The Duck Pond
Friday, November 29, 2002
Blimey I'm tired this morning although this is no surprise as I have only had about 3 hours sleep per night for the last 3 nights and although yesterday I was pretty awake, today it has all caught up with me and I feel like I have been munted repeatedly with a large spade. It has been so worth it though as I have had 3 pretty good nights out. Tuesday was rocsoc and although I was only there for an hour I had a pretty good laugh and a bit of a bop and with and because I got there very late (don't pay after midnight) and didn't drink, I only spent a grand total of 75p! Wednesday night I went to the cheesy music night at the union for the first time in years and I really enjoyed myself. I always have been a fan of those nights but I rarely get the opportunity to actually go to them. The night started off well by being stuck at the taxi rank with some drunken eejits who really didn't understand the concept of personal space. One of them also got in our taxi and as he was going to help us pay for it we didn't chuck him out. It was very amusing when we got to the top of the hill and he couldn't actually get out of the car and was saying "how to I get out?", "use the door, Luke", "oh very funny". Towards the end of the night it got really packed and was impossible to get to the bar and I seeemed to be invisible anyway as lots of people who arrived later got served before me. This happened last night too so it must be "don't serve Liz" week. Grrrr. The only problem I had with being sober that night was that I was more sensitive to getting barged out of the way on the dancefloor by people trying to get past but that was no biggy really. Last night, after failing to get any motivation together to tidy my room, I went to the decreasingly popular rock night downstairs at the Bay which was pretty uneventful for me but while I was at the bar my friend Liz got accosted by a completely wasted moron who thought going up to a complete stranger and groping her was completely acceptable and "just being friendly". A couple of minutes after she told me what had happened we saw him being hurled out by one of the bouncers. We got to have a bit of a dance to Rammstein though which always makes a good night.
One of my technosphere creatures, Beep, (I went through a fit of creating loads, a couple of weeks ago, in the hope that at least one would do something interesting) has managed to actually kill and eat another creature hurrah. This boy shows promise.
Ok I still haven't talked about the "Greatest Briton" thing that the BBC did and I haven't really got the momentum to do it now so I'll try to write about it this evening (yeah like I'll "try" to tidy my room). Prepare for a rant. Hehe
Monday, November 25, 2002
Alcohol is a funny thing. Arguably more dangerous than cannabis (and I won't rant about that today) yet still legal and very much abused by the most part of this country, including myself. Now don't get me wrong - I'm not a raving alcoholic who needs it every day and opens up a bottle of vodka at 10 am - but I think that drinking so much that you are ill, don't know what you are doing and have memory lapses is alcohol abuse and I have certainly been doing too much of that lately. It's weird how alcohol is regarded in this country and how when people go out at night they mainly go out with the primary purpose to get pissed, not to socialise, or have fun - these are secondary - but to drink alcohol until they don't have the faintest idea what they are doing, act like an utter twat and then throw up all over someone. This is seen as a cool thing. In fact it is almost as if it's impossible to have fun without a drink involved. However I know from my visit to Norway that this just isn't true. I have a colleague who is constantly coming into work boasting of the 3 million pints he has drunk the previous night and what a hangover he has. I tend to just smirk in his general direction but I realise I have becoming far too similar. This is not good. Right, now this has turned into an anti-alcohol rant which I didn't mean it to at all. I like alcohol. I'm a very shy person and find that I get very awkward in certain social situations and one or two drinks help me to relax and converse with strangers without wanting to fall through the floor. Also many of my boyfriends would possibly never have been my boyfriends if it wasn't for the old dutch courage (this could possibly be a good thing but that's irrelevant right now). The facts are I hate getting really drunk and losing control but I still do it. I know even when I start that I'm probably going to do something embarrassing and that I will regret it yet I still do and it costs so much money just to have a night I can't remember and a bloody bad headache in the morning and to have to apologise the next day to every single person I might have offended and to have everyone laugh at me and yet I still do it. Weird eh? Also it is extremely bad for the figure to drink as much as I have been doing lately so I propose this as part of my non-world-domination plan - I am not going to drink alcohol at all for two weeks (until the 9th of December). I shall then only allow myself 6 units per week until January 31st. Cool eh?
