Drink is bad, m'kay?

The cracks in the pavement seem bigger, it's more than hard work to correctly place one leg in front of the other. It's strangely warm and everything is pretty hazy, I put on a jacket for good measure. I overheat within five minutes and take a few seconds to slowly sip my ice cold (pre-prepared) bottle of water. People are looking, their eyes are drawn to the scene as I make my way down the hill. Like a motorway crash site, they try passing by but can't help but glance over. Why is everyone moving so quickly? SHIT, didn't see that bus - I was concentrating too hard on the kerb in front of me. Time has reversed, almost six hours in total. I'm spinning on the dancefloor with sweat starting to pour from pretty much everywhere, but a huge smile remains on my face... how can you beat this? FUCK, that taxi came out of nowhere. The horn blasts. I feel as though I can walk through people, I attempt it, but they always get out of the way. My head is pounding, but I'm just gliding along towards the office. I'm gasping for water but my trusty bottle has been drained, the sickly sweet taste appears. Damn alco-pops. Get to my desk, assume the "I'm working, honest" position and patiently wait for lunch.

Backlog.

Well, after losing my enitre update while dancing - I've lost the will to properly do it again. So, here's briefly what happened this month:-

Got drunk in Cardiff for an entire week, missed work on one occasion but went bowling all day instead. Went to see Bedouin Soundclash in Cardiff Barfly, they were amazing live and they asked us to show them around Cardiffs nighteries (real word?) afterwards - We obliged of course, and had a blast doing it! They're getting quite a bit of Radio 1 airplay now, check them out if you can.

I then hurtled to Hartlepool (330 miles) for my Friend Jims Wedding. Hartlepool is of course famous for the locals that captured a French ships' mascot (a monkey, dressed in a French uniform) during the Napoleonic wars then tried it as a spy, as the Hartlepool locals were unsure what a Frenchman looked like. Taking the monkeys silence was an admission of guilt, they hung it!

Due to a malfunctioning computer - these are the only pictures that I have...


Ginger Geordie Jim and has brand spanking new wife, Fran.


In the stocks

You may remember that my friend Greggers was having trouble deciding whether he should go to Jims wedding or for to the England v Wales football match. He did neither as he got arrested on the Friday preceeding the events, he was relieved in a way as he didn't have to make such a hard choice!

After the weekend in Hartlepool, I sped down to Swansea (via Sherwood Forest, of Robin Hood fame, because I got lost) and then legged it to London to stay with my mate Conor from Dublin. We both went to the airport in the morning and went our seperate ways, Conor was off to Estonia while I veered to the left a little and went to Sweden.

Uppsala is about 40km North of Stockholm and is very nice indeed. It seems to be a University city mainly (and the university is the oldest in Scandinavia) so although it looks olde worlde, it has a very youthful feel about it. I managed to get some pics of the buildings, found here.

I stayed in a town called Flogsta, where the University accomodation is located. I stayed in a room with my Canadian friend, Sud. The others on the corridor included Jari (from Finland, great guy, row of pink tents springs to mind), Sara (Adorable), Cecilia (funny as hell, she spoke very good English but this made way for several hilarious faux pas), Teshome (from Ethiopia, he was 32 but hadn't experienced other cultures before, we taught him a lot..), Marie (From France, she had one of the sexiest French accents I've ever heard), David & Christoffer (Their English wasn't amazing so they didn't talk much, but they laughed a lot) and Marika (Not a student and enjoyed rescuing cats).

Sud and myself partied hard, the others joined in on various occasions. Photos.

We had an amazing time, I'll definately be back at some point to learn more of the language and also to explore more of the beautiful countryside.

While you probably know that dynamite was invented by a Swede named Mr.Nobel, did you know that they also came up with the idea of the safety match and paraffin cookers - it seems they enjoy setting things on fire... and the chap that came up with the the Celcius temperature scale was Swedish, Anders Celcius. Hans Blix (chief UN weapons inspector in Iraq a while ago, was an Uppsala resident).

So that's a rough summary - to keep you up to date completely, I spent last weekend in Cardiff with the boys. We went to see Attack & Defend and The Automatic in the Welsh Club, which was brilliant. Both bands are pretty good to watch live, Attack & Defend frontman Mark is hilarious to watch! I also meant to see 3 Colours Red, a favourite band from my youth who have reformed recently, but no-one fancied going and I was too scared to go on my own. Nevermind.

It's Thursday today, Sud has just flown over from Sweden - we'll be hitting the town tonight along with Random Andy. Sud lived with us in Cardiff for a summer so we'll be back down there again on the weekend so he can re-live the good times!

Phew.

NGGHHMMMFF...

I've just spent over an hour writing a post (I can't type quickly if I'm dancing at the same time, which I do frequently when sitting on the computer at home) when mid foot-tap, I knocked the power button and lost everything...

