to get my fix. Well least I will have Return of the Crimson Guard later in the year to keep me going.

Anyway after all that cooking and a bit more tidying I was totally bone tired and headed off to bed for a well deserved rest. Thankfully I got to sleep fairly quickly compared to some nights recently and I drifted off into a dream world of strange and bizarre nature.

Awakening at the wonderful time of something like 6am I got out of bed facing the day with fearsome intent. Well maybe not quite that but I was in the mood to get things done. I started sorting my room and managed to get my sofa bed out after I removed the toy box to the hall. I however wasn't in a particular mood to be making the beds yet so I left that while I went downstairs to get me a little breakfast. It really was too as I only had a bowl of cereal and a cup of coffee.

Trogged off up to the shop to collect the lanes papers as our next door neighbour who usually does it was away. Really did not like the look of the weather one little bit as it was definitively wet. I did however manage to get this sorted and I came back to enjoy a few minutes of quiet time and MSN chatting with a few of my good friends. This was not to last alas as I then had to get moving and have a shower. Of course I had to check on the arrival time of LostSoulParry and he informed me he would be there by half 12. It was a good enough guess and I got into my pirate gear.

Man do I ever love my pirate gear, I enjoy dressing up of late and I really like bandanas and I was a little surprised that I can wear one properly rather than Axl style. It was a fairly simple costume really with a belt across a shirt, an old jacket with the cuffs rolled up and a cheap toy pistol but I think it came out quite well. Mind you so did LostSoulParry's, I was quite impressed but I should have remembered a pseudogoth would have access to that sort of thing. Forced my bro into a shirt and a bandana so we would all have costumes.





Finished tidying the lounge up which wasn't to big a job it just meant we had to shift the furniture around and vacuum the floor. This was highly essential as its surprising hoe many little bits of junk can be accumulated. LostSoulParry took a picture while I was doing it and it has been titled domestic piracy. Anyway I had already brought the 360 down the night before but now we could bring down and hook up the drum kit. I don't use it much as it's a bit cumbersome and I can't really do it lol.



Angel_Ree and her mister Andy showed up a little after this while we were in the middle of a song on Rock Band for practice. So we showed them in and finished off the song, looking a bit daft as it was Celebrity Skin by Hole. We had a chat for a bit and eventually made the educated decision to crank some beers out (not that there were many mind and it might not have been such a good idea as I had basically not had lunch again). However until we went shopping there was very little in the way of booze in the house. So next round we had a coffee, which was lovely.



My little bro brought Bez his bearded dragon down for a visit too and Angel_Ree seemed to like him a lot. I admit though I was once a touch sceptical I do enjoy little Bez and I think he is really cute. He ran around for a bit and was massively fascinated with the Rock Band drum kit. I am just waiting for the day Al trains him to do blistering drum solos, either that or he teaches him to attack his enemies, both I feel would be very useful uses of a bearded dragon.

During said coffee Ortus arrived in a blaze of Manchesterly glory. Well maybe not quite glory but he arrived lol, looking all happy as usual. Got him a coffee and we sat around having a chat for a bit. It was then revealed that he had beers in the car, prompting a loud cry from the masses of well got and get them then lol. Drank the odd one or two of them before the next batch of arrivals turned up.



This was of course the intrepid crew from Surrey (and Mansfield) in the shape of Mark_plus_beer, Vortext, Strawberry_bomb and Killa_. Been a while since I've seen them and it was great to have them come round mine, especially from such a distance. After getting all the baggage and whatnot in we settled up that we needed to go booze running so I led the exploration team to Asda, my noble companions in the form of Vortext, driving and Angel_Ree and Killa_ on booze gathering duties.



Asda is a fun place, especially with friends, what was supposed to be a relatively straight forward trip round got convoluted when I kept forgetting things lol. I managed in the end with various "oh my god I forgot these moments" to get just about everything we needed food and drink wise. The ladies were really interested in acquiring a plastic caterpillar that looked to have neck penises but Vortext put a stop to that. He did acquire a Kinder Egg and we discovered that the new plastic capsules are evil and prove no fun. He left the toy as a little present on the back of someone's car, how nice of him.

Packing the car proved interesting as there wasn't a huge amount of space, but I got promoted to the grade of parent with my organisational skills. It didn't work fully but it was better than nothing lol. On the way back we realised we were missing Yazoo for the Jager and Yazoo drink that Vortext invented. Luckily we needed to stop in at the shop to get the paper so I managed to acquire some from there. Nearly couldn't get in the shop though as there were two little kids standing against the door on the inside, had to push them in and out of the way lol.

