Medication X

Took this on my camera phone as my cameras memory card was full.

How Cold!

Phil and I went to the unicorn tonight, it was a pretty cold evening we were both wearing our sky jackets and on walking out of the unicorn it was a good job because according to Phil's car it was minus 40C the average temperature for Antartica at this time of year!

Wonder

I went to John Lewis to do more shopping today, bought the all important thermal underwear, just the job for skiing.
I also went to meet a mortgage adviser, something I kind of promised I wouldn't do but gave in to pressure from the estate agent. It actually wasn't entirely unhelpful looking into budgeting and costings was helpful. I am still going to shop around for deals nothing is binding. I certainly would think twice about using the in house legal services. One thing that was very strange was watching the adviser interact with the computer system. It was very similar to ours only as a windows application rather than all command line. It asked a lot of the same questions and even had some of the same foibles though.

This evening was very dull no-one was about about so i stayed home sorted out my accounts for Server room and watched some Dexter.

Kashmir

I felt very dopey at work today, sometimes people say I was there in body but not in spirit, well thats very much how I felt. Fortunately I had managed to get through most of the important work already. Also slightly fortuitous for me today was the Customers Christmas do. That meant that everyone could get out slightly early, I was extremely grateful to leave work at four. I meant I could get myself to TKMaxx to buy some things for skiing.

TKmaxx was recommended to me at lunch time by the shopkeeper of the small sports store in Wilmslow. I went in with Paul to try and buy a sleeping bag. He was planning to stay at Woller's that evening and needed something to keep warm. He was up in for the final Gypsies Playground practice before the Christmas ball concert on Tuesday. We went to the Bollin Fee for their (in)famous beer and a burger meal. It was actually pretty tasty, I recommend paying the extra £1 for the flame grilled chicken burger over the breaded one. It was nice to see Paul, chatting about Radiohead and life in general.

After work I headed to TKmaxx. I was prepared for the worse queues, or a total lack of products. Luckily Friday night turned out to be a good time to go. The place was busy but not excessively so. I manged to find a ski jacket, pants and a few other bits pretty cheap. While I was searching I got a phone call from one of the people at freedom inviting me to the Christmas do. I was really nice to be invited but I had already arranged to go and see a film with Martina.

After shopping I headed to Northern Moor to Pick her up, she had been tutoring a child in German. We headed for some food in Rusholme. We ate in Kebish, a small restaurant take away. The food was ok, I had Lamb tikka and a narn, Martina has Alu Gobi which was very tasty.

We went to see "We Own the Night". I thought it was ok a little long and drwan out I think Martina liked it a lot more. Focusing on Bobby a prodigal son who was enjoying his life as a bar manager of an up and coming night club in 1980s New York. Unfortunately his club becomes the center of a drugs investigation led by his estranged brother and father. The story then becomes a coming of age one for Bobby as he steps up risks his life then loses his freedom before eventually joining the police force and stopping the Russian mob. There were all sorts of subtexts which Martina liked but I thought was pretty overdone.

Prescilla

Its been a long day for me, I arrived at work at 6.30 this morning. It was cold and dark, no time at all to be awake working.
After work I headed to the gym lifted some weights in the hope I would find it relaxing. It felt good to be in the gym, it was empty as well. The usual calm December before the storm of January.

Phil dropped a crazy one on my this evening. He invited me to go skiing with his family to the French Alps. It means I wont be able to spend Christmas with my family and that I will miss the next Lan Party but in the end this is a really good opportunity to do something different at Christmas.

I must admit though I am a little apprehensive about skiing I have been before. I went to Andorra on a ski trip at school, but that was (and I am showing my age here) 14 years ago! I will definitely have to make sure my insurance will covers me!

Must be the wind or something but the last two nights I have seen broken umbrella's lying in the road. Phil drove over one last night and I saw one on the way home from Martina's.
I went round to practise some Japanese, I should not have bothered really I am coming to the conclusion than my mind is unable to digest foreign languages. I found it incredibly frustrating I have difficulty remembering even the most basic of phrases and grammatical structure. I think that it must have really pissed her off because she had no patients for my mistakes tonight. I doubt even extra practise would make any real difference I will always be a British guy with a strong regional accent attempting to speak Japanese, Much like the pigeon English which find so amusing myself.

