2008: With a little help from my friends

Reminded by Beccuh's MySpace blog that I still had to do this, I'll be trying to remember whats happened this year. I've never been so good at remembering things, especially when I don't have it in mind that I'll be writing a blog about it.

I suppose that's why I've started this blog; So I can remember what happens in my life. I'll have to print each one off just in case the Internet dies in some sort of nuclear apocalypse. So, to the year that's passed. Where to begin? Ah, you might say, "at the start", but its not that easy! ¬.¬

It feels like it has been a good year. With everyone turning 21 there have been many parties, each one special in its own way. It all started off with Ashley in January. We had to print our hands into a book and write a wee note to her as we came in. It was messy but such a nice touch. Good times. My party was on March 21st in St. Andrews with Fraser, Jess and Zoe. It was drunken. of course, and I cant remember much other than rave dancing at a Black Metal gig and an incident involving Fraser's housemate, his housemates girlfriend, me and Fraser himself. Oh, and getting lost looking for a party. Good times.

In July Fraser and Zoe turned 21 and their party was deep in the woods 8 miles out of town. Drunken, of course, and tempers flared and Zoe, in a rage at my rage and her rage (and on and on...) told me to just "go home then, if you don't wanna be here!". So I did, I walked home at 3.30am... it was scary and long but the stars were out and I still had plenty of cans in my bag. Packing my tent away in the pitch black was hard though. I got home just before 7am. Good times.


Then of course in December there Jess's fancy dress party. There is me and Zoe dressed as the Joker and a Jack, respectively. Amazing. That was a good night. There were many parties in between these events of course, but I cant list them all. Every one of them had their merits and I enjoyed them all ^_^

My luck in finding employment has not been as good as I had hoped. Impossible it seems, actually. My luck in Scholastic pursuits has been most excellent, however. I'll be starting again on January 12th. I really miss university after being without it for 2 years. The Crichton Campus is a really laid back and academically inspirational place. The staff are all friendly and due to its size you can actually have time to talk to your tutors in depth. You're also not sharing the library's history section with 200 other people like up in the main Glasgow Campus. Its a wonderful place and now that I'm at a better place in my life I can dive in head first and know I will succeed. Oh, by the way, I'll be doing an MA Liberal Arts in History. Yummy.

Relationships? Hmm... best leave that one alone. It isn't worth the blog space <.<

Musically this has been a good year. Too bad I haven't been paying enough attention to really talk about it properly. I saw Opeth twice, Children of Bodom, Arch Enemy, Sonata Arctica and some support bands. Opeth were great the first time, only hampered by the distorted to fuck sound and being billed below Arch Enemy - Glasgow missed out on getting Opeth to headline that particular night. I did spend the day with Scott though. An awesome dude and native of Glasgow. We had lunch at a place called Brel in the west end and had some good beer. I hen took him to a Celtic bar beside the Barrowlands that only had Guinness and Tennents, something he didn't enjoy XD Opeth were amazing the second time because they were at the ABC and the sound there is amazing. Cynic and the Ocean were alright, I'll really have to listen to them more.

Opeths new album was great; Heir Apparent being fucking brutal. Bloodbaths new release was brutal. Metallicas new album, Death Magnetic, was a welcome return to some good form compared to St. Anger. While they didn't release anything this year, I discovered Mastodon properly having not really cared for them before. I even saw them support Metallica at Wembley in 2007 and didn't bat an eyelid! :/ I aught to shoot myself just for that. I'm sure there were other albums I've heard this year that I could praise but after losing all my music I've not thought about it. I cant wait to start my collection from scratch again.

One of the true highlights of the year was the Dublin/Amsterdam/Eindhoven/Erp trip in September or October (seriously, am I that forgetful?!). Spending time with friends from around the world in these wonderful places was actually a lifetime highlight, not just 2008. All I can say right now is - THANK YOU to Sara, John, Jon, Mike, Marcus, Linnea, Misty, Bev, Laura and Rens. You guys provided the best week of the year. The 2 nights in Erp (Rens' home village) were particularly great. Just because it was the end of the holiday and we didn't have to rush around, sleep in a hostel or have headaches. We could just relax and that was the perfect end to the holiday. *See an earlier blog for more specific details about Erp*

All in all I'm most happy about the people I share my life with and its because of them that 2008 has been as good as it has. With such an ensemble cast it was bound to be a hit. Whether spending time at the pub or parties with my locals to sharing bandwidth with my friends around Britain, Europe, America and the world they have all added to my life in their own special ways and I thank them from the bottom of my heart. Life wouldn't be so fun completely on your own so that makes friends so damned important.

