So London was good, David drove as all down and we headed straight for Camden, spent a weird few minutes in the market before heading for the pub and then switching to a different pub and sitting with some more of Simons friends who just seemed to be wanky london types, if that's not too offensive. Simon suggested the Old Blue Last over his TopShop Party as the the next stop despite the fact that it would be full of more wanky london types and was really far from home but he insisted and offered to pay for a Taxi back so we went and it was worth it even though it really didn't differ much from the last place we were in. Gaz's low level narcolepsy kicked in soon after he drank a shot of sambuca, I drank my first ever shot of tequila and probably only got away with drinking it without throwing up because I tipped it too quickly and half of it spilled over the corners of my mouth and all over my chin, sexy I know but no one seemed to notice.
We were too late for the waffle man at finsbury park which was disappointing, next time waffle man, next time...
On Sunday I don't think David was feeling too good, so we just got breakfast, watched half of Superman Returns and headed home. He stuck around at ours though for ham and cheese toasties and X factor.

The rest of that week I was trying to finish my summer project - A city with buildings spelling out my name, being destroyed by Godzilla and a Robot. - Cleaning the house up a bit and mooching around with AJB since he finished his job on the Thursday. I didn't quite finish the model, not until Sunday night anyway, I got way in to papercraft in the process of making it, I found a guy on the internet who had made a bumble bee transformer from a KFC bucket and some chopsticks. I'm gonna start a new blog somewhere to record my time at uni and list all the links to these things.

Speaking of Uni, the first week is now behind me and I'm glad. I moved in to Halls on Saturday afternoon, amazingly there is someone older than me living there, he's 33! I'm on the ground floor which sucks but the people in my flat seem really nice, everyone so far is cleaning up after themselves and being pretty considerate. We went to one of the freshers parties on Saturday night and played Quasar till everything ached. Monday was registration and for the first time ever I actually don't hate my ID photo. There are arounf 100 people on the course at the moment, I think a fairly high proportion are expected to drop out by year 2. I used my summer project to claim my space in the studio and checked out some of the others, there were some really awesome ones, like this girl had made a tornado with all the letters of her name in it plus an oil tanker and stuff, but mine stood up I think. Over the week we did some projects in groups just to get us working together and stuff, the first was to build a tower out of dried spaghetti with only wine gums for glue, it had to be as close to 2m tall as you could get it. We did alright 1.8 m and the people I was working with were really nice. I've met a few people who are less cool but I'm putting it down to the age difference. Not many people have spotted me as older yet though, I tend to get a gasp of surprise when I say I'm 26 so that's kinda cool.

This week has been kinda scarey cos it's been so long since I've put myself through so much change but everything that has happened so far has told me that I have made the right decision and all the poverty and awkwardness will be worth it if I put the work in. raa.

AJB has been awesome this week, I stepped on my debit card and snapped it in 2 before we left so he has paid for everything and sat being bored in my room all day while I'm out only to patiently listen to me ramble on about pasta and people with dreadlocks all night. He even tooke me out for an awesome dinner and a movie on wednesday night.

I'm at home for the weekend and for the first time in ages, don't really have that much to do.

I lost my internet connection because both Sky and NTL are gay but it's all sorted now and we have a prettier router and Sky+.

Lots has happened between then and now. On bank holiday weekend I went to a teeny little festival all the way down in Devon, it took almost 6 hours to get there because of the traffic but it was so worth it. We camped on a hill in some of the most beautiful countryside on this little farm. The bands were all playing in the barn. There was awesome food and a farm shop so you could take some home and a really good atmosphere to the whole thing. On the Sunday we drove to the beach before heading home and ate ice-cream on the pier, how very british of us.

On Tuesday night I went to see Jonah Matranga and Frank Turner in Leicester which was awesome although I feel somewhat unfulfilled because I was too shy to speak to Jonah though he said he remembered AJB. The show was ace he played more visitors/volunteers stuff than I thought he would. Frank Turner was also good though I stood at the back for his set and couldn't see much of him...I miss Million Dead. I'm very tempted to go see it again in Cardiff or Nottingham.

