My name's Charby. I want to be a zoologist.
I've wanted to work with animals my entire life, I've surrounded myself in pets, in horses, in dogs, in fish, in birds, in geese, in goats.
And my bookshelves are filled with biological textbooks and zoology reference books. Books that i've had for years, admiring the pictures and dreaming of the day I too could see these things.
I've spent hours watching wildlife tv shows, going to zoos and safari parks. In trying to soak up every little bit of information I could.
I went to uni and studied for three and a half years and put myself nearly 16k's worth of debt in order to work with animals.
But with every rejection letter and failed interview, I start to wonder, is it really worth me still trying? Three years now since I've left uni and is it time to acknowledge the fact that if i've not been able to get anywhere now, I wont get anywhere ever?
This rejection for Colchester Zoo, has really hit me hard. I'd have been perfect at it, Its stuff that I could have done, that i've done for ages at the aquarium.
I sit and look at my options, I cant afford to go back to uni, I cant afford to do another course. I cant really do any volunteering any more. I cant afford to take the time off of work in order to do so.I'm trapped in a kinda catch-22. I dont have the experience, no one is willing to give me the experience. I cant afford to take a day off of work to go volunteer.
So what else do I do with my life? I really dont know. I dont like children, so teaching is out. I'm too figety and have too much energy to sit in an office.
Am I really doomed to spend the rest of my life at that museum?
Was it silly of me to ever attempt to not only escape London, but get a job working with animals?
Monday, April 28, 2008
so last thursday i had an interview at colchester zoo. Its about 3 hours from my house so happily if and thats a big IF i get it, i'll have to move back out of London.
Just getting to the interview in itself was a drama, the train in front of mine, hit someone at Romford Station so we got held up somewhere past Ilford for 40 minutes and then when i was preparing to leave the train at Colchester, a well dressed man stopped me.
"Excuse me" He said. "I dont feel very well, can you help me please."
So i had to help him get off of the train and found him a seat and called a member of the station staff to come over and he then got an ambulance for him and I waited with the man for the ambulance to arrive.
Putting my first aid skills right to the test there!
The interview was to become a park presenter, doing pretty much what i did at the Aquarium, but paid this time! I'm hoping it went well, but they havent got back to me yet, which is always a bit of a boo.
Just getting to the interview in itself was a drama, the train in front of mine, hit someone at Romford Station so we got held up somewhere past Ilford for 40 minutes and then when i was preparing to leave the train at Colchester, a well dressed man stopped me.
"Excuse me" He said. "I dont feel very well, can you help me please."
So i had to help him get off of the train and found him a seat and called a member of the station staff to come over and he then got an ambulance for him and I waited with the man for the ambulance to arrive.
Putting my first aid skills right to the test there!
The interview was to become a park presenter, doing pretty much what i did at the Aquarium, but paid this time! I'm hoping it went well, but they havent got back to me yet, which is always a bit of a boo.
Wednesday, April 23, 2008
So when we returned from Venice we headed back to FLorence to see "David" and then took a bus up to Michaelanglos Piazza which overlooks the entire city and has amazing views.
Then we caught a train down to Rome, sadly we only had the afternoon there really, so didnt get a chance to see much, we got a bus to the colusseum and braved the queues to have a look inside. It reminded me of some of the new football stadiums, you go inside and head up to your seat in the covered section adn then head outside to the pitch side as it were!
it wasnt hard to imagine how it must have been then. We then headed off to the vatican city, we both wanted to go see the sistine chapel but it was massively expensive and a huge queue so our next port of call was the trevi fountain.
which we missed and got side tracked by this lovely big fountain in the middle of the roundabout, which mother insisted we stop and risk life and limb crossing the road and posing for photos with!
The next day we caught a coach to Naples and Pompeii, Mother got bored with the speed that the group was moving at and encouraged me to come explore with her, which isnt a good i dea! all the streets look pretty much the same!
WE explored in the ruins of some houses/shops and saw the towns Brothel! Not sure that was on the tour and some lovely frescos, and was only late back finding the group by a few minutes!
So thats the end of my Italian adventure, and I have to prepare now! I have an interview tomorrow for Colchester zoo so i better do some research for that!
TP and TJ are moving back to Derbyshire" Hurrah!
i'll put the last set of pics up tomorrow maybe when i report back on how it went!
Then we caught a train down to Rome, sadly we only had the afternoon there really, so didnt get a chance to see much, we got a bus to the colusseum and braved the queues to have a look inside. It reminded me of some of the new football stadiums, you go inside and head up to your seat in the covered section adn then head outside to the pitch side as it were!
it wasnt hard to imagine how it must have been then. We then headed off to the vatican city, we both wanted to go see the sistine chapel but it was massively expensive and a huge queue so our next port of call was the trevi fountain.
which we missed and got side tracked by this lovely big fountain in the middle of the roundabout, which mother insisted we stop and risk life and limb crossing the road and posing for photos with!
The next day we caught a coach to Naples and Pompeii, Mother got bored with the speed that the group was moving at and encouraged me to come explore with her, which isnt a good i dea! all the streets look pretty much the same!
