Shiiit, I haven't blogged in AGES. Following on from my last entry; yes, I do have a girlfriend now and it's going great. Never saw that coming. She's called Jen, in case I mention her from hereon.
As for the rest of what's happened... well, here goes. I'll keep it brief and try to detail everything that's happened in the past two months, along with the help of iCal, a pouch of tobacco and a big ol' pot o' black coffee.
+ Cricket tour to Shrewsbury, June 4th until June 7th. It's not actually a cricket tour by the way, it started out as my local pub's cricket team going away for a weekend, playing a friendly or two and having a few nights out. It's evolved into what it is now: a four-day balls-to-the-wall piss-up for anyone down the pub who puts their name down and pays in for it. Every day consisted of breakfast at 10am, start drinking around 12, don't stop until you go for a curry at 11:30 then call it a night. Surrounded entirely by men 10 years my senior (with the exception of Ben, the landlord's son, whom I was in school with). Found out I can out-drink a fair few of them, including my old man. Nice.
+ Download Festival, June 11th until June 14th. I got to be 14 for a weekend! Limp Bizkit, Korn, Papa Roach, Slipknot, Faith No More, Staind, etc... all the bands I should've seen when I was a full-on nu-metal kid. Also, Journey played - ever stood amongst 60,000 people all singing "Don't Stop Believing"? I hadn't either until that day. Wow. Here's one of me watching someone-or-other play:
And here's what leaving your shirt off in the blistering heat with no sunscreen did to me (taken when I got home):
Ouch.
+ Australian CoushSurfers come to stay for a night, June 15th. Really good lads, I took them for a night out in the Raz. The Raz is a club in Liverpool, actually called the Blue Angel (on Seel Street) but known to everyone who goes there as the Raz. On Monday nights it's 1.50 entry and 70p a pint. The Aussies got stuck into the Guinness, and after a few rounds me and Jen wanted to head back - I told them to ring me when they got back and I'd let them in, and left them with a group of Scouse girls. At 4am in the morning, I got a call from one of them saying they'd gotten into a scuffle with the security guard at my student accommodation and were going to come back in a few hours. The next morning I went into the kitchen to find them both dozing on the floor in there. When I woke, I asked how they got in and neither of them knew. At that moment, a woman from the main office came into the flat and told us what happened: after the altercation, one of them had hopped the fence to get round the back of my block and tried climbing in through an open window. Luckily it was a guy's room and he wasn't pissed off - if it was a girl's room there may have been charges pressed. He broke the window, costing 75 of damage which had to be paid by the end of the day or I'd get 150 tacked onto my account (as they were my guests). The security guard finally asked them were they were staying and let them into my flat. His famous last words as we went to the cashpoint: "Man, being a wanker is expensive."
+ AC/DC in the Wembley Stadium, 26th June. Took the old man to see them for his Father's Day present. As I had a flat viewing in Liverpool that day, so I caught the train down alone and he caught the train from Wales, so we met when we got down there. Absolutely blinding from start to finish, amazing stage show, didn't miss a note, Angus and Brian are still as good as ever. Afterwards we went for a few pints and a curry, then crashed back at the hostel.
+ Hard Rock Calling festival (Neil Young et. al.), 27th June. My mate Scott and his dad were driving down to go to this one with me, so me and the old man went for a pint and waited for him to call. When he did, he said he was already at the gate queueing, so I let the old man go and get his train back to Wales and I got the tube to Hyde Park. The first two bands (The Original Sinners and an American band called Rudy Vaughn) were crap. The Pretenders were surprisingly good, I really enjoyed their set. Then Seasick Steve came out and rocked my fucking arse off. Seen him once before, way back before his fame REALLY escalated and he was still riding off the back of one Jools Holland performance, and this time he had his boys with him as a band. Really good. Next was Ben Harper, who I can imagine appreciating a little on record, but he bored me shitless live - never acknowledged the audience, and everything was too rehearsed. No energy. Fleet Foxes played penultimately, and I can imagine that I'd have really enjoyed their set a lot more had I not been about to see Neil Young. Too slow and dreamy when I was about to go nuts. Neil took to the stage, played a 2+ hour set which was one of the best setlists he's ever done (see for yourself), ended the initial set with Rockin' In The Free World which he re-started the final chorus of about five times and would NOT let it die, then came on to do an encore of a cover of A Day In The Life and was joined by Paul McCartney half way through to sing along with. Absolutely blinding.
+ Moved into new flat, June 28th - My parents helped me move in and stayed until the Tuesday (30th). Got lots of goodies from Ikea and some paintings and stuff that made it look a bit more "homely". I'll have to get some pictures, here's the only one I have for the time being. It's of the smaller sofa, one of the pictures, and the view - I tried to get as much in as possible.
+ July's been pretty uneventful, actually! It's been mostly looking for jobs and seeing the friends who didn't go home for summer. I went to my old flatmate/coursemate Joe's house last weekend for his birthday and had a damn good night out. Great to see him again. Also found out two days ago that I failed year 1 of university on account of one section of one module - I have until August 20th to re-submit it, and I only need another 6% in it, so I'm not too worried. I'll work it out.
+ I'm off to Newcastle (well, Consett in County Durham, but shh) on Monday to meet some more of Jen's family and friends. Already met the parents and made a good impression, so we shall see how it goes. On the way there my train changes at York, so I've got a 4 hour stayover and I'm going to go for a pint and a catch-up with my old friend Jack from back home, who was at one point my best friend and since moving to York to attend uni we've kinda lost touch. That'll be good.