Thanks for reading :)

Christmas, Wii and the Englandcentric BBC

As I write (type...) its just short of 2am in the early hours of the 28th December 2008. It is only a few days until Hogmanay and a party at Rory's house. A party I happily admit that I am looking forward to because I'm buying a lovely big cigar to mark the occasion. As soon as 2009 strikes I will light it up with a Brandy and look down on everyone else as pitiful wretches engaging in their pitiful lives. Drinking putrid, vomit inducing alco-pops to their deaths. But only for that 30 minutes, then I'll crack open some more beer and partaaaay ^_^

So on to business.

Christmas Eve was just any other day. I was a little hungover from the night before; a night I mentioned in a previous entry! The sticky, sweating atmosphere of Chancers Nightclub wore me out around 2am. Its a much better club when it is a regular Tuesday night when you are alone with the middle aged slappers and the pervert middle aged men. It makes for good banter and funny events.

Christmas Day started with presents at around 11am. Loudly laid out on my bedroom table by my mother. She didn't intend to wake me, but that's not her style. I forgive her though, because she did part with money for me out of love. I got a whole host of things from both mum and sister. Shirts, DVDs, books, ornaments, shoes etc. The small collection of "Very Short Introductions" books are a particular highlight and I plan to increase my new collection. They cover all manner of topics, all of which are shown here - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Very_Short_Introductions.

I also go a CD box set of the history of the British isles by the BBC. It is an old radio series from the 1990s covering the times from 55BC to the death of Queen Victoria in 1901. It runs for a total of 29 hours. I should be happy! This gift is almost perfect but for one major flaw - Instead of the history of the whole island it is a history of England. In the booklets under the heading "The Rulers of Britain's" are the family tree's of the Kings and Queens of England. Even after the Union of Crowns and Parliaments the series is firmly England centric. Scotland and Wales are mentioned as extras only when war with England is the main topic of concern.

Being such a patriotic Scot I feel betrayed by the BRITISH Broadcasting Corporation. Scotland and England joined to form the United Kingdom of Great Britain as equal partners. That means our history is as important as each other. There are no family tree's of the Scottish kings and queens. I love my sister dearly, and if she should read this blog she'll now know how much the gift means to me as a gesture, but I cannot bring myself to listen to it. Some time in the future I will, but it has made me angry and sick to my stomach. I feel so let down. Our history is important too!

*breathes* The rest of Christmas Day was standard. Play new football game. Watch some tv. Eat wonderful dinner and drink a wonderful glass of beer. Then sleep.

Boxing day was good. My best mate Fraser called and invited me over to watch tv and have dinner. At night we were invited by our other best friend Jess to a party at her mothers house which we happily went to. And its at this party that the true highlight of my week took place - the utter domination of the house by me at Mario Kart on the Nintendo Wii. Yes, Out of a total of 7 championship Cups, I won 5 of them :D Each cup has 4 races. I lost the last 2 due to alcohol intake alone. I accept your homage ^_^

So that was Christmas. Those 3 days are what christmas is to me and now that time has passed. It wasn't the shit storm of the last couple of years and for that I'm thankful.

Possible Zombie Holocaust?

My dog bit me today.

Sure he is old, getting grumpy and not keen on playing anymore but the bugger bit me. On the face. I have a cut under my lip, on my gum and on my nostril. Just a little shocked, I was. Not keen on getting rabies, foaming mouth fever, possible zombie side effects or turning into a dog version of Spiderman so I went to the hospital to just have it checked. No risk of infection. So I was happy.

The main point of the story is however that I'm in love with Dr. Amy <3 She was just so cute and lovely ^_^ I might just get injured more often. Short little lady, young, dark hair, lovely smile....

*Swoon!*


Tonight I'm going for drinks with some guys - namely Rory, Roland (Rory's dad) and Will. I'll be having a few Leffe too. Its an amazing beer.