WE explored in the ruins of some houses/shops and saw the towns Brothel! Not sure that was on the tour and some lovely frescos, and was only late back finding the group by a few minutes!
So thats the end of my Italian adventure, and I have to prepare now! I have an interview tomorrow for Colchester zoo so i better do some research for that!
TP and TJ are moving back to Derbyshire" Hurrah!
i'll put the last set of pics up tomorrow maybe when i report back on how it went!
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
So on the 3rd day we headed to Florence.
We spent most of the day just pootling about and booked tickets to go see David at the Accademia when we returned and visited the Duomo, which is an absolutely beautiful church, we went into it and lit a candle and put it on a tealight tree for Dad and then went into the catacombs and saw lots of old roman and religious relics and icons and sainty type things.
Then we headed to Venice the next day, I cant even begin to explain to you just how amazingly awesome that place is. The water is a lovely blue, the streetlights are pink and give a lovely glow, there's canals and bridges and gondoliers everywhere, although it kinda spoils the image you have of them in your head when they whip out their mobile phones!
And of course the novelty of riding a water busboat everywhere and getting onto floating platforms to wait for the bus can never ever grow stale! Although I admit for the next two days afterwards everytime i closed my eyes or stayed still i was swaying!
Venice is also famous for its Murano glass, which is awesomely pretty and very expensive. I got a pretty multicoloured photo frame and a little blue bird thats all cheeky looking and a multicoloured parrot.
We spent two days in Venice before going back to Florence where we went to the Accedamia and saw "David" Who is fantastically good looking even if he is a statue. Although he has almost scarily large hands, as apparently he's supposed to be on a mountain top so he'd look in proportion then.
Whats scarier is that like at my museum photos of David are banned and I was off duty and still found myself yelling out "No Photos please" at tourists hiding round corners to take pictures!
Blogger is being a bitch and not uploading my photos so i'll try again tomorrow when i tell you the final part aboutr Rome and Pompeii. ooh i bet you're quivering with excitement!
We spent most of the day just pootling about and booked tickets to go see David at the Accademia when we returned and visited the Duomo, which is an absolutely beautiful church, we went into it and lit a candle and put it on a tealight tree for Dad and then went into the catacombs and saw lots of old roman and religious relics and icons and sainty type things.
Then we headed to Venice the next day, I cant even begin to explain to you just how amazingly awesome that place is. The water is a lovely blue, the streetlights are pink and give a lovely glow, there's canals and bridges and gondoliers everywhere, although it kinda spoils the image you have of them in your head when they whip out their mobile phones!
And of course the novelty of riding a water busboat everywhere and getting onto floating platforms to wait for the bus can never ever grow stale! Although I admit for the next two days afterwards everytime i closed my eyes or stayed still i was swaying!
Venice is also famous for its Murano glass, which is awesomely pretty and very expensive. I got a pretty multicoloured photo frame and a little blue bird thats all cheeky looking and a multicoloured parrot.
We spent two days in Venice before going back to Florence where we went to the Accedamia and saw "David" Who is fantastically good looking even if he is a statue. Although he has almost scarily large hands, as apparently he's supposed to be on a mountain top so he'd look in proportion then.
Whats scarier is that like at my museum photos of David are banned and I was off duty and still found myself yelling out "No Photos please" at tourists hiding round corners to take pictures!
Blogger is being a bitch and not uploading my photos so i'll try again tomorrow when i tell you the final part aboutr Rome and Pompeii. ooh i bet you're quivering with excitement!
Monday, April 21, 2008
Hullo!
Me at the Tower!
I'm back from Italy. It was a strange little place, rather rainy and dirty grotty cities with graffiti. So much like London then!
I did like Italy though, all the streets are narrow and dark and rather scary on a dark night. I loved wandering down odd streets and coming across ancient churches or ruins.
Pisa, was dark and spooky though, and rather run down. We went to the tower and climbed up it which was the oddest thing ever, you lean with the building and start walking up one side of the staircase and find yourself on the other! And at the top with only a thin bar stopping you from slipping off of the steps and falling does odd things to your centre of balance!
THe place we stayed at was odd though! It was basically a B&B set up by a rather enterprising woman in the spare room of her 3rd floor flat. who spoke no english. and my italian is limited to "Hello" "Bye." "Thanks" "Excuse me" "Welcome" "ice cream" and "How much does that cost?"
THe place we stayed at was odd though! It was basically a B&B set up by a rather enterprising woman in the spare room of her 3rd floor flat. who spoke no english. and my italian is limited to "Hello" "Bye." "Thanks" "Excuse me" "Welcome" "ice cream" and "How much does that cost?"
She got rather excited by the fact i was travelling with my mam though and pinched my cheek lots which hurt. And hugged me loads. And offered me what looked like Liver on toast. I opted for the nutella at breakfast time. Which they all seem obsessed by. Its everywhere, in ice cream, in cakes, on the breakfast table.
Needless to stay I spend much of my time hiding from her.
Needless to stay I spend much of my time hiding from her.
On the second day we went to Lucca, which is a lovely little medieval town about 40 minutes away on the train from Pisa, its exciting cos its mostly pedrestrianised (which is a good thing considering the driving skills of most italians!) We got a tandem and rode it the 4km around the city walls, which was an experience! its horrid not being in control of your cycle and i was at the back all the time and feeling like it was gonna tip over!