Today hasn't been the greatest really the whole house thing is becoming a chore. It seem very difficult to find anything in my price range, let alone consider all the things people tell me. There seem two schools of thought, people like Nick and Bruce think a lot about making improvements and having a projects. A few others are more keen to get shiny new property somewhere that needs no work that is a nice place to live. I think I fall somewhere in the middle, I an not as a hands on as Nick or Bruce but I would like to put my own authority on somewhere rather than have something totally new. It all very confusing, I will ahve to sit and have a long think about the whole thing. No doubt the estate agents will be on the phone again tomorrow.

Mrs. Robinson

Yesterday was a very long day. It started out reasonably well. I had to drag myself out of bed bleary eyed to get to work for 6am. All software updates at the moment have to be undertaken out of working hours. So that means if I need to take the system down to upgrade the databases I need to get in hours before the call centre open do the upgrade and have everything up and working. For various reasons the last few upgrades haven't gone very smoothly. Touch wood, I had everything done and working this time so that when I go in Monday morning there will be no issues.

I had booked a couple of viewings on Flats for the afternoon. Bruce offered to come with me to check. I looked at another place in the same road, very similar to one I saw last week. It hadn't been modernised so needed a new kitchen and bathroom, plus central heating, it did however have a loft conversion which gave a lot of extra room. The owner / vendor showed us around the place, it was a strange experience.

It was a foul day and we got soaked walking to the next viewing, which was doubly annoying given the owners were out. So not for the first time I wasted 10 minutes stood outside their door waiting for an answer that never came.

I was feeling a little tired by the time I got home, the early morning starting to get to me. My parents are no help, they only offer dark warnings about how much money Ill lose if I choose the wrong place and no encouragement about my house buying. I went for a nap as I was planning to stay up for the boxing.

I got about 10 minutes rest before Paul rang me, he wanted to tell me about his Belgium trip and have a chat about the Radiohead boxed set. It was nice to hear from him, sounds like he enjoyed Belgium. Apparently Woller nearly didnt' make it back, after leaving his passport in his room.

After the call I was wide awake so I went to play on Mario for a bit, I managed to beat Bowser. I felt great only now the next aims is to collect all of the star. I have 40 remaining, and as I have completed most of the simpler worlds that leaves all the hard ones, so it might take some time!

Phil picked me up around 7 and we headed to Gilmore's flat. He paid for the Mayweather Hatton fight so we were planning to eat play some Nintendo then watch the boxing. We ordered Chinese from the same place as last time and an hour later tucked into yet another huge Chinese meal.

Andy and Emily got me a birthday gift too, which was really incredibly nice of them. They bought me the Nintendo Zapper and Crossbow game for the Wii. It was really quite fun shooting things :)

It got to 2.30am and both Phil and I were fading fast, we found out the actual fight did not begin until 4am so we decided to make tracks. It was a shame not to see the fight but I wouldn't have made it. I was sad to learn Hatton was knocked out in the 10th round when I woke up.

Radiohead 2008 @LCCC

I managed to bag tickets to see Radiohead next June, its going to be great, Phil Paul myself and Martina. I cannot wait.

Talking of Martina, it was her birthday today so I joined her and her friends for a Birthday curry.I was with Martina (German) three French guys (Etienne, Damien,and Romen (i think not sure how to spell)) a Spanish girl whos name I didn't catch, Michael a Chinese man and a French girl Paige.

Etienne followed me to Rusholme I dont think he knew the way, it went pretty well and we made it OK. I found a side street to park on unfortunately he had a great deal of trouble parking up behind me. There was plenty of space but it was wet and misty difficult to see properly.

I took them to the Spicy hut because I think its tasty and pretty well priced. Damien surprised me for a thin guy he eat like Bruce stiffing away two starters, a Pasanda and desert! An eating machine! I had my usual Chicken k Sizzler with Jalfresi sauce

Martina seemed to enjoy her vegetarian dish. After the meal she opened her presents and made an origami hat for Etienne. It was a different evening for me enjoyable but I did feel somewhat out of place, I was the only person there who didn't speak at least two languages fluently. Is strange when I was at school I never realised how wonderful and useful languages were, though I blame this partially on the terrible quality of language tuition at my school. OK I realise I could and should have tried harder but its was difficult with the emphasis on punctuation and grammar rather than speaking and listening.

That aside it was a very fun evening, great food nice company and something different which I always good fun.

Down is the new up

I had today off work, initially I was supposed to be heading to Antwerp to visit Marianne that however long ago ceased to be a possibility. I went to view a couple of flats I had seen on right move. It was the first time I properly viewed a place, even the house I stayed in at university was chosen by the other housemates.
It was a pretty weird experience wondering around someone else's house and being prompted for a commentary by the estate agent. I wasn't entirely sure what I was even meant to look for. I guess it would have been a good idea to take someone like Nick along.

I arrived home about 1 to find my Radiohead boxed set had arrived, it was very exciting. A whole new CD a booklet and LP version of the original in rainbows CD. I hate to sound disappointed but the second CD sounded more like Amnesiac to Kid A. The booklet was also somewhat disappointing, the artwork was well below the work done for previous albums, it didn't speak to me.

I spent the afternoon looking at more houses on the net and listening to Radiohead, then went to Japanese class. Class was very hard, we had a Japanese girl Yukiko who we got to ask questions of. Only one problem she could barely understand our broken Japanese and when she twigged she asked us questions back!

I was really exhausted afterwards, but Bruce asked me to the pub so I though hell why not. He was a bit down apparently a couple of his colleagues have decided to move on and its making him think hard about his future. We talked about that and I told him about the flats I viewed. Then Julie came and chatted to us a little she is going to the British museum in London to see the terracotta army. It sounds like a great thing to go and see I think I might have to go and check it out myself sometime before it heads back to China.

Salmon Pasties

Every year the customer goes on a company outing, as usual this ment a trip to Parrs Wood then a few drinks afterwards.
I go invited to make up numbers, I was unfortunatly awful at bowling and embarrassing came last and second to last. Never mind I did manage to have a go on House of the Dead and was a bit more successful.

Dinner came in the form of fast food from the in house Wimpy. So los of Chips a few bergers and a rather ramdom salmon pasty. One of the call centre manager rather too exception to the salmon pasties. He remarked that the call centre would function better if they were hadned to the staff and on scoring a strike exclaimed "Salmin pasties".

After bowling we headed to the Slug and Lettuce in Didsbury. After a round of drinks someone suggested we try out some drinking games. First one was word dissasociation in which you have to say a work totally dissasociated with whatever the last person said. While ths game sounds easy after a few drinks things get a little difficult.

Next stop was the Picture and Piano, the alcohol had already started to bring out a series of work tensions. I mainly kept out of it and drank down afew more beers. When time was called at the Piano the we designer suggested retro bar in Manchester. A short taxi ride later and a few more beers and my head was beginning to swim. I remember thinking it was a good idea to try and find a club though that didnt work out and we ended up in a curry house.

I ended up sharing a cab back to with the IT manger my head was swimmming and I was out the moment my head touched the pillow.

Old School

I traveled down to London yesterday after being invited to see Grand Central at the Islington Carling Academy.

I arrived about an hour before the sound check, just enough time to grab a beer and have a quick chat. Paul had to go off and help move stuff so I spent half an hour with Pippa. It was a bit difficult at first but we eventually got chatting about travel and life.

After a bit of messing about Paul, Jules, James and his girlfriend joined us for a drink and bit of a chat in the bar whilst they waited on the drummer to arrive.

Once the band were assembled it was off to the Watching Paul and the band set up. There was a really officious security guard who seemed intent on kicking us out, fortunately the event organiser was kind enough to hand out some passes. I have never had a pass to a show before it was quiet fun taking all the stuff to the back stage room.

Plenty of people turned out to see the gig, including Paul's Dad, Stepsister, his new housemate and Pippa's Australian housemates. They were really cool people, I had almost forgot how fun Aussies are, full of energy and excitement. I was a little scared of Paul's house mate he was very very drunk standing next to me. I was a little scared!

Grand Central kicked off the evening with a bang. It was the first time I hear him Paul play with a band since Australia, and the first time they played with James the new guitarist. I must say these are the these guys were much much better, much more in tune than revolution 9 and better musicians than the guys from Austrlia. They really took his songs and filled them with music. You could really tell they were enjoying themselves, Paul was exuberant, his presence filling the stage. The rest of the band were playfull all giving it there all. I also got a birthday shout out which was really exciting :)

I think the real testament to the gig was the round of applause at the end, it was so passionate, not just from friends and family but from the crowd. There were a couple of music people in the ranks and they both very much enjoyed it, the female one was dancing around. In fact everyone I spoke to afterwards really enjoyed the gig, it was mass of compliments and superlative being bandied around.

Paul spent a while chatting and meeting people so I sat with Pippa and the Aussies having a chat and a few drinks, listening to the other acts on in the evening. Once Paul had fulfilled his duties we all went for a Chinese meal. I was a very tasty buffet, I must say I eat more than my fill, the food was really good, (and I was very hungry long time since lunch).

Sunday Morning

Its been a while since I wrote a gonzo post, mostly I have written some time after the event, tonight is like the old days. I just got back from Didsbury.

It's been a strange day really. It was pouring down when I woke up so I decided to have a day of rest and Mario on the Wii. I also had to arrange something to do this evening. Originally I planned to go to Pesto the restaurant we ate at before the Foo Fighters but on ringing them, not only would they only do bookings for parties over (there were 7 of us) but the were full. I haven't organised a gathering ofr a while and had forgotten how difficult it is, messaging people to see if they will come, organising the place and the time, telling people when to turn up, giving directions it was all quiet stressful. I wanted to go somewhere a bit different but I ended up choosing Casa Tapas in Didsbury.

In amongst theorganisation I had several other phone calls, the first was from Lisa. She was out in Syndey and sounded a little drunk she wished and in fact sung happy birthday to me. Which was both surreal and wonderful, otherwise she sounded a little unhappy, out on a friends 21st and feeling a little old. I can really empathise I feel pretty old myself! I hope her night picked up. The second phone call I got was from Maia, she remembered my birthday was close and called me to wish my a happy birthday, have a chat and catch up. It was really nice and totally unexpected.

I went to Casa Tapas at about 7.30, we had the Banquet, the waiter was a bit funny about it, only a few of us wanted the banquet but he told us it was an all or nothing thing. In the menu it said for three or more people he made everyone get it. Fortunately they did a vegetarian version for Holly. We had a really fun chat an the food was tasty. I was a little dubious of the service, they didnt refrsh the plates between courses nor were they very speedy in taking drinks orders. The food was delicious though. I especially liked the mushrooms in garlic sauce and the meatballs. The aubergine with cheese was pretty special too.

After the meal Jo and Holly left, the rest of us headed to the picture and piano for a few drinks. Phil started us as we ment to go on ordering Mohjitos. We dranks and chatted. Becky was trying to encourage Phil and I too go chat up women but I was too drunk and totally lacking in confidence, even after all the rum. Becky managed to take her own advice though and spent the evening slowly getting with some guy. Eventually seizing the opportunity and going up to chat to him, I was quiet impressed but I guess she is a girl used to getting what she wants.

Vindaloo

I went for a couple of drinks with Nick this evening. Foo Fighters apart I haven't really seen very much of him since he moved in with Brie. He dragged me to the Governors house in Cheadle Hulme and sneakily manoeuvred us toward the TV so he could watch the football (England Versus Croatia). I don't really like football very much but I suppose it was England so I acquiesced and we sat near the TV.

We were a little late on the start of the match and were a little bit bemused to find England already 2-0 down. I sat through the rest of the match almost in horror as England fumbled about eventually losing 3-2 at home to Croatia, oh dear. People were quick to blame the manager but they team as a whole were rubbish even I could see the mistakes the total lack of form.

Whilst not watching the football I was discussing buying houses with Nick. He gave me some good advice and kindly offered to help check places out for me which is a very kind gesture.