I haven't got much else done in the last couple of weeks cause I have been working constantly on my summer project. I am making a city that spells out my name being destroyed by a robot and Godzilla. I got the buildings done last week and am really happy with them but have hit a wall with the stupid Robot and Godzilla and have been working at a snails pace all week. The robot is pretty much done I suppose but I don't like it because I made it with metallic card which looks really messy, so I may remake it if I have time. Godzilla so far is just a body because the limbs are proving very difficult.

AJB and I started swimming! It's ace, I never thought I'd have the nerve to take it up again, but the worst part was all the time we had to spend searching the rails in JJBs. We were the official funnest people at the pool too since everyone else was just swimming lanes and we were diving and having breath holding competitions and the like. We're going again on monday and I've noticed the pool at my uni sells extra cheap membership.

AJB turns 30 tomorrow, we're going to London.

The disciplinary was all pushed through in one day (Friday) they did not sack Dave though came within an inch of it apparently. The GM says he is in a 'straight jacket' as in his final written warning and this will last for the rest of his time with the company. If he displays anything but exemplary professional behaviour he'll be out. He said during the investigation they uncovered loads and loads of stuff that shone a very poor light on Dave so I guess he has only hung on because of the length of time he's been there (30 years) and all the pleas I put in to the stuff I submitted saying he should be kept on. So he's back at work on Monday, though I will not see him then but I will cross over with him on Tuesday, which, all of a sudden is my final shift. He said he is really worried about seeing me again since he will not know how to interact with me and I'm not sure if that means he wants to punch me in the face or what but I guess we'll see. I'm not sure what to do either. Apologising isn't the right thing because he put himself through all this crap, I guess I would only really have been sorry if he got the sack. I don't know, we will probably just say nothing at all and that will be that.

So Friday was a weird day. I could really feel the turn of the wheel if you know what I mean. The last three weeks have made me feel a lot more involved in the place I work and it feels like a bigger wrench to be leaving now. This is the first time I have not had a job in 6 years and the cinema did allow me a great life. I even felt like I was achieving a bit more towards the end cos I eventually found some focus on stuff outside of it but the whole uni thing is more important and is the right thing to do. I will meet equally nice people (maybe) and achieve more in the end....I think.

I think once I start I will write to Lord Tuffett twice a week begging for a loan. Since the government are paying exactly what they would be paying anyway, just refusing me a stupid loan, the idea of which, of course is that I am legally bound to pay it back. It worked in the shawshank redemption right?

I am going to see Sparta and yourcodenameis:milo on wednesday and Frank Turner & Jonah in a couple of weeks. I'm so excited, It seems like ages since I have been to a gig eep!

Dave is still suspended. The GM said there was a lot of consistency between what I had said in my complaint and what others said when questioned so they are giving him a disciplinary hearing, the outcome of which could still see him sacked. I also thought they might demote him from Chief tech which would be better but who knows.

I had a really good day today because the word is out about my leaving and lots of people are asking me about it and saying really nice things like they wished they'd got more chance to get to know me better and stuff which now makes me really sad that I also never really made the effort and was a bit scared to go and talk to everyone on the floor. So I made the effort today and it was awesome. I work with lovely people -- I think I over used the word 'really' there.

My overtime so far comes to £641 before tax, yay! But they rehired a former technician this week so my hours are back to normal. But former technician thinks disciplinary procedures take ages so I may still have chance to earn the extra money I need to buy a new camera and cover the £90 I just spent on new jeans.

I read Christopher Reeves biography last week and V for Vendetta for the first time over the last 2 days.

I found a monkey in the street round the corner from my house. You know what that is? ...Karma, that's what, it's a response to my monkey being stolen a few months ago. It's a PG tips monkey and has a little white T-shirt that says 'chimp'