Anyway here are some pictures from that part of my adventures and I'dd do the rest tomorrow.
Anyway here are some pictures from that part of my adventures and I'dd do the rest tomorrow.
Me at the Tower!
Climbing to the top!
Lucca
Friday, April 11, 2008
So Tomorrow I'm flying off to Italy! Hurrah! My plan is to fly into Pisa, spend a day in Lucca, then head to Florence, before going onto Venice, returning to Florence, for the night before we go to Rome and then down to Naples and Pompeii before returning to Rome to fly out. In the space of 9 days! Phew!
I'm kinda nervous about it, its the first time i've back packed in a country i dont speak the language of, I'm worried that me and Mam'll fall out and can i negociate my way around Italy's train network without speaking a word of italian!
I'm kinda nervous about it, its the first time i've back packed in a country i dont speak the language of, I'm worried that me and Mam'll fall out and can i negociate my way around Italy's train network without speaking a word of italian!
Monday, April 07, 2008
I like ducks, always have done, i like the way they waddle and the way they wiggle their feathery arses and i like the sheen on a mallards head.
OF used to have a mallard, it lived in a small pond that it shared with a rabid goose.
So when i saw two mallard drakes and a duck crossing the road on the way to work, i was entranced.
"Hullo Duckies." I greeted them. "why are you here? You shouldnt be here, not in the middle of a road, you belong on the pond"
They wiggled their arses and quacked cheerily at me, as if to agree that yes they thought they should be there too.
"quackie, quack, quack." I chatted happily back to them, and then prepared to cross the road, which was when the cyclist pedalled past giving me the strangest, and in my opinion completely undeserved look.
OF used to have a mallard, it lived in a small pond that it shared with a rabid goose.
So when i saw two mallard drakes and a duck crossing the road on the way to work, i was entranced.
"Hullo Duckies." I greeted them. "why are you here? You shouldnt be here, not in the middle of a road, you belong on the pond"
They wiggled their arses and quacked cheerily at me, as if to agree that yes they thought they should be there too.
"quackie, quack, quack." I chatted happily back to them, and then prepared to cross the road, which was when the cyclist pedalled past giving me the strangest, and in my opinion completely undeserved look.
Thursday, April 03, 2008
Hurrah I'm back! Hullo mr internet how are you?!
i've been disconnected thanks to those cunts at tiscali, who took it rather badly indeed that i was changing over my internet provider, cut us off, and yet refused to free our line so we could change provider.
it took a month of harrasing them, speaking to a lovely guy called ryan in their accounts department (indeed i think he might now be on my christmas card list!) and phoning up OFCOM who threatened to sue their asses before i'm back here, right now!
Except i'm not, cos i'm currently about to catch a train to Wales to see Welshy for 4 days.
So what's been going on in my life? Not a lot, apart from realising i CAN live without the internet, works still the same boring fuckery that its always been, except some mad cunt decided to donate 20million to us, which is apparently the largest donation ever made to a british museum. We all got summoned to a meeting after work (with free booze) to hear this, and i think one of my proudest museum moments was the pantomine gasp at the announcement and seeing how we then all started edging backwards towards the bar, before the speech ended and then how we all turn and ran to it, my boss leading the charge!
I also managed to disgrace myself fantastically by being caught by Lord Stirling who is head of our trustees with 6 glasses in my hands and in the attempt to smuggle them into my locker and take home.
Other news.... Hmmm, oh I got an interview at London Zoo to be a temporary animal keeper, however i didnt get the job cos "i didnt have the experience" So what spending 6 years of my life during the weekends and school holidays clearing up horse shit means i cant then clean up monkey shit? fuck that.
Applying for a job at another zoo now, we'll wait for that rejection letter!
Oooohhh. Speaking of stables, the sale of the land fell through, which is good, cos the man who brought it was refused planning permission, which means it'll be up for auction again soon.
And finally before I really must go and pack is that I'm away on holidays again soon. Last night in a rather supreme acto of boredom me and Mum decided to go to italy, so we have a flight out booked to Pisa and a return one for Rome, as to what we do inbetween that for 9 days is a mystery! Hurrah!
i've been disconnected thanks to those cunts at tiscali, who took it rather badly indeed that i was changing over my internet provider, cut us off, and yet refused to free our line so we could change provider.
it took a month of harrasing them, speaking to a lovely guy called ryan in their accounts department (indeed i think he might now be on my christmas card list!) and phoning up OFCOM who threatened to sue their asses before i'm back here, right now!
Except i'm not, cos i'm currently about to catch a train to Wales to see Welshy for 4 days.
So what's been going on in my life? Not a lot, apart from realising i CAN live without the internet, works still the same boring fuckery that its always been, except some mad cunt decided to donate 20million to us, which is apparently the largest donation ever made to a british museum. We all got summoned to a meeting after work (with free booze) to hear this, and i think one of my proudest museum moments was the pantomine gasp at the announcement and seeing how we then all started edging backwards towards the bar, before the speech ended and then how we all turn and ran to it, my boss leading the charge!