Bluergh.
Read through my blog from last night and I realise it's rambly and rather disjointed in places for which I apologise, I was tired, but I'm not going to rewrite it as this isn't here to get a literary award, merely to document my antics and stuff that's important to me which it does rather adequately.
I'm pretty tired this morning although still quite refreshed and awake from my holiday. I think the next couple of weeks are going to be difficult as this is when I put my "plan" (not my world domination plan, the other one) into action and it's going to be tricky at first I think. I'm only going to write a small part of my plan here - the rest is far too personal to reveal to anyone but my closest friends, if I tell even them.
Firefighters. While I totally support that they should get a decent wage because they do a very difficult job and on the most part they do it well (although don't get me started on 2 of the firemen I met in a pub who were in Aber for some sort of conference). I do NOT support the strike. What do they hope to achieve by putting other people's lives at risk anyway? Also what the hell are they thinking by 40%? That is such an unrealistic jump - most people are lucky to get 4% - and who do they expect to pay for it? It just sounds to me like greed and it is totally impossible for them to get that much anyway because what then? do the hospital workers and teachers and so on suddenly decide "Hey, the firefighters have got 40%, let's strike too guys". I haven't had a pay rise in over a year and it doesn't look like I'll get one in the near future and I believe I'm on less than a qualified firefighter so I think the rise they have been offered is bloody luxury. All this "but we just want to make up for being underpaid for so many years" nonsense bugs me too. If it was so many years then why the hell didn't they complain before? and may I also say that if they want to keep in line with "the rest of us" maybe they would like the same pension and working hours as "the rest of us" too? They knew what they were getting into when they accepted the job. Right this has made me a bit angry so I'm going to stop this before I burst a blood vessel or something.
Sunday, November 24, 2002
Well I didn't sort out the page like I planned to do this weekend but there's a good reason for that. I had to get away so I packed my bags, left a note on my door and went to Harlech. I stayed in a gorgeous B&B called Noddfa Guest House. It's a bit on the pricey side but it's well worth it. I spent the weekend in utter luxury. Beautiful room, comfortable bed, a spectacular view of Snowdon and Harlech Castle and even more importantly chocolate biscuits and an en-suite bath! The breakfasts were pretty good too. I had a pretty good weekend. It was just what I needed to try to catch up on sleep and get my head together without the usual pull and pressures of all things around me. I've sort of got my head sorted over one or two things but now I'm back in Aber I'm feeling pretty restless and antsy again and I'm not sure what I can do to solve it.
Harlech was beautiful. I arrived when it was dark so I didn't see much of it at first except the castle is all frightening and spooky because it's partially lit and just looms over everything in an eerie way. Luckily I found the B&B pretty quickly even though I had no clue where I was going because helpfully only the B&B was marked on the map, nothing else - not even the station. I then had a bath, read for a while and went to sleep really early - it must have been 8 or so *awwwld wommaaayynn*.
Got up mega early next morning, had breakfast and then ambled into "town" which consisted of a Spar, a gift shop (closed for winter), 2 newsagents and 2 cafes and possibly a couple of other small shops that I didn't need so didn't take notice of. It was very olde worlde and pretty cool. I then paid my 3 quid to get to mooch around the castle. It being well past tourist season and pretty early in the morning I got to look round it all by myself without being disturbed by other tourists. I spent 2-3 hours just looking round and sitting in various scenic places and looking thoughtful. One of these places was the top of the tallest turret, where I sat for ages. Heights really scare the living daylights out of me and this turret was no exception. It's sheer bloody mindedness really. I like to do things that make me feel frightened just to show my fears who's boss etc. etc. and to try to conquer them. If I'm scared of something I'm more likely to want to do it. This is all within reasons of course. There are many things that frighten me that I have no intention of doing ever such as driving a car off a cliff or springing headlong into a bonfire. I'm sure you all get my meaning without further explanation. Splendid. Anyway I sat on this turret where I got absolutely marvellous views over the coast and snowdonia and quite a few (hopefully excellent) photos.