Saturday night and other times!

Saturday night was a party at the 102 Club for my lovely friend Louise! She is 21 on Wednesday and the atmosphere and banter at the club was befitting of such a celebration! I myself had a pretty good time all round. This is the story -

I met my good mate Rik at 5.30pm at a pub called the Coach and Horses. Its an old old little tavern bar like you'd have seen in an old film about the 18th century; Stone floor, bare stone walls, grand fireplace, wooden shutters over the windows, rickety tables and chairs. And the most important ingredient? Bass Ale. I don't know why I'm not down there more often to be honest. Its mighty charming.

We left at around 7.30pm to go to Haddows (drink shop) and head back to mine because it was cheaper than staying at the pub until 8.oopm. I got 2 bottles of Hoegaarden Grand Cru for £2.18 even though the shelf label said £2.15 a bottle. Bumbling sales staff FTW ^_^ At 8.5% vol these beers aren't to be drunk fast, but savoured and respected. 25 minutes later we left my place ( ¬.¬ ) and went to the 102 Club.

After some texting and waiting to find out who won the final of Strictly come Dancing, a bad habit but there are more hot women on that show than any other on a Saturday night :aye: , I finally got into the groove of the evening; drinking and chatting of course. I wasn't really in the mood for dancing because of the emo/metalcore play list but that's was OK! I got to see a bunch of people I'd not seen for ages and relax. Here are a couple of pics of me with Carrie & Hannah, and with Little Linz -




Most of us left for the White Hart pub at 1am when the party had to start winding down. There I didn't drink but stayed outside with the smokers getting my chat on. I had a lovely conversation with Sherie Wallace about why we didn't get married in a castle with Elton John playing Piano <.< good times!


Its odd how it works. in the last 5 or 6 years there have been a lot of good times. I'll outline them and hopefully I'll remember them in the right order.

- The first night me and Fraser got drunk. We had wicked cocktails of whisky, rum, vodka and apple juice. We then drunk-dialled the entire nation <.< - Metallica Weekend in London with Rory and Fraser in 2003. We couldn't drink that this one only being 16 at the time but it was a wicked occasion. On the train down we entered hell, where time stood still and the fog was alive. The locals called it Stafford, but only to hide the shame of actually being hell. Satan made or train break so it had to stop there but luckily another train braved it and collected us. On the return journey we were on the 8 hour bus from London to Dumfries singing songs about Stafford and being merry. Lusting over the girl who shared the backseat with us was a highlight too. - Metallica in Glasgow. We were doing Schwarzenegger impressions in the line to the park and these Icelandic guys liked them and joined it XD. When their mates came back with a ton of booze the woman behind us told them they couldn't take it into the park so the guys were like "helps us guys, take these, take these" and he was handing up packs and packs of raspberry vodka shots! It was excellent.

- Summer 2004, my parents were in Germany for the week and I had an open door party for the whole week. Rory and Fraser stayed the week but other people came and went. The time of mine and Rory's glorious 15 hour drinking slog. Good times.

- Parties at Rory's outhouse. Plenty to remember. Absinthe night was 2006 i Think. (do I really need to tell you how bad a night called Absinthe night could get for somebody?!), and a night that doesn't have a name, so I'll do that now temporarily - The raw fish & cream cheese, projectile vomiting, out cold for hours and miraculous recovery to make out with a beautiful girl night. One to remember. Thanks to Sherie for looking after me. This was 2004. Ha ha, Suplex night. Me and Fraser suplexed Rory onto his parents old car and smashed the windshield. Bad times but ultimately good times. Also, when all three of us got a bottle of our favourite tipple each; Jagermeister for me, Southern Comfort of Fraser and Jack Daniels for Rory. We drank them all in the one night.

- Download 2006 (Metallica, Tool & Guns and Roses). The highlight of this trip was meeting a huge crowd of other Scots and teaching my friends Linnea (from Sweden) and Beverley (from Wales) how to Scottish country dance. We also marched around the festival site singing Flower of Scotland. Good times.