I think that's everythin, so here's a picture of me at the moment. This is what a night of burning the midnight oil whilst trying to install Ubuntu Linux on your girlfriend's laptop and accidentally wiping her Windows partition does to you:
As for the rest of what's happened... well, here goes. I'll keep it brief and try to detail everything that's happened in the past two months, along with the help of iCal, a pouch of tobacco and a big ol' pot o' black coffee.
+ Cricket tour to Shrewsbury, June 4th until June 7th. It's not actually a cricket tour by the way, it started out as my local pub's cricket team going away for a weekend, playing a friendly or two and having a few nights out. It's evolved into what it is now: a four-day balls-to-the-wall piss-up for anyone down the pub who puts their name down and pays in for it. Every day consisted of breakfast at 10am, start drinking around 12, don't stop until you go for a curry at 11:30 then call it a night. Surrounded entirely by men 10 years my senior (with the exception of Ben, the landlord's son, whom I was in school with). Found out I can out-drink a fair few of them, including my old man. Nice.
+ Download Festival, June 11th until June 14th. I got to be 14 for a weekend! Limp Bizkit, Korn, Papa Roach, Slipknot, Faith No More, Staind, etc... all the bands I should've seen when I was a full-on nu-metal kid. Also, Journey played - ever stood amongst 60,000 people all singing "Don't Stop Believing"? I hadn't either until that day. Wow. Here's one of me watching someone-or-other play:
And here's what leaving your shirt off in the blistering heat with no sunscreen did to me (taken when I got home):
Ouch.
+ Australian CoushSurfers come to stay for a night, June 15th. Really good lads, I took them for a night out in the Raz. The Raz is a club in Liverpool, actually called the Blue Angel (on Seel Street) but known to everyone who goes there as the Raz. On Monday nights it's 1.50 entry and 70p a pint. The Aussies got stuck into the Guinness, and after a few rounds me and Jen wanted to head back - I told them to ring me when they got back and I'd let them in, and left them with a group of Scouse girls. At 4am in the morning, I got a call from one of them saying they'd gotten into a scuffle with the security guard at my student accommodation and were going to come back in a few hours. The next morning I went into the kitchen to find them both dozing on the floor in there. When I woke, I asked how they got in and neither of them knew. At that moment, a woman from the main office came into the flat and told us what happened: after the altercation, one of them had hopped the fence to get round the back of my block and tried climbing in through an open window. Luckily it was a guy's room and he wasn't pissed off - if it was a girl's room there may have been charges pressed. He broke the window, costing 75 of damage which had to be paid by the end of the day or I'd get 150 tacked onto my account (as they were my guests). The security guard finally asked them were they were staying and let them into my flat. His famous last words as we went to the cashpoint: "Man, being a wanker is expensive."
+ AC/DC in the Wembley Stadium, 26th June. Took the old man to see them for his Father's Day present. As I had a flat viewing in Liverpool that day, so I caught the train down alone and he caught the train from Wales, so we met when we got down there. Absolutely blinding from start to finish, amazing stage show, didn't miss a note, Angus and Brian are still as good as ever. Afterwards we went for a few pints and a curry, then crashed back at the hostel.
+ Hard Rock Calling festival (Neil Young et. al.), 27th June. My mate Scott and his dad were driving down to go to this one with me, so me and the old man went for a pint and waited for him to call. When he did, he said he was already at the gate queueing, so I let the old man go and get his train back to Wales and I got the tube to Hyde Park. The first two bands (The Original Sinners and an American band called Rudy Vaughn) were crap. The Pretenders were surprisingly good, I really enjoyed their set. Then Seasick Steve came out and rocked my fucking arse off. Seen him once before, way back before his fame REALLY escalated and he was still riding off the back of one Jools Holland performance, and this time he had his boys with him as a band. Really good. Next was Ben Harper, who I can imagine appreciating a little on record, but he bored me shitless live - never acknowledged the audience, and everything was too rehearsed. No energy. Fleet Foxes played penultimately, and I can imagine that I'd have really enjoyed their set a lot more had I not been about to see Neil Young. Too slow and dreamy when I was about to go nuts. Neil took to the stage, played a 2+ hour set which was one of the best setlists he's ever done (see for yourself), ended the initial set with Rockin' In The Free World which he re-started the final chorus of about five times and would NOT let it die, then came on to do an encore of a cover of A Day In The Life and was joined by Paul McCartney half way through to sing along with. Absolutely blinding.
+ Moved into new flat, June 28th - My parents helped me move in and stayed until the Tuesday (30th). Got lots of goodies from Ikea and some paintings and stuff that made it look a bit more "homely". I'll have to get some pictures, here's the only one I have for the time being. It's of the smaller sofa, one of the pictures, and the view - I tried to get as much in as possible.
+ July's been pretty uneventful, actually! It's been mostly looking for jobs and seeing the friends who didn't go home for summer. I went to my old flatmate/coursemate Joe's house last weekend for his birthday and had a damn good night out. Great to see him again. Also found out two days ago that I failed year 1 of university on account of one section of one module - I have until August 20th to re-submit it, and I only need another 6% in it, so I'm not too worried. I'll work it out.
+ I'm off to Newcastle (well, Consett in County Durham, but shh) on Monday to meet some more of Jen's family and friends. Already met the parents and made a good impression, so we shall see how it goes. On the way there my train changes at York, so I've got a 4 hour stayover and I'm going to go for a pint and a catch-up with my old friend Jack from back home, who was at one point my best friend and since moving to York to attend uni we've kinda lost touch. That'll be good.
I think that's everythin, so here's a picture of me at the moment. This is what a night of burning the midnight oil whilst trying to install Ubuntu Linux on your girlfriend's laptop and accidentally wiping her Windows partition does to you: