Saturday 28 August 2010

Music music music. Oh, and A/S levels.

In the last post I said that there was no concern of failing my exams, just how far off I was from getting the grades I would like. Well, I was right in my presumption, and was 2 and a half marks from getting my B in Biology; 4 marks off an A in Media; the B that I did want in History I got, as well as getting the D that I would be happy to get in Chemistry. So I was 50% there with my dream results.

But that was all tucked nicely in between lots of live music events. The first being the 5 nights at the Cambridge Rock Festival. It was fantastic, and I was oh-so happy to hear Shine On You Crazy Diamond and Comfortably Numb live, even if it wasn't the real Pink Floyd. It was magic, especially as I heard Comfortably Numb twice, as a full band performance, and then as an acoustic guitar solo. I met Pure Floyd after, and they appreciated the fact that I was a new generation of people enjoying that music, and shook my hand for having wonderful taste. Later I saw another band, a local one, called the Treatment. They're a bit like Escape the Fate, and were fun to watch. I then had a few beers with them after.

I also met people who eventually formed the friendship group we call the Crack On Squad, which consists of Crack On, Buhlebamangwe, Nandos, GayJ, Bangus (me), Shabalaalala, Ginge, Mad Uncle Minkey and Ben.  We all had nicknames, mainly because there were two guys called Alex, and, to my amazement, two Angus'.  Having two guys called Alex is common, but Angus? It's unheard of unless in Scotland.

After Cambridge Rock Fest, I went with my sister to see Bad Religion in London. We went by coach to Victoria, but were held in a traffic jam due to a fateful accident up on the road, we saw the result of the accident, and it didn't look so bad to have the road closed for at least an hour and a half. It didn't matter anyway, we got to the venue on time, and met my sister's friend there who would actually rape the Band members of Bad Religion if given the right opportunity. He loves them that much. Anyway, we were in the seated area, and, with everyone else there, had to endure the awful support band. They just had no variety in short. When Bad Religion came on though, all was forgotten and we partied as much as one can when sitting down. After, I bought a t-shirt that is bright red and has a picture of two Nuns getting it on. I've been banned by my family from wearing it in public which I think is rather unfair, if a Nun has issues with it, she can take it up with me. And if a woman has issues of my t-shirt having two women making out on it, then she can wear a t-shirt of two guys having it on. What ever floats your boat yeah?

Three days later I went to see PENDULUM. I went with my friend who I was also with at the Cambridge Rock Fest, but this time I was second choice; he had split with his girlfriend from Southampton, and she no longer wanted to go, so sold me her ticket. Again, the support band were rubbish, and probably even worse than the one for Bad Religion, but oh well, it was soon forgotten when P came on stage. As soon as P came on stage, though, I got a horrible stomach pain. I seem to have this problem at gigs, I get stomach pains. I sat out at the bar for a while, drinking water, then went back into the crowd and straight to were the pit was. I moshed, I circle moshed, and then I crowd surfed. I was taken down by security, and led to a fire exit. So, there I was, standing outside, with no clothes on waist up, and it was raining and near enough half 10 at night. After the shock of being thrown out, I went to the front entrance and went back in again to have more moshing fun.

And that was pretty much my August. Hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed living it.

Toodles xxx

Thursday 29 July 2010

The one late at night

Can't sleep for some unknown reason, so what do I do? This of course. Aren't you lucky?

It's very much summer, which brings for me this year a handful of music events and the "dreaded" exam results.
You may recall, back some time ago - you know, that time I did a one off update? Yeah, that one, that I had taken a number of exams at A/S level. Well, in just two weeks time, I will be finding out how I did. There is no concern that I have failed subjects, just how far off was I to the grades I was really aiming for, and that is usually just 4 or 5 marks in it.

But to keep the worry that people expect me to be having, I have some musical events taking place. The first being from the 5th August to the 8th. During that time, I will be stewarding at the Cambridge Rock Festival. That's a few hours of work a day, then the rest of the day to chill to live music. I'm camping with a friend on the site, who helped me get a place working there this year. It was after we decided to share a tent that I then saw him join a group on facebook called "you're not best friends until you've spooned". Groovy.

I'm then seeing Pendulum perform at the Cambridge Corn Exchange, and if you may not have noticed, I live in Cambridge, but that's just a small detail about me. Following that, I'm off to London to see Bad Religion at the o2... this is their first UK tour in a long long long long long long long long long long LONG time, so I would be foolish not to go see them seeing as I'm a fan, no?