I also managed to disgrace myself fantastically by being caught by Lord Stirling who is head of our trustees with 6 glasses in my hands and in the attempt to smuggle them into my locker and take home.
Other news.... Hmmm, oh I got an interview at London Zoo to be a temporary animal keeper, however i didnt get the job cos "i didnt have the experience" So what spending 6 years of my life during the weekends and school holidays clearing up horse shit means i cant then clean up monkey shit? fuck that.
Applying for a job at another zoo now, we'll wait for that rejection letter!
Oooohhh. Speaking of stables, the sale of the land fell through, which is good, cos the man who brought it was refused planning permission, which means it'll be up for auction again soon.
And finally before I really must go and pack is that I'm away on holidays again soon. Last night in a rather supreme acto of boredom me and Mum decided to go to italy, so we have a flight out booked to Pisa and a return one for Rome, as to what we do inbetween that for 9 days is a mystery! Hurrah!
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
I'm achieving at work! oh yes. That phrase has become a bit of a running injoke now with me and a lad who is just dossing really until he starts teaching in threee weeks time, especially as its very heard to actually leave work with a feeling of a achievement. unless its the fact that you managed to count a new number on the never-ending quest to count all the tiles in the Great Hall.
(slightly blurry but you can see how many there is, especially when you have the dilemma of whether you count cracked tiles as two or one).
Anyway he's been mocking me lately as in the space of one week, i've been admissions trained, reccommended for "special duties" (as yet unknown) and we've both signed up for this first aid course at work.
Which has been a source of great fun, we've just been ripping the piss out of each other today.
And that brings me onto my point-of-posting.
Oh yes. After my first day of first aid training I came home to eat my dinner, and somehow I reached new levels of spackiness, even for me.
Yes somehow i managed to bite my fork while eating my dinner. Hard. And after having consulting my mirror I've managed to chip a tiny piece off one of my front teeth.
hmmm. Dont think the first aid booklet gives me help on dealing with this one!
Monday, February 11, 2008
so yes.. i arrived in derby and was taken to the eagle centre, visited MHs new house, went for a rather random countryside drive where we talked through some of that girls shit that she's got going down and then i headed out to meet the lads.
It was a bit awkward at first. Like i said its been a long time since i've visited last a long time since i came up last and I was a bit of an outsider at first, all shy like when we first started hanging out but then R appeared!
I've not seen R since, oh forever! See after he finished his degree he moved to rejoin his parents (I'm never quite sure what they do, i think they teach english as a second language abroad, he describes them as travelling missionaries) in the cayman islands (lucky cunt) so for the last two years he's been working out there with the blue iguana conservation program and they have decided to fund his masters in wildlife conservation and in september he moved up to Newcastle!He hasnt changed! He's still the same annoying, drunken tart he always was.
hurrah!
so we went out for many drinks and all was good fun, R tried to teach me how to salsa, N pushed me over and pinned me down in the middle of the road, just like old times!
anyhoo. it got to about quarter to two and MH who was my taxi service for the evening despite not coming out, text me to say she was coming to get me and N got rather irritated at that. I wasnt ready to go home, but obviously i cant take advantage of her kind offer to pick me up and offer me a place to kip!
Anyway he demanded that i stay out and i refused and then he stole my phone and pushed me outside the bar and i followed him, arguing that he gave me back my phone.
Being a tall cunt he strode off and i had to trot after him. he started giving me this speech that i think he'd rehearsed a million times about how I should stop allowing myself to be used by her (which in a way is true. She's said some pretty shitty things to me in the past and messed me about a little) how i should stop worrying so much about what everyone else expected me to do and do what i wanted for a change.
Which I got pretty upset about, I am trying to rebuild my life and sort it out and i dont need pity from anyone else and then he reminded me of some of the things she's said to me, how she expects me to go and move back in with her while she finds me a crummy job just to make her happy, where as I'd quite like to give living with Welshy a go. but he dont figure in her plans at all.
And I got pretty teary and he cuddled me while i fought back a couple of sobs and then walked me to his house. demanded that I not go back to MH and indeed rang her and told her i wasnt coming back (by this time she's arrived in derby, spent 40 minutes looking for me, is pretty pissed off and gone back home, only to come back out again with my bedthings)
He demanded to know when I was coming back to live in Derby again, telling me that he knows i'm not happy, that i've spent too long making other people happy and coming back there would make me happy (I'm not sure it would anymore. i dont think i can live the student lifestyle like they do. yes i miss them all and i miss the social life but i think my lifes starting to take me in another direction to theirs. And really i think all that was part of a ploy to get me to pick sides in the row that is ongoing between him and STF and MH)
Then he started to ask me about Dad, which I've never really actually talked about with anyone in real life except Welshy. About the day that he died and the events leading up to it which made me cry some more.
Then at 3am he decided we should make pancakes. which in hindsight was a bad move when you were as drunk as we were. They were inedible, but we took the scraps up to his room where we settled down to watch crocodile dundee and i must have passed out cos the next thing i remember is that it was half past 7 and his poxy alarm is going off and he's dragging me up and out, so we ate breakfast out, and headed to the pub!