Mario Galaxy

Phil came round today, the first thing he said to me was, "Sorry John I am going to make you spend £30's". He wasn't wrong either. A few minutes later I was playing Mario Galaxy on my Wii and loving it. What a game its so intuitive, the attention to details is incredible the levels are interesting and varied, from the traditional stomping on enemies to flying around like a bee or swimming in the ocean.


I had to buy it, so Phil and I went out on mission to buy a copy, Toys R Us were having a special. It has been years since I last set foot in one of their store, I have to say I found the place an overpowering labyrinth of consumerism. I would be scared to bring my children there, probably they would wear parents down to the point they would buy anything just to escape.

As we were leaving Andy text messaged and invited Phil and I over for an evening of Wii. It sounded like a plan so after a short sojourn at the data center we headed to Abito.

We sent out for Chinese food and while we waited for the delivery we warming up with Tennis and bowling. When the food we were feeling really hungry. Fortunatley arrived in those American style boxes. They look quiet petite, but are actually like little tardises. They hold a size able amount of food. I was very happy with the vermicelli, it was way more than I could consume.

We returned to the couch all feeling somewhat bloated, our hunger more than sated. Next up was Mario, we took turns hurtling through the levels all enjoying the weird and wonderful level designs. I also enjoyed a few beers :) Overall a great game, great night.

Infected Mushroom

A strange thing started off yesterday evening. I was booked to go to a blood donation after work, so I turned up at 5.40 for my appointment and was asked the usual questions, the final one being have you been out of the country in the last 12 months. I answered yes to China and Turkey. The nurse got all twitchy and started thumbing through a book of places then finally asked when I went I told her May and she said sorry you cant donate today you might have malaria. I was a little surprised given I was told I wouldn't need anti malarial shots when I visited the nurse before I visited China. I have also made a donation since I returned from China, so I found it very weird to be refused.

I planned to go round to Martina's she had organised a meal / DVD night with the other language assistants at her place. I headed to Cheadle picking up some Ice cream and a few drinks on the way. I was the first to arrive and we chatted about stuff. She had been backing the kitchen had a pleasant cookie smell.

The others arrived about half an hour later, a French guy Damien, and two Chinese people. One of the Chinese guys Michael took charge of the cooking frying up some rice and eggs. It was a pretty nice meal. After which we had a chat about languages and the perception of different cultures. Damien was amused at my typical English lack of language ability.

The Chinese guys had to leave early as they wanted to go see Liverpool in the morning. Damian gave them a lift home, when he returned we watched a film called Chronos. It was about a man who found a beetle which would keep him alive but at a price. I found it a little confusing because of the language (it was Spanish with English subtitles) but also because I wasn't much in the mood for films. We seemed to spend more time talking and joking then watching.

It was fun though many amusing moments. The only weird part of the evening was when the Martina's friend arrived, the were two girls and a bloke. Apparently both the girls fancy the guy, I have no idea why he was fat and seemed rather ignorant in the few sentenced we exchanged. It seemed a little weird to me putting up three people you hardly know who then go off and do there own thing, but that is her prerogative.

Everybody Knows That You Are Insane

Some days you everything seems possible, it seems like no matter what the problem its surmountable. Today was a little like that for me, at least the majority of it. I managed to solve a major problem for Phil, and some things at work finally clicked.
It left me feeling pretty happy this evening, I even received a little reward from Phil in the form of a couple of pints at the Orange Grove.

I also managed to finished my current book "The catcher in the rye". I enjoyed it the main character reminded me a little of myself, albeit a more affluent and socially outgoing version. I understand his obsession with the falseness of displayed by the majority of people. The hypocrisies and downright falseness displayed by the a great deal of people is incredibly depressing. However tonight I refuse to let such things dent my good mood.

The temperature has plummeted this evening. I am sitting in my room close to almost shivering from the cold. The heating ticks off about 11. I have spent the last couple of hours looking at places to buy. I tried both the local papers and online. Unfortunately the choice was a little limited but with my birthday coming up I have decided it high past time I did something to move on. I have been following the same path for over three years now so it time to make some changes and re-evaluate. One of those changes is moving out its going to take a few months to sort thing out but I am moving in the right direction now. There are some more change to make but that is for another blog.