The party began in earnest now and people slowly started to acquire and get changed into their various costumes. Leading us to the following:





These Ninjas wear sneakers for sneaking!



Amber wins best dressed female pirate by far.





After we had got on with this part Conroy arrived and the party was truly now complete. He however had the most win costume of all on the male side of the equation with this truly awesome shirt. I want one lol.





Now everyone was here it was clearly time to start the food up, first things first was clearly getting the barbecue going. I dispatched Al to start on the garlic bread, which went down a real treat and was super delicious lol. The barbecues however were nto so forthcoming, it took a real team effort to get those things going. Light the paper and that's it my arse. It took three of us, half a pack of firelighters and a several sheets of paper to get the damn things going. I was ready to chuck it all nearly but patience prevailed and the things started working.





When this was in capable hands I toddled off to get the pizza going and also to warm up the chilli for Conroy with some rice I had from the cupboard too. I turned out rather well and he seemed quite pleased with it, which as it was my first attempt at something like that made me quite chuffed. The pizza cooked brilliantly and I was vastly pleased with the way it turned out, I think I have finally conquered the wet dough issue but we will see on that one. The jerk chicken did well on the barbecue and went down well too, we got a good 8 burgers done which people ate (I assume I was too busy running round lol)

The only bugger part was when the fridge broke, little bastard that it is. It conked out no whirring noises and nothing so we had to liberate freezer packs and ice and put them, the milk and the bacon and sausage for the morning in the cool box. This got on my nerves a bit and I was hopping mad for a short while. I had to call the rents and let them know as I didn't want to have to try and tell them when they came back.

Anyway much eating was done until the point it came to our realisation it's Doctor Who time. Only myself Al, LostSoulParry and Conroy came in to watch it though while everyone else stayed outside. It was quite good and I liked it all in all despite missing the odd bit while keeping an eye on the barbecue. It provided good resolution to a lot of the open plot threads but I was very annoyed with a few of the little things. For example I was majorly pissed off with them totally nerfing Donna. Not that I'm the biggest Tate fan but to have her go from being all worldly and awesome to being the tard she was isn't fair.

Back to the party we went and there was only enough time for a little more outside fun before it become apparent the light was fading and the rain was looking like it might come back again. I am really thankful that the whole day didn't get rained off and we actually managed to get a barbecue as there was a distinct period that I thought it really wouldn't happen and I would have to be working on masses of contingencies to solve our problem. But it was sorted.

Here are the rest of the pictures.



































Next we came to Rock Band time which was massively fun. We each took turns at different instruments. I usually handled guitar or vocal work, LostSoulParry took a turn at each. Vortext had a go at guitar but it became readily apparent that he was better on drums. Killa_ did some fantastic work on drums too. Ortus had a go at drums but wasn't great but managed admirably well I feel. Here are a few pics including the emo-ment when SGUK Surrey took on the fallout boy song and had hoods up in full emo style. It sucked too as it's a naff song lol.









Emo-moment





The best drummer:



Best moments were when I managed a couple of 100% flawless performances and I even managed to take the best rock pose award lol. But the single best moment I thought was when Vortext, LostSoulParry and I took it through a six song set without stopping and bitch slapped it. We made damn sure that Super Gorey Ultra Kill kicked some serious arse.

It was just a shame that Angel_Ree and Andy had turned in during this as we could have got them up, Conroy didn't want to have a go which was a shame too as I reckon he would have dazzled us with an epic performance. I bet there is a Rock Star just waiting to get out of him lol. There were some other interesting happenings but I'm not a gossip so I won't go into them lol.

Oh aye I forgot to mention our friendly neighbourhood ninjas had all urban'd themselves up with the addition of baseball caps and gold jewellery. Work yo! Vortext also managed to prove that you have to remove the ninja mask to drink as his attempt at drinking wearing it did not go very well lol. Costumes by this point were going the way of the dodo as comfort was becoming the maxim for the evening rather than hilarity.

All Rock Banded out I started to drop off while playing one song but I still finished which I feel is quite impressive on my part. I woke myself up a bit and had a trundle around assessing the disposition of everyone and how everyone was doing. Mark_plus_beer wasn't doing too well and he had crashed out in the back bedroom, I told him he could stay in there if he wanted as it was pretty much the easiest solution. Angel_Ree and Andy had taken up residence on my sofa bed and nicked my quilt so I thought sod that and I prepared to stay downstairs. Had a lovely chat with Conroy, LostSoulParry and my brother before deciding it might be best to call it bed time, it was after 2am by now.