A had gone to the casino and had a mega win 900 quid for putting 80 in! lucky bastard!) so treated us all to breakfast in Our Beloved Friary (there's something so wrong and yet so right about sitting outside a bar ringing them, demanding that they open up and serve us)
I text MH to apologise for the drama last night, and she came and collected me and told me very severely off all the way to the train station and I came home after an epic 4 hour train ride (normally takes only an hour and 45 minutes to get back)
so there we go, an ace night out really minus the girly dramas and i promised i wouldnt leave it so long before i visited again!
It was a bit awkward at first. Like i said its been a long time since i've visited last a long time since i came up last and I was a bit of an outsider at first, all shy like when we first started hanging out but then R appeared!
I've not seen R since, oh forever! See after he finished his degree he moved to rejoin his parents (I'm never quite sure what they do, i think they teach english as a second language abroad, he describes them as travelling missionaries) in the cayman islands (lucky cunt) so for the last two years he's been working out there with the blue iguana conservation program and they have decided to fund his masters in wildlife conservation and in september he moved up to Newcastle!He hasnt changed! He's still the same annoying, drunken tart he always was.
hurrah!
so we went out for many drinks and all was good fun, R tried to teach me how to salsa, N pushed me over and pinned me down in the middle of the road, just like old times!
anyhoo. it got to about quarter to two and MH who was my taxi service for the evening despite not coming out, text me to say she was coming to get me and N got rather irritated at that. I wasnt ready to go home, but obviously i cant take advantage of her kind offer to pick me up and offer me a place to kip!
Anyway he demanded that i stay out and i refused and then he stole my phone and pushed me outside the bar and i followed him, arguing that he gave me back my phone.
Being a tall cunt he strode off and i had to trot after him. he started giving me this speech that i think he'd rehearsed a million times about how I should stop allowing myself to be used by her (which in a way is true. She's said some pretty shitty things to me in the past and messed me about a little) how i should stop worrying so much about what everyone else expected me to do and do what i wanted for a change.
Which I got pretty upset about, I am trying to rebuild my life and sort it out and i dont need pity from anyone else and then he reminded me of some of the things she's said to me, how she expects me to go and move back in with her while she finds me a crummy job just to make her happy, where as I'd quite like to give living with Welshy a go. but he dont figure in her plans at all.
And I got pretty teary and he cuddled me while i fought back a couple of sobs and then walked me to his house. demanded that I not go back to MH and indeed rang her and told her i wasnt coming back (by this time she's arrived in derby, spent 40 minutes looking for me, is pretty pissed off and gone back home, only to come back out again with my bedthings)
He demanded to know when I was coming back to live in Derby again, telling me that he knows i'm not happy, that i've spent too long making other people happy and coming back there would make me happy (I'm not sure it would anymore. i dont think i can live the student lifestyle like they do. yes i miss them all and i miss the social life but i think my lifes starting to take me in another direction to theirs. And really i think all that was part of a ploy to get me to pick sides in the row that is ongoing between him and STF and MH)
Then he started to ask me about Dad, which I've never really actually talked about with anyone in real life except Welshy. About the day that he died and the events leading up to it which made me cry some more.
Then at 3am he decided we should make pancakes. which in hindsight was a bad move when you were as drunk as we were. They were inedible, but we took the scraps up to his room where we settled down to watch crocodile dundee and i must have passed out cos the next thing i remember is that it was half past 7 and his poxy alarm is going off and he's dragging me up and out, so we ate breakfast out, and headed to the pub!
A had gone to the casino and had a mega win 900 quid for putting 80 in! lucky bastard!) so treated us all to breakfast in Our Beloved Friary (there's something so wrong and yet so right about sitting outside a bar ringing them, demanding that they open up and serve us)
I text MH to apologise for the drama last night, and she came and collected me and told me very severely off all the way to the train station and I came home after an epic 4 hour train ride (normally takes only an hour and 45 minutes to get back)
so there we go, an ace night out really minus the girly dramas and i promised i wouldnt leave it so long before i visited again!
Sunday, February 10, 2008
So early on Saturday I caught the train up to Derby, I was horrified to learn that the old Midland Mainline company has been taken over by East Midland trains and they'd taken away the complimentary tea and coffee, not that i drank either but its the principle of the thing!
Going up to St Pancras was an experience too. Since I went to uni, they've slowly been revamping the station. I used to pull into the station and watch the men work on the expansion and then half way through my second year, we got moved into the temporary extension which was very exciting and now its all posh with a pretty glass roof and lots of posh shops.
What I liked best on the way home though was that, before I could look out of one corner and see my Dads cab in the taxi rank, and he'd always be waiting for me in the lobby part either with the cab or he'd come up on the train and we'd talk bollocks all the way home.
Anyway, obviously since he's not around any more to meet me, I always found it hard to go past that window without looking to see if the taxi was there and even Welshy commented once that I walked past all the cabs and had a quick glance in the windows to see if he was there. So to be able to go past and not have that sinking feeling was really nice.
My journey up was pretty uneventful, I befriended some Spurs supporters heading up for the Derby/Spurs match and got chatting to this old man who was carrying a bouquet of roses and I asked if that was for someone special and he started telling me that they were for his best friend'd 60th. A lass that he'd known for fifty years since they were children together and that they only met up twice a year for each others birthdays but had written a letter to each other every fortnight for so long and spoke on the phone once a week for like the last twenty-nine years and stuf like that. Which I thought was incredibly sweet.