For What It's Worth

Today was a struggle, I feel a little like I am at sea swimming against the tide, no matter how much I raise my game I am still going to drown in the end. I struggle on though getting through the days and weeks trying to get my work done.

I went to the gym after work jogged for about 50 minutes on the treadmill. I was disgusting by the time I was finished covered in perspiration. Fortunately I did have the good fortune to be on a running machine next to an extremeley attractive young lady which made the process somewhat more tolerable.

I feel pretty awful today though, I am not sure exactly why, mostly frustration with work and a lack of progress in life I suppose. I really need to move out of home I feel like I cant breath hear anymore, my parents are always around they stifle me. They never really have any faith in my abilities which is greatly depressing especially when others do, to them I will always be a little child.

The Devil

Another Sunday, another hangover, more blurry memories. Last night I went round to Martin house for a Firework display and BBQ. It was a great evening well attended by many friends.
I had great fun listening to Becky's tails of bad dates, she also looked totally horrified to see Martins deconstructed front front. To be honest I had no idea how much he had taken it apart, it really is back to basics at the moment. Bruce and Nina, turned up she had some of her homemade fudge, it was excellent if dangerously fattening. Martin was his usual exuberant self, Endo seemed Jolly even Martins sister seamed to enjoy herself. Jo and Holly turned up I dropped off his new pc after making another trip to Aria to get a replacement motherboard, it finally seems to have solved the problems I have been having with it (touches wood).

I lost my usual BBQ master chief role to Simon who seemed to have great fun cooking away. It gave me a chance to go mingle so it wasn't so bad to be relegated. I hung around the super heated air radiating from the chimnenea, Martin really loves to get a good fire going!

Most of us brought some fireworks, though I don't feel like it was as much of a show as last year. It was still very funny though, I had a most enjoyable evening.

I only took one photo on my phone, left my camera at home like a fool :S

The Pretender

Did something pretty different this evening and went to a book reading. I had never been to one before, so I really didn't know what to expect. The girl from Japanese class invited me, her German network were all going.

The reading was by the author of Angela's Ashes Frank McCourt. He was a very interesting guy he told us a little about his life before giving a shore reading from his new children's book. He had a very powerful personality and waxed lyrical about how his miserable childhood gave him the material for his book.

I had a most enjoyable time listening to him, I would like to say he inspired me to work harder on my book. Unfortunately I feel quiet the opposite, he was so eloquent, so good at drawing characters I don't think I can ever get to that sort of level.

Remember Remeber

Foreign friends often find it strange that every year we British burn an effigy on top of a huge fire, then setting off a load of fireworks. They are even more amazed to find the celebration is based around the fact that a man named Guy Fawkes failed to blow up the houses of Parliament. There is something very British about the celebration of failure.

As usual I headed to the Woodford Community bonfire, its the only event of worth since the Woodford air show stopped. Joining me were Phil, Bruce and Nina. They parked at my house and we all walked down to the show together.

We found a nice place round the back. Not too close the the speakers which were blaring out music far far too loudly. Becky and some of her friends joined us. It was the first time I have seen her properly since she and Nick went there separate ways.

The display was pretty damn good, lots of big explosions lighting up the nights sky. There was a slight moment of Panic, when after a large volley of fireworks and despite the best efforts of the organisers the wind blew the fireworks over the crowd. This meant the hot ash fallout started to rain into the crowd, people went from "ooo" that's night to "OOO, run!" within moments. Fortunately the ash had cooled enough not to cause a mass panic and no one was trampled to death.

After the show we all headed to the rather less crowded British Legion round the corner. They had been rather enterprising and shown let people watch from there (their view probably just as good as the actual community centre). We had a couple of drinks and chewed the fat for a while.

I walked back with Becky and her friends then finished the final level on resident evil. I was still awake so I watched a film called "This is England", about 1980s Britain and the rise of the Skin head. After the loss of his father one little lad seeks solace with an increasingly violent group of skin heads. It highlighted how such radical groups could use people fears and basically offer a friendly environment, just so long as your face fits. Its a challenging film but definitely worth a watch.