Found Ortus, Strawberry_bomb, Vortext and Killa_ listening to music loudly in Vortext's car, Ortus can do some fierce dancing when pissed let me tell you lol even in a chair in a car. Got everyone in and we divvied up the sleeping spots and everyone found their way into there pj's or whatever. Sleeping arrangements worked out quite well and we all turned off the lights and prepared for sleep. Well not quite…

There was some general chatting and whatnot all in good fun and I have to say Ortus makes for some good entertainment when drunk. No offence mate but you were hilarious, his rendition of "Going to the chapel and we're gonna get married" while in his sleeping bag stood in the middle of the room was awesome, especially as those are the only words to the song he knows and he just sang them over and over again. He has a gift for repetition as he managed to keep saying "AmberAmberAmberAmber" over and over again quite well.

His other silliness can be summed up in these pics, I think they are awesome.

Ortus : Not A Rapist



Errm well we thought he wasn't



The result of which is...



At any rate a general holding pattern was established despite epic yet odourless farting from Killa_ and a loud shout of "you're topless, when did that happen?" from her at Ortus. Who had a very involved discussion about interfering with people in their sleep that involved the phrase little fingers up their bum holes. Needless to say it was a little worrying.

Then the texting started lol. Mark_plus_beer in his inebriated and sick state kept sending texts down beggin Vortext and Strawberry_bomb to come up stairs as he was lonely. Though I had fallen asleep a little after this I know they eventually caved and went up and crashed in the room with him. At least he was ok though, I was a touch worried for a bit when I figured out he had been unwell.

But yeah I was asleep at this point, so that naturally leads us onto Sunday.

My sleep was heavy but a little hit and miss, I finally gave up on it and found that a few other people had already given up on sleep. LostSoulParry and Killa_ were already ambling about. I brought out the giggling Ribena berries otherwise known as the giggle berries which slowly became Killa_'s minions and I used them to try and pose on Ortus but he woke up before I could get a picture. The morning slowly wound up as various people made appearances to the point where only Vortext was still in bed, but to be fair he had a long drive ahead so that was cool.







While investigating people and rooms and whatnot I had left The West Wing on as it was quoted as a good choice. Of course I got back to find out that it had been changed over and we were now watching Bill and Ted's Bogus Journey. Quite a shock lol, but a good one as its been a while since I watched that film. It was quite an enjoyable start to the day. LostSoulParry eventually had to go because he needed to help his mum move something, apparently both her and his new step dad are a little on the short side so require his tall manliness lol.



I gradually made a fantastically huge breakfast consisting of a huge number of sausages and a large number of packs of bacon. This went down a treat and also helped to devour a large number of the remaining packs of bread rolls before they died off. This was delicious as bacon can never be a bad thing, well unless you're vegan like Conroy I suppose. It was smashing, took a long time to cook though which was a little tedious as I kept missing bits of the film but it was still enjoyable.

We stuck in Mallrats next once Bill and Ted was over, nothing like classic cult movies to watch when you're relaxing in a morning. It was as this was going on that everyone else gradually started to peel off and head for their respective homes. Angel_Ree and Andy headed off first, then Conroy, then Ortus and then the Surrey and Mansfield posse. Goodbyes were fond and in some cases hilarious. While everyone was packing up their gear to go home I sat on the stairs and watched.

This however made my attempt to give Vortext a hug as I came down the stairs look rather amusing. Well I sort of flung myself into his strong manly arms, oh it was so romantic ; ). Anyway hugs all round and then everyone was gone, it was a touch lonely and then there was the rest of the tidying up. Thanks to everyone else especially Angel_Ree there was actually very little to do so the job was done fairly quickly meaning I got to have a nap in the afternoon while watching Buffy.

It was a bloody fantastic time overall and I wish to thank everyone who came for a great time.

The day wound up to a pointless end with a meeting that was longer than strictly necessary again meaning that I ended up getting to bed quite late leading to a late rising and no time for a shower in the morning. Man it sucked royal, but the day is now over and it's been another slow one with not a lot happening but at least my boss acknowledged that he had forgotten I was on holiday and he agrees with my estimate of my remaining holiday rather than the school office estimate.

Time to sort the pictures, add them in and off for tea I hope. I am so b loody hungry.

Anyway enjoy.

Toodles

G