I was also planning on seeing Sonic Boom Six when they were coming to Cambridge, but as they're performing in a pub, I have to be 18. This really pissed me off. On the day of them playing, I will be less than two months away from turning to the big 1-8, so I think they should make an exception. What d'you think?

But before that fun filled August, I haven't had that much to do, so I've been spending my time watching Family Guy and learning to Juggle. I was hoping learning to juggle would take a couple of weeks to get the hang of, but I seemed to manage it on the first day of learning and I've just been practicing since and improving slightly. So I may start learning how to coin roll.

Anyway, my rock and roll classics album is nearly over, and I had promised myself that I would try to sleep when it finished. This is goodbye then, until I decide to write another one of these things.

Hope all is well to these followers that I have, and to those who may come across this blog by chance -  and I hope that those people read my other blogs and decide to follow me for the next time I update.

Talking of updates, I just joined twitter. I'm not sure if I'll be consistent with that as I am with this, but look for me: Baaaaaaaangus is my username.

Until next time,

Toodles x

Saturday 5 June 2010

To what do you owe this pleasure? I'm in a good mood.

It's the weekend before I am in the worst week of my A/S level life. I have 4 exams to do, two of them demand extreme speed writing and the other two demand knowing the content.

Of course, I started off my revision very well, but then this girl that I met at my best friend's 17th birthday gathering a month ago hadn't seen Iron Man 2 yet. So, being the decent guy, I took her on the day of the final viewing of the film. We then spent a few hours together after the film before I got an angry phone call that I needed to get home now or I will miss out on food. Oh dear. We left the cinema area and reached a point where we had to go separate ways, I to the bus stop and she to the train station. We said goodbye, hugged, looked at each other, kissed. Millie and I have known each other for just over a month now and have been together for just over a week. 

I would also like to say that this is the first time I've become a boyfriend without the use of doing the asking/ admitting of liking the girl over MSN or by email. The email way was rather unique though, and she did want legit proof of why I wasn't gay. 

Anyways, as I was saying, I'm in the middle of serious revision but have trouble of also being in a relationship. Limited time seeing Millie, or limited time doing revision. It's tipped to the limited time seeing Millie, so much so, that I won't see her now till after my final exam on June 10th. 

June 11th, would be my Mother's birthday. She'd be relatively young too. 43 years old. Most of my friends' have parents that are late 40s, early 50s. My mum became a mummy at the right age. You may have noticed how I refer to my mum in past tense, this is because she died in 1999, and I now live with her parents. 

After that sad note of this blog, onto my opinions of the South African World Cup, 2010. 

All those in the opinion that England are strong contenders to winning it, are deluding themselves. Again. The England squad, if looked at on paper, have some very good players - Gerrard, Rooney (even if he's an angry sod), Dawson (luckily given a second glance after Ferdinand's injury), Lennon.... but they can't play together and my word do they play boring football. From starting play from the goalkeeper, it goes something like this:

DEFENDER PASSES TO MIDFIELD
MIDFIELD PASSES IT TO FELLOW MIDFIELD
MIDFIELD PASSES IT BACK TO FELLOW MIDFIELD
MIDFIELD PASSES IT TO LEFT FLANK
LEFT FLANK DRIBBLES FOR A BIT
STOPS DRIBBLING
LEFT FLANK LOBS THE BALL OVER TO THE RIGHT FLANK
RIGHT FLANK PASSES BACK TO DEFENCE

then it can go in two directions here:
 1) DEFENDER PASSES TO MIDFIELD
MIDFIELD PASSES IT TO FELLOW MIDFIELD
MIDFIELD PASSES IT BACK TO FELLOW MIDFIELD
MIDFIELD PASSES IT TO LEFT FLANK
LEFT FLANK DRIBBLES FOR A BIT
STOPS DRIBBLING
LEFT FLANK LOBS THE BALL OVER TO THE RIGHT FLANK
RIGHT FLANK PASSES BACK TO DEFENCE

or
2) DEFENDER LOBS TO STRIKER
STRIKER PASSES BACK TO MIDFIELD
GERRARD TAKES THE SHOT
STRIKING PARTNERSHIP OF ROONEY AND CROUCH BECOMES REDUNDANT

That's fair enough for me to say that, but who do I think will win? A latin nation. Spain are looking great at the moment, and with Torres and Vila upfront, there will be no defence in world football that could possibly stop them. Then there is the Brazil and Argentina sides who are constantly a thorn, or should I say electric drill, in England's side. Germany, who are usually in the competition right up to the semis at least, could think they have a good chance this year - as long as they don't meet Spain. 