I met MH up in Derby and she took me around the new and modern Eagle Centre and i got a very exciting lemon meriangue flavoured milkshake and some stuff that turns your bath water into goo! I cant wait to try that out!
Anyhow I'm really tired so i'll finish this off tomorrow if i remember...
Going up to St Pancras was an experience too. Since I went to uni, they've slowly been revamping the station. I used to pull into the station and watch the men work on the expansion and then half way through my second year, we got moved into the temporary extension which was very exciting and now its all posh with a pretty glass roof and lots of posh shops.
What I liked best on the way home though was that, before I could look out of one corner and see my Dads cab in the taxi rank, and he'd always be waiting for me in the lobby part either with the cab or he'd come up on the train and we'd talk bollocks all the way home.
Anyway, obviously since he's not around any more to meet me, I always found it hard to go past that window without looking to see if the taxi was there and even Welshy commented once that I walked past all the cabs and had a quick glance in the windows to see if he was there. So to be able to go past and not have that sinking feeling was really nice.
My journey up was pretty uneventful, I befriended some Spurs supporters heading up for the Derby/Spurs match and got chatting to this old man who was carrying a bouquet of roses and I asked if that was for someone special and he started telling me that they were for his best friend'd 60th. A lass that he'd known for fifty years since they were children together and that they only met up twice a year for each others birthdays but had written a letter to each other every fortnight for so long and spoke on the phone once a week for like the last twenty-nine years and stuf like that. Which I thought was incredibly sweet.
I met MH up in Derby and she took me around the new and modern Eagle Centre and i got a very exciting lemon meriangue flavoured milkshake and some stuff that turns your bath water into goo! I cant wait to try that out!
Anyhow I'm really tired so i'll finish this off tomorrow if i remember...
Friday, February 08, 2008
What a match!
Charlton v Palarse games are always something special. thought it was all gonna kick off though at the bottom of Charlton Church Lane, when we got caught in a crowd yelling abuse at the palarse fans and them giving it right back. Anyway the police horses moved in and me and E and her two workmates nipped round the back of them.
Poor things, one of them was getting right spooked by the atmosphere and backed most of the way up, only the skill of the rider and the confidence boost it got from an older, more placid horse, whose rider shoved right in the way of it, stopped it from bolting.
Its so funny to see those guys who just a few minutes ago, had been mouthing off, just scatter away from the waving hooves.
And even more funny to think that me and E just walked past them rather blaise and uncaring. I guess all that time around the horses as kids has left us with perhaps a false sense of secuirity of guessing how the horses'll react. One day we'll get caught out and trampled underfoot!
By the time we'd gotten through all that the game had kicked off and it was a fantastic atmosphere right from the start!
When Varney got the first and then the other (surely it'll go down as an own goal in the end though!?) It just went crazy, right through to the final whistle, where it was another ballache to get out!
Our next game is away to Wednesday. I was hoping to go to this. A had kinda, almost, not really, promised me that i could come and sit in his box for the match but a midweek game is just silly cos i cant afford to take the time away from work, especially when i'm being entrusted with the excitement of a first aid course!
And Tomorrow I'm heading up to Derby! Hurrah! N has been most affronted recently that I've only been up once since coming back from NZ so i'm heading up for a "lads night out"! Ha!
I would have gone up tonight, but obviously, football comes first!
Derby Hurrah!
Charlton v Palarse games are always something special. thought it was all gonna kick off though at the bottom of Charlton Church Lane, when we got caught in a crowd yelling abuse at the palarse fans and them giving it right back. Anyway the police horses moved in and me and E and her two workmates nipped round the back of them.
Poor things, one of them was getting right spooked by the atmosphere and backed most of the way up, only the skill of the rider and the confidence boost it got from an older, more placid horse, whose rider shoved right in the way of it, stopped it from bolting.
Its so funny to see those guys who just a few minutes ago, had been mouthing off, just scatter away from the waving hooves.
And even more funny to think that me and E just walked past them rather blaise and uncaring. I guess all that time around the horses as kids has left us with perhaps a false sense of secuirity of guessing how the horses'll react. One day we'll get caught out and trampled underfoot!
By the time we'd gotten through all that the game had kicked off and it was a fantastic atmosphere right from the start!
When Varney got the first and then the other (surely it'll go down as an own goal in the end though!?) It just went crazy, right through to the final whistle, where it was another ballache to get out!
Our next game is away to Wednesday. I was hoping to go to this. A had kinda, almost, not really, promised me that i could come and sit in his box for the match but a midweek game is just silly cos i cant afford to take the time away from work, especially when i'm being entrusted with the excitement of a first aid course!
And Tomorrow I'm heading up to Derby! Hurrah! N has been most affronted recently that I've only been up once since coming back from NZ so i'm heading up for a "lads night out"! Ha!
I would have gone up tonight, but obviously, football comes first!
Derby Hurrah!