After lunch I decided to head down to the beach which only turned out to be 300 miles away. Ok so maybe that's a bit of an exaggeration but after following the path for what seemed like miles I ended up having to take a very naughty shortcut across the railway to get to it. I meditated for ages on the beach *hippah* watching the sand blowing across the.. erm.. sand and then dossed about on the sand dunes until I came across a half hidden sign saying "These sandunes are dangerous, Caution" whereupon I abruptly stopped. I then walked along to the other side of the beach and found a proper path back to town and found a Christmas Fair with a santas grotto, a tombola and everything, which really took me back to my childhood when I always used to have to help my mum run a couple of the stalls for the cutesie child factor. As always the only interesting stall was the bookstall and I managed to get 3 seemingly good books for a quid although the bloke seemed to want to haggle. The whole thing was a bit like that sketch from Monty Python Life of Brian - you know the one. I said "How much for these 2 books" and he said "50p each but you can have 3 for a pound" but I said "I can't see a 3rd I like so I'll...", "oh well 25p each then", "oh actually I'll take this one as well, a pound was it?", "you can have them for 80p", "erm a pound's fine", "oooh you're very kind" . It all felt very bizarre. If I'd carried on I'm sure I could have bought the whole stall, including the table, for a fiver. I then returned to the B&B and had another bath (feeling a bit gritty from the beach, plus rarely have opportunity of long soak). Then couldn't be bothered going into town to eat alone like some sad git so guzzled biscuits plus the remains from an earlier Spar visit, then watched telly and went to bed.
This morning I overslept somewhat but still got up in time for breakfast. I then found a gorgeous park to sit and look thoughtful in for a while although getting to it involved crossing this rather narrow footbridge with no handrails and it was all a bit scary and had I been not quite so lazy I would have gone back and taken the long way back to get to it. I also visited a cafe which boasted a marvellous view and it was correct. Right over the bay and you could also see the castle, beautifully outlined by the mountains, and by god I'm beginning to sound like a bloody holiday brochure. I drank possibly too much coffee there and had lunch. Luckily I didn't miss the train home as it was the only one plus it was a beautiful scenic journey, coast - in some places going right up to the edge - on one side and mountains on the other.
Now I'm back I'm feeling a tad glum again. I really need to think over what I'm going to do. Not that I didn't think a lot when I was in Harlech but I came to no real conclusions as I was busytrying to enjoy myself not just fret and be miserable all the time!
I was going to blog more but as this has turned into an uberblog and I want to go to bed it can wait. 3 things to talk about tomorrow: 1) Firefighters, 2)bloody farce Great Briton thing, leading into what I think about this country and 3) Drinking alcohol
Night night!
Friday, November 22, 2002
ok so I haven't blogged for absolutely ages and I do apologise to anyone if they actually read my stuff and find it interesting. I got ill and went to hospital and although I was only in hospital for 3 days (dramatically on a drip and everything!) the illness spread and I'm still just about getting over it now *cough*hack*. This has left me with no motivation to do anything really, I haven't even been practising my german so that's gone really downhill not that it was ever that far up the hill in the first place. I have also been rather gnarly lately which is probably a by-product of being ill and not having my life in order for so long but that's not really helping my will to write jolly little observances in here. I thought I was getting out of it but I went out last night and one of my friends was in a bad mood (wasn't horrible or grouchy or anything - you could just tell) and it has seemed to pass on to me. The horrible nightmares last night haven't really made me into a sweet, fluffy bunny either.
My constant faffing with the template on this blogger has made it go all crappy and the archives don't really work. Do bear with me while I try to sort this out over the next few days. Hopefully it shouldn't take too much work.
Well not the most earth shattering of blogs I suppose. I do have stuff I want to write about, like the firefighters' strike and general other rambly crap but it will have to wait for another, more apropriate time, when I'm not quite so busy, tired or so damn cantankerous.