Who do I support? Germany, cause of my German inheritance. Then Spain, because they play sexy football. 

Anyways, babbled on for far too long.

Until next time, 

Toodles x

Thursday 20 May 2010

A momentary appearance before hibernating again.

Hi. Howsit going?

It's been a looooooooooooooooooooooooooong while since I last updated. This is not because I've been busy and this just took a back seat in my imaginary car that I would like to be real. I just really couldn't be bothered with this. Until now. Briefly.

Since the last time I told you of my life, I've been continuing with my studies at college. That has been rewarded with an A in my media studies coursework (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VWNU1e5PWwc) and a failed chemistry mock with only a couple of weeks to turn it around and pass the damn subject.

That was the two bread slices in my sandwich of the Spring term.

Easter was spent mostly in Kenya, and the holiday became extended because of Iceland being unable to control its volcano. We didn't go on Safari, as it was our fourth visit in the past 8 years, but the wildlife pretty much came to us at our hotel on the coast (http://www.hemingways.co.ke/); with monkeys, snakes and butterflies as well as the sea life just a hundred meters away appearing almost daily. All that came at the expense of my ears. I had a horrible ear infection for the entire holiday and turns out, according to my doctor back home, that I had an inner and outer ear infection as well as a lot of congestion in those tubes that all join together by my throat. Is cool though, I was on a course of antibiotics and I have a huge supply of ear drops to sort out any little problems I may get in the near future.

At the moment, I'm entering the final phase of my A/S levels. One more day of A/S lessons (tomorrow) and then study leave, for which I'm revising for six exams. It's not because my subjects are incredo demanding and require several exams. It's more that they're incredo demanding and I decided to re-take two of them after I didn't do as well as I wanted in the January exams. I'm re-taking my Biology and History exams, and I have the exams that I need to get at least an E in to be able to go into the A2 course. After all this mayhem is over, I have four weeks of A2 lessons before breaking up for summer. What's silly though, is I have to continue all four for those four weeks even though I am to drop one at the end of this academic year anyway. There reason for this is if I fail one  of the exams, it is compulsory for me to continue the other three that I didn't fail (provided I didn't fail the other three). My argument, however, is the subject I want to drop is chemistry, and it is also the subject I am most likely to fail in any case. What is the point in torturing me for another four weeks with that irritatingly difficult subject?

Anyways, that is my life since February.

Expect another update, next year. LOL JK. When I'm 18.

Friday 26 February 2010

Oh, oh, oh? It's another blog from me.

I always seem to find that when I come to actually write something on here, I forget what I wanted to talk about. So, I think I'll just quickly summarise my recent eventful moments until I remember something, worth while.

My half term turned out to be rather mediocre, with only a few moments of fun stuff happening. On the Tuesday afternoon of h/t, I had some guys over for what we call "Domino's Night". We order pizzas from domino's, we eat the pizzas, we do something manly and then they go home. This is our get together thing, we've done it several times since May of 2009, when we didn't want to go to a huuuuuge party in a nearby village that would definitely have drunken sex, drugs and bad music to celebrate the end of our GCSE tenure. We decided to have a sort of picnic on the grounds of another village's village hall where, on a Friday, a youth club takes place. We all had a really good time so, every now and then since that Friday in last year's May, we've had get togethers to have pizza and just chill to some music and do "manly" things. It's also nice to have such a thing with a tight circle of friends.

The manly things, if you're wondering what they are, would be playing xbox, drinking a few beers or some other man-beverage, and maybe a bit of pool or snooker. So far, there has been 5 of these domino's nights.

Other than that in my half term, the only other eventful thing that happened was meeting up with my good friend, yet druggy, sex addict and smoker, Will. I wouldn't say that Will and I are emotionally connected, but we have a good understanding of each other and there is no conflict between us. He's like my bit on the side, because we can do things to each other without feeling guilty. I have realised that this sounds very much like sex, but I assure you it isn't.

Anyway. I returned back to college, and resumed the repetitive routines that I have for each day. I'm not saying I don't enjoy it though; the Mario Kart DS races I have with my friends just makes it all go that much faster for me. Judge me all you want about bringing in a game console to amuse myself, but, I probably have more fun than the rest of the 1000+ students in my college.

Yeah. I can't remember anything significant to mention, so I'll leave it there.

Have a nice weekend!

Toodles xx

Saturday 13 February 2010

Saturdays.

It's the end of the first half of term at college after the winter break; I'm tired, I'm bored, I'm dressed as an alcoholic and I'm ill.

It has become a regular thing for me in recent years to be ill on the first few days of a holiday break. There is no surprise from me therefore that it's the case again for this holiday, which celebrates valentines, Gromit's birthday and the Winter Olympics. My illness isn't that bad, I can still breath when my torso is upright, I can still taste food etc. but I can't stop coughing, my head feels like it's gonna explode and I can't sleep well because of my throat closing up when I lie down. That's my tired and illness explained.

On to the next topic. Why I'm dressed as an alcoholic.

Let me first describe HOW I'm dressed as one, I'm wearing socks 'nd slippers, a pair of trackies called Georgia, a monsterz of rock t-shirt (sesame street) and my Reel Big Fish hoody. My hood is up, and I'm wearing some badass sun glasses. This is all topped off with the possession of some oh-so alcoholic shandy. This was all done to try and do something in my boredom. You can bet I have failed terribly in my attempt to be an alcoholic.

This blog post was also an attempt to pass the time, but I have now become bored in typing about myself, this being sick lark is really taking its toll on me.

I'll type about me more when I am better.

Toodles xx

Sunday 7 February 2010

Sundays

Sunday has long been regarded as 'the day of rest' by Christians. I completely agree on atheist grounds that it should be as well. There are however the silly little factors that the wife has to continue feeding the family, but on a much larger scale with a 'Sunday Roast' to celebrate this day where we 'rest'. I enjoy roasts, really I do. But, if it contradicts with what the day is designed to be, then surely we should just not bother?

This leads me to talk about my lazy Sundays.

My Sundays involve waking at a leisurely time of 9:30-11:30, going for a wash, retreat to my room for a while to get dressed into a pair of trackies and a comfortable hoody then proceed downstairs to make myself a Mocha. The rest of the day, if I have successfully managed to do my college work on Saturday, is mine to make do with how I want. This usually involves just playing computer games (Assassin's Creed, Pes 10, Guitar Hero 3 etc.), playing the piano, a few games of pool with my granddad if the snooker table is out and Facebook.

By now, most people have been exclaiming that they have a new facebook layout and it's not that great. I got this new layout late on Thursday night, and I did not hear of anyone else having this new layout scheme, which makes me feel strongly that I was the first to get this new layout. I can also honestly say, I like it. It goes with the theme of my internet browser, it is more vista/ windows 7 themed than before and just looks simpler to use than previously.

My only annoyance about facebook though is they made my profile be 'down for maintenance' for the entire Friday. For a guy who spends a great amount of his day on facebook, this was really quite an undesirable outcome. I tried doing other things to keep myself amused  but with no avail. Facebook has officially become to important for me.

At this point in the blog, I would like to point out that I do have a social life, that isn't organised over facebook, I just enjoy leaving the status updates that I leave. Of course, twitter would be better for this, but most of my friends are on facebook and they are my desired audience as they know what I'm like in the first place. It's like an inside joke but more personal.

I actually didn't join facebook till late June of '09. Before this turning point, I thought facebook as a lame website like bebo (which I do not have) or myspace (also do not have), and naturally I hadn't signed up. It was because of my ex girlfriend that I joined in fact, as she thought I was missing out on all the action (I still do miss out on most of the action, the difference is that now I can see what I'm missing when my friends upload the pictures). I joined, I left a status update. I was hooked from there on. It was then to my dismay that when I was in China, and had internet access, I couldn't get onto facebook - even when using a proxy. At least I was able to send the many emails I had written to my ex that I couldn't have done without the internet.

Anyway, that was my tale of my experiences of facebook and my Sunday.

But I would like to leave you all with a little something before my next blog, cause I'm nice that way and I want to promote my videos on Youtube even more. Oh yeah, by the way, I'm also on Youtube. Here's a video of mine:



Watch it, rate it, subscribe if you can. I don't upload as often as I used to, and I have removed a number of the videos that I had uploaded because I thought I could do better, then never got round to doing the better ones.

Anyway, this time, I am really finishing my blog, of this time round.

Toodles! xx