Saturday, February 02, 2008
On Thursday I had the day off of work so I did some work for the gallery favourite talk that I wanna do for work, so i took a trip to the Imperial War Museum.
Ordinarily i love museums, i can spend all day happily reading and admiring the exhibits (of course it helps if they have interactive parts so i can indulge my inner child!) But there's something so sad and mournful about the war museum. I guess thats to be expected really. I mean its not like war is a happy picnic and kite flying session is it?
Looking at the room full of Victoria Crosses (including one of my talk subject - funnily enough, as I've discovered that the picture they have of him, isnt really him!) and in the main foyer they have an exhibit on the recent TV production of My Boy Jack which starred Daniel Radcliffe and they have loads of parts of guns and tanks and aircraft, and its filled with kids pretending to shoot them and men reliving their childhoods and it made me sad somehow to think about it all, that people were killed and injured and they (visitors not the museum) were making a joke out of it, and not treating them with respect I guess.
I couldnt face looking around the rest of it so I got the info I needed and hurried off to meet Welshy.
My Mother is slowly starting to relent on the Welshy part of my life and curiosity is beginning to get the better of her (only 2 years after I first met him, one year after we started going out and 2 months since I told her about him!) I think soon she'll ask to meet him which alternately scares the hell out of me and is something I want to do.
Anyway we checked into a hotel as we do and hung out for two days, it was nice, I could pretend that we lived together and i was coming home to him from work and gay girly stuff like that.
We went to Pizza Hut together and took supplies from sainsburys to the room and laughed and chatted and caught up.
I like hanging about with him, he's my best friend and one of the very few people I can feel i can be myself about, i dont feel the need to hide my occasional spacky moments where i trip over my own feet and walk into walls, i can tell him about the often random and fantastically illogical thoughts and fantasies that go in and out of my head and i can curl up and lean on his chest and feel safe and comforted in a way that i dont ever feel elsewhere.
Anyway. can you guys believe its a year since NZ? This time last year I'd done my sky tower jump, and spent two days clambering about in a cave. Awesome.
Ordinarily i love museums, i can spend all day happily reading and admiring the exhibits (of course it helps if they have interactive parts so i can indulge my inner child!) But there's something so sad and mournful about the war museum. I guess thats to be expected really. I mean its not like war is a happy picnic and kite flying session is it?
Looking at the room full of Victoria Crosses (including one of my talk subject - funnily enough, as I've discovered that the picture they have of him, isnt really him!) and in the main foyer they have an exhibit on the recent TV production of My Boy Jack which starred Daniel Radcliffe and they have loads of parts of guns and tanks and aircraft, and its filled with kids pretending to shoot them and men reliving their childhoods and it made me sad somehow to think about it all, that people were killed and injured and they (visitors not the museum) were making a joke out of it, and not treating them with respect I guess.
I couldnt face looking around the rest of it so I got the info I needed and hurried off to meet Welshy.
My Mother is slowly starting to relent on the Welshy part of my life and curiosity is beginning to get the better of her (only 2 years after I first met him, one year after we started going out and 2 months since I told her about him!) I think soon she'll ask to meet him which alternately scares the hell out of me and is something I want to do.
Anyway we checked into a hotel as we do and hung out for two days, it was nice, I could pretend that we lived together and i was coming home to him from work and gay girly stuff like that.
We went to Pizza Hut together and took supplies from sainsburys to the room and laughed and chatted and caught up.
I like hanging about with him, he's my best friend and one of the very few people I can feel i can be myself about, i dont feel the need to hide my occasional spacky moments where i trip over my own feet and walk into walls, i can tell him about the often random and fantastically illogical thoughts and fantasies that go in and out of my head and i can curl up and lean on his chest and feel safe and comforted in a way that i dont ever feel elsewhere.
Anyway. can you guys believe its a year since NZ? This time last year I'd done my sky tower jump, and spent two days clambering about in a cave. Awesome.
Sunday, January 27, 2008
I've just come back from visiting Welshy!
I had a fantastic Saturday with him, combining all of my favouritest things, animals, football, drinking and dancing!
He toko me to Chester Zoo which is i have to admit loads better than London Zoo, with more big animals and lots more space and exhibits, i saw loads of new animals that i've not seen before, like gorgous big jaguars and I had lots of fun running about like a loon from one pen to another to see them!
I even managed to crawl into a giant tortoise shell and pretend to be an orang-utan and saw my one of my favourite animals the okapi, who blatantly have sexy arses. We even saw the parthenongenic komodo dragons! which was exciting!
Then luckily his local team had got their game re-arranged so we rushed to the ground in time to see Wrexham throw two points away and settle for a 1-1 draw!
I had a fantastic Saturday with him, combining all of my favouritest things, animals, football, drinking and dancing!
He toko me to Chester Zoo which is i have to admit loads better than London Zoo, with more big animals and lots more space and exhibits, i saw loads of new animals that i've not seen before, like gorgous big jaguars and I had lots of fun running about like a loon from one pen to another to see them!
I even managed to crawl into a giant tortoise shell and pretend to be an orang-utan and saw my one of my favourite animals the okapi, who blatantly have sexy arses. We even saw the parthenongenic komodo dragons! which was exciting!