- Vodka/roof/penalty/collapse night. Me, Fraser and Rory (the usual suspects) get a bottle of Vodka on a quiet Sunday afternoon. I end up falling off the shed roof trying to get the football down. Rory smashing a penalty kick into my face (I cant remember even playing penalties - I can only recall sitting at the table with the boys and Fraser's sister and her friends) So I got memory loss and ended up collapsing in the gravel. Bad times but ultimately good times!

- Amsterdam 1 - 2007, I met Misty from Texas and Rens, a Netherlander and very dear friend of mine. Boom Chicago was hilarious as was smoking cigars with Rens.

- Zoe and Frasers camping birthday - July 2008. A lot of us were at a campsite deep in the woods 6 miles from town. We were about 2 miles into the forest. Everyone was drunk, had lost my Cd's, someone was playing shit guitar, I was cranky. I had a small collision with Zoe who in a blind (yet not entirely serious) rage told me to "Just go home then :x"... so being drunk and angry I did. All 8 miles from about 3am. I made it into town by about 6.30am. I was so tired.

- Visiting Fraser in St. Andrews - September 2008, up for Freshers Week. Drinking most nights, highlight? Getting separated and lost. Ending up walking the entire coastal walk because I thought I remembered them talking about going to the beach. How is this memorable? Because I ended up sitting on what I thought was a random little bridge of a stream. I looked about and realised it the was the bridge on the 18th fairway at the world famous Royal & Ancient golf course at St. Andrews. Kind of surreal <.< - Dublin, Amsterdam 2 and Erp - drinking most nights with people from all over Europe and North America. The highlights were sleeping on an airbed in a cold kitchen at Johns granny flat with Sara. It was ridiculous ^_^ and the journey to Eindhoven/Erp with Rens, Linnea, Marcus and Misty. Especially walking from Veghel to Erp, Making the pizza from Scratch and dancing to Rick Astley ^_^

okies, I'll let you all go. All one of you.

Rob

The end and the new beginning

To date this is my fourth attempt at starting a blog and this time (unfortunately like the last time) I am committed to posting every other day and keeping you all up to date. Hopefully I'll actually have a "you all" soon.


These past couple of weeks have been frustrating to the point that I was actually considering eliminating a cow. I can justify that reaction in a number of ways:

1a. Cows are contributing to Global Warming with their vile farting! The bastards. So its ok to eliminate one or 2 due to stress because you do so with the best of intentions. (ok, so their farting and the world lived in harmony before hman beings came along with their Industy, but I'm trying to justify things here >.> )

1b. I would easily process the eliminated cows and eat them. Thus not wasting their lives utterly.

2. COMPUTER PROBLEMS and the stress they cause always justify cold blooded murder. You all know its true but I understand if you wish to keep those thoughts under wraps. And it is computer problems that are my main cause of rage.

I got a virus a few weeks ago *sigh* and it was one of these ones that stops you from opening anti-virus/malware programs to contain the threat (unfortunately my computer was not very protected to begin with but it was good enough). So I formatted my C: and reinstalled Windows. A pirated version of Windows given to me a few years ago by a friends dad. The problem with that is that you cannot update Windows with all the helpful and essential stuff from Windows when you don't have a proper version! So I'm stuck in 2001 ^_^

Another problem was that I forgot that AOL (don't start -.- ) had updated its servers/network and they automatically upgraded my modem drivers etc - so reinstalling Windows meant I lost those new drivers! Oh joy... So I phoned them and asked for a new drivers CD. They said 3/4 days when in reality that meant 8 days.

I got the computer working at a minimal level - we had everything we needed to get by (Internet, word, a media player) and it was fine until yesterday! I got "Blue screened" every time I logged onto my desktop. So I reinstalled Windows AGAIN! but the Internet wouldn't work so I did it AGAAAIN! And during the installation I had the Cow killing idea.


SO! Everything seems to be well now. Maybe the Gaia and her Terra Faeries will see to it in conjunction with Santa Claus and Saddam Husseins spirit that my computer stays in a good mood over Christmas and Hogmanay. I'd be very happy if it did.


I reckon thats enough for the first post. On Saturday I'm going to a party so on Sunday you'll be told of the magical (and rubbish) nights out I've had in 2008, so get ready for a long post and hopefully I can remember plenty of wee stories and going on.

Rob