Well it's a stupid place to put a power button in the first place, I'm going to write an angry letter to 'Tiny' computers complaining that their power buttons are too far up the front of the machine. I mean, if they're going to build multi-media PC's you might think that they'd take into consideration people dancing a little while typing?

Put on Keanes 'Somehwere only we know' or my current favourite track, Idlewilds 'I understand it' while you type your next e-mail/post. See if you don't at least foot-tap. Now, does your knee come anywhere near the power button? No? If you answered YES then I'm almost certain that 'Tiny' have manufactured your machine.

...with a bump

Well, I've reluctantly made it back to Wales - I will work through the back-(b)log of posts in the next couple of days I hope.


You gotta love the Irish jokes eh?

So much has happened in the last three weeks, it's ridiculous. It's frustrating that finally, after waiting too long in my opinion, I've been filling my life with some truly enjoyable experiences but I've been so busy doing that, that I haven't had the time to sit down and blog about it! The whole reason that I started blogging was to record the good times (and bad, just to balance everything) so I can look back and smile wherever I am in the future. Details are already a little sketchy - after three weeks of no real posts.


Beautiful Uppsala

The journey back was almost perfect, I left Uppsala at 11:10am (GMT) and arrived in Cardiff at 12:00am (GMT), with the only major waits were in Skavsta airport (1 1/2 hrs) and London Paddington (1hr). The tubes/trains/buses all departed within minutes of me boarding them, which was nice! I'm not sure about yourselves but I've always preferred to travel with as little planning as possible - flights can't be left too much to the last minute so I'll arrange them well in advance. It saves getting disappointed when the bus drives away before you get there or the train gets delayed. It's also a far more exciting I think - you never know what's going to come next. Will you get home tonight? Will it really impact on everything if you don't?

So, I was supposed to end up back in Swansea but as luck would have it, I received a phonecall as I was approaching Cardiff:-

Greggers: .......
Curly: Hello?
Greggers: ...Mate...I'm wrecked..
Curly: Okay
G: Where the fuck are you? Come to the pub yeah?
C: I'm a bit tired, it's midnight, I've just had a long journey and I've got work first thing in the morning
G: Loads of us are out.... it's fucking amazing....*something incomprehensible* come to the bar NOW!
C: Okay then, not staying too late though.

What a silly thing to say. I got to the bar shortly after midnight (complete with rucksack and smelly clothes) and finished a couple of pints with the boys.

"The boys" are a large group of lads that I spend my time with, there are too many of them to name and "The boys" can range in size from 2 of them, to near on 20. They're all from Pembrokeshire and frequently get drunk and cause mischief. Only last Tuesday they broke into someones' house and stole 9 tea bags from the kitchen - the Police were waiting for them as they walked outside. They all had to sign a form, admitting to the crime of stealing 9 tea bags...

This particular night, the Boys numbered about 8 and were all completely smashed after an evening in the pub going through the entire range of alcoholic drinks on sale. They dispersed shortly after my arrival but I stayed with one called Simon to finish off some more beers. 1am came around, and it was definitely time to go to bed. I got round to the boys flat to find that four more of them were inside, equally hammered as the other lot but not as rowdy. There was NO chance of getting to sleep it seemed. The clock told me that it was 3am and that I had to get up at 7am for work. The numbers back at the flat increased further, it seemed a full on party was rearing its ugly head - luckily Eirian wanted to leave and he had a spare bed at his house... so a mile up the road and 3:30am - I FINALLY got to bed!

I'm a little zombie-like today in work, luckily my co-workers think it's all down to a lot of traveling. I'm thinking of not mentioning a completely unplanned drug, music and alcohol fuelled session until 3am (well, just alcohol and music for me anyways).

It's nice to see the boys again but nothing has changed much - two weeks wasn't long enough away it seems!

Sweden

Me and Dan


A lame attempt to get the Swedish girl in the pic..

Loads has happened but it's really too much to write. Eano, I've found some 'amazing' Swedish bands. Cope, I've found some people that dress up as Vikings all the time - thought you may like that... hopefully photos to follow! Laura, hope the holiday was cool - you'd better be in Cardiff soon!

Astrid, you need no seperate comment really but - you deserve it for being cool. Goede nacht!

So...

The last few days have been a blast! Hartlepool is not as bad as it sounds, in Wales it ALWAYS rains and the London tube closes at 12 midnight on a Sunday, so don't get there then.

Sweden is rocking.


Sud and me

I've come to see this man in Upsalla, so far so good.


The 10'o clock scream

This is the 10'O'clock scream. It seems that most people head to the top of the residences at 21:45. to scream their heads of at 22:00!! Really funny. So many people join in, it must haunt the residents so much!!


Sara - with her bike.

adfh

It's all kicked off again - payday turned up.

Got way too drunk on Tuesday in Cardiff.

Missed work on Wednesday, just went bowling all day instead.

Tonight, off to see Bedouin Soundclash.

Tomorrow, going to Hartlepool for a wedding.

Monday, going to Sweden for a bit.

May not blog for a bit as I'm really fucking busy.