Then luckily his local team had got their game re-arranged so we rushed to the ground in time to see Wrexham throw two points away and settle for a 1-1 draw!
then down into the city itself to meet one of his friends where much drinking was partaken and much silly dancing also!
Sunday, January 20, 2008
I got id-ed on saturday. Which isnt an unusual thing for me, despite being 24, If I venture away from my local haunts I tend to be id-ed all the time, which is almost fair enough. I do look young for my age, and what with the challenge 21 thing, although its a pain in the arse I carry ID with me at all times.
No. What upset me most about being id-ed on Saturday was that it was while trying to buy a lottery ticket!! (for those over the water, you have to be 16 in order to get a lottery ticket)
I was most annoyed (and i will kill anyone who says I'll be glad of it when i get older, that's no consolation for the shame i felt when I realised that my wallet was in my mums handbag at the time and so had to be escorted out of WHSmiths by a security guard while trying to prove my age)
No. What upset me most about being id-ed on Saturday was that it was while trying to buy a lottery ticket!! (for those over the water, you have to be 16 in order to get a lottery ticket)
I was most annoyed (and i will kill anyone who says I'll be glad of it when i get older, that's no consolation for the shame i felt when I realised that my wallet was in my mums handbag at the time and so had to be escorted out of WHSmiths by a security guard while trying to prove my age)
Friday, January 18, 2008
Monday, January 14, 2008
oh no!
I said in my last post about how i crashed into a friend while ice skating, causing him to crash and cut his face open, well today. Lovely (We'll call him that cos he is a sweety and lovely goes well with his name)
anyway he was eating his dinner as i entered the messroom and i notice that his arm is in a sling and he's got one of those splint glove things on.
Turns out that when i crashed into Lovely, I may have fractured his arm!
Ooops!
He's pretty cool about it, and just shrugged off my apologies as "one of those things" although i'm not sure he appreciated my giggles while i watched him struggle to unwrap a tinfoil bread roll.
I said in my last post about how i crashed into a friend while ice skating, causing him to crash and cut his face open, well today. Lovely (We'll call him that cos he is a sweety and lovely goes well with his name)
anyway he was eating his dinner as i entered the messroom and i notice that his arm is in a sling and he's got one of those splint glove things on.
Turns out that when i crashed into Lovely, I may have fractured his arm!
Ooops!
He's pretty cool about it, and just shrugged off my apologies as "one of those things" although i'm not sure he appreciated my giggles while i watched him struggle to unwrap a tinfoil bread roll.
Sunday, January 13, 2008
last Wednesday was Dad's birthday so we went to see the Spamalot show. It was really fun, even if like me, you've been brought up opn the Monty Python movies, and you know all the jokes you still find a reason to laugh at them!
And if you're (un)lucky enough you may even get picked up out of the stage to help find the grail by King Arthur and his gang and get a photo taken on stage with them all.
Friday I went ice skating with some of the lads from work that i've gotten quite chummy with and a girl who used to work with us during the summer,unlike me though she wasnt lucky enough to be taken on perminantly.
it all went pretty well, really. The lads seem to think its funny that my lack of balance and co-ordination meant that it was ESSENTIAL that i flapped my arms around as stabilisers and to help me turn around corners, the other problem i have is that I get carried away with my own ability and find myself going really fast, then i start gliding, start panicking about how i'm going to stop and skate straight into a wall in order to save myself.
Well i sure stopped them laughing when one of them lost his concentration after skating around me showing off, and he promptly fell onto his arse, and i then drove my skate into his face and cut his cheek open.
Ooops. Still he seemed ok about my accident and we're still pals! Hurrah!
Then it was a rush to get off to meet Welshy, because! Scarily enough this weekend, turned out to be our one year thingy. So we went out for a weekend of fun and football (well for me)
Tomorrow after work E is joining me for a drinking session as we remember that its nearly a year since we flew out for NZ and we both are suffering from a bit of itchyfeet syndrome and agree its time for a new adventure!
And if you're (un)lucky enough you may even get picked up out of the stage to help find the grail by King Arthur and his gang and get a photo taken on stage with them all.
Friday I went ice skating with some of the lads from work that i've gotten quite chummy with and a girl who used to work with us during the summer,unlike me though she wasnt lucky enough to be taken on perminantly.
it all went pretty well, really. The lads seem to think its funny that my lack of balance and co-ordination meant that it was ESSENTIAL that i flapped my arms around as stabilisers and to help me turn around corners, the other problem i have is that I get carried away with my own ability and find myself going really fast, then i start gliding, start panicking about how i'm going to stop and skate straight into a wall in order to save myself.
Well i sure stopped them laughing when one of them lost his concentration after skating around me showing off, and he promptly fell onto his arse, and i then drove my skate into his face and cut his cheek open.
Ooops. Still he seemed ok about my accident and we're still pals! Hurrah!
Then it was a rush to get off to meet Welshy, because! Scarily enough this weekend, turned out to be our one year thingy. So we went out for a weekend of fun and football (well for me)
Tomorrow after work E is joining me for a drinking session as we remember that its nearly a year since we flew out for NZ and we both are suffering from a bit of itchyfeet syndrome and agree its time for a new